What is a Poker Prop Player?

Many people have never heard of a poker prop player, and even those who have will inevitably ask the following question: What is a poker prop player? The answer is simple.

A poker prop player is simply a player who gets paid to start poker games and gets paid to keep poker games going. They are like the social hosts of a poker game. Poker prop players will take a seat at the poker table, but will have to make sure there is always a seat available for new players. That’s the point of the poker prop player, to attract as many new poker players that the poker tables are always full and the games have a lot of winning potential for both players and the house.

Getting paid to play poker

One of the great benefits of playing as a poker prop player is the potential to earn money while playing the game you love. You can work as a poker prop player in real casinos or choose to work online.

The only drawback to working as a poker prop player is that, even while you get paid to play poker, the money you use to play the game must be yours. So, while payment may make things a little more attractive you can still lose a lot of money. Of course, you can win money too. Just like any day at the casino. Win or lose, though, you will get paid your fee to work the tables as a poker prop player.

Because you are actually using your own money to play, being a poker prop player is not illegal. You aren’t doing anything wrong, aren’t cheating anybody, you are just working as a prop player to encourage others to join a game.

Advantages and disadvantages

Being a poker prop player is a job just like other jobs. So there are always advantages and disadvantages.

Some of the obvious advantages to working as a prop is that you are constantly playing poker, even up to a full forty hour week, and that means it is an excellent way to improve your game. You get learn the ins and outs of poker, whether it be in a real casino or online and on top of that you earn a weekly wage. Also, because you are constantly involved in a game, you are making friends, being social, enjoying yourself, and developing many skills that will be useful in any other job you decide to do.

Some of the disadvantages of playing as a poker prop is that you aren’t always free to stay in the game you want. Because you are working for the house, the house can move you at any time if there is a need to do so. So, you may find that you are playing well, at a good table, with good opponents, making a good winning, and then suddenly you are asked to move to another table that needs your services.

People are naturally emotive and even some of the best poker players have a hard time controlling their body language. So many of our reactions are subconscious, that it is nearly impossible to be unreadable while playing a game. The little hints a player gives off about their hand–be it via behavior, expression, or playing style-are called tells. A skilled poker player knows that a big part of strategy is the ability to accurately read your opponents. Below are some of the most common ways poker players give tells.1. Ever heard the phrase, “The eyes have it?” Well in poker, the eyes often do have it and are giving it away. Observe your fellow opponents eyes closely and before long you will start noticing obvious patterns of movement.

2. More than just the eyes, the rest of the face can be very telling. Just as different people have different expressions, so too do different poker players. Involuntary twitches in the forehead, the subtle raising of an eyebrow, chewing on the lip, or even just a general sense of fidgeting can say a lot about a player’s hand.

3. Not surprisingly, the players themselves can literally say a lot about their hand. Some players will talk when confident while others will talk when they are trying to bluff. Many players try to use table talk as a distraction, but with careful observation you will recognize it as a fairly reliable tell. The pace of the conversation is the best indicator. A slow talker is relaxed and thus probably has a strong hand, while a stilted talker or stutterer is clearly sweating a bad hand.

4. The game of poker is all about hands; both the cards themselves and the appendages holding them. While more advanced players struggle to remain calm, resist the urge to shift in certain ways, and practice their poker faces, the hands are somewhat harder to control. A common beginner tell is shaking hands. Shaking hands usually convey excitement. Other players will tap a finger when they have a middling hand and are on the fence about their bets.

5. The big picture when looking for behavioral tells is body language. What a player does with their body can say a lot. Some players will lean forward or back depending on how good or bad their hand is. It is natural for a nervous person to fidget or get tense, and this is your sign that the player is not as confident about their hand as their betting might indicate.

6. Not all poker tells relate to the player’s physical demeanor. Betting patterns can also be an excellent tell. Many poker players fall into the habit of betting the same for specific hands every time they get them. By familiarizing yourself with an opponent’s betting patterns, you can get a good idea of what they have in their hand.

Be careful when looking for tells not to be fooled. Experienced poker players are watching and know they are being watched and may intentionally make movements or moves to deceive you. The best way to read your opponents accurately is to get to know them.

Playing poker online is much different than playing poker live. The number one difference is the fact that you do not have your opponents sitting face to face with you. The best tell you can get on a player in poker is from their body language. For that reason, it can be tough for many new online players to understand what to look for. Believe it or not, it is often easier to get a good tell on players online than in person.

Its in the way they Bet

Playing poker online is something I am very familiar with. In fact I am on a break right now from playing at 8 tables at the same time on Full Tilt, which is what inspired me to write this article. When I play poker online, it is unbelievable how many just simply bad players are on there. Here I am sitting here with a bunch of online players that each have $400 in front of them, and they don’t even know how to play–what exactly motivates these people to play poker with that much money, when they have no clue how to play?

Anyways, that leads to the point that is being brought up here. There are a few different tells that you will be able to pick up online. Playing a multi-table strategy, I do not have the time to really evaluate players and tendencies as much as I would like to. Still, there is one tell that enables me to make a lot of money playing poker online. It all comes down to the betting.

For example, I was playing at a $2/$4 No Limit Holdem game today. I was in late position with AK off suit. A guy in early position raised it up to $20 with one caller behind him. I followed with a call, and the flop ended up coming up 3,4,5 (offsuit). Both players ended up checking on the flop, and I followed with a check as well with my AK.

The turn brought up another 3–which made the board read 3-4-5-3. The player that originally raised lead out with a pot size bet of $66. The player after him ended up folding and the action was on me. Now I obviously have nothing and most players in my position would probably just fold. Well, I am thinking that there is $66 in the pot–so why would I want to just hand that over to this guy? So I proceeded to think some more about what he could have.

Basically, he could really only have a couple different things here. He raised before the flop, which would lead me to believe he has big cards or some kind of pocket pair. Otherwise, he could have just raised with garbage and got lucky. So next, I think about why or why not he would have any of those hand combinations. Let’s think about what could beat us that he might be holding:

-67
-53
-54
-55
-44
-over pair

Since he raised before the flop we are going to have to assume that out of the hands above, he is most likely to have an over pair or small pocket pair maybe. Well this is where it all starts to come together. If he had either of those, why would he check the flop then make a pot sized bet on the turn? It just doesn’t make any sense. If you have an over pair, you are going to want to bet and protect it. If you have a monster, you are not going to bet the pot on the turn. A pot sized bet on the turn is only made to scare people away.

If your opponent makes a bet that is clearly trying to scare you away–then chances are he could be scared away himself.

Why this matters to you?

Just by simply paying attention to the way your opponents bet and how they act, you can get the best tells on them. Do not just look at your cards and react to a big bet. You have to ask yourself why is this person doing that? Your goal is to figure out what your opponent is holding. The only way to really do that is by putting yourself in their position and using what you know about them. It was clear in the example above that my opponent was just trying to buy the pot. I doubled his bet, he called with hesitation. I immediately went all in on the river and he folded. I ended up winning a $130 pot, all because I paid attention to my opponent. I guess that is why they say to pay attention to your opponent not your hand.

You can tell more about your opponents in the way they bet than any other thing they could do, especially online. If you really want to be able to read your opponents while playing online poker, pay attention to their betting.

Full Tilt Poker is one of the most exciting and powerful poker rooms on the net. Not only that, but it is my personal favorite. With that said, I will proceed to make Full Tilt the first review I do on Poker Perception. Please note that this is just my personal opinion and not everyone will agree with me. Based on the game selection, graphics, software and many other things; I rank Full Tilt as the best poker room around–that is at least, for U.S. players.

Full Tilt probably has the best software package I have played on to date. I am a big multi-table player. If there is not great multi-table features, the site is no good for me. Full Tilt delivers some of the best multi-table features available. Not only that, but the software is very good as well. The poker room does a lot of heavy promoting and has a ton of different methods to bring in the new players. Because of that, there are a lot of loose beginners who do not know what they are doing. Of course, that is what all of us poker players look for when we are trying to make some cash.

Traffic 4/5

I do not think that it can be argued, that traffic is the single most important aspect of a poker room. Of course, there are several other factors as well, but without traffic you are not going to get very far. The more traffic there is, the more games there are. More games leads to more options and a lot more bad players. Full Tilt has a ton of traffic (literally). It is not the biggest poker room online (although it is up there)–but it still has a lot of traffic. There is never any time where you will have to worry about finding a game. Any time of any night, you will be able to easily find a game without any problem. The biggest issue you could have–would be trying to find a game other than Texas Hold’em. Even then, you are likely to find several full games.

Soft Competition 3/5

Okay, so this area is a bit tough. For the most part, you can find a lot of soft competition. Still, there are some very good players that play on Full Tilt. It is just a huge poker room, with all sorts of different players. You will not have any problems finding soft players, but at the same time it is not a walk in the park. You won’t be able to just simply sit down at any table and expect for a loose-easy game. Generally, the lower stakes games are pretty easy all the way through the $2/$4 games. Once you get to the higher stakes, there is a lot of tough competition. Most of the time, you will even find quite a few pros playing at the higher levels. All in all, the soft competition level is slightly under average, but still considerably soft.

Software 5/5

Some would say that the software is the most important feature, however I don’t agree. Without the traffic and some good juicy games, the software is useless. Since none of those two things are an issue at Full Tilt, it is safe to move on to the software, which in my opinion is the best. Full Tilt Poker is constantly striving to become better, and they are improving nonstop.

Starting with the graphics–they just do not get any better. Full Tilt has graphics that cannot be mixed up with any other poker room. While you find that other poker rooms will have software very similar or even the same as others; Full Tilt is unique and independent. The aviators that can be picked from are very popular among the online poker world. They are cartoon like aviators that you can choose from in order to fit your personality. If you earn enough frequent player points, you can even get an aviator that looks identical to yourself. Don’t get too excited tho, because it takes a million points to do so.

Full Tilt has premium statistic features and a unique hand history feature. The only thing I do not like about this software is that your hand history only goes back 50 hands. I like to be able to download my hand history and review it. Unfortunately; Full Tilt does not allow you to do so. Everything else is exactly what you would look for in a poker room: player chat, statistics, multi-table features, lobby game filtering, and much more.

Bonuses & Promotions 5/5

Full Tilt offers some of the best Promotions and bonuses in the industry. The standard deposit bonus is a 100% match of up to $600. If you join today and you get there from Poker Perception, they will pretty much give you free money. All you have to do is click on a Full Tilt link anywhere from Poker Perception, sign up, deposit and play. If you deposit $600, you will get paid $600. As far as promotions go, they are changing all the time. Full Tilt is known for their high quality promotions; which offer more than most poker rooms.

Game Variations 4/5

• Texas Hold’em (Limit, Pot Limit and No Limit)
• Omaha (Limit and Pot Limit)
• Omaha Hi/Lo (Limit, Pot Limit and No Limit)
• 7 Card Stud (Limit)
• 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo (Limit)
• Razz (Limit)
• H.O.R.S.E (Tournaments Only–Scheduled and Special)

Customer Support 5/5

The customer support is very good. Although, I would like to see a live chat and maybe a telephone, they still have great support. The only form is via email. They have a dedicated support team within several different areas of support. The response time is usually well under an hour and is taken care of right away. For having only email support, it is way above average. I have never had a problem with support.

Overall Score — 4.3/5

There are several strategies for how to win big at poker; some are better than others, and some are more advanced than others. One of the simplest and most common strategies is to aim toward winning one good hand per hour of play. If you can secure a consistent number of large wins, even against a multitude of small losses, you might be surprised by how well this strategy balances in your favor.

While the basis for the strategy is simple (averaging one large win every hour), a lot goes into pulling it off. If you are not a patient and calculating player, then this strategy probably won’t work for you. It requires a very tight playing style that alternates between conservative and aggressive. You also have to be comfortable betting big, because the focus of this strategy is taking big pots.

It is important for you to understand your ability to control a hand before you attempt this strategy. Players that are under the misconception that winning poker is about luck will not be able to pull this off. A confident player that knows that they can manipulate their opponents—and when and how they should—knows how easily they can improve their own odds and has the basic skills necessary to execute this strategy.

Manipulating Other Players in Your Favor

The easiest method of manipulating your opponents is by raising pre-flop. Re-raising pre-flop sends an even stronger message, and when done consistently and well can narrow your field significantly and put you in a good place to win the big pot. Of course the downside to raising pre-flop is that you may get nothing from the flop. The upside is that sometimes you do hit big, and thanks to your aggressive betting it pays big. This is the core of how the strategy works; you may lose out on a few pre-flop bets, but when you ride it out and win the payoff absorbs your losses.

Going All In

The best time to do this is with pocket Aces or Kings before the flop. The odds of one of your opponents beating you are incredibly low, and while many times you will clear the table this way, occasionally you will get an amateur willing to call. This is when the move pays off.

When you bet pre-flop, you set the tone for how the table is going to bet the rest of the hand. The players that call or raise your bets are prepared to play aggressively too. This is how you build a large pot. This is also why you should be careful about when you bet pre-flop. The best starting hands to bet on are obviously the biggest hands, but suited consecutive hands and middling pairs are also good for this strategy, the reason being that when you hit on the flop with these you are more likely to get a monster combination and thus a monster pot to go with it. The idea of this strategy is not to bet so aggressively that all of your opponents fold, but to milk them throughout the hand.