Players in Facebook Poker have been known to get their accounts banned for a number of reasons. Swearing at the tables, being abusive to other players in the games, dodging blinds at the tables, using multiple accounts, or even posting photos of your girlfriend dressed as a half naked teddy bear (am I the only one?)

Whatever the reason may be for having your facebook poker chips frozen or your account suspended, it usually ends up coming as a suprise to most players who are horrified to find out they’ve been banned the next time they log into their Facebook or MySpace accounts to play a few hands of Texas Holdem Poker. Are these suspensions the results of totalitarian game administrators hell bent on banning everyone’s account so players will buy more facebook chips (like some people claim on internet forums) or is it just the efforts of game developers trying to keep their virtual environments a safe and friendly place for gamers to have fun and socialize?

Although I’m sure there have been many cases where game administrators overstepped their duties and unfairly banned the accounts of some Facebook Poker players, for the most part, people get their accounts banned because they broke the rules meant to bring order to social gaming worlds. Without a little order, let’s face it, these games would quickly turn into competitions to see who can insult an opponent the most rather than who can win the most facebook poker chips.

Here is what you can do to get your facebook chips back and your account unfrozen:

• Contact the game developers directly and fill out a support ticket. There are millions of players in Facebook Poker games so a little patience is needed until you receive a response. Most developers get back to you in 1-3 days, though sometimes it can take a week or more to get your issue resolved if they have to pull up your account to confirm or disprove any supposed abuses.

• Don’t be a jackass when writing to them. Insulting them won’t get you priority service. And don’t write an essay about your life either, they don’t need to know how you’ve been divorced 6 times, lost all your limbs in Vietnam, or how your mother forced you shave her legs with a dull razor and traumatized you when you were a child. Keep your communication short, sweet, and to the point and be sure to include a link to your profile so they know who you are.

Will you always get your account and facebook poker chips back? Ofcourse not. Some players are just psychos incapable of socializing in the real world let alone a virtual one where they have the advantage of being nearly anonymous. It’s only reasonable that game admins would not want to let some socially malformed players back into the game. If you fit this description, you’d probably be better off microwaving puppies or throwing bricks off freeway overpasses anyway, rather than playing online poker.

Zynga Texas Holdem players can contact Zynga here: Zynga Poker

Playdom Texas Holdem players can contact Playdom here: Playdom Poker Palace

Playfish Poker Rivals players can contact Playfish here: Playfish Poker Rivals

Cook for 10 minutes on High

It’s been said that bluffing in texas holdem poker is the line that seperates average players from great players. Anyone can get dealt a pair of Aces and click the all in button (like 90% of facebook poker players) but it takes a true professional to work with real garbage hands and turn them into facebook poker chip gold. But how do you bluff someone when you can’t see their face, their nervous gestures like tapping their hands or twitching their eye, or the sweat beading up on their brow? Don’t forget that this works both ways and they can’t see your poker tells either. If you wana bluff your opponents and steal their facebook poker chips here are some pointers to follow: 

1) Don’t show your fear: If you’re a timid player who is afraid to risk their facebook poker chips, don’t bother trying to bluff others. You have to be comitted to picking good hands to bluff with and following through on them, or other players will sense your fear and make your bluff ineffective. 

2) A small bet is just as good as no bet: The point of bluffing in facebook poker is to get your opponents out of the pot with a bet large enough to scare them. Small raises don’t show confidence or aggression and will only waste your facebook poker chips. 

3) Try to bluff after the flop: Bluffing preflop is a tricky situation, as you never know when you are up against Aces or Kings. But after the flop, even pocket Aces can be cracked by 3 of a kind or a flush/straight draw. Your opponents know this and if you can make them believe you have the flush or straight you will succeed at pushing them out of the pot. 

4) Forget your pride: Even the most well played bluff can backfire and go wrong sometimes. If someone is continually calling or reraising you and you feel you really have no shot at improving your hand, don’t be afraid to swallow your pride and back down. Proving you’re a real man (or woman) isn’t worth losing all your facebook chips. 

5) Let your opponents catch you bluffing occasionally: Once you get caught bluffing a few times you can change up your strategy and play tight, so the next time you make a big bet others will be more inclined to think you’re full of shite and call you. 

6) Pay attention to your opponents facebook poker chips: It’s important to consider your opponent’s chip stack when betting against him. Bluffing against someone with only a few facebook chips may not be effective as it is likely to just push them all in as they will seize on any last ditch chance to double up their chips and get back in the game. Bluffing against someone with a large amount of facebook poker chips may not work either as they can comfortably call any raise you make and not worry about running low. Your best chances are to bluff against someone who has a similar amount of poker chips because, like you, they will worry about being knocked out of the game and thus less likely to make risky calls that put their facebook poker chips at risk. 

                 One of the craziest bluff’s in texas holdem poker: 

Electronics Arts’ recent acquisition of Playfish has thrust another heavy hitting game developer onto the texas holdem poker scene. Playfish’s new facebook poker game, Poker Rivals, is a graphically intense addition to the virtual poker line-up, currently dominated by Zynga Poker.

In the realm of social gaming, competing with an existing game that is already extremely popular and established is usually a recipe for failure and generally ends up being a mediocre effort at best, so while Playfish’s addition to the scene is visually stunning and backed by the deep pockets of Electronic Arts it remains to be seen if the final product will be an appealing choice to long time facebook poker players. That being said, the initial reviews of the game seem to be quite good.

The game’s graphical interface and animations are far beyond that of Zynga’s current game, allowing players in the game to customize everything from their hairstyle to their skin color. Players also have a wider range of expressions in Poker Rivals than in other games. While players have always been able to chat at the poker tables in a designated text box, players in Poker Rivals can adjust their body posture, wave their hands around in joy or anger, and even pound the table after a bad hand. It remains to be seen whether or not all this extra movement and expression at the table will be viewed as too distracting to hardcore poker afficionados who just want to see the cards and bet with their facebook poker chips. Though players who enjoy heads up play will enjoy the 1 on 1 option in the game that allows 2 players to go head to head.

Poker Rivals also gives you the option to purchase fancier playing venues such as yatchs and condos in which you can hold private games and invite your friends. This extra real world touch adds another dimension of reality to the game, much like that found in blockbusters like Second Life and World of Warcraft. If there’s one thing online gamers love its customization and Poker Rivals delivers this through the graphically rich and colorful online poker world that they’ve created. Whether this is what casual poker players are looking for in an online texas holdem game remains to be seen. Stay tuned for more reviews and photos of Playfish’s new game, but in the meantime you can play their beta version and decide for yourself  <here>

In a recent facebook poker poll the question was posed as to what the most humiliating thing players in Facebook Texas Holdem have done for a few free facebook poker chips. While “begged a stranger for facebook poker chips” received the most votes at 29%, a whopping 18% of you voted for “pretended to be a cute girl and tricked a guy into giving me chips”.

Are grown men really creating fake facebook profiles and filling them with pictures of sexy young girls just to scam other lonely men out of their facebook poker chips? Well, yes.  

More importantly, why are guys so quick to fall for these tricks? Do they really think that hot young supermodels have nothing better to do with their time then play facebook poker and flirt with middle aged men who keep asking for their MSN so they can chat on instant messenger?  That’s right, they just flew in from their photo shoot in Paris and are winding down before they jet off to Milan with a few hands of Facebook Poker. .

And so far 11% of those who voted claimed that they’ve shown themselves on a webcam in exchange for facebook poker chips. Apparently Facebook poker has become a 24/7 online orgy with guys pretending to be girls flirting with other guys pretending to be rich oil barrons from the middle east. And the social gaming world goes round and round.

If you haven’t voted yet or just want to see the results, you can check them out here.