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Hard Realities about Playing Poker Professionally - Part 2

Mon, 02 May 2011 12:00:00 -0700

Matthew "mindcirkus" Wheat is a professional poker player. He successfully transitioned from NLHE to PLO, and in 2010 made the final table of WSOP Event #55, the $10,000 PLO Championship.

Click here to read Part 1 of this post.

Take it away Matthew:

Every person who plays poker has a “ceiling” - the level at which no matter how much work they put in it will be the highest level of stakes they are capable of beating.

Most players never reach their ceiling because few players work as hard as they can to improve for long periods of time.

Every couple of years there is a massive turnover in the regulars playing at a particular level of stakes. Most of the regulars in the 5/10 games running two years ago are now playing 2/4 or lower or have completely left the game.

There are some who have the ability and work ethic to continue winning at the same stakes they’ve been beating as the games got tougher(or even move up in stakes), but the majority of professional players reach their ceiling and then their income steadily declines as the games become more difficult to beat over time.

A very common mistake that players make is moving up in stakes whenever they run good for a short time and win several buy-ins. Most of the time they aren’t prepared to beat the tougher games at higher stakes, and they end up losing a significant amount of money in games that they have no business playing in.

All these things make the poker world like a food chain; all the money flows upwards towards the better players. The truth is that you should only move up in stakes if you consistently beat a level over a large sample, and also have an adequate bankroll to play in bigger games.

Becoming a professional poker player takes a serious commitment, and you have to put all of your heart, mind, and soul into the game for long periods of time. Because of this, a lot of your self-worth becomes tied to your success at the tables.

It's important to have a good circle of friends.

No matter how good you are you are going to have big losses and long periods of time when things are going badly. This can have a very negative effect on a person’s mentality, happiness, and ability to be productive and enjoy life outside of poker.

To be successful in the long run, you need a healthy mix of other things in your life aside from poker. Things such as a good group of friends you can spend time with, hobbies you enjoy outside of poker, a fitness regimen, travel, or anything else that you can spend time doing that will have a positive impact on your life and take your mind off of poker.

Finally, given the topic of these articles, I feel that I have to mention the aspect of professional poker that most of us don’t like to think about or talk about. If you play poker for a significant amount of time, at some point you will be cheated, colluded against, or robbed. It happens much less these days than it has in the past, but it still continues to happen in both live and online settings, and it’s a reality that you have to come to terms with.

The most common of these occurrences is collusion, and it’s usually very hard to detect. Fortunately it’s also the least detrimental, and isn’t something that most players need to spend much time worrying about.

There are a million other ways that a player can be cheated, far too many for me to mention in this article.

However, in the vast majority of games these days there is no cheating occurring, so it rarely has a devastating effect on a professional player’s career. The key is to make yourself aware of ways that you can be cheated, and to constantly be aware of the things you see happening at the table.

Finally, the rarest, yet most serious of these three things is being robbed. I don’t know what the percentage is of players that get robbed at some point in their careers, but it’s not very high.

Because of this, most players have the attitude of: Well I’m careful so that will never happen to me. It doesn’t matter how careful you are, you are always going to be at risk.

A few instances that I know of to illustrate this point:

- In 2004, Greg Raymer was forced into a room at the Bellagio by two men holding a gun, and they attempted to rob him of the casino chips he had in his possession. I think of the Bellagio as one of the safest places on earth for someone to possess casino chips or cash. If it can happen there, it can happen anywhere.

- In 2009, a well known online player(and just plain genius in general), had his computer hacked by someone overseas and lost over $200,000 of his own money before he realized what had happened. He has absolutely no chances of ever recovering that money.

- Several years ago at a casino in Tulsa, OK, a player was walking from the casino to the Inn on the other side of the parking lot when he was robbed, almost beaten to death, and finally left unconscious in an empty room with no clothes on.

Even though there is always going to be a risk of these types of things happening, they are rare and don’t come close to outweighing the benefits of becoming a successful professional poker player.

If you love the game, and have the talent to succeed, then none of these things should discourage you from playing poker for a living. The bottom line is that even though there are some negative aspects, it can be a very rewarding and enjoyable career.

Just keep in mind, “It’s a hard way to make an easy living.”

Learn more Pot Limit Omaha from mindcirkus at CardRunners, your best source for online poker training.

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Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Grinding the Shortstack with Mark "zachjackdad" Silver

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 01:00:00 -0700

Mark “zachjackdad” Silver has profited over six figures playing online poker, while sticking to an average buy in of $19! He is a part time poker player and father of two who began playing during the NFL strike of 2004.

Take it away Mark.

Grinding a short stack deep in MTTs is one of the most difficult things to learn about winning tourneys consistently.

What is considered short? Typically I would consider anything under 20 big blinds to be short. Obviously the less you have, the more short you are. However, players often panic too early or fail to shove (push all-in) in the most optimal spots.

The following is a list of things to consider before pushing all-in when action is on you in an unopened pot (there are no raises in front of you):

1) How many big blinds do you have?

2) What % of your stack is the pot?

3) How strong is your hand?

4) How many players are left to act behind you?

5) Are any players committed to calling? (they have too many chips in the pot to fold)

6) Is the big blind committed to calling?

7) If you answer yes to 5 or 6 or both, is there a reasonable possibility your hand is ahead of their random hand?

The reason his screenname is "zachjackdad".

There are actually some players out there who have studied the math on exactly when to shove with certain hands.

I can’t write out the whole shove chart here but the premise is basically that it takes into consideration how many big blinds you have, how many players left to act and how strong your hand is.

For example it can sometimes be correct to shove Q3o on the button but fold AT in middle position.

Lastly here is a list of considerations for shoving into raises or 3 betting all-in:

1) How many big blinds do you have?

2) What % of your stack is the pot?

3) How strong is your hand?

4) How aggressive has the villain been?

5) What position is the villain in?

6) Is the villain often raising from the same position?

7) If your hand is not strong, is the villain likely to fold?

After carefully considering all of these options, you need to make a decision on whether this is a good spot. As a rule, when you have less than 20 big blinds you should never be folding hands like AQ+ or TT+ to one raise. You need to open up your range as it will be very difficult to win a tournament staying at 15ish big blinds.

It is also very important to remember you cannot call any raises or raise/fold in any spot. You need to save all your chips for the correct spot to shove, and the more chips you have when you do go all-in, the better chance you have to make your opponent your fold.

Plus you’ll have more chips if you do happen to win at showdown.

The key to playing a short stack effectively is to stay patient but make sure you realize when you are in a good spot to shove. As you short stack more often you will start realizing when you are making mistakes.

Don’t forget to consider all the criteria above. The best thing to do to improve your short stack game is share hand histories with other poker players with specific spots where you shoved.

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Read More PokerListings/Cardrunners Strategy Articles:

Hard Realities about Playing Poker Professionally - Part 1 ICM Calculators and Super-Short Stack Tournament Strategy Live Poker Tournaments as Vacation Destinations Badugi Strategy! How to Beat Three Common Types of Players Beginner's Guide to Poker Tracking Software Key Differences Between US and Euro Online Poker Sites Swingo! The Best Home Game Variant You've Never Heard Of Being Responsible with Your First Big Score

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Hard Realities about Playing Poker Professionally - Part 1

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 00:01:00 -0700

Matthew "mindcirkus" Wheat is a professional poker player. He successfully transitioned from NLHE to PLO, and in 2010 made the final table of WSOP Event #55, the $10,000 PLO Championship.

Take it away Matthew:

When most people think about professional poker players they picture someone sitting around a casino making tons of cash playing a recreational card game.

The reality can best be described using the famous quote that a lot of us in the business use to describe our jobs: “It’s a hard way to make an easy living.”

One way I like to put this in perspective is by asking people, “Do you know what it’s like to go and work hard all day and lose $10,000? It happens to me all the time.”

The feeling of putting in hard work and losing a significant amount of money is impossible to describe to someone who hasn’t experienced it. I would compare the stress level of playing high stakes poker for a living to being an air traffic controller with an anxiety disorder.

Another issue that professional poker players have to deal with is the fact that they generally don’t get much respect for their profession from the general public. Most parents are horrified when their child tells them they are quitting their job and/or school to become a professional poker player.

The truth, however, is that whatever you might think about the morality of taking money from weaker players at the poker table, no one can question the amount of hard work and intelligence that it takes to become an elite poker player.

The general consensus among people familiar with both high stakes poker and higher education is that it takes more intelligence and acquisition of knowledge to become a winner in high stakes poker games than it does to get your average Ph.D.

Wheat's office.

In the early days of online poker, a fortune could be made with very little poker experience and knowledge. These days it takes an incredible amount of hard work and natural ability to make a living playing any form of poker.

For those who do have what it takes, and who put in the time and effort needed to become a successful player, the reward is a job with practically unlimited freedom.

Another rarely discussed, yet very serious, downside to being a professional poker player is that it causes you to greatly devalue money. If you compare a lawyer who makes $500/hr with a poker player who makes $500/hr, the poker player will never have anywhere near as much value for the money as the lawyer does.

The reason is simple; the lawyer is making $500 for every hour he works so when he sees something that costs $1000 he knows that he has to do two hours of work to earn enough to pay for that item.

For a professional poker player to average $500/hr, he has to be playing fairly high stakes games in which you are winning and losing sums between $10,000 and $100,000 on an hourly basis. When money comes and goes from your hands that quickly for long periods of time it basically becomes impossible to be frugal with your money.

Most players I know will tell you that anything that costs less than $1,000 is completely irrelevant and that they don’t even give a second thought to purchasing it. This is because purchases less than that amount have no emotional impact on them; it feels like it’s free.

As players mature over the years and learn from their mistakes with handling money they often become better in this regard, but it’s always going to be a challenge and problem to some extent.

If you’re going to be playing poker for a living, you need to be constantly evaluating what type of game will provide the highest hourly winrate for your unique set of abilities and experience. One serious mistake that I see among professionals is that they find a game they can win at and then only play that type of game month after month and year after year.

The poker landscape changes constantly and games that used to be easy money are practically unbeatable for significant amounts of money these days. For instance, back in 2007-2008 I was 20 tabling full ring 1/2 NLHE online. Along with the other best regulars in those games I could average $15,000 a month of profit with an amount of poker skill and knowledge that is relatively low by today’s standards.

Had I continued to play these games on a daily basis my income would have steadily declined as the games got astronomically more difficult over the past few years.

I realized this was happening in early 2009 and put all my effort into learning 6max pot-limit Omaha. It cost me quite a bit of income the first few months during the transition, but within a year I was making money that far exceeded anything I had ever made playing NL.

These days the 6max PLO games are becoming extremely difficult to beat, just like the NL games. Even though I’m still one of the best players in the games and making very good money playing in them, I’m also putting effort into learning other games so that I’ll be prepared to play in whatever games are most profitable in the future.

Click here to read the Hard Realities of Professional Poker Part 2 from Matthew “mindcirkus” Wheat.

Learn more Pot Limit Omaha from mindcirkus at CardRunners, your best source for online poker training.

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ICM Calculators and Super Short-Stack Tournament Strategy

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 01:00:00 -0700

Samer "Braminc" Khuri has been playing SNGs full time since 2006. He plays a wide range of stakes and his latest CardRunners video series, SNG Payout Analysis, explains how to effectively adjust to any tournament structure in the world. In his spare time he plays guitar, sings, and writes music.

Take it away Samer.

Most people that play poker tournaments are familiar with one very basic and crucial concept: When your stack reaches a certain critically low level, you must either go all-in or fold pre-flop.

Raising a standard amount becomes suboptimal, as you will end up having less fold equity yet still be committed to the pot after the flop (no matter what the flop is).

The idea is to maximize our fold equity while we have it to increase our chances of survival. While this is widely accepted, there is some debate as to just how short stacked “critically low” is. Some players seem to only shove/fold when their stack reaches 15 big blinds or less. Some say 10 big blinds or less.

Some point out that you should calculate your M—your stack size divided by the total value of the blinds and antes—and shove whenever M is less than 10. None of these answers is exactly right or wrong. It depends on the tendencies of your opponents, how they view a pre-flop shove from you, and how they react to a standard raise from you. 10 big blinds and an M of 10 have always been key values for me. There are absolutely times when I will shove 15 or even 20 big blinds, and there are other times when I will make a standard raise with as few as 8 big blinds. Both of those scenarios are rare, and they are not what this article is about.

Samer "Braminc" Khuri

I want to discuss the shortest of short stacks: the times you have 5 big blinds or less (or an M of 5 or less).

In these situations, you are running out of fold equity. You need to move quickly. To play cautiously at this stage will lose you money in the long run.

Many of us use ICM calculators to determine what hands are +EV to shove in what spots (and what hands aren’t).

These ICM calculators are the key to short stack tournament poker. However, they have limitations. ICM is a measurement of total prize pool equity. Using it, you can compare the value of your stack if you move in and if you fold.

The first problem we encounter is that your prize pool equity is based solely on the number of chips you have now relative to the total number of chips and players remaining. No account is taken of the players’ skill.

The calculator doesn’t know how good you are; even we humans don’t know exactly how good anyone is. So, if you are one of the best players at the table, ICM is likely to underestimate the value of your stack; this will affect the best play sometimes.

Another major limitation of ICM, and the most relevant one to this article, is that because these calculators simply compare your prize pool equity if you shove or fold immediately after the hand, they ignore future hands.

Another way to put this point is that the real value of your stack can depend on the position of the blinds, whether you are likely to be in very bad situations soon, and so on. I

n my view, when you are as short as 4 or 5 big blinds, you need to take shoves that ICM says are –EV, because folding is often even worse than ICM indicates.

Mobile ICM calculator?

The problem is that calculating just how bad our future situations will be can be extremely difficult. Nobody can figure this out with complete accuracy; it depends on all our opponents’ tendencies and is sensitive to very small changes in their stack sizes.

Usually we will not be dealt monster cards within the next orbit of play, and since our fold equity will disappear when we continue folding, we will be getting our chips all-in as huge underdogs a majority of the time.

After studying hundreds of short-stack tournament scenarios, I can confidently say that the degree to which we should be willing to take -EV shoves at 4-5 big blinds is much higher than I ever would have expected.

In a typical SNG, -1% to -2% of the prize pool is an extremely reasonable -EV shove to make under the gun when facing the alternative of blinding out of play. In larger tournaments the same is true, although the exact number will be different because of the greater field size. If you are able to fully understand what ICM is, how it works, and what the ICM calculators are telling you, then you can apply good reasoning to learn when it is appropriate to deviate from their suggestions.

In this case, we have observed that ICM calculators are unaware that the tournament doesn’t end after the exact hand it is analyzing.

Because the tournament must continue, folding trashy cards with a stack of 4 or 5 big blinds can be pure suicide as you will soon have literally zero fold equity and close to zero prize pool equity.

We must do our best to estimate which -EV shoves are appropriate and which aren’t. The short answer is that almost all -EV shoves in the described situation are very appropriate and necessary.

Improve your poker game with CardRunners. CardRunners offers all the tools you need to learn poker, including new videos released daily, strategy forums, pro interviews and more.

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Live Poker Tournaments as Vacation Destinations

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 00:01:00 -0700

PrimordialAA is a HU SNG specialist who also plays MTTs and mixed games. His average stake is $440 but he'll play anywhere from $220 to $5k.

He discovered poker on a high school trip to DC for Presidential Classroom when his roommate taught him how to play. After using his winnings on a Georgetown hoodie, he deposited money online and hasn't looked back.

He's known for his solid, clear analysis and motivational volume prop bets with friends. He finished 143rd in the 2010 WSOP Main Event, and 5th in the 2011 PCA Heads Up Championship.

Take it away Bryan.

Live tournaments are an interesting breed of poker not only because of how they play but because they are spread out all over the world and therefore offer many unique experiences.

Players who enter these tournaments get to play for stakes and in fields much bigger than they might be used to, and they also get to explore new cities and countries. Many players thus find poker tournaments to be awesome vacations, especially if they can find relatively cheap ways to enter.

If you’re thinking about doing some tournament travel, I’d first recommend looking carefully for a location that you want to visit and have the time for.

Don't confine yourself to the casino when not playing poker!

I recommend Europe from March through the fall: some of my favorite tournament spots are Barcelona, Budapest, Vienna, and Deauville. During the winter, there are attractive tournaments at the PCA in the Bahamas, the Aussie Millions in Melbourne, and the LAPT in various Latin American cities.

I have two preferred methods for satelliting into live events: the 3x-turbo rebuy satellites on PokerStars, and the flatter live satellites. (By ‘flatter’ I mean the satellites that award seats to roughly 1/5 to 1/7 of the field.)

The 3x-turbos appear to have a lot of wild play and variance, but I like them because the goal is relatively simple.

Before the add-on, the best strategy is simply to minimize the number of rebuys you take; after, the tournament resembles a small turbo satellite, with just a few tables of players fighting for one or two packages. There are often rebates given to the next handful of players, and these prizes help soften the swings.

Finally, these tournaments are desirable because they take only two to three hours, instead of a whole day.

Live satellites awarding seats to over 10% of the field have larger buyins, of course, but the variance is smaller than in satellites paying 5% or less of the field, and the competition is often much weaker than you will find in any other online poker satellite.

More specifically, these tournaments are much better to play than the $700 weekly satellites online, which are full of tough players.

Going after real-life fish.

Once you win or buy the seat, you have to plan for the trip itself. I would strongly recommend that you arrive at least two days early; three is even better. This will allow you to adjust to jet lag and to get comfortable in the new city.

You will also want to get into a routine that fits the new time zone, because the twelve-hour days you will (hopefully) be playing will be unforgiving if you’ve not adjusted to the local time.

You’ll also want to set aside time before or after the tournament to see the new place. Many people make a point of seeing every notable building and museum, but I prefer not to get caught up in worries about seeing them all.

Such a project is fine for some people, but more often it makes what should be a fun and enriching experience into a chore and a blur. I prefer to relax and experience a new culture: for example, there is often unfamiliar and delicious food available.

It’s worth setting aside extra time and planning ahead to avoid familiar food and tourist traps—you can always grab a burger or some street kebab if you don’t like what you try, but a good meal can be a highlight of the trip.

When you’re going out at night, don’t be shy about asking for recommendations; people are happy to give you ideas.

Asking locals often leads to a much better time in a new city than you would have if you went to a club full of tourists—even if the tourist club is a good time, it figures to be nothing you can’t get at home. Be sure, however, to be aware of what’s around you, and to stay safe.

No big city has only safe districts, and you can get into trouble even if you’re in a basically safe location. So when you’re going out, be smart and bring friends.

Improve your poker game with CardRunners. CardRunners offers all the tools you need to learn poker, including new videos released daily, strategy forums, pro interviews and more.

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Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Badugi Strategy! How to Beat Three Common Types of Players

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 00:05:00 -0700

Mike "Predator006" Six is a PLO8 specialist ranging in stakes from 200-2000. He's been playing since mid-2005 and advocates game selection and proper bankroll management. He also enjoys obscure games like badugi, baduci and Chinese poker.

He found that players online were generally awful at badugi, so he started taking notes on different lines that the few winning players were taking and taught himself.

If you're not familiar with the game click through and get started with our Badugi Rules and Game-Play tutorial.

Take it away Mike.

Contrary to popular belief, the word ‘badugi’ is not Korean for ‘bad poker player,’ although most who play it fall into that category.

Because there isn’t a whole lot of public information about these games competent players have a huge edge!

Badugi can be played online on both Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars. Although it has not yet been included as a WSOP event, there was a recent $1,000 tournament at the Commerce, and there was also a SCOOP event on PokerStars that generated a $28,000 first prize.

With the game’s increasing popularity, some well-known players have tried it successfully, including Shaun Deeb and Jean-Robert Bellande. The game, along with its close cousins baduci and badacey, is now found in many mid- and high-stakes mixed games in Las Vegas.

(Bellande claims to have invented baduci, but the claim has not been verified.)

I have found that most online poker badugi players fall into the following categories:

First, there are players that have don’t have a clue how to play the game. These players will do things like drawing to a three-card Jack and choose to keep the Jack pre-draw because it gives them three different suits.

These players also don’t understand the value of position and how to use it, nor could they tell you the difference between a smooth and a rough hand. They also rarely if ever three-bet a strong three-card hand pre-draw. Other characteristics of these players include:

They will believe you have a badugi when you pat, whether you have it or are snowing. They will never make bluff-raises to try to break weak badugis. They will rarely fold bad badugis even when it is obvious that they are beat. These players often think they get sucked out on when their A5TQ badugi loses a big pot.

Bobby "Baduci" Bellande

Secondly, there are the bad decision makers. Online, these players often click on their decision without seeing what the other players' actions are before them.

They do baffling things like calling a raise and reraise pre-draw and then folding to a small bet after the first draw, when they are getting 7-1 odds or better. Sometimes, these players will open-raise pre-draw and fold to a three-bet. If you find this kind of player, stick around and hope they rebuy when they bust.

Thirdly, there are players who are entirely too straightforward. These players do not adapt and are typically tight ABC players.

In heads-up pots, they will rarely continue to a big bet after the second draw because they don’t include the implied odds of future raises or the chance that the opponent is bluffing. Another example of this player’s tendencies can be found in a three-handed raised pot pre-draw. If the player that is first to act bets after the first draw, I will typically raise with a good part of my range, including decent three-card hands.

This ABC player behind you will fold for the extra bet into a large pot. One of the most important patterns of these players is that they are either very consistent on calling with all three-card hands or they never do.

If they ever snow, make a note, because they will take a similar line when they snow again. Once you notice their patterns, figure out a good counter strategy and run them over.

Lastly, there are players that adapt their style to their opponents. They are typically tricky to play against. These players often incorporate snowing techniques and calling with three-card hands into their strategy.

They raise often in position and value this position more than their hand strength. Good tri hands are three-bet pre-draw. They sometimes bluff-raise to try to get weak badugis to break or fold. These players are obviously the toughest to play against.

One of the drawbacks to online badugi play is for players used to multitable grinding. This is much harder in badugi. I feel comfortable playing 12 tables of other games simultaneously, and have maintained up to 24.

When I have tried to play more than one badugi table, however, I have always lost my edge and started to spew. For the recreational player looking to have fun and make a good win rate, badugi is a great change from your typical grind.

Try out CardRunners with a 7 day free trial. You'll find poker videos for all games and stakes, ranging from micro stakes Sit n Go's to mid-stakes full ring No Limit Hold'em to nosebleed Pot Limit Omaha.

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Beginner's Guide to Poker Tracking Software

Sun, 13 Mar 2011 12:00:00 -0700

Matthew Janda is a professional poker player/coach who specializes in Game Theory.

He is known for his analytical and theory-optimal approach to poker, and has released videos at CardRunners specifically focused on playing optimally preflop, post-flop, and in 3-bet pots. He has also published an extensive series on utilizing softwares like Holdem Manager.

Take it away Matthew.

The ability to use tracking software might be the biggest difference between online and live play. Tracking software allows you to record every hand of poker you play on the virtual felt, which in turn makes it possible to discover your own leaks and your opponents' tendencies.

Yet players new to online poker are often reluctant to invest in Hold'Em Manager or PokerTracker, since a $60-$100 investment might cost them as much as several buyins. These players often aren’t even sure if they’ll enjoy online poker and want to keep playing it.

I would not recommend using tracking software until you’ve played at least a thousand hands, whatever your preferred game type. The pace of online poker is very different from live play, and the extra software might distract or confuse you given that you're not already comfortable.

Nevertheless, even before you get the software it's a good idea to keep your eye out for promotions. Many Internet poker companies have responded to competition by offering deals in which you can get the software cheaply or free. You can also see which software suits you best by trying free trial versions.

The most useful aspect of tracking software for starting players is you can use recorded hands to see if your statistics look “normal.”

Viktor Blom knows how important tracking stats can be.

Are you playing too many hands, or raising too much or too little? By comparing your statistics with those of other winning players, you can get a general idea of where your leaks might be. Of course, many different playing styles can be effective, but seeing where you deviate from most players, and especially from winners, is a great way to begin inspecting your game.

This process is made trickier by the fact that winning players often have very different statistics. For example, some players might 3-bet very frequently, while others use a more narrow range.

Therefore, not every respect in which you differ statistically form winning players will necessarily be a leak. If you’re struggling to win online, however, this process is one of the best ways to start improving your game.

Of course, your newfound potential to analyze huge data sets will not be useful to you before you have even played ten thousand hands. Luckily, tracking software has many other useful features.

You will also be able to record isolated hands to post on poker websites for other players to view. When I’m playing, I constantly mark tough hands to ask my friends about later. Time banks are unforgiving, and I know I learn the most when I revisit difficult hands later to think through them carefully without time pressure. Good tracking software makes the marking-and-reviewing process very easy.

Finally, tracking software allows you to get a better sense of how your opponents play, so you can exploit them. You can study their game when you’re not playing by looking over hands they’ve played; you can also examine their statistics to see if any leaks stick out.

If you use a heads-up display (or ‘HUD’), you can see all of these statistics while you’re playing, and use the reads you’ve previously developed to exploit them. This is of course no excuse for not taking extensive notes, as your most useful information will be more specific and informative than raw statistics.

Although not every successful player uses tracking (though most use it at least for tax purposes), the vast majority realize it is an extremely important and useful tool for beating online games today.

The more information you have in poker, the better decisions you’ll be able to make and the more money that will follow. The best players will use every weapon in their arsenal to beat their opponents, and tracking tools are powerful weapons you should utilize to their full potential.

Find videos from Matthew Janda exclusively at CardRunners, the world's largest poker training website.

Read More PokerListings/Cardrunners Strategy Articles:

Key Differences Between US and Euro Online Poker Sites Swingo! The Best Home Game Variant You've Never Heard Of - Steve Albini Being Responsible with Your First Big Score - John "Nikolak" Kim

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Key Differences Between US and European Online Poker Rooms

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 01:00:00 -0800

James "D_Zoo" Hartt is a former high school teacher who resides in Canada. After discovering the game and depositing $50, he started building his bankroll by grinding $10 NL.

He experienced immediate success and quickly climbed stakes playing games as high as $10kNL. He found his passion for teaching translated to poker well, and now teaches and coaches poker full-time. He can be found playing the $400NL-$1kNL games at various European sites specializing in short-handed no limit holdem.

Take it away D_Zoo.

As a Canadian, I’m allowed to play at almost any online poker site in the world, and I have put this ability to use.

I have tried practically every poker network, as well as many different skins. So, I am qualified to describe the main differences between America-friendly sites (mainly PokerStars and Full Tilt) and European sites.

Differences in Players’ Style and Skill

The play between the two is very different. The America-friendly sites involve more of a preflop game and more of a standard game. By this I mean that the players are fundamentally sound, and play more the way one is taught on training sites. I find it easier to understand how these players are thinking.

The Euro sites have a lot more calling and post-flop play. Players here will call much more pre-flop instead of raising or folding, and they love to play past the flop. They play less fundamentally sound and are a bit more difficult to put on hand ranges. It is also more difficult to figure out what level they are thinking on.

I know many players, even good ones playing stakes like $5-10, that have had trouble moving from America-friendly sites to Euro ones, because they couldn’t adjust to these differences. Your play needs to adjust to accommodate the different style of these players.

Differences in Volume

PokerStars has the largest player pool and the largest selection of tournaments and cash games running around the clock. They have a wide selection for different stakes, and also have good selection for non-NLHE games, such as Omaha and limit hold’em.

The European sites often have good volume for the most popular limits of NLHE, such as $1-2, especially at peak hours. The farther you are from peak times, the less volume there will be, especially at higher stakes.

Games other than NLHE are almost guaranteed to have little or no volume. Finally, at the smaller sites with small player pools, most of your opponents are likely to be the site’s regulars.

Euro sites equal Euro players.

I always found it best to run a couple of Euro sites simultaneously to give myself a wider selection of games.

Differences in Software and Support

Both PokerStars and Full Tilt’s software are much more user friendly then that of the European sites; navigation is easier, and it is overall easier on the eyes.

Some European sites have some awful software that’s just not user-friendly. This is not merely an aesthetic point: bad software can cause you to tilt, misclick, misread the board, pass over the best games, or time out.

The support is also better, hands down, on PokerStars and Full Tilt. Those two sites, and especially PokerStars, will often respond within an hour.

On many Euro sites, you would be lucky to have a question answered within 24 hours. Euro sites also tend to have live help features that have availability tied to European time zones; often, these services are staffed by non-experts with poor English. The larger European sites, however, are more reliable for support.

Size also matters for site stability. Some Prima skins, for example, went bankrupt, and I myself have lost a bankroll on a site that shut down and took my money down with it.

Differences in Rewards

The flat rate deals offered on Euro sites are definitely very attractive. The rakeback is usually high, and there are often also deposit bonuses, reload bonuses, points for cash, etc.

The ‘under the table’ deals offered on these sites are generally outstanding, but risky, as they are not permitted on many of the sites anymore: iPoker is like this. Their ‘poker shops’ also usually have a decent selection, but you will be charged a little more for shipping (deducted from your points, not your cash).

The America-friendly sites offer lower flat-rate deals, but PokerStars has the Supernova and Supernova Elite statuses, which offer a great rate if you take advantage of the freerolls and use your frequent player points optimally.

Their Poker Shops have a wide selection and are very affordable even for a lower-volume player.

So overall, the two kinds of sites offer different poker experiences, with different advantages and disadvantages.

I’ve mainly been playing on the European sites for the rewards, and I enjoy the game flow, which is based more on a postflop game.

I have had both good and bad experiences with their support, but in general I've found that the larger the poker room, the more stable and safe it will be. If software is a very important to you, you have a reason to prefer PokerStars and Full Tilt.

But in the end, poker is poker. You will always need to adapt to your environment and your opponent to get the money.

CardRunners offers daily new videos from the best online poker pros in the world, including Andreas "Skjervoy" Torbergsen, Brian "Stinger" Hastings, and Mickey "mement_mori" Petersen. There are pros specializing in all stakes and games to help you learn poker.

Read More PokerListings/Cardrunners Strategy Articles:

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Swingo! The Best Poker Home Game Variant You've Never Heard Of

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 01:00:00 -0800

Steve Albini is a mixed game instructor at CardRunners and best-known for his work in the music industry. He actively tours in a band while managing his recording studio, Electrical Audio, in Chicago.

He finished 14th in Event 21 - 7-Card Stud at the 2010 World Series of Poker and specializes in low ball games like Razz and 2-7 Triple and Single draw.

Take it away Steve.

There has been a lot of talk in the poker community about which games will be popular in the future.

While No-Limit Hold'em is certain to retain the lion's share of the casual players' attention, and the online poker high-stakes games are gravitating toward PLO and mixed game formats, the novel and complex game of Swingo has tremendous potential.

The game was invented by some regulars in the Tuesday Game here in Chicago and named after a classic Chicago punk song by the band Naked Raygun.

But it has spread through word of mouth to other places, including private games in the UK and France, and the 2011 Winter BARGE events in Las Vegas. It was also in contention to be added as a special event at the 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

Swingo was invented to incorporate elements of other great poker games, so most aspects of play will be familiar to seasoned poker players.

Rules of Swingo:

Pot-limit with blinds is the preferred structure. The game doesn't play well as a limit or no-limit game.

"I think you may be on to something here Steve."

Players are dealt five cards and there is a round of betting. After the action closes, players still in the hand place two cards face down as hole cards and protect them until showdown.

When all players have separated their two hole cards, they expose their three remaining cards, creating an exposed board (as on fifth street in 7-card stud).

There is another round of betting, starting with the player with the highest board, as in stud.

If a player folds his hand, his exposed cards are mucked along with his hole cards and no longer play. After the action closes, there is a final community "river" card dealt, and a final round of betting, starting with the best board (not including the river card).

This is followed by the showdown.

Showdown hands are "cards speak," (the best poker hand possible; there is no declare) made from a total of seven cards: the five cards in the hand as dealt, the river card, and any one of the exposed board cards from the other players' hands.

You may not use another player's hole cards in your hand, only an exposed board card. More than one player may use the same exposed board card. You are not required to use another player's board card or the river card.

The showdown rule is what makes Swingo such a complex game, as the implications of exposed cards become a major factor in all decisions.

There is often a critical balance struck between betting for value and preserving an opponent's board. This makes a strong showdown hand, and complex multi-way situations arise where each player can potentially win at showdown.

Here's a showdown example:

[hole cards] board cards

Seat 1 [K♣ K♦] 9♣ 7♣ T♣

Seat 2 [A♥ K♥] J♥ Q♠ 5♦

Seat 3 [9♠ 5♠] 5♥ 9♦ K♠

River: 7h

If all three players see showdown, Seat 1 has Kings full of Sevens, Seat 2 has an Ace-high heart flush, and seat 3 has Nines full of Fives.

If Seat 3 folds before showdown, Seat 1 has two pair, Kings and Sevens, and Seat 2 has Broadway.

If Seat 2 folds, Seat 1 has Kings full of Sevens and Seat 3 has Nines full of Fives.

If Seat 1 folds, Seat 2 has a flush and Seat 3 has Fives full of Nines.

"The mathematical implications of this game are too much for me."

There is an important rule: Because of the communal nature of the boards, players may not fold without action, and dealers must prevent mucking of boards until the pot has been awarded.

The betting rounds can have tremendous action. For example, one player might be driving the action with a strong made hand, and another player might call, hoping to entice an overcall from a player whose board improves his hand.

He might also raise to try to force a fold from a board that likely improves a different player, turning a second-best hand into a winner. Meanwhile, some hands will have compound draws with the slew of available board cards, and be eager to see the river card.

Every once in a while a situation unique to Swingo occurs, where a player with the nuts can't bet his hand, but a player with a bust or weak hand can bet for value. For example, you are Seat 3, and on the river the following hands are on the table:

Seat 1 [ X X ]3♥ 4♥ 2♥

Seat 2 [ X X ]5♥ T♠ J♠

Seat 3 [A♣ 5♣]6♣ 8♣ 9♦

River: A♥

The action is on seat 2, showing Jack-high. We can assume he was drawing to a straight or flush, but he can't bet it for value and can't call anything because his 5♥ and the A♥ river card make a straight flush for Seat 1.

As seat 3, holding blockers for seat 1's redraw to a straight, you make a pot-sized bet, which seat 1 has to call with any pair on the chance that either seat 2 is oblivious or you are making a play. Seat 2 folds, and your pair of Aces wins a huge pot. Once scenarios like this play out a few times in a game, complex bluffs begin to emerge, where players take representation of hands to extreme levels.

Playing strategies are all similarly complex and related to the exposed cards. Some players tend to expose strong boards, improving their chances of bluffing short-handed pots, while some tend to expose weak, uncoordinated cards to avoid completing big hands for their opponents.

Hands dealt pat tend to try to take pots early, shutting out the myriad draws possible with this game format, while some hands like trips or compound draws are happy to play multi-way.

Swingo is a remarkably complex game, and while that is what makes it appealing to poker players, it is also at the root of its principal drawback.

Post-mortem conversations about Swingo hands tend to drag on and on, and you would do well to institute a no-forensics policy in a Swingo game that gets bogged down by such manhuntering.*

If you have any questions about Swingo theory or practice, feel free to email me at sa(at)electrical.com, or stop by the Tuesday Game. Bring a lot of money.

*"manhuntering" is a term invented by annoying Chicago limit Hold'em nit Andy "Shut Up Andy" Kosinsky. It refers to the Michael Mann film "Manhunter," in which the detective protagonist played by CSI star William Petersen uses a handheld tape recorder to record his dictation of the details of a crime scene, speculating aloud about the villain's motives and psychology. When any player in the Tuesday game begins manhuntering, another player is likely to pantomime holding a tape recorder and repeat his musings in the hushed tones of mockery until he relents.

When he's not busy in the music studio or creating poker games, Steve Albini makes razz videos for CardRunners.

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Being Responsible with Your First Big Score - John "Nikolak" Kim

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Being Responsible with Your First Big Poker Score

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 01:00:00 -0800

John Kim has played poker professionally for over a dozen years. He's played several million hands at the mid to high-stakes levels at Full Tilt Poker and has amassed over a million dollars in winnings.

He now splits his time between the live games in Las Vegas, where he resides, and playing 15 tables simultaneously online. John is a dedicated father and husband and emphasizes work-life balance as an important trait to his success in poker.

I remember when I had my first significant score. It was in January 2005 and I won the $640 buy-in Party Poker Million for about $250k. That tournament was the original Sunday Million before PokerStars introduced their Sunday Million.

I remember the final hand winning with A7o vs. K9o and the board rolling out AKxxx. The next thing I knew I was jumping up and down with my wife and calling my family to celebrate the win.

The timing was great because my wife and I just bought and moved into our very first house the previous month. Having been a professional poker player for a few years but never having won more than $15k in a single day, this was a significant boost to my bankroll.

So what did I do with the money? Well, since I placed a high priority on family, I gave some money to my parents and my brother. Also I paid off all my debts including credit cards and car payments.

At the time I was playing mid- to high-stakes cash games online and doing well. I was playing $30/$60 limit and $5/$10 No-Limit Hold’em games and was making a good living, so I didn’t feel the need to jump into higher games at the time. I’ve always been a little risk averse when it came to my poker bankroll (mainly because I was married with one child and a mortgage) and even though my bankroll had ballooned, I thought there was a better way to use the money.

I decided to read a few books on investing, and bought a number of stocks and mutual funds. I wanted to invest for the future. I did not want an investment I’d have to stay on top of all the time. My primary focus would still be poker.

So I ended up buying a bunch of shares in companies and mutual funds that were guaranteed long term moneymakers, e.g. S&P 500. To this date I still own most of the same shares I bought back then, but I may have swapped or traded some shares for others. I made sure our retirement accounts stayed healthy and they’re poised to return a good amount when we start withdrawing from them (another 30 years or so from now).

The size of your house will depend on the size of your score.

This goes against the grain of how most of the “pro poker community” would use the windfall. Many would have immediately started playing bigger to see how much more they could make. I do think this is the best route to take for winning players, but it depends on each person’s situation.

I took the responsible route at the time by investing for our futures and would not fault anybody for taking the same route I did.

Reflecting back on it, I wish I’d taken some of the money and taken shots at higher games, although higher games back then were only $100/200 limit or $10/$20nl (UB probably had $25/$50nl back then but we all know how shady the UB games were so it was a good thing I never played on the site then).

I have always been a winning poker player and I should’ve given myself a shot at higher games to see how I did. Who knows how high I could’ve ended up playing had I taken that opportunity.

While I could’ve been a little more aggressive with my newfound money, there is danger in being too aggressive, which I’ve seen happen when other poker players bink a tournament or come across a large sum of money.

Either they play too high, play in games they are not the favorite (just because you win 6 figures in a tournament does not mean you can beat the highest or toughest games), play negative ev games (blackjack, craps, sportsbetting, etc.), or just spend too lavishly.

Soon they are out of the large amount of money they had and are left wondering “wtf did I do with all my money?!” I would recommend finding the right medium (games and stakes) with a minimal amount of risk to maximize one’s profits with the new bankroll.

Turns out a couple of years later we would move into a bigger house and I would win another Sunday major within a month of moving. I won $132k in the FTP $750k guaranteed. Talk about déjà vu. It’s been awhile since I won a big online tournament so I’m trying to convince my wife to move again.

Nicolak is one of many instructors already blogging over at CardRunners. Join CardRunners and get instant access to their poker blog network, where you can find poker blogs by your favorite instructors and start your own blog.

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Ten-Minute Texas Hold'em Crash Course

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 20:30:00 -0700

Here’s our 10-minute Texas Hold'em crash course to get you on your way.

Every couple months or so I'll have someone come up to me and tell me that they're going to Vegas for a couple days and they always ask me the same thing:

"What kind of poker tips can you give me?"

That question led to this article. So if you are going to give poker a shot, read this article first and your chances of success will improve greatly.

Editor's Note: This article assumes that you know the basics of how to play the game of Texas Hold'em.

If you're unsure of the rules and the way the game plays out, check out the Texas Hold'em rules first.

Is Poker Gambling?

The short answer is yes.

The long answer is no, with a but.Poker is gambling insofar as you can't control which cards you get, which cards your opponent will get or which cards will come on the flop.

But you can control when you put money into the pot.

By only putting money into the pot when the situation is favorable to you, and folding when the situation is unfavorable to you, you can win money in the long run playing poker.

You may still lose in the short term because of those uncontrollable elements, but if you regularly make better decisions than the majority of your opponents, you will more than likely make money.

The 30-Second Strategy Rundown

Texas Hold'em is a game about hand strength. Only the best hand wins at showdown. So you want to plan to have the best hand at showdown before you put a single penny in the pot.

It all begins when you're dealt your two hole cards.

You want to play only the best possible hands before the flop because they make the best hands after the flop.

Generally you want to be playing around 18-20% of your hands at a full nine-handed poker table.

It doesn't seem like many hands, and it isn't, but it's the best way to show a profit.

Hold'em is often just as much about the hands you fold as the hands you play. If you play too many hands, you simply won't be able to profit.

You'll be throwing away too much money with weak hands to make it back with your good hands. So play tight. Tight is right.

Your opponents

The Texas Hold'em games you find in the casino are generally very loose. A lot of players at the casino play 30% of hands or more.

When your opponents play weak hands before the flop, they make weak hands after the flop.

Generally, play 18-20% of your hands at a full table.

Weak hands are second-best hands, and your opponent's second-best hands are going to make you money.

Hand Strength

Remember your goal. You want to have the best hand by the time all five community cards are out and the betting has finished.

There is no clear-cut answer as to what hand is good enough to take to showdown. It always depends.

But by playing tight you will ensure that you'll make more best hands and less second-best hands

During each hand you have to take into account the cards that are on the board and the possibilities that they offer.

Think about what type of opponent you're playing against and how the hand has played out.

Poker is a game of information. Be a sponge; soak up as much as you can and use it to your advantage.

Pre-flop

Before you even see a flop you want to think about what hands you can make with the two cards you've been dealt. Your goal is to make "top" pair (no other possible pair in combination with the board cards that can be higher than yours) after the flop with a very good kicker or better.

Or you want a hand that has a reasonable expectation of making a big hand (straight, flush, etc) on a later street.

Check out the hands below to see what you should consider as playable before the flop.Monsters: AA, KK, QQ, JJ

These hands are already huge hands.

A single pair is often the best hand at showdown and these will often make an overpair to the board.

These hands are all extremely profitable and you should raise them whenever you are dealt them.

More best hands, less second-best hands.

With AA-KK and even QQ you can and should re-raise.Top pair hands: AK-AJ, KQ

These hands, when they hit the flop, usually make top pair with a good kicker.

Kickers are very important in texas holdem poker because two players will often flop the same pair and it comes down to the kicker to break the tie.

When you have one pair your kicker is almost always going to play.

For example, on a A♦ 3♠ 4♠ 7♦ 2♥ board, A♠ Q♠ will beat A♥ T♥ because the winning hand of A♠ A♦ Q♠ 7♦ 4♠ is better than A♥ A♦ T♥ 7♦ 4♠. When you play tight you're going to be winning the battle of the kickers and your loose opponents will be paying you off with worse kickers.

Top-pair hands you can also play if there is a raise in front of you by just calling and seeing the flop.

If nobody has raised in front you should raise these hands for value before the flop.

Suited Connectors: QJs-89s

At the casino, many players play any two suited cards.

It's one of the biggest mistakes new players make and they bleed money seeing flops with worthless hands.

Concentrate your efforts on suited connectors because they can flop both straight and flush draws.

When they're suited and connected it doubles the likelihood that they will see a flop they like. Being suited or connected on its own is not enough to see a flop. They have to be both.Suited connectors are profitable because they win big pots when they make straights or flushes. Though they do make big pot hands, they should often be folded to a raise unless the raise is very small.

These hands do very well when you can get in cheap. Look to flop a draw or get out.Pocket Pairs: TT-22These pocket pairs are not monsters.

Often with small and medium pocket pairs the flop will bring at least one overcard to your pair.

When you are holding 6♦ 6♠ and the board comes J♦ K♣ 3♠ your hand is practically worthless. The bulk of the value from pocket pairs comes from when they flop a set (three of a kind).

Three of a kind is a big hand in Texas Hold'em and when you flop a set you should look to get all-in as fast as possible. That said, small pocket pairs benefit from cheap flops as well.

Hand selection is key.

If you can see a multi-way pot against a small raise that's fine too but your main goal is a cheap flop.

If you don't hit your set you're best off folding.

Ace-X suited: A9s-A2s

These are the only weak aces you should ever play.

The reason why A-Xs hands are playable and other ace-rags are not is because they are suited and can make the nut flush.

If you make the ace-high flush you're going to win your opponent's entire stack if he has a smaller flush.

That said, many players get into trouble when they flop a pair of aces, only to be beaten by someone with a pair of aces and a better kicker.

Remember your goal. You want to take a cheap shot at flopping a flush draw. You don't want to get involved with a pair of aces and a weak kicker. A-Xs hands should not be played against a raise unless it's very small and there are many players. Cheap flops are the key.Everything else:

All other hands should be avoided like the plague. It will just be too difficult to turn a profit playing any more than the outlined hands.

Over time as you get better at poker you can gradually add more hands, but when you're learning you want to keep things simple. Good hands before the flop means good hands after the flop. Good hands after the flop mean easier decisions for you.

Keep it simple.

Post-flop

The Flop

As soon as the flop comes out, evaluate your hand.

Look at the board, look at what hands are possible and how your hand stacks up.

Remember: you want to make top pair or better or have a reasonable chance at a big hand. If you have a pair that's smaller than top pair and there's a bet, get out of the way and fold.

If you have top pair with a good kicker, call or bet yourself.

Entire chapters of poker strategy books are dedicated to playing on the flop so we're going to continue keeping it simple here.

Examine how the hand has played out and remember: top pair is a good hand, but if multiple people are raising it may not be good enough.

If you have better than top pair - two pair or a set for example - you should often raise to get value from worse hands.

Cheap flops are key.

A note on draws: A draw is when you can either make a straight or a flush on the next card.

Draws are big hands because straights and flushes are almost always good enough to win at showdown. All draws are not considered equal however.

For example 5♦ 6♦ on a 7♥ 3♥ A♦ board only has four outs - the four 4s - and the draw is weaker still because the 4♥ may also give someone a flush.

When you need the middle card to make your straight it's known as a gutshot.

The better straight draw is known as an open-ender. For example 8♠ 9♠ on a 6♥ 7♠ J♦ board.

In this example there are twice as many outs as a gutshot. Open-enders are much stronger than gutshots. Gutshots should seldom be taken past the flop unless you get a free look or the betting is extremely small. Flush draws have nine outs (based on 13 cards of each suit in the deck) and are very strong.

You generally can call one bet on the flop and if you miss on the turn you should abandon hope unless the betting is small.

The Turn

Usually by the time it gets to the turn there are only 2-3 players left.

When a player makes it to the turn he generally has at least some piece of the board. If you have the lead in the hand (meaning you've initiated the betting) and the turn changes nothing you should often keep betting. If the turn completes the flush or the straight draw you should often tread carefully.

If you bet and get raised, it's often best to just fold.

The River

The last street, the river, is usually contested heads-up.

Use the information your opponent has given you throughout the hand to figure out whether you should bet or call a bet. Each play your opponent makes tells you a little bit more about his hand.

If he raises before the flop, then bets the flop and the turn and now bets again on the river, he usually has a big hand. Conversely if he raises before the flop, bets into you on the flop, checks the turn and checks the river, he's usually going to be weak. Again there are thousands of different variables and going through all of them is impossible.

Use critical thinking to figure out what your opponent may have and act accordingly.

Position

Position is one of the most important factors in Texas Hold'em.

Position refers to your position in relation to the dealer button, which identifies which player acts last during the hand.

Have fun. Poker's a life long game.

Acting last is a huge advantage in poker because you have more information.

When you act last you know if your opponent wanted to check or bet. You get to see everyone's actions before you decide what to do.

Nobody can see the next card or showdown until you say. You are in complete control.

Because of that, when you're in position you can play more hands than you normally would because you will have the inherent advantage of acting last.

Poker's a long term game

Though poker is a game that you can beat in the long term, it's still gambling to some degree.

You make decisions and then random cards come out. You control when you put money in but you don't control the deck. It's that element of luck that makes the game interesting but it's also that element of luck that can make the game extremely frustrating. You can make every decision right the entire night and still lose the session. You can make every right decision all week and still lose.

Conversely you can see some idiot in seat 10 play every hand and win a ton. It's the nature of the game. It's what keeps the fish (bad players) interested, so embrace it. Look at each situation individually and make the best possible decision.

If you do that every time you will be a successful poker player in the long term. Try to downplay the importance of short-term results. And last but not least: Have fun. Poker's a fun game, so don't take it too seriously.

If you're ready to give it a shot online, check out our list of the best Texas Holdem poker sites here.

The Worst Hand in Poker

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 10:00:00 -0700

Not enough thought has been given to this topic so let’s run through some ideas.

Anyone who disagrees can click on the comment button and fire back.

For starters, let's limit ourselves to moderate stakes No Limit Hold em (from about $.50/1 to $5/$10).

At lower stakes some things change and at higher stakes everything changes.

Let's also recognize that what I'm focusing on isn't the + or - EV of each hand played but the EV of each hand dealt!

Okay?

It's Not 7-2 Offsuit

If you answered 7-2 off you're not even close. Yeah, 7-2o is awful.

Any pair is likely beat, you can't make a straight or a flush without giving away one of your cards and when you do it's often beaten by a bigger flush or higher straight.

But that's exactly why it isn't such a terrible hand. You practically never play it.

You don't limp with it; you don't call with it. You just dump it. Most of the time it doesn't cost you a farthing.

It's not the cards, it's you.

Then, every once in a while you get to play it for free when you're the big blind and a limp-fest breaks out. And every once in one of those whiles you hit some magic.

Flop two pair or trips and there's an ace or a king on board and some poor bastard is holding a weak ace or king and is gonna pay you off.

And you just recouped some loose change --- almost certainly more than you gave up those times when you had it in the SB and (wisely) mucked it or got raised off it in the BB.

It's likely that serious poker players are, over their lifetime, in the black with 7-2o or damn close.

Other candidates often put forward are problem hands like pocket jacks ("Ouch! Hate it when an overcard flops and die when another hits on the turn") or K-Q ("What do I do when the ace hits?"), J-Ts ("Yeah, I know I'm not really getting the right odds to draw here but well, maybe in 'implied' odds....") or K-9 (Mike Matusow's nominee).

It's Specific to You

Indeed, these are good "worst hand" candidates but, when the dust has settled, the worst starting hand is the one you play the worst.

It's the one you get into the most trouble with.

The one that you have the most difficulty getting away from when you suspect you're beat, the one that creates situations that you are uncomfortable with, where you are prone to making poor decisions.

For most of the poker junkies who dabble in the range of game we're looking at here, it is likely that your worst hand is one where you call a raise with some combination of unpaired "big" cards, especially one- and two-gappers.

These hands are so awful because of the many situations that pop up that can make you very uncomfortable.

Suppose you call a raise with K-T or Q-T and hit your top card. You can't feel really happy. Even if it's top pair, you might have kicker problems.

If you paired the under card you may already be way behind. If the board comes up all babies you're behind any ace. And there is the lethal tug to peel one.

How about the raggy ace? Although it's losing whatever thin veneer of strength it may have once had, there are still those will play 'any ace'.

Consider the Flopped Draw

Consider A-6. Hit your ace and you could be in big trouble. Hit your six ... well, trust me, you don't want to hit the six.

Let's look at another example, the flopped draw. The problems here aren't in the play. They're buried in the tilt factor.

There are lots of ways to go on tilt but one of the sneakier is to miss a whole mess of draws. You know you're on this kind of tilt when you stop 'doing the math' and start believing that 'you're due' (you're not).

How about the off-beat hands, like 8-7o or 7-5s?

In the past, these 'junk' cards were regarded as close to deserving "worst hand" status and conventional wisdom was to instamuck.

But as some have learned, they don't actually play that badly.

Know thyself.

If you miss and the situation doesn't offer options, they're easy to release - easier than K-J where you may have two post-flop over cards.

If you catch a piece and it's cheap, you can hang around and see what develops. If you catch big you can trap.

They are relatively sneaky hands and hard for opponents to put you on and they have significant metagame impact.

Know Thyself

Which of these starting hands can be played? Which can be pulled from the 'worst hand' dustbin?

If you're skilled at getting away from problem situations, don't mind occasionally mucking what just might be the best hand and are exceedingly sensitive to position, you can play any of them, with great care.

The deeper message? Again, it's one of my favorites, "know thyself."

The worst hand in poker is the one you play the worst.

Take a look at the series of columns we did on "Post Flop Play" for more on this issue.

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From Hold’em to Omaha: The Fine Edge

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

To the Hold'em player, Omaha seems like the same game with twice as many cards.

Without understanding the odds and numbers of Omaha a Hold'em player will default to their two-card knowledge, assuming that the numbers they know simply need to be doubled (or halved) to work with Omaha.

It seems logical, since 4 cards are twice as many as 2 cards, the odds should be twice as good.

Since no one likes to sit through a math lesson (or if you do, you'll already know all of this), I'll keep this explanation very simple:

In Omaha you're dealt a four-card hand, not two two-card hands. Because your cards can all work together, like in a wrap draw, the odds increase (and decrease) exponentially.

In the simplest explanation possible: two plus two does not always equal just four.

The Fine Edge

Poker is an odds game. You wait for a situation in which you have favorable odds, and then you bet as much as you can. On the other end, when the odds are against you, you try to bet as little money as possible.

That's the very foundation behind poker strategy, excluding the bluffing aspect.

In Hold'em you will commonly find yourself in white and black situations, where you're either dominating or dominated. If you have aces against anything else, you're a massive favorite to win, and know it.

A WSOP Final Table, the ultimate goal.

Hold'em is full of these scenarios, when you can be almost positive that you're dominating or dominated, making the game (at times) very easy to play.

The best Hold'em players are not the ones who make the most when they have the best hand; they aren't even the ones who lose the least with the worst.

The best players are the players who consistently make a profit when they're playing hands in the grey areas, where the facts are unclear at best, and the edges are fine.

Unlike Hold'em, Omaha is almost exclusively a game of fine edges. With the most dramatic examples aside, almost any hand vs. hand matchup you can come up with will have the better hand at about a 60:40 favorite.

You will play almost every hand of every session of Omaha in this grey zone of fine edges. To be successful in a game like this, you need to be relentless in your value bets, a super nit when you're on the losing end, and absolutely dead on with your reads.

Factor in what we learned in the previous article about the relative strength of hands and you'll begin to understand why Omaha is such a fun, action-filled but dangerous game. Even when you flop the nuts, there's almost always someone with a legitimate chance at catching up by the river.

This is why Omaha doesn't function properly as a No-Limit game. If the game was No-Limit, the player who flops the best of it would be all in on the flop, basically turning the game into a gamble filled, two-betting round shit show.

To play Omaha successfully, you need to understand that you're almost always only a 60:40 favorite at best, but at your worst you're only behind by 20 points.

Once you add four cards combining for multiple draws, and the equity this gives you, you'll begin to understand why Omaha is known as a drawing game.

Large Outs and Faulty Odds

The final point every Hold'em player needs to drill into their head before playing Omaha is the faulty odds associated with a large amount of outs.

If you find yourself with a big wrap draw, sitting on 20 outs, an average Hold'em player will put their odds of winning at 80%.

The full-time grinder will put their odds at "Ship it", not caring about where the actual numbers come in at.

The astute Hold'em player will use the formula (20*4)-(20-8)=68%.

While you have a huge hand with a big wrap, you can't count your outs and your odds as you do in Hold'em, and assume that they'll be correct and accurate most of the time.

If your one opponent has just a single over pair to your wrap draw, you're sitting at around 73% to win.

In the end, it's all about grabbing chips.

If your opponent happens to have a set though, your odds drop to around 54%.

Once you factor in other players, especially other players with blockers and higher draws, your equity can absolutely plummet.

With 36 cards dealt out to players preflop (at a 9 handed table), chances are another player is holding your outs.

This doesn't mean your wrap draw is weak, in fact your hand is probably the best hand at the table, but you need to understand that even the most promising of a draw hand can still be dominated, only with a hand this strong it can take more than one player to do it.

In short, as a Hold'em player you need to take a step back, and shed the confidence that comes along with hitting a big flop. You need to separate yourself from the confidence that comes with holding a massive draw, and you need to understand that often times, regardless of how the situation may appear, you're sitting at about even money.

This game isn't for the faint of heart; it's for the players who are willing to be aggressive enough to put their money behind their hand.

The best Omaha players understand all of the concepts in this article and are willing to put their entire stack on the line knowing that the odds of you folding, along with the 60:40 rule makes betting, on anything, a decent proposition.

If you're not willing, or able to play back at someone throwing pot bets at you all night, on every street, then you should stick to a different game. Omaha is not a game to play super-tight, if that's the only style of poker you're comfortable with you're going to have a hard time turning a profit.

If you're willing to play back at someone throwing pot bets at you like candy, then take some time to digest the information in the articles and understand where you truly stand with your hand. Once you know where you're at, you'll know where you need to get to if you want to come out on top.

From Hold’em to Omaha: Hand Value

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:00:00 -0700

The poker world always has been, and always will be, in a state of flux. New games come in and out of favor as the game progresses and changes. Years ago Stud was the main game being played across North America.

It wasn't until relatively recently that Texas Hold'em took the poker world by storm. The simplicity in rules but complexity in strategy allowed all players to play and enjoy Hold'em from day one, but after a few years of non-stop play, Hold'em has begun to hit a wall.

People play poker for different reasons, two of the main ones being:

Making money Learning, progressing and honing your skills

Since the world has spent years focused on just one game, the average skill level of a Hold'em player is far beyond what has been considered "average" for poker. It's easy to see that this is going to make it harder to gain a big edge.

Also, many players have begun to feel like they're no longer learning or progressing in their game. They've read all the books, clicked through the web's poker strategy articles, played countless hours yet are still playing the same games, making the same money they were four years ago.

For all of these reasons, many people feel it's time to move on.

This article assumes you're coming into Omaha with a base set of Hold'em skills. If you've never played any poker, this article is not for you. If you're brand new to poker you'll want to start with the basic rules of poker.

The Europeans have been playing Omaha seriously for years now: Time to catch up.

If you're a Hold'em player thinking about making the change you're in the right place.

Relative Hand Value

The biggest thing you need to understand to play Omaha with any competency is the shift in relative hand value.

Most poker players don't know all the math, or theory, behind the inherent probabilities of poker.

A good poker player understands that a full house is more valuable and less likely than a straight; they might even know the odds of making either hand. But very few poker players can tell you how to calculate these odds, and more importantly exactly what they mean.

Feeling lost? Don't worry, this is all about to make sense. The bottom line is this:

Unless you have a mathematicians' understanding of all probability and odds, you'll approach Omaha by using your collection of poker knowledge and experience, applying and adapting what you know to the new game.

This is good, but there are a few pitfalls to this approach you should be aware of. One of the biggest is understanding the differences in relative hand value between Omaha and Hold'em.

When you flop top-two on a rainbow board with nothing more than a possible gutshot draw, you're probably willing to bet the farm in Hold'em. Your hand is second only to a set: you're in a good spot.

Unfortunately, if you've played a lot of Hold'em, this understanding of your top-two hand value is as much of a feeling as it is a basic understanding of the principals of poker. When you sit in an Omaha game and flop the very same thing, chances are you're going to feel almost the same about it.

Before you lose your head, and your stack, you need to take a second to re-evaluate the situation, rather than relying completely on your Hold'em mindset and experience.

Although flopping top two is a very good start, you are by no means holding the nuts. In fact, it's possible for your opponents to hold wrap-draws with no pairs, but still be treading water at even money.

Factor in the much greater possibility of running into a set, and you're now in a very vulnerable position.

When you allow yourself to feel comfortable and confident with your hand, when you're actually vulnerable and weak, you're setting yourself up for a massive mistake and loss.

To be clear, you do not need to throw out everything you know about poker and start fresh, but you do need to understand that you need to build on your Hold'em skill-set.

The hardest thing in Omaha: Looking at your 4 cards.

Having countless thousands of hands of Hold'em under your belt will help you at the Omaha tables, but it can also give you a false sense of confidence. Understand this before you begin playing the game, and don't over value your hands.

In the end the nuts remain the same, just be aware of all possible draws, re-draws and even backdoors. In Omaha, you're never as rock-solid as you may think.

Rather than evaluating your hand on the flop, then adjusting your evaluation as the turn and river come out, you want to think of it as running a preliminary evaluation on the flop, only really cementing your view of your hand after seeing the turn.

The flop gives you an idea if you want to continue with the hand and a basic idea of the size of pot you're willing to play.

After the turn is out, there are only made hands, and draws. Backdoor draws are out of the question, making things far more straight forward. If you hold top set on the turn, it's very straight forward to see if and how you can be beat.

Your Hold'em instincts and poker intuition at this point are going to be far more valuable, as calculating your opponents outs to draws becomes far more Hold'em-esque, and straight forward.

If you want to succeed at Omaha, you need to stop assuming you can just use your Hold'em experience and everything will be just fine.

Instead, take the time to think through each hand as if you've never played poker before, and then use your Hold'em knowledge to understand and evaluate the situation as best you can. In the end, remember the golden rule of Omaha: If you don't have the nuts, chances are someone else does.

Stay tuned for the second half of Moving from Hold'em to Omaha, where we will discuss the fine edge of Omaha, large outs and faulty odds.

Top 5 “Thin Value” Spots You May Be Missing

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 10:30:00 -0700

But correctly recognizing opportunities and betting when it’s correct can add valuable points to your win rate.

A thin value bet is a value bet that may not be obvious at first.

It's a bet, generally on the river, where your hand is weaker than your normal value range but you realize your opponent can still call with a worse hand.

These are the top 5 common spots you can make thin value bets.

5. When the flush draw misses

Probably the most obvious and yet somehow still the most effective thin value spot.

When there's a flopped flush draw and you barrel the flop and the turn, then the river bricks, your opponent is going to much more willing than usual to call with nearly any made hand - especially if you have an aggressive image. People love to put their opponents on draws so use it to your advantage when that draw misses.

An example:

$1/$2 No-Limit Hold'em; $200 effective stacks.

It's folded to you on the button. You raise J♥ T♥ to $6 and the regular in the big blind calls.

The flop comes 8♠ J♠ 3♣. He checks and you bet $8.

He calls. The turn comes Q♣, he checks and you bet $30.

Thin value can be the difference between having a slide in your condo or not.

He calls. The river comes 2♥ and he checks.

You should be much more willing than normal to bet your second pair with a weakish kicker.

There were two flush draws and they both bricked. Your opponent is going to put you on a flush draw and call with a much wider range than normal.

4. When the top card on the board pairs

When the top card pairs on the river your opponent is often going to discount the fact that you have top pair/now trips because of card removal.

And when your opponent discounts your ability to have top pair, he defaults to calling more often with second pair.

If you have a hand like second pair, decent kicker or an over pair slightly smaller than the paired top card, you can now get value from those second-pair hands.

3. When you're near the top of your weak made-hand range

If you have a made hand that's near the top of your range, even if it's weak, it can be bet for value vs. a thinking opponent.

An example:

$1/$2, $200 effective stacks. You raise in the cut-off to $6 with T♦ 8♦.

The button calls and the blinds fold. The flop comes Q♥ 8♠ 4♣. You c-bet $8 and he calls.

The turn comes 4♠. You check and he checks behind.

The river comes 6♦.

You can bet this river for thin value because it looks like you fired one c-bet, then gave up the turn and are now bluffing on the river. Because you would likely double barrel most top-pair hands your opponent is going to believe you're bluffing.

He'll probably be willing to call with a worse eight - something like 8♣ 7♣, 8♥ 9♥ or a missed gutshot that made a pair.

If you were to check, your opponent would likely check behind with his showdown-value hand. But by betting you can get him to call with that same weak showdown hand because your range is weak.

Your range is weak, but you're near the top of it so you can get value from your opponent's bluff catchers.

2. When an obvious scare card falls against a thinking opponent

This is an obvious second level. When a scare card falls your opponent is going to expect you to bluff at it at a high % of the time.

Thus he's going to adjust by calling down lighter. You can take advantage of this by betting some of your better "showdown value" hands for thin value.

1. When your range is heavily weighted towards bluffs

This is basically the running theme of this entire article and concept. The more bluffs that are in your range, the more you can bet for thin value.

The reasons are blatantly obvious. When your range is heavily weighted towards bluffs, your opponent is going to adjust by calling down with a much wider range. When they're calling with more hands, you can value bet more hands. It's as simple as that

The more bluffs in your range, the more you can bet for value.

Last Words

Value-betting thinly is a skill that takes practice.

You must be acutely aware of both your perceived range and your opponent's range when deciding whether or not to bet the river for thin value.

If you don't really think about both your ranges you're just going to be clicking buttons - and in that case you can't be surprised when you're continually value-towning yourself with a worse hand than your opponent's. However, if you really think about your range and your opponent's, there are a ton of spots on the river you may have checked through in the past where you can actually pick up thin value.

The difference of course is extra dollars in your online poker bankroll and points on your win rate.

How Not to Suck At Poker Examples: Distractions

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:00:00 -0800

If you want to be a consistent winner at the game, it's imperative you give poker 100 per cent of your attention, 100 per cent of the time.

We're not just talking about the hands you're in. Sometimes the hands you've folded can be even more important.

In the article How Not to Suck at Poker: Pay Attention, we went over why distractions hurt your bottom line. In this article we're going to explore a couple of examples to help clarify that point.

Troubles with Kings

You're playing $1/$2 No-Limit and pick up pocket kings in the cutoff. A couple players limp before you throw in a $15 raise (standard for the table you're playing at).

You get just one caller from mid position, a forty-something guy wearing a very dirty and faded Denver Broncos hat.

Flop:

Broncos checks to you, you throw in a quarter, $25. He calls.

Turn:

Broncos checks again, you put out another bet, this time $65. He calls.

River:

Broncos instantly goes all in for $250, $40 more than the pot. You think about it and are worried about the nut flush draw having caught an ace, a set or a random two-pair but can't figure out why he would have check called the latter on a dangerous board.

If he did hit his ace, he still wouldn't be sure he has the best hand, making his stop-and-go massive bet feel like a bluff.

What do we do?

If we had been paying attention during the previous hands at the table, our answer would be rather straight forward.

5 Hands Ago

While buddy Broncos was on the button, he got into a hand that would have given you all the information you need to make the correct play in your hand.

Under the gun raises to $12, you fold some sort of trash hand and buddy Broncos makes the call, heads up to the flop.

Flop:

Under the gun bets out $20, Broncos raises to $50, UTG calls.

Turn:

UTG checks, Broncos bets $75, UTG calls.

River:

UTG checks, Broncos bets $100, UTG raises all in for $225.

Broncos thinks for a while, then folds 8♠ 8♣ face up, a surprised UTG takes down the pot.

If you had paid attention to this hand, you would have noticed that Broncos is a scared player, who is only comfortable with the nuts, and not willing to risk his stack. The only thing that beat him would have been a better set, or a couple of clubs for the back-door flush.

Although Broncos had no way of being 100% sure he was ahead, there are too many hands which play the pot this way he has beat (lower set, two pair, top pair, bluff). Not to mention he was getting just under 6:1 on his money, it should have been an easy call.

Any player tight and weak enough to lay that down, is never bluffing on the hand we're playing against him. Having paid attention to this hand will save us $250.

The Erratic All-In

You're sitting with $280 at a $1-$2 No Limit game, watching the game on TV and hitting on the waitress. You figure you're about half of the way to getting her digits when you get dealt 10♠ 10♥ on the button.

After excusing yourself from the conversation you call the $15 raise and see a flop 3-handed.

Flop:

The first player instantly moves all in for $115, the second player folds leaving you to make a decision.

You're calling $115 to win $160, or about 1.4:1 on your money. The odds are not great, but the board is dry and you're holding an over-pair.

Do you make the hero call, or wait for a better spot?

Two Hands Earlier

Had you not been trying to look down the waitress's shirt at the time you would have seen the very same player 3-bet (re-raise preflop) all in for his $60 stack holding 9♠ 4♥. He hit the 9♣ on the turn to beat his caller with A♥ K♥, but still had one arm in his jacket, halfway out the door.

Had you known that this opponent was looking to go home, trying to gamble/double-up to get even or go home broke (far more common live than you may think), you'd know that calling with your tens is a no-brainer.

Although it's possible he has a better pair, it's far more likely he's bluffing, or has some sort of draw, or one pair. Chances are you're good here, and don't need any odds to make the call.

The Bottom Line

The more details you pay attention to at the table, the more hands you watch, reflect on and analyze at the table, the more likely you will be to make the correct decision when your own money is on the line.

The most profitable players are constantly studying the game, as well as their opponents' approach to the game. In the end Phil Ivey probably doesn't know any more stats or random statistics than most geeks with a shelf full of books.

But he does pay more attention, and pick up more information at the table than any other player in the game. Poker is a game of actions and reactions, you have to understand fully what your opponents are doing before you can figure out the most profitable response.

Pay attention, even if you're not sure what you should be paying attention to. Just watch the hands, make a note (mentally) about who's betting, who's calling and what hands they ended up having after making those actions.

Your subconscious brain will pick up far more information than you would believe, giving you the intuition you'll need to make the correct plays down the road. Just watch, observe, reflect then play. Poker is a thinking man's game, it was never meant to be played idly.

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On Whining About Bad Beats

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:00:00 -0800

Bad beat stories have been discussed to death on chat rooms and poker forums. A consensus has emerged:

I. They never get you the sympathy you think you deserve.

But there's a deeper story here:

II. Complaining about your misfortunes at the table is likely to backfire and result in more abuse being dumped on you.

The first is obvious. You don't get sympathy because no one cares. Every poker player alive has had their flopped nuts cracked by a two-outer and doesn't give a rat's ass that it just happened to you. I used to get really ticked at players, especially ones who repeatedly tell these stories and, worse, wouldn't listen to mine.

I finally developed a simple rule. I will listen and nod the first time I get assaulted by someone. But that's their only shot at it. If they come back for a repeat performance, I hand them a card that I carry with me. It reads, on one side:

The look of a man about to earn a new bad beat story.

"Your bad beat story has touched my heart. Never before have I heard a story like that. You have my sincere sympathy. Now fuck off and stop bothering me."

And, just to drive the point home, I flip it over so they can see:

"Pardon me, but you have evidently mistaken me for someone who gives a shit. Here's a quarter. Go call someone who gives a fuck."

Okay, that's one way to take something vaguely annoying and make it amusing. But it's the second point that I want to get to.

There's a lot of psychology going on here, in the bad beat stories themselves as well as the range of responses that people have to the person telling them. Let's get our intuitions rolling by considering two "real world" situations.

Case 1 -- A bad beat to a neutral person: A tornado totally leveled his house and smashed his car. Here, suffering garners sympathy; this person's pain draws others to empathize.

Neighbors, friends and total strangers rally around in a chorus of support. In fact, he can complain about the injustice of it and they will listen and acknowledge. No one doubts his sincerity; no one wishes further pain on him.

Case 2 -- A bad beat to a member of a discriminated group: Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. The inner-city poor took the brunt of the disaster. At first, their suffering drew support and concern.

But further complaints of neglect and injustice were often not greeted with sympathy but with continued scorn and not-so-subtle prejudice. This reaction against those clearly suffering was so dramatic that it shocked many.

But most psychologists weren't shocked. For some time we've known that despised individuals and groups who are suffering often garner, not sympathy and support, but further abuse. When we dislike the one in pain, we are quite comfortable with increasing the pain.

In fact, as recent work by Roland Imhoff has shown, this pattern is found even when, initially, there were no negative feelings about those suffering.

I hope you can see how these findings apply to the teller of bad beat stories.

Phil "bad beat" Hellmuth should read this article.

The whiners, the complainers end up getting treated like a despised minority.

We may briefly see ourselves in their eyes, we may even feel a fleeting dollop of empathy, but basically we view them as weak, pathetic creatures who haven't yet learned the lessons of life, poker life. They deserve what they get.

So, even in those cases where the poor sucker you've cornered to bitch at seems to be sympathetic, he's probably not. In fact, he is almost certainly increasing the level of disdain he holds you in and looking to inflict even greater pain on you the first chance he gets.

For the poker player the lesson is dead simple. Stop bitching; no more bad beat stories. Not only are you not getting the sympathy you are looking for, you are lowering your reputation, damaging your image and making it more likely that opponents will want to pummel you more, just to see you suffer.

Is there any upside here? Yes, but it's one that is tough to pull off. It is possible to use whining and bitching as a weapon to put others on tilt or, more subtly, to make them try to target you.

It is a fundamental mistake in poker to try to "get" someone for it almost invariably leads to errors and misplays because you're focusing on the wrong things. I'll have a future column on this.

If interested, you can find Imhoff's research here.

Should You Make the Switch to Rush Poker?

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:00:00 -0800

For those that have been living in a cave for the last few months, Rush Poker is a new game introduced by Full Tilt Poker which allows a player to eliminate all downtime between hands, keeping them in the action for the duration of their session.

The idea is that when you fold your hand you're moved to a new table with new opponents and instantly dealt a new hand.

As you can imagine, the game is action packed and a lot of fun. But that doesn't necessarily mean you should make it your regular game.

Before you quit traditional poker and make the switch you should really weigh the pros and cons.

Three Pros

1. Hands per hour - In a regular online Texas Hold'em game you're lucky to be dealt 80-90 hands per hour. Compare that to the 30 you get in a casino and you're laughing. But in Rush Poker you can be dealt over 250 hands per hour - depending on how fast you click!

A rakeback grinder's dream.

With more hands per hour comes more good hands - and more hands where you can exploit your edge. Furthermore, with more hands comes more rake. And with more rake comes more bonuses and rakeback, which for many players is a very high percentage of their total winnings.

2. No history - You're moved to a new table with new opponents every time you fold your hand. Playing a different opponent each hand makes it extremely difficult for your opponents to get a read on you.

You can use that as an advantage any way you like. If you only want to play aces and kings, your opponents probably won't catch on. If you want to three-bet every single button and small blind, same deal.

Rush Poker evens the playing field and takes out the read and tells aspects of the game, which you can use it to your advantage.

3. It's fun - The biggest advantage to Rush Poker is that it's action-packed and fun. It makes grinding less of a chore and the fun factor helps bring more fish into the game.

More hands vs. fish is a good thing. The only problem is that it's sometimes difficult to spot the fish until it's too late.

Three Cons

1. No history - This one's a pro and a con. It's a negative because as a good player you should be formulating reads. You should be observing your opponents and figuring out how they play and then using that information against them.

If you want to be Phil Ivey then Rush may not be for you.

When you change tables after every single hand it's impossible to truly understand how your opponent plays. You have to treat everyone the same and make ABC, generalized, decisions against everybody.

If you're a better player than your opponents, Rush Poker forces you to give up a percentage of your edge.

2. Tilt factor - Because you're playing so many more hands per hour, you're also dealt more bad beats and coolers than you would in a typical session. Add in the fact that players are often turbo-folding waiting for aces and kings, and coolers happen seemingly all the time.

If you can't control the emotional side of your game and are susceptible to tilt you may have problems with Rush Poker - it's even easier to tilt when you can play 1,000 hands per hour on four tables.

3. It stunts your poker growth - Maybe the biggest disadvantage to Rush Poker is the fact that it stunts your growth as a poker player. If you're happy grinding rake and winning a little and making a decent earn at $1/$2, then Rush Poker is great.

If however you would like to move up in stakes and improve as a poker player, Rush Poker is not for you.

To succeed in middle stakes and beyond you have to develop reads and use your reads against your opponents. Rush Poker teaches you to treat all of your opponents as equals. If you try and treat everyone the same at medium stakes and above you're going to bust your roll pretty fast.

Rush Poker is a great game and can be really fun to play. But you have to know what you want to be as a poker player to decide whether or not you should switch to the game full time.

Use my list and think of pros and cons of your own before deciding whether or not to make Rush Poker your full-time game.

How Not to Suck at Poker Examples: Counting Outs

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 13:00:00 -0700

If you haven't already, check out the original article right here.

When counting outs, you need to first make a guess (hopefully it's an accurate guess) about what cards your opponent is playing.

The specifics of your opponents hand will greatly affect the number of outs you may or may not have.

Example 1

Your Hand:

Board:

How many outs do you have? Depending what you put your opponent on, you can have as few as four outs, or as many as ten.

Your straight draw is to the nuts (a nutshot as I like to call it), so unless you run into a full house or backdoor flush, you have four rock solid outs.

If you put your opponent on just a single pair, such as A♦ 9♦ , then you have ten outs (the nutshot along with any queen or jack).

Unfortunately, it's near to impossible to know what your opponent's kicker is with their 9. If they're holding J♦ 9♦, then you're down to only seven outs.

You need to take into account all situations, and play the hand accordingly. When in doubt, it's always better to assume you have the least number of outs, rather than the most. It's always a less expensive mistake to fold when you're good, than to call when you're behind.

Example 2

Your Hand:

Board:

In this hand, you span the gap from drawing dead all the way to 15 outs, depending on your opponent's cards. If your opponent has a full house (or quads), you're drawing dead or practically dead (technically you could catch running JJ or QQ for a higher full house).

If your opponent has a higher flush draw, you're drawing to 6 outs, and you have to dodge 7 hearts as well as as many as 6 higher pair outs.

If your opponent had just a pair, you're sitting with as many as 15 outs (assuming a J or Q doesn't give your opponent a better two pair).

In order to count your outs here, you're going to need a strong read on your opponent. For all the beginners out there, stick to the two following golden rules:

1. Only pay for a draw if it's a draw to the nuts.

2. Never draw to a straight or flush on a paired board.

There are times when you can ignore these rules in poker, but as a beginner you should follow them almost 100%. In the long run you're going to lose a lot of money chasing flushes on paired boards, and you're going to suffer from winning a small pot, or losing a big pot by chasing flushes, not to the ace.

In general, these are the kind of situations you want to avoid. If you can take this draw to the river for cheap, then it's still a decent hand, but it's not one to get your whole stack in play with.

Example 3

Your Hand:

Board:

In this hand you have a gutshot straight draw, and a flush draw. But how many outs do you really have? Let's look at the gutshot. Even if the board was rainbow (rather than all spades), you're drawing to a one-card sucker end of a straight.

If the 9 comes you have 8♠ 9♦ T♠ J♠ Q♠, while anyone with a king in their hand has a better straight 9-K.

If a spade comes, you're sitting with an 8-high flush, the third nut.

Really, the best out you have is the 9♠ for a straight flush, and even then the K♠ has you crushed. Your outs are effectively zero, this hand is a must fold.

When counting your outs, it's crucial to look past the outs your hand has to improve. If improving your hand will make a better hand for your opponent that out is actually an anti-out. To learn more about anti-outs head to Anti-Outs and Money Cards.

The How Not to Suck at Poker series:

How Not to Suck at Poker: Play Fewer Hands How Not to Suck at Poker: Play in Position How Not to Suck at Poker: Count Your Outs How Not to Suck at Poker: Learn Basic Odds How Not to Suck at Poker: Pay Attention How Not to Suck at Poker: Have a Bankroll How Not to Suck at Poker: Stop Bluffing How Not to Suck at Poker: Keep Your Mouth Shut How Not to Suck at Poker: Keep Records How Not to Suck at Poker: Discuss the Game

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5 Mental Mistakes That Kill Your Poker Win Rate

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 12:00:00 -0800

In golf you can go from shooting 120 to 100 and below just by eliminating three-putts.

Mental mistakes in poker are golf's three-putts - they absolutely destroy your win rate.

Sure, it's possible to still beat the game.

But you'll never realize your full potential if you're regularly making these five critical errors:

1) Playing too long while stuck

You wouldn't be a poker player if you've never played too long while stuck.

When you're losing you just want to get even, so you force things and you play too long.

When you're losing and trying to get even, your game obviously suffers.

It's easy to slip into autopilot during long sessions and even the best poker players are susceptible to tilt.

When you're losing this is all magnified. You may not truly be tilting, but you're certainly not playing your best.

And if you're not playing your best poker, then you're "tilting."

2) Quitting early to book a win

The flip side of the first mental error is booking a win prematurely.

Now, if you're coming out of a downswing, booking any win can be great for your confidence. But if you're regularly quitting as soon as you're up a buy-in, then you have a problem.

If you combine that with playing too long when stuck you have yourself an epidemic.

You'll be playing 2,000 hands when losing and playing your "B" game and then booking small 300-hand wins when you're winning and playing your "A" game.

What happens is that you end up playing your "B" game far more often than you're playing your "A" game. In any sport, confidence is your best friend. Poker is no different.

If you're playing your best and winning and the games are good, keep playing. This is the optimum situation for playing winning poker.

If you were to quit now you'd be leaving money on the table.

3) Poor game selection

In poker you never have to be the best player in the world to make money. You don't even have to be the best player at the table.

You just have to be better than the majority of the table.

If you don't put the time in to find a good table, you're making a mistake every single time you sit down.

There's no reason for it. Search the lobby for potential good tables and sit down.

If they're no good, don't be afraid to quit the game and find another one. Not recognizing when the table has gone bad can be a real win-rate killer.

Always pay attention to your tables and never be afraid to quit them in search of a better table.

4) Making -EV plays against your best judgment

This, above all, is the real win-rate killer.

It's usually at the tail end of one of those long online poker sessions where you're stuck and tired and not playing your best.

You'll be facing a big bet and you know your opponent is very rarely bluffing and yet you'll call anyway with your bluff catcher.

What causes it? Who knows, but if you want to progress as a poker player you have to eliminate that part of your game.

Trust your gut. Don't call just to find out if you're right.

Take a deep breath, think about his range and if you're beat, you're beat. Fold.

Making calls you know to be -EV is a problem that causes too many players to stay stuck at the small stakes.

5) Bad Bluffs

Bluffing is definitely a big part of the game. But bad bluffs shouldn't be a part of yours.

When you bluff you have to be representing a hand. If you're not, a good opponent is going to catch on.

Don't just bluff without thinking; think about what hand you're representing and whether you can credibly represent it.

If you can, good. If you have plan B equity - like a gutshot or overcards - even better.

Bluffing becomes even more effective when you have a back-up plan. That is, if you get called you can still hit your long shot and win the hand.

If you bluff with a back-up plan and you think about the hand you're representing, you'll eliminate the bad bluff.

Last Word:

Mental mistakes are murder for your win rate. Always stay sharp at the poker table, take frequent breaks and concentrate.

You shouldn't be chatting and watching TV.

Winning poker is a business - so treat it like one.

How Not to Suck at Poker Examples: Position

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 14:30:00 -0800

Far more important than the hands you're dealt, the players at your table, or the size of your stack is the position you have in the current hand.

There are other factors that will help determine your success at the game but your position is at the top of the list.

Texas holdem poker is a long term game, but position is a short term idea. To win in the long term, you need to make the correct plays over the short term.

When you're out of position, you're often playing in the dark. In short, it loses you money. Here's an extreme hypothetical example to help give you a clear idea of why position is so important:

You're playing $1/$2 No-Limit, sitting with $300. From under the gun you're dealt A♥ A♠. You raise to $12.

A guy in middle position (10♥ 10♦) calls and so does the player to his left (A♣ K♣). You go to the flop three-handed.

Flop: 10♠ J♠ Q♦

You bet out $25. The first guy raises to $60 and the second guy calls.

With such a draw-heavy board you choose to re-raise to $150. The first guy moves all in, and the second guy snap calls.

Put yourself in a position to make money.

You fold, losing $162 on the hand.

Now let's take the same scenario and put you on the button, instead of under the gun:

You're dealt A♥ A♠ on the button. A guy in middle position (10♥ 10♦) raises to $12, and the player to his left (A♣ K♣) calls. You re-raise to $40, both players call.

Flop: 10♠ J♠ Q♦

The first player bets $100, and the second player instantly calls.

You fold and lose $40.

Both times you lose money, and there was really nothing you could have done in either scenario to avoid that. The difference is how much money you lose.

In the scenario above we got lucky that the player with the set chose to bet out. If he would have checked, chances are we would have lost a total of around $120 instead of just $40.

Even if you don't re-raise in the first example, and you fold after you get raised and called, you still lose $60, $20 more than you lost when you had position.

The increased information we have allows us to make a more informed decision before we have to act. In a scenario like the one above, we can almost always assume that our aces are drawing nearly dead.

To be clear, I'm not trying to say you should fold hands like AA from early position, I'm just trying to impress upon you the value of position, and the disadvantage you have when you're playing without it.

When trying to decide what hands you should play or fold, such as K10 off, position should be the most important factor in your decision.

A simple rule of thumb: Regardless of the style you choose to play, if you're in early position, only play premium hands.

A premium hand will most often lead to simple, easy choices while marginal hands often put you in tricky spots.

The last thing you want to do is put yourself in a difficult situation because you're playing out of position. Don't be a sucker, position or bust.

The How Not to Suck at Poker series:

Internal Tells or Just Plain Tilt?

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 10:30:00 -0800

It's a funny term and he lists a wide range of circumstances as marking an "internal tell".

These include high levels of tension when under pressure (tough hand, lot of money at stake), feelings of unease because of other events in one's life (family matters, business problems), individual differences in the ability to control and regulate emotions and, of course, Hellmuthian tantrums and Matusowian meltdowns.

Silverstein's onto something here and it's worth looking into.

First, I think he's mislabeled it. It isn't an internal tell. In fact, it isn't a tell in anything like the classic sense of that term.

Tells are mannerisms or changes in demeanor or action that reveal information about the strength of your hand.

Tells are, hence the name, "telling" your opponents something that they can use to make more informed decisions. If you're in bankruptcy court it might make you feel less confident at the table but it won't necessarily have any outward effect on how you play K-8 off from the BB.

Silverstein notes that when he talked with professional players about this topic, in his words, they "initially had trouble relating to the idea."

And well they should.

Silverstein is really talking about tilt. If there's an 'internal tell' here it is one that is 'telling' the player that they are, indeed, tilting.

Next to tilt Hellmuth knows no foe.

Tilt is the poker player's most formidable foe. It's been talked about and written about endlessly but still eludes a full unpacking of its nature. Of all those who have broached the topic, Tommy Angelo has made the most progress.

I've recommended his book Elements of Poker before so let me do so again. Angelo would likely resonate to Silverstein's approach, though I suspect he too would rename it.

Why are "internal tells" simply tilt? Because they are internal states that screw with decision making. Sometimes they are cognitive in nature, like when you're depressed or tired and have trouble thinking through the complexities of a hand. Sometimes they are emotional in that business troubles (or a shrinking playing bankroll) are creating gut-churning levels of anxiety, which is known to undermine confidence.

Sometimes they are motivational like those days where you've lost the calm, determined approach to the game, feel twitchy and unsure.

Each of these unhappy states causes tilt because when you're angry or depressed, anxious or unsure, confused or overwhelmed, you cannot make optimal decisions. Non-optimal decision making is the functional equivalent of tilt.

I'm going through this in detail because there is an important point. Tilt isn't just flinging cards or going on some nutty raise-reraise rampage. Tilt isn't normally as obvious and compelling as cussing out an opponent.

Tilt is any time, any, when circumstances conspire so that you are no longer playing at your best.

That's it.

So, if it's that simple, why all the fuss? Well, just because it is that simple --- and just because simple truths oft carry complex lessons with them.

The lesson here? Let's go back to Silverstein, because he's actually got the issue right, even if he mislabeled it.

He counsels listening to your inner voice, learning to take note of your emotional state, searching for calm spaces, ones where you feel at one with yourself and are in the moment.

Un-tiltable.

He relates a conversation he had with Jerry Yang (yeah, I know, none of you think much of him as a player but, hell, he did win the big enchilada). Jerry tells him that he learned that he cannot play good poker when he has other serious matters on his mind.

He says that when "I am calm, not agitated, nothing outside the table distracts me ... I feel almost invincible."

Humberto Brenes (I think we can all agree that his game is pretty good) tells Silverstein that when he is in the zone "I don't even see my cards, I just become my cards." And when he gets smacked hard he puts a favorite song on his iPod and sings to himself until he calms down again.

The keys here are two-fold. First, you have to learn to detect these tilt-generating states. This isn't always easy.

I often find that I'm feeling tense or annoyed or lacking patience and, once I notice this, I ask myself, "When did this start? How long have I been like this? How many non-optimal decisions have I already made?"

I've been playing this game for decades and I'm still working on spotting these internal states. It ain't easy.

Second, you need to learn how to make the mental adjustments to bring you back from tiltiness.

Brenes sings (sometimes out loud!). Yang shuts out uncomfortable thoughts. Angelo meditates and uses controlled breathing (go read the book). Reber, well, Reber still hasn't figured it out but, hell, it ain't easy.

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Leak Finding Using Hold'em Manager

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:00:00 -0800

With just a little legwork you can analyze your entire game, looking for leaks that cost you money and hurt your winrate.

The filters in HEM are top notch, and you can use them to take a really close look at your game.

Now obviously you play holdem to make money and you do that by seeking out profitable situations. But what's profitable and what's not may not be immediately recognizable.

You may actually be getting into non profitable scenarios all the time and not realizing it. These non-profitable scenarios destroy your winrate. Luckily with HEM we can use filters to find these non-profitable spots and we can find out why they're non-profitable.

From there it's just plugging that leak and your winrate will see a boost in the long run.

First things first, hit the filter button and filter to your main game. You don't want shot taking at higher limits throwing off the results.

As always the bigger the sample size (300k hands plus) the more accurate your findings.

Another note is that this article is already going to be very long. We'll look a plugging specific leaks in future articles but in this article there's nowhere near enough room to go through them all

Ultimately it will be up to you to do some critical thinking on how to improve your game.

We're through the looking glass here people.

Preflop

Preflop mistakes are the smallest you can make. The betting is small and you're only risking a very small portion of your entire stack.

You can even make up for small preflop mistakes with good postflop play, but in the long run lots of small leaks can add up to big losses.

After all, it's your play before the flop that sets the foundation for the rest of the hand.

Using HEM's filters tab you can look at every single possible preflop action. Through these filters you'll be able to tell which situations are profitable and which are not.

First of all let's analyze your play from early position.

In the main filter tab click early position. This will filter to all hands played under the gun and under the gun +1. First and foremost look at your VPIP and PFR. They should be almost half of your overall VPIP. You should be playing very tight from early position.

If your UTG VPIP and PFR are close to your regular VPIP you've already spotted a leak. Tighten up substantially from UTG.

Filter your UTG results further in the hole cards tab and see how you do with the bottom of your UTG range. Let's say the bottom of your UTG range is something like ATo , Axs, and T9s. Look at each one independently and see if you're turning a profit. You may surprised to learn the results.

You can do the same for all positions by changing your first filter to middle position, cut-off, button and using the hole card filter to get a good idea of which hands you're playing profitably from which position.

Using the preflop action facing player box you can also look at scenarios where you isolate a preflop limper etc. The possibilities are endless so play around with it.

The Main Filters Tab

Next, you want to look at how you're playing against raises. To do this you go back to the Main Filters tab and you select all positions and in the next box preflop action facing player you select vs. 1 raiser.

Make sure your hole cards tab is back to normal and hit save and close.

Take a look at your results and then filter further, by your opponent's position, your position, hand type etc, until you track down where you're bleeding money.

Next we have in the blinds vs late position steal. In the position box hit small blind and big blind. In the action facing player box hit one raiser. In the position of first raiser box, hit button and cutoff, then go to the filter by actions tab, and tick filter by preflop actions, scroll down to call, highlight it, hit save and close and look at your results.

This will show all hands played where you call a raise from the blinds against a late position steal.

As you did before start filtering your results using the Hole Card tab and look for where the money's going.

You can also filter by hands you three-bet to see how profitably you are three-betting from the blinds vs a steal. But we will go over three-betting later.

Now look at blind vs blind play. First use the filters to filter yourself as the small blind and thus the aggressor. Hit unopened in the preflop action box and once again go to the filter by actions tab and select raise in the preflop actions box.

Once again look at all the different hands in your range and see how they stack up.

Anyone can play with the lead though so the real information can be seen by looking at your play from the big blind vs. a small blind steal raise.

Hit big blind in the position box, 1 raiser in the preflop action box, and set the position of the first raiser to the small blind. Once again set the preflop action to call and save and close and repeat the leak finding process.

The Hole Cards Tab

Postflop

The flop, turn and river are where the real money is made and lost.

Each street the betting gets substantially bigger and by the river you're often making decisions for your entire stack.

In light of this it shouldn't surprise you that this is where your leaks really start to magnify.

Again the filters tab in HEM are amazing for breaking down even complex situations..

Let's look at a few postflop leaks commong to many low-stakes players.

Quite a few small-stakes players call too often on the flop turn and river. You can look at your stats by street using the filter by actions tab.

Set preflop to call, flop to call and go from there. Examine each street individually and look at how you do. Some players call too often on the flop (the flop number will be small) and their stats will suffer, others the turn, and others the river (the flop number will start big and get small by the river).

You can further filter it down by using the hand values tab to see where you're bleeding the money. Are you calling too often with top pair no kicker? Or are you simply just playing out of position too often? Use the Hand value tab and the position box in the main filters tab to find out.

Another area of concern for many players is how they play draws.

To look at your results with your draws go to the hand values tab and select the draws you want to look at. You can filter for everything from nut draws to gutshots. Look at each scenario individually.

The hand value tab.

Those are just two examples but you can look at absolutely any scenario using these filters.

Once you get the hang of it it's easy. You can look at how you do as the preflop raiser when you c-bet the flop, check the turn, then call on the river. It's just the setting of the different filters. Play around with it.

Some scenarios to look at are firing three barrels as a bluff, playing hands with showdown value (with or without the lead), playing out of position without the lead, etc etc.

Three-bet pots

Today's six-max games are so aggressive it seems like half of your play is in three-bet pots. As such you should be spending a good deal of time thinking about your play in three-bet pots.

To look at your play in three-bet pots with the lead in the main filters tab set preflop action facing player to one raiser and one raiser plus callers, then switch to the filter by actions tab and filter by preflop actions, and select raise.

From there you can look at hands where you're three-betting light or three-betting for value by using the hole cards tab.

You can even go further and use the filters to see how you play in three bet pots from the blinds, how you do on the turn when you're called etc. Go through all these options.

Next you want to look at your play in three-bet pots as the caller. For this you want to use the filter by actions tab and select raise call and call call.

Filter by actions tab.

That will bring up all three-bet pots where you don't have the lead.

Again play around with the filters to get the random scenarios you're looking for.

Find Leaks Then Plug Leaks

Leak finding is not an easy job, in fact in can be quite mentally tiring going through all of the possible scenarios. But it's completely necessary.

Poker is a game where you can trick yourself into believing that every play you make is plus-ev, when in reality it may be a losing proposition.

You may continue to make money despite having these leaks and if you never do leak finding you'll never actually know they exist.

But every leak costs you money.

Familiarize yourself with how to use the filters and go through regular, everyday scenarios in your head and adjusting the filters accordingly.

The possibilities are endless and if you've never taken a really hard and honest look at your game you may be surprised at what you find.

Once you find those leaks, it's up to you to plug them up. There are countless articles on this site and sites like it. There are coaching videos and personal coaches. Use a combination of these to fix your leaks, or just use some good old-fashioned critical thinking.

As dogishead says, "Poker loves only the diligent and hates only the lazy." Be diligent and review your play with an unbiased eye and the sky's the limit.

Rush Poker Strategy - Guide to Winning at Rush Poker

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:00:00 -0700

But what’s the correct strategy?

For those of you that don’t know, Rush Poker is Full Tilt’s latest brainchild. Poker for the action junkie, Rush Poker automatically deals you into a brand new hand at a brand new table the very second you fold.

There’s no downtime at all - fold and you’re instantly back in the action. There’s even a quick-fold button that allows you to fold the second you get your hand, regardless of your position.

The Obvious Changes to the GameThe biggest change to the game by far is that you instantly change tables when you fold your hand. Meaning you never have history with your opponents.

Each hand is at a new table with new opponents. You don’t know who the fish are and you don’t know who the regulars are. Everyone’s just a blank face. Because you can’t develop reads through playing multiple hands with the same opponent, you have to treat each opponent the same. But that works both ways.

Since you can’t develop reads on your opponents, they can’t develop reads on you. In Rush Poker you don’t have to worry about leveling, balancing your range, or anything like that because your history with your opponents is going to be minimal.

So How Should I Play?In small-stakes poker the bulk of your profits come from fish.

Even if you’re the best small-stakes player in the world and you regularly own other reg’s souls, the majority of your profit is still going to come from playing the fish.

Even durrrr was getting down on the Rush Poker action.

Unfortunately in Rush Poker you may not know who the fish are and who the regs are until after the hand's over. And by then it’s too late. So the best way to play is a basic ABC poker game.

In fact you can play even tighter than you would normally because your opponents are never going to notice and never going to be able to adjust.

When you’re moved to a new table it’s a clean slate. They have no idea that you just hit quick fold twenty times in a row and are now cold four-betting AA from the blinds.

They’re just thinking, “Wow, I’ve got AK. I’m supposed to felt AK.” And they call it off, drawing nearly dead and chalk it up to a cooler. Just like when you first started playing poker, tight is right. The mantra is especially true for Rush Poker. Wait for big pairs, AKs, set mine, make top pair or better and value-bet relentlessly. That’s how you’re going to make money in Rush Poker.The Not-So-Obvious Differences Of course the whole game is changed by the fold and quick-fold buttons. Players don’t have to wait around for a great hand. They can just fold their junk and move on to a new table and a new hand. That means your average player’s range is going to be significantly tighter. The fish are going to be fish and do what they always do: play strange hands and take them way too far after the flop. But the regulars are going to be playing a much tighter range. It’s because of the quick-fold button. If you’re sitting with 6-8o in the small blind, are you going to wait around and see if you get the chance for a BVB steal? No, you’re going to hit quick fold and move on to another table. So when you raise from under the gun and get called in the small blind you have to realize that that player had the chance to quick-fold and get a new hand at a new table but he didn’t. He waited around to play against you. Either he’s a fish or he has a pretty damn good hand.

Because he didn’t choose to quick-fold you can already start assigning him a range. It looks something like JJ-22, AQ and maybe AJs. Anything else is definitely too wide vs. a UTG raise in Rush Poker. From there, as the hand plays out, you do what you always do. Start narrowing his range down until you have a good idea of his actual holdings. The Big Blind

The big blind is the only position where you can’t insta hit quick-fold. That’s because you have the big blind invested already. You have to wait until there is a raise before you can quick-fold. Meaning that the above is not as true for the big blind in unraised pots. He didn’t have the opportunity to quick-fold his hand, so if it’s folded to you on the button or in the small blind and you raise, when he calls it doesn’t mean his range is necessarily tighter.

A mass multi-tabler's rakeback wet dream.

For that reason, as of now, the majority of “light three-betting” comes from the big blind. Because any other position wouldn’t wait around until their turn to three-bet some trash hand, they’d just fold and move on.

The big blind doesn’t have that chance so he gets mad and three-bets those steal raises far more than he would from the small blind. Obviously not every player plays the big blind like this, but it’s something to be cognizant of.

Shorthanded vs. Full RingLike in any form of poker the difference between shorthanded and full ring is very real, only in Rush Poker it’s absolutely huge. A six-max Rush game plays only slightly different than a regular six-max game. With so few players and everyone playing so fast, you often can’t even hit quick-fold before the action is on you. While everyone’s early position ranges tighten up, the late position raises remain wide. In full-ring the tightness is extremely magnified. Why even bother calling a raise with ATo when you can just insta-fold and get a new hand? There’s no reason. Ranges are, or at least should be, tighter across the board.

There’s just no need to be involved with marginal hands.RakebackAs the novelty of these games wears off and more people start playing a better Rush strategy, I think the real value in these games will be for the rakeback you can make. Eight-tabling $100nl Rush (four six-max and four full ring) nets you 2,000 hands an hour. In those 2,000 hands you pay approximately $100ish rake. At 27% rake back that's $27/hr in rakeback alone. If you can beat the game on top of that, you’re going to be making a pretty good wage.Last Word

Rush Poker is a fun, action-packed game. This article was written on the second day of its existence. This is the proper strategy in my opinion for the games that I've played at this point. I’ve only played 10,000 hands and I have no idea how the games may change and evolve in the future. As of now, tight is right is the best strategy for Rush Poker. Rock it up, and rake it in. In the future I may be re-writing this article.

More Strategy Articles from Dan Skolovy:

When to Call the Flop with Less Than Top Pair Firing the second barrel The C-bet for Beginners When not to continuation bet Fixing your redline: Making better c-bets

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

How to Interpret Your Opponent’s Poker Stats

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:00:00 -0800

In addition to keeping accurate details about your wins and losses, programs like Poker Tracker and Hold’em Manager will track every move your opponents make.

using the heads-up display (HUD) you can convert that information into easy-to-understand stats and display them beside your opponents' names in real time, right on the table.

The information on the HUD tells you precise details about your opponents' playing tendencies, and understanding these stats can make a huge difference in your win rate.

Stats are something that all winning players use to a degree, but very few use to their full potential. Learn to master this powerful tool and you'll reap big benefits.

A quick run down of the most popular stats:

Preflop Stats

VPIP%

This is the average total % of times your opponent puts money into the pot voluntarily. That could mean raising preflop, cold calling, completing the big blind, etc.

The higher a player’s VPIP, the looser the player. The lower the VPIP, the tighter the player.

For six-max no-limit hold’em most regulars fall between 19-25% VPIP. Any tighter or looser, though possibly profitable, is by no means optimal.

See the side picture for a PokerStove of 19% VPIP to get an idea of what hands that player would play.

If you're not familiar with PokerStove get the details here.

PFR%

This is the Pre-Flop Raise stat and it’s pretty self explanatory. It’s how often your opponent raises before the flop.

Most players' PFR fall within 4-6% of their VPIP. I.E if they play 20 VPIP their PFR is usually between 14%-19%.

The bigger the gap between VPIP and PFR the more often a player cold calls.

For example a player with a 35% VPIP and a 10% PFR has a 25% cold-calling range and is most likely a fish.

19% PFR

3b%

This is how often your opponent re-raises before the flop.

As an example a 3% three-bettor would be AA-TT, AKs-AQS, and AQo and would have no light three-bets in its range. You can adjust from there.

F3

This is how often your opponent folds to three-bets. This stat is extremely helpful when deciding which hands to three-bet and which to call with before the flop.

Obviously someone with a high fold-to-three-bet stat is a player you can three-bet light relentlessly. Someone with a low fold-to-three-bet stat you can three-bet wider for value.

These are the most popular pre-flop stats. While most players understand what each stat means, few take the time to think how they are all related.

For example a player with a very close VPIP and PFR is also normally going to have a higher three-bet% because he is cold-calling less often.

Conversely a player with a wide gap between his VPIP and PFR is going to have a very wide cold-calling range and thus will have many weak hands in that range.

It’s not just about knowing what the stats mean. You must understand how to use them to draw real and useful conclusions about your opponents' games.

Postflop Stats

AG

This is your opponent’s aggression factor. It tells you how aggressive he plays. Most players fall between 1-3. Anything less is very passive and anything more is very aggressive.

If a player with a 0.5 AG is playing back at you, he's probably not bluffing and you would need a very good hand to continue.

On the other hand if someone with a 6 AG is playing back at you, your top pair is starting to look pretty good.

WTSD%

This is how often your opponent goes to showdown after seeing the flop. Most players fall between 20 and 32%.

Having a low WTSD can mean two things: He either folds very often before showdown or he makes his opponents fold very often before showdown.

A good way to tell is use WTSD in conjunction with AG. If your opponent is passive and doesn’t go to showdown often, then he's weak tight.

AE Jones checking his iPhone for Hud stats at the PCA.

If your opponent is aggressive and has a low WTSD, he’s making people fold before showdown very often. If your opponent shows down 35% or more, he's showdown happy.

Again, you have to examine WTSD and his aggression stat to get an idea of how he plays.

If his aggression is low he may not be betting with the lead often enough and intuitively lets his opponents showdown much more than they should.

If, however, he is aggressive yet still has a high WTSD, he probably also calls way too often with weak hands on the river.

Seeing a number and knowing how often a player goes to showdown is helpful but seeing a number and figuring out why he goes to showdown as often as he does is invaluable.

CB

How often your opponent continuation bets on the flop as the pre-flop raiser.

Most players continuation-bet on the flop between 55% - 88% of the time.

CB% should be looked at in conjunction with the PFR stat. The lower the player’s PFR%, the higher the player’s CB%. That’s because the fewer hands the player is raising pre-flop the stronger the hands. The stronger the hand pre-flop the more often he’ll make strong hands worth betting on the flop.

As a player’s PFR gets higher, he is going to miss the flop more often because he’s raising so many more marginal hands before the flop. If his CB stat remains high then he is going to be c-betting air very often and therefore is exploitable.

2B

This is how often your opponent second barrels as the pre-flop raiser when his flop c-bet is called.

Obviously it should be used in conjunction with the CB stat. If your opponent has both high flop c-bet and turn c-bet stats then he is just going to be barreling his air very often and you should, in turn, call him down lighter.

If your opponent has a high flop c-bet and a low turn c-bet then you’ve identified your opponent as a one-and-done player. These guys fire one barrel at the flop and give up when called.

If your opponent is a one-and-done player then floating becomes your best friend.

FC

How often your opponent folds to flop continuation bets.

The higher a player’s FC, the more “fit or fold” he plays. The lower the number, the more often he calls the flop with marginal hands.

Used in conjunction with the VPIP stat you can really get a feel for a player’s overall game.

A player that has a large VPIP and a small FC is going to be seeing a lot of flops and a lot of turns. And, chances are, he's a fish you can play as such.

Stats paint a picture of how your opponent plays.

Or, if he's a regular and has a low FC, you can use the pop-up stat and look at his bet-when-checked-to stat. If that is high, then you’ve found an opponent who loves to float.

F2

How often your opponent folds to a second barrel.

Some fish love to call pre-flop and love to call the flop but won’t continue past the turn without a decent hand. You can instantly tell these types of players if they have a low FC stat and a high F2 stat.

Obviously you should punish these types of players by firing second barrels more often.

Sample Size

The thing about stats is that they can be extremely misleading without an accurate sample size. Hold’em is a variance packed game and in the short term stats can vary considerably.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is treating a player’s stats as gospel when you have a small sample size - only to find in real life they play in a completely different manner.

Hold off from drawing advanced conclusions about how someone plays until you have logged enough hands.

What “enough hands” means varies from stat to stat. While 100 hands might be more than enough to draw conclusions from the VPIP and PFR stats, it’s not nearly enough to understand WTSD, barreling frequencies, or three-bet stats.

As with everything in poker, the bigger the sample size the better.

A Tool Not a Crutch

Stats are a tool, not a crutch. Too many players rely only on stats in a game. They’ll paint everyone with similar stats with a broad, sweeping brush when in actuality everyone plays differently.

You can have three different players all with stats that are very similar. However one player might crush the game for 4BB/100, one might break even and one might beat it for 1BB/100.

If you treat all of those players the exact same, you're making a big mistake. Relying too heavily on stats leaves you playing an ABC, robotic game and will stunt your growth as a poker player.

Stats are just one tool in a successful player’s box. They need to be used in conjunction with observation and non stats-based reads.

Stats only give you an average of how your opponent plays against all different types of opponents. It’s up to you to figure out how he plays against you and you can only do that by paying attention and taking notes.

When you're able to look past the basic information contained in a stat and start to draw real conclusions about your opponent’s play, looking at his stats as a whole and how each relates to the others, you'll start to get past your inner ABC poker robot and you will start to play better poker.

If you can do that - while observing and taking non-stat notes on your opponents - you're going to be a force to be reckoned with.

Tight vs. Loose: One Mo’ Time

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 07:00:00 -0800

It’s also a topic gaining in importance because, as noted in a recent piece: Know Thyself: Post-Flop Play Part VI, the games have become a lot looser and a lot more aggressive.

Today’s column is written with my friend Max Weiss. Max and I are members in the Wednesday Poker Discussion Group. The WPDG is a group of poker junkies who meet regularly in Vegas, usually at some joint with a large room and decent food.

All manner of speakers come by and the room is routinely graced with several “bracelets” and folks whose pictures hang in Binion’s.

After trading emails about the relative importance of tightening up at the table, we realized that we were approaching the issue differently. I mainly play a single table; Max muti-tables. We soon recognized that these two contexts were very different.

A style that is effective in one can easily lose value in the other. In particular, the LAG game that is erupting all over the internet may not be optimal when multi-tabling.

We argue here for tightening up, sometimes almost beyond reason. There are times where it will be to your advantage to give up playing spots with small +EVs for the sake of greater playing efficiency, lower error rates and reduced variance.

A Quick Example

Let’s take two hypothetical players, Victor, who plays 10% of hands and Vickie, who plays 30%. Victor relies on cards, positional play and his tight image; Vicki on her loose image and post-flop abilities. Both are positive EV players with similar bankrolls and life styles.

Victor will miss opportunities, mostly ones with small +EV but will gain by staying out of difficult situations, stealing more and bluffing more successfully.

Vickie will lose money on the bottom 10% (or more) of her hands, no matter how skilled she is but will get paid more on her good hands and be able to make more value bets in certain situations. And it’s not unreasonable to think of them ending up each year with the same sized bankroll.

Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies, well known for his super aggressive multi-table play.

Okay, that’s obvious. “What,” you ask, “is the point?”

The point is that we presented this example with the implicit assumption that both are playing live. This relationship between these two canonical players changes with online multi-tabling.

Vickie may now find that those small +EV hands whose gains come at the meta-game level will lose their glow. When you’re playing six tables things get complicated and messy.

These hands require a good bit of thought and thought extracts its metaphoric pound of flesh. It increases stress, wears you down mentally and, above all, it takes time --- and time is the enemy of the multi-tabler.

Victor, who is prone to tightening up under duress, cranks it down further with each new table he opens. He may begin to do things like muck hands that have, theoretically, +EV because of these same psychological factors.

To see this, let’s give them each AJ off UTG in a $1/2 NL game. This hand, for most decent players, has modest +EV and in a live game or a single-table we expect both to play it, albeit differently. But if they’re playing six tables things will likely change.

Vickie will probably play it, maybe even more aggressively. Victor will muck it. Both will gain; both will lose. Both styles can be made to work; both are found in professionals.

But psychology favors Victor’s path. When multi-tabling you want your decisions to be as routine as possible. You’ll experience less pressure and be able to sustain high levels of play longer. The average Victor will able to play solidly longer than the typical Vickie.

By following Victor’s lead, the swings will be damped and, because you are making fewer tough decisions, your error rate will stay low. And, critically, you will rarely suffer one of those catastrophic “cascade failures,” where warning bells from other tables start ringing, tables start timing out and pots get lost by default.

In short, when multi-tabling it’s perfectly ok to:

(a) get pushed out with marginal hands, especially if you don’t have a good read

(b) get bluffed

(d) give up your blinds, even to what looks like a naked steal

Sure, there are plays that can be used in these situations but they do not necessarily have long-term positive EV, not when other tables with equally complex situations beckon, not when pressure is constantly being applied by opponents, not when you’re starting to feel tired.

In fact, their main gain is in the meta-game and in these online situations the role of the meta-game drops.

We appreciate that our point of view here may not sit well with many. That’s okay. We learned long ago that there’s no one way to play this game. Feel free to comment.

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Cash Money: It's a Good Thing

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 08:30:00 -0800

I love the feel of it with its slightly raised surfaces rich with ink, embossed with faces, slogans, monuments to greatness past and imagined. I love its smell; I love the texture of the stacked edges laid side by side.

I love the sound of counting out stacks of hundreds each slipping off the other with a gentle swish. I’m a guy. I’m a gambler. I’m a poker player and a horse junkie.

When I was young, a mere slip of a kid, a pretender in these games I kept my money in my wallet, tucked into the back pocket of my jeans where its bulk made the obligatory ring on the leather surface (hey, you never know….).

Then I learned. Real men don’t use wallets; they fold their bills. No ostentatious money clips, no bejeweled snap-shut baubles; just an elastic band to hold my stash, wrapped twice about the wad thick with importance and shoved into my left front pocket where I could run my finger tips along its edges as I walked.

My elastic-wrapped talisman. It is always with me.

My wife says, as we head into the supermarket, “Do you have money for the groceries?”

“I do,” I smile, for I do. I always do. It is my amulet, my wad, my bullet proof shield and it has, almost always, a couple of thou’ (hey, you never know….).

Everbody likes money.

It is the first thing that gets shifted into the new left hand pocket of my clean jeans for I am naked without it, insecure without it. If I get broke in a big game I go get more for I am fragile and weak and feel less a man without it.

I’ve been this way with money for so long that it has begun to bother me. It felt like a drug. Like I was hooked. On slow, cold evenings I would take out my roll and count it, slowly and lovingly. And I would feel better about life.

Why should this be? The money in my pocket is actually a pittance. It’s nowhere near what’s in my bank, my pension funds, my portfolio, my house, my car. I don’t get out my bank book and rub it or flip through its pages. I’ve never had any desire to pull out my stock holding summary sheets and rub them against my cheeks.

Why the folding stuff? It’s really weird and forty-plus years of studying the human condition has taught me that when these kinds of anomalies pop up, something’s going on. But what?

Then I ran across an article in the journal Psychological Science and I smiled. It turns out that not only is my fascination with wads of hundred dollar bills fairly common, it has a straightforward, though somewhat surprising basis to it.

Money, indeed, acts like and has many of the properties of an addictive drug.

Xinyue Zhou at Sun Yat Sen University in China and Kathleen Vohs at the University of Minnesota and her colleagues (if you’re curious, check out Vohs extensive and fascinating research here) have discovered some rather amazing facts about money, especially paper money.

We know that rejection and physical pain are unpleasant. Zhou and company found that the simple act of handling money reduces both physical pain and the psychological distress of rejection. And it isn’t just the act of handling paper with similar shape and feel. The effects are dependent on it being real bills.

Professional poker player Roy Brindley, in his book Life’s a Gamble, goes on lovingly about the “cash in the pocket” life style. I thought it a bit odd at the time but now it makes sense.

Zhou and colleagues also found that having money in your pocket increases confidence and improves mood. Even more remarkable, these effects have symbolic features. Simply being reminded of money spent or money lost increases psychological distress and imaging oneself having money reduces social anxieties.

The message for poker players? Simple. Carry cash. Carry it in rolls that are easily touched and can serve as reminders of its presence.

If you go bust, go get more cash. Fat rolls are best. If you’re short on hundreds, get a bunch of tens or fives. Fold them over in a wad, wrap an elastic band around them and, when you get the chance, sit down and count them, smell them, let the loose symbolic taste of money penetrate your brain.

It is a drug. It is stimulating the release of endorphins, of dopamine. Your nucleus accumbens is dazzling with activity.

And you will feel more confident. Your game will improve and you will win more money and need a bigger elastic band.

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How Not to Suck at Poker Examples: ABC Poker

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:00:00 -0800

Unless you’re playing against a table of opponents who have watched, studied and remembered every hand you’ve played that session, chances are that getting creative is simply costing you money.

In the article How Not to Suck at Poker: Stop Bluffing from our How Not to Suck at Poker beginner strategy series we went into this concept in detail. Today we’ll give you a few specific examples to show you exactly how you can apply it in action.

Scenario 1:

Here’s a scenario from a live $1/$2 game where being creative on the button ends up being an expensive choice.

Our Hero has been at the table for a couple of hours and has been splashing around, raising a lot, and showing down dubious hands. His image is loose-aggressive and that he’s prone to bluff.

He’s sitting behind a stack of around $500.

On the other end of the table is a nitty lady who likes to call the Hero’s bets and always seems to assume he’s bluffing. She’s raised three of the last four hands and got folds pre-flop or on the flop to all of them.

From early position the lady raises to $15. The player to her left calls and so does the player to the right of the Hero.

The lady says “No one believes me!” before the Hero looks down at A♦ A♠ and calls. The next player, a half-senile old man, calls, and so does one more.

The flop comes 4♥ 6♦ 3♣. The lady bets out $35 and the first caller is the guy on the right of the Hero. The hero again just calls, as does the old man.

The turn comes 9♠.

The lady checks as does the guy on the right of the Hero. The Hero bets $130. The old man thinks about it, says a bunch of random crazy old man things, and then calls for his last $76.

The lady insta-calls and the guy on the right of the Hero folds.

The river comes 5♣.

The lady checks. The Hero checks behind. The guy on the left of the hero yells “send it all!” and shows 7♠ 3♠ for the straight.

Unfortunately, Paola Martin is not the lady from my story.

Analysis:

As you can see, about everything that could have gone wrong in that hand did. The lady, it turns out, held K♠ K♣ and the guy on Hero’s right held Q♥ Q♦.

The Hero lost about $100 on the hand simply because he didn’t play ABC poker – both pre-flop and post-flop. If the Hero had three bet pre-flop, the lady (who always believes he’s bluffing and would never fold KK pre-flop) would have four-bet.

Chances are the queens would have folded. But after the Hero ships it all in, the lady would call. So instead of losing $100, the Hero would have (likely) shipped a $1,000 pot.

Scenario 2:

You’re sitting on a $.50/$1 online full ring game, you have $120 in your stack and have been playing regular TAG poker. You’re sitting on the button and get dealt 8♥ 8♠.

A player with a $245 stack raises to $4 from middle position. You call on the button and head to the flop heads up.

The flop comes 6♥ 8♣ 9♥, you flopped middle set and are sure that you’re ahead of your opponent. He’s not the type of player to have raised with anything that could have flopped a straight.

Your opponent bets $7, you just call.

The turn comes Q♠

Your opponent bets $18, again you just call.

The river comes 10♥

Your opponent checks and you check behind. Your opponent turns over 8♠ 9♠ for two pair. You win the $58 pot with your set.

Analysis:

You won the pot, but you lost as much as $182 because you tried to get fancy and trap. You also left yourself wide open to get rocked by a straight or flush.

Your opponent flopped a monster hand. Most likely he was making the same assumptions you were, that it was highly unlikely you could have flopped the straight. He puts you on an overpair, or a flush draw. Either way, chances are he’s not getting away from top two cheaply.

By pumping the flop (which ABC poker would dictate), you will create a much larger pot, and help eliminate the possibility of your opponent drawing out on you (in case he does have the flush draw).

By slow-playing your hand, you kept the pot small in a scenario where you had heaps of equity, and let the board get too dangerous to value bet.

Getting fancy cost you a lot of money.

Only at a table like this should you consider some XYZ poker.

Conclusion:

Yes. Poker is not results based – it’s decision-based. Both examples show you how getting fancy and playing your hand incorrectly for the situation can end up costing you money.

The fact the old man hit a gutshot in the first example is irrelevant. Even if the river hadn’t given him the straight, the Hero still would have made less money than if had played it by the book.

If you have aces pre-flop and are up against an opponent who you think holds a big hand and who is more than willing to stack off to you, you’re making a mistake by doing anything but raising.

Players still developing their game often start to have thoughts like “If I re-raise here they’ll know for sure I have aces,” when in reality your three-bet could mean anything your opponent wants it to mean.

When playing low-to-medium stakes your opponents will make plenty of mistakes and will typically have no idea what you’re doing at any time.

Especially when you’re in an action pot, stick to the ABCs and your long-run results will thank you.

The How Not to Suck at Poker series:

In Defense of Limit Poker

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 10:00:00 -0800

I’ve got a point to make here and I happen to think it’s a good one. There are some damn good reasons for shifting over to Limit poker. Here’s a few:

First, because so many people are playing No-Limit and Pot-Limit poker, a lot of them have gotten good. The games are tough and are getting tougher as I write.

More and more young players with a deadly serious approach are pouring in. They are getting good faster than you can imagine. If you’re a recreational player, that “discretionary income” you use to bankroll your game isn’t going as far as it did just a year or so ago and its life expectancy is getting shorter by the day.

Why? Because the fish are going broke.

As Ingo Fiedler and Jan-Philipp Rock at the University of Hamburg's Institute of Law and Economics reported in one of the most careful analyses of online poker, the vast majority of Internet players buy in, play fewer than 100 hands, go broke and never log in again.

The obvious message? The game isn’t a cakewalk and there aren’t many easy games out there these days.

Jennifer Harman at the WSOP

Second, NL and PL play has become significantly more aggressive and aggression raises variance. Increasing variance isn’t just a matter of withstanding cash fluctuations; it’s managing the psychological elements that accompany the swings.

High variance is the mother of tilt. Tilt is the enemy of us all. I see more tilt these days than I did just a few months back. Hell, I tilt more these days.

Third, Limit poker is more tightly built around reasonably well-known heuristics.

Solid, tight positional play is a far more effective strategy at Limit than at No-Limit, for the reasons just acknowledged. It is easier to learn and requires fewer hours of experience to become a decent winning player at modest stakes.

By “modest” levels I’m including limits from $4/$8 up through $15/$30 - although admittedly it is difficult to consistently beat the rake at $4/$8 and when you get to $15/$30 and above the game can be tough.

I usually start with a dime on the felt in both a $5/$10 No-Limit game and a $20/$40 Limit game. I’m occasionally picking green felt out from between my teeth in the former but rarely in the latter.

For those ready to switch to Limit play, do some reading. Good places to start are Lou Krieger’s Hold ‘em Excellence and More Hold ‘em Excellence. If you want solid insights into the game played a tad more aggressively, see Jennifer Harman’s chapter in Doyle Brunson’s Super System 2: A Course in Power Poker.

For Omaha/8 I recommend Mark Tenner and Lou Krieger’s Omaha/8 and Bobby Baldwin’s chapter in Super System 2 (full disclosure here; Lou and I wrote a book together and we are friends. But even if I hated his guts, I’d still recommend these books.)

Fourth, if you get interested in Limit play you will suddenly discover a lot of other poker games that are only played with fixed stakes. In recent months I’ve become a big fan of Stud, Stud/8 and Razz. It all began when I started playing in H.O.R.S.E. tournaments and discovered that most of my opponents do not know how to play the Stud games.

Jeffrey Lisandro, the Stud king.

In fact, the discrepancy in skill here is so great that I’ve hit on a workable strategy, which I offer to you free of charge. During the Hold ‘em and Omaha/8 rounds, only play premium starting hands and never draw to anything but the nuts (always good advice in Omaha/8 where even the nuts can get you quartered).

Try to break even here and build your stacks on the Stud rounds. To get you started on your education, try:

Stud: Konstantin Othmer’s Seven Card Stud - that’s right, “Othmer.” You almost certainly never heard of him, which is good because your opponents won’t have either. It’s the best book on Stud I’ve seen.

Stud/8: Todd Brunson’s chapter in his Daddy’s Super System 2.

Razz: The chapter in David Sklansky’s Sklansky on Poker and Linda Johnson’s chapter in Championship Stud co-authored with Max Stern and Tom McEvoy.

I’ve had so much fun in these tournaments that I’m now putting in more hours playing cash Stud games. Not only has it been good for the bankroll, it has been good psychologically.

I feel more in control in these games. I enjoy the newer strategic plays that I am learning and, best of all, I am beginning to grasp how much more there is to poker. To be a complete player you do need to master the game in all its varied forms and digging into the nuances of the Stud games is a good way to start.

Everyone likes to say that Phil Ivey is the best player alive. Of his 7 WSOP bracelets, exactly none of them are NLHE.

Interesting, yes?

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Creating your Own Luck at the Poker Table

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:00:00 -0800

All poker players are familiar with the idea of a table image. But it’s your micro image that actually affects how your opponents play against you.

If you’ve spent some time reading articles on this site, you might remember an article by Dan Skolovy on Exploiting your Table Image.

If you haven’t read it, take a second to read it first as it’s crucial to understand the basics of table image before trying to grasp micro image.

Your Table Image

How you look, what you wear, how you talk, what you say, what you don’t say - and most importantly how you play - will all affect your general table image. The more time someone spends playing with you the more detailed your table image will become for that person.

In general, your opponents will use your image to file you into a broad category of poker players. Are you a fish? A regular? Strong; weak; a rock? Totally wild?

Your general table image will include some noted specifics about how you play. And if you don’t bleed any huge tells, these will be few and often forgotten.

But it’s these basic elements of table image that become the foundation of your micro image.

The Micro Image

Your micro image has three elements:

Sometimes luck finds you anyways.

Your table image - all micro images have to fit into your perceived table image Your history at the table How you’ve played the previous few relevant hands.

While your table image will rarely change (you’re wearing the same clothes and talking the same way now as you were an hour ago), your micro image is always dynamic. It’s also specific to how you’re actually playing your current hands.

This is always what your opponent uses when judging how best to play against you. Your table image will affect how your opponents plan to play against you over the session, but your micro image will affect how your opponents play against you in the current hand.

Creating your own luck at the poker table then comes from knowing how to exploit that micro image.

Step 1 in Creating your Own Luck

Before you can exploit your micro image you need to know what your opponents assume about your game and how that affects the way they play against you.

Look in the mirror and be honest with what you see. Do you look like someone who is tight with money or someone who doesn’t care about it? Do you look reserved or outgoing? What about how you play? Do you splash around or are you a rock?

If you can, talk to a good honest friend who can tell you exactly what your image is at the table. The more you know about how others perceive you the better you can exploit your micro image.

Step 2

Step 2 is the easiest. All you have to do is play cards. Feel out your table, play your standard opening game and observe your opponents.

Take note of whose paying attention and who thinks he can pull one over on you. It’s during this opening phase your opponents decide on your general table image.

Since micro image is an offshoot of general table image, you have to spend enough time at the table for players to fully form a picture of your image. Once that’s happened, move on to step 3.

Step 3

Hellmuth's table image is ideal for micro image exploitation.

Despite the title of this article, it’s impossible to actually create luck. What you’re going to do is create the opportunity for luck, then take advantage when things fall into place.

It’s your job to create the opportunity for good luck as frequently as possible. You’re going to use your micro image to set up these situations and count on luck to finish the job.

If you have the table image of a strong, aggressive player, players will be cautious. Your general image then does not lend well to making money - so you have to use your micro image in its place.

An Example:

Say you make a button raise with a marginal hand such as 8♣ 9♣. You’re raising a real hand but it’s not a premium.

This isn’t a reckless - or even a really loose play - but it’s something a rock will never do. Either way, you bet the flop and take down the pot.

The next hand you’re dealt A♥ Q♣. As you’re in the cut-off you raise again, this time getting two callers. The flop comes 7♥ Q♠ 4♦. Your opponents check to you and one player calls your three-quarter pot-sized bet.

The turn brings the 10♣ and your opponent checks. Since you almost certainly have the best hand, you bet again and get a fold from your opponent.

The next hand you’re dealt A♥ A♦. You open for a raise and everyone folds to you.

At this point, you’ve only raised and bet because you’ve had strong hands. You haven’t done anything reckless or absurd. But to your opponents (who haven’t seen any of your cards), you’ve raised and bullied three hands straight.

Your current micro image is you’re a table bully or are simply bored and raising everything. At this point, your opponents will want to take a stand and put a stop to your aggression.

The next hand you’re lucky enough to be dealt A♥ K♣. After a few limps you make your standard raise and actions folds around to the button. He slowly makes a raise 3x your bet.

At this point, you’re now poised to take advantage of your micro image.

Creating your own luck: like taking candy from a baby.

Yes, it’s possible your opponent fell into AA or KK here. But chances are he’s playing back at your image rather than playing the strength of his own cards.

He thinks you’re bullying, so the best thing you can do is nurture that belief. You instantly ship all in when action is folded around to you. Your all-in is for the rest of his stack - about 7x the size of his 3-bet.

If we’re correct, and he made his raise simply on the notion we’re being a bully, he can have any two cards here. Chances are he has a weak ace or a small pair and is raising thinking he has a slight edge on your random two cards.

Your overbet here is also way too strong and reinforces the idea you’re actually weak and being a bully.

End result: You get a call and play a 300bb pot with A♥ K♣ against his A♦ 9♥, all-in pre-flop.

Key Takeaways

As you can see from the example, exploiting your micro image requires the perfect set up. This will seem as if you’re a complete luck sack to your opponents.

But you should be constantly monitoring your micro image and making plays that allow this sort of situation to materialize. You spend all night working on exploiting your micro image and then you hope the cards come through for you.

Yes, you got lucky. But you would never have had the opportunity to get lucky if you hadn’t created the situation leading up to it.

Your goal is to repeat Step 3 as many times as you can. The more you play and the more often you set up a situation that allows you to be lucky, the luckier of a player you will become.

Remember: that player would never have put it all in with A♦ 9♥ against you on his own - it was the situation you created that allowed that to happen.

All it takes is attention to detail, thoughtful plays and the eye to take full advantage of the situation when luck does show up. Rather than just thinking about the hand in progress, think about how your actions in this hand could benefit you in a later hand.

Once you’re operating with this mindset, you’ll bring your game to a whole new level.

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Playing Poker for a Living

Sat, 01 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800

Before deciding to choose this path, let me warn you of the disadvantages first. Poker has many benefits, but it also has many negative consequences that come with playing long hours.

This guide will allow you to make the right decision by learning from someone who actually plays for a living.

Poker for a Living

The first thing you need to play any game for a living is patience. Playing every day, all day, can get extremely tiring.

Staring at a computer screen for hours on end can literally drive you insane. In addition, your fortunes online are prone to wild swings. You will occasionally sit down at a table and not get any cards for hours.

Be prepared to take the worst beats of your life along with huge runs that will make your bankroll soar.

Playing for a living requires extreme mental discipline and a steady game plan. It's a good idea to record how many hours you play each day and what your total profit for the day is.

Do this for a month or two before you make the switch to becoming a full-time player. This will allow you to analyze your play and find out how much you make on average.

Drawbacks of Playing Poker for a Living

1. No set income: Some months you'll actually experience a loss in total earnings. You must be able to cope with this and still have the confidence you need to win. You'll encounter some horrible runs along the way so be prepared.

2. Exhaustion: You'll constantly be tired if you're playing all day. If you're playing really high limits, you may not have to play all day to make a living. The fact is that most of us will need to grind it out all day to pay rent and bills and buy food.

3. Reduced family time: Since you must make your money playing poker, you'll tend to spend less time with your family. When a good poker player encounters a bad run, he or she will grind it out until they prevail.

This may call for some extremely long hours of play. Be prepared to play poker at any time. On losing months you'll need to spend even more time on the computer or at the casino.

Advantages of Playing Poker for a Living

There are many advantages that help balance out playing poker for a living. I love that you get to choose your own hours to work on any day you wish.

You can take off as many days as you want and never be hassled to wake up at 8 a.m. - or, god forbid, earlier. You'll also be playing one of the most intriguing games in the world for money. Who could ask for more? It's a great lifestyle if you're a winning player.

The fact is, most people can't handle the swings that are unavoidable in full-time play. Every time you sit at the table you must change your personality and play with ice water in your veins.

When you take a bad beat, you can't let it affect you. You must deal with the swings on a regular basis. You must also be a dedicated soul who will play even when the cards aren't going your way. You must be a very disciplined and winning poker player to play for a living.

I hope this article hasn't discouraged you if you have dreams of playing professionally. If you believe you can do it, you'll buy every book and read everything you can get your hands on to become a winning player.

See you at the tables.

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Know Thyself: Post-Flop Play Part VI

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 22:44:00 -0800

In the early years when few played NLH, the conventional wisdom was only to see a flop with a premium hand.

David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth became the most respected teachers in the game because they understood this principle first and developed it to a higher degree than anyone else.

Obviously, this is no longer the case. Players now open with a far wider range of hands than they used to. They will raise and call raises with hands that your "standard" poker text-books tell you should be mucked.

Three-bets, even four-bets, have become routine and often made with a wide range of holdings.

The more successful of the modern players know and understand post-flop play deeply and as long as they sense that they have an edge after the cards hit the board, they will want to see flops.

And it isn't just the world-class pros. The new generations of Internet players are rapidly developing these skills. They are sitting down in $1-$2 and $2-$5 NL games and they can make you squirm in your seat.

Even if you know the post-flop strategic gambits we've covered in previous columns, employing them isn't easy.

Many call for more aggression; others require taking more risks and establishing looser calling criteria. All increase variance, a factor that will impact you on two interlocking psychological planes: your emotional well-being and your bankroll.

Playing with your emotions.

Emotions: Emotional states have a far greater impact on the "bottom line" than most players realize. High levels of emotional arousal are, for most of us, not good.

Arousal is a stressor; stressors elevate blood pressure, cause hormonal and neurotransmitter imbalances, compromise decision making and make us feel, in a word, shitty.

When you first begin to use some of the ploys we've discussed you're likely to find them less than satisfactory. They aren't going to work every time (duh!) and when they don't they're going to cost you. Mistakes become expensive.

Trying to fight what you suspect is a c-bet with a check-raise is going to cost you a chunk of change if your opponent hit the flop.

If this possibility concerns you, the best approach is to avoid ploys that call for excessive aggression. This will help keep variance down and your emotions in check.

Begin with ones that reduce the post-flop difficulties rather than those that increase them and introduce the others only gradually. This approach will help at first, but it has an acknowledged down side: opponents will suss you out and you won't get much action when you have a hand.

Over time you should find yourself getting better at handling the larger swings. If not, there's usually a limit table waiting for you.

Bankroll: You have to be sufficiently 'rolled to go down this road. Even after you've dealt with the emotional elements you still have to deal with the financial. Playing more hands and playing them more aggressively means you need a bigger base or you're liable to 'get broke.'

Bankroll issues have been discussed to death although, alas, not always very insightfully. As Kristin (one of the more insight folks in our poker discussion group) notes, there are "playing 'rolls" and there are "life 'rolls."

The Wall Mart of poker players.

For a pro, these are the same --- like the asset base of the green grocer on the corner. If you lose it, you're out of business or trying to raise another stake.

But for most of us they are different. Our bankroll is a much squishier thing because our game is actually funded from outside.

For the typical, online recreational player it goes like this: You buy in for XX dollars. That's your playing 'roll. If you lose it, you click on the deposit button and --- viola, you have a new 'roll. Live play is similar but the button is on the ATM.

How much you buy in for, how much the new stake is, how much you can lose without hurting yourself, whether to move up if you start accumulating cash in your account, when to pull out the profits --- these and a host of other questions are not ones that I, or anyone else, can answer.

Only you can answer them and you can only do so for yourself.

My counsel? I fall back on that old, hackneyed line: "Know thyself." Know the level of risk you can deal with psychologically, understand what your comfort level is, filter these issues through basic parameters like your age, your other responsibilities, your non-poker income.

Bankroll management is tricky and it is personal. And I am rarely happy when I read the advice others offer.

So, that's it from this end. I appreciate that a lot of the strategy covered was more relevant to cash games than tournaments. I also recognize that most of it dealt with live play rather than online.

It also focused primarily on Hold 'em. Space was limited and, I suspect, so is your patience.

What Does He Think I Have? Post-Flop Play Part V The Sunk-Cost Effect: Post-Flop Play Part IV The Naked Raise Plus: Post-Flop Play Part III This One is Tricky: More on Post-Flop Play The Simple Psychology of Post-Flop Play

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The Trick to Table Selection

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:28:21 -0800

You have to exercise game selection if you want those soft, 2006-style tables. In fact, game selection may be the single most important skill a poker player can have.

In poker you don't have to be the best player at the table to be a big winner. You just have to be better than the majority of your competition.

This is why game selection is so important.

An average player that practices excellent game selection, only plays in games he's a big favorite in, and leaves whenever the table gets bad is going to be significantly more profitable than a very good player that exercises zero game selection.

What to Look For:

When you first fire up your poker client, look at the lobby. The best way to find good tables is to sort by viewed-flop percentage.

Generally, more players seeing the flop means more multi-way pots. This means more limping, which almost always means more fish.

Pro Tip: Try and keep aggro players to your right.

What percentage makes for a good table is debatable and varies from site to site and from limit to limit. But a higher number usually means a better table.

Of course viewed-flop percentage can't just be used on its own. Many tables have an artificially high viewed-flop percentage because they've recently been playing shorthanded.

A way you can tell if the table has been playing short is to look at the hands per hour. Generally the more hands per hour, the more chance the table has only just recently filled up.

A good six-handed game should rarely be getting more than 100 hands per hour. If you see a table with a 50% viewed-flop percentage and 150 hands per hour, you can bet the table only recently filled up and there's no guarantee it's any good.

Color-code Your Fish

On sites like Full Tilt, you also have the option to add color-coded notes.

A great practice to get into is to tag the fish you find a certain color. That way when you look at the lobby and see the player names at the tables you can instantly recognize the tables with fish on them.

But don't just stop at color coding the fish. Color code the regulars you fear, bad regulars you don't and note short stackers as well.

When you've finally put in a good sample size of hands you can almost instantly recognize good tables and bad tables just by looking in the lobby.

Color code your fish if possible and you'll be able to see them from the lobby.

Start Your Own Tables

An almost surefire way to get some good tables is to start the games yourself. Go to an empty table and just sit.

Often you'll very quickly be joined by short-stacked fish. More players will then be drawn by that fish and a game will start.

Or you can hop in with another regular sitting alone looking to start a game. If you're even semi-competent at playing heads-up it's a very effective way of starting games.

Usually you won't have to wait more than a few hands before a fish jumps in.

When two regulars start a game, the third player to join is almost always a fish as no regular in the world wants to play in a game with two other regulars.

More Tricks for Spotting Fish

Another great trick for spotting fish from the lobby is to look for players that don't play with a full stack.

Not short stackers necessarily though, as there are plenty of short stackers that aren't fish. But most regulars maximize their edge by having the most allowable on the table at one time.

A regular wants to have a full stack on the table at all times so when he makes that big hand he can win his opponent's whole stack.

For that reason, he always has auto top up on. If he loses a 20bb pot, the software automatically tops his stack up to 100bb and he always has the maximum on the table.

A fish doesn't. A fish plays with whatever he feels like. If he buys in for 100bbs and loses a pot - or even just pays his blinds - he doesn't top back up.

In other words, he's more than happy playing with less than 100bbs because he doesn't have an edge to maximize. He's just playing.

When you see players with 88bb or 94bb at the table, these are almost always fish with nearly full stacks. And fish with money means a good table.

If you want a Phil Ivey-like win rate and you're not Phil Ivey, spend some time table selecting.

It Just Takes a Little More Effort

Really, it just takes a little more effort.

When you're starting your session, look at the viewed-flop percentages. Look at the players from the lobby - do you recognize their names? Are there fish playing?

If so, hop right in.

So many players spend all their time studying the game and debating very close decisions, yet jump into games with no thought put in to whether they're good or not.

With just a few seconds more effort, though, you can add untold points to your win rate.

A Final Tip:

Part of playing only good tables also means recognizing when those tables are no longer good.

It doesn't matter that you're stuck two buy-ins at that table. If the fish leaves and you're left with five other regulars, continuing to play at that table is a giant mistake.

Constantly re-analyze your tables. Close the ones that are no good and find better ones.

People love to lament that the games are tougher, but there is always a good game going. You just have to put more effort in to finding it.

The players that put the effort in are going to be the most profitable.

Looking at the Hand As a Whole When to Call the Flop with Less Than Top Pair Firing the second barrel The C-bet for Beginners

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Poker Hand Ranking

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 09:00:00 -0700

Royal Flush

A straight from a ten to an ace with all five cards of the same suit. In poker all suits are ranked equally.

Straight Flush

Any straight with all five cards of the same suit.

Four of a Kind

Any four cards of the same rank. If two players share the same Four of a Kind, the bigger fifth card (known as the kicker) decides who wins the pot.

Full House

Any three cards of the same rank together with any two cards of the same rank. Our example shows "Aces full of Kings" and it is a bigger full house than "Kings full of Aces."

Flush

Any five cards of the same suit (not consecutive). The highest card of the five determines the rank of the flush. Our example shows an Ace-high flush, which is the highest possible.

Straight

Any five consecutive cards of different suits. Aces can count as either a high or a low card. Our example shows a five-high straight, which is the lowest possible straight.

Three of a Kind

Any three cards of the same rank. Our example shows three-of-a-kind Aces, with a King and a Queen as side cards - the best possible three of a kind.

Two Pair

Any two cards of the same rank together with another two cards of the same rank. Our example shows the best possible two-pair, Aces and Kings. The highest pair of the two determines the rank of the two-pair.

One Pair

Any two cards of the same rank. Our example shows the best possible one-pair hand.

High Card

Any hand not in the above-mentioned hands. Our example shows the best possible high-card hand.

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Why You Call When You Told Yourself to Fold

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:12:00 -0800

He's just pushed a stack of greenies at you on the river. You missed your draw; you've got middle pair and, basically, can only beat a bluff.

So you sit there looking at your cards, at the board, at your opponent.

You've got a good read on the situation and know precisely what you should do with your hand. In fact, this is exactly the situation you've been warning yourself about over and over again in recent weeks.

Do NOT make marginal calls in situations like this one because they have long-term negative EV (indeed, very negative).

Yet you feel an odd twinge deep below the surface of your mind. You know that you should fold. You plan to fold.

The cards are almost in the muck, you're going to slip quietly away when you see an ethereal hand, one that looks a lot like yours, though acting like it belongs to someone else, grab a bunch of chips and you hear a voice that has a fretfully familiar tone to it and seems to be coming from your mouth say, "I call."

This extremely muscular hand looks like mine, but I did not say to reach for the chips.

And, of course, he wasn't bluffing and you've just shed another buy-in on a truly idiotic move that felt like it was made by some demon inside you, for you would never have been so stupid.

From my psychologist/poker junkie perspective, the really interesting part of this tale is not that you just did something moronic but that you did exactly the thing you've been trying to banish from your game.

If the word "irony" comes to mind now, it should. If the name Daniel Wegner comes to mind, I'll be really surprised.

Dan is a psychologist at Harvard. He's an old friend and even though he's not a poker player, I'd like to tell you a bit about how his research applies to our game and how, if we can work this out carefully, his insights can help reduce the number of silly and financially damaging actions we take.

Wegner studies irony. He's been fascinated all his life with those situations where we tell ourselves that we should do X and avoid Y like the plague then, bingo, we end up Y'ing.

Dan's research is slowly yielding an understanding of why these situations arise and why we keep doing the very wrongest things.

Here's his analysis, in simplest terms:

When we consciously suppress the thoughts about the thing we do NOT want to do, we don't actually banish them from our minds.

Loves him some poker irony.

They take on a life below the surface and sit there, unnoticed, in what is technically known as "implicit memory" (if you want to call this your "subconscious" that's okay).

It takes a certain measure of mental effort to keep these unwanted thoughts in their mental jail.

If I ask you to NOT think about white bears or NOT to spill any red wine as you carry your glass across the carpet or NOT to think about calling a pot-sized bet from the tightest player at the table, two things will happen.

First, you WILL think about those things. Second, you will manage, most of the time, to suppress that thought ... for the moment.

But what Dan's research has shown is that this suppression doesn't always hold.

When it does, fine. You won't waste time imaging white bears on (vanishing) ice floes, dumping a glass of Merlot on someone's beige wall-to-wall or donating a stack of greenies to the rock in seat 8.

But what Dan has also found is that when stress levels go up, when pressure is put on us, or we are distracted, these unwanted thoughts and actions become surprisingly likely to occur.

Ask someone NOT to use a particular word in conversation and, if they get distracted or stressed they are far more likely to blurt that word out than if the initial request was never made.

If you sit there and think something like "calling pot-sized bets on dangerous boards is something I will simply not do anymore" you run the risk of making it more likely that you will do the very thing you've counseled yourself against, if you're under stress or distracted or are put under heavy mental load.

We're all familiar with settings that are likely to produce these unhappy ironic outcomes.

We're all familiar with settings that are likely to produce these unhappy ironic outcomes. You've been losing. You're on tilt because you've been bluffed twice and both times the bozos showed you.

You're in the cash game because you bubbled the MTT. An old girlfriend just walked in the room hanging on the arm of some idiot with a shaved head and his shirt unbuttoned down to his belly button.

You just realized you forgot to pick up your wife's prescription ... whatever. All invite bouts of terminal irony.

Is there a cure for this affliction? Not really. Just take your time when stressed. Think through the situation.

And, of course, practice helps. Experienced players usually handle stress better and are able to suppress thoughts that might leap up and take control of your hands or your vocal cords.

Poker isn't an easy game. But you can make it less painful if you work on combating this ironic tendency - the one that Edgar Allan Poe called the "imp of the perverse."

More psychology articles from Arthur S. Reber:

What Does He Think I Have: Post-Flop Play Part V Why You're Afraid of Value-Betting the River Grit and the Grind: How Great Players Get Great F U: Why Swearing in Poker is Good For You

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Looking at the Hand as a Whole

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:37:00 -0700

In reality, each and every play you make affects the entire course of the hand.

The problem with taking each decision as it comes is that you don't take into account the potential cause and effect of each play - you just act, and then are surprised when you're left with a tough decision.

Good players understand that each decision affects the final outcome of the hand.

They know that what they do before the flop and on the flop is going to dictate what happens on the turn and river. And they plan ahead for probable outcomes.

Taking each decision as it comes

An example:

$1/$2 six-max game, effective stacks $200. A fishy player under the gun raises to $6 and you call on the button with T♣ T♠. Everyone else folds and you take a flop heads-up of T♥ 4♠ 3♥.

Your opponent bets $8 and you raise to $16. He calls. The turn is the 4♥. He checks, and you check behind to slow play.

The river comes 2♣. He checks. You bet $35. He calls and shows A♥ J♥. Your full house beats his flush and you win a $117 pot.

Each play you make is not separate. They are all connected.

Because you took each decision as it came, you lost out on a lot of money. If, instead, you had a plan for the hand, you would have played the entire hand differently.

When you flop big, your goal is to win your opponent's stack. So plan for that and make it a possibility.

If you had a plan

$1/$2 six-max game, effective stacks $200. A fishy player under the gun raises to $6 and you call on the button with T♣ T♠.

Everyone else folds and you take a flop heads-up of T♥ 4♠ 3♥. Your opponent bets $8 and you raise to $34. He calls.

The turn is the 4♥. He checks and you bet $65. He calls

The river comes 2♣. He checks and you bet your remaining $95. He calls and shows A♥ J♥.

You still win, but this time because you thought about the entire hand and had a plan to build the pot, you win his entire stack instead of just a small portion.

A few changes in strategy and you win almost four times as much.

One more set of examples:

Taking each decision as it comes

$1/$2 six-max game, effective stacks $500. It's folded to an aggressive regular on the button who raises to $7. You feel you're better than his raising range so you three-bet to $30 with the J♥ J♣. He calls.

The flop comes T♥ 5♠ 6♣. You c-bet $40 and he calls. The turn comes 4♣.You bet $90 and he calls.

The river comes 2♥. You bet $140 and he shoves for $310.

You're now in a miserable spot and talk yourself into calling. He tables 7♥ 8♥ and wins the $1,000 pot with a straight.

You didn't think about the hand as whole. You just took each decision as it came and you ended up getting into a tough spot and losing a ton of money.

If you had a plan

$1/$2 six-max game, effective stacks $500. It's folded to an aggressive regular on the button who raises to $7.

Plan your hand and profit.

You realize that one pair plays poorly deep and you will either win a small pot or lose a big one. So you elect to just call and play pot control with the J♥ J♣.

The flop comes T♥ 5♠ 6♣. You check. He fires $10 and for the same reasons you called pre-flop you just call again on the flop.

The turn comes 4♣. You check and he bets $22. You once again just call. The river comes 2♥. You check. He bets $55.

You know he's capable of value-betting worse, and three-barreling air to try and get you to fold a hand like 8-8, so you call.

He tables 7♥ 8♥ and still wins with his straight. But this time you lose just $95 rather than $500 (or even $300 if you fold the river in the other example).

You looked at the entire hand as a whole and had a plan.

You didn't needlessly build a giant pot because you know one pair doesn't play well deep - and that your opponent could put you in an extremely difficult spot in a big pot.

You ended up losing, but you lost the absolute minimum because you weren't just mindlessly making a decision every time the action was on you.

Re-cap

Each time the action is on you, look at the hand as a whole and realize the possible ramifications of each potential decision.

Each decision changes the course of rest of the hand, and if you don't realize the ramifications of each possibility, you're going to be left in difficult spots on the later streets.

Know your goal for the hand and plan your play around that goal. It's a little more work, but the potential effects on your win rate will be very real.

When to Call the Flop with Less Than Top Pair Firing the second barrel The C-bet for Beginners When not to continuation bet Fixing your redline: Making better c-bets

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When to Call the Flop with Less Than Top Pair

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:58:00 -0700

Playing with less than top pair can be tricky when you don't have the lead. You're playing a guessing game, gambling that your opponent doesn't have you beat.

But that guessing game can be made easier by paying attention to three critical factors.

1) Your Opponent

You have to study your opponent.

Look at how often he continuation-bets on the flop. Look at how often he checks the flop and on what kinds of boards. Look at how often he double barrels the turn.

Pay attention to how often he plays pot control with showdown-value hands. Meaning if he always checks back any non-top-pair hands, only bets top pair and bluffs on a J♥ 7♠ 3♣ board, you know when he's betting he either has top pair or a bluff.

Good regulars fire multiple barrels so playing less than TP OOP can be a scary proposition.

If that same opponent seldom double barrels the turn, you'll also know that when he bets that turn again he has top pair or better.

A general rule is that you should be less inclined to call with a weak-ish second-pair-type hand if your opponent is likely to keep the heat up on the turn and river.

2) Board Texture

One of the most important factors when deciding to peel the turn with a second-pair-type hand is the board texture.

There are just some boards that aren't as likely to have hit your opponent. For example, 8♠ 7♠ is more likely to be good on a J♥ 8♦ 4♠ board than it is on a K♥ 2♣ 7♣ board.

Thus you should be more inclined to call.

Get to know your opponent's pre-flop raising range and every time you're facing a bet gauge how likely it is to have hit his range.

3) Outs and Equity

As with anything in Texas Hold'em you should be more inclined to call if you have additional outs.

Outs add equity to your hand. You're hoping your opponent will shut down when you call, but you want to have equity in case he chooses to continue.

An example:

$1/$2 online six-max, effective stacks $200. You're in the big blind and a decent regular raises to $6.

The flop comes Q♥ 6♠ 3♠. You check and your opponent bets $10.

Which hand would you rather call with: 8♦ 8♣ or 6♥ 7♥?

Though the pair of eights is the "better" hand in absolute strength, 6♥ 7♥ is the better hand to peel with. The reason is because the 6♥ 7♥ has more "Plan B" potential.

When you're beat with the pair of eights you have two outs to improve - the two remaining eights.

When you're beat with the 6♥ 7♥, you instantly have more outs. There are two sixes as well as the three remaining sevens. That's five outs right there.

Have a Plan B and you'll stack'em stack'em to the top!

You also have the backdoor flush and straight draws. Meaning there's a ton of cards that can come and improve your hand on the turn.

So the "better" hand to call with is the 6♥ 7♥ - despite the fact it's worse in absolute value than the 8♦ 8♣.

Remember:

There's a lot of value in playing hands worse than top pair - especially against opponents that c-bet too often.

Get to know how your opponents play certain hands and pay attention to their barreling frequencies.

Don't just call and give up on the turn every single time. Pay attention to how the board runs out and weigh that with how likely they are to double or triple barrel.

Folding every hand that isn't top pair is essentially leaving money on the table. But if you start calling every hand without thinking, you'll burn even more money.

Just think about how your hand stacks up vs. your opponent's range and play poker. And remember that a potential Plan B really adds equity to your hand.

Firing the second barrel The C-bet for Beginners When not to continuation bet Fixing your redline: Making better c-bets

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What Does He Think I Have: Post-Flop Play Part V

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:29:47 -0700

Not quite sure why but maybe 'cause I thumped some fish last night and I'm stoked. So, let's begin with the obvious:

Grow steel cojones. In virtually every competitive enterprise aggression carries benefits.

One of my favorite lines comes from the inestimable Mike Caro, "aggression is rarely wrong in poker, and when it is, it isn't wrong by much."

But there is more to the "steel cojones" bit than just naked aggression. Virtually every social scientist can tell you that mindless attack ultimately succumbs to tactical counter thrusts.

Aggression gains its advantage, not so much as a device for taking down individual pots, but as part of the meta-game. If you become known as an aggressive player you will instill two emotive states in your opponents: fear and confusion.

For example, every once in a while you're going to have to fire not just one, not just two but three bullets. Or play like you flopped a set when you've got air.

Dwan: Master of fear and confusion.

Sometimes this will work, sometimes not.

Your variance will go up. If you can live with it, fine, because when used appropriately your bottom line will improve.

Aggression is situational: This is a corollary to the above. There are more than a few circumstances where your cards are essentially irrelevant. This may seem a bit extreme, but it often isn't.

A nit limps UTG and a weak, timid player calls from middle position. A raise is obligatory here. Your hand is irrelevant, only the size of the raise is important, and that decision will be based on your position and sense of the situation.

In short, focus and control your aggression. Mindless belligerence isn't effective at a poker table. Mindful and unpredictable aggression is best.

Attack good players: Yup, that's what I said, attack solid players more often than weak ones.

Standard advice is go after the fish, abuse the fearful, trap the maniacal, intimidate the timid. There's nothing wrong with this advice but, for the most part, you do not need to attack the piscine opponents.

They will make their mistakes without you having to prime them.

If you're in the mood for a little throw-down, most of the situations that will prove profitable will come from timely attacks on strong players, particularly if they don't know you and don't have a read on you.

A good player is far more likely to lay down a decent hand than a weak one. You have a much better shot at bluffing a top-flight pro than a rank amateur.

Standard advice is go after all the fish, but timely attacks on good players will pay off.

The fish will look you up 'cause they don't want to be bluffed and they often just "want to see" what you're raising with. The solid players are more interested in protecting their chips.

Aim to play on Level 3: Level 1: my hand. Level 2: my read on my opponents' hands. Level 3: my read on what my opponents think I'm doing.

Solid players know they must do this. Alas, when the pressure is on the tendency is to fall back to Level 2 and we stop with "what range of hands can I put him on?"

Often (more often than you can imagine) the real question to ask is, "what does he think I have." This is what's driving his action.

Stakes impact decisions: Like the above, this is a simple credo, but often neglected in the heat of battle.

Here are some examples where the stakes have an impact on the EV of a "standard" play:

Low stakes. Here, most players are betting their cards. They are vulnerable to steals when they miss and can be outplayed when they hit a small piece.

Board texture is important here. But take care, as players become more tuned to these moves they lose their edge.

Mid stakes. Here, position rules. Standard gambits become less effective because they may be countered. Be unpredictable. Keep opponents guessing.

The more they guess, the more mistakes they will make.

High stakes. Here, you will need moves that rarely occur at more modest stakes.

Where's the psychology in post-flop play? It's everywhere.

Players enter pots with a wide variety of holdings. They work on being hard to read and trying to keep opponents off guard. There are wheels within wheels of strategy and counterstrategy.

To get a feel for this kind of thing, go check out some hands on this site from the news reports and, of course, sit down and watch a couple of hours of High Stakes Poker or Poker After Dark.

The strategic ploys that are effective at this level will not prove profitable in lower-stakes games.

So where's the psychology in these? Actually, it's everywhere.

Virtually every piece of advice here on post-flop play is based on one or another psychological principles involving intimidation, aggression, ego, self-awareness, anxiety, fear, confusion, decision-making.

The more psychology you know, the better your poker game will become.

There's one more piece in this series. It'll be a look at emotions and bankrolls.

The Sunk-Cost Effect: Post-Flop Play Part IV The Naked Raise Plus: Post-Flop Play Part III This One is Tricky: More on Post-Flop Play The Simple Psychology of Post-Flop Play

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

When to Float the Flop in Online Six-Max

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:15:05 -0700

That's a huge opening for smart players. Calling those flop c-bets with the intention of taking the pot away when they check the turn is essentially a license to print money.

Your Ideal Opponent and a Note on Equity

The best candidate for a flop float is a player that habitually c-bets too often but doesn't fire nearly enough second barrels.

If you're playing with a HUD (heads-up display), the stats you want to focus on obviously are "flop c-bet" and "turn c-bet." If the flop percentage is super high and the turn percentage is super low, you've found a potential victim.

A quick note on equity however: Any time you're bluffing in Hold'em, some equity is better than no equity.

Plan A is to make your opponent fold, but with equity you have a Plan B. You can hit your hand and still win. It doesn't even have to be much equity. But some equity is always better than none at all.

So when you plan to float, make sure you have at least some equity. An overcard(s), a gutshot … hell, it can even be a backdoor flush draw.

You just want something to fall back on in case he does fire that second barrel or he decides to check-call that turn bet. You want to have at least some outs.

When to Float

If you have no equity at all but still really want to float, don't. Next orbit that player is still going to be on your right and he's still going to be mindlessly continuation-betting.

Just wait until you have some equity. You rarely should be pure floating.

Good regulars know when their opponents c-bet too often only to give up on the turn.

Example One:

$1/$2 six-max game online; $200 effective stacks. An ABC multi-tabling TAG who meets the description above raises to $7 from the cut-off.

You make the call with 7♥ 8♥. The blinds fold and the flop comes A♦ 5♥ 9♠. Your opponent c-bets $12.

This flop more than meets the criteria to float a serial c-better, so you call.

The turn comes 3♠ and your opponent checks. You bet $30 and he folds. A successful float.

Example Two:

$1/$2 six-max game online; $200 effective stacks. An ABC multi-tabling TAG who meets the description above raises to $7 from the cut-off.

You make the call with 7♥ 8♥. The blinds fold and the flop comes A♦ 5♥ 9♠. Your opponent c-bets $12.

You call with the intention of stealing on the turn when he checks. The turn comes J♥. He fires $30.

Uh oh, it didn't work. He didn't check the turn. Now what?

This is why you float with equity. On the flop, you have a gutshot and a backdoor flush draw. It's insurance!

Jcarver says equity = insurance.

Even if your opponent continues, you can hit 10 cards that improve your hand on the turn. And that's just what happened. The J♥ improves your hand to an open-ender and a flush draw.

Now you can call again and, chances are, you can win a big pot if you hit your hand. Especially because your opponent double-barreled an ace-high board when he rarely double barrels - meaning he has a big hand and your implied odds are very good.

So you call again and the 6♠ hits the river. Your opponent bets $85. You shove. He calls his last $66 and shows A♣ J♣, which is no good vs. your rivered straight.

This is the insurance, your escape hatch. You call the flop with the intention of stealing the pot when he checks. But you have a backup plan of hitting your long-shot hand.

When he fires again, you're lucky enough to have turned a big draw. You hit it on the river and stack him - something you can expect a small percentage of the time.

Those times he fires the turn and you don't improve, you simply fold. It's that easy.

In a Nutshell

Keep your goal in mind when you call the flop. The bulk of the money you make is going to come from when he check-folds the turn. The rest is gravy, which is why you choose a hand with some equity.

Don't be as bad as those mindless c-bettors and don't just fold every time you miss the flop. Look for opponents with high c-bet frequencies and low second-barrel frequencies and call.

These opponents are going to give up an awful lot on the turn. And when they do, it's free money in your e-pocket.

Firing the second barrel The C-bet for Beginners When not to continuation bet Fixing your redline: Making better c-bets

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Why You're Afraid of Value-Betting the River

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 11:13:07 -0700

The first player, who's been check-calling all the way, checks again.

The button, who's been pushing the action, says, "Okay, I check. The pot's big enough," and shows down pocket queens on a K♠ Q♠ 6♦ 9♣ 6♠ board.

A simple scene, yes? Also not an uncommon one.

Just think how often you've witnessed something like it. Here's a guy with the third-best possible hand checking the river.

Sure, the check-caller could have rivered quads, but we've all heard that comment made when the button has the stone-cold nuts.

It's actually not a simple situation at all. It's rife with financial and psychological elements, mostly taking place inside the head of the guy with the pocket queens - largely unconsciously.

Simple Money Mistake or Deep Human Paradox?

It's clear from a basic strategic perspective that failing to bet the river here is a money mistake. Dan Harrington has argued that it's one of most common and costly errors that otherwise good players make.

Failing to value bet in such situations can, over the long haul, turn a small winner into a break-even player or even a loser.

Action Dan: Still amazed when good players miss value bets.

So, why do so many players do this? Why would they give up a chance at considerable gain and accept, in its place, a more modest win?

Is this an individual, chancy thing, like stupidity? Or is it possibly the result of some deeper feature of human conduct, some tendency we have to behave in less-than-optimal ways?

It turns out that the latter is closer to the truth. There is a fascinating, deeply paradoxical and surprisingly common aspect of human behavior behind it: it's called the uncertainty effect and it's found whenever people are involved in situations that lack full certainty.

It may seem weird that poker players would be averse to uncertainty, but under the right conditions they will be. To get a better feel for how this mechanism operates, let's get away from the green felt and out into the "real world."

Here's the deal you're offered. You can purchase either:

A $50 gift certificate to a storeA lottery ticket where the prize will be either a $50 or $100 gift certificate (to the same store) based on the flip of a coin.

How much would you pay for each?

Astonishingly, a recent study found that the average amount people would be willing to pay for the first was MORE than for the second.

And this wasn't just one nutty outcome. This paradoxical result has been found in study after study in all sorts of circumstances.

We are a weird species.

Uri Simonsohn, at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, chalked it up to a "literal distaste for uncertainty" and reports finding it in a variety of real-world settings including book stores, restaurants, whatever.

And, of course, we see it in sharpest relief when a poker player checks on the end with what is almost certainly the best hand.

As I've often pointed out in these columns, we are members of a very weird species. We are simply not the rational creatures we like to think we are.

We do not make optimal decisions, even when we ought to know better, even when we think we know better.

Emotional Cost vs. Cash Cost

Now, knowing that people make these silly decisions is amusing but it's only half the story. Why do we do these things? Why are we so ridiculously irrational?

The reason stems from a deeply ingrained human characteristic: risk aversion. Settings that contain risk or have uncertain elements make many of us feel uncomfortable; they produce distinctly negative emotional experiences.

From an evolutionary point of view, being risk averse is adaptive. Being wary in risky situations dramatically increases likelihood of survival.

If you don't know what's out there waiting for you, you're far better off being cautious and guarded - even it means you forgo occasional gains.

Value-betting the river: fraught with emotional cost.

While this worked fine eons ago, in the modern world it yields this odd paradox where we will devalue an option that is obviously better in material terms because it is wrapped in uncertainty and loses value in psychological terms.

In short, it just may cost more emotionally to bet on the river than it's worth in cash.

About now I can hear some of you howling, "Not me doc, no way would I do anything that stupid."

Well, maybe you wouldn't ... and maybe you would. We don't know since we haven't collected the data. But do ask yourself if you've ever checked the river in this kind of hand.

And, in case you're curious: Simonsohn's data shows that the uncertainty effect is found in over 60% of the population.

More psychology articles from Arthur S. Reber:

The Sunk-Cost Effect: Post-Flop Play Part 4 Grit and the Grind: How Great Players Get Great F U: Why Swearing in Poker is Good For You The Naked Raise Plus: Post-Flop Play Part 3

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Top 7 Signs You're a TAGfish

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 20:00:00 -0800

But to go along with these good, money-making TAGs there's a growing number of break-even or slightly losing regulars known as TAGfish.

On the surface, it may be hard to distinguish a TAGfish from a winning regular. He buys in full, tops up every hand, has decent enough stats and plays what he thinks is good poker.

But he can't seem to win.

That's because there's more to poker than having good stats. Poker is a thinking man's game; you can't just imitate what you've read and become some money-printing robot.

You have to be able to apply what you've learned and make good decisions each time the action is on you.

A TAGfish doesn't. He just plays the same game all day, every day no matter the situation. And he perpetually loses/breaks even, thinking he's the most unlucky player on the face of the earth.

These are the signs you're that guy:

1) You think about your opponent's range but never your own Everyone knows you have to try to put your opponent on a range. It's one of the most fundamental skills in poker.

But a TAGfish doesn't think about his own range in doing so. An opponent is going to play the hand a few different ways according to what he thinks you have.

You'll never be able to accurately put your opponent on a range without first thinking about your own perceived range.

If you take Brian's lessons and apply them incorrectly, you're probably a TAGfish.

2) You misapply skills you've learnedA TAGfish tries to learn to play better poker. He watches videos, read articles and studies the game extensively. But he misapplies the information he's learned. He'll learn that continuation betting and giving up is bad, so he'll just fire every second barrel.

He'll learn that to exploit players that c-bet too much you can float the flop and take away the pot on the turn, but he'll float with pure air instead of gutshots or hands with backdoor capabilities. He'll learn that three-betting light is profitable, but he'll do it regardless of his opponent's three-bet calling frequency. And he'll do it with the wrong hands.He only learns half the skills. He knows what to do, but then misapplies when he should be doing it and who he should be doing it against.

3) You call the same range in the cut-off as you do on the buttonA TAGfish treats the cut-off and the button as the exact same position. If an opponent raises from early position, he'll call in the cut-off with 6♥ 9♥ thinking it's perfectly fine because he'll be playing the pot in position.

But that just isn't the case. You've still got one more player to act behind you and if he's any good, he can make your life a living hell.That player can three-bet with impunity whenever you call with your weak, speculative hand, he can call and steal your post-flop position and he can punish you after the flop.Where good TAGs abuse the button, a TAGfish allows himself to be abused by the button.

4) You overestimate your implied oddsA TAGfish thinks every time he makes the nuts he's going to win a stack. He thinks if he calls from the blinds with a pocket pair and nails a set, he's going to win an opponent's whole stack every time.So he calls with his speculative hands post-flop, check-folds when he misses and, when he finally makes that huge hand, he makes his opponent fold. He bleeds all his money trying to hit that hand and then when he does hit, he never makes that money back.

5) You have leaks post-flopA TAGfish typically plays fine pre-flop. He has that part of the game solved to a degree.

He knows he can't limp Q9o upfront and expect to show a profit. He knows AK needs to be raised for value, etc. But once the flop comes, his mistakes start to compound. Knowing when to fold pre-flop is easy. But knowing when to ditch top pair, bad kicker isn't. Knowing when to double barrel and when to triple barrel is hard. A TAGfish plays his own cards too often and the situation and his opponents not nearly enough.

The real poker game is post flop. Pre-flop is easy.

6) You look at each decision as a separate entityA TAGfish gets caught up in a tough decision and thinks, "Man, this spot sucks. What the hell do I do?"

Really, it's not what he just did that put him in that spot; it's what he did earlier in the hand.He doesn't have a plan in mind for the hand. He just acts and figures it out from there. He plays reactive poker instead of proactive poker.7) You tilt too muchA TAGfish doesn't tilt in the true "five-bet ship 58o" sense of the word.

But when he's losing, he definitely doesn't play his best. He rushes decisions. He slips into auto pilot. And, worst of all, he plays far too long.A TAGfish loves trying to get unstuck and will play all day trying to get unstuck - all the while playing C-game poker. Yet when he has a winning day, he'll quit early and play small sessions, booking a small win.

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If this sounds a lot like you, don't worry. TAGfish syndrome is curable.

The answer: concentrate on making the best decision every single time the action is on you and take your time. Sometimes the best possible play won't come to you right away.

But if you do your best to think about the benefits of each possible decision, you'll be making more good decisions and less bad ones.

If you want to win more money - and stop being a TAGfish - that's exactly where you need to start.

When to Turn a Made Hand Into a Bluff Hand Selection: Fish vs. Regs Three-Betting a Polarized Range How to Improve Non-Showdown Winnings

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

When to Turn a Made Hand Into a Bluff

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:01:34 -0700

If a worse hand is never going to call and a better hand is never going to fold, you've successfully done just that - made a big mistake.

But quite often a better hand will fold and you can take the very bottom of your showdown-value range, turn it into a bluff and get a laydown.

Basically you take a hand that has some showdown value and give it more value as a bluff.

An example:

$1/$2 No-Limit game; effective stacks $300.

You're dealt 7♥ 8♥. Your good, hand-reading opponent raises to $8 and you call on the button.

The flop comes 8♦ J♣ K♥. Your opponent bets $14 and you call. The turn comes J♥. Your opponent bets $30 and you call again.

The river comes 3♠ and your opponent bets $70. You raise to $248 all-in and your opponent folds.

You took a hand that had some showdown value (a pair of eights) and turned it into a bluff to get a fold from a better hand (a pair of kings).

In a spot like this, turning your hand into a bluff works especially well because your eights don't have a a ton of showdown value. You basically can only beat a stone-cold bluff.

Calling here vs. his range is probably bad. If you look at your opponent's third-barrel range, it's much wider than just hands that can bet and profitably call a shove.

Our opponent can be barreling with missed draws, value-betting good kings, value-towning with aces and, of course, he could be firing with a jack. Of those hands, only the three jacks can really profitably call your shove.

Your hand has to be weak enough to gain equity by turning it into a bluff.

The best part about this scenario is that you can't often be bluffing in this spot in your opponent's eyes. You flat-called the flop and flat-called the turn.

Generally that's a sign of a made hand, and opponents won't expect you to all of a sudden turn that made hand into a bluff. Your range in his eyes seems very strong, and with the second jack falling you can very credibly rep that jack.

Which is why it's such a profitable play. Your opponents don't expect it. You're bluffing in a spot where you can only have made hands. It makes your bluff that much more credible.

The key component in turning your made hand into a bluff is that your hand strength can't be so strong that you have more equity in seeing a showdown. Your hand has to actually gain equity when you turn it into a bluff.

If it meets that criteria and you're up against someone that can read hands, you have a great spot to do it. Your opponent will never expect you to ruin a hand with showdown value by bluffing it!

Turning Your Hand Into a Bluff Hand Selection: Fish vs. Regs How to Avoid Making a Bad Bluff The Bluff Catcher

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Weighty Issues: Don't Let Cheap Chips Get You Down

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:49:45 -0700

They were solid, heavy with sharp, crisp edges and a kaleidoscope of colors around the edges. They felt important.

I felt rich ... although no more so than any of the others sitting there running through their own special rituals, stacking, restacking, riffling, flipping, drop-and-twisting.

We were late in getting started (big surprise!) and I found myself mentally wandering to other venues where I had played and the kinds of tournament chips I've riffled and flipped.

The one that stood out was the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City where I often played when I lived on the East Coast. The Taj had regular tournaments from baby events to major competitions including the US Poker Championship, which they held annually.

Thinking back, I had this vague sense that there was something "cheap," something vaguely unimportant about those Taj events

This didn't make a lot of sense, because many of the tournaments I'd played in there were a lot bigger and more prestigious than this one here, the one we were all waiting to start.

One way to fix the light chip problem? Build a giant stack of them.

But there it was and I've learned over the years to trust my intuitions. But still, it didn't add up.

Well, today I read an article by Nils Jostmann and his colleagues at the University of Amsterdam and suddenly, it all made sense.

I do love it when things that are murky and muddled in my mind suddenly become clear and make sense --- especially when poker is involved and it is psychology that provides the answer.

It turns out I was reacting to a fundamental psychological principle that, until Jostmann's work, was almost completely neglected.

As he puts it: "weight is an embodiment of importance," for what Jostmann and his colleagues discovered, as strange as it sounds, is that heavy things are more important than light things.

In other words: They have greater significance and greater emotional value.

Jostmann simply handed a clipboard to people and asked them to fill out a questionnaire evaluating the worth of a variety of objects.

If the clipboard on which the survey was placed weighed about 1,000 grams people rated the objects in the list as worth significantly more than if the clipboard only weighed some 600 grams.

And remarkably, while people are holding the heavy clipboard they rated reasonable decisions as fairer than when they held the light one and, even more impressively, they engaged in more elaborate thinking.

I assume there is a limit to this effect (handing people a clipboard weighing 10 kilos is probably not going to produce this effect) but within the range of weights they tested the effects were quite strong.

Now I understood. Those tournament chips at the Taj were embarrassingly cheap. They were light and flimsy. They had none of the heft and solidness of the truly majestic ones I was (attempting to) riffle.

Moral of the story: casinos should use solid, heavy chips at the tables. If they don't, make them heavy with your mind.

And, totally unconsciously, I was taken in by Jostmann's little demonstration. The Taj chips didn't feel important, but these new ones did!

If you can catch a rerun of one of Taj-run US Open events on TV, check out the chips. You'll see what I mean. I'd always hated those cheap pieces of pastel-colored clay the Taj used.

Now, thanks to Nils Jostmann and his colleagues, I know why.

Is there a moral here for the world of poker? Well, sort of. Casinos should use solid, well constructed chips at the tables. It won't really change much in who wins and who loses.

But, and I guess this is important, everyone will have a better time, rate the games as better and of greater monetary value and they will have a more satisfying, solid experience.

I don't know Jostmann personally, but if you visit his web page where his research is described, the guy certainly looks like a poker player.

More psychology articles from Arthur S. Reber:

Grit and the Grind: How Great Players Get Great F U: Why Swearing in Poker is Good For You The Naked Raise Plus: Post-Flop Play Part 3 This One is Tricky: More on Post-Flop Play

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Three-Betting a Polarized Range

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 23:28:00 -0700

Three-betting light works for a variety of reasons. The games, first of all, are so aggressive that your average regular is raising 18% of his hands or more.

Of that 18%, very few can stand up to a re-raise. Meaning your aggressive opponent is going to be folding very often when you re-raise.

Also, when you three-bet light, your opponents take notice. They in turn play back at you, netting you more profit on your big hands: AA-QQ and AKs.

If you only three-bet monsters, why would your opponents ever play with you? They wouldn't. When you three-bet more, your opponents can't be too sure what you have when you do it.

But we already knew all that. What we're getting into in this article is three-betting a polarized range.

Three-betting a polarized range means you still three-bet your good hands for value but your "light" three-bet hands have no value in seeing the flop.

The basic idea is you want to take a hand you'd normally fold and three-bet it as a bluff to try and get your opponent to fold.

What those hands are vary by opponent, position, prior history, etc. It's a sliding scale. The unchanging aspect is it's a hand that's not profitable to call in that very situation.

Why three-bet 93o when you can three-bet a hand that at least has equity when called?

You want to three-bet light with a hand that you would normally fold because it adds value to a hand that would otherwise have none. For example you don't want to three-bet T♥ 9♥ on the button because there's far too much value in seeing a flop.

So what hands make good polarized three-bet hands?

There's a simple rule for that. The best hands to three-bet light with are at the very top of your folding range.

Say, for example, that a good regular in the cut-off raises and the worst possible hand you could profitably call with is A9o. Your best possible three-bet light hand would then be A8o.

But if I can't call with A8o, why can I three-bet with it?

It's different because when you call with it, you're playing post-flop poker. You either have to hit and somehow extract money from a worse hand, or you have to make him fold after the flop.

When you three-bet him instead, your goal is to make your aggressive opponent fold. But if he doesn't, you still have your hand strength to fall back on.

Which is why we choose the very top of our folding range to three-bet. It's our back-up plan.

If we think about our opponent's likely calling range, it makes perfect sense. Our opponent is going to four-bet AK, AA-JJ, and he's going to call with AQ and some smaller pocket pairs. Everything else he's going to fold.

When we three-bet the best portion of the range we would normally fold, we have that back-up. If our opponent is going to call with TT, we can still flop an ace and win.

If we choose to three-bet a hand like 56o, we'd have to hit both our cards to beat TT. So we pick the hand with the best possible equity should we be called.

How often does our opponent have to fold to make our three-bet profitable?

If your re-raise is three times the original raise, your opponent only needs to fold 66% of the time to make your re-raise profitable.

Math says if your opponent folds to three-bets 67% of the time, your three-bet will be immediately profitable.

That means instantly profitable, with no more streets. If your opponent folds to more than 66% of your three-bets, then the second you three-bet him it's a profitable play.

That doesn't even take into account those times he calls and you either out play him on the flop or you hit your hand and win. So take a look at your opponent's "fold to three-bet" stats before three-betting.

A word about domination

For a long time the common mantra was to not three-bet dominated aces because our opponent's calling range will crush us and we'll end up flopping an ace and going broke.

But that really isn't the case. Our average opponent's (aka the people we want to three-bet) calling range actually will rarely consist of dominating aces.

After all, he'll be four-balling AK and really only regularly calling with AQ - even sometimes four-betting that. So our opponent's calling range will usually be made up of pair hands, of which we can choose to barrel him off or hit our hand and win.

There's a small risk of domination, but it's just that: small. And our goal isn't to flop a hand and play for stacks. Our profit comes from those times we make our opponent fold before the flop. The rest is gravy.

So keep that in mind. Your goal is to make your opponent fold before the flop.

If he folds to more than 66% of three-bets, your re-raise is instantly profitable. You three-bet the best part of your folding range as a back-up plan.

Those times you do get called, you can still hit and suck out. It's just like double-barreling. When you turn equity, your goal is to make him fold. But if he doesn't, you can still hit and win.

So go out there and make your opponent fold - because he's going to. A lot.

Related strategy articles:

Sizing Your Three-Bets Playing Three-Bet Pots With The Lead Don't Overuse the Light Three-Bet

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Hand Selection: Fish vs. Regs

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 00:59:01 -0700

There are, though, some hands that do better against certain types of opponents. And knowing which hands are profitable vs. which opponents makes all the difference between being a good player and being a great player.

Obviously, no matter who your opponent is, the top portion of your range remains the same. You're always going to raise AA-TT, AK-AJs, etc.

These hands are just so strong raising them will always be profitable in a six-max game. It's the bottom portion of your range that should change depending on your opponent.

Playing Against Fish

The first thing you should ask yourself is "Where is my profit going to come from?" Against a fish, your profit comes from when they call down with inferior hands - which they do often.

That's what makes them fish. They play without regard for position, they call too often pre-flop and they take their hands too far post-flop.

Your profit will come from making top pair or better and value-betting relentlessly. So against a fish you adjust by adding more hands with top-pair value - meaning hands that make top pair and that will have a better kicker than your fish.

Hands like KT, KJ, QT, AT-A6 etc. all become raises when fish are likely to call because the fish will still play hands that you dominate.

Fish make mistakes regulars won't. They'll call a raise with A♦ 2♥ and be happy to call three streets on an ace-high board.

Fish love to call so add more top pair hands.

In other words, when your opponent plays a wider range of dominated hands then you, you should widen your range of dominating hands.

Playing Against Regulars

Your profit from a regular isn't going to come from him calling you down with a dominated hand. He just isn't going to do it that often.

A regular isn't going to call all three streets with that same A♦ 2♥ on an ace-high board. You may get one street of value from your weak ace, but if there's action on a second street you're probably beat.

Your profit against a regular comes from making him fold the best hand.

Against a regular your top-pair hands go down in value and your bluff implied-odds hands go up in value.

Suited connectors are the best hands to play versus regulars. When they hit they make big hands - hands that you're willing to go to war with stacks with.

But the best part about suited connectors is they often flop or turn a draw and are great for firing multiple barrels.

A good example:

$1/$2 effective stacks $200. You have 6♣ 7♣ in the cut-off and raise to $7. A regular in the big blind calls.

The flop comes 8♣ 3♠ 2♦. He checks and you bet $12.

(Now a regular is going to peel almost any pocket pair here because he knows you're going to be c-betting a lot.)

He calls and the turn comes T♣. He checks and you fire $25.

Now can he really call profitably? He has no idea if you have an overpair, an eight, a ten, or what. He just knows the board is getting worse for him.

You've also improved. You now have a gutshot straight-flush draw and even if you're called you can hit any one of your 12 outs and win the hand.

That's what makes suited connectors such great multi-barrel hands. They improve on the turn a high percentage of the time.

If you have one card of your suit on the flop, you're going to pick up a flush draw on the turn 1 in 4.7 times. And when you have as much equity as nine outs, it's always a great time to fire a second barrel.

Add in the fact you're going to be barreling overcards, your opponent is going to be forced into making tough decisions all the time.

Regs are tough to get value from, but easier to bluff.

It's not bluffing in the true sense of the word, where you bluff with nothing. It's better. It's bluffing with equity.

When you turn equity, it's always a great time to fire a second barrel because your opponents are going to fold a lot. When they don't, you can still either hit your hand and win a stack or miss, fire again and win by making them fold.

Bluffing with equity is always better than bluffing with no equity because it gives you an escape hatch. You're banking on them folding, but when they call you're not dead in the water as you can still hit.

Where fish are happy to stack off with dominated hands, regulars won't. Those times you do get a regular to call three streets with a dominated hand, it's probably a cooler.

But you can't count on making money from regulars with coolers. In the end, they'll cooler you just as much as you cooler them.

The difference in your win rate is going to come from you making him fold with the best hand more often than he does you. And that's done by firing multiple barrels.

Suited connectors are great for that.

It's a Numbers Game

You won't be able to tailor your play perfectly all of the time, but depending on the table you should be able to tweak your play depending on where the button is.

For example if you're in the cut-off, there's a tight player on the button and two fish in the blinds, you should be opening more top-pair hands.

However if you're in the cut-off and there are two regulars in the blinds, you should obviously be opening more suited connectors and less weak top-pair hands.

It's a game of adjust and re-adjust. Just look around the table and figure out which style you should be using against which opponent and play accordingly.

It's an easy adjustment to make and it will dramatically improve your results.

More strategy articles:

The Bluff Catcher How to Improve Non-Showdown Winnings Playing Hands With Showdown Value Making The Switch: Live Full-Ring to Online Six-Max

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

The Sunk-Cost Effect: Post-Flop Play Part IV

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:49:15 -0700

1) Avoid problem situations and problem hands.

Position and previous action are keys. If you want to make your life a living hell, limp into pots early with hands like KJ and A9. And don't tell me they were suited!

These are problematical hands. They "look good" and have the potential for making big hands.

The problem lies in the disjunction between the probability of the big hand and that of catching a minor piece of the flop. The former doesn't occur often and when it does, it typically won't win enough to cover the losses when you catch second best.

Here's an example we've all seen (or done!): Mid-position limps with A♠ 9♠, gets raised 2.5x by the BB and (reluctantly) calls.

The flop is 9♣ 7♠ 2♣. BB bets half the pot. MP calls. Turn is 4♥. Another half-pot bet, call. River's a brick. Bet, crying call. BB shows JJ. Reload.

You're never pot commited if you're drawing dead.

Let's dig into this situation a bit and see why it is creates such havoc.

The initial limp isn't awful. Sometimes we get away with it and see a cheap flop. The problem comes when we get raised pre-flop and call or when we hit a piece of the flop and end up calling several bets.

Why do so many players make these calls? Well, one reason is that this situation invites what behavioral economists call the "sunk-cost effect" - that is, you get pulled into continuing with a line of action because you've already "sunk" costs into it.

It's analogous to the notion of being "pot committed." However, here we really aren't pot committed - certainly not pre-flop and usually not on the flop.

But the tug to go with a hand that has outs after we've already "sunk" valuables into it has a strong emotional pull, partly because we tend to overestimate the potential positive outcomes.

That is, once the slide into the sunk-cost dilemma starts, people caught up in it overestimate the potential gains.

Jackson and Dixon at USIC have looked specifically at how this effect plays itself out in Hold 'Em. And, for the curious, take a look at Dixon's research exploring the psychological links between choice, self-control and gambling.

If you're not careful your chips might slide away.

These problems are ubiquitous in economic settings and finance and haven't been satisfactorily solved so don't be too surprised when you see poker players falling into them.

There are, alas, other difficulties with these hands. Action junkies get pulled in because when they hit, they produce large "reinforcements" (flop two pair with A-9 and you can do a lot of damage to A-K).

As we've discussed numerous times, large rewards have a significant impact on shaping our emotions and our approach to the game. But elementary game theory tells you that the play has negative EV.

Worse, these hands suffer from information poverty. You typically do not know where you are in them. Your opponent's range of hands is large, as it often is when you've limped into a pot.

In addition, you're acting first in these situations and this is never good.

Save yourself a lot of heartache and cash and stay away from these hands. Even the very best players have trouble with them. If you don't see a flop, you don't have to worry about post-flop play.

2) The half-bet from the SB, call or fold rags.

This one has been hotly debated over the years. The standard argument for calling is that you're getting attractive odds, particularly if there are several limpers and a relatively passive player in the BB.

This isn't crazy but it needs to be filtered through some subtle screens.

First, appreciate that you don't really know your implied odds. If there are three callers and you're looking at T♠ 2♦, it's bloody unlikely you're getting the 9-1 you need (against random hands) to justify the call (assuming the BB doesn't pop it).

Second, you'll be out of position all the way to the river. I don't know about you, but this rarely makes me comfortable.

Is defending your blind worth risking your stack?

Third, once you've made the call you're going to be caught up in the "sunk-cost" problem. And if you catch a piece of the flop it'll get even tougher to bail out of the hand.

BTW, I chose the T♠ 2♦ example here for a reason. It is, of course, known as "Doyle's hand" or "the Brunson" since he won the WSOP Main Event with it twice and found himself psychologically committed to it (as noted, "reinforcement works").

If you saw a telecast of High Stakes Poker last year, it had a magic moment. Brunson picked up T-2, looked at it and dumped it in the muck while making the classic spitting sound people make to ward off evil.

Later he said that he can't begin to count the money he's lost playing that hand.

Calling the half-bet with junk is a long-term risky play. Here's a simple rule: Don't call with any hand that you wouldn't play for a full bet in early position.

The Naked Raise Plus: Post-Flop Play Part III This One is Tricky: More on Post-Flop Play The Simple Psychology of Post-Flop Play What's Luck Got to Do With It?

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Fixing Your Redline: Stop Playing OOP

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 23:01:06 -0700

Stop playing out of position!

It's been said a thousand times, but if you're playing out of position you're going to lose money. And when it comes to non-showdown winnings, it's extremely true.

When you play out-of-position you're at an extreme disadvantage. You have to act with no information and your opponent gets the huge bonus of getting to see what you do before he acts.

What that means for your redline is that you're going to be left guessing a ton.

You're going to peel with your second pairs and your weak top pairs, and then you're going to fold to further action.

Putting money into the pot and folding = redline cancer.

An extremely basic example, and one that happens several times a session:

$1/$2 game online; effective stacks $200. You're in the big blind with A♣ T♣.

It's folded around to the regular on the button who makes it $7.

The small blind folds and you call. The flop comes J♥ T♠ 3♦. You check and he bets $12 into $15.

You make the call and the turn comes K♥. You check and he fires $28 into $39.

Now here's your problem.

You know that the K♥ is a great barrel card. And you know your decent opponent is going to second-barrel it with almost 100% of his range - just because you're going to fold so often.

Playing OOP is like prop betting with Huck Seed. You got no shot.

So your options are fold and forfeit 10BB, or call and hope he shuts down on the river.

If he fires the river, you definitely have to fold and now you're forfeiting 23.5BB.

Neither option is good. Especially if your opponent is capable of firing multiple barrels.

Because your opponent is in position, he's entirely in control of the hand.

He decides whether to bet or whether to check, and he always has the last say.

If you lead, he can fold, call or raise. If you check, he can check or bet.

Where your hands are tied, he has complete control. With similar hands taking place all the time, it's easy to see how you can bleed money from out of position.

Though it's impossible to completely avoid playing out of position (you can't just fold TT because you're out of position for example) you can (and should) tighten up your out-of-position calling range.

When you play fewer hands, you play better hands pre-flop. When you play better hands pre-flop, you'll make better hands post-flop.

When you make better hands post-flop, your decisions will be easier and you won't have to check-fold on later streets nearly as often.

The end result is you'll save money and you'll improve your non-showdown winnings.

And, most importantly, your overall win-rate will improve.

Related strategy articles:

Fixing Your Redline: Playing Fewer Tables Fixing Your Redline: Making Better C-Bets Fixing Your Redline: Playing Draws Aggressively How to Improve Non-Showdown Winnings Firing the Second Barrel When Not to Continuation Bet

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Online to Live: Seven Rules for Making the Switch

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:21:21 -0700

Maybe it's time to try your hand at those juicy live games you've heard so much about? How different can it be?

Yes, the rumors are true - live games are incredibly juicy.

But if you can't adjust to the subtle intricacies of live poker, you won't be as big a winner as you should be (or think you should be).

Below are the major differences and how to adjust your game:

1) Games are Slower

The biggest change, and it will hit you right away, is that live games are slower. Much, much slower.

Not only are you forced to play just one table, but the game itself takes much longer to play out.

While you may get more than 80 hands per hour per table online, you'll be lucky to get 30 live.

Fewer hands mean a lot more folding. And a lot more boredom.

But don't just shut your brain off - use your free time to observe your opponents,

If you can stay sharp, watch your opponents and break down their playing styles, when you end up in a hand with them a few hours down the road you're going to have a huge advantage.

Average tables are much, much softer.

2) Average Tables are Much Softer

Making up somehwat for how slow the games are is how much softer your average table is.

When you play online, you may consider it a good table if there's one full-stacked fish.

When you play live at $5/$10 and below, your average table consists of two real fish, two gamblers (the fishy kind), four super-tight "regulars" and maybe two good players (including, you hope, you).

The whole table is softer. The fish are fishier and the regs are more predictable.

There are even players that are so tight you can guarantee any time they raise it's either KK, AA or the nuts.

These players would be eaten alive online, but because there are so many more fish live they can still beat the game.

As easy as it is to wait for the nuts and relentlessly value-bet against the fish, it's just as easy to raise the tight regs and push them around.

When they push back, fold. It's an easy game.

3) Games are Loose-Passive

If you've come from the online six-max arena, it's going to be shocking to you how passive these games are.

Online, it may be profitable to four-bet shove/call shoves with AK from any position pre-flop. If you do it live, you'll find AA-KK every time and you'll get killed.

Light three-betting is almost non-existent. When most players re-raise, it's almost always for value.

Watch your opponents - they may go a whole session without a single three-bet. Some players even just flat-call QQ and AK, opting to play poker on the flop.

If you're regularly getting AK in pre-flop 100bb deep (or more) in a live game, you're going to have a tough time booking wins.

Limp, limp and more limp.

Moving past just pre-flop play, the whole game is much more passive. Rather than raising with draws, players will just call and hope to hit.

They'll also slow play monsters rather than build a big pot, and they'll miss obvious river value-bets.

4) Pre-Flop Limping is Rampant

Connected to #3 above, there's a ton of limping pre-flop in live games.

Online, you can tell who the fish are by who limps. Live, it isn't the same.

Everybody limps - and limps a lot.

If you tried to isolate every single time someone limped, you'd just find yourself taking 4- and 5-way flops regularly.

Live players like to see the flop.

So, rather than iso-raising with T♣ 8♠ off the button, you may just be better off seeing a flop 6-way.

5) Pots are Contested Multi-WayOnline, 90% of pots are heads-up to the flop. Live, your average pot is usually 2- or 3-handed.

With more players comes more chance someone has a real hand.

As the pre-flop raiser, you should continuation-bet less.

You'll also need, on average, a better hand to win at showdown.

6) Games are Deeper

If you're a winner online, you've mastered play with a 100bb stack. But when you play live, you'll find yourself 200bb deep (or more) very often.

Just play your game.

Adjusting to deep-stack play can be very difficult.

You'll often play hands where, if you were 100BB deep, you'd just happily get it in on the flop. But if you're 300bb deep, it's no longer profitable.

Should you choose to call, you'll have to call large bets on the turn and river as well.

7) Just Play Your Game

Whether it's live or online, your goal remains the same: either make your opponent fold before showdown, or have the best hand at showdown.

Watch your opponents, study their playing habits and play your poker game. The rest is just experience.So get up from your computer, go be sociable for a bit and take advantage of the softer games.

You may be surprised with what you've been missing.

Related strategy articles:

Making The Switch: Live Full-Ring to Online Six-Max Switching from Cash Games to Tournaments How to Crush Live $1/$2 No-Limit Hold'em Why You Want to Play with Bad Players

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Grit and the Grind: How Great Players Get Great

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 00:34:00 -0700

He's got a deep interest in psychology as well as poker, and that makes some of the things he's written about very relevant to this space here.

In a recent piece in the Boston Globe, he extols the virtue of grit and perseverance in the struggle for success.

He notes, correctly, that popular tales about how greats like Newton made scientific breakthroughs are myths.

We Too Have Our Myths

The notion that Newton discovered gravity when an apple bonked him on the head is just plain wrong, as is the one about Darwin discovering natural selection when he encountered various finches in the Galapagos.

These scientific urban myths don't just mislead - they distort the very essence of how true, deep, understanding is achieved.

Newton and Darwin were both brilliant. But so were many of their contemporaries.

The key is that both were intensely focused on their work. They spent years - in Darwin's case 20 - sifting data, pouring over models, reading, absorbing ideas, pushing the envelope of understanding.

Magical talent? Maybe a little.

In the poker world, we too have our myths. We believe that some just have a natural affinity for the game and can pick it up on the fly.

A couple of dozen hours at the felt and, bingo, they become solid, winning players.

If you think that Darwin just took a cruise around the world and got hit in the head with a really cool idea, you might also think that Phil Ivey got where he is because of some magical talent.

Or that the young Internet stars popping out of their bedrooms with million-dollar bankrolls are just cool guys with a flair for playing risky games.

Ability Combined With Zeal and Hard Labour

Lehrer quotes, approvingly, a line from Sir Francis Galton (who, interestingly, was a psychologist before there was a psychology as well as Charles Darwin's first cousin) to the effect that high levels of achievement depend on "ability combined with zeal and the capacity for hard labour."

And herein is the lesson for today.

I'm a recreational player. I put in a couple of hours a week either flipping chips at my local card room or zinging electrons around the world at virtual tables.

I read a lot and I think a good bit about the game and how I play it. But I'm a dilettante and I know it.

It's more than just a flair for risky games.

But I have friends, good friends, who are serious and successful pros. And I am astonished at the efforts they make, the time they put in, the intensity they bring to the game.

They don't just read books and articles. They play astronomical numbers of hands, keep records, make notes, rehash hands, review sessions, carry out intellectual autopsies on tournaments.

They go back over these data and rethink things. They deliberately try out different strategic moves and clock how those sessions went.

They spend endless hours with friends of like minds and similar skills going over all of this stuff.

The best are also brutally honest with themselves. Just like a good scientist, they know the data do not lie.

Lehrer spent a week exploring these issues with many top pros at the WSOP and, as he told me, "It was pretty clear.

These players succeed, not because of any special 'talent,' but because they have found something that they love so much that it doesn't feel like a job.

"They need to do this. They are putting in literally thousands upon thousands of hours of focused, concentrated study."

Old and Honored Reasons

The successful young poker pros, those rising to the top, are getting there for old and honored reasons.

Sure, they've got some natural talent; they're smart, not particularly risk-averse and have a natural (or quickly learn) emotional stability.

To be great, you need grit.

But these qualities alone won't do it. It'll just make them smart, easy-going players who make a couple of bucks at the game.

As Lehrer put it, "What they've got to have to become among the best is good old-fashioned grit.

They've got to be focused, motivated and have a deep desire to get better, to succeed, to become truly great at what they do."

Lehrer also notes that success and IQ are only weakly correlated. IQ isn't the same thing as intelligence and who succeeds at life's games is more tightly linked with factors like perseverance, grit and sweat.

One of the most intelligent people I've known was a professional racehorse handicapper. Not many people can make a living doing this. He did.

We were friends for nearly twenty-five years. He told me that when he took the Army IQ tests he scored a shade below average. Fascinating.

And, for what it's worth, I suspect that many of the better poker pros might easily have (or may yet) become artists, writers, businessmen.

The formula for making it is pretty much the same for all.

More strategy articles from Arthur S. Reber:

F U: Why Swearing in Poker is Good For You The Naked Raise Plus: Post-Flop Play Part 3 This One is Tricky: More on Post-Flop Play The Simple Psychology of Post-Flop Play

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Fixing Your Redline: Playing Fewer Tables

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 11:36:45 -0700

Instead of the grueling 20 hands an hour you may get live, online you may be able to get 1,000 hands or more.

Though more hands an hour is an obvious plus, there's also an obvious negative. The more tables you play, the less attention you can give each one of them.

Let's say your win rate is three big bets per 100 hands (3BB/100) over a large sample size when you play one table. If you double the amount of tables you play, in theory you double the amount of money you make.

But you can't just keep doubling your tables and keep making more and more money. Eventually, as you add more tables, your game will start to deteriorate.

You'll no longer be able to give each decision the required amount of thinking. You'll rush decisions to act on other tables, and you'll slip into auto pilot.

Not everyone can play a million tables at once, ElkY-style.

Auto pilot is one of the major factors of a downward-sloping redline. When you slip into auto pilot you stop thinking.

And when you can't give each decision the required amount of thought, you'll make countless little mistakes.

No longer are you thinking, "My opponent is tight-aggressive and will probably peel with 99 on T♣ 3♠ 4♦." You're just thinking, " I raised pre-flop I c-bet, hurrrr."

You don't think, "If I c-bet this board I am going to have to fire multiple barrels."

So when you c-bet that flop and he calls, you shut down on the turn. He bets the river and you fold. Bam, you just wasted a bunch of money and hurt your redline.

Now picture doing that on 10 tables for two-plus hours. Similar situations pop up all the time, and if you're consistently on auto pilot, you'll be making mistakes like this all session long.

When your session is filled with small mistakes, your win rate - and especially your non-showdown win rate - is going to suffer.

How many tables should I be playing?

That's up to you. Only you know when you're giving each decision proper thought. You know when you're struggling and rushing your decisions.

Some people can play 12 tables at once without rushing decisions or going on auto pilot. Others may struggle with two.

Its up to you to figure out how many tables are right for you.

If you want to be durrrr, play less tables and focus on every decision.

But I make more with a smaller win rate and more tables

Well, that's probably true.

It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to figure out if you win at 3BB/100 playing two tables and 2BB/100 playing eight tables, and your only goal is making money, then play the eight tables.

If, however, your main goal is to improve as a poker player and move up in limits, then you may be better off in the short run playing less tables, making less overall money, but playing better poker.

When you massively multi-table, you may make more money but you stunt your poker growth.

It's up to you to decide what your goals are. Do you want to move up in limits and improve as a poker player? Or are you happy with where you are and how much money you're making currently?

If it's the former, you're better off playing less tables and paying more attention.

You'll make less money in the short term but down the road you'll be a lot better player than that massive multi-tabler - plus you'll have a super sexy upward sloping redline.

Related strategy articles:

Fixing Your Redline: Making Better C-Bets Fixing Your Redline: Playing Draws Aggressively How to Improve Non-Showdown Winnings Firing the Second Barrel When Not to Continuation Bet

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Pre-Flop vs. Post-Flop Poker

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 21:05:35 -0700

Although all forms of Hold'em have pre-flop and a post-flop play, one of them will typically be more dominant during the course of play and will require the focus of your skills.

It's crucial to understand which form is most prominent in the game you're playing and make sure your play is suited to fit it.

The rule of thumb obviously is if the majority of your major decisions happen pre-flop, you're playing pre-flop poker. Likewise, if the majority of the decisions you make happen post-flop, you're playing post-flop poker.

These are some common poker situations and what style of poker each requires:

Situation Style Deep-stacked cash game Post-flop Late stages of online tourney (average stack 7bb) Pre-flop Heads-up cash game versus 10bb short stacker Pre-flop Heads-up against a vastly inferior player Post-flop

Play To Your Strengths

If you're a player who likes to run elaborate bluffs, or you feel you have a knack for maximizing value and minimizing losses, you're best suited to play post-flop poker.

If you're a player who likes to play "small ball" poker, exploit weakness and play a very fine-edged mathematical game, you're best suited for playing pre-flop poker.

This is the reason some players are naturally more profitable in sit-n-gos while others thrive in deep-stacked cash games.

While many post-flop oriented players think a pre-flop game is simply gambling compared to the chess-like approach of post-flop play, no one style is better or more profitable than the other.

Once you understand which style of player you are, it's in your best interest to seek out and play only in games that match your style.

If you're a strong pre-flop player, it doesn't make sense to lose money sitting deep-stacked in a cash game.

The Cards or the Player

Short stack = Pre-flop.

When playing pre-flop poker, the player decides the "when" in making the move, but in the end it's the cards that decide his or her fate.

That's why there's so much variance in a typical donkament; even if you always get it all-in as a 4-1 favorite, eventually you're going to lose to that 20%.

This reason alone is why you'll see some of the best players choosing to just call, or even limp, into pots pre-flop in tournaments, choosing to use their obvious skill advantage in post-flop play.

The wider the gap in skill between you and your opponent in post-flop play, the less your hand value matters.

If you're not as strong as your opponent, don't afford them the luxury of outplaying you post-flop. Force them to play pre-flop poker against you.

This means you should be raising instead of limping, re-raising instead of calling and folding any trouble hand you would be forced to play post-flop - especially if you're out of position.

The Luxury of Choice

Most poker players understand what their strengths are. Regardless of the game's overall leaning to one particular side, each player will try to manipulate the play of the hand to their preferred style.

Unfortunately, not all poker situations let you make this choice.

When you start playing pre-flop poker in a scenario suited to post-flop poker (or vice versa), you're going to start running into trouble.

For the most part, your general game selection will determine what style of poker needs to be played. But there are times when you will have the opportunity to choose what style of poker to play while at the table.

It's important to identify these moments and force the play of the hand into the style of your choice. Maybe even more important, try to force the style of play into one where your opponent is uncomfortable.

For example: You're in $1,000 buy-in live tournament with only 200 players left from the starting 800. Thanks to a great blinds structure and a couple lucky pots you have a large stack of around 250bb.

You've been feeling out the table for the last two hours and have a pretty good handle on your opponents. One player, an online MTT grinder with a stack of 100bb, raises in middle position, the table folding to you.

Large stack = Post-flop.

Looking down at your hand you see A♥ Q♥. Although in most tournament scenarios a three bet would be the obvious choice here, you know that your opponent is accustomed to playing tournaments with the average stack being a fraction of what you hold now.

Rather than three-betting, and allowing your opponent to play the majority of the hands action pre-flop, where he's very confident and comfortable, you choose to flat call, forcing your opponent to play post-flop out of position.

Every edge you can gain over your opponent puts you step closer to winning the pot.

Choose the Right Game

There's nothing wrong with being a pre-flop player, as long as you can admit and embrace it. Some of the most profitable online poker players in the world made their rolls playing this exact style.

If you're uncomfortable with pre-flop play and would rather wait until you see a board, that's fine as well. The key is to understand how you want to play and find a game to suit.

In the world of online poker, you're a click away from almost any variation of game in virtually any size. What you play, and for how much, is entirely up to you. There's never a reason to play out of your element.

If for some reason you must play in a game that doesn't naturally lend itself to your skills, you need to find a way to adapt to the game at hand.

For example, if you're a pre-flop player seated at a deep-stacked cash game, you might want to consider buying in short. By limiting the amount of chips you have, you force the other players to play you pre-flop, where you're more comfortable.

Know your own game, understand where your game is weak and then adapt your play to suit.

Related strategy articles:

How to Beat Your Friends at Poker Three Reasons You Lose Money Playing a Single Ace Understanding and Fixing Mistakes How to Crush Live $1/$2 No-Limit Hold'em

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

How to Beat Your Friends at Poker

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:31:02 -0700

Busting your friends at a poker table.

If you're a semi-to-regular poker player with a solid understanding of the game, chances are you're miles ahead of most of your friends when it comes to Texas Hold'em strategy.

But that doesn't guarantee you'll beat them at your regular home game.

Even though you have more experience and have read more articles and books, none of this will be useful if you don't adjust your game to their individual levels of play.

Who's at Your Table?

Almost every home game is going to have a standard cross-section of playing styles.

These for the most part are made up of:

Pre-beginners Beginners Intermediates Intermediates who think they're pros

Every action you make at a poker table is part of a poker conversation you're having with the other players.

If you're making advanced moves, far beyond the scope of your friend's poker comprehension, it's as if you're speaking another language.

If you want to be the one walking away from the table with the biggest pile of chips, there are some very simple formulas you can use to maximize your edge against each type of player.

The $5-$20 buy-in range - which is pretty much the standard in most non-pro home games - is generally going to bring out a lot more beginners and low-end intermediate players than high-end intermediates or semi-pros.

These are the key playing styles you'll need to tailor your poker game for.

Player: Pre-Beginner

Typically a friend of a friend, or a girlfriend of a regular, these folks have never played poker before let alone a structured game of Texas Hold'em.

Usually a friend of a friend.

They don't know any poker rules, they don't have any idea what you're talking about and they're clueless as to what's happening on the poker table.

This kind of player should be viewed as an antique army-surplus landmine. They're completely unpredictable.

So although you should have no problems walking all over them, sometimes stepping anywhere near them will take off your legs.

They'll move all in with the nuts or with absolutely nothing.

They also have no idea what they hold, making them impossible to get a read on.

Your Best Strategy: Avoidance

The best way to deal with the pure beginner?

Let everyone else play the guessing game.

You'll have an easier time getting those chips from the other players anyways.

An Example:

You raise from middle position with K♠ Q♠. The button calls and the Pre-Beginner min-re-raises from the small blind.

You both call to see a flop.

Flop: Q♥ 10♠ 8♦.

The Pre-Beginner opens for a bet about twice the size of the pot.

Although there's a decent chance you're ahead, there are lots of hands that have you beat here.

Rather than play the guessing game, hope the button makes the call instead. Fold and wait for a better spot.

Player: Beginner

Although these players understand the raw fundamentals of poker, they only ever play the most basic strategies.

Expect first-level poker with all decisions made purely on the strength of the two cards they hold.

These players are effortless to handle as you'll always know exactly what they're doing and what they're holding.

If they show strength, they have a strong hand. If they show weakness, they're going to fold.

They also are known to commit 90% of their stack into a pot then fold to a final bet, leaving them with one or two chips.

Best way to beat beginners? Aggression.

Your Best Strategy: Aggression

The best way to consistently beat these players is to play a very aggressive poker game.

Your goal is to try take down almost every hand dealt at the table.

When these players try to play back at you, or show any signs of strength, ditch the hand and let them have it.

An Example:

You raise the first six hands dealt at the table. Each time, you either steal the blinds or any callers fold to your continuation-bet on the flop.

The next hand, with two callers on the flop, your c-bet gets raised by a beginner.

To a true poker beginner, your image means little to nothing.

You just got raised because he has a legitimate hand. Fold out, and raise the next pot.

Player: Intermediate

If you play with the same players every week eventually most of them will become intermediate players.

These players have a basic understanding of the game and are starting to mix up their play a bit.

Most importantly, these players are making fewer mistakes than the beginners.

Your Best Strategy: Aggression

The best way to deal with intermediate players is the same way you'd approach playing a beginner.

Put heavy pressure on them with aggression and force them to fold out of most of the hands they play.

When someone plays back at you, ditch your hand or punish them if you actually have a good hand.

If the other players show strength early, they probably have a hand.

Let them fight amongst themselves; you want to be the aggressor rather than the caller.

Best approach against intermediates? Heavy pressure.

Example:

After you've been annoyingly aggressive at the table, intermediate players will start to get upset.

Every time they've had a hand they wanted to play, you made them fold.

Every time they've been dealt a premium hand and raised, you've folded.

They'll call your raise with A♥ K♥ and see a flop of A♦ 10♠ 7♠.

This is where they think they're finally going to give you a taste of your own medicine.

Unfortunately for them, you're holding 10♥ 10♣. But the key is to play the hand exactly the same as you've played your junk hands.

Expect to be check-raised. Then, either instantly raise them back or just call.

If you call, they'll bet out the turn where you can raise them.

If you upset them enough early, they'll make an emotional all-in and you'll win a large pot.

Player: Intermediate Who Thinks He's a Pro

Depending on where you are, these players will range from extremely rare to the majority of your game.

It's important to spot these players early as you need to take a slightly different approach when taking them on.

There are a few telltale signs of a delusional intermediate:

He'll talk about how great he is at poker He can't wait to talk about the exact odds your hand has He likes to use the expressions "pot committed" and "pot odds," regardless of the relevancy to the situation at hand

Your Best Strategy: Wait for the Dumb Move

These players play the same game as the regular intermediate but with a few twists.

The occasional move or bluff will come out of these players.

Wait for this guy to make a dumb move.

Fortunately for you, their skill level isn't high enough for them to make consistent quality moves.

Lean on them, let them bluff and wait for them to make a dumb move at the wrong time.

Luckily, these players typically have serious ego problems.

Snapping them off can cause immediate tilt, and since these guys think they're pro they also think they're ballers so they'll be sure to rebuy.

Example:

Unless you have the hand locked up, when these players make a strong play that smells like a bluff, chances are you should just fold.

It's far better for you - both short term and long term - to let them run bluffs rather than have them stack you on a bad read.

Play the same game you play against the intermediate players and wait for them to make a move at the wrong time.

They'll pay lots of attention to the texture of the board but will have little understanding of the betting story.

Bluffs from these players are only as in-depth as, "he can't call unless he has a king in his hand."

Luckily you not only know that he doesn't have a king, but that he has to believe you have one if you move in over the top.

Related strategy articles:

Three Reasons You Lose Money Playing a Single Ace Understanding and Fixing Mistakes How to Crush Live $1/$2 No-Limit Hold'em Texas Hold'em Starting Hands Cheat Sheet

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

F U: Why Swearing in Poker is Good For You

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 14:00:00 -0800

There isn't a soul this side of a two-year-old minister's daughter who doesn't know how to flip those letters.

Yet if you do, and someone is offended by it, you may find some defender of the laws of 'decent folks' writing you a ticket for "disorderly conduct."

We all know this is just f*ck*d up b*ll sh*t --- but we can't really say it.

And, anyway, as Mike Matusow has found out at the poker table, repeated offenses get you repeated fines - up to 10 minutes per F-bomb even.

It isn't just poker rooms, bars or other hang-outs of the young and restless that swearing dominates conversations.

Ever look at the transcripts of the tapes Richard Nixon secretly made of the lofty deliberations in the White House? I have.

They're not easy to read. Indeed, it's tough to figure out what Tricky Dick was saying at all because essentially every other word was "expletive deleted."

You say mother, I say day.

Swearing is Fundamental

Swearing is a fundamental feature of human talk.

President Obama noted that Mother's Day had an odd ring to it for Rahm Emanuel, his chief of staff, because "Rahm isn't used to hearing the word 'day' follow 'mother.'"

If you take a quick look back at the history of languages and how they've changed, you'll find that every generation has its 'cuss' words. And they change.

'Bitch' and 'bastard' originally referred respectively, and rather benignly, to a 'female dog' and a 'person born out of wedlock.' They slowly wended their way into use as effective insults.

As such, they functioned as words that 'offended' others - which is sufficient to have them fall under some loosely structured disorderly conduct laws.

Consequently, they were 'banned' from the airwaves in the US as unsuitable for the ears of 'decent folk.'

Nowadays, bitch and bastard have become so common they've lost much of their affect.

They're barely offensive and hardly insults - and are printed with vowels rather than asterisks.

The only TV show where you won't hear them is Sesame Street.

Not much out there about non-verbal release, but Todd Brunson has always been a bit ahead of his time.

Why All Societies Have Swear Words

Ever wonder about cursing? Why it's linguistically universal? Why all societies have swear words?

Universality alerts psychologists to the possibility that we've stumbled on something fairly deep.

Much of the early research on swearing wasn't very illuminating, since it tended to be clothed with concerns about morals and ethical conduct.

But Timothy Jay, a psychologist at the Massachusetts College of the Liberal Arts has carried out some research that cuts through all the trivia and gets right to the heart of the matter:

Cursing is good for you!

Yup. It turns out that swearing has real and important psychological functions.

Its immediate impact is to lessen tensions and release frustrations.

When you're really pissed (note, not 'p*ssed') when some donk-brain sucks out on you on the cash bubble, it's psychologically uplifting to let loose with a couple of juicy 'expletive deleteds.'

There is, in addition, a secondary gain of even more significance (from the point of view of smoothing social interactions) --- the release of tension also makes it less likely that you'll resort to physical abuse.

And, as we know, when a particular behavior makes you feel better, it's a psychological certainty that it will become an action deeply ingrained and oft-repeated.

F penalties! Even the WSOP says there's no harm in some directionless cursing.

Empty Swearing Hurts No One

So, is there a poker message here? Sure. And interestingly, the WSOP has figured it out. "Empty" swearing, venting, is okay.

It's no longer a violation to hurl a "WTF" when the one-outer hits the board.

But it's still a violation to turn to the guy who slurped out on you and call him a "dumb mother f*ck*r" ... and it should be.

The offense isn't in the sound of the words; it's in the intentions of the speaker to harm another.

The real crime is "verbal assault." This is where the "indecent" element comes in.

I'm a big fan of what I guess we call "directionless" cursing.

It can be an art form, a way to express political and social ideas, a device for exploring the edges of meaning.

And now it turns out that it can actually make you feel better. Or play better.

I feel better already.

More poker strategy articles from Arthur S. Reber:

The Naked Raise Plus: Post-Flop Play Part 3 This One is Tricky: More on Post-Flop Play The Simple Psychology of Post-Flop Play Skill vs. Luck: Let's Get it Right

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Fixing Your Redline: Making Better C-Bets

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 13:20:43 -0700

When you fire c-bets with reckless disregard, you're more often than not just going to end up folding later in the hand.

Add up all of those folds over the course of a session - or a month, or a year - and you can clearly see that's going to cost you a lot of "non-showdown" winnings.

Indentifying bad c-bets

Bad c-bets are ones where the only thought that enters your mind is, "I'm the pre-flop raiser, so I should bet again." Simple as that.

The problem with thoughtless continuation-betting is that when your opponent calls, you usually give up on the hand when he bets on a later street.

When you fold, you forfeit your pre-flop raise, your c-bet and the rest of the pot without a fight.

When you put money into the pot and fold, not only will your overall bottom line suffer, your "non-showdown" winnings take a big hit.

In Poker Tracker terms, that means a sharp, downward-sloping "redline."

(For a more complete definition of the redline and how it effects your game, check out these articles here and here.)

Losing a raise and a c-bet might not seem like a big deal, but it's a leak that can repeat itself countless times in a single session

Do it often enough and it can become a massive leak for a player with an otherwise decent game.

Your main goal with a c-bet? Get a fold.

C-betting better

If the main factor in bad c-betting is thoughtlessness, the way to become a better c-bettor is, naturally, to think about your c-bets. Every time.

What do you think about?

You think about what your goal is.

As the c-bettor, your goal is to use the initiative you've gained being the pre-flop raiser and get a fold from your opponent.

Mark these words: To get a fold!

When you c-bet, you want your opponent to fold.

Focus your c-betting on situations when he's likely to fold; check instead when he's likely to call.

Dry boards with big cards are the best boards to c-bet

It's human nature for your opponent to put you on big cards when you raise pre-flop. When the board comes A♥ 3♠ 8♣, it's an easy c-bet.

The board is dry, and he's very likely to have missed.

You're the pre-flop raiser, so you're more likely to have an ace than he is. In this case, your continuation bet is likely to succeed.

On the flip side, when you raise and the board comes 3♥ 2♠ 6♣, you're probably not going to get credit for a real hand that often.

It's probably better to check, unless...

Mutli-barrelling can become extremely profitable.

You plan on firing multiple barrels

A board like the one above may not be great to c-bet if you plan on going "one and done" on it - meaning firing one c-bet then giving up when called.

It may still be profitable to c-bet, but only if you plan on firing multiple barrels.

On a low board, or a board with one medium-high card like T♥ 4♣ 2♠, your opponent is liable to peel with almost any pocket pair.

He hopes you'll give up when your c-bet is called and he can go on to check it down and win the hand.

This article, though, is to get you to stop that mindless "one and done" c-betting and get you thinking.

On these types of boards, "one and done" c-betting just isn't profitable.

When you think about your opponent's range in most of these cases however, multi-barreling on these types of boards can become extremely profitable.

Your opponent's range is usually made up of weak, one-pair hands. You can often just fire the turn and river and have him fold out a very high percentage of the time.

More bad c-betting spots:

Multi-way pots. Multi-way pots just mean more opponents that can catch a piece of the board and call you.

When you're looking for a fold, that's obviously not ideal.

Draw-heavy flops If you raise in early position with A♦ K♥, get called on the button, and the flop comes 6♠ 8♠ 9♠,

it's probably best not to fire that c-bet. That flop just smashes your opponent's calling range.

Vs. calling stations. It's basically the age-old adage: Don't bluff calling stations. You can't bluff a guy that never folds.

Flops that don't help your perceived range These are the boards that you either plan on firing multiple barrels on or you don't c-bet.

If a board looks like it didn't help your range, making a single c-bet then giving up is literally flushing money down the toilet.

Either plan on firing good turn cards (i.e. big cards), or just check.

Bottom line: Be a Thinker.

Showdown-value hands.A flopped hand that has good showdown value but isn't quite strong enough to bet for value is a good one to check through.

A good example would be A♥ 7♦ on a K♦ 7♠ 2♣ board.

You're likely to have the best hand, but betting will just fold out everything you're ahead of.

No worse hands ever call, making it perfectly fine to check behind when in position.

When you actually think, your c-bets improve.

Bottom line is if you want to make better c-bets, you have to think through every situation.

Think about your opponents and their playing styles.

What boards are likely to have helped their pre-flop calling range and what boards they think helped your pre-flop raising range?

Always c-bet with a plan. The main thing: ditch the "one and done" approach.

If you plan on firing one barrel and giving up, don't. It may be better to not fire any at all.

Related strategy articles:

Fixing Your Redline: Playing Draws Aggressively How to Improve Non-Showdown Winnings Firing the Second Barrel When Not to Continuation Bet

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Cracking Aces

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 17:30:06 -0700

This is one of those few scenarios where you can be almost certain a player has aces.

Although extremely rare, the legend of the player who only plays aces is actually based on fact. There really are players who only play the very best hands - and sometimes only if they have position.

Although this article is specifically about playing against one of these fossils, it's not limited to them. There are lots of times when you can be as close to certain as you can be that a player has aces or kings.

Even if it's in their range to have queens, jacks or ace-king, for the purposes of this article, we're not even going to consider those as possibilities - and neither should you at the table.

When you're playing to crack aces, you're hoping the player really does have them, regardless of what they truly hold.

The End Goal

Your goal when playing to crack aces is simple: Get out of the hand cheap, or take someone's entire stack.

Anything in the middle should be considered a mistake, and a costly one at that.

Some Percentages

Here's how a variety of hands hold up against A♣ A♦ over five streets:

A♠ Q♥ - 8%A♥ K♥ - 12%T♦ 5♠ - 13%2♠ 3♠ - 16%6♣ 8♦ - 17%K♣ K♦ - 17%K♠ Q♠ - 18%4♣ 4♦ - 18%J♣ J♦ - 18%7♠ 8♠ - 23%

What you want to take away from this list is the general range of how hands fare against aces. The worst hands are as low as 8% while the best climb as high as 23%.

The goal is a small risk, for a large reward.

Face value, your odds are poor.

All About Implied Odds

Since the best percentage you can get for five cards comes in under 25%, you're almost guaranteed to never get pot odds to make this a profitable call.

Even if five players make a pre-flop call along with us, the chances all of them call all bets to the river are slim to none.

The reason you're playing against the aces has nothing to do with pot odds; you're only playing for implied odds here.

Before you can even think about playing your hand, you need to make sure of four things:

Your opponent has a lot of chips (we're talking 100bb minimum)You have a lot of chips (ideally, more than your opponent)Your opponent will be willing to go broke with acesYou have a hand that can get paid

Without all of these things coming together at once, you're wasting your time and money even considering playing the hand.

But if you do have all of these things in order, you have a double green light to see a flop.

Hand Selection

Some hands are more likely to be paid out by aces than others. You need to be sure the hand you're playing, if it hits, will actually make you money.

So you want to play cards that can hit a very large, but hidden, hand.

Some Examples:

Your Hand The Flop Get Paid? 4♥ 4♦ 7♣ 4♠ 10♥ Yes 10♠ J♠ 7♥ 8♥ 9♣ No K♠ Q♥ K♥ Q♦ 6♠ No 6♦ 8♦ 5♦ 7♥ 9♦ Yes

Pocket pairs are always great options when trying to crack aces. When playing a pocket pair, you're essentially "set mining" - looking to hit a set on the flop.

When you hit, it's hidden and it's huge. When you miss, it's an easy fold.

Even hands such as 6♦ 8♦ (suited one-gappers) are wonderful. When they hit a straight or two pair, it's difficult for anyone to put you on the hand. In other words, you get paid off.

A hand like 10♠ J♠ or K♠ Q♥, on the other hand, is going to get you into trouble.

For one, when it does hit large enough to crack aces, it's going to be on a wet board where most players won't go broke with just one pair.

For two, if you're wrong and your opponent has kings, hitting top two with K♠ Q♥ will leave you broke.

Only hands which stand a reasonable chance at getting paid should be played. Leave the rest in the muck.

Playing the Flop

When you're playing to crack aces, the flop is by far the most important street. You're looking for a perfect or near-perfect flop.

On the flop there are only three possible scenarios:

You missYou hit huge (minimum two pair, ideally a straight or set)You hit a huge draw

When you miss the flop, poker is easy: fold out and wait for the next hand. Getting out cheap is what you're looking to do over 90% of the time.

Due to short stacks in tourneys, this article is mostly cash-game specific.

When you do hit huge on the flop, your only goal is to get your opponent to put in as much money as possible. You need to find the balance between not giving away what you hold and still building a pot large enough to warrant the aces getting it all in by the river.

Many players with aces will assume they have the best hand and are trying to value bet you. These players will make small bets trying to lure you into calling.

Most often, a player's bet sizing will always be directly proportionate to the size of the pot. If you're just check-calling small bets, the pot will never grow large enough to warrant an all in.

When you flop a huge draw, how you play the hand is up to you.

Typically you want to try and keep the pot small and cheap until you hit. If you flop an open-ended straight-flush draw, you're sitting in great shape to win the pot, but only half your outs will get you paid.

Flushes scare people. And because your opponent fears the flush, your implied odds on your draw may not be nearly as large as you would like.

Unless you know you can get paid from all of your outs, you need to keep the pot small until you have the boss hand.

Once your draw completes, and you're holding the nuts (or a hand large enough to be considered as such), your only goal is to pump the ever-loving bejesus out of the pot, and take your opponent's whole stack.

Related strategy articles:

Poker Trouble Spots: Way Ahead or Way Behind Part 1
Ace-Queen Part 1: The Worst Best Hand Poker Trouble Spots: KK in Early Position Part 1 Controlling the Hand Part 1

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Fixing Your Redline: Playing Draws Aggressively

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 01:50:24 -0700

So when you flop a hand with as much equity as a flush draw, there's no point playing the hand slow.

Let's say you call on the button with your random suited connectors and the flop comes down with a flush draw.

If you decide to flat-call your opponent's c-bet, when the turn comes a blank and you miss you'll have to fold to your opponent's second barrel - forfeiting your pre-flop and flop call.

Putting money in and folding is a major cause of a downward-sloping redline.

You have to stop putting money into the pot only to fold without a fight.

What is a downward-sloping redline?

Your redline is your "non-showdown" winnings. When you win a pot without going to showdown, your redline goes up. When you lose a pot, it goes down.

If you're losing more money than you're winning without seeing showdowns, your redline will be slope downward.

If you lose too much money without showdown, you may not be able to overcome that to be a winning player.

Why should I play my draw aggressively?

It's simple. You learn this in poker 101.

When you're the aggressor you can win two ways.

When you're the aggressor, you can win the pot two ways. You can win by having your opponent fold or you can win by hitting your hand.

More ways to win equals more profit.

To take that point further, when your opponent is raising 16% of hands pre-flop and c-betting almost all the time, rarely is your opponent going to have a hand that can stand a raise.

Often he's going to c-bet that jack-high flop with whatever crap he raised with pre-flop and be forced to pitch it when you raise.

Now he's the one throwing away money with his pre-flop raise and flop c-bet.

Example:

Six-max game online; $200 effective stacks.

Your opponent, who is a good regular (stats-wise: 20% VP$IP; 18% pre-flop raise; 3.0 aggression factor; 70% flop c-bet), raises to $8 in the cut-off.

You call with 7♥ 8♥ on the button and everyone else folds. The flop comes 6♥ 2♦ Q♥.

Your opponent c-bets $13 into $19.

Let's think about his range. Right now it's extremely wide.

A player that raises 18% from all positions raises about 24% of hands from the cut-off.

Listing all of those possible hands is a waste of time, so let's just say it's a lot.

Instead, think about what hands he could continue with against our raise: AA-QQ, AQ-KQ, 66, 22 and ace-high flush draws, which make up about 6% of his range.

Meaning he's going to be folding to your flop raise 75% of the time.

And guess what? Even if you're called, you have more than 35% equity against everything but the nut-flush draws.

Fold equity is key.

Standard outcome: you raise to $60 and he folds.

Fold Equity is Key

Essentially, the bet above is a semi-bluff that relies on fold equity.

If your opponent is raising a very wide range pre-flop and continuation-betting a very high percentage of the time, he's going to fold to your raise on the flop a very high percentage of the time.

When you raise the flop with your flush draw, you want your opponent to fold.

But you know that if you're called, you can still win by hitting one of your flush outs.

What If He Calls?

If your opponent calls your flop raise, you have to look at his calling range.

Some opponents will call the flop raise somewhat light but still fold to further action.

Against these opponents, you can safely shove the turn and laugh when your opponent folds.

If your opponent calls flop raises with a much tighter range, you may be better off trying to take a free card.

Like everything in this wonderful game of ours, it's player dependant.

What If He Shoves?

If he shoves, you have to bite the bullet and call. Yes, it sucks, but it's the correct play.

In our example there's $19 in the pot when he c-bets $13. We raise to $60 and he shoves for $192 total.

That puts the pot at $271 and we have to call $132. When we have to call $132 to win $271, we're getting better than 2:1 and are getting the odds required for a nine-outer twice.

This is obviously not the best case scenario, but it's just not going to happen that often.

The high percentage play is that your opponent will fold and we will steal his pre-flop raise and c-bet.

Added Bonus: It Balances Your Range

Another added bonus to fast-playing your draws that you can't really quantify with math is that it balances your range.

If you're raising your flush draws on the flop, no longer can your opponent just fold top pair.

He's going to be left guessing whether you're raising a set or a flush draw.

So instead of just folding the flop because you never raise it without a set, he'll be forced to play the guessing game - which most players really suck at.

The end result is more action on your made hands.

Obvious downside? Variance.

Downside: Variance

There's a pretty obvious downside to playing your draws aggressively: variance.

When you raise with your draws, you'll frequently win the pot without showdown.

But occasionally your opponent is going to wake up with a hand and you're going to have to get it in as a slight dog.

Some of these you're going to lose; some of these you're going to win. It's the nature of the game.

Obviously in the long run, raising with your draws is much more profitable. Your opponent will just be folding insanely often.

Add on the extra action you'll get on your made hands, and it's a no brainer.

The only problem: that short run is sometimes going to be a bumpy ride.

Ride it out, and you'll see the rewards.

Related strategy articles:

How to Improve Non-Showdown Winnings Playing Three-Bet Pots With The Lead Firing the Second Barrel When Not to Continuation Bet

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Five Rules to Save Your Online Poker Bankroll

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 20:20:28 -0700

And even the best players can ruin weeks or months of successful grinding in one or two bad sessions.

Not surprisingly, players who lose money playing live poker (about 90% of the live-poker world) also claim they're simply unable to keep a balance online. Strange.

What is surprising though is the number of truly winning players who have the exact same problem.

If a player is a consistent winner in live poker, it stands to reason that his or her game is profitable and should be similarly profitable in online poker.

Unfortunately, being successful in online poker requires significantly more discipline and control than live poker.

Players are stronger, play is quicker and you don't have anyone to see when you go off the deep end.

If you're a good poker player, and you know you're capable of making money online yet can't seem to keep a roll, this article might be just what you're looking for.

1. Play Within Your Roll

Start with the most important concept first: you absolutely must play within your bankrroll if you want to make money online.

The simplest way to explain it is to look at the mathematical theorem Gambler's Ruin.

Take the infinite bankroll.

One of the concepts of Gambler's Ruin is this: take two players and pit them against each other in a zero-sum game (such as flipping a coin, where each player has an expected win/loss rate of exactly 0%).

One player has a finite bankroll. The other has an infinite bankroll. Given infinite repetitions of the game, the player with the finite roll will eventually go broke.

In the online poker world, it's you against everyone else. This means it's your roll against the infinite roll of the rest of the world. If poker was a zero-sum game, you'd go broke.

Luckily, if you're a winning player, you can expect a positive return on your investment. But you need to have enough money in your roll to make the swings and variance irrelevant.

Your bankroll, although finite, needs to be large enough to seem infinite. Stick to the standard rule of having less than 5% of your roll in play on one table at a time.

If you really want to be robusto, drop that number as low as 1% or 2%. Some of the most profitable and serious online grinders play with rolls 10x that.

If you never have to worry about going broke from losing at a specific game, chances are you won't.

2. Don't Monitor Your Balance

If you're following the first rule and playing with a legit bankroll, then (outside of a serious and lengthy downswing defying all odds) you're in little-to-no risk of going broke.

You play poker with chips, not money. You can't think about the money you're playing the game with as it's completely irrelevant.

Don't chase your losses.

With checking the amount of your online poker bankroll as easy as clicking a button, it's very easy to fall into the trap of micro-managing your poker account.

When you're on an upswing, every time you check your balance you feel good.

The number goes up, so does your spirits.

But it only takes one beat to make that number go down. A lot. And if you're still checking your balance, seeing that smaller number will make you feel bad.

You want it back to where it was and you want it back immediately.

As soon as you have that thought, you've started "chasing your losses." You're going to start forcing your play to get back to where you think you should be.

This can be the first step towards total self destruction.

Typically in poker, making money is a slow grind and losing money is a quick drop.

If you're watching your balance, you'll fall into the depression of "a week's work lost" or "It will take me a week to get back what I just lost in an hour."

The only way to get it back fast is to jump limits and take a shot at a big score.

This breaks rule #1, and is the first step to going broke.

3. Treat the Game Seriously

When you're playing poker for real money, every session, pot and decision matters. Even the smallest of mistakes costs you money.

The more money you lose from mistakes, the harder it becomes to generate profit and keep from going broke.

Limit distractions: By the very definition of the word, a distraction is something that takes your focus away from the game and puts it on something else.

As soon as you start playing online poker without paying attention, you're almost certain to make multiple mistakes.

Every person is different.

Some players can play just as well, if not better, while watching a movie. Other players need to shut everything else down to keep their mind on the game.

You need to honestly assess your capability for multi-tasking and set yourself up to play in an optimal poker environment.

Don't play out of boredom.

Don't play out of boredom: You play poker because you want to play, or because it's what you do to make money.

Playing because you're bored will force you to make poker your personal entertainment.

Sometimes, poker is not entertaining at all. If you're only playing because you're bored, and you're having a boring session, chances are you're going to make dumb moves to push the action.

If you're bored and you don't legitimately feel like grinding, find something else to do.

4. Pay Attention to Your Human Needs

You are human.

Humans require constant maintenance and upkeep to stay healthy. If you're not healthy and feeling good, you're not going to be playing your best poker.

The most important of these factors for poker:

Hunger: If you're not eating well or just plain hungry, you're not going to be thinking as quickly or proficiently as possible.

Also, if you're hungry, that's just one more distraction to keep you from thinking about poker.

Gat a good chair.

Comfort: If you're uncomfortable, you're distracted. Get a good chair, a good monitor, and set yourself up as ergonomically as possible.

If you want some good tips, Google is your answer.

Googling "Home office ergonomics" gives you pages like this:

Office Ergonomics Tips and Advice

Use every tip you can find to keep yourself healthy, comfortable and carpal-tunnel free.

Exhaustion: If you're exhausted, you're not playing your best game. If you're not playing your best game, you're losing money.

Regardless of how good the game is, when you feel extremely tired, go to bed.

Mental Distractions: If you have anything pressing on your mind, you're going to have a hard time playing your best game.

It's best to not play at all when you're in a mental state that's anything other than "normal."

Drugs and booze are another mental distraction. It's one thing to have a beer or two while you play; it's another to try and play while hammered.

Regardless of what you may think, you can't play your best poker when you're drunk.

Tilt: #1 bankroll killer.

5. Integrate a Tilt-Induced Kill Switch

Tilt is the #1 bankroll killer in the world.

Usually brought on by breaking any combination of the previous rules, or something as simple as a bad beat, tilt can drive even the most measured player into a frenzy of ridiculous bets, raises and calls.

The cause of tilt is personal and can come from anywhere. Although it will vary in degree from one person to the next, it's impossible to avoid all tilt entirely.

Some players, such as Phil Ivey, are rarely tilted. And when they are, it's rarely enough to affect their game all that much.

For the rest of the world, when you feel any signs of tilt, no matter how slight or seemingly harmless, it's time to log off, get up, and go do something else.

Poker will always be there when you get back.

End Note:

If you follow all of these rules, and you're capable of playing winning poker, chances are you will never go broke online.

But be warned: Once you break just one of these rules, the others can come crashing through the door right behind it.

Be diligent, and at the first sign of any rule being broken, abandon ship.

Remember, poker will always be around tomorrow, but once your roll is gone, it's not coming back.

Playing Three-Bet Pots With The Lead

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 23:10:32 -0700

If you've played six-max No-Limit Hold'em online at all lately, you know how aggressive the games are.

There's very little limping and every pot is typically raised or even re-raised.

With so much three-betting going on, you'd think everybody had mastered play in three-bet pots. Far from it.

Why Three-Bet?

The idea behind three-betting is to counter-balance an opponent raising a very high percentage of his opening hands.

Of those hands, only a small percentage can continue on to more action. Meaning he'll be raise/folding a ton of his range before the flop.

That alone creates enough dead money to make three-betting profitable. But that's not the only reason. Three-betting also balances your range.

Think about it this way. If you only three-bet with aces, your opponent would just fold every time you did it. But if you three-bet more than just aces (and kings and queens), your opponents can't be exactly sure what you hold and will be more likely to call.

Specifically we're talking about light three-betting, when you're doing it with a less-than-premium hand. Even more specifically, this article focuses on when you three-bet, get called and then flop nothing.

It's on the boards that you whiff completely where you can outplay your opponents and add a lot of points to your win rate.

Genius knows all about playing three-bet pots.

The Initiative

When you three-bet preflop and get called, you have the initiative. You have the lead in the hand and with it comes the advantage.

You're the one with the perceived strong hand. You chose to re-raise and he chose to just call. Now what happens if you miss the flop completely?

Use that initiative. Look at the situation and think about his likely holdings. Know your opponent. If you know (or have a good idea) what his three-bet calling range is, then you'll know exactly how much heat his hand range can take.

Your opponent's breaking point is the most important factor in three-bet pots when you have nothing. You have to know your opponent and how he plays. Get a feel for what kinds of hands he will felt in three-bet pots and which ones he won't.

In three-bet pots with the lead, you play your opponent's cards more than your own.

An Example

$1/$2 six-max online; $250 effective stacks. Your opponent raises to $6. You three-bet to $18 with T♠ 8♣. He calls and everyone else folds.

Your read on your opponent is that he is a thinking, but not great, regular. He tends to over-estimate his implied odds and plays too ABC.

The flop comes J♦ 3♥ 5♠. He checks. You fire $28. He thinks and calls. The turn comes 2♦. He checks.

Exploit the ABC TAGs. PROFIT!

A mistake a lot of players make here is checking back. Checking back in this spot is lighting money on fire.

If you c-bet that flop, you have to bet almost 100% of turns. Why? Because your opponent will be peeling with an extremely wide one-pair range.

Think about it. Say you raise 99 before the flop and your opponent re-raises you. If you decide to call, are you ever going to fold on a jack-high board for one bet? No.

The "standard" play is to peel one street and hope your opponent shuts down. But when you're the opponent, don't slow down. Fire that second barrel. Most of his flop-peeling range is not strong enough to call a second bet.

Players like this are a dime a dozen. They call out of position, hoping to flop a set, and when they don't they resign themselves to calling one street and folding to further action.

These players are free money and are going to donate 25bb to you every single time in this spot. When you three-bet pre-flop and bet two streets, your opponent is regularly going to be putting you on a big hand.

Who you calling an ABC TAG?

So exploit it and fire more second barrels. Think about your opponent's range and his playing tendencies. You want to put him outside his comfort zone.

Common Sense

Like everything in poker, this is situation and player dependant.

You can't just fire every street on every board and hope your opponent folds. That just doesn't work. You need well-timed aggression in the correct spots.

For example, if your opponent is on the tighter side and only flat-calls three-bets with JJ+, you probably shouldn't bother trying to barrel them off on a seven-high board. It's just not going to happen.

By all means though, if the turn brings an absolutely perfect second-barrel card like a king or an ace, then fire a second barrel. But if it keeps coming off bricks, you should probably stop firing without a very specific read.

Your edge manifests itself in three-bet pots when you multi-barrel these multi-tabling, ABC TAGs who are just hoping you'll shut down after you fire a c-bet.

They're easy to spot too. Watch how players act in three-bet pots even when you're not in the hand. Chances are there are a few at every table you play it.

Put them on a range and find the breaking point for their hand. Then bring them to it. it's that simple.

More strategy articles:

The Bluff Catcher How to Improve Non-Showdown Winnings Playing Hands With Showdown Value Making The Switch: Live Full-Ring to Online Six-Max

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Three Reasons You Lose Money Playing a Single Ace

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 22:20:55 -0700

Being the most valuable card in the deck, the ace's siren song can be too much for many green poker players to resist.

But how and when you play the hands A2 - AJ can make a world of difference in your short- and long-term results.

Poker's a game with no simple answers. Aces are valuable cards, and as such you don't want to automatically fold every time you're dealt just a single one.

But if you're losing money playing them the way you are, it's time to reevaluate.

1) You're Out of Position

Position, position, position.

The importance of position simply can't be expressed enough - especially when it comes to playing marginal or easily dominated hands.

Ask yourself: Am I capable of playing a drawing hand out of position?

As a general rule of thumb, you should be folding all A-x hands you're dealt out of position, regardless of the second card or the cards being suited.

This rule is very tight - to the point of being nitty. Even so, this is where you should start from and only deviate from this game plan if you have a very good reason to do so.

If you can't clearly explain the reason in a few words, then your understanding of the situation is clearly not strong enough to warrant making the play.

Many players think they should be limping a suited ace from any position on the table. But before you can decide if that's a profitable play, you need to answer this question:

Are you capable of profitably playing a drawing hand out of position?

For most players in the world, the correct answer is no - leading us to our next topic.

2) You're Overdrawing

You have to lay off the flush draws.

Just because you have the nut-flush draw doesn't mean you have to commit your whole stack to the pot.

Remember, until you hit the flush, all you have is ace-high. Your goal is to keep the pots small, control the hand, and pump the hell out of the pot once you hit.

If you called a raise with your suited ace, chances are the raiser is going to bet the flop regardless of what they actually have. When they do bet, it's typically going to be three-quarters to a full pot-sized bet.

If you have nothing but a flush draw, you're not getting odds to call here.

Having the nut-flush draw doesn't mean you have to commit your whole stack.

If you do call and you miss the turn, chances are you're going to have to make another call. If you happened to hit on the turn, your opponent is most likely going to be afraid of or assume you have the flush.

In general, you're going to get one bet out of them here. The only way you win a nice pot in this situation is if your opponent has a hand too strong to let go or they're a complete donkey.

In short, unless you have a very large edge over your opponent, or you know you have massive implied odds, you don't want to be playing A-x, even suited A-x, heads-up in a raised pot.

If you're calling with a suited ace, you're playing for the flush, not a pair. This means you're looking for multi-way action, ensuring you have the correct odds and increasing the chance of another player paying you off when you hit.

If you're playing this heads-up, chances are...

3) You're Overplaying the Hand

The most common reason a player is losing money with a single ace is they're overplaying the hand.

Even if it's a suited ace - suited ace-jack even - you still have a weak hand that doesn't play well in a raised, heads-up pot.

If we assume everyone is usually playing by-the-book poker, a raise usually means AA, KK, QQ, AK, JJ or AQ. All of these hands are either ahead or completely dominate any single-ace hand you can have.

Even if these hands look great, like A♠ J♠ does, they're not all that strong.

Your goal is to take down small- to medium-sized un-raised pots or play in large, raised pots looking to take advantage of implied odds.

For example, if you hit a flop of A♥ 3♣ 7♦ holding A♠ 3♠, chances are you're going to make a lot of money off anyone holding A-K.

If you do only flop the one pair, it's either going to be the ace with a weak kicker or your other card with the best kicker. Either way, you have a hand that's easily beat, and the only players willing to call large bets against you are going to have you beat.

If you don't hit a big flop, keep the pot small or get out cheap.

If you don't hit a very lucky and large flop, you want to keep the pot small or get out cheap. Never go broke with just one pair.

Rules of Thumb

Start to think of this whole range of hands as being very weak and only useful if they hit the crap out of the flop. You don't want to pay too much to see a flop and you want to get rid of the hand if you don't hit it.

To surmise: fold all single-ace hands unless 1) you're in position 2) can get in cheap (to win a small pot) or 3) have the implied odds to win a big one. When you're playing for implied odds, if you don't hit huge on the flop, dump the hand.

Unless you have a strong reason to believe otherwise, assume hitting one pair with these hands is no good. Play for monsters only and you'll turn these hands into rare winners, but ones that provide massively positive results over the long run.

Related strategy articles:

How Not to Suck at Poker: Play Fewer Hands Understanding and Fixing Mistakes Two Symptoms of Fancy Play Syndrome Ace-Queen Part 1: The Worst Best Hand

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

5 Big Leaks to Cut From Your C Game

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 00:02:52 -0700

If you don't know what your C game is, or how you're supposed to lop it, read this article first:

Lopping Off Your C Game

What exactly are the root causes when you play your worst game? What loses you the most money?

These are the most common causes of playing your C game:

TiltExhaustionDistractionBeing out-skilledPlaying scared

By far the most common cause of the C game is tilt, so that's a good place to start.

1. Tilt

When most players think of being on tilt, they think "super-tilt" - Phil Hellmuth kicking over chairs and calling people idiots, or a red-faced Mike Matusow yelling at other players on ESPN.

Realistically though, tilt comes in tons of different forms and degrees and can be caused by almost anything.

Even Negreanu gets tilted: just watch HSP.

The simplest definition is any time your emotions are making you play anything less than your A game, you're on tilt. You don't need to be steaming or frothing at the mouth. If you're at all emotionally distracted, you're losing money.

And because of the elusive nature of it, it can also be difficult to stop yourself from playing on some degree of tilt.

The best advice is to listen to the little thoughts in your head. As soon as you hear yourself think, "Wow this is frustrating," or "Jesus, will I ever get a single card higher than a 9?"- even something like "That guy's really damn annoying " - you're on tilt.

Although all levels of tilt detract from your game, some obviously do so more than others. The "light" tilt, such as finding a player annoying, may only be enough to bring you down to your high-B game.

Playing your B game isn't ideal, but it's not going to cost you lots of money. You have no need to leave the table when it happens.

But any time tilt reaches a point where you're clearly playing your C game, you need to get up or log off and leave the game. When you're on full-steam tilt, it's not possible to calm down enough to return to your A game in a matter of minutes.

By leaving the game, you're 100% eliminating this aspect of the C game. If you always leave when you're steaming, you'll completely remove the outer ring from your circle of play.

You've lopped it off, and your whole game benefits as a result.

2. Exhaustion

It's just not possible to play your A game when you're exhausted.

When you've reached that level of tiredness, you're thinking neither quickly nor clearly - two of the most critical requirements for playing good poker. And it's when you start getting tired - well before you become exhausted - that it's time to leave the game.

Exhaustion: It costs you money.

Exhaustion is a sneaky devil. You don't notice how tired you're getting until it's too late. If you're seated at the table, it's easy to fall into a rut where you don't move or do anything other than play cards.

You need to get up, take short breaks and walk around. Assess how you're doing mentally off the table so you can go back and make better choices on the table.

When you start to feel tired at all, cash in your chips and go find your pillow. The goal is not to limit the amount of time you spend playing your C game - the goal is to completely remove each ring of the C game from your play.

3. Distraction

Pretty self-explanatory. If you're distracted, you're not playing your best poker.

Try to sit facing away from TVs, stop flirting with the cocktail waitress, turn off your MSN. Limit your distractions and focus on poker.

If you're trying to limit distractions, the last thing you want to do is bring some ones of your own with you to the table. If you came to play poker, do exactly that.

4. Being Out-Skilled

If your A game is only as good as your opponent's B game, you're hooped. The quality of your game is best evaluated by comparing your game to that of your opponents.

When you're beat, you're beat. Get up and get out.

5. Running Scared

Try not to bring distractions with you to the table.

The final item that causes C-game play is fear.

A No-Limit poker player has to be willing to put all of his or her chips across the line at any given moment. If you're scared of losing what you have in front of you, it's not possible to play a proper game.

You need to have the money to lose (have a proper bankroll), and you need to be willing to lose it.

You can't be scared of the money or the other players. People do very strange things when they're under stress or scared. And strange things at the poker table equate to lost money.

Have a bankroll, be confident and strip this ring from your C game entirely.

It's not enough to try to limit or avoid the elements that bring on your C game either. C-game catalysts are like tumors. You have to completely remove them or they'll grow back into your game, eventually bringing you down.

In a nutshell:

Stay calm, stay positive, be healthy and get sleep. Stay focused, play within your skill level and be fearless. The rest will take care of itself.

Lopping Off Your C Game The Best Book Ever Written About Poker Leaks: Something's Dripping, and It's Money How Short Fuses Affect the Long Run

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Lopping Off Your C Game

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:51:29 -0700

Before going any further, it's only proper to give credit where credit's due. The idea for this article, along with the title, is taken directly from the truly wonderful book Elements of Poker by Tommy Angelo.

Highly recommended you pick it up, you can find it on his website: www.tommyangelo.com.

The Three Levels of Play

Although every poker player has these three levels of play, the details, shape, scope and duration of each level is unique.

Your A Game

This is your best game, when you're on top of the world. You feel great, you're playing perfectly and you're making money hand-over-fist.

In this level of play, you're making no mistakes and are completely aware of everything going on at your table.

Your C Game

This is your worst game. You're making mistakes, bad calls, dumb bluffs, and losing money hand-over-fist. Nothing is working out, you feel horrible and just can't get anything started.

There are multiple reasons why you might play your C game: exhaustion, tilt, being overmatched, bored, distracted, etc.

Whatever the reasons may be, if you're playing your C game, you're losing a lot of money.

Your B Game

This is simply everything in between your A and C games. Some areas of your B game may be profitable, some may be expensive.

Except for maybe a few of the world's best players, the B game is where you spend the vast majority of your time at the table.

The picture below is an example of the distribution of your levels of play:

Standard distribution of playing levels.

You have your best game in the middle, and it slowly deteriorates into your worst game at the edge. The closer you are to the edge, the larger and more common your mistakes become.

Increasing Your Bottom Line

The majority of poker players, poker books, videos and articles focus on the A game: how to maximize your profit, value bet, bluff and play the best poker possible.

Even though you want to continually work on and improve your A game, chances are this is not the best place to spend your time. Consider this:

Let's assume your A game always makes you $5 an hour, your B game always breaks even and your C game always loses you $5 an hour.

To make money in poker in this scenario, you have play your A game more than your C game.

Working on your A game is good, and if you bump up your A-game profit to $6 or $7 an hour, you'll make money playing poker - even if you play your C game just as often as your A game. Playing better poker will make you more money.

This is how most people approach poker. Unfortunately, there's a big problem with this approach.

How much can one really improve his or her A game? If you're already not making mistakes, and playing great poker, how much better can you get? When you're playing your absolute best game, how much more money could Phil Ivey have made if he was in your seat?

If you're only putting in money ahead and stacking the other players on your table, you can't really do any better than that. No matter how much you work on your A game, your opponents only have so much money to donate at any given time.

The best way to make more money at poker then is to work on your C game.

Who's a better player? Someone who makes $10 an hour on his A game but loses $10 an hour on his C game or someone who makes $4 an hour on his A game but only loses $1 an hour on his C game?

This is where lopping off your C game comes into play.

Take the absolute worst part of your C game. For most of us, this is the level of super tilt where we give away full buy-ins like candy.

If you just lop that off, eliminate it, it completely adjusts your whole profit diagram. Look at the picture below:

Lopping off your C game.

Every time you lop off the very worst of your C game, what becomes your new C game was previously part of your B game.

Once you do this, your A game remains the same but your B and C games become more profitable (or less costly).

There's far more room to grow, expand and improve on your C game than there is in your A game.

You have relatively little control over how much you can win at a poker table, but you have full control over how much you can lose.

Every time you lop off a section of your C game, you increase your bottom line. Even though the circle for your A game hasn't grown (you haven't improved your A game), the B and C circles have shrunk.

This increases the % of your A game compared to the rest of your game.

In the next article, we'll go over some of the ways you can work on lopping off parts of your C game.

5 Big Leaks to Cut from Your C Game The Best Book Ever Written About Poker Leaks: Something's Dripping, and It's Money How Short Fuses Affect the Long Run

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Poker Hand Scenarios: The Must Fold

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 22:42:40 -0700

It's really easy to play the best hand. The difference between how much the best and worst players in the world make with the nuts is almost negligible.

The real difference between the best players and everyone else is their ability to lose the least - by knowing when to fold losing hands.

Regardless of how long waited for a decent starting hand, you have to muck it as soon as you know you're beat.

Those Pesky Jacks

You're playing a six-max 50¢/$1 No Limit Hold'em game online. The players on the table are aggressive and somewhat loose, but there are no real aggro donkeys to be found.

You've been absolutely card dead for the last 30 minutes without being dealt a single hand worth playing until:

50¢/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players (Hero is always you)

UTG: $75
MP: $40
Hero(CO): $122
BTN: $198
SB: $132
BB: $40

Pre Flop: (Pot: $1.50) Hero is CO with J♥ J♣

UTG raises to $5, MP folds, Hero re-raises to $20, BTN re-raises all in $198, 2 folds, UTG calls $70, Hero???

Unless you skipped the title and introduction to this article, you know the correct answer to this question is fold. In fact, it's a very easy fold to make. But it's a common scenario for beginners to lose their stack in.

The easiest way to understand this hand is to break it down, one action at a time:

UTG raises to $5. This is a slightly big raise for a $1 big blind (online) game, but that alone doesn't really tell you much.

Raising under the gun at a six-max table implies that he actually has a decent hand. At this point, without any more information, we can put him on a range that includes all pocket pairs, all suited aces, all suited connectors and face cards.

You're ahead of a lot of that range with jacks, so you re-raise. You bump it to $20 (4x the previous bet. Again, some would say it's slightly large, but it's totally reasonable).

When you wait one hour for a hand, folding can be tough.

Now the button moves all in. This move should scare you, as he's pushing after a raise and a re-raise.

He's saying he has a huge hand, and "by the book" play would dictate this player has AA or KK here. But we have to take into account that we're playing six-max and he might be making a squeeze play.

Although it's very possible he has AA or KK, it's also possible he's on a pure bluff, trying to squeeze for the pot.

That's when UTG calls the all in. At this point there are only two options:

UTG has AA or KK, or UTG believes the button is making a play. Either way, for you to call and be ahead, the button has to be making a play and UTG has to be assuming that and calling with a hand less than JJ.

Although it's technically possible, it's highly unlikely you're ahead here. Chances are you're behind AA or KK, maybe even both of them.

If you're lucky you're up against TT and AK, but even with those hands you're still only 43% against the field. This is a must fold.

(For more advice on playing pocket jacks specifically, head to this article.)

What Can You Beat?

Next scenario: You've managed to make the previous fold, and over the last hour you've gone on a really good run and built up your stack.

A new player to the table also sat down and went on a sick run, leaving you both very deep stacked. This new player seems very tight, only showing down very strong hands.

50¢/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players (Hero is always you)

UTG: $545
Hero(MP): $525
CO: $122
BTN: $198
SB: $132
BB: $40

Pre Flop: (Pot: $1.50) Hero is MP with A♦ A♠

UTG raises to $5, Hero re-raises to $20, 4 folds, UTG re-raises to $75, Hero calls

Flop: (Pot: $151.50) 9♠ Q♥ K♦

UTG checks, Hero bets $140, UTG raises all-in to $350, Hero???

Let's look at what just happened here.

UTG raised, which typically translates into him having a legitimate premium hand. We three-bet 4x his original raise right behind him. After the rest of the table folds, UTG four-bets to $75.

No one folds aces as often, or as jubilantly, as Phil Hellmuth.

At this point, you can be almost certain your opponent has a premium hand - probably KK or QQ - although it's not impossible he's running a huge, dumb bluff.

Either way, just calling here is your best option.

Moving all in now will only cause a bluff to fold, while just calling might induce your opponent to continue his bluff on the flop.

If he does have KK or QQ, chances are the money's going all-in on the flop anyways. Shipping it here doesn't really help you against a good hand, but it hurts you against a bluff.

Regardless of whether you agree with just calling here, in this scenario that's what you do and you head to the flop, which comes 9♠ Q♥ K♦.

This is possibly the worst flop we could have seen. Let's look at the range of our opponent:

KKQQAKJJBluffTJTT99AA

These are the only reasonable options, listed in descending order from the most probable to the least.

After this flop, you're drawing to two outs against the two most probable, two outs against pocket nines and you're drawing nearly dead to TJ.

With only six outs against you, you're in decent shape against JJ and TT.

You chop with AA, and you're only a huge favorite against a bluff or AK.

This is a horrible flop for you. Your opponent checks, probably meaning he has the set and is check-raising or he was bluffing and has given up.

You bet close to the pot, and he raises all in.

At this point, there's really nothing you can beat. You're most likely crushed.

There's a slim chance he's running a huge bluff, but it's very unlikely since almost all of the range he can put you on will call here. The only other option you can beat is if he's greatly overplaying a six outer or AK.

Odds are you're screwed. Not many players will try to run a bluff this in-depth against the only other player deep enough to (nearly) felt them.

Cut your losses, dump the aces and move on.

Related strategy articles:

Poker Hand Scenarios: Ace-Queen Part 1 Pocket Jacks Part 1: Pre-Flop Play Ace-Queen Part 1: The Worst Best Hand

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The Naked Raise Plus: Post-Flop Play Part III

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 19:45:28 -0700

Here are four more.

IX. The naked raise on the flop.

This ploy is a variation on the float play (see Part II) in that it takes advantage of an aggressive player who has likely missed the flop.

The principle behind it is the same one that motivates the float: most flops miss most hands. However, instead of flat-calling the pre-flop raiser's continuation bet, you raise.

The move will be either a bluff or a semi-bluff, depending on whether you caught a piece of the flop yourself.

The success of this gambit depends largely on the texture of the flop and your sense of the range of hands your opponent might have raised with pre-flop. Since the move is essentially a steal, it's more likely to succeed on raggedy boards.

Interestingly, it won't matter all that much what your table image is here. If you're seen as loosey-goosey, your opponent is going to wonder about a possible two-pair on a flop like T♣ 8♦ 5♠

If you've established a tight, conservative image, flops like this invite thoughts about flopped sets.

There are also other boards that invite this move, including what you may think as unlikely ones like three suited cards or three mid-sized connectors. They work because your opponent has to worry about you having hit the flop hard.

Employ the move judiciously, or you may get froze, Iceman-style.

How much to raise will be an issue and there are no unmessy ways to determine this. Factors such as your image, your opponent's tendencies, your positions, stack sizes and the like will come into play.

Generally, you want to use the smallest raise that looks like it will work since if you get called or re-popped you're almost certainly going to have to let the hand go.

The naked raise isn't a move for every hand. In fact, it should be employed judiciously.

X. Pay attention to players on your left. They will often have tells about planned action.

Numerous columns have been written about this, yet surprisingly, many players fail to use it after the flop - especially one that has been seen by several players.

The most costly outcome of this failure is to make a modest bet, say half the pot, and then look left and see that your opponent has already picked up a stack and is moving in for the kill.

Having to dump a half-pot bet into the ether once or twice a night can be expensive.

XI. In most situations, the value of a made hand diminishes with each new card. I know, this is obvious, but you'd be surprised how easy it is to forget it under pressure.

I have no hard data on this but as we noted earlier (Part II), I suspect that more money is lost in NLH with flops that give you either top-pair top-kicker or bottom-two than any other holdings.

More money lost in NLH on flops that give you either top-pair top-kicker or bottom-two than any other holding.

They are highly vulnerable hands just because they're unlikely to improve, whereas there are myriad holdings that can run them down - and when they do, it can hurt.

The problem is it's so easy to get emotionally attached to strong hands ("get married" is the tag line often heard). The solution is to remember that their strength diminishes with each new card that hits the board.

Make sure you think through each situation. Try to calculate the likelihood that your hand is still best or whether flop texture, betting, position and your opponent's likely hand range shout out warnings.

XII. Learn how to counter "standard" gambits like c-bets, traps and float plays.

Most winning players know the standard ploys and use them advantageously. However, many have not dug sufficiently into the ways to counter them.

There are no algorithms here but some tricks that work are known. For example, you're reasonably sure your opponent's call on the flop is the first move in a float play. Instead of checking the turn, fire a second bullet or, even more aggressively, check-raise.

Wait a second. This looks like a standard gambit.

The "naked raise" move discussed above can also be used to neutralize the continuation bet. When you raise a c-bet from a typical player you are accomplishing several things.

First, you're shaping your image as a focused and aggressive player. You're telling the table that they're not always going to get away with a simple c-bet.

Second, you're introducing an element that will play an important part of the meta-game. It can get you a free card that a less-aggressive player won't.

It can also provide you with the opportunity to take control of a hand by removing the initiative.

Poker Hand Scenarios: Ace-Queen Part 2

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:32:21 -0700

Catch up with Part 1 here.

The scenario:

Sticking with a $2/$4 No-Limit six-max game, your opponent in this hand is aggressive and loose but without a history of getting out of line.

His hands always have some sort of value. He's not making bad bluffs or donk bets, but he has showed down some unlikely hands. In short: a very tricky but strong player.

You've been playing a very strong, tight-aggressive game. You've only showed down legitimate hands and have never been caught getting out of line.

You've also been on a slight cold run of cards and have been folding for a while now, further enforcing your tight image.

$2/$4 No-Limit Hold'em - six players

UTG: $92
MP: $440
CO: $280
BTN: $122
Hero (SB): $320.00
BB: $445

Pre Flop: (Pot: $6) Hero is SB with A♦ Q♦
2 folds, CO calls $4, BTN folds, Hero calls $2, BB calls $2

Flop: ($12) Q♠ Q♥ K♠ (3 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, CO bets $10, Hero Calls $10, BB Folds

Turn: ($32) 7♦ (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $25, Hero raises to $60, CO calls $35

River: ($152) 8♦ (2 players)

Hero???

What do you do?

Bet? If so, how much? Check? What are you hoping he does? If you check and he bets, do you call, raise or fold?

Again, you have to use the information you have to figure out what you think is best. You also need to understand the reasoning behind why you think that.

My answer: After getting a general feel for your opponent, the most important information to look at is the betting pattern.

Preflop: The CO didn't raise. We can't be certain, but we can reasonably assume he doesn't have KK or AA. He can hold almost anything else in his range.

The Flop: The CO has position in this hand, and the flop came very wet. This is commonly thought of as a "hit or miss" flop.

Hold yourself back. Take the time to think before you act.

Unless someone has a Q (hit), they pretty much have to fold a miss to any bet made into the pot. For this reason, the $10 bet doesn't really give us any information. He might have a legitimate hand, or it could simply be a steal attempt.

The Turn: Now that the big blind has folded, we're heads up. We check again, and the CO bets again.

For this player, this bet still doesn't mean all that much; we've shown no real strength and he could be putting us on a weak king - a hand he can make us fold.

When we check-raise, we've basically just turned our hand face up. He can now be almost certain that we have a Q.

We didn't raise in the small blind, so he can't be completely sure we have an ace as a kicker. But he can make a pretty strong guess.

His call after being check-raised is a very interesting action. He didn't three-bet us, but he also didn't fold. If we believe that he knows we have a queen, what can he possibly call with?

He's either setting up a massive river bluff, thinks we're bluffing, has a full house, or has a queen and thinks his kicker might be good.

So now what do we do?

The only hand we're really worried about is K-Q. There are other hands that have a full house to beat us, but they're unlikely. It's not impossible that he hit a house with pocket sevens on the turn, but if that's the case, good for him.

If he thinks we're bluffing and we check, he'll check behind us, or just call any bet we make.If he has a full house, he'll bet or raise any bet we make.If he has a queen, he checks behind or just calls us to see if his kicker is good.If he thinks we have a queen with a weak kicker, he might try to bluff. This is unlikely, simply because many players are unable to fold a hand like this.

Just what you want: an ace on the river.

Because we're only worried about K-Q, and we can put JJ, TT, Q-J, Q-10, Q-9, A-K and K-J into his range here (some more likely than others), we have to assume we currently have the best hand.

In my opinion we should be making a value bet here, and one large enough it discourages a raise from anything but a full house.

I'd bet $100-$150. If he does push, chances are you should fold. If you bet $130 on the river, you've committed $204, leaving you with $116.

You'll be getting just under 5-1 on your money to make the call. There is almost no chance a player as good as him would ever make a bluff with such a low chance of success.

Unless he believes you to be a weak-tight player willing to fold just about anything, the 5-1 odds plus knowing you have a Q makes this a very bad spot for a bluff.

Only a boat can push on you here. Value bet and take the pot, or value bet and fold to a shove.

Related strategy articles:

Poker Hand Scenarios: Ace-Queen Part 1 Ace-Queen Part 1: The Worst Best Hand Ace Queen Part 2: The True Value Ace-Queen Part 3: Some Ideas on Play

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Poker Hand Scenarios: Ace-Queen Part 1

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:03:01 -0700

Most of the world's best poker players chalk their success up to doing just that.

For Phil Galfond, it was talking to players thinking at a whole new level that opened up his mind to the game he's made millions with.

Daniel Negreanu and John Juanda spent countless hours talking hands when they were coming up in the poker world.

What do you think Doyle, Sailor and Slim talked about while driving from town to town?

The next time you're with your poker friends, forget about what happened on the season finale of Lost and bring up some situations you've run into where you didn't know what to do or you're not sure what you did was best.

These situations are not always hands you lose; often the hands you win are open to debate on the actual best line.

Since there are endless possible hand scenarios, it seemed to make sense to start with the one hand that gives poker players the most trouble: the infamous A-Q.

Galfond: Next-level thinker.

Talking Point: What can you beat?

You're playing an online, six-max $2/$4 No-Limit Hold'em game.

The player in middle position is a solid, tight-aggressive player. When he makes it to showdown, he always seems to have a strong hand.

(In case you don't know, the Hero is always you).

UTG: $425
MP: $440
CO: $300
Hero (BTN): $400.00
SB: $436
BB: $218

Pre Flop: (Pot: $6) Hero is BTN with A♥ Q♣

1 fold, MP raises to $12, CO folds, Hero re-raises to $30, 2 folds, MP calls $18

Flop: ($66) A♣ J♦ 9♠ (2 players)

MP checks, Hero bets $45, MP calls $45

Turn: ($156) 2♥ (2 players)

MP bets $135, Hero ???

Before you continue reading, think for a minute about what you think is the best option here and why it's the best option.

If you don't understand why you're making the play, you're really just guessing.

My answer: This hand scenario is actually rather straight forward: you have to fold.

There's not a single legitimate hand this player can have that you can beat. The only way you can win is if he's bluffing.

If he's bluffing you, it's a great bluff; let him take it down.

Since we've never seen this player get out of line or bluff (that doesn't mean he isn't bluffing, just that we've never seen proof of it), we have to give far more weight to the possibility he's actually betting for value here.

He raised preflop from mid-position and flat-called our 3-bet. This narrows his range to being a legitimate hand of strength, without being strong enough to warrant a 4-bet (barring a slow-play).

There's not a single hand here you can beat that can make that call preflop and then call the flop. A-J has two pair, and A-K has you out kicked.

The only hope you have of winning this pot is him holding Q-10 and making a semi-bluff at the open-ender.

In short, you're almost certainly beat and drawing very slim. This is a very bad spot to put any more money in. If he's bluffing you, it's a great bluff; let him take it down.

Amateur Mistake

Hero (UTG): $300
MP: $440
CO: $280
BTN: $622
SB: $320.00
BB: $445

Pre Flop: (Pot: $6) Hero is UTG with A♣ Q♣

Hero raises to $12, MP folds, CO calls $12, BTN calls $12, 2 folds

Flop: ($42) 9♥ 10♠ J♦ (3 players)

Hero bets $42, CO calls $42, BTN raises to $142, Hero ???

This situation is actually a simple decision, but it's one that gives many amateurs a difficult time.

Your hand looks strong. You have two overcards and an open-ended straight draw. On top of that, if you hit the king, you have the stone cold nuts.

With the action, it's almost certain this is going to end up being a large pot. Many amateurs will count their straight outs and maybe even the overcards, then convince themselves they should call for the pot odds.

Oh A-Q. I just can't quit you.

Unfortunately for these (soon to be broke) players, they failed to go a step further in dissecting this situation.

What hand can possibly raise in this spot?

Chances are you're up against a player with K-Q and you're drawing at three outs.

The best-case scenario here is that you're up against a set or two pair. Even with those hands, you need to draw out and dodge the full house re-draw to win the pot.

This hand is bad for you. Throw it away.

Stay tuned; the second part of this article goes in-depth on one specific scenario which commonly causes great difficulty to beginner poker players.

Related strategy articles:

Poker Hand Scenarios: Ace-Queen Part 2 Ace-Queen Part 1: The Worst Best Hand Ace Queen Part 2: The True Value Ace-Queen Part 3: Some Ideas on Play

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

The Bluff Catcher

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 00:19:06 -0700

It's not a strong enough hand to bet for value, because your opponent will never call with worse.

And it's not strong enough to call with versus your opponent's value-betting range, because if he's betting for value, he has you crushed.

The only value your hand has, then, is in catching the bluff.

Recognizing a Bluff Catcher

Knowing when your hand is a bluff catcher is the first step to playing it more profitably.

Your hand can only truly be a bluff catcher on the river.

While your hand may technically be one on the turn, if you call you may still have to call another bet on the river.

A true bluff catcher closes the action. If you call, the hand is over and immediately the hands are shown down.

Like everything in Hold'em, what makes a hand a bluff catcher depends on a number of variables, from your opponent to your image to any prior dynamics at the table.

It depends on everything. So, like always, you need to pay attention at the table.

Study your opponents and try and figure out their playing tendencies.

If you know their value-betting range, then you know whether or not your current hand is ahead or behind that range.

If you're behind it, then your hand is a bluff catcher.

What's his bluffing frequency?

Assign Your Opponent a Bluffing Frequency

If he bets, you'd better have a good idea of what his bluffing frequency is.

If your hand isn't good versus his value-betting range, then for you to call profitably he'd have to be bluffing a high percentage of the time.

This all goes back to studying your opponents. Watch their bets and their raises and see how they react when they're called.

Figure out which players are tight and ABC, which players are good LAGS and which are bad LAGS.

Watch their every move.

Watch what cards they bluff and what cards they check.

If you have a good idea of when your opponent likes to bluff, it'll obviously be much easier to pick him off with your bluff catcher.

If in a given spot you think he'll be bluffing 50% of the time, value-betting the rest of the time and his river bet is laying you 2.5-1, then assuming your calculations are correct you have a profitable call.

An Example:

Six-max, $1/$2 blinds. $200 effective stacks.

You raise to $8 in the small blind with J♥ T♥. Your opponent in the big blind calls.

The flop comes 4♥ 6♥ 8♦. You bet $10 and he raises to $35.

You call with your flush draw and the turn comes T♠. You check and he bets $66. You call.

The river comes 8♠. You check. Your opponent fires $100.

Should you call?

Well, you should immediately realize your hand is a bluff catcher. You have top pair, but your kicker isn't very good and your opponent has shown aggression on three streets.

If he's betting for value in this spot, you're crushed 100% of the time.

There's not a single hand in his range he bets three streets on this board for value that you're ahead of.

So Is He Bluffing?

Chance are good he's bluffing.

Well, we don't have enough information. Now is when you have to look at your opponent and think about his tendencies.

If he's an ABC/TAG, then he's never bluffing here enough to make this call profitable.

This bet is for value about 99% of the time and you can safely fold.

If he's a super-aggressive player that will raise his draws and fire three streets with them whether he hits or not, then you should be more inclined to call.

You just have to weigh your opponent's value-betting range vs. his bluffing range.

If he has more bluffing hands in his range, you should be more likely to call.

In this hand, even against an aggressive opponent, it's very close.

The river paired the 8 and now many pair-plus-straight draws he may have raised the flop with (8-7, 8-5 etc.) you now lose to.

If, however, the river blanks off something like the 2♦, you should probably check and call.

Another Example:

Six-max, $1/$2 blinds. $200 effective stacks.

You raise to $8 with A♥ 2♥ in the cut-off. A loose and bad player calls on the button and everyone else folds.

The flop comes A♦ 6♦ 8♠. You bet $12 and he insta-calls.

The turn comes 3♥. You bet $25 and he tanks and calls.

The river comes J♣. You check and he fires $55.

Look at His Bluffing Range

Again, it's pretty clear at this point that we have a bluff catcher.

We bet two streets with top pair, worst kicker and he called both of them.

When we check the river, he fires.

If he's value betting any ace here, our hand is no good. If he has a weird two pair, our hand is no good.

Think it through. What hands would he call two streets with?

So we take a look at his bluffing range. We think about what hands he would call two streets with.

He does it with aces, he does it with weird one pairs, he does it with two pairs, and he does it with all flush draws and straight draws.

When he fires the river, you can take out the weak one-pair hands because even fish realize that they have showdown value.

He will insta-showdown A♠ 7♦ or 7♣ 8♠, hoping his hand is good.

What we have left are his value hands and his bluffs.

And because there are so many draws in this hand (all flush draws, 7-9s, 5-7, 4-5s, etc.), all of which missed, you can assign a very high bluff frequency to this type of player.

A lot of fish just automatically bet busted draws whenever you check to them on a missed-flush river.

With that information alone that turns this bluff-catcher hand into a call.

You call, he shows J♦ 9♦ and your hand is good.

Put Your Opponent on a Range

If you want to be a successful player, you have to try and put your opponent on an accurate range.

If you can accurately deduce what your opponent's most likely holdings are at any given time, you'll have a massive edge.

From there, you can assign your opponent a bluffing frequency by looking at the missed draws and weak hands in his range in conjunction with what you know about his playing style.

Assign that bluffing frequency a percentage in your head, and if the pot odds you're getting are in your favor, make the call and watch the money pour in.

More strategy articles:

How to Improve Non-Showdown Winnings Playing Hands With Showdown Value Making The Switch: Live Full-Ring to Online Six-Max When You're Beat You're Beat

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

How to Improve Non-Showdown Winnings

Sun, 18 Sep 2011 00:57:00 -0700

For live players, or players just starting out, "redline" winnings are your non-showdown winnings - hands you win without going all the way to a showdown.

Non-showdown winnings can be seen in HEM or PT by going to your graph page and hitting "display showdown winnings."

A red line will appear on your graph - that's your non-showdown winnings.

Hence the name redline (ldo). Why is this relevant?

Lately on the online forums, it's become a bit of a pissing contest among players to have an upward-sloping redline - meaning you win more money than you lose in non-showdown pots.

Does it really matter?

Yes and no. Of course you can still be a successful poker player with a negative redline. Different playing styles do different things to your graphs.

Where you run into problems is if your redline looks like a sharp downward slope.

Hansen: No Fgators.

Losing more than you win in non-showdown hands is a common leak that many players have - most notably 2+2 "legend" Fgators.

Fgators posted a now-famous thread in the BBV forum claiming he was the most unlucky player in the world and because of his perpetual run-bad he couldn't win at poker.

Fgators was a massive multi-tabler and played a ton of hands. And in that ton of hands, he definitely saw his share of bad beats.

But that wasn't why he couldn't win.

His redline was the most depressing sight ever; a sharp, downhill line almost the exact opposite of his showdown winnings.

Because he was losing so much money in non-showdown pots, it almost didn't matter how much money he made at showdown.

It could never make up for what he was losing.

What causes a downward sloping redline?

A downward sloping redline is caused by one thing: putting money in the pot and then folding.

That's it. If you're regularly putting money in and folding, your redline will suffer.

If you do it often enough, your overall win rate is going to suffer.

Some common ways players regularly hurt their redline:

Continuation betting too often or in bad spots. Having a one-and-done approach to c-betting. Playing the out-of-position guessing game too often. Calling too often with draws and playing them passively (forcing you to fold when you miss). Calling raises with weak made hands only to fold to further action. Calling too many three-bets and folding too many flops. Check-calling weak hands that are essentially two-pair draws. Playing passively in three-bet pots as the aggressor.

All of these examples hurt your redline. The binding theme is putting a bunch of money into the pot only to fold without a fight.

So how do I avoid the dreaded downward-sloping redline?

Almost everybody that has a sharp, downward-sloping redline plays too many tables.

What too many tables is to one person may be completely different to another person.

But if you're basically playing your session on auto-pilot, you're playing too many tables - and your non-showdown winnings will suffer.

The easy solution: play fewer tables. Think about each decision you have and weigh your different choices.

Some examples of how you can improve your redline:

If he's a calling station, c-bet less.

Continuation-bet less and continuation-bet in better spots. Focus on your opponent and his tendencies.

If he's a calling station, you should be c-betting a lot less.

C-bet when the board seems to help your range, or if you plan on firing multiple barrels. If you're going to "one-and-done" the board, don't c-bet at all.

Fire more second barrels. Ditch that horrible one-and-done approach to c-betting.

Think about your opponent's flop-calling range. Double barrel cards that strengthen your perceived range and hurt your opponent's range.

Fire more third barrels. Again, think about your opponent's calling range and your perceived range.

Think about what type of hand he likely has and think about how much heat that hand can stand.

For example: you raise in the cut-off and a tight opponent calls in the big blind. The flop comes T♥ 5♥ 3♠.

If you choose to c-bet this, you should be firing a ton of turns and rivers because your opponent will rarely have a big hand.

He's going to be three-betting most overpairs preflop and he's going to be peeling one or more streets with hands like 88, 99, and AT.

Of those hands, few if any are going to want to call three streets.

If you fire one or two barrels then give up when he bets the river, you're losing a bunch of money without showdown.

Play your draws aggressively. Calling on the flop and the turn only to fold the river when your draw misses leaves money on the table.

When you play a draw aggressively, you have the added bonus of fold equity. This can increase your non-showdown winnings - not hurt them.

Play more hands in position. A simple one. When you're in position, you have the control.

Think about it. If you call a raise out of position, then check/call when you flop a gutter, when he fires the turn you have to fold.

Now think about if you have that same gutter in position. You can win by hitting that gutshot, or you can bet that turn when he checks to you and win it that way.

Find the one-and-done players.

Bluff and semi bluff more. Just like in the last example, don't just play "fit or fold" poker. Look for opponents that have weak redline disease and punish them.

Find the one-and-done players, float their flop c-bets and take the pot away from them on the turn.

Think, think, think

These are just a few examples of how you can improve your non-showdown winnings.

The main thing you have to do is think. Think about why you're doing what you're doing and ask yourself what you're hoping to accomplish.

If you're just betting for the sake of betting, your whole game is going to suffer.

A word to the wise

If you're a winning poker player, it's best not to obsess over having a positive redline.

If your style is working for you, continue with it. Chances are messing with what works is going to make you less money - not more.

If you're a fledgling poker player, though, and your redline looks like the Dave Murray downhill, you'd best make some changes now - or resign yourself to just being another one of the thousands of rakeback grinders out there.

More strategy articles:

Playing Hands With Showdown Value Making The Switch: Live Full-Ring to Online Six-Max When You're Beat You're Beat Changing Gears Keeps Your Opponents Guessing Betting with a Purpose

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Phil Hellmuth: Crazy Like a Fox

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 19:00:54 -0700

This one's on the whingeing, mewling, puking, outrageous man-child, Mr. Phillip J. Hellmuth Jr.

I played with Phil once. When in New York he would stop by the Playstation, the best of the underground rooms in the city. It was a great room on 14th Street and was a major draw.

The place was filled nightly with solid grinders, ordinary but clear-headed warriors and the occasional celebrity including A-Rod (yes, that A-Rod), Macaulay Culkin, Matt Damon, and Phil.

Phil would usually sit in the 2/5 NL game and drop a couple of dimes for us low-life slobs who were eternally grateful for his presence.

And, yes, he threw temper tantrums. But this is just a passing curiosity. The thing I find intriguing about Phil is that he presents so many diverse personae.

Here's a list of four profiles, each of which could easily be taken as characteristic of him. My question is: "which one captures the real PJH, Jr.?" Is he:

A riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in an odd-length leather jacket.

a) a blustering, narcissistic, infantile, intemperate asshole who insults other players and tilts like a 3-legged pinball machine.

b) a brilliant poker player who has won more WSOP bracelets than anyone and has final-tabled in PLO, O/8, 2-7 Lowball, HORSE and S/8.

c) a self-scripted PR genius who manages, no matter what else happens, to get the camera on him.

d) a surprisingly intelligent man, sliding gracefully into middle age with the predictable paunch and thinning hair, who is close to his family, supportive of his friends and enjoying life.

Answer: All of the above, of course. But what if you had to rank them from most to least characteristic? Most observers of the poker scene would, I think, put 'a' and 'b' on top, although not necessarily in that order.

Not me. I've got 'd' on top and 'c' right behind it. I think these characteristics are not only more representative of him, I think they are psychologically more significant.

Is there anyone who really believes that Phil accidentally crashed that sports car into a cement stanchion "by mistake?" I know, he says it was an accident. Right. Sure.

Daniel trashes Phil. Says his bracelets come when the field is full of dead money bozos whom Phil can intimidate. Others denigrate Phil's cash game, labeling him the fish of the decade.

Why you got to hate, DN?

Phil loves it and, somehow, each insult ends up in a poker journal, chat room or web site and up go his endorsements, TV exposure, sponsorships and all the 'face time' one could ask for.

It's tough to be a public figure, especially one who is the brunt of a hundred jokes, a thousand insults (some quite vile). It's tough, especially for someone like Phil who is one of the most ingenuous people on this planet.

The guy basically wears his heart on his sleeve. His pain is expressed like no one else's. His joys are almost childlike in their exuberance. His frustrations transcend all others. He can steam like no one before or since.

And, yes, he can act like a total jerk. But here's what I find so fascinating: essentially none of the true idiots I've known in my life have anything even close to the success Phil has enjoyed.

You don't often see such glaringly conflicting characteristics linked together so compellingly. He can stomp around a room after being knocked out of a tournament and a few seconds later be calm and generous in an interview.

Some have noted these dramatic emotional shifts and wondered whether the tantrums are pure theater. I think not.

I think that Phil is actually a bit of a 'type,' a kid who was likely nurtured and supported by his parents, led to believe he had great talent and ability. It wouldn't surprise me if he had also been encouraged to express his feelings as a child.

I have little doubt that his outbursts are real, as are the other, far more compelling emotions he also exhibits, like those times when he looks past the cameras and says something like, "Honey, did you see what just happened on that hand?" or "Honey, I really think I've got a shot at this one."

Beneath it all, just an ordinary guy with a wife and two kids.

'Honey' is Katherine Sanborn, MD, his wife and a noted child psychiatrist at Stanford University. She can often be seen sharing a spot on the rail with Phil's father, a respected academic and former Dean at the University of Wisconsin.

Phil, for all the ego-infused raging, the intemperate remarks about other players, the child-like ingenuousness is, so it seems, a rather ordinary guy with a wife and two kids.

And, next time you see steam coming out of his ears, keep in mind the comment from one of his long time friends, Mike Matusow, "never assume he's on tilt, no matter how much he spouts off ... he is almost always in the zone."

That is the mark of a sane man.

Understanding and Fixing Mistakes

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 23:57:13 -0700

If you want to make money instead, without having to rely on being lucky, you need to cut down those mistakes, plain and simple.

The most acute way to eliminate mistakes from your game is to learn from the ones you do make.

To learn from a mistake, you have to:

Make the mistakeUnderstand and admit it was a mistakeFigure out what the better move would have beenFigure out why that's the better moveApply it to your game.

Identifying a Mistake

What exactly is a poker "mistake?"

David Sklansky tried to classify a poker mistake with his fundamental theory of poker, which says if you acted any differently than you would have had you known exactly what your opponent's cards were, then you've made a mistake.

Part of this theory includes his idea of "Sklansky Dollars," which, in short, is the money you would have won or lost in a hand if it worked out according to the odds.

David Sklansky himself.

Meaning if you're a 60/40 favorite when the money goes in, whether you win or lose you've earned 60% of the pot in Sklansky Dollars.

Lots of poker professionals, though, think this definition is inadequate. It's not exactly incorrect, but it's too black and white for a game as complex as poker.

Say you have A♥ K♥ and your opponent has 9♣ 9♥; flop comes Q♥ 8♠ 4♦.

By the fundamental theory, you'd be making a mistake doing anything other than check-folding. Your opponent has you beat, so you shouldn't put any more money into the pot.

In reality, depending on the player, there's a very good chance your opponent will fold to a bet. And that can't be measured accurately enough to be factored into Sklansky Dollars.

So what's a mistake then? Essentially anytime you make a play other than the "optimal" play, you've made a mistake.

Unfortunately, most poker hands fall into a grey area where there's no simple cut-and-dry, correct way to play the hand.

The better rule of thumb is if you feel like you made a mistake, you probably did.

Anytime you think "I could have won more" or "I could have lost less," there's a decent chance you're right. Red flag those situations for future contemplation and discussion.

G-Bucks

To figure out the optimal choice, you have to ignore Sklansky Dollars completely. It's nearly impossible to know exactly what your opponent holds, so the best you can do is narrow it down to a range.

Enter Phil Galfond's G-Bucks.

For a full article on G-Bucks, head here. But in short, G-Bucks are used to evaluate your hand against your opponent's possible range of hands or vice versa.

The optimal choice is the most profitable choice against an opponent's range over a long period of time. So even if they had the nuts in the actual hand you played, moving all in can still be the optimal choice if that hand is legitimately a very small part of his range.

There's no quick, one-stop answer to figuring out the optimal choice. Factor in pot odds, ranges, images and betting patterns, then go and discuss.

Talking these scenarios out with someone who has a better understanding of the game than you is invaluable.

Phil Galfond, creator of G-Bucks.

The Why

Once you figure out the optimal choice, you need to decipher exactly why it's the best choice.

It's important not to gloss over this. Knowing what the optimal choice was in one specific hand is of almost zero help to you as a player.

You need to break it down to the roots of the problem and the reasons behind the solution. Once you understand the "why," you can apply it to your skill set and use it when faced with a similar situation in the future.

Memorizing hands and plays can only get you so far.

Application

This is the most crucial part. All of this analytical work is useless if you don't apply the final result to your game.

If you understand the mistake, figure out where the leak is, uncover how the leak got there, but then never plug it, you're just going to sink again once you touch the water.

Figure out the best play, figure out why it's the best play, figure out why you didn't make it in the first place, and then fix the problem.

The more you do this, the fewer mistakes you'll make and the less severe the ones you do make will become.

As Tommy Angelo says, it makes no sense to put work into your "A" game, when it's your "C" game that's losing you all the money.

There's very little room to improve on the hands and situations you already play well, so concentrate on the parts of your game you handle poorly.

Fix the mistakes, and you'll lose far less money. In the end, that translates into winning more.

Big Mistakes vs. Small Mistakes Don't Let Your Mistakes Compound Imagined Money Part 1: Sklansky DollarsImagined Money Part 2: G-Bucks

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Playing Hands With Showdown Value

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 23:28:11 -0800

They consistently flush money down the drain betting and raising when instead they should be taking a showdown line.

When your hand has showdown value your equity comes from getting all the way to showdown and winning.

So making it to showdown (cheaply) should be your number one goal.

Recognizing Showdown Value When You See It

A hand with showdown value is essentially a hand that's not quite strong enough to bet for value but strong enough to expect to win at showdown more often than not.

But like anything in poker, the answer to the question "Which hands have showdown value?" is "It depends."

It depends on the board texture, the action, your opponent, your table image and, well, in short, it depends on everything.

The golden rule of a hand with showdown value is that it's strong enough to win at showdown but not strong enough to bet for value.

In other words, the "A worse hand never calls and a better hand never folds" adage applies again.

If I bet, is there a worse hand that will call?

An Example:

You have J♣ J♥. You raise to $6 on the button and the big blind calls.

The flop comes A♥ 3♦ 2♥. He checks and you bet $10.

He calls. The turn comes K♣. He checks and you check behind.

The river comes Q♦ and he checks.

Start out by asking yourself, "If I bet this river, will my opponent call with a worse hand?"

In this example, it's a pretty clear NO.

Ok, now what about if you check? Is there a chance your jacks are good?

Absolutely. If your opponent had any sort of draw or a pocket pair worse than yours on the flop, you almost surely have the best hand.

Check and take that free showdown because there's no value in betting.

The value your jacks have seeing a free showdown far outweighs both betting for value or betting as a bluff.

A Trickier Example:

You have 7♥ 8♥. You raise to $8 in the cut-off and the big blind calls.

The flop comes 4♥ J♣ 3♣.

He checks and you c-bet $12. He calls. The turn comes 8♦ and he checks.

What should you do?

On the flop, you made a continuation-bet. At this point, your hand has no showdown value and the only equity you have is the fold equity you get by betting.

You want your opponent to fold. That's the only way you can win.

Once the turn falls, though, everything changes.

Sometimes barreling the turn is pointless.

All of a sudden you have a pair of eights and, well, showdown value. The bulk of your equity in the pot is no longer fold equity because you have a pair.

But should you bet it? No.

Rarely, if ever, is a thinking player going to call with a worse hand. And he certainly isn't going to fold a better hand.

So we check with the intention of seeing a showdown.

Barreling Doesn't Make Poker Sense

This example is a good one because lots of players will just barrel this turn 100% of the time, but that makes no poker sense.

Barreling this turn is pointless.

The only way you make money is if your opponent folds. And if your opponent folds, you had the best hand anyway.

Barreling this turn would only be profitable if your opponent was especially weak and would either call two streets with a draw or, on the other end of the spectrum, fold a jack to a second barrel.

Both of which are very unlikely.

The only thing barreling this turn accomplishes is building a bigger pot with you as the underdog.

Once you turn that hand with showdown value, your plans change. No longer is your equity in the hand from getting your opponent to fold.

Your goal now becomes getting to showdown to see if you're good vs. his flop-peeling range.

Put Your Opponent on a Range

Whenever you make a decision in poker, the most important factor is what your opponent has.

Your opponent's range dictates what your most +EV decision is in every single hand you will ever play.

Putting your opponent on a range is an imprecise art. You slowly remove hands from his range as the hand progresses until you're left with a small range of his likely holdings.

Put your opponent on a range.

If you can narrow down his holdings even a little bit, you'll be better able to suit your play to his.

Example:

Take the 4♥ J♣ 3♣ example above.

When he peels the flop, we can put him on a range of jacks, flush draws, straight draws and 55-99. Sets and overpairs can be discounted.

When you turn the eight and are deciding whether or not to bet, you have to look at his calling range.

If he folds all draws and continues with 99+, his calling range has you crushed and your bet accomplishes nothing.

If, however, he calls with worse than a pair of eights, then the bet is fine.

The same goes for if he folds better. If he for some reason folds a jack to your second barrel, your bet is perfectly fine as well because it actually accomplishes something.

The problem with an inbetween hand like eights in this example is there aren't many hands worse than yours that would be willing to call the turn bet.

Meaning we would just fold out the hands we were already ahead of.

There's no value in betting there.

The best play is to check behind and play poker on the river, hoping to see a free or cheap showdown.

Keep Your Aggression Reined In

Ask yourself a few simple questions.

It's a very fine line sometimes, choosing whether the best play is betting for value, betting as a bluff or trying to see a cheap showdown.

But do your best to put your opponent on a range and ask yourself a few simple questions.

Where does my equity in this hand come from? Is he going to call with worse? Is he going to fold better? Is there a chance I can win this at showdown?

Once you know where your value comes from you can act accordingly.

There's nothing wrong with being aggressive, but it needs to be controlled aggression. Playing hands with good showdown value aggressively, looking for a fold, just isn't profitable.

It will end up costing you far more money than if you just try to see cheap showdowns with them.

Keep your aggression reigned in. Use it when the only way you can win is getting your opponent to fold, or when you're betting for value.

If you can remember all that, and successfully put it into practice, you should immediately see better results with those inbetween, middle-pair type hands.

More strategy articles:

Making The Switch: Live Full-Ring to Online Six-Max When You're Beat You're Beat Changing Gears Keeps Your Opponents Guessing Betting with a Purpose

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Tournament Hand Scenarios: The Bubble

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 20:25:37 -0700

And they always create tricky hand scenarios very different from those you'll find at cash games.

Rising blinds, fixed pay-out structures, a finite amount of chips, how much you can afford to lose. All of these can dramatically change the way you need to play any given hand.

A Common Scenario

You're in a $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em WSOP event and have just been moved to a new table of 10 players.

You're at the money bubble, with only a few players left to bust out before the remaining 500 players make it into the money.

Blinds: 10,000/20,000
Stacks:
UTG: 1,254,000
MP: 780,000
CO: 130,500
Hero (BTN): 620,000
SB: 430,600
BB: 1,890,100

Pre Flop: (Pot: 30,000) Hero is BTN with Q♥ Q♣.
One fold, MP raises to 60,000, CO folds, Hero re-raises to 180,000, 2 folds, MP re-raises all-in for 780,000.

Hero???

There are a lot of variables to consider here if we want to figure out what MP could possibly have.

He raised, then four-bet all in after you three-bet. This means:

He has AA or KK

He has JJ or a smaller pocket pair

He has AK

He thinks you're trying to steal at the bubble and he is bluffing

Jean-Robert Bellande recently bubbled the $10k 2-7 championships.

These are all the options that make sense for this play. Let's look at them in reverse order:

1) Bluffing

A lot of stealing goes on at the bubble, and that could be exactly what MP is trying to do with his original raise.

When you three-bet, he could be putting you on a re-steal, then making the four-bet thinking you won't risk your tournament life on the bubble.

In fact, many players will fold KK or even AA in this spot, choosing to fold everything until the bubble bursts before risking his or her stack.

For this reason, MP could be making this move entirely to make you fold.

2) Ace-King

Given the action to this point there's a decent chance he's holding A-K.

Most players with A-K in this spot would like to end the hand here, without having to see a flop. There's also a good chance you'd three-bet here with hands such as A-Q, almost any pair and maybe even A-J.

For this reason, it can be a decent bet for him to push on you. Even if you do have a hand like QQ, he's got a coin-flip for the win if you call.

3) Pocket Jacks

If he has JJ or a smaller pocket pair, he could be making this move hoping you fold - but also content with a call, thinking he's most likely in a coin-flip

Since he doesn't have to risk his entire stack (just most of it), he won't be completely out if he loses.

4) Pocket Aces and Kings

Finally, this is almost exactly how every player would play AA or KK.

Although he could try to trap, it makes more sense to take down the pot now and lower the amount of risk.

If you do call, he has a very strong hand and stands to win a big pot.

What's Your Plan for the Tournament?

As you can see, all of these hand scenarios make perfect sense. There really is no way to know what this player is doing without having any additional information.

But because this is your first hand at the table, you don't have any additional information; you're playing this with blinders on.

The only way you can decide what's best to do here is to decide what your plans are for this tournament. Are you playing to cash, or are you playing to win?

The scared look of a man who knows he's not going to make the bubble.

Is the chance to double-up worth the risk of not cashing in the small money just past the bubble?

The real question: how much is the tournament buy-in worth to you? Most tournaments pay out just slightly more than the buy-in to the first few players after the bubble.

If you can afford to lose this money, and are only playing for a chance at the final table, then calling might be your best choice.

If you spent every last dime you have to get into this tournament, then you might want to consider folding, waiting to guarantee your buy-in back before you put everything across the line.

Some poker hands have no clear answer, and the only person who can tell you what the correct choice is, is you.

In an ideal world, you have a big enough bankroll and are always playing to win the tournament - and not needing to cash to eat.

In the real world though, sometimes limping into the money is the best thing you can do. This choice is up to you.

Deep-Stacked MTT Strategy: Day 1, 6,000 to Go 3,000-Player MTTs Part 1 Tournament Tips: Take Control of Coin Flips WSOP First-Timer: Playing the Main Event

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

How Not to Suck at Poker: Discuss the Game

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:56:15 -0700

Anyone who has spent time playing sports will tell you this: they almost always perform best when playing against or with someone much better than themselves.

Unfortunately, it's hard to raise your own poker game simply by playing against better players.

Most of the decisions players make at the table are done privately. You can't emulate another player when you have no idea what they're doing and how they got to that decision.

The only way to get a glimpse into the mind of a better poker player is for that player to willingly share their thoughts and thought processes.

And a solid discussion with a better player about specific parts of the game can be more useful than any book or article.

The reason is simple: the exact questions you have are answered and there are no holes left lingering after the lesson.

Who to Look To

Although talking poker with anyone can be beneficial, certain people can offer much more insight and advice than others.

First, you want to be talking to someone who is stronger at the game or knows more than you. The discussion may be fun, but it's rare for you to pick up any useful advice from someone who knows far less than you.

Second, you need to consider the person's ability to communicate their thought process. Doing something really well, and being able to describe how you do it, are two very different things.

It's better to have a discussion with a strong $5/$10 NL player who can clearly explain his thoughts than with a tight-lipped Phil Ivey.

What to Discuss

The way the majority of humans learn best is through practice - trial and error, learning from our mistakes.

To learn from a mistake, you have to:

Make a mistake Understand and admit it was a mistake Figure out what the correct choice would have been Figure out why that is the correct choice Apply it to your game.

This mistake formula is crucial to becoming a great poker player.

Technically, you can use it with great results by yourself, but discussing with a friend, peer or coach can greatly expedite the process and make it even more successful.

Here's the key to discussing the game: the best discussions come from you bringing up a legitimate situation where you think you made a mistake.

Hypothetical situations and abstract poker theory can be good, but nailing down a specific situation you've encountered will, for most people, be much more helpful.

Take the situation with your mistake, describe it with as much detail as possible, and then discuss.

You'll be using everything you learned in the first nine steps of How Not to Suck at Poker as the building blocks of your discussion, from evaluating your hand selection to counting outs to paying attention when you're not involved in a hand.

The more mistakes you can fix using the above formula, the fewer holes you'll have in your game. And every mistake you eliminate will be one more step towards not sucking at poker.

How Not to Suck at Poker: Keep Records

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:02:00 -0700

Even the most honest and able-minded poker players have a tendency to distort the truth about their results from their poker sessions.

Most poker players in fact don't even have a physical poker bankroll - money that is only used for poker.

Their money is split between real-life needs and their poker playing. Without keeping stats, it can be really easy to lose track of exactly how well you're doing at the poker table.

Even if you're winning, how can you tell by how much?

Out-of-pocket players like this are only concerned with two numbers:

The amount of money they come into the poker room with. The amount of money they leave the poker room with.

If you want to not suck at poker, you'll need to know exactly how much you win or lose at a specific game or limit.

Do you crush $1/$2 for $30/h, but only beat $2/$5 for $15 an hour? It may be a bigger game with more money in play, but if you're not making as much money, why play it?

Ultimately you need to know exactly where your strengths and weaknesses are (yes, you have weaknesses).

How to Keep Records

There is really no one right way to keep your records. The only thing that matters is you keep all the information you need to get a complete perspective.

Pick your own poison:

Pad of paper and a pencil Excel spreadsheet Online stat tracking iPhone stats app (such as the Hot Poker Log. Seriously, it's actually named the Hot Poker Log)

Required Information:

Date Start time End time Total amount of buy-ins Cash-out amount

Recommended Information:

Limit played Location played

The more information you keep track of, the more reports you'll be able to run. Some reports are more valuable than others.

Essential Reports

Legacy Results (A running total of profit/loss for all results) Monthly Results

You may also want to know how much you make per hour, how much you make per hour at a specific limit, your BB/hour or even what room you make the most money in.

If you click on the main picture in this article, you can see an example of an Excel spreadsheet set up to keep track of the essential information.

Depending on how savvy you are with Excel, you can have the program run reports for specific months, limits, dates ... anything you want. You can even have it automatically generate a graph from your legacy profits (see example picture below).

You can never have too much data, but you can find yourself with too little. Take note of everything.

It really doesn't take that much time to do. And with honest, accurate notes, you'll be able to stand back and take an objective look at your game.

Even though stats won't help you at the table directly, knowing where your strengths and weaknesses lie will indirectly help you make more profitable choices at the Texas Hold'em tables.

Stay tuned for the final article in the 10-part series, Discussing the Game.

Related strategy articles:

Tracking Your Records: Excel-ent Practice

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Mike Matusow: Exhibit #1 for State Theory

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 20:29:53 -0700

The title of his new book is absolutely inspired, and Satan is played by none other than Mr. Matusow, who has now spent four decades channeling Beelzebub.

It's a fascinating read.

Mike's not exactly in line for a Pulitzer Prize, but the prose is straightforward (with help from co-authors Amy Calistri and Dr. Tim Lavalli) and he communicates his passion, his fears, desires, terrors, depressions, addictions, overarching successes, cataclysmic collapses and desperate needs with a refreshing, if brutal, honesty.

Matusow is a crazy mix of an almost occult ability to read people at a poker table whipped up with an equally unlikely self-destructive streak that makes the reader cringe and think, "oh shit, not again, Mikey, don't do it ..." knowing that he will indeed pick up that metaphoric gun and look around for his allegorical foot!

Wondering what his allegorical foot is, and how to find it.

From my psychological point of view he is a signature case in a classic debate between what we call "Trait Theory" and "State Theory."

Trait theorists argue that people are collections of particular traits, or characteristic ways of behaving.

They are "strong" or "smart;" they can be characterized as "resilient" or "vulnerable," they exhibit "insightfulness" or are "dense as a post."

No matter what collection of adjectives is used, the point is that individuals can be described by a list of characteristics that capture who they "are."

State theorists maintain that these ways of behaving have more to do with the context, the circumstances of the moment; that people can be resilient in one setting and truly pathetic and weak in another; that they can be insightful and clever under one set of conditions and utterly thickheaded under others.

Most people side with Trait theory. They believe we have particular characteristics or traits that define who we are and we expect people to be consistent.

The intelligent will make smart decisions in all contexts, the brave will be stalwart and fearless under all circumstances. It's one reason why people are totally shocked and disbelieving when a local "good kid" picks up a gun and cuts down a half dozen innocents.

However, the data side with State theory. People are consistent, but not as much as once thought. The current state, the momentary circumstances play a very significant role.

Your honor: Exhibit 1.

Mr. Matusow is Exhibit #1 for State Theory.

Here's a guy who has this extraordinary ability to read people, to sense their intentions, to anticipate their actions, to divine their plans, to uncover subterfuge, detect dissembling, spot strength, whatever ... he's got it all.

But, alas, only at the poker tables.

Away from the green felt he is a babe in the woods, a naïf, a mere child in a world of grown ups.

It is sad, it is almost pathetic and it is nearly incomprehensible ... even to a psychologist.

This guy can look across a poker table and read "bluff" with astonishing accuracy. But he can be enticed to try a really ugly drug by a "new best friend" he just met at a strip club who, he thinks, really likes him.

He can get emotionally involved with women who are manifestly psychotic, spend endless hours (and dollars) with hookers who he feels really care for him and his wants, he throws parties for hangers-on and bloodsucking "friends" whom he treats as though they were honorable comrades-in-arms.

He can become best buds with a guy whom his "personal physician" introduces him to and, over a several-month period, not have a clue that this guy is a narc and an FBI informant.

At the end of the day, hard not to like him.

The result: a six-month prison stint after a blatant entrapment scam that, despite its marginal legality and suspect ethics, completely envelops him to the point where he is forced into a guilty plea.

How, I said to myself over and over, can this be?

How can this guy have such sophisticated abilities to read people's intentions, hopes and desires at a poker table and be such a total dunce in the real world?

Frankly, I do not have an answer. Neither does Mike.

But the book is a hoot. And, you know, you come out at the end really liking the guy. I sure as hell did.

More strategy articles from Arthur S. Reber:

This One is Tricky: More on Post-Flop Play The Simple Psychology of Post-Flop Play Skill vs. Luck: Let's Get it Right What's Luck Got to Do With It?

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

How Not to Suck at Poker: Keep Your Mouth Shut

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:04:41 -0700

Texas Hold'em is an information game. The more information you have (and the better you are at acquiring it), the better you'll do.

One of the biggest edges you can get over your opponents is having more information than them about the hand in play.

So why on earth would you offer up that information to them when they need it most?

Fishing for Info

The more you talk during a hand, the greater the chance of you inadvertently giving away information about your hand or your possible actions.

For this reason, many poker players will fish for information simply by getting you to talk to them.

Some of the most common - and more blatant - angles are:

Do you want me to call? My bet didn't scare you at all, hey? Will you show if I fold?

Some questions are even disguised to seem unrelated:

How many chips do you have left?

This question is asked just as often to goad you into talking as it's asked to actually find out how many chips you have.

A strong poker player knows exactly how many chips you have in front of you; they only asked to hear you talk.

The Anti-Quiet.

It's Not What You Say

Typically, it's not what you say at the table that gives away information. It's how you say it.

A human under stress does odd things. When you make a move that inspires someone to try and fish for information, you're very likely already under some stress - or about to be.

If you're not under stress - or show no signs of it at least - that's even as much of a tell as if you are.

Observant players who are great at reading people can gauge almost exactly how strong you think your hand is by how you interact with them.

Pauses, inflection, breathing, your eye line ... all of these come together as information for your opponent.

You Have the Right to Remain Silent

You are under no obligation to answer a person's questions at the poker table.

If you're not acutely aware of your image, or you don't have strict control over your own emotions, actions and reactions at the table, chances are you want to stay silent.

Just like everything else in poker, if you don't do it the same way every time, then everything can be a tell. If you only answer questions when you have the nuts, people will catch on to that.

Keep your mouth shut, and you can guarantee that you don't give away any information.

At the same time, no need to be a jerk. If someone asks you a non-poker question (not during a hand), obviously reply and converse in any way you see fit.

As soon as that conversation becomes poker related, it's time to do your best Marcel Marceau impersonation.

The next edition of How Not to Suck at Poker explores the importance of keeping records.

More on how not to suck at poker:

Related strategy articles:

Swimming With Fish Part 2: Table Talk

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

How Not to Suck at Poker: Stop Bluffing

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:04:00 -0700

Let's start by clearing up a misconception:

There is actually very little stone-cold bluffing in poker. Thanks mostly to Hollywood's dramatic interpretation of it, people seem to associate poker with making huge bluffs at every possible opportunity.

Just as players rarely, if ever, lose with a straight flush to a royal flush, the game simply doesn't work like that.

As you would expect from a game as in-depth as Texas Hold'em, bluffing comes in many various forms and degrees:

Quick bluffs Semi-bluffs Stone-cold bluffs (or naked bluffs)

Quick Bluffs

The vast majority of all bluffs in Hold'em are quick bluffs.

Also known as "small ball," these are small bets made to win small- to medium-sized pots with a high expected rate of success.

The risk is minimal, and the reward is slightly profitable.

Example: Three players check to you on the button with a flop of K♥ K♠ 7♦.

There were no raises pre-flop, and no one looks at all interested in this pot. There are really only two options:

Someone has a king and is slowplaying. No one has a king and everybody's ready to fold

This scenario is straight forward. Chances are no one has a king, meaning they will be willing to fold.

Also, the size of the pot is too small to make a hero call worthwhile. This is a position bet, intended to finish the pot, regardless of your hand.

Semi-Bluffs

Let's say you raise pre-flop with A♥ K♥ and get two callers.

The flop comes J♥ 9♠ 5♥; you have nothing but a flush draw and over cards. The first player checks, followed by the second player betting three-quarters of the pot.

In this situation, raising would be a semi-bluff as technically you have nothing; you're behind anyone with as little as a pair.

The fact that you have a flush draw and the best overcards though means you have many legitimate ways to win this pot by showdown.

Your hand does have some value, making this only a semi-bluff. Ideally your opponent will fold and you will take the pot. But if you do get called there's the chance that you'll make the nuts on the turn.

Semi-bluffs are a crucial part of poker, but be warned: if you semi-bluff every time you have a big draw, you'll be as transparent as half of Britney Spears' wardrobe.

Stone-Cold Bluffs

Possibly the greatest stone-cold bluff ever to be caught on tape is Brad Booth's bluff against Phil Ivey in the third season of High Stakes Poker.

Booth: Hollywood bluff against Ivey one of the most famous ever.

Brad was drawing dead to a five or a runner-runner two pair. Because his hand had almost no value whatsoever this is a textbook example of a stone-cold bluff.

Realistically, the only way Brad is going to win this pot is if Ivey folds.

These are the type of bluffs you see in Hollywood movies, and these are the types of bluffs people seem to think poker is made of. In reality, it's almost never a good idea to make a bluff like this.

To expect these sorts of bluffs to be profitable, you need to understand everything going on in the hand, including your opponent's thoughts and plans. It's a high-level play left only to the very best in the world.

Sure, you can make these bluffs and have them work, but without being a truly high-level player, you're just rolling the dice on not getting called.

Dan Harrington describes these bluffs as "dark tunnel bluffs." All you see is the light at the end of the tunnel. You have no idea what's actually going on around you.

To not suck at poker, you need to stop making stone-cold bluffs, and limit the number of quick and semi bluffs you're making.

The best way for a beginner to make money at poker is by playing straight-forward, ABC poker. If you have the best hand, bet. If you don't, fold.

For some examples on playing ABC Poker, head to: How Not to Suck at Poker Examples: ABC Poker

More on how not to suck at poker:

How Not to Suck at Poker Examples:

How Not to Suck at Poker Examples: ABC Poker

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Deep-Stacked MTT Strategy: Day 1, 6,000 to Go

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 19:19:02 -0700

With starting stacks now three times the buy-in, solid deep-stack play is going to be a prerequisite to going deep in any series event.

And that means if you're used to playing standard live poker tournaments - where the structures are typically so fast only a fraction of the tournament would qualify as deep-stacked - you'll need to adjust your game.

Do You Play Cash Games?

A deep-stacked tourney is almost identical in play to a deep-stacked cash game, and all of the elements of a cash game that can typically be missing from a tournament are there.

Set mining for example, which can be a bad idea in a short-stack scenario, again becomes the bread and butter of your strategy.

In a true deep-stack format, you can raise, re-raise and still fold in the same hand. This allows for much more creative and skill-based plays.

Your goal is to play smaller pots, risking as little as possible, until you grab hold of a monster.

Don't needlessly risk your chips - you can almost be guaranteed to find a more favorable spot if you're just willing to wait.

Hand Selection

At the beginning of a major deep-stacked tournament, when your M is 200*, you have enough chips to play in any style you choose. All choices, lines and hands you may choose to play in a cash game, can be played here.

One wrong choice can be the difference from being on the table, or on the rail.

Now is the time to play suited connectors or even suited one-gappers (if that's the kind of game you play). The longer you wait, and the lower your M becomes, the more restricted you become in your options.

Your goal is to get to the flop cheap with hands that have the possibility of flopping something huge, and concealed. No one pays off a straight when there are four connected cards on the board; you want to have the cards in the middle to keep your hand strength off their radar.

You also want to play hands that either flop huge, or are easy folds. The last thing you should do is stack off at this point with bottom two pair or worse.

As your M begins to shrink, you need to start cutting out the low-probability/high-reward hands, as their initial investment becomes too high, forcing you to commit a large percentage of your stack on a long-shot.

*M=The value of your stack divided by the total amount of all blinds and antes: 30,000/150=200

The All-In

One of the trademarks of standard tournament poker is the all-in, as most tournaments have only a few levels of deep-stacked play before players are forced into "push or fold" mode.

The more deep stacked you are though, the less often you should be moving all in.

Think back to all the deep-stacked cash games you've played. When you and your opponents still have large stacks, how often do you get those large stacks all in?

It's a very rare occurrence two players with stacks well over 200bb will get it all in. It does happen, but it's rare enough that it's quite a memorable event.

Deep-stacked tournament poker is no different. Unless you have the nuts, and another player willing to stack off, it almost never makes sense to get all of your chips across the line.

If you're wondering why, take a look at the numbers:

Blinds: 25/50

Your stack: 27,000

Your opponent's stack: 32,000

Preflop: You raise 3x the bb (150). Only your opponent calls. Pot now 300.

The game grows far more intense around the bubble.

Flop: You bet pot, your opponent calls. Pot 900

Turn: You bet pot again, your opponent calls. Pot is now 2,700

River: You bet pot one more time; your opponent calls. Pot now 8,100

In this scenario, with one player being very aggressive and the other player just calling, the final pot is 8,100 - less than one-third of the total stacks of each player.

To get their whole stacks in, the players would have to bet over three times as many chips across the four betting rounds.

In other words, the type of action needed to get over 540bb in the pot is absolutely sick.

Although it does happen - mostly when two players both flop extremely strong hands - you shouldn't be thinking of the early stages of these tournaments as a time to move all in.

Your goal in deep-stacked MTTs is to play the cash-game grind. Forget about doubling up.

You're looking to slowly and consistently grow your stack. You can increase your stack 50%-100% during a long tournament day without ever being involved in a very large pot.

Because you have no need to grow your stack immediately, you have no need to put your chips at risk. Protect your stack until you have the best of it, and then make your move.

Play smart, and you'll have no need to get lucky in the opening rounds.

3,000-Player MTTs Part 1 Tournament Tips: Take Control of Coin Flips WSOP First-Timer: Playing the Main Event

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

This One is Tricky: More on Post-Flop Play

Fri, 29 May 2009 21:02:14 -0700

If you missed the intro to this discussion, check it out here.

V. Control pot size. This one is tricky, almost certainly trickier than you think.

Controlling pot size has two obvious elements: keeping it small and making it grow. When you're on a draw you usually want to keep the pot small (adjusted, of course, for fold equity).

There are some straightforward gambits here, particularly when first to act such as blocking bets (initial bets that are likely to be less than your opponent would bet) or "timely" checks (made after "thinking" for some time) which can induce a check from an opponent.

You also will often want to keep the pot small when you've got top pair, even with a decent kicker. No, don't howl. I'm serious.

More money is lost with TPTK than any other holding (with the possible exception of bottom two). If the pot gets too big you're going to find yourself committed with the second best hand ... one of these thumpings a session and you're a losing player.

Keep it small, or make it grow?

If you've flopped a big hand you want, of course, to grow the pot and you need to carefully judge what your opponent is likely to call. Generally something around 2/3 or 3/4 of the pot on the flop and turn works well to get an overwhelmed opponent pot-committed.

There is a tendency to get greedy and overbet the pot. Sometimes this will work but it is a finely tuned decision based on your read of the situation and your opponent.

Unless you can get him to think you're on a bluff you're unlikely to get a call. If your opponent folds the worst hand because you bet too much, you've made a significant mistake.

VI. Pay close attention to stack sizes, yours and your opponents'. I often sit there and watch the others at my table. I am surprised at how often people make bets without taking into account what their opponents have in front of them.

There are some pretty simple principles operating here.

Don't try to bluff a small stack. If your opponent is down to some 10 or fewer BBs and has called to see the flop, he's unlikely to dump his hand to an all-in - unless he missed everything and then he'll dump it to a lesser bet anyway.

Similarly, be restrained with big stacks, because they're feeling pretty good about life and will look you up with less than they might under other circumstances.

Be restrained around big stacks.

Some hands gain in value when facing a big stack such as small pairs and gutshot draws. When you hit one of these your hand is usually well disguised. Conversely, these hands lose value when facing small stacks.

Stack-size issues are important in tournament play where their role can get magnified at critical times like the money bubble and the final-table bubble.

VII. Don't try to put opponents on a hand, try to put them on a range of hands and let each street narrow it.

This is so obvious it shouldn't need to be discussed, but it does. Look around the table next time and notice how often someone will say something like "well, I put him a flush draw" or "he had to have 7s or at best 8s."

Sometimes this kind of close read is legit, but most of the time it's an error. Sometimes the error is caused by unimaginative thinking about your opponent but, alas, sometimes it is the result of watching too much TV.

An awful lot of players have been struck by some seemingly occult hand reading on the part of top players like Daniel Negreanu and Mike Matusow.

Made for TV.

And it is very impressive when Daniel looks across the table and says, "okay, okay so you hit the 9 to go with your A; nice. I fold." --- And the pocket cam indeed shows us A-9.

Before you get sucked into trying to match these feats, here are some things to think about.

First, these guys are good and they have had a lot of experience. Second, their opponents are often either people they know well or amateurs whose games are fairly transparent. Third, these miracle reads are on TV and the show you're watching is edited.

In the real world not only is it very difficult to put someone on a hand, it's usually the wrong thing to try to do. Start with a range of hands that make sense given the action and then adjust your read as new information comes in.

And, importantly, if you've started out best or flopped a made hand, each new card that hits the board will diminish its value.

Made hands can only lose value; drawing hands can't. Make sure you adjust your read with each successive board card.

VIII. The float. This piece of post-flop subterfuge has gotten a good bit of attention lately, so much so that you probably want to be careful using it.

The play is designed to take advantage of a pre-flop raiser who likely missed the flop.

Be careful with the float.

Suppose there's an early raise, 4xBB pre-flop. You call on the button with modest junk. The flop is a raggedy 9-3-5 rainbow.

The raiser makes a continuation bet, assuming (probably) that you didn't hit the flop either. You call, implying that either you did hit it or you called the initial raise with a pair.

If the raiser was playing a big ace, he's likely to check the turn. You make a bet of about 2/3 the pot. You will have a pretty high probability of taking down the pot. Your cards are irrelevant.

However, this play has become so routine that often the initial raiser will counter it by check-raising you. The lesson to learn here is to be careful and get a sense of how tricky you think the initial raiser is before you try 'floating' him.

Next time we'll look at another group of post-flop situations and explore how to play them.

More poker strategy articles from Arthur S. Reber:

The Simple Psychology of Post-Flop Play Skill vs. Luck: Let's Get it Right What's Luck Got to Do With It?What's He Not Holding?

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

How Not to Suck at Poker: Have a Bankroll

Thu, 28 May 2009 17:37:46 -0700

One of the most important things you can do for yourself when starting out in poker is to set aside a poker-specific bankroll.

Meaning a lump sum of money used exclusively for playing poker. This money is "poker money" and poker money only.

The Poker Money Mindset

Most people are extremely attached to money.

They stress over it to the point of becoming physically sick at times. Unfortunately, this attachment to money makes it nearly impossible to be successful in No-Limit poker.

The poker bankroll must be separate from your regular money, physically and mentally.

When you go on a bad run and lose hundreds or thousands of dollars, you can't be having thoughts of what you could have done with that money.

Money won or lost in poker is simply poker money. You need to expect to lose at poker from time to time, and those losses should never affect the financial situation of your regular life.

Separate yourself from the poker money, and think of it only as a way to play the game - not money that could be spent on something else.

Playing on Scared Money

One of the most common ways players suck at poker is playing with scared money.

If you're scared to lose the money in front of you, or you simply can't afford to lose it, it's impossible to play a very strong game of No-Limit Hold'em.

You have to be willing to put every chip you have in front of you across the line at any time. If a player knows you're not willing to risk your chips, they're going to walk all over you.

Even if the other players don't catch on to your un-willingness to risk your chips, you'll be unable to pull the trigger when the time comes to make a bluff or difficult call you know to be correct.

JRB: King of Busto.

Going Busto

The final reason all poker players need a bankroll is to avoid going completely busto.

Regardless of how well you play the game, you're going to have periods of time where no matter what you seem to do, you just can't post a win.

Some of the world's best players have endured months of straight losses. For this reason you need a bankroll large enough to sustain these losses and allow you to continue playing until you earn the money back on your next upswing.

If the size of your roll will leave you broke after one or even a few concurrent losses, you're simply gambling that you don't start your poker timeline off on a downswing.

If you start to lose significantly, the best thing you can do is to drop down in levels. That way, even though your BR is lower than where it was when you started, the ratio of your roll to buy-ins for the game you're playing stays healthy.

If you still can't win even after dropping down in limits, it might just be time to take a break. Clear your head and come back to the game fresh.

Bankroll Rule of Thumb

The rule of thumb for a cash-game bankroll is to never have more than 5% of your entire roll in play at one time. This means a 20 buy-in minimum for single-table cash games, and more for multi-tabling.

In a tournament setting, you typically want over 100 buy-ins to the tournaments you want to play. So if you're playing $5+50¢ tournaments, you want $550 as your roll.

This almost ensures that (as long as you don't suck) you will never go busto.

Having a bankroll is the best thing you can do for yourself as a poker player, but even a healthy bankroll can't save you if you don't follow the next step in How Not to Suck at Poker: Stop Bluffing.

More on how not to suck at poker:

Related strategy articles:

Your Bankroll Part 1: How Big Is Big Enough? Respecting Money Getting Staked vs. Borrowing

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

How Not to Suck at Poker: Pay Attention

Wed, 27 May 2009 00:55:41 -0700

Texas Hold'em is a game of partial information. The more you can acquire, the better you'll play.

And everything that happens at a poker table - whether you're in the pot or not - is one more piece of information you can add to your collection.

Making the Most of Auto Play

The vast majority of poker hands you'll be dealt actually require little to no thought at all.

If you're following the advice from the first article in this series (play fewer hands), you should only be playing somewhere in the neighborhood of 15% of all hands.

This means 85% of the time you're dealt in, you're folding.

Of the 15% of hands you're playing, many of them are going to be simple, one-action hands. Either you raise your K♠ K♥ and everyone folds, or you're ready to play your 9♥ 9♠ when a player moves all-in ahead of you.

Only a few hands you play will really require some thought. And only a fraction of those will force you to make a very difficult decision.

When you do need to make those difficult decisions, you'll need as much information as you can - and you can gain that while you're auto-playing.

What to Look For

In short: everything.

Everything a player does at the table is a clue to how they play and what kind of decisions they're going to make.

Watch how they talk, how they sit. Watch every hand that plays out even if you're not in it.

Take notes (mental notes in live poker obv.) anytime someone does something out of the ordinary. Note how much money they brought, how they bought in.

Do they like to play in large pots? Are they scared of losing? Do they bluff? Watch everything, and understand that everything is a clue.

The more you take in, and the more you consciously catalog, evaluate and remember, the better chance you'll have at making the right decisions when the time comes.

Making the Hard Choices

When you're in a hand that requires you to make a difficult decision, you need to quickly and accurately compile all of the information you have about the hand and the players involved.

Every scrap of information you have is one more piece of the puzzle. The more pieces of the puzzle you hold, the easier it will be to see the big picture.

And making the correct decision in these few key moments is what separates the losing player from the winners.

Stay tuned for Part 6: Have a Bankroll.

More on how not to suck at poker:

Related strategy articles:

Top 5 Ways to Keep Sharp After Folding Limiting Distractions Poker Tells: The Real Science

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More Stupid Things Heard at Poker Tables

Sun, 24 May 2009 19:15:10 -0700

In no particular order:

"Hmmm, glad I folded," which gets muttered at least ten times a night in the average poker room, usually after the flop.

This comment and its twin, "Damn, I coulda' doubled up on that flop," are nonsensical.

Look folks, once you've made a decision about what to do with your hand, the flop is irrelevant. The correctness of the pre-flop action is based on the conditions that existed pre-flop.

Whether it was the right (or the wrong) thing to do is based entirely on those circumstances. The cards that actually landed on the flop are massively irrelevant.

In fact, if I could give you a mental 'gift' that would help your poker game in oh so many ways, I would arrange it so that one micro-second after mucking your cards you forgot what they were.

Ruminating about what might have happened or what you could have won (or lost) on a hand cannot possibly help your game. The only thing it'll do is suck you into playing hands that you shouldn't play or mucking ones you should.

This point holds for the later streets as well. If you folded your gut-shot draw on the turn because you weren't getting the right odds don't swear (even under your breath) when your 4-outer hits the board.

I appreciate how tough it is to resist these feelings of regret (or relief). There is something very compelling about seeing the board and knowing exactly what your hand would have been.

Did someone say seductive?

Flop games like Omaha or Hold 'em have this seductive element, which may be one of their attractions.

Others like stud, draw or razz don't; you can't reconstruct what your hand would have been had you stayed (although you can do a partial with stud depending of a host of factors).

There is, not surprisingly, an interesting psychological feature operating here, it is our fascination with counterfactuals. Counterfactuals are arguments about what might have or could have happened. They are very appealing and routinely invite speculations.

Historians are particularly prone to them ("What would the world be like if Hitler had become a successful painter?" or "What if Lee Harvey Oswald missed?"). But, unlike the historians who are only playing a guessing game, in flop games you know what would have happened.

And no rabbit hunting, although, if truth be known, everybody loves to rabbit hunt, including me. If it weren't for the time that it wastes and the uselessness of what is learned.

"I cannot beat this guy." This line is usually followed with "No matter what I hold, he's got something better or he sucks out on me, only me."

Again, the feeling is real. It is also illogical and does not reflect reality.

As we've noted on many an occasion, human memory is far from perfect and one of its weaknesses is that it tends to be "selective."

We remember events that have importance or were significant for us in some way. We forget things that we are not attending to or did not fit with our current thinking.

If we start believing that the clown in the 2-hole just beats on us like a red-headed step child, we will begin to focus on the times he's sliced us up, recall those moments with a special poignancy and, of course, forget the times he folded or showed down second best.

Beginning to think that an opponent has some occult hold on you is a mistake, a big one.

It can seriously screw with your mind; it takes on a life of its own and impacts negatively how you play against this guy. Worse, when you talk about it, it's like giving him a license to run over you.

"I want to see that hand." This last one is the all-time winner ... or loser.

It was the $2/5 game at my local room, the one that plays like a $5/10 game elsewhere in the sane world. A big pot developed between two guys who had been going at each other all night.

Not this Lou.

'Lou,' in seat 7 has been playing a very squirrelly game, raising with junk, smooth calling with big pairs and talking and talking and talking. He's been getting to 'Max' in seat 8 who is starting to tilt.

Lou (sitting behind about $1,200) opens for $45 (not unusual in this game) and Max (who has him covered) is the only caller (pot = $97). The flop is mildly coordinated, 9♠ 8♦ 2♠.

Lou bets $90. Max calls (pot = $277).

The turn is 3♠. Lou bets out $222; Max looks annoyed at the amount, riffles chips for a bit but smooth calls (pot = $721). The river is 6♠.

Lou bets out $444. Max tanks for about 2 minutes. Finally, he looks over at his tormentor and says, "Okay, I call."

"Good call," says Lou, "I missed." and nods his head in defeat. Max smiles triumphantly, and turns over Ac, 9c. Then, before the dealer has a chance to do anything, he says "I want to see that hand."

In a normal world the dealer will ask Lou to drop his hand on the table, push the pot (now over $1,600) to Max, take the now-dead hand, tap it twice on the table and turn it over.

But Lou is still holding the cards and he says, "Oh, yeah, sure" and proceeds to turn over J♦ T♠ and says, "Oh shit, look at that, I hit the flush."

And the dealer pushes him the $1,600+ coconuts.

My friend Tommy Angelo has a rule. He never talks at the table. Max could learn a lot from Tommy.

Okay, I'm done with this topic, hopefully forever 'cause it's gonna be tough to top this last one.

More poker strategy articles from Arthur S. Reber:

The Simple Psychology of Post-Flop Play Skill vs. Luck: Let's Get it Right What's Luck Got to Do With It?What's He Not Holding?

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

How Not to Suck at Poker: Learn Basic Odds

Thu, 21 May 2009 19:08:00 -0700

Like it or not, Texas Hold'em is an odds game. Every action you make, hand you play or bet you face has odds, probability and statistics attached to it.

For the math-phobes out there though, don't worry. You don't need to become a math expert to be a strong poker player.

In fact, there are tons of serious players who have no idea what a common denominator is. As complex as Hold'em strategy is, the game at its core is still very simple.

And this simplicity makes for simple equations and easy mathematics.

Many of the following things you don't need to fully understand - you just need to know enough to have a good feel for the game.

Figuring Out Your Pot Odds

Pot odds are the odds you're "being offered by the pot" to make your call. This is the amount of money in the pot compared to the amount of money you must pay to stay in the hand.

An example:

Say we go to the flop heads-up. There's $10 in the pot and your opponent bets $5. Since your opponent's bet is now part of the pot, you're being offered $15 for a cost of $5. In ratio form, that's 15:5

To simplify, you always make the right side of your ratio equal to 1 (you'll see why this is easier in a second). So to make the right side equal to 1, divide 5 by itself. 5/5 = 1.

Basic math rules say that whatever you do to one side of a ratio, you must do to the other. So since we divided the right side by 5, we divide the left side by 5. 15/5 = 3.

Your new ratio is 3-1 (If you want to skip a step, you can also just divide the left side by the right side (15/5) to find the left-hand side of the new ratio).

So in this situation, the pot odds are 3-1.

Figuring Out Your Equity

The next step after figuring out your pot odds is figuring out your equity (your chances of winning the pot compared to your opponent's).

Phil Ivey in the process of figuring out his equity is always 110%

To calculate your equity, take your total number of outs and multiply that number by 4 on the flop (or 2 on the turn).

This will give you your chance at winning the pot as a percentage.

So for example if you have a flush draw, you have 9 outs on the flop. 9x4 = 36% chance at making the best hand.

Since we have the pot odds as a ratio, we then need to make that percentage a ratio to compare the two. With 100 possible percentage points, your equity ratio is then 64-36 (64 times you don't make your hand; 36 times you do).

If we use the same ratio shortcut from the pot odds section to get the right side equal to 1, the equity ratio is (64/36)-1 or 1.7-1. Meaning for every one time you make your hand there will be 1.7 times that you don't.

If you don't want to be that precise in your pot-odds calculation (and poker math doesn't need to be exact at the table), the simple shortcut is to estimate that 36 will go into 64 a little less than twice.

It really doesn't matter if you think that means it's 1.6, 1.7, 1.8 or 1.9-1; even if you just round it to 2-1 that's probably close enough to decide on making the call or not.

Comparing Your Pot Odds to Your Equity

So how do you know if you should make the call? Simply compare the two numbers on the left-hand side of the ratios.

If your pot odds number is higher than your equity number, then it's a good call. If it's lower, then you're making a bad call.

In its most basic form, odds are no more complicated than this.

Some Random Odds and Ends to Keep handy

Probability of... Odds Example Being dealt a pair 17-1 (5.9% ) 7♠ 7♥ Being dealt Aces 221-1 (0.45%) A♥ A♦ Being dealt Ace-King Suited 331.5-1 (0.3%) A♠ K♠ Flopping a set with a pocket-pair 8.51-1 (11.76%) 8♣ 8♥ | 2♠ 8♦ A♣ Flopping two pair (without a pocket-pair pre-flop) 48-1 (2.02%) 7♣ 10♦ | 7♥ 10♣ 3♥ Making a Flush by the river (flopped 4 to a suit) 1.9-1 (35%) A♦ Q♦ | 9♦ 4♦ A♠ 10♦ Making an open-ended straight by the river 2.2-1 (32%) 6♦ 7♥ | 8♥ 9♦ 2♣ 3♦ 10♣ A full house or better by the river (flopped three of a kind) 2-1 (33%) 4♦ 4♥ | 4♣ K♦ Q♥ K♠

More on how not to suck at poker:

How Not to Suck at Poker: Play Fewer Hands
How Not to Suck at Poker: Play in Position
How Not to Suck at Poker: Count Your Outs
How Not to Suck at Poker: Learn Basic Odds How Not to Suck at Poker: Pay Attention
How Not to Suck at Poker: Have a Bankroll
How Not to Suck at Poker: Stop Bluffing
How Not to Suck at Poker: Keep Your Mouth Shut
How Not to Suck at Poker: Keep Records
How Not to Suck at Poker: Discuss the Game

Related strategy articles:

How to Calculate Pot Odds and Equity: Equity
How to Calculate Pot Odds and Equity: Pot Odds
Calculating Pot Odds: A Beginner's Guide

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

The Simple Psychology of Post-Flop Play

Sat, 16 May 2009 23:47:33 -0700

We're going to head down a slightly different path over the next few articles with a series on the psycholgical factors that underlie the complex strategic elements of post-flop play - specifically in No-Limit Hold 'em.

In my reading of the poker literature, I've noticed that most of the discussions of strategy focus on pre-flop action.

This is understandable and sensible. Solid pre-flop strategy avoids problems and limits the number of difficult decisions you will need to make.

There's no doubt someone with a sensible, measured pre-flop game can be a long-term winner - or at least not much of a loser.

It's amazing how few regulars in the trenches understand this.

The best analyses of strategy turn to the nuances of post-flop play. In fact, a trend is emerging at the upper levels. The top players specifically recommend violating many of the "basic" principles of pre-flop play.

The point is simple but deep. If you've become a solid, post-flop player, you want to play as many hands as possible. Why? You'll end up in post-flop situations where your opponents will be out of their element and you won't be.

Experts at post-flop play can simply see more flops profitably.

So, let's begin with a run-through of some fundamental elements to post-flop play. We'll touch on each only briefly, just enough to make some basic points. Each of these ploys requires much fuller discussion than we have room for but, hopefully, we'll get you thinking.

Note: some basic strategies are more relevant to cash games than tournaments and vice versa. I've not distinguished between them, except when the differences are compelling. For the most part, solid post-flop play taps similar elements in both.

The later you act, the more everything loosens.

Position is king, queen ... prince, princess and court jester all rolled into one.

Everything that follows has an implied footnote: adjustments must be made for position. The later you act the more everything loosens and the range of actions you can take expands. It is not possible to over-emphasize this point.

Standard advice is that position is more important before the flop than post-flop. This isn't wrong but you need to be thinking about the post-flop positional consequences of pre-flop decisions.

Having to act first after the flop is awkward and rife with problems, mainly because of the number of actions that will be taken by opponents after you've made your decision.

The later you act the more the range of issues you will need to deal with is restricted ... and if there is one thing we know in psychology, any time you can reduce the domain of alternatives you must take into account, the lower your error rate becomes.

It's Not All About Aggression

It's a myth that the best post-flop players are wildly aggressive, constantly taking hands away from their opponents. This is, at best, an oversimplification; timing, reads, board texture and the like are keys.

Mad Genius.

Mike Caro's great line ("aggression is rarely wrong in poker and when it is, it isn't wrong by much") still holds and players with a strong aggressive game will have an edge, but the aggression must be tempered by position, by the nature of the table, by the individual players in the hand with you and, of course, by your position.

The wildly aggressive players leave themselves open to traps set by observant opponents. Be aggressive, but be selective.

Aggression, for what it's worth, has a gender bias to it (don't flame me now, I'm just the messenger). The data show that men are more aggressive than women in most competitive endeavors, including poker.

Women who counter this gender effect have an edge for all the obvious reasons.

There's No Shame in Folding

If you're seeing a lot of flops there will be many hands where you either miss or, worse, hit a minor piece of the board. You need to know when to get out and cut your losses.

Chips not lost = chips won. From a psychological point of view, I find it fascinating how many veterans of the game fail to grasp this point.

Again, there is a gender factor. Folding is seen as wimpy or not masculine in many circles. If you dump a bunch of hands to middling bets, folks start thinking you're a wuss.

Don't sweat it. If they believe this erroneously you gain (think Dan Harrington).

There is also no shame folding to the same opponent several times in a row. There is a tendency to get wrapped up in the play of a single adversary.

Someone has pushed you off of two or three hands. Your ego gets bruised. You start to steam a little and vow to "get" this guy

Folding does not make you wimpy.

This is almost invariably a mistake and leads to several unhappy outcomes: you enter pots with your "nemesis" out of position or with the worst hand, you call bets and raises you shouldn't and, worst of all, you fail to pay adequate attention to others at the table.

It's okay to try to isolate someone who plays weakly post-flop but keep your ego out of any such efforts.

Avoid Coin Flips

You don't want to risk a lot of chips on chancy events, particularly if you're a better tactician than your opponents.

Yeah, I know. Coin flips have a slightly positive EV (you're 50-50 on the draw and you're theoretically chopping the dead money) but the long-term expectation is pretty small and may even be negative because sometimes it's not a coin flip; sometimes you're dominated.

Lose one of these pots and it'll take a bunch of those baby +EV hands to make up for it.

If you're playing better post-flop than your opponents you don't want to be in chancy situations. You want to be in ones where your grasp of the game gives you the edge.

It's simple psychologically ... and even simpler game-theoretically.

Next time we'll revisit this topic and dig a little deeper.

More poker strategy articles from Arthur S. Reber:

Skill vs. Luck: Let's Get it Right What's Luck Got to Do With It?What's He Not Holding?Is Poker Gambling?

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

How Not to Suck at Poker: Count Your Outs

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 20:37:23 -0800

If you ever want to get a handle on Texas Hold'em poker odds, it's imperative you learn how to count all your outs.

An out is any card that can come which will give you the best hand. Obviously, before you can begin to count outs, you have to know the poker hand rankings forward and backwards, so start there if you don't know them.

After you know the poker hand rankings, you need to be able to read the board. Are there possible straights or flushes? Is the board paired?

All of these things may affect your outs. Here's a simple outs cheat sheet covering the most common situations you'll be in after the flop (definitions for the terms are below the list):

Hand Outs Open-ended straight draw 8 Gut-shot straight draw 4 Flush draw 9 Open-ender & flush draw 15 Three of a kind to make a full house 6 on the flop, 9 on the turn (add one out for quads) Pocket pair to hit a set after the flop 2

Open-ended straight draw - You have four cards in a row. Hand:8♠ 9♥ | Board:6♥ 7♣ 2♠ Gut-shot straight draw - You need one card in the middle of four. Hand:8♠ 9♥ | Board:6♥ 10♣ 2♠ Flush draw - You have four cards of the same suit. Hand:8♠ 9♠ | Board:6♠ K♣ 2♠ Open-ender & flush draw - You have both and open-ended straight draw and a flush draw. Hand:8♠ 9♠ | Board:6♠ 7♠ 2♥ Three of a kind to make a full house - You have three cards of the same rank. Hand:8♠ 8♥ | Board:8♦ 7♠ 2♥ Pocket pair to hit a set after the flop - You have a pair in your hand. Hand:8♠ 8♥ | Board:6♠ 7♠ 2♥

The more time you spend practicing counting your outs, the simpler it will become.

Any card that will bring you the best hand is considered an out. Be careful not to count outs that will potentially give your opponent a better hand.

For example, if you have an open-ended straight draw, but there's two to a suit on the flop, you only have six outs, since two of your outs will bring a flush to anyone holding the flush draw.

Once you no longer have any difficulty counting your outs, you're ready to move on to the next step.

Related strategy articles:

Anti-Outs and Money Cards Calculating Pot Odds: A Beginner's Guide Poker Hand Rankings

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Review of Life's a Gamble by Roy Brindley

Mon, 11 May 2009 05:02:13 -0700

But I have a justification, admittedly pathetic. I've decided it's okay if the books I review are poker books that are really about life. We say stuff like, "hey, man, poker is life." Right?

So far I've got two books in this 'poker = life' category: Tommy Angelo's Elements of Poker, and Nolan Dalla and Peter Alson's One of a Kind, the brilliant unpacking of the life of the tormented Stuey Ungar.

Let's add a third, Roy Brindley's Life's a Gamble. Like the others, it is more about life than about the game itself. You won't learn strategy here but you will have trouble putting it down.

Brindley is a gambler, as the title tells you.

He is a sick, demented, compulsive, self-destructive gambler with a deep streak of insecurity, an almost pitiable desire to be loved and accepted, a crazy longing for what he thinks is the "good life," the "cash in pocket" life style: fast cars, big houses, booze, women and it's all wrapped up in an ego the size of Ireland, which is where he now lives with the loyal Meg, their two children and a Ferrari with a blown engine and maybe, just maybe, the life he thinks he wants.

Who knows? I, for one, wouldn't put much loose change on his future.

But, no matter. The book is a wonderfully insightful, sometimes painful revelation of how a working-class bloke from Southampton struggles through it all.

An unloved child in a family of emotionally distant compulsive gamblers, reasonably successful greyhound trainer who blows it all on various hopeless bets, ends up dropping out of life and living rough, begging on street corners with a cardboard box as his home and, 300 pages later, success as a sponsored poker pro with over a million dollars won in tournament and live play.

Brindley's a compulsive gambler, of this there is no doubt. He knows it and you will too. But, as the tale unfolds, it becomes clear that the real problem isn't gambling in any simple way. It's losing. And as he loses, he dreams, romanticizing about the big one, the "life-changer" of a win that will fulfill the fantasy.

Back in the '80's Howard Sartin developed the 'pace' method for handicapping racehorses. Sartin, a psychotherapist, frustrated over his lack of success treating problem gamblers decided, instead, to teach them to win. Pace handicapping revolutionized the game. His clientele, now playing with positive EV were 'cured.'

Brindley at the 2005 WSOP.

And so it was with Brindley. Poker took a pathetic loser betting the dogs, horses and sports and made him a winner. He is now forty, has his family and considerable wealth but the reader knows that he can, in a New York minute, succumb to that irresistible tug to unwrap his bankroll and mix it up.

I loved the book and 'Roy the Boy,' his poker moniker --- and I can no more resist a quick analysis of Mr. Brindley than he can pass a bookmaker without tossing a couple of quid on a nag at Epsom.

At the core, Brindley is a deeply sensitive fellow and a rather fragile one. He is also ingenuous and open about his failings and honest about them to a fault, a tendency that often has unhappy consequences.

He is so emotionally vulnerable that sessions of poor play, tournaments that end short of his goals (and hopes) can totally derail him, shake his confidence and wreck his game.

He lets remarks that are simply one-offs from frustration get to him. A crack from Howard Lederer, for example, that denigrates Brindley's play sets him off in a spiral of depression. Simply getting needled by opponents in Vegas, a tactic designed to put players off their game, does just that.

There are cultural elements Brindley doesn't seem to recognize. He learned the game in Europe where decorum rules, where even talking at the table is frowned on and is despairing of boorish Americans.

But then, while doing poker commentary for British TV, he insensitively makes religious and ethnic slurs. He also ends up good buddies with Tony G, one of poker's most notorious trash talkers.

For someone who spent so much of his life in betting shops, at race tracks, casinos and poker rooms, he can be astonishing naïve.

Brindley's mom thinks Tony G is a bad influence on her Roy.

At Binion's for the WSOP, he spots a single-deck blackjack table, a card-counter's wet dream. He starts betting $2 a hand, wins consistently, boosts his bets way up and then is astonished and appalled when he gets that fatal tap on the shoulder from a large gentleman telling him his action is no longer welcome.

How this can be a surprise to someone who developed his own card counting system (apparently never having read or even heard of Thorpe, Uston or Snyder) and was so successful that he got barred from every casino in England, is beyond me.

He is also proud that he has survived this life without ever doing drugs. He seems not to realize that alcohol is a drug. He drinks copiously, explaining in a painfully defensive way, that he likes to drink while playing poker, especially tournaments, that it calms him and allows him to focus.

The tale of winning a tournament so plastered that he couldn't make out the cards and then passed out, leaving the loyal Meg to bag up the prize money, should be a warning. It appears not to be.

He ends upbeat, believing he has vanquished his demons, mended his ways, conquered his insecurities and doubts. I hope he has. I really do.

A note: The book is written for a British audience. The old line rings true about the US and the UK: 'two great lands separated by a common language.' Many passages will be cryptic to a North American reader and many words will be strange. But that's okay. Just plow through; they'll start feeling familiar after a while.

Author Bio:

Arthur Reber has been a poker player and serious handicapper of thoroughbred horses for four decades. He is the author of The New Gambler's Bible and coauthor of Gambling for Dummies. Formerly a regular columnist for Poker Pro Magazine and Fun 'N' Games magazine, he has also contributed to Card Player (with Lou Krieger), Poker Digest, Casino Player, Strictly Slots and Titan Poker. He outlined a new framework for evaluating the ethical and moral issues that emerge in gambling for an invited address to the International Conference of Gaming and Risk Taking.

Until recently he was the Broeklundian Professor of Psychology at The Graduate Center, City University of New York. Among his various visiting professorships was a Fulbright fellowship at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. Now semiretired, Reber is a visiting scholar at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

More poker strategy articles from Arthur S. Reber:

Skill vs. Luck: Let's Get it Right What's Luck Got to Do With It?What's He Not Holding?Is Poker Gambling?

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

How Not to Suck at Poker: Play in Position

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 01:24:00 -0700

Position is simply the single most important and valuable commodity to have at the poker table.

If you're unfamiliar with the term, position simply means you are the last to act in the hand (meaning you have the dealer button, or the players acting after you have folded).

The worst places, position-wise, are typically the blinds, as after the first round of betting the whole table acts after you for the rest of the hand.

Regardless of your skill level, the situation, or the hand you're playing, being in position will always give you more information in the hand than any of your opponents.

And in the world of Texas Hold'em, information is the most valuable commodity there is.

Four Biggest Reasons to Play in Position:

When it's your turn to act, you have more information than your opponents. Position gives you "bluff equity," meaning simple, cheap and effective bluffing opportunities. Acting last lets you make more accurate value bets. Having last action gives you control over the final pot size.

To give you an idea of exactly how important position is:

Tom "durrrr" Dwan and Patrik Antonius are in the middle of a $1.5 million, 50,000-hand heads-up challenge online, with the winner getting the money from the game plus added money in a side bet.

Your hands always look better in position.

These two players are arguably two of the best online poker players in the world. And if you look at the stats taken from all the hands they've played so far, you'll see an almost shocking theme.

If you compare money won or lost out of position to money won or lost in position, each player's results are a mirror image. Both are substantially down when out of position, and both are showing a substantial profit when in position.

Even though they're playing the same game, against the same player, simply having position is the difference between winning and losing millions.

For this reason, if one player was to give the other player position in every hand they play, there would be no contest; the player with position would dominate.

No matter what style of poker you plan on playing, if you want to make money you need to play as many of your big pots in position as possible.

Every large pot you play out of position is a potential disaster.

As Daniel Skolovy says "Playing out of position is like walking through a dark cave with no flashlight. You never know what might lurk behind that next corner."

Stay tuned for Part 3: Count Your Outs.

More on how not to suck at poker:

Related strategy articles:

Don't Be a Sucker: Play in Position The Value Bet for Beginners Big Hand, Big Pot; Small Hand, Small Pot (Pot Control)

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

How Not to Suck at Poker: Play Fewer Hands

Wed, 13 May 2009 01:13:00 -0700

You lose to your friends in your home games. You lose the first few bucks you deposit online. Worse, you may not even understand why.

Are you just unlucky? Are you making huge mistakes? Are you missing one simple concept that could change things?

The truth: You're really not that far behind 95% of the poker players in the world. And you don't need to be the foremost expert on the game to become a winning poker player.

In fact, a relatively small amount of basic poker principles can produce massive improvements in your results almost immediately.

And the true first step to becoming a good poker player: simply figuring out how to stop sucking at it.

This is the first in a 10-part series explaining exactly how to do that on the most basic level, starting with the most important tip of all: playing fewer hands.

How Not to Suck at Poker Tip 1: Play Fewer Hands.

In Texas Hold'em, there are 169 different possible starting hands you can be dealt (this is ignoring specific suits).

Out of all these possible hands, there are only five hands that are considered "premium."

AA KK QQ AK (Suited) JJ

Regardless of your position at the table, a premium hand should always be played if there is no raise ahead of you. If there is a raise ahead of you - especially if there are callers or re-raises - sometimes it can even be a mistake to play anything below Aces or Kings.

When you think about Texas Hold'em starting hands in this light, you'll realize that you should be folding around 80% more hands than you should be playing at any given Hold'em table.

Naturally, the hands you play, and how you play them, will change depending on thousands of different variables at the table.

But at the very core of the game, there are very few hands that are considered playable.

If there has been no player to open the pot (meaning no one has raised, or even limped ahead of you) you can play almost any hand with any sort of potential value.

Once someone has raised ahead of you, your hand selection should be narrowed down to only the hands that can give you the nuts, and help keep you out of any situation which has you dominated.

For example: you should never play KQ into a raise, as AA, KK, QQ, AK, and AQ all have you dominated.

Unless you have a very good reason to do so, as a beginner poker player you should stick to playing only the top 10 to 15 hands, period.

The more you play, and the better you become at the game, the more hands you can add to your playlist.

Until then, keep it simple, and always head to the flop with the best of it.

Top 15 Hold'em Starting Hands

AA KK QQ AK (suited) JJ 1010 AQ (suited) AJ (suited) AK (off suit) KQ (suited) A10 (suited) KJ (suited) AQ (off suit) 99 JQ (suited)

Stay tuned for the next installment: How Not to Suck at Poker: Play in Position.

More on how not to suck at poker:

Related strategy articles:

Texas Hold'em Starting Hands Cheat Sheet Ace-King Part 1: The Best Drawing Hand Pocket Jacks Part 1: Pre-Flop Play Ace-Queen Part 1: The Worst Best Hand

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Quick Tips for Beating WSOP Satellites

Tue, 31 May 2011 12:00:00 -0700

In 2003, Chris Moneymaker did it. In 2004, Greg Raymer did it.

Even better, both got their seats into the Main Event by winning a low buy-in satellite.

In fact, at $39 it cost Moneymaker more money in cab fare getting from his hotel to the tournament and back than he paid for his $10k seat.

Not only have satellites become more common since then but you can find them on almost any poker site, for almost any amount of money.

With the start of the 2011 World Series of Poker we're now in prime time WSOP satellite season.

Chances to win an all-expenses paid shot at the biggest prize in poker are everywhere you turn, and these are a few tips to help you get yours.

"Winner Takes All" Satellites

The majority of satellites for the WSOP Main Event are set up as multi-table tournaments, but require a slightly different approach than for your standard cash MTT.

Typically, the smaller buy-in WSOP satellites are structured as "Winner Takes All" events.

If you're not first, you're last.

When it comes to an event of this sort the Ricky Bobby maxim rings true: "If you're not first, you're last."

In other words, you're playing to win.

In most cash MTTs you can have a really decent day financially simply by making the final table. Even getting close can be enough to make your efforts worthwhile.

In a Winner Takes All satellite, making the final table is only the first hurdle. After that, you still need to beat every player at the table for the win.

Second place is no better than last. Regardless of your playing style, you're playing these tournaments to win, nothing else.

Push or Fold

Upon reaching the final table, the style of play typically becomes push or fold. And if you didn't come in with a big chip stack, you're going to need some serious help from lady luck to take it down.

Your only goal in this kind of tournament is to collect as many chips as you can before that point.

Aside from catching some cards, very aggressive play is your best bet. You want to be willing to take coin-flips much earlier than you would in a standard cash MTT.

If you're no better off finishing in 2nd than you are in 22nd, it makes more sense to take a coinflip earlier, when you have more chips, rather than waiting until your stack dwindles, flipping simply to stay alive.

If you're willing to take a flip before any of your opponents, your aggression will win you pots when they fold. And by winning a flip early, you'll have enough chips to lean on the other players at the table and take the next flip against a shorter stack without having to risk your tournament life.

This style of play may not be optimal for cash MTTs, as there are less-aggressive styles that may still give you a decent shot at winning and a very good chance at making the money.

More often than not, you want to push.

A simple example of the difference between playing a standard MTT and a Winner Takes All MTT is playing against other big stacks.

Say you're second in chips with a large field left. In a standard MTT It's almost never correct to get into a large pot against the chip leader at this point in the event.

Why put your tournament life on the line when you stand a decent chance at going deep by simply playing against the smaller stacks, minimizing your risks?

In an all-or-nothing satellite, this is the exact scenario you're looking for.

Letting a player amass a huge chip stack is a big threat to you. If you make it to heads up, you're ultimately going to have to overcome that chip advantage.

Taking them on in the earlier stages will ideally make you "that guy" with the huge stack, and give you a legitimate advantage at the final table.

Playing for Multiple Packages

In a multiple-package tournament, winning is irrelevant. You're playing to get past the bubble.

It makes no difference to you if you have one chip or one million chips when the bubble bursts. As long as you're still in it, you win a package.

In these events you're simply looking to stay alive. Collect enough chips to make the bubble, and you've as good as won.

In fact, when the bubble draws near, it's common for the chip leaders to refuse to play any hand - including aces, choosing to coast on their large stack into an assured win, rather than take any risk.

On the other hand, when the bubble draws near, the majority of the field will tighten up, hoping to avoid confrontation until they make it through.

When others are looking to fold, you should be looking to steal.

If your stack is not large enough to coast through the bubble, you need to take this opportunity to pick up as many chips as you can.

When the other players are looking to fold, you should be looking to steal, as often as you can get away with.

Being the chip leader in a tournament like this is nice but unnecessary.

Your goal is to keep an eye on the bubble and make estimates as to what size of stack is needed to make it through. As long as you have any chips in play when the bubble has burst, you've won.

Simply put, if you're above your legitimate estimate, it doesn't make sense to take large gambles for chips.

Final Suggestions

Small-ball poker is much more common in multiple-package tournaments than in Winner Takes All ones.

Although it's possible to win a package without ever being involved in a huge pot, chances are you're going to need to come out on top of multiple coin flips just to keep yourself in enough chips to make it.

Choose your spots wisely, and try to be the aggressor, rather than the caller.

Being the aggressor will at least give you a chance to win through your opponent folding. But in the end you're most likely going to have to win a flip or two: good luck.

Freerolls

Most online poker rooms also offer multiple free poker tournaments awarding WSOP Main Event packages.

Check out the selection on the WSOP How to Qualify page. Fields are usually small and per-player value is high.

WSOP packages typically run around $12,500 and include flights, hotel accommodation, the $10k Main Event buy-in and some spending money.

See you there!

How Past Actions Dictate Future Decisions

Mon, 04 May 2009 18:19:01 -0700

Online, tons of players have come to rely almost exclusively on poker tracking software and a heads-up display (HUD) attached to their table to do that for them.

At the very basic level, the software remembers the actions of your opponents in every hand and lets you access the stored information, giving you insight into how they play and how you can tailor your own play to take advantage of it.

Unfortunately, this online HUD training is of little help to you AFK ("away from keyboard" for the non-CHUDS out there).

In live poker, all you have to count on is your own head. So you better be using it to keep track of what's happened as you've played.

The Live Game

Online, you're primarily playing against the aforementioned HUD numbers rather than against the opponents.

If your opponent is a 60/10/1 (very loose calling station), you'll play a wide open game to take advantage of him. Against an 8/4/2 (very tight nit), you'll play completely different.

In the live game, you obviously don't have these numbers for players at the table.

The only help you get is what you can remember from previous sessions. In most cases, though, you'll have never played with - or can't remember - the majority of them.

Some players are easier to profile than others.

In this case, you need to build a profile for each player at the beginning of your session. Every hand they play (or don't play) needs to be monitored and committed to memory as much as possible.

Exploiting your opponent's game is the ultimate goal of poker. The more information you have on what they're doing, and why they're doing it, the easier time you will have taking his or her money.

And only when you have a strong, accurate profile of your opponent's game can you modify your own game to suit it.

Building a General Impression

The first thing you need to develop is a general impression of every player at the table and the type of game they're choosing to play.

This is as simple as actively paying attention to hands played and making note of anything that stands out.

Things you want to look for:

Player checking the nutsBluffs, large and smallLarge calls with marginal handsTellsWillingness to drawPre-flop aggressionGeneral poker awareness and knowledge

Everything a player does or doesn't do is a clue. Do they play too many hands, or are they playing too few? Are they able to fold a hand? Are they capable of making a bluff?

Once you know all of this information, and more, about your opponents, you will have little trouble knowing how to play them.

If you've decided your opponent is incapable of folding a hand, you no longer have to consider making a bluff against them.

PokerStars team patches make for easy profiling.

Good is in the Details

Once you have a general impression, you want to hone in on the players that you think are the easiest to exploit and find as many details as you can about their game.

What kinds of hands do they like to play, and in what situations? Why are they playing the game in the first place? What's his or her goal? How strong do they think they are? How strong do they think I am?

There are countless details to be found for every player. Take the time to make sure you get it right.

It's important to know if the player likes to three-bet drawing hands such as 6♠ 7♠, but will only call with hands such as A♠ K♥. Do they have any superstitions? Are they scared of any hands?

An example:

The player a couple seats to your right is an overly aggressive player who really likes to bluff and bully. He also figures that he's the best player at the table.

In an earlier hand you witnessed him three-bet all-in on the turn with no pair, no draw. His opponent called with an open-ended straight-flush draw and missed all outs.

About 20 hands later you find yourself in a hand with the guy. You call his pre-flop raise with a hand you would normally never call a raise with. You believe that you stand to take his entire stack if he makes a similar bluff into you as he did earlier.

Keeping in mind that even the worst players are dealt the best hands just as often as the rest of us. You still need to play the hand with due diligence; just because it's him, doesn't mean he doesn't have a monster.

You flop top pair jacks with a king kicker. He bets out, and at this point you're most likely ahead. The only hands you lose to are AA, KK, AK or some random set or two pair.

If you raise, you'll never get called by any hand other than the ones that have you crushed. On top of that, a raise will shut down his bluffing on any later streets.

You just call. The turn's a blank, and he bets again. The situation hasn't changed, so you make another easy call.

If you're Luke Schwartz, you just assume all players are fish.

The river comes a blank and he instantly moves all in. At this point you should be as convinced as you can be that he is bluffing.

Moving all in is the scariest thing a player can do in a poker game. If he wanted your call, chances are he would bet less. It's still possible that you're beat, but it's highly unlikely.

You make the call with your one pair, and take down the pot beating his A♥ 10♠ - again no pair, no draw.

Although this call wasn't particularly impressive, it would have been almost impossible to make without having the knowledge of his previous actions.

If that had been the first hand you were dealt, you would have been forced to fold - most likely pre-flop.

Information is King

The first step at a poker table is collecting the information; the second step is putting the information to use.

You also need to constantly update what you know of each player as the game progresses to make sure the information you're acting on is current and accurate.

Never forget: at the poker table, the man with the most information is king.

Related strategy articles:

Tournament Tips: Take Control of Coin Flips Controlling the Hand Part 1 How to Crush Live $1/$2 No-Limit Hold'em Playing Suited Connectors in Six-Max

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Skill vs. Luck: Let's Get it Right

Sat, 02 May 2009 00:19:05 -0700

Not just the mathematics of the game (e.g., Chen & Ankenman's The Mathematics of Poker) or applications of game theory (e.g., Ferguson & Ferguson's papers which are available here), but research that approaches the game from a practical point of view based on statistical analyses of the outcomes of actual poker games.

Until the advent of online poker these data could not easily be collected. Few players keep accurate records of their play and those that do are not anxious to share them with researchers.

Two reports appeared recently that have attracted a good deal of attention. The first was the large-scale examination of over 100 million hands carried out by the Cigital group, a consulting firm in Washington, DC.

The two main findings, both of which fit nicely with the intuitions of most experienced poker players, were:

Three-quarters of all hands never go to showdown. Only about twelve percent of hands are actually won by the best hand.

These results, many maintained, showed that poker is a game of skill for the chance element (the cards actually dealt) played a vanishingly small role in the typical hand.

While this is certainly one conclusion that can be drawn from these data, it is, unfortunately, not a logically necessary one. Go here to see why.

What is needed is more than an analysis of hands, for that statistical base will always be contaminated by uncontrolled factors, but an analysis of players.

The first, solid start in this direction was a recent analysis in Gaming Law Review and Economics by Ingo Fiedler and Jan-Philipp Rock at the University of Hamburg's Institute of Law and Economics.

How many times do I have to tell them? Hypotheses must be tested!

They examined the records of over 50,000 individual online players. They began with the assumption that poker is a game of skill but pointed out that no matter what the poker community may believe, this is still a hypothesis subject to test.

Importantly, they note that no specific statistical feature of the game has been identified that could be used in this kind of analysis.

Their candidate for this measure is the Critical Repetition Frequency (CRF) or the number of hands needed before a player can be confident that their results reflect skill level, and that a scientist evaluating the data can be confident that these numbers are reliable.

In short, the CRF for an individual player is the point in their playing career where the impact of skill crosses that of the random turn of a card.

By the way, the word "confident" in these analyses means "95% certain." There is always room for error in statistical analyses.

They crunched the numbers from the play of nearly 55,000 online poker players over several millions of hands of hold 'em from mid-level games and the answers they found may surprise you.

First, a large proportion of the individuals whose data they had access to were winners, fully one-third!

This number flies in the face of standard wisdom, which has it as around 5% to 7%. The difference lies in the games being analyzed. The 'standard wisdom' estimates are based on live play and individual intuitions.

It takes skill to lose millions of dollars.

The Fiedler and Rock data are from the online game where the vast majority of players in their sample played fewer than 100 hands, went broke and never logged on again.

As Fiedler put it, "No serious player can win as fast as a highly unskilled player can lose."

The impact of this infusion of "dead money" is to make many players winners, although most of them don't win much and the 'standard wisdom' is undoubtedly far closer to the truth.

Second, they discovered that determining who the winners actually are in these games is a complex problem, but to make an exceedingly long story ridiculously short, their data pointed to an answer: a CRF of 1000 hands --- or only some 30 or 35 hours on live play or perhaps 12 - 14 online.

This, of course, is silly. But it is the number that pops out of their analysis. However, there is a good reason it is so low.

Their sample contained that vast sea of horrible players who drifted in and then quickly back out of the games. If you eliminate these from the analysis, things change and they move toward more sensible estimates.

However, even the sensible estimates only make sense when the relative skills of the participants are factored in. Here's what they found:

An exceedingly skilled player, one averaging 100BB/100hands, has a CRF = 300. That is, if they can keep this up for a mere 300 hands they can feel confident in their results.

However, basically no one can sustain this win rate so this number has little to do with reality.

For skilled players with more modest (and realistic) win rates, the number changes dramatically. A (still unrealistic) win rate of 30BB/100h has a CRF = 3,300; one of 5BB/100h is 118,000 and 1BB/100h = 295,000.

If you're averaging +1BB per 100 hands don't trust your results and even if you're averaging 5BB/100h you probably shouldn't either, unless you're multi-tabling and doing it for many hours.

The Fiedler and Rock approach is important. It provides strong support that poker is a game of skill.

LOL at not factoring temporal elements into the analysis.

The CRF statistic emphasizes what many of us have been harping on forever, the need to take a temporal element into the analysis.

Combined with the Cigital study, it presents converging lines of evidence for the skill-based argument, one from the "hands" perspective and one from the "players."

Of course, the impact of these lines of research on judges, juries and legislators has yet to be seen. Those of us who take an objective, scientific view would like to believe that these groups will concur.

However, we can't lose sight of the fact that many who object to poker do so on moral and social grounds and will fight the fight, not in pages of scientific journals, but in the political arena.

Author Bio:

More poker strategy articles from Arthur S. Reber:

What's Luck Got to Do With It?What's He Not Holding?Is Poker Gambling?The Pitfalls of Poker Writing

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Tournament Tips: Take Control of Coin Flips

Fri, 28 May 2010 00:29:00 -0700

With pressure from the rising blinds and players fighting for a finite number of chips, it's not possible - or rather it's completely improbable - you'll make it through any poker tournament without ever being in a coin-flip situation.

So how can you make the most of it?

You Have to Flip ... But You Don't Want To

For clarity: Naturally, we're not talking about the actual act of flipping a coin here (although many poker players have won and lost large amounts of money doing just that).

The poker equivalent of the coin flip is getting it all in against one opponent with your probability of winning approximately 50%.

Classic examples: A-K vs. JJ; A-T vs. K-Q.

Anytime you flip, you're risking your tournament life (or a portion of your very valuable chips) with a 50% chance at missing.

NOTE: SARS masks are not proven effective against coin flips.

In case you're unsure about investment odds and probabilities, those are not good odds. If the odds are poor, any decent investor would tell you simply not to invest. Wait until an opportunity arises in which you have more favorable odds.

This is sound advice, and is exactly what you should be doing (for the most part) in cash-game Hold'em.

Unfortunately, in a poker tournament, the increasing blind pressure adds other factors into play. These factors force you to flip simply to stay alive in the tournament. You're forced to play the situation, regardless of the actual hands in play.

To sum up: You don't want to be taking coin flips, but there will come a point where taking a flip becomes your best chance at staying alive or making it deep.

Make Your Opponents Make the Choice

While you can't choose not to take coin flips, you can choose when to take them.

In the majority of all coin flip situations, one player moves all-in and the other player calls.

(Note: there are times when both players have a pocket pair, or some other combination of hands that give one player an edge over the other. Since these situations will go both ways (between the pusher and the caller) we'll exclude those situations from this conversation.)

After removing those situations, the player calling is calling for a 50% shot at taking the pot, but the player pushing actually has a better opportunity at making money.

It's not possible to put an exact number to it, but the concept is simply known as fold equity.

Just by being the player to have pushed, you have the chance that your opponent will fold. When this happens, you win the pot 100% of the time. If the opponent calls, then you're a 50% shot.

As you can see, the caller never has any fold equity while the pusher always does.

In other words, you want to be the aggressor, the pusher. If you're never making any moves, it's going to be terribly difficult to force your opponent into making a mistake.

Force your opponents to have to choose to flip with you or fold. If you're always making that choice as the caller, you're reducing your edge and counting on luck to bail you out.

30% is not 50%

If you're at the point where your best chance at progressing in the tournament is by taking a coin flip, you need to think in terms of this: 30% is not 50%.

Ziigmund has flipped for literally hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Basically, you need to avoid calling all-in bets with easily dominated hands.

Players will often call with hands such as A♠ 2♠ looking for a flip, knowing this hand is better than even money against K♥ Q♥ or any other non-paired, non-ace hand.

Unfortunately, matching up with any other hand with an ace in it has you at a little less than 30% to win - same as being up against a pair.

So a hand like this is a very poor choice when hoping for a coin flip. First, you have to get lucky to even be in a coin flip before you can have the chance at winning the flip itself.

This goes for hands such as 3♥ 3♦ as well. This is not a bad hand, and is ahead of anything other than a higher pair.

But if you're up against a higher pair, you're in a really tight spot. You need to know the range of hands your opponents will be willing to push or call an all-in with before you can choose your own range.

In many tournament situations, pocket threes might be a great candidate for a hand to take a flip with.

But if your opponent has a large stack, and is the kind of player only to raise hands with legitimate strength, you're putting it all on the line on the hope they have a something like A♥ K♥.

The first step in being successful in tournaments is to make sure that the coin flips you take actually are coin flips. If you get it all in with a dominated hand, you're simply giving your money away.

Bottom line: You're going to have to take coin flips in tournament poker; it's up to you to make sure you take them when it's best for you.

Related strategy articles:

Controlling the Hand Part 1 How to Crush Live $1/$2 No-Limit Hold'em Playing Suited Connectors in Six-Max Ace-Queen Part 1: The Worst Best Hand

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

What's Luck Got to Do With It?

Sat, 25 Apr 2009 01:29:11 -0700

These two statements are not contradictory, largely because we haven't specified the time frame. If we're talking about relatively short, limited time frames, then luck is a huge element.

The general consensus among top pros and seasoned amateurs is that it accounts for 80 to 85% of their outcomes in single sessions lasting less than five or six hours.

Most of these same folks also feel that if you look at a time frame like a week of full-time play (about 35 to 45 hours) it likely is still accounting for some 30 or 40% of their results.

If you extend the temporal window out, to a year's full-time play (roughly 2000 hours), they estimate that it accounts for somewhere in the neighborhood of 5% of their ultimate bottom line -- a number that many of you may find surprisingly high.

However, many, and this includes top professionals, don't seem to grasp what it all means.

Let's take one of poker's favorite 'guys you love to hate,' Phil Hellmuth. Phil is on record for one of his classic one-liners delivered as he stomped out of the room, "If it weren't for luck, I'd win every tournament."

You can find him screaming this on YouTube at some poor bastard who had the temerity to suck out on him.

I think Phil actually believes this since his ego is roughly the size of Kansas. But, fascinatingly, if it were true that except for luck he would win 'em all, it would be the end of Phil's life as a poker professional.

We are so money, amirite Phil?.

If luck were not playing the significant role that it is, the best players would be the first casualties simply because Phil's prognostications would come true. He would win every tournament and the game would die.

Who would be willing to sit down and play with someone when you know you're going to lose to him?

Sure, some with egos the size of Montana might but, frankly, no sensible person is going to want to pony up the entry fee when they know they're playing for second place money, at best.

The truth is that poker has just the right amount of luck. It is one of the reasons why it has become so staggeringly popular.

If luck played a lesser role the weak players would go broke too quickly; their winning sessions would become too infrequent and too far apart. They would lose interest and stop playing. If there were no 'fish,' no 'contributors' the game would wither away.

If luck played a larger role it would diminish the likelihood of a skilled player becoming a long-term winner. It would lessen the motivation to become good at the game and fewer solid players would be able to win consistently enough to keep them coming back.

On the flip side, if the impact of luck were larger, variance would go up and it would become more difficult for the skilled player to discover that he or she actually was a skilled player.

I know this may seem odd but it isn't. When I started playing seriously I found myself winning with some regularity. I was having dinner with Mason Malmuth and asked him if he thought I was a winning player.

He asked how many hours I'd put in. I'd been keeping records for about 150 hours at that point.

Mason laughed (yes, he does laugh from time to time) and said, "Put in another 500 to 800 hours and then maybe, just maybe, we can begin to feel a little confident about the answer."

He was right, and if the luck factor were increased significantly, that 500 to 800 hour window would have to be increased significantly.

OMG, did I over-fish the 5-stud pond?

Luck, in fact, is one of the reasons why Hold 'em has become the game of choice around the world. It has just the right balance between skill and the random draw of a card. Luck is also why 5-stud isn't played any more.

The luck element is far less and the skilled players so thoroughly dominate the lesser that they quit playing.

Luck is also the reason why duplicate poker is unlikely to become popular. Duplicate poker is based on the protocol used in tournament bridge; the cards are dealt and "set" in advance and everybody plays the same hands.

When everyone has to play the same hands the luck element is dramatically reduced. Reduce it too much and the game will die.

It is also the reason why heads-up cash games are often played for the highest of high stakes and by the very best players. Here the luck element is lessened. Play is focused and intense.

More hands are played which smooths out the impact of chance and skill tends to dominate. As we've seen, when this happens weak players quickly abandon the game because they get cleaned out too quickly. So the games tend to be played by those whose skill levels are close to each other.

Don't worry everbody, it was just bad luck.

Luck also plays important psychological roles. It provides a ready-made excuse. The weaker players can blame 'bad luck' for their ill fortune but cling to the myth of skill when they win.

Without such easy rationalizations the fish would have to admit that they were, indeed, fish. A diminished role of chance would force self-insight much more quickly and unambiguously than it currently does.

Luck is also a go-between of empowerment and self-status. Those who don't believe that they really are the masters of their own fates tend to believe in luck and assign causal roles to the random turn of a card. Those with a higher sense of self see luck as what it is: 'random error' in a multifactor world.

They are apt to assign causal roles to their decision making, take personal responsibility for the outcomes and do not invest luck with any long-term causal role.

So, what's the real role of luck in poker?

a. None

b. Everything

c. Both

Answer: 'c' of course, which is very cool.

Author Bio:

More poker strategy articles from Arthur S. Reber:

What's He Not Holding?Is Poker Gambling?The Pitfalls of Poker Writing Problems Handling Winning

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Controlling the Hand Part 2

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 23:46:03 -0700

When we left off in Controlling the Hand Part 1, we had just sucked out, hitting the 8♣ on the turn to give us a full house and the best hand.

We're first to act with our opponent having trip nines, and the belief that he's ahead in the hand.

Many beginner players here would check, assuming that his opponent would bet out since we know that he has a strong hand.

This is actually a big mistake. Remember, our opponent thinks that he has fooled us, giving us the dog and pony show saying "I'm really weak, I have nothing in my hand over here!"

So if we check, that will put up a red flag - after all, if we think he's weak, it only makes sense that we would bet any hand here.

Even if he doesn't think at that level, our check would make him think we're weak. He'd lower his betting amounts and bet small, trying to extract some value from us.

We have the perfect setup to play for stacks, so that is what we should do. I bet $75 into the pot knowing that my opponent will either:

a) Come over the top now
b) Continue to trap me and just call, saving his raise for the river

Buddy moves all in for about $325 on top of the $75 I just bet. I snap call, brick the river and take down the pot.

In this example, I got very lucky to win the pot, but that luck is not what's exceptional about it.

The example is chosen to illustrate the importance of having control in the hand.

The absolute most I could have lost in this hand would have been $45 - my pre-flop raise and the c-bet on the flop.

When I made the c-bet on the flop, I still held control in the hand, being the aggressor.

*SNAP CALL*, BRICK, SHIP.

If Buddy would have raised the flop, he would have taken control away from me as the new aggressor and by having more crucial information than I do at this point.

As soon as he flat-calls the flop, he leaves me with all the control in the hand. He gave away the information, without taking the aggression from me.

Control Is Money

"Why does he need control if he has me dominated?"

Many beginners are at a loss when trying to find an answer to this question. If he's 95% to win*, why does he need control in the hand?

Although the odds are absolutely correct, and he is going to win this pot 19/20 times, he's actually losing money in the long run simply by giving up control.

In poker, you need to evaluate a play from the present to the future. This means any bets you made in the past are irrelevant.

For example, if you bet $500 into a $10 pot with a flush draw, and someone moves all in for $5, calling is the correct move at that point.

The fact that you paid $505 into a $10 pot for a flush draw means you're losing serious money, but at the point of your decision (whether or not to call the final $5), you're getting over 200/1 on your money, making a call correct.

By using this model, all money bet on the flop becomes irrelevant once we move on to the turn. Him allowing me to retain control in the hand is a decision for right now, and all decisions past this point are beginning at that single decision.

I will never put in another bet in this hand if I do not hit an eight on the turn. His expected profit on fourth and fifth streets is exactly $0.

Once I hit the 8 on the turn, I'm 100% guaranteed to take his entire stack, and his expected loss is $400. This means out of twenty permutations he loses $400 on the turn and river. (19*$0) + (1*-$400) = -$400.

If he was to end the hand on the flop by taking control and raising me, I must fold my hand. This will win him the pot of pre-flop and flop money.

Note: he wins this pot every time I miss my 8 on the turn as well - the difference is he has the ability to win this, without losing to the 8 on the turn, by taking control.

100&

37; no risk.#

If he takes control on the flop, I lose money 100% of the time. But taking control going into the turn, I make a sizeable profit on the hand with zero risk.

Although it is possible to take other lines and possibly make a profit on this hand without control, having control reduces your risk to zero while allowing you to post a profit.

It's not possible to retain control in every hand you play. The goal as a poker player is to understand who has control, how they got it, and if it's possible for you to usurp them.

When you have control, you want to use it wisely, and do what you can to retain it.

The more time you spend in control at the table, the more money you'll make, the fewer swings you'll experience and the less stress you'll have.

*95% comes from evaluating the odds of me catching an eight (the only card that will win me the pot) specifically on the turn.

Related strategy articles:

Controlling the Hand Part 1 How to Crush Live $1/$2 No-Limit Hold'em Playing Suited Connectors in Six-Max Ace-Queen Part 1: The Worst Best Hand

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Controlling the Hand Part 1

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:11:50 -0700

Controlling the hand will minimize the number of mistakes you're liable to make, maximize the mistakes of your opponents and allow you to manipulate the odds in your favor.

There are four main ways a player can gain control of a hand:

Have Position: If no players have taken the lead as the aggressor, control of the hand falls to the player in position. For more advice on the importance of position, head to this article: Don't Be a Sucker: Play in Position.

Be the Aggressor: The player who's betting and raising rather than checking and calling is the aggressor. By default the aggressor is in control of the hand, and will only relinquish control if his or her opponent qualifies for either of the following two examples.

Be Feared: If your opponents fear you at the table, you will always retain control of the hands you play. Even if your opponent is the aggressor (giving them control by default), you will be able to gain control at will, simply by leveraging that fear.

Have More Information: The player who has the most information in the hand will always be the player in control, regardless of the other two examples. You can be the most feared player in the world, and the aggressor, but if they have the nuts and you don't know it, they have full control of the hand.

As you can see, the fourth example is far stronger than the third, which is stronger than the second, and so on.

Gustav, out of control, yet somehow in control.

The most important way to gain control of a hand is to hold crucial information which your opponent is lacking. The more you know that they don't, the more control you have.

The Value of Deception

The more control you have in a hand, the better off you are. But if everyone at the table knows you have control of the hand in play, chances are you're not going to coax any players into playing a large pot.

The real profit in poker comes from allowing your opponents to believe they have control of the hand.

If your opponent believes he's in control, he has no fear of you. Allowing him to believe he's value-towning you, when in fact you're trapping him, is guaranteed to earn you large pots.

Here's an example:

Situation: Live Cash Game, Full-Ring, $1/$2 No-Limit

I'm dealt 8♥ 8♦ in middle position. I was in the middle of changing gears and stepping up aggression, so I make a standard raise to $15.

I get two callers to the flop. I have the largest stack with a little over $600; the button holds close to $450.

Pot is $48.

The flop comes: 9♠ 4♥ 9♣

Although this isn't a great flop for me, it's not exactly bad. The only pocket pair above mine I'm worried about is pocket tens, as I'm almost certain the players who called me would have re-raised jacks or better pre-flop.

There are many hands these players would play which include a nine, but statistically there's only a small chance of that happening. The odds are I have the best hand, so I make a c-bet of $30.

The first player folds, leaving me heads up with the button. The button puts on a little show.

"Ahhhh… *sigh*, well ok. I guess I have to call."

As soon as he does this I'm now 100% sure he has a nine, and I would bet large amounts of money he has ace-nine.

There is a chance he has a set of fours, but either way, he has me crushed. At this point I now have crucial information (I know what both of us are holding), while he only knows what he has.

More information = more control.

I have more information than him, and I'm the aggressor. I'm now firmly in control of this pot. Unfortunately I'm in a horrid situation, and my control is only going to allow me to get out of the pot cheaply.

Pot is $108.

The turn comes 8♣.

I've just sucked out, I know I've sucked out and I love it. At this point, I now know exactly what he has, and he has no idea what I have.

I know I'm ahead, but I also know that he believes he has the best hand. He thinks he's fooled me and is trapping me into this pot.

In other words, he believes he has complete control of this pot. Along with that illusion of control comes confidence and the feeling of invulnerability.

I'm now in the perfect spot, and would consider winning anything less than his entire stack a mistake.

You might be thinking that him letting me keep control was not a big deal since he has such a strong hand, and I had to suck out to win the pot. But in part 2 I'll explain how him failing to take control of the hand is an expensive mistake.

Related strategy articles:

Controlling the Hand Part 2 How to Crush Live $1/$2 No-Limit Hold'em Playing Suited Connectors in Six-Max Ace-Queen Part 1: The Worst Best Hand

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

What's He Not Holding?

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 23:39:43 -0700

This is sound advice and an essential element in the repertoire of any good player.

But there's more to this 'reading hands' thing, some of it straightforward, some not so. Let's start with the more-or-less obvious stuff.

'Reading' has three levels to it:

1) The most basic level is ascertaining the value of your hand. David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth were the first delve into this issue.

They made a significant contribution to the game when they developed their 'groupings' of hands based on their playing value. The original S & M (man, I love that abbreviation) system isn't used much anymore but the importance of this level of play is paramount.

2) The next level is reading your opponent, assessing the value of his holding and it is this level that is generally called 'hand reading.'

As most of us who play the game with any regularity know, this is a skill not developed particularly easily and below I'll try to explain why.

3) The third and most sophisticated level involves digging inside your opponent's head.

Once you've figured out how to play your hand, developed some ability to read their hands, you need to be able to figure out what they think you have.

After all, if your opponents are any good, they'll be going through those first two levels also.

This third level, however, is beyond today's discussion which will focus on level two. Here a couple of basic heuristics are well known.

First, take stock of the situation by factoring in elements like position, stack sizes, previous action and playing style of your opponent.

Is there a maniac at the table?

Second, get a feel for how the table is playing and the impact it's having on the others (and on you!).

Third, incorporate any psychological elements like who's been winning or losing, who's on tilt or getting close to falling off the end of the pier, who's playing with confidence, who here looks like they actually understand this game (even a little).

Now, integrate this information to put your opponent on a range of hands and, let the subsequent action help you narrow it. The more you can zero in on possible holdings the more effective your actions will become.

Note, I didn't say "put your opponent on a hand." Doing this is like putting blinkers on a horse. Your attention gets narrowed; you focus on this single hypothesis. If you're wrong, you're in trouble.

Your opponents will play a significant range of hands in similar ways. Start with a reasonably broad set of possibilities and let subsequent action strip away the ones that don't fit.

All this is good advice and a foundation for reading hands. But there's a question not asked here:

"What's he not holding?"

Top pros ask this, not true for many low- to mid-stakes players. It's also rarely discussed in the poker literature largely because of an intriguing psychological effect called the confirmation bias.

This bias in human thought, which has been explored in depth by Jonathan Evans of the University of Plymouth in England, is manifested by a compelling tendency to look for evidence that confirms whatever hypotheses we're entertaining and to avoid situations where we might have to disconfirm them.

This bias isn't unreasonable because, logically, it's not possible to prove a negative.

Vinnie sees unicorns but it doesn't mean they're real.

Suppose I assert that there are no such things as unicorns. You doubt me and insist that I prove it. Guess what? I can't.

Every time I look where unicorns could be I fail to see one. You say, "Well, hell man, they were just here but took off when they heard you."

This can go on endlessly.... and the only thing I can do is to try to collect so much data on their absence that eventually you give up trying to persuade me.

But there still could be unicorns.... and if you don't like talking about unicorns here, substitute "God" and you can see how this argument has played out over millennia.

So, to avoid this logical mess we developed a confirmation bias. If we suspect we are right, it's easier (and more satisfying) to uncover data that support us.

In poker, this means that once we've "put you on a (range of) hand(s)," we will look for evidence to confirm our suspicions.

Player A puts B on a big pair. The board comes up uncoordinated babies. B makes a c-bet. If A wants data to support his suspicions, he may min-raise. If B pops him back, A will assume this confirms his read and muck his hand.

When this kind of thing happens you might hear A make a comment like, "I knew he had at least queens, just knew it."

But A may be wrong although the approach he's taking to the hand won't let him discover it. By embracing his read and looking for confirmation he's not entertaining alternatives.

Flip the logic. Let's have A think about disconfirming the big-pair assumption. He might try simply calling B's c-bet. If B has some other holding (A,K, suited connectors), he's unlikely to fire another bullet (unless, of course, he's trying to negate a 'float play' --- but that's another story).

You'll know this kind of thing happened if you hear A say something like, "I didn't think he had a big pocket pair; he just wouldn't have played 'em that way."

You'll virtually never hear such a remark at a low or mid-stakes game. If you do, pay very close attention to whoever made it.

If you're a bit confused, that's okay. Playing a solid level 2 is tricky. It's not just the complexity of the strategy; it's a natural entailment of our psychological make-up.

We're not comfortable forming negative hypotheses that cannot be proven. We prefer to confirm our guesses and we find trying to disconfirm them awkward.

But if you can incorporate this trick it'll be well worth it. You'll get better reads on your opponents and slide another layer into your game.

Author Bio:

More poker strategy articles from Arthur S. Reber:

Is Poker Gambling?The Pitfalls of Poker Writing Problems Handling Winning Keep Fit, Stay Sharp, Play Better Poker

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Making The Switch: Live Full-Ring to Online Six-Max

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 19:49:29 -0700

It's an ultra-aggressive, action-packed game and if you're coming from a live poker background, you may find these games difficult to adjust to.

The core of the game remains exactly the same: you're dealt two cards, and there are five community cards. Your goal is to make the best five-card hand.

The only real physical difference in six-max is that there are four less seats at the table. But how much does that really change the game?

1) Games are Tougher

For some stubborn players, this may be difficult to believe - or at least difficult to accept. But it's the truth.

Online games, on average, are much more difficult than their live counterparts at the same stakes. There are a few reasons why that is.

When you're playing online, its just you, by yourself, vs. your opponents with no distractions. Because the game is less social than the live variant, generally the players themselves are more serious.

By contrast casino poker, for a large percentage of the players, is a social game. People come to play and talk and drink and have a good time.

The poker, though still an integral part, is just the means to an end of a night out. The real goal is having a good time.

Since online poker isn't as social a game, the people that play online have to find poker interesting enough on its own to be motivated to play. Those people on average tend to be more serious players.

2) Speed

What you give up in soft games live you get back in total number of hands online.

Online players are the new generation. They aren't happy sitting around in a card room waiting for their twenty hands an hour to be dealt.

Online poker is instantaneous - the cards are dealt in an instant, the hand plays out in a snap, and the pot is shipped immediately with no mistakes.

Everything is faster. You literally can play more hands in a single day online than you could in an entire month of live play.

SBRugby wrote the video on crushing abc tags.

3) Aggression

The biggest difference between live full-ring games and online short-handed games is that the players are infinitely more aggressive online than their live counterparts.

In six-max No-Limit Hold'em, loose-aggressive is no longer a dirty word. Adjusting to that aggression is usually the most difficult factor for a live player making the switch.

In a six-max game, everyone is forced to play more hands. When you're paying a blind in one in three hands, you can no longer just sit around waiting for aces - the action is forced.

The good news is that not everyone adjusts well. There is a lot of dead money from players that either do not adjust or incorrectly adjust.

You can't play six-max like it's a full-ring game. A basic TAG style is extremely easily read, and when you are forced to play more hands that can be a recipe for disaster.

4) Hand Ranges

With fewer players at the table, the risk of domination is diminished. You no longer have to worry about nine players behind you waking up with a bigger hand.

An easy way to think about your playable hand range is to think about the hands you would play when the first four players fold to you in a full-ring game.

That includes suited connectors from 6-7 and up, pocket pairs, broadway cards, premiums etc.

In six-max, loose-aggressive isn't the dirty word - it's limping that's the no no. In a short-handed game it's very rarely ever correct to limp. You're best off coming in raising or not coming in at all.

The reason is simple. When you raise you give yourself more ways to win. You seize control of the hand. You can win the pot immediately, you can win the pot on the flop with a continuation bet, or you can win the pot at showdown with the best hand.

When you limp, you have zero initiative. You can only win the hand with the best hand at showdown. You'll be left guessing, with no initiative, and the aggressive players will have their way with you. Not a winning strategy.

On the sidelines folding like an 11-time champ.

5) Post-Flop Play

In a six-max game, the focus is on post-flop play.

Players play extremely loose preflop, but once the flop is down and the betting gets big on the turn and river, you'd better watch out. Six-max is a post-flop game, and if you play well post-flop there is plenty of money to be made.

In a full-ring game, you can get away with playing like a robot before the flop, folding all your trash and waiting for a good hand. Playing tight and playing only good hands pre-flop is a sound strategy as it makes your decisions after the flop easier.

In a six-max game where you are forced to play more hands, you give up some of that easy decision edge and you will be put in more difficult situations post-flop.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing, since everyone will have to make tough decisions. And if you make better decisions than your opponent, you'll win the money in the long run.

Focus on playing your best, reading hands and putting your opponent on a range.

If you can do that better than your opponents, you will be literally printing money as the better player given the amount of hands you'll play with them.

6) The Magic Formula

Ok, there is no magic formula. You just have to realize that the players are a little bit tougher and are more aggressive.

They will value-bet thinner and they will bluff more, but the game remains the same.

If you play solid post-flop poker and make better decisions than your opponents, you will have no problem beating six-max online.

More strategy articles:

When You're Beat You're Beat Changing Gears Keeps Your Opponents Guessing Betting with a Purpose Firing the Second Barrel

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Texas Hold'em Starting Hands Cheat Sheet

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:47:13 -0700

Even a "top 10 hand" can be the wrong hand to play depending on the situation you're in.

Since a definitive guide on every hand and how and when to play it in every situation would take more words than a novel, this article will touch on the major points of basic pre-flop hands with broad strokes.

Pocket Aces

Although you can write volumes about detailed lines and theories on maximizing profit with this hand, other than folding there is rarely a scenario in which you can ever make a mistake with this hand (pre-flop that is).

Post Flop: Even though this is the best starting hand, if the board doesn't improve your hand you only have one pair. Keep this in mind to avoid stacking off to random two pairs and sets.

Pocket Kings

Pocket kings are almost identical to pocket aces pre-flop. Although players have folded KK pre-flop, it's rarely the correct thing to do.

If someone else is dealt AA when you have KK, chances are you're going to get it all in. Don't worry about this, just write it off as a cooler and move on.

Post Flop: The same ideas about post-flop play with AA are applicable to KK. On top of the "one pair" concept, you also need to be on the lookout for an ace on the flop.

Although an ace flopping is not automatically a death sentence, it's never a good sign.

Suggested reading: Poker Trouble Spots: KK in Early Position Part 1

Pocket Queens and Jacks

Queens and jacks are right in the middle - below the big pairs and above the marginal pairs. These hands can be some of the trickiest to play.

That being said, these two hands should still be in your list of top 10 most profitable hands.

Unlike AA and KK, these hands are very foldable pre-flop in certain situations. If you're playing at a tight table, where people are only raising with legitimate hands, many players would say that calling after one player raises and another re-raises pre-flop can be a mistake.

Post Flop: If there is heavy action pre-flop, you have to assume you're either beat, or at best up against AK. You only want to continue with these hands if the board improves your hand, or your opponents back off, showing signs of weakness.

Suggested Reading: Pocket Jacks Part 1: Pre-Flop Play

Pocket Pairs Below Jacks

Example:9♠ 9♥, 8♣ 8♦

Playing the tight-aggressive style preached in the article How to Crush Live $1/$2 No-Limit Hold'em, all of these hands are playable with no raise or a single raise (especially with multiple callers) for set value.

You're set mining with these hands. If you don't hit your set, you don't make a bet.

Got that? No set, no bet. The only goal with these hands is to flop a set and double up through the pre-flop raiser holding pocket aces.

One Thing to Keep in Mind: The lower your pair, the greater the chance that you will find yourself in a set-over-set situation.

Anytime you flop the under set in a set-over-set situation, you will be lucky if you don't lose your entire stack. For this reason, many players will refuse to play pocket pairs below fives.

Top-Pair Hands

Example:A♠ K♥, K♠ Q♦

Hands such as A-K, A-Q, A-J and even K-Q can be profitable hands to play. At a loose table, these hands are great for raising when you have position (and no one has raised ahead of you).

The way to make money with these hands is to trap a loose opponent with the same top pair, weak kicker. The most important thing to keep in mind with hands such as K-Q or A-J is you almost never want to call a raise with these hands.

These hands are the most commonly dominated hands when faced with a raise, and as such will lose you significant money if you get into the habit of calling raises with them.

Post-Flop: Much like AA and KK, you need to remember that one pair is a hand easily beaten. If your opponent is a very tight player, there is little chance he will be putting in large bets against you if he can't beat top pair.

You need to change how you play depending on the players you're against.

Suggested Reading: Ace-Queen Part 1: The Worst Best Hand

Suited Connectors (and Suited One-Gappers)

Example:8♠ 9♠, 9♦ J♦

Suited connectors can be some of the most valuable hands in No Limit Hold 'em cash games. That being said, they aren't sure things and will miss everything far more often than they will hit it big.

You want to fold small suited connectors (if not all suited connectors) from early position.

In middle to late position you want to play these hands with due diligence. You don't want to be calling large raises to play these hands heads up.

Your goal with these hands is to play the largest pots possible for the least amount of investment possible. You need great odds to make money on these.

Without the odds, they should be folded from any position.

Suggested Reading: Playing Suited Connectors in Six-Max

Suited Aces

Example:A♠ 4♠, A♥ 9♥

Similar to suited connectors, these hands are played only to take down very large pots for a very small investment.

You are not playing these hands to hit an ace and get into a betting war. As explained in this article, you don't want to play against an ace, even if you have a small ace yourself.

If you don't hit a draw on the flop (or better yet the nuts), you should be done with these hands. It's almost never profitable to be paying for backdoor draws.

Everything Else

Example:6♠ 9♦, 2♣ 7♣, K♥ 10♦

Simply put, every other hand you can be dealt is going to lose you money.

As a beginner or even intermediate player, hands that may look great - such as an off-suit Q-J or J-10 - are simply going to lose you money in the long run.

The worse the hands you play, the harder the decisions you're going to have to make post-flop.

The goal as a beginner poker player is to make as few mistakes as possible. And the best way to limit the number of mistakes you make is to reduce the number of difficult decisions you have to make.

The three most common mistakes a beginner makes are:

Playing out of position Playing weak starting hands Playing marginal hands against a raise

Stick to only playing the hands in this list. Throw away the weaker of these hands when out of position, and only play against a raise if you have a very strong hand or the odds with a strong drawing hand.

Follow those guidelines, and you'll be on a fast track to making profit.

Related strategy articles:

How to Crush Live $1/$2 No-Limit Hold'em Playing Suited Connectors in Six-Max Ace-Queen Part 1: The Worst Best Hand Pocket Jacks Part 1: Pre-Flop Play Poker Trouble Spots: KK in Early Position Part 1

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Is Poker Gambling?

Sun, 12 Apr 2009 00:47:43 -0700

But, well, you know, it's also one that really hasn't received a proper analysis.

It's been written about endlessly of course, argued over angrily and debated till it has been roasted to a crisp and left to die in the desert sun.

A lot of pros who make their living at the game say sage things like, "Well, if it were gambling I couldn't be doing it professionally now, could I?"

But others, notably Saint Doyle of Texas, is on record as saying (paraphrasing now), "Of course it's gambling. Are you some kind of bozo? Although that doesn't mean that some folks aren't better at it than others."

So, what are we supposed to make of all of this? Is the bloody game gambling or not? Let's start with semantics: exactly what does the term gambling mean?

The lexicographer's problem

I penned the Dictionary of Psychology (4th Edition, Penguin Books --- buy many copies, give them to your friends. I can use the royalties) and struggled with the term.

I decided that it only made sense to treat it as a setting where something of value is put at risk for the possibility of ultimate gain.

This seemed fairly straightforward but, alas, this definition turns out to cover just about every interesting thing that people do. Buying stocks is gambling, as is commodities trading, investing in real estate, getting married, planting a tree, going to college, opening a small business.

Every freaking thing is gambling! -- Which, of course, is true; but unbounded truth isn't very useful. To be practical we need to dig deeper.

The legal issue

From a legal perspective the issue turns on the determination of "predominance." That is, a game or enterprise is classified legally as gambling if luck and chance predominate over skill.

You mean small businesses can fail?

No one has ever argued that opening a small business is a "gamble" (although it manifestly is) because the standard interpretation is that the business acumen of the proprietor is the key factor and "dominates" any contribution that chance elements might play.

Lotteries and roulette wheels, slot machines and crap tables are all unambiguously classified as "gambles" because the overwhelming determinant of the ultimate outcomes is chance.

For the better part of our history, poker had been viewed by the courts as "gambling" on the grounds that luck was the predominant element.

More than one judge or legislator was heard to utter statements like, "Whoever ultimately wins is the player who shows the best hand, and that is the luck of the draw" -- thereby, of course, showing that he/she didn't know dick about poker.

This legal stance is important because it allows states and nations that have anti-gambling statues to criminalize the game.

Recently a number of important rulings in the US have turned this interpretation around.

In Colorado, Pennsylvania and North Carolina judges and juries have determined that, in fact, the skill elements override the chance factors and that, in legal terms, poker is not gambling.

Confused yet? Let's keep digging.

The pragmatic approach

From a pragmatic perspective it seems fairly clear that neither the lexicographic nor the legal solutions satisfy for a simple reason. They cannot be applied systematically across all forms of human activity.

What's needed is the recognition that there are two underlying dimensions that characterize the vast majority of human enterprises, in particular the "games" we play.

I. The normative expected value (EV) of the game. That is, what is the typical outcome for the average player of any "game?" If the game is roulette or craps or a slot machine we know the EV is negative and often we can calculate it.

In other "games" the EV isn't simple but can be estimated.

For example, going to medical school is a huge gamble (tuition, time, effort) but it has a positive normative EV because the average doctor makes back these expenses plus a lot more.

But it is still a gamble and there are more than a few who have lost big. They never graduate, fail to pass the licensing exams or are just lousy doctors.

Starting a small business is a highly regarded enterprise in our culture but it is a gamble and one with large negative EV; over half fail within five years.

Jen Harman and Marco Traniello are in the lucky 50 per cent.

Marriage is another gamble with significantly negative EV. Like opening a small business, over half end in divorce. 'Nuf said.

Poker also happens to be a "game" with significant negative EV because of the rake. If all poker players were of equivalent skill then all would be losers.

But, this pragmatic stance has another dimension to it:

II. The flexibility of the game. Flexibility refers to the things that the player can do to shift his or her personal EV.

Some games, like roulette, have virtually no flexibility. There is nothing you can do that will modify the EV. Craps has a bit more flexibility in that you can adjust the bets you make to reduce the house edge.

Opening a small business has huge flexibility and the business acumen of the proprietor is critical in determining the outcome.

This is why the legal establishment regards such "games" as lying outside the standard prohibitions that many have against gambling.

In fact, most of the enterprises that people engage in that are marked by high flexibility are virtually never thought of as "gambling" -- but from this pragmatic stance they are.

And so it is with poker. The game is pretty far out there on the "flexibility" dimension.

So, is poker "gambling"?

• Semantically, 'yes' because poker, like most other activities involves taking risks for possible ultimate reward.

• Legally, the answer used to be 'yes' but slowly it is becoming 'no.'

• Pragmatically, 'yes' and 'no' depending on the player's ability to exploit the inherent flexibility in the game.

Will any of this help your game? Maybe, maybe not, but understanding never hurts. And, FWIW, it looks like Doyle got it right, as he so often has.

Author Bio:

More poker strategy articles from Arthur S. Reber:

The Pitfalls of Poker Writing Problems Handling Winning Keep Fit, Stay Sharp, Play Better Poker Who Really Wins at Poker?

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

How to Crush $1/$2 No-Limit Redux: 3 Secret Tips

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 17:46:25 -0700

While most strategy articles revolve around broad theories that can give you general assistance with your game, this one will focus on a few simple key points to keep in mind.

In other words: it'll pay for itself in the first session of $1/$2 NLHE you play after reading it.

The Multi-Way Ace

Simply put, don't play against aces.

In a typical live $1/$2 No-Limit Hold'em game, it's common for three to eight players to see a flop, regardless of the preflop action. Having four or five players all call a 10BB raise is not only possible, but almost common.

As Daniel Skolovy implied in his article How to Crush Live $1/$2 No-Limit Hold'em, almost every player you're ever going to sit with is going to be a mouth-breathing donkey. The level of play common at these tables is truly laughable at times.

For this reason, you have to assume that the majority of these players are playing any hand they're dealt containing an ace - after all aces are the highest cards in the deck.

Always watch out for that ace on the flop.

If more than three players head to the flop, it's extremely likely one of them is holding an ace. Unless you've flopped a monster, if an ace falls on the flop you should be willing to immediately fold.

Not only can you assume that one of the five players to see the flop has the ace, but you can also assume they're not about to fold it - regardless of any bets or raises you may make.

After all, a pair of aces is the highest pair you can get.

Don't Bluff Yourself

A few $1/$2 players are good. Some are average. Most are bad. Many are horrible.

Since the vast majority of the players in the game range in skill from horrible to average, you can almost eliminate bluffing from your opponents' games.

To truly pull off a strong bluff, you need to have a very strong understanding of the game and the thought process of all the other players in the hand. Tom Dwan's play in season five of High Stakes Poker is a superb example of true bluffing.

Rarely, if ever, will you play with a $1/$2 player strong enough to make real bluffs.

You will, occasionally, come across a player making simple dark-tunnel bluffs. But for the most part you can assume that if any player at your table bets, they simply have a strong hand.

Yes, it's true people will bluff you at $1/$2. But the bluffs are rare enough to pretend as if bluffing doesn't exist. If you make the call every time you think your opponent is bluffing, you will lose far more money than you will make in the game.

Unless you have a very good reason to believe otherwise, if someone bets or raises, just assume they have a strong hand.

Contagious Drawing

When you're stuck in the middle of a run of cold cards, you can find yourself sitting for hours, folding hands and watching the other players play pots.

Many of these pots will be large-sized pots won by players calling off their stacks on a draw.

I said contagious drawing, not drooling.

After watching other players double and triple up, and seeing your own stack slowly shrink, you can start yearning to win a big juicy pot. If you're still running cold on cards, it's easy to jump on the bandwagon and push your stack in on a draw.

Just because everyone else is doing it, doesn't mean it's the correct thing to do. Unless you have the odds to draw, or you have some other reason for making the play, you want to avoid chunking off your stack on a 30% shot.

By integrating these three tips into you game you will almost instantly decrease variance and increase profit.

One thing to remember: this article is based on live $1/$2 No-Limit against average to weak players. If you're playing online or sitting with a table of professionals, all the rules change.

Related strategy articles:

How to Crush $1/$2 No-Limit Redux: True Out Value How to Crush $1/$2 No-Limit Redux: Money Mistakes How to Crush Live $1/$2 No-Limit Hold'em Beginner Betting Secrets: Pot-Limit

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

How to Crush $1/$2 No-Limit Redux: True Out Value

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:34:26 -0700

Before you can begin to assign values to your outs, you need to have a handle on three concepts:

Outs Pot odds Implied odds

These concepts are fundamental to understanding how to affix value on your outs. Once you're comfortable with the ideas in the above articles, read on.

An Odd Relationship

Beginners - and even most intermediate poker players - have a very one-dimensional view of outs.

In this view, outs are very black or white. You hit the out to win the hand, or you don't hit and lose. Some poker players will never progress beyond this simplistic view.

The next step in thinking about outs comes with the understanding of pot odds and implied odds.

In the early stages of poker thought, these will do nothing more for a player than to allow a logical reason for when and why to chase outs and a basic understanding of when to fold.

The truth is, not all outs are made the same.

The Value of Outs

Take a look at the following hand:

Flop:

Your Hand:

Opponents Hand:

In this hand you held 17 outs to the best hand:

Flush draw: 9 outsOver cards: 6 outsGutshot: 3 outs (we counted one of them already for the flush draw)

As you can see, this adds up to 18 outs. Subtract the one club in our opponents hand and we're left with a total of 17 outs.

Thinking one dimensionally, we can say your 17 outs gives you a 59% chance of winning the pot ( (17*4)-(17-8)=59% ).

The only question worth asking at this point is how the 59% translates into $.

This gives a new meaning to being drawn out on.

If we assume our opponent is a tight-aggressive "decent" player, and we're seen as being about the same, we can make the following assumptions:

If we hit the flush draw, our opponent will check/fold the following streets.If we hit a pair, we might get one or two small bets out of our opponent.If we hit our gutshot, we stand to make a lot of money.

Once the outs are broken out like that, you can see that in #1, the flush draw must be played exclusively on pot odds. Our opponent will not put in a single dollar after we make the flush, meaning our implied odds are effectively zero.

If we hit a pair as in #2, we have a chance at making a little bit of money, but not much at all. No tight-aggressive player is going to commit large amounts of money to a pot with nothing but second pair.

We need pot odds, since our implied odds are small. But this makes #2 applicable to both types of odds.

Finally, #3 is our meal ticket. If we hit the nine for a straight, there is a good chance that we will get one or two medium to large bets out of our opponent.

There's even a chance they'll assume we're bluffing after a raise, giving us a large pot - or even his stack. Situation #3 will almost never have pot odds involved, but the implied odds can be through the roof.

In this hand, you're hoping to hit your gutshot. This is one of the only scenarios in which you can draw at a gutshot, since you have the pot odds on your other draws to make the long shot gamble profitable.

Basically, you're subsidizing your gamble at an infrequent big pot with the semi-regular small-to-medium pots you'll win from your other outs.

The look of a man deciding what outs are live.

Flush draw: 8 outs: 26%: Small potOver cards: 6 outs: 20%: Small-to-medium potGutshot: 4 outs: 13%: Medium-to-large pot

41% of the time you lose money, but if you have pot odds for the call, you make a small amount of money in the long run by hitting your flush.

Every time you hit an overcard for the win, you win a little bit more money. Finally when you hit your gutshot, you get paid. This is the biggest secret to a poker professional's success in cash games.

Although it may seem like players are getting lucky chasing gutshot draws, they're actually putting you on a specific hand and counting all of their outs to beat that hand.

Simply put, once you understand how each out helps you and to what degree, you'll be able to make stronger decisions in your play and more acute value bets when you hit.

Related strategy articles:

How to Crush $1/$2 No-Limit Redux: Money Mistakes How to Crush Live $1/$2 No-Limit Hold'em Beginner Betting Secrets: Pot-Limit Poker Trouble Spots: Way Ahead or Way Behind Part 1

Visit www.pokerlistings.com