Hole Card
Hole Cards in a Race HU
Saturday, June 20th, 2009 | Beginner Lesson | 3 Comments
We have all been in the situation where we are either calling off our stack or making the push all-in. This entry is about the math and winning percentages of heads up.
Think of your favorite pocket pair and lets see how well it really does in the long term.
You might be surprised to see some of the numbers that follow. › Continue reading
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Beating Rake Omaha Hi/Lo
Sunday, June 14th, 2009 | Intermediate Lesson | 2 Comments
Players will often say that Omaha Hi / Lo for online poker is a tough game to play because the amount of split pots will have you losing money in the long run because of rake. How this is correct is identified by how bad the player really is, either by playing bad cards or not having the courage to play a big pot.
Since we are talking about Rake, we are talking about the cash table
playing Omaha Hi/Lo (from this point we will call it Omaha 8b)
There are TWO fundamental rules to beating the rake in Omaha 8b…. › Continue reading
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Reply to Ace King
Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 | Intermediate Lesson | 3 Comments
There was a thread posted on PKRNation about Playing Ace King
it was interesting read when I followed up with a reply on page 2
here is a re-write
If you want to play bingo aggressive poker (which is all to common at the lower levels) then raise big or push with it (AK) but if you know your the best player at the table, and know how to extract chips from inferior players then you need not know how to play AK but know how to fold it. The best player at the table does not look to go on race.
If you can out play your opponents on flops, why risk another x3bb or more bet with just over cards or back door straight draws? There is no real value in that, and then in turn you will have shown your opponents your style of poker if you do try to be hyper aggressive with a big hand. Which can also turn the table your at around to be everyone pushing and raising big.
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Big Pots in Bad Spots
Saturday, May 9th, 2009 | Advanced Lesson | 2 Comments
I had made a post in the hand history section of the forum and talking with Corey, aka WyldBillH we talked about how players put themselves in bad positions in big pots. Position in poker is more important then your hole cards, try to remember that your hole cards matter when it comes to a showdown.
AJ says: amazing how 1 sux out/ hold up a night can change everything
Corey says: always thats why its so dum to get involved in big pots in bad spots
So lets break down the hand in question, but we will start in reverse since it did go to a showdown
lets see the hole cards that the players decided to play….er vs me : )
DerekWaddell shows 
TheDonkeyofPoker shows 
Byoned shows 
What position are these players playing? We’ll expand that thought with the pre-flop round
TheCoolFrog folds , DerekWaddell calls 0.1 , TheDonkeyofPoker raises 0.5 , Pinkyroo calls 0.5
Byoned calls 0.4 1968lowcards folds , Queenofgreen420 folds , prasumi folds , Jezz99 folds , DerekWaddell calls 0.4
DerekWaddell limps in from early position with a suited face card with a weak kicker and calls a raise.
TheDonkeyofPoker raises from early position with pocket aces, a standard play to create isolation.
Pinkyroo calls a raise from early position after a limper and raise with unknown hand.
Byoned calls a raise from middle position with a weak suited hand.
Now the rest of the hand plays out like a joke and shows why it really is easy to crush the micro holdem tables.
It doesn’t seem to matter what cards they have as it now becomes push and shove and trying to represent “something”. From my view with my aces the only thing someone is trying to tell me is that they are trying to prevent a draw from calling a small bet. With the 3 early position players checking we see an all-in and then a smooth call, followed by a re raise and another call. Huh?
### FLOP ###
Pot: 2.25
DerekWaddell checks, TheDonkeyofPoker checks, Pinkyroo checks, Byoned is All in,
DerekWaddell calls 4.01, TheDonkeyofPoker is All in, Pinkyroo folds, DerekWaddell is All in
Byoned pushes all in representing AQ, but really has bottom pair no kicker
DerekWaddell calls representing AQ, but really has the nut flush draw
TheDonkeyofPoker raises representing trips looking for isolation
DerekWaddell calls the re raise because now he finally gets the odds to play his hand
This is why low limit players go broke so fast because:
- they play bad cards or play every hand
- the play out of position which leads to check calling
- they don’t play to find out where they are in a hand
- they play big pots with small hands
this hand history was posted in the forum: TheDonkeyofPoker with Aces
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Free Entries and Bounties
Thursday, April 30th, 2009 | Assistanc3Online League | 2 Comments
Claim Your Free Entry winners this week are docgb_2 and appers
twinsie put up a $5 secret bounty tonight on WyldBillH and to add to the challenge Ray put up a last longer bet for Hobag. If he can out last me, pomppoker will pay his next two buyins. See why the chat room is fun.
Tournament on First Break
Eight players eliminated and nodelay has 12,412 chips in first place, NoKidding in second with 8960 and POOLDOG in third with 7715. Hobag has been eliminated and the two bounties are still alive.
Final table has nodelay still in first and NoKidding in second. I was writing this part cause I was happy to be in third, a distant third but was making a move until I limped in with AK and hit top pair and called WyldBill’s all-in re raise, who had hit two pair and cripple me.
Down to little chips I push with A2 and POOLDOG raised and sitting on the button with Kings was NoKidding and she wasn’t. Over the top and POOLDOG and I are out. I had A2 and POOL had AT.
The action kept up and the pace was fast this game. The secret bounty twinsie put up was WyldBillH who got knocked out in 5th by nodelay. We got down to the final 3 in the money with nodelay leading away still with 38,849, NoKidding in second with 19,809 and holding onto third is Pkerchef with 7375.
Pkerchef doubled up when he hit his pair of aces on the flop and took some chips from nodelay but when Pkerchef made his stand with Jacks he ran into a king and taken out in 3rd place. The heads up battle was quick and decisive, when NoKidding made a bluff that was called by nodelay.
Was a good game played and a really good month for the Assistanc3Online League players.
The top 3 in the leader board holds onto their position and twinsie moves back into fourth.
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- Assistanc3 Bounty
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- WyldBillH Bounty
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- Pkerchef 3rd
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- nodelay Wins April 30th
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- April 30th 09 Results
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Ladies Came Out to Play
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 | Assistanc3Online League | 2 Comments
The ladies are playing on the table tonight, where were you guys?
Really nice turn out tonight for our league game, 16 entrants
I was watching the other table, where the action was heating up.
Brannie was on fire catching cards and hitting quads while foldilox was crushing flushes.
twinsie also spent some time on the other table picking up chips…. › Continue reading
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League Trny Great Game
Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 | Assistanc3Online League | 3 Comments
Last minute Re-scheduling got this game up tonight on Players Cardroom.
It was to be played at 5pm but I wasn’t gonna be able to get the notice out
seeing as I did not come online till after 6pm. So we got it in for 7pm. › Continue reading
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PL Omaha is My Game
Monday, April 13th, 2009 | Tournaments | 1 Comment
While sitting at a PL Holdem Cash table waiting for some A3 members to join me for a nightly ring session
on Players Cardroom I decided to get back to the game I truly enjoy. PL Omaha!!
It was a mere $1 BuyIn with 20 entrants, so a small field for the small buyin.
Started off great chipping up till I got a little to aggressive on the final with trip tens that I was out kicked. I knew after the re-raise that thinking twice or maybe a little bit longer could have saved me some chips. At that point I was in the top 5 and shipped them chips and became a short stack.
Making the Move
It was time to start pushing the chips
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| $6741 | $8541 | $13882 | $18262 | $28524 |
So for all those that have read the Starting Hands Omaha lesson can see from the above hands what combination you should be looking for where all four cards play well together.
Notice the pattern other then wow get aces enough times? Double suited and a pocket pair.
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- ALLIN with Aces
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- ALLIN with Aces again
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- ALLIN with Jacks
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- FH Into the Money
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- AllIn with Jacks again
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- Going Heads Up
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- Big Pot HU
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- Flushing Win
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- April 13th09 Results
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- April 13th09 Stats
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Cashing on a Saturday
Saturday, April 11th, 2009 | Tournaments | 2 Comments
started off with good cards early, first hand I had KJ but dodged the bullets
second hand dealt kings and picked up a nice pot vs queens, the ace on the turn slowed the action down but all good.
$5 BuyIn $50 added › Continue reading
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Deep Stack
Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 | Tournament Lesson | No Comments
The Deep Stack starting chips strategy can differ from player to player. Some players want to continue with a squeaky tight image and reduce the risks they play till the blinds get a little higher and the weaker more aggressive players have chipped out. Others like to play a more aggressive, or even simply playing many more hands.
The Blind Levels
With the bigger starting stacks, often you are given more time between blinds. Many of the online deep stack tournaments will give 15 or 20 minute blind levels. The average tournament is between 8-10 mins. The longer the blind level means more orbits (hands) will be dealt with the cheaper small and big blinds, less risk to play marginal hands.
Hand Values in Deep Stack Tournaments
The starting hand requirements drop immensely for some players. More common you will see small pocket pairs and even low suited connectors limp in. So don’t be surprised with seeing set over set, and flushes vs straight flushes, vs a full house. The deep stack tournament makes it more probable that these out comes can happen. The average wining hand is 2 pair, so if 4-5 players see a flop and your faced with a raise or bet on the river, think with your stack.
Good players know that players are limping in with those marginal hands, so consider what value your hand really is when it gets re raised pre flop. Those drawing hands look better when you can see cheap flops. The AA and KK hands are often well over bet pre flop, and really have no value at all with limping in, they get cracked more often so don’t be shocked when you see it.
Pot Building and Position
With the larger starting stacks, and the marginal hands players come into the pot with, the pre flop raise is not the key issues to worry about. You have the chips to call the x3 – x4 BB raise preflop raise with ease. Players know this, so what happens is they want to build the pots up with betting on the flop/turn and river. Just think about it for a second if you double up first hand in a deep stack tournament, how comfortable it would be to play.
The position is the key to deep stack tournaments because with all that betting going on, you will start to see the pots all of a sudden got huge by the river, and now your facing a 150-200 Big Blind bet. You want to be in position because you will have less of an idea of say for example your top pair top kicker is any good.
When your unsure of what decisions to make on the turn or river because your out of position, in the deep stack tournament your going to end up making more mistakes, which cost you a lot of chips.
Bluffing
With the pot building that has been going on, they say the bigger the pot the more profitable it is to bluff, which is true. Getting your hand caught in the cookie jar once to often not only cost you a lot of chips, but will put you on the defense very quickly. All of a sudden, your desperate for aces or kings while everyone else can’t wait to limp in and see a flop with JT suited.
Try to be a little more selective on your bluffs, as usual finding the right players to bluff at. I should add in this section about blind stealing and defending the blinds. If you have 5000 starting chips and the blinds are 100/200 you really don’t need to protect your blinds with total junk hands, but don’t let people get carried away knowing they can steal your blinds later on.
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