Lessons
Quick Chips on the Bubble
Friday, July 24th, 2009 | Intermediate Lesson | No Comments
Grabbing some chips to coast or boost into the money or final table. The bubble is the finishing place just before the money in a poker tournament. It can also be described as a finishing place where there is a difference in a payouts. Often times people will say they final table bubbled, they finished 1 off the final table (where the larger payouts are awarded). How can you put yourself in a position to gather up chips during this time of a tournament?
Poker is played different when it is the bubble stage of a tournament. Short stacks are looking to push to double up and others are looking to stay alive and crawl into the money. Those that are around the average stacks are less likely to get into a raise war or make confrontations that could make them bubble.
Playing with position is the key during the bubble stage looking to pick up and steal blinds and antes. Often you can get away with a small raise with marginal hands playing out of late to middle position, 2.5-3 bigblind bets will be enough to steal.
Your Looking to Steal Pots
vs players with smaller stacks then your own with the intention of putting pressure on them (out of position) that they could be sent to the rail on the bubble. At this point in the tournament if they (short stacks) have hand worth playing they have a hand worth pushing. The small raise will either be met by a strong re-raise where you can easily let go or a fold. A call is also possible which isn’t so bad because you have position.
Be aware that the larger stacks and players aware of the change of game around the bubble will make moves also which can put the pressure back on you with a re-raise. Average stack players who are oblivious to this time of game can also make things interesting. Pay attention to the players who make dramatic changes from their normal game.
Looking for opportunities around the bubble to steal chips is the difference from making it deeper into the payouts and having a decent amount of chips at final tables. Gather your chips with minimal risk by using position to achieve the reward of stacking them.
Possibly Related Posts:
- Beating Rake Omaha Hi/Lo
- Reply to Ace King
- Playing Tight System
- Your Luck Factor in Poker
- Online Tells
Considering the Payout Structure
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 | Beginner Lesson | No Comments
How the prize pool is distributed is different from site to site with 2 main differences in the percentage awarded. For the past 30 years the payouts have been about the same style known as the regular payout and some people prefer a flat payout structure.
What is the difference? Which do you prefer? › Continue reading
Possibly Related Posts:
- Hole Cards in a Race HU
- Position in Poker
- Stud Poker How to
- My 5 Tips to Better Poker
- When Good Poker Runs Bad
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
Possibly Related Posts:
- Considering the Payout Structure
- Position in Poker
- Stud Poker How to
- My 5 Tips to Better Poker
- When Good Poker Runs Bad
Position in Poker
Friday, June 19th, 2009 | Beginner Lesson | 2 Comments
Playing poker with position is the most profitable way to play winning poker, lets learn position to give yourself a better understanding of what it is and how to use it.
There are many poker plays that can be used at the tables, those are talked about below and will have other lessons branching off to better illustrate those moves.
› Continue reading
Possibly Related Posts:
- Considering the Payout Structure
- Hole Cards in a Race HU
- Stud Poker How to
- My 5 Tips to Better Poker
- When Good Poker Runs Bad
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
Possibly Related Posts:
- Quick Chips on the Bubble
- Reply to Ace King
- Playing Tight System
- Your Luck Factor in Poker
- Online Tells
Stud Poker How to
Friday, June 12th, 2009 | Beginner Lesson | 2 Comments
Stud Poker is where players are dealt a mix of cards face down and face up with multiple betting rounds. There are many different types of Stud Poker the most common would be 5 and 7 Card Stud. The game H.O.R.S.E uses 3 different variants of stud poker; Razz, Seven card Stud, and Seven card Stud Eight or better.
Shuffle Up and Deal
Each player has placed their ante to receive cards
Two cards dealt face down to each player, one card dealt face up to each player around clockwise. When using a ‘bring in’ which is a forced bet (kinda like blinds) the player with the lowest card showing of the up faced cards is required to put in chips.
Possibly Related Posts:
- Considering the Payout Structure
- Hole Cards in a Race HU
- Position in Poker
- My 5 Tips to Better Poker
- When Good Poker Runs Bad
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
Possibly Related Posts:
- Reading the Flop Omaha
- Controlling the Pot
- Playing the Big Stack
- Playing The Players
- Overcards in Early Position
School is in Session
Saturday, May 9th, 2009 | Tournaments | 2 Comments
Started off the morning talking with a student about making more of a successful run at playing poker, a keen student that sometimes lacks the fundamentals of bankroll management and suffers from bad beat syndrome. The good part of this is he knows his own mistakes so at least his has some where to start from.
He asked me to go play a game and he would watch, I ended up doing a SnG because he was going out to go golfing so a cash table session would not be because of time.
10 seater SnG on Aced was the game and location and the first thing I said to him when it started was “now watch me fold”.
You can watch the SnG on HoldemPokerChat forum in the thread 10 Seater SnG
It is a replay of all 87 hands played and shows my hole cards, I’ve even put up a thread in the A3Online forum which I mentioned a few key hands which you can reply to talk, question or applaud my hands played. The key hands:
- Hand #7 your thoughts of checking the flush
- Hand #30 really wanted to fire a bullet on the river
- Hand #61 if no caller I can bet, but the call reduces my true odds
- Hand #65 didn’t feel like bubbling out of position
- Hand #80 no comment
- Hand #87 gotta love the big chick
There has been a couple replies from Pinky and twinsie on A3Online and Pinky made a reply on HPC
I am going to leave commenting time open in hopes to stimulate your mind to learn
view the thread and make your replies in the forum topic Full Replay of a SnG
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Your Luck Factor in Poker
Thursday, April 30th, 2009 | Intermediate Lesson | 2 Comments
Hardly call Luck in Poker a strategy or even attempt to calculate, but what is it?
A short term skill experienced by players who use implied odds more then pot or expected values.
I am going to try to demonstrate how you can put yourself in to a situation to give you “luck”.
UK psychology Prof. Richard Wiseman, says
people who think of themselves as lucky are more likely to win the lottery than those who don’t
not because they’re better at picking winning lottery numbers
but because they’re more likely to buy tickets.
The above quote really has nothing to do with poker luck, but it has the proper implications of getting in to a pot that you normally wouldn’t be in, but we play are cards because we have implied values. That means we are playing the cards with the expectation that if we do hit and do win the hand out right, we will get paid off.
Table image and position are how you can set up your luck factor. One of the ways I like to increase value of a pot is by limping into a semi loose table with suited connectors or pocket pairs from early position. If my image is tight, they may be thinking I am waiting on a raise so I can re raise, acting if I had AA or KK. If everyone follows along and limps in, my cards now have great odds of taking down a big pot, not necessarily the best odds to win the hand. There is a difference.
If I get the perfect, ‘lucky’ flop and hit a straight flush with my suited connectors or hit quads with my pocket pair I know I win the hand out right. Now that’s poker folks, but where I personally think the luck is, that someone else bets, even better would be someone raising. How often have you held the best hand and watched two other players bet and raise? Wow I got lucky to get this table, I got lucky these two are donking chips cause it sure is not lucky that I flopped the nuts, that is odds and probabilities.
So there is the other “lucky” times some people would suggest. Perfect example is Ax vs KK and the ace rag chaser calls down to the river and hits a 3 outer to win. I hate that too but really it is good poker to chase, if you know the sucker can’t fold even tho they know your an ace rag chaser your getting implied value. Over bets and value bets are encouraging to call if your gonna get paid if you hit.
So lets not call it luck anymore, lets call it suck out value.
Possibly Related Posts:
- Quick Chips on the Bubble
- Beating Rake Omaha Hi/Lo
- Reply to Ace King
- Playing Tight System
- Online Tells
My 5 Tips to Better Poker
Monday, April 27th, 2009 | Beginner Lesson | 3 Comments
Patience
The hardest part of poker is not playing when you have chips in front of you. When you have chips and dealt cards we feel we should be playing but we need to learn that we can’t play every hand simply because it is not winning strategy. Even tho any two cards dealt can win, we need to be patient and look for the right opportunities. If you look at my stats from most of the games I play you can see how patient I am and how it rewards me.
Bankroll Management
I’ve seen and heard a number of times, a player cashes out in a big tournament so they move up to a higher buyin level and blow their bankroll in a short time. Some of these players are skilled enough to play at that level, but could not afford to take downswings when they don’t catch any decent hands or a break “ONE TIME”. Stick to the levels you can afford to lose at and you will over time, playing winning poker will eventually move up and enjoy sessions at the bigger buyins.
Don’t Over Play a Hand
It is nice to get good cards and bet with them but sometimes the flop is not what you really wanted to see to fire out a bigger bet to increase and take down a monster pot. There should be times where you will fold the best hand, the game would be to easy if we didn’t. We should be looking for the right opportunities at every street (flop / turn / river) where we can get rewarded, and at times we need to let go of a hand because it becomes risky. Over playing ace king is a hand that comes to mind when I talk about over playing a hand.
Image
Many players at the low levels don’t know it or use it. Everyone at the higher levels abuse it. A poker players image is a screen shot of their playing style at the moment. If a player is playing tight you should pick up on that. Think of the places and opportunities where you can take advantage, the stealing of blinds, check raising and turn betting comes to mind.
Play Poker
Most poker players are not what they say they are…. they are mostly holdem players. To be a poker player you really should be playing more then just one game type considering how many their are. I often do a weekly session of Omaha where I will only play that poker variant that day. It is good for the mind and spirit to be a poker player, but you can’t just play holdem to be one so go learn another game. Knowing the other variants will help you understand and better your holdem game.
Possibly Related Posts:
- Considering the Payout Structure
- Hole Cards in a Race HU
- Position in Poker
- Stud Poker How to
- When Good Poker Runs Bad