Opponents

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.
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From 200 Chips

Saturday, April 11th, 2009 | Live Games | 2 Comments

After I had blogged about my cashing in the Saturday Matinee game
I went out and played a quick live game at a friends, there was only 3 of us in this game.
As you can tell from the title, I came back from 200 chips
…this is how it went. 

We started with 1000 chips and off the start I get a decent raising hand KQ and got 1 caller where I hit the flop with a pair of kings, I took it down right there.  I really should have slowed down simply because I know this player likes to bluff and I wanted to chip up early.

The above player gets knocked out about 3-5 hands later and now I am having to come from behind vs someone who does know the game, but likes to take advantage of my passiveness…or does he?

Most of the frequent online players that I regularly play against know what I am talking about, how it is relatively easy to steal my blinds but its always that one time that sends them packing.
Tonight was nothing like that.

After a brief chat and getting back to even, I was talking to him about how I can out play him and he says that he out plays me… lol.  I do the dumpiest thing, chasing a another draw that misses leaving me with 200 chips.  The blinds are 50/100.

Cue the Rocky Theme Music

I double up, I double up and double up and ….finally getting to striking distance.
I push one more time, with AK he calls with AJ…. and hits the freaking Jack on the turn.
Not even noticing the spade on the river gave me the nut flush, and now we are even in chips.

After another 10-15mins of playing I cut him right down and force him to be the one pushing all-in every hand, finally my hand holds up and I take down the win to a very hard fought and strategic game play.

I like good games :)

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Reading the Flop Omaha

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 | Advanced Lesson | No Comments

After the pre flop round of betting, the flop in Omaha is the next most important part to learn because it is usually where the weaker poker player loses money. Reading the Flop to understand it is much like Texas Holdem, knowing that there are more draws is what makes it harder to master. Once you know of what hands are easy to let go and which have value to continue is when you will start to consistently profit playing Omaha.

Got the Balls or the Nuts
Omaha is a drawing game, because of the 4 starting hole cards, so the flops can give players straight and flush draws a lot easier. Reading the Flop in Omaha is all about drawing to the nuts,
but that does not mean do not play unless you have the nut hand, but do not get out played playing Drawing with the 2nd Best hand, specially in pot limit where it can be a little easier to disguise the best hand. Know your drawing hands.

Give or Go
From the Omaha Starting Hands chart, if we are playing the top 4 group hands or the “wrap hands” reading the flop makes life playing poker a lot more simplistic. You either have a hand, could make a hand or have nothing at all. How to play the flop in Omaha is key to winning a big pot or losing a small pot, but first you have to learn how to read it.

Do I Have It
The first thing you should do when you look at the community cards is identify the best possible hands to win that board. Is there already a made straight is the first thing I am looking for, then the flush draw; is the board double suited. You must understand the texture of the board in relation to your hand before you can continue playing out the hand.

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Controlling the Pot

Friday, November 14th, 2008 | Advanced Lesson | No Comments

Many forums and blogs have a place where people post Hand Histories where other poker players talk about in the hopes of getting feedback of How to Play XX hand. Most if not all are because the player did not exercise Controlling the Pot.

What is Controlling the Pot
To lose the minimum amount of chips in marginal situations
and gain the maximum in spots where you are the favorite

You want to think about the types of hands your opponent plays and how they normally play them.
If you know the player is loose, Controlling the Pot is the most important.
These are the types of players you generally lose the most amount of chips too.

Most if not all articles concerning Controlling the Pot, talk about “position”. If your first to act your out of position, so true but your also in position to control the pot. You can either open with a bet or check. So how do you know which to do to maximize your big hands and lose fewer with your good hands?

Read the Flop
Understanding the ‘texture’ of the board, be it rainbow ( no same suit ) or the board pairs is the key. Say for example, your holding pocket Jacks. The board reads Th 3H 8c. This looks like a board where the Jacks look to be ahead, but the board has a lot of draw potential. Controlling the Pot here you need to think about how you can NOT lose a lot of chips. Give a free card to the drawer, who would call a bet anyways, or raise enough to the tighter player who would normally fold to bets when holding the 2nd best hands.

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Playing The Players

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008 | Advanced Lesson | No Comments

What determines skill in poker? How to raise with pocket Kings, or folding Jack Seven off suit? The skillful player knows how to play their opponents. Knowing their own and players involved in the hands table image.

Ever sat there looking at your 6 4 of spades and missed everything on the board but it got checked down, but oddly enough your aggressive opponent hasn’t raised? and you check anyways, just to muck and they take it down with Queen high.

That is where playing the players comes into the game. It isn’t being a donkey, it is called making a move. That move is called a bluff. Now don’t interrupt that to sound like I encourage you to play like an ass trout, but to look for opportunities and positions against players by playing the player.

I’ll fire out an example, Your on the big blind and it gets min raised from early position and everyone folds to you, and you call, the flop comes out with Kc 4c 2s. EP player puts in a 2/3 pot size bet, you smooth call. The turn produces the 5h, again EP leads out, this time with little more then 1/4 pot bet…. the river is a 7c.

Now lets go back in time a bit. We know EP player is tight/solid/semi aggressive player from previous hands they have played earlier. What are we going to put them on? Kx, pocket pair… what we are not going to put them on, is a hand that if we bet here strong and bold, will push him out.

And please let me clarify something here.
If you are unable to determine your table image, or others at the table, you are not qualified to play the player yet. It is plays like above where you will look like a total idiot if you get called and lose.

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Tournament Success

Saturday, June 28th, 2008 | Tournament Lesson | No Comments

Keep your eye on the prize, being successful in poker tournaments is not easy, so here are some tips and details on how to improve your tournament success.

First things first, before you go sit at your table, grab some water/drink and some food to munch on. Breaks take to long to come, and nutrition is important.

Since tables break often, try not to spend to much time analyzing your opponents. Play your cards, not the people for early play. When you start to move up in the blinds, is when you focus on other people and your cards evenly.

Don’t play to many hands early. Even on big cash tournaments, there are people that do not know how to play proper, they simply just have the cash, and just want to kick it loose. So play tight to start.

When you do get playable hole cards, play them hard. Raise if your in early position, re raise in late position. Your objective is to win the hand as soon as possible, with out a showdown or seeing the river.
Personally, I tend to take down pots on the turn card, hit or miss.

In tournament play, I am very tight. Playing hole cards that no worse then J10.
Your there for one thing, to win. So the more rags you pay into, in the end it will bite you in the ass. Never go chasing or fish. Play the odds, and luck will find you.

Stay Calm
Don’t get so excited cause your doing really well. No one cares that you almost made it to the final table. Its all about Winning the final table. So until you do win it all, there is nothing to be excited about.

Practice Heads-Up
If your going to win a tournament, you have to be a strong heads up player.
With out a doubt, that is very important. Most tables during mid rounds, people fold very early (as they should) leaving 1-2 players left to see the flop. The better and smarter you play at this point, is what will get you to the cash tables.

Re-Raiser
Careful of re-raisers, think about it real good if its really worth it.
Someone could have bet, next person calls, next person re raises. Now its my turn. How do I look at this? I see 2 people with good hands, and 1 with marginal. I tend to fold right there. I would need to be holding high pkt pr or high connectors to pay into this pot.

Confucius says “he who slings mud on neighbor is losing ground”

meaning, each time you lose a pot, someone else wins and goes that much further ahead, or that much closer to catching up. Pick your times to play wisely.

Watch Your Stack
Careful not to get low stack when blinds are about to go up. Keep an eye on the timer, you may need to steal some blinds now to stay in the game to see a few more hands. You want to be about 10 times the big blind, anything less and your low stack.

Watch Their Stack
Careful how you bet into a pot or call a pot, sometimes that really strong hand that you called a bet (x3 bb) isn’t really worth calling if there is a short stack to follow. They may just opt to go all in, so you should prepare to call that all in bet or stay off that hand. Or, re-raise to the low stack. By doing this, you have told that person, your hand is worth putting you out. This may make them think twice about going all in.

Calling an All-In
If I have a strong hand, and a chance to put someone out, I tend to see that pot.
If knowing my hand is really strong, I will push over the top, to get other people to fold. Know why they bet the all-in. Are they short stacked? Blinds about to go up? They are trying to steal the blinds? Or have they have a dominate hand?

Aggressive Players
Let them fight it out. No point you getting into big confrontations with people that want to go all in or raise big time. If there are a couple doing that at the table, let them bust one or the other out and sit back and watch. Never know, might be getting close to the money, and if they do sucker a few in, Aggressor might have just won you money.

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Table Selection

Saturday, June 28th, 2008 | Ring Table Lesson | No Comments

Picking the right table is just as important as playing the right cards.
At the low limit micro tables, picking up some fast cash with smaller risks yields are greater return.

Often players, not just new players, find themselves playing at tables below their skill level, and that is what you should be doing, that is how you make winning sessions. If you play at a table with 1/2 the players better, and half worse then yourself, your chance to win money is the same as losing money….break even.

You want to sit down at a table where you are the best player there. It shouldn’t be to hard to find one. Join a game room, two or three in fact, and just watch for 5-10mins before sitting down. Already you will be able to pick out a couple of weak players. And those are the players you will exploit when you do sit down.

Just as important, you will see if there are any players who try to play fancy, raising 72o and everyone folds, and they show their cards. Maybe you spot a player who try’s to steal blinds. Even better, you find a player who plays any two cards and plays Ace rag to the river.

On the low limit tables, you do want to sit at a loose table, the only time you really want to sit at a tight table, is when its short handed. Ideally you want to be at a loose passive table. Players who do play alot of hands, and do call with draws.

If your playing at an aggressive table, and even worse, a loose aggressive table, your chips will always be at risk on any given hand. Reduces the chances that jeopradizes your bankroll. If your a good player, and know the odds, why sit at a high risk table?

Just remember, you do not need to play every hand with these players, and if you do suffer a bad beat, do not tighten up or loosen up, play the game the way it suppose to be, and you will profit with the proper table selection and hole card selection. If the table becomes wild, sit out for a few hands, with that 1 less player in the pot, maybe they will settledown, or someone may get busted. Then you can return to playing. If the table does not chill out, leave.

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Micro Hold ‘Em Intro

Saturday, June 28th, 2008 | Ring Table Lesson | No Comments

Micro Limit Hold’em Poker Strategy Lesson, the players guide to Small Stakes Poker.
This Poker Article details what is common on the micro limit hold’em poker tables.

Micro Limit Hold ‘em poker is really anything under $1/$2 blinds.
Don’t fear, you play what your bankroll will allow you and your here to get info to help you with that, and that is what this lesson is about.

Fish Swim in Big Ponds
How often have you looked at your cards, to find something like
Ac Qc and you raise 4 times the big blind, and everyone seems to call. Low Limit poker seems to draw the “call” so often, its not always because these players are bad, trust me, even higher up blinds have there share of fish too.

People call to see the flop cause the limits are low, that’s how it is, that’s how it will be.

  • generally 50% will see the flop
  • often you will find players play Aces to the river
  • any suited or connectors looks like gold
  • middle pair often gets played to a showdown

That is a few examples of things you often see on Micro Limit Hold ‘Em tables.

Player Types
Remember, many players start in the lower limits to learn or to build a bankroll, but there are players that actually just play for the fun. Hard to believe I know, but those are the player types you run into at that level.

Loose Aggressive or Tight Aggressive?
Many tight players often start off tight at table, but will loosen up as the game goes on, they are trying to learn peoples patterns and exploit them after doing so. The Loose Aggressive player is there to try and score big in a few hands by scaring people out of pots with maniac raises.

Pre Flop
What kind of hands should you be playing? Well, it really depends on the style of play you want to have. Of course I teach tight aggressive but still throw in the ‘maniac’ variation with it. In general you want to play premium hands, A-T, K-T, suited and connectors and pocket pairs. You want drawing hands when there are many players to see the flop. Often times, it is the right call to see a flop with 72o just because everyone is seeing the flop too, never know you may get lucky and flop three 7′s.

So how about playing real strong pre flop hands? Well, how often when you raise it doesn’t seem to matter, there are still 40-50% seeing the flop? See, that is table dependent on how to play strong hole cards. If the table is very loose, you are most likely to be playing ABC poker and if you hit the flop its small bets and small calls. If you run into a strong hand, you should be raising of course, but don’t be to crazy that you scare everyone out, lowering the field to 30% is good odds.

Blinds, give them up if your cards are weak, there is no value in protecting blinds at low limit poker.

On the Flop
There are a few things that must be learned to take advantage of low limit poker, and that is the flop. Far to often people are scared of flops cause they don’t understand them, or they don’t calculate proper odds of the flop to their hole cards.

1. Check Raise

The check raise is when you hit the flop, and you check hoping someone else will bet, and then you can raise back and push out the field and drawing hands. This probably the most important skill to learn at this level

2. Draws
Know what a draw hand is. If you need two cards (turn and river) to make your straight or flush, known as runner-runner or back door draws, the odds are really against you and being a call train to bets is going to deplete your bankroll real fast.

3. Slow Play
Ah yes, you have the nutz on the flop, now what? Don’t scare anyone out of a pot by going all in, you have the winning hand, so make it worth their while to stay in. Make pot odd bets, allow them to hit the turn or river, you never know they may re raise you trying to bluff, or possibly think they have the best hand.

4. Small Pocket Pairs
Learn to chuck them when the price is not right. Don’t fall in love with them and hope to catch something on the turn or river.

5. Everyone Checks
This doesn’t mean no one has anything, or it means someone is to scared to bet, chances are if you didn’t hit the flop, and everyone checks, someone is slow playing something. That should be your first sign when the turn comes and someone bets when what looks to be a nothing card on the turn.

6. Be Aggressive
When your cards hit the flop, and their is potential draw action. Raises it up to push the odds up. It will only hurt you more to place small bets into a top pair with draw potential, as that allows them to see turns cheap, they will call small bets to see it, so make them pay for that action.

7. Know when to Fold’em
Learn to let go of 2 pair and trips. With so many seeing the flop, it is just so easy that someone could make a straight or flush draw, or even worse for you, the full house. Protect your bankroll for the time being and see another deal, by letting go of those hands, you will be surprised how much it saves you in the long run. They say the average winning hand in Hold ‘Em is 2 pair, that is far stretched in low limit with the amount of callers to see flops.

Bluffing
Not the smartest thing to do in low limit. FPS ( Fancy Play Syndrome ) usually hurts you more then them. Specially when you get caught bluffing. It only leads to being called more often, and in fact the best thing you can do after being called on your bluff is to leave the table.

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Player Types

Saturday, June 28th, 2008 | Beginner Lesson | No Comments

Many people don’t know their opponents.
Which is one of the key elements to winning poker.

When you don’t know how your opponents play, it makes it harder to know what cards and strategies to play against them. There are many different types of players at any given table. Some loose, some tight, and some are passive. Some good, some bad and some average.

Betting patterns are a Poker Tell. A lot of new players tend to over bet pots, and not get good value from the hand. They may win the pot, but probably could have got more.. in the long run when not over betting.

Each player type can be taken advantage of.
A tight player can be so passive that you can bully them out of a hand easily at times. A loose player can have their stack crippled by slow playing one hand against them. As with the average, bad and good players, each of them have a playing style.
The good player knows how to mix it up, and when to.

Take advantage of the fact your playing online poker, and take notes.
Not just mental notes, saying wow this guy is loose or very tight, but actual written notes.
Most poker sites have a tag or note box where you can write and store this information. If the site you play on does not have, break out the pencil and pen.

Fish

These guys are just playing their hand, not yours. If you bet big and they have a bad hand, they will fold. If you bet big and they have top pair, they will call provided you do not do something scary like put them all-in. They will not bluff much at you.

Weak-tight

These guys also just play their hand, but will call less than the fish. They are not willing to lose all of their chips on top pair unless they think you are a maniac. Bluff these guys out of a good number of pots (but not much so that they will attempt to trap you later on).

Loose – Passive

These guys are similar to fish but understand the game enough to where they know when the only thing they can beat is a bluff. However, they often think you are bluffing and will rather check-check, then check raise.

Tight-aggressive

These are your tactically sound players. However, their No-Limit ability differs largely based on how well they read their opponents. In general, they are much more eager to bet at the pot than call. Against these players, changing pace is necessary. You should occasionally trap these players with strong hands and occasionally go over the top at them. By continually changing pace, you may be able to bully them into becoming too weak-tight or by becoming passive. Notice which direction they are going into and then take advantage of that strategy.

Hyper-aggressive

These guys like to bet and raise. It is almost impossible to tell if they are bluffing or have the nuts a lot of the time. These players can be dangerous, but you need to make an effort to trap them. While it is good to test them by raising them, do not always do this with a hand because it will become a clear signal to them. Do not let these guys know what you have by raising. Play your hands differently and certainly trap them sometimes when you have a strong hand like a set.

Tilting

Much like a hyper-aggressive player, the difference is their reasoning for betting. Often these players will have suffered a bad beat and in the following hands will push more then usual.

Some people have other names for ‘player types‘ I am sure you have your own,
even though the names maybe different, their styles are not.

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Note Taking

Thursday, June 5th, 2008 | Intermediate Lesson | No Comments

The absolute joy of online poker is not only do you get to be in the comfort of your own chair, bed or layed out by the pool; you can easily take notes on poker players more efficiently. Not everyone has the ability with a photographic memory, so hopefully this lesson will provide you with your open source for writing your way to take notes on other poker players.

Keep It Simple
One thing I have noticed with many players when they talk about their notes, is there is just so much detail in them. You really don’t have that much time to read over or jot down every hand a player plays. Keep your notes short and keep them simple.

Shark Good Weak Fish
If you have read the Player Types Lesson identifying these players shouldn’t be as hard. It is equally important to know who the fish to sharks are at the table at any given time. As they say, if you haven’t spotted the fish in the first 30 mins of sitting down, its you.

Tight Loose Maniac
Are 3 good pieces of information. It does generally go in with the player types, as a tight player is good, but there are tight players that do play to tight and become soft which would actually classify them as weak. The tight, loose, maniac makes the grey area of the player type more defined.
ie: I would prefer to trap the weak maniac over the loose good player.

Pot Stealer
Typically if a player often opens for a bet when it is checked to them, are known as pot stealer with any random hand. Basically it is positional play, but not actually considered to me as a bluff even tho it is a bluff. I don’t mark them down as a bluffer, because I need that info when the pots are bigger, the pot stealer will generally do it on the flop, or on a turn with a small pot. I identify with PS or NOPS.

Bluffer
As I was saying, I try not to mark “bluffers” as a tag all to often, only because it actually gets me, the player in trouble. Basically with the info marked as a bluffer I might stretch my odds, or find myself dominated with a marginal hand that I probably shouldn’t have been involved in the pot to start with.  The info you want for your notes is more like what they bluff with.

Their Tells
I have an Online Tell Lesson, that elaborates this subject.
What we want to mark in the note box are things like how they continuously play a certain hand based on the time it takes them to act or re-act, I like to make sure I know how they play their monster hands, such as AA, Flush or Trips, and just prefer they tell me in the chat box when they have a full house, but here is what I use.
Pause or Auto or CR (for check raise)

What Do They, Don’t They Bet
I know this lesson opened with, KISS; keep it simple stupid, but there are a few betting patterns some players fall into habit with. I want to know how they play their draw, top pair, top pair with no kicker, middle pair, low pair, and sets. Generally this falls into aggressive, solid, passive or calling station.

Button and Blinds
Some players do not defend their blinds, some players always raise from the button if action is folded around to them. In the long of things, knowing how players play out of the blinds can be the best going for them. If you know a player never defends their blinds, wouldn’t you always at least make an attempt, Blind Stealing. If they call, you know they have a little something.

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