Position

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.

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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

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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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Playing Tight System

Sunday, May 31st, 2009 | Intermediate Lesson | 4 Comments

Some people will say don’t use a “system for poker” but I do and I will share the basic concept of why  it isn’t that bad of a suggestion.  Below is a simple system how what cards would best be played in the selected position.  This is “playing tight poker“, which is great for when you multi table in 3-4 sit-n-go’s.  I don’t suggest this for a tournament or cash game strategy.

This system will help you with your position and because your playing more then one table you reduce the thinking process down to ABC.  Once you have gathered up some chips or finished playing a SnG then you can play more about the players.  Give this strategy some consideration next time you log into play some sit-n-go’s.

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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 5d.gifKd.gif TheDonkeyofPoker shows Ac.gifAh.gif Byoned shows 3c.gif7c.gif

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 ###
Qs.gif7d.gifAd.gif
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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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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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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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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Overcards in Early Position

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

Playing big hands like AK and AQ can be a very dangerous and expensive game, playing them Overcards in Early Position. That is where bad beat stories come from, and the “can’t believe he called my raise” rants..

You will be often told, “mix up your play” from early position to disguise your big hands. Meaning, if your going to play AK with a x3-x4 bet, you should do that with weaker hands. Yes, they actually advise you to play weaker hands from the early position. Maybe back in the old days that is a good idea, but this is new age poker.

If you come into the pot with your Overcards in Early Position, and you get callers, maybe loose players, maybe dominating hands….you opened up the call train for everyone else behind them to call cause of Pot Odds. So on a 10 player table, you have made a nice pot, out of position, and going to be scared that someone has flopped a set, the flush, or two pair.

Do yourself a favor and play good poker and avoid the unnecessary opportunities to lose chips. And no, I am not saying always fold Overcards in Early Position, but more or less be careful because you will not be able to Control the Pot with many callers.

I prefer to actually limp in with the over cards, specially with a tight image. Players often put you on a big hand, and may not want to raise, because they put you on a big hand where your looking for them to raise. You can’t get that respect if your playing junk the same way.

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