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Without the proper money management skills, the best players in the world would go broke. For all you skim-readers, here are the basic rules of bankroll management for Texas Hold'em. ! buyins for "# Hold'em. $!! big blinds for #imit Hold'em. %! buyins for &n' Tournaments.
chance of making money at a 4564 game where the maximum buy-in is 4 !!, you should ha+e a bankroll of at least 4%!!!. 7nother way of applying bankroll management is by only putting a maximum 89 of your entire bankroll on the table at any one time, which works out the same as ha+ing ! times the buy-in for the game. Limit Hold'em. 1f you like to play limit Holdem howe+er, you should ha+e $!! )ig )ets as a minimum for the limit you wish to play at. Therefore to play 4564 limit Holdem, you should ha+e a bankroll of at least 4:!!.
Tournament games.
1t is recommended that you ha+e a bankroll that will gi+e you %! buy-ins to the le+el of tournaments that you wish to play at. Therefore if you want to play at the 45!;45 &it n 'o's you should ha+e a bankroll of 4%%!.
Try the online bankroll calculator or the downloadable fergulator tool for recommendations on where to play based on the exact si3e of your bankroll. The guidelines noted abo+e are +ery general rules that should gi+e you the best opportunity to make money from playing Texas Holdem poker without going broke. Howe+er there are going to be some exceptions and alterations depending on how and where you play.
1f you intend on taking poker up as your main source of income, the bankroll you would re/uire will be substantially larger than ! full buy-ins for cash, or %! buy-ins for tournaments. This is because your li+ing expenses will constantly be taken out of your bankroll and so it has to ha+e the ability to withstand the +ariance along with the costs of e+eryday life. =rofessional players will re/uire a far bigger bankroll than the guidelines set out in this article. 1f you are constantly dipping into your bankroll to pay for bills and groceries, you may find that occassionally you will not be properly rolled for the limits you are playing at. Furthermore, there may well be times of emergency when you will need to take a big chunk out of your roll, and so it's good to ha+e a little extra money behind you >ust in case.
bankroll this looks like a big loss and may cause you to tighten up your game and play (scared poker( because you are afraid to lose more money. "ow if you had ! full buy-ins for the 4564 game, your bankroll would change from 4%!!! to 4$ !!. 1mmediately you can see that +isually this does not look as bad as the loss in the first instance. Therefore you will feel more comfortable that you ha+e the ability to win back the lost money without feeling the need to change your game.
I! your bankroll drops below '( !ull buy"ins, then you should also drop down a le+el so that you are playing within your bankroll until you ha+e built it back up enough to play at the next le+el. I! you ha#e more than '( buy ins !or the limit abo#e, then it makes sense to mo+e up to that limit if you feel you can beat it. Aust be sure to drop back down to the lower limit if you experience significant losses.
7t some points in your poker career you may fancy mo+ing up a le+el >ust to test it out and to see how well you do. This is called Btaking a shotC. There is no harm in trying this as long as you stick to good bankroll management for most of the time you play poker. Did you think this article was usefulE Wait until you see the strategy +ideos at Deuces @racked. )e careful not to get carried away by big wins at the higher le+el because your bankroll may still be too small to support continued play there. 7 useful tactic that you can use when Btaking a shotC is to not buy in for the full amount at the next le+el up. This way you will not be risking too much of your bankroll in any one game and you are essentially still playing within your bankroll if you do not put more than 89 of it on the table. ?ou may be interested to read about how /uickly you can mo+e up the stakes in poker.
1t should be noted that if you are a losing poker player, bankroll management is not going to help you win money. The guidelines mentioned abo+e will only apply if you know that you are a winning poker player in the long run. =osition is a factor that is greatly underestimated by many beginner poker players. ?our poker table position can be the difference between winning or losing a hand and can ha+e a big influence on how much you win during your poker sessions. )efore playing a hand in Texas Hold'em you should always be aware of your table position relati+e to the button.
The seats nearest to the left of the button are called early position or 2= for short. The seats nearest to the right of the button are called late position or #= for short. The seats in between these will be called middle position or -=..
?ou win more money from later positions than you do in early positions in poker. The button is the most profitable seat in the game. The seats in ,ed are early position The seats in )lue are middle position
)arly position.
The red seats are less fa+ourable than any other seats at the table because on any gi+en round in the current hand, you are likely to be one of the first to act. This means that in early position you should be more selecti+e about the hands you play, because you will ha+e less information on your opponents at each stage of the hand because you are first to act. &o you will need to be playing your cards and not the man when in 2=.
&iddle position.
The blue seats ha+e positional ad+antage o+er the red, but the seats in green ha+e position o+er them. This means you can afford to play a few more hands in these positions as you do not ha+e as many people left to act behind you. Howe+er, if all of the players in the red seats folded, that will mean that you will be the first to act on each round. &o bear that in mind when deciding whether or not to play your hand.
Late position.
The green seats will pro+e to be one of the best seats in this particular hand. There is a high chance that you will be last to, or one of the last to act on each round. This is where you can loosen up your starting hands e+en further but not so much as to hinder your game. Aust remember, >ust because you ha+e position, does not mean that you should play poor starting hands.
The button.
The yellow seat is the best seat in the hand, because on e+ery round except for before the flop, you will be last to act no matter what. This is why you should look to play as many hands as possible *within reason. from the button, as you ha+e a big ad+antage in the hand when you are last to act.
The later you act in a hand, the more information you will ha+e a+ailable to you about your opponents. 1f you're serious about taking your game to the next le+el you should take ad+antage of poker training.
Positional awareness.
1n general, you want to play more hands in position than you do out of position. This doesn't mean that you force yourself to play any old hand when you ha+e good position, and fold awesome ones in bad position >ust to try and strike the right balance. 1nstead, it simply means that you should be more inclined to play slightly weaker hands than normal 1=, and more inclined to fold slightly stronger hands FF=. Take IAo for exampleG
In early position 1 would be reluctant to play IAo. 1t's on the low end of the (good hands(, and the fact that 1 ha+e poor position makes it an unattracti+e situation. The hand isn't strong enough to counteract my positional disad+antage. In late position 1 would raise this hand almost e+ery time if there were no raisers before me. 1 may also call raises with this hand if 1 ha+e position on the raiser. 1 ha+e an ad+antageous position combined with a decent starting hand, so the situation is good for me.
7s a beginner player it's tricky to get to grips with the hands that are okay to play in #=, but are not good to play in 2=. How are you supposed to learn the subtleties of which starting hands to play in which positionsE Trust me, you will pick it up as you go along. 1t will take time, but the more experience you get under your belt the more you'll start to understand it. 1f you're completely new to the game howe+er, there's no harm in sticking with the premium hands and entering pots with them irrespecti+e of position J that's okay. Aust be prepared to broaden your starting hand re/uirements based on position as you impro+e.
Following on from my last point about playing more hands in position, here's a graph that shows a winning player's 0=1= based on their position in :max cash games.
7 graph to show the positional 0=1= of a winning :max cash game poker player. =osition abbre+iations explained *KT', -=, )T" etc.. +PIP indi$ates the per$entage o! the time a player either raises or $alls pre!lop. &o essentially this chart shows the percentage of the time they (play a hand( from each position. "otice how this player is playing a lot more hands in late position than they are in early position. They do not play the same set of hands from all positions. They're not forcing these statistics either J they're >ust wisely taking in to account their table position and then selecting which starting hands to play with. 1f you asked any winning cash game player to show you their 0=1= by position, their stats and graphs would follow a similar trend to the one abo+e. ?ou can find out your own 0=1= stats *and also those of your opponents. by using the popular =oker Tracker $ software.
strategy with the article on relati+e position in Texas Hold'em. Howe+er, 1 would recommend that you get the importance of basic position nailed down before any further readingL 1n Texas Holdem, it is important to ha+e good starting hand sele$tion. This is important as it pre+ents you from entering pots with sub-standard hands, which could e+entually lead to you losing a lot of money in the process. (&tarting hand selection( is simply choosing the good hands o+er the bad, and thus folding the bad hands when you get them. 1t is true that any hand can win in Texas Holdem *or poker in general for that matter., but the fact of the matter is that some hands will win more than others. &o if we stick with the good hands, then we should see better results in the long run. @heck out my rankings of the top Texas Hold'em poker rooms for K& players. ?ou may be surprised.
77 II MM 7Is
The little 's' indicates that the cards are suited, which will increase the +alue of the cards because it makes it more likely that they will be able to make a flush compared to if the cards were not suited. This is ob+iously the top tier when it comes to starting hands, and if we were to only e+er be dealt these starting hands we would be making a lot of money. 1n fact, if we folded e+ery other hand that we were dealt and only played these hands, there is a fair chance that we would be winning money in the long run. )ut this would only work at the lower limits where other players probably wouldn't be aware that we only play premium hands.
of the crop when it comes to starting hands, there are still other great hands out there that can win us a lot of money in the long run if we play them. &uch hands areG
This gi+es us another : starting hands that we can play with, increasing the number of pots that we will be entering. 7lthough these are not as good as the first set of premium hands mentioned, they are still great starting hands that should help us to win money.
7s your game impro+es, you can look to open up your starting hand re/uirements and include more marginal hands like suited connectors. Howe+er, if you're new to the game you are better off sticking with the big cards that hit bigger flops and make post-flop play a hell of a lot easier for you.
The ri+er comes a N , and our opponent bets into us one final time. We make the call with our top pair thinking we might still ha+e the best hand, but our opponent turns o+er I M . He also has a pair of Iings but he has the higher kicker, so he takes down the pot.
'ood poker table sele$tion is important if you want to maximi3e your profits from each poker session you play. 1t should be ob+ious that if you want to make money from your poker, you should play against opponents that are not as good as yourself. &o if the players at table 7 are more experienced than the players on table ), a wise poker player would choose table ) e+ery time. To win money from poker, you can either de+elop a better strategy than your opponents or play against worse players than you. Why not do bothE 1n )P- casinos you would usually ha+e +ery little or no choice about which table you sit at, so table selection is a little trickier when playing li+e poker. Howe+er, when playing online you ha+e the opportunity to choose from a long list of tables. ?ou should use this freedom of choice to your ad+antage. Deuces @racked is easily the top training site for cash game players. Watch +ideos and win more money.
The a+erage number of players per flop figure should influence our table selection depending on our own style of play. 1f you are a tight player it may be more beneficial for you to choose the tables with a higher number of players per flop and pick up the occasional big pots, whereas if you are a loose player you may find it beneficial to play at the tables with low numbers of players per flop to pick up many of the small uncontested pots. )e sure to take into account the number of players at each table in relation to the number of players per flop, as the shorthanded tables will ha+e a lower number of players per flop than the full tables.
7 screenshot of the =oker&tars lobby. 1t's a bit of an old screenshot, but it does the >ob. 7s you can see on the diagram, the table with the highest a+erage pot is @assiopea, and the table with the highest number of players per flop is 7thor 10. Howe+er, the best table to sit at out of the two would be @assiopea, because 7thor 10 has a low a+erage pot si3e despite ha+ing the higher number of players per flop.
1f you play more poker in the e+enings, there is a higher chance of running in to a few (worse for wear( players *drunk ones.. Fb+iously these theories best apply to the countries with the highest +olume of internet players, so if you li+e in the KI you may want to play poker during the times that correlate with the times mentioned abo+e for the K&7.
Player sear$h.
-any poker rooms offer you the ability to search for specific players. These means that you should use this feature to your ad+antage and take a note of e+ery bad player you come across, and search for him or her before you sit down at the tables. This way you can guarantee yourself to be playing against at least one bad player, instead of taking a chance on a table of unknowns.
1f you ask an amateur player or any person new to poker what the fundamental aspects of Texas Hold'em are, you can be +ery sure that they will describe how bluffing your opponents is key to beating the game. Howe+er, this is actually far from the truth. 1t is possible to beat poker games without e+er needing to bluff *although not recommendedL.. -any amateur players bluff far more often than necessary, which leads them to lose money o+er the long run. 1f you're not playing at )odog right now *February !5 . you're losing out on money. 'et in while it's still good. The aim of poker is to win money, simple as that. &o if you were to ne+er bluff, you could still make money. Think of it this wayH 1f you are sitting at a : seater table, each player has an e/ual chance on getting good or bad cards. 2ach player according to simple math should ha+e the best hand 5 in e+ery : hands, therefore if all the players were of the exact same standard, in the long run nobody would lose, and nobody would win. Howe+er, if one player was able to win more money from their opponents when they had the best hand than their opponents won from them when they had the best hand, that player would be making more money than their opponents in the long run. 1t stands to reason that if you play your cards better than the other players play their cards, you will end up a winner. ?ou should not enter a hand with the intention of bluffing. ?ou should only bluff if you are confident that you can win the pot based on the way your opponents ha+e been playing up to that point in the hand. For a more thorough answer to this /uestion, check out the how often should you bluffE article.
/oes this mean that players lose money trying to run blu!!s on one another?
"ot necessarily. 7n experienced player can pick their spots and take down a few pots that should ha+e been taken down by someone else, adding a little more to their stack. )ut it is not easy for a beginner or e+en intermediate players to pick the right spots, it takes a lot of experience of situations and knowledge of your opponent to know when a bluff will be successful. 1f you are unsure of whether you can take down a pot with a bluff, then you shouldn't attempt a bluff.
1f you continually try to run bluffs against your opponents, they will try and catch you out when you bet into them because of your table image. They will start to o+erplay their mediocre hands when you bet and pay you off when you do ha+e a good hand.
perfect, and you will know when your opponent is more likely to fold than push based on their stack si3e. When on a draw. 1f you do not ha+e a made hand, but are on a draw such as a straight or a flush, you can launch what is called a semi-bluff. ?ou hope to take the pot down right there, but if you do get called you still ha+e a chance to win the hand if the next cards impro+e your hand. )ut if you get re-raised be prepared to let the hand go, unless you are recei+ing correct pot odds to call.
Therefore before making any bet or raise, you should always keep in mind how much money is currently in the pot. This is because the amount you bet into the pot will determine what pot odds your opponents are getting, and so they will either be making a call with the correct odds, or making a call with the incorrect odds. 2+ery time our opponent makes a call with the incorrect odds, we are making a profit as they are making a fundamental mistake, so it is important that we make good si3e bets to make sure our opponents can these mistakes by calling. 2+ery time an opponent makes a call with bad odds, we are winning money.
et si.ing diagram.
This should help highlight optimum, effecti+e and terrible bet si3es in Texas Hold'em.
. We get lots of +alue *win more. when our opponents call with worse hands. There are +ery few instances in poker where 1 would make a bet that is less than half the si3e of the pot. )y making weak bets you will usually be losing +alue on your hands and gi+ing your opponents to right odds to call and outdraw you.
,aise $ times the )) ; 5 for each limper. 7s a general rule of thumb, if you are making a raise before the flop, you should be looking to raise around $ or % times the si3e of the big blind. Howe+er, if there ha+e been a few limpers before you and you still intend to make a raise, you should add an extra bet onto the $ *or % - this works well too. times the )) raise to help pre+ent other players from calling with good odds. &o if you are playing 4564 and there ha+e been two limpers in front of you, a good 45! or 45 raise would be sufficient. Fn the other hand, if you are raising an opponentCs bet, you should be looking to raise them around $ times the si3e of their original bet to again worsen the odds they are getting to call to see the next card.
)et around $6% the si3e of the pot after the flop. ,aise $ or % times the si3e of the big blind ; 5 for each limper before the flop.
Whene+er you decide that you want to make a bet or a raise, you should always take a look at the si3e of the pot before mo+ing that chip slider or before counting out the chips in your stack. 1t is important to reduce the odds your opponents are getting and to maximi3e the +alue from your hand by making good strong bets. "ow you'+e got some strategy under your belt, use it against the terrible players at )odog =oker and win e+en more money than before.
)y making weak bets and by playing passi+ely, you are lea+ing yourself open to being run o+er by your opponents when they ha+e far weaker hands than you. &o make sure you stand your ground, and make healthy bets into the pot at e+ery opportunity to let your opponents know that you are not a player to be messed with. For further reading on betting in poker, take a look at the article on the importance of aggression. 1n addition, it will be handy to be aware of effecti+e stack si3es when it comes to si3ing your bets appropriately. ,easons To )et R )etting To Win Dead -oney These reasons for betting are fre/uently co+ered 1n The @oaching Tree series at Deuces @racked.
M. Why do we bet in pokerE 7. )ecause we expect those bets to be profitable o+er the long run. ThatCs the sole reason behind betting and raising in Texas Holdem. 1t really is that simple. Howe+er, knowing why a bet can be profitable is the tricky part. 1t turns out that there are main reasons for making bets. -. 9or #alue. '. %s a blu!!. 2+ery profitable bet or raise in poker falls in to either one of these categories. To be able to make successful bets, itCs imperati+e that you learn to identify which category your bet or raise falls in to. DonCt worry though, itCs not that hard really. There is actually a third reason for betting, which is betting to win dead money. #earn these first.
?ou belie+e you ha#e the best hand and you think your opponent will call with a worse hand. :ou want your opponent to $all.
We ne+er actually know if we ha+e the best hand or not, but that doesnCt matter. 7ll that matters is that we ha+e a good reason to belie+e that we ha+e the best hand when we bet. Figuring out whether we likely ha+e the better hand or not takes some skill, and thatCs a skill that comes with time and practice *see assigning ranges.. Howe+er, the key point is that we make a profit e+ery time our opponent puts money in to the pot with a worse hand *or a hand with worse e/uity to be precise.. 1t doesnCt matter whether our opponent goes on to outdraw us later on in the hand. 7ll that matters is that when we made our bet, our opponent had worse e/uity and put more money in to the pot. 1f you're serious about taking your game to the next le+el you should take ad+antage of poker training.
Why you bet as a bluff. ?ou belie+e you ha#e the worst hand but you think that you can get your opponent to fold a better hand. :ou want your opponent to !old.
For whate+er reason you strongly belie+e that e+en though you probably ha+e the worst hand, you can get your opponent to fold. 1f they go ahead and fold a hand that has more e/uity than ours, they are making a mistake and we are profiting from that mistake. )etting as a bluff takes more skill than betting for +alue because itCs harder to ha+e a good reason to belie+e that we can get an opponent to fold a better hand. "onetheless, itCs still a profitable bet to make when done properly.
Figure out how much e/uity you think you ha+e in the hand. Do that, and you'll know what type of bet you're making.
1f you think you ha+e more than 8!9 e/uity in the hand and you bet, you are betting for +alue. 1f you think you ha+e less than 8!9 e/uity in the hand and you bet, you are betting as a bluff.
"oteG This diagram assumes you are up against one player. The same sort of principal applies against multiple opponents in a hand, but the percentages get a little tricky for one diagram.
7re you betting for +alue or are you betting as a bluffE 1f you canCt confidently answer that /uestion you should not be betting or raising in the first place. )lindly firing out bets and raises is bad play and will be a tremendous leak in your game until you fix it. -any beginner players lose money because they fire out bets and raises without knowing why they are making the bets in the first place.
Is it !or #alue? Do we expect a worse hand than ours to callE "o. Is it as a blu!!? Do we expect a better hand to foldE "o.
7s you can see, there is no $ompelling reason to bet here, so weCre far better off checking behind rather than risking getting called and losing more money to a better hand. =laying poker and not using a training site is like planting crops and not using fertili3er. -aximi3e your results with poker training.
1f you belie+e that a worse hand than yours will $all you the ma>ority of the time, you are betting !or #alue. 1f you belie+e that you can get a better hand than yours to !old the ma>ority of the time, you are betting as a blu!!.
)efore e+ery single bet and raise you make, try your hardest to identify which category your bet is falling in to. 1f you canCt figure out which, then reconsider making that bet or raise. Knderstanding the difference between the different goals when betting is easy. The hard part is using your head to figure out whether your bet is for +alue or if itCs a bluff. 1t getCs much easier with practice, so the sooner you start trying to figure it all out the better. 7s mentioned earlier in the article, there is a third reason for betting that usually occurs when making continuation bets on the flop. This is where you are betting to win dead money.
There is a +ery steep learning cur+e in =oker. 7t the start a little information will take you a long way, but as you impro+e, the new information you learn won't add as much to your game. &o if you are a beginner poker player reading this article, this is probably the most useful and money sa+ing information you will e+er read. 1f you absorb all of the beginner poker tips below, you may e+en turn from a losing player into a break-e+en or winning player. These beginner poker tips won't turn you into an expert player in ten minutes, but they will set you on the right track to becoming a winning poker player. Ha+e you check out my +ideos section yetE There are a bunch of free strategy +ids there for "#H2 cash games.
Find out more about thinking on higher le+els in the article on multiple le+el thinking in poker. 1t's a bit of an ad+anced concept, but it is +ery interesting nonetheless.
&econdly, you only want to play at limits you can afford. ?ou should not play at limits where you are going to drop money that you cannot afford to lose. There is more information on this sub>ect in the bankroll management article. ?ou may also find the Fergulator tool useful too. Without bankroll management, you will ne+er be able to become a winning player, e+en if you use perfect strategy.
Texas Hold'em R &trategy R 'eneral R -icro #imit &trategy ! Deuces @racked has ama3ing training +ideo series aimed at helping micro stakes players. R The @oaching Tree R ,eal #ifeG -icro "#-'rinder
The micro limits *or micro stakes, whate+er. on the 1nternet generally range from 5c6 c *4 "#. to 8c68!c *48!"#. cash games. Due to the small amount of money at stake, you will find the action is much looser than say, at the 4564 le+els. 1f you browse around forums, you will find many people claiming that the mi$ro limits are unbeatable. They claim that all the players rely too much on luck, and with so many players entering pots trying to hit their draws, the Bluck' they get is >ust too o+erwhelming for any decent player to be able to beat these limits. -icro limit poker is perfectly beatable, but only if you ha+e the correct strategy. #et me first state that this concept -- despite ha+ing a tiny element of truth -- is far from being correct. With so many players calling with bad pot odds for their draws and calling huge raises with half a hand, how can you not beat these le+elsE There are a few key mi$ro limit poker tips set out belowH be sure to familiari3e yourself with them before stepping into your next micro-limit game. 1f you're not playing at )odog right now *February !5 . you're losing out on money. 'et in while it's still good.
,emember you are playing for money and not indi+idual pots, only get your money in with the best of it. When it comes to multiple le+els of thought in micro poker, these players are usually le+el 5 *or at best.. ?ou only need to be playing one le+el abo+e them to beat them.
?ou will win more hands than you lose if you get your money in the middle with the best of it, so buy in for the max to make sure that you are maximi3ing your wins.
A= eware o! raising.
From my experience playing micro limit poker, players will not often raise pre flop unless they ha+e a solid hand. The game plan for most of the players at the table is to see as many flops as possible, hit a huge hand, then bet and take as much money as they can from it. ?our opponents won't gi+e a second thought to what you might holdH they are only playing to the strength of their own hand. This is why they call decent raises with bottom pair on the flopH because they'+e got a pair. &o if you see a player raising pre flop and on e+ery street then beware, they'+e probably got something good. -icro players are much happier calling than they are raising.
B= /on't blu!!.
This is similar to the first point, as bluffing is a way of trying to outplay your opponent. ,emember that a large number of players will be seeing the flop, and so a bluff of any kind is unlikely to work. =layers will be calling with any half decent hand, so >ust put your money in when you do make a hand, and when you don't, let it go.
1f you thought that these tips were useful, you really need to check out Deuces @racked, which is the top poker training site !or mi$ro stakes players. There's no faster way to learn good poker. 1f you're serious about working your way out of the micro stakes games, you'll check out Deuces
@racked.
,ead the Deuces @racked re+iew. &ign up for a N day free trial
For those of you that dri+e a manual car, you will know how important it is to change gears depending on the type of road you are dri+ing along. 1f you were to simply stick with one gear for an entire >ourney, you will find that you will struggle along some roads. For example, if you decide to stay in 5st gear throughout a >ourney, you may be fine when you are first starting out, but as you start to get along and hit the faster stretches your car is not going to be performing as well. This is /uite similar to poker, as throughout your sessions, you should prepare to alter your play and (change gears(. ?our particular strategy at the start of the session may work well for a while, but at some point it is recommended that you change gearsH otherwise your performance will start to deteriorate. @hanging gears helps you to adapt the the changing dynamics of the game.
The are numerous reasons as to why you should change gears, but one of the most important reasons is because your opponents will be able to work out your particular playing style, and use it against you at your expense. 1f you continue to play a straightforward tight-aggressi+e playing style throughout a session with no sign of change, it will make it much easier for your opponents to put you on a hand. Howe+er, if you can change your play so that you are more unpredictable, you are effecti+ely taking away the edge that your opponents ha+e o+er you and placing it back onto your side. 1n general, the tight aggressi+e style of play is /uite like the $rd gear of a carH it may work okay throughout the ma>ority of a >ourney, but it is not going to perform best in certain situations. 1f you can change gears and utili3e the ability you ha+e to keep your opponents guessing, you will be maximi3ing your potential from e+ery session you play. $rd gear may be fine for some, but for those looking to win more money and de+elop, you need to be able to change gears in the right situations. 1f you're not playing at )odog right now *February !5 . you're losing out on money. 'et in while it's still good.
When stack si3es change *i.e. you become shortstacked or deepstacked.. When you reach the bubble in a tournament. When the dynamics of the table changes. When players lea+e the table or when new players >oin. ?our play has become static and predictable.
1n each of these situations abo+e, a certain +ariable at the table has changed. This means that it will ha+e an effect on the way people are playing against each other, and the way they are playing against you. Therefore you should adapt your approach to the game accordingly so that you can take ad+antage of the changes, or compensate for the way your opponents will now be playing against you.
7s negati+e as it sounds, you really ha+e to be prepared to lose when playing in freerolls. The best player in the world will ha+e trouble placing well in any of these freerolls because luck plays so much more of a factor than in any other tournament. 1f you focus too much on expecting to win, you will only be more disappointed and frustrated when you end up getting sucked out on for all your chips. The best formula for online freerolls is to play well, and get lucky. ?ou can't control luck, but you can impro+e your chances of winning by playing lots of freeroll tournaments.
7s already mentioned, the start of a freeroll will be a complete fren3y. =layers will be dropping out at a rapid rate and it seems like you will be in the money in no time. )ut you should reali3e that this pace will not be sustained throughout the tournament, and as the numbers decrease, the skill will increase. 'reat tournament players are able to /uickly identify and adapt to changes in the game. 7s the luck riders drop out you will be left with opponents that ha+e more of an idea of what they are doing, and they will now ha+e their eyes on the money positions. This means you can play more tactically, and use a few more plays that you couldn't ha+e used at the start, because these players will now actually be able to fold their hands. &o be aware of when the transition from luck to poker starts to take place, because it will be time to change gears. Did you think this article was usefulE Wait until you see the strategy +ideos at Deuces @racked.
Ha+e you check out my +ideos section yetE There are a bunch of free strategy +ids there for "#H2 cash games.
#ong wait and check. #ong wait and bet6raise. @heck6call and then bet. 1nstant bet6check. =layer timing out.
Instant bet7$he$k.
7lmost e+ery site will ha+e action tabs that you can select before the action gets to you. This means that you will act instantaneously when it is your turn. 1t is not a wise idea to use these buttons for the following reasonsG
When you see someone insta-check, it shows great weakness because they are so disinterested with the hand that they decide to check before the action gets to them. Therefore insta-betting6raising shows strength, as your opponent is happy to put more money into the pot before seeing what other players do and before the action reaches him or her.
Poker Initiati#e
1nitiati+e and (taking the initiati+e( is a term that you will bump in to e+ery now and then in poker books, on forums and in training +ideos. )ut what exactly is initiati+e in poker, and how can it be used to your ad+antageE Aust to keep you excited, 1 would say that ha+ing the initiati+e during a hand is >ust as influential as your actual position at the table.
What is initiati#e?
The dictionary defines initiati+e asG (7n introductory act or stepH leading action.( That's all well and good, but what's that got to do with Texas Hold'em exactlyE #et's translate this in to more of a poker context that makes more sense... 1nitiati+e in poker is where a player has shown the most aggression in any gi+en betting round. This player is therefore representing the strongest hand at the table and (has the initiati+e in the hand(. 7s a result, a lot of the play on future betting rounds will be centered around the player with the (initiati+e(. @heck out my rankings of the top Texas Hold'em poker rooms for K& players. ?ou may be surprised.
2xamples of taking the initiati+e. 7 bets and ) calls. - =layer 7 has the initiati+e. 7 bets, ) raises and 7 calls. - =layer ) has the initiati+e. 7 checks, ) bets, 7 check-raises and ) calls. - =layer 7 has the initiati+e. 7 bets, ) calls, @ raises, 7 calls and ) calls. - =layer @ has the initiati+e. 7 check and ) checks. - "either player has the initiati+e.
1t's all pretty straightforward. )ut basically, if you are calling or checking to close the action, you are not taking the initiati+e in the hand. This should ha+e helped illustrate what 1 mean when 1 say the player that shows the (most aggression( takes the initiati+e in the hand.
2xample of the initiati+e changing hands. =reflopG 7 raises and ) calls. =layer 7 has the initiati+e. FlopG 7 bets, ) raises and 7 calls. =layer ) has the initiati+e.
%d#antages o! initiati#e.
Ha+e you e+er noticed that whene+er you call a raise before the flop, the action always seems to re+ol+e around the preflop raiserE 7ll of the other players want to see what the preflop raiser does on the flop before they make their mo+e, which of course has its ad+antages...
Taking the initiati+e puts you in the dri+ers seat in the hand. Fther players will wait for you to make the first mo+e by checking to you. )y betting and raising your hand has unlimited strength in the eyes of your opponents. )y taking the initiati+e, you are making it far more difficult for your opponent to assign you to a specific range of hands.
)eing aggressi+e forces other players to make tough decisions, which means that they ha+e less control o+er the hand and are more susceptible to making -20 plays.
1nitiati+e is the reason why continuation bets are so effecti+e and why relati+e position is such an important concept to be aware of at the Texas Hold'em tables. 1t also opens up a whole lot more opportunities to pick up uncontested pots that would normally fall in to another player's stack. Ha+ing the initiati+e is almost as important, if not e/ual to, your position at the table. Don't underestimate the influence that initiati+e can ha+e in the hands that you play.
)y being aggressi+e and raising more often than calling, you are taking the initiati+e in the hand and gi+ing yourself that extra ad+antage for when you hit the flop. That's all there is to it. This does not mean that you should be betting and raising with e+ery hand you play, you still need to exercise common sense. "ow you >ust need to practice with it and see how much of an effect initiati+e has on the hands you play for yourself.
Poker %ggression
Texas Hold'em R &trategy R 'eneral R 7ggression !
Ha+ing the ability to play aggressi#ely is an important attribute to ha+e when it comes to poker, especially when playing in the game of Texas Holdem. )eing aggressi+e is the opposite of being passi+e, where you make bets and raises more fre/uently instead of >ust checking and calling at each point during hands. =oker aggression opens more doorways to success in poker than it does to take a passi+e approach the game, which is why many successful players are aggressi+e. 1t is +ital that you are able to exercise a strategic aggressi+e style of play, as being aggressi+e does not mean simply betting and raising at e+ery opportunity. =laying aggressi+e poker well in+ol+es betting and raising when you ha+e an ad+antage o+er your opponents. This can be when you ha+e better cards, better position, or e+en when you ha+e better poker ability than them. %ggression is only bene!i$ial when you keep a $ool headG and when you pi$k your spots wisely to make your bets and raises. 1f you're not playing at )odog right now *February !5 . you're losing out on money. 'et in while it's still good.
1n this spot you ha+e top pair top kicker, which is a great hand but it can be easily cracked by the turn, especially since the board is coordinated with two cards of the same suit. 1f your opponent bets into you, it is important to be aggressi+e and raise, because you want to protect your hand and you do not particularly want you opponent to see another card that could potentially impro+e their hand to make it better than yours. The board is /uite coordinated, and your opponent could easily be betting with a worse hand *such as a draw or a lower pair.. :our main obCe$ti#e is to be aggressi#e and bet enough to gi#e your opponent the wrong pot odds to $all to impro#e their hand, so that you can take the pot down on the flop. This is the much better play than being passi+e and calling, as you lea+e yourself open to being out-drawn on the turn. This is one of the greatest aspects of being aggressi+e, as it can sa+e you from getting into tricky situations in the middle of a hand. There are also a number of other ad+antages that an aggressi+e approach to the game can gi+e. =laying aggressi+ely helps you to win more money by gi+ing your opponents bad odds to call with draws and by also increasing your fold e/uity.
This can work to our ad+antage greatly if we flop a flush or a straight draw. 1f our opponent checks to us because of our aggressive style hoping to induce a bluff, we ha+e then earned oursel+es a free card to try and complete our draw, where normally they would ha+e bet into us if we had not been playing aggressi+ely.
&tack si3e plays a +ery important role in the game of no limit Texas Hold'em. 7t any point during the game there is the possibility that all of your chips can be put on the line, so it is important that your are not only aware of your own stack si3e, but the si3e of your opponents' stacks also. The amount of chips in front of you and the amount in front of the players around you influence a number of aspects of play in Texas Hold'em, ranging from the psychological to the mathematical. This article aims to address the key points that you should remember with regards to understanding sta$k si.es in poker.
&mallG %! big blinds or less. -ediumG %5 J O! big blinds. )igG O5 big blinds or more. DeepG !! big blinds or more.
7 diagram to show the general difference between small, medium, big and deep-si3ed stacks in "# Hold'em.
-ost online and li+e poker rooms ha+e limits on how much or how little you can bring to the table from the start. There is typically a 5!)) minimum and a 5!!)) maximum for the ma>ority of limits. This means that players ha+e the option of buying in as a small, medium or big stack from the off. 7s you can see there is also a (deep stack( condition if you ha+e !! big blinds or more. This is common in cash games if a player has bought in for the maximum amount *usually 5!!))s. and has either doubled up through an all-in confrontation against another player of e/ual stack si3e, or has managed to grind there way up into the realm of the (deep stack(. @heck out my rankings of the top Texas Hold'em poker rooms for K& players. ?ou may be surprised.
=sychological aspects are also in+ol+ed with sta$k si.es in poker. 1f you ha+e a big stack and you are up against an opponent with an e/ually big stack, then there is the possibility that you could lose all your chips in this one particular hand. 7lternati+ely, if you are up against an opponent that has a small stack, it is not possible for you to lose more than the amount your opponent has in front of them. This means that players will ha+e a greater concern when playing against big stacks than when playing against small stacks. =oker players are more wary about how they play their hand when up against an e/ually big stack.
This actually puts player ) in a difficult situation because e+en though they hold top pair with a decent kicker, player 7 is showing a lot of strength. =layer ) decides to call because a re-raise will commit a large number of chips into the pot with only top pair. The turn comes 8 , which probably did not help either player. =layer 7 bets the si3e of the pot again, and player ) /uickly decides to fold because they are not prepared to commit so much money into the hand with a hand like top pair.
The bigger your stack, the less likely it is for an opponent to put up a fight with a marginal hand like top pair. This is especially true if you continue to bet strongly on the turn after betting the flop.
=laying poker at a loose table can be a +ery profitable experience. Howe+er without the correct ad>ustments to many areas of your strategy it can also be dangerous J introducing high +ariance into the game. This article looks at the different types of loose table in No-Limit Texas Holdem and discusses the important ad>ustments re/uired in order to win at these tables. We start by noting that not all loose tables are the same. The main distinctions are the playing styles, between loose 6 passi+e tables and loose 6 aggressi+e tables.
1 will show you how to /uickly distinguish each from the statistics a+ailable in the lobby of most online poker rooms. 7long with the ad>ustments in starting hand selection and the factors affecting pre-flop decisions are then co+ered. Finally 1 look at post flop play and the effect of your table image on your strategy for winning at loose tables. 1f you're not playing at )odog right now *February !5 . you're losing out on money. 'et in while it's still good.
&trategy ad>ustments for loose passi+e tables often depend on the willingness of indi+idual opponents to call large raises before the flop. There will usually be a gap between the hands that opponents are willing to limp and those that they will call a raise with. )y their +ery nature passi+e opponents are more likely to call raises than re-raise you J so the first point is to tread carefully when you are called. 7t a passi+e table the chances of being re-raised before the flop are smaller than at aggressi+e tables. This means it is possible to limp with more hands that ha+e high implied odds +alue such as small pairs and suited connectors. These types of hands play well in multi-way pots. 7fter you flop a monster hand be careful not to blow your passi+e opponents out of the pot with big raises. Knless the board is particularly draw-hea+y you should instead pick a bet si3e *see bet si3ing. that is likely to be called J building the pot gradually so as to be paid the maximum. The main problem with playing at passi+e tables is that it is slightly harder to build big pots. =laying premium pairs at a passi+e table should usually in+ol+e raising to thin the field. Too small a raise can easily induce se+eral of your loose opponents to enter the pot behind you with speculati+e holdings. This can be a disaster for a pair of aces if a dangerous flop comes. The ideal strategy to win at a loose 6 passi+e table is to become tight and aggressi+e J yet limp in with those hands with high implied-odds +alue as the situation warrants.
position may be your best strategy. 2+en an aggressi+e opponent is likely to check to you after the turn J in which case you can take a free ri+er card to try and complete your draw if re/uired.
Tables featuring tight players can be a profitable +enue for the poker player who is able to properly ad>ust their strategy accordingly. 7d>ustments will need to be made in se+eral areas to a+oid tricky post flop situations. This article will look into some of the key poker strategy ad>ustments re/uired to help you win at tight tables today.
Firstly we will look at the nature of your tight opponents, the kind of starting hands that they are playing and their likely betting patterns before and after the flop. We then look at how ha+ing tight opponents affects your own starting hand selection and post-flop strategy in a +ariety of situations. Finally we co+er how your position at the table relati+e to certain types of tight opponent will further affect your strategy. @heck out my rankings of the top Texas Hold'em poker rooms for K& players. ?ou may be surprised.
while 7-7 or I-I only ha+e : ways each. the flop is likely to ha+e missed the ma>ority of their hands. Here a small bet will often take the pot uncontested from your tight opponents.
"ow you'+e got some strategy under your belt, use it against the terrible players at )odog =oker and win e+en more money than before.
=rofessional =oker writer and player David klansky introduced the gap $on$ept to poker in his book Tournament !oker for "dvanced !layers.
The green and purple lines are the most important ones to think about. This is a simple diagram to highlight the gap between hands that players are prepared to bet with and hands that players are prepared to call with.
The green and purple lines increase in length for loose players with wide starting hand ranges. The green and purple lines decrease in length for tight players with strict starting hand ranges. The gap increases when looser players bet in to tight players. The gap decreases when tighter players bet in to loose players.
Don't forget that this is >ust a +ery basic diagram to illustrate the gap concept. 1t does not factor in other important stuff likeH the number of players at the table, player position, bet si3es and metagame conditions. @heck out my rankings of the top Texas Hold'em poker rooms for K& players. ?ou may be surprised.
first to act on following rounds if another player calls. Therefore we can put our opponent on a range of good hands like 7I, 7M, 7A, 77, II, MM, AA and so on. -ost of these hands that an early position player would usually raise with ha+e our hand dominatedH therefore we should fold the hand. 7 raise from early position shows far more strength than a raise from a player in late position. Howe+er, if there has been no raise before the action gets to us, it may be a good idea to raise because we may now ha+e the best hand. 1n addition, we would be using the gap concept to our ad+antage because any players acting after us will be concerned that we ha+e a strong hand if we raise *like the hands outlined abo+e., and they will ha+e to ha+e a good strong hand to call. Furthermore, by raising in late position we ha+e the opportunity to take down the pot because there are less people to act behind us.
For a guide to beating short stack poker players, check out the (@rushing &hortstackers( concept +ideo.
There are always going to be times in your poker career where you will find yourself as the short sta$k at the table and probably ha+ing a smaller stack than the rest of your opponents. 1t may be because you are in the middle of a tournament and had a bad run of cards, or because you simply en>oy to buy in to cash games with a short stack. )ut for whate+er reason you are playing with a relati+ely small amount of chips, it is good to be able to understand and employ a good short stack strategy.
Ha+ing a short stack means that you ha+e less room to make plays at the poker table. )luffs and ad+anced mo+es *like float plays. are formed from being able to make educated checks, bets, calls and raises on each round of the hand, so ha#ing a short sta$k will redu$e and sometimes eliminate any room !or spe$ial manoeu#res by both you and your opponents. Furthermore, the general structure of a no limit Texas Holdem game is that the bigger bets will be made on the turn and ri+er, as the preflop and flop rounds are usually set-up rounds that build the pot and prepare the hand for action. The fact that we ha+e a short stack means that we will rarely be making it past the flop in terms of betting as we will not ha+ing enough chips to continue. With a short stack, most *or all. of the action will be taking place on the preflop and flop betting rounds.
77 II MM
7s you can see, a lot of emphasis has been placed playing big cards that can make top pair or better, which will often be the best hand on the flop. 7s you should remember it is unlikely that we will make any more bets past the flop betting round, so we should be more than happy to be making a good pair and get our money in on the flop. ?ou may notice that hands that include aces ha+e been gi+en a lot of weight, especially if you are a +ery short stack. This is because of the fact that as a extremely short stack, it is more than likely that you will be pushing or calling an all in on the flop regardless if you ha+e caught a piece of it or not. Therefore if we are holding an ace, we will ha+e a better chance of winning with a high card against an opponent in the e+ent that they did not make a pair either.
When we are dealt any of the abo+e cards that are within our range depending on the effecti+e stack si3es, we should always be raising when entering the pot. 1t may seem like a good idea to limp and try and catch a good flop for cheap, but it is more profitable to raise and build the pot for when we hit our hand, which we are more likely to do if we are holding a strong starting hand. With a stack of 5!)) or more we should be looking to raise around $ or %)) if we are first to enter the pot. Howe+er, if we ha+e 5!)) or less, it will not be too bad of a play to push all-in straight away, as any call from a %)) raise will lea+e us completely pot-committed anyway. With 5!)) or less, you can think about using the stop and go play also. Fn the flop we are usually reduced to going all-in or folding as a short stack. The smaller the si3e of our stack, the more inclined we should be to calling or pushing all-in as we are more likely to be committed to the pot. The shorter the stack, the less the flop will matter to us. Howe+er, if we ha+e around $!6%!)), we can be a little more selecti+e because we will not be pot committed and ha+e the opportunity to wait for a better spot. The shorter your stack, the less post-flop action you are going to deal with. &o it's important to ha+e a strong hand that has a good chance of winning after all 8 community cards ha+e been dealt. "e+ertheless, if we are pot committed and will be mo+ing all-in regardless, it is always better to make the all-in bet rather than calling if possible. This is because by betting we are gi+ing our opponent the opportunity to fold the best hand or a potentially winning hand, which is something that is not a+ailable to us if we are calling the all-in bet.
&hort stack tips o+er+iew. =lay simple 7)@ poker. 7+oid attempting to bluff and >ust bet when you ha+e a strong hand. Fnly enter pots with premium hands. Fold small pocket pairs and suited connectors as you ha+e do not ha+e implied odds. -ake strong %)) raises before the flop. )e prepared to mo+e all of your stack in to the middle before or on the flop. #ea+e the table if you win a big pot *and intend on playing short-stacked..
"e+ertheless, we will be facing an up hill battle if we are in a tournament as each pot we enter is more likely to in+ol+e putting our tournament life on the line. 7t some poker sites *friend's website., the structure of the faster tournaments will mean that you will spend the ma>ority of the game as a short stack, which is a good way to learn how to play good short stack poker. We should always look for the most profitable situations and get our money in when we think we ha+e the best of it, and we should always prepare for luck to play its part in each outcome. =laying a good, sound short sta$k strategy does not guarantee to sa+e a tournament life or secure a double up, but it will impro+e your chances of coming out on top in the long run. 1n cash games, you cannot expect to win e+ery all-in, but you can still play a profitable game by picking the right situations and trying to get your money in with the best hand.
Fne of the biggest ad+antages online poker has o+er li+e poker is that you are able to play at multiple tables at a time. -ost online poker rooms allow you to open up more than one table window and sit down and play poker at each table simultaneously. &ome online rooms such as )et$:8 =oker ha+e actually created a mini-mode +iew that allows players to shrink the table window down so that you can fit % tables onto one 5! %xN:< screen without o+erlap. -ulti-tabling has become increasingly popular amongst regular online players, who will happily play at , %, < or more tables. Howe+er, the ma>ority of players will stick to multi-tabling around to % tables at once. Ha+e you check out my +ideos section yetE There are a bunch of free strategy +ids there for "#H2 cash games.
The main moti+e behind multi"tabling is to increase a playerCs win rate per hour. 1f you are a consistent winner at the 45!!"# table, imagine how much more you could potentially win per hour by playing tables at once instead of 5. How about opening up $ or % tables at onceE 1t all seems pretty simple, open up some more tables and you could be doubling, tripling or e+en /uadrupling the amount you are currently winning per hour. Howe+er, there is one important factor that we ha+e to take into consideration before assuming that things are this simple. We ha+e to take into account that fact that our play will deteriorate for e+ery extra table we sit down at.
=rofit per hour when multi-tabling. When we play 45!!"# 5 table at a time we win 4< per hour. When we play tables at a time we win 48 an hour on each of the indi+idual tables.
Therefore o+erall we will be making 45! per hour multi-tabling instead of 4<, which means an extra profit of 4 per hour.
The sweet spot is where you ha+e the most tables open whilst still maintaining a high winrate, maximi3ing earnings. There is some middle ground here where the graph of our win rate per table meets the number of tables being played at to pro+ide us with an optimum win rate. This is usually between and % tables for the ma>ority of online players. When playing at multiple tables, you want to hit the sweet spot of playing as many tables as possible whilst keeping a good win rate per hour to produce maximum profit.
)lind leakage is an exceptional +ideo by Aames '&plit&uit' &weeney that co+ers e+erything you need to know about profitable blind play *both in the &) and )). in Texas Hold'em cash games.
The small blind is a +ery tricky position to play from in Texas Hold'em. 1f you were to track your performance in each position at the table using a program such as =oker Fffice, you will find that the small blind is a losing position o+erall. The best players in the world find it difficult to win money from the small blind, and that's >ust the way it is. When playing in the small blind our aim is to try and reduce the amount of money we will lose, so that we can increase our o+erall wins from the other seats at the table.
)y using solid starting hand selection we can increase our chances of winning the hand despite the fact that we are out of position. 2+en though the small blind may be a losing seat o+erall, it does not mean that we will lose money on e+ery indi+idual hand that we play from that particular position. &o donCt be afraid to enter a pot if you ha+e a strong enough hand to do so, but always remember to tighten your starting hand re/uirements when in the small blind.
Pot Committed
Texas Hold'em R &trategy R 'eneral R =ot @ommitted !
1Cm sure most of you like to think that you are familiar with the term Upot committedV. Howe+er, 1 can guarantee that too many of you are using it as an excuse to make reckless calls, and itCs costing you dearly. Fn the other hand, if youCre not familiar with being Ucommitted to the potV, thatCs cool. 1Cll explain it in >ust a moment. 1n this article 1 will gi+e a good *if 1 say so myself. explanation of what pot committed actually means. 1Cll also go on to highlight the mistakes that too many players make as they con+ince themsel+es that being Upot committedV is a good excuse to throw lashings of healthy money in to bad situations.
1f your (stack odds( are greater than your chance of winning the pot by the end of the hand, you are pot committed.
?our pot odds relati+e to the remainder of your stack are N - 5 *4$8! G 48!.. *DonCt forget to add your own stack to the pot to get the total pot si3e.. ?ou almost certainly ha+e a better than N - 5 *5 .89. chance of winning the hand, e+en if your opponent usually only bets or calls with strong hands.
1n this example, our pot odds are greater than our odds of winning the hand. Therefore we are pot committed and should call. WeCre not facing any bet, but if we look at our stack and pot si3e we can see that we are pretty much committed with a hand like top pair with N to 5 pot odds. 2+en though you really donCt feel as though youCre going to ha+e the best hand most of the time, the odds indicate that you would lose more money o+er the long run if you folded. 1n fact, you would ha+e to belie+e that you had less than 5 .89 chance of winning to make a profitable fold *on the turn or ri+er., which is highly unlikely in this situation.
=ot committed e+aluation. )eing Upot committedV is simply working out your pot odds relati+e to the remainder of your stack *as opposed to working them out using the bet that you are facing.. Working out whether or not you are Upot committedV >ust in+ol+es basic pot odds. The more of your stack that you in+est in the pot, the greater your pot odds and the chances of becoming pot committed will be. This is why players are naturally more reluctant to fold after in+esting a large amount of money. ?ou lose more money o+er the long run if you fold when pot committed as opposed to calling. 7lways call if you are pot committed.
Deuces @racked is easily the top training site for cash game players. Watch +ideos and win more money.
HereCs a poor explanation of Upot committedV that 1 found at 7nswers.comG UWhen a player should call a bet because the ma>ority of their chips are already in+ested within the pot.V @an you see why thatCs so wrongE Aust because you ha+e put the ma>ority of your stack in the middle, it doesnCt make you Upot committedV. @ommitment to the pot is about the odds of winning too, not >ust about the Uma>ority of a stackV.
)*ample o! why you shouldn<t Cust look at how mu$h you<#e in#ested alone.
#etCs say that youCre on the ri+er and youC+e put 4OOO of a 45,!!! stack in to the pot. Aust before your opponent bets his final 45, he shows you that he has a ,oyal Flush, beating your full house. He then bets that last 45. &hould you callE Definitely not. ?ou probably would >ust for a laugh, but youCre making a 45 loss e+ery single time you call in that situation. There is a !9 chance of winning the 4 ,!!! pot, but a 5!!9 chance of losing 45. That lea+es you with an 20 of -45. Ha+ing put 4OOO in to the pot makes no difference. 1n fact, you could ha+e put 4OOO,OOO in the middle and it wouldnCt change the fact that calling that 45 is negati+e 20. ?ou ha+e to remember that the odds of winning help dictate whether or not you are pot committed, not >ust the amount of money you ha+e in+ested in the pot. ?our pot odds *relati+e to the si3e of your stack. must be greater than your chances of winning for you to be committed to the pot.
of winning. 7 handy rule from !rofessional No-Limit Hold#em$ %olume & is to ne+er put 56$ of your stack in the middle and then fold. The theory is that if youCre putting that much money in to the middle and then folding, youCre in+esting too much money with weak hands.
"oteG Why 56$E )ecause if you ha+e put 56$ of your stack in the middle, it means that you or your opponent can make an all-in bet for the si3e of the pot or less. e.g. if youC+e put 4$% of a 45!! stack in the middle, the pot will be at least 4:< and you will ha+e 4:: left - and so should your opponent. &o the /uestion is, what do you do if youC+e put 56$ of your stack in the middleE Well, you ha+e two optionsG 5. DonCt fold. . DonCt put 56$ of your stack in the middle in the first place. 1f you ha+e a good enough hand, donCt fold. ?our odds of winning must be less than *$$9. to fold, so with a good hand you should be committed to the pot. to 5
1f you donCt ha+e a strong enough hand, youC+e made a mistake earlier on in the hand. ?ouC+e either made bets that were too big or called large bets when it was probably best to ha+e bet smaller, checked or folded. From the start of e+ery hand you play you need to ha+e a plan. ?ou need to ha+e an idea of how big you want *or dont want the pot to get.. 1f you donCt plan effecti+ely you will end up going past the 56$ of your stack mark without much of an idea of what you want to do. 1f that happens, youCll land in a sticky situation. There are a few exceptions to this rule, but this article is big enough already. )uy the book for a more thorough guide on the 56$ rule or check out this commitment threshold article.
"ow you'+e got some strategy under your belt, use it against the terrible players at )odog =oker and win e+en more money than before.
?ou are pot committed is when you ha+e greater pot odds relati+e to the remainder of your stack than your odds of winning. DonCt use the term Upot committedV as a lame excuse to make bad bets and calls. Kse the odds to determine whether or not you are committed to the pot and go from there. DonCt put 56$ of your stack in the pot and then fold. 2ither donCt fold or donCt put that much money in the pot in the first place.
Honestly, although the 56$ of your stack rule is handy, 1 wouldnCt recommend spending too much time stressing about it. The most important lesson here is to plan your hands effecti+ely. 1f you learn how to bet and call appropriately according to the strength of your hand, the 56$ rule will take care of itself. Decisions that you make preflop and on the flop will affect what happens on the turn and ri+er. 1f you fail to realise this +ery important point, youCll end up in some +ery sticky situations and getting pot committed with cards that youCd ne+er dream of going all-in with at the start of the hand.
lind Stealing
Texas Hold'em R &trategy R 'eneral R )lind &tealing !
()lind stealing( is a term used in poker for when a player in late position raises pre-flop in an attempt to win the uncontested blinds.
This strategy is often effecti+e because the players in the blinds will ha+e any random two cards, meaning there is a small chance that they will ha+e a hand worth calling a raise with, allowing you to take their blinds. 1n addition to this, the players in the blinds will be first to act against you if they do call, so they should know that they need a better than mediocre hand to pay to see a flop. 1n terms of poker strategy for blind stealing, you will find yourself in two different positions during a game. 5. ?ou will ha+e the opportunity to steal other players' blinds. . Fther players will be trying to steal your blinds. How should you play in both of these situationsE The recommended plays are determined by whether you are playing in a tournament or a cash game. 1f you're not playing at )odog right now *February !5 . you're losing out on money. 'et in while it's still good.
Cash games.
For a complete strategy +ideo guide to blind stealing in cash games, watch &plit&uit's tealing +ideo. 1n cash games the blinds are usually +ery small in relation to your stack. This means that from a purely money making point of +iew, blind stealing is not going to be +ery profitable. 1n general you want to stick to playing good hands and a+oid risking money with a weak hand. Howe+er, blind stealing in cash games should be based on whether you feel you can easily outplay your opponents on later betting rounds if they call, and take the extra money they put into the pot. This play is aided by the fact that you will be last to act on each round, gi+ing you a much better opportunity to win. )ut be sure not to use this play on e+ery orbit because the players in the blinds will become wise to your game.
1 would not recommend stealing blinds in cash games on a regular basis as a method of winning more money.
1f you check, are you going to re-raise their continuation bet *which is +ery likely. in an attempt to re-steal the potE 7re you going to bluff at the pot when first to actE
1n both situations you will ha+e no idea what your opponent has and you are risking a decent amount trying to take down a (nothing pot(. 1nformation is key and without knowing anything about your opponents' hands, protecting your blinds isn't going to be profitable in the long run. 1t's ne+er going to be as easy as you might hope to defend against a player stealing your blinds. 1t's better to let them go rather than dig yourself in to a deeper hole by fighting back. ?ou should remember that a!ter you ha#e posted your blindG it is no longer your money. The money now belongs to the pot and not to you. This is the reason why many players can lose a lot of money to raises when in the blinds, as they belie+e that the blind is still their money and that they ha+e to defend it. This is not the case 1n certain circumstances howe+er, you can effecti+ely deter your opponents from stealing your blinds on future betting rounds. 1f you feel a player is betting in late position in an attempt to steal, a decent re-raise on your part will make them think twice about trying to steal on future rounds. 2+en if your opponent does call your re-raise, the fact that you made the play you did shows that you ha+e the capability to re-raise anyone who tries to steal your blind from late position. This play is most effecti+e when the blinds are small in relation to your stack, as you are not risking as much of your stack and not forcing yourself to become committed to the pot.
This means that you are putting more money into the pot, which your opponent has a good chance of taking away from you. 1f you are e+er in doubt, simply play to the strength of your hand. Fold your weak hands and re-raise with your strong hands.
The terms Ueffecti+e stack si3esV or Ueffecti+e stacksV are effortlessly thrown around on poker forums and in strategy articles. 1t sounds like a term that would be a little complex at least, but it's actually the easiest concept you'll e+er learn about in poker.
=layer 7G 45! =layer )G 4 8 2ffecti+e stack si3eG 45! =layer 7G 48! =layer )G 48! 2ffecti+e stack si3eG 48! =layer 7G 45,!!!,!!! =layer )G 45!! 2ffecti+e stack si3eG 45!!
Ha+e you check out my +ideos section yetE There are a bunch of free strategy +ids there for "#H2 cash games.
?ou wouldn't say that the effecti+e stacks for all the players is 48!, >ust because the smallest stack out of this set of players is 48!. 1nstead, you'd say that the effecti+e stacks between !layer " and !layer ' are ()**, or the effecti+e stacks between ' and D are (+*. ?ou'll understand why in the following sectionW
make you put more than 4 ! of your 48! stack in the middle either. This isn't a dodgy poker mo+ie scene. 1n this situation, that extra 4$! you ha+e is essentially useless. Fr, keeping in with the theme of this concept -- (ineffecti+e(.
7 simple diagram to highlight the e!!e$ti#e part and the ine!!e$ti#e part of your stack when up against another player with a smaller stack than you. The colours turned out a lot more feminine than 1 planned. This is a +itally important concept, because the fact that you are now effecti+ely playing with a 4 ! stack should influence the way you bet and play your hand. 1f you're not sure why, 1'll explain in >ust a moment. "oteG The idea of Ueffecti+e stacksV is most suited to pot limit and no limit poker games. The chance of players getting their entire stacks in the middle in fixed limit games is incredibly slim, so it's hardly a concern. &o the next time you're chatting with a friend about a hand you'+e played, instead of saying U1 had 48! and she had 4 !V, you may as well say Uthe effecti+e stacks were 4 !V. -entioning the si3e of each indi+idual stack is pointless -- the Ueffecti+e stacksV is what matters. Furthermore, the fact you'll be using less words means that you'll conser+e extra energy for playing more poker.
-5 Implied odds.
1f the effecti+e stack si3es are small, you are not going to ha+e the opportunity to get paid off as much if you are drawing to a flush *or something like that.. Therefore, it makes it less profitable to chase draws or set mine if you or your opponent ha+e a small stack. @on+ersely, if the effecti+e stack si3es are huge, it makes it a lot more profitable to chase after strong draws.
Aob done.
The way ahead 6 way behind concept *W7W) or W76W) concept depending on which forum you are coming from. is a fairly simple one that occurs /uite fre/uently in Texas Hold em. The way ahead 6 way behind concept addresses the fact that in some situations you will either be ahead in a hand with your opponent drawing slim or dead, or your opponent will be ahead in a hand and you will be drawing +ery slim or dead. ?ou can tell that you might be in a W76W) situation when you ha+e a strong hand, but the board and the plays being made indicate that you may be in some trouble. The best way to describe this concept is to gi+e you a nice example of a situation where you could either be way ahead or way behind. @heck out my rankings of the top Texas Hold'em poker rooms for K& players. ?ou may be surprised.
W%7W diagram.
1f this >ust confuses you more, then 1 apologise. 1 >ust hope it helps you to +isualise the wa6wb concept a little better.
The key point is that you cannot bet for +alue, and so you want to induce a bad +alue bet or a bluff from your opponent. 7ny other play would be losing you money in the long run, so play it cool and make the optimum plays in these particular pots.
Two or more cards of the same suit on the board that can an opponent a flush or a flush draw. @onnecting cards that could gi+e an opponent a straight or a straight draw.
1n a hand where there are two cards of the same suit on board, it is less likely that you will be able to confidently place yourself in a way ahead 6 way behind situation, as the way your opponent is betting can easily be influenced by the fact that they might ha+e a flush draw. &o always consider this when you notice that there are two cards of the same suit on the board. &imilarly, if the board is straightening up and there is a possible straight draw a+ailable, it again makes it less likely that you could be in a W76W) situation. 1f you were to play passi+ely, there is a good chance that you will let your opponent catch up and take the hand away from you. &o essentially, there is a greater probability of the W76W) situation arising on a dry board than there is on a wet board. "ow you'+e got some strategy under your belt, use it against the terrible players at )odog =oker and win e+en more money than before.
7s soon as you sit down at the poker table, you should already be e+aluating how each of your opponents play. The more information you ha+e on your opponents, the better the plays you can make against them. ?ou can obtain information about how your opponents play by watching the hands you are not in+ol+ed in. *&ee the article on putting poker players on a hand for more information.. )ut what information do you ha+e on other players at the table if you are in+ol+ed in the +ery first handE 1f this is the case there are a few things you can look for that will gi+e you an idea about what the players are likeG
Take a look at each player's stack si3e. ,ead their player username *not so great, but always an optionL.. Watch for players who do not wait for the big blind *again, not a great indicator.. #ook out for players calling the big blind and then calling a raise from another player *this is a good one..
Deuces @racked is easily the top training site for cash game players. Watch +ideos and win more money.
Sta$k si.e.
1n cash games, you can /uickly spot who the potential solid players and potential weak players are by looking at the si3e of their stack. 2ach cash game has a maximum buy-in that is typically 5!! times the big blind. Typically, the likely solid players will either be close to this maximum buy in or abo+e it. This rule ob+iously cannot apply to all players, as some of the weak players may ha+e had a good run of cards that allowed them to increase their stack abo+e the maximum buy-in. )ut this will usually be a decent indication of their ability.
1 tend to be more aware of the players with deep stacks, but 1 do not form a strong >udgment on their ability from this information alone. @on+ersely, the likely weak6poor players will ha+e a stack si3e significantly below the maximum buy in. This is because the recreational players are comfortable with letting their stack diminish as play progresses, whereas a winning player will want to reload to the maximum to gi+e themsel+es the best opportunities to make maximum profit on each hand.
Fn the other hand, they may still ha+e a strong starting hand e+en if they do call both the big blind and then the raise, but are >ust passi+e players. Howe+er, a solid player will not be this passi+e so you can safely assume again that they are not that great to be simply calling with strong starting hands. Knless a player holds a small pocket pair and is set mining, calling the blind then calling a raise is a poor play that you would not expect an experienced player to make.
2ange alan$ing
Texas Hold'em R &trategy R 'eneral R ,ange )alancing 5
,ange balancing or (balancing your range( is a not an o+erly ad+anced concept by itself, but using it effecti+ely at the tables does re/uire some ad+anced skills. The idea of range balan$ing is only going to be effecti+e about good players that think on at least le+el *see multiple le+el thinking., so 1 probably wouldn't toy with the concept too much unless you're playing at 48!"# or higher.
,ange balancing is where you play the exact same way with a wide range of hands in certain situations. The most common example of range balancing is continuation betting. 1f you're continuation betting the flop <!9 of the time or more, you're likely to be betting with a wide +ariety of hands ranging from air to strong made hands. Therefore e+ery time you continuation bet, the range of hands that you could ha+e at that point from your opponent's perspecti+e is fairly well-(balanced(. For more information on hand ranges, see the range article from the ,2- process section.
1f you only play $ertain strength hands in one way in a specific situation, your range is (unbalan$ed( to that certain range of hands. 1f you play a #ariety o! strength hands in the same way in the same situation, your range will be (balan$ed( as your possible hand range is not weighted too far one way or the other.
7 balanced range makes it much more difficult for your opponent to take an educated guess at what you are likely to be holding. That pretty much explains e+erything so 1 won't go in to any further detail. )ut now the big /uestion is...
The harder it is for our opponent to figure out what sort of hand we are holding the better. The less our opponent knows about our hand the more mistakes they will make when they play against us, which means that as a result we will be winning more money from them o+er the long run because they fail to play optimally. =oker is a big game of broken informationH the more information you can piece together the more profitable your decisions will be. 1f we can reduce the amount of information that our opponents can piece together by balancing our range, the less profitable their decisions will be. To put all this simplyG
Jnbalan$ed range - easy to play against. alan$ed range - hard to play against.
1f you're not playing at )odog right now *February !5 . you're losing out on money. 'et in while it's still good.
alan$e your range to make it di!!i$ult !or your opponent to play against you.
&o as you can see, whilst you think the play itsel! might be pretty de$epti#eG it's a$tually not de$epti#e at all i! we're doing the e*a$t same thing e#ery time against a MthinkingM player. Fur opponent will spot that our range is +ery unbalanced and weighted toward drawing hands when we do this and so can play accordingly to exploit our actions. Therefore, if we included other strengths of hands such as strong top-pair or better hands and complete air *preferably with some e/uity., our range would be more balan$ed. 1f our
opponent is aware of how +aried our range is when we check-raise in this spot it makes it difficult for them to choose the most appropriate action to take against us. 7t the end of the day, if you're not check-raising with a genuinely strong hand in this situation e+ery now and then you are doing yourself an in>ustice by reducing the decepti+eness *and thus profitability. of your play.
=laying poker and not using a training site is like planting crops and not using fertili3er. -aximi3e your results with poker training.
The sta$k"to"pot ratio *or &=, for short. principle was coined by 2d -iller in the book !rofessional No-Limit Hold.em$ %olume &. 1n this article 1 aim to explain the basics of &=, in poker and show you how it can be used to make your post-flop decisions a lot easier in cash games. This article is merely a brief introduction and o+er+iew of &=,. 1 highly recommend you buy the book to feel the full force of N! pages worth of &=, euphoria.
1. What is &=,E
5. &=, e/uation.
5. )enefits of &=, example. 5. High &=, situation. . #ow &=, situation. $. &=, example e+aluation.
3. High, medium and low &=,s.
5. 'ood hands for low &=,s. . 'ood hands for medium &=,s. $. 'ood hands for high &=,s.
4. How to get good &=,s.
5. Tailoring your preflop raises. 5. 2xample of raising to $bb. . 2xample of raising to :bb. . "ot entering pots. 8. 2+aluation of stack to pot ratios in poker.
I5 What is SP2?
&=, is the effecti+e stack si3es di+ided by the si3e of the pot on the flop. #et's say you raise to 4: in -= before the flop in a 4564 "# cash game. Fne opponent calls on the button and both of the blinds fold. 1f both you and your opponent ha+e 45!! in your stack, the sta$k to pot ratio would beG
To put it another way, in this example the remaining effecti+e stack si3es are :.$ times the si3e of the pot. 2asy stuff really. &=, can also be considered the ratio of risk G reward. 1n e+ery no limit hand, the pot is the reward and the si3e of the effecti+e stacks is the potential risk. Therefore the greater the &=,, the greater the risk G reward ratio.
%5 SP2 e;uation.
The &=, e/uation. 1t's straightforward, but it could still do with some explaining.
1mportant points about working out &=,. ?ou must use effecti+e stack si3es. 1f you ha+e 458! and your opponent only has 45!!, then the effecti+e stack si3es are 45!!, as you cannot win or lose more than 45!! against this player. &=, is worked out on the flop only. &tack to pot ratios are not going to be used for the turn or ri+er.
Ha+e you check out my +ideos section yetE There are a bunch of free strategy +ids there for "#H2 cash games.
1f the pot si3e is 45! and the effecti+e stacks are 4 !!, the &=, is !. 1f we bet this flop and get raised we are put in a +ery tricky situation, as we could well ha+e the best hand here but we're not really prepared to commit too much money with >ust top pair. 1f we do end up getting it all in on this flop or on the turn or ri+er the chances are that we do not hold the best hand. This makes playing top pair hands like this tricky if the &=, is mid-si3ed or high. ii5 Low SP2 situation. 1f the pot si3e is 45! and the effecti+e stacks are 4$!, the &=, is $. 1f we bet this flop and get raised we are in a much more comfortable position to call or raise all-in, as we do not fear further bets on the turn or ri+er. &ure, our opponent could still hold a better hand but the risk here is much lower. We are committed to the hand and so putting all our chips in the middle is a much easier decision. iii5 SP2 e*ample e#aluation. 1n the two different scenarios abo+e the strength of our hand did not change, yet the outcomes were +ery different due to the stack to pot ratio. With the low &=, of $ the risk is much lower relati+e to the reward, which makes it +ery easy for us to call all-in with our top pair hand.
These &=, figures are +ery rough guidelines and their implications will +ary greatly depending on how loose or tight your opponents are. They also mean nothing unless we ha+e an idea of which hands play best depending on the stack to pot ratio.
These are the sorts of hands that we do not want to play big pots with, as the bigger the pots get the greater the chances are that we are behind. #ow &=,s reduce the number of decisions we need to make with these hands, which makes them a lot easier to play and thus more profitable situations o+er the long run.
With mediocre hands like these, you want to to a+oid becoming pot committed after starting with a full stack.
Top two pair. &ets. 'ood drawing hands. Flushes and straights.
These are much stronger hands than the ones abo+e and will remain as the best hand when you're all-in often enough to keep them profitable when the &=, is between around N to 5:. The higher likely &=, also makes it profitable to play more speculati+e hands like small pocket pairs and suited connectors that infre/uently hit big flops, as there is a lot more money to potentially be won from the hand on later betting rounds.
These are the hands that are almost guaranteed to win you the pot. 1f the &=, is high, you want be be sure that you ha+e near enough the nuts or a draw to pretty much the nuts if there is a lot of action. The last thing you want to do in high &=, situations is get a lot of money in to the pot without a +ery good chance of winning.
?ou hold 7 I and you and an opponent ha+e 45!! effecti+e stacks in a 4564 :max "#H2 game. 1f you raise to $bb from -= and your opponent in the @F calls, you will ha+e an &=, of :.$ *4O% G 458. on the flop. This &=, may well be a little too high for you to >ustify putting all of your chips in the middle if you hit top pair on the flop, especially so if your opponent is tight as there is a greater likelihood that they are only going to be willing to get all their chips in the middle they will ha+e a better hand than T=TI. ii5 )*ample o! raising to Abb. Ksing the same example as abo+e where the effecti+e stacks are still 45!!, let's say we raise to :bb *45 . instead of $bb preflop. 1f our opponent again calls we will ha+e an &=, of $.$ *4<< G 4 N. on the flop. With this lower &=, we will feel a lot more comfortable putting all of our chips in the middle if needs be. 1n addition the chances are that all of the money will be in by the turn, which sa+es us from a potentially difficult ri+er decision.
7lternati+ely, this (concept of the week( article on &=, at ; is also pretty awesome.
2elati#e Position
Texas Hold'em R &trategy R 'eneral R ,elati+e =osition !
7ny experienced poker player will be able to tell you the importance of position in any hand, especially so in the game of Texas Hold em. 7cting last and being able to see how your opponents play before deciding on your action can gi+e you a tremendous ad+antage o+er the other players in the hand. Howe+er, there is another important factor that can increase or decrease the +alue of your actual position at the table. This factor is known as relati#e position.
Flop actions when in (normal position( example 5. =layer 7G @hecks =layer )G @hecks HeroG @heck X- we close the action 2"D FF )2TT1"' ,FK"D
Flop actions when in (normal position( example . =layer 7G )ets =layer )G Folds HeroG @alls X- we close the action 2"D FF )2TT1"' ,FK"D
2ither way, we are last to act and get to see all the other players' actions before closing the action on the round. 1n these (normal position( situations, our position is beneficial *as it should be..
=layer )G )ets X- cycle is reset HeroG @alls =layer 7G @alls X- =layer 7 now closes the action 2"D FF )2TT1"' ,FK"D
Thanks to =layer )'s bet, =layer 7 is forced to act again, which means that we no longer get to close the action in the hand. This will happen from time to time, but it's not always a big deal because we still get to see all the other players act before we decide what we are going to do. Howe+er, there is one uni/ue dynamic that in+ol+es continuation bets that makes relati+e position worth thinking aboutW
"ow the problem here is that any play we make will not be closing off the action, as the player in the small blind now has the opportunity to act again. We ha+e been sandwiched between the player in the @F who has made a continuation bet with a potentially strong hand, and between another player who could ha+e a stronger hand than ours as their check did not necessarily indicate strength or weakness. Their check neither shows strength nor weakness because they are confident that the preflop raiser will make a continuation bet as standard, and so they may well be checking with the intention of calling6raising when the action gets back to them. Here is how the play looks and how we ha+e been sandwichedG
Flop actions when in (relati+e position(. &mall )indG @hecks @FG )ets X- cycle is reset HeroG EE X- sandwiched &mall )indG X- could >ust as easily fold, call or raise the @F's continuation bet. 2"D FF )2TT1"' ,FK"D
7 scruffy diagram that highlights the relati#e position problem on the !lop after the player in the @F makes a cbet. 7 call in this situation would not be bad, but we are lea+ing oursel+es open to losing chips to the player in the small blind if they decide to raise. Furthermore, if the small blind decides to call as well, we will go to the turn ready to be put in the same tricky situation as we were on the flop.
7s you can see we are now in a pot that could potentially lose us a significant number of chips because we ha+e a decent holding, but we're in a highly compromising position that we probably didn't expect when we first entered the hand. =laying poker and not using a training site is like planting crops and not using fertili3er. -aximi3e your results with poker training.
The best relati+e position to ha+e is to be to the immediate right of the preflop raiser. This is because your action will close off the betting on that particular round if the raiser does indeed make an expected continuation bet. The worst relati+e position to ha+e is to be the the immediate left of the preflop raiser. This is because you will be the first to act if the preflop raiser makes a continuation bet. The player*s. now acting after you that initially checked to the preflop raiser could ha+e any hand ranging from total air to a monster.
?ou should always try and e+aluate your relati+e position in any hand along with your actual position, as it will ha+e a bigger impact than you may think. ?ou probably ne+er realised it before and will likely forget about it before it's too late the next few times it happens, but try your best to be aware of it. 1t will sink in after a while.
?ou want to extract as much money as possible from your opponents when you ha+e a winning hand. The more money you can win from your opponents, the higher your winrate will be. The process of s/uee3ing more money from your opponents is known as ma*imi.ing the #alue o! your hand, and there are a few steps that you can take to make this happen. The most important fact about increasing the amount you can win on each hand is that you ha+e to get your opponent to put money into the pot. 1f your opponent is not putting money into the pot, then you are not gaining any +alue on your hand, as the amount you will be winning after the hand is complete will remain the same throughout. To get your opponent to put as much money into the pot as possible, you ha+e to be betting and raising when it is your turn to act, which is something that a lot of players fail to do. Deuces @racked is easily the top training site for cash game players. Watch +ideos and win more money.
Don't miss out on great opportunities to get more money in to the pot by trying to be tricky. 7lternati+ely, you may be afraid of raising here because you do not want to scare your opponent out of the pot. )ut if you think about it logically, if your opponent is not going to call a raise on the flop, what makes you think you are going to get any money out of them on future betting roundsE
7ssume that we know for a fact that if we bet 4 ! into this pot, our opponent will call N times out of 5!. Howe+er, if we bet 45!! into this pot, our opponent will call times out of 5!. Therefore if we took each scenario and repeated it 5! times, we would find thatG
7s you can see, we will be winning 4:! more by betting the si3e of the pot rather than betting a small amount to try and entice our opponent to call. &o e+en though we will be getting called less often, we will be winning more in the long run by betting a larger amount. ?ou win more money o+er the long run with bigger bets on the ri+er, e+en if they get called less often. This is also another key concept that we must take into account, as the +alue betting on the ri+er is based on the long term winnings, rather than >ust trying to get your opponent to call small bets e+ery time. The small +ictories are not the ones that are going to increase our profits at the end of the day. =laying poker and not using a training site is like planting crops and not using fertili3er. -aximi3e your results with poker training.
)eing out of position in any hand of poker is not going to be make your decisions easy. Howe+er, this does not mean that we canCt use a few tricks to make it work to our ad+antage when we hit our strong hands. This article will discuss how you can work around the fact that you are out of position to your opponent and use it to your ad+antage to maximi3e your wins with a strong hand on the flop. Here's my /uick guide to betting into the pre!lop raiser.
Hn the !lop.
When we get to the flop, it is standard play for most players to check to the raiser regardless of whether we made a strong hand or not. &imilarly, it is the standard play for our opponent to make a continuation bet to take down the pot, regardless if they ha+e a strong hand or not. This is because players in our sort of position will want to see how our opponent will react after our check, and the ma>ority of the time our opponent will make a standard continuation bet in an attempt to capitalise on the weakness we ha+e shown from our check. 1f you play at a high enough le+el for long enough, you will see this take place time after time. Deuces @racked is easily the top training site for cash game players. Watch +ideos and win more money. We are ob+iously going to be folding our hand if we ha+e not connected with the flop after the continuation bet from our opponent. Howe+er, if we ha+e made a strong hand, then many players will be tempted check their hand to their opponent in anticipation that they will bet out, and then we can come o+er the top with a check-raise and trap them. This all sounds well and good, but
when you think about it logically, you are missing out on a prime opportunity to extract a nice amount of money from your opponent. 1f we make a check-raise play with our strong hand in this situation, one of two things are likely to happen. 5. Fur opponent will fold any weak or mediocre holding . Fur opponent will call and become +ery wary about our hand )ecause the check-raise is such a powerful play, we are basically telling our opponents that we ha+e the best hand. Therefore they are going to fold any weak or decent hand, and possibly call with their second best strong hand but be wary of continuing with the hand. The check raise gi+es away too much information about the strength of your hand, whereas a bet from first position doesn't gi+e much away. &ure we could be bluffing, but it would be a dangerous play, and so our opponent would not want to take the risk to find out if we are by calling or re-raising with a mediocre or e+en a strong hand. &o the ma>ority of the time we are going to be cutting off our action at the flop when we ha+e a strong hand, and not gi+ing oursel+es the opportunity to extract more money on future betting rounds.
)y betting out, our opponent is likely to assume we ha+e a mediocre hand like a pair of >acks or sixes, and so they will re-raise us with any o+erpair or hand like IA or 7A because they will feel that they still ha+e the best hand. 1f we check-raise howe+er, our opponent will be wary of the strength of our hand and reconsider the strength of their >ack, and slow down with any o+erpair. &o betting out will set us up for that bigger win each time. There are far more ad+antages to betting out first as opposed to check raising, so there is no need to try and play tricky poker. From here on out we ha+e to make the decision on whether or not to call or re-raise this raise from our opponent. 1n general, we should look to call if the board looks safe and look to raise if the board appears to be dangerous with potential draws. 1t is likely that we can win more money on the turn and ri+er if we call, because as far as our opponent knows we could well be holding onto our mediocre hand hoping for the best. )ut then we donCt want to gi+e them the opportunity to draw out on us by calling. &o you ha+e to weigh up whether it is going to be more profitable in the long run to call and try and win more, or raise and take down the pot. )ut who knowsH if you raise, you may still get a call and win a pretty si3eable pot. =laying poker and not using a training site is like planting crops and not using fertili3er. -aximi3e your results with poker training.
,ange, e/uity, maximi3e *,2-. is an incredibly effecti+e process for e+aluating situations and getting the most from e+ery hand you play. The 2)& pro$ess forms the groundwork of optimum play in no limit Texas Hold'em. The ,2- process was first introduced by Flynn, -ehta and -iller in the book !rofessional NoLimit Hold.em$ %olume & *the same book that introduces &=,.. This article will be split up in to $ sections, co+ering the basics of the ,2- process to make it as easy as possible for you to pick it up and incorporate it in to your game.
,angeG 7ssign a range of hands to your opponent based on their play up to that point. 2/uityG Work out how much e/uity you ha+e in the hand against your opponent's range. -aximi3eG -ake the most ;20 possible play based on the information you ha+e gathered.
This is a $-step process for making the most ;20 play possible in each hand you are in+ol+ed with.
#et's get things straight. We're not going to be able to put our opponent on two exact cards >udging by the way they ha+e raised preflop and checked to us on the flop. 1n fact, it's exceptionally unlikely that e+en the best players in the world would be able to assign an exact hand to an opponent by the ri+er. 1t's >ust not possible to be that precise when it comes to hand reading. Howe+er, what is possible is to assign a certain range of hands to our opponent based on the way they ha+e played their hand up that point. There are two ways in which we can do thisG 5. Kse our knowledge of the opponent to help us form a range of hands. . Kse poker tracking software stats to gi+e us a more exact range of hands to assign to them.
7 $bet from early position is almost always a sign of great strength. We can assume that they won't be doing this with any old hand. )ased on our knowledge of our opponent and the situation, we can say that our opponent's range is like to be a high pair *Aacks or greater. or 7I. &o...
Hand range for a $-bet in middle position for our tight aggressi+e opponent. ,angeG AA;,7Is,7Io
This is a pretty safe assumption for this example, but assigning a hand range is not always going to be this easy. The less information we ha+e on our opponent, the wider the hand range should be.
&o that's all pocket pairs of TT and higher, along with IMs and any 7I or 7M. 2asy.
This is ob+iously a rough example, but it >ust goes to show how much more accurate you can be when it comes to assigning hand ranges if you are using tracking software like Holdem-anager and =oker&to+e. ,ead more about assigning hand ranges and using =oker&to+e in the ,2- =rocess - ,ange article. @heck out my rankings of the top Texas Hold'em poker rooms for K& players. ?ou may be surprised.
&ame $bet situation as before but with our hand and opponent's range added.
7hAh's e/uity against +illain's $betting range. 7s we can see, we ha+e $%9 e/uity in the hand against this range, which isn't great. This means that our opponent is a to 5 fa+ourite to win at this stage of the hand *see the con+ersion odds chart or use the ho,atio odds con+erter program if you're ha+ing trouble con+erting percentage odds in to ratio odds and +ice +ersa.. ,ead more about calculating e/uity and using =oker&to+e in the ,2- =rocess - 2/uity article.
&a*imi.e e*ample -.
Fur handG 7 A - $%9 e/uity Fpponent's rangeG TT;, 7Ms;, IMs ,7Mo; - ::9 e/uity "oteG )oth players ha+e full stacks.
1n this example, we are playing 45!!"# and we both ha+e full stacks. We raised to 4N and our opponents $-bets to 4 %. &eeing as our opponent's hand range is much better than our's for the most part, the most (profitable( play for us is to fold. The best that we can hope for is to hit a Aack on the flop. 2+en then we might not e+en be in the best of shape, so the best plan of action is to fold as opposed to risking more money with such poor e/uity in the hand. The most influential reason behind folding here though is our opponent's superior hand range.
Fur handG 7 A - $%9 e/uity Fpponent's rangeG TT;, 7Ms;, IMs ,7Mo; - ::9 e/uity "oteG Fpponent has a !)) stack.
We are again playing 45!!"#, howe+er, our opponent only has 4 ! left in their stack. We raise to 4N and our opponent $-bets all-in to 4 !. We now ha+e to call 45$ to win a 4 <.8 pot *4 ! ; 4N ; the &) and ))., gi+ing us pot odds of . to 5. ,ight now we ha+e $$9 e/uity, which works out as to 5 odds. &eeing as our pot odds are greater than the odds of winning, it is marginally profitable for us to make this call. We do not ha+e to worry about playing the rest of the hand as our opponent is all in and we will not ha+e to face any more bets. 1n this situation, calling the all-in $-bet is the most profitable play based on our e/uity in the hand.
&a*imi.e o#er#iew.
,emember that this is >ust one example of an almost endless number of different situations you can find yourself in. -aximi3ing +alue takes a lot of experience and knowledge of the game. 1t is going to be something that you will find yourself working to impro+e throughout your poker career. ,ead more about maximi3ing +alue from your hands in the ,2- =rocess - -aximi3e article. Did you think this article was usefulE Wait until you see the strategy +ideos at Deuces @racked.
7fter your ha+e put your opponent on a range of hands, the second step in the ,2- process is to find your (e/uity( in the hand. The e/uity part mostly acts as a stepping stone for the following (maximi3e( step. Howe+er, as far as stepping stones go, this is a pretty tricky one that isn't o+erly easy to work out accurately. Fn a basic le+el though, it's something that we actually all do without e+en thinking about it.
What is e;uity?
2/uity is our (share( of the pot that we expect to win. 1t's pretty straightforward really, but if you want more of an o+er+iew of this term you should check out the basic poker e/uity article. When we work out our e/uity in a hand for the ,2- process, we compare our hand to our opponent's range of hands *remember the range we worked out in the first stepE.. Fnce we know our e/uity in the hand against this range, we can go on to make the appropriate play.
7 hand with the most e/uity - 7 strong hand that has the a strong chance of winning. 7 hand with poor e/uity - 7 weak hand that has a poor chance of winning. 7 hand with around e+ens e/uity - This could be a +ery strong draw, or a hand like 7I facing an all-in.
When we compare our hand to our opponent's possible range of hands, we >ust want to asses the situation and take an educated guess to figure out where we stand in the hand. That's all e/uity really is - a percentage representation of our strength in the hand. The main thing that we need to do to help us make the best play *maximi3e. is to figure out how strong our hand is based on our opponent's likely range of hands.
1t is possible to work out a rough numerical idea of your e/uity in your head, but in all fairness this is far from being an easy task, and when you ha+e programs like =oker&to+e to help you out when you are playing online it really makes it an unnecessary method to try and learn.
);uity e*ample -.
We raise to 8))s preflop with 7 I and tight player sho+es all in with their short stack si3e of $!))s. We are confident that they will only be doing with with a pocket pair like AA; and 7I.
%re you supposed to use PokerSto#e to work out e;uity in e#ery hand?
Ff course not - that would take ages and be really annoying. 1 use =oker&to+e to work out e/uity against hand ranges in two instancesG 5. For post-session analysis. . 1n the middle of a big hand when 1'm using the time bank. &o unless you are using =oker&to+e as more of a one-off in the middle of a big hand, 1 would use the program off the tables when 1'm analy3ing my play and >ust generally playing around with different scenarios. The more you play with it, the more you will familiarise yourself with the e/uity of specific hands against +arious ranges. This will greatly impro+e your basic e/uity calculations on the fly and help to set you up for the following (maximi3e( step. =laying poker and not using a training site is like planting crops and not using fertili3er. -aximi3e your results with poker training.
The first step of the ,2- process is to put your opponents on a range of hands. 1n this article, 1 am going to show you how to assign ranges of hands to your opponent using stats and reads. 1 am going to split this article up in to two hand reading sectionsG 5. =reflop hand ranges - the easy bit. . =ost flop hand ranges - the trickier bit. ,emember that your ob>ecti+e with hand reading is to put your opponent on a range of hands, not two exact cards.
This is the total 9 of times the player will enter the pot preflop by calling or raising.
This is the 9 of times the player will enter a pot preflop by raising.
&o that's cool - for this particular player (aYplayer( we can see that their 0=1= is %9 and their =F, is 5:9. &o we can say that aYplayer...
=lays %9 of all hands that they are dealt. ,aises with 5:9 of all hands that they are dealt.
7gain, that's all well and good, but these are >ust figures. How can we turn these percentages in to ranges of handsE For that, we can take an educated guess at what %9 and 5:9 of starting hands looks like. Here is an excerpt from a legendary thread by =okey at ; on hand readingG
,ough guide to hand ranges based on HKD stats. 89 T (pairs NN;, 7I, 7Ms( or (pairs OO;, 7I, 7M.( 5!9 T (pairs ::;, 7I, 7M, suited aces, IMs, MAs( 589 T (any pair, 7I, 7M, IM, suited connectors 8%;, any suited ace( !9 T (any pair, any two broadway, any suited ace( 89 T (any pair, any suited broadway, any ace, any suited connectors 8%s;, IMo( $!9 T (any pair, any ace, any suited king, any suited broadway, any suited connectors 8%s;, ITo;, MAo( or (any pair, any ace, any suited king, any broadway( %!9 T (any pair, any ace, any king, any two broadway, any suited connectors $ s;( 8!9 T (any pair, any two suited cards, any ace, any two broadway, I8o;(
This is of course >ust a rough guide, but nonetheless it is definitely something that is worth familiari3ing yourself with. &o, if we compare our percentages with these rough hand ranges we can conclude that our friend (aYplayer(G
0=1=G %9 - 1s entering the pot with any pair, any suited broadway, any ace and any suited connectors. o ;,7 s;,ITs;,MTs;,ATs,TOs,O<s,<Ns,N:s,:8s,8%s,7 o;,IMo =F,G 5:9 - 1s raising before the flop with any pair, 7I, 7M, IM, suited connectors 8%; and any suited ace.
o
;,7 s;,IMs,MAs,ATs,TOs,O<s,<Ns,N:s,:8s,8%s,7Mo;,IMo
Thanks to these stats, we now ha+e a +ery good idea of the sort of hands that our opponent will enter a pot with and more specifically, what sort of hands they will be open raising with. 7s we play through a hand with them we can whittle this range down e+en further by analy3ing how our opponent plays the flop, turn and ri+er. These 0=1= and =F, stats are also co+ered in the Holdem -anager HKD tutorial and HKD "in>a +ideos.
Why would my opponent check on this flopE Why would my opponent bet on this flopE Why would my opponent raise on this flopE
"ow do that for e+ery betting round. The better you can answer those /uestions, the easier it will be to reduce your opponent's range and form a more complete picture of the hand. 1f you want to get really good at assigning hand ranges *why wouldn't youE., watch the ,here The 0uffalo /oam +ideo series at Deuces@racked. This is the absolute best way to learn this particular skill. Ff course, that's a lot easier said than done, but who said poker is easyE =oker is a thinking man's game, so put your brain to good use and always aim to try and figure out why your opponent is playing the way they are. 1f you can figure out why your opponent is making their plays, you can figure out what they are likely to be holding. 1t's a pretty non-specific strategy 1 know, but this is where practice comes in to play. 1 can't teach you how to read hands like a champ in one article *probably not e+en in 8 or : articles for that matter., so get out there and play some poker. "ow you'+e got some strategy under your belt, use it against the terrible players at )odog =oker and win e+en more money than before.
Putting a player on a hand is at the +ery heart of good poker play, yet often massi+ely misunderstood. -ost people assume that the goal is to put a player on two exact cards. This would be great, but the truth is it's rarely possible without ha+ing spent hours and hours at the table with a person. Fccasionally you may find someone so powerfully uncreati+e that you'll know exactly when they'+e got a huge hand and when they don't. 2n>oy it, because it's rare. )ut wait. 7ll those books you'+e read say you should play the player. How are you supposed to do that if you can't hope to accurately put someone on two exact cardsE 2asy. There are only a few actions you can take in pokerG 5. ?ou can raise. . ?ou can call. $. ?ou can fold. "o limit adds the added excitement of being able to bet +arying amounts *see bet si3ing for more information., but people tend to bet similar amounts whene+er they bet. &o with such a limited number of actions, people will tend to take the same actions with different hands. This is why it's so hard to put someone on two exact cards. The key to making sense of this situation is not to guess. 1t's to understand that while our information is limited, we do ha+e information. We'll call that information a range. 7 range is simply all of the hands that a player would take a particular action with. For example, when under the gun *utg. in a six-handed online 4 !!"# game, a solid player will raise utg with ;6ATs;6MTs;6ITs;67Ao6IMo. That's actually a fairly tight range, close to maybe only 5N9 of all hands dealt. 1n some ways, it's easy to deal with someone when they ha+e a narrow range. Fold your bad hands, reraise your good hands, and call with those sneaky implied odds hands that can flop huge. 2asy game. What gets much trickier is post-flop play. To illustrate, let me talk through a hand to demonstrate how thinking about a range happens from preflop to ri+er.
@heck out my rankings of the top Texas Hold'em poker rooms for K& players. ?ou may be surprised.
The !lop.
We see a flop of T 8 $ . 7fter the rake, there's 458.8 in the middle. That's about as good a flop as you can see if you ha+e /ueens. Knless the )) has TT6886$$, 1'm ahead of his hand and he likely has fi+e outs or fewer to impro+e. The )) checks to me, and 1 bet 45!. 1 don't want to bet big here. The reason has to do with ranges. 1f 1 bet big, then he'll +ery often fold hands like NN or N:. He's of course ne+er folding a flopped set. He probably won't fold a ten for one big bet on the flop, but he might get ner+ous on the turn or ri+er and not put all his money in with his fi+e-out draw that will rarely get there. Fn this type of board. 1 want to get a lot of calls. He'll be making a big mistake by calling, so 1 don't mind betting a small amount. 1 make money here not by getting him to call big bets rarely, but by getting him to call small bets, often and incorrectly. &o, like 1 said, 45!. The )) checkraises to 4 N total. Well that's a surprise. Three things. First, weird raise si3e. This is a site with a ()et pot( button, and people lo+e to use it. The )) has intentionally not used it and instead made a small bet. 1'm pretty confused by this. He could definitely do this with a set, trying to build a bit of a pot and stack me on later streets.
)ut he could also think a pair of tens is good here. Hands like TOs, ITo, 7T, AT, etc. are exactly the types of hands that call out of the )) in this spot. 'ood players wouldn't ha+e hands like this, but the )) isn't a good player, so we can't eliminate them entirely. &o 1 decide to >ust call the 45N more. 7t this point, 1 think his range is TOs;6ATo;6TT6886$$. &ome people might say 1'm being generous here, but remember that this is a fundamentally weak player. 0s. a good player, 1'd probably call the 45N too, but 1'd call for an entirely different reason. -ore on that in a bit. With my call, the pot, minus rake, is 4:<. The effecti+e stacks are now 45 8.
The turn.
The turn is an offsuit : *making it T 8 $ : ., completing the rainbow board. The )) checks. Fk, that's weird. What could this meanE Well, he could be getting fancy, going for two checkraises in a row with a set. That's an odd play, but people who aren't good at poker tend to make odd plays. Two pair is entirely unlikely, because of what we'+e estimated his flop range to be. The six is a complete brick. 1f he had a pair of tens, he didn't impro+e. 1f he has a set, he doesn't need to impro+e. Fnline, you'll see this called way ahead6way behind, or >ust W76W). )ut let's not gi+e him too much credit. He might reali3e that he made a small flop raise, and so maybe thinks we're getting fancy with 7I. Fr maybe we ha+e a weak ten, like TO *which is dominated by the ma>ority of the ))s ten holdings.. We still ha+e him on the same range as the flop. We know he didn't impro+e. )ut we think he might call a turn bet not >ust with his sets, but a lot of his top pairs too. &o 1 bet 4%!. 7gain, this isn't a spot where 1 want to make a big bet. 1 want him to call often. 1f he has anything but a set, he's making a substantial mistake calling this bet, so 1'm going to make a lot of medium-ish to small bets, and look to get called +ery often. "ow is the moment of truth in the hand as well. 1f the )) c6r here, 1 will probably call, mostly out of frustration, partly out of fear that he's simply o+erplaying a ten. 1f he pushes in his remaining 4<8, 1 don't expect to be a fa+ourite to win that money, but there's another 45%! in the pot on top of that 4<8, so 1 simply can't gi+e away my e/uity in that money. 1nstead, the )) >ust calls. 1'm /uite confident now he has a ten and is going down with the ship. 1'm not sure what his kicker is, but 1'm positi+e he has a ten in his hand.
The ri#er.
The ri+er is a nine, which only impro+es TO, the )) checks, 1 bet enough to put him all in for another 4<8 and he calls getting .NG5 with 7To.
Thin +alue
Texas Hold'em R &trategy R 'eneral R Thin 0alue ! Thin 0alue R 2xample
The term Uthin +alueV is used /uite a lot when discussing tricky decisions on the ri+er in Texas HoldCem. The ability to get thin #alue from marginal hands is often the difference between good players and great players, so itCs worth taking the time to learn about it.
Hopefully you already know the basics of getting +alue from hands already, but if not, read about +alue betting first.
This diagram highlights the difference in profit there is to be made between standard +alue bets, thin +alue bets and when there is no +alue in betting based on the percentage likelihood of ha+ing the best hand when called. 1f we ha+e the best hand greater than 8!9 of the time, we make a profit. 1f we ha+e the best hand less than 8!9 of the time, we lose money because weCre risking more than we get back *a negati+e ,F1 if you will.. The smaller the likelihood o! ha#ing the best hand when $alledG the thinner the #alue. "oteG When making a +alue bet we actually want to get called because we expect to win money when we are called o+er the long run. 1f you donCt want to get called itCs not a +alue bet, itCs a bluff. &ee reasons for betting.
*and if youCre harder to play against, you make more money again..
5. 2+ery time you ha+e the opportunity to get +alue from your hands, no matter how marginal it is, you should take it. The extra few ))s here and there will add to your winrate, so why would you ignore itE 1f you can learn how to bet for thin +alue you will increase your winrate, itCs as simple as that.
. 1f you bet for thin +alue, you will be balancing your range when youCre betting on the ri+er. With a balanced range you make it more difficult for your opponents to play against you, which means they will make more mistakes. The more mistakes they make, the more money you will be winning from them. 7s 1C+e already mentioned, thin +alue betting often distinguishes the good players from the great players. 1f you want to impro+e your game and your winrate, you will want to get to grips with the art of thin +alue betting in poker.
. ?ou need to e+aluate how many hands in that range that you beat or ha+e you beat if you bet and get called.
'5 )#aluating the hands in that range that you beat and do not ha#e beat i! $alled.
1f there are lots of hands in your opponents range that can call a bet and you ha+e beat, then there is ob+iously +alue in betting. @on+ersely, if there are more hands that ha+e you beat, there is no +alue in betting. The smaller the di!!eren$e is between the two 4hands you beat and hands that ha#e you beat5G the thinner your #alue bet will be. The better you become at working out your opponents range, the easier you will find it to make thinner and thinner +alue bets. 1tCs easy enough to know how to make good thin value bets, but actually doing it is another thing. )ut as with all tough decisions in poker, it will get easier the more you practice. 1f you're serious about taking your game to the next le+el you should take ad+antage of poker training.
The key to +alue betting is being able to put your opponent on a range of hands. 1f you can do that, thin +alue bets will get a lot easier. 1f you canCt put your opponent on a range, you need to practice more or pay more attention to the way the hands play out as you go along. This is definitely a skill you should continually be trying to impro+e though anyway. The sooner you get out of the habit of Uplaying it safe and >ust checking behindV with your marginal hands, the sooner you will open up the opportunity to add to your winrate and make more money from your sessions through thin +alue betting. Try (putting players on hands( for an in depth look at assigning hand ranges to your opponents. 7lso, range merging is a prime example of getting thin +alue in certain situations.
$-betting light is an ad+anced concept that adds an extra weapon to a game that has likely become repetiti+e and stagnant, e+en if that current game strategy is winning you money at the tables. >"betting will shake up a mid-stakes player's game about as much as the continuation bet did when you first found out about that when you were starting out. This concept is going to be most useful in mid-stakes games between 48!"# and 4 !!"#.
What is $-bettingE Why $-betE When and where to $-bet light. How to $-bet effecti+ely.
>"betting.
First of all, what is a 1-bet before the flopE 7 $-bet is when there has been a raise and then another raise after that. &imple enough, but let me gi+e you one /uick example to dri+e it homeG 7fter the &) and )) post the 45 and 4 blinds, lets say there is a raise to 4< from a player in -=. 1f another player in #= raises it again to 4 %, this is called a $-bet. For a /uick guide to good $bet si3ing, watch the $betting section starting at 5$G$O in this bet si3ing +ideo. 7s you can imagine, the guy *or girl. making the $-bet probably has a +ery good hand. ?ou would normally expect them to be holding something like MM; or 7I to make this second raise before the flop. ?ou might be wondering why it's called a $-bet if there has only been two raises. Well, the )) is actually considered to be a bet in itself, and so the first raise is the nd bet and the second raise is the $-bet.
>"betting light.
7s mentioned, you would expect the player making the $-bet to ha+e a +ery strong hand like MM; or 7I. Therefore, $-betting light is when you make a $-bet with a less than premium hand like :N, N< or any suited connector like that. $-betting light is where you make a $-bet with a less than premium hand before the flop. &eems cra3y and dangerous 1 know, but 1'm sure you thought the same thing when you first heard about continuation betting. $-betting light can be an incredibly ;20 mo+e when used correctly, so don't underestimate its strength. Ha+e you check out my +ideos section yetE There are a bunch of free strategy +ids there for "#H2 cash games.
Why >"bet?
=layers these days will make preflop raises with a wide range of hands. 1f a player makes a raise before the flop in #=, they could ha+e almost any hand under the sun. That's how all decent T7's play. @alling these raises with a strong hand of our own *or e+en with a drawing hand like N<s. puts us at a disad+antage because our opponent will ha+e the initiati+e in the hand. When the flop comes, we are only really looking to fold unless we hit top pair or better. 2+en then, we are not going to feel great about our hand.
$-betting when in position will regularly put loose raisers in a position where it is -20 to call a $bet because of their wide opening range. "ot to mention taking away their initiati+e.
=layers open with a wide range of hands, which means calling $-bets is -20 for our opponents. $-betting can often be far more ;20 than >ust calling in some cases. =layers almost always fear 77 when they face a $-bet. This gi+es us tremendous le+erage for the flop *so cbetL.. ?ou take back the initiati+e in the hand. Fpponents will call you down with much weaker hands in future if they see you $-bet so lightly *metagame strategy..
&ure, making an extra reraise before the flop is going to be pretty damn scary, especially if you are $-betting light. Howe+er, if its going to be a ;20 play you need to show some balls and play in the way that is going to make you the most money. Don't get me wrong though, $-betting light isn't >ust to try and punish the loose raisers and hope that they fold. There will be times when we get called when we $-bet light, but that's not a problem. There are still ad+antages to $-betting light when we reach the flop.
?ou want to $-bet light with mid connectors6suited connectors like :N, N< and <O, or 5 gap suited connectors like :< and NO. ?ou should $-bet light in position. =laying a $-bet pot out of position is tricky *although not impossible.. ?ou should mostly $-bet raisers from #=. ,aisers from 2= are more likely to turn up with a strong hand. ?ou should try $-betting light against T7' *Tight-7ggressi+e. and semi-T7' players.
7n optimum spot to $-bet light is when a T7' from #= makes a raise when you are on the button or in the @F.
How a good $bet will usually play out preflop. 7pologies for the 'od-awful diagram, but you should get the idea. These sort of players are likely to be raising with a wide range of hands in this position, and so are fully capable or folding when they come up against aggression. This is why $-betting gi+es us an edge. 7n important point to remember is that you do not want to $-bet light against players who are eitherG 5. &uper tight and are only going to raise with supreme hands. Hence our $-bet definitely gets called. 2. &uper loose and will call regardless. We lose all of our fold e/uity in the hand with these players. This is not the only e+er spot that you can $-bet, but if you keep these guidelines in mind you should be able to get a feel for when it's a ;20 spot to $-bet.
How to >"bet.
1n a nutshell, when you $-bet light you ideally want your opponent to fold. This gi+es you an instant and nicely-si3ed pot and will usually force your opponent to tighten up the hands they open with from late position. 1f we get called and miss the flop, we are almost always in the perfect situation to make a continuation bet and take down then pot. &o don't be afraid to make that cbet, it's a ;20 mo+e o+er the long run. That's the basics of it, but allow me to explain a little further.
Hands not to $-bet light with. What to do on the flop if you are called. $-betting light example.
The type of hands that you do not want to $-bet light with are lower tier broadway hands likeH IM, IA MA and also weaker aces like 7A *definitely not rag aces either.. The problem is that if you are $-betting with these cards, the hands that your opponent is going to call with are going to ha+e you dominated *e.g. 7M;, AA;.. Howe+er, if you ha+e a lower suited connector like N<s, you still ha+e two (free( cards that you can do damage with. 1t also makes post-flop play easier as you are less likely to get tied in with a marginal hand where you hold something like top pair weak kicker. &tick to $-betting premiums *MM;, 7I. and lower suited connectors *8: - OT. only. ?ou are better off calling with less than premium broadway hands rather than $-betting with them preflop.
=laying poker and not using a training site is like planting crops and not using fertili3er. -aximi3e your results with poker training.
The final *and arguably most important. step in the ,2- process is (-aximi3e(. This in+ol+es making the optimum play to get the most +alue from your hand. Knfortunately, the art of maximi3ing your profits from e+ery hand you play is out of the scope of one article. Howe+er, what 1 will be able to do is gi+e you some groundwork for making optimum plays at the table.
When you ha+e the hand with the greatest e/uity you want to get as much money in to the pot as possible. When you don't ha+e good e/uity in the hand you want to see future cards as cheaply as possible, which generally in+ol+es checking and folding. ?ou want to play as closely as you can to the fundamental theorem of poker to help you maximi3e your winnings from each hand you play.
Hne problem.
That's all well and good, but there is a hell of a lot of middle ground where we will not know if we are ahead of behind in a hand. Therefore, we >ust ha+e to make the best play we can with the limited information we ha+e from the range and e/uity sections of the ,2- process.
1f you want them to call, you are betting for +alue. 1f you want them to fold, you are bluffing.
That's all there is to it. 1f you do not know whether you want your opponent to do either, you should not be betting. Far too many players make bets with no reasoning behind why they are making them. The chances are that if you do not know why you are betting, a large number of your bets are going to be -20.
Fur handG 7 I FlopG 7 O N 7s we all should know, on this flop we should bet out. WhyE )ecause we ha+e good e/uity against our opponent's range, which is likely to be a weaker ace or lower pocket pair. We are betting for +alue in the hope that our opponent will call with a weaker ace or a flush draw because we ha+e greater e/uity in the hand *e+en if they may ha+e a better hand like pair or a set..
The e/uity of our 7dIc against +illain's range. Found using =oker&to+e. ?ep that's right, we actually want our opponent to call with a flush draw. 1f the pot is 45! and we bet 4<, they are getting terrible odds to chase their flush. Therefore, if they call they are making a mistake and we are gaining from this mistake. 1f they fold on the other hand, they are making the correct play and we gain nothing. ()etting to protect your hand( is +ery bad alternate terminology for (betting for +alue(. What are we protecting our hand fromE =layers calling with bad odds and worse handsE 7ccording to the fundamental theorem of poker we want our opponents to call with bad odds and worse hands, as we gain nothing otherwise. Try your best to get used to the idea of either betting for +alue or bluffing. (=rotecting your hand( is not the right way to explain your bets - (betting for +alue( is.
lu!!ing.
Fur handG 7 M FlopG T N #et's say we raised preflop in the @F and the button calls. Fur opponent then bets out $6% of the pot on this flop. With our o+ercards and nut flush draw, we reraise. Howe+er, is this reraise for +alue or as a bluffE 1n other words, do we want our opponent to call of to foldE Well, first things first, this all depends on our opponents range. 1f we figure that our opponent is the type of player to only e+er bet out on this sort of flop with top pair or better, our e/uity in the hand is as followsG
The e/uity of our 7sMs against +illain's range. Found using =oker&to+e. 7s you can see, we do not ha+e the dominant e/uity in the hand. &o in this situation, by raising we are hoping that our opponent will fold their better hand. Therefore we are bluffing. &imple as that. &ure, it's technically a semi-bluff because it's not all that bad if our opponent calls this raise, but based on the e/uity we ha+e right now our raise is a bluff. Hopefully this helps to illustrate the difference between bluffing and betting for +alue. 1f you're serious about taking your game to the next le+el you should take ad+antage of poker training.
2ange &erging
Texas Hold'em R &trategy R 'eneral R ,ange -erging 5 ?ou may find the article on thin +alue useful as a primer for this range merging article.
,ange merging or Umerging your rangeV is something that you will run in to e+ery now and then on poker forums and in training +ideos. 1t's /uite an ad+anced topic, so 1'm going to need your full attention for this one. 7s a word of warning, range merging was something that took me some time to fully get my head around. 2xplaining this principle is likely going to be harder for me than it is for you to understand it. &o prepare yourself to either learn e+erything there is to know about range merging or to sit back and watch my teaching skills fly out of the window.
1 know, 1 know, it's impressi+ely confusing on first glance. Howe+er, 1'+e got a lot more explaining to do first so bare with me. 1 need to go in to some more detail about those bluffcatchers first... 1f you're not playing at )odog right now *February !5 . you're losing out on money. 'et in while it's still good.
lu!!$at$her e*ample.
We are heads up against an opponent on the flop and first to act with O T . The flop comes 7 O N . We bet the si3e of the pot and our opponent calls. The turn is 7 . We check and our opponent checks behind us. The ri+er is A . We check and our opponent bets Z the si3e of the pot. The action is back on us. We call with our pair of Os. Fur opponent turns o+er I T for a busted flush draw and we win the pot.
The aim of range merging is to take ad+antage of the logic behind what we >ust did.
What does elasticity ha+e to do with pokerE 1t sounds en>oyable. 7s usual, inelastic and elastic hands *more specifically ranges. are >ust the terms behind a concept that you'+e probably considered whilst in the middle of a session, or glossed o+er whilst reading other strategy articles. 1n this article, 1 will explain what these stretchy terms mean and how you can use an understanding of them to help you make more profitable bet si3es.
5. 7 player with an elasti$ hand will make their decision about whether or not to call based on the si3e of the bet. . 7 player with an inelasti$ hand will either be calling or folding to +irtually any si3ed bet. The si3e of the bet does not affect their decision on whether or not to call. The elasticity of a hand is determined by how much of an effect your bet si3e has on your opponent's decision to call. "oteG For the following examples, assume that we are heads up and the hand has been checked to the ri+er. 1n addition, our only options are to either call or fold.
-5 %n elasti$ hand.
Fur HandG M T )oardG 7 M < 8 =otG 45!
1f our opponent bets between 4$ and 48, we will call. 1f our opponent bets between 48 and 4<, we may call or fold. 1f our opponent bets between 4< and 45!, we will fold.
This is an elastic hand because whether or not we call is influenced by the si3e of our opponent's bet. Fur decision is flexible and it +aries, so it's an elastic hand.
7 rough diagram to highlight the calling fre/uency of an elastic hand depending on the si3e of the bet. e.g. holding MT on a 7M<8 board.
1f our opponent bets between 4$ and 48, we will call. 1f our opponent bets between 48 and 4<, we will call. 1f our opponent bets between 4< and 45!, we will call.
7 rough diagram to highlight the calling fre/uency of an inelastic hand that is going to call regardless of the si3e of the bet. e.g. TO on a TT<%% board. @on+ersely, our decision would be the complete opposite if we ha+e a slightly different hand on the same board. Fur HandG 8 : )oardG T T < % % =otG 45!
1f our opponent bets between 4$ and 48, we will fold. 1f our opponent bets between 48 and 4<, we will fold. 1f our opponent bets between 4< and 45!, we will fold.
7 rough diagram to highlight the calling fre/uency of an inelastic hand that is going to call regardless of the si3e of the bet. e.g. 8: on a TT<%% board. These are inelastic hands because the si3e of our opponent's bet has no effect on our decision to call or fold. Fur decision isn't flexible and it doesn't +ary, so they are inelastic hands.
1f a range mostly consists of elastic hands, it's an elastic range. 1f a range mostly consists of inelastic hands, it's an inelastic range.
How much do 1 mean when 1 say UmostlyVE 1f a range is made up of at least N89 elastic or inelastic hands, you can safely call it an elastic or inelastic range. We prefer to work with ranges because it's unlikely that you're going to be able to put your opponent on one specific hand. &o it's more useful to determine whether our opponent's range -as opposed to hand -- is elastic or inelastic. "oteG The degree of (elasticity( of a range will +ary. @ertain ranges can be more elastic or less elastic than others. 1n this article 1'm looking at the ranges on each end of this scale.
The fastest way is through intuition. 1f you ha+e a lot of experience with putting opponents on ranges of hands it will be easy to say U1 think they ha+e an inelastic range in this spotV. 1t may not be perfectly accurate and it's not something e+ery player will be able to do, but it is the /uickest method. 7lternati+ely, you could be more accurate by splitting your opponents range *the one you'+e assigned to them. in to elastic hands and inelastic hands. Ksing hand combinations you could then work out the percentage of each type of hand in that range. 1f there are more than N89 elastic hands, then you could call it an elastic range. 1f you're not playing at )odog right now *February !5 . you're losing out on money. 'et in while it's still good.
1f you ha+e a good hand, bet big. 1f you ha+e a weak hand and you think your opponent will fold, bet small.
=laying against an inelastic range is easy. 7ll you ha+e to remember is that your opponent already has a fixed decision in their mind, and your bet si3e is not going to ha+e any effect on that decision. ?ou can easily take ad+antage of an inelastic range by betting big with your strong hands *as your opponents will >ust as happily call a big bet as they would a small bet., and by betting small with your bluffs if you think your opponent will fold *as your opponents will >ust as happily fold to a small bet as they would to a big bet.. 7 perfect example of exploiting an inelastic range is [eebo's theorem. The theorem states that U"o player is capable of folding a full house on any betting round, regardless of the si3e of the bet.V &o if you're betting half-pot when your opponent could well ha+e a full-house in their range, you are se+erely missing out on +alue.
7 rough diagram to show good and poor bet si3es if your opponent has an inelastic range and you want them to fold.
1f your opponent has an inelastic range and you want them to fold, you should bet small. 1f you bet big your are risking more than you need to when a smaller bet will achie+e the same result. The smaller you can bet when you want your opponent to fold their inelastic range -- whilst still achie+ing a high fold fre/uency -- the better.
7 rough diagram to show good and poor bet si3es if your opponent has an inelastic range and you want them to call. 1f your opponent has an inelastic range and you want them to call, you should bet big. 1f you bet small you are missing out on +alue due to the fact that your opponent is >ust as likely to call a small bet as they are a big bet. The bigger you can bet when you want your opponent to call with their inelastic range -- whilst still achie+ing a high call fre/uency -- the better. "oteG "ot all inelastic ranges are going to either call or fold 5!!9 of the time for any bet si3e. 1'+e accounted for this with the grey areas at the extremes of each diagram abo+e.
5. 1f our opponent has a strong hand like top pair or better, they are going to comfortably call any si3e bet on this flop. For the most part, they are going to be >ust as happy to call a pot-si3e bet as they would be to call a half-pot si3e bet. . 7ny other hand on this flop would be considered weak. 1f our opponent has any other hand like a pair of s or a low pocket pair *these are the at the top of their (weak range(., they cannot comfortably call a bet. They are e/ually as likely to fold to a half-pot bet as they would to a potsi3e bet. There are +irtually no hands in our opponent's range on this flop that will call a half-pot bet, but fold to a pot-si3e bet. 1f we plan on making a continuation bet bluff with a hand like 7I, we should bet small -- around 4:. 7 half-pot si3e bet will achie+e the same result as a pot-si3e bet, so we should bet small to minimi3e our losses when our opponent does ha+e a hand worth calling with.
1f you ha+e a good hand, you should bet small enough so that worse hands than yours can call *for thin +alue.. 1f you ha+e a weak hand and you think your opponent will fold, you should bet >ust big enough so that stronger hands will fold.
1f you know that your opponent has an elastic range, you should +ary your bet si3es depending on what you want to achie+e. 1f you want to entice your opponent to call, you should lean toward betting a small amount. 1f you want your opponent to fold, you should look toward betting big. =laying against an elastic range is a lot more difficult than playing against an inelastic range. 7gainst an elastic range you need to tailor your bet si3es appropriately, which re/uires more skill than simply choosing either end of the scale *i.e. bet big or bet small. as you would against an inelastic range.
?ou ha+e to tailor your bet si3es when playing against an elastic range if you to get the most +alue. 1f you ha+e a decent hand and your opponent has an elastic calling range, you want to si3e your bet so that only worse hands will call.
1f you si3e your bet too big, you will only get calls from hands that are better than yours. 1f you si3e your bet too small, you will miss out on +alue from hands that are only slightly worse than yours.
Fur opponent's calling range on this turn is elastic. This is because their range will respond differently to different bet si3es. Here's a basic o+er+iew of what we could expect to get calls from with +arying bet si3esG
&mall bet *45:.G weak draws, strong draws, top pair; -edium bet *4 $.G strong draws, top pair; )ig bet *4$!.G top pair;
&eeing as we want to get +alue from weaker hands than ours, a big bet *4$!. isn't a great option. 1f we make a big bet on this turn we are forcing out hands that we would get +alue from, such has weaker Ax hands and most draws. Fur bet si3e is only attracti+e to the parts of our opponent's range that ha+e us beat, such as two-pair hands or better. @on+ersely, if we make a smallish bet *45< sounds good., we will bet getting calls from the parts of our opponent's range that we will get +alue from. -ore one-pair hands are more likely to call, and so are flush and straight draws -- which we ha+e good e/uity against. "oteG 1'm sure some of you will be screaming (but don't we want drawing hands to foldE( "ot really, because they are still getting bad pot odds with our 45< bet. They are getting .N to 5, when they ideally need >ust o+er % to 5. 1f they call with bad pot odds, we profit. 1f you're serious about taking your game to the next le+el you should take ad+antage of poker training.
Inelasti$ rangesI 1f you ha+e a good hand,t, bet big. )lasti$ rangesI 1f you ha+e a decent hand, only bet enough so that worse hands will call.
With inelasti$ ranges, bet si3es do not matter. With elasti$ ranges, bet si3es matter.
1nelastic ranges are easy, because it's mostly about betting big and maximi3ing +alue when you ha+e a good hand. 2lastic ranges are trickier, because you ha+e to tailor your bet si3es to extract as much +alue as possible, whilst not betting so much that only better hands will call. 7s a beginner player, understanding and being able to take ad+antage of inelastic ranges is the most +aluable thing you could take from this article. 2xploiting elastic ranges is something that takes a lot of skill in an attempt to gain smaller profits, and is something that experienced players will want to work on refining.
=ocket kings are the second best starting hand in Texas Holdem. There is no other starting hand in hold'em except pocket aces that are stronger pre-flop. Howe+er, >ust like (pocket rockets(, the (cowboys( can also get you into trouble at the tables. =ocket Iings ha+e one fundamental flaw when compared to pocket acesG the possibility of an opponent making a higher pair. "onetheless, this /uick guide on how to play po$ket kings should help you make the most of them in any hand...
Post"!lop play with po$ket kings $an be sub di#ided into two situations.
5. 7 flop without an ace . 7 flop with an ace
2+en if the flop looks pretty safe and doesn't offer up any ob+ious draws, 1 am still going to be betting and raising strongly to a+oid letting other players catch up and make two pair or better. 1n addition, you don't build a big pot by checking and calling, so grab the bull by the horns and start playing some aggressi+e poker. 1f your opponents immediately fold, it's no big loss, as it would ne+er ha+e de+eloped into a big pot at any stage of the hand anyway. Don't be afraid to bet with an o+erpair like pocket kings. ?ou don't win big pots by playing passi+ely.
7s a general rule of thumb, bet strongly and a+oid slowplaying your hand. ?ou don't want to gi+e opponents the opportunity to catch up and take a big pot away from you.
#ooking down and seeing Bthe bullets' is one of the highlights of Texas Hold'em. =ocket aces is the \5 starting hand in Hold'emH howe+er, this is where people make the first mistake. =ocket aces are by no means in+incible, and if they are not played with caution you stand to lose a big pot. &o allow this /uick guide to help you learn how to play po$ket a$es pro!itably the next time you pick those bad boys up.
Ha+e you check out my +ideos section yetE There are a bunch of free strategy +ids there for "#H2 cash games. O times out of 5! the person making this mo+e has a monster starting hand. Therefore you should more often than not raise when holding pocket aces, it lets your opponents know that you ha+e a big hand but not how big, and it helps to define your opponents hands if they call.
Do not slowplay. Try not to get too attached to the hand. The less opponents in the hand the better. ,emember that pocket 7ces are not indestructible.
1t must be stressed that aces are definitely not a hand to be slowplayed. -any amateurs fall into this bad habit because they are the \5 starting hand. )ut this is only before the flop. 7fter the flop it is a different matter, if you don't hit a set >ust remember... all you ha+e is one pair. ?ou should always be thinking, (Fkay, what could my opponent ha+e that would beat meE( and try to figure out whether he has that type of hand. 1f you try and slowplay your hand to the end, do you think your opponent is going to call a large bet or an all-in with ace high or a pairE )ecause those are the only hands you will be beating at the end. 1f your opponent does call, its goodbye to your stack as +ery few are going to call with anything less that two-pair.
7ces are not a hand to be slow played. The ideal situation is to be all in on the flop against your opponents. Howe+er this is not going to be likely, especially in a cash game. The second best situation is to use the tactics mentioned abo+e by minimi3ing the number of opponents and getting money into the pot by betting and e+en raising. =laying poker and not using a training site is like planting crops and not using fertili3er. -aximi3e your results with poker training. )ut remember, with pocket 7ces you only ha+e one pair, so be prepared to let them go when facing a lot of action. The ability to lay down strong hands what makes the difference between good and great players.
Small po$ket pairs range from to ::, where any other higher pair would be considered to be a medium or high pocket pair. These low pairs are decepti+ely strong, and will often land no+ice players in a lot of trouble if they are o+er-+alued. 7 small pocket pair is usually regarded as a pair between and ::.
7 small pocket pair is ahead of the ma>ority of other hands pre-flop as long as an opponent does not hold a higher pocket pair. Howe+er, post flop play can be incredibly tricky if our hand does not impro+e. &o lets find out how to play small pocket pairs...
When holding a small pocket pair, there is a +ery high chance that the flop will bring o+er cards. This will then gi+e us an underpair to the board, and it is going to be +ery difficult to try and find out whether or not we are ahead. 1f we make a bet and get called, this gi+es us little information in whether or not our hand is ahead. Fur opponent may ha+e a higher pair, a drawing hand, a lower pair or any other possible hand. The simple bet and call does not tell us a lot about what our opponent is holding, and it will pro+e to be costly to try and find out if we are ahead by betting on the turn and ri+er. Ha+e you check out my +ideos section yetE There are a bunch of free strategy +ids there for "#H2 cash games.
their money to sets if they catch a decent part of the flop, because they +ery rarely suspect that their opponent has one.
The bigger the preflop raise, the worse the pot odds are and the less profitable calling to hit a set becomes o+er the long run. The standard preflop raise howe+er is about $ or % ))s, which is fine for calling in an attempt to hit a set. Howe+er, our implied odds after hitting a set are huge, so we can afford to pay a little more to see a flop. Therefore, as a general rule, 1 would recommend calling up to N)) raises before the flop, simply because we can expect to get paid off pretty handsomely when we hit our set. Don't be afraid to call up to N)) raises *or possibly a little more depending on the situation. with a small pocket pair. 1t may seem like a lot, but the returns are huge when you hit a set.
7ce-Iing, especially when suited, is a +ery strong starting hand in "o-#imit Holdem =oker. Howe+er, unless you connect with the board you will ha+e only an ace-high hand to show down at the end. This makes playing a$e"king problematic in some circumstances. This article will look at some of the important no-limit Holdem strategy considerations when playing ace-king. These include your stack si3e, position at the table and the tendencies of opponents who are already in the pot, and those yet to act.
before the flop with this hand. This is common in tournament situations and has two possible outcomes both of which are positi+e. 1f you are up against small stacks, you should try and get all-in before the flop with ace king. 2ither the pre-flop raiser *plus any caller. folds allowing you to take a good si3ed pot. Fr if you are called J for example by a pair lower than Iings J you get to see all 8 board cards to impro+e your hand. This means you are only a little under 8!9 to win the hand J your pot e/uity will also be increased when there is blind money or a $rd player who entered the pot then folded to your re-raise. When you ha+e a deep stack holding ace-king a pre-flop re-raise can gi+e you +aluable information on your opponent's hand. For example an opponent raises $ times the big blind from middle position and you re-raise a total of < or O blinds from the button. When you're opponent is holding the hands you really fear J pocket aces or kings J he is likely to put in a re-raise here. )e wary of $-bets when you are deep stacked after making a re-raise with ace-king. This could +ery well mean that your opponent holds aces or kings. Howe+er, pairs MM and below and other ace-high hands are more likely to call. "ot only ha+e you defined your opponents hand, you ha+e taken control of the hand before the flop J putting you in a position to take the pot away fairly often those times that you do miss the flop.
Player tenden$ies.
The tendencies of specific players, and indeed the table dynamic as a whole, will also affect the way that you play ace-king. )efore the flop you may raise to isolate a particularly weak player seated to your right. Howe+er when a 'rock' in the same seat has entered the pot a flat call may be the best strategy J as such an opponent is more likely to tell you whether they liked the flop with their post-flop betting patterns. 7nother opponent specific mo+e occurs at a 'wild table' here you can flat call a raise from early position in the hope that a wild player later in the betting will re-raise, you can then push all-in o+er the top representing aces or kings. When called you still ha+e +ery good e/uity against the wild player's range J in addition to the o+erlay of the dead money in the pot. &ince ace-king does not play well in a multi-way pot caution is re/uired with this mo+e J you need to be sure that an opponent will re-raise ahead most of the time. 1f you're serious about taking your game to the next le+el you should take ad+antage of poker training. When the betting gets hea+y ahead of you a good rule of thumb for playing ace-king, especially when not too deep stacked, is to be the player making the all-in bet and not the one calling this. 7ce-king is almost 8!9 to win against pairs M-M and below and $!9 to win against pocket Iings. Howe+er, when you are the player making the last big bet you ha+e the added benefit of
fold-e/uity. The chance that you're opponent may fold increasing the profit from playing this hand considerably.
super-tight and will only e+er re-raise with aces, kings or ace-king then you can work out the probability of each using card distribution. Here there are 5: possible ways of being dealt ace-king before the flop and : ways each of being dealt either pair. The probability of this opponent holding aces or kings is this approximately %$9 with 7ce-Iing at 8N9. Ff course you are either a small fa+orite or a big underdog in this situation J whether to see the flop will depend on the likelihood of your opponent folding those times when he has 7ce-Iing and neither of these cards appear. 7gainst a looser opponent there is a greater likelihood that your hand is the best before the flop, e+en when re-raised. 1n fact against a habitual re-raiser you may in a position where you ha+e a dominating hand J for example against 7ce-Mueen or a pair of Aacks.
Jsing position.
1n this case your position at the table and effecti+e stacks will ha+e a bigger influence on your strategy than card distribution. 1f the loose raiser is to your immediate right then a re-raise is usually appropriate. This will pre+ent additional callers and ensure that you are playing the pot heads-up in position. @alling a raise and then seeing or $ more people enter the pot can easily ruin the strength of your hand J if an ace falls on the flop it is +ery likely to ha+e hit someone who called the raise and you may ha+e to fold. 1f you re-raised in position an ace or king falling on the flop may not be a disaster for your hand. ?ou will ha+e an opportunity to see your opponent act before you do on the flop and a reasonable si3e continuation bet may well take the pot on the flop. 1n these circumstances a small bet from your *out of position. opponent can often indicate weakness, a probe to gather information about your hand. Here you should generally re-raise, planning to fold to an all-in check-raise or re-raise against all but the worst opponents.
% tri$ky spot.
7 difficult situation often arises when you are dealt a pair of /ueens in early position at a full table. Here a raise is the default play, yet a loose table could see , $ or e+en more callers before
the flop. 1n this case your >udgment of the meaning of the bets of your opponents becomes the critical factor J particularly as you will not close the betting action after the flop. 1f you're serious about taking your game to the next le+el you should take ad+antage of poker training. 7 raise and e+en a re-raise in this situation is the better play than checking and calling an opponent's bet when your /ueens are an o+er-pair to the board. The presence of draws on the board will also allow you to narrow your opponent's holdings. Fn a Bdry flop' such as -N-A any opponent who is willing to get all in needs to be assessed carefully J would this particular player only $-bet with a set or are they the kind of player who thinks that their ace->ack holding is good hereE
The definition of holding a 'rag ace' or an 'ace-rag' is being dealt an ace with another card lower than a ten. &o the following hands can be regarded as 'rag aces'G 7O 7< 7N 7: 78 7% 7$ 7 . 1t could be argued the range, in which the term rag ace incorporates, is smaller or greater than the one shown. For example some would say that a rag ace ranges from 7 to 7:, but in my opinion the best way to determine an ace rag is in the range 7 to 7O. 1n a nutshell, a rag ace is an ace with a low kicker.
7s highlighted in bold, the key idea to remember with rag aces is that they are not designed to win big pots, and if you happen to make that two pair, it is actually going to be a losing play in the long run. Aust think about it. 1f a player raises you with his 7M and you call with you 7: to see a flop, who do you think will be coming out on top the ma>ority of the timeE Hopefully this has drilled into you that you should get away from rag aces as often as you can J sa+e yourself some money at the table.
There are no tips or rules to know whether or not he doesH you simply ha+e to ha+e a good understanding of your opponent and the way they play.
1t is a +ery common situation to be in when playing in the game of Texas Holdem... ha+ing a potentially strong hand that needs another certain card to complete it. This is known as a BdrawingC hand, as you are drawing to a specific card or a specific type of card. These types of hands can be +ery difficult to play, especially if you are facing bets and raises and need to decide whether or not to call. Howe+er, by the end of this article you should be fully aware of how to play drawing hands, and know when to fold and when to call when facing a bet.
The most common drawing hands are !lush draws and straight draws. When playing a drawing hand we ha+e to e+aluate how likely it is that we will complete our hand by the next card. We can do this by looking at the number of BoutsC that we ha+e.
There will be a few numbers in+ol+ed in the next part of this article, but bear with me, its not as difficult as it might appear on first impressionL
8 minus our holecards and the flop cards *8 in total. T %N. o O cards of the same suit that we are chasing after.
o
"ow if we put these figures into a ratio of cards we want against cards we do, we get $<GO. 1f we simplify this ratio using basic mathematics, we get a new easier to use ratio of roughly %G5. "ow this figure means that for e+ery % times we do not make our hand on the turn, 5 time we will, and that is all that we need to know for the time being. "ow we know that we know that the odds of making our hand *and thus winning the pot. are %G5, we can use these odds to determine whether or not to call a bet or raise. When facing a bet, we ha+e to compare the si3e of the bet to the si3e of the potH this will gi+e us our pot odds.
"ow you'+e got some strategy under your belt, use it against the terrible players at )odog =oker and win e+en more money than before. This article discussed the methods of playing draws passi+ely, to try and see the next card as cheaply as possible. ,ead my article on playing drawing hands aggressi+ely for alternati+e profitable methods of playing drawing hands.
1n my pre+ious article on playing drawing hands, 1 discussed how to work out whether or not to call a bet or raise depending on the type of drawing hand we had along with the si3e of the bet or raise in relation to the si3e of the pot. The general idea throughout the article was to check and call to try and make our flush, straight or any other drawing hand as cheaply as possible. This alone is a profitable way to play poker if we use it correctly, howe+er, there are alternate methods of playing drawing hands that could potentially be more profitable...
experiment with the aggressi+e approach, stick to the drawing hands that will gi+e you the nuts on completion, such as an 7ce-high flush or top straight draw.
This is an ideal situation that has arisen from a simple aggressi+e bet on the flop. 2+en though the semi-bluff did not work, we are still priced in to continue with the hand. 1f we did not make the bet on the flop and checked, our opponent may ha+e come out betting around 4 ! or more into the pot himself, which would ha+e gi+en us the wrong pot odds *$G5. to try and make our hand, forcing us to fold. 7lthough this looks like a perfect situation, it does appear /uite often in numerous circumstances where you can influence the amount your opponent will bet to keep the pot odds in your fa+our. Did you think this article was usefulE Wait until you see the strategy +ideos at Deuces @racked. 2+en if in the abo+e example we went on to check the turn if we didnCt make our flush, our opponent may well still be scared about the strength of our hand and bet a small amount into the pot, which would again gi+e us the correct odds to call. )ecause the pot is much larger, our opponent will be making a much bigger mistake by gi+ing us the correct odds, and thus we will be profiting more from the hand in the long run from their bad play.
Pot Hdds
Texas Hold'em R &trategy R -athematics R =ot Fdds N =ot Fdds &tuffG =ot Fdds G The ,ule of % and G =ot Fdds 2xamples
#earning how to use pot odds puts an incredibly useful weapon in your poker arsenal. Inowledge of this basic concept is fundamental in determining whether or not you will become a winning or losing poker player. This guide aims to explain how pot odds work and how to effecti+ely incorporate them into your game. 1t shouldn't take more than 5! minutes to read this guide from start to finish, which is pretty good considering it could be sa+ing *and winning. you more money for the rest of your poker career.
=ot odds simply in+ol+es using the odds or likelihood of winning when on a drawing hand to decide whether or not to call a bet or a raise. Therefore when you are on a flush or straight draw, you will be able to work out whether or not to call or fold depending on the si3e of the bet you are facing by making use of pot odds. =retty handy really. 1f you're not playing at )odog right now *February !5 . you're losing out on money. 'et in while it's still good. 7 familiar situation you will find yourself in Texas Hold'em is holding cards of the same suit with another cards of that suit on the flop. 1n poker this is called a flush draw or sometimes referred to as a Bfour flushC. We will use this as an example in learning the use of pot odds.
-5 2atio ðod.
The ma>ority of books and forums will put pot odds in the ratio format, so it's definitely worth while getting used to this method of calculating and working with pot odds. ?ou HoldG
FlopG
"ow say there are two people left in the pot, you and your opponent. There is 4<! in the pot and your opponent bets 4 !. What should you doE
There are 8 cards in this hand that we know, our holecards and the $ cards on the flop. This lea+es us with %N cards in the deck that we do not know. Fut of those %N, there are O cards that will make our flush and $< that will not. 1f we put this into a ratio it gi+es us $<GO, or roughly %G5.
Fur opponent has bet 4 ! into an 4<! pot making it 45!!. This means we ha+e to call 4 ! to stand a chance of winning 45!!. This makes our odds 45!!G4 ! which works out to e/ual 8G5 pot odds.
&o... @ard FddsG %G5 =ot FddsG 8G5 This means that we should call as the odds we are getting from the pot are bigger than the odds that we will hit our flush on the next card. 1n the long run we will be winning more money than we are losing. ,ememberL ?ou should only call if the pot odds are greater than the 'card odds' *probability of completing your draw..
1f finding the card odds by working them out in your head is too time consuming *which most beginners will. . ?ou can find them more /uickly by using odds charts. These are handy if you print them out and stick them next to your computer and refer to them the next time you end up with a draw. Try &=F@ if you're >ust starting out. 1t's a +ery handy tool for helping you work out pot odds during play.
FlopG
This time your opponent bets 4$! making the pot 4O! in total. We will find out whether or not to call by finding out the pot odds in percentages.
T 5:
1uestionI Why are we working out the odds !or the ne*t $ard only i! there are two $ards to $ome?
'ood /uestion. 1f we are on the flop with a flush draw, our odds of making the best hand on the turn are roughly % to 5 or !9. Howe+er, seeing as we are on the flop there are indeed more cards to come *and not >ust the 5., shouldn't the (card odds( be more like to 5 or %!9E
The answer.
'enerally, no. This is one of the biggest mistakes players make when using pot odds.
The e*planation.
When you work out your pot odds, you are comparing the pot odds for the current si3e of the pot *and bet. to the chances of making your draw on the next card. 1f you work using the odds of making your draw o+er the next two cards, you need to factor in any extra money that you will ha+e to pay on the turn also. &eeing as it's incredibly unlikely that we're going to accurately guess how much more money we might ha+e to pay on the turn, it's far easier and infinitely more reliable to take it one card at a time. This way, you won't end up paying more money than you should for your drawing hands when on the flop. The only time that you should e+er use the odds for making the best hand o+er the next two cards combined *e.g. using to 5 odds instead of % to 5 odds for a flush draw. is when your only opponent in all-in on the flop. 1n this instance, you can guarantee that you won't face another bet on the turn, as your opponent has no more money to bet. 1 briefly mention this stuff on my percentage odds chart and my ratio odds chart. There is also an explanation in my article on the rule of % and for pot odds. 1t's ob+iously a +ery common mistakeL
should remember that there will be one less unknown card left in the deck when working out the odds because you now know what the turn card is.
Implied Hdds
Texas Hold'em R &trategy R -athematics R 1mplied Fdds 5 1 like to think that 1 explain implied odds a little better in the guide section. Try basic implied odds.
1mplied odds are an extension of pot odds that help you decide whether or not a drawing hand is worth calling in the face of a raise. 2ssentially, the implied odds of a hand tell you how much you expect to win after you make your draw.
1f you expect to win a lot more money from your opponent after you make your draw, you ha+e good implied odds. 1f you anticipate that you will not be able to get any more money out of your opponent on future rounds, then you ha+e little or no implied odds.
1mplied odds indicate the amount of money that you expect to win after completing your draw.
The more you play, the more you will learn about implied odds in drawing hands and e+entually it will be easier to make an accurate estimation of your (implied odds(. Howe+er, if you are /uite new to the game and this is the first time you ha+e come across implied odds, here are two situations below that will help to illustrateG 5. The times when you ha+e good implied odds . The times when you ha+e little or no implied odds.
FlopG
1n this hand you ha+e an open ended straight draw. 1f your opponent bets into you, then you ha+e good implied odds because if you make your straight, it is likely that you will be able to extract more money from your opponent on later rounds of betting. This is because your opponent will not easily be able to estimate the strength of your hand.
FlopG
Fnce again you ha+e an open ended straight draw. Howe+er your implied odds are !ar worse in this situation because if you do make your straight when the 7ce or O comes, the board will be +ery scary for your opponent as the board could easily *and ob+iously. make somebody the straight. There is little chance that you will get much more money out of your opponents unless they ha+e the straight also. 1n general, the more disguised your hand is, the better your implied odds are.
1f you ha+e good implied odds, you can afford to call without correct pot odds. 1f you ha+e little or no implied odds, you should stick to the pot odds.
#et's say that we ha+e a flush draw and our opponent bets 45! in to a 45! pot, which means we ha+e to call 45! to win a 4 ! pot.
Fdds of completing our drawG %. G5 *see the ratio odds chart.. =ot oddsG G5. Draw odds - pot odds T . G5.
&o our re/uired implied odds ratio is . G5. 1f we multiply this . figure by the 45! bet we ha+e to call we get 4 . Therefore, to make calling the 45! bet with our flush draw a break-e+en play at worst, we need to extract 4 from our opponent during the remainder of the hand.
Sklansky /ollars
Texas Hold'em R &trategy R -athematics R &klansky Dollars 5 1maginary -oneyG &klansky Dollars G '-)ucks
&klansky dollars *or &klansky bucks. is a mathematical concept coined by the clearly +eryhumble Da+id &klansky. The origin of this concept is a bit of a mystery, although 1'm sure it's from one of &klansky's books. 2ither way, it's a +ery well-known concept that highlights how much money you expect to win on a+erage from calling all-ins in Texas Holdem.
&ounds a little complicated, but it's really not all that bad. The best way to explain this concept is through an example.
1f your monitor is still intact you will notice that you >ust lost your 45!!. Howe+er, as you can imagine you're going to win this pot a lot more often than you will lose it, so we both know that this was far from being a bad call.
&klansky dollars will show us how much money we expect to win from this call on a+erage and remind us that calling is indeed a profitable play o+er the long run.
. -ultiply our e/uity by the total si3e of the pot. $. &ubtract our final bet or call from the final pot si3e. &teps 5 and are the main components. &tep $ is >ust an additional one that gi+es us a number that can be worked with in other calculations. -5 9ind our e;uity in the hand when all the money went in to the middle. Ksing =oker&to+e we find that we ha+e <N.O9 e/uity in the hand with 7 7 against 7 I preflop. 2asy enough.
'5 &ultiply our e;uity by the si.e o! the pot. The final pot si3e was 4 !!, and our e/uity in the hand when all the money went in to the middle was <N.O9. !.<NO x 4 !! T 45N8.< &o, e+en though we missed out on winning that big 4 !! pot, on a+erage we will be winning a 45N8.< pot e+ery time we call all-in with 7 7 against 7 I before the flop. "oteG When 1 say (multiply our e/uity by the si3e of the pot( 1 mean find the percentage of the total pot si3e. ?ou ob+iously want to multiply 4 !! by !.<NO and not <N.O. >5 Subtra$t our !inal bet or $all !rom the !inal pot si.e. We'+e >ust lost 45!!, but how much will we be earning by making the call o+er the long runE Aust subtract our final call of 45!! from the final pot si3eG &klansky dollars T 45N8.< - 45!! T 4N8.< Therefore, we expect to win 4N8.< by calling all-in for 45!! with our 7 7 in this spot.
Aust remember that &klansky dollars are not real - it's >ust a 4 representation of how much money you expect to win from a pot on a+erage based on your e/uity in the hand at that point. ,eal dollars tell you how much money you ha+e won or lost in the present, whereas &klansky dollars tell you how much you ha+e won or lost in the grand scheme of things in poker.
This tool will basically show you how (lucky( you ha+e been.
1f you ha+e been unlucky, your &klansky dollars will be greater than your real money earnings. 1f you ha+e been getting lucky in all-in situations, your &klansky dollars will be lower than your real dollar earnings.
7nother friendly aspect of &klansky dollars is that it's great for a bit of reassurance. 2+en though you may ha+e lost a hand due to +ariance, your actions may well ha+e been profitable nonetheless. That's always nice to know. F+er a long enough period of time your &klansky dollar earnings will e/ual your real money earnings. ,eal money winnings are greatly affected by +ariance. 1n my opinion the most +aluable aspect of (&klansky dollars( is that it helps to pre+ent bad beats from getting to you and affecting your play. 7 bad player will see the abo+e example as a 45!! loss and nothing more. 7 good player will see the same hand as a great play that will win a lot of money o+er the long run, regardless of the short term results.
2+ery time your opponent makes a mistake, you win &klansky dollars. 2+ery time you make a mistake, you lose &klansky dollars.
"othing really groundbreaking here, but it >ust goes to show that in a perfect game of poker with no +ariance, you would win money by making correct plays *as opposed to making mistakes. if you were able to see your opponent's cards.
7s a regular cash game or tournament player, it is important that you are familiar with the mathematics of poker. This in+ol+es working out the odds of each situation so that you can determine what the most profitable action will be. 7 good player will be able to take into account their pot odds, implied odds and e+en their re+erse-implied odds when calculating their next action. Howe+er, with all these calculations taking place, there are a few simple errors that can be made when trying to work out the correct odds in each situation. The top $ common mistakes 1 see areG 5. -iscalculating the odds of draws. . -iscalculating percentage odds. $. -isunderstanding the difference between ratios and probability. @heck out my rankings of the top Texas Hold'em poker rooms for K& players. ?ou may be surprised.
7 bet on turn is not unlikely, and so our pot odds will be worsened by the fact that we will ha+e to ha+e called two si3eable bets instead of one on the flop. Therefore instead of using the odds to complete draws by the ri+er, we should be using the odds to complete draws by the next card instead. Typically for flush draws, the odds of completion by the next card will be %G5. &o when on the flopG
Fdds of completing a flush by the turnG %G5 Fdds of completing a flush by the ri+erG G5
Therefore your 4%! call into the total pot of 45:! would be worth 89 of that pot, therefore you can then use this 89 figure along with the chance of completing your hand to determine whether or not to call. This is the correct way to work out the odds. The error is made when players do not add their own bet into the total pot si3e, so instead of coming out with a total 45:! pot, they will be working with a 45 ! pot, as they ha+e forgotten to add their own 4%! into it. Therefore they will then work out the percentage of 4%! out of 45 !, which works out to be $$9. This is /uite far off the 4%! out of 45:! being 89, and it could mean the difference between making a profitable or losing call to try and complete your draw.
5 in %. For e+ery % times an e+ent takes place, you will ha+e the result you are after 5 time *out of those % trials.. % to 5. For e+ery 8 times an e+ent takes place, you will ha+e the result you are after 5 time and the unwanted result % times *so 8 trials in total..
The 5 in % odds takes place o+er % trials, where you will obtain the wanted outcome once and an unwanted outcome $ times. Whereas in the %G5 ratio odds, there are 8 trials, where you will obtain the expected outcome once, and an unwanted outcome % times. 7s you can see, you ha+e to add the ratio together to find the total number of trials, whereas the total number of trials is already gi+en to you in the fraction format. )elow is a simple table to help illustrate the differences between this particular set of odds. Wanted 5 5 Knwanted % $ \ Trials 8 %
% to 5 5 in %
There are numerous ways in which a player can slip up when using mathematics in poker. 1t is not uncommon to e+en ha+e regular +eteran players make these simple mistakes, so donCt be too concerned if you make a small mistake e+ery now and then. =laying poker and not using a training site is like planting crops and not using fertili3er. -aximi3e your results with poker training. This article was written to try and help make you aware of the most common mistakes so that you can a+oid them in the future. The more you play and work with odds, the better you will become at making precise and profitable decisions at the poker table, so get out there and playL
2xpected %alue *20. is a term you will come across again and again in forums and in poker strategy articles. 1n this guide 1 will explain exactly what expected +alue is and why it is important when it comes to making decisions at the table. 7lthough somewhat similar, try not to get expected value confused with e/uity. 1f you are getting confused between the two, read the article on the difference between e/uity and 20.
Q)+ - This is a positi+e expectation play that will win money o+er the long run. ")+ - This is a negati+e expectation play that will lose money o+er the long run.
7 friend offers to pay you 45.8! e+ery time she flips a coin and it lands on tails. Howe+er, e+ery time it lands on heads you ha+e to pay her 45.
What is the expected +alue of each and e+ery coin flipE How much do we expect to win or lose on each indi+idual flipE 1s it a profitable game for usE To work out our e*pe$ted #alue for this game, we need to look at the results of each possible outcome and their probability of happening.
1f it's a fair coin, the probability of it landing on heads is !.8, or ) in 3. 7ll we ha+e to do now is multiply these outcomes *the amount we win in each possible outcome. by their probability and add them together to find the 20 for each coin flip.
20 T Heads outcome ; Tails outcome T *-45 x !.8. ; *45.8! x !.8. T *-!.8. ; *!.N8. T 4!. 8 20
This means that e+ery time we flip a coin in this game we are winning 4!. 8 on a+erage. F+er flips we should win 45.8! once and lose 45 once, gi+en us a net profit of 4!.8 o+er flips. Therefore, o+er 5 flip this works out to earn us 4!. 8 on a+erage. 1t doesn't make a difference if we lose 5! flips in a row, because o+er the long run this will remain as a profitable game *unless our good lady friend has decided to cheat us in some way of course.. There will be +ariance, but o+er a big enough number of trials the amount we ha+e won should be +ery close to our expected +alue for those trials.
=ossible results and their probabilities. @all and hit our flush T win 458!
o
The probability of hitting a flush on the ri+er is %.5 to 5, which is roughly !9 chance or !. . Therefore, the odds of not hitting a flush will be 5 - !. T !.<. 1 used the outs odds charts for these particular odds.
7lso, notice how we are looking to win 458! and only lose 48! in each outcome. We are only going to lose 48! because that is how much we are paying to try and hit our flush in this single decision. We are not factoring in money that we ha+e put in to the pot in pre+ious betting rounds. We >ust take the facts from this decision alone.
Working out 20 for calling. 20 T Hitting flush outcome ; -issing flush outcome T *458! x !. . ; *-48! x !.<. T *4$!. ; *-4%!. T -45! 20
This means that e#ery time we $all this bet to try and hit our !lushG we are losing 6-( on a#erage. Therefore this is a ")+ play and we should fold instead of call.
Did you think this article was usefulE Wait until you see the strategy +ideos at Deuces @racked.
9old );uity
Texas Hold'em R &trategy R -athematics R 2/uity R Fold 2/uity !
1n this article 1 will co+er the basics of !old e;uity and how it makes semi-bluffs profitable. 1t's a fairly simple concept though, so don't be too ner+ous about it. 1f you don't know what e/uity is >ust yet, read up on the poker e/uity article before reading this one.
This chance that our opponent will gi+e up their hand to our bet will increase our o+erall e/uity in the hand because we are gi+ing oursel+es an additional opportunity to win the pot as opposed to >ust showing down the best hand. &o e+ery time we bet when there is a chance that our opponent will fold we are adding that little extra e/uity to our hand. &o when you bet, think of your o+erall e/uity like thisG F+erall e/uity T current e/uity ; fold e/uity. The amount of !old e;uity that we can add to our current e/uity in the hand will +ary from one situation to another. Fn a basic le+el, fold e/uity can be summari3ed by the following simple statementsG
How much fold e/uity do we ha+eE 1f we think it is likely that our opponent will fold to our bet, we ha+e a lot of fold e/uity. 1f we think it is unlikely that our opponent will fold to our bet, we ha+e little fold e/uity. 1f we do not think our opponent will fold to our bet, we ha+e no fold e/uity.
Fold e/uity T *chance our opponent will fold. ^ *opponent's e/uity in the hand.. Fold e/uity T *!.8. ^ *8N.%.. 9old e;uity R 'D.D,.
Total e/uity T our current e/uity ; fold e/uity. Total e/uity T % .%9 ; <.<9. Total e;uity R B-.',.
&o e+ery time we sho+e all-in with our drawing hand we will ha+e N5. 9 e/uity in the hand on a+erage. Therefore, whereas calling to complete our draw would be unprofitable with our % .%9 e/uity, the addition of fold e/uity in the hand makes our sho+e a profitable play o+er the long run.
Fold e/uity is the dri+ing force behind semi-bluffs. The +ast ma>ority of the time you will be using fold e/uity to your ad+antage when betting or raising with a flush or a straight draw. Fn their own, these draws will generally not ha+e enough e/uity to make it worth calling bets and raises. Howe+er, if you are the one betting and raising, the addition of fold e/uity can turn the o+erall e/uity in your fa+our. &o o+er the long run, well-played semi-bluffs with drawing hands will be profitable. ,ead the article on playing drawing hands aggressi+ely for further discussion on this topic.
Fur handG O T - !9 e/uity. Fpponent's handG I A - 5!!9 e/uity. Knless you belie+e that your opponent is folding at least 8!9 of the time, your bluff is not going to be profitable. ?our fold e/uity T total e/uity here *current e/uity T !9., so if it's less than 8!9 you will be losing more money than you win o+er the long run. "ow you'+e got some strategy under your belt, use it against the terrible players at )odog =oker and win e+en more money than before.
2/uity percentages in this article ha+e been calculated using the handy and free =oker&to+e.
=ot e/uity *or >ust (=oker e/uity(. is a mathematical application to poker that helps to explain why you should bet or check in certain situations.
calculator now tells us that we ha+e a O59 chance of winning, whereas our opponent only has O9 chance of winning as they ha+e to catch a A or a T to make a full house and win the pot.
)y putting more money in the pot with the best hand at this point *e+en though there is the chance that we may still lose., we will be winning more money in the long run. DonCt be afraid to put money into the pot when you feel that you ha+e the best of it. The principle of e;uity in poker also explains why you should raise with the best hand preflop. There are a number of reasons for raising preflop, such asH reducing the number of players in the pot, buying position, being the aggressor and so on. 2/uity howe+er is still an important principle that makes it profitable to raise preflop. "ot only is it because you may well be getting money in with the best hand and therefore betting for +alue, but because you are raising the stakes with your raise, and creating opportunities to get more money into the pot when you ha+e good e/uity in the pot later in the hand.
#earning how to $al$ulate e*pe$ted #alue in poker can seem like a daunting task. 1t's one of those topics that you put off learning, simply because it always seems a little too tricky to try and get your head around. )ut to be honest, when you see e/uations like thisW
20 T *45.:! x !.%. ; ` !.: x _ *4 .<! x !.!8. ; *-45. ! x !.O. ] a W1 don't blame you for walking away. That kind of stuff makes )ill @hen's The 5athematics of !oker look like The %ery Hungry 'aterpillar. &o, here's my attempt at helping you get your expected value calculations nailed down once and for all. 1'm going to try and make it easier for you to +isualise the process with my (boxes method(. "o more running away from math strategy articles and forum threads.
$. Find the probability and the win6loss of each outcome. *Fill the boxes. %. =ut it all together in an e/uation and work it out. *&ol+e the boxes. #et's run through an actual example, and 1'll explain each step as we go along.
Step - " List all the possible out$omes. 4&ake the bo*es5
1f we call this 4: bet, what can happenE Well, two thingsG 5. We call and end up winning. . We call and end up losing. These are the only two possible things that can happen after we call. 2asy stuff. Howe+er, there are not always >ust two outcomes. There could be more or there could be less depending on the situation. 2ither way, it's a nice idea to think of each outcome as it's own separate UthingV -- or as 1 like to do, gi+e it an imaginary boxG
Step ' " 9ind the probability and win7loss o! ea$h out$ome. 49ill the bo*es5
Fkay, so we'+e got our two outcomes. "ow we >ust need to find the probability of each outcome happening, and the amount of money we win or lose when it does happen. #et's work these out for each of the two outcomes one at a time.
This shows us that our probability of winning when we call is %$9. The win7loss. 1f we call and win, we win the 458 in the pot. The 458 currently in the pot is our pri3e. We do not count our 4: call in this amount because it belongs to us, and we cannot win what we already own. "oteG 1t's important to make the distinction between money that is yours to lose and money that is in the pot. They are two separate things. Don't get hung up on any amount of money you may ha+e put in to the pot earlier on in the hand -- it doesn't matter.
We can see that the probability of losing when we call is 8N9. The win7loss. 1f we call and lose, we will lose our 4: call. The only amount of money we are losing is our 4: call. &ure, we'+e already put money in to the pot, but don't think of that as UbelongingV to us anymore. 1t now belongs to the pot, so it's not something we can lose.
Futcome
o o
,emember how we'+e already put these outcomes as separate boxesE Well, let's fill these boxes with this new information.
Step > " Put it all together in an e;uation and work it out. 4Sol#e the bo*es5
To form our 20 e/uation, all we need to do is multiply the probability by the win6loss in each of the boxes, then add all the boxes together. &o, still using these boxes, our e/uation looks like thisG
Finally, add them all together and we get the answer to our 20 calculationG
&o the 20 of calling with 7I is ;4$.!$. 2+ery time we make this call, we win 4$.!$ on a+erage. Therefore, calling -- as opposed to folding *we make 4! by folding.-- is the correct play. This amount of money could also be referred to as 4$.!$ &klansky )ucks. 1t doesn't feel +ery mathematical using all those boxes though. How can we show it in a more (mathematical-looking( wayE 7nswerG Aust replace the boxes with brackets, like thisG
20 T *!.%$ x 458. ; *!.8N x -4:. 20 T *4:.%8. ; *-4$.% . 20 T ;4$.!$ "oteG "otice how we only had %$9 chance to win the hand *or %$9 (e/uity(., yet calling is still ;20E That's all thanks to the good pot odds we are getting when our opponent bets all-in for 4: in to a 4O pot on the flop. "ow you'+e got some strategy under your belt, use it against the terrible players at )odog =oker and win e+en more money than before.
9inal thoughts.
1 hope that nobody feels patronised by my Ubox methodV for working out 20 in poker. 1t's >ust that e+er since 1 started thinking about expected +alue calculations in terms of UchunksV or UboxesV, it all became much easier. 1t may not be for e+eryone, but if this box method for calculating expected +alue works for you, then 1'm glad to ha+e shared it. This method is also easily extensible. 1f there is a situation where there are more than outcomes, >ust add more boxes. The boxes are >ust there to split e+erything up and make 20 calculations easier to digest. 1n all honesty, the only difficult thing about calculating expected +alue is the notation. The actual method is surprisingly straightforward, and my primary hope is that this article has helped to highlight that fact.
,e+erse implied odds are the opposite of implied odds. With implied odds you estimate how much you expect to win after making a draw, but with re#erse implied odds you estimate how much you expect to lose if you complete your draw but your opponent still holds a better hand. ,e+erse implied odds are how much you could expect to lose after hitting your draw. 1f you find yourself on a draw, you can work out your pot odds to see whether or not a call would be a profitable play in the long run. 1f you do not ha+e the pot odds to call, you can estimate your implied odds to gauge whether or not a call would still be profitable. 1f you're not playing at )odog right now *February !5 . you're losing out on money. 'et in while it's still good. "ow if you belie+e you ha+e the implied odds to call a bet, you should also estimate your re+erse implied odds to weigh out whether or not you should still call to make your draw. 7lthough this may sound complicated, it really isn'tCt too difficult to understand and there are many situations in which you should be aware of your re+erse implied odds.
1f a % or O comes, you will ha+e made your straight, but then this also makes a possible flush for another player. 1n addition, any O makes a higher straight a possibility, which will again beat your straight.
1n this situation we ha+e re#erse implied odds because if we make our draw, there is a possibility that one of our opponents will make a better hand than ours. Therefore if we make our straight and our opponent makes a hand like a flush, we will be losing money to them from calling down their bets with our second best hand.
1f we do not ha+e the pot odds to call the initial raiserCs bet, we should be folding our hand because the re+erse implied odds are outweighing any implied odds that we do ha+e. This will be sa+ing us from losing more money in the long run from chasing after draws that may well not end up being the best hand when they are completed.
)#aluation.
,e+erse implied odds are not there to scare you out of calling bets to make draws, but more to make you aware that you stand to lose money if you are calling to complete a weak draw. 1f there are many players in a pot you should be especially sure that your draw is strong enough to hold up against other players in the pot that might also be calling to make their draws. Did you think this article was usefulE Wait until you see the strategy +ideos at Deuces @racked.
&o if you are on a O high flush draw on the flop and there ha+e already been a number of callers in front of you, you ha+e to e+aluate whether you think this draw is worth calling for, as there is a good chance that another player is on a higher flush draw than you.
0 u$ks
Texas Hold'em R &trategy R -athematics R '-)ucks ! 1maginary -oneyG &klansky Dollars G '-)ucks
U'-bucksV *'alfond Dollars, 'bucks, ' )ucks. is a +ery important concept that expands upon the concept of &klansky Dollars when e+aluating the expected +alue of tough decisions in no limit HoldCem. The term U'-bucksV was coined by =hil 'alfond *F-'@lay7iken. in his article on conceptuali3ing money matters. 1tCs a great article, but itCs also a +ery long-winded one. 1n this article 1 will attempt to condense the theory behind ' bucks in to an easier to digest morsel of delicious HoldCem strategy. Tasty stuff.
&o instead of comparing your hand and your opponentCs hand, with 0 bu$ks you $ompare your hand with your opponent<s range o! hands. )y doing this you can then go on to more effecti+ely work out how much money you will win or lose when calling in certain situations based on your opponentCs range.
0 bu$ks e*ample -.
?ouCre in a home cash game with a few friends, and as with any home game the ma>ority of them are pretty bad players and6or are fairly drunk. &tacks are 45!! with blinds 4!.8645. ?ouCre in the )) with 7Mo. ?our old friend -ike from -= pushes all in and it folds around to you. ?ou know that -ike for whate+er reason will always push all-in with any two broadway cards and any pocket pair. He likes to gamble. ?ou ha+e a think for a moment and finally decide to make the call, making the pot 4 !5 in total. #ow and behold, -ike turns o+er 77 as standard and the board brings no help at all, so you lose the 4 !5 pot. Was this a bad call gi+en -ikeCs rangeE &urely not.
1n real moneyG -45!! 1n &klansky bucksG -4O$ *worked out with 7Mo +s. 77 in =oker&to+e.
Hand ranges. Fur handG 7Mo -ikeCs rangeG 7ny pair, any two broadway. * ;,7Ts;,ITs;,MTs;,ATs,7To;,ITo;,MTo;,ATo.
We find that our e/uity with 7Mo against -ikeCs pushing range is 88.59, which ob+iously means that we ha+e the edge in the long run. &o according to ' bucks, we win 455!.N8 from the 4 !5 pot on a+erage when we call all-in with 7M against -ike when he pushes.
,i+erG The final ri+er sho+e does little to modify our +illainCs range, so weCre left looking at either a busted draw or a strong made hand. &o on a board of M : N $ $ after +illain has bet on all three rounds, we can assume that +illainCs range consists of roughlyG
0illain's hand range. O<s,<8s,8%s,O<o,<8o,8%o J )usted straight draws. 7xh *except 7Mh, 7Nh, 7:h., Ixh *except IMh, INh, I:h. J )usted flush draws. MM;,NN-::,N:s,N:o J -ade hands.
7fter plugging this range in to =oker&to+e, we find that our e/uity against +illainCs range is : .:9. Therefore if we call the 45%8 bet to win a total of 4%!5, on a+erage we will walk away with 4 85.!$ ' bucks for a profit of ;45!:.!$ ' bucks *4 85.!$ - 45%8. each time. 7lthough the call seems real risky and we will lose 5 time out of $, if we are confident about +illainCs range we stand to make more money o+er the long run because of ' bucks. The result of this hand does not matter, as making the call is the correct play. "onetheless, if you like a happy ending then letCs say that +illain flipped o+er 7 A for a busted nut flush draw.
0 bu$ks e#aluation.
2+en though this may be the first time youC+e read about the term U' bucksV, the chances are that this particular concept has crossed your mind at some point whilst analy3ing hands from pre+ious sessions. The concept of ' bucks is more practical than &klansky dollars because you ne+er truly know the exact two cards that your opponent is holding before you make a call or a fold. Therefore ' bucks are a more accurate way of calculating how good or bad a call was *or will be. o+er the long run. 1f you ha+e read the original article on ' bucks by =hil 'alfond you will notice that 'alfond uses the opposite +iewpoint by gi+ing our hand a percei+ed range and our opponent a definite hand. 7s you can see 1 ha+e re+ersed this approach, but either way both methods work out perfectly well.
1n my article on poker e/uity, 1 discussed how you should be betting for +alue to maximi3e your winnings when you feel you ha+e the best hand. "ormally, if you hold the best hand at one stage during the hand, it is typical that your hand stands the best chance of winning after all the cards ha+e been dealt. Howe+er, in some situations it is possible to hold an unmade hand like a draw, but still ha+e the best chance of winning. Therefore in these situations you will ha+e high e/uity in the pot, and it will make sense to bet for +alue e+en if your hand is not yet complete.
"ow lets assume that in a similar hand where we hold M A on a flop of T O % , there are now two players in the pot instead of one. We know for a fact that opponent 7 holds O % , and a second opponent ) holds T T . 1f we run these hands through an odds calculator, it shows that we are no longer the fa+ourite to win the hand. The following is the e/uity each player has in the handG
The calculator *=oker&to+e. now tells us that Fpponent ) with their set of Tens is currently in the lead, and is most likely to win the pot after the turn and ri+er cards ha+e been dealt. Therefore seeing as we are no longer fa+ourite to win, should we be inclined to check and fold to a+oid putting in money with the hand that has the worst potential to winE "ot necessarily, as the presence of the third player in the hand is making a big difference to our chances of making money from this hand in the long run. *This is where it gets a little mathsy.... 1f our opponents and oursel+es continue with the hand and continue to build the pot, each player will ha+e in+ested money to create 56$ of the final pot, or $$9. Howe+er, our e/uity in the pot is %89, so we would be in+esting $$9 to get on a+erage a return of %89 if we stick with our hand. Therefore as you can see, if all $ players mo+e all in at this point we will be getting a good return on our money. The fact that we are not fa+ourite to win the hand is irrele+ant, because our e/uity and odds from all $ players mo+ing in on the flop means that we will be winning money in the long run. 1f our percentage e/uity is greater than the percentage of the pot we ha+e in+ested money in, we will be making a profitable play. Which in essence, is the same principle as pot odds.
=laying poker and not using a training site is like planting crops and not using fertili3er. -aximi3e your results with poker training. 1f you e+er hold a monster of a draw like an open-ended straight and flush draw, it is likely that you will ha+e +ery good e/uity in the pot and should be looking to in+est as much as possible into it. )oth of these examples work +ery closely with pot odds to help determine whether or not you should call in certain situations. Therefore if you would like to know whether or not you should be folding, calling or raising in the abo+e examples, you should take a look at the article on pot odds. 7s a general rule, if you ha+e more e/uity in the pot than you are going to in+est in it, then you should be looking to bet and raise as much as possible.
U@ombinatoricsV is a big word for something that isn't all that difficult to understand. 1n this article, 1 will go through the basics of working out hand $ombinations or UcombosV in poker and gi+e a few examples to help show you why it is useful. Fh, and as you'+e probably noticed, UcombinatoricsV, Uhand combinationsV and UcombosV refer to the same thing in poker. Don't get confused if they are used interchangeably.
For exampleG
How many ways can you be dealt 7IE How many ways can you be dealt ::E How combinations of TO are there on a flop of T$ E How many straight draw combinations are there on a flop of 7TNE
Ksing combinatorics, you will be able to /uickly work these numbers out and use them to help you make better decisions based on the probability certain hands appearing.
1f you were take a hand like 7I and write down all the possible ways you could be dealt this hand from a deck of cards *e.g. 7 I , 7 I , 7 I etc.., you would find that there are 5: possible combinations. &ee all 5: 7I hand combinations. &imilarly, if you wrote down all the possible combinations of a pocket pair like AA *e.g. A A , A A , A A etc.., you would find that there are >ust : possible combinations. &ee all : AA pocket pair hand combinations. &o as you can see from these basic starting hand combinations in poker, you're almost $ times as likely to be dealt a non-paired hand like 7I than a paired hand. That's pretty interesting in itself, but you can do a lot more than thisW
How to work out the total number of hand combinations for an unpaired hand like 7I, AT, or M$. -ethodG -ultiply the numbers of a+ailable cards for each of the two cards. Word e/uationG *5st card a+ailable cards. x * nd card a+ailable cards. T total combinations 2xample /uestionG 1f we hold IM on a IT% flop, how many possible combinations of 7I are thereE 2xample answerG
Iings *% minus the 5 on the flop and the 5 in our hand. a+ailable
How to work out the total number of hand combinations for an paired hand like 77, AA, or %%. -ethodG -ultiply the number of a+ailable cards by the number of a+ailable cards minus 5, then di+ide by two. Word e/uationG _*a+ailable cards. x *a+ailable cards - 5.] 6 T total combinations 2xample /uestionG How many combinations of TT are there on a IT% flopE 2xample answerG
Working out the combinations for paired hands looks awkward at first, but it's not that tricky when you actually try it out. Aust find the number of a+ailable cards, take 5 away from that number, multiply those two numbers together then half it. "oteG ?ou'll also notice that this method works for working out the preflop starting hand combinations mentioned earlier on. For example, if you're working out the number of 7I combinations as a starting hand, there are % 7ces and % Iings a+ailable, so % x % T 5: 7I combinations.
Wwith the two big pairs making up the ma>ority of this 9 $betting range *roughly ::9 in total.. Howe+er, let's look at these hands by comparing the total combinations for each handG
There are more 7I hands in a range of _77, II, 7I] than there are 77 and II hands combined. &o out of < possible combinations made up from 77, II and 7I, 5: of them come from 7I. This means that when our opponent $bets, the ma>ority of the time he is holding 7I and not a big pocket pair. "ow ob+iously if you're holding a hand like N8o this is hardly comforting. Howe+er, the point is that it's useful to realise that the probabilities of certain types of hands in a range will +ary. Aust because a player either has 77 or 7I, it doesn't mean that they're both e/ually probable holdings - they will actually be holding 7I more often than not. 7nalogyG 1f a fruit bowl contains 5!! oranges, 5 apple, 5 pear and 5 grape, there is a decent range of fruit *the (hands(.. Howe+er, the the fruits are hea+ily weighted toward oranges, so there is a greater chance of randomly selecting an orange from the bowl than any of the $ other possible fruits *(7I( in the example abo+e.. This same method applies when you're trying to work out the probabilities of a range of possible made hands on the flop by looking at the number of hand combinations. For example, if your opponent could ha+e either a straight draw or a set, which of the two is more likelyE
Hands you beat. 7A T $ x $ T O combinations 7< T $ x $ T O combinations 7: T $ x 5 T $ combinations 7 T $ x $ T O combinations T *$ x . 6 T $ combinations Hands you don't beat. 77 T *$ x . 6 AA T *$ x . 6 T $ combinations T $ combinations
<< T *$ x . 6 T $ combinations
Total combinations T % @ombinations you beat T $$ *NO9. @ombinations you don't beat T O * 59.
&eeing as you ha+e the best hand NO9 of the time *or NO9 (e/uity(. and the pot odds indicate that you only need to ha+e the best hand $<9 of the time, it makes it ;20 to call. &o whereas you might ha+e initially thought that the number of hands we beat compared to the number of hands we didn't beat was close to 8!68! *making it likely -20 to call., after looking at the hand combinations we can see that it is actually much closer to <!6 !, making calling a profitable play. )eing able to assign a range to your opponent is good, but understanding the different likelihoods of the hands within that range is better.
Knpaired handsG -ultiply the number of a+ailable cards. *e.g. 7I on an 7T flop T _$ x %] T 5 7I combinations..
=aired handsG Find the number of a+ailable cards. Take 5 away from that number, multiply those two numbers together and di+ide by . *e.g. TT on a 7T flop T _$ x ] 6 T $ TT combinations..
)y working out hand combinations you can gain a much better understanding about opponent's hand ranges. 1f you only e+er deal in ranges and ignore hand combinations, you are missing out on useful information. 1t's unrealistic to think that you're going to work out all these hand combinations on the fly whilst you're sat at the table. Howe+er, a lot of +alue comes from simply familiarising yourself with the +arying probabilities of different types of hands for future reference. For example, after a while you'll start to realise that straight draws are a lot more common than you think, and that flush draws are far less common than you think. 1nsights like these will help you when you're faced with similar decisions in the future. The next time you're doing some post session analysis, spend some time thinking about combinatorics and noting down what you find.
@ombinations +ideo - ?outube *all the stuff on this channel is awesome. =ermutations and @ombinations - -athForum.org
1f you're more interested in finding out more about combinations in poker only, here are a few interesting readsG
7lso, 1'd highly recommend you check out the 5athematics of NL Hold.em 2p. and 2p. : by WiltFnTilt at Deuces@racked for some great +ideo tutorials *and examples. on using hand combinations in poker.
1f you ha+e read Texas Hold'em strategy articles or o+erheard discussions between poker players, you may ha+e come across certain combinations of words to describe how someone plays at the poker table. The typical playing styles attributed to players areG
)ut what exactly does it mean to be Tight, #oose, 7ggressi+e or =assi+e in Texas Hold'emE 7nd whi$h playing style is the best? @heck out my rankings of the top Texas Hold'em poker rooms for K& players. ?ou may be surprised.
7 tight player will play +ery few hands, and only play premium hands that ha+e a good chance of winning. 7 loose player will play a wide +ariety of hands and enter numerous pots with both strong starting hands a few weaker ones.
The more hands a player enters pots with, the (looser( they are.
The second part of each playing style describes how the particular players bet on each betting round, and this is described as being either (aggressi+e( or (passi+e(.
7n aggressi#e player will fre/uently bet or raise and gi+e a lot of action by making strong bets. 7 passi#e player will be more inclined to check and call, and will rarely bet out or raise an opponent's bet.
&o as you can see, by combining these two sections together with the two descriptions in each, we can make % different playing styles to describe how many hands an opponent plays, and how they play their hands by the way they bet or check. This sort of information can be +ery useful when talking about strategy, as bluffing against a #oose-=assi+e player who plays lots of hands and calls fre/uently, is not going to be as profitable as making a bluff against a Tight-7ggressi+e player who only plays the best hands and will only bet or raise with a strong hand.
@heck out the section starting at %G$ of the @ommon Full ,ing -istakes pt. 5 +ideo for an o+er+iew of how to beat each of these players types.
1n spite of this howe+er, it is perfectly possible to play #oose-7ggressi+e >ust as profitably or e+en more profitably than the Tight-7ggressi+e style, but this is /uite difficult to master. The #oose aggressi+e style can be profitable, but it is dangerous if you do not know what you are doing. =laying #oose-7ggressi+e means that you are seeing a lot of flops and getting money into the pot when you are often not totally sure of how strong your hand is, so it is not something that is recommended for beginner players to try. Howe+er, the rewards can be high, as your opponents will often pay you off when you hit monster hands as they will not gi+e you credit for them because of the way you ha+e been playing up to that point.
should be aware that if you want to maximi3e your winnings, an aggressi+e style of play would allow you to do so rather than a passi+e style of play. 1f 1 had to rank the playing styles in order of how profitable they can be, 1 would rank them as followsG 5. Tight-7ggressi+e . #oose-7ggressi+e $. Tight-=assi+e %. #oose-=assi+e. The top two are interchangeable, as the loose-aggressi+e playing style can be +ery profitable for some. Howe+er, the T7' style is best for newer players to the game, as #7' can be a +ery dangerous style if you do not know what you are doing. For more information on playing styles, check out my friend's poker player types article on his online poker blog. 1t pro+ides more in-depth explanations of the % different player types outlined abo+e with some real-life examples.
,ead books. Muestion e+ery play you make. Watch training +ideos. Kse software. 0isit forums.
Deuces @racked is easily the top training site for cash game players. Watch +ideos and win more money.
2ead books.
This may seem +ery ob+ious and 1 am sure many of you reading this article will ha+e read a few poker books. This is the \5 way in which to expand your knowledge of poker as a new player, because you will be learning the strategy and theory of what a professional poker player has learnt in possibly !; years of playing the game all in a matter of hours. ?ou may think of it as a bit of an expense at first, but the knowledge you will gain from them will be so beneficial that they will ha+e paid for themsel+es after a few hours at the table *or e+en in one hand depending on the stakes you play.. =oker books would be my top recommendation for any new player looking to build a solid strategy for poker.
Why did 1 make that betE What do 1 want to happen after 1 make this betE What will my opponent*s. think of that betE What kind of hand does my opponent ha+e if he calls6raisesE
1n the /uestions abo+e 1 ha+e used the word (bet(, but this can be substituted for any play such as check6raise6call etc. 2+ery situation in poker is uni/ue and should be e+aluated based on the information you ha+e recei+ed up to that point. )y taking time and /uestioning each mo+e, you can make better plays in each situation and make more money in the long run. )y not thinking about the play your about to make you not only may be making a bad play, you will not be impro+ing your game either. How are you going to work out if you made the correct play or not if you don't analy3e e+ery decisionE 7 thinking poker player is a winning poker player. Trust me on that one.
0isit the strategy +ideos for free +ideos, or the training sites section for pro training site re+iews. There is also an impressi+e free training site called =okerTrik3. This is a great place to start if you are a lower stakes player and >ust getting started with training +ideos. Tag=oker.co.uk also has a bunch of really good free HK&"' poker training +ideos aimed at lower stakes players too.
+isit !orums.
There are many forums on the 1nternet *including the Texas Hold'em forum on this site. with members that share the same passion for poker as you, therefore these are great places to ask /uestions and read other playersC opinions on the game. )ut be sure not to take e+erything you read as gospel, as many of the members will still be learning the game >ust like you and simply offering their interpretation of the way some situations should be played. Did you think this article was usefulE Wait until you see the strategy +ideos at Deuces @racked. There are no easy ways to becoming a better player, but it is +ery true that you get out what you put in. 1f you put a lot of effort into your game then this will be reflected in an increasing bankroll. )e sure to be humble in your ability as e+en the best players will learn something new from time to time, you may be surprised at >ust how much you can learn if you try.
Style o! play.
1 feel a good place to start off is to try and determine what my opponentCs particular style of play is. 1 want to try and find out whether or not they areG
This can be done by watching they way they play their hands. This is because this information can be +ery important for where you might be forced into a difficult call or fold situation. For example, if 1 ha+e a decent hand and 1 am facing a large bet from my opponent, 1 am more likely to call if 1 know my opponent is #oose-7ggressi+e rather than Tight-7ggressi+e. Therefore 1 will usually shorten these tags down to T7, T=, #7 and #= and stick them at the top of the note box for /uick reference when 1 want some info on my opponents.
Do they pay too much for drawsE Do they bet drawsE Do they make continuation betsE Do they make float playsE Do they o+er-+alue top pairE 7re they a calling stationE
These in my opinion are the most important and profitable factors of my opponentCs game that 1 want to be aware of. There are going to be numerous tidbits that 1 can pick up on and note down, but the 8 points abo+e are the ones that are going to help me the most. This is because knowing these points will help me in a multitude of common situations in the game. For example, if 1 know my opponent o+er-+alues top pair, 1 am going to bet like cra3y when 1 am holding a monster rather than try and slow play and sucker them in. Furthermore, 1f 1 know my opponent pays too much with drawing hands, 1 am going to bet big when they are drawing to make them pay dearly and help them make bigger and bigger mistakes by calling.
7s you can see, the notes are simple and effecti+e, as they allow me to /uickly see what my opponent is like without ha+ing to try and figure out different short-handed codes 1 ha+e for each player. 1 donCt often use the coloured tags for my opponents if they are a+ailable, as 1 feel that the ma>ority of key info will be kept within my notes. Howe+er, 1 will sometimes use colours like green and red to help signify a +ery weak player and a +ery strong player. Kse the colour tags to your ad+antage, but don't feel obliged to ha+e to use all the different colours a+ailable. Ieep it simple.
Poker Winrates
Texas Hold'em R &trategy R Fther R =oker Winrates The amount of money you win o+er a set period of time or hands is known as your (winrate( or (win rate( *1'm not sure if there is meant to be a gap.. 1n poker, winrate is a +ery interesting topic for a lot of players as the higher your winrate the more money you win. 1n this article 1 will talk about the basics of winrates as well as a few other topics to do with winrates in poker.
bb7-(( T The number of big blinds you win per 5!! hands. bb7hour T The number of big blinds you win per hour. 67-(( T The amount of money you win per 5!! hands. 67hour T The amount of money you win per hour.
The most $ommonly used winrate in tra$king programs and on !orums !or no limit Hold<em these days is bb7-((. =okerTracker still uses ))65!!, which is twice as much as bb65!!, but 1'll explain that in a moment. &o if you ha+e a winrate of 8 bb65!! in 4564 "#, you are winning 45! *8 x 4 . for e+ery 5!! hands you play.
7-(( T )ig )ets per 5!! hands. 7 big bet is x the big blind. ptbb7-(( T =oker Tracker )ig )linds per 5!! hands. This is the same as ))65!!.
&o, if you ha+e a winrate of $ ))65!! or $ ptbb65!! in a 4!.8645 "# game, you would be winning : bb65!! or 4: per 5!! hands. The reason why ))65!! and ptbb65!! exist is because of limit HoldCem. U)ig betsV are double the big blind and are used on the later streets in limit HoldCem. When =okerTracker first came out it measured winrates using double the big blind for both limit and no limit games, so to sa+e confusion the notation (ptbb65!!( was used. 1f you're a &"' player and want to find out about (winrates( for tournament games, read my article on poker ,F1. @heck out my rankings of the top Texas Hold'em poker rooms for K& players. ?ou may be surprised.
7 winrate abo+e ! means that you are a winning player and you should be happy about that. &omething cra3y like O89 of all online poker players lose money, so be thankful that youCre good enough to be in this elite group. Howe+er, 1 know that youCre not going to be satisfied with a +ery general answer like that. ?ou want some figures donCt youE
,ough ballpark figures for good and great winrates. 5 J % bb65!! T 'reat. 7 solid winrate if you can sustain it. 8 J O bb65!! T 7ma3ing. This is a +ery high winrate at any le+el. @onsider mo+ing up. 5!; bb65!! T 1mmense. 0ery, +ery few ha+e a winrate like this. ?ou probably ha+e a small sample si3e though.
Fnce again, these are rough guidelines for good and ridiculously good winrates. 1f yours is much higher, then congratulations to you and 1 hope it remains high. 7t the end of the day though as anyone will tell youW youCre doing a good >ob if your winrate is abo+e !bb65!!, so be happy with what you'+e got.
7 graph to show the winrate distribution of online poker players that ha+e played 5,!!!; hands in !5!. 1mage sourceG =okerTable,atings.com The graph of the distribution of player winrates abo+e highlights a few important factsG
The +ast ma>ority of poker players are losing poker players. -ost winning players ha+e a winrate of less than %bb65!!.
Whilst winrates of %bb65!!; are attainable, +ery few winning players achie+e this kind of winrate compared to those that ha+e a winrate of less than %bb65!!. &o once again, e+en though you might ha+e shook your head when 1 said that any winrate abo+e !bb65!! is good, this graph shows >ust how happy you should be to fall in to that category.
To work out winrates in terms of time, we need to ha+e a rough idea of how many hands we play in an hour. The rough figures for cash games are as followsG
7+erage hands per hour for cash games. :! hands6hour for full ring games. <8 hands6hour for short-handed games.
Turn our bb65!! in to a 465!! winrate by multiplying our winrate by the big blind. -ultiply this by the number of tables you play at a time *if you multi-table.. -ultiply our 46S hands by !.<8 or !.:! *this turns 46S hands in to 46hour. depending on which game we play. Wand we will be left with our hourly winrate. 2asy.
To get your daily, weekly, monthly win rate and so on, you >ust multiply your hourly winrate by the hours you expect to play in a day, week, month and so on. We could both do with a few examples though couldnCt weW
: bb65!! T 45.8! *: x 8c. per 5!! hands at each table. 45.8! per 5!! hands x % tables T 4: per %!! hands. 4: x !.<8 T 48.5! an hour.
o
*We play <8 hands an hour on a+erage in short-handed games, so we multiply 4: by !.<8 to get our hourly winrate.
46hour T 48.5!
bb65!! T 4% per 5!! hands. 4% per 5!! hands x 5 table T 4% *ob+iously.. 4% x !.:! T 4 .%! an hour.
$ bb65!! T 45 per 5!! hands at each table. 45 x tables T 4 % per !! hands. 4 % x !.<8 T 4 !.%! an hour. 4 !.%! x 8 hours a day T 45! a day. 45! a day x b ! days a month T 4 ,!%! a month. 46month T 4 ,!%!
For more on potential earnings, read the article on how much money you can win from online poker.
Poker Counter!eiting
'ounterfeiting in poker is not exactly a strategical concept, but it's something that you should be aware of and be prepared to deal with whene+er it crops up. 2+en if you'+e only played poker for a week, you ha+e more than likely been counterfeited at least once or twice -- you >ust didn't know there was a name for it. &o here's an explanation *with examples. of $ounter!eiting in Te*as Hold'em with a /uick guide on what to do if and when it happens.
?ou ha+e bottom two pair on this turn. "ot the strongest hand in the world, but you will usually be able to get decent +alue from opponents' top-pair type hands. Howe+er, lo and behold, the ri+er brings the following cardG
?our pair of %s has been made completely redundant thanks to the o+erpair on the board. The T on the ri+er has $ounter!eited your pair of %s.
?our best hand before the ri+erG %%-88-7 ?our best hand after the ri+erG 88-TT-7
?our hand still has the same basic +alue as before *two pair., but nonetheless your expectation for the hand has decreased because of your counterfeited pair of %s. Why is it bad? ?ou are forced to use the pair of Ts on the board to make a two-pair hand of Ts and 8s, replacing your original two-pair of 8s and %s. ?ou still ha+e that pair of %s, but it's effecti+ely useless because there is no such thing as three-pair in Texas Hold'em. ?ou'+e lost the ad+antage that using both of your holecards to make that original two-pair ga+e you. 1f your opponent had a pair of 7s on the turn, they will now ha+e a better two-pair hand than you *7s and Ts.. 1n addition, if your opponent has a pocket pair of ::; they will again ha+e >ust made a better two-pair hand than you on the ri+er.
&o whereas if you hadn't been counterfeited *the board not pairing. on this ri+er you could ha+e won a decent amount of money from an opponent with top pair only, you could now easily end up losing money to a new and better two-pair hand. Ha+e you check out my +ideos section yetE There are a bunch of free strategy +ids there for "#H2 cash games.
What a perfect flopH you'+e >ust flopped the nut straight. 1n this sort of situation you can usually >ust sit back and think about how you're going to maximi3e +alue from the hand. Howe+er, the turn is the followingG
That's pretty annoying, because now any other player at the table with any random 7ce will ha+e a straight too, plus you're less likely to get much more action from one-pair or two-pair hands because the board looks so scary. 7gain, you still ha+e the nut straight *so your hand +alue hasn't changed., but you expect to make less money from the hand than if the A didn't show up on the turn. )ut wait, it can still get worseW
Wso now e+ery single player left in the hand has the nut straight. ?our original straight has been completely counterfeited, as both the 7ce and Aack in your hand ha+e been rendered useless. Why is it bad? 1'+e pretty much explained the negati+es in this hand as we went along. 1n a nutshell though, the cards in your hand ga+e you less of an ad+antage as you proceeded to be partially counterfeited on the turn, and then fully counterfeited on the ri+er. ?ou will now get no +alue from pairs and sets that your opponents might ha+e held, which could ha+e resulted in winning a pretty big pot for yourself. 1nstead, you will >ust split the pot with the remaining players in the hand.
7ny player with a card higher than a $ will beat your hand due to them ha+ing %-of-a-kind with a better kicker.
5. Fn the turn, any player with a heart *the suit, not the organ. will now beat your $-high flush. . Fn the ri+er, any player with a heart still beats your flush, but you now split the pot with players that do not e+en ha+e a heart.
1n conclusion, being counterfeited isn't something you can control or pre+ent, but you can control the way you play afterwards *which is the important part.. @ounterfeiting situations are a lot like bad beats, so you should learn to deal with them in the same way.
Poker +arian$e
Texas Hold'em R &trategy R Fther R =oker 0ariance
1n this article 1 am going to talk about the basics of #arian$e in poker and how it affects your game. There can be a lot of mathematics in+ol+ed with +ariance. Howe+er, this is largely going to be a non-mathsy article about +ariance, which 1Cm sure will be +ery welcomed by a large number of you reading this.
What is #arian$e?
0ariance is the downswings and upswings in+ol+ed with playing poker. 1tCs /uite possibly the least technical definition for a term 1 ha+e e+er written, but the Uups and downsV of poker when it comes to winning and losing money sums it up rather well. +arian$e is the di!!eren$e between how mu$h money you e*pe$t to win on a#erage o#er the long run and the results you are seeing in the short term. &o for example, if according to your win rate you expect to win 48!! in a month on a+erage but end up losing 45,!!! instead, this is attributed to +ariance. 1f you're not playing at )odog right now *February !5 . you're losing out on money. 'et in while it's still good.
#etCs say that you are playing heads up against a total maniac that mo+es all-in on e+ery hand. Furthermore, by a pure stroke of luck and through the magic of me being able to make examples up, you are dealt pocket aces 8 times in a row. Fb+iously, you decide to call all-in 8 times before the flop too.
2/uity of aces against a random hand from =okersto+e. 7gainst any random hand, 77 has an <89 chance of winning. Therefore we expect to win roughly % out of these 8 all-ins, although we would ideally like to win them all. Howe+er, you actually end up losing all 8 all-ins against your opponentCs 8 random hands. 1t was ama3ingly unlikely, but the fact is that it is possible and it did happen. Fn a+erage you expected to win % out of these 8 all-ins, but thanks to +ariance you ended up winning ! out of 8. 7s you can see, +ariance is the difference between the expected long term results and actual short term results, in this case it is % buy-ins worth of #arian$e.
+arian$e in graphs.
1mage creditG =oker !! 7s you can see from this graph the rate at which this player wins money is far from linear. &ure, his stats may show a winrate of 5.!: ))65!!, but there are times where he loses more than he expects and wins more than he expects. +arian$e $ompared to an e*pe$ted winrate. Howe+er, now letCs say that this player had a winrate of 5.8 ))65!! *$ bb65!!. o+er his last 5 million hands prior to this current time period. 1f we plot this expected winrate on the graph, we
get to see how much +ariance is taking place compared to what this player expects to be winning in a perfect world. @lick To 2nlarge
F+er a long enough period of time his actual results will meet up with his expected results, but in the short term the amount that he wins or loses in the hands of our good friend +ariance. For more information on stuff like ))65!! and bb65!!, see the article on win rates in poker.
in+ol+ed in a lot more pots and will be conse/uently risking more money than your a+erage tight player. The looser you are and the more risks you take, the greater your +ariance will be. . The poker game. Fmaha has less +ariance than HoldCem because the hands in Fmaha generally ha+e less of an edge against one another when players mo+e all-in *odds of each hand winning are closer to :!6%! as opposed to something like N86 8.. Therefore the smaller the edges, the less the +ariance.
$. The betting type. "o limit has greater +ariance than limit poker, where the amount of money that players can put in to the pot is much smaller in relation to the blinds in limit games than it is in no limit games. The more money you can risk, the greater the +ariance. %. The game type. #arge -TTs will ha+e much more +ariance than &"'s because you expect to win far less often. Howe+er, when you do win an -TT you recei+e sudden large payouts, which ob+iously results in higher le+els of +ariance. There are definitely a lot more factors that can affect the +ariance that you come up against in your poker career, but these are the most ob+ious ones and the ones that will ha+e the greatest influence on the si3e of your Uups and downsV.
7n example of a +ariance simulator graph taken o+er 5!!,!!! hands from e+pluplus.com. 7nsky=oker.com also has a cool downloadable excel +ariance simulator too, but it's not as /uick and easy to use as the online simulator at e+;;. ?ou may be surprised at the si3e of the possible swings and >ust how different your results can be o+er large sample si3es. 1t's a real eye opener if you think your recent 8 buy-in downswing was bad.
-ore information on standard de+iation and +ariance can be found in the Holdem -anager guide +ideo starting at :G5:. 1t also gi+es you a /uick example of how to use the e+;; +ariance simulator.
This particular article has only co+ered the general stuff about +ariance in poker. For a more math-orientated look at this topic, try the article on calculating +ariance at 7int#uck.com.
The situation.
?ou'+e been on a night out with a couple of friendsH had a good time and a (couple( of drinks, and now you're back home thinking about what you can do to wind down the night. ?ou notice your computer in the corner and remember that you'+e still got a bit of money left in your Full Tilt account. ?ou'+e had a little bit more to drink than you expected but no matter, you're in a pretty good frame of mind to outplay some fish and add a little padding to your bankroll to gi+e yourself a nice surprise for when you log into your account in the morning. Deuces @racked is easily the top training site for cash game players. Watch +ideos and win more money.
?ou are far more susceptible to tilt when playing poker drunk. #oose inhibitions ; tilt ne+er work out well. &ound +aguely familiarE -aybe the last time you played drunk wasn't exactly the sameH maybe you bombed out pretty /uickly or maybe you managed to get lucky and double up and win a couple of pots. 2ither way there are a whole load of players who ha+e sat down at the poker table a little inebriated, it e+en happens to the best of us ^cough^
1f you can't excercise a little self control, be prepared to lose money. 1t's as simple as that. 1f you're serious about taking your game to the next le+el you should take ad+antage of poker training.
String betting.
U&tring bettingV is when a player makes a bet and mo+es back and forth from their chip stack to the pot to complete the bet. For example, if you intend to make a 4$! bet and mo+e three 45! stacks into the pot one at a time, then this is considered to be a string bet.
This can cause problems during li+e play because a player that acts after you may think that when you mo+e you 45! stack into the pot, that it is the only bet that you are making. Then, thinking that you ha+e completing your action, that player may go to make his play unaware that you are continuing to make your bet. Ha+e you check out my +ideos section yetE There are a bunch of free strategy +ids there for "#H2 cash games. &tring betting is frowned upon in li+e play, so to a+oid any confusion you should announce the si3e of your bet before mo+ing your chips, or mo+e your chips into the centre in one motion. &tring betting is an easy mistake to make, so keep an eye on your betting in your first few sessions at the casino.
2ea$ting to $ards.
When you are sat behind your computer screen, there is no one to see you smile when you are dealt pocket aces or see you shake your head when you miss your draw. Howe+er, in li+e play your emotions are open for e+eryone at the table to see, so try to remain calm when looking at the cards as they come out. For example, if you start to show disinterest in a hand then you lea+e yourself open to bluffs from other players when you may ha+e had the best hand at the time. 7 good tip to a+oid gi+ing information away through your emotions is to look at your opponents as the flop is dealt and not at the cards. This way you can see how your opponent reacts and you can steady yourself before looking down at what has come out.
2+en if you genuinely make the mistake of taking the cards back to your lap, other players may become a little wary and ask that your cards be folded >ust to be sure that you were not cheating. Ieep your cards on the table. There is no real need to pick them up anyway *unless you are turning them o+er at the showdown..
1f you play a lot of poker in )P- casinos, you should check out my friend Aonathan's li+e poker website. He co+ers a lot more than 1 do on li+e poker eti/uette *and how to act at a li+e poker table in general.. There are also an impressi+e strategy section that contains articles with high /uality tips and ad+ice.
2xchange rates diagram between !ct '!: and Feb '!N. *Muite old, but does the trick anyway..
7n example can be drawn from the graph of the ')=6K&D exchange rate between Fct '!: and Feb '!N taken from x-rates *see diagram abo+e.. &o lets say that a )ritish player deposits c5!!! into an online poker room that con+erts their money into K&D. 1f this player deposited on Fct 5!th !: where the rate was highest, that person would ha+e been gi+en a bankroll of 45<8%.<!. Then if that player broke e+en for months and withdrew the 45<8%.<! on Aan $rd !N where the exchange rate was lowest, they would recei+e cO$%.88 back into their home bank account.
7s you can see, that particular player has lost >ust o+er c:8 *45$!. through the fluctuation in exchange rates *assuming they also went on to a+oid the (cash out curse( too, of course.. )ut if he6she had waited until the exchange rate had increased in their fa+or, they could ha+e sa+ed themsel+es a little more money. &o when we are con+erting our money, we will want to be con+erting to K&D when the exchange rate from our currency is low, and withdrawing when the exchange rate from our currency is high. 1t is not easy to estimate how these rates will change o+er time unless you are experienced in the exchange business, but it is worth keeping an eye on these rates and be aware that your bankroll will be losing +alue as the exchange rates decrease. 1t is more important to keep track of exchange rates after a big win, as the exchange rate will ha+e a greater effect on the amount you will be withdrawing. =laying poker and not using a training site is like planting crops and not using fertili3er. -aximi3e your results with poker training.
Poker Continuation et
Texas Hold'em R &trategy R =lays R The @ontinuation )et 5 @betting 7rticlesG The @ontinuation )et G -ore @betting Tips G When To @)et *2xamples. G Double )arrelling
The (continuation bet( *or cbet. is becoming an increasingly popular mo+e at the no limit Holdem tables. The popularity of the mo+e stems from its simplicity and effecti+eness, which means that it is easy to learn and be used appropriately on a basic le+el by players new to the game. 1t is hard to play any session at any le+el without seeing a $ontinuation bet being utili3ed, and you are putting yourself at a great disad+antage if you are not aware of it.
Deuces @racked is easily the top training site for cash game players. Watch +ideos and win more money. This means that if your opponent folded their hand each time you made a continuation bet and they did not connect with the flop, you will be winning more pots on the flop than if you simply checked. This is the most basic principle behind the play, but there are numerous other factors that influence its' success.
7 good continuation bet is 6$ to $6% the si3e of the pot. Take in to consideration reads on your opponents.
7 good si3e of a continuation bet should be around 6$ to $6% the si3e of the pot. &o if the pot were 45!, a 4N bet would be an appropriate amount for a respectable continuation bet. 1f the bet is too low, it in+ites opponents to call because they ha+e good pot odds if they are on a draw or if they ha+e a half decent hand. 7 good continuation bet is between 6$ to $6% of the si3e of the pot. When we make this play we want to make it appear as if we ha+e a +ery strong hand like top pair or better scaring our opponents out of the pot, and betting between 6$ to $6% the si3e of the pot does this +ery effecti+ely. Howe+er, if we o+er bet the pot *for example 45% into a 45! pot., we are in+esting too much money into the hand and risking more than we need to when a smaller 4< bet will ha+e the same effect.
Howe+er, if you hold 7 M and the flop comes A I < , a continuation bet is more likely to get called because of the flush and straight draw possibilities. 7s you can see, the play is more likely to work when your opponent can only call if they ha+e a strong made hand with no draw. )ad flop for a continuation bet example hand history. 7lways consider the texture of the flop and how likely it is that your opponent will ha+e made a hand that they will be prepared to call a bet with. The wetter *more co-ordinated. the flop is, the more reluctant you should be to attempt a continuation bet when you ha+e not made a strong hand yourself.
@ontinuation bets are commonplace in today's Texas hold em poker game, so it is in your best interest to familiari3e yourself with them and start incorporating them into your play. "ow you'+e got some strategy under your belt, use it against the terrible players at )odog =oker and win e+en more money than before. There are no set rules to when these plays will work, but there are guidelines as mentioned abo+e that you can follow to help impro+e the effecti+eness of the play. The best way to learn how and when to use continuation bets is to go and sit down at a table and experiment a little. The good thing about continuation bets is that they are relati+ely inexpensi+e to use, so you won't be losing a whole load of money trying to learn how and when to use them.
Watching your bluff get called hurtsH it really does hurt a lot. "ot only that, but repeated poorly executed bluffs eat away at your bankroll causing you to lose more and more money from one session to the next. 1magine if there was a way to take the sting out of getting called when you bluff. )etter yet, what if you could take all your bluffs and almost instantly make them profitableE 7llow me to introduce... the semi blu!!. ^waits for a roar of applause and tears of gratitude and relief^
Total blu!! T no *or +ery little. chance of winning the hand if called. Semi blu!! T some chance of winning the hand if called.
7 total bluff has absolutely no chance of winning the hand if called. Therefore, it has !9 e/uity in the pot. "oteG To be more precise, 1Cd go ahead and say that any hand with less than 5!9 e/uity can be classed a UtotalV bluff. &ometimes e+en the most clear-cut bluffs will ha+e some e/uity for whate+er reason. &emi bluffs ha+e a decent chance of winning the hand if called, so they ha+e at least some e/uity in the pot. 7s you can imagine, different semi bluffs will ha+e +arying chances of winning the hand, which means that some will ha+e more e/uity than others. For example, semi bluffing with a flush and straight draw hand will ha+e far more e/uity than semi bluffing with a gutshot straight draw. 1n general, more chance of impro+ing T more e/uity. &emi bluffs can also only be made when there are more cards to come *so on the flop or the turn., as those unknown cards are whatCs gi+ing you the opportunity to impro+e. &o no, you canCt semi bluff on the ri+er. Fn the ri+er, youCre either making a pure bluff *!9 e/uity. or youCre betting for +alue and want your opponent to call.
7 diagram to highlight the types of bet based on your e/uity in the hand.
7 few important notes about this diagram. The less e/uity you ha+e in the hand the riskier your bluff becomes. 1f you ha+e little or no e/uity in the hand, your bet is +irtually a total bluff. 1f you ha+e more than 8!9 e/uity you should be betting for +alue and hoping to see your opponent to call instead of fold.
1f your bluff gets called, youCd much rather ha+e a $89 chance of making the best hand than a 5 9 chance. 1t makes mathematical sense for a semi bluffs with higher e/uity to be more profitable than semi bluffs with lower e/uity, because you end up winning more often with a higher e/uity percentage.
With 7I your bet has fold e/uity ; actual e/uity *o+ercards ; gutshot.. With N o your bet has fold e/uity only.
The more e/uity you ha+e when youCre putting money in to the pot the better. 1n fact, in the example abo+e betting with 7I is almost certainly ;20, whereas betting with N o is likely to be -20. This is a prime example of how semi bluffs are better than total bluffs during play.
)ig flush draws. Fpen-ended straight draws. Flush draws ; open-ended straight draws.
7ll of these hands ha+e good amounts of e/uity against made hands like pairs, which is the exact reason why they are great hands for semi-bluffing.
@are to take a wild guess as to why these arenCt great hands for semi bluffingE ?ep, thatCs rightW they donCt ha+e a lot of e/uity. 'utshot straight draws ha+e poor odds of hitting, which means less e/uity. Weak flushes ha+e a problems with re+erse implied odds *e+en if you hit, you could still lose money to a stronger flush., which means poor e/uity again. &till, these hands are better to bluff with than a hand with !9 e/uity *or close to it.. 1tCs >ust that theyCre not as good as the ones abo+e. @heck out the percentage odds chart or the ratio odds chart to compare the odds of completing different types of drawing hands in Texas Hold'em.
The (check raise( is one of the strongest and arguably the most effecti+e mo+es in Texas Hold'em poker. ,egarded by some as a dishonest mo+e and e+en banned in certain card rooms, there is no doubt that the check-raise is an important weapon in any winning player's arsenal. 7 check-raise is made when you check when the action gets to you, with the intention of raising if your opponent bets, hence the name 'check-raise'. 7s you can imagine it is an interesting mo+e because at first you show weakness to your opponent by checking, and then coming o+er the top of them to show a great amount of strength. This is why it can be regarded as dishonest as it is such a decepti+e play, 'trapping' your opponent's bet into the pot.
opponent and becomes less successful as you increase the number of opponents, which could really be said for any type of bluff. $ criteria should be met in order to make a good check raiseG To pull off a check-raise you ha+e to be in first position for the ob+ious reason that you ha+e to be checking into your opponent to make them bet. 1f your opponent does indeed bet, then if you raise your opponent you are showing such a high amount of strength that your opponent will fold any marginal hands. 7 check raise will only work when you are first to act, otherwise you will simply be raising *if you are last to act.. There are certain criteria you should follow in order for this to be successful.
?ou should be confident that you opponent holds a marginal hand. ?ou should re-raise at least twice the amount of your opponent's bet. The pot should be relati+ely small. 1t is ad+isable to ha+e some sort of drawing hand or marginal hand.
because the pot has remained the same si3e, because there will ha+e been no betting since the pre-flop betting round. Finally, you will sa+e yourself more money in the long run if you hold a drawing hand, due to the fact that your opponent will occasionally call your re-raise. 1f you ha+e no hand, you will ha+e to check and gi+e up your hand to any bets on future rounds, losing the full amount of money you used in the actual raise. Howe+er, if you ha+e a good draw when your opponent calls, you stand a chance of taking the whole pot when you make your draw. 1n addition to this, you are likely to get a free card after after-check raising on the flop, because your opponent will be afraid to bet into you on future rounds. 'i+ing you extra opportunities to make your draw.
The check-raise for extra money is more effecti+e against multiple opponents. )e sure to be in first or early position. Do not check-raise too much.
1t is ad+isable to check raise for extra money when there is more than one opponent in the pot, otherwise the mo+e will do what is mentioned in the first part of the article, showing too much strength and making your opponent fold his marginal hand. 1n the ma>ority of situations, you are better off betting straight out as opposed to going for the check raise. Howe+er, it is a handy play to ha+e in your arsenal in the right spots. 1t is better to attempt a check raise when you are in one of the earliest positions in the hand, because if you are one of the last few to act, then you cannot be sure that any of the players behind you will bet to gi+e you the opportunity to raise. 7lthough you want to extract as much money form your opponents as possible, a large re-raise may scare them all out of the hand. )y minimum raising you are gi+ing you opponents a greater incenti+e to put more money into the pot, because it is not costing them as much to see the next card. )e sure when you do check-raise to extract extra money from your opponents, that your hand is +irtually unbeatable. ?ou do not want to be making minimum re-raise if the board is coordinated enough that your opponents hold hands that could possibly out-draw you.
When to make a free card play. ?ou should ideally be heads-up against an opponent * or more opponents makes it trickier.. ?ou should be first to act. ?ou should ha+e a strong drawing hand.
?ou HoldG
FlopG
1n this example we ha+e the nut flush draw, and we are heads up with our opponent. We are also first to act. Free card plays can pro+e to be +ery successful if you hold a drawing hand *like a straight or flush draw.. This is the perfect situation in which we can make a free card play. This can be done by checking this flop when we are first to act. "ow one of two things will happenG 5. Fur opponent will bet. . Fur opponent will check behind us. The optimum play from our point of +iew would be for our opponent to check, as then we would be getting our free card on the flop. )ut if our opponent bets, when the action comes back to us we should re-raise. )y using the check-raise it disguises the strength of our hand and gi+es us a strong opportunity to take a free card on the turn if our opponent calls the re-raise. When the turn card comes, and you check once again, our opponent is less likely to bet because of our aggression on the flop. Howe+er if they re-raise once again on the flop we can be sure they ha+e a strong hand and we should only call the bet if we are getting correct pot odds for the draw. Deuces @racked is easily the top training site for cash game players. Watch +ideos and win more money. This should sa+e us money because if we called the bet on the flop, our opponent could easily put us on a drawing hand and o+ercharge us on the next round of betting to see the next card.
7d+antages of the free card play. 1t allows us to sa+e money on future betting rounds.
1t disguises the strength of our hand. 1t gi+es us the opportunity to take down the pot on the flop.
FlopG
Here we ha+e a dream flopH we are currently holding the nuts and there are no straight or flush draws. Howe+er, if you were to bet this hand it is doubtful that any opponent would call. This is because it is unlikely our opponent would ha+e a Iing, and probably would not call a raise with a N or a . 1f we are last to act we can check and allow our opponent to see the turn for free. 1f you ha+e the deck crippled, it is +ery unlikely that you are going to get any money from your opponent on the flop. We are hoping that a card will come down to impro+e their hand and allow us to take money off of them on future betting rounds. 1n addition, by checking we are once again disguising the strength of our hand. Knlike in the pre+ious situation where we check raised to show strength when we did not ha+e a hand, in this situation we are trying to win extra money from the hand through deception. 2+en if the next card does not help our opponent, we are now gi+ing them the opportunity to bluff by showing weakness.
Wthen we should definitely bet or re-raise when last to act. We still ha+e the nuts but we would now want to protect it from any potential flushes or straights. Don't forget to bet the turn. The only way to build the pot is by betting or raising, so don't be afraid to bet out. 1f your opponent folds, it's +ery doubtful that you would ha+e got any money from them on the ri+er anyway. 1n most situations you should bet on the turn to protect the hand you ha+e. This is because it is your last opportunity to extract money from your opponent if they are on a draw and gain an extra round of bets from them if they ha+e a half decent hand. 1f your opponent does fold then you ha+e to accept that you probably would not ha+e made much money from the hand no matter how you played it.
The (stop and go( play is a tournament manoeu+re that takes place o+er the pre-flop and flop betting rounds. The play is typically used when a player is short-stacked in a tournament and has a hand that they are willing to go all-in with in an attempt to double up. The stop and go play is where you ha+e a hand that you intend on mo+ing all-in with. Howe+er, you call an opponent's bet before the flop instead of pushing, with the intention of pushing all-in on the flop instead.
The stop and go play reduces the odds your opponent has to call, and so they will ha+e to think hard about whether they want to continue if they ha+enCt impro+ed their hand, and :!9 of the time they wonCt.
The lo$king et
Texas Hold'em R &trategy R =lays R The )locking )et 5
The (blocking bet( *or blocker bet. is made when you are out of position and wish to see either a showdown or a ri+er card cheaply. 1f used effecti+ely it can pre+ent your opponent from making a big bet that you can not profitably call. 1f used incorrectly, or in the wrong circumstances, this blo$king bet is simply a waste of chips. This article will show you how and when to use the blocking bet.
The blocking bet is simply where you make a smaller than a+erage si3ed bet when first to act in order to reduce the amount of money that you pay to see the next card. )y making a small bet, you anticipate that your opponent will >ust call and not raise. 7s a result, you will not ha+e to call what would ha+e been a larger bet from them *in comparison to your (blocker bet(. if you had checked.
?ou expect that if you check again your opponent will bet a large enough amount that you would be unable to continue with your flush draw. 7s an alternati+e you make a small bet of 56$rd of the pot. This is designed to pre+ent your opponent from making too big a bet J if he calls with his *+ery likely. top pair then you get to see the ri+er card for a relati+ely cheap price. )locking bet example hand history.
. 1t is only necessary when you are out of position. 5. 1f you make your flush on the ri+er then you are +ery likely to be paid off by any player with a pair or better. The blocking bet stopped your opponent from betting an amount that you would not ha+e been able to call J and also disguised your holding at the same time. 1f you miss the ri+er then a check and fold is probably optimal here against most opponents. . 1f the positions had been re+ersed J you were on the button rather than the out of position player J then a blocking bet would not ha+e been necessary here. ?our opponent would ha+e acted before you and could ha+e bet enough that you were unable to call. 1f J after seeing his flop bet called J the player checked on the turn you would ha+e been in a position to check behind to try and make your flush with a free card.
To summari3e, the blocking bet is made when out of position against an opponent who will most probably bet if you check. 1t is made with hands which do not want to call a big bet J such as draws during play and medium strength hands on the ri+er. Did you think this article was usefulE Wait until you see the strategy +ideos at Deuces @racked. )etting a small amount will often confuse your opponent into calling instead of raising, allowing you to see the next card *or showdown. relati+ely cheaply. 2nsure you mix up your blocking bets with +alue raises J once opponents get a read on your blocking bets they completely lose their effecti+eness.
et or Che$k 2aise?
Texas Hold'em R &trategy R =lays R )et or @heck ,aiseE 5
?ou are up against one opponent in a pot and you are confident that you ha+e the best hand. Knfortunately howe+er, you are not helped by the fact that you are first to act. ?ou want to get as much money into the middle, but you are not entirely sure of the best way to go about it. ?ou could bet out straight away and hope to see them call, or you could try checkraising them to help increase the amount of money that gets put into the pot. )ut what is the most profitable option o+er the long runE Firstly, lets outline a few pros and $ons o! betting #ersus $he$k"raising. @heck out my rankings of the top Texas Hold'em poker rooms for K& players. ?ou may be surprised.
Che$k raising.
)y check raising, you are opening up the opportunity to increase the amount of money that gets put in to the pot. This is because you will be raising your opponents bet, and so they will ha+e to put more money into the middle to see the next card. The more you can get them to put in the middle, the more we can win.
The downside to check raising is that there is always the possibility that our opponent will not bet, and we miss out on a prime opportunity to build the pot. 1n addition to this, the check-raise is a +ery powerful mo+e, and so by doing this we may well reduce our chances of being able to make our opponent put more money into the pot in future *and e+en in the current. betting rounds.
ProsI
ConsI
&hows a great deal of strength, and may force our opponent to fold. We will not ha+e the opportunity to check raise if our opponent checks behind us.
ProsI
Definite opportunity to get more money in to the pot. Fur hand is more disguised than if we check raise.
ConsI
1f you feel that you ha+e the best hand, you should bet out. The reason for this is that by betting out, you eliminate the risk of gi+ing your opponent a free card whilst not gi+ing too much information away about the strength of your hand. These two 'plus points' far outweigh the potential of getting more money into the pot by attempting check raises o+er the long run, so learn to sa+e that check-raise for special occasions. 1n general, you are better off betting straight out in first position as opposed to going for the check raise. 1t is better to be consistently safe, rather than going for the risky big win from time to time.
/ouble arrelling
Texas Hold'em R &trategy R =lays R Double )arrelling ! @betting 7rticlesG The @ontinuation )et G -ore @betting Tips G When To @)et *2xamples. G Double )arrelling
&o you made a continuation bet on the flop, but annoyingly your opponent went ahead and called it. ?ouCre now stuck in an uncomfortable situation staring in to the eyes of an unwanted turn card desperately searching for a new plan of action. What do you doE K/ouble barrellingL or K!iring a se$ond barrelL is the tri$ky art o! making another $ontinuation bet on the turn. 1tCs difficult to master and forces you to risk more money than your pre+ious bet, so you really want to make sure that you make the right choice. 1n this article 1 will outline the basics of !iring a su$$ess!ul se$ond barrel on the turn.
5. DonCt bother trying to barrel a calling station. . ,eads are important, as e+er. $. 7+oid barrelling unless you ha+e some e/uity. ?. arrel on turn $ards that s$are your opponent.
8. DonCt forget to barrel when you impro+e on the turn too. 5. )arrelling a calling station is fun if you want to throw money at someone, but otherwise remember the principle that trying to bluff players that rarely fold will rape your bankroll. . 1f you know that your opponent likes to float a lot of flops - that helps. 1f you know your opponent rarely continues past the flop without a premium hand J that helps. 1f you know your opponent likes to get to showdowns as fre/uently as possible J that helps. Do you see a pattern forming hereE There more you think and the more you know about your opponents, the easier it is to determine whether firing a second barrel is a good idea or not. $. 1f youCre firing a second barrel you are doing it as a bluff or a semi bluff to try and win the pot there and then. 7s with any bluff, itCs always a good idea to ha+e a hand with at least some e/uity *a hand that could still win the pot on a fortunate ri+er card. to soften the blow when your double barrel doesnCt work out. 'enerally speaking, you will most likely be c-betting the flop with two o+ercards *eg an 7 I style hand. a lot of the time, and so you should ha+e at least when o+ercard when you decide to fire that second barrel on the turn. Ha+ing >ust 5 o+ercard is the least amount of Ue/uityV you want to be barrelling with. Don't barrel the turn unless you ha+e some chance of winning the hand by the ri+er if called. The more e/uity you ha+e in the hand the better. This applies to most bluffing situations in poker. %. This is the key tip that this strategy article is going to focus upon. I! the turn $ard s$ares your opponentG it in$reases your $han$es o! pushing them o!! their hand by !iring a se$ond barrel. -ore on this in the upcoming section. 8. ?ou also want to bet on the turn when it actually impro+es your hand, not >ust when you are carrying on with a semi-bluff from your continuation bet. ?ou do this for balance. ?our strategy becomes exploitable if you only e+er fire a second barrel when you miss.
FlopG M N -- TurnG I FlopG A 8 $ -- TurnG 7 FlopG T N % -- TurnG M These turns are perfect to double barrel because they hit your per$ei#ed range and are bad !or your opponent<s range. 1n other words, our opponent is likely to ha+e called our continuation bet with hands like top or middle pair, so the o+ercard on the turn makes them +ery uncomfortable. These o+ercards could ha+e +ery easily hit our range, beating the hand that they currently hold. For our opponent, calling a bet on the turn is a difficult thing to do without a premium hand after this scare card hits, as they will be much happier folding and sa+ing their chips to your barrel.
Firing a second barrel on these turns is not going to be /uite as successful or easy to do as the Ugood turn cardsV, which is why 1 would ad+ise to only barrel these turns with a +ery good read. Did you think this article was usefulE Wait until you see the strategy +ideos at Deuces @racked.
Double barreling in a nutshell. F+ercards to the flop are good to barrel. #ow cards or cards that pair the board are bad to barrel. High cards that are slightly lower than the hgihest card on the flop can be decent for barrelling.
There are so many +ariables and reads in+ol+ed with double barrelling that 1Cm ne+er going to be able to cram enough information in to one article to form a 5!!9 complete guide to it. Try and absorb as much as you can from what 1C+e thrown at you here and mix it with a bit of your own initiati+e *maybe not too much if youCre a new player. to form your own approach to firing that second barrel. )efore you go, 1 >ust want to remind you that e+en if your attempt at double barrelling fails, please do not feel compelled to sho+e it all in on the ri+er. ?ouCre better off folding than blindly pushing all in out of frustration in a +ain attempt to win your money back. 7s always, practice makes perfect with the double barrel. 1tCs definitely one of the scariest plays to master, but youCll get there e+entually. &tick to those scary o+ercards for barrelling at the start and you should do >ust fine.
The (float play( is an ad+anced bluffing techni/ue in Texas Hold em that is extended o+er two betting rounds. The principle role of the play is to make your opponent belie+e you ha+e a stronger hand than theirs +ia the flop and turn betting rounds, and thus closing down the action and winning the pot on the turn.
7 second and e/ually important rule for a good float play is that you should be heads-up against your opponent. 1f there is more than one player in the pot, it makes it more difficult to pull off such a complex bluff, as it is more likely that at least one of the players has a decent hand. The float play works best heads-up and in position. 1n fact, 1 would rarely *if e+er. attempt a float play against more than one player. The float play relies on us trying to pick off a continuation bet from our opponents, and the addition of another player into the e/uation adds too many +ariables to make it successful, and often our attempted display of strength will go unnoticed. Therefore it is best to keep things simple, and stick to being in position against one opponent when attempting a float play.
Therefore by re-raising what you feel is a second barrel or a particularly weak bet, you can still pull off a successful float play. Howe+er, the re-raise on the turn as a float play is a +ery dangerous and ad+anced mo+e, which re/uires a +ery good understanding of your opponents. @onse/uently, you should be more inclined towards folding if you do not know your opponents well and they are making another bet on the turn.
Ha+e a good read on your opponent. Fnly use the float play when necessary.
1t is central to note howe+er that we should ha+e a good read on our opponents to make a float play like this, as it is important to be sure that our opponent is the type of player that makes continuation bets, but will shut down and fold when they come up against any resistance. This means that float plays will work well against your typical tight-aggressi+e player, rather than calling stations that will call down bets regardless of what they think you might be representing. *&ee the article on putting players on a hand for hand reading.. 1t is also important to remember that !loat plays should not be used liberally as a regular de!ense against the $ontinuation bet. 1t is true that this play will snap off a few continuation bets from time to time, but you will find yourself in sticky situations and getting check-raised on the turn with real hands if you o+eruse this particular play. The float play is not usually something that you intend to use when you enter a pot before the flop, it is a more of a play that you can consider when faced with certain situations as they arise. Float play spots make themsel+es apparent as you playH you should not go acti+ely looking for them.
#oose table image. Fpponents will call more often with weaker hands. ?ou can exploit this when you hold a strong hand.
This style of play can be +ery effecti+e because you create a +ery loose table image for yourself. Therefore you should recei+e more action from opponents when you do ha+e a big hand because they will percei+e you as a loose aggressi+e player, and may feel that you are more likely to try and bluff them out of the pot. @heck out my rankings of the top Texas Hold'em poker rooms for K& players. ?ou may be surprised.
1f you play small ball poker correctly, in the long run the amount you win from opponents when they call you down with sub standard hands should outweigh the amount you lose from making consistent raises and bets without a strong hand. This is a reason why it is important to make small raises and bets instead of large, stronger bets. &mall ball poker benefits from players who call you down with mediocre hands because they do not gi+e you credit for holding a strong hand. The image you pro>ect onto the other players at the table is key to the success of the small ball concept. 7s already mentioned, the reason why this style of play is so effecti+e is because your opponents will be more willing to call you down with marginal hands because of the way you ha+e played in pre+ious hands. &o essentially, the small bets and raises that you may win or lose pots with in earlier hands are >ust setting you up for bigger hands later on in the session.
Hpponents must be aware o! your style o! play !or small ball poker to work.
1t is important to remember that you are relying on your opponents to be aware of the way you are playing for small ball poker to be successful. 1f your opponents are not thinking about how you are playing, then you are going to ha+e limited success. 1f other players at the table are loose and are going to call your bets regardless of what table image you pro>ect, then you are better off playing a tight-aggressi+e style rather than small ball poker.
&mall ball poker tips. =lay as many hands in position as you can. #earn how to play post-flop well. Kse good starting hand selection. When playing weaker starting hands, play hands that ha+e drawing potential *can make flushes or straights..
When playing small ball, you ha+e to try and take ad+antage of position as fre/uently as possible. 1t is not going to be an effecti+e style of playing if you are raising .8)) from under the gun or in any early position on a regular basis. The chances are that you are going to get a caller and be out of position in a pot with a hand that is probably marginal. &a+e the raises for when you are closer to the button and there are little to no players already in the pot. =laying small ball poker relies on you being able to play well post flop because you are entering so many pots and allowing other players to do so cheaply. 1t is going to be far easier to outplay your opponents if there are less of them in the hand and if you ha+e position.
?ou ha+e to be an experienced player to be able to profitably employ the small ball playing style.
&mall ball poker is basically playing #7' but making smaller bet amounts. ,aising small amounts from any position at the table with marginal hands in an attempt to recreate the (small ball( style of play is not going to be a successful strategy in my opinion. 1n spite of this, there are actually a few genuinely effecti+e elements to the small ball style though, such asG
Ksing your position to your ad+antage. )asically not >ust playing your cards but playing your position. =laying more aggressi+ely to help you (buy position(.
1 belie+e that amateur players who attempt to emulate small ball poker will get themsel+es in to tricky situations. ?ou definitely need a good post-flop game to be able to play small ball poker *or should 1 >ust say #7'E.. 7s your game impro+es you may de+elop in to more of a loose-aggressi+e style of play, but that will not necessarily be (small ball poker(. 1 belie+e that Daniel "egreanu may be trying a little too hard to coin a super-awesome new playing style that will take o+er the world of poker, but at the end of the day it's >ust a weak +ariation on an existing one.
The (s/uee3e play( is an ad+anced *usually pre-flop. mo+e that can be used in both cash games and tournaments. The s/uee3e play can be +ery effecti+e, but has to be used with caution.
7 s/uee3e play is when you notice a loose player raising from early position and another player calling this raise before you. ?ou then make a big re-raise and take down the pot. &o basically you are taking ad+antage of the loose raiser and the player who thought they could get away with calling the loose raise with a weaker hand than they would normally call with.
The loose raiser can't call because they likely raised with a weak hand. The caller won't call because they were calling the first raise with a weak hand.
@an you see why this play worksE 1'll co+er why the s/uee3e play works in more detail a little later on.
When making a s/uee3e play in a cash game or in the early stages of a tournament you will likely be deep stacked, so going all in is not an option. Howe+er, it is still possible to make successful s/uee3e plays if you ha+e strong reads on your opponent. % times the si3e of the initial raise is a good rule of thumb for the si3e of your reraise when making a s/uee3e play. Aust be sure to be s/uee3ing with hands that ha+e potential *suited connectors and stuff like that. in case your s/uee3e gets called. 1f your post-flop game isn't up to scratch, 1 would ad+ise against s/uee3ing when playing cash games or if deep-stacked in a tournament.
This is why it is easier to make this play when in a later position as there is less of a chance of bumping into another player that does hold a premium hand. &o by keeping the number of players left to act behind you to a minimum, you are increasing the playCs rate of success.
Table image.
?our own table image plays a +ery important role. 1f you ha+e been in+ol+ed in a number of pots and ha+e been making a few plays, you are not in a good position to make a s/uee3e play in Texas Hold'em. The idea is to make your opponents think you ha+e a big hand, forcing them to fold. Therefore if your opponents ha+e noticed that you ha+e been making mo+es with marginal hands in the lead up to this play, it decreases the credibility of your raise and they are more likely to call. The play will ha+e a higher rate of success if you employ it only when you ha+e a tight table image.
7ll you need to make the play work isH one loose raiser, one loose caller, and one strong all in. This play will be a +ery strong addition to your game, but it should be used sparingly to help keep its credibility intact.
When sitting at the poker table, it is important to be aware of your own (table image( and the image of the players around you. Table image is essentially what one poker player percei+es another playerCs style to be, which is determined by the way they play poker. For example, if a player is not playing many hands and only entering pots with premium starting hands, the other players at the table may percei+e that player to be +ery tight, and thus they will ha+e a tight table image. @onse/uently, if a player is entering many pots and calling raises fre/uently, they may be percei+ed as being a loose player, and thus they will ha+e a loose table image.
1f you're not playing at )odog right now *February !5 . you're losing out on money. 'et in while it's still good. @on+ersely, if you are /uiet and reser+ed then you may be able to ha+e the other players percei+e you as being a tight player. Howe+er, the more ad+anced and obser+ant players will look straight through what you say or do, and let the cards do the talking for when it comes to mentally assigning you a style of play.
Loose image
1f you ha+e a loose table image, you may find that opponents are more willing to get into pots with you because they will know that your starting hand re/uirements will be lower than that of a tight playerCs.
Tight image
1f you ha+e a tight table image, your opponents will be more reluctant to get into pots with you because they will fear that you will ha+e a big hand e+ery time you enter a pot. )oth of these styles of play ha+e their own uni/ue benefits.
to create this loose image you will ha+e been betting and raising fre/uently on pre+ious hands, therefore your opponents will know that you cant ha+e a strong hand e+ery time and call you down in the hope that you are bluffing. 1t must be said howe+er that >ust because you are playing loosely, it does not mean that you will get paid off on all of your big hands. 1t simply means that you will get your opponents to call you down with a higher fre/uency than if you had a tight table image. =laying poker and not using a training site is like planting crops and not using fertili3er. -aximi3e your results with poker training. The main downfall with this image is that you lea+e yourself open to losing a number of chips whilst trying to create this loose image. )y entering a number of pots with substandard hands, you can potentially find yourself in tricky situations with marginal hands and therefore losing chips in the process.
Tilting In Poker
Texas Hold'em R &trategy R =sychology R Tilting 1n =oker 5
(Tilting( is a term used in poker to describe the way a player changes his or her game due to the effects of suffering a bad beat. 1f a player takes a bad beat, they can be described as (going on tilt( if they subse/uently play differently to the way they would usually play. 1n a nutshell, 'tilting' is simply a word to describe poor play due to frustration at the poker table. There are many things in poker, apart form bad beats, that will potentially set you on tilt. 1f you do not catch any good hands for a long period of time, you can easily become frustrated and start to play with any rag hand that comes your way. 1f you're not playing at )odog right now *February !5 . you're losing out on money. 'et in while it's still good. 1f you find yourself folding to your opponent's shown bluff, then once again you can become irritated and allow your game to de+iate from the norm. 1n addition, if you notice that you would ha+e flopped a monster but decided to fold pre-flop, this can also cause you to alter your game for the worse.
Poker /ownswings
Texas Hold'em R &trategy R =sychology R =oker Downswings !
For more general information on downswings in "# Hold'em, see the article on +ariance in poker.
2+ery regular poker player knows that you can't come out of e+ery poker session with more money than you started with. There are always going to be sessions where you end up losing more than you win, and often there is +ery little that you could ha+e done to pre+ent it. 2+en though poker in+ol+es a certain amount of skill, luck is something that is always going to be a big influence on the outcome of each indi+idual session, and it always will be. 7ny poker player that plays regularly enough will find that luck gets the better of us sometimes for longer periods than we would like, and for some, this stretch can seem ne+er ending.
swing. 7s the swing gets bigger, you start to /uestion your game and wonder if you ha+e lost the ability you once had to win money from poker. This can then lead to you altering your game to see if you can impro+e and win some of your money back, but the new style of play is usually worse and >ust ends up losing you more money than if you had >ust stuck with your normal game. =layers always want to know how to deal with big poker downswings, so the /uestions always end up beingG
The answers are pretty simpleW nowhere and nothing. 2+en though these are the honest answers to the /uestions, they probably didn't help and probably didn't put your mind too much at ease. 1f you are a solid player and continue to play your best game at all times, then you are doing nothing wrong. ?ou ha+e to remember that e+ery hits a big poker downswing from time to time, and it's simply a bad dose of +ariance slapping you about for a few sessions. The only thing that is going wrong is your ability to ha+e a bit of good luck once in a while, and there is nothing you can do to get that back on track. Therefore because you ha+e no control o+er your luck, there is nothing you can do about the downswing. Fnce again, these probably weren't the kind of kind of answers you wanted to hear.
=oker is a game of ups and downs, and unfortunately, the downs always feel a lot worse than the ups. There is nothing that you can do to stop the long losing sessions, you >ust ha+e to let the downswing take its course and ride it out as best as you can. Did you think this article was usefulE Wait until you see the strategy +ideos at Deuces @racked. 7lways try and maintain focus e+en when you are at your lowest, because by playing your best game you will be minimi3ing any losses that you may ha+e. 2+ery poker player experiences +ery bad runs and bad beats, so >ust try your best to play through it until you are back on the up. ?ou ne+er know, the biggest upswing of your life might be >ust around the cornerW
There is +ery little in poker that can throw you off of your game in such a dramatic way as a bad beat can. Dropping from the high of being all in on the flop with top set against two o+er cards, to the low of being outdrawn to a runner-runner flush is enough to make the biggest poker fan hate the game. Despite this howe+er, it is !ar more important than you think to deal with the !rustration be!ore playing your ne*t hand.
% $ommon mistake.
1ts not uncommon for a player to chase after the money they un>ustly lost for the rest of the session. =layers will try and pull huge bluffs and call for any draw whilst adopting the mentality of (1f they can win with rags, then so can 1(. @heck out my rankings of the top Texas Hold'em poker rooms for K& players. ?ou may be surprised. 1'm sure as you read this you can recall a time when you ha+e been in exactly the same position, trying your hardest to get back the money thatCs sitting in the lap of the luckiest player in the
world. )ut do you get it backE -ore often than not you are losing more money in this imprudent pursuit. This is probably one of the main reasons why you currently can't win money playing online poker.
-5 Take a break.
Honestly, there is nothing better for sa+ing your hard earned money than taking a break from the game. Whether that be for a few moments or for a few days, it's the most effecti+e way of preser+ing your bankroll from tilt. Aust because you lea+e the game now, it doesn't mean you'+e lost the opportunity to win your money backH in fact itCs probably the opposite. #et yourself cool down and come back when you are in a rational frame of mind. There is always going to be a game of poker in the next ten minutes, the next week, and e+en next year. &a+e yourself for when you can play at the top of your game.
ad beats e#aluation.
)ad beats are an integral part of poker, so if you want to become a long term winner you are going to ha+e to get used to them. 1f there were no such things as bad beats, then most of us would ne+er ha+e a losing session. )ut on the positi+e side, bad beats are what keep the bad
players and soft competition coming back. 1t tricks them into thinking they made the right play, or that poker is always about luck. 7nd for that we should be thankful.
7lmost e+ery online poker room today has a chat box feature. This feature allows you to communicate with the other players at the table like you can at li+e tables. The online poker chat box has spawned numerous abbre+iations o+er the years to sa+e time whilst typing. )elow is a list of the most commonly used abbre+iationsG "H - "ice Hand ") - "ice )et "@ - "ice @all '' - 'ood 'ame W= - Well =layed ),) - )e ,ight )ack @K - &ee ?ou WTF - What The F^^^ T? - Thank ?ou THS - Thanks
)y stimulating con+ersation, opponents will be trying to in+oke physical tells which they can then use to >udge the strength of your hand. The chat box will ne+er be able to completely emulate li+e discussionH therefore the amount of information you can gain through the chat box is greatly reduced. Ha+e you check out my +ideos section yetE There are a bunch of free strategy +ids there for "#H2 cash games.
("ot ha+ing as much luck today( - 7fter folding or losing a pot. (7ny two cards can win( - 7t any time (Inew 1 should ha+e called( - 7fter folding and seeing the next card when others carry on with the hand *despite whether or not the card would ha+e helped you.
1f you're serious about taking your game to the next le+el you should take ad+antage of poker training.
to be typed into the chat box. Aust make sure that you do not go o+er the top, as o+er-use of the chat feature will lower the integrity of what you are saying. ?ou should also remember that this little trick wont ha+e monster pots falling at your feet, but it should help in stimulating a little extra action when opponents come to play hands against you.
Whene+er you sit down at the poker table, you should always be trying to outsmart and out-think your opponents by keeping one step ahead of them at all times. 1t is for this reason that people with the ability to clearly think through situations and act upon them ha+e the ability to do well at the poker table. 1f you are unable to piece together different pieces of information to build a bigger picture of the way each hand is played out, you will find that you will struggle to make much money from poker. )eing able to work out why your opponent is playing in a certain way is an essential skill for any winning poker player. 1f you can figure out what your opponent may be holding, you can make the most profitable decisions in each situation depending on what information you ha+e managed to pick up.
Le#el 'I What does my opponent ha+eE Le#el >I What does my opponent think 1 ha+eE Le#el ?I What does my opponent think that 1 think they ha+eE Le#el @I What does my opponent think that 1 think they think 1 ha+eE
1 think 1 should probably lea+e it there now because of the fact that it is unlikely that any players will be thinking abo+e this le+el, in addition to the fact that it is getting pretty difficult for me to e+en write down and comprehend at such a high le+el. )ut hopefully as you can see, you can think on different le+els whilst playing poker, with the most inexperienced players playing at le+el ! or 5 and the more ad+anced players of the game playing at % or abo+e.
Le#el @ is where things start to get pretty ridiculous, and 1 don't think there is much use in me going through it. 1 had a hard enough time writing it down, so 1'm not sure how good my explanation would be if 1 tried. )ut if you e+er come across someone playing at this le+el, my ad+ice would be to lea+e the table as /uickly as possible.
Therefore you should be able to bluff them successfully whereas they will not as they are not gi+ing any thought to the strength of your hand. There is no need to make extra+agant plays against a low le+el thinker because they will ha+e no idea about what is taking place, which will make it more likely that your Bad+anced' play will backfire. So !or e#ery opponent you play againstG simply play at the le#el abo#e him or her and you will be able to employ a su$$ess!ul winning poker playing style against them . The higher the le+el of thought you can use effecti+ely the better, but also be prepared to adapt depending on the le+el of your opponents. This applies to all le+els from ! and abo+e.
Poker &etagame
Texas Hold'em R &trategy R =sychology R =oker -etagame 5
&etagame diagram.
7wful diagram 1 know. )ut hopefully it helps to push the idea that the metagame is all the stuff that takes place in the minds of the players and away from the (physical( aspects of play. This all sounds well and good, but 1'm sure you are still a little confused, so allow me to elaborate with an example...
We get to see our opponent's cards. We gi+e oursel+es a loose table image.
)eing able to see our opponent's cards in this hand may well pro+e to be +ery handy for us, as it allows us to see what type of player our opponent is. We can then use this information on them to make better decisions in future hands because we ha+e a better knowledge of their style of play. 1n addition to this, by making /uite a weak play, we may well gi+e the impression that we are a poor player that calls down ri+er bets with marginal hands. This could pro+e to be beneficial in future hands as our opponent may decide to show less respect to our bets, allowing us to potentially take down bigger pots later on down the line. &o e#en though we made a play that was unpro!itable based purely on the mathemati$s o! the situationG the reper$ussions o! that parti$ular play may well make up !or this small loss through bigger wins in !uture hands. This may well ha+e been something that you ha+e thought about before, and it is essentially what the poker meta game is all about. 7n unprofitable play in one hand may well set you up for greater wins in a later hand due to the metagame.
The =oker -etagame changes with time. -etagame plays are used more fre/uently against familiar players.
7lthough the abo+e example highlights how making a slightly Uless profitableV play could pay off in the future, it should not be used as an excuse to regularly make poor decisions when you're playing poker. "either should you look to go out of your way to intentionally make unprofitable plays with the loose hope of creating an image that will pay off on future hands. 2+ery now and then a metagame-style situation will crop up and make itself apparent, so don't fret about searching for it too much. The meta game in poker is always changing. For example, when Doyle )runson first wrote the book U&uper &ystemV, it contained top notch strategy for "# Holdem at the time it came out. Howe+er, o+er the years players ha+e become more aggressi+e, and so the general style of play ad+ocated in the book will not be as profitable as it once was.
The fundamental theory of poker was put forward by professional poker player Da+id &klansky in the popular poker strategy book The Theory of !oker. Muoting the theory directly from the book, it states thatG U2+ery time you play a hand differently from the way you would ha+e played it if you could see all your opponents' cards, they gainH and e+ery time you play your hand the same way you would ha+e played it if you could see all their cards, they lose.V U@on+ersely, e+ery time opponents play their hands differently from the way they would ha+e if they could see all your cards, you gainH and e+ery time they play their hands the same way they would ha+e played if they could see all your cards, you lose.V David klasnky7 The Theory of !oker This particular poker theorem is different to the other ones described on this site, because it is a big general theorem as opposed to a smaller theorem that tells you what to do in S situation. "onetheless, it is pretty straight forward, and it is a cornerstone of e+ery winning poker player's game.
1f you can see that you ha+e the best hand, you would bet. *Knless there is more +alue in deception. 1f you can see that you ha+e the worst hand, you would fold. *Knless you ha+e odds to draw.
This means that you would be playing the most profitable game of poker possible, as you are following the fundamental theorem of poker perfectly. Knfortunately howe+er, the whole point of poker is that you are ne+er 5!!9 sure of what your opponent holds, which means that you are going to drift away from this perfect line of poker by not knowing the exact cards that each player has. &o the key idea is to try and play poker as perfectly as possible e+en without being able to see other players' cards. 1f you're not playing at )odog right now *February !5 . you're losing out on money. 'et in while it's still good. 1n a nutshell, a winning poker player is a player that can play as closely to the way they would if they could see all of their opponents' cards. The more information that you can obtain from your opponent through reads and by analysing their betting patterns, the closer you will be able to play to this le+el and the more profitable your game will be.
call a raise, so we can get a lot more +alue from the hand by raising with our strong hand rather than attempting to induce a bluff like we did in the last example. 7s you can see, knowing the exact cards that our opponent is holding in each situation helps us to make the most profitable play possible.
Teebo's Theorem
[eebo's theorem is /uite a simple one, and is likely to be the most profitable of all the popular poker theorems. [eebo's theorem states thatG U"o player is capable of folding a full house on any betting round, regardless of the si3e of the bet.V
7 full-house is a +ery strong hand. Full houses do not come around regularly. Therefore players will +ery, +ery rarely fold a full house.
1f you think about e+ery possible situation of where you hold a full house in Texas Hold'em, you will not be able to find one where you can comfortably fold the hand. 2+en if the bet is +ery large, the chances are that you and other players will call the bet when you hold a full house. 1n addition, e+en if your opponent holds a +ery weak full house, the fact that there is always the possibility that you could be bluffing means that they are going to force themsel+es to call anyway. They may not like making the call, but they are going to put that money in the middle when they ha+e a full house. ?ou may not ha+e thought about this idea too much before, but 1'm sure that you can understand that this particular theorem holds a lot of truth at the Texas Hold'em tables.
Do not try and bluff anyone that you suspect holds a full house. 'et as much money into the pot if you think your opponent has a full house and you hold a better hand.
=retty straightforward rightE 1f your opponent is ne+er going to let go of their full house regardless of how much money you put in the pot, you should get all your money in the middle when you ha+e the best of it and ne+er bluff if you are behind. 1f you can remember these two simple rules the next time you are confident that your opponent has a full house, you will be able to sa+e and win yourself a nice sum of money.
%n e*$eption.
7lthough [eebo's theorem is good OO9 of the time, there's always that 59 of the time where a tight player folds a full house. Here's a prime example of that 59 in a H&= hand between Aohnny @han and =hil #aak. 1 think =hil #aak's fold here is warranted. @han is a +ery tight player and it's +ery unlikely that he's raising with anything that's beaten by NN. Ff course, that's easy for me to say as 1 know each player's holecards. The suspiciously impressi+e part though is #aak's insta-fold J e+en the +ery best players would want to take a moment to think about it. "onetheless, these instances are rare, and e+en when a situation like this pops up the ma>ority of players will call anyway. 2+en though #aak's fold looks like the right play, calling is far from horrific, and that's what most players will think as well *if they're good enough to think on that kind of le+el..
Who is Teebo?
[eebo, (capt[22bo( or to use his full online alias (@aptain [eebo( is a professional high stakes online poker player. @aptain [eebo's real name is 'reg #a+ery. 1 don't know much about the guy, but here is [eebo's blog *ob+iously doesn't get updated that much. and here is a really interesting documentary on @aptain [eebo's life as a professional
poker player by Deuces @racked. 1f you want to find out e+en more about capt[22bo, you can also check capt[22bo's ; member profile and search through all of his old posts and threads.
This is another theorem from the !!: period. 7 poster at the ; forum named U)alugaWhaleV put forward this handy theorem that should help with a common yet tricky situation on the turn. The )aluga theorem re/uires a little more explanation *see the example below. than most poker theorems as it is a little more detailed, but it should be too hard to grasp. 1n a nutshell though, the )aluga theorem states thatG U?ou should strongly re-e+aluate the strength of one-pair hands in the face of a raise on the turn.V 0aluga,hale7 twoplustwo8com forums Here is an example of where the )aluga Whale theorem commonly comes into play to help explain what this theorem means.
1f you decide to call on the turn, what are you going to do on the ri+erE ?our opponent is almost definitely going to be betting out as a bluff or betting with the best hand, so closing your eyes and calling the turn bet whilst hoping for the best on the ri+er isn't going to be a great strategy.
Who is alugaWhale?
7ndrew ()alugaWhale( &eidman is a pretty well known name around the ; forums. 7ndrew is a professional high stakes poker player and currently coaches o+er at the Deuces @racked training site. He is actually a really awesome coach as well, which you should be able to tell from the sample +ideo in my Deuces @racked re+iew.
7ndrew semi-regularly blogs at )aluga)ay about general life stuff. ?ou can also read old posts and threads started by 7ndrew through his )alugaWhale ; forum member page. For what it's worth, yes, ()aluga( is a misspelling of ()eluga(. "ot sure if this misspelling was actually intentional, but that's the way it stands.
This is another specific theorem like the )aluga Whale theorem, and similarly it is not too difficult to grasp. The thoerem was initially put forward for limit Texas Hold'em games, but it works perfectly well in the no limit Texas Hold'em en+ironment. The @larkmeister theorem states thatG U1f you are heads up and first to act on the ri+er, if the ri+er card is the %th card of a same suit you should betV. 1 can't find a reliable source for this theorem, but 1'm confident that it stems from the ; forums from a few years ago.
The % cards of the same suit are going to scare many players. Therefore this creates a great opportunity to bluff on the ri+er. 7 strong bet will often force any player without a flush or e+en a weak flush to fold.
1f you put yourself in the shoes of a player that is facing a strong bet after that %-flush card hits on the ri+er, you can already feel yourself leaning toward folding anything less than a flush, along with weak flushes. Therefore you can see that this is a prime opportunity for a bluff for the player that is first to act, as you are going to fold the +ast ma>ority of your hands in this spot.
?ou should be first to act on the ri+er. ?ou should be heads up against your opponent. ?ou should make a strong bet J around Q the si3e of the pot at least.
1f you are not first to act, it makes your bet a lot less con+incing and so the bluff will be less effecti+e. 1f your opponent checks to you and you bet, it makes it more ob+ious that you are
trying to pull off a bluff. Therefore as the @larkmeister theorem states you should bet when you are first to act. 1f you're not playing at )odog right now *February !5 . you're losing out on money. 'et in while it's still good. The more players there are in the hand, the more likely it is that someone actually has a great hand. 1f you are heads up there is a greatly reduced risk of your opponent actually ha+ing a strong flush or better. )y making a strong bet, it puts your opponent to a +ery tough decision, and increases the chances that they are going to fold. 1f you make a weak bet, then you are pretty much gi+ing your opponent good odds to call, and so your bluff attempt it going to be pretty poor. &how no fear and make a decent bet if you really want the @larkmeister theorem to work.
Important point.
When you are using the 'larkmeister theorem, you are turning your hand into a bluff. Therefore you should not look to bet out if you want to try and extract as much money from the hand as you can, because with the @larkmeister theorem you are looking to get your opponent to fold. &imilarly, if you ha+e a hand like a weak flush at this stage in the hand, you will be best ser+ed check6calling as opposed to betting out. This is because you will only be forcing weaker hands to fold, which doesn't pro+ide you with any +alue. This would be referred to as a way ahead 6 way behind situation, and so check6calling is better than bluffing.
The (?eti theorem( is /uite an old theorem in poker that was coined by a poster at the ; forums some time ago. The theorem essentially states thatG U7 $-bet on a dry flop *preferably paired. is almost always a bluff.V 9eti Theorem7 twoplustwo8com forums -- "ot the original thread, but good enough. This means that if the flop could not gi+e anyone a possible flush or straight draw, if you re-raise an opponent and they raise you back, the chances are that they are bluffing.
There are ' key ideas that dri#e the :eti theorem.
5. 1f our opponent had an <, they would not ha+e a strong enough hand to re-raise our check raise. . 1f our opponent had a $, they would be more likely to trap and call as opposed to raising us again. Take a few seconds to mull o+er these ideas J it's easy to read o+er them but not fully take e+erything in, so make sure you ha+e an idea of why these points make sense.
=layers are far more aggressi+e these days, and $-bets with strong hands are not entirely rare. =layers are likely to $-bet dry flops like < $ $ with o+erpairs.
The fact of the matter is that players are always looking to out-le+el their opponent *see multiple le+el thinking.. Therefore if your opponent knows that you think that your opponent is always
bluffing when they $-bet dry flops, they are going to go ahead and $-bet dry flops when they ha+e a strong hand. Furthermore, players will be more than happy to $-bet with o+erpairs to the board in this spot. 1f you're serious about taking your game to the next le+el you should take ad+antage of poker training. When the ?eti theorem first came about, the chances are that it worked pretty well for many people, but as time went by the game has de+eloped and e+ol+ed, and so they ?eti theorem is no longer as useful as it once was.
aeCones Theorem
Texas Hold'em R &trategy R Theorems R ae>ones Theorem !
7s with the ma>ority of theorems, the ae>ones theorem was name after a poster at the ; forums named Uae>onesV - surprise surprise. This theorem is actually pretty tongue-in-cheek, but 1'm going to discuss it anyway. The ae>ones theorem states thatG U"o one e+er has anything.V
ae:ones7 twoplustwo8com forums 7aron (ae>ones( Aones currently coaches at #eggo=oker. &ee ae>ones at #eggo =oker 7 pretty broad and straightforward statement 1 know, but let's ha+e a think about it anyway...
=layers do not always ha+e as strong a hand as you think they do. )etting, raising and general aggression is often enough to make your opponent fold.
Whilst there is an element of truth in both of these points, if you go all out betting and raising as the theorem ad+ocates, you are not going to be winning much money. Ff course there will be times when you win pots due to your aggression forcing other players to fold, but this style of play is >ust going to land you in +ery unfortunate spots time and time again. Taken literally, the ae>ones theorem suggests that wild raises and calls are the order of the day at the Texas Hold'em poker tables, and we both know that isn't the case for any successful poker player.
?our opponent is not always going to ha+e the absolute nuts. =laying aggressi+e poker is much better than playing passi+ely.
First of all, understanding that your opponents will not always ha+e the absolute nuts when they are betting into you will ser+e you well when it comes to analy3ing plays and making decisions. )ecause we ne+er know the exact two cards our opponent holds, it's easy to fear the worst when
facing a bet, when the fact of the matter is that our opponent may be >ust as scared of what we are holding. The core of the ae>ones theorem is that players can often gi+e too much credit for what their opponent is holding. 1 am not suggesting that you should think that you can always force your opponents to fold with a reraise, but simply to remember that both players in a hand ha+e concerns about what their opponent holds. 1f you can sensibly take ad+antage of this mutual caution during play, you might be able to pick up a few extra pots. &econdly, as you should know, aggressi+e poker is winning poker. ?ou don't win pots big pots and make opponents fold by playing passi+ely, so always try and play poker with controlled aggression. Ha+e a browse o+er the article on the importance of aggression in poker for more information on this topic.
Who is aeCones?
7aron (ae>ones( Aones is a +ery high stakes professional poker player. 7aron currently records training +ideos for #eggo=oker, which is a popular online poker training site. ?ou can also read ae>ones' #eggo =oker blog, which is updated fairly regularly. 1f you're feeling a little stalker-ish and want to check up on ae>ones' past, you can read all of his pre+ious posts and threads at the ; forums through ae>ones' ; member account.
! S80 Player? @heck out my rankings of the best sit and go poker sites for !5 .
7 &it and 'o *&"'. is a small poker tournament, typically >ust a single table, with no officially scheduled start time J when enough players >oin the tournament will begin. &"' tournaments ha+e become extremely popular online and are a+ailable at a wide range of buy-in le+els from >ust a few dollars into the 5!!!Cs. This article will co+er the basi$s o! S80 strategy by going through the +arious stages of a onetable tournament and showing how strategy changes. We start by gi+ing an o+er+iew of the differences between &"' strategy and that for cash games. "ext the % main stages of a &"' tournament are discussed separately, co+ering early game, mid-game, bubble play and finally in the money play. We wrap up by looking at some common opponent errors.
. The way in which profits are made and the resulting relationship between chip +alue and e/uity. @ash game poker players typically play with Bdeep stacksC in relation to the blinds. This means that betting occurs throughout a hand, gi+ing you time to assess the strength of your opponentCs holdings. &it and 'o strategy starts with deep stacks but before long the stacks are shallow in relation to the blinds J often 5! times the blind or less. Ha+e you check out my +ideos section yetE There are a bunch of free strategy +ids there for "#H2 cash games. This means that instead of distinct hands, &"' play deals with ranges of hands J the optimal play is to take *often small. mathematical edges against the range of hands opponents will call or raise with. For players used to cash games, &"'s can seem like an unskilled +ersion of poker J howe+er those players who are adept at working with both ranges and pri3e pool e/uity ha+e a significant and profitable edge.
1n a cash game the chips in your stack are worth exactly the dollar +alue assigned to them. Through the +arious stages of a &"' tournament the chips you hold will actually change +alue. This is due to the fact that the player who e+entually wins all the chips will not win all of the pri3e money. Typically &"' tournaments pay 8!9 for 5st, $!9 for nd and !9 for $rd. 1f 5! players start a 45! &"' with 5,!!! chips then each chip is worth 5c at the start of the game. 7t the end the winner has all 5!,!!! chips J howe+er the pri3e pool distribution gi+es him 48!, meaning each chip is worth !.8c. 7wareness of the changing +alue of chips and mathematics of pri3e pool e/uity are most important at the bubble, when >ust 5 player must bust before the money.
&iddle stage.
7s the blinds get higher and number of remaining opponents begins to drop &"' play becomes more aggressi+e. The middle stages are characteri3ed by stealing blinds, raises and re-raises. 1n a cash game defending your blind is not critical to success *though necessary sometimes., in a &"' tournament blind defence is critical J as is the ability to use the threat of elimination to steal chips from your opponents.
2xample of the diminishing +alue of chips in &"'s. 1f % players each ha+e 8!! chips at the bubble then their Bpri3e pool e/uityC is 4 8. Howe+er, when players get all in and one wins the pot, those 8!!! chips are not worth 48! *more like 4$8..
o
*This is because the double stack does not guarantee 5st place..
&o when calling an all in bet you are risking 4 8 worth of chips in an effort to win an additional 45!. Thus you need a hand that is proportionally better than the raisers range J a tall order without a premium holding.
Fnce the bubble has burst and the remaining $ players are in the money paying places strategy changes once again. &ince the blinds are now huge in relation to the stack si3es all-in bets are again the norm. Howe+er without the risk of elimination players both raise and call raises with much weaker holdings. 7d>usting to this is dependant on specific opponents. Howe+er newer &"' players need to be aware that any pair, most aces and any Bface cardsC become +ery strong at this stage. &ee the article on short stack strategy for more information on this topic. For a superb guide to playing the final stages of &"'s *or playing HK&"'s specifically., check out )rokerstar's free heads up poker strategy training site.
,ead the &itn'o 'rinders re+iew. 0isit the &itn'o 'rinders website
For more ad+anced &"' tournament strategy, try the what is 1@-E and how to use 1@- articles.
-ulti-table poker tournaments *also known as -TT's for short. of all field si3es and buy-in le+els can be found online % hours a day. This article will co+er basic multi-table tournament strategy at the +arious stages that a tournament will go through before the lucrati+e final table.
This has a large effect on tournament strategy for those players who are looking to maximi3e their long-term profits. 7ggressi+e, positi+e play is rewarded at all stages of the tournament - by a shot at reaching the final table. =assi+e play during the later stages may enable you to sneak into the money positions J howe+er this will not make up for >ust a few final table appearances when adding up profits at the end of the month or year.
High cards howe+er go up in +alue when you are the first to enter the pot. &ince calling a raise in the middle stages re/uires in+esting a large proportion of your stack this should be a+oided where possible. ?our opponents are often in the same situation J meaning that youCre raising re/uirements can be BlighterC than before, especially from late position.
,ead the =oker&a++y =lus re+iew. 'et your free N day trial at =oker&a++y =lus
1'm sure you'+e all bumped in to the term (,F1( before, and you're probably aware that it stands for ,eturn Fn 1n+estment. 1t sounds like one of those terms you'll hear thrown around inside a business meeting along with the word (synergy(. &o what's ,F1 got to to with poker tournaments exactlyE Well, allow me to explain in this guide to e+erything you need to know about 2HI in poker.
2/uations always look more complicated than they really are. For example, if you entered a O-seater 45!;45 &"' at =oker&tars and won the first pri3e of 4%8, your ,F1 for that one game would beG
=rofit T 4%8 - 455 T 4$% 1n+estment T 455 ,F1 T *4$% 6 455. x 5!! T $!O9
This is ob+iously an extremely high ,F1, and itCs far from sustainable *in reality you would struggle to maintain an a+erage ,F1 of 89.. Howe+er, this is >ust an example to show how easy it is to work out ,F1. ,F1 is more commonly used when looking at your winnings o+er a much larger sample si3e.
These numbers are the upper limit of the sort of ,F1 you could hope for in &"' tournaments, so donCt be at all disappointed if your ,F1 is lower. 1n all honesty, you should be proud of any ,F1 abo+e !9.
"ow you'+e got some strategy under your belt, use it against the terrible players at )odog =oker and win e+en more money than before.
-5 Sharks$ope.
&harkscope is a website that tracks the results of online poker tournaments. Aust search for your username and it should *hopefully. gi+e you an indication of your a+erage ,F1 from the tournaments you ha+e played online. The stats are limited and theyCre not 5!!9 accurate, but itCs a +ery /uick and easy way to get an idea of your o+erall ,F1. 1t's also free, but only for up to 8 searches a day. 1f you want to perform more searches you ha+e to pay to subscribe.
>5 8otepad.
"othing wrong with tracking results the old fashioned wayL 1t takes a little more effort than the other two options, but if you keep note of the number of games you'+e played and your winnings then you can easily work out your ,F1 for yourself.
Hourly rate is the amount of money you are making from &"'s on a+erage per hour. Inowing your ,F1 per game is nice, but for many the hourly rate is a more useful statistic. &o how do you figure out your hourly rateE &impleG Find out how many &"'s you play on a+erage in one hour, then multiply that number by your ,F1.
Hourly rate T ,F1 x &"'s per hour Hourly rate T 4!.:: x < Hourly rate T 48. <
&o with your current ,F1, youCre earning 48. < an hour from multi-tabling &"'s. "ot bad, but probably not worth /uitting your day >ob o+er. With this figure you could go on to work out how much you might earn on a+erage in a day, a week, a month or e+en a year - which is handy. @heck out my article on how much can you win from online pokerE for more calculations on this sort of stuff.
-G(((.
1f you want to get a rough *thereCs that word again. idea of what your ,F1 might be for sit and goCs, you want to ha+e at least 5,!!! &"'s under your belt. 2+en then, your ,F1 from ha+ing played this many &"' tournaments isnCt going to be set in stone either, as +ariance can ha+e a significant effect on your ,F1 o+er this sample si3e. Howe+er, 5,!!! &"'s is widely regarded as the number you want to aim for before drawing any conclusions from or putting any stock in to your ,F1. To get a good idea of what your real ,F1 is though, you want to aim for 8,!!! &"'s.
8!! - a +ery rough idea. 5,!!! - a rough idea. 8,!!! - a good idea.
To pro+e this, watch this +ideo on ,F1 simulations on ?outube, or download and try the poker ,F1 simulator out for yourself. Here's a link to the original ,F1 simulator thread at ; *it also has a /uick guide to using the program.. For e+en more detailed information on the reliability of your ,F1 based on number of games played, feel free to wade through this article at ; on &"' =oker ,F1 confidence inter+als.
Which room you play at. 1f you play at a big poker room like =oker&tars, the &"' tables are going to fill up /uickly, which means less time spent waiting for games to start. This will impro+e your hourly rate. @on+ersely, if you play at a smaller room *maybe because of softer competition., you will likely spend more time waiting for the tournament tables to fill up. Whilst playing at the smaller room with the weaker players may well impro+e your ,F1, it will ha+e a negati+e effect on your hourly rate. 1f you're not playing at )odog right now *February !5 . you're losing out on money. 'et in while it's still good.
,F1 stands for U,eturn Fn 1n+estmentV. 1t helps you to find how much profit youCre making from each &"' you play on a+erage. Hourly rate is how much money youCre making from playing &"'s an hour. 7n ,F1 greater than !9 is good. ?ou need to play at least 5,!!! &"'s to get a half-decent idea of what your long-term ,F1 might be. Download Holdem -anager to keep track of the tournaments you play and to help you win money from the &"gs you play.
Turbo poker tournaments are becoming increasingly popular at online poker rooms. ?ou can usually get a nice mix of turbo, super turbo and occasionally extreme turbo poker tournaments at the ma>ority of the top online rooms. 7s you can guess, these turbo it and 6o tournaments do not last for long, and so they attract the players who are looking for some fast entertainment at the poker tables.
"ow, these particular tournaments with their uni/ue *and pretty speedy. blind structures can be tricky to play, and so re/uire a certain strategy that is /uite different to your standard &it and 'o tournament strategy.
7+oid getting in+ol+ed with meaningless pots. &tick with strong hands that you would back up with your stack. Don't be surprised to come up against wild plays early on.
The early stage of these turbo tournaments is going to be your only opportunity to play 'proper poker', as the blinds are going to be small in relation to the si3e of the stacks. This will only last for or $ le+els depending on how /uickly the blinds mo+e, but up until the big blind becomes around 565!th the si3e of your starting stack, you can be prepared to play hands without ha+ing to resort to drastic mo+es. Howe+er, at the early stages of these tournaments, 1'm not going to look to try and steal blinds or pick up small pots, as they are going to ha+e +ery little effect on the outcome of the tournament. 1f 1'+e got a strong hand 1'm going to raise a big amount and hope to catch someone o+er playing a weak ace and try and force them to put as much in the middle as possible, but this is no time to try and pick up small pots with fancy plays.
The fact that these tournaments run so /uickly means that the players at the table will already be in a gambling frame of mind, and will be willing to risk a lot or all of their stack e+en when the blinds are so small. Therefore whene+er 1 am dealt a hand, 1 am always going to consider whether or not it is one that 1 would back up with my whole stack. 1f not, then the chances are that 1 am going to fold.
"ot much room for mo+ement, so be prepared to risk your entire stack on a hand. 7+oid trying to get tricky with marginal holdings, >ust stick with the big hands. The stop and go play can be +ery effecti+e in certain situations at this stage.
7s with any stage of turbo tournaments, starting hand selection is going to play a huge role in the middle stages of a tournament. 1f the general stack si3e means that players ha+e between N and 5 big blinds, you are in the middle stage of the game. This will allow for a two raises before one player is going to be all-in, so there really is not much room to mo+e around. 1n general, if 1 am entering a pot, then 1 am entering with the intention of playing for my entire stack. 1f 1 am becoming low on chips, the blinds are likely to be +aluable enough to pick up, so a solid all-in push from late position may well be a good plan of action from time to time. Fther than this howe+er, 1 am going to stick to playing with premium hands, but widening my starting range up in late position. 7t this stage, you can effecti+ely start to use the stop and go play. This will help increase your chances of winning a hand if you are prepared to push your entire stack in the middle, but don't feel that it will push your opponent off the hand. 1t may be a good idea to call a raise and push it in on the flop, as a small all-in reraise preflop will often gi+e your opponent the right odds to call.
=lay aggressi+ely and don't be afraid to bully opponents. Take ad+antage of players who tighten up. ?ou will miss out on the money a lot of the time, but don't let it get to you. &hoot for 5st.
When you ha+e : big blinds or less, you are going to be in all-in or fold mode. 1t is likely that there are +ery few players left in the game, and so you should be happy to push with a much wider range or starting hands. =laying poker and not using a training site is like planting crops and not using fertili3er. -aximi3e your results with poker training.
Don't be too afraid to stick it all in the middle because of the bubble, as you will be able to take ad+antage of the players who are going fold a number of good hands >ust so that they can try and sneak there way in to the money. =lay to win the tournament by taking 5st place, rather than playing it o+erly safe and trying to make it into the money. 1f you can show no fear of being bubbled, you will be able to pick up a large number of pots and set yourself up to be in a good position to win the tournament. There will be times when you >ust miss out on the money because of being so aggressi+e, but there will also be times where you win enough to take the tournament down, so show no fear. For help with those tough all-in decisions, try learning how to use the independent chip model. 1f you can get passed the fear and frustration of constantly risking your stack, you will be able to make optimum plays and get the better of the luck-hea+y turbo poker tournaments.
1n my pre+ious article that answered the /uestion (what is 1@- in =okerE( we found out that different chip stack si3es had +arying amounts of e/uity in the o+erall tournament pri3e pool. To echo the last article's chip stacks exampleG
2ach player had the following amount of 4 e/uity in the 45!! pri3e pool that paid 48! for 5st, 4$! for nd, and 4 ! for $rd.
=layer 7G *8,!!! chips. T 4$<.$$ e/uity. =layer )G * ,8!! chips. T 4$!.<$ e/uity. =layer @G * ,8!! chips. T 4$!.<$ e/uity.
1n this article 1 will show you how you $an use these IC& e;uity numbers to work out whether or not to call all-ins from other players as we approach the money positions in Texas Holdem &it and 'o's.
$)+ is the amount of tournament chips we expect to gain6lose from a play. 6)+ is the amount of tournament e/uity or money we expect to gain6lose from a play.
$)+.
@hip 20 is like standard 20 in cash games. For example, if your opponent pushes all in for 5,!!! chips with 7M and you call with 7I, you expect on a+erage to make %<! chips e+ery time you call this all in *1 worked this out with some basic 20 calculations.. @hip 20 is >ust as you would expect - it's simply how many tournament chips you expect to gain on a+erage from each play you make.
6)+
420 is like a slightly ad+anced +ersion of c20, as 420 indicates how much extra money you expect to gain in pri3e pool e/uity from the tournament from each play you make. For example, if you call an all-in with 7I against 7M like in the c20 example you may earn ;%<! chips, but now that you'+e added those extra %<! chips to your stack how much more e/uity do you ha+e in the o+erall pri3e poolE To put it another way, how much more likely are you to win money from the tournament with those extra %<! chipsE This is the difference between c20 and 420, where 420 is going to be a far more profitable way to look at expected +alue in tournaments. 420 is pretty much the whole basis of the article, so do not worry if you do understand what 1 mean by this term >ust yet. 1t will become clearer as we go along.
Deuces @racked is easily the top training site for cash game players. Watch +ideos and win more money.
*H2,F )). =layer 7 - ,!!! *&). =layer ) - ,!!! *)T". =layer @ - ,8!! *@F. =layer D - $,8!!
2+eryone folds to the &) who pushes all in for ,!!! chips. We know for a fact that this guy is stupidly aggressi+e and could well be pushing all-in with any two cards. &o should we call or should we foldE Well, we need to do $ thingsG 5. Work out our e/uity against our opponent's range. . Work out the changes in pri3e pool e/uity for the different outcomes *of calling and winning6losing or folding.. $. Work out if we increase our pri3e pool e/uity by calling.
&ee the articles on range and range e/uity for more information on this particular topic.
There is a : .N9 chance that we will increase our stack to %,!!! chips. There is a $N.$9 chance that we will lose all of our chips and lea+e the tournament with nothing.
@alling seems a little bit risky already, but let's mo+e on to the next step to see whether or not it's actually going to be profitable to make this call o+er the long run.
=layer 7G *%,!!! chips. T 4$8.%O e/uity. X- Fur pri3e pool e/uity if we call and win. =layer )G *! chips. T 4! e/uity. =layer @G * ,8!! chips. T 4$!.85 e/uity. =layer DG *$,8!! chips. T 4$% e/uity.
Hur e;uity i! we $all and lose. 1f we lose we are out of the tournament, so as you can guess our pri3e pool e/uity will be 4!. 1'll post the e/uity results anyway >ust to keep things consistent.
=layer 7G *! chips. T 4! e/uity. X- Fur pri3e pool e/uity if we call and lose. =layer )G *%,!!! chips. T 4$8.%O e/uity. =layer @G * ,8!! chips. T 4$!.85 e/uity. =layer DG *$,8!! chips. T 4$% e/uity.
Hur e;uity i! we !old. 1f we fold, our e/uity decreases a little because of the !! chips we had to put in for the big blind.
=layer 7G *5,<!! chips. T 4 !. O e/uity. X- Fur pri3e pool e/uity if we fold to the all-in. =layer )G * , !! chips. T 4 $.%< e/uity. =layer @G * ,8!! chips. T 4 8.8! e/uity. =layer DG *$,8!! chips. T 4$!.N$ e/uity.
.$:.
7s you can see, our o+erall pri3e pool e/uity increases by calling this all-in bet. Therefore, it is more profitable to call with 7To o+er the long run against any random hand than it is to fold and sa+e our chips. 2+en though on a+erage e+ery time we call we are only earning an extra 4 .!N, calling remains as the optimum play in this particular situation. 1f your total pri3e pool e/uity decreases by calling, you should fold. 1f your total pri3e pool e/uity increases by calling, you should call.
Jse the S80Wi. IC& tool to help you play optimum S80 poker.
&it"'o Wi3ard is the perfect tool for learning how to use the independent chip model for making the most profitable plays in the late stages of &"' tournaments. 'et the $! day trial of &"'Wi3 &"'Wi3 uses all the 1@- stuff we ha+e co+ered in this article to calculate pri3e pool e/uity when faced with tough decisions. The program works out whether you should push, fold or call all-in depending on the cards, opponent hand ranges and stack si3es *which is exactly what we ha+e >ust been working out.. &"'Wi3 is widely regarded as the best tool for 1@- calculations and for teaching you how to play the late stages of &"'s flawlessly. 1t's 4OO for the full +ersion, but it's a must-ha+e for any serious &"' player.
This article is long enough, but if 1 didn't co+er e+erything or explain a few points too well, you may benefit reading up on the same topic from other talented writers. ?ou might find that you respond better to other writers' teaching methods, or that reading the same idea from a different perspecti+e helps to reinforce a few key points. 2ither way, 1 ha+e found the $ articles abo+e to be the most useful for learning about 1@-.
2asy-to-understand guides for the independent $hip model *1@-. in poker are few and far between, so 1'm going to try hard to keep this article as concise and rele+ant to impro+ing your &it and 'o tournament game as possible. 1n this article 1 aim to answer the /uestion (what is the independent chip modelE( and also highlight how you can go about working it out. 1n the next article, 1 will explain how 1@- can be used in tournament poker to help you make profitable decisions near the bubble. #et's get started...
How much are 5!! chips worth in a tournamentE How about 5!,!!! chipsE Well that all depends on a few thingsG
The current si3e of the other players' stacks. The amount of money in the pri3e pool and how much you get for coming 5st, nd, $rd and so on *pri3e pool distribution..
=layer 7G * ,8!! chips. T 4 8 e/uity. =layer )G * ,8!! chips. T 4 8 e/uity. =layer @G * ,8!! chips. T 4 8 e/uity. =layer DG * ,8!! chips. T 4 8 e/uity.
This e/uity business ob+iously get's more complicated as each player's chip stack +aries, but 1 hope this gi+es you a basic idea of pri3e pool e/uity.
*H2,F. =layer 7 - 8,!!! =layer ) - ,8!! =layer @ - ,8!! 5st place - 48! nd place - 4$! $rd place - 4 !
7s you can guess, =layer 7 will ha+e the most pri3e pool e/uity and players ) and @ will ha+e an e/ual amount of pri3e pool e/uity. "ow, 1 could work the pri3e pool e/uity for each player out by hand by doing a bunch of mathematics, but 1'm not going to do this for $ reasonsG 5. 1t re/uires a hefty amount of mathematics and it's /uite possibly the least fun thing to work out in the world. . ?ou're ne+er going to want to work it out by yourself anyway. 1t >ust takes ages. $. 1@- calculators make working out pri3e pool e/uity super easy. 1'm going to input the numbers in to this awesome 1@- calculator and skip to the results. 1 might create a walkthrough to working out 1@- by hand in the future, but until then this 1@calculator is good enough for now. &o, 1 input the pri3e pool structure and the chip stacks and let the 1@- calculator do the magicG
2ach player's e/uity results. =layer 7G *8,!!! chips. T 4$<.$$ e/uity. =layer )G * ,8!! chips. T 4$!.<$ e/uity. =layer @G * ,8!! chips. T 4$!.<$ e/uity.
Therefore, with 8,!!! chips =layer 7 expects to win 4$<.$$ from the tournament on a+erage. =layer ) expects to win 4$!.<$ on a+erage and so on. Try playing with the 1@- calculator yourself to see how much money you expect to win on a+erage from different payout structures based on how many chips you and your opponents ha+e. 1t's pretty cool. Did you think this article was usefulE Wait until you see the strategy +ideos at Deuces @racked.
)#aluation o! IC&.
&o that's a /uick o+er+iew of the independent chip model and 1@- for you. "othing groundbreaking, but the sole intention of this article was to gi+e you a basic understanding of the independent chip model and pri3e pool e/uity. Working out each player's e/uity in the tournament is cool and stuff, but this information isn't +ery practical >ust yet. 1n the next step 1'm going to use this information to work out whether or not you should risk chips by calling all-ins toward the end of a tournament. The how to use 1@- in tournaments article will essentially help you to answer the /uestion (is the risk worth the rewardE( when faced with tricky all-in decisions in &it and 'o tournaments.