Archive for April, 2007
April 30, 2007 at 12:36 pm
· Filed under Tip of the Day, amatuer, cash game, fold, gambling, limit, live game, mistakes, no limit, online, poker, raise, sit-n-go, strategy, tournament
4. Overbetting The Pot
It is an easy mistake that amatuers make. They make a half-decent hand and the adrenaline kicks in and they decide to over bet the pot by pumping $300 into a $90 pot, or they move all in pre-flop for 1500 in a sit-n-go while blinds are still 15/30.
The trouble with doing this, is that it makes hands weaker than yours fold, while hands stronger than yours call. By consistently overbetting the pot you are either going to win a small pot, or lose a big one. Quite clearly not the optimum poker playing approach.
V
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April 27, 2007 at 12:18 pm
· Filed under Tip of the Day, amatuer, cash game, draw, fold, gambling, limit, live game, mistakes, no limit, odds, online, outs, player, poker, sit-n-go, strategy, tournament
3. Under-Betting The Pot
In no limit texas hold em you can bet out as much of your stack as you like in order to protet your hand. You should be using this to your advantage. Weaker inexperienced players on the other hand tend to bet small amounts such as $30 into a $500 pot. These kinds of bets offer good players fantastic pot odds to call and suck-out on the river because of the money they stand to make in relation to how much it costs to see another card. A bet of around 75% of the pot is enough to discourage players on a draw. Any bet under half the pot is normally not enough.
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April 26, 2007 at 9:48 am
· Filed under Tip of the Day, ace, amatuer, cards, cash game, fold, gambling, limit, live game, mistakes, no limit, online, player, poker, post-flop, raise, sit-n-go, strategy, tournament
2. Not Folding Mediocre Hands
After the flop has hit, amatuer players find it very difficult to let go of marginal hands. Suppose they hit middle pair or top pair with top kicker, the will find it hard to lay down. Its a crazy situation to still be involved in a pot holding top pair when there are flush and staight draws on the board and players are betting like theres no tomorrow. I’ve seen people play online when they will see their hole cards all the way to the river even though the board has paired up, AND there is 4-to-a-flush on the board, AND a straight possibility. They just wouldn’t let go of their flopped top pair.
The best hand on the flop may not always be the best hand on the river. Play with caution and don’t be afraid to get out if the action heats up and you are holding a marginal hand.
A good way to look at it is to look at the board and think to yourself “What two cards could my opponent be holding for them to beat me?”. If you can narrow it down to one or at most two sets of hole cards you should be fairly confident in carrying on playing. If you have to say to yourself “I hope he doesn’t have X, or Y, or Z, or A, or B or C…” then you should really think about folding. The more combinations of cards that your opponent could be holding that beat your hand, then the more likely it is they are holding one of them. If there is only one or possibly two combinations of cards that beat you then continue to play but with caution. Bet out or raise to gain information on how good your hand is. If they fold, you win the pot, if you are raised then you are probably beat.
There’s no shame in folding. Remeber, especialy in a tournament, poker scores are based on the player that loses the least amount of chips.
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April 25, 2007 at 3:47 pm
· Filed under Tip of the Day, ace, amatuer, cards, cash game, fold, gambling, limit, live game, mistakes, no limit, online, player, pocket pairs, poker, post-flop, sit-n-go, strategy, suited, tournament
Over the next week-and-a-bit I will be highlighting some of the most common mistakes that amatuer players make when playing a poker session. If you can spot your opponents making these mistakes, then make sure you cash in. If you are the one making the mistakes then you had better brush up on your poker skills!
1. Playing Too Many Hands
An early lesson in poker is to realise the majority of hands you are dealt must be folded. Ive known an amatuer player turn round to me and say “You’ve got to play the hand you are dealt, why fold?”. I was shocked and soon put them right. However, there are a lot of beginners that seem to ignore this most basic rule.
They will call with ace-rag out of position, even call a raise with it, they play any two suited cards or even any picture card. You can get away with playing loose like this in a game of no limit hold em but you must have a strong post-flop ability to be able to pull it off.
Situation dependant, most of the time you are looking to only play premium hands such as high pocket pairs, and very stong aces. Simply fold the rest.
V
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April 24, 2007 at 1:14 pm
· Filed under Tip of the Day, cash game, gambling, limit, live game, money, no limit, online, pkr, poker, pro, v-points
The more poker sites you play on, the more experienced you will become. You may have your current favourite but have you thought about playing on some of the more obscure poker sites out there?
It is well known in poker circles that 888.com is a notoriously soft site with plenty of fish to make money from. however, should this be your only source of poker pleaseure? The answer is no.
I have personaly played on a number of different poker sites for a few reasons. One good reason is to rape the deposit bonus that these sites offer. I really like money and when sites offer money for free, I’m right at the front of that queue. And why shouldn’t you be too?
Another more beneficial reason is to improve the versitility of my game. It is all too easy to stick to just one site and grind away making your money slowly and steadily. You should think about branching out into other poker sites and playing other players.
You will find that you will need to adapt your playing style to cope with a new playing interface and a new breed of poker players.
you should never feel comfortable in your choice of game or site and should be constantly mixing it up between other poker web sites. This way you can get to play a variety of different people logging in at different itmes of the day instead of being up against simmilar opposition all the time.
Im not saying go nuts and play a different site every time you start a session, but take the time to consider playing for a month on one site, then moving on to the next once you have cashed out your bonus. It will make you a more versatile player in the long run.
V
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April 23, 2007 at 2:49 pm
· Filed under Tip of the Day, cash game, chips, draw, gambling, limit, live game, money, no limit, online, poker, sit-n-go, tournament
Today’s tip of the day comes in the form of a highly useful website that is free to use. Its called Check Your Bets and it will track your poker career sucess/failure.
Once you create an account and sign in, you set up all of your favourite games that you play. Be it $1/$2 Limit Hold Em, $20/$40 No Limit Hold Em, $200 tournaments, Omaha games, Draw poker games, etc. Thats it!
Now, each time you sit down and play, you just spend a few seconds hitting the “record” button on the site. This will make a note of your start time and how much you sit down with. When you are finished playing, you come back to the site and enter in your final balance.
Check your bets will keep track of the length of play, and how much you win/lose giving you an overall hourly profit rate. On the face of it, it sounds pretty dull, but after just a few weeks of using this web site, I have noticed several trends in my game. Not only are you able to see how much money tou are making, you can also cross-reference the data with the type of game you play, the times of day you play, the length of session you play. Soon you will be able to work out which poker sites are most profitable for you to play on, and which games are the ones you should be avoiding.
You can also keep track of how well you are doing as a poker player using Check Your Bets especially if you keep cashing out every few weeks and you kind of lose track of your profit. This thing will keep it all stored for you. you can even record live game sessions on it too.
Its free and takes just a minute at the start and end of each poker session. Well worth a look.
http://www.checkyourbets.com/
V
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April 21, 2007 at 1:06 pm
· Filed under Tip of the Day, aa, ace, big stack, bully, chips, fold, gambling, live game, no limit, odds, online, outs, poker, short stack, sit-n-go, strategy, tournament
Rummaging around in my archived inbox, I came across this little gem from none other than Simon Davis:
Do you have the discipline to fold pocket aces before the flop?
Imagine the scenario. You’re playing Texas hold’em poker in a single table sit-and-go tournament. It’s getting towards the latter stages, five players are left and you can smell an in-the-money finish. But you need to get in to the top three and stay there – while your chip stack would be nice if it was bigger. The blinds are becoming significant and you know you’ll have to make your move soon.
Out come the cards – miracles of miracles, you look down at your cards and see the magic AA looking back at you. Now, surely this means it’s you right to win the hand. Announce “I’m all-in” and become the chip leader.
Now, under most circumstances there’s no doubt that you should either push in a tasty raise or even all-in with those big aces. Although remarkable as it may seem, there are times to fold those “pocket rockets” and not see a flop. It takes discipline to do and is all about risk versus reward.
If you’re playing single table sit and go tournaments you must finish in the first three to get a return on your entry fee. We all know that the great starting hands don’t come along too often and when they do, a lot of players become married to the hand and can’t put it down under any circumstances.
The savy player knows when to fold. And that includes folding AA pre-flop. Here’s when to consider very carefully when to muck those aces before the flop.
Back to the scenario. Five players left, you’re in fourth place with those Aces screaming at you to push your chips in. But you have the advantage being in last position to act. Two players with bigger stacks than you throw enough chips in the pot to force you all-in if you decide to play. And now the small stack in fifth place takes his chances and goes all-in.
The action is now on you. The urge to splash your chips in to the middle is irresistible. But before you do – thnk about it for a moment. As things stand, you can fold your aces now with the chance of moving in to third place and a money finish without risk.
If the player in the hand with the biggest stack wins it, he’ll take out the other two with smaller stacks and you instantly get bumped up to third place and guaranteed money without. And without risking any of your chips which you still have to fight with.
Risk = zero. Reward = third place at least and a guaranteed prize money.
That’s when to fold anything pre-flop, not just aces. Throw anything away at any stage if it means you can move in to the money without risk.
- Simon
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April 20, 2007 at 10:18 am
· Filed under Quote of the Day, dan harrington, gambling, no limit, player, pro, short stack, tournament, vegas, world series, wsop
“…And you know, Dan’s a lot tougher than he looks. He looks like he’s a nice man sitting on his front porch about to give you directions to the mall, but he’s gonna end up taking your money when you’re not looking most of the time.”
Commentry on Dan Harrington as he short stacks during the final 3 at the 2003 World Series of Poker.
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April 18, 2007 at 3:16 pm
· Filed under Uncategorized
Kings versus Aces. It’s happened to us all at some point in our poker lifetime. Personally it feels like its always happening to me. Whereas most players would do well to contain their excitement when they are dealt this deadly pocket pair, I really do despise playing it. Maybe I play them wrong. I can remember more times I have lost with pocket cowboys than I have won with them. I seriously think I am cursed…
But what are the real statistical (dis)advantages of playing such a hand? I’ll tell you…
If you hold KK there is roughly a 22:1 chance that another person at a 10 seat table has Aces.
If you do get your chips in and inded you are up against the bullets, you will hit another king 17% of the time.
So I guess, all is not lost(!) Those are the stats. If you find you get your Kings busted by Aces, that’s just plain unlucky.
V
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April 17, 2007 at 3:32 pm
· Filed under What Would You Do?, ace, bad beat, big stack, bully, cards, cash game, chips, gambling, live game, money, no limit, player, raise, short stack, small blind, strategy, tournament, under the gun
Shane emailed in the following question:
“I play in a local tournament every week with around 8 other players, we are all fairly new to the game and i thought i had a good overall understanding of the game, until this issue came up last night!
We play a knock out tournament with multiple buy ins until a set time limit, the last two players left share the money (70% to eventual winner, 30% second place)
3 players were left with the following scenario;
Player A – Big Stack
Player B – Second in chips
Player C – Short Stack
Player C went all in after the flop
Player A called the bet
Player B then re-raised all in
Player A then called the re-raise thus covering both players B and C
Cards were turned over with the following hands,
Flop was Ace,3,7
Player A showing Ace 3 therefore having two pair
Player B showing King King (pair of kings)
Player C showing Ace 10 (pair of aces)
The turn and river were irrelevant to all players. Player A took first place and the 70% cut due to having two pair, knocking players B and C out.
WHO GETS SECOND PLACE???
Player C had the second best hand with the aces and with Player A having players B and C covered in the hand, does player C take second place??? OR
does Player B take second because he had more chips than player C before the all ins having player C covered???
PLEASE HELP!!!”
Well Shane, I can see your dilemma. It’s probably not very straight forwards on the face of it, but really it is quite simple.
Player A won the pot with the best hand. Player A won the side pot and the main pot. That is a fact. There are no 2nd or 3rd places in a pot. You either win the pot or you don’t.
Players B anc C lost. That is the other fact. Player A is first as he won. Player B is second as he had more chips than player C.
In this situation whoever put the most chips into the pot gains the advantage. B had more than C. B is 2nd, C is 3rd.
Would be nice to know if there are any other thoughts on this issue?
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