Archive for May, 2007
May 31, 2007 at 3:11 pm
· Filed under Tip of the Day, cash game, draw, duff, fold, gambling, limit, mistakes, no limit, odds, online, outs, poker, post-flop, strategy
Last night I was sitting there with KJu and called in MP – there was a raise in LP and I was getting 10x on my money so i called to see a flop.
The flop was 3 8 Q rainbow and I checked, a bet in MP and all other players called – I looked at it and thought “nahhh got nothing” and would need something crazy to carry on so I folded despite odds of 14 to 1 – the next card was a T – I would have now had open ended and would have only needed 5 to 1 to make my straight which I would have been more than offered – as it was a 9 fell on the river and they all checked and I sat there saying “oh!”
So lesson of the day – If you’re getting odds of over 10 to 1 then you might as well see the next card 
cheers
Duff
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May 24, 2007 at 10:33 am
· Filed under Public Appearances, freezeout, gambling, live game, money, no limit, player, poker, tournament
Just to let you all know we are playing another double chance freezeout at Sovereigns Poker in North Camp this Saturday night.
Its a £20 tourney with either one optional re-buy OR one optional add-on during the first period. Chips start at 2000, with 25/50 blinds and a 20 (or 25) minute clock.
First person to come up to us and mention “StonecoldBananas” gets a drink bought for them.
See you there!
V
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May 23, 2007 at 2:10 pm
· Filed under Tip of the Day, cash game, clothes, clothing, live game, player, poker, strategy
Wearing sunglasses and hats at the poker table will not only prevent you from giving off tells to your opponents, but it will help to shield the fact you are looking at your opponents for tells. If your opponents don’t know you are looking or staring at them they will feel a little more relaxed and give off stronger signals.
V
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May 23, 2007 at 8:15 am
· Filed under Tip of the Day, cash game, gambling, limit, no limit, online, poker, sit-n-go, strategy
When playing online it is best to limit yourself to one or two hour sessions before stopping then going off to do something else. come back again in an hour or so and have another one or two hour session.
You will find that playing in shorter bursts will make you a more profitable player.
Your contenctration levels will be a lot higher if you play in bursts.
If people are analysing your play and trying to spot patterns in your betting, by the time they have worked you out, you will have finished your session. This stops other players making money off you.
You get to spend more time with friends/family.
If you are on tilt or plaing badly, a shorter session will limit your losses and you can come back later on with a clear head.
V
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May 21, 2007 at 1:41 pm
· Filed under Tip of the Day, What Would You Do?, ace, big stack, bluff, bully, freezeout, gambling, no limit, poker, position, pre-flop, short stack, sit-n-go, small blind, strategy, suited
Im playing in a $20 STT on VirginPoker.
Ive been doing quite well but the deck has gone cold and I find myself with not a lot of chips left.
Blinds: 150/300
Chip stack: 2500
Position: SB
Hole cards: Ad 4d
Players remaining: 4
Payout: Top 3
For this hand I am on the small blind with 2350 left. Player on BB has 5500. UTG has 3500. UTG+1 has 2400. CO has 3500. All chip counts are approx.
The table fonds round to me. Im on the SB with Ad 4d.
What should I do?
V
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May 18, 2007 at 12:22 pm
· Filed under Tip of the Day, ace, amatuer, bluff, cards, cash game, gambling, limit, live game, no limit, online, player, poker, position, post-flop, raise, sit-n-go, strategy, suited, tournament
You should be trying to win uncontested pots whenever possible. Even your Ace high could be in front on a crappy-looking flop. If no one has bet at the flop, take the initiative and have a pop.
Heres an interesting example:
Say you are playing suited connectors 78s and the flop comes down Q Q 2. The chances of someone else at a 10 seat table having one of the remaining queens is about 20%. If you are on a tightish table where only two or three players see a flop, this means that the chances of someone holding trips on a paired flop are less than 4% in a heads-up pot, and not too much more in a multi-way pot. this means that the chances of you getting away with a steal in this postition is very high. People will think you have trips often, you will run into actual trips less often.
If the board pairs, then have a bet, especially in early position.
V
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May 15, 2007 at 1:11 pm
· Filed under Tip of the Day, bluff, cash game, gambling, limit, live game, no limit, online, player, poker, position, post-flop, pre-flop, raise, sit-n-go, strategy, tournament
Bluffing is not a requirement in no limit texas hold em. It is simply a tool you have in your box that you can use (along with other tools) in order to gain money.
If you board flops three diamonds you could put in a bet to represent a nut flush draw even though you hold two black clubs.
If you flop bottom pair WITH an open ended straight draw, you could put in a semi-bluff and bet out hoping your weak hand turns into a much stronger hand.
It all depends on the situation, your playing style and the playing style of your opponents. If you are playing against tight opponents with big starting hand requirements, you can bluff more pre flop. If you are on a loose table with chips flying about like crazy, it is worthwhile to bluff less often.
About 10% of your game should involve bluffing to some extent. If you wait around all day for a monster hand, it may never come. If you bluff all the time, you will soon not get any respect for your raises and will get far too many players entering a pot with you.
A good tip is to look at your watch when you are dealt your hole cards. If the second hand is between 00 and 05 seconds and your position is late (the later the better) then go for a bluff this round if the situation warrants it. Clearly if there is a raise and a re-raise, then do not get involved with junk!
V
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May 15, 2007 at 12:58 pm
· Filed under Tip of the Day, aggressive, bully, cards, cash game, draw, freezeout, gambling, limit, live game, no limit, online, poker, post-flop, pre-flop, raise, sit-n-go, strategy, tournament
Raise hands (where possible) when you are on a draw. You can either win the pot there and then, or collect a monster pot when you hit. This kind of reverse betting works really well. Most players will check / call their draws and only commit chips when they have made their hand. Take advantage of this by betting at the pot and forcing other players out.
You should be betting out made monster hands and looking to entice other players to bet into you. By betting out flopped monsters you are disguising the fact you have made such a good hand. Betting into a scary board will often look like you are trying to buy the pot. Check / calling a scary board (e.g A A K) makes it obvious you could have a hand.
V
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May 11, 2007 at 10:42 am
· Filed under Public Appearances, aa, ace, aggressive, bad beat, bazzyg, big stack, chips, dan harrington, duff, fold, freezeout, kk, live game, no limit, pocket pairs, poker, position, pre-flop, raise, short stack, small blind, strategy, suited, tournament
Vster, Duff and BazzyG from the StoneColdBluff crew head on down to Sovereigns Poker club in North Camp last week for the £100 freeze-out. This was to be our biggest buy-in to date and we were rather excited. This is the kind of level that we feel we are up to at the moment – after all, you can only learn so much from playing with monkeys – We felt that this was the next step up after our £40 and £50 efforts of late.
There were only about 16 runners in total and so were split on two tables of 8. I (Duff) was placed on a table with BazzyG and Vster was on his own over the other side. It was a fairly deep-stacked tournament, which is certainly to my liking. Everyone started with 6,000 in chips with 30 minute blinds; starting off at 25/50. We started off working out the table and checking out a few players with a few bluffs here and there etc – I personally had only ever played with one of the players on my table who I knew to be very loose aggressive. He was the first one to go once we reached the 2nd level and it was now down to some serious poker. I had been dabbling with a few players to see how far I could push them etc. I had a player to my left whom I had done a stone cold bluff on a few hands previous when my hand of doom came into play.
The blinds at this point were now 50/100 and I had been playing a tightish game. I look down in Mid Pos to find AA – lovely – I elect to make it 400 to go – The guy to my left flat calls, as does the SB and there are three players to the flop. The board brings down Jd 8d 2s – the SB checks and I bet out 1,000 into a 1,200 pot – the guy to my left raises me another 2,000 and the SB folds – I sat and had a ponder for a few moments …… if he had pocket jacks would he not have reraised preflop? … I know that I would certainly like to know where I stand with my jacks preflop! … could he have J8? .. I had seen from other hands that he had turned over that it was very unlikely that he had called a raise with such a weak holding. … pocket 88 was a possibility but he didn’t look over comfortable with his hand and so I discounted that ….. 22 even seemed unlikely for reasons just said. … he’s either got to be on a high pair, Ace jack or on a high holding of diamonds and hoping on the flush …. if he was on the flush, would he raise me when he knows that I’m a tight aggressive player and he could see the next card for cheap? – so after all of this thinking I figured that he must be either bluffing or on the high pair or AJ. I decided to raise all in another 4,500 (he had very similar in chips!) – He announced “nice bet” and proceeded to think through the hand, most probably going through the same motions that I had. After a while he said “I can’t lay them down” and called my all in – He turned over KK and I happily turned over my AA. I think you all know what I’m going to say next! Yes indeed as you predicted, the turn brought a K and the river was a dud – I was down to 100 in chips and that was pretty much my tournament sown up! – I’m not going to blabber on about “bad beat” stories as that doesn’t actually qualify for one, however I will say that I was rather stunned and numb – these things happen and it is horrible when it is to you. Oh well, at least I know that the next time that happens it “shouldn’t” happen to me again – hehe – also on the plus side is the fact that I went through the motions of the hand and worked it all out correctly, so I can trust my workings, which is certainly a good thing.(Even Dan Harrington would be proud!) Unfortunately, not even “a chip and a chair” could help me and that was it.
Vster and BazzyG were still going strong and had been sitting fairly average stacked for most of it until the blinds started to shoot up. The both knew their inflection points and used them to great success as they both got down to the final table.
It was still touch and go and was really anyone’s game – Baz did get rather excited with a King with Queen kicker only to lose most of his chips to someone with AK! ouch – He ended up in 5th.
Only top 3 were getting paid and Vster was left with the task of trying to get into the money and not becoming the bubble. The moment it was down to 4 players V had shouted for a deal for 4th place getting their money back. Everyone agreed and so they were all in the money. His chips were surviving but were in no way was he the big stack – he was always on an inflection point and so was moving all in or all out. There was a raise from the big stack in early position and V said that he hoped “this better be good” – BazzyG and I were standing behind him when he lifted the first card to reveal a Ten – the second card was also a Ten – the chips all went in and the guy called and flipped over KJu – V was sitting pretty all the way until the river when a Jack hit – My heart sank and I really did feel like it just wasn’t our night – If he’d have won that he would have been right up there with the chips and as luck would have it one hand after V was gone, so was 3rd place. We came very close to getting all our money back and then some. This one should be filed under “You can’t win them all” – we had played a good tournament and proved that we could certainly hold our own and do well in a bigger money (for us) poker tournament. Here’s to the next few. Hehe
I’m sure that V and Baz will be on here to tell you their side of the events – any comments welcome
cheers
Duff
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May 10, 2007 at 9:18 am
· Filed under Tip of the Day, amatuer, cash game, chips, freezeout, gambling, limit, live game, mistakes, no limit, online, passive, player, poker, pro, sit-n-go, strategy, tournament, tv
10. Trying To Imitate The Pros
The generation of poker players coming through nowadays are those raised on watching it on TV. People have their favourite poker players they have seen making big bluffs and talking the talk. Amatuer players seem to copy-cat these actions in order to come across more professional. what they fail to realise however that on TV they are only watching edited highlights. Not every hand is a monster raise, or a trap, or a bluff – in fact most of the time it is one player raising with a genuine hand and everyone else folding. This is unfortunately the less interesting side of poker but it (should) represent a large majority of your game.
We have a generic nickname for these kinds of players at the table. Those that come in wearing the shades, the cap, the iPod, talking about how other players should have played their hands, talking crap. The nickname given is “All the gear, no idea”. Make sure you are able to spot these players if they are on your table and more importantly make sure that you are not one of them yourself!
V
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