Play the Player!

There are professional poker players that have claimed that you do not need to be a math magician to be extremely good at poker. Sure, playing the percentages certainly works to your advantage, but what good is that if there is always another player trying to knock you off your hand when you actually have the better percentages; you just do not know it. That’s when being able to read your opponents and not the cards come into play.

Being great at poker means being more than just the type of player who only plays the best of cards.  The crushers are great, but they usually don’t come as often as we’d like.  The best of players know how to play with terrible cards.  You have to learn to prey on the weak and take advantage of the strong.  You have to learn how to bluff someone off a decent hand and hone your skills at tricking your opponents into thinking that you have the worse hand.  Playing your opponent is just as important, if not more than learning the math.

Not only do you have to think about the strength of your hand and your table position, but you have to realize that any poker player with experience is probably thinking the same way you are. Whittle your way down to the facts you do know about your opponent since you can’t see their hand.

What is their table position?  Did they call, bet or raise pre-flop?  Are they confident when they bet or are they making a show of it?  How did they react when they looked at their cards?  How big is their stack or bankroll?  Learn to notice when a player is on tilt and cannot control their emotions.  Keeping alert, focusing and remembering things that go on around you on the felt and even online, will help you to learn more about the player you are facing off with.

Bluffing is very hard to master and if you are not confident you are better off trying to spot signs of weakness from your opponents.  If you’re playing online poker, being able to spot calling stations is an important trait to have.  It’s sometimes easier to bluff a good player than a bad one because a good one will fold two pair when a bad one will call you down with a pair of Queens with a five kicker.

There is really no point in bluffing a terrible poker player who is a calling station because he is going to call you down all the way to the river.  In a lot of cases you need to have the ability to categorize the type of players your opponents are very quickly, then use their strengths and their weaknesses against them

All In with a K4?

Usually late night television holds no appeal for me, especially since we’ve relocated to Europe.  I couldn’t sleep, and didn’t feel like logging on to my favorite online poker room, so when I happened upon a re-play of  last November’s Partouche Poker Tournament telecast, I decided to sit down, have a brandy and watch again how this one turns out.

The Partouche Poker Tour is the biggest orgainized poker event in France.  With over 2,460 ‘Satellite’ tournaments, it was fun watching the winners of the second level ‘Super Satellites’ take a seat in the Partouche Main Event.  With a €1.3 million prize, the tour ended with the final heads up match at the beautiful Palm Beach Casino in Cannes.

The champ, Vanessa Selbst was seated at the final table with six other players when I settled in to watch. I quickly became fascinated with Ibrahim Raouf, who went in under the gun with 4S-6C.  Totally bluffing.  I could not get over his ability to just crack his opponent’s tough veneer with a long hard stare, making them wonder what he had, if they could beat him.  He was so good at it!  And sure enough, after calling, then betting, then raising and even re-raising, he got his opponents, one by one to drop and fold leaving him to rake in the huge €250,000 pot with nothing in his hand.  Finally after the cards were re-shuffled and the next hand was about to be dealt he looks over at the last one to fold and says, “Yeah, I didn’t have a thing.”

As the remaining players one by one put all-in and lost, it was down to Selbst and Raphael Kroll.  Heads up play was mediocre at best with Kroll taking down the first few pots.  On the fifth hand Selbst picked up pocket queens and Kroll had a K4.  She opened and bet high and then Kroll went all-in.  All in?  With a K4?  I just couldn’t believe it.  A K4?  Pre-flop.  His face showed it all as the cards were flipped over.  He knew it.  He had three outs, the remaining kings.  The odds were against him this time.

I went to bed wondering why the hell he went all-in with a K4 at the final table with €1.3 million at stake.  I’ll bet you that even he doesn’t know.

Some Great Online Poker Tips from Nigel Goldman

I’ve read quite a few books about online poker and one of my favorites is Nigel Goldman’s “Make a Million from Online Poker”.  Just a short little hand guide really, but it helped me learn the basics of playing online poker in a very short amount of time.  In the book Mr. Goldman list’s his top 15 tips for playing great online poker and I thought I would post them for you, the player who wants to play like a champion!

1. Only risk 10% of your bankroll in any one game.

2. Never play when drunk or tired. (Why do you think Vegas casinos serve free drinks to their punters?)

3. Insure you are always comfortable by investing in a decent size monitor and wireless technology.

4. Consider a bogus identity.

5. Create false alliances with other players.

6. Play two or more games at once; the bulk of your hands in any game will be poor, so this gives you more action and a better chance of hitting decent cards.

7. Watch out for instant action from other players – it probably indicates that they are using pre-select buttons.

8. Most online players [especially in low-stakes games] are bad players, so there is no need to play too fancy.

9. Don’t let other players bully you into playing or making decision faster than you need to.  Ignore “zzzzzzz” comments in the chatbox if you are legitimately thinking through a hand.

10. Look out for value satellite competitions – many large prizes are won by online qualifiers.

11. Ensure that any credit card you have logged on with to play is up to date.

12. Enroll with an online financial service agency such as NetTeller to help you process big wins.

13. Take a break, especially after a big win or heavy loss.  Don’t be shy about sitting out for a few minutes.

14. Remember, good players do most of their gambling on the flop.

15. Most of your profit will come from making the most obvious correct moves.

Building Your Bankroll, Then Managing It

The whole purpose of playing poker online is to make money.  Visit any poker website or read any poker blog and you will learn that if you are unable to manage your bankroll, playing poker online will not be a profitable experience for you.  And if you are not making any money, that experience is no longer a fun one either.

It’s easy to manage your bankroll if you are able to develop some discipline in following the rules of bankroll management.   We are going to lay out a few simple rules and if you are able to stay within these simple guidelines, you should be able to deposit a certain amount of money and never have to deposit money again!

If you are a cash game player, your bankroll should have a  minimum of twenty buy-ins, regardless of your level of play.  Should you get to fifteen buy-ins or less, you should consider moving down a level until you can get back to a twenty level buy-in.   One buy-in is considered 100 big blinds. For instance, at .01/.02, a buy-in is $2 (100 x .02 = $2) and that is why .01/.02 is called $2NL.  So, if you deposit $50 and are determined to use good bankroll management, you should start out playing $2NL until you can work your way up to $100. When you get to $100 you can then start playing $5NL. If your play starts to spiral at the $5NL and your bankroll drops back down to $75 (15 buy-ins), then you might consider dropping down to $2NL and work it back up.  Remember, the only people that don’t move down are the the players that eventually go broke.

If you are able to develop some good bankroll management skills, soon these skills will become second nature and it doesn’t have to be difficult!  Managing your bankroll will only help your game as you grind from one level to the next.  The above scenario may be seen by many as a minimum ‘guideline’, but experts will agree that for a micro-stakes player, it is an acceptable way to gain an edge in a competitive environment where skill, patience and luck are the name of the game.

Taking The “Blinds” Strategy Seriously

In Texas Hold’em there is no ante, instead there are blinds that serve the same purpose. Big and small blinds are forced bets that rotate around the table getting the action started. Without the blinds, everyone would just wait until they had a perfect hand to play, which would bring the action to a screeching halt.  There are two blinds: a small blind and a big blind.

The big blind is typically set as the amount of the pre-flop bet and the small blind is usually half of the big blind. For example, in a $10-20 limit poker game, the big blind is $10 and the small blind is $5.

If you want to win at poker, it is important to understand the blinds and take the notion of blind strategy seriously. Every round you’re forced to play both a big blind and a small blind. In online poker, you’ll receive between 60 and 70 hands per hour. (More if you’re multi-tabling.) At a full table, this means you’ll be posting blinds 6 or 7 times per hour. In a $10/$20 game, that’s between $90 and $105 each hour.

Use the simple poker blinds formula below to try and figure out how much money you put in the pot for blinds each hour:

(Rounds per hour x big blind post amount) + (Rounds per hour x small blind post amount) = Total dollars put in the pot from blinds.

In my opinion, there are two perspectives to consider when thinking about the blinds:

• Defensive – You want to protect your blinds when you’re in the blinds.
• Offensive – You want to steal the other players’ blinds when you can.

Being able to steal blinds is necessary to be a winning player in a tough game. Stealing blinds in the tough games become more important because players are usually playing tighter.  Take advantage of your table position and play aggressively, raising pre-flop.  If you succeed and the blinds fold, you’ve won a free hand of poker. And of course you have the advantage of stealing a blind from any position if you’re holding a premium starting hand.

You’ll need to defend your blinds from this strategy from other players as well. Good poker players know when to be selective about the hands they play. But if your blinds are stolen every round by a raise, then you’re losing a significant amount of money. The bottom line is that dealing with the blinds is something you’ll have to learn how to do to be a successful player. Especially in tournament play.

Winning Big Money In An Online Poker Room

When I first started gambling online, my whole intention was to learn more about the game of Texas Hold’em and gain more experience for live play.  I knew that I could play  low limit tables and practice with ‘free money’ for as long as I wanted in order to gain experience and confidence. I needed all the confidence I could get before playing with my own hard-earned cash!  It wasn’t long before I felt ready to deposit money and start building my bankroll.

One night a week turned into a couple of nights a week, then every time I could get online, I’d log into my favorite poker room.  When I was at my virtual online poker room, I didn’t think about work, family issues, the kids or anything else that entered my mind during the course of the day.  It was relaxing, fun and exciting  to think about the possibility of winning big.   I started to read poker articles online and couldn’t believe all the blogs and websites dedicated to the subject of Texas Hold’em.  The more I read, the more I learned and I realized that if you are a dedicated player, and really enjoy the game, you have the chance just as anyone else to win big.  Just check out the article below and you will see what I mean!

From Poker.net:

After winning $287k on his first day as a sponsored pro on PokerStars, Isildur1 drops down $300k. Isildur1, which rumors says he is the Swedish poker player Viktor Blom, almost lost his whole stack playing $100/$200 PLO against the pro Phil “MrSweets28” Galfond.

His losses in the PLO game are not a surprise because he is usually considered to be a superior No-Limit Hold’em player.

Swings like this are not a strange thing when it comes to Isildur1, last year Isildur1 won over $4 million on Full Tilt Poker and then lost it all and more.

For other player this day went a little better, the Full Tilt Poker pro Patrik Antonious was the big winner of the day with a win of $147k at the $200/$400 Six-Max PLO tables.

The new player KobeYard85 won $140k, Gus Hansen with $104k, the limit specialist O Fortuna PLS with $115k and harrington25 with $113k.

One of the big losers this day was Phil Ivey who’s been on a downswing recently, lost $117k more in only 169 hands.

Players that also lost quiet much were DrugsOrMe who went down $88k and Andrew Feldman who lost $87k.

An ‘All In’ Strategy and a Short Stack

If you ever play tournament poker, you are more than likely to find yourself short-stacked at some point or another.  That is, unless you win every tournament you play, or have a habit of busting out when you still have a lot of chips.  So, if that’s you, please move along to another article.  For the 99.9% of you who will play short-stacked at some point or another, here is just one ‘all-in’ strategy on wielding a short stack in a No-Limit Hold’em tournament.

When I first started playing tournaments, I had a very basic short-stack strategy—when I had less than ten times the big blind, I only had one move: all-in when I was the first one in the pot.  The idea here is to try to steal the blinds.  Depending on how short-stacked you are, you can be more or less selective with the types of hands that you try to steal with.  For example, with 8 times the big blind, you might wait for any ace or pair (or even KQ), but with 4 times the big blind, you might want to go all-in on your first chance to be the first one in the pot, with any cards.

In general, the more chips you have, the more you want to play your cards and the shorter your stack, the more you want to look for the right opportunities to go all-in.  Of course, if you have a premium hand (AK or pocket Jacks or better), then you may want to go all-in even if someone has come in before you, but if there is significant action before the action gets to you, then you may still want to stay out of trouble. This is a good strategy for the newbie tournament player, but for more advanced play, I wouldn’t recommend restricting yourself to this one play unless you have less than six times the big blind.

Of course, everyone has their own strategy for going all-in, and this is just one of them!

Doyle Brunson’s Tournament Tips

Doyle Brunson’s Poker Strategy Tips

Doyle Brunson, poker legend and fearsome opponent in all forms of the game has a reputation built on aggression – he wins pot after pot because his opponents know he is happy to get all his chips in without so much as a draw!  It may then come as a surprise to some that, for tournaments, Doyle Brunson’s poker strategy advice is to play very tight, at least in the beginning levels. For the first couple of blind levels Doyle is happy to sit back and be content with the pots that the cards allow him to win.

This type of survivalist poker tournament strategy allows professional players to survive the ‘minefield’ of amateur players found at the start of tournaments. The strategy involves raising with medium strength cards (mid-pairs / unsuited high cards etc) but never calling with them. Taking small stabs at pots, but backing off when resistance is encountered.

When you are entering mid-stage of the poker tournament, Doyle’s strategy involves careful assessment of many situational factors. These include the tendencies of opponents, but more importantly their stack sizes. Small and Large stacks are far more likely to call your big bets (though for different reasons) so caution should be exercised with them.

Aggressive and positive poker, which is Doyle Brunson’s trademark, kicks in later in the middle stages. This takes the form of gradually increasing aggression levels in order to put pressure on your opponents who will be afraid of busting out. According to Brunson, the key tournament strategy here is to keep accumulating chips – staying ahead of the blinds and antes will enable you to choose when to bet big rather than be forced to play without solid values.

Doyle’s poker tournament strategy for the final table involves careful evaluation of your opponents and their chip stacks. While Brunson advises always playing to win, there are times when a number of short stacked opponents mean that tight play would guarantee you one of the higher playing places. If your goal is to win and you are second in chips, Doyle advises that you target the chip leader, play aggressively and try to overtake him.