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Archive for the ‘Pokertionary’ Category

Pokertionary: Prop Bet

Sunday, September 20th, 2009

Prop bet= Proposition bet

As if playing poker wasn’t gambling enough, a lot of poker players, myself included like to spice up the game with some additional bets to keep the game juicy.

If you have ever watched the early seasons of high stakes poker you would have seen them making some references to prop bets and the one that was most visable to the viewer was the seven deuce bounty which meant that any player that won a pot with 72 in their hand got paid $500 from the other players at the table.

The 72 bounty game is one that shows up on occasion at the home game. Not everyone is a fan of the game though as it can cause some pretty hectic hands with players trying to bluff like crazy in order to win the bounty bet and often bluffing off a huge part of their stack in order to do it.

Other games that show up from time to time are the suits where 4 players will take a suit each and if the flop comes all that players suit they get paid.  A scarier version would be the one Ivey and Zigmund were playing red/black for $50,000 a flop as there will always be more of one of those cards on a three card flop.

Ontario and the Rapper often play a high low pair game with each player taking the high or low cards Ace through 6 or 8 though King with 7 being a push and if a flop come 2 of those cards there is a payoff, three of a kind double the payoff.

I find these games keep things a bit more lively and keeps you more interested in the game and adds another level of thinking when you start playing red/black for sure.

Pokertionary: Poker hand nicknames

Monday, June 22nd, 2009

Well I guess I shouldn’t assume that everyone knows all the terms that are used here so I will try and update this as much as I can in the FAQs section and keep it somewhat easy to read.

I’ll use Hold’em starting hands as the go to on this, if you don’t know, you get dealt two cards to start with in Texas Hold’em also known as your “hole cards” and a lot of these hands have nicknames.

AA-Aces, Bullets, American Airlines, Pocket Rockets

KK-Cowboys, King Kong

QQ- Ladies, Siegfried & Roy, Hilton Sisters

JJ-Fish Hooks, Hooks, Jays

TT-Bo Derek

99-Gretzky, The Great One

88- Snowmen, Eric Lindros

77-Sunset Strip, Hockey Sticks, Walking sticks

66-Mario Lemieux, Route 66, Lesser Evil, Almost Evil

55-Presto, Speed Limit, Sammy Haggar

44-Magnum

33-Crabs

22-Ducks, The Double Deuce, The Dalton

AK-Big Slick, Anna Kourikova

AQ-Big Chick

AJ-Ajax

Q3-Gay Waiter (Queen with a trey)

J6-The Foran

J5- Jackson Five

69- Big Lick

Starting Hands: Sklansky Groups

Friday, June 12th, 2009

David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth are probably best known for taking the starting hands for Hold’em Poker and ranking them into groups.

Quickly, they suggest playing the first two groups in early position, groups 1-5 in middle position, and 1-8 in late position. All other should be folded. Notice there is no J6? Do you?

Anyways, the “s” behind some of the hands refers to them being suited.

Group 1:AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AKs
Group 2: TT, AQs, AJs, KQs, AK
Group 3:99, JTs, QJs, KJs, ATs, AQ
Group 4:T9s, KQ, 88, QTs, 98s, J9s, AJ, KTs
Group 5:77, 87s, Q9s, T8s, KJ, QJ, JT, 76s, 97s, Axs, 65s
Group 6: 66, AT, 55,86s, KT, QT, 54s, K9s, J8s, 75s
Group 7: 44, J9, 64s, T9, 53s, 33, 98,43s, 22, Kxs, T7s, Q8s
Group 8: 87, A9, Q9, 76,42s, 32s, 96s, 85s, 58, J7s, 65, 54, 74s,K9, T8

Pokertionary: Poker terms

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

Just some random terms you may see used here that don’t fit into the the hand names post

TAG: Tight Aggressive a style of play in which the player usually only plays good starting hands, but then bets them once he starts

LAG: Loose Aggressive a style with a wider range of starting hands, but will make plays at pots at all times

Donkey or Donks: Players other than myself, usually newer players or ones that make plays counter to the math that operates behind the game.

Hole Cards: The cards everyone is dealt which are their own for the entire hand. Two in Holdem and Seven Card Stud, 4 in Omaha, 5 in Draw.

Flop: The first three community cards turned over, all at once, after the initial first round of betting has taken place.

Turn: The next community card turned over, also called fourth street.

River: The last of the community cards, also called fifth street.

Dealer: Dealer of the cards in the home game, also denotes a position at the table, also referred to as The Button. Dealer is the last to act on all rounds after the flop.

Small Blind: First of the forced bets, small blind is the first person to the left of the dealer.

Big Blind: Second of the forced bet and twice as big as the small blind, it’s the person on the left of the small blind.

Under the Gun (UTG): Refers to the player that is first to act, before the flop it would be the person to the left of the dealer, after the flop and on every successive round it would then move to the Small Blind position.

Cutoff: Refers to the position at the table of the person to the right of the Dealer.

Ante: Is a forced bet by players to get cards, in some games all players pay an Ante of some sort, in others it is just the Blinds. And example would be a tournament where the Small Blind was $25, the Big Blind was $50 and all player paid a $5 Ante.

Outs: The number of possible cards left in the deck that will “make” your hand. An example would be if you have a 2 suited cards in your hand and there are two of those suited cards on the flop, you can assume that you have the other cards left of that suit to make your hand, 13 original cards minus the 2 in your hand and the 2 on the flop leaves 9 cards or outs left.

Pot Odds: The ratio of the bet to you versus the amount of money in the pot. Imagine there is $9 in the post and the bet is $1, you are now getting 10-1 pot odds on calling the $1.

Implied Odds: This has to do more with the players at the just the math, it has to do with what you feel the chance of other players making the call after you are, or the chance that you feel you will be able to bet and get paid after the next card comes. An example may be calling a raise from a tight aggressive player with a small pair in your hand knowing that if you do hit a set on the flop and they catch part of the flop, or have an over pair you will get a much larger bet paid off to you in the action to come.

All In: In No Limit games, a player has no limit as to the amount he may bet, and a All In bet is the player saying he bets all the chips he has in front of him.

Position: A term used to denote whether you act before or after another person in the hand. If you act before the person you would be Out of Position and if you act after the person you would be In Position or Have Position on them. A very important part of poker, very much so with larger amounts of players at the table.

Full Ring: Refers to the amount of players at the table. A Full Ring usually means 9-10 players.

Short Handed: Less players than a Full Ring game. Short handed usually refers to 6 or less players.

No Limit: Other than the blinds and antes, in a No Limit game, a player may bet as much as they at anytime, or there is No Limit to the amount they may bet.

Cold Deck: A reference to having a deal that looks like it was set up, from the days of poker cheats who would switch decks when it came to their deal to a deck that hand the cards all set up to make an action hand that would ultimately get a lot of money in the pot and still have them win. An example would be to deal out cards that would give a player a full house, another four of a kind and another the dealer a straight flush. Also used to  when dominated hands get sucked out on, ie. AA losing to KK when a K hits on the flop.

The Nuts: A term used to signify the absolute best hand possible given what is on the board. The Nut flush for instance in a term used to signify the Ace high flush if there is no possible straight flush.

Kicker: The card used to break ties when both players have the same hand. For instance, if both players had a pair of Aces, an Ace in their hand and an Ace on the board the winner would be decided by who had the next highest card. If the board was A8723 and one player held AQ and the other AJ the Q in player ones hand would be the higher Kicker and the player with the AQ would win.

Check: Check means to pass on you option to bet to the person to your left. If you were the big blind in a hand and everyone had called the blind up before you and you don’t wish to raise you would say check and the action would move to the next person.

WSOP: World Series of Poker. For the most part used in reference to a poker tourney held in Las Vegas Nevada in which the Main Event is played, now it is a series or tournaments played around the world.

Main Event: The big game at the WSOP. A $10,000 entry fee open event of no limit hold’em. The Main Event attracts upwards of 8,000 players and is considered the Super Bowl of Poker.

Pokertionary: Tilt

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

On Tilt, Steaming, Foran’ing, whatever you want to call it; it is a poker term for the mental state when a player adopts a “less than optimal” strategy.

There are many causes for Tilt, but just to name a few:

1. Folding a winning hand to a bet only to have your opponent turn over a bluff

2. Having an opponent “suck out” on you and beat your hand, this is made worse when the pot odds are not in line with the odds they made to draw to the card.

3. Frustration of getting unplayable hands time after time.

4. Standing up to an aggressive player who is always raising, only for them to end up with a dominating hand when you do, ie. AA vs KK, also called the Cold Deck.

5. Some players can be put on Tilt just with conversation, commenting on the way they play their cards, their choice of hands and or bets can make some players lose concentration.

6. Although not something that ever happens in the Home Game, I have heard that excessive consumption of alcohol can sometimes cause players to play a little on Tilt.

A good player avoids Tilt, but all players will at sometime in their poker career fall into the trap. Recognizing when another player is on Tilt can make it quite profitable if you have the right cards

Poker Games: H.O.R.S.E

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

H.O.R.S.E is a mixed poker game of the following:

H-Hold’em

O-Omaha

R-Razz

S-Seven Card Stud High

E-Seven Card Stud High/ Low Eight or better

Played in a rotation that changes after either a fixed amount of time (like and hour) or after every rotation of the dealer.

The HORSE tourney at the WSOP was introduced in 2006 and has a $50,000 entry fee versus the $10,000 for the Main Event, and is thought to crown the best all around poker player.

Hopefully I can get these donkeys to play this in the future, would make the game a lot more interesting I think.

Poker Terms:Playing Styles

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

If you read any online poker talk you will see references to these styles.

TAG: Tight Aggressive. A TAG player usually only plays the top 2 or 3 groups of hands, but when they do enter a pot they will bet aggressively preflop and on the flop. TAG tends to be a fairly easy to follow tournament strategy.

LAG: Loose Aggressive. A LAG player will play a much wider range of hands, but will play them all very similar. Raising preflop, and betting flops whether hitting or not. Requires more skill in terms or reading opponent.

Rock: Plays only premium hands, if they come in raising you had better believe they have the goods so if you don’t hit, get out of there. Definitely not the most exciting play to watch, but setting yourself up as a rock does allow you to steal on occasion as opponents give you credit for big hands when you do enter a pot.

Fish: What every poker player wants to see at the table. The fish is the guy that calls down your bets with 4th best pair. The fish lets you catch up and draw out for cheap and generally donates to the cause. The fish is the guy that looks perplexed and doesn’t know that trips beats two pair, and a flush beats a straight. The poker player’s nymphomaniac exchange student.

Donkey: Like a Fish, but the Donkey does actually know more about poker and the rules, they just tend to ignore them. I guess the real difference though is the Donkey will beat you once and a while with their bad play, while the fish is a more consistent ATM.

Weak Tight: Like a TAG player in terms of hand selection, but avoids flops that don’t hit really hard and can often be bet out of hands. Players moving from full ring and or tournament games to short handed cash games often start as a version of weak tight till they can evolve their game. A blind stealer’s wet dream.

ABC: Somewhat like a TAG player, however they are less aggressive and play by the book. More predictable these players tend to play their hands the same way and rarely mix up their play. ABC players tend to get crushed at higher skill levels.

Maniac: A hyper aggressive version of a LAG player, raising and reraising with anything. They can often push with nothing, counting on a big chip stack to bully the table. Tournament poker play has some times in the game where this type of play will work very well. Win and loose big pots.

Nit: Like an ABC player, but a NIT tends to avoid confrontations and big pots unless they hold the absolute nuts. Like a ABC and a weak player combined. Easy to steal from and check raising often will give you the goods.

Poker Terms: Wired Pair

Monday, May 11th, 2009

Dear Vince Van Patten and Mike Sexton,

Understand that I really appreciate you guys for bringing us the World Poker Tour; its a great show and has given me hours and hours of pleasure, even though I am not the biggest fan of tournament poker, it certainly is a damn shade better than a lot of shows out there.

But please, PLEASE, for the love of all things holy, stop saying “wired pair“. It’s stupid.

Say “pocket pair”

Say “pair of jacks, kings, eights, etc.”

But stop with the damn “wired pair” there are no wires. Its not on the Internet, its just a damn pair.

Now Vince I give you a little extra leeway because your brother’s ex wife is super hot, but she is not on the show anymore so you have used up almost all your nine lives. Mike, you used up your cards a long time ago.

Poker Terms: Live Straddle

Sunday, May 10th, 2009

Here at areallybigfish.com we get a lot of emails from readers asking us to go over playing strategy, rating online poker rooms and poker books, and who coined the phrase “hookers and blow”, but every once in a while we seen questions that kind of skirt the line and are forced to make a ruling, this is one of them.

A Straddle is a bet placed by the player who is Under the Gun (UTG), in most cases, the player to the left of the Big Blind (BB). The Straddle must be at least the size of the minimum raise allowed in the game, so in the case of a game with a $10 BB, the Straddle must be at least $20, and essentially becomes the new Big Blind, or Bigger Blind.

The next Player to act after that, ie. UTG+1 could also re-straddle by placing a $40 bet if he wanted to.

Why straddle?

Well, in a tight game this may get some more money on the table for one, in a short handed game it may also possibly be able to buy you the button, and the right to act last in the first hand.

Imagine a game with 5 Players and $5/$10 Blinds

UTG Places a $20 Straddle, and UTG+1 who is also because the table is short handed in the cutoff places a re-straddle to $40.

The Button folds becasue he is now acting UTG and has to call a 4Bet with everyone still to act behind him, giving UTG+1 the button and the right to act last in the first round also.

Straddles are allowed in most cash games in casinos, though not in tournament games. Straddles are not allowed in Atlantic City though.

What’s the difference between a Straddle and a Live Straddle?

Well, here is the dispute.

While not specifically mentioned, a Straddle is considered to be “live” meaning, that even if no one raises the Blind, the person who Straddles still has the option of raising the hand when the action returns to them. They have essentially bought the right to act last in the hand.

Why do they have both terms then?

Not sure exactly, but there are two other bets than may shed some light on it.

Mississippi Straddle

A Mississippi Straddle is one made from any position before the cards are dealt, it is considered to be a “live” Straddle and is not allowed in many casinos.

Sleeper Bet

A Sleeper bet is one similar to a Mississippi straddle in the sense it may be place in any position, though this bet is not “live” meaning there is not right to raise in this position if the action is just folded or called around to the hand. Sleeper bets, because they are not live are allowed in most casinos.

So, the official ruling is: Straddles are all considered to be “live” and the term Live Straddle is now deemed to be redundant.