INCLUDE_DATA

Archive for the ‘Strategy’ Category

Poker After Dark-The Cash Game

Thursday, September 17th, 2009

The second best poker show on TV.

The first you ask?

High Stakes Poker of course.

But this is a pretty close second and with the line  up pretty stacked now with Phil Ivey, Patrick Antonious, Tom Dwan, Eli Elizra, Ilari Sahamies and Howard Lederer its good to watch.

The game has moved from $300/$600 all the way up to $500/$1000 with a $200 ante and more than that there is a huge amount of prop bets going on.

Ivey and Ziggy are playing $50,000 a hand red-black and there are numerous other bets going on with a bunch of the players, tens and fifties of thousands are changing hand all over the place and it is really strating to affect the way the guys play the hands too.

Example:

Ivey has taken Red in the props with Ziggy and looks down at two Diamonds, now with the blinds $500-$1000 there is $2,700 in the pot to start, however the prop with Ziggy is for $50,000 a flop, almost 20 times that and with Phil holding 2 red cards he knows there is less of a chance that the flop will be red, which means he doesn’t want anyone to see a flop and potentially save himself $50k in props.

Ziggy also knows this, and so do all the other players at the table, so now they are not only potentially rasing people with good and or bad hands, but with two red or two black cards just to keep people away from flops.

Makes for an interesting dynamic.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Media, Strategy | No Comments »

Math is hard: Poker odds to memorize

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

A couple of quick poker odds for you donks for the next time you go fishing for hands

Odds of making your hand seeing both the turn and river.

Gutshot straight draw                                         16.5% or approx 1-7

Open ended straight draw                                  31.5% or approx 1-3

Flush Draw (4 to a flush)                                    35% or approx 1-3

Open ended straight and a flush draw           54% or approx 1-2

Odds of flopping a flush                                      .84% or approx 1-120

Odds of flopping a flush draw                           11% or approx 1-8

Tags:
Posted in Strategy | No Comments »

Table Position

Monday, June 15th, 2009

 position-table

 

The Dealer or Button is the Yellow square is this picture and action moves clockwise from him.

The Red Squares indicate early position players, the Blue Middle positions (MP, MP2, MP3) and the Green Late positions (LP, LP2, LP3)

In a game, the Dealer will deal out the cards starting with the small blind and working clockwise.

After the deal, the first person to act is the UTG (under the gun) position, and then play moves around clockwise till the Big Blind.

After the flop, turn and river, the action starts with the Small Blind and works clockwise ending with the Dealer.

It is generally accepted that the earlier positions require stronger starting hands to both play and raise as you have more people to act behind you

Tags:
Posted in Strategy | No Comments »

Don’t go broke in an unraised pot

Monday, June 15th, 2009

Never go broke in an unraised pot-Doyle Brunson

Don’t go broke preflop with a Queen in your hand.

The wisdom is abound on this.

 With the exception to High Stakes Poker aka. “the best damn poker show period”, most of the poker games you see on TV is tournament poker, and most of that is only late in the tournament if not just the final table.

Since many of the rookies playing poker learned it by watching TV, it is no surprise that they tend to take that game play and strategy with them from the TV to the poker table. 

I’ve already talked about people overplaying AK, but the other thing that needs to be discussed is the “cash game overbet push” or CGOBP.

There are all kinds of odds to calculate when you are playing poker, pot odds, implied odds, odds of hitting your draw, odds that your opponent has a better hand than you, but many tournament players forget to check the odds they are betting when they push in a cash game, especially in deep stack poker.

When you are in a tournament the blinds increase, so the longer you play, the more expensive the game gets. And since you can’t buy chips and you have to pay at least a blind and a half every 9 or so hands assuming a full table, you need to win some of those back just to stay even. Tournament poker is “sink or swim”, you can only tread water for so long.

BUT

In cash game poker you can rebuy. If you get blinded away with 62 all night long, you can either gamble with it, try and steal the odd pot, or just rebuy and wait out the cards. Patience is a part of poker. A big part.

I’ll give an example of the cash game overbet push

$1/$2 cash game with reasonably deep stacks, lets say $600 each

Player 1 raises UTG with QQ to $10, a fairly standard raise for this game, but from first position, most players give respect to this being a first or second level hand. It’s folded around to the Cutoff who makes it $24 to go, the Button, Small and Big blind both fold. Player one moves all his chips into the middle, AKs is a great hand right?

Sure it is, but lets examine the odds here.

The raise was to $24, there was $13 in the pot before the raise, total in the pot was $37 before the all in push.

So Player 1 just bet $590 to win $37, true if he gets a call and wins he is betting $590 to win $603, but that is a secondary point.

The point is that he has bet $590 to win $37

$590/$37= almost 16:1

Are there any poker hands where you have a 16:1 advantage preflop?

The answer is no

Even AA vs AK which is about as good as it gets in a preflop match up is only 9:1

The best hand preflop AA vs. the worst had preflop 72 with the suits covered is still only 9:1

AA vs KK which is a huge match up is only 4:1, same as QQ, JJ, TT you get the picture.

What does this mean?

It means if you bet like this, even if you do it with AA only, and you can’t win every time you are supposed to, and you can’t get the other player to lay down and extra 8+ times, you are going to go broke in the long run.

Happy betting.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Strategy | No Comments »

Strategy: How to play pocket Jacks

Friday, June 12th, 2009

pocket_jacks

Pocket Jacks

Jack Jack, Fish hooks, Jay Jay, Jokers, whatever you like to call them doesn’t make them any easier to play.

While Sklansky does have them in the first group of starting hands, experience with them leads me to believe that this is not correct

I think it depends more on who I am playing with and what my position is

In early position against a mixed table, limp and try and make a set or hope for a low flop and you have the overpair. If you are playing against a lot of LAG players who have position on you and will call with suited Aces and Kings, or even Queens, there are just too many flops that don’t look good. 

Middle position, pretty much the same, but if it is unraised I may take a stab at it to try and narrow the field. If you are playing with players that can throw away weak Aces and Kings to a raise, then this is definitely the play here.

Late position, raise enough to try and take it down or get heads up, players hand range are going to be more important with JJ; will they play shitty Kings and Aces to a raise? How about KQ suited? If they do you have to be willing to fold to a bet with any of these on the flop. Do they bet shitty Aces and Kings? If they don’t you can check down hands and maybe be good or take a stab at a pot and if they don’t hit two pair they may fold. But if they won’t fold top pair you can bleed a lot of money betting these flops.

Try not to play big pots with them though unless you have a set, controlling the pot size is where you need to be concerned with JJ in my opinion, they are a pocket pair, but like any pair other than Aces, after the flop is where the play really starts.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Strategy | No Comments »

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

Tags: ,
Posted in Pokertionary, Strategy | 1 Comment »

Bluffing: Part 2

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

In my opinion a LAG player has more opportunities to bluff.

If you present yourself to the table as someone who can play all different types of hands in all different positions you will find that a bluff will work in a couple different ways. First of all, since your range of hands is a lot higher than the average player, the potential for hitting a flop with a rag board would seem to be higher. Be careful that the players you are sitting with are the type that can lay down an over pair to a raise and a re-raise, some just can’t do it and you have to pick your spots, making the same play can pay dividends against one player, and break you against another.

Imagine a late position raise for a tighter player (you put them on AK) and you calling from the small blind with 35 offsuit, flop comes down 35K and you check to the raise who fires at the pot, you pot it a bet and they re-raise, you pop it another bet and they? what? are they going to push here? lay down? you are a 7-3 favourite here and don’t mind the push, but for the future you need to know what he is going to do here. Do they just call and hope to see and Ace come down also? Another K?

How about on a K33 board? do they think two pair with top kicker is a pushing hand or are they worried about the 3? If they are the pushing type, use your implied odds on these flops and get paid, instead of bluffing at them when you hold JQ or AJ.

I wrote before that I think many people play AK too strong, after the flop all you have when you miss is a pair draw really. Getting people to lay down AK can be tough, but putting them on the hard and firing at every flop that misses it with a LAG image can pick you up a lot of pots.

The advantage to making some bluffs on these hands, try it on small pots that won’t kill you to get looked up on, is in the future, you can make the play on hands with the goods and get paid off, but in order to make money long term when bluffing you have to know that the player is the type that can make a tougher lay down.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Strategy | No Comments »

Bluffing: Part 1

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

Probably the two biggest mistakes that beginner poker players make is playing too many hands, and bluffing too much.

Bluffing correctly can be the difference between having a profitable night and going into your pocket, at the same time, bluffing incorrectly will be the difference between going into your pocket and emptying it out.

Many times new players get caught with a very simple tell, strong is weak and weak is strong. Bluffing on a flop or a river with an amount that just doesn’t make sense will get picked off sooner or later by a decent player, more so when the amount of the bet doesn’t warrant the hand. You may have to pay off a bet or two in order to figure this out, but after that you can set traps and wait for them to stumble.

There are a few different types of bluffs and combined with your table image they can work for you or against you. For instance:

A TAG will get respect for having a hand, so when they raise, it is expected that they have the goods, this would allow them to bluff the pot sometimes on hands that they totally whiff on, but a continuation bet from them represents a big pocket pair, or when an Ace or a King flops and they fire representing AK and everyone else folds unless they hit their two pair on the flop. A TAG has to be careful they don’t go to this well too many times or their image just won’t match up with their play and they will start getting looked up. They also have to watch how people play against them as they run the risk of getting trapped by a set or a goofy straight sometimes.

A semi bluff can be played a couple of different ways. You can bet into a flush or a straight draw representing a top or a big pair, this can sometimes give you a free card on the turn, you need to pay careful attention to where your position is to make this, and who you are playing against. An aggressive player may re-raise you ruining your play, preferably you want to make this in position so they will check the next card to you if you miss and then you get to see the river for free, or keep betting and possibly take it down.

A total bluff should be made against only certain players, some are incapable of laying down a hand and it is no sense bluffing them if you know they are going to look you up. Watch new players in this case as they may not be able to see what you are trying to represent. Watch bluffs against LAGS as they may certainly have actually made the full house you are trying to represent on the 44K28 board. The amount you bluff has to make sense here too, would you actually bet that much if you had the nuts? Would you lead out or would you check raise? A smart player is going to evaluate your play against what they know of you and if you check raised them with the nuts last time, leading out with a bluff may get you looked up this time.

Tags: ,
Posted in Strategy | No Comments »

Strategy: Implied Odds

Wednesday, May 6th, 2009

Here’s is one of my favourites and the reason that I like to mix my home game so much.

Implied odds = The chance that I have of taking all of your stack

                                       How many chips I have to put in to call

Now it works in the home game more because there are certain players that I can count on, I can count on J6 to play junk and think that a J high flop with JQ is a good hand, I can count of Ace to fall in love with his over pair, I can count on The Mouth to never believe me when I have a hand, and a couple other players like Nice Guy Eddie to keep firing at the pot no matter what flops.

Now a lot of people like to slow play a flopped set, but I like to build a pot, there is no sense letting them decide how much they are going to lose, after all, they are the ones that woke up with AA and now have their vision so clouded with WSOP bracelets that they can’t lay them down. I say get in a fight, get your money in good because they will pair the board sometimes and kill your flopped two pairs, occasionally they will hit the runner runner to take you out with a backdoor flush or a straight, but when you raise with 36 off-suit, get re-raised by QQ and smooth call, and lead at a 245 pot, more often than not you are getting paid

Tags: , ,
Posted in Strategy | No Comments »