Serious Poker 2nite

The concept of implied odds may well be the most important in a NL Holdem cash game. In a word, understanding your implied odds and learning how to exploit them is the fastest way to making money in cash games.

Before we go any further in dissecting the problem though, we need to make one thing clear: you can only think about exploiting your implied odds if you’re deep stacked. A deep stack is a must have prerequisite of any strategic approach based on the implied odds.

I’m sure you know that you need to bring as much money to a cash table as the poker room software allows, in order to be “properly stacked”, because a proper stack will allow you to play “optimal” poker. Now then, why exactly do you need to be properly stacked and what is optimal poker to begin with?

By optimal poker strategy experts usually mean a tight aggressive approach. Being tight when it comes to hand selection and being extremely aggressive on hands which one reckons are the best at the table is a proven long-term money maker. Being tight aggressive doesn’t only mean that you have to be very selective of the pocket hands that you play. Being loose preflop and then tightening up on the flop in order to aggressively pursue any hand which was hit by the flop is still in-line with the tight-aggressive image.

As a matter of fact, the more flops you see, the more chances you give yourself to come up with a pot-winner. Because on the flop your hand is about 70% made, that is where you really have to tighten up. Whichever hand you decide to take past the flop has to be a favorite for winning the pot, and you have to pursue it aggressively in order to make the most of it.

By being properly stacked, you’ll be able to achieve two things: you’ll be able to afford to see many flops before deciding to truly commit on a hand. When the time comes to commit, you’ll be able to get a lot of money into the pot, thus building up your eventual winnings.

Now then, seeing all those flops will cost you money, money that you will give up every time you fold on the flop. Most of the time, the flop will not hit you which means you’ll only have a few hands that you’ll be truly hoping to win money on. Those few hands however – if you play your cards right – will not only pay for all your previous losses, they’ll also yield sufficient money to give you an overall profit. A classic case of capitalizing on the implied odds is tied to playing low pocket pairs. By taking them to the flop time and time again, you’ll give yourself the chance to hit a set. While most of the time your set will not come about, sometimes it will and when it does, it’ll be a huge payday for you.

The call to see the flop on your low pocket pair may seem like a negative EV one in the short-run, but because of the amount of money you’re likely to win whenever the set hits you, it becomes a positive EV on in the long-run. These are your implied odds in action, and this is why it generally pays to play small pocket pairs in deep stacked cash games.

Even though the mathematical side of the problem requires you to spend as little money seeing the flops as possible, in order to minimize your losses and thus to maximize your overall profit, practice may sometimes ask for a different approach.

Minimizing your costs means a lot of limping, something which will cost you a lot of money at hyper-aggressive tables, and possibly ruin your implied odds. In such cases being aggressive gives you a much wider array of options to take down the pot.

Set-mining is more profitable if you do it with a solid rakeback deal backing you up. Rakeback will increase your excepted revenue rate and thus even impact your implied odds in a positive way.

If you intend to make money playing poker, first of all you need to understand the nature of this game, then you need to get humble enough to be willing to learn at all times. Poker is a never ending learning process. Ask any “name” pro, he’ll tell you he’s learning all the time too. Never get too cocky and believe for a second that you have full control of what’s going on at the table.

The nature of the game of poker is best summed up by the following statement which David Sklansky has made in his Theory of Poker: whenever you play a positive EV hand, you gain value, whether or not you win a particular hand and whenever you play negative EV you lose value regardless if you happen to get lucky and double up.

What this means above all is that the fundamental principle that will set you on the road to becoming a long term winner is tied to the Expected Value (EV) and to how you exploit it.

Certainly there are countless other aspects concerning successful play, like playing on a proper bankroll and taking advantage of subtle benefits like rakeback.

Some of these issues you’ll be able to cover at the table through your play, others have nothing to do with the way you play and everything to do with how informed you are.

The very first step you need to take towards digging yourself out of the ditch of being a clueless rookie is to understand what the expected value is. A simple example should clear that one out for you. If you flip a coin with a friend of yours for $1, you’ll be playing with a neutral EV because both of you are betting the same amount of money and you’re doing it on a 50-50 event.

If one of you were to bet $2 against the other guy’s $1, he’d be enjoying a 50 cent positive EV on each bet you’d play. He would basically win 50 cents on each bet regardless of whether he won or lost any of his bets.

Also, if the event itself on which you were betting provided an advantage to one of the parties involved, and you kept on betting $1 each, the guy with the advantage would get the EV+.

What this tells you is that the expected value depends on the bet itself and on the sums involved, and with that, you know what you need to consider when you’re trying to decide whether or not you have EV+ on your hand. Simply compare the pot odds (the amount of money in the pot versus how much you need to pay to remain in the hand), and the odds that you get for making the hand you’re chasing (by determining your number of outs).

Once you have this set, you’ll have a mathematical way to determine your course of action.

Poker is not a game based entirely on mathematics though. You’ll have to learn to read your opponents based on their betting patterns, and often the right course of action will be different from what mathematics tells you to do. Your ultimate goal should be to play each hand as if you could see your opponent’s hole cards. Every time you play a hand differently, you give up value on it. To play each hand like that is impossible of course, what you should strive for is to play the majority of your hands like that.

Don’t forget the off-table factors either. Do sign up for a rakeback deal, and do go out hunting for the best sign-up bonus deals. If you intend to make your money on the low-limit tables, learning how to play multiple tables will also do you a lot of good.

When you start playing poker, the first decision you will have to make is finding the right table to play on. This is important for both online and offline games because choosing the most appropriate table for your skills usually result in losing or winning more games.

Choosing a table seems hard when you’re just starting to play poker, but once you know your style, you can find a game based on that. If you’re still honing your poker skills, the best tables to play in are the limit hold’em tables because betting is capped, so you have lesser chances of losing your chips in one hand.

Another thing you should decide on is the table stakes. Some poker tables that start with blinds in the pennies and go up to $30/$50. You should always choose a game that suits your budget. For instance, if you play on a table with a buy-in minimum of 10times lower the stake level, you need to bring at least $20 to a $2/$4 game. Playing with only the minimum amount can leave you short and your opponents can take advantage of this.

If you have a healthy amount, it is still important to choose a table based on your capacity. Once you find a game that matches your criteria, you can dive in. However, it is always better to check the tables’ average pot size before you play. Be aware that tables with huge pot sizes are crowded with players that have been aggressively playing. On the other hand, tables with smaller pot sizes usually have the cautious players.

When it comes to choosing tournaments, you don’t have to worry about going over budget because losses during tournaments are capped from the outset. Meaning, you can only lose the money you paid to buy-in. When you choose a multi-table tournament, it will take around three hours for a game to finish, so if you don’t have time to spare, then choose a sit-and-go single-table tournament. A six-pack takes around 45 minutes, while a ten-seat can go up to an hour.

No poker player was born a winner. Instead, they learned, mastered and played continuously to become top of the league. If you’re aiming to be a poker player by profession, here are some tips from advanced poker players that you can follow:

1) Expect to lose – You will not survive playing pro poker if you expect to win every single game. Be aware that you will lose more poker games than those you win. However, if you play rationally and smartly, your wins are big and your losses are small.

2) Learn the psychology of poker – Your opponents will use psychological tactics to fool you into thinking they have good hands when in fact; they have the worst hands in the table. Be aware that it wouldn’t be poker if you and your opponents are honest with each other’s hands. As such, you have to learn a poker face, regardless if you play online or offline. The only way to do this is to mix your play, response times and mannerisms to make your game unpredictable to your opponents.

3) Become a tight aggressive player – If you wish to win more games, you have to be disciplined. Always play rationally and not emotionally. If you have a bad hand, then fold it; but once you have a good hand, then let it ride for as long as you want. If you insist on letting a bad hand ride because you want to win, you’re using your heart while you play, which is a bad thing when it comes to poker.

4) Fold early with bad hands – If you are dealt with a bad hand, fold as early as you can to minimize your losses. On the other hand, if you have a good starting hand, then let it ride and make sure to trick your opponents into betting more, so you can get more money in the pot should you win.

5) Learn your math – Poker, just like other card games, is a game that involves mathematical probabilities. Learn about the odds of good and bad hands, so you can get a realistic expectation on your hands.

6) Be assertive – When you have a good hand, don’t be afraid to raise. Stay in the game and learn which opponents are serious enough to stay in the game. Be aware that smart players will often fold if their cards are bad.

7) Study your opponents’ tells – When you play poker, may it be online or offline, you will observe some mannerisms, actions and signs that can indicate how good or bad a player has. Once you’re able to identify these tells, you can avoid your opponents’ winning hand and keep your money safe.

When you play online, observe everything and everyone on the table. Check your cards and the community cards all the time while you observe how your opponents are responding to whatever is going on in the table. These bits of information can help you decide if you wish to fold or not. As long as you follow these seven simple tips when playing poker, you’re on the right track to surviving pro poker games.

Slowplaying can be an effective strategy if you want to increase the pot while increasing the money you can win. Slowplaying happens when you check or call a great hand on a particular round of betting aiming to win more bets in the later rounds of the game. You will essentially slowplay a strong hand so that your opponent in the game will tend to fold if you give your bet.

Players usually do slowplaying during games. However, slowplaying can be dangerous in some situations. Do not commit slowplaying if you are under any of the following conditions:

There’s a free card that can beat you. Do not give your opponent a free card that would most likely beat you. There are limited hands that are a lock on the flop. For instance, if you happen to flop a straight, you may lose a higher straight, which is of course, not favorable. If the amount in the pot is still small, you may try giving a free card. However, be hesitant in giving out free cards because this may not be always favorable on your side.

There are too many opponents. If there are too many opponents, the risk involved in giving a free card is greater since you will have to deal with more opponents during a draw.

There are weak opponents during a game. Slowpaying is not often recommended if you have week opponents in a game. They tend to always call, in which you can end up loosing bets against these players.

In a nutshell, slowplaying is just a tactic used in deceiving your opponents for you to have added bets. However, it should be noted that slowplaying can really be risky, especially is the pot is already too large. If you will not consider the factors that you should think of, you will most likely lose the game.

Before deciding to give your bet, you must first understand the factors involved in a pre-flop tactic.
Some of the factors to consider include the aggressiveness of the players, number of players, your position, your bankroll, and even the risk you are willing to accept.

As for the aggressiveness of the players, for instance, if you are playing with only a few players for a number of hands, you figured out that jackass is raising every pre-flop, you may want to play tighter. Let the other player win the blinds, while you will win after having a solid hand on the pocket pre-flop.
Meanwhile, you should also be cautious about the number of players in the game. If there are ten people in the game, it is possible that someone else than you has a stronger hand in the pocket.

You may not believe it at first, but your position also matters. This is actually related on your ability to influence the pot. This has been proven true when it comes to pre-flop.

Bankroll is another consideration to keep in mind. If you only have $2 left you should be careful in putting your bet. But if you still have $1, 000, feel free to increase your bet.

Another consideration is your tolerance risk. People who are willing to embrace risks are often the same people who win a big pot. However, put in mind that luck is not always at your side. It really depends on your own strategies and your perception about the other players.

In playing the games, the first thing to consider of course is the cards you are holding. Do not get frustrated if you initially lose some games. It is but natural. However, be intelligent enough to know those common strategies you can employ in playing the game to increase your chances of winning the pot, how huge or small the amount at stake it. But above all, learn how to enjoy the game!

Usually, players who do not have good hands should not bother to bet. Meanwhile, those who have a good hand may try betting in Texas Hold ‘Em Poker. Do not be impulsive in giving bets, especially if you are just starting how to play the game.

You should depend on a betting strategy that is well-thought. You should learn how to analyze situations, if you think the situation is not favorable, better not to bet. Below are some of situations where betting strategies could be applied:

Blind Stealing – This situation happens when you are in the dealer’s situation, and then, only you, with the blinds, remain in the game. Specifically, this happens when you did not raise but called, the remaining blinds would simply check. It is actually a way of ending a game fast.

Check-raise – This happens when you intend to lure your opponents for them to give their bets. You will give them a false sense of security, while increasing the pot.

The Opener – This is often by people who want to bluff other people. A player intends to limit the number of players in the game. This essentially moves the amount to a steal-raise. Thus, many players would decide to fold, while the remaining players would often have the best hand. This strategy is effective if there are only a few players playing the game.

Squeezing – This is another tactic applicable for a short-handed game. Specifically, it is betting when you have good hands at present as you suspect that other players are on a draw. The actual aim here is to limit their pot odds in the game.

The betting strategies mentioned above are just some of the tactics you may want to try. The strategies are actually limitless. You may try to do something on your own.

If you have been playing Texas Hold ‘Em Poker, you might have already noticed that there are some starting hands that are not really great to deal with. If you see the following cards in your own hands, it’s better to run away from these as soon as you can:

2-7 (offsuit) – This is perhaps the worst starting hand in playing Texas Hold ‘Em Poker. With these starting hand, there are very limited good options that you can take. You do not have straight draw and flush draw. Most players also consider this a bad starting hand.

2-8 (offsuit) – This is almost like 2-7 (offsuit). The same situation would greet you as discussed above. Again, it is not possible to have a straight draw or flush with these cards.

3-8 (offsuit) – Dubbed as another horrible card in playing Texas Hold ‘Em Poker. If you have these cards, it is better to fold and wait for a better card to come.

2-9 (off-suit) – This is just a bit better than the number three on the list. Make sure to get rid of this combination as fast as you can.

2-6 (offsuit) – This is said to rank 165th of the 169th starting hands in playing Texas Hold ‘Em Poker.

Obviously, not a good card to play with. Do not expect a straight draw with this combination.
If you are aware of the worst and best combinations, the possibility of winning the game is most likely, especially if luck is just beside you. For beginners, most especially, bearing these combinations in mind will lessen your risks of playing the game. Just enjoy the game while being wary of the combinations that should be folded immediately. Remember that intelligent and smart players usually leave the poker table satisfied and happy.