Latest blog entry
Author: Sacha T
Article:
Texas Holdem is a poker game where you can make huge profits
from your winning, but you need a winning psychological mindset,
and the right strategy.
Don’ expect to read a book or two on Texas Holdem, and be an
expert. That is not the way it works. This is not something you
learn from books! Knowing how to play is essential, naturally,
but not enough. Why not?
To be successful in Texas Holdem you need some strategy,
certainly – and you must learn to play not only your own hand,
but that of the other players.
For any strategy to be effective you must include in it your
opponent’s strategy as well, and then adapt your own to win.
This is the difficult bit of developing your Texas Hold’em
strategy there is no optimal hand to play like in Blackjack; you
have to BEAT your opponent.
So, you must first however learn all the basics:
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“Roy Rounder” is the pen name of a successful professional
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331 to 1.
Those are the odds AGAINST getting dealt an Ace-King suited
before the flop.
220 to 1.
Those are the odds AGAINST getting pocket Aces before the
flop.
Monster hands like these are GREAT when you catch them…
and you’ll definitely have a good shot at raking in a killer
pot.
But the fact is, when you play poker you WON’T catch
monsters very often.
The same is true with wired pairs and suited connectors…
When you hit with one of these hands, your opponents will
usually NEVER see it coming…
And once again, you’ll rake in a nice pot.
The way to play Big Slick (AK) depends largely on your positioning, how many players are in the hand, your read on the situation, and so on.
Remember this mantra:
PLAY THE PLAYER, NOT THE CARDS.
Is Big Slick a monster hand?
Yes, of course it is.
But you’ll get BURNT with it if you don’t take the right
things into consideration.
When you’re in late positioning, you should raise
aggressively pre-flop with Big Slick and try to narrow the
field down to one or two callers.
If you’re in an early position, you should make a raise with the same goal in mind: to narrow it down to a caller or two. Except this time, you’ll have to use more of your “intuition” to decide how large your bet will need to be.
With Big Slick, you want to get RID of anyone at the table who’s holding a deuce… that way you’re not scared about an opponent having a pair of two’s!
It’s so simple…
And so obvious…
Yet no one seems to get it!
What’s this easy-to-use secret for beating Sit and Go tournaments online?
The answer is this:
PATIENCE.
I know… I know… you were expecting something more, um… “secretive”.
But the truth is, winning at Sit and Go’s is pretty damn easy. I find them easier than “real” poker games, actually.
And that’s why every time I turn on the computer these days I feel like a kid in a candy store… ready to clean out the amateurs at the poker room of my choosing.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
What I want to discuss here is why PATIENCE is so critical for Sit and Go success.
First, let’s get back to some basics. There are four types of poker playing styles:
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PokerLetter.org: Your Online Poker Strategy Guide
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In poker you are pretty much playing one way or the other at the table,
but you should be doing both, and at different times. Many pros have a
reputation for being a specific type of player, but actually they are
mixing up their play and making their opponent misread their image.
One of the most important elements of poker is position. You must make
decisions based on where you are seated and where the button is. If you
are seated right after the button, you are in early position. This is
where you are most likely throwing away most hands. You do not want to
get involved with a mediocre hand like A10 and then have someone raise
big after you where you can’t call.
If you are seated on the button, you can be mixing up your play more.
Feel free to limp in or raise aggressively with mediocre hands. I like
to raise on the button with Ax. Most people will fold, and if you get a
caller you can usually raise them out after the flop because they think
you are holding a big pair. Be careful not to do this too often because
the better players know that the button is a good place to try and
steal.
You, like many other people, are dreaming of becoming a poker pro poker player. This may because you are unhappy with your job or you just think your good enough to hand with the current pros. Then there is the layed back lifestyle of working when you want to and being your own boss. I am not here to burst your bubble, but you really want to think about this before jumping into it. But we are here to help you out if that is what you think is best for you.
First off, forget everything you see on TV with poker. TV is going to give you a false since of reality.
To be a poker pro you obviously need to be an excellent poker player. You also need to have a nice size bankroll to begin playing with, and skills to be able to manage that bankroll. You must also be able to handle the bad beats and swings of the games that you “Will” have.
Now this is considered to be one of the most important factors if you are only thinking of becoming a pro. You must completely love the game! Not just like it, you must love it with a passion. If you do not totally love the game you will become miserable with your new occupation. You should be exited to get to the tables every day.
If you are not in love with the game this much, find another career.
The best semi-bluff (or the one with the best chance of winning the pot) is the flush draw semi-bluff. You raise with Ah-Qh, and the flop comes 3d-5h-9h. With two overcards and a flush draw, you can assume you have 15 outs out of the 47 remaining cards, making you 60% to hit with two cards to come. The problem is, you don’t have a hand yet. But since you might have a hand by the end, and you might not need a hand to win the pot, you might as well bet anyway. That’s the idea behind a semi-bluff.
There are no real required conditions to semi-bluff. All you need is a draw and a betting arm, but it can be boiled down to a science. What follows is an in-depth look at how to bet your flush draw on the respective streets and when to lay off and take a free card. I’ll discuss two different types of flush draw, the two-down and three-down types. Finally, I’ll discuss the betting once you have hit your flush.
First of all, I would suggest that you almost always semi-bluff with a two-down flush draw (when you have two suited cards in your hand along with two matching suited cards on the board). It accomplishes two goals in approximately equal proportions: getting money into the pot for when you hit your draw, and taking down the pot when your opponents fold to your semi-bluff. It is not well-advised to semi-bluff into more than 3 players because your chances of getting raised and isolated are much more present. When you do semi-bluff, your bet should be about half the pot, a reasonable bet. Remember that semi-bluffing is a combination of bluffing and value betting.
Tournament poker is one of the most exciting ways to play one of the most popular card games around. Since Jamie Gold won 12 million dollars at the 2006 WSOP, there is more incentive than ever to get involved in poker tournament play. One of the interesting things about poker tournaments is it provides myriad opportunities for implementing poker strategy. One thing you will have to understand to play tournament poker effectively is how to handle play on the button.
The button represents the player who is last to act in a given round of play. Acting last in a poker tournament gives you a tremendous advantage, as you will have information about how all the players feel about their hands (or how they want you to think they feel) before you act. What you do with this information can make all the difference in how you fare in the tournament.
When you are on the button, you should be willing to play more hands. This is because you are unlikely to be raised pre-flop since there are only the blinds to act after you, so you will rarely be forced to commit too many chips with a marginal hand. Additionally, if you do flop a strong hand, you will be in the best position to extract chips from your opponents, which obviously is a good thing in a poker game.
To win at poker, you need to be able to read your opponents. If you want to be follow in Jamie Gold’s footsteps and win the WSOP (World Series of Poker) or win any poker tournament for that matter, it’s not enough to just bet your good hands and fold your weak ones. You’ve got to be able to understand when your hand may not be great, but it’s good enough. You have to have an idea of when your opponents are strong and when they may be bluffing. You also have to try to mislead your opponents as to what your bets mean. One way to do all this is through a thorough understanding of betting patterns.
Much discussion of poker is dedicated to the idea of tells. A tell is some sort of clue a player may give other players as to the strength of their hand. Players try to look at an opponent’s eyes, hands or mouth, or even pay careful attention to what they may be saying in hopes of getting an edge. There is one tell that is very difficult to disguise in a poker game, and that is the betting pattern.
All players must bet at some point to win a poker tournament, so if you can understand an opponent’s betting pattern,
you have an edge on them up until one of you gets knocked out. A betting pattern relates to the way a player handles a certain type of hand. Some players in Texas Hold em always bet draws “on the come” putting in chips with a flush or straight draw before finding out of they are going to make it. Others make the minimum raise before the flop with aces.
Still others may bet big to protect a smaller pair, but less to get action with bigger ones. If you can determine one of these patterns, you have crucial information. And in a poker tournament, information is key.
Author: Sacha T
