Friday, September 30, 2011

Bet Sizing: Preflop Raises

One interesting area that we haven't look at yet this week is preflop raise sizing. At most low stakes (say, $1/$2) no-limit games, the preflop raises are unusually large -- often $12 or more. Even if the players making these very large raisers are good, this oversized preflop raise should be exploitable simply by tightening up and punishing them when you have a monster. Since you're playing mainly with poor-to-mediocre players at these levels, it's simply handing you more money in the long run, as you're likely to outplay your opponents after the flop (not to mention the fact that most of your opponents are likely raising with a range that includes some relatively weak hands).

The ideal preflop raise is probably more like $6 or $7, even after accounting for the rake or drop taken preflop. Some players would suggest going as low as $5; I recommend going about as low as you can without making your raises significantly smaller than the "standard" raise made at the table, since this will be less likely to draw attention. For instance, if most preflop raises are in the $10-$12 range, try raising to $8 -- that should be enough to get the same results, will allow you to keep the stacks fairly large in comparison to the pot, and shouldn't be enough of a deviation from the norm to make other players wonder what you're up to.

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Bet Sizing: When You're Not Sure

Despite all of the tips I've written about this week, you're still likely to come upon numerous situation where you're just not sure what the correct bet size is. Chances are that you'll narrow it down to a certain range, but you may not be sure what in that range to bet. For instance, you may feel that a bet in the range of $40-$50 is correct in a given situation...but how do you decide what in that range to bet?

The best rule of thumb is to bet on the higher end of that range. This will rarely be a major mistake, while betting too little can get you into trouble. If you're betting too much, you might occasionally turn a call you wanted from an opponent into a fold (or, in the better case, the extra few dollars will be just enough to make your bluff work). That can be annoying, but you still win the pot. When you bet too little, you might give another player the correct odds to call on a draw, or get a call from a hand that beats you, but which you might have knocked out of the pot with a larger bet.

The bottom line? Next time you're not sure what to bet, go a little bigger -- you'll rarely regret it. While a bet that's too big might cost you a few dollars, a bet that's too small can cost you the entire pot.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Bet Sizing: Polarizing Bets

You may have heard of the idea of a polarizing bet: one that can only represent a huge hand or a bluff. But what kind of bet represents a polarizing bet, and why would you want to make one?

The answer relates to one of my previous tips: sizing your bets based on the perceived strength of your opponents' hand. In that tip, we talked about how, when value betting a very strong hand on the river, you should make larger bets if you believe your opponent has a strong hand and is unlikely to fold. This creates a situation in which the meaning of your bets is somewhat limited:

Small/Normal Bet: You believe your opponent has a marginal hand and want to induce a call; you might do this with anything from a hand just barely worth value betting to the nuts. It is also possible to make a small bet bluff in certain situations, though that's a tricky play.

Large Bet: You may make this bet with a very strong hand when you believe your opponent has a strong hand themselves. You might also make a large bet to induce an opponent to fold when you're bluffing.

Large bets can only be made with a strong hand (if your opponent might have a strong enough hand to call) or as an attempted bluff. That makes a large river bet a polarizing bet. Even if you did make a large bet with a marginally valuable hand, it's essentially a bluff (and almost always a big mistake, since you could have just checked to take a showdown), since your opponent will only call a large bet with a hand that beats you.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Bet Sizing: Board Composition

In my last tip, I mentioned that while we don't want to give away the strength of our hand with our bet size, we can make bets based on the perceived strength of our opponents' hands. Similarly, it's a good idea to adjust the size of your bets based on the composition of the board.

The basic rule is to bet more on wet boards than on dry boards. There are two good reasons for adjusting your bets in this manner:

  • On dry boards, your opponents are less likely to have a draw that is dangerous to your hand. You are better off trying to induce calls from weak hands than worrying about protecting your hand. 
  • On wet boards, there are numerous draws that are possible. This both encourages you to protect your hand against draws, and makes your opponents more likely to call larger bets even when they shouldn't.
Again, these adjustments should have nothing to do with the strength of your hand! Of course, you'll use the strength of your hand to determine if you want to bet in the first place. But you've decided to make a bet, you'll use other factors to determine the size of that bet.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Bet Sizing in No-Limit: River Bets

Yesterday, we talked about how your river bets should -- on average -- be for a smaller percentage of the pot size than your bets on earlier streets. But that doesn't mean that all of your river bets should be for the same size.

Of course, we don't really want to adjust the size of our river bets based on the strength of our hand -- but we can make adjustments based on how strong we think our opponents' hand is! If we have hand we want to make a value bet with, and we think our opponent has something strong enough to call us, but not something they'll be happy about calling with, make a small bet; that's probably all they'll be willing to call. Meanwhile, if we think there's a good chance that our opponent has a strong hand (but one we can beat), betting more than we normally would makes sense, as our opponent is likely to call regardless of our bet size, within reason.

In the long run, despite the fact that you aren't considering the strength of your hand when sizing bets, you'll get more money out of your monsters by sizing your bets according to the perceived strength of your opponents. You'll be extracting the maximum from opponents who hold strong hands, while frequently getting smaller bets from opponents who have marginal holdings.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Bet Sizing in No-Limit: Different Sizes for Different Streets

For the next few days, I'll be writing about ways to adjust the size of your bets in No-Limit games! For starters, here's a quick tip that can help you better size your bets after the flop in No-Limit Hold'em. As the hand goes on, your value bets (and as a consequence, your bluffs) should generally be getting larger in an absolute sense, but smaller in comparison to the size of the pot.

As an example, let's imagine you flop top pair, top kicker on a dry board. You're fairly certain your loose-passive opponent has a hand they believe is strong enough to call down with, but which you can beat (like top pair with a worse kicker). If the pot going into the flop is $20 (and assuming you're both deep-stacked), you might structure you bets as follows:

Flop: $15 into the $20 pot (new pot is $50)
Turn: $30 into the $50 pot (new pot is $110)
River: $50 into the $110 pot (final pot is $210)

Why do we structure our bets this way? Remember that on the flop, our opponents may have relatively high implied odds should they hit their hand; this both encourages them to call more significant bets, while encouraging us to make them pay more to draw out. On the turn, with just one card to come (and only one betting round to go), the player who is behind has significantly lower implied odds. Finally, on the river, implied odds aren't even a factor -- there are no more cards to come or rounds of betting to worry about.

Of course, there are other factors at work too, which we'll talk about in the next few days. But as a general rule, you don't need to bet as much on average (in comparison to the pot size) on the river as you should on the turn or the flop.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Junk Hands

Junk hands are the hands you should normally never play, barring getting a free look from the big blind. Of course, even among junk hands, some holdings are better than others, and I like to classify junk hands into a few different categories:

Pure Junk: These are the hands you will basically never, ever want to play, as they have almost no redeeming value. Sure, you might get to check with them in the big blind and flop a full house, but other than that, these hands have absolutely nothing going for them. Examples include 8♦3♣, J♣2♠, or 5♥2♦. Seriously, you don't need to play these hands, even if you're Gus Hansen. On the other hand, since they have virtually no value, they can sometimes make excellent bluffing hands; if your opponent raises you, you won't feel bad about having to fold.

Deceptive Junk: These are the kinds of hands played by casual players who are far too loose. These hands look like they're offering you some value, but in reality, they'll make a whole lot of second-best hands -- and not a lot of winners. Examples include T♣5♣, Q♠7♦, and low unsuited connectors like 5♦4♣. These hands also shouldn't be played under normal circumstances, but the suited cards and connectors are the kinds of hands a good player can play from the small blind or limp on the button with in a game against especially loose and bad opponents.

Junk That Isn't Always Junk: Hands like A♦6♣ and K♠9♥ aren't good in most situations; like the hands in the Deceptive Junk category, they tend to make second best hands when you flop a pair and lose to a better kicker. However, these hands are actually good hands when you're short stacked and want to get all-in before the flop. This is because they run well "hot-and-cold" -- that is to say, when you're guaranteed to see a showdown and don't have to worry about facing additional bets. The shorter stacked you are, the more hands fit into this category.

Why make such distinctions? As I mentioned earlier, there are some cases where you'll want to play some of these junky-looking hands, so it's important to know which hands are really bad, and which ones you normally don't want to play but will occasionally find a use for. Next time you get a terrible hand, take a second look and think about the situation you're in before throwing them away!

Some self promotion before I go: if you enjoy getting these tips, and would like to learn more about playing poker, check out my book Catching Fish: A Practical Guide to Beating $1/$2 No-Limit Texas Hold'em Games, available now in the Kindle Store!

Friday, September 23, 2011

Learning to Study Your Opponents

In live poker, there's a lot of downtime. Since you (hopefully) won't be playing most of your hands, you'll have a lot of time where you're just sitting around while other players fight over pots that you're not involved in.

However, if you want to improve your results in live play, you'll want to make the best use of this time possible. The best way to do this is to pay attention to your opponents and begin to pick up on their tendencies. You can start to answer quite a few questions about your opponents if you pay close attention when you're not in a hand:

  • What percentage of hands do they play?
  • How often do they raise or three-bet preflop?
  • Does their bet sizing tell you anything about the strength of their hand?
  • Do they give off any reliable tells?
  • Are they tricky, or do they mostly have what they represent when they bet, call, or check?
Trying to pick up on all of this information for nine different opponents is probably a little too much to handle if you haven't tried it before. A good way to ease into this is to start by focusing on the opponents directly on your left and right. These are the players that will be in the blinds with you, and thus will be in the most hands with you as well. From there, as you become more comfortable, you can start studying players further to your left and right, taking in as much information as you're confident you can handle. Eventually, you'll find that paying attention to all of your opponents comes as second nature!

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Poker Book Recommendation: Theory of Poker

One of the most important poker books ever written, The Theory of Poker by David Sklansky delves into the theoretical underpinnings that are important in nearly all forms of poker. It's not a book about Texas Hold'em, Omaha, or Seven Card Stud; instead, it takes examples from many different forms of poker to explain basic theoretical concepts.

Theory of Poker will teach you how to think about poker, and give you the tools you need to really analyze situations properly. For instance, how much is adding deception to your game really worth compared to just playing hands for value? What's the optimal bluffing frequency against your opponents? When is slowplaying appropriate? What information is available to help you read hands?

If you have any designs on being a serious poker player, Theory of Poker is an absolute must-read book. It's available at most bookstores; right now, Amazon has it available for the Kindle at the price of $16.47.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

The Bubble

In tournament play, there comes a time when there are only a couple more eliminations before the remaining players are guaranteed to be in the money. This period is known as "the bubble," and can get especially intense when just one more player needs to bust at a major tournament. Just look at how much tension is created at the World Series of Poker Main Event when the bubble approaches, and the entire room know they're just moments away from cashing in the world's largest poker tournament!

During the bubble period, many players will tighten up tremendously in an effort to avoid being eliminated before the money. If you're more concerned with winning something rather than winning the entire tournament or finishing in one of the top places, this strategy is correct. However, if you're looking to maximize your winnings in the long run, the bubble is actually a great time to be aggressive. With a medium or large stack, you can steal a tremendous number of pots on the bubble, picking up uncontested chips from players who simply aren't in the mood to fight when they can make money simply by surviving for a few more hands.

The one thing that you shouldn't do in this spot -- without a huge hand, anyway -- is risk most or all of your chips against another large stack. However, this is rarely a concern; most of the other big stacks are likely to know this too, and will shy away from confrontations that could cost them a majority of their chips. This makes an aggressive strategy even more effective, as stacks of all sizes feel motivated to stay out of your way!

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Three-Bet All In Range in Tournaments

Many tournament players use a rule of thumb that once their stack has dipped below 10 times the big blind, their only plays are to move all-in or fold. This is pretty imprecise and often varies on situational factors, but for the moment, it's not a bad rule of thumb; you'll hardly ever make any serious mistakes by using it.

But what happens when you have about 15-20 times the big blind? Suddenly, moving all-in, while possible, may not seem all that appetizing; clearly, the range with which you should just shove tightens up significantly. At the same time, making a standard raise with a strong hand seems silly, and while limping can work out in the right situations, you'll often feel more comfortable leading the action.

With this sort of awkward in-between stack, the best thing that you can do is often to try to three-bet all in. Once another player raises to 3x the big blind (or thereabouts), your reraise all-in is a lot more comfortable, and has the advantage of picking up a larger pot. This play is especially powerful at tables where you have several aggressive and strong opponents; they're likely to often be raising to steal the blinds and antes, so your pushes will often win uncontested. Yes, sometimes they'll have a legitimate hand and knock you out, but in the long run, this play should be massively profitable -- and help keep you from falling into the dangerous short-stacked zone!

Monday, September 19, 2011

Pot Control

Pot control is the process of steering the pot towards the size you would prefer for your hand. If you have the nuts, you'll be trying to get your opponent's entire stack; if you have a vulnerable hand like top pair, medium kicker on a wet board (say, AJ on a board of A♣ T♠ 9♣ 7♠) you'd rather try to win a small pot than attempt to risk everything that's in front of you.

Pot control is much easier to achieve when you're in position, since you can close out the action whenever you see fit. If you want to keep the pot small (but do not want to fold), you can check or call behind an opponent. Sometimes, you may even bet or raise on an early street to try to induce your opponent to check in front of you on a later street, when the bets are likely to be bigger.

Producing a big pot is usually fairly straightforward -- you figure out the best way to get all the money in by the river, and take that line. If you think your opponent will actually help you out by making a bet or a raise, all the better; however, in most cases you should assume you'll have to make the bets yourself. Just make sure the bets are of reasonable size; don't plan on getting your opponent to call a $50 bet in a $20 pot, for instance.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Floating

These days, everyone knows about the continuation bet, and a lot of poor players will consistently make continuation bets after raising preflop -- but then almost always give up on the turn if you call that first bet, unless they really have a hand. If you're looking for a way to exploit this type of player, then floating might be the answer.

Floating is a simple concept: you call with a very weak hand, hoping to then bluff your opponent off the hand on the next street. Because you called, your opponent isn't likely to put you on a total bluff (unless you and your opponent are both strong players, and you both know it). If your opponent is out of position and checks to you on the turn, you can then make a bet as a bluff -- one that will be successful very often.

Floating is best used against mediocre players who, as mentioned above, have a tendency to play aggressively on the flop but then give up against any resistance. It's also a great way to mix up your play against strong players in general -- provided you don't overuse it. Floating is best used sparingly as a way to take advantage of your opponents and keep them guessing; use it just a little, and you'll not only pick up some pots you otherwise wouldn't have won, but you may also get a little more action when you really do have a hand.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Poker Software You Should Use: PokerStove

From time to time, our tips will take you away from the table and talk about resources you can use to make you a better player. That's the deal today, when we're going to talk about a great computer program you can use to improve your game.

One of the best absolutely free poker programs out there is PokerStove. This nifty little program allows you to run hands against each other and see how often each will win the pot. You can run individual hands, hand ranges, random hands, and set the board cards and/or any dead cards in order to get the most accurate results possible.

There are numerous applications for PokerStove. Wondering what you need to call an all-in against a particular range? Plug that range in and see what range you can create that has enough equity to be profitable. Know you want to three-bet 10% of the time against a given opponent, but aren't sure how many hands that entails? As you add hands to a range, PokerStove will tell you what percentage of your total hands that represents. Curious how your hand fares against a range you believe your opponent may be on? You can find that out, too. For beginners, PokerStove is also a great way to learn the approximate odds of various all-in matchups.

Like I said, PokerStove is completely free, so there's no downside to using it. Every serious poker player has a copy on their computer and refers to it during or after just about every session they play!

Friday, September 16, 2011

Slowplaying

There's often a temptation to disguise the strength of your hand by refusing to bet with a strong holding. Checking with a very strong hand in order to hide the fact that you have a big hand is known as slowplaying.

Weak players tend to slowplay far too often. Since they tend to play passively to begin with, other observant players will assume they're quite strong when they do decide to bet; that then encourages weak players to continue playing passively even with strong hands, so that they can extract more from their opponents. For aggressive players, this is unnecessary; since they often bet with weak or marginal hands, they can safely bet when they make a strong hand as well.

So, when should a good player slowplay? It comes down to getting a feel for what your opponents might hold. If you hit a board very hard, but you believe that it's very likely that your opponents haven't improved, you may wish to give them a free card -- provided it's not likely that the free card will allow them to beat you. This way, your opponents might improve to a good (but second-best) hand, and be willing to put in a few extra bets they wouldn't have if you were initially aggressive on the flop. On the other hand, if you believe your opponents are likely to have improved -- for instance, if you hold 77 on a board of AQ7 -- then it's almost always better to bet rather than to risk losing bets by slowplaying.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Raise Sizing in Tournaments

The latest trend in tournament poker is to minimize the size of preflop raises. You'll see players in televised tournaments raising 2.5x or 3x early in a tournament, and lowering this to between 2x and 2.2x the big blind later in events. What's the deal with these tiny raises?

Essentially, these small raises are made by excellent players who do not fear their opponents in the big blind. Players outside of the blinds aren't going to react to a 2.2x raise much differently than a 3x raise, so the size of the raise doesn't affect their actions too often. But the smaller bet sizing do increase the likelihood of the big blind (and to a lesser extent, the small blind) making a call. A strong player doesn't really mind this, since they'll have position on the blinds after the flop.

But the bigger reason for these small raises later in a tournament is that these players are trying to get the best odds possible for stealing the blinds and antes. By raising a lesser amount, these steals do not have to be successful nearly as often to be profitable. Also, since raises will generally represent a larger percentage of a player's stack as the tournament goes on (in most tournaments, the blinds go up more quickly than the average stack size does), players are less likely to call even these small raises very often -- making them all the more profitable.

Is there any time when making a larger-than-normal raise makes sense? Certainly! If you're up against a tough opponent in the big blind, and you know you're outclassed, don't be afraid to raise to as much as 4-5x the big blind to discourage loose calls. Yes, it's far from the optimal way to play, but it will mean that you probably won't have to try to outplay Phil Ivey next time he's in the big blind against you!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

The Squeeze Play

Here's a move you can try to pull the next time you're in a tournament. If a player raises preflop, and a second opponent just flat calls, it is often a very powerful play to reraise. This move is known as the squeeze play. In this play, you're not going to be particularly concerned about what your cards are; the important this is that you make the squeeze play in the proper situation. A few factors that should lead you to make this play include:

  • The initial raiser is loose enough to raise with a wide variety of hands, and/or is known to fold often to three-bets.
  • You have a good table image for the play: you haven't been three-betting wildly, so your raise will be met with respect.
  • The caller is an attentive player.
Combine these three factors, and it's easy to see while you'll usually pick up a reasonably-sized pot with a good reraise, perhaps to four times the initial raise. The squeeze play generally works if the initial raiser is raising with a wide range of hands, and thus is likely to fold to a three-bet. Meanwhile, the caller likely made that play because they were sure the initial raiser was raising lightly; they're likely to have only a modest holding, and not one that can stand up to a large reraise. Since it's not a play you've made often, your reraise likely indicates a very strong hand, meaning you'll only be called if the initial raiser has a monster.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Fold Equity

If you've ever wondered why everyone always talks about aggressive play being critical to becoming a winning player in No-Limit Texas Hold'em, fold equity is a big part of the answer. Aggressive play means you're generally betting or raising rather than calling bets by other players, and every time you make a bet, you give yourself two ways to win: you can have the best hand at showdown, or your opponents might fold to your bet.

That chance that they might fold is what's known as fold equity. In many cases, fold equity turns a play that makes little sense in terms of hand value into a profitable bet. Here are just a few examples of where fold equity is critical to playing winning poker:

  • Pure Bluffs: On a pure bluff, all you have is fold equity; if it weren't for the chance that your opponent would fold, your hand would be worthless.
  • Semi-Bluffs: When semi-bluffing, your hand has some value, but not enough to warrant a value bet. However, that value combined with your fold equity is enough to make your play profitable.
  • Continuation Bets: While we'll often have a hand with at least some value when we make a c-bet, the play really relies on the fold equity we have due to the fact that our opponents will rarely flop a strong hand.
  • Preflop All-In Bets: Especially in tournament play, we can move all-in preflop when the stacks are short. But we don't want to wait until we're too short; by keeping our stack large enough to hurt other players should they call and lose, we gain fold equity, which allows us to push all-in and often pick up the blinds and antes without a fight.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Inducing Bluffs

Many times, you'll find yourself out of position on the river with a hand that you think is likely to be good at showdown, but which probably won't win if you bet and your opponent decides to call. Many players make the mistake of betting in these spots, despite the fact that these bets rarely gain them anything at all. You're unlikely to make a stronger hand that has a lot of showdown value to fold; meanwhile, the hands that are worse than your marginal hand aren't going to call.

Instead, a better play is to check and hope to induce a bluff from your opponent. If your opponent checks behind, you haven't really lost anything. However, should your opponent make a stab at the pot, you can call and know that you'll often have the best hand.

Of course, if you have reason to believe your opponent has a strong hand -- based on the way they've played the hand on earlier rounds, or if they're the type to never bluff -- this play shouldn't be a part of your repertoire. But against thinking players who are likely to try to grab pots they think you've abandoned, inducing a bluff can earn you extra bets on the river that you wouldn't otherwise be able to get.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Sunday Best: Keep it Friendly

One of the best things you can do to help yourself win at a low-limit poker table is to keep the game as friendly as possible. As long as the atmosphere is fun and loose, the casual players who are there to have fun will keep gambling it up -- allowing you to rake in the chips they throw your way. Here are a few tips that will help you avoid losing this easy-going atmosphere:

  • Don't berate players who make bad decisions! If an opponent plays badly, that's good for you, even if you might run into a few bad beats along the way. But if you get angry at someone at the table, it's likely to cause tension at the table, which might lead to the game tightening up.
  • If a player makes a strategic comment that's clearly incorrect, let it go. If you try to correct them and they take it the wrong way, you might only inspire them to try harder against you; even with bad opponents, you don't want to give them a reason to concentrate on the game. Even if your opponent appreciates it, all you've done is make them a better player -- and put the rest of the table on notice that you know what you're talking about.
  • Leave the sunglasses at home. Your low-limit opponents are not trying to read your soul, and those mirrored lenses are only going to make other players uncomfortable, which is likely to kill some of the action at the table.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Folding Aces Preflop: When it (Rarely) Makes Sense

At the World Series of Poker this year, there was a story from the Seniors Event in which a player folded aces preflop after two of his opponents had already moved all-in. His reasoning? He thought that one of them likely had the other AA, while the other was probably on KK, so he was playing for a chop at best!

Okay, so that reasoning doesn't hold up to scrutiny, but it is worth noting that there's a situation in which folding AA -- or any other hand -- makes sense. In a satellite tournament that awards multiple seats, you don't need to be gunning for first place; the only goal is to finish in the top x (where x is the number of seats being awarded). This creates some strange strategic implications. For instance, if you were 2nd in chips with eight players left, and seven players were guaranteed to win seats into a major tournament, you'd be correct to play very conservatively. So conservatively, in fact, that if the chip leader moved all-in for some reason, it would be correct to fold even AA rather than put your chips at risk! There's simply nothing for you to gain by winning, while losing would cost you what was a virtually guaranteed prize. Of course, in cash games and in almost every conceivable situation in a standard tournament, that situation doesn't apply, so you'll want to get the most out of your aces.

So, what happened to the player at the WSOP? Amazingly enough, he was not only right -- his opponents did have AA and KK -- but a king hit on the flop, making the player with KK the winner! It still doesn't make folding those aces the right play...but it sure makes for a great story.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Bluffing at Low Limits

One of the most exciting moments in televised poker is watching a professional player run a huge bluff against a tough opponent. They might run a bluff on every street, making big bets on the flop, turn and river with nothing before finally getting their opponent to fold.

In these games, where great poker players are battling against each other, occasionally running these bluffs is critical to keeping opponents off-balance and properly disguising what a player is holding. In a low-stakes games, however, these sorts of bluffs are a recipe for disaster. Your opponents aren't going to fold often enough to make them profitable; if they're calling on the flop and turn, they're virtually guaranteed to call on the river too, even with pretty marginal holdings.

Of course, that's easy to exploit through value betting, but it does mean you'll have to tone down your bluffs to a great extent. Next time you play in a friendly game, or a $1/$2 table in a casino, try cutting out almost all of your bluffs -- you'll probably find that your results will rapidly improve!


Thursday, September 8, 2011

Suited Connectors

You likely know that suited connectors like 8♣7♣ are strong hands, but many players consistently play these hands in spots where they're not that valuable. Suited connectors are extremely powerful when the stacks are deep -- not because they win often, but because when they do, they can potentially take down huge pots by making a straight or a flush.

On the other hand, it's not worth playing a hand like 8♣7♣ if the stacks are short or there's going to be an early all-in situation. The problem here is that you simply won't win pots often enough to show a profit against the kinds of hands you're likely to see if an opponent is moving all-in. Instead, hands like A♦6♥ -- a hand that is terrible with deep stacks -- makes a much better hand for taking down a player who is all-in with a short stack, especially in tournament play.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Chips vs. Cash

If you play in poker tournaments, it's important to realize that the chips in front of you don't have any cash value. Okay, so that part is obvious -- but what's not quite as obvious is that each chip does not have the same value to you as a tournament player. In fact, every additional chip you accumulate is less valuable than the first chip you have in front of you.

Two factors lead to this effect: survival, and the prize structure. Since you only need a single chip to remain in the tournament, that first chip is immensely valuable. However, while further chips improve your chances of going far, they can never reach the value of that first chip. In addition, unless you're playing in a winner-take-all tournament, not all of the money is going to first place. This means that even if you collect all of the chips, you won't be taking home all of the money; meanwhile, if you just hold on to your chips for long enough before losing them, you'll get a prize.

This idea has a profound effect late in a poker tournament. Early on, chip value might be slightly different than cash value, but the difference is tiny. In the bubble and into the money, however, and it becomes massive. Larger stacks are almost always making a huge mistake getting into risky confrontations with other big stacks at this point in the tournament; often, due to prize considerations, the players who benefit most from these big stack battles are the players who aren't involved!

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Playing Medium Pairs

You'll often hear players say things like "I hate having pocket jacks -- they're so hard to play!" the truth is that these medium-to-large pairs -- perhaps everything from 88 to JJ -- are strong hands that often win pots unimproved. At the same time, they're buried by the monster pairs, and are only a coin flip against AK or AQ. Plus, they can be a little tricky to play on the flop, since overcards will commonly hit the board.

That said, if nobody has yet raised in front of you, JJ and TT are typically worth a raise; in middle or late position, the game will often go for 99 or 88. If someone else raises, all of these hands are worth calling with preflop in a cash game, assuming the stacks are fairly deep. In tournament play, it's often a good idea to get all-in with these hands preflop if possible, since they play very well in all-in situations (unless, of course, you're unlucky enough to be up against a bigger pair).

After the flop, treat carefully with these hands; if you've made a set or have an overpair to the board, your hand is still very strong, but if an overcard has hit the board, you're vulnerable. If you were the preflop raiser, it's still worth firing a continuation bet; if not, you may have to fold to aggression from a normally passive opponent.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Board Texture

If you listen to hand analysis done by experienced poker players, you'll often here references to the texture of a given flop or board. If you've heard these terms and been left confused, don't worry; board texture is a relatively simple concept once you know what to look for.

The most fundamental question about board texture is whether a board is "dry" or "wet." Simply put, a wet board is one in which many hands are likely to have connected with it to make a straight or flush draw (or, if possible, a made straight or flush), while a dry board is one in which such hands are unlikely. Dry flops often look something like:

5♠ K♥ 2♦
or
4♦ 4♣ 8♠

Wet flops, on the other hand, are ones that are similar to the following:

T♠ Q♦ 4♦
or
J♥ 9♥ 8♠

On either of those latter flops, it's quite reasonable that a player could have either a flush or straight draw (and on the second board, a made straight is possible). On the dry boards, it is highly unlikely that anyone would have flopped a straight draw, and only backdoor flush draws are possible.

Of course, many boards fit somewhere in between these two extremes. The "wetness" of a given board lets you know how dangerous it is to proceed with a hand that is strong, but not likely to improve -- such as top pair, top kicker. Because wet boards are more enticing to more hands your opponents might hold, it is usually correct to make larger bets on wet boards than on dry boards.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Continuation Bets

One of the most powerful plays in no-limit hold'em is the continuation bet. The continuation bet is a bet on the flop my the preflop raiser; it takes its name from the fact that such a bet is the continuation of the aggression shown by the preflop raiser.

Why are these continuation bets so powerful? On the majority of flops, a player will not improve his or her hand significantly. A player facing a bet on the flop with less than a pair (or a strong draw) is unlikely to call a reasonably-sized bet. This is where the aggressive continuation bet comes into play; when the preflop aggressor makes a second bet on the flop, they know that most players will fold the majority of the time. This makes the continuation bet an extremely profitable way to win small pots in both cash games and tournament play. In some games, it can even be profitable to make a continuation bet every single time you've raised preflop! In fact, even if you plan on making these "c-bets" less than 100% of the time, the fact that you missed the board shouldn't scare you away from betting the flop; continuation bets are about picking up pots when your opponents are weak, not the strength of your hand.

Of course, there are some occasions when making a continuation bet is probably a mistake, but making these bets too often is almost always a smaller mistake than making them too infrequently. If you haven't been making continuation bets during your play, try it out the next time you hit the tables!






Welcome to Poker Tip of the Day

Hello, poker players and fans! Welcome to Poker Tip of the Day -- a blog that will be updated daily with tips designed to improve your game.

I'm a freelance writer who has played poker successfully for many years. I started by playing limit hold'em at online poker rooms after graduating college, which helped me move out of the house. Since then, I've focused more on live play, successfully beating low stakes no-limit hold'em games and tournaments. These days, I only play for fun -- but I enjoy writing about poker, so creating a blog for poker strategy seemed like a natural extension of what I already do!

If you're a poker player who is looking to improve, I hope you'll enjoy this blog. Along with standard tips, I'll be making book recommendations, poker news updates, and more!