Posts
This is intended to be a series of articles about playing on-line no limit holdem cash games. There will be times where I venture into live poker and times where I venture into SNGs, MTTs, Satellites, and games other than no limit holdem, but for the most part this will target no limit holdem cash games.
For the 11th installment of this series, we will talk about starting hand selection and specifically categorizing our starting hands.
We are going to break our starting hands down into categories. Then we are going to have a basic goal in the playing that category of hands and a basic strategy to accomplish that goal.
The first category will be Big Pocket Pairs (AA, KK, QQ). With a hand in this category you can be fairly certain that you are ahead pre-flop. You should also realize that the only likely significant improve to your hand will be making a set. While it is not impossible to make a straight of a flush with a paired hand, it is unlikely. So you are playing these hands primarily for their current face value.
The second category will be Unpaired High Cards (any two cards Jack or higher). With a hand in this category you may well be behind before the flop. Even a pair of deuces currently has you beat. You will need to hit something on the flop to make a hand. Your goal is to hit top pair on the flop and you will have a good (maybe great, maybe not great) kicker. You are also looking to hit straight draws and flush draws (if your cards are suited).
The third category is middle pocket pairs (JJ, TT, 99). With these hands you may well be ahead before the flop, but you are unlikely to stay ahead after the flop unless you make a set. Play these hands carefully pre-flop. You are looking to either win the pot pre-flop or make a set.
The fourth category is drawing hands (suited or unsuited connectors and semi-connectors, suited aces.) With these hands you are looking to hit a big hidden hand on the flop or hit at least a big draw on the flop. Obviously the face value of the cards in play will affect your play. JTs is a superior hand to 67s as a made flush will have higher showdown value.
Okay. I believe in keeping it simple. Those are the 4 categories of cards we will deal with.
In the next installment we be will talking about starting hand selection – how to play the various categories to get maximum value.
Read More......
Monday, January 25, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
No Limit Holdem 101: The Value of Aggression
This is intended to be a series of articles about playing on-line no limit holdem cash games. There will be times where I venture into live poker and times where I venture into SNGs, MTTs, Satellites, and games other than no limit holdem, but for the most part this will target no limit holdem cash games.
For the 10th installment of this series, I’ll talk about the value of aggression in poker.
If you look to all the top poker pros, you will see many different styles of play. You will see pros that will play virtually any hand (Gus Hanson) and pros that play many fewer hands (Phil Helmuth, Chris Ferguson).
But the one thing that all the top pros have in common is aggression. If they are involved in a hand, they are involved to win the hand and they will consistently do that by putting pressure on their opponents to make decisions.
Properly control and applied aggression has many advantages. And in poker, aggression means betting. If you are consistently betting, then you are consistently putting pressure on your opponents.
When you are aggressive with your betting you:
• Decrease the number of opponents – By betting you force players without hands and weaker players out of the hand.
• Increase the size of pot – By raising you are forcing your opponents to make a call that contributes chips to the pot.
• Give yourself more ways to win – You of course can win the pot by having the best hand at showdown. By raising you are also giving yourself the chance to win the pot without the best hand by convincing your opponent to fold.
• Allow yourself the chance to gain information – When your opponent calls you are gaining information about his hand. When you check, you are giving him free cards and getting no information.
Let me give you one quick example of pre-flop aggression. You are in the cutoff position with KJ(s). One early position player and one middle position player have limped into the pot. The action then comes to you. You decide that this is a perfect time to be aggressive since you are in late position and no one in front of you has shown any particular strength. You decide to bet 4 ½ times the big blind. All players fold and you profit 3 ½ big blinds for your aggressive play.
Let’s change up the scenario to give us one call. All the other action is the same, except the early position limper calls your raise. There are now 12 ½ big blinds in the pot. The flop is 3 low to middle non-connected unsuited cards. Your opponent checks to you and you bet out ½ the pot. Your opponent was playing a suited Ace and folds. You have now profited 8 big blinds for your aggressive play.
Pre-flop aggression can be simply defined as “no limpers allowed”. Post-flop aggression can be simply defined as “no free cards.”
As with any concept, aggression can be over done and turned into a disadvantage. If you always raise pre-flop and always raise post-flop, then your opponents will stop believing you have made a hand (after all no one hits all the time.) Conversely, if you seldom bet post-flop and suddenly bet out, your opponents will more easily fold giving you credit for a strong hand.
Establish the right balance of aggression and you will be giving yourself the opportunity to win more pots outright, and the chance to win bigger pots.
Well that’s it for our introduction to aggression. We will get much deeper into specific types of aggression (continuation betting, blind stealing, isolation raises, semi-bluffing, etc.) in future articles.
In the next two installments we will talk about starting hand selection – when should you be playing what cards and how to extract maximum value.
Read More......
For the 10th installment of this series, I’ll talk about the value of aggression in poker.
If you look to all the top poker pros, you will see many different styles of play. You will see pros that will play virtually any hand (Gus Hanson) and pros that play many fewer hands (Phil Helmuth, Chris Ferguson).
But the one thing that all the top pros have in common is aggression. If they are involved in a hand, they are involved to win the hand and they will consistently do that by putting pressure on their opponents to make decisions.
Properly control and applied aggression has many advantages. And in poker, aggression means betting. If you are consistently betting, then you are consistently putting pressure on your opponents.
When you are aggressive with your betting you:
• Decrease the number of opponents – By betting you force players without hands and weaker players out of the hand.
• Increase the size of pot – By raising you are forcing your opponents to make a call that contributes chips to the pot.
• Give yourself more ways to win – You of course can win the pot by having the best hand at showdown. By raising you are also giving yourself the chance to win the pot without the best hand by convincing your opponent to fold.
• Allow yourself the chance to gain information – When your opponent calls you are gaining information about his hand. When you check, you are giving him free cards and getting no information.
Let me give you one quick example of pre-flop aggression. You are in the cutoff position with KJ(s). One early position player and one middle position player have limped into the pot. The action then comes to you. You decide that this is a perfect time to be aggressive since you are in late position and no one in front of you has shown any particular strength. You decide to bet 4 ½ times the big blind. All players fold and you profit 3 ½ big blinds for your aggressive play.
Let’s change up the scenario to give us one call. All the other action is the same, except the early position limper calls your raise. There are now 12 ½ big blinds in the pot. The flop is 3 low to middle non-connected unsuited cards. Your opponent checks to you and you bet out ½ the pot. Your opponent was playing a suited Ace and folds. You have now profited 8 big blinds for your aggressive play.
Pre-flop aggression can be simply defined as “no limpers allowed”. Post-flop aggression can be simply defined as “no free cards.”
As with any concept, aggression can be over done and turned into a disadvantage. If you always raise pre-flop and always raise post-flop, then your opponents will stop believing you have made a hand (after all no one hits all the time.) Conversely, if you seldom bet post-flop and suddenly bet out, your opponents will more easily fold giving you credit for a strong hand.
Establish the right balance of aggression and you will be giving yourself the opportunity to win more pots outright, and the chance to win bigger pots.
Well that’s it for our introduction to aggression. We will get much deeper into specific types of aggression (continuation betting, blind stealing, isolation raises, semi-bluffing, etc.) in future articles.
In the next two installments we will talk about starting hand selection – when should you be playing what cards and how to extract maximum value.
Read More......
Monday, January 11, 2010
No Limit Holdem 101: Position (In Application)
This is intended to be a series of articles about playing on-line no limit holdem cash games. There will be times where I venture into live poker and times where I venture into SNGs, MTTs, Satellites, and games other than no limit holdem, but for the most part this will target no limit holdem cash games.
For the 9th installment of this series, I’ll talk about position in poker - how should it affect your play and how to take advantage of it.
In the last article we discussed the definition of position and the identifiers of position (early, late, middle, etc.).
In this article we will spend some time talking about how to use position to adjust (or even determine) your play to your greatest advantage.
Let me start by saying that while position is an important concept in poker, it is not the be-all end-all of determining your play and your success. Some players believe that position is a magic bullet and they should win every hand when in position. The reality of poker is that while position can be used to leverage play and help you win a hand, position is more often used to gather information for making the correct play which can easily be that you are behind and should fold your hand.
Ask the top poker players about the hand they feel they played the best and they will almost exclusively tell about a big laydown they made. I will deal with the concept of the big laydown in a future article. I bring the concept up at this point to reinforce that poker is about decision making. You are striving to make the correct decision while trying to get your opponent to make the wrong decision.
Well enough of the preachy stuff. Let’s deal with the first application of position and that is starting hand selection. The only thing you know before any hand begins is where you sit at the table and how many players will be left to act after you act. Your position at the table allows you to collect information and the less information you have the tighter your play should be. Acting in early position you should primarily only open play with premium hands. As your position becomes later, you should be willing to open play with more and more hands.
Let me draw out an example for you. You are under the gun with KQo at a standard 9-handed table with all players seated. KQ is not a horrible hand, but pre-flop it is behind any pocket pair, behind any ace, and dominated by AK. With 8 players left to act, this should be an easy fold.
Now change nothing except your position. You are now seated on the button. Action has folded to you and you have KQo. You now have a hand in a position where you should consider opening the pot. I say consider as opposed to certainly opening here because you also need to take into account your opponents and the recent play at the table. Given a lack of any more information than the fact that 6 players have folded, this hand in this position would be worth an opening raise. You will be last to act after the flop should either of your opponents call, and you will be able to gather additional information before having to commit more chips to the pot.
Now let’s change this scenario up one more time. You again have KQo on the button, but in this case the player “Under the Gun” (UTG) has opened for a raise of 3 big blinds.
This is where you see the value of position come into play. You have been able to collect the information that the player acting first (in the worst possible position) thinks he has a hand worth playing and raising from his position. It is hard to imagine an opponent raising form UTG and not being ahead of KQo at this point.
As you can see position is but one factor in determining your play. We will get more into reading and categorizing opponents in future articles but utilizing position, the information gathered from your opponents, and your reads on your opponents should be the basis of every decision you make in poker.
Now let’s deal with position as it applies to post-flop play.
When playing post-flop you are either in position versus your opponents (will be last player to have initial action post-flop), out of position versus you opponents (will be first player to have initial action post-flop), or in middle position if there were more than 2 players to see the flop.
In addition to your position versus your opponents you will have the pre-flop action to base your decisions on. Where you the aggressor pre-flop or was your opponent the aggressor?
Let’s say you were on the button pre-flop. One middle position opponent called the big blind. You then raised to 4 times the big blind. The opponent who limped from middle position calls your bet.
On the flop your opponent checks to you.
A big part of any decision should be your read on your opponent. But for the purposes of this, we will say that you’ve never played this person before and this is one of the first hands you’ve seen this opponent play and you have no particular read on this opponent.
But you do have the following information:
• Your opponent limped pre-flop showing no particular strength
• Your opponent just called your bet pre-flop again showing no particular strength.
• Your opponent checked on the flop again showing no particular strength
You can start to narrow down the strength of your opponents hand. Either:
• He has nothing as he has shown no strength
• He is slow playing a big pre-flop hand
• He is a calling station and will call pretty much anything
Now you will need to have more information than one hand to successfully profile your opponent (and we will get into more detail on profiling later), but you are now in a position to use your position to get more information.
You will notice that I haven’t even mentioned the cards you are holding or the cards on the flop. They are not important to this discussion. This discussion is about using position not about your hand strength.
The best thing to do here is to bet into the pot. By betting you will either take down the pot right now, or you will extract additional information from your opponent.
If you were to bet ½ pot here and your opponent were to reraise, then you should probably fold. Again, you have no particular read on your opponent and putting him on a check-raise bluff without a read is a prescription for disaster. If your opponent should call here, then you will be faced with another decision on the turn.
But let’s take the same scenario and change up your position. You are now in big blind. A single mid position opponent limps into the pot. The action folds to you, you raise to 4 times the big blind and your opponent calls that bet. This is very similar to the above situation.
Here’s the big difference. On the flop you will have to act first. On the flop you will get no additional information from your opponent before you have to act. You will have to place that ½ pot bet and try to take down the pot before your opponent has shown post-flop passivity or aggression.
As you have probably determined by now, it is very difficult to separate one poker component from another. It is hard to play you position without profiling your opponent, observe betting patterns, or in general collecting information.
I highly recommend rereading each of these articles after you’ve read the next article. You will start to see how it all comes together into an overall concept and style of play.
The key factor for this article is that position matters. Playing out of position exposes you to having to commit more chips to the pot to get information you can get for free when playing in position.
Well that’s it for position in application.
In the next installment we will talk about the value of aggression – putting your opponents to the test.
Read More......
For the 9th installment of this series, I’ll talk about position in poker - how should it affect your play and how to take advantage of it.
In the last article we discussed the definition of position and the identifiers of position (early, late, middle, etc.).
In this article we will spend some time talking about how to use position to adjust (or even determine) your play to your greatest advantage.
Let me start by saying that while position is an important concept in poker, it is not the be-all end-all of determining your play and your success. Some players believe that position is a magic bullet and they should win every hand when in position. The reality of poker is that while position can be used to leverage play and help you win a hand, position is more often used to gather information for making the correct play which can easily be that you are behind and should fold your hand.
Ask the top poker players about the hand they feel they played the best and they will almost exclusively tell about a big laydown they made. I will deal with the concept of the big laydown in a future article. I bring the concept up at this point to reinforce that poker is about decision making. You are striving to make the correct decision while trying to get your opponent to make the wrong decision.
Well enough of the preachy stuff. Let’s deal with the first application of position and that is starting hand selection. The only thing you know before any hand begins is where you sit at the table and how many players will be left to act after you act. Your position at the table allows you to collect information and the less information you have the tighter your play should be. Acting in early position you should primarily only open play with premium hands. As your position becomes later, you should be willing to open play with more and more hands.
Let me draw out an example for you. You are under the gun with KQo at a standard 9-handed table with all players seated. KQ is not a horrible hand, but pre-flop it is behind any pocket pair, behind any ace, and dominated by AK. With 8 players left to act, this should be an easy fold.
Now change nothing except your position. You are now seated on the button. Action has folded to you and you have KQo. You now have a hand in a position where you should consider opening the pot. I say consider as opposed to certainly opening here because you also need to take into account your opponents and the recent play at the table. Given a lack of any more information than the fact that 6 players have folded, this hand in this position would be worth an opening raise. You will be last to act after the flop should either of your opponents call, and you will be able to gather additional information before having to commit more chips to the pot.
Now let’s change this scenario up one more time. You again have KQo on the button, but in this case the player “Under the Gun” (UTG) has opened for a raise of 3 big blinds.
This is where you see the value of position come into play. You have been able to collect the information that the player acting first (in the worst possible position) thinks he has a hand worth playing and raising from his position. It is hard to imagine an opponent raising form UTG and not being ahead of KQo at this point.
As you can see position is but one factor in determining your play. We will get more into reading and categorizing opponents in future articles but utilizing position, the information gathered from your opponents, and your reads on your opponents should be the basis of every decision you make in poker.
Now let’s deal with position as it applies to post-flop play.
When playing post-flop you are either in position versus your opponents (will be last player to have initial action post-flop), out of position versus you opponents (will be first player to have initial action post-flop), or in middle position if there were more than 2 players to see the flop.
In addition to your position versus your opponents you will have the pre-flop action to base your decisions on. Where you the aggressor pre-flop or was your opponent the aggressor?
Let’s say you were on the button pre-flop. One middle position opponent called the big blind. You then raised to 4 times the big blind. The opponent who limped from middle position calls your bet.
On the flop your opponent checks to you.
A big part of any decision should be your read on your opponent. But for the purposes of this, we will say that you’ve never played this person before and this is one of the first hands you’ve seen this opponent play and you have no particular read on this opponent.
But you do have the following information:
• Your opponent limped pre-flop showing no particular strength
• Your opponent just called your bet pre-flop again showing no particular strength.
• Your opponent checked on the flop again showing no particular strength
You can start to narrow down the strength of your opponents hand. Either:
• He has nothing as he has shown no strength
• He is slow playing a big pre-flop hand
• He is a calling station and will call pretty much anything
Now you will need to have more information than one hand to successfully profile your opponent (and we will get into more detail on profiling later), but you are now in a position to use your position to get more information.
You will notice that I haven’t even mentioned the cards you are holding or the cards on the flop. They are not important to this discussion. This discussion is about using position not about your hand strength.
The best thing to do here is to bet into the pot. By betting you will either take down the pot right now, or you will extract additional information from your opponent.
If you were to bet ½ pot here and your opponent were to reraise, then you should probably fold. Again, you have no particular read on your opponent and putting him on a check-raise bluff without a read is a prescription for disaster. If your opponent should call here, then you will be faced with another decision on the turn.
But let’s take the same scenario and change up your position. You are now in big blind. A single mid position opponent limps into the pot. The action folds to you, you raise to 4 times the big blind and your opponent calls that bet. This is very similar to the above situation.
Here’s the big difference. On the flop you will have to act first. On the flop you will get no additional information from your opponent before you have to act. You will have to place that ½ pot bet and try to take down the pot before your opponent has shown post-flop passivity or aggression.
As you have probably determined by now, it is very difficult to separate one poker component from another. It is hard to play you position without profiling your opponent, observe betting patterns, or in general collecting information.
I highly recommend rereading each of these articles after you’ve read the next article. You will start to see how it all comes together into an overall concept and style of play.
The key factor for this article is that position matters. Playing out of position exposes you to having to commit more chips to the pot to get information you can get for free when playing in position.
Well that’s it for position in application.
In the next installment we will talk about the value of aggression – putting your opponents to the test.
Read More......
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Poker Stars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker
I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.
Registration code: 207091
Read More......
Monday, January 4, 2010
No Limit Holdem 101: Position (Defined)
This is intended to be a series of articles about playing on-line no limit holdem cash games. There will be times where I venture into live poker and times where I venture into SNGs, MTTs, Satellites, and games other than no limit holdem, but for the most part this will target no limit holdem cash games.
For the 8th installment of this series, I’ll talk about position in poker - what is it?
Position in poker is stated as a relative reference. You will hear a poker player say “I was in position” or “I was in late position.” Position refers to where you are seated relative to the dealer button or relative to another player.
All players at the table can be given a label based on there position relative to the blinds and/or relative to the dealer button.
The first player to the left of the big blind will be first to act pre-flop and as such is referred to as being “Under the Gun”. This is written as UTG in poker nomenclature.
As you progress around the table moving to the left, you can refer to each player by adding one to the position. For instance the player to the immediate left of the UTG is referred to as UTG +2. You can proceed around the table and refer to every player in the manner (UTG+3, UTG+4, UTG +5, UTG +6, UTG +7).
The player seated to the right of the small blind will have the dealer button in front of them as is referred to as the “button” or BUT. The player to his immediate right is called the “cut-off” or CU. Recently I have heard the player to the immediate right of the cut-off being referred to as “hijack” or HJ.
At a 9-handed table you would have the following players starting with the button and proceeding to the right:
1. Button
2. Cut-Off
3. Hijack (UTG +4)
4. UTG +3
5. UTG +2
6. UTG +1
7. UTG
8. Big Blind
9. Small Blind
A lot of charts you will see will refer to the positions in the opposite direction. I prefer to think of them in the manner above as I find it easier to “ignore the higher numbers” and “act” when in the lower numbers. We’ll get to those concepts later. For now is enough to know that you will frequently see these organized is this manner:
1. Small Blind
2. Big Blind
3. UTG
4. UTG +1
5. UTG +2
6. UTG +3
7. Hijack (UTG +4)
8. Cut-Off
9. Button
As you read poker articles and books, you will see a lot of references to “early position”, “middle position”, and “late position”. For the purposes of my thoughts and this series of articles, I will divide the table into four parts:
1. The Blinds – Big Blind and Small Blind. A lot of writers will lump these in with “early position” but I prefer to separate them as these positions do have some characteristic that differ from the other early positions. The most important distinction is that they are last to act pre-flop but would be first to act post-flop should they see the flop.
2. Early Position (EP) – UTG, UTG+1, UTG +2 – These players will be acting early pre-flop and will therefore have been able to collect a minimum amount of information prior to acting.
3. Middle Position (MP) – UTG +3, UTG +4 (also called Hijack) – These players will have seen several players act in front of them, but still have several players to act after them.
4. Late Position (LP) – Cut-off and Button – These players will be the last players to act after the flop should they see the flop.
The above defines your position at the table and gives you a reference that you can discuss with other players and use in conversation so that most involved will be able to determine where you where seated.
The other concept here is that of being “in position”. When used in this manner it really just means that you will be acting after your opponent(s) after the flop. When player says “the donkey bet out with 27 and I called him in position” what they are really saying by saying “in position” is that the other player was acting before them on that round of betting.
Well that’s it for definitions of position.
In the next installment we will talk about position in poker –how should it affect your play and how to take advantage of it.
Read More......
For the 8th installment of this series, I’ll talk about position in poker - what is it?
Position in poker is stated as a relative reference. You will hear a poker player say “I was in position” or “I was in late position.” Position refers to where you are seated relative to the dealer button or relative to another player.
All players at the table can be given a label based on there position relative to the blinds and/or relative to the dealer button.
The first player to the left of the big blind will be first to act pre-flop and as such is referred to as being “Under the Gun”. This is written as UTG in poker nomenclature.
As you progress around the table moving to the left, you can refer to each player by adding one to the position. For instance the player to the immediate left of the UTG is referred to as UTG +2. You can proceed around the table and refer to every player in the manner (UTG+3, UTG+4, UTG +5, UTG +6, UTG +7).
The player seated to the right of the small blind will have the dealer button in front of them as is referred to as the “button” or BUT. The player to his immediate right is called the “cut-off” or CU. Recently I have heard the player to the immediate right of the cut-off being referred to as “hijack” or HJ.
At a 9-handed table you would have the following players starting with the button and proceeding to the right:
1. Button
2. Cut-Off
3. Hijack (UTG +4)
4. UTG +3
5. UTG +2
6. UTG +1
7. UTG
8. Big Blind
9. Small Blind
A lot of charts you will see will refer to the positions in the opposite direction. I prefer to think of them in the manner above as I find it easier to “ignore the higher numbers” and “act” when in the lower numbers. We’ll get to those concepts later. For now is enough to know that you will frequently see these organized is this manner:
1. Small Blind
2. Big Blind
3. UTG
4. UTG +1
5. UTG +2
6. UTG +3
7. Hijack (UTG +4)
8. Cut-Off
9. Button
As you read poker articles and books, you will see a lot of references to “early position”, “middle position”, and “late position”. For the purposes of my thoughts and this series of articles, I will divide the table into four parts:
1. The Blinds – Big Blind and Small Blind. A lot of writers will lump these in with “early position” but I prefer to separate them as these positions do have some characteristic that differ from the other early positions. The most important distinction is that they are last to act pre-flop but would be first to act post-flop should they see the flop.
2. Early Position (EP) – UTG, UTG+1, UTG +2 – These players will be acting early pre-flop and will therefore have been able to collect a minimum amount of information prior to acting.
3. Middle Position (MP) – UTG +3, UTG +4 (also called Hijack) – These players will have seen several players act in front of them, but still have several players to act after them.
4. Late Position (LP) – Cut-off and Button – These players will be the last players to act after the flop should they see the flop.
The above defines your position at the table and gives you a reference that you can discuss with other players and use in conversation so that most involved will be able to determine where you where seated.
The other concept here is that of being “in position”. When used in this manner it really just means that you will be acting after your opponent(s) after the flop. When player says “the donkey bet out with 27 and I called him in position” what they are really saying by saying “in position” is that the other player was acting before them on that round of betting.
Well that’s it for definitions of position.
In the next installment we will talk about position in poker –how should it affect your play and how to take advantage of it.
Read More......
Monday, December 21, 2009
Holiday Time
No article next week as I take a short break for the holidays.
I'll be back after the new year with the next installment.
Read More......
I'll be back after the new year with the next installment.
Read More......
No Limit Holdem 101: My Basic Theory of Poker
This is intended to be a series of articles about playing on-line no limit holdem cash games. There will be times where I venture into live poker and times where I venture into SNGs, MTTs, Satellites, and games other than no limit holdem, but for the most part this will target no limit holdem cash games.
For the 7th installment of this series, I’m going to cover the basis I use for my style of play – give the other guy the chance to make a mistake.
Poker is game where you try to make decisions based on incomplete information. If you had all the information possible visible, then there might still be more than one plausible play, but there would only be one OPTIMAL play. The preceding is called “game theory” by the way.
I’ve rewritten this particular article several times trying to decide exactly how deep I should get into game theory and exactly how much of my geekitude to reveal! In the end I decided to keep it fairly simple but hopefully delve enough into it that you can hopefully get the general concept.
Let me draw out a scenario for you. Imagine a poker game where all the cards were face up. Your hole cards, your opponent’s hole cards, the discarded cards, and the cards remaining in the deck were all visible. Well it really wouldn't be much of a game then would it? Everything is known and there really are no decisions to be made.
Now start hiding information. Take the discarded cards and the cards remaining in the deck and flip them over. You now know exactly what cards your opponents hold and what cards you hold, but you do not know what cards are left to come. In reality this is the situation you are striving to achieve in holdem. You try to put your opponents on hands so that you can reach this state of knowledge. From this state of knowledge all decisions can be optimized.
Now introduce the element of betting. Here is where we really get to start trying to optimize our play. Outs, odds, pot odds, implied odds, and predicting opponents behaviors all play into making an optimum decision.
In fact pot odds are an excellent example of the application of game theory. The optimal decision in the case of pot odds is governed my whether or not your odds of making the hand are outweighed by the amount of the bet you must make and the reward for making that bet. In the long term if you make the correct pot odds decision, then you are making the optimal play.
The key here is getting your opponent to make non-optimal decisions.
Some of the concepts I am going to discuss here as examples of getting your opponent to make non-optimal decisions will be concepts I will go into more detail in future articles, but I wanted to introduce them here as examples of optimal play and of getting your opponent to make non-optimal decisions.
Let’s go back to pot odds for a moment. We previously discussed using pot odds to make the decision on making a call. Another application of pots is use it to govern your betting to give opponent the wrong pot odds to make a call.
Without using a long drawn out example, let’s just say that you have a hand and you put your opponent on hand where he is 4 to 1 to make his hand on the turn. Making sure that he does not get 4 to 1 odds when you place your bet is giving your opponent an opportunity to make a mistake. If you bet such that your opponent is only getting 3 to 1 odds (1/2 pot), you are giving your opponent an opportunity to make a non-optimal play.
Another example of giving your opponent the opportunity to make a mistake is the huge over bet when you have made the nut hand. While making a huge over bet may induce your opponent to fold, your opponent may also put you on a bluff. After all, who would make a huge bet with a huge hand? While the play may not work the first time, against weaker opponents, you may be able to goad them into calling the over bet by making the over bet multiple times. Be careful here and make sure your have a truly big hand before using this play.
The two above examples should serve to illustrate the concept of game theory and giving your opponent the opportunity to make a mistake.
In the next installment we will talk about position in poker – what is it?
Read More......
For the 7th installment of this series, I’m going to cover the basis I use for my style of play – give the other guy the chance to make a mistake.
Poker is game where you try to make decisions based on incomplete information. If you had all the information possible visible, then there might still be more than one plausible play, but there would only be one OPTIMAL play. The preceding is called “game theory” by the way.
I’ve rewritten this particular article several times trying to decide exactly how deep I should get into game theory and exactly how much of my geekitude to reveal! In the end I decided to keep it fairly simple but hopefully delve enough into it that you can hopefully get the general concept.
Let me draw out a scenario for you. Imagine a poker game where all the cards were face up. Your hole cards, your opponent’s hole cards, the discarded cards, and the cards remaining in the deck were all visible. Well it really wouldn't be much of a game then would it? Everything is known and there really are no decisions to be made.
Now start hiding information. Take the discarded cards and the cards remaining in the deck and flip them over. You now know exactly what cards your opponents hold and what cards you hold, but you do not know what cards are left to come. In reality this is the situation you are striving to achieve in holdem. You try to put your opponents on hands so that you can reach this state of knowledge. From this state of knowledge all decisions can be optimized.
Now introduce the element of betting. Here is where we really get to start trying to optimize our play. Outs, odds, pot odds, implied odds, and predicting opponents behaviors all play into making an optimum decision.
In fact pot odds are an excellent example of the application of game theory. The optimal decision in the case of pot odds is governed my whether or not your odds of making the hand are outweighed by the amount of the bet you must make and the reward for making that bet. In the long term if you make the correct pot odds decision, then you are making the optimal play.
The key here is getting your opponent to make non-optimal decisions.
Some of the concepts I am going to discuss here as examples of getting your opponent to make non-optimal decisions will be concepts I will go into more detail in future articles, but I wanted to introduce them here as examples of optimal play and of getting your opponent to make non-optimal decisions.
Let’s go back to pot odds for a moment. We previously discussed using pot odds to make the decision on making a call. Another application of pots is use it to govern your betting to give opponent the wrong pot odds to make a call.
Without using a long drawn out example, let’s just say that you have a hand and you put your opponent on hand where he is 4 to 1 to make his hand on the turn. Making sure that he does not get 4 to 1 odds when you place your bet is giving your opponent an opportunity to make a mistake. If you bet such that your opponent is only getting 3 to 1 odds (1/2 pot), you are giving your opponent an opportunity to make a non-optimal play.
Another example of giving your opponent the opportunity to make a mistake is the huge over bet when you have made the nut hand. While making a huge over bet may induce your opponent to fold, your opponent may also put you on a bluff. After all, who would make a huge bet with a huge hand? While the play may not work the first time, against weaker opponents, you may be able to goad them into calling the over bet by making the over bet multiple times. Be careful here and make sure your have a truly big hand before using this play.
The two above examples should serve to illustrate the concept of game theory and giving your opponent the opportunity to make a mistake.
In the next installment we will talk about position in poker – what is it?
Read More......
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