Entries from November 2007 ↓

Do you go to the store without a shopping list? Some do and I’m one of those that don’t. I guess that wasn’t a good example, was it?

What about if you go on a long trip, do you take a map or anything similar? The point I am trying to make here is that if you plan ahead it will make your life easier.

And I don’t care about being super effective in real life but in poker I care a lot!

Dan touched on this point in his post about Thinking Ahead. I am going to build on that post by providing a few more concepts and examples that will help you understand the concept of planning ahead.

Anticipating The Action

For you to be able to plan ahead you have to anticipate the action to some degree. For example, if you know that an opponent will check-raise you a lot on the flop. And you also know that you can’t really call a check-raise.

What happens if you check the flop? Does your opponent become more controllable? Most opponents have a plan like “I am going to check-raise this guy on the flop because he doesn’t have anything”.

When you just check it back to him he doesn’t really know what to do and becomes confused. He lacks another plan obviously!

He might just bet the turn and you can easily call a turn bet with your middle pair. Or he might check and let you value bet.

Example #1

You raise AJ on the button and an aggressive player in the big blind calls.

The flop comes KJ8

The big blind checks and you decide to check.

The reason for the check is that you know that the big blind will check-raise a lot of hands but not so many that you want to put all your money in with middle pair here. So checking here enables you to control the pot and avoid folding the best hand if he check-raises.

There are of course exceptions to this “rule”. If you know he check-raises and instantly gives up on the turn with worse than a King then you can easily bet and call a check-raise.

Turn comes a harmless 2

The big blind bets pot and you call.

No reason to raise here against a player like this. Although if your opponent was a more loose bad fishy player you could raise his bet 2-2.5 times to get a call from a worse jack or a draw like QT, AQ, AT, T9, Q9. It all depends on how you think your opponent will react to you (anticipating his actions).

River comes 4

That puts the back-door flush out there but it doesn’t scare us since it is so unlikely that he has it. Now the big blind bets 1/2 pot and we call. He flips up QT which was planning on check-raising the flop.

If your opponent were to show you a big hand here you would adjust your reads.

Although I would not stop calling someone down in this spot with a hand like this just because they show me two pair or something like that a few times, his hand-range is so wide for me to be folding AJ when the action goes check, pot, 1/2 pot. If he does it a few times with the same betting pattern I would note it.

Example #2:

You raise AQ UTG+1 and get a call from the button who you don’t know that well but he seems loose and doesn’t like to give up pots.

Only the two of you see the flop which is 67T

Many players would just tell you to bet your Ace high here but I disagree. How do you think your opponent will react?

A board like this hits your opponents hand-range hard, even if he is loose and you are out of position. Which means that you will have a hard time contesting the pot.

If your opponent is someone who calls you all the time then you shouldn’t focus on betting him off a hand. You should focus on value-betting your made hands MORE.

If you had a hand like A7 or 99 you could value-bet him relentlessly. We are of course assuming he will not be raising you off that hand if you do, that is for another post though.

Position plays a huge part in a game like No-Limit Hold’em. In this spot I would simply check-fold my Ace high.

How can you adjust to a player like this?

1. Play tighter when he has position on you
2. Value bet more
3. Learn his patterns
4. Continuation bet/bluff less

Those are a few things you can do. You can always leave the table if he is making your life difficult. I am pretty sure there are a lot of better tables out there.

Summary

In summary, what I do is simplify my decisions. Below are a few examples…

Tendency: Opponent calls too much in position with weak hands

Adjustment: Value bet, Tighter when he as position, Bluff less

Tendency: Opponent check-raises flops

Oops, you forgot to mention with what? Never base your decisions on reads that do not exist.

Tendency: Opponent check-raises flops with any pair, any draw and big hands.

Adjustment: Check behind on the flop and learn how he plays after that.

I know it is easy to get caught up in a personal vendetta against someone. I have done it and still do.

Someone who constantly floats (calls) you in position and you have to check-fold time and time again.

You want to start firing those 2nd and 3rd barrels, because he is owning you.

What you have to consider is that he will be very likely to call you down no matter how much you bet.

That is why you have to adjust your strategy wisely and not just throw more money at him and hope he folds!

The CRE Puts The Hammer Down

This law has been a joke ever since it was first piggybacked on a bill and tricked to get passed. The Center for Regulatory Effectiveness (CRE) provides the government with tips on what works and what doesn’t.

And lately the CRE came out with a report that basically says “This is very unlikely to be successful”. A few points from the article:

• The rules are very hazy and unclear
• Would take too much manpower to put into place and enforce
• There are few loopholes for merchants (gambling businesses)

You can read the whole article at Card Player.

Congressional Hearing

There is also a congressional hearing held Washington D.C. where people will gather to discuss the problems with the current laws and how they can be improved.

The article can be found at Gambling 911.

I am feeling quite optimistic about all this. There are no signs of this whole issue getting worse. More and more people are joining to get UIGEA out and a better law in.

Hopefully it will happen or I will be pissed about all the crap that goes on.

Friday was my biggest one-day win, ever - I’m still stoked about it!

In ~1,500 hands I won a little bit over $8,500 - not bad for about four hours work!

Most of this was at 5/10NL, with a little bit of 3/6 and a quick shot at 10/20 thrown in.

While I won a couple pots with “tricky” plays like floats(calling without a hand to represent one, usually in position) or “squeeze” re-raises, the majority of the winnings were accomplished with solid fundamentals:

• Planning the pot-size
• Extracting value
• Inducing bluffs / pot control
• Tilt avoidance

Plan the Pot from the Beginning

5/10 NL, $1000 effective stacks.

I am dealt AK in the cut-off, the UTG player folds and the HJ, an average player, limps.

The standard play is to raise 4-5x the BB. However, I’ve kept my eye on the table and the BB is a complete maniac:

• He will raise around 30-40% of his hands from any position if there is no raise
• If there is a raise, he will usually just call.
• If he gets reraised, he will almost always see a flop.

He’s the “easy money” at the table, so I target him first.I decide to take a chance and hope he has a hand to raise, so I overlimp behind the HJ. The button folds, the SB completes, and to my delight the BB raises to $50.

The first limper folds, and I reraise to $150. It is folded back to the BB who pauses and calls.

At this point my planning has started to take shape - I’ve got a good enough chunk of my stack in preflop that if I hit a pair I can happily get the rest in, since the pot will be ~$320 and we will have $850 remaining.

It may get a bit dicey if I do not hit top pair, but I have position and my opponent is generally entering the pot with a significantly weaker hand, so I’m willing to take that chance.

The flop is the beautiful: A T 2 (Pot: $320)

I bet $225, and villain thinks for a moment, then check-raises all-in for $625 more. I call quickly - villain has QT and my hand holds up.

Careful attention to my opponents, a little planning, and that pretty Ace allowed me to double up here.

Had I just raised pre-flop like normal the BB would have called, and I might have won a small- to medium-sized pot, since I would be forced to play for pot control with such a small portion of my stack invested preflop.

Extracting Value

Extracting value goes hand-in-hand with planning the pot. Here’s an example from 5/10 NL:

Hero(100bb) raises AK to $35 UTG, and gets 3 callers - a shortstack(30bb) in the HJ, a fishy player on the button(100bb), and a TAG in the SB(125bb).

Flop: A 2 2 (Pot: $150)

At this point, I notice a few things before acting:

1. The short-stack is irrelevant as I’m happy getting 30bb in w/ TPTK on this board
2. The TAG never has a 2 unless he has specifically 22 or A2s
3. The fishy button may hold a 2, but he will likely pay off 3 streets of betting with just an A

As a result, these factors along with the pot size ($150 with $965 left to bet) let me bet my TPTK aggressively because there are so few hands that beat me.

This results in a rare situation where I can commit my stack with top-pair in a multi-way raised pot.

So, I come out and bet $130 into $150. The shortstack folds, the fishy button calls, and the tag folds. This is my ideal scenario, heads-up with the deep fish.

Turn: 4; (pot: $410)

I bet $305, button calls.

River: 8 (pot: $1020)

I go all-in for my remaining $530, and villain calls with AJ.

AK was good to me on Friday

Solid Play Pays Off

Many players get caught up in the idea of “outplaying” their opponents. When it comes down to it, a solid, tight strategy and attention to your opponent’s habits are the most important factors - play well for long enough, and it will pay off!

I have been playing less tables and more hands the past few weeks. My goal was to learn new situations where I can win more, basically.

What I want to talk about in this post is experimentation. Learning by trial. Learning by applying basic math, odds and brain!

Experiment

Don’t be afraid to experiment. Experience is the best teacher. Reading, talking and coaching only take you so far.

After awhile you have to step out of your comfort zone and try things. Although a slight warning before you do so. It is easy to fool yourself to playing bad and shrugging it off while saying “I’m experimenting!”.

On the other hand, a friend of mine who learned by experimentation. Be smart when you do it though, it is easy to fool yourself

Don’t start re-raising hands out of position which put you in extremely tough situations.

Start with something lighter and where your success rate is higher.

One example could be playing a few more hands on the button, in position. Always think of what kind of range your opponent has, you do not want to be calling a hand like A5s on the button to an under the gun raise if the raiser is tight. Because his range crushes yours.

A better spot would be against a loose opponent who opens in the cut-off and you call on the button with A5s.

I have always leaned more to the conservative side. That is my weakness, I don’t move up the stakes when I could make even more at a higher limit. Sometimes I am too complacent and don’t make the play that has the most expected value.

But I am learning, just as you are.

Analyze

I usually go through my sessions in Pokertracker after my session is done. It costs $55 or so and is a very helpful tool. I bought it around August 2004 I think and it has been well worth it

Il also use Holdem Ranger and Pokerstove which are very helpful for calculating equities. It might be confusing in the beginning. If it is, send me your questions and I will answer them. It is a lot easier for me to help when I know what specific questions you have.

What all these programs help you do is assess when a play is correct and when it is not. For example with equity calculators like Holdem Ranger and Pokerstove you can input your opponents perceived range of hands and start calculating if a bluff is correct.

For example if a slightly loose and aggressive opponent who steals a lot opens in the cut-off and you call on the button with two cards. The flop comes down something like K72 rainbow.

He fires out a continuation bet like he does 90% of the time. How often do you think he will fold on this flop if you raise? How will he react when you just call?

First you have to think about his hand-range, it might contain a lot of hands like 65s, A5o, Q9o and such. He will easily fold hands like that to a small raise if you have a solid image.

When you first learn to use calculators like this it is kind of a revelation. It was for me because I had a good method of figuring out when I could do different things to take advantage of my opponents. I am still learning and lost in many places but with the help of calculating, discussing, coaching and playing I am getting better.

And to win in poker you have to be learning constantly.

We left off at Georgetown, where I first found poker in the form of a $5 buy-in mixed game.

“Follow The Queen” is Where It’s At

Our game gradually grew in stakes, and word got out to other interested players. Soon we had about 20 regular players and were playing about 3 nights a week, homework permitting.

By sophomore year, we were doing a $40-$50 buy-in game with $0.25/$0.50 blinds, and NLHE was the dominant game, though the dealer could call what he liked and occasionally we got a round of omaha or some crazy wild-card game like “Follow the Queen.”

Follow the Queen is a 7-stud variant where the card that falls after a Queen is wild for all players holding that card. It is madness, the wildcard can change mid-hand, sometimes mid-street, and if the final face card is a Q then no cards are wild.

Online Poker is for Chumps

One of the regulars started playing tourneys online and had some success - he encouraged us to check it out, but we were skeptical:

• Who wanted to play poker when you couldn’t see your opponents?
• What if it was rigged?
• Will they let me call “Follow the Queen” when it is my turn to deal?

My friend recommended checking it out, but the rest of us agreed - online poker was for chumps. I still wonder how much more I would have made if I’d have started playing online two years earlier!

All Work and No Play…

Junior year came around and things got incredibly busy. I took an internship at Georgetown’s medical center, doing database work and some low-level web design.

I also had a packed schedule of classes, all my free time was spent programming or writing papers - mostly programming, which is about as boring as it sounds when you are doing busy-work projects.

I was getting burned out fast, and one of my friend suggested looking into studying abroad, so I applied to Sydney Uni in Australia, and despite my sweet 3.2 GPA they accepted me.

Fun in the Sun

Australia was amazing - it’s sunny and beautiful in Sydney 260+ days out of the year, and the people are friendly and respectful if you are too.

Classes were fun and interesting, there were lots of cool people to meet. I lived in an international residence with people from all over the world.

I played some poker with other students for small stakes, and managed to buy a new surfboard with the profits. The waves were always good it seemed, so I got to surf 4 or more days a week, which was fantastic.

I got more amazing surfing in that semester than in any previous year(or two!) and I was only there for 5 months. In the middle of May I wiped out on a wave and broke my nose when my surfboard hit me in the face.

While it was a comical sight for the locals, despite bleeding heavily once they realized i could walk and was coherent they left me to my own devices. I drove myself to the hospital and phoned my parents - it looked like i would be out of the water for a bit.

I flew home for surgery, and fortunately it went well and I have no scars or visible remnants of the incident, despite my nose being pointed 20 degrees off to the left while it was broken!
Since I would be out of the water for awhile, I finally decided to give online poker a shot while I recovered from my broken nose.