If you’ve never played poker before, Texas hold’em is a good game to start with as it is the most popular game for cash games as well as poker tournaments. Most of the cards are shared so there is not much of which to keep track. The game breaks down as follows.

The Start of a Texas Hold’em Deal

The game starts with the player to the left of the dealer putting up a bet. The player to his left then puts up a bigger bet, usually twice the size of the first bet. These players are called the small blind and big blind respectively. Their bets start the action.

Two cards are then dealt to each player. The player to the left of the big blind must now decide based on his two cards whether to call the big blind’s bet, raise, or fold, giving up on the hand. This process continues clockwise around the table.

When it is the small blind’s turn, he may complete to a full bet, raise or fold. If someone has already raised, he may call, raise or fold. The big blind may then check or raise if no one else has raised, or call, raise or fold if someone has raised.

Post Flop Play

Once all players have called all bets or folded, the dealer turns three cards up in the middle of the table. This is the flop.

Starting to the left of the dealer and proceeding clockwise, players may now check or bet. If someone bets, the following players may fold, call or raise. Once this betting round ends, a fourth card, the turn, is put face up in the middle. 

Another betting round, usually at double the prior limit, takes place. There is then a fifth card, the river, put out and a final betting round. Anyone who has not folded turns up their cards. Whoever has the best five card poker hand using the two cards in their plus the five on the board wins the pot.

The Button

In a casino and online, the casino deals for the players. For this reason, one player gets “the button,” a white disk that indicates he is in the dealer position even though he is not actually dealing. The button rotates clockwise with each deal.

Many poker players realize that to be successful at poker, they need to expand their repertoire of skills beyond knowing when to bluff and when to raise. Seemingly, insignificant factors such as table selection can play an important role. Finding the right table, one with players weaker than you are, can give you an edge you might otherwise miss. Once you’ve found the right table though, your work is not done.

Poker Table Seat Selection: Loose Opponents

Once you’re at the table of your choice, what if there is more than one seat open? Where do you sit? Base your decision on the observations you have made while couting out the table.

In online texas holdem, more specifically at a no limit texas holdem table, you would like to sit so that loose players are on your immediate right. This is so that in most cases these players will act before you. If you have a marginal hand or want to try to steal the pot, it will be easier knowing that this player has already acted. If you have a strong hand and would like to trap, this player will often bet into you, making trapping more effective.

Tight Opponents

Tight opponents opponents are better to have on your left. If you bet and are raised, you will be able to put this player on a strong hand, allowing you to get away from the hand if you are weak. In most cases, when the flop misses both you and this opponent, you will be able to put in a bet first and take control of the hand, often winning the pot outright.

Notes About Seat Selection

Not all players will have obvious tendencies that allow you to take advantage through seat selection. Keep your eyes open though. If you notice a good seat, tell the dealer you want it after it opens. Most players will think you are switching seats because the new seat is “lucky.” It may be, but not in the way that they think.

In poker and sports betting, cheating manifests itself in different ways.

Cheating in Poker

Poker cheats operate most commonly by manipulating the cards in some way. Some cheats can deal from the bottom of the deck, others may try to slip a stacked deck into play. With the advent of online poker, these methods are less effective.

The most common way of cheating in online poker is collusion, playing on more than one account on a table at once, or getting a confederate to work with you at the table. From statistical reasons this is probably most effective in shorthanded poker.

This is something that the poker sites try to prevent by rigorous monitoring of user activities.

Cheating in Sports Betting

When betting with an unlicensed bookie, you run the danger of the bookie cheating you by trying to alter the lines or the amount of money you are on record as betting after the fact, insisting that your memory is inaccurate.

Another old school method of cheating is past posting, placing or laying a bet on an event where you already know the outcome. Just as with poker, the Internet has made this kind of cheating difficult.

Now the best way to cheat in sports betting is to do something to affect the outcome of the game, such as paying a player not to perform at his best.

Protecting Against Cheating in Poker and Sports Betting

As should be obvious, playing Texas Holdem online is a great way to avoid a lot of cheating that you might run into when gambling privately. Poker sites keep a vigilant eye on the users 24/7, and you can be assured there are no hidden cameras in your own kitchen.

If you don’t like to play online, at least be sure to make your bets in a licensed casino.

Bluffing in poker is not cheating

Don’t get things mixed up, though. Bluffing in a poker game is not cheating. Bluffing is an integral part of poker. It’s built into the Texas Holdem rules, and is what sets poker apart as such a great and exciting game.

Unfortunately, the 2-3 week RMA process in fact ended up taking 9-10 weeks!  Soo…time to re-review it.

The only reason I got the unit back in ~10 weeks was because at the end of week 9 I called Westinghouse Corporate and made a stink.

So, I finally got my replacement unit. Fire it up, no dead pixels, hooray.

I turn the brightness down on the unit, and it starts emitting a high-pitched whining noise. Fantastic. I can’t work with the sound of a bunch of mosquitoes buzzing in my ear, so I call back Newegg.

No refunds on RMA’d units. Great.

Call Westinghouse.

Their friendly support staff informs me “No refunds”, but they’d be happy to send it through their (9-10 week) RMA process again. No thanks.

Call Westinghouse Corporate.

Sit on hold for 20 minutes.

Informed that “We can’t give any more refunds.” “More” refunds? Have they given too many? Did they run out of money?

Long story short, the gentleman @ Westy sets me up with a 32″ Westinghouse LCD TV (retail: $700) in lieu of the monitor.

I’d still rather have a refund, but at least now I’ll be getting something somewhat useful instead of the paperweight excuse for a monitor I currently have.

So, if you can find a perfectly-working unit at BestBuy, go for it - the monitor is good quality. However, this model is riddled with problems (a quick googling turns up more probs than I found) and you are taking a BIG risk ordering it online.

Monitor quality: B+
Reliability: C
Westinghouse Customer Support: F
Newegg Monitor Customer Support: F

I like to observe a few things about my opponent as I play:

• Is there a consistent fold/check/bet speed?
• Is s/he saying anything in chat?
• What is my opponents “comfort zone?”

Especially in HU, it can be easy to recognize a consistent speed at which your opponent acts, usually a couple seconds for each decision.

A player on tilt, however, may start making decisions incredibly quickly - calling or betting near-instantly for multiple hands in a row.

Sometimes chat is a dead giveaway. If you see lots of cursing, “OMG I CANT BELIEVE YOU HIT THAT,” etc in chat, keep your eyes out for erratic play. This can be faked of course, but it is often accurate.

What Is “Comfort Zone?”

Comfort Zone is how I describe a players “normal” habits of play. Does he like to limp alot preflop, or does he like to raise?

Usually when a player gets out of his or her CZ it’s for a reason. If Mr.Limpy min-checkraises the turn for the first time in 200 hands, he’s probably got a big hand.

However, sometimes it is drastic and consistent…all of a sudden Mr. Limpy starts raising every hand preflop. Or, Mr.Tight starts calling you down with mid pair.

What has happened? The player has told himself something about you, perhaps “He’s crazy! I wont stand for it any more!” or “I’m not going to get run over any longer, now I’m going to win some pots!”

Regardless, he’s gotten out of his comfort zone and is now playing erratically and irrationally.

Now is the time to adapt.

Adapting To A Tilter

Now once you are quite sure your opponent is actually tilting - he’s gone from limping and calling to uttering a non-stop stream of obscenities into chat, and raising every hand - now is the time to adjust.

So, we want to encourage whatever he’s doing wrong. If he’s raising and betting, lets let him do that. Call KQ-type hands preflop, and let him hang himself with bluffs if you flop top pair.

Note that a tilting player may stop tilting if he wins a good size pot, so it’s important to play a bit tight, and let him win tiny pots until you have a hand to make your move with, like TP or a decent 2nd pr.

If he’s started calling you down light, or calling bets very fast without thinking, it’s time to run a fake bluff.

Example:
2/4 NL HU, 100bb eff

Hero raises 33 from the button/SB to $12, Tilter calls in the BB.
Our opponent has started calling bets very fast, and seems to have told himself that Hero is crazy.

Flop: 3QTr ($24)
Jackpot flop, now it’s time to get some value.

BB checks, Hero bets $20, BB instacalls.

turn: 2o ($64)

BB checks, Hero bets $60, BB instacalls.

At this point, the super-fast-calls usually mean he has either a made hand that he’s decided to “call my bluff” with, or he has a strong draw like JK. The draw is folding the river UI, so we can ignore it and go for value from made hands.

River: 2o ($184)

BB checks, Hero goes All-In for $308, BB instacalls with Q7o.

BB in this hand clearly only beats a bluff, but he has convinced himself so thoroughly that Hero is crazy that he is willing to put his whole stack in to try and beat a bluff.

Ordinarily this might not be the most optimal way to extract value, but if you can spot changes in your opponents play you will see new areas for profit.

For some veteran players this will be a bit of a review, for others learning the ins-and-outs of re-raised pots this may be very important info.

Why Do We Want To 3Bet?

Re-raising regularly has many benefits. The simplest is that it makes you look crazier / more aggressive, which will in turn let you win bigger pots with your “premium” hands - AA, KK, and to a lesser extent AK, QQ.

Additionally, we put ourselves in spots to win medium-to-large sized pots without having to show down a hand, since many opponents are timid in re-raised pots for fear of being stacked.

These two may seem contradictory - it is important to pay attention to how your opponents are reacting to your re-raises, if anyone is steaming or complaining in chat, etc.

Some nitty players will let you steal pot after pot and never fight back. Others will let you take one or two, then they will “blow up” with some low-quality hand because they feel they need to “make a stand.”

So, lets get down to the nuts and bolts.

For the purposes of this article we will focus on 100bb effective stack sizes.

What Poker Hands Are Best To Re-Raise?

In general, there are two types of “wider” re-raising ranges:

• “Nuts-Or-Nothing”
• “No Bluffs”

“Nuts-Or-Nothing” describes a range where you 3bet premiums (AK, KK, AA, sometimes QQ) and also some pure bluffs, like 76s, JTo, etc.

“No Bluffs” describes a range where you 3bet the top X% of your hand range for value - limit players will recognize this as a “normal” type of reraising range for LHE.

An example is: KJs+ AJs+ KQo, AQo+, 99+.
There are no pure bluffs here, but we have used a wider-than-normal range.

How Do I Choose What To 3bet?

This depends on a few things:

• Your opponent’s raising and calling range preflop
• Your opponent’s postflop tendencies

Preflop:

If your opponent is raising a wide range, and folds outright a large % of the time, reraising a nuts-or-nothing range can be very effective.

If your opponent is raising a wide range, and calls the reraise a large % of the time, we must look at how he plays postflop to determine the best counter-strategy.

Postflop:

If your opponent calls a wide range of hands preflop, and plays very stubbornly with any piece of the board - either a fish or a bad-aggressive LAG - then reraising a “No Bluffs” range is usually best.

Be willing to get it in with TPGK+ with this range, against this type of player.

If your opponent calls a wide range of hands pf, and then gives up unless he hits the flop hard, a “Nuts-Or-Nothing” range can be very effective. Continuation bet flops liberally, but shut down if you get called - he’s finally found a hand.

These are two extremes, and while there are many variations on these two general player types, hopefully this will give you a good idea about what to start thinking about when re-raising.

I’m getting into HU play, donking around at 2/4 and seeing how the game is. I really enjoy it, there’s lots of mind-games and great opportunities for profit.

The first thing that strikes me is how swingy the game is compared to 6max. I’ll swing up or down 5-6 BIs pretty consistently, whereas at 6max a 5BI downswing is a once-or-twice a week type thing.

It’s alot of fun, and it will help you develop your hand-reading if you focus and 1-2 table. I’ll be talking about HU a bit over the coming weeks, along with all the usual goodies, so keep an eye out!

I had a great Christmas, and enjoyed taking a break from poker to spend time with family and friends.

I’m ready to get back to the tables, though.

Playing In The Blinds: Comparison

In Limit, it is difficult to over-defend your big blind. Against a single raise we are typically getting 4:1 (or better) to see a flop.

If we fold, we lose .5BBs immediately. So, making the call only needs to result in us losing .49BBs or less and we have a profitable hand.

No Limit is very different, however. A typical raise is 3 times the big blind, so we are getting 3:1 on our money instead.

However, postflop is where the problem comes in. Most of the times we will miss, and against an aggressive opponent it will be difficult to show-down medium-strength hands cheaply.

Because of the huge disadvantage of being out of position in NL, we are forced to fold many hands that we would otherwise want to play.

Note that when the SB raises and we are in the BB we can call all these hands, things like Axs and JTo that play poorly OOP play well in position.

OOP we typically want hands that flop well, and can hold up to some heat. Pairs 66+, AJs+, AQo+, KQ is a decent range for calling heads-up OOP.

Against a passive / bad player we can call more hands, since he will give us cheap cards and pay off well. Hands like A9s-ATs, ATo+, KJs, PPs 22-55, and some stronger SCs like JTs become playable.

Fighting Back

There will be aggressive players at your tables who try to steal the blinds too often. How do we fight back?

The answer: Preflop Reraises.

Someone who is opening 30-40% of the time from the button very rarely has a strong hand. They don’t mind being called, however, since they have the advantage of position after the flop.

Reraising a range of JJ+, AQo+, and occasionally some “creative” stuff like JTs, 65o, etc, will make him think twice about stealing your blind.

Be Confident

It’s easy to over-defend your blinds in NL, since we put so much at risk both preflop and postflop, that it is usually correct to just fold when OOP.

However, making sure to fight back against aggressive players with liberal preflop reraises, coupled with tight starting standards, will make you a tough blind to steal.

The holiday season is incredibly busy, and at times it can be quite difficult to balance poker with all the other facets of holiday life.

It’s important to budget time to make sure you get some hours in during this busy season.

However, there are many other things that are more important.

There’s More To Life Than Poker

The beautiful thing about online poker is that it’s there 24/7. Because of that flexibility, it’s important to make time for the big things in life, like family, friends, and the events and people that you love.

Don’t miss out on going ice skating(or swimming, depending on where you live ) with your friends, or spending quality time with family.
These things are more important than poker!

While earning income from poker seems important, the games will be there, and they will be great, after the holidays are over.

Don’t lose sight of why we work so hard to improve and make money at this game - it’s to give us the freedom to spend our time as we please.

So, enjoy the holidays, and have fun.

See you at the tables in January!

Some tips when deciding on a mouse:

It Should Feel Comfortable In Your Hand

The mouse should sit easily in your palm of your hand, with fingers gently extended over it. If you have to curl up your fingers into a claw to click the buttons, it’s not the right size.

There should be no uncomfortable pressures or bumps from the shape, stop by a local store and give ‘em a test run to see which feels the best.

Motion Should Be Effortless

If you are straining to move the mouse or trackball, you will eventually develop a repetitive stress injury(RSI).

Muscles should be relaxed most of the time, and it should take minimal effort to move the mouse or ball wheel.

If your wrist or fingers stiffen in a slightly uncomfortable fashion when manipulating it or clicking it, that’s a no go.

Check Your Posture

One’s mouse arm should come straight down from the shoulder, with the elbow bent at 90 degrees.

The hand should rest gently on a flat, even surface, and the wrist should be perfectly straight, not bent to the left or right or tilted up or down.

Having good posture will greatly ease the strain on your muscles and joints.

Some Good Mice(Mouses?)

Logitech makes great input devices, I’ve used them for the last 7 or 8 years.

If you’re looking to splurge, this is a great wireless mouse:

MX Revolution

Multiple scroll wheels, a Lithium-Ion battery, and precise laser optics make it a great buy, though a bit pricey.

If you are more economically minded:

MX 400

Still plenty of bells and whistles, but at a better price range. These are both hand-specific models, logitech has many that are ambidextrous.

Trackballs

An alternative to a conventional mouse is a trackball. These are great because you can control your mouse pointer with 1 finger, and you are never running out of desk space sliding around.

I currently use one of these:
Trackman Wheel

It takes a little while to get used to moving the ball with your thumb, but once used to it movement is effortless and precise.
There is a wireless version for those who don’t like cords.

I used the Marble Mouse for 5 years, and eventually started to get wrist trouble.

I would flick my hand up to pull the ball back towards me, stiffening the muscles on the top of my wrist - if i had better habits I could have avoided the beginnings of an RSI.

Still a solid choice, works for righties and lefties. Definitely build good habits of using gentle pressure with your fingers and not the whole hand to move the ball.

Marble Mouse

Let me know if you have any suggestions for a good poker mouse!