Tips & Strategies

Play tight early, loose later generally speaking.  A lot of players make a mistake of playing loose early on because the blinds are so low.  They figure it does not hurt to risk just a few chips with a marginal hand.  The problem is that when you hit your marginal hand you are likely behind anyone who gives you much action!  If you have a hand like Ace 7os and the flop comes A84 rainbow and someone gives you a lot of action then you are likely dominated by a hand like AQ, AJ, AT or better.  Play tight early and later when the blinds are bigger play looser and more aggressively as the blinds are worth taking at this point.<br>

BLUFFING

A poker hand consists of 5 playing cards. Poker hands fall into one of several categories, such as flush, straight, or two pair. The player whose hand is in the higher category wins. If two players have hands in the same category, the tie is broken usually by who has higher cards. Below is a table of the hand categories, highest to lowest

You can fool some of the people all the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time.” – Abraham Lincoln

One element of poker is deception. Bluffing is the quintessential trick in hold em poker. Of course, the reasoning for a bluff is to deceive the other players into thinking you have a better hand when you actually do not. For a bluff to work, you need the other players to think you actually have that better hand. Many beginning poker players love this idea of bluffing and often misuse it. The value of the bluff increases under certain general circumstances that often have a lot to do with information you assume about the other players. This vagueness makes it difficult to give definitive reasons or places to bluff. Some less generalized times to bluff and some advice are given below. The bottom of the page gives some more ideas and perspectives on deception in poker.

Some typical reasons to bluff…

A. When there aren’t many other players in a pot.

Simply put, it’s easier to trick a couple people than a crowd. With fewer hands out there, chances are better that no one has made a reasonable hand. This is fairly common though, so many players won’t believe you. Some will stay in the hand just to “keep you honest”, so sometimes this needs to be a persistent bluff over a period of two or three betting rounds. That can be costly if they don’t fall for it. You need to know the players before you use this type of bluff.

B. When you’re up against fairly tight players.

Those that tend to fold easily are the biggest targets of a bluff. Bets will be put out just as a form of information gathering on this player’s hand. If you bluff early (preflop, flop) against a very tight player and they don’t buckle, you should think twice about trying it again on a future round. They have something. Your job is to determine whether they have a made or drawing hand. Once again, you need to know the players.

C. On the river.

Especially if apparent drawing hands missed. That’s when players react to rule #1 “the moment you know you can’t win, throw in your cards”. It is often a good idea to bluff with a weak hand, like ace-high or lowest pair with these kinds of bluffs, because some players will stay in just because of pot odds. If you do that, it is actually semi-bluffing (see the bottom of the page).

D. You’re in late position and everyone else checked.

This one you’ll have to gauge for yourself. It will most likely force some players out, but not all. This is a pretty common bluff once again, and many players will stay in just because of bet odds, and/or to once again “keep you honest”. This is another example of a bluff that needs to be more persistent over a couple betting rounds. 

E. You bet preflop and missed.

That’s because they don’t know you missed! This can be dangerous, and you really have to evaluate to board before you get into this one. Sometimes it’s good to bluff when AK misses, sometimes when 99 misses. You have to really feel this one out.

F. You have given other players “the fear”.

It’s about how other players perceive you. If you just won a hand through good play, the players who say “nice hand” are the ones who now respect you. They will more likely fold to your bluff if you play it right. The trick is to play the hand exactly the same way you played the other winning hand. Give it the “here we go again” act. 

G. When the flop isn’t so great.

Some players will fold automatically if all they have is an overcard. With a rainbow flop of 2, 6, 9, not many players will have much. This is another example of a bluff that can go horribly awry. I wouldn’t be too persistent in this case, unless only more low cards pop up. Once again, know your players. 

H. Preflop on the button, and everyone else has folded.

This is usually best used with tight players to your left. Its good because it can change from a bluff to a deceptively good hand with luck and the right flop. 

I. When there is a pair on the board.

This is especially useful when the pair is 88 or lower. Chances are that these cards might have been folded or are still in the deck. This is one situation where you want to evaluate the hand very carefully if they do call though. This is a great situation to read the tells of the players who are NOT involved in the game. It’s much easier to give away the fact that you HAD a card than if you HAVE it.

Keep in mind that these are pretty common reasons to bluff. Many players know these reasons. Most of the time it just won’t work. The main thing is always to know your players and to not do it so often that it never works.

There’s some great books about bluffing out there. We suggest reading as much as you can about it, as it’s one of the most misunderstood aspects of poker.<br>

Calculating Pot Odds

The concept of pot odds is easy to learn and in my opinion is one of the most important concepts of playing winning poker, especially no limit hold’em.

It’s simply, the relationship, expressed as a ratio, between the size of the bet you are making or calling, and the number of bets those bets in the pot. For example, if there is 12$ in the pot and you need to call a 3$ bet, you are getting 4:1 pot odds, expressed as 4:1.

To have good enough pot odds, generally you need to have better pot odds than your chance of winning the hand. So if you think you only have a 20% chance to win the hand, you should only play that hand if there is 5 times your bet or more in the pot. This is a risk/reward ratio – if you risk losing the bet, you need to have a big enough reward to make it affordable.

Pot odds can be used during different situations, including calling bets or drawing to a straight or flush. For example, if you need to call 5$ with a 25% chance to win a hand, there needs to be 4 or more times the size of your bet in the pot, or 20$.

BEFORE THE FLOP: especially when you are playing weaker hands trying to hit a flop, ex. suited connectors and small pairs, be aware if the pot is big enough for you to take a flop and try to hit your hand. To have good enough odds, generally you need to have better pot odds than your chance of winning the hand. So if you think you only have a 20% chance to win the hand, you should only play that hand if there is 5 times your bet or more in the pot. This is a risk/reward ratio – if you risk losing the bet, you need to have a big enough reward to make it affordable.

AFTER THE FLOP: This will mainly be applied when you are drawing to a hand, but the same rule applies, you must have better pot odds then your chance of winning, so it will be profitable in the long run if you hit. To apply this, you need to know how many outs you have, and what percentage this gives you to win the hand. Below is a chart drawing odds from a deck of 47 unseen cards.

Good players will also use these when defending the best hand. When you are playing with the best hand, especially against loose players, you can put in a bet that gives the player bad odds to call if you think he will play anyway, or if you want to just win the pot right away you can put an oversized bet in that is clearly not an affordable price to draw. This is just one of the ways that you can tilt pot odds in your favor.

Drawing odds from a deck of 47 unseen cards

BLUFFING: Pot odds must also be considered when bluffing. Over and Over again I have seen people bluff all in to attempt to steal the smaller blinds: an incredibly high risk for a very small reward. The mathematical rule for bluffing is that THE POT ODDS MUST BE GREATER THAN THE ODDS OF SUCCESSFULLY PULLING OFF THE BLUFF.

For example, if you estimate the odds of bluffing and winning at 1 in 5, then there must be more than 5 bets in the pot when you attempt the bluff. This means that you can bluff 1 10th the size of the pot and lose 9 times, and you win in the long run if you win the 10th time. HOWEVER, be careful when playing against bad players, who are often “un-bluffable”. Make sure you consider that your chance of bluffing bad players is very small, and use this move scarcely.

As you can see, pot odds can make you a winning player in many aspects of the game, and it is essential to always be thinking about pot odds in the risk/reward game that is poker.

Table Statistics

Regarding the statistics in the tables list, I think it’s most important to remember to use the numbers for comparisons; i.e. once you’ve decided the game and limits at which you wish to play, the next step is to use the numbers to help decide which particular table is likely to be the most satisfactory / most profitable (not always the same thing).

Technically, of course, the three stats fairly simple to decipher:

Average pot size – total $ in all pots for the last “n” games / “n”

Players per flop – average for the last “n” games of number of players seeing the flop / number of players at the table

Hands per hour – total number of hands completed in a previous 60 minutes period

Note that some additional information is needed to help you optimize your play:

First, the “n” in the calculations would be helpful, although this is not generally available (although some poker sites publish this information on well-hidden web pages). The reason this can be important is that the “flavor” of a table can change rapidly online, and a fishpond can become a sharkpool before the averages change enough to warn you what you’re getting into. However, we work with what we have.

The second factor that can really skew the averages is number of players AT the table. A 10-table with 3 players will naturally have a much higher H/hr rate than a full table, and will most likely have a higher PPF number as well (as most players will loosen their starting hand requirements with fewer competitors).

Finally, on the “techie” side, one would use the Average Pot Size (APS) figure together with the blind or limit size for that particular table to help decide how much bankroll will be “at risk”. It’s fairly typical, I think, to sit down at a limit table with 50x the big bet, and most sites seem to limit the buy-in for a NL table to 100x the big blind, so much of the decision here will be based on the table limits. However, once you know the total amount of money at the table, the APS number will give you a fair idea of how much is being committed to pots, and therefore a good feel for the post-flop aggressiveness of the players at the table.

Now, with all the math out of the way, I said earlier that “most satisfactory” and “most profitable” were not always the same thing. There will be times (many) when I sit down only to improve the bankroll balance. In these cases, I’ll look for a game with a large number of players (8-9), a fairly high PPF number (depending on the site and the limits, this can be anywhere from 45% on up) and an APS of about 15x big blind (NL). This tells me, in general, that there are several players calling preflop, but who do not have the hands to support aggressive post-flop action. In these cases, playing premium hands, and with a little help on the flop, I can usually catch all the fish I can eat.

On the other hand, there are times when I really want to play against premium opponents, just for the enjoyment of the poker. While one usually has to go into the higher limits for this kind of action, some quality games can be found in the lower limits if you know how to look. Lower PPF is a great indicator that a table is tight early, and a lower APS on this kind of table lets you know that the players are also tight late, leaving the way clear for some delightful one-on-one action for late play.

As far as actually using the H/hr number, this is really only useful to me in the way that knowing the alcohol content of my drink is: the higher the number, the more I can feed the “action junkie” monkey. Again, this mainly depends on my mood for the evening.

So how do the table statistics make your poker game better? Like any other information in our sport of “using limited data to best effect” they are tools to assist in selecting the best game to achieve your objectives for the session. If by “better” you mean “more profitable”, use them in one way; but if you mean “higher quality poker by playing higher quality opponents while minimizing your risk”, then use them another.

Continuation Betting

The most profitable bluff in poker..

There are many aspects of Texas hold’em that need to be mastered to become a profitable poker player. Starting hand selection, betting, raising, check raising, slow playing, hand reading, and bluffing…just to name a few.

But there is one particular type of bluff that is absolutely necessary to master. It is the most frequently used, lowest risk, most profitable bluff in Hold’em. It is the Continuation bet.

The continuation bet, or “C-bet”, allows you to use selective aggression to maintain control of a hand after the flop has hit. So how exactly does one do this?

Well, first you have to establish control, and this is done preflop. It’s quite simple… raise your hand preflop rather than just calling the blinds. This generally allows the preflop raiser to establish control. Since you are communicating to the rest of your table that you have a strong hand, most other players will fold, or just call. By being the first to raise the pot preflop, you have established the lead, and are in control.

Now, since a non-paired hand will pair on the flop about 32% of the time, this means that 68% of the time, the flop will miss your hand…but it will also miss your opponents hand 68% of the time as well! So, this presents a great opportunity to bet a decent amount, knowing that your opponent will generally have missed the flop, it will be very hard for him to call and continue on with not even bottom pair.

This is really the magic of the continuation bet. Whether or not you make a hand on the flop, being the first to bet the flop will generally force a fold from your opponent, as long as you established the lead preflop.

So, once the flop hits and you are first to act, betting 1/2 – 2/3 the pot will generally take it down right there. This is small enough bet to preserve your stack, but large enough to give incorrect odds for calling most draws.

If you are last to act, and your opponents check to you, bet 1/2 – 2/3 the pot. It’s the same as before, except in this hand you have position on them as well!

By establishing the lead preflop, you are saying you have a strong hand. Once the flop hits and you continuation bet, you are really telling your opponents, “I have a strong hand, and I will make you pay to see the next card, and possible pay all the way to the river”.

Unless your opponent has a real hand (which they usually won’t), you will take down the pot.

As usual in poker, it doesn’t matter so much what hand you have…it matters more what hand your opponent has. The C-bet will force them to fold their frequently weak hand, even though yours is just as frequently weak. Remember, selective aggression forces players to give up pots…and to make a profit in poker, you need to win more than your fair share of pots!

And, as usual in poker, this strategy is an effective, but not perfect strategy. There are three situations when it loses effectiveness:

1. Many people see the flop. C-betting works best against 1 opponent, maybe 2. If 3 or more see the flop, you can be fairly sure someone hit something they like, and a 1/2 a pot bet won’t force a fold.
2. The flop is very coordinated. Continuation betting works well when a flop is Ace, 8, 2 rainbow. It looks like you hit your Ace. But, if the flop is 9 of clubs, Ten of clubs, Jack of clubs, it is very likely that someone will stick around to see if the next card makes their straight or flush.
3. You have been C-betting, or bluffing a lot in general. If the rest of the table starts to see you as a bluffer, they will call you down with little more than Ace or King high sometimes.

I generally aim to C-bet about 75% – 80% of the time…which is just enough to bet most of my real hands, some of my small pocket pairs, some of my draws, and a few stone cold bluffs. this keeps opponents guessing, 100% c-betting is just asking someone to go to show down with you.

Like all things in poker, practice makes perfect. However, once you master the continuation bet, your will have a new tool to build up your chipstack with!<br>