Archive for the ‘Poker Tips’ Category

How Long should you Play Poker?

Friday, February 3rd, 2012

One of the biggest mistakes that many online poker players make is extending a session too long. For example, if you start to lose concentration after two hours of playing and you keep going, you’ve played too much online poker.

Now you may be wondering why somebody would keep playing when they’re no longer focusing on the game. And the answer is that many players don’t even think anything about it when they’ve been on the poker tables too long. In essence, it becomes somewhat of blur, kind of like when you’re playing a video game for hours.

The downside of extending online poker sessions past when you can reasonably concentrate is that you stop focusing on opponents’ tendencies. Furthermore, you begin making small mistakes such as calling when you shouldn’t or playing marginal hands past the flop. So basically, playing poker for lengthy hours decreases your profitability with the game.

This being the case, it’s crucial that you both know your limits for playing, and stick to this limit. The only way to truly find out how long you can play poker is to go until you feel yourself losing concentration. For instance, if you fall into a lull after two hours, this should be your limit for the time being.

Interestingly enough, most poker players can extend the amount of time they’re able to play eventually. A large part of this is just getting better at the game, and having the correct moves become automatic responses. As you become more comfortable with playing longer online poker sessions, a good way to increase your interest is by multi-tabling. By managing two tables or more, you increase the challenge, which in turns keeps you more focused on the game. Just make sure you’re a winning player before you start multi-tabling!

 

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Stealing in Poker Tournaments

Tuesday, January 24th, 2012

One of the most difficult things for beginning poker tournament players to deal with in terms of poker strategy involves rising blinds. As experienced players know, the further you get into a tourney, the more blinds force you to play aggressively in order to stay alive. Unfortunately, many recreational tournament players either don’t get this concept, or tighten up in order to keep the chips they have. So for the sake of both parties, let’s take a quick look at some strategy for stealing in poker tournaments.

Stealing Frequently

Stealing pots doesn’t play a real big part early in poker tournaments due to the low blinds-to-stack-size ratio. After all, why bet a fourth of your starting stack with marginal cards when your 1,500 chips amount to 50 big blinds? But when you get to the point where blinds are 200/400 and your stack is worth 2,400 chips, you don’t have a whole lot of orbits left before desperation mode hits.

Before that point happens, you need to look for stealing opportunities frequently. The three spots where you should be looking to steal are from the cut-off, the button and the small blind because fewer players are left to act. It always helps matters if there’s non-aggressive players to your left, but even if there aren’t, you’ll probably need to steal at some point anyways.

Besides position, the other really important concept here involves your cards. Now if you’re trying to steal a hand, obviously you aren’t doing it with pocket aces. But just because you’re trying to steal a pot doesn’t mean you should be doing it with 8-4(o). Good cards to steal with include any two overcards, suited connectors from 8-9 and up,  as well as A-x and K-x (possibly Q-x if your stack is low enough).

The closer your stack gets to blinding out, the more you have to open up your stealing range. Also, keep in mind that if your stack is below 10 big blinds, you should be shoving on every steal attempt.

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Micro Stakes Differences

Friday, January 20th, 2012

The term “micro stakes” collectively lumps together limits ranging from $0.01/$0.02 to $0.25/$0.50, which often makes the poker strategy run together as well. However, it’s important to understand that there are several noticeable differences as you move from the lower end of the micro stakes cash games to the $0.25/$0.50 end – especially when it comes to No Limit Hold’em.

First off, in $0.01/$0.02 (2NL) games, players don’t value the money nearly as much because the buy-in is normally $2.00 at the most. So if you bust your entire stack twice in an hour, you’ve only lost a total of $4.00. This being the case, people are loose with both their money and play because there’s little consequence to losing. So you need to watch out for both players that are willing to call big raises (relative to big blinds ratio), and those who are frequently willing to go all-in with top or middle pair.

To address the first issue, where players call lots of raises just to see the flop, you can’t follow the standard preflop raising rules for high stakes players to protect premium hands. Instead, you often need to bet 8x the big blind or more to isolate one player after the flop with AA through JJ to keep the advantage.

Now this will also depend on the table and how everybody’s playing, but just be aware that raising 3xbb in a $0.01/$0.02 game isn’t going to ward off too many callers. Furthermore, if three or four people call your preflop raise while you’re holding aces, you may need to hit a set just to win the hand.

Moving to the second aforementioned point, which involves players going all-in with top pairs and second pairs, this is another edge that you can exploit. To find the players who are willing to go all-in with pairs on dangerous boards where you could be holding the nuts, you need to identify each player’s range.

For instance, some players may be willing to shove a full cash game buy-in from early position with Q-J(o) on a board of A-Q-9. Here the player could easily be beaten by an ace, yet they’re willing to go all-in with little information on anybody else’s hand. If you see players who’ve made plays like this before, you can be a lot more confident calling with a top pair or two pair in these scenarios.

As you move up towards the end of the micro stakes realm where 50NL games lie, be aware that players are less likely to call huge preflop raises just to see the flop with something like Q-T(o). Also, you aren’t going to see as many people shove when they’re holding top pair on dangerous boards, or middle pair on any board. Simply put, you’re going to need to play better poker, know more poker strategy, and do a lot of extra thinking in these games.

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Dealing with Calling Stations on your Left

Monday, January 2nd, 2012

For the most part, playing against calling stations in online poker is a blessing because they’re willing to call lots of raises and bets with marginal holdings. However, things can get a little trickier when this calling station is immediately to your left.

By having this kind of player to the left, your chances of successfully bluffing are diminished because there’s a good chance they will call any raise. Going further, you can’t really hope to check-raise them too often either because calling stations will also check to see free cards. Long story short, having a calling station sitting to your left can be annoying and bothersome.

Fortunately, it’s not too difficult to outplay these fish if you alter your game a little. The first thing you need to be aware of is that bluffs should be taken out of your arsenal. Now this sucks when you have late position because the ability to steal is essentially gone, but you can make up for this in other areas, which we’ll get to next.

The big bonus to having a calling station to your left is that you can open up your range of playable hands. Of course, doing so requires that you’ve played with this opponent long enough to see what their range is. But once you’ve accomplished this, you’ll be able to play a wider range of hands from late position, and value bet more effectively.

The whole key to beating a calling station is knowing just how far they’ll go to call a raise, and punishing them for this. Assuming you ever get stuck on a table full of calling stations, you can sit back and wait for premium hands because A) you know they won’t be re-raising you a lot, and B) once you do get a premium hand, you can get a lot more value because there’s a good chance at least one player will call your big raises.

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Spotting Bluffs in Poker

Wednesday, December 28th, 2011

The most romanticized-about aspect of poker is no doubt bluffing. You see it in movies and TV shows, and all of the beginners want to discuss it. But in reality, bluffing isn’t as big of a part of online poker as everybody makes it out to be. That said, bluffs still happen enough to make them relevant though, so it’s worth discussing how to spot them.

The first thing you need to realize is exactly what we said to open the article in that bluffing isn’t as prevalent as people think. The sooner you understand this, the sooner you’ll get out of the mindset that players are constantly trying to bluff you; in turn, this prevents you from wasting unnecessary chips while calling players all of the time.

In regards to actually catching somebody in a bluff, you need to know their betting tendencies, what range of cards they typically play, and what the board looks like. For example, let’s say your opponent is extremely aggressive, they raise with 66/KJ/etc. from just about any position, and the board reads 5-8-3 rainbow; in this scenario, any raise could be construed as a bluff. But before you call or re-raise here, you need to have enough info on your opponent to make an informed decision.

Assuming you don’t have enough info on an opponent to spot their bluffs, just remember one thing: being bluffed isn’t the worst thing in the world. In fact, it might even be +EV in the long-run to simply fold rather than trying to sniff out a bluff when you’re not quite sure.

Lots of experience with reading opponents and studying their tendencies will definitely help you spot bluffs as well, so keep this in mind while you’re playing poker.

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Knowing when you’ve beaten an Online Poker Limit

Sunday, December 18th, 2011


Those who want to make more and more profits in online poker obviously have to move up the stakes. Of course, the smart thing to do is to wait until you’ve officially conquered a certain limit before moving on towards the next. That being said, many online poker players wonder when they’ve officially beaten a cash game limit.

After all, there is no set number of poker hands that will tell you when you’re a truly successful player at certain stakes. Some people say 5k hands or more, some people say you won’t know until you’ve played 100k hands or more. The reason why it’s so difficult to pinpoint an amount is because there’s so much variance involved with playing internet poker.

The reality is that you can never be absolutely sure about your win rate until you’ve played at least several hundred thousand poker hands at one limit. But you can take a look at your win rate vs. the amount of hands played to come up with a reasonable idea.

For example, let’s say that you’re playing at the $0.01/$0.02 stakes, and you are winning 2bb/per hour after 20,000 hands. Now this isn’t too bad for a recreational grinder who learns a little poker strategy on the side. However, if you truly want to be a winning player who makes money from the game, a win rate of 2bb ($0.04 total) at the smallest online poker stakes possible isn’t the greatest. Furthermore, it doesn’t exactly inspire confidence that you’ll crush the $0.02/$0.04 stakes and up.

So it’s also important to take into account the level of competition you’re facing along with win rate and hands played. For instance, if you were winning 2bb at the $1/$2 stakes after 20k hands, this might be cause for moving up since win rates are smaller as you advance.

In answer to the original question of how you truly tell when you’ve beaten certain stakes, it’s important to look at the hands played first, then win rate and competition secondly. Provided your win rate is good enough, 15k-20k hands should be enough to determine your success rate for a given limit.

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Limping into an Unraised Pot

Monday, December 5th, 2011

One thing that many online poker players preach against is limping into an unraised pot – especially from early position. The reason why limping (calling the big blind) is highly frowned upon is because you are not only showing total weakness in your hand, but you’re most likely going to be raised by at least one other player. So if you’re limping with A-T from under the gun, just don’t bother.

Back to the original point, many online poker players wonder if there is ever a situation where it’s okay to limp into an unraised pot from early position. And the answer is ‘yes’, there are some rare instances where limping into an unraised pot can be profitable. But before we continue with the reasoning behind this thought, keep in mind that, as a beginning player, you should stick to raising or folding from early position until you’re more experienced.

One situation where profitable open limping arises is on tables full of calling stations who build great pot odds for suited connectors and other drawing hands. For example, let’s say that you’re holding QsJs under the gun, which is a fold for most players in this spot. However, you’re on a micro stakes table where everybody’s calling preflop just to see some cards; in this instance, you can open limp and hope that the table dynamic continues. Even if somebody does raise, there would be enough calling stations who’ll stay in the hand and give you solid pot odds on future streets.

One more scenario where open limping could work is if you’re holding a premium hand, and there’s a very aggressive player to your left who might shove just to steal the blinds and your open limp bet. Obviously this is a very specific scenario, but it’s another instance where open limping could work.

Looking at things from an overall perspective, it’s very rare that open limping is a good idea, and only experienced players will be able to spot these situations with consistency.

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Poker Strategy for Homes Games

Friday, November 25th, 2011

A lot of the strategy you see featured on the internet revolves around online poker. And what’s been lost in all of this is poker strategy for home games. Yes, people still gather with friends around home poker tables to play the game casually. Of course, nobody’s taking the money involved casually, so it’s definitely worth examining how you can beat your friends.

The first thing to understand with typical home poker game strategy is that you’ll see a lot of absolutes. For instance, some people will play overly-tight and totally disregard the blinds while waiting for premium hands. On the other hand, you’ll also see a lot of home game players make huge raises pre-flop with garbage hands in hopes of pulling off a bluff; many of these players will have a wide range of hands that makes it profitable to call or raise.

Whatever the case may be, home poker games usually present a lot of favorable situations because the players aren’t as experienced. So as long as you’re steadily learning poker strategy and observing your opponents, you have a solid chance to make money long-term. But you also have to consider the variance involved with poker, so don’t expect to win every time – no matter how bad your friends are.

One thing to consider is that a lot of players want to see the flop in home games. So if you have a great pre-flop hand (AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AK), protect it by trying to isolate one player so you can take advantage of them post-flop. If your pre-flop raises are too small, you’ll encourage 2 or 3 callers, which negates any advantage you have post-flop; if your raises are too big, nobody will call, and you’ve merely stolen a small pre-flop pot with the great hand. So try to size your pre-flop raise to where only one person will call your good hands.

Another thing to be aware of in home poker games are limpers, or those who call the big blind in hopes of seeing the flop. If you are in late position against limpers, you can steal their bets with a big raise no matter what cards you hold. Keep in mind that these players are saying ‘my hand is good enough to see the flop with, but not good enough to raise.’ When you raise though, make sure not to put your stack at serious risk by over-betting in order to steal a hand. After all, skilled home players might attempt a limp bluff.

Overall, just study your opponents’ playing styles, and try to counteract them with skilled play of your own.

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Shoving Short Stacks in Poker Tournaments

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

When playing poker tournaments, we’d all love to have the cards fall into the right place, and not have our chip stacks in danger at any point. Unfortunately, this only happens to players in the rarest of circumstances, and the vast majority of the time, you’ll be dealing with a short stack at some point in a tournament.

Seeing as how being the short stack gives you very little leverage to make effective raises or steal hands, this is a terrible place to be. Furthermore, you’re only a few blind orbits away from being knocked out of the tournament. It’s for this reason why most poker players suggest a shove or fold approach once your chip stack gets down around 10 big blinds.

The reason why is because you need to build your stack quickly to have any shot at waiting for better hands, and making effective plays against bigger stacks. This being said, you need to know when the ideal situations arise for shoving short stacks in poker tournaments.

Now the big mistake that many people make here is only focusing on their poker cards, rather than table position and stack sizes. For example, if you’re only looking at your cards and you get A-J in early position, this might seem like a solid hand to shove with; however, you also have to consider how many people are left to act after you, and their stack sizes because several people might call just because they think you’re going for a desperation steal.

As a general rule, the later your position, the wider range of hands you can shove with. For example, in an unraised pot with A-J, this is a great opportunity for you to shove the short stack in an attempt to steal a hand. Even if you get called, you at least have a solid chance with A-J.

There are a host of other factors to consider too such as how the opponents behind you play. For example, if you have three loose-aggressive players left to act, shoving would be a bad decision unless you’ve got the cards. However, if the players left to act are tight, and the blinds won’t defend, this presents a much better chance to shove and steal a hand.

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Cold Calling in Poker

Sunday, October 9th, 2011

One concept that beginning poker players may not be totally familiar with is cold calling. Basically, cold calling involves making a call when at least two actions have been made (one involving a raise) before your turn to act. For example, if one opponent bets, another opponent raises, and you call, this would be considered cold calling. Seeing as how two players ahead of you have shown some hand strength, this isn’t exactly the ideal time to be bluffing or trying to draw with a marginal hand.

For example, let’s say that you’re sitting in middle position with KQ(o), and an early position player bets, then the player to your right raises; assuming at least one of the players isn’t a total maniac, you’re facing a dilemma here. Sure K-Q is a solid drawing hand since it has top pair and high-straight potential, but is it really +EV to call in this situation.

Some might consider this to be a good enough starting hand to cold call a raise with, but the majority of skilled poker players will pass on this one – even with position. After all, you’ve got somebody who raised from early-middle position, knowing that they have the potential to be called or re-raised later on.

Assuming you make the call anyways, you’ll often be put into a difficult post-flop position. For example, let’s say that the flop was A-Q-7 rainbow, which isn’t bad for you because you paired the queen. However, you also have to contend with the possibility that your opponent had AK or AQ, and they now have top pair. Of course, they could have pocket jacks as well, and this will take knowing your opponent’s range in order to decide if it’s worth calling any future bets they make.

But long story short, you need a very good hand to make a cold call in online poker because the opponents ahead of you have shown a considerable amount of strength.

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