In poker, Pot Odds are the ratio of the current size of the pot to the cost of a contemplated call. In other words, if the pot contains $100, and a player must call $10 to stay in the hand, then the player has 100-to-10, or 10-to-1 (commonly expressed as 10:1), pot odds. Pot odds are often compared to the probability of winning a hand with a future card in order to estimate the call's expected value.
When you see a flop, you will generally be in one of three situations.
Situation #1: Your hand totally misses the board
e.g. You Have (8, J) - Board is (7, 5, Q)
You have nothing, so you should check and fold. You could bluff if you sense weakness.
Situation #2: You hit the flop well and hold a strong hand
e.g. You Have (A,Q) - Board is ( 10, Q, 5)
In this situation you would generally bet or raise
Situation #3: You have a drawing hand
In this possibility you currently do not hold a strong hand, but it is possible for you to make a strong hand if the turn or river brings you a good card. This situation is known as "drawing."
e.g. You Have (10, 9) - Board is (J, 8, 6)
In this situation, a 7 or a Queen will make you the nut straight and you will make the best hand.
Now if someone has top pair they will bet into ths pot and now you have a decsion to make wether you should call or not, this is where pot odds come into play. Calculating pot odds is fairly simple. First, you must count the number of outs you have. An out is a card that will improve your hand. In this example, your outs are four 7s and four Queens, or 8 outs total. To calculate your percentage of hitting an out on the next card, you take the number of outs times 2, then add 1. In the above situation with 8 outs, you have roughly a 17% chance of hitting on the turn.
Once you figure out your chance of hitting a draw, you multiply it by the pot+bet to determine the maximum bet you can call. For example, if the bet is $16 and the pot is $100, the pot+bet is $116. Now let's say you have 8 outs (8 cards will help you). This means you have about a 17% chance of hitting on the next card. If the pot is $100 and you must call $16, you should call, because you have more than a 13% chance to hit ($16 / $116). However, if the bet to you is $25, you should fold, because that would require a 21.2% chance of hitting ($25 / $116). For more practice with pot odds and other vital information you need about your opponents, check out this poker FREE Pot Odds Calculator.
Converting pot odds to percentage values
Pot Odds are a ratio, but having their percentage value will often make them easier to work with. The ratio has two numbers: the Size of the Pot, and the Cost of the Call. To get the percentage value, we add the Size of the Pot and the Cost of the Call numbers together and record their Sum. We then divide the Cost of the Call by the Sum.
E.g.
The pot is $60, and the cost of the call is $20. The pot odds in this situation are 60:20, or 3:1 when reduced. To get the percentage, we add 3 plus 1 get a sum of 4. Now we divide 1 by 4, giving us 0.25, or 25 percent.
When a player holds a drawing hand, or a hand that is behind now but is likely to win if a certain card is drawn, pot odds are used to determine the expected value of that hand when the player is faced with a bet. The expected value of a call is determined by comparing the pot odds to the odds of drawing a card that wins the pot. When the odds of drawing a card that wins the pot are numerically higher than the pot odds, the call has a positive expectation; on average, you win a portion of the pot that is greater than the cost of the call. Conversely, if the odds of drawing a winning card are numerically lower than the pot odds, the call has a negative expectation, and you can expect to win less money on average than it costs to call the bet.
Manipulating pot odds
Often you will have to bet to manipulate the pot odds offered to other players. A common example of manipulating pot odds is make a bet to protect a made hand that discourages opponents from chasing a drawing hand.
E.g
With one card to come, You have a made hand, but the board shows a potential flush draw. You wants to bet enough to make it wrong for an opponent with a flush draw to call, but You don't want to bet more than he has to in the event the opponent already has him beat. How much should You bet?
Assume a $20 pot and one opponent. If You bet $10 (half the pot), when your opponent acts, the pot will be $30 and it will cost $10 to call. The opponent's pot odds will be 3-to-1, or 25 percent. If the opponent is on a flush draw (19 percent with one card to come), the pot is not offering adequate pot odds for the opponent to call unless the opponent thinks he can induce additional final round betting from you if the opponent makes his hand. On the other hand A $6 bet would make your opponent mathematically indifferent to calling.
While pot odds at times can seem a pain to calculate, where one has to keep up with so many cards, rest assured, its well worth the trouble.
Hanging onto unprofitable drawing hands is one of the major leaks in many a player's game. Following strict pot odds to make your draw decisions will help plug this leak! If you are serious about your online Poker Bankroll then Check out this FREE Software which will instantly calculate pot odds for you in the middle of your hand and it also offers many other distinct features which put you at a huge advantage against your opponents. Remember if you have a distinct advantage over your Opponents you are guaranteed to be a consistently profitable poker player, after all we all know that we are after the Fish to make easy money and that is exactly what this software will help you do.
Finally, the most painless way I have found to memorize the common pot odds numbers is to print out or write down your cheat sheet, which can be found on the internet if you cant find please contact me and I will be happy to provide you with one, and refer to it as you play poker online. You will find yourself having to refer to it less and less, and eventually, not at all.
Combine good poker math, solid strategy and a lucrative poker bonus code here and there and you will see some major improvement in your poker bankroll!
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Quick Tip
You can bet with just an ace or two minor overcards on the flop, but you should fold if someone raises your bet in that situation. If someone bets before you on the flop you can call with two overcards, but fold them at the turn unless your hand improves then. You can call with two major overcards (eg A-Q) if someone raises your bet on the flop. You can also check-call a bet on the turn with that kind of hand, unless the board looks threatening. A small pair with an overcard kicker is a strong hand that you can (cold) call a raise with on the flop. Though, you should probably fold it on the next round if it was raised on the flop and you haven't improved the hand and someone bets before you.
If everyone checks on the flop you can bet on the turn even if you have nothing. Your opponents will often fold in such a situation, unless they are too many or too loose. You can sometimes bluff-bet if the flop contains an ace . Your opponents will often fold in such a situation if they don't have any pairs or an open ended straight, because it's impossible for them to have any overcards when the flop contains an ace. Please note that this will only work if your opponents aren't too many or too loose.
If someone suddenly bets into you or raises , and you are considering folding, be sure to first look at the amount of chips that the player has in front of him. If he is out of chips it's likely that he is bluff raising/betting because he knows he will go all-in on that hand anyway.
If everyone checks on the flop you can bet on the turn even if you have nothing. Your opponents will often fold in such a situation, unless they are too many or too loose. You can sometimes bluff-bet if the flop contains an ace . Your opponents will often fold in such a situation if they don't have any pairs or an open ended straight, because it's impossible for them to have any overcards when the flop contains an ace. Please note that this will only work if your opponents aren't too many or too loose.
If someone suddenly bets into you or raises , and you are considering folding, be sure to first look at the amount of chips that the player has in front of him. If he is out of chips it's likely that he is bluff raising/betting because he knows he will go all-in on that hand anyway.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Bankroll Management
The ultimate goal of a online poker player is to make as much money as possible and this is only achievable by following strict bankroll management principles.
Apart from the fact that poker is a game of entertainment there are two main goals of a poker player which face each other:
-The player wants to minimze the risk of a bankruptcy. He achieves this aim by playing with small amounts of money.
-The player wants maximize his bankroll and poker winnings. He achieves this aim by playing with big amounts of money.
To balance these two goals and two find a way to maximize the winnings while minimizing the risk of a bankruptcy is the task of the so called bankroll management.
Lets say you start your poker career with $50 which you can get for FREE from PokerStrategy as your starting capital (FREE No Deposit). With these $50 you start playing at NL10 ($0.05/$0.10) Tables.You should play NL $0.05/$0.10 until you have $150 in your account. This means as soon as you have made a profit of $100 on this limit you have a sufficient bankroll to move up. Once you have reached that amount you move up to NL $0.10/$0.25 and you play on this limit until you have $400 in your account. If your account falls below $100 you move back down a level to NL $0.05/$0.10. You move up to NL $0.25/$0.50 when you have surpassed $400 and play on this limit until you have reached $800, move down a limit if your account dips below $200. Move upto to NL $0.50/$1 if you have more than $800 in your account and at this point you should have gained enough experience and knowledge to decide for yourself which limits you can play and what bankroll you need for it.
The principles of a sustainable bankroll management
Maintenance of capital
Maintenance of capital should occupy the top spot in any bankroll management system. Without capital, you cannot play poker (playing poker for play money has the same relationship to playing poker for real money, as being asleep has to being awake). It is not just that you need money to bet in poker. Rather, if you were to compare successful poker to successful chess, then consider the bankroll as equivalent to the king. Success in chess without the king is impossible. Maintenance of capital is an important theme because, in the short term, poker poses a great threat to money. This threat is what is known as a downswing, or a streak of bad luck. If things go poorly, a downswing can cost a large part of your bankroll in a short amount of time. All players, even advanced or pro players, will experience periods when it just doesn't happen for days, or even weeks at a time. They will keep losing in situations where they are actually the favourite to win. To avoid going bankrupt at these times, you need enough padding to sustain yourself at the limit you're playing. If you run out of cushion, you'll have to choose a limit with lower bets.
Sustainability
Before advancing to a higher limit, you need to be winning sustainably on your current limit. This way you are more likely to reach your goals, and avoid unpleasant surprises. For one thing, sustained success confirms your preparedness to attempt the higher limit. Secondly, your experience at succeeding against opponents inferior to yourself will increase your confidence. In the psychological war that is poker, a healthy confidence is the first and foremost requirement. Also, a disciplined adherence to bankroll specific rules will prove that you have the patience that is characteristic of a strong Hold'em player. Here I will say it explicitly: no limit Hold'em is a game of patience! This applies to both bankroll management and strategy.
Flexibility
Your rise through the limits must be flexibly based on your bankroll. If a downswing causes your bankroll to suffer too much loss, it may be necessary to move back to the previous limit. Clearly, this can constitute a psychological barrier, since nobody likes to go backward. Despite this, it will be absolutely required in some cases. It is important to have the proper attitude toward this. Do not view it as a defeat, it is more the result of a streak of bad luck, and luck is a factor outside your control. Moving back in limit does not necessarily mean that you are inferior to the players on the limit you're leaving. It just means that you don't have sufficient capital to play there sustainably right now. Of course, it also means that you are intelligent, and flexible enough to respond swiftly and correctly to crisis situations.
Comfort zone
The choice of limit also has to do with your own comfort zone. Money has a specific value for every individual. If you play on limits that are too low, you might not pay enough attention to individual bets and become sloppy. On the other hand, if you play on a level that is beyond your comfort zone, it's easy to become paralyzed. You may behave too passively when the strategic demands of a position require a certain level of aggression. According to our bankroll management system, a beginner should start on the lowest limit possible, with blinds in the region of a few cents. Now, it may, of course, happen that a beginner is independently wealthy, and cents or even small dollar amounts are of little consequence to them. Does this mean that, according to their financial comfort zone, they should immediately jump to a higher limit? In no way! This would be a huge mistake! They would have little chance, and would almost certainly meet with frustration and defeat. Their poker career might even come to a premature end. They really don’t have a choice: like everybody else, they must work through the individual limits in order to stay continuously motivated by successful experiences. They are welcome to dream of advancing to those lofty limits, and this may even be a kind of financial stimulation for them.
Discipline
Even the best system of bankroll management will not protect you, should it not be followed. Please stick strictly to the prescribed rules, no matter what happens. As well as the downswings mentioned above, you may also experience an upswing, which might also see you winning multiple sessions in a row. This is empowering, but is no reason to lose your grounding. The next streak of bad luck is waiting just around the corner.
Profit
You get the best per table performance when you play at just one table. For the pro, however, it is not the per table performance that counts but the per time performance. Let us assume that I earn 5 big bets/hour (BB/h) when playing at a single table and 3 BB/h, per table, when playing at 2 tables. In the second case, my total earnings per hour are higher at 6 BB/h. So, to maximize profit you should pick the number of tables that returns the maximum per/hour earnings. Making profit is important in order to build up the bankroll necessary to move to the next limit. The higher the limits you play, the higher your earnings will be, and the more your poker playing will pay off. To maximize learning, however, it is important to think carefully during the game. You should review hands played and consider where you made your mistakes. This is not only true for hands you lost, but also for hands you won! Furthermore, you should practice your hand reading (placing your opponent on a probable range of hands) to perfect your skill. This takes time. Multitablers are forced to make decisions quickly. They therefore often have to execute more standard moves, and cannot give the deeper consideration that is required to individual hands. It is recommend to all whose performance is stagnating that they reduce the number of tables they are playing and let more things run consciously through their minds.
The preservation and development of the poker bankroll, to have reserves for times of bad luck, to balance profit maximizing and risk minimizing - all these are tasks of the bankroll management.Not to stick to the rules of a sustainable bankroll management and to play limits where you don't feel comfortable and which are to high for your bankroll is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. Mistakes during the game are costly but can be absorbed by a correct bankroll management. Playing on the wrong limits usually leads to bankruptcy.
Apart from the fact that poker is a game of entertainment there are two main goals of a poker player which face each other:
-The player wants to minimze the risk of a bankruptcy. He achieves this aim by playing with small amounts of money.
-The player wants maximize his bankroll and poker winnings. He achieves this aim by playing with big amounts of money.
To balance these two goals and two find a way to maximize the winnings while minimizing the risk of a bankruptcy is the task of the so called bankroll management.
Lets say you start your poker career with $50 which you can get for FREE from PokerStrategy as your starting capital (FREE No Deposit). With these $50 you start playing at NL10 ($0.05/$0.10) Tables.You should play NL $0.05/$0.10 until you have $150 in your account. This means as soon as you have made a profit of $100 on this limit you have a sufficient bankroll to move up. Once you have reached that amount you move up to NL $0.10/$0.25 and you play on this limit until you have $400 in your account. If your account falls below $100 you move back down a level to NL $0.05/$0.10. You move up to NL $0.25/$0.50 when you have surpassed $400 and play on this limit until you have reached $800, move down a limit if your account dips below $200. Move upto to NL $0.50/$1 if you have more than $800 in your account and at this point you should have gained enough experience and knowledge to decide for yourself which limits you can play and what bankroll you need for it.
The principles of a sustainable bankroll management
Maintenance of capital
Maintenance of capital should occupy the top spot in any bankroll management system. Without capital, you cannot play poker (playing poker for play money has the same relationship to playing poker for real money, as being asleep has to being awake). It is not just that you need money to bet in poker. Rather, if you were to compare successful poker to successful chess, then consider the bankroll as equivalent to the king. Success in chess without the king is impossible. Maintenance of capital is an important theme because, in the short term, poker poses a great threat to money. This threat is what is known as a downswing, or a streak of bad luck. If things go poorly, a downswing can cost a large part of your bankroll in a short amount of time. All players, even advanced or pro players, will experience periods when it just doesn't happen for days, or even weeks at a time. They will keep losing in situations where they are actually the favourite to win. To avoid going bankrupt at these times, you need enough padding to sustain yourself at the limit you're playing. If you run out of cushion, you'll have to choose a limit with lower bets.
Sustainability
Before advancing to a higher limit, you need to be winning sustainably on your current limit. This way you are more likely to reach your goals, and avoid unpleasant surprises. For one thing, sustained success confirms your preparedness to attempt the higher limit. Secondly, your experience at succeeding against opponents inferior to yourself will increase your confidence. In the psychological war that is poker, a healthy confidence is the first and foremost requirement. Also, a disciplined adherence to bankroll specific rules will prove that you have the patience that is characteristic of a strong Hold'em player. Here I will say it explicitly: no limit Hold'em is a game of patience! This applies to both bankroll management and strategy.
Flexibility
Your rise through the limits must be flexibly based on your bankroll. If a downswing causes your bankroll to suffer too much loss, it may be necessary to move back to the previous limit. Clearly, this can constitute a psychological barrier, since nobody likes to go backward. Despite this, it will be absolutely required in some cases. It is important to have the proper attitude toward this. Do not view it as a defeat, it is more the result of a streak of bad luck, and luck is a factor outside your control. Moving back in limit does not necessarily mean that you are inferior to the players on the limit you're leaving. It just means that you don't have sufficient capital to play there sustainably right now. Of course, it also means that you are intelligent, and flexible enough to respond swiftly and correctly to crisis situations.
Comfort zone
The choice of limit also has to do with your own comfort zone. Money has a specific value for every individual. If you play on limits that are too low, you might not pay enough attention to individual bets and become sloppy. On the other hand, if you play on a level that is beyond your comfort zone, it's easy to become paralyzed. You may behave too passively when the strategic demands of a position require a certain level of aggression. According to our bankroll management system, a beginner should start on the lowest limit possible, with blinds in the region of a few cents. Now, it may, of course, happen that a beginner is independently wealthy, and cents or even small dollar amounts are of little consequence to them. Does this mean that, according to their financial comfort zone, they should immediately jump to a higher limit? In no way! This would be a huge mistake! They would have little chance, and would almost certainly meet with frustration and defeat. Their poker career might even come to a premature end. They really don’t have a choice: like everybody else, they must work through the individual limits in order to stay continuously motivated by successful experiences. They are welcome to dream of advancing to those lofty limits, and this may even be a kind of financial stimulation for them.
Discipline
Even the best system of bankroll management will not protect you, should it not be followed. Please stick strictly to the prescribed rules, no matter what happens. As well as the downswings mentioned above, you may also experience an upswing, which might also see you winning multiple sessions in a row. This is empowering, but is no reason to lose your grounding. The next streak of bad luck is waiting just around the corner.
Profit
You get the best per table performance when you play at just one table. For the pro, however, it is not the per table performance that counts but the per time performance. Let us assume that I earn 5 big bets/hour (BB/h) when playing at a single table and 3 BB/h, per table, when playing at 2 tables. In the second case, my total earnings per hour are higher at 6 BB/h. So, to maximize profit you should pick the number of tables that returns the maximum per/hour earnings. Making profit is important in order to build up the bankroll necessary to move to the next limit. The higher the limits you play, the higher your earnings will be, and the more your poker playing will pay off. To maximize learning, however, it is important to think carefully during the game. You should review hands played and consider where you made your mistakes. This is not only true for hands you lost, but also for hands you won! Furthermore, you should practice your hand reading (placing your opponent on a probable range of hands) to perfect your skill. This takes time. Multitablers are forced to make decisions quickly. They therefore often have to execute more standard moves, and cannot give the deeper consideration that is required to individual hands. It is recommend to all whose performance is stagnating that they reduce the number of tables they are playing and let more things run consciously through their minds.
The preservation and development of the poker bankroll, to have reserves for times of bad luck, to balance profit maximizing and risk minimizing - all these are tasks of the bankroll management.Not to stick to the rules of a sustainable bankroll management and to play limits where you don't feel comfortable and which are to high for your bankroll is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. Mistakes during the game are costly but can be absorbed by a correct bankroll management. Playing on the wrong limits usually leads to bankruptcy.
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Quick Introduction
Introduction to No-Limit Texas Hold'em
No-Limit Hold'em is game of general strategy, basic tactical skills useful in all forms of poker, and a game of intense psychology. Let's first go over general strategy. There are two things you should quickly figure out when you enter a no-limit game:
1. What types of players are my opponents?
2. How many hands go to a showdown?
Types of opponents
Generally, people speak of four types of players: tight-passive, tight-aggressive, loose-passive, loose-aggressive. The first modifier (tight or loose) characterizes the number of hands the person plays while the second (passive or aggressive) describes the player's betting style. Loose-aggressive could be divided into two parts: maniacs and solid players. Let's go over each of these types of players.
Tight-passive: These people do fine in a fixed-limit game, but they won't win much money in a no-limit game. This is because they do not get full value out of their winning hands. When playing against these players:
1. Bluff at the flop a lot. Put in a raise preflop, and try to take down the pot at the flop.
2. Fold when they represent a hand. If they bet a little, they're probably on a draw or have a weak hand. In this case, you should still stick with your hand if you hold something decent. If they bet a lot, they probably possess a solid hand.
3. Take advantage of your control. Don't go wild with your bluffs, though. You should still fold preflop when you have nothing. If you make a flop bluff, think twice before making another bluff on the turn. Also, you can still win a fair amount of money off of these types of players whene you hold a good hand. Essentially, you can quickly tame these players into calling stations or folding stations. If one of these players is making a lot of money against you while being a calling or folding station, you are doing something seriously wrong. These players are common, and you will certainly play against quite a few.
Loose-passive: These players have to hope that people continually bluff into them, because they frequently call with the second-best hand. Calling with the second-best hand is a recipe for disaster at no-limit games. You won't often see loose-passives playing no-limit hold'em, because they lose money too quickly playing the game. If you are fortunate enough to have a loose-passive player at your table, just win money off of him by making mid-sized bets when you hold a good hand.
Maniac loose-aggressive: These guys will buy a fair share of pots. However, they will often get themselves trapped, and they will lose their stacks in one or two hands. What separates these players from good loose-aggressives is that they lack discipline. They love the action of no-limit so much that they get themselves trapped too easily. These types of players are rare.
Strong loose-aggressive: These guys seem like they are horrible maniacs, but in reality, they are a very dangerous form of player. They will certainly lose a lot of money in pots, but they also will buy a lot of pots and win huge ones. The way these players win is mainly by getting a good read on the opponent, and then making a well-timed bet. One trick that can be used to beat these guys is to take them down in one big pot. Since they will play a lot of hands, especially shorthanded, they'll often play hands that lend themselves to being the second-best hand. Once you catch them in this situation, you just have to make sure you don't let them go too easily. Another tip is to make sure you are playing in a game where the money is not too meaningful to you. You should not let these players scare you financially when they make a large bet or raise. You need to be able to play back at (reraise) these guys or call them down.These players only do well when people have large stacks. If you or the loose-aggressive player has a small stack, you are at an advantage because their ability to bluff is limited.
Tight-aggressive: This in my opnion is the best style and strategy. The tight-aggressive's main problems are that he may get bluffed out too easily and that he may be too easily read. In this style you only play premium hands and when you have a hand you bet aggressivley.
Showdown Percentage
This is a critical concept in no-limit hold'em. Since no-limit lends itself to bluffing, one can make a lot of money simply by stealing pots if your opponents are very tight. However, this strategy obviously fails if everyone shows you down at the river! Generally, before you play in a game, pay attention to the number of hands going to showdowns. This is really easy to do on the internet because you don't even need to watch the game. You just leave the window open, go eat a snack, go to the bathroom, whatever. Come back twenty minutes later and see what sort of game you are about to dive into. All you have to do is scroll through the chat box and see how many hands went to showdowns and how big the pots tend to get. All things being equal, more showdowns are better. While it is impossible to bluff if everyone calls you down, you stand to make a lot more money if people call you with tenuous holdings. The best way to make money at no-limit games is to simply sell your hand when you have it. If people call down a lot, you will be able to extract a lot of money from pot-sized or larger bets when you hit a premium holding (such as a flush or set).
Types of Hands to Play
The types of hands you play in no-limit differ than those in fixed-limit. This is because of implied odds. Hands like KQ go down in value because they cannot withstand much pressure. Even if you hit a King with this type of hand, you still may be losing to a set, two pair, AK, or eventually to a draw. Thus, with big cards, you generally want to take down the pot at the flop. The exception to this is if you think you have someone outkicked (like with AK vs. KJ with a K on the board), or if you hit the flop hard (like KK3 when you hold AK). In these cases, you generally want to extract money from your opponent bit by bit. The types of hands that go up in value or ones that you can bet with confidence: pocket pairs and suited connectors (strong draws in general). Pocket pairs do well because they are sneaky and can often withhold pressure. With pocket pairs, you can bet hard if you have a set or an overpair, which are hands that people generally don't expect. Suited connectors go up in value for several reasons. First, if the flop comes weird, you generally will be paid off as you might hit your straight or flush. Please realize that your stack size greatly affects the types of hands you should play. Big, unpaired cards like AK or KQ do better with smaller stacks, while suited connectors are more effective with larger stacks.
No-Limit Hold'em is game of general strategy, basic tactical skills useful in all forms of poker, and a game of intense psychology. Let's first go over general strategy. There are two things you should quickly figure out when you enter a no-limit game:
1. What types of players are my opponents?
2. How many hands go to a showdown?
Types of opponents
Generally, people speak of four types of players: tight-passive, tight-aggressive, loose-passive, loose-aggressive. The first modifier (tight or loose) characterizes the number of hands the person plays while the second (passive or aggressive) describes the player's betting style. Loose-aggressive could be divided into two parts: maniacs and solid players. Let's go over each of these types of players.
Tight-passive: These people do fine in a fixed-limit game, but they won't win much money in a no-limit game. This is because they do not get full value out of their winning hands. When playing against these players:
1. Bluff at the flop a lot. Put in a raise preflop, and try to take down the pot at the flop.
2. Fold when they represent a hand. If they bet a little, they're probably on a draw or have a weak hand. In this case, you should still stick with your hand if you hold something decent. If they bet a lot, they probably possess a solid hand.
3. Take advantage of your control. Don't go wild with your bluffs, though. You should still fold preflop when you have nothing. If you make a flop bluff, think twice before making another bluff on the turn. Also, you can still win a fair amount of money off of these types of players whene you hold a good hand. Essentially, you can quickly tame these players into calling stations or folding stations. If one of these players is making a lot of money against you while being a calling or folding station, you are doing something seriously wrong. These players are common, and you will certainly play against quite a few.
Loose-passive: These players have to hope that people continually bluff into them, because they frequently call with the second-best hand. Calling with the second-best hand is a recipe for disaster at no-limit games. You won't often see loose-passives playing no-limit hold'em, because they lose money too quickly playing the game. If you are fortunate enough to have a loose-passive player at your table, just win money off of him by making mid-sized bets when you hold a good hand.
Maniac loose-aggressive: These guys will buy a fair share of pots. However, they will often get themselves trapped, and they will lose their stacks in one or two hands. What separates these players from good loose-aggressives is that they lack discipline. They love the action of no-limit so much that they get themselves trapped too easily. These types of players are rare.
Strong loose-aggressive: These guys seem like they are horrible maniacs, but in reality, they are a very dangerous form of player. They will certainly lose a lot of money in pots, but they also will buy a lot of pots and win huge ones. The way these players win is mainly by getting a good read on the opponent, and then making a well-timed bet. One trick that can be used to beat these guys is to take them down in one big pot. Since they will play a lot of hands, especially shorthanded, they'll often play hands that lend themselves to being the second-best hand. Once you catch them in this situation, you just have to make sure you don't let them go too easily. Another tip is to make sure you are playing in a game where the money is not too meaningful to you. You should not let these players scare you financially when they make a large bet or raise. You need to be able to play back at (reraise) these guys or call them down.These players only do well when people have large stacks. If you or the loose-aggressive player has a small stack, you are at an advantage because their ability to bluff is limited.
Tight-aggressive: This in my opnion is the best style and strategy. The tight-aggressive's main problems are that he may get bluffed out too easily and that he may be too easily read. In this style you only play premium hands and when you have a hand you bet aggressivley.
Showdown Percentage
This is a critical concept in no-limit hold'em. Since no-limit lends itself to bluffing, one can make a lot of money simply by stealing pots if your opponents are very tight. However, this strategy obviously fails if everyone shows you down at the river! Generally, before you play in a game, pay attention to the number of hands going to showdowns. This is really easy to do on the internet because you don't even need to watch the game. You just leave the window open, go eat a snack, go to the bathroom, whatever. Come back twenty minutes later and see what sort of game you are about to dive into. All you have to do is scroll through the chat box and see how many hands went to showdowns and how big the pots tend to get. All things being equal, more showdowns are better. While it is impossible to bluff if everyone calls you down, you stand to make a lot more money if people call you with tenuous holdings. The best way to make money at no-limit games is to simply sell your hand when you have it. If people call down a lot, you will be able to extract a lot of money from pot-sized or larger bets when you hit a premium holding (such as a flush or set).
Types of Hands to Play
The types of hands you play in no-limit differ than those in fixed-limit. This is because of implied odds. Hands like KQ go down in value because they cannot withstand much pressure. Even if you hit a King with this type of hand, you still may be losing to a set, two pair, AK, or eventually to a draw. Thus, with big cards, you generally want to take down the pot at the flop. The exception to this is if you think you have someone outkicked (like with AK vs. KJ with a K on the board), or if you hit the flop hard (like KK3 when you hold AK). In these cases, you generally want to extract money from your opponent bit by bit. The types of hands that go up in value or ones that you can bet with confidence: pocket pairs and suited connectors (strong draws in general). Pocket pairs do well because they are sneaky and can often withhold pressure. With pocket pairs, you can bet hard if you have a set or an overpair, which are hands that people generally don't expect. Suited connectors go up in value for several reasons. First, if the flop comes weird, you generally will be paid off as you might hit your straight or flush. Please realize that your stack size greatly affects the types of hands you should play. Big, unpaired cards like AK or KQ do better with smaller stacks, while suited connectors are more effective with larger stacks.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Welcome To My Blog
Hello,
Welcome to my blog, this blog is dedicated to the great card game that is known as Texas Hold Em Poker. On this blog you will find great tips and essential information you will need in order to succeed at building a huge online no limit poker bankroll. So once again welcome, and i hope you can enjoy and benefit from the information offered on this blog in some way. Thank You
Welcome to my blog, this blog is dedicated to the great card game that is known as Texas Hold Em Poker. On this blog you will find great tips and essential information you will need in order to succeed at building a huge online no limit poker bankroll. So once again welcome, and i hope you can enjoy and benefit from the information offered on this blog in some way. Thank You
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