159 - PokerBank Articles

The following principle is key to becoming a successful poker player.
Without the proper money

management skills, the best players in the world would go broke. For all you skim-readers, here
are the basic rules of bankroll management for Texas Hold'em.
20 buyins for NL Hold'em.
300 big blinds for Limit Hold'em.
40 buyins for SnG Tournaments.
What is bankroll management?

"Bankroll management" (sometimes abbreviated to BRM) is where you play at certain limits to
avoid losing all of your bankroll due to bad runs of cards, which any poker player must expect
from time to time.
This is called "playing within your bankroll". Subsequently, if you play at higher limits where
there is too great a chance of losing all of your poker money, you are "playing out of your
bankroll".
Why is bankroll management important?

The reason why you should choose your limits carefully in poker is due to the variance. Variance
is a term used to describe the "ups and downs" of poker where you fluctuate from having bad
runs of cards to good runs of cards, resulting in varying profits and losses.
If you play poker for long enough there are going to be periods of time where you will
consistently lose money, not because you are playing badly, but because the cards are not falling
your way. This means that if you do not have enough money in your bankroll to absorb these big
downswings, it is likely that you will lose it all.
Every player, irrespective of ability, will experience variance in their game. Bankroll
management is in place to deal with this variance and allow you to continue playing without
going broke.
Therefore every time we sit down at the poker table, whether it be live or online, we want to give
ourselves the best opportunity to win a maximum amount of profit whilst keeping the risk of
going broke minimal. This is where the rules of bankroll management come into play.
So what limits should I be playing at?

Cash games.
Pot limit and no limit Hold'em.
If you are playing pot limit or no limit poker, the safe recommended size of your bankroll is 20
times the full buy-in of where you want to play. This means that if you want to have the best
chance of making money at a $1/$2 game where the maximum buy-in is $200, you should have a
bankroll of at least $4000.
Another way of applying bankroll management is by only putting a maximum 5% of your entire
bankroll on the table at any one time, which works out the same as having 20 times the buy-in
for the game.
Limit Hold'em.
If you like to play limit Holdem however, you should have 300 Big Bets as a minimum for the
limit you wish to play at. Therefore to play $1/$2 limit Holdem, you should have a bankroll of at
least $600.
Tournament games.
It is recommended that you have a bankroll that will give you 40 buy-ins to the level of
tournaments that you wish to play at. Therefore if you want to play at the $10+$1 Sit n Go's you
should have a bankroll of $440.
Bankroll management table.

NL Holdem
Blinds Bankroll
5c/10c $200
10c/20c $400
25c/50c $1,000
$0.50/$1 $2,000
$1/$2
$4,000
$2/$4
$8,000
$5/$10 $16,000
$10/$20 $40,000
$25/$50 $100,000
$50/$100 $200,000
Limit Holdem
Blinds Bankroll
5c/10c $30
10c/20c $60
25c/50c $150
$0.50/$1 $300
$1/$2
$600
$2/$4
$1,200
$5/$10 $3,000
$10/$20 $6,000
$25/$50 $15,000
$50/$100 $30,000
SnG Tournaments
Blinds Bankroll
$1 + $0.1 $44
$2 + $0.2 $88
$5 + $0.5 $220
$10 +$1 $440
$20 +$2 $880
$30 +$3 $1,320
$50 +$5 $2,200
$100 +$10 $4,400
$200 +$20 $8,800
$500 +$50 $22,000
Try the online bankroll calculator or the downloadable fergulator tool for recommendations on
where to play based on the exact size of your bankroll.
The guidelines noted above are very general rules that should give you the best opportunity to
make money from playing Texas Holdem poker without going broke. However there are going
to be some exceptions and alterations depending on how and where you play.
Bankroll management for pro players.
If you intend on taking poker up as your main source of income, the bankroll you would require
will be substantially larger than 20 full buy-ins for cash, or 40 buy-ins for tournaments. This is
because your living expenses will constantly be taken out of your bankroll and so it has to have
the ability to withstand the variance along with the costs of everyday life.
Professional players will require a far bigger bankroll than the guidelines set out in this article.
If you are constantly dipping into your bankroll to pay for bills and groceries, you may find that
occassionally you will not be properly rolled for the limits you are playing at. Furthermore, there
may well be times of emergency when you will need to take a big chunk out of your roll, and so
it's good to have a little extra money behind you just in case.
Bankroll management at short-handed tables.

If you play at shorthanded tables, you may notice that there is greater variance than at full ring
games. The fact that you will be involved in a greater number of pots per orbit and playing
against your opponent's weaknesses more than to your cards strengths will result in greater
fluctuations in wins and losses over short periods of time. This means that you may consider
slightly increasing your bankroll up a few buy-ins if you want to withstand the variance of these
games.
Style of play and variance.

Your playing style can also determine what limits you should play in relation to the size of your
bankroll. If you are a tight player then you should expect to receive a slightly reduced variance to
that of a loose player, therefore you may be able to afford to reduce the amount of buy-ins in
your bankroll.
If you're not playing at Bodog right now (February 2012) you're losing out on money. Get in
while it's still good.
This is because tight players will often only enter pots with strong hands and regularly go to
showdowns with winnings hands, thus reducing the chances of seeing big losses. Consequently,
if you are a loose player and play a large number of pots, you may want to increase the size of
your bankroll to absorb the extra variance you may receive.
Loose players who play a large percentage of hands will experience more variance than tight
players who play a low percentage of hands.
Absorbing losses and moving on.

Good bankroll management helps you deal with the psychological impact that losses can have on
your game. If you have a bankroll of 10 full buy-ins for a cash game at the $200 NL game and
lose 4 buy ins, your bankroll would deplete from $2000 to $1200. Thanks to your small initial
bankroll this looks like a big loss and may cause you to tighten up your game and play "scared
poker" because you are afraid to lose more money.
Now if you had 20 full buy-ins for the $1/$2 game, your bankroll would change from $4000 to
$3200. Immediately you can see that visually this does not look as bad as the loss in the first
instance. Therefore you will feel more comfortable that you have the ability to win back the lost
money without feeling the need to change your game.
Moving levels and taking shots.

There will be times when you have bad runs of cards and good runs of cards. At certain times
your bankroll will be too small or too big for the limits you are playing at.
If your bankroll drops below 20 full buy-ins, then you should also drop down a level
so that you are playing within your bankroll until you have built it back up enough to
play at the next level.
If you have more than 20 buy ins for the limit above, then it makes sense to move up
to that limit if you feel you can beat it. Just be sure to drop back down to the lower limit
if you experience significant losses.
At some points in your poker career you may fancy moving up a level just to test it out and to see
how well you do. This is called taking a shot. There is no harm in trying this as long as you
stick to good bankroll management for most of the time you play poker.
Did you think this article was useful? Wait until you see the strategy videos at Deuces Cracked.
Be careful not to get carried away by big wins at the higher level because your bankroll may still
be too small to support continued play there. A useful tactic that you can use when taking a
shot is to not buy in for the full amount at the next level up. This way you will not be risking too
much of your bankroll in any one game and you are essentially still playing within your bankroll
if you do not put more than 5% of it on the table.
You may be interested to read about how quickly you can move up the stakes in poker.
Bankroll management evaluation.

If you intend to make money from playing poker, it is essential that you exercise good bankroll
management skills. If you do not then you are setting yourself up for frequent losses that you will
find hard to prevent, no matter how good you may be at poker. Once again, the safe bankroll
requirements to remember are:
NL Holdem Cash: 20 buy-ins
Limit Holdem Cash: 300 Big Bets
Tournaments: 40 buy-ins
It should be noted that if you are a losing poker player, bankroll management is not going to help
you win money. The guidelines mentioned above will only apply if you know that you are a
winning poker player in the long run.
Position is a factor that is greatly underestimated by many beginner poker players. Your poker
table position can be the difference between winning or losing a hand and can have a big
influence on how much you win during your poker sessions.
Before playing a hand in Texas Hold'em you should always be aware of your table position
relative to the button.
The seats nearest to the left of the button are called early position or EP for short.
The seats nearest to the right of the button are called late position or LP for short.
The seats in between these will be called middle position or MP..
Poker table position diagram.
You win more money from later

positions than you do in early positions in poker. The button is the most profitable seat in the
game.
The seats in Red are early position
The seats in Blue are middle position
The seats in Green are late position
Early position.
The red seats are less favourable than any other seats at the table because on any given round in
the current hand, you are likely to be one of the first to act. This means that in early position you
should be more selective about the hands you play, because you will have less information on
your opponents at each stage of the hand because you are first to act. So you will need to be
playing your cards and not the man when in EP.
Middle position.
The blue seats have positional advantage over the red, but the seats in green have position over
them. This means you can afford to play a few more hands in these positions as you do not have
as many people left to act behind you. However, if all of the players in the red seats folded, that
will mean that you will be the first to act on each round. So bear that in mind when deciding
whether or not to play your hand.
Late position.
The green seats will prove to be one of the best seats in this particular hand. There is a high
chance that you will be last to, or one of the last to act on each round. This is where you can
loosen up your starting hands even further but not so much as to hinder your game. Just
remember, just because you have position, does not mean that you should play poor starting
hands.
The button.
The yellow seat is the best seat in the hand, because on every round except for before the flop,
you will be last to act no matter what. This is why you should look to play as many hands as
possible (within reason) from the button, as you have a big advantage in the hand when you are
last to act.
How to use table position in poker.

If you have position over another player, it means that you are acting after them on each round.
This means you can use the information they give you by the way they check or the amount they
bet to inform your decision on what to do. For example; if you have position over your opponent
and he checks, this could be a sign of weakness. So you could use this information to bet out and
take the pot because they have shown weakness.
Poker table position example.

Lets say there are a number of players in the pot, and you hold a mediocre hand like middle pair
on the flop.
If there is a lot of betting and raising before the action gets to you, you can be sure that you hand
is not as strong as you hoped and so you can fold it comfortably without losing any chips.
On the other hand, if you were in early position you may have made a bet with a hand that you
thought was good, only to find that there are much stronger hands out there that will re-raise you
and force you to fold. Therefore you will have lost chips due to this lack of information on your
opponents from playing in early position.
The later you act in a hand, the more information you will have available to you about your
opponents.
If you're serious about taking your game to the next level you should take advantage of poker
training.
The cut off.

The 'cut-off' is the position just before the button. This would be the second best place to be in a
hold'em game because if the button decides not to play, then you will be the last to act on each
hand. The button and cut-off are very useful positions for stealing the blinds as there are less
players to act behind you, which makes it less likely that they are holding a good enough hand to
call a raise with.
Positional awareness.
In general, you want to play more hands in position than you do out of position.
This doesn't mean that you force yourself to play any old hand when you have good position, and
fold awesome ones in bad position just to try and strike the right balance. Instead, it simply
means that you should be more inclined to play slightly weaker hands than normal IP, and more
inclined to fold slightly stronger hands OOP.
Take KJo for example:
In early position I would be reluctant to play KJo. It's on the low end of the "good
hands", and the fact that I have poor position makes it an unattractive situation. The hand
isn't strong enough to counteract my positional disadvantage.
In late position I would raise this hand almost every time if there were no raisers before
me. I may also call raises with this hand if I have position on the raiser. I have an
advantageous position combined with a decent starting hand, so the situation is good for
me.
As a beginner player it's tricky to get to grips with the hands that are okay to play in LP, but are
not good to play in EP. How are you supposed to learn the subtleties of which starting hands to
play in which positions?
Trust me, you will pick it up as you go along. It will take time, but the more experience you get
under your belt the more you'll start to understand it. If you're completely new to the game
however, there's no harm in sticking with the premium hands and entering pots with them
irrespective of position that's okay. Just be prepared to broaden your starting hand requirements
based on position as you improve.
Positional awareness graph.
Following on from my last point about playing more hands in position, here's a graph that shows
a winning player's VPIP based on their position in 6max cash games.
A graph to show the

positional VPIP of a winning 6max cash game poker player.
Position abbreviations explained (UTG, MP, BTN etc.)
VPIP indicates the percentage of the time a player either raises or calls preflop. So
essentially this chart shows the percentage of the time they "play a hand" from each position.
Notice how this player is playing a lot more hands in late position than they are in early position.
They do not play the same set of hands from all positions. They're not forcing these statistics
either they're just wisely taking in to account their table position and then selecting which
starting hands to play with.
If you asked any winning cash game player to show you their VPIP by position, their stats and
graphs would follow a similar trend to the one above.
You can find out your own VPIP stats (and also those of your opponents) by using the popular
Poker Tracker 3 software.
Poker table position evaluation.

Table position is easily one of the most underestimated factors in playing a hand by many
amateur poker players. Position is so important that often hands can be won or lost based on your
position alone, irrespective of the strength of the cards that you and your opponent hold.
The sooner you start paying attention to your position, the sooner you will start making more
money.
A useful article to read from here is starting hand selection, as it highlights how you should stick
to playing only the strongest hands from early position due to the big disadvantage of having to
act first on betting rounds. After that, you may want to think about more advanced position
strategy with the article on relative position in Texas Hold'em. However, I would recommend
that you get the importance of basic position nailed down before any further reading!
In Texas Holdem, it is important to have good starting hand selection. This is important as it
prevents you from entering pots with sub-standard hands, which could eventually lead to you
losing a lot of money in the process.
"Starting hand selection" is simply choosing the good hands over the bad, and thus folding the
bad hands when you get them.
It is true that any hand can win in Texas Holdem (or poker in general for that matter), but the fact
of the matter is that some hands will win more than others. So if we stick with the good hands,
then we should see better results in the long run.
Check out my rankings of the top Texas Hold'em poker rooms for US players. You may be
surprised.
Basic starting hand selection.

Top tier starting hands - top 2% of starting hands.
Good Texas Holdem starting hands are typically hands like big pocket pairs and big connecting
cards. So some of the top starting hands would be:
AA
KK
QQ
AKs
The little 's' indicates that the cards are suited, which will increase the value of the cards because
it makes it more likely that they will be able to make a flush compared to if the cards were not
suited.
This is obviously the top tier when it comes to starting hands, and if we were to only ever be
dealt these starting hands we would be making a lot of money. In fact, if we folded every other
hand that we were dealt and only played these hands, there is a fair chance that we would be
winning money in the long run. But this would only work at the lower limits where other players
probably wouldn't be aware that we only play premium hands.
Second tier starting hands.

If we only ever played with this elite group of cards, we would be folding numerous hands along
the way and missing out on other opportunities to win money. Even though these are the cream
of the crop when it comes to starting hands, there are still other great hands out there that can win
us a lot of money in the long run if we play them.
Such hands are:
AK
AQs
AJs
KQs
JJ
TT
This gives us another 6 starting hands that we can play with, increasing the number of pots that
we will be entering. Although these are not as good as the first set of premium hands mentioned,
they are still great starting hands that should help us to win money.
Top 10 Texas Hold'em starting hands.

Now if we stick with this set of 10 starting hands we should definitely by on the right track to
winning some money from poker. So for any player new to the game you should try your best to
stick to the following top 10 hands (also throwing in some of top 20 hands if you have good
position):
1. A
2. K
A
K
3. Q Q
4. A
K (suited)
5. A
Q (suited)
6. J
7. K
J
Q (suited)
8. A J (suited)
9. A K
10. T
Top 20 starting hands.
As your game improves, you can look to open up your starting hand requirements and include
more marginal hands like suited connectors. However, if you're new to the game you are better
off sticking with the big cards that hit bigger flops and make post-flop play a hell of a lot easier
for you.
Starting hand selection and table position.

Your table position should always play a big role in determining the range of hands that you
choose to play with.
You should stick to playing much stronger hands from early position than you would from late
position.
This means that if you are in one of the early position seats, you should stick to playing the top
two tiers of hands and avoid lesser hands like; AQo, AJs, AT, KQs and so on. Conversely, if you
are in late position and there has been little action before you, you can afford to play these sort of
hands far more comfortably.
Why is table position important in starting hand selection?

If you are one of the first to act in a hand, you are going to be at a serious disadvantage to the rest
of the players who are acting after you. Therefore, to avoid making things worse, you do not
want to be entering a pot with anything less than a premium hand.
Acting first means that you are going to have little information on your opponents. If you are
playing with a mediocre hand, it is likely that you are going to be in a spot where you have no
idea whether you have the best hand or not. These situations are the ones that lose you the most
money in poker, so avoid falling into them by playing stronger hands from early position that
will make it easier to determine whether or not you have the best hand.
The importance of starting hand selection.

Starting hand selection is key because it helps to save us from sticky situations post flop,
especially if we are new to the game.
Starting hand selection example.

Say for example we are not exercising very good starting hand selection and we decide to call a
raise with K T . The flop then comes K 8 2 giving us top pair, which looks like a very
strong hand. Our opponent bets into us and we decide to call, because after all we do have top
pair.
The turn comes a 4 , and our opponent bets once again. We have top pair and we call seeing as
we are still happy with the strength of our hand.
The river comes a 7 , and our opponent bets into us one final time. We make the call with our
top pair thinking we might still have the best hand, but our opponent turns over K Q .
He also has a pair of Kings but he has the higher kicker, so he takes down the pot.
Starting hand selection example evaluation.

This is an all too common problem for poker beginners, and it could have been so easily avoided
by being a little stricter with our starting hand selection. Having top pair is great, but all so often
an opponent can easily beat it with a better kicker. This is why it is important to have two big
cards instead of one, because the size of our kicker can play a vital role in determining who the
winner of the pot will be.
You are dealt two cards in Texas Hold'em; make sure that they are both good cards before you
enter a pot. An ace with a low kicker is going to lose you more money than it wins.
Don't be tempted to call raises or enter pots with hands like A4 (rag aces) or K7, because they
will just get you into more trouble than they are worth. Make sure that you are the one with the
better kicker every time and take the money from the players who are entering the pots with
weaker hands than you.
It is actually reasonable to bring down our starting hand requirements if we have good position.
Position will give us an advantage over our opponents if we are last to act, so we do not
necessarily have to have such a strong hand to play with because will be obtaining information
from the way our opponent plays because they will be acting first.
This information and knowledge of our opponent's hand from the way they play will compensate
for the fact that our starting hand is a little weaker than normal. However, we still have to be
prepared to fold as having position does not guarantee that we will win the hand, it simply gives
an advantage. It is advised that you only enter pots with weaker hands in position once you have
become a little more experienced.
Starting hand selection evaluation.

As you continue to play poker and gain experience from the game, it is a good idea to start
expanding your starting hand requirements and experimenting here and there. However, if you
are new to the game it is strongly advised that you stick to the big cards so that you give yourself
the best opportunity to win money from poker.
If you are entering pots with a poor hand, you should be expecting to see poor results.
Don't be tempted to enter a pot with any old hand because it looks good or it is suited, it will
probably land you in trouble. Stick with the big hands and you won't be going too far wrong.
Good poker table selection is important if you want to maximize your profits from each poker
session you play. It should be obvious that if you want to make money from your poker, you
should play against opponents that are not as good as yourself.
So if the players at table A are more experienced than the players on table B, a wise poker player
would choose table B every time.
To win money from poker, you can either develop a better strategy than your opponents or play
against worse players than you. Why not do both?
In B&M casinos you would usually have very little or no choice about which table you sit at, so
table selection is a little trickier when playing live poker. However, when playing online you
have the opportunity to choose from a long list of tables. You should use this freedom of choice
to your advantage.
Deuces Cracked is easily the top training site for cash game players. Watch videos and win more
money.
Table selection lobby figures.

Due to the outburst in popularity in online poker over recent years, there has been little shortage
of tables for you to choose from online. So how can you determine which tables may be more
profitable than others?
Firstly, most poker rooms online will give you figures in the lobby based on how the table is
playing. The figures that we should be most interested in are the average pot sizes and average
number of players per flop.
Average pot size.

The average pot size figure should give us an indication of how much action the players at the
table are giving. The higher this figure is, the greater the amount of money we can expect to win
when we make a good hand. Therefore as a wise poker player, we should look for these tables
with high average pot size figures.
Average number of players per flop.

The average number of players per flop figure tells us how loose the players at the table are
playing. If this figure is high, then we can assume that the players have low starting hand
requirements and are probable poor poker players. On the other hand if the figure is low, we can
assume that the players are tight, and will only see flops with a good starting hand.
A high average number of players per flop figure indicates that the players at the table have poor
starting hand requirements.
The average number of players per flop figure should influence our table selection depending on
our own style of play. If you are a tight player it may be more beneficial for you to choose the
tables with a higher number of players per flop and pick up the occasional big pots, whereas if
you are a loose player you may find it beneficial to play at the tables with low numbers of
players per flop to pick up many of the small uncontested pots.
Be sure to take into account the number of players at each table in relation to the number of
players per flop, as the shorthanded tables will have a lower number of players per flop than the
full tables.
Table selection example.
A screenshot of the PokerStars lobby. It's a bit of an old screenshot, but it does the job.
As you can see on the diagram, the table with the highest average pot is Cassiopea, and the table
with the highest number of players per flop is Athor IV.
However, the best table to sit at out of the two would be Cassiopea, because Athor IV has a low
average pot size despite having the higher number of players per flop.
Time of play and table selection.

A second factor that can influence the profitability of the tables is the time at which you are play
poker. Many online players will play poker for the entertainment factor, and will not be playing
solely for the money. This means that if we time our play in conjunction with the time the casual
players participate, then we can avoid more of the sharks and sit down with the fish.
The average working timetable for a person that plays online poker is likely to be 9AM to 5PM
on weekdays. Therefore if we want to maximize our chances of playing with these recreational
players then we should sit down at the tables after 6PM on weekdays, and at any time during the
weekends. In addition people will often play poker after having a drink, which will alter their
play for the worse. The time at which the drunk poker players are likely to be sitting down at the
tables is during the evenings.
If you play more poker in the evenings, there is a higher chance of running in to a few "worse for
wear" players (drunk ones).
Obviously these theories best apply to the countries with the highest volume of internet players,
so if you live in the UK you may want to play poker during the times that correlate with the
times mentioned above for the USA.
Player search.
Many poker rooms offer you the ability to search for specific players. These means that you
should use this feature to your advantage and take a note of every bad player you come across,
and search for him or her before you sit down at the tables. This way you can guarantee yourself
to be playing against at least one bad player, instead of taking a chance on a table of unknowns.
Table selection evaluation.

TIp: Check out my list of the softest online poker sites for a table of rankings of poker rooms
based on the volume of bad players.
Many players will not actively choose the tables that may give them the greatest opportunities to
make the most money out of their poker sessions.
Playing poker and not using a training site is like planting crops and not using fertilizer.
Maximize your results with poker training.
If you are going to sit down at a poker table for a decent period of time with your money, it is in
your best interest to sit down at the tables that will give you the greatest return on your
investment in the long run. The advice given above on good table selection is simple to employ,
so it is worth spending a minute or two looking for a good table, especially if you intend to sit at
the one table for a long period of time.
However, if the table has changed significantly due to original players leaving and new players
arriving, it may be a good idea to leave the table if you feel it is no longer profitable. There are
literally thousands of other tables out there, and you are under no obligation to stay if the
particular table no longer suits your style of play.
Without the bluff, poker would not be poker; it is the ultimate deception. One of the greatest
feelings you can get from poker derives from taking down a huge pot that your opponent should
have won.
Bluffing in poker has been greatly glamorized by the media, televising huge bluffs being put on
other players and taking down huge pots in the WSOP and in movies. So let's find out how to
bluff with these handy poker bluffing tips...
How often should you bluff?
If you ask an amateur player or any person new to poker what the fundamental aspects of Texas
Hold'em are, you can be very sure that they will describe how bluffing your opponents is key to
beating the game. However, this is actually far from the truth. It is possible to beat poker games
without ever needing to bluff (although not recommended!).
Many amateur players bluff far more often than necessary, which leads them to lose money over
the long run.
The aim of poker is to win money, simple as that. So if you were to never bluff, you could still
make money. Think of it this way; If you are sitting at a 6 seater table, each player has an equal
chance on getting good or bad cards. Each player according to simple math should have the best
hand 1 in every 6 hands, therefore if all the players were of the exact same standard, in the long
run nobody would lose, and nobody would win.
However, if one player was able to win more money from their opponents when they had the
best hand than their opponents won from them when they had the best hand, that player would be
making more money than their opponents in the long run. It stands to reason that if you play your
cards better than the other players play their cards, you will end up a winner.
You should not enter a hand with the intention of bluffing. You should only bluff if you are
confident that you can win the pot based on the way your opponents have been playing up to that
point in the hand.
For a more thorough answer to this question, check out the how often should you bluff? article.
Does this mean that players lose money trying to run bluffs on one another?
Not necessarily. An experienced player can pick their spots and take down a few pots that should
have been taken down by someone else, adding a little more to their stack. But it is not easy for a
beginner or even intermediate players to pick the right spots, it takes a lot of experience of
situations and knowledge of your opponent to know when a bluff will be successful.
If you are unsure of whether you can take down a pot with a bluff, then you shouldn't attempt a
bluff.
The extra advantages of bluffing in poker.

As you play more poker, you will have a greater understanding of when you can bluff. However
there are more advantages to bluffing than simply winning one pot.
Giving yourself a loose image.
If you continually try to run bluffs against your opponents, they will try and catch you out when
you bet into them because of your table image. They will start to overplay their mediocre hands
when you bet and pay you off when you do have a good hand.
Putting your opponents on tilt.

Players do not like to be deceived out of their money. If you make a successful bluff against a
player and show them, they may become frustrated and play worse in an attempt to get their
money back. This is known as "playing on tilt". However it is not advised to do this often as your
opponent and others at the table may be out to get you, which will make the game trickier to
play.
As you can see, poker bluffing has its extra benefits. The most important one mentioned above is
giving yourself a loose table image, as you potentially can take a lot of money off your
opponents because they will not believe you when you do have a good hand.
Poker bluffing tips.

When you should you bluff?
The answer is simple, but it's probably not quite the answer that you were hoping for...
You should bluff when you think your opponent will fold.
Knowing when your opponent will fold can only come through practice, and the more you
practice the better you will become. Reading poker books will also help you to understand the
game, and where bluffs can be employed successfully.
There are no hard and fast rules for bluffing, as every hand in Texas Hold'em is different from
the next. The best you can do is learn how to identify situations in which a bluff is likely to be
successful based on the information you have obtained by the way your opponents are playing.
Good bluffing situations in poker.

When in last position. If you are in last position, you have the ability the make more successful
bluffs than anywhere else on the table. If you are last to act, and your opponents have checked to
you, it is a sign of weakness. This is a perfect opportunity to bet and win the pot.
If you raised pre-flop. If you raise pre-flop and then missed on the flop, you can still win the pot.
If you make a continuation bet, your opponent is unlikely to call unless they have hit top pair or
middle pair at least.
Against small stacks. If your opponent has a small stack, they are unlikely to call a raise unless
they have hit the flop hard. But you have to be careful, as it will be rare for a short stack to
simply call when bet into, they will either fold or push. Again this is where practice makes
perfect, and you will know when your opponent is more likely to fold than push based on their
stack size.
When on a draw. If you do not have a made hand, but are on a draw such as a straight or a flush,
you can launch what is called a semi-bluff. You hope to take the pot down right there, but if you
do get called you still have a chance to win the hand if the next cards improve your hand. But if
you get re-raised be prepared to let the hand go, unless you are receiving correct pot odds to call.
Poker bluffing evaluation.

It is important to remember that you do not need to bluff to win money at poker, especially if you
are new to the game. It is far better to play your good hands well rather than try and make your
opponents fold when you have no idea whether or not they will call.
training.
As you play more Poker you can expand your game and try new things in different situations and
find out times when it is best to bluff. It could be said that bluffs are more beneficial for what
they do for the future, rather than what they do for the present. In the present you will be taking
down a small pot, but in the future you could be taking down a large pot because your opponent
did not believe that you had the best hand when you bet.
Bet sizing is something that a lot of amateur poker players struggle with when they are first
getting to grips with the game.
If you are unable to make the correct sized bets at each stage of the hand, you will find that you
will have a very big leak in your game.
By being able to make the correct size bets, you will be able to maximize your wins and
minimize your losses. You will also be able to give opponents bad odds to call when they have
drawing hands.
It is important to remember that bet sizing is a key skill in all forms of no limit Poker, whether
you are playing Texas Hold'em, Omaha, or if you're feeling particularly fruity and playing
H.O.R.S.E Poker.
surprised.
How should you size your bets?

The size of any bet you make should always be in relation to the current size of the pot.
Therefore before making any bet or raise, you should always keep in mind how much money is
currently in the pot. This is because the amount you bet into the pot will determine what pot odds
your opponents are getting, and so they will either be making a call with the correct odds, or
making a call with the incorrect odds.
Every time our opponent makes a call with the incorrect odds, we are making a profit as they are
making a fundamental mistake, so it is important that we make good size bets to make sure our
opponents can these mistakes by calling.
Every time an opponent makes a call with bad odds, we are winning money.
Quick rule for no limit bet sizing.

If you have a good hand and feel that your opponent(s) have a worse hand than you, you should
be looking to bet around of the pot when you make a bet.
For example, if you feel you have the best hand in a no limit Holdem game and the pot is $20,
you should be looking to bet around $14 to $18 each time.
The size of optimum bet sizes definitely varies around this area, but it's a good benchmark to aim
for.
Bet sizing diagram.
This should help highlight optimum, effective and terrible bet sizes in Texas Hold'em.
Why bet so big?
1. Gives opponents incorrect pot odds to continue with drawing hands.
2. We get lots of value (win more) when our opponents call with worse hands.
There are very few instances in poker where I would make a bet that is less than half the size of
the pot. By making weak bets you will usually be losing value on your hands and giving your
opponents to right odds to call and outdraw you.
When to make small bets.

The vast majority of the time it isn't a good idea to bet small (half the pot or smaller). However,
there are always going to be exceptions.
The only time I will bet small is if I know that I am not going to get outdrawn and that my
opponent will only call a smaller bet as opposed to a larger one. Even then, a lot of the time
you'll be surprised to find that big bets are more profitable anyway. Even though there are rare
instances where it can bet more profitable to bet small, you're almost always better off betting
big (see value betting).
Advantages of big bets over small bets.

Big bets help to give us information. We never bet for the sole reason of trying to gather
information, but it's often a handy bi product. For our opponent to call, they must feel they have
a decent or strong holding, or a very strong drawing hand. Therefore, this may help us to put
them on a more precise range of hands.
We get more value from big bets. If we feel we still have the best hand then we should
continue our betting to try and extract as much money as possible from our opponents by taking
advantage of our pot equity.
A big mistake with bet sizing.

The biggest mistake amateur players make with betting and raising is that they make minimum
bets and raises when the action gets to them. If you are making a minimum raise before the flop,
you will find that a large number of players will call you, as you are giving them good odds to
see a flop with any two cards.
As a general rule, always avoid minimum bets and raises. Either make a strong bet or don't bet at
all.
Similarly, if you minimum raise a player that bets into you, you will often be giving them the
correct odds to outdraw you, even if you have the best hand at the time. In addition to this, a
minimum bet or raise tells you very little about your opponents hand, as they are almost always
going to call regardless of what they might be holding.
Raising before the flop.
Raise 3 times the BB + 1 for each limper.

As a general rule of thumb, if you are making a raise before the flop, you should be looking to
raise around 3 or 4 times the size of the big blind. However, if there have been a few limpers
before you and you still intend to make a raise, you should add an extra bet onto the 3 (or 4 - this
works well too) times the BB raise to help prevent other players from calling with good odds.
So if you are playing $1/$2 and there have been two limpers in front of you, a good $10 or $12
raise would be sufficient. On the other hand, if you are raising an opponents bet, you should be
looking to raise them around 3 times the size of their original bet to again worsen the odds they
are getting to call to see the next card.
Preflop raising table according to number of limpers.

Here is a quick table to show how much you should be raising preflop depending on how many
players have limped into the pot:
# of limpers Preflop raise (BBs) e.g. in $1/$2 NL
0
$6
$8
$10
$12
$14
$16
Poker bet sizing evaluation.

So, to summarize:
Bet around 3/4 the size of the pot after the flop.
Raise 3 or 4 times the size of the big blind + 1 for each limper before the flop.
Whenever you decide that you want to make a bet or a raise, you should always take a look at the
size of the pot before moving that chip slider or before counting out the chips in your stack. It is
important to reduce the odds your opponents are getting and to maximize the value from your
hand by making good strong bets.
Now you've got some strategy under your belt, use it against the terrible players at Bodog Poker
and win even more money than before.
By making weak bets and by playing passively, you are leaving yourself open to being run over
by your opponents when they have far weaker hands than you. So make sure you stand your
ground, and make healthy bets into the pot at every opportunity to let your opponents know that
you are not a player to be messed with.
For further reading on betting in poker, take a look at the article on the importance of aggression.
In addition, it will be handy to be aware of effective stack sizes when it comes to sizing your bets
appropriately.
Reasons To Bet > Betting To Win Dead Money
These reasons for betting are frequently covered In The Coaching Tree series at Deuces Cracked.
Q. Why do we bet in poker?

A. Because we expect those bets to be profitable over the long run.
Thats the sole reason behind betting and raising in Texas Holdem. It really is that simple.
However, knowing why a bet can be profitable is the tricky part.
It turns out that there are 2 main reasons for making bets.
1. For value.
2. As a bluff.
Every profitable bet or raise in poker falls in to either one of these categories. To be able to make
successful bets, its imperative that you learn to identify which category your bet or raise falls in
to.
Dont worry though, its not that hard really.
There is actually a third reason for betting, which is betting to win dead money. Learn these 2
first.
1) Betting for value.
Why you bet for value.
You believe you have the best hand and you think your opponent will call with a worse
hand.
You want your opponent to call.
We never actually know if we have the best hand or not, but that doesnt matter. All that matters
is that we have a good reason to believe that we have the best hand when we bet.
Figuring out whether we likely have the better hand or not takes some skill, and thats a skill that
comes with time and practice (see assigning ranges). However, the key point is that we make a
profit every time our opponent puts money in to the pot with a worse hand (or a hand with worse
equity to be precise).
It doesnt matter whether our opponent goes on to outdraw us later on in the hand. All that
matters is that when we made our bet, our opponent had worse equity and put more money in to
the pot.
training.
Example of betting for value.

Our hand: A K
Opponents hand: K Q
Board: K 9 3
Our opponent has a hand with worse equity (14% compared to our 86% equity). If we bet we are
betting for value because we are going to make money when a worse hand like KQ calls us.
We will never really know that our opponent has exactly KQ in this situation, but this is an
example of why a bet on this flop is a bet for value because we have good reason to believe that
we have the best hand and that a weaker hand will call.
We want our opponent to call here because that will make us money. If they were to fold,
they would be making a better play from their point of view because they would be saving
money. Hence we miss out on making more money.
2) Betting as a bluff.
Why you bet as a bluff.

You believe you have the worst hand but you think that you can get your opponent to
fold a better hand.
You want your opponent to fold.
For whatever reason you strongly believe that even though you probably have the worst hand,
you can get your opponent to fold. If they go ahead and fold a hand that has more equity than
ours, they are making a mistake and we are profiting from that mistake.
Betting as a bluff takes more skill than betting for value because its harder to have a good
reason to believe that we can get an opponent to fold a better hand. Nonetheless, its still a
profitable bet to make when done properly.
Example of betting as a bluff.

Our hand: 8 7
Opponents hand: T 9
Board: A T 4 K
Our opponent checked the flop and checked the turn. In this situation we are confident that we
are unlikely to have the best hand but can get our opponent to fold by betting this turn. Therefore
when we bet we are betting as a bluff.
We want to see our opponent fold a better hand than ours (which is a pair in this instance). We
do not want to get called, obviously, so this is clearly a bluff.
Reasons for betting based on equity diagram.
Figure out how much equity you think you have in the hand. Do that, and you'll know what type
of bet you're making.
If you think you have more than 50% equity in the hand and you bet, you are betting for
value.
If you think you have less than 50% equity in the hand and you bet, you are betting as a
bluff.
Note: This diagram assumes you are up against one player. The same sort of principal applies
against multiple opponents in a hand, but the percentages get a little tricky for one diagram.
Always know why you are betting.
Are you betting for value or are you betting as a bluff?

If you cant confidently answer that question you should not be betting or raising in the first
place.
Blindly firing out bets and raises is bad play and will be a tremendous leak in your game until
you fix it. Many beginner players lose money because they fire out bets and raises without
knowing why they are making the bets in the first place.
Example of not knowing why you are betting.

Our hand: 22
Opponents hand: unknown
Board: A 4 8 K 4
Its been checked back and forth through each betting round to the river Its checked to us once
again on the river and we decide to bet. But why? What are we expecting to achieve by betting
here?
Is it for value? Do we expect a worse hand than ours to call? No.

Is it as a bluff? Do we expect a better hand to fold? No.
As you can see, there is no compelling reason to bet here, so were far better off checking
behind rather than risking getting called and losing more money to a better hand.
Evaluation of the reasons for betting in NL Texas Holdem.
If you believe that a worse hand than yours will call you the majority of the time, you
are betting for value.
If you believe that you can get a better hand than yours to fold the majority of the time,
you are betting as a bluff.
Before every single bet and raise you make, try your hardest to identify which category your bet
is falling in to. If you cant figure out which, then reconsider making that bet or raise.
Understanding the difference between the different goals when betting is easy. The hard part is
using your head to figure out whether your bet is for value or if its a bluff. It gets much easier
with practice, so the sooner you start trying to figure it all out the better.
As mentioned earlier in the article, there is a third reason for betting that usually occurs when
making continuation bets on the flop. This is where you are betting to win dead money.
There is a very steep learning curve in Poker. At the start a little information will take you a long
way, but as you improve, the new information you learn won't add as much to your game.
So if you are a beginner poker player reading this article, this is probably the most useful and
money saving information you will ever read. If you absorb all of the beginner poker tips
below, you may even turn from a losing player into a break-even or winning player.
These beginner poker tips won't turn you into an expert player in ten minutes, but they will set
you on the right track to becoming a winning poker player.
Have you check out my videos section yet? There are a bunch of free strategy vids there for
NLHE cash games.
1] Don't play too many hands.

A very common mistake that amateur players make is not being selective enough with their
starting hands. Don't fall into the common trap of thinking that any hand can win'. Although this
is true, some hands are more likely to win than others and will help you win more money, whilst
others will help you in losing more money. So be selective about which hands you play.
Here's a handy article on starting hand selection for you.
Good starting hand selection is the foundation of every winning poker player's game. Learn it!
2] Don't bluff too much.

Another common misconception about poker is that you need to bluff to win. You may see
spectacular bluffs on the WSOP shows, but these are edited to show the highlights of the
tournaments and so give the wrong impression of the frequency that top players bluff. Bluffing in
poker is not as essential as you think it is.
If you are a beginner online poker player, it is better to play your cards well rather than trying to
bluff your opponents out of hands. It is good to try occasional bluffs here and there, but the real
art of knowing when to bluff comes from knowledge and practice.
You may also be interested in taking a look at the how often should I bluff in poker? article.
3] Think about your opponent's cards.

It is vitally important in poker to think about the strength of your opponent's hand, and not just
your own. It is nice to have a big hand, but if you think that your opponent has a better hand than
you, you should prepare to fold. For example a straight is a decent hand, but if there are four
cards of the same suit on the board and your opponent pushes all in, do you still think you have
the best hand?
Find out more about thinking on higher levels in the article on multiple level thinking in poker.
It's a bit of an advanced concept, but it is very interesting nonetheless.
4] Play against players worse than you.

This may seem obvious, but you will be surprised at the number of players who go against this
simple principle. If you are better than the players who you are playing against, it makes sense
that you will be a winner in the long run. If you were the 10th best player in the world, it would
not be profitable to sit at a table with the top 9 players in the world.
Choose your games and limits just as carefully as the cards you play with. Good table selection
will help you to find those fishy poker tables in the lobby.
5] Think about your position.

Table position is a very important factor in poker, especially in Texas Holdem. The best
positions to be in are when you are last to act on the hand, for example, when you are on the
button. This means that you gain knowledge about what kind of hand they may have before the
action gets to you. Having good position in a hand can easily turn a losing hand into a winning
one.
Position plays a much bigger role in no limit Texas Hold'em than you think. It can often be more
important than the cards themselves, and make the difference between winning and losing a
hand.
6] Pay attention to the game.

The best way to pick up tells is to watch your opponents and how they play in each pot. Even
when you are not in the hand, you should still concentrate on the game to understand how your
opponents play.
Hopefully you will see what moves the players make when they don't have the best hand, and
what moves they make when they do have the best hand. The more information you can get from
your opponents, the better the opportunity you will have to beat them.
7] Don't jump in at the high limits.

There are two reasons why you shouldn't play for too much money as a beginner. Firstly, the
players at the higher limits will be better than the players at the lower limits. There is less chance
that you will be able to beat them and you will spend a lot of money trying to learn the game in
the process.
Secondly, you only want to play at limits you can afford. You should not play at limits where
you are going to drop money that you cannot afford to lose. There is more information on this
subject in the bankroll management article. You may also find the Fergulator tool useful too.
Without bankroll management, you will never be able to become a winning player, even if you
use perfect strategy.
8] Don't pay too much for draws.

You will often find yourself holding half a hand that only needs one card to complete your flush
or your straight. As a general rule, if you opponent is betting heavily, it is unlikely to be
profitable to chase after these draws. However, if there is only a small amount of betting it may
be wise to call in the hope of making your hand. If the amount your opponent bets seems too big
to warrant a call to make your hand, then don't.
You can find detailed information on how much you should call for draws in the pot odds
strategy guide. A free (and hopefully useful) tool for helping you to work out whether or not to
call bets with draws is SPOC (Simple Pot Odds Calculator).
9] Suited cards aren't that great.

The ultimate beginner mistake (that even some intermediate players make) is over-valuing suited
cards. Flushes are not as common as you think, and if you limp in with your two small suited
cards, there is the chance that you will lose all your money to a higher flush if the flush does
come.
Just because your cards are of the same suit, it only improves that hand by 2% compared to if
your hand was not suited. This marginal improvement is too small to warrant calling pre-flop
raises, so learn to fold the small suited cards. You will be saving yourself some money in the
long run.
10] Know the rules.

As obvious as it seems, there is no substitute for knowing the rules of the game. You don't want
to find yourself calling a player all in, thinking that your straight beats his flush and losing all of
your chips. There is no way you can be a winning poker player if you don't know the
fundamental rules of the game.
Furthermore, each card room and casino may have its own unique set of rules that you must
abide by, so make sure you familiarize yourself with them before jumping into any game.
Micro Limit Poker Strategy
Texas Hold'em > Strategy > General > Micro Limit Strategy
0
Deuces Cracked has 2 amazing training video series aimed at helping micro stakes players.
> The Coaching Tree
> Real Life: Micro NL-Grinder
The micro limits (or micro stakes, whatever) on the Internet generally range from 1c/2c ($2NL)
to 25c/50c ($50NL) cash games. Due to the small amount of money at stake, you will find the
action is much looser than say, at the $1/$2 levels.
If you browse around forums, you will find many people claiming that the micro limits are
unbeatable. They claim that all the players rely too much on luck, and with so many players
entering pots trying to hit their draws, the luck' they get is just too overwhelming for any decent
player to be able to beat these limits.
Micro limit poker is perfectly beatable, but only if you have the correct strategy.
Let me first state that this concept -- despite having a tiny element of truth -- is far from being
correct. With so many players calling with bad pot odds for their draws and calling huge raises
with half a hand, how can you not beat these levels?
There are a few key micro limit poker tips set out below; be sure to familiarize yourself with
them before stepping into your next micro-limit game.
1] Don't try and outplay your opponents.

When you sit down at the table, you can happily think that you are the best player at that table.
But being cocky in the micro limits will lead to disaster. If you try and take pots away from your
opponent representing that 3 of a kind, and find that they call you down with bottom pair, you
have got nobody to blame but yourself.
Remember you are playing for money and not individual pots, only get your money in with the
best of it. When it comes to multiple levels of thought in micro poker, these players are usually
level 1 (or 2 at best). You only need to be playing one level above them to beat them.
Top micro stakes poker rooms

1) PokerStars - Stars has always been the original home of the micro stakes games. You're
not going to find a greater number of $2NL, $5NL and $10NL games anywhere else. Visit
PokerStars.
2) Full Tilt - Once again, the sheer number of micro stakes tables and players is what
makes Full Tilt a great micro limit room. Less players than PokerStars, but there is the added
bonus of Full Tilt rakeback. Visit Full Tilt.
3) Bet365 - The iPoker network is yet another high traffic room offering an abundance of
micro stakes games. A unique feature about the iPoker network is that they offer some of the
lowest stakes heads-up games around. Visit Bet365.
2] Micro limit players love to chase.

You are expecting your opponents in the micro limits to have a low understanding of the game.
So if you bet twice the size of your pot and your opponent calls, you cant rule out that they will
have a flush or straight draw, as they probably will not be familiar with pot odds.
Remember that if your opponent has bad odds and calls to try and make his draw, that's a good
thing for you, because you will be winning more money in the long run. Just be sure to bet a
larger amount into the pot when against multiple opponents to give each of them bad odds to
call.
Always make sure that you are giving any players with potential draws bad odds to call when
you bet.
3] Buy in for the max, but don't be afraid to lose it.

Due to the loose action at the micros, you can be expecting players to be going and calling all-ins
with all sorts of made hands and draws. If you are buying into the table with the maximum, you
are giving yourself the best opportunity to make the most money.
Make sure that when you're all in that you have then best of it, that way you are going to come
out on top. Just remember its not often that you are a 100% favorite to win on the flop, so you
cant win them all. If you've got the best of it, don't be afraid to put your whole buy in on the line
(if you have got the bankroll).
You will win more hands than you lose if you get your money in the middle with the best of it,
so buy in for the max to make sure that you are maximizing your wins.
4] Don't give your opponents tips.

After you take a horrific bad beat from an equally bad player, the first thing you will want to do
is criticize their play and tell them how bad it was.
But wait, it was so bad that you should be over the moon that they called. If you are that far
ahead of them with your top set on the flop, you want them to go all in with their gutshot
straight. After all, you wouldn't be complaining if you won that particular hand. Keep your
advice to yourself and let the player make the same bad play next time.
5] Bet your good hands, fold your bad hands.

It is pretty much basic Texas Hold'em strategy, but this is what works best at the micro limits.
There is no need to be tricky with your play, if you make a good hand bet, and if you don't, just
fold. You may be afraid to scare players out of the pot, but most of the time they will call you
with absolutely any hand.
6] Beware of raising.
From my experience playing micro limit poker, players will not often raise pre flop unless they
have a solid hand. The game plan for most of the players at the table is to see as many flops as
possible, hit a huge hand, then bet and take as much money as they can from it.
Your opponents won't give a second thought to what you might hold; they are only playing to the
strength of their own hand. This is why they call decent raises with bottom pair on the flop;
because they've got a pair. So if you see a player raising pre flop and on every street then beware,
they've probably got something good.
Micro players are much happier calling than they are raising.
7] Don't bluff.
This is similar to the first point, as bluffing is a way of trying to outplay your opponent.
Remember that a large number of players will be seeing the flop, and so a bluff of any kind is
unlikely to work. Players will be calling with any half decent hand, so just put your money in
when you do make a hand, and when you don't, let it go.
Win your way out of the micro stakes games.

Tired of grinding $2N, $5NL and $10NL games? Want to move up and win more money at more
profitable stakes games online?
If you thought that these tips were useful, you really need to check out Deuces Cracked, which is
the top poker training site for micro stakes players. There's no faster way to learn good poker.
If you're serious about working your way out of the micro stakes games, you'll check out Deuces
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8] Don't be too concerned about your image.

If you only play premium hands and bet with the best of it, don't be too worried that the other
players are cottoning on to your game. Players at the micros are far too concerned about the way
they play opposed to the way that you play. So don't feel pressured to change gears, as your
opponents won't even notice.
You are better off focusing on playing solid ABC poker strategy than changing gears at the
micro limits.
Micro limit poker strategy overview.

As you can see, micro limit poker is a slightly different breed of poker when compared to the
other stakes. After you learn the fundamentals of the game, these games should be easy to beat if
you keep your cool.
This makes it profitable to multi-table at least 2 tables at a time because at such low stakes you
are going to be less reliant on reading your opponents plays. As long as you play ABC poker
(nothing fancy) and learn the tips above, you should be on your way to beating the micros.
NOTE: You may be wondering, where is the truth in the statement about the players being too
lucky?' (2nd paragraph from top). Well, there is a concept in poker known as schooling'. This is
where if a player calls a bet with bad odds to make his draw, the call becomes less bad' as other
players call the raise.
For example, if you bet the size of the pot on the turn with a made hand, and your first opponent
calls with a flush draw, he is making a bad play because he is calling a 2 to 1 bet with 4 to 1 odds
of making the flush. However if 3 other players behind him call, this has changed the odds from
2:1 into 5:1, making his call profitable. This is why you should bet more against opponents with
draws when more than one opponent is in the pot.
Changing Gears In Poker
Texas Hold'em > Strategy > General > Changing Gears

0
For those of you that drive a manual car, you will know how important it is to change gears
depending on the type of road you are driving along. If you were to simply stick with one gear
for an entire journey, you will find that you will struggle along some roads.
For example, if you decide to stay in 1st gear throughout a journey, you may be fine when you
are first starting out, but as you start to get along and hit the faster stretches your car is not going
to be performing as well.
This is quite similar to poker, as throughout your sessions, you should prepare to alter your play
and "change gears". Your particular strategy at the start of the session may work well for a while,
but at some point it is recommended that you change gears; otherwise your performance will
start to deteriorate.
Changing gears helps you to adapt the the changing dynamics of the game.
What is changing gears in poker?

Changing gears is basically where you deviate from your standard playing style to make your
game more unpredictable. If you are a tight player, you can change gears by opening up your
starting hand requirements and start playing a more loose style of play. Similarly, if you are a
loose player you can change gears by tightening up your starting hand requirements and playing
fewer hands.
However, it should be pointed out that this does not necessarily mean going from super tight one
minute to ultra loose the next. The time and manner in which you change gears should depend on
the particular dynamics at the table.
Changing gears can simply involve moving from a loose style of play to a tight one (and vice
versa).
Why should you change gears?
The are numerous reasons as to why you should change gears, but one of the most important
reasons is because your opponents will be able to work out your particular playing style, and use
it against you at your expense.
If you continue to play a straightforward tight-aggressive playing style throughout a session with
no sign of change, it will make it much easier for your opponents to put you on a hand. However,
if you can change your play so that you are more unpredictable, you are effectively taking away
the edge that your opponents have over you and placing it back onto your side.
In general, the tight aggressive style of play is quite like the 3rd gear of a car; it may work okay
throughout the majority of a journey, but it is not going to perform best in certain situations. If
you can change gears and utilize the ability you have to keep your opponents guessing, you will
be maximizing your potential from every session you play. 3rd gear may be fine for some, but
for those looking to win more money and develop, you need to be able to change gears in the
right situations.
Examples of when to change gears.
When stack sizes change (i.e. you become shortstacked or deepstacked).

When you reach the bubble in a tournament.
When the dynamics of the table changes.
When players leave the table or when new players join.
Your play has become static and predictable.
In each of these situations above, a certain variable at the table has changed. This means that it
will have an effect on the way people are playing against each other, and the way they are
playing against you. Therefore you should adapt your approach to the game accordingly so that
you can take advantage of the changes, or compensate for the way your opponents will now be
playing against you.
When your stack size changes.

If you start out a cash game with 100BB, you can happily employ your favoured winning style of
play. However, if you win a handful of all-in encounters and find yourself with a much larger
stack size against opponents with equally deep stacks, you should be prepared to adapt your play.
In this situation there will be much greater implied odds at stake, and so you can afford to pay
that little extra to see flops with hands like pocket pairs and other drawing hands, whereas you
may previously folded because the pot odds and implied odds would not have been in your
favour.
When you reach the bubble in a tournament.

Typically in a tournament, people tighten up at the bubble in an attempt to hold on and make
their way into the money. This is a prime opportunity to take advantage of this tight play, and
pick up some loose uncontested pots to set yourself up with a strong stack to contend for first
place.
Sure, you can tighten up as well, and muddle your way into the money, but you are missing out
on a prime opportunity to pick up loose pots and give yourself a much better opportunity to take
first place.
Big MTT tournaments are prime examples of where the ability to change gears as the tournament
progresses is vital to a winning strategy.
When the dynamics of the table changes

Sometimes in poker, the way the table is playing will start to change, as players gradually play
tighter or become looser. If you can spot when the dynamics of the table is changing for
whatever reason, you can capitalise on it by adapting your game accordingly. Of course you can
carry on the same way you have been playing throughout the session, but again you are missing
out on a great opportunity to maximize your winnings by not taking note of the changes.
When players leave the table or when new players join.

Similar to the point above, if new players are joining a table and old ones are leaving, the
dynamics of the table will naturally be changing. If you play at a table for an hour or so and
notice that many of the original players have left, you can't expect the dynamics of the table to be
the same as when you started. Therefore you should always be aware of potential changes
especially as new players join.
Your play has become static and predictable.

As already mentioned, one of the most important reasons to change gears is to keep your play
unpredictable. If your opponents can work out your style of play, it will make it a hell of a lot
easier for them to read your hands. So make sure that you do not shoot yourself in the foot by
continually playing the same style of poker; be prepared to mix it up a little when necessary.
However, this does not mean playing bad cards for the sake of it if you are a tight player, it
simply means opening up your range a little to incorporate hands that a slightly looser opponent
might play. Just because you are changing gears, it does not mean that you should play badly and
lose money for the sake of changing gears. It is perfectly possible to adopt a winning loose style
of play from your current tight style of play and vice versa.
Changing gears evaluation.

It is not terrible thing to continuously play your regular style of play throughout a session. In
fact, it's always good to be consistent and make the plays that are the most profitable at every
opportunity.
However, if you are not changing gears, then you are not allowing yourself to make the most
profitable plays possible. If you confine yourself to one style of play alone, you are restricting
yourself from getting your hands on the extra money that comes from diversifying your play.
Some players have been brought up on the bread and butter style of ABC poker; which is all well
and good. But this kind of play isn't always going to cut it in certain situations. So if you want to
get the most from your sessions you should learn to change gears at the right moments, and keep
your opponents on their toes (as well as to take advantage of the changing dynamics of the table).
It may be a little tricky to change gears at first, but after a little practice it will be like second
nature.
Freeroll tournaments are very popular amongst online players who do not want to make a
deposit into their poker accounts. If you play well, it is indeed very possible to start a successful
poker bankroll through simply playing in freerolls
All you have to do is place in a few of these freeroll tournaments, build up a small sum of money
and head to the cash tables.
If you invest time and effort with good bankroll management skills, there is no reason why you
cannot set yourself up with a decent online bankroll to play with.
money.
Freeroll tournaments can be tricky.

Due to the popularity of freerolls, you will often find yourself sitting in a tournament with
thousands of players hoping to get a slice of the prize pool to add to their own accounts.
A large number of these players will be there to see how far they can ride their luck; pushing in
on any random hands without even attempting to play some "real poker". Initiating an online
bankroll through freerolls can be a tedious affair, therefore I have compiled these top 5 tips for
winning money from online poker freerolls.
Freeroll tournament tips.

1] Be prepared to accept losses.
As negative as it sounds, you really have to be prepared to lose when playing in freerolls. The
best player in the world will have trouble placing well in any of these freerolls because luck
plays so much more of a factor than in any other tournament. If you focus too much on expecting
to win, you will only be more disappointed and frustrated when you end up getting sucked out on
for all your chips.
The best formula for online freerolls is to play well, and get lucky. You can't control luck, but
you can improve your chances of winning by playing lots of freeroll tournaments.
2] Play a lot of freerolls and play them well.

As mentioned above, we cannot expect to place well in all of the freerolls that we play in. By
playing in more freerolls we are giving ourselves a better chance to finish in the money.
You can increase the number of freerolls available to you by signing up at a number of different
poker rooms. Almost all rooms offer freerolls, and they are happy for you to sign up just to play
in them. So now not only do we have to play well and be lucky, but we also have to play often.
3] Sit tight at the start.

The start of an online freeroll is always a bit of a frenzy. The luck riders will be straight into
action, pushing all their chips in the middle with any two cards hoping for the quick double up at
the start. This usually results in a rapid decrease in the number of players and you will find a few
players sitting with monster stack sizes compared to the rest of the field.
This is only natural, so don't think that you should have a large stack size like theirs to stand a
chance of winning. Just sit tight wait for the good hands, and wait for your turn to double up. Do
not be phased if you end up busting out early, just forget about it and head onto the next one, it's
probably only around the corner.
4] Look out for the players sitting out.

If you look around the table at a freeroll, you should notice that some of the players are sitting
out and not playing in any of the hands. This is because they have signed up for the tournament,
but have not turned up to play in it. This means that their blinds will be up for grabs for anyone
who decides to raise pre-flop and doesn't come up against an opponent that is actually playing in
the tournament.
Keep your eye out for the players who are sitting out, so that you can raise and take their blinds
when you feel that you will not come up against any resistance from an actual player. Make sure
that you pick your spots carefully, and try not to get into any heavy contests with any of your
opponents for these free blinds.
5] Be aware of when the dynamics change.
As already mentioned, the start of a freeroll will be a complete frenzy. Players will be dropping
out at a rapid rate and it seems like you will be in the money in no time. But you should realize
that this pace will not be sustained throughout the tournament, and as the numbers decrease, the
skill will increase.
Great tournament players are able to quickly identify and adapt to changes in the game.
As the luck riders drop out you will be left with opponents that have more of an idea of what
they are doing, and they will now have their eyes on the money positions. This means you can
play more tactically, and use a few more plays that you couldn't have used at the start, because
these players will now actually be able to fold their hands. So be aware of when the transition
from luck to poker starts to take place, because it will be time to change gears.
Freeroll tournament tips evaluation.

These tips should prove useful for when you decide to play in your next freeroll. One key point
that I feel I should highlight once more is the fact that you are going to lose far more of the
freerolls you play in than win. Do not be disappointed if you have a long run of losses and come
close to winning but fall at the final hurdle.
Try to have as much fun as you can playing in these freerolls and one day you will end up
walking away with that initial sum of money in your account. After all, what have you got to
lose?
Online Poker Tells

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > General > Online Tells
1
Relative to live poker, there are far fewer online poker tells that you can pick up on to find
out whether or not your opponent is bluffing, especially in online Texas Holdem. This is for the
obvious reason that you are unable to physically see who you are playing against.
Nevertheless, this can be positive for your game because you can focus on the tactical side of
your game and learn how to play different situations with improved skill. However, there are still
a number of online poker tells that you can look out for that can give away the strength of your
opponent's hand.
Online tells are never going to be as solid as live tells, but they can still prove to be a little handy
from time to time. However, I wouldn't recommend solely relying on them when making tough
decisions.
NLHE cash games.
Top online poker tells.
Long wait and check.

Long wait and bet/raise.
Check/call and then bet.
Instant bet/check.
Player timing out.
Long wait and check.

This shows that your opponent is weak, because he wants to make you think that he is
considering to make a move with his hand when really he wont be holding much at all. Consider
raising when in position, even if you dont have much of a hand yourself.
Long wait and bet/raise.

This is the opposite of what was mentioned above. This action shows strength, as your opponent
wants to make you think they are deliberating a check because they have a weak hand, but in
actual fact they are holding a strong hand.
If you think about it, if you are holding a monster you will not want to bet quickly and show
confidence in your bet, which may scare your opponents out of the pot. So be prepared to fold a
decent hand in this situation.
Check/call flop, bet small on turn.

You are in position. Your opponent checks the flop and you bet. Your opponent calls your bet,
and then bets out a relatively small amount when the turn comes.
In this situation you can comfortably put your opponent on a certain basket of hands; a draw or a
mediocre hand like middle pair.
Never give too much respect to a small bet. A weak bet is a weak bet, so treat it like one.
What your opponent is trying to do is stop you making a large bet on the turn that he won't like
to call (because they may have a weak hand or a draw), and so is attempting to show a little
strength by betting first and not having to call a bet from you. This is sometimes referred to as a
'stop bet' or a blocking bet, because your opponent is trying to stop you from putting in that big
bet. So try re-raising in these situations to prevent them from improving their hand.
Instant bet/check.
Almost every site will have action tabs that you can select before the action gets to you. This
means that you will act instantaneously when it is your turn. It is not a wise idea to use these
buttons for the following reasons:
When you see someone insta-check, it shows great weakness because they are so
disinterested with the hand that they decide to check before the action gets to them.
Therefore insta-betting/raising shows strength, as your opponent is happy to put more
money into the pot before seeing what other players do and before the action reaches him
or her.
Player timing out.

Because of how easy it is to play poker online (in ease of use terms), many players will not have
their full attention on the game. They may be involved in other activities such as talking on a
messenger, browsing the net or even multi-tabling too many tables. This means that they
occasionally will not realise it is their turn and time out, and then apologise for wasting time in
the chat box.
Due to their lack of focus, they will be playing basic poker raising with good hands and
checking/folding bad hands. You can be confident that your opponent wont be pulling any
moves on you to win the hand. So if they bet, make sure you have a good hand to call with, or
fold. If they check, try raising to win the pot. If they do call when you bet, they may be on a
draw.
Online poker tells evaluation.

These are the most useful online poker tells that I have been able to pick up on in my time of
playing online poker. Obviously as you can see there is not a lot that you can go on apart from
the time a player takes to act in deciding what kind of hand they have. But remember that you
should not just rely on little ticks and tells to find out if your opponent is bluffing.
The more you play the more you will understand the logistics of the game and be able to read
people by their betting patterns. This is by far the best way to pick up on the strength of your
opponents hand.
At the end of the day, there is no better tell than a players betting pattern.
Poker Initiative
Texas Hold'em > Strategy > General > Initiative
Initiative and "taking the initiative" is a term that you will bump in to every now and then in
poker books, on forums and in training videos. But what exactly is initiative in poker, and how
can it be used to your advantage?
Just to keep you excited, I would say that having the initiative during a hand is just as influential
as your actual position at the table.
What is initiative?
The dictionary defines initiative as:
"An introductory act or step; leading action."
That's all well and good, but what's that got to do with Texas Hold'em exactly? Let's translate
this in to more of a poker context that makes more sense...
Initiative in poker is where a player has shown the most aggression in any given betting round.
This player is therefore representing the strongest hand at the table and "has the initiative in the
hand".
As a result, a lot of the play on future betting rounds will be centered around the player with the
"initiative".
surprised.
How to take the initiative.

To take the initiative, you simply need to make the last aggressive play in the betting round,
which involves either betting or raising. Here are a few examples involving players A and B (and
sometimes C for good measure) taking the initiative.
Examples of taking the initiative.
A bets and B calls. - Player A has the initiative.
A bets, B raises and A calls. - Player B has the initiative.
A checks, B bets, A check-raises and B calls. - Player A has the initiative.
A bets, B calls, C raises, A calls and B calls. - Player C has the initiative.
A check and B checks. - Neither player has the initiative.
It's all pretty straightforward. But basically, if you are calling or checking to close the action, you
are not taking the initiative in the hand. This should have helped illustrate what I mean when I
say the player that shows the "most aggression" takes the initiative in the hand.
When can you take the initiative?

The most common place that the initiative is taken is before the flop, as there is almost always a
raiser followed by caller(s) before the flop is dealt.
However, there is no reason why the initiative can't be taken on future betting rounds such as the
flop, turn or river. If there are just calls and no raises before the flop, then no player has the
initiative. The player that shows the most aggression on the flop will then be taking the initiative.
In addition, the initiative can change from one player to another on different betting rounds. The
initiative does not stay with one player throughout the hand, as it can easily switch to play that
shows the most aggression on future betting rounds.
Example of the initiative changing hands.

Preflop: A raises and B calls. Player A has the initiative.
Flop: A bets, B raises and A calls. Player B has the initiative.
Advantages of initiative.
Have you ever noticed that whenever you call a raise before the flop, the action always seems to
revolve around the preflop raiser? All of the other players want to see what the preflop raiser
does on the flop before they make their move, which of course has its advantages...
Taking the initiative puts you in the drivers seat in the hand. Other players will wait for
you to make the first move by checking to you.
By betting and raising your hand has unlimited strength in the eyes of your opponents.
By taking the initiative, you are making it far more difficult for your opponent to assign
you to a specific range of hands.
Being aggressive forces other players to make tough decisions, which means that they
have less control over the hand and are more susceptible to making -EV plays.
Initiative is the reason why continuation bets are so effective and why relative position is such an
important concept to be aware of at the Texas Hold'em tables. It also opens up a whole lot more
opportunities to pick up uncontested pots that would normally fall in to another player's stack.
Having the initiative is almost as important, if not equal to, your position at the table. Don't
underestimate the influence that initiative can have in the hands that you play.
How to use initiative in poker.

I can't give you a how-to guide to initiative in the sense that; "here is where you should take the
initiative" and "here is where you should not take the initiative". This main focus of this article is
to highlight how it is generally more profitable to be the aggressor by betting and raising as
opposed to checking and calling.
There's similar strategy for taking the initiative and aggression in the importance of aggression
article.
Taking the initiative example:

Below is an example hand history that highlights how taking the initiative before the flop allows
us to win the hand on the flop.
Benefit of taking the initiative example hand history.
If we has just called before the flop, we would have not taking the initiative in the hand. We
would then likely be checking to our opponent who would then make a standard continuation
bet, to which we would have to fold (unless we had a very strong reason not to).
Just by 3-betting before the flop with our pocket Jacks, the whole hand has been turned on it's
head and our opponent could well find themselves folding a hand like QQ, KK to our cbet on the
flop. By taking the initiative in the hand we put the power back in to our hands and take down a
pot that could just as easily gone the other way.
Evaluation of initiative in poker.

Would you believe it, there's something else out there that is about as important as table position,
and God knows how much strategy articles love to go on about that. Although you don't often
hear much about strategy focused on the term "initiative", it's all part and parcel of the whole
"aggressive poker is winning poker" philosophy.
By being aggressive and raising more often than calling, you are taking the initiative in the hand
and giving yourself that extra advantage for when you hit the flop. That's all there is to it. This
does not mean that you should be betting and raising with every hand you play, you still need to
exercise common sense.
Now you just need to practice with it and see how much of an effect initiative has on the hands
you play for yourself.
Poker Aggression
Texas Hold'em > Strategy > General > Aggression
0
Having the ability to play aggressively is an important attribute to have when it comes to poker,
especially when playing in the game of Texas Holdem. Being aggressive is the opposite of being
passive, where you make bets and raises more frequently instead of just checking and calling at
each point during hands.
Poker aggression opens more doorways to success in poker than it does to take a passive
approach the game, which is why many successful players are aggressive.
It is vital that you are able to exercise a strategic aggressive style of play, as being aggressive
does not mean simply betting and raising at every opportunity.
Playing aggressive poker well involves betting and raising when you have an advantage over
your opponents. This can be when you have better cards, better position, or even when you have
better poker ability than them. Aggression is only beneficial when you keep a cool head, and
when you pick your spots wisely to make your bets and raises.
Poker aggression example.

Lets say you are in a hand holding A K and the flop comes K T 7 .
In this spot you have top pair top kicker, which is a great hand but it can be easily cracked by the
turn, especially since the board is coordinated with two cards of the same suit. If your opponent
bets into you, it is important to be aggressive and raise, because you want to protect your hand
and you do not particularly want you opponent to see another card that could potentially improve
their hand to make it better than yours.
The board is quite coordinated, and your opponent could easily be betting with a worse hand
(such as a draw or a lower pair). Your main objective is to be aggressive and bet enough to
give your opponent the wrong pot odds to call to improve their hand, so that you can take
the pot down on the flop. This is the much better play than being passive and calling, as you
leave yourself open to being out-drawn on the turn.
This is one of the greatest aspects of being aggressive, as it can save you from getting into tricky
situations in the middle of a hand. There are also a number of other advantages that an aggressive
approach to the game can give.
Playing aggressively helps you to win more money by giving your opponents bad odds to call
with draws and by also increasing your fold equity.
Using aggression to buy position.

"Buying position" means that you force opponents out of the pot in the pre-flop betting round
that would be acting after you later in the hand.
For example, we are two seats away from the button in a cash game holding Q J . Everyone
has folded to us except for one player who limped in. If we raise it to 4BB and the seat next to
the button along with the button folds, we have just "bought position" for the rest of the hand.
This means that we will be the last to act for the rest of the hand, giving us an advantage over
any players who call after the button. Once again aggression triumphs over passive play, because
if we had just limped in, it is more likely that the seat next to the button or button will have
limped in also, which means we would not have position for the rest of the hand.
The more players you can force out of the hand that are acting after you, the better your position
will be in the hand.
Using aggression to earn free cards.

If we are playing aggressively, we should be able to create an aggressive and possibly loose table
image that our opponents will take note of when making their plays. By playing aggressively,
our opponents are more likely to check to us, rather than betting themselves to see how we react
to the hand before they respond with their play.
This is because our opponents will be less inclined to bet mediocre hands for fear of being raised
off of them, and they will sometimes check big hands to us in hopes of inducing a bluff.
This can work to our advantage greatly if we flop a flush or a straight draw. If our opponent
checks to us because of our aggressive style hoping to induce a bluff, we have then earned
ourselves a free card to try and complete our draw, where normally they would have bet into us
if we had not been playing aggressively.
Using aggression to get paid off.

If we are constantly playing aggressively, our opponents will start to give us less credit for our
hands as the game progresses.
Our opponents will realize that we cannot constantly have the best hand every time we bet and
raise, so they will start to call us down in the hopes of catching us out when bluffing. This works
to our advantage when we then make a good hand, because our opponents may well still call us
down as they no longer give us credit for having a strong hand.
Therefore, we will be making money each time an opponent calls because they do not believe us,
instead of having opponents fold because they believe we have a strong hand. It is important
however to try and be aware of times when our opponents may be trying to trap us, by calling
with their own monster hands instead of raising and betting.
training.
Poker aggression evaluation.

Hopefully you can see that being aggressive is the winning style of play when it comes to Texas
Holdem. No matter whether you are a tight or loose player, being aggressive trumps passive play
in almost every area.
Playing passively will rarely win you a decent amount of money from poker, so learn to play
strong, aggressive poker.
If you watch winning players on TV or even in the online rooms, you will notice that they are
exercising either a tight-aggressive or loose-aggressive style of play. Very rarely will you see a
pro playing passively, as aggressive play is key to becoming a winning poker player.
Poker Stack Sizes Strategy

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > General > Stack Sizes
0
Stack size plays a very important role in the game of no limit Texas Hold'em. At any point
during the game there is the possibility that all of your chips can be put on the line, so it is
important that your are not only aware of your own stack size, but the size of your opponents'
stacks also.
The amount of chips in front of you and the amount in front of the players around you influence
a number of aspects of play in Texas Hold'em, ranging from the psychological to the
mathematical.
This article aims to address the key points that you should remember with regards to
understanding stack sizes in poker.
Poker stack sizes guide.

The size of a player's stack is always in relation to the blinds of that particular game. A $2000
chip stack may sound like a lot on its own, but if they blinds are $100/$200 then this is a very
small amount to be playing with in no limit Hold'em. The following table should give you an
idea of what is considered to be small, medium and big stack sizes:
Small: 40 big blinds or less.

Medium: 41 90 big blinds.
Big: 91 big blinds or more.
Deep: 200 big blinds or more.
A diagram to show the general difference between small, medium, big and deep-sized stacks in
NL Hold'em.
Most online and live poker rooms have limits on how much or how little you can bring to the
table from the start. There is typically a 10BB minimum and a 100BB maximum for the majority
of limits. This means that players have the option of buying in as a small, medium or big stack
from the off. As you can see there is also a "deep stack" condition if you have 200 big blinds or
more.
This is common in cash games if a player has bought in for the maximum amount (usually
100BBs) and has either doubled up through an all-in confrontation against another player of
equal stack size, or has managed to grind there way up into the realm of the "deep stack".
surprised.
How stack sizes affect the way you play.

The size of your stack in poker affects the way that you actually play your cards. If you have a
short stack then it will be difficult or impossible to make elaborate bluffs or plays because of the
simple fact that you don't have enough chips to scare opponents away from their hands.
On the other hand, if you have a large amount of chips in front of you then it is possible to make
more advanced plays because you have more chips to work with to manipulate your opponent
into thinking that you have a better hand than them. Therefore it is more advantageous to play
simple ABC poker with short stacks: betting your strong hands and folding your weak hands.
If you are short stacked, you want to play big cards that have the best chances of winning in an
all-in situation early on in the hand.
The effect of stack sizes on implied odds.

Another important fact of stack sizes is the implied odds (and potential reverse implied odds)
that are made available by having a big stack. If you and your opponent have a big stack, then
your implied odds increase when you have drawing hands.
For example if you know that your opponent raises 3.5BBs with AA and will be prepared to go
all in on the flop with an overpair, it makes it a profitable decision to call with a hand like 78
because of the amount you can expect to win when you hit the flop hard.
It is for the same reason why it is profitable to call raises with small pocket pairs to try and hit a
set, even though the chance of hitting a set is usually far less than the odds you are getting. So if
you are up against big stacks it can be profitable to open up your starting hand requirements to
include suited connectors and so on, whereas if you are up against short stacks you should stick
with the big starting hands.
Psychology and stack sizes.
Psychological aspects are also involved with stack sizes in poker. If you have a big stack and
you are up against an opponent with an equally big stack, then there is the possibility that you
could lose all your chips in this one particular hand.
Alternatively, if you are up against an opponent that has a small stack, it is not possible for you
to lose more than the amount your opponent has in front of them. This means that players will
have a greater concern when playing against big stacks than when playing against small stacks.
Poker players are more wary about how they play their hand when up against an equally big
stack.
Stack size psychology example.

Lets say there is a raise from player A in late position and player B with Q J calls on the
button, everyone else folds. There are now two players going to a flop and they both have big
stacks of around 100BBs each, and player A's hand is unknown.
The flop comes 2 J 7 , giving player B top pair. Player A is first to act and bets the size of
the pot.
This actually puts player B in a difficult situation because even though they hold top pair with a
decent kicker, player A is showing a lot of strength. Player B decides to call because a re-raise
will commit a large number of chips into the pot with only top pair.
The turn comes 5 , which probably did not help either player.
Player A bets the size of the pot again, and player B quickly decides to fold because they are not
prepared to commit so much money into the hand with a hand like top pair.
Stack sizes example evaluation.

Player A in this example may have had a better hand or he may have been totally bluffing, but it
is not the focus of this example. In this hand player A was showing a lot of strength and forcing
player B to make difficult decisions.
These decisions were made even more difficult due to the fact that player A was making it aware
that they were willing to put a large amount of chips on the line in this hand. Therefore player B
made the decision to fold the hand because there was too much of a risk of putting a big number
of their chips into the pot with a marginal holding like top pair.
However, if player A only had 20BBs or 30BBs, then it is more likely that player A would have
called the raises or moved player A all-in because there are less chips at stake. The point being
made from this example is that it is easier to get big stacks off marginal hands because the
prospect of having to call large bets and put more money on the line influences the way that an
opponent will play their hand.
The bigger your stack, the less likely it is for an opponent to put up a fight with a marginal hand
like top pair. This is especially true if you continue to bet strongly on the turn after betting the
flop.
Poker stack size strategy evaluation.

It is fair to say that a large number of poker players do not factor in stack sizes (more
specifically, effective stack sizes) when making decisions at the poker table. You should always
try and consider the future implications of any hand depending on the size of your stack and the
size of your opponents stack. Ask yourself if you really want to get into a big pot with a marginal
holding against another big stack.
You should also consider whether it's worth calling the bet on the flop if you are fairly confident
that you are going to fold when you opponent bets again on the turn. There are many sub-factors
involved in stack sizes that it requires some experience to fully understand the implications of
each situation.
It takes practice to get to grips with it, so get out there and play some hands!
Loose Table Strategy

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > General > Loose Table Strategy
0
Playing poker at a loose table can be a very profitable experience. However without the correct
adjustments to many areas of your strategy it can also be dangerous introducing high variance
into the game.
This article looks at the different types of loose table in No-Limit Texas Holdem and discusses
the important adjustments required in order to win at these tables. We start by noting that not all
loose tables are the same. The main distinctions are the playing styles, between loose / passive
tables and loose / aggressive tables.
I will show you how to quickly distinguish each from the statistics available in the lobby of most
online poker rooms. Along with the adjustments in starting hand selection and the factors
affecting pre-flop decisions are then covered. Finally I look at post flop play and the effect of
your table image on your strategy for winning at loose tables.
What is a loose poker table?

The term "loose" in poker refers to players who are willing to play a wide number of hands
before the flop the more hands played the "looser" the player. If several loose players get
together a table can form where most pots are played multi-way, at least in the early stages. Here
is where we need to make a distinction based on the passive or aggressive nature of the players at
the table.
At a loose / passive table many players will call or limp with a wide range of holdings before the
flop creating small pots with many players still involved. At a loose / aggressive table players
are more likely to raise and re-raise before the flop, creating large pots with a moderate amount
of players involved.
Loose aggressive tables can easily be the most profitable tables to play at if you use the correct
strategy.
These 2 types of loose table require different strategies in order to win. The important factor is
knowing how to tell what kind of table you are joining before sitting down.
Using lobby figures to identify loose poker tables.

Statistics available in poker site lobbies usually show two key numbers. These are the number of
players seeing each flop, and the average size of each pot. Loose tables will have anywhere
between 40% and 60% of players per flop. Aggressive tables will have a much larger average pot
size than the passive tables.
Strategy for playing at loose poker tables.

Strategy for playing at loose poker tables can be split up in to two sections based on the type of
loose players who you are up against.
1. Playing at a loose / passive table.
2. Playing at a loose / aggressive table.
Loose / passive table strategy.
Strategy adjustments for loose passive tables often depend on the willingness of individual
opponents to call large raises before the flop. There will usually be a gap between the hands that
opponents are willing to limp and those that they will call a raise with. By their very nature
passive opponents are more likely to call raises than re-raise you so the first point is to tread
carefully when you are called.
At a passive table the chances of being re-raised before the flop are smaller than at aggressive
tables. This means it is possible to limp with more hands that have high implied odds value such
as small pairs and suited connectors. These types of hands play well in multi-way pots.
After you flop a monster hand be careful not to blow your passive opponents out of the pot with
big raises. Unless the board is particularly draw-heavy you should instead pick a bet size (see bet
sizing) that is likely to be called building the pot gradually so as to be paid the maximum.
The main problem with playing at passive tables is that it is slightly harder to build big pots.
Playing premium pairs at a passive table should usually involve raising to thin the field. Too
small a raise can easily induce several of your loose opponents to enter the pot behind you with
speculative holdings. This can be a disaster for a pair of aces if a dangerous flop comes. The
ideal strategy to win at a loose / passive table is to become tight and aggressive yet limp in with
those hands with high implied-odds value as the situation warrants.
Loose / aggressive table strategy.

Loose / aggressive tables play completely differently. Here the only time you will be able to play
small pair or suited connector type hands is when you close the betting that is to say you are
the last person to call a raise before the flop comes. In early position these hands should be
folded as there is too much danger of a raise and a re-raise behind you.
Premium pairs can be played strongly at a loose / aggressive table, though for different reasons
compared to the loose / passive example. Here you are looking to get a large amount of money
into the pot before the flop, preferably against a single opponent. The higher chance of a re-raise
(or even a 4th raise all-in) makes playing these hands positively a profitable move.
Your strategy after the flop will also depend on the aggressiveness of your loose table. Loose
passive players will often call with draws, sometimes as little as a gut-shot straight. Betting
enough with a made hand to make their draws unprofitable by giving them poor pot odds will
win money over time.
Observing that a loose / passive player only ever bets out when they made their draw can win
you even more by allowing you to get away from a 2nd best hand as the situation requires. At a
loose passive table you will get many free cards to make your own drawing hands, take them a
bet is often too likely to be called to function as a semi-bluff.
With a drawing hand after the flop at a loose / aggressive table you will have less chance to take
a free card. Opponents are likely to bet whether they hit the flop or not. Here a bet, particularly in
position may be your best strategy. Even an aggressive opponent is likely to check to you after
the turn in which case you can take a free river card to try and complete your draw if required.
Table image at loose tables.

Finally, your own table image and betting style will affect your strategy when playing at a loose
table. If you have been playing loose poker yourself then resist the temptation to suddenly check
when you hit a monster hand.
training.
There are 2 reasons for this, firstly observant opponents may suspect something is amiss since
you did not bet when you usually do. Secondly, you have missed a chance to get some more
money into the pot, and so increase the size of bets on future betting rounds.
Loose table strategy evaluation.

To summarize, winning at a loose table involves adjusting your strategy depending on whether
the players are loose / passive or loose / aggressive. Hands are played differently both before and
after the flop depending on the nature of your loose opponents. Your position at the table and
your table image are other factors that also affect your strategy in winning at loose tables.
Tight Table Strategy

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > General > Loose Table Strategy
0
Tables featuring tight players can be a profitable venue for the poker player who is able to
properly adjust their strategy accordingly.
Adjustments will need to be made in several areas to avoid tricky post flop situations. This
article will look into some of the key poker strategy adjustments required to help you win at
tight tables today.
Firstly we will look at the nature of your tight opponents, the kind of starting hands that they are
playing and their likely betting patterns before and after the flop. We then look at how having
tight opponents affects your own starting hand selection and post-flop strategy in a variety of
situations. Finally we cover how your position at the table relative to certain types of tight
opponent will further affect your strategy.
surprised.
What is a tight poker table?

Tight players can be defined as those playing few hands pre-flop in some cases less than 10%
of all starting hands. The characteristics of tight players mean that they will normally raise with
the hands that they play since these are generally strong. Since they have waited a long time for
a quality hand in many cases, some tight players are reluctant to let go of these strong hands
unless they are sure that they are beaten.
Tight players play very few hands, and tend to stick to premium hands when entering a pot.
While not all tight opponents are equal, we can make some assumptions based on their
reluctance to get involved in a pot without solid values. Firstly, you will need a strong hand
yourself to call a raise from a tight player (see the gap concept). Secondly, we can expect a tight
player to bet out on a variety of flops but be less likely to call a big raise when a "scare card"
(for example an ace when the tight player holds a pair of queens) hits the board.
Tight poker table strategy.

The strategy adjustments required to beat these kind of opponents will affect many areas of your
game. You should be less willing to call a raise from a tight player but more willing to open a
pot for a raise yourself. Raising has two key advantages. Tight players will often "tip you off"
when they hold a monster by re-raising. Importantly, they will also fold regularly to any show of
strength enabling you to build you stack by picking up blinds and small pots where none of
your opponents have hit a strong hand.
Tight players tend to be a little easier to read than loose players, but this does not necessarily
mean that it is more profitable to play against them.
Post flop play against tight opponents involves making some assumptions about the likelihood of
them hitting the flop based on the texture of the community cards.
Tight poker table hand example.

A good example is when 3 low cards come on the board or perhaps a small pair with a medium
card. The nature of your opponents means they will be heavily favoring high cards. Since there
are more unpaired high card combinations than pairs (for example A-K can be dealt 16 ways
while A-A or K-K only have 6 ways each) the flop is likely to have missed the majority of their
hands. Here a small bet will often take the pot uncontested from your tight opponents.
Another tight poker table hand example.

A second example involves a flop with a number of draws for example 5 6 8 . Here
imagine that you called a bet from position before the flop and your tight opponent now bets into
you on this board. Being tight his most likely holding is an over-pair to the board, the bet
designed to protect this hand from the numerous drawing hands.
Here is a situation where calling this bet, then raising heavily should a 3rd suited card or card
that could have made a straight arrives on the turn. While this strategy is more risky it carries the
benefit that opponents are unlikely to have bet before the flop with a drawing hand themselves.
In both examples the nature of the particular opponent should be taken into account. While many
tight players will lay down their hands in the face of strength or a draw heavy board some will
not. If you run into a tight / passive opponent who will call all the way with K-K on an ace high
flop then add them to your buddy list immediately this opponent is perfect for value betting
those times that you make a strong hand and will often pay you off with their entire stack.
Position strategy at tight tables.

Your position at the table is another important factor in winning at tight tables. This includes
both your position in relation to the dealer button and your position in relation to the pre-flop
raiser. From the dealer button you can open up your starting hand requirements at a tight table,
from any late position you are mathematically favored to steal the blinds against opponents with
small calling ranges.
Acting last after the flop will give you more information at a tight table than at a loose one. At a
loose table your opponent is likely to continuation bet as a matter of course a raise and a reraise ahead of you at a tight table is more likely to reflect the true strength of your opponents
hands, allowing you to exit the pot cheaply.
Relative position at a tight table.

Calling a raise from early position at a tight table can leave you vulnerable to being sandwiched
between the likely post-flop raiser and any opponents left in the hand. Since opponents are likely
to play strong starting hands this can potentially lead to difficult decisions after the flop for
example your top pair may be ahead of the original raiser but an opponent behind you may have
hit a monster.
Sitting immediately to the left of the preflop raiser can cause more problems than you might
think.
Avoid these situations by ensuring that you will act last relative to the likely raiser after the flop.
Take a look at the article on relative position for more information on this topic.
Tight table strategy evaluation.

To summarize, adjusting to tight tables involves several interlinking factors. Bluffing,
particularly on low or draw-heavy flops goes up in value (however you must give up quickly if
called!), value betting becomes opponent dependant and is very lucrative against a tight / passive
opponent. The value of position, both absolute and relative, increases as post flop bets (or
checks) are more likely to reflect the true strength of your opponents hands.
The Gap Concept

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > General > Gap Concept
1
Professional Poker writer and player David Sklansky introduced the gap concept to poker in his
book Tournament Poker for Advanced Players.
What is the gap concept?

The gap concept simply suggests that it takes a better hand to call a raise than it takes to make
the first raise.
The "gap" describes how big the distance is between the value of the raisers hand and the value
of the potential callers hand. This "gap" increases when playing against a tight opponent and
decreases when playing against a loose opponent.
For what it's worth, the gap concept is not exclusive to Texas Hold'em. It can be played to almost
all variants of poker where there is an initial round of betting, including variants like Omaha and
7 Card Stud Poker.
Gap concept diagram.
The green and purple lines are the most important ones to think about.
This is a simple diagram to highlight the gap between hands that players are prepared to bet with
and hands that players are prepared to call with.
The green and purple lines increase in length for loose players with wide starting hand
ranges.
The green and purple lines decrease in length for tight players with strict starting hand
ranges.
The gap increases when looser players bet in to tight players.
The gap decreases when tighter players bet in to loose players.
Don't forget that this is just a very basic diagram to illustrate the gap concept. It does not factor
in other important stuff like; the number of players at the table, player position, bet sizes and
metagame conditions.
surprised.
Gap concept example.

An example of where the gap concept can be used is when you are holding a hand like AT in
middle/late position. If there has been a raise before you, it is likely that your opponent will have
a stronger hand because they have raised in an early position.
A raise from early position usually shows more strength than a raise from late position, because
the EP raiser knows that a number of players will be acting after them and they will be one of the
first to act on following rounds if another player calls. Therefore we can put our opponent on a
range of good hands like AK, AQ, AJ, AA, KK, QQ, JJ and so on.
Most of these hands that an early position player would usually raise with have our hand
dominated; therefore we should fold the hand.
A raise from early position shows far more strength than a raise from a player in late position.
However, if there has been no raise before the action gets to us, it may be a good idea to raise
because we may now have the best hand. In addition, we would be using the gap concept to our
advantage because any players acting after us will be concerned that we have a strong hand if we
raise (like the hands outlined above), and they will have to have a good strong hand to call.
Furthermore, by raising in late position we have the opportunity to take down the pot because
there are less people to act behind us.
How the gap concept works.

The gap concept relies on players giving the initial raiser a range of starting hands that they
believe they would raise with. The tighter the table image of the raiser, the smaller the range of
hands would be and therefore there would be a greater "gap" between the value of the raisers
hand and the value of the hand that the player is contemplating to call with.
Subsequently, the range increases and the gap decreases if the raising player is loose, as a loose
player may well be raising with much weaker holecards. This means that stronger hands will be
needed to call a tight players raise than a raise from a loose player.
This may seem a little confusing at first, but it simply incorporates the basic idea that you need a
very good hand to call raises against tight players and that you do not always need a strong hand
to call a raise from a loose player.
Gap concept evaluation.

When you call a raise, it is indicating to your opponent and the rest of the table that you have a
strong hand. However, when a player raises, it does not necessarily mean that they have a strong
hand, as they could just be playing aggressive poker.
Therefore this is where the gap concept is used to show how it takes a stronger hand to call a
raise than it does to make the raise in the first place. The gap concept is used to help show
you the advantages of aggressive play and how you must be selective about the hands that you
play with in the face of a raise.
Short Stack Poker Strategy

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > General > Short Stack Strategy
2
For a guide to beating short stack poker players, check out the "Crushing Shortstackers"
concept video.
There are always going to be times in your poker career where you will find yourself as the short
stack at the table and probably having a smaller stack than the rest of your opponents.
It may be because you are in the middle of a tournament and had a bad run of cards, or because
you simply enjoy to buy in to cash games with a short stack.
But for whatever reason you are playing with a relatively small amount of chips, it is good to be
able to understand and employ a good short stack strategy.
What is a short stack in no limit Texas Hold'em?

The typical short stack in any cash game or tournament will have 40 Big Blinds or less.
However, there are varying degrees of short stack poker as a 10BB stack will require a slightly
different strategy than a 40BB stack, and it is important to be aware of these differences.
You may have noticed that the term short stack is determined by the size of your stack relative
to the blinds, and not relative to the stack sizes of your opponents. Therefore even if you have
30BB and your opponents have 20BB, you are still considered to have a short stack, and so you
should continue to utilize a good short stack strategy.
How to play with a short stack.
Having a short stack means that you have less room to make plays at the poker table. Bluffs and
advanced moves (like float plays) are formed from being able to make educated checks, bets,
calls and raises on each round of the hand, so having a short stack will reduce and sometimes
eliminate any room for special manoeuvres by both you and your opponents.
Furthermore, the general structure of a no limit Texas Holdem game is that the bigger bets will
be made on the turn and river, as the preflop and flop rounds are usually set-up rounds that build
the pot and prepare the hand for action. The fact that we have a short stack means that we will
rarely be making it past the flop in terms of betting as we will not having enough chips to
continue.
With a short stack, most (or all) of the action will be taking place on the preflop and flop betting
rounds.
Hands to play when short-stacked.

The fact that we have little room for movement and that our betting will cease at the flop means
that we should be playing big heavy hitting hands that will make strong hands at the flop, rather
than smaller hands that have potential.
We should avoid hands like suited connectors and small pocket pairs, as these hands are
profitable when we have a deep stack, as our implied odds are there to compensate for the likely
event that we miss the flop. In general we are best entering pots with are big suited cards that can
make top pair or better at the flop, although we should exercise some flexibility in starting hand
selection depending on the size of our short stack.
Below is a table of the hands we should be looking to play depending on our situation:
Starting hands chart.

Note: This starting hands chart is designed for tournament games where you are pressured to
make more moves as the amount of chips left in your stack decreases. This table is not designed
for short stack cash game strategy where you have the option of reloading again and again.
Hands Key
AA
KK
QQ
40BB or less.
30BB or less.
20BB or less.
10BB or less.
AKs
AQs
JJ
AK
AQ
AJs
AJ
TT
ATs
KQs
AT
KQ
KJs
KJ
AXs
AX
QJs
QJ
As you can see, a lot of emphasis has been placed playing big cards that can make top pair or
better, which will often be the best hand on the flop. As you should remember it is unlikely that
we will make any more bets past the flop betting round, so we should be more than happy to be
making a good pair and get our money in on the flop.
You may notice that hands that include aces have been given a lot of weight, especially if you
are a very short stack. This is because of the fact that as a extremely short stack, it is more than
likely that you will be pushing or calling an all in on the flop regardless if you have caught a
piece of it or not. Therefore if we are holding an ace, we will have a better chance of winning
with a high card against an opponent in the event that they did not make a pair either.
How to play these hands.
When we are dealt any of the above cards that are within our range depending on the effective
stack sizes, we should always be raising when entering the pot. It may seem like a good idea to
limp and try and catch a good flop for cheap, but it is more profitable to raise and build the pot
for when we hit our hand, which we are more likely to do if we are holding a strong starting
hand.
With a stack of 10BB or more we should be looking to raise around 3 or 4BB if we are first to
enter the pot. However, if we have 10BB or less, it will not be too bad of a play to push all-in
straight away, as any call from a 4BB raise will leave us completely pot-committed anyway.
With 10BB or less, you can think about using the stop and go play also.
On the flop we are usually reduced to going all-in or folding as a short stack. The smaller the size
of our stack, the more inclined we should be to calling or pushing all-in as we are more likely to
be committed to the pot. The shorter the stack, the less the flop will matter to us. However, if we
have around 30/40BB, we can be a little more selective because we will not be pot committed
and have the opportunity to wait for a better spot.
The shorter your stack, the less post-flop action you are going to deal with. So it's important to
have a strong hand that has a good chance of winning after all 5 community cards have been
dealt.
Nevertheless, if we are pot committed and will be moving all-in regardless, it is always better to
make the all-in bet rather than calling if possible. This is because by betting we are giving our
opponent the opportunity to fold the best hand or a potentially winning hand, which is something
that is not available to us if we are calling the all-in bet.
Short stack tips overview.

Play simple ABC poker. Avoid attempting to bluff and just bet when you have a strong
hand.
Only enter pots with premium hands.
Fold small pocket pairs and suited connectors as you have do not have implied odds.
Make strong 4BB raises before the flop.
Be prepared to move all of your stack in to the middle before or on the flop.
Leave the table if you win a big pot (and intend on playing short-stacked).
Short stack strategy evaluation.

Good short stack strategy is all about pushing every little edge that we have. Just because we
have a smaller stack, it does not mean that we have less chance of winning any individual hand,
it just means we have to adapt our play a little differently to each situation.
Nevertheless, we will be facing an up hill battle if we are in a tournament as each pot we enter is
more likely to involve putting our tournament life on the line. At some poker sites (friend's
website), the structure of the faster tournaments will mean that you will spend the majority of the
game as a short stack, which is a good way to learn how to play good short stack poker.
We should always look for the most profitable situations and get our money in when we think we
have the best of it, and we should always prepare for luck to play its part in each outcome.
Playing a good, sound short stack strategy does not guarantee to save a tournament life or
secure a double up, but it will improve your chances of coming out on top in the long run.
In cash games, you cannot expect to win every all-in, but you can still play a profitable game by
picking the right situations and trying to get your money in with the best hand.
Online Poker Multi Tabling

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > General > Multi-Tabling
0
One of the biggest advantages online poker has over live poker is that you are able to play at
multiple tables at a time. Most online poker rooms allow you to open up more than one table
window and sit down and play poker at each table simultaneously.
Some online rooms such as Bet365 Poker have actually created a mini-mode view that allows
players to shrink the table window down so that you can fit 4 tables onto one 1024x768 screen
without overlap.
Multi-tabling has become increasingly popular amongst regular online players, who will happily
play at 2, 4, 8 or more tables. However, the majority of players will stick to multi-tabling around
2 to 4 tables at once.
NLHE cash games.
The advantage of playing at multiple tables.
The main motive behind multi-tabling is to increase a players win rate per hour. If you are a
consistent winner at the $100NL table, imagine how much more you could potentially win per
hour by playing 2 tables at once instead of 1. How about opening up 3 or 4 tables at once?
It all seems pretty simple, open up some more tables and you could be doubling, tripling or even
quadrupling the amount you are currently winning per hour. However, there is one important
factor that we have to take into consideration before assuming that things are this simple. We
have to take into account that fact that our play will deteriorate for every extra table we sit down
at.
How to win more money by playing multiple tables.

Every time we multi-table we can assume that the amount we expect to win every hour from
each individual table will decrease. This is because our attention is now going to be divided
between two or more separate tables, whereas we would be able to focus all of our concentration
on one table if we were not multi-tabling.
It will be more difficult to put players on hands because we will normally be too busy making
our plays on one table to analyse the plays of our opponents on another. However, this is not
necessarily such a bad thing, because there is still a good chance that we will be making more
money overall. Here's an example:
Profit per hour when multi-tabling.

When we play $100NL 1 table at a time we win $8 per hour.
When we play 2 tables at a time we win $5 an hour on each of the individual tables.
2 tables total profit = $10.
Therefore overall we will be making $10 per hour multi-tabling instead of $8, which means an
extra profit of $2 per hour.
Finding the optimum number of tables to play at.

The biggest problem with multi-tabling for extra profit is finding the optimum number of tables
to give us the biggest win rate per hour. If we play one table at a time we will win a smaller
amount than if we multi-table, but if we play at too many tables at a time then our win rate per
hour on each of the tables could decrease so much that we win less than if we were playing at
one table at a time.
When playing at multiple tables, you want to hit the sweet spot of playing as many tables as
possible whilst keeping a good win rate per hour to produce maximum profit.
The sweet spot is where you have the most tables open whilst still maintaining a high winrate,
maximizing earnings.
There is some middle ground here where the graph of our win rate per table meets the number of
tables being played at to provide us with an optimum win rate. This is usually between 2 and 4
tables for the majority of online players.
When playing at multiple tables, you want to hit the sweet spot of playing as many tables as
possible whilst keeping a good win rate per hour to produce maximum profit.
Not much time for fancy plays here.
Best multi-tabling strategy.

The best strategy for multi-tabling is to play standard ABC poker, where you bet your strong
hands and fold your weak hands. It is difficult to find enough time whilst playing multiple tables
to be able to make any tricky or advanced plays. The micro limit strategy article gives a rough
overview of ABC poker.
If you try too hard trying to analyses the playing styles of each of the players at the tables you
will simply become too exhausted and your ability will deteriorate even further.
Just think of your opponents as robots and play a solid style of poker against them. You are not
going to be able to outsmart all of them all of the time, but if you play better than the majority of
them every time you sit down at the table, then you will be a winner in the long run.
Playing at multiple tables can improve your game.

Another reason why people decide to play multiple tables at once is to reduce the boredom of
having to wait been playing hands. Players can become accustomed to the fast style of Internet
play and so the wait been playing hands may become frustrating after a while.
Playing at multiple tables takes a lot of the waiting out of the game, which is perfect for players
who always like to be in the middle of the action.
This frustration can sometimes lead to players loosening their starting hand requirements just to
subdue the boredom, which is not a profitable way to play. So in some cases it can be beneficial
to play more than one table at a time to prevent yourself from entering too many pots and
throwing away money on hands that you should never have played in the first place.
Multi tabling evaluation.

For further reading on this subject, check out my friend's article on multi tabling over at his
Internet Poker site. It covers more about the different variations of multi-tabling options along
with a few more tips for you to get your teeth in to.
Multi-tabling is a great option for players looking to increase their win rate per hour or are
looking to liven things up with their online poker. It takes no special skill, nor is it as difficult as
you may think to play at more than one table at a time. It is recommended however that you ease
yourself in by playing 2 tables at first, and then increase the number of tables as you become
more comfortable with playing at numerous tables.
training.
You will also want to try and make sure that you set the tables up in an order across the screen
that you feel comfortable with. A great room for multi-tabling is Bet365 as you are able to view
the tables in a mini-mode just like at 32Red, and tile them across the screen via a button in the
options menu. I have found this to be an incredibly handy feature.
Always try and make the tables as visible as possible on the screen so that you are able to glance
over all of them to keep up with the action. By following these tips and practicing you will soon
be able to squeeze more from your time spent playing online poker.
Small Blind Strategy

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > General > Small Blind Strategy
0
Blind leakage is an exceptional video by James 'SplitSuit' Sweeney that covers everything
you need to know about profitable blind play (both in the SB and BB) in Texas Hold'em cash
games.
The small blind is a very tricky position to play from in Texas Hold'em. If you were to track your
performance in each position at the table using a program such as Poker Office, you will find that
the small blind is a losing position overall.
The best players in the world find it difficult to win money from the small blind, and that's just
the way it is.
When playing in the small blind our aim is to try and reduce the amount of money we will lose,
so that we can increase our overall wins from the other seats at the table.
The problem with playing in the small blind.

The fundamental reason as to why the small blind is such a difficult and losing position in the
hand is due to the fact that we are going to be first to act in every round after the flop. Being out
of position means that our opponents will get to see how we act before they do, giving them
more information on the strength of our hand than we have on theirs.
This will put us at a big disadvantage throughout the hand, as any experienced player knows how
important a role that position plays in poker, especially in Texas Holdem.
Therefore we should know that when playing from the small blind, we are going to be on an
uphill struggle throughout the hand. So a good small blind strategy would to not embark on this
struggle in the first place, and simply fold before the flop. If we do intend to get involved when
in the small blind, we will want to have a very strong starting hand to compensate for the fact
that we are going to be out of position for every round after the flop.
NLHE cash games.
Using starting hand selection to save money in the small blind.
By using solid starting hand selection we can increase our chances of winning the hand despite
the fact that we are out of position. Even though the small blind may be a losing seat overall, it
does not mean that we will lose money on every individual hand that we play from that particular
position. So dont be afraid to enter a pot if you have a strong enough hand to do so, but always
remember to tighten your starting hand requirements when in the small blind.
A common small blind strategy mistake.

A big mistake when playing in the small blind is being under the notion that its worth seeing a
flop for a little extra, as half of your blind is already in the pot. However, whilst having half of
your blind in the pot does improve the pot odds you have to call, there is the possibility that you
are setting yourself up for bigger losses than you might expect.
The extra half a bet that you have to call to see a flop may look innocent, but in real fact it is a
very dangerous play, especially for the less experienced players. The big losses do not lie in the
extra half a bet lost on every flop that we miss, but in the hands where we have half a holding,
and put more money in the pot than necessary to try and find out if we are ahead.
Never feel committed to a pot simply because you have paid your blind. It is not profitable to try
and protect money you have put in the pot through the blinds, so play the hand like any other.
Playing in the small blind example.

Let say we are in the small blind and there have been a few limpers before us. We look down and
see that were are holding K 7 . This looks like a half decent hand and so we decide to call
because its only half a blind more to see a flop.
The flop comes down 9 T K giving us top pair with a 7 kicker, not a bad hand.
Having top pair we decide to bet out around of the pot to see how the other players react. A
few players fold, but an opponent in one of the later positions raises us 3 times our original bet,
and the action is now back onto us.
In this situation our opponent could have a range of hands; they could have a king with a worse
kicker, or a king with a better kicker. They may have two pair, a set, or even a straight or a flush
draw. There are so many possibilities and we have little information on which hand he could
have because we are out of position. But seeing as we have a half decent hand we decide to call.
The turn makes the board 2 , which doesn't improve our hand and probably made little
difference to our opponent's.
Because we are a little unsure about the strength of our hand we decide to check, and our
opponent then comes out with a pot-size bet. Now we are still unsure if our opponent does have a
better hand, or whether he is just exploiting our weakness because we checked. However, by this
time a pot-size bet is quite large, so we decide to let the hand go and cut our losses.
Small blind example evaluation.

When reading through the hand above you probably recognized the situation all too well. Having
a half decent hand but coming up against strength from another opponent and being out of
position is all too common.
These situations are difficult to play because we have so little information on our opponents and
we can never be sure if we do have the best hand. In the hand mentioned above, this problem
could have easily been avoided by folding pre-flop, saving us a decent amount of money in the
process.
The poor position in this hand has caused us a lot of problems, and it always will when you are
playing from the small blind.
Although K 7 looks like a reasonable hand, it just proves to be the type of hand that is going
to cause us problems after the flop if we hit any part of it. So if we are determined to enter a pot
when calling from the small blind, we have to play cards that have potential to hit a very big
hand.
By sticking with cards like suited connectors and pocket pairs, we will either hit a big hand or we
wont, which saves us the trouble of deciding what to do after the flop. A marginal hand is the last
thing we want to hit when out of position, so dont try and put up a battle with them and be
prepared to let them go when you come up against action.
Small blind strategy evaluation.

The small blind is a very tricky position to play from, so we should try and avoid entering too
many pots from this position unless we have a premium hand. Calling from the small blind will
usually cause more problems than it is worth, so try and avoid doing so unless you have a hand
that has some potential.
The small blind is the worst position to be in, so dont expect too much from the hand because
you are always going to be at a disadvantage to the other players at the table that have position
on you. Never feel as if you are committed to the pot hand because half of your blind in already
in the pot, you will be saving yourself money in the long run if you folded every marginal hand
instead of calling.
Pot Committed
Texas Hold'em > Strategy > General > Pot Committed
0
Im sure most of you like to think that you are familiar with the term pot committed. However,
I can guarantee that too many of you are using it as an excuse to make reckless calls, and its
costing you dearly.
On the other hand, if youre not familiar with being committed to the pot, thats cool. Ill
explain it in just a moment.
In this article I will give a good (if I say so myself) explanation of what pot committed actually
means. Ill also go on to highlight the mistakes that too many players make as they convince
themselves that being pot committed is a good excuse to throw lashings of healthy money in to
bad situations.
What does pot committed mean?

You are pot committed when the pot odds for the remainder of your stack are greater than your
odds of winning the hand.
So instead of comparing the pot size to an opponents bet, compare the pot size to the remainder
of your stack.
If your "stack odds" are greater than your chance of winning the pot by the end of the hand, you
are pot committed.
Quick pot committed example.

Lets say you and an opponent both started with $200 stacks. You are on the turn and you have
built a $300 pot between the both of you, and so youre both left with $50.
If you have top pair at this point, you are virtually pot committed and should not fold at any
point, whether it be on the turn or the river.
Your pot odds relative to the remainder of your stack are 7 - 1 ($350 : $50). (Dont forget
to add your own stack to the pot to get the total pot size.)
You almost certainly have a better than 7 - 1 (12.5%) chance of winning the hand, even if
your opponent usually only bets or calls with strong hands.
In this example, our pot odds are greater than our odds of winning the hand. Therefore we are pot
committed and should call. Were not facing any bet, but if we look at our stack and pot size we
can see that we are pretty much committed with a hand like top pair with 7 to 1 pot odds.
Even though you really dont feel as though youre going to have the best hand most of the time,
the odds indicate that you would lose more money over the long run if you folded. In fact, you
would have to believe that you had less than 12.5% chance of winning to make a profitable fold
(on the turn or river), which is highly unlikely in this situation.
Pot committed evaluation.

Being pot committed is simply working out your pot odds relative to the remainder of
your stack (as opposed to working them out using the bet that you are facing).
Working out whether or not you are pot committed just involves basic pot odds.
The more of your stack that you invest in the pot, the greater your pot odds and the
chances of becoming pot committed will be. This is why players are naturally more
reluctant to fold after investing a large amount of money.
You lose more money over the long run if you fold when pot committed as opposed to
calling. Always call if you are pot committed.
money.
What being pot committed isnt.

An absolutely huge mistake that beginner players make is to throw good money after bad. The
worst thing is that they use the term pot committed as an excuse to justify their play, and they
fail realise just how abysmal their actions are.
Heres a poor explanation of pot committed that I found at Answers.com:

When a player should call a bet because the majority of their chips are already invested within
the pot.
Can you see why thats so wrong?
Just because you have put the majority of your stack in the middle, it doesnt make you pot
committed. Commitment to the pot is about the odds of winning too, not just about the
majority of a stack.
Example of why you shouldnt just look at how much youve invested alone.
Lets say that youre on the river and youve put $999 of a $1,000 stack in to the pot. Just before
your opponent bets his final $1, he shows you that he has a Royal Flush, beating your full house.
He then bets that last $1. Should you call?
Definitely not. You probably would just for a laugh, but youre making a $1 loss every single
time you call in that situation. There is a 0% chance of winning the $2,000 pot, but a 100%
chance of losing $1. That leaves you with an EV of -$1.
Having put $999 in to the pot makes no difference. In fact, you could have put $999,999 in the
middle and it wouldnt change the fact that calling that $1 is negative EV. You have to remember
that the odds of winning help dictate whether or not you are pot committed, not just the amount
of money you have invested in the pot.
Your pot odds (relative to the size of your stack) must be greater than your chances of winning
for you to be committed to the pot.
How to use this pot committed knowledge during play.

1. Avoid building big pots with hands that youre not prepared to go all in with.
2. Dont assume that youre pot committed just because youve put a wedge of your stack in
to the pot. It may not be nice to fold, but its better than throwing more money away.
3. You dont have a sixth sense for knowing when youre pot committed. Maths and odds
are more reliable.
4. Putting your opponent on a range and having reads will help you to figure out your odds
of winning.
A handy rule from Professional No-Limit Holdem: Volume I is to never put 1/3 of your stack in
the middle and then fold. The theory is that if youre putting that much money in to the middle
and then folding, youre investing too much money with weak hands.
Note: Why 1/3? Because if you have put 1/3 of your stack in the middle, it means that you or
your opponent can make an all-in bet for the size of the pot or less.
e.g. if youve put $34 of a $100 stack in the middle, the pot will be at least $68 and you will have
$66 left - and so should your opponent.
So the question is, what do you do if youve put 1/3 of your stack in the middle? Well, you have
two options:
1. Dont fold.
2. Dont put 1/3 of your stack in the middle in the first place.
If you have a good enough hand, dont fold. Your odds of winning must be less than 2 to 1
(33%) to fold, so with a good hand you should be committed to the pot.
If you dont have a strong enough hand, youve made a mistake earlier on in the hand. Youve
either made bets that were too big or called large bets when it was probably best to have bet
smaller, checked or folded.
From the start of every hand you play you need to have a plan. You need to have an idea of how
big you want (or dont want the pot to get). If you dont plan effectively you will end up going
past the 1/3 of your stack mark without much of an idea of what you want to do. If that happens,
youll land in a sticky situation.
There are a few exceptions to this rule, but this article is big enough already. Buy the book for a
more thorough guide on the 1/3 rule or check out this commitment threshold article.
Are you new to pot commitment or do you use it as an

excuse?
As I read through this article it seems as though Im giving somewhat conflicting advice.
On one hand Im telling you not to use pot commitment as an excuse to throw chips in to the
middle, but on the other Im saying that you should never fold if youre pot committed.
To clear things up a little, Im basically trying to help two groups of players here:
1. If youre new to pot odds and pot commitment, I want you to know that if you are indeed
pot committed at any point, it is a mistake to fold.
2. If youre familiar with pot commitment and youre using it too liberally, be prepared to
think a little harder and dont always allow yourself to be convinced that throwing the
rest of your money in to the middle is the only option.
Work out which group you fall in to and focus on the advice in this article that applies to you. If
youre in neither group, I hope youre enjoying the article so far.
Pot committed conclusion.

If you are pot committed, do not fold.
Here are a few more pointers though for good measure:
You are pot committed is when you have greater pot odds relative to the remainder of
your stack than your odds of winning.
Dont use the term pot committed as a lame excuse to make bad bets and calls. Use the
odds to determine whether or not you are committed to the pot and go from there.
Dont put 1/3 of your stack in the pot and then fold. Either dont fold or dont put that
much money in the pot in the first place.
Honestly, although the 1/3 of your stack rule is handy, I wouldnt recommend spending too
much time stressing about it. The most important lesson here is to plan your hands effectively. If
you learn how to bet and call appropriately according to the strength of your hand, the 1/3 rule
will take care of itself.
Decisions that you make preflop and on the flop will affect what happens on the turn and river. If
you fail to realise this very important point, youll end up in some very sticky situations and
getting pot committed with cards that youd never dream of going all-in with at the start of the
hand.
Blind Stealing
Texas Hold'em > Strategy > General > Blind Stealing
0
"Blind stealing" is a term used in poker for when a player in late position raises pre-flop in an
attempt to win the uncontested blinds.
This strategy is often effective because the players in the blinds will have any random two cards,
meaning there is a small chance that they will have a hand worth calling a raise with, allowing
you to take their blinds.
In addition to this, the players in the blinds will be first to act against you if they do call, so they
should know that they need a better than mediocre hand to pay to see a flop.
In terms of poker strategy for blind stealing, you will find yourself in two different positions
during a game.
1. You will have the opportunity to steal other players' blinds.
2. Other players will be trying to steal your blinds.
How should you play in both of these situations? The recommended plays are determined by
whether you are playing in a tournament or a cash game.
Blind Stealing Strategy

Tournaments.
Blind stealing is most effective in tournaments (for example; sit n go's and multi table
tournaments). If you are in need of chips, you sometimes cannot afford to wait for a premium
hand. Therefore blind stealing offers a great opportunity for you to accumulate chips.
However, at the start of these tournaments where the blinds are very low in relation to your stack
size, blind stealing becomes less beneficial. This is because the blinds are too small to be worth
fighting for, and opponents are more likely to call raises because the blinds are so small in
relation to their stack.
Cash games.
For a complete strategy video guide to blind stealing in cash games, watch SplitSuit's Stealing
video.
In cash games the blinds are usually very small in relation to your stack. This means that from a
purely money making point of view, blind stealing is not going to be very profitable. In general
you want to stick to playing good hands and avoid risking money with a weak hand.
However, blind stealing in cash games should be based on whether you feel you can easily outplay your opponents on later betting rounds if they call, and take the extra money they put into
the pot. This play is aided by the fact that you will be last to act on each round, giving you a
much better opportunity to win. But be sure not to use this play on every orbit because the
players in the blinds will become wise to your game.
I would not recommend stealing blinds in cash games on a regular basis as a method of winning
more money.
Defending against players trying to steal your blinds.

As a general rule, you should not actively attempt to protect your blinds on every round. You
have to remember that you are going to be first to act against anyone who tries to steal your blind
because of your poor table position, so if you call and don't hit the flop hard, what are you going
to do?
If you check, are you going to re-raise their continuation bet (which is very likely) in an
attempt to re-steal the pot?
Are you going to bluff at the pot when first to act?
In both situations you will have no idea what your opponent has and you are risking a decent
amount trying to take down a "nothing pot". Information is key and without knowing anything
about your opponents' hands, protecting your blinds isn't going to be profitable in the long run.
It's never going to be as easy as you might hope to defend against a player stealing your blinds.
It's better to let them go rather than dig yourself in to a deeper hole by fighting back.
You should remember that after you have posted your blind, it is no longer your money. The
money now belongs to the pot and not to you. This is the reason why many players can lose a lot
of money to raises when in the blinds, as they believe that the blind is still their money and that
they have to defend it. This is not the case
In certain circumstances however, you can effectively deter your opponents from stealing your
blinds on future betting rounds. If you feel a player is betting in late position in an attempt to
steal, a decent re-raise on your part will make them think twice about trying to steal on future
rounds.
Even if your opponent does call your re-raise, the fact that you made the play you did shows that
you have the capability to re-raise anyone who tries to steal your blind from late position. This
play is most effective when the blinds are small in relation to your stack, as you are not risking as
much of your stack and not forcing yourself to become committed to the pot.
Stealing blinds evaluation.

Blind stealing is dependent on the size of the blinds in relation to the effective stack sizes. It
becomes less effective trying to steal the blinds when they are small because you are potentially
putting a lot of your stack at risk for a small pot. One of the worst things you can do in the face
of a possible blind steal is call.
This means that you are putting more money into the pot, which your opponent has a good
chance of taking away from you. If you are ever in doubt, simply play to the strength of your
hand. Fold your weak hands and re-raise with your strong hands.
Effective Stack Sizes

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > General > Stack Sizes > Effective
0
The terms effective stack sizes or effective stacks are effortlessly thrown around on poker
forums and in strategy articles.
It sounds like a term that would be a little complex at least, but it's actually the easiest concept
you'll ever learn about in poker.
What are effective stack sizes?

The effective stack size is the size of the smallest stack when two players are in a pot.
That's it. No equations, no tricky theory.
When two players are up against each other in a hand, the effective stack sizes for those two
players is the size of the smallest stack. Bam.
Effective stack size examples.

This is one of the few situations in poker strategy where examples are actually overkill. But I've
got plenty of time on my hands, so
Player A: $100
Player B: $80
Effective stack size: $80
Player A: $10
Player B: $25
Player A: $50
Player B: $50
Player A: $1,000,000
Player B: $100
NLHE cash games.
What about effective stacks and multiple players?

The effective stack size is only a consideration for two players at a time. For example, if you had
four players with these stack sizes:
Player A: $100
Player B: $80
Player C: $125
Player D: $50
You wouldn't say that the effective stacks for all the players is $50, just because the smallest
stack out of this set of players is $50.
Instead, you'd say that the effective stacks between Player A and Player C are $100, or the
effective stacks between C and D are $50. You'll understand why in the following section
What's the importance of effective stack sizes?

When two players are heads up in a pot, neither player will be able to bet more than the amount
of money in the smallest stack.
You are playing $50NL. You have a full stack of $50, but the only other player in the hand with
you has a $20 stack. In this situation, you effectively may as well have a $20 stack too. You can't
force the other player to put more than their $20 in the middle, and they're not going to be able to
make you put more than $20 of your $50 stack in the middle either. This isn't a dodgy poker
movie scene.
In this situation, that extra $30 you have is essentially useless. Or, keeping in with the theme of
this concept -- "ineffective".
A simple diagram to
highlight the effective part and the ineffective part of your stack when up against another player
with a smaller stack than you. The colours turned out a lot more feminine than I planned.
This is a vitally important concept, because the fact that you are now effectively playing with a
$20 stack should influence the way you bet and play your hand. If you're not sure why, I'll
explain in just a moment.
Note: The idea of effective stacks is most suited to pot limit and no limit poker games. The
chance of players getting their entire stacks in the middle in fixed limit games is incredibly slim,
so it's hardly a concern.
So the next time you're chatting with a friend about a hand you've played, instead of saying I
had $50 and she had $20, you may as well say the effective stacks were $20. Mentioning the
size of each individual stack is pointless -- the effective stacks is what matters.
Furthermore, the fact you'll be using less words means that you'll conserve extra energy for
playing more poker.
Effective stack size considerations.

It's always important to take in to account the stack size of the player(s) you are up against. If
you didn't already know that, you've got a bit of learning to do.
Here are a few quick pointers:
1) Implied odds.
If the effective stack sizes are small, you are not going to have the opportunity to get paid off as
much if you are drawing to a flush (or something like that). Therefore, it makes it less profitable
to chase draws or set mine if you or your opponent have a small stack.
Conversely, if the effective stack sizes are huge, it makes it a lot more profitable to chase after
strong draws.
2) Fold equity.
Bluffs are harder to pull off when the effective stack sizes are small because you will have less
fold equity. Smaller stacks are less threatening than bigger stacks.
3) Stack-to-pot ratios.
Stack-to-pot ratios (or SPR) is a topic that covers the strategical implications of the size of the
pot on the flop compared to the size of the effective stacks.
A note on short stackers.

Short stackers (players that intentionally play with a short stack) take full advantage of the
concept of effective stacks. It allows them to cap the amount of money that can get put in to the
pot against every opponent they enter a hand with (assuming that their opponent does not have
an even smaller stack again).
Being able to play short stack poker 100% of the time means that they rarely get further than the
flop before they are all-in. As a result, the number of decisions they have to make is limited, and
the decisions they do have to make are far easier. This is why many beginner players enjoy
playing short stack poker, and why they are disliked by competent full-stack players.
Apologies for the slight rant there, but it's a perfect example of how the effective stacks concept
is utilised and exploited by some players in the game.
Check out Crushing Shortstackers (20bb) and Playing Against Cappers (40bb) for strategy on
beating various types of opponents who force you to play with smaller effective stack sizes.
training.
Final thoughts on effective stacks.

The effective stack size is the size of the smallest stack between two players.
Job done.
Way Ahead Way Behind Concept

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > General > Way Ahead Way Behind Concept
0
The way ahead / way behind concept (WAWB or WA/WB concept depending on which forum
you are coming from) is a fairly simple one that occurs quite frequently in Texas Hold em.
The way ahead / way behind concept addresses the fact that in some situations you will either be
ahead in a hand with your opponent drawing slim or dead, or your opponent will be ahead in a
hand and you will be drawing very slim or dead.
You can tell that you might be in a WA/WB situation when you have a strong hand, but the
board and the plays being made indicate that you may be in some trouble. The best way to
describe this concept is to give you a nice example of a situation where you could either be way
ahead or way behind.
surprised.
Way ahead way behind example.

Lets say you are in middle position with A T and you make a 4BB raise and get called by a
player in late position, leaving you heads up going to the flop. The flop comes down A 9 9 ,
giving you top pair with a Ten kicker. The action is on you.
This hand is a good example of you either being way ahead or way behind. This because your
opponent will either have a hand that has you beat by some margin ( AK, AQ, AJ or a 9), or a
hand that is easily beaten by yours ( TT+, KQ, KJ, QJ). In each of these situations one of the
players is unlikely to win the hand if they are behind.
In wa/wb spots you either have little chance of losing, or little chance of winning.
WA/WB diagram.
If this just confuses you more, then I apologise. I just hope it helps you to visualise the wa/wb
concept a little better.
How should you play in WA/WB spots?

The problem with WA/WB situations is that if you are aggressive, you will either be scaring
your opponent away from the hand or digging yourself into a hole. If your opponent is behind,
they will simply fold and save their money. However, if you are the one that is behind, you are
throwing money into a pot that you have little hope of winning.
Therefore the best approach in these situations is to play passively, and allow your opponent to
make the plays in such a way ahead / way behind situation. If your opponent has the worst hand,
you are offering them the opportunity to make the mistake of betting with the worst hand.
Conversely, by checking to them, you are minimizing your losses if you are indeed way behind
in the hand.
Way ahead way behind spots are one of the very few times that I will intentionally slowplay
strong hands.
The biggest problem with WA/WB situations is that it is difficult to work out whether you are
losing or if you are ahead. This is why the best approach in these situations is to play passively,
and check/call on betting rounds to reduce the amount of money you are losing if you are behind.
So essentially, you are going into damage limitation mode rather than all out all or nothing mode
by playing aggressively.
The key point is that you cannot bet for value, and so you want to induce a bad value bet or a
bluff from your opponent. Any other play would be losing you money in the long run, so play it
cool and make the optimum plays in these particular pots.
Be sure of WA/WB situations.

Always try and be sure of when you are in a WA/WB situation before you decide to play
passively, otherwise it could have unfortunate consequences. Look out for hands that have:
Two or more cards of the same suit on the board that can an opponent a flush or a flush
draw.
Connecting cards that could give an opponent a straight or a straight draw.
In a hand where there are two cards of the same suit on board, it is less likely that you will be
able to confidently place yourself in a way ahead / way behind situation, as the way your
opponent is betting can easily be influenced by the fact that they might have a flush draw. So
always consider this when you notice that there are two cards of the same suit on the board.
Similarly, if the board is straightening up and there is a possible straight draw available, it again
makes it less likely that you could be in a WA/WB situation. If you were to play passively, there
is a good chance that you will let your opponent catch up and take the hand away from you. So
essentially, there is a greater probability of the WA/WB situation arising on a dry board than
there is on a wet board.
Way ahead way behind concept evaluation.

Way ahead / way behind situations are quite common in no limit Texas Holdem, but it should not
be an excuse for you to play passively if you are not sure where you stand. If you are confident
that you are WA/WB, then passive play is the key, but if you are not then you are going to lose
money through making weak plays and allowing your opponents to catch up.
The best way to identify a WA/WB situation is to consider how the rest of the hand could play
out, and think about what you opponent could possibly be calling or betting with. Having a
thorough think about each situation always helps to identify what is going on in the hand, and
thus you are able to make the best plays. As a rule of thumb, if there are no possible drawing
hands, then its a good idea to consider whether you might be way ahead or way behind, and play
accordingly.
Poker Table Analysis

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > General > Table Analysis
1
As soon as you sit down at the poker table, you should already be evaluating how each of your
opponents play. The more information you have on your opponents, the better the plays you can
make against them. You can obtain information about how your opponents play by watching the
hands you are not involved in.
(See the article on putting poker players on a hand for more information.)
But what information do you have on other players at the table if you are involved in the very
first hand?
If this is the case there are a few things you can look for that will give you an idea about what the
players are like:
Take a look at each player's stack size.

Read their player username (not so great, but always an option!).
Watch for players who do not wait for the big blind (again, not a great indicator).
Look out for players calling the big blind and then calling a raise from another player
(this is a good one).
money.
Stack size.
In cash games, you can quickly spot who the potential solid players and potential weak players
are by looking at the size of their stack. Each cash game has a maximum buy-in that is typically
100 times the big blind. Typically, the likely solid players will either be close to this maximum
buy in or above it.
This rule obviously cannot apply to all players, as some of the weak players may have had a
good run of cards that allowed them to increase their stack above the maximum buy-in. But this
will usually be a decent indication of their ability.
I tend to be more aware of the players with deep stacks, but I do not form a strong judgment on
their ability from this information alone.
Conversely, the likely weak/poor players will have a stack size significantly below the maximum
buy in. This is because the recreational players are comfortable with letting their stack diminish
as play progresses, whereas a winning player will want to reload to the maximum to give
themselves the best opportunities to make maximum profit on each hand.
Online player name/alias.

The alias or name of your online opponents can also be an indication of their personality and
intentions from playing the game. Many of the "sensible" players will simply use their real name
or possibly a poker related name as their alias. On the other hand, the "less sensible" and
recreational players may opt for the rude and almost offensive names.
Ask questions and learn how to win more money at the new Texas Hold'em Forums.
Although this is far from being a solid indication of our opponents styles of play, it can be
helpful when we have little to go on in regards to what our opponents are like. We can infer that
the players with sensible names are more likely to be solid players whereas the players with
less sensible names may be playing for fun as recreational players.
Players not waiting for the big blind.

As soon as you sit down at a cash table, you are not dealt a hand until you have posted a big
blind. The big blind can be posted at any time of the rotation but it is advised that you wait for
the actual big blind to come to you before playing a hand.
This is to save yourself from seeing flops in a bad position with a hand that could potentially lose
you a lot of money. Therefore if you notice that other new players at the table are posting the big
blind before the actual big blind gets too them, you can assume that they are anxious to get into
the game and play, and may not be a solid player.
Players calling the blind, then calling a raise.

If you see a player calling the initial big blind, and then calling again after a player behind them
has raised, you can assume that they are not an experienced player. This is for the reason that if
you have a hand that is worth calling a raise with, it is far better to be the raiser rather than
calling another player's raise.
In addition, if a player limps in, you can assume that they have a marginal hand or they are
slowplaying a monster. Therefore as someone raises behind them, if they call you can assume
that they are calling a raise with a marginal hand because a player with a monster starting hand
will usually re-raise. This fact that they are calling to see flops with marginal hands is enough
information to assume that the player is weak and inexperienced in playing winning poker.
On the other hand, they may still have a strong starting hand even if they do call both the big
blind and then the raise, but are just passive players. However, a solid player will not be this
passive so you can safely assume again that they are not that great to be simply calling with
strong starting hands.
Unless a player holds a small pocket pair and is set mining, calling the blind then calling a raise
is a poor play that you would not expect an experienced player to make.
Poker table analysis evaluation.

It should be stressed that the above advice on analyzing your opponents style is not always going
to be concrete evidence about how your opponents play. You may come across a player with an
extremely childish name and not waiting for the big blind as he sits down, but at the same time is
a very strong player.
You should not rely solely on these reads to gauge the strength of your opponents, but to simply
help influence your decision on how they play when you have little else to go by.
Range Balancing
Texas Hold'em > Strategy > General > Range Balancing
1
Range balancing or "balancing your range" is a not an overly advanced concept by itself, but
using it effectively at the tables does require some advanced skills.
The idea of range balancing is only going to be effective about good players that think on at
least level 2 (see multiple level thinking), so I probably wouldn't toy with the concept too much
unless you're playing at $50NL or higher.
What is range balancing?
Range balancing is where you play the exact same way with a wide range of hands in certain
situations.
The most common example of range balancing is continuation betting.
If you're continuation betting the flop 80% of the time or more, you're likely to be betting with a
wide variety of hands ranging from air to strong made hands. Therefore every time you
continuation bet, the range of hands that you could have at that point from your opponent's
perspective is fairly well-"balanced".
For more information on hand ranges, see the range article from the REM process section.
Balanced and unbalanced ranges.
If you only play certain strength hands in one way in a specific situation, your range is
"unbalanced" to that certain range of hands.
If you play a variety of strength hands in the same way in the same situation, your
range will be "balanced" as your possible hand range is not weighted too far one way or
the other.
A balanced range makes it much more difficult for your opponent to take an educated guess at
what you are likely to be holding.
That pretty much explains everything so I won't go in to any further detail. But now the big
question is...
Why balance your range?

If you have a balanced range, your opponents are going to find it difficult to narrow your hand
range down and play optimally against you.
If we are making the same action with a variety of different hands, how can an opponent narrow
down our range of possible hands? We benefit from the fact that our opponents can't narrow our
range accurately based on our actions due to our "balanced range".
The harder it is for our opponent to figure out what sort of hand we are holding the better. The
less our opponent knows about our hand the more mistakes they will make when they play
against us, which means that as a result we will be winning more money from them over the long
run because they fail to play optimally.
Poker is a big game of broken information; the more information you can piece together the
more profitable your decisions will be. If we can reduce the amount of information that our
opponents can piece together by balancing our range, the less profitable their decisions will be.
To put all this simply:
Unbalanced range - easy to play against.

Balanced range - hard to play against.
Example of why you should balance your range.

Our hand: 8 T
Board: A 9 7
Let's say that every time you flop a strong drawing hand like this out of position you check-raise
your opponent on the flop.
Now, check-raising is not a bad play at all here, in fact it's a pretty good one. You might think it's
pretty deceptive to play a drawing hand so strongly in this instance, but if you're playing
drawing hands exactly the same way every time then your play is no longer deceptive. As
Ed Miller put it in his blog post on playing deceptively:
Deception applies not to individual plays, but to entire strategies.
Against a bad player that takes no real notice of how you play your hands, you could check-raise
drawing hands in this spot all day and make a healthy profit from it. However, an observant
player will find out what you are doing sooner or later and start 3-betting back at you with toppair hands, giving you bad odds to play on and forcing you to fold.
Balance your range to make it difficult for your opponent to play against you.
So as you can see, whilst you think the play itself might be pretty deceptive, it's actually not
deceptive at all if we're doing the exact same thing every time against a "thinking" player.
Our opponent will spot that our range is very unbalanced and weighted toward drawing hands
when we do this and so can play accordingly to exploit our actions.
Therefore, if we included other strengths of hands such as strong top-pair or better hands and
complete air (preferably with some equity), our range would be more balanced. If our
opponent is aware of how varied our range is when we check-raise in this spot it makes it
difficult for them to choose the most appropriate action to take against us.
At the end of the day, if you're not check-raising with a genuinely strong hand in this situation
every now and then you are doing yourself an injustice by reducing the deceptiveness (and thus
profitability) of your play.
How to balance your range.

There are two fundamental ways in which you can balance your range:
1. Play different strength hands in the same way.
2. Play the same strength hand in a different way.
However, the tricky part to range balancing is not knowing the basics of "how" to balance your
range, but more "when" to do so. After all, it's not going to be enough to bluff once where you
would normally bet for good value. Balancing your range is a skill that you perfect with practice
and a sound knowledge of your opponents.
So I guess that means you'll just have to think about this concept a little more during play and get
out there and start practicing.
Be sure to remember that against bad players you should never concern yourself with range
balancing. If some players are always folding to my semi-bluffs and bluffs when I check raise
then I'm just going to continue doing so and forget about check-raising with strong hands. If they
don't care about my range, then neither do I.
Guide to balancing your range.

A thorough guide on how and when to balance your range is out of the scope of this introductory
article, but I can give you a quick pointer to get you started:
Always be aware of the way you are playing your hand and how your opponent is reading in to
your actions.
Is it blindingly obvious that you are playing your hand like a middle pair that cannot take much
action? Could your opponent ever put you on a strong made-hand when you're running that bluff
on the river? Can you possibly hold anything other than the nuts in some situations?
The key to understanding (and taking advantage of) range balancing is to look at your own plays
and see how diverse your range could possibly be in each hand. If you ever feel that you range is
too weighted to a certain set of hands in a particular situation you are probably making it easy for
your opponents to play against you.
Evaluation of range balancing.

I've pretty much covered all that I wanted to talk about when it comes to balancing your range in
Texas Hold'em, although the guide to range balancing section at the end was a little thin. This
has been more of an introduction to the concept than anything though.
All in all, range balancing is definitely something that you should think about more as you move
up the levels and find yourself playing against opponents that are good at reading your hand
based on the way you play. The less your opponent knows about your had, the more mistakes
they will make and the more bb/100 we can add to our win rate at the end of the day.
Stack To Pot Ratio - SPR

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > General > Stack To Pot Ratio
0
There's also a handy classroom section on SPR starting at 6:26 in SplitSuit's "Playing AA"
video.
The stack-to-pot ratio (or SPR for short) principle was coined by Ed Miller in the book
Professional No-Limit Hold'em: Volume I.
In this article I aim to explain the basics of SPR in poker and show you how it can be used to
make your post-flop decisions a lot easier in cash games.
This article is merely a brief introduction and overview of SPR. I highly recommend you buy the
book to feel the full force of 70 pages worth of SPR euphoria.
1. What is SPR?
1. SPR equation.
2. What is the use of SPR?
1. Benefits of SPR example.

1. High SPR situation.
2. Low SPR situation.
3. SPR example evaluation.
3. High, medium and low SPRs.
1. Good hands for low SPRs.

2. Good hands for medium SPRs.
3. Good hands for high SPRs.
4. How to get good SPRs.
1. Tailoring your preflop raises.

1. Example of raising to 3bb.
2. Example of raising to 6bb.
2. Not entering pots.
5. Evaluation of stack to pot ratios in poker.
I) What is SPR?
SPR is the effective stack sizes divided by the size of the pot on the flop.
Let's say you raise to $6 in MP before the flop in a $1/$2 NL cash game. One opponent calls on
the button and both of the blinds fold. If both you and your opponent have $100 in your stack,
the stack to pot ratio would be:
$94 : $15
SPR = 100 / 15 = 6.3
To put it another way, in this example the remaining effective stack sizes are 6.3 times the size of
the pot. Easy stuff really.
SPR can also be considered the ratio of risk : reward. In every no limit hand, the pot is the
reward and the size of the effective stacks is the potential risk. Therefore the greater the SPR, the
greater the risk : reward ratio.
A) SPR equation.
The SPR equation. It's straightforward, but it could still do with some explaining.
Important points about working out SPR.

You must use effective stack sizes. If you have $150 and your opponent only has $100,
then the effective stack sizes are $100, as you cannot win or lose more than $100 against
this player.
SPR is worked out on the flop only. Stack to pot ratios are not going to be used for the
turn or river.
NLHE cash games.
II) What is the use of SPR?

By taking control of SPR you can make post flop play a lot easier for yourself.
Low SPR situations are simple to play, as they greatly reduce the amount of post flop actions
and decision that you are required to make because there is so little room for manoeuvre due to
the large pot size and small effective stacks. You're not going to be floating the flop and check
raising all-in on the turn if the flop is $10 and you have $20 left in your stack.
High SPR situations can be a lot trickier to play (depending on what sort of hand you have on
the flop) because there is a lot of money left in the stacks to be played with on the flop, turn and
river.
Different strengths of hands can be more suited to either high or low SPRs. Therefore, if you
know what sort of SPRs your hand plays well in, you can manipulate the pot sizes by the way
you bet or raise preflop, or avoid certain situations altogether (by folding) to land yourself in a
good SPR situation for your particular hand.
A) Benefits of SPR example.

The best example of SPR is when you have a top pair hand like A K on a flop of K T 9 .
We have top pair, but the board is highly coordinated and in all honesty we'd really prefer to bet
and just take this pot down on the flop.
i) High SPR situation.
If the pot size is $10 and the effective stacks are $200, the SPR is 20. If we bet this flop and get
raised we are put in a very tricky situation, as we could well have the best hand here but we're
not really prepared to commit too much money with just top pair.
If we do end up getting it all in on this flop or on the turn or river the chances are that we do not
hold the best hand. This makes playing top pair hands like this tricky if the SPR is mid-sized or
high.
ii) Low SPR situation.
If the pot size is $10 and the effective stacks are $30, the SPR is 3. If we bet this flop and get
raised we are in a much more comfortable position to call or raise all-in, as we do not fear further
bets on the turn or river.
Sure, our opponent could still hold a better hand but the risk here is much lower. We are
committed to the hand and so putting all our chips in the middle is a much easier decision.
iii) SPR example evaluation.
In the two different scenarios above the strength of our hand did not change, yet the outcomes
were very different due to the stack to pot ratio. With the low SPR of 3 the risk is much lower
relative to the reward, which makes it very easy for us to call all-in with our top pair hand.
III) High, medium and low SPRs.
Low SPR = 0 - 6
Medium SPR = 7 - 16
High SPR = 17+
These SPR figures are very rough guidelines and their implications will vary greatly depending
on how loose or tight your opponents are. They also mean nothing unless we have an idea of
which hands play best depending on the stack to pot ratio.
A) Good hands for low SPRs.
Overpairs.
Top pair.
Bottom two pair.
These are the sorts of hands that we do not want to play big pots with, as the bigger the pots get
the greater the chances are that we are behind. Low SPRs reduce the number of decisions we
need to make with these hands, which makes them a lot easier to play and thus more profitable
situations over the long run.
With mediocre hands like these, you want to to avoid becoming pot committed after starting with
a full stack.
B) Good hands for medium SPRs.
Top two pair.

Sets.
Good drawing hands.
Flushes and straights.
These are much stronger hands than the ones above and will remain as the best hand when you're
all-in often enough to keep them profitable when the SPR is between around 7 to 16.
The higher likely SPR also makes it profitable to play more speculative hands like small pocket
pairs and suited connectors that infrequently hit big flops, as there is a lot more money to
potentially be won from the hand on later betting rounds.
C) Good hands for high SPRs.
Sets.
Strong drawing hands.
Big flushes and high-end straights.
These are the hands that are almost guaranteed to win you the pot. If the SPR is high, you want
be be sure that you have near enough the nuts or a draw to pretty much the nuts if there is a lot of
action. The last thing you want to do in high SPR situations is get a lot of money in to the pot
without a very good chance of winning.
IV) How to get good SPRs.

Depending on the type of hand you hold before the flop, you should have a rough idea of the
ideal SPR for making your post flop play as easy and as profitable as possible. There are two
things that you can do to get yourself in ideal situations in terms of SPR:
1. Tailor your preflop raises to set yourself up for the ideal SPR.
2. Do not enter the pot in the first place.
A) Tailor your preflop raises.

You're not always going to have the luxury of tailoring your preflop raises to get that perfect
SPR, but when you do have the opportunity you should take advantage of it.
i) Example of raising to 3bb.
You hold A K and you and an opponent have $100 effective stacks in a $1/$2 6max NLHE
game. If you raise to 3bb from MP and your opponent in the CO calls, you will have an SPR of
6.3 ($94 : $15) on the flop.
This SPR may well be a little too high for you to justify putting all of your chips in the middle if
you hit top pair on the flop, especially so if your opponent is tight as there is a greater likelihood
that they are only going to be willing to get all their chips in the middle they will have a better
hand than TPTK.
ii) Example of raising to 6bb.
Using the same example as above where the effective stacks are still $100, let's say we raise to
6bb ($12) instead of 3bb preflop. If our opponent again calls we will have an SPR of 3.3 ($88 :
$27) on the flop.
With this lower SPR we will feel a lot more comfortable putting all of our chips in the middle if
needs be. In addition the chances are that all of the money will be in by the turn, which saves us
from a potentially difficult river decision.
B) Not entering the pot.

If you have a small pocket pair like 44 and the effective stack sizes are fairly low, it is not going
to be profitable to raise or call raises as the SPR is going to be low also.
With low SPRs you are going to have very little in the way of implied odds (or fold equity if you
turn your hand in to a bluff later on down the line), which means that you are far better off
folding hands like small pocket pairs and suited connectors if you anticipate the SPR will be low.
V) Evaluation of stack to pot ratios in poker.

One of the key points that you should take from this article is that planning your hands from the
start is vitally important for setting yourself up for profitable and easier-to-play situations later
on in the hand. Another key point is just how much of an effect pot sizes on the flop can
influence the way you play your cards.
You're not always going to be able to grab SPR by the horns and create flop pot sizes exactly
how you want them, but nonetheless opportunities to tailor SPR will occur, so don't pass them up
when they come around. Trust me when I say that post flop play gets so much easier when you
plan your hands and use your knowledge of SPR effectively.
Again, this really is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to SPR. I'd highly recommend you pick
up a copy of Professional No-Limit Hold'em: Volume I for more information on this topic. This
is the book that also contains the invaluable REM process framework.
Alternatively, this "concept of the week" article on SPR at 2+2 is also pretty awesome.
Relative Position
Texas Hold'em > Strategy > General > Relative Position
0
Any experienced poker player will be able to tell you the importance of position in any hand,
especially so in the game of Texas Hold em.
Acting last and being able to see how your opponents play before deciding on your action can
give you a tremendous advantage over the other players in the hand.
However, there is another important factor that can increase or decrease the value of your actual
position at the table. This factor is known as relative position.
What is relative position?

"Relative position" is your position in relation to the pre-flop raiser.
There is often going to be a pre-flop raiser in the game of Texas Holdem, and your position at the
table in relation to this raiser can be good or bad depending on where you are sat and how many
players are left to act after you.
In a nutshell, it is better to be to the immediate right of the preflop raiser than it is to be to the
immediate left, even if your actual position at the table is better if you are sat to the left of the
preflop raiser.
Fact: Relative position can sometimes play such an important factor in a hand, that your actual
position can be rendered worthless even if you are on the button and are last to act.
surprised.
Why is relative position important?

Forgetting about preflop raisers for the moment, let's consider a certain betting situation on the
flop:
When a player makes a bet on the flop, it resets the cycle of actions between the players involved
in the hand.
For example, lets say that we are on the button and there are two players acting before us. We
will call them "Player A" and "Player B".
Example of normal position.

When we're on the button in a normal situation , we will be the last to act in the hand, making the
final action before we move on to the turn. For example, the flop might play out like this:
Flop actions when in "normal position" example 1.

Player A: Checks
Player B: Checks
Hero: Check <- we close the action
END OF BETTING ROUND
Alternatively, the flop could also play out like this:
Flop actions when in "normal position" example 2.

Player A: Bets
Player B: Folds
Hero: Calls <- we close the action
Either way, we are last to act and get to see all the other players' actions before closing the action
on the round. In these "normal position" situations, our position is beneficial (as it should be).
Example of relative position.

What happens if Player B decides to bet? We still have the best "actual position", but look who
closes the action in the hand:
Flop actions when in "relative position".

Player A: Checks
Player B: Bets <- cycle is reset
Hero: Calls
Player A: Calls <- Player A now closes the action
Thanks to Player B's bet, Player A is forced to act again, which means that we no longer get to
close the action in the hand. This will happen from time to time, but it's not always a big deal
because we still get to see all the other players act before we decide what we are going to do.
However, there is one unique dynamic that involves continuation bets that makes relative
position worth thinking about
Relative position and continuation bets.

As already mentioned, there is usually going to be a preflop raiser in any given hand in Texas
Holdem. Similarly, it is common to see this preflop raiser make a continuation bet on the flop if
they are first to act or if the other players have checked to them.
Note: The principle of relative position relies on the important fact that a preflop raiser will
usually make a continuation bet on the flop.
Now because it is commonplace for a preflop raiser to make a continuation bet, the other players
in the hand will expect this and frequently check to the preflop raiser if they are first to act, to
give the preflop raiser the opportunity to make the first move.
This means that if we are the player who is acting after the preflop raiser making the
continuation bet, we have been put in a tricky situation if there are players left to act behind us
(thanks to the continuation bettor resetting the cycle of actions). The players who checked to the
raiser could have any range of hands from a weak hand to a monster, and we have now been
effectively sandwiched between 2 players:
1. The preflop raiser who could have a potentially strong hand and is making the
continuation bet
2. The player who checked to the raiser and could have any range of hands.
Example of relative position and continuation bets.

We are on the button with Q J . A player in the CO makes a standard 3BB raise. We decide to
cal because our cards are decent and we have position. The small blind calls and the big blind
folds, so 3 players go the flop.
The flop comes Q 7 6 , giving us top pair with a good kicker. The small blind checks to the
preflop raiser, who then makes a solid pot size bet.
Now the problem here is that any play we make will not be closing off the action, as the player in
the small blind now has the opportunity to act again. We have been sandwiched between the
player in the CO who has made a continuation bet with a potentially strong hand, and between
another player who could have a stronger hand than ours as their check did not necessarily
indicate strength or weakness.
Their check neither shows strength nor weakness because they are confident that the preflop
raiser will make a continuation bet as standard, and so they may well be checking with the
intention of calling/raising when the action gets back to them.
Here is how the play looks and how we have been sandwiched:
Flop actions when in "relative position".

Small Bind: Checks
CO: Bets <- cycle is reset
Hero: ?? <- sandwiched
Small Bind: <- could just as easily fold, call or raise the CO's continuation bet.
A scruffy diagram that highlights the relative position problem on the flop after the player in
the CO makes a cbet.
A call in this situation would not be bad, but we are leaving ourselves open to losing chips to the
player in the small blind if they decide to raise. Furthermore, if the small blind decides to call as
well, we will go to the turn ready to be put in the same tricky situation as we were on the flop.
As you can see we are now in a pot that could potentially lose us a significant number of chips
because we have a decent holding, but we're in a highly compromising position that we probably
didn't expect when we first entered the hand.
Relative position evaluation.

Hopefully the above example has helped to highlight how your position relative to the preflop
raiser can have a big impact on your actual position at the table.
The best relative position to have is to be to the immediate right of the preflop raiser. This
is because your action will close off the betting on that particular round if the raiser does
indeed make an expected continuation bet.
The worst relative position to have is to be the the immediate left of the preflop raiser.
This is because you will be the first to act if the preflop raiser makes a continuation bet.
The player(s) now acting after you that initially checked to the preflop raiser could have
any hand ranging from total air to a monster.
You should always try and evaluate your relative position in any hand along with your actual
position, as it will have a bigger impact than you may think. You probably never realised it
before and will likely forget about it before it's too late the next few times it happens, but try
your best to be aware of it. It will sink in after a while.
Value Betting - How To Maximize Value

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > General > Value Betting
0
The Jack Wilcox 2 - Value Betting strategy video focuses entirely on value betting in NL
cash games.
You want to extract as much money as possible from your opponents when you have a winning
hand. The more money you can win from your opponents, the higher your winrate will be.
The process of squeezing more money from your opponents is known as maximizing the value
of your hand, and there are a few steps that you can take to make this happen.
The most important fact about increasing the amount you can win on each hand is that you have
to get your opponent to put money into the pot. If your opponent is not putting money into the
pot, then you are not gaining any value on your hand, as the amount you will be winning after
the hand is complete will remain the same throughout.
To get your opponent to put as much money into the pot as possible, you have to be betting and
raising when it is your turn to act, which is something that a lot of players fail to do.
money.
A common mistake when betting.

The most common mistake that novice players make is that they freeze up whenever they hit a
very strong hand, and start to check and call thinking that they are luring their opponent in and
setting them up for a big fall. However in reality, all that is happening when you check and call
is that you are missing opportunities to get more money into the pot for you to win.
Checking, calling and generally slowplaying at every opportunity with a strong hand is counterproductive. You want to win money right?
There are rarely going to be situations where you check and call throughout the hand, and then
be able to get all of your opponent's chips in on the river, it just doesn't happen. This is one
reason why slowplaying is more often than not a bad option, as you are restricting yourself from
maximizing the value on your hand, and thus reducing the amount of money you expect to win.
Common value betting mistake example.

For example, say we are in late position holding 3 3 and decide to call a raise from a player in
middle position. The flop comes A 9 3 , a great flop for our hand as we now have a set. Our
opponent now comes out with a pot size bet and the action is on us.
The novice mistake here would be to slowplay, and simply call this bet. You have the perfect
opportunity to get more money into the pot and increase the stakes throughout the rest of the
hand, so why would you even consider throwing this chance to raise away?
Sure, you could check with the intentions of luring your opponent in, but if it turns out that they
do have an ace, you are missing a great opportunity to raise the stakes, and allowing for a
potential scare card to come on the turn to slow the action down.
Don't miss out on great opportunities to get more money in to the pot by trying to be tricky.
Alternatively, you may be afraid of raising here because you do not want to scare your opponent
out of the pot. But if you think about it logically, if your opponent is not going to call a raise on
the flop, what makes you think you are going to get any money out of them on future betting
rounds?
How to maximize value in poker.

The fact of the matter is; if you can't get any money out of your opponent when you have a
strong hand in a good spot, you were never going to get much money from them anyway.
This principle is key and should be remembered every time you find yourself in this sort of
situation. Always take the opportunity to raise and get more money into the pot if you think there
is a good chance that your opponent has a decent hand, but don't be afraid that your opponent
will fold, as you would not have been able to extract much from them later in the hand anyway.
I am never frustrated when I raise with a monster hand and my opponent folds. I would rather
take the chance of making lots of money on the hand by raising, rather than checking the hand
through hoping for a bluff each time, and missing the opportunity to win big when my opponent
does indeed catch a piece of the flop.
Don't be afraid to bet when you have the best hand. The only way you are going to win big pots
with big hands is by betting and raising, so don't shy away from doing so.
Value betting on the river.

A final point in the process of maximizing value is value betting on the river when you think you
have the best hand.
A very common rookie mistake is to bet small on the river to entice a call from your opponent
when you know that you have the best hand. Many amateur players will think "I don't want to bet
big here and make my opponent fold, so I will bet small and allow my opponent to call to get a
little extra money". Let me explain why this is wrong through the use of mathematics:
It is true that the bigger the bet, the less likely your opponent will be to call. But on the other
hand, you will be winning quite a substantial amount of money when your opponent does call.
Conversely, your opponent will call the small bet more often, but you will be winning less when
they do call.
Value betting on the river example:

Say for instance that we are last to act on the river with what we feel is the best hand. There is
$100 in the pot and it is up to us to decide how much we should bet.
Assume that we know for a fact that if we bet $20 into this pot, our opponent will call 7 times out
of 10. However, if we bet $100 into this pot, our opponent will call 2 times out of 10. Therefore
if we took each scenario and repeated it 10 times, we would find that:
We win $140 in total by betting $20.

We win $200 in total by betting $100.
As you can see, we will be winning $60 more by betting the size of the pot rather than betting a
small amount to try and entice our opponent to call. So even though we will be getting called less
often, we will be winning more in the long run by betting a larger amount.
You win more money over the long run with bigger bets on the river, even if they get called less
often.
This is also another key concept that we must take into account, as the value betting on the river
is based on the long term winnings, rather than just trying to get your opponent to call small bets
every time. The small victories are not the ones that are going to increase our profits at the end of
the day.
Value betting evaluation.

Maximizing the value of your hands is all about not being afraid to bet and raise to try and get
your opponent to put more money into the pot. You should always focus on the long term rather
than playing to try and suck out the value on each individual hand by being tricky and
slowplaying every time. It is far better to have you opponents fold most of the time yet win big
occasionally, rather than pick up small pots on every big hand you get.
If you have the opportunity to raise and get more money into the pot then do so, poker is all
about winning money and not pots. Never be too disappointed if you find that your opponent
folds when you have a monster hand; monster hands are great, but they are only truly great if you
can make a decent profit on them.
Betting Into The Preflop Raiser

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > General > Bettng Into The Preflop Raiser
0
Being out of position in any hand of poker is not going to be make your decisions easy.
However, this does not mean that we cant use a few tricks to make it work to our advantage
when we hit our strong hands.
This article will discuss how you can work around the fact that you are out of position to your
opponent and use it to your advantage to maximize your wins with a strong hand on the flop.
Here's my quick guide to betting into the preflop raiser.
Betting into preflop raiser example.

Lets say we are heads up in a Holdem game and out of position to an opponent after we called
their preflop raise.
Ideally, this isn't a situation that you would want to find yourself in, because it means that you
would have called a raise preflop knowing that you would be out of position for the rest of the
hand. So to be in this position in the first place, we probably have a relatively strong hand with
big cards, or a hand with a lot of potential like a small pocket pair.
On the flop.
When we get to the flop, it is standard play for most players to check to the raiser regardless of
whether we made a strong hand or not. Similarly, it is the standard play for our opponent to make
a continuation bet to take down the pot, regardless if they have a strong hand or not.
This is because players in our sort of position will want to see how our opponent will react after
our check, and the majority of the time our opponent will make a standard continuation bet in an
attempt to capitalise on the weakness we have shown from our check. If you play at a high
enough level for long enough, you will see this take place time after time.
money.
We are obviously going to be folding our hand if we have not connected with the flop after the
continuation bet from our opponent. However, if we have made a strong hand, then many players
will be tempted check their hand to their opponent in anticipation that they will bet out, and then
we can come over the top with a check-raise and trap them. This all sounds well and good, but
when you think about it logically, you are missing out on a prime opportunity to extract a nice
amount of money from your opponent.
If we make a check-raise play with our strong hand in this situation, one of two things are likely
to happen.
1. Our opponent will fold any weak or mediocre holding
2. Our opponent will call and become very wary about our hand
Because the check-raise is such a powerful play, we are basically telling our opponents that we
have the best hand. Therefore they are going to fold any weak or decent hand, and possibly call
with their second best strong hand but be wary of continuing with the hand.
The check raise gives away too much information about the strength of your hand, whereas a bet
from first position doesn't give much away.
Sure we could be bluffing, but it would be a dangerous play, and so our opponent would not
want to take the risk to find out if we are by calling or re-raising with a mediocre or even a
strong hand. So the majority of the time we are going to be cutting off our action at the flop
when we have a strong hand, and not giving ourselves the opportunity to extract more money on
future betting rounds.
Playing strong hands against the preflop raiser.

In my opinion, a great way to play a strong hand in this situation on the flop is to simply bet out.
By betting out straight away on the flop, we are making it look as though we have a mediocre
hand and that we are trying to stand our ground and take the pot.
You will often find that any intermediate player that comes out with a bet on the flop is making a
feeble attempt to win the pot with their half decent hand, and so a simple raise on our part when
in position is often going to be enough to get them out of the pot. So if we are betting out with
our strong hand, we are making it look as though we are that feeble player hoping to sneak the
pot away.
Now most intermediate to advanced players are aware of the fact that players make this kind of
bet to try and win the pot, and so it is pretty likely that they are going to raise with any high pair,
over-pair, draw or even on a bluff. So at the end of the day, the likelihood that we are going to
get raised is pretty high.
Therefore we will have already increased the amount we can expect to win from the hand,
because we now have our opponent putting 3 or 4 times the amount into the pot than they would
have done if we attempted a check raise. On top of this, our hand is still disguised from our
opponent and so we have the potential to win more money on future betting rounds.
Example (and advantages) of betting out first.

If we make a call to see a flop with a hand like 6 6 and the flop comes 2 6 J , we are in a
great position to make a killing.
By betting out, our opponent is likely to assume we have a mediocre hand like a pair of jacks or
sixes, and so they will re-raise us with any overpair or hand like KJ or AJ because they will feel
that they still have the best hand. If we check-raise however, our opponent will be wary of the
strength of our hand and reconsider the strength of their jack, and slow down with any overpair.
So betting out will set us up for that bigger win each time.
There are far more advantages to betting out first as opposed to check raising, so there is no need
to try and play tricky poker.
From here on out we have to make the decision on whether or not to call or re-raise this raise
from our opponent. In general, we should look to call if the board looks safe and look to raise if
the board appears to be dangerous with potential draws.
It is likely that we can win more money on the turn and river if we call, because as far as our
opponent knows we could well be holding onto our mediocre hand hoping for the best. But then
we dont want to give them the opportunity to draw out on us by calling. So you have to weigh
up whether it is going to be more profitable in the long run to call and try and win more, or raise
and take down the pot.
But who knows; if you raise, you may still get a call and win a pretty sizeable pot.
Betting into the preflop raiser evaluation.

This kind of play assumes that we are out of position and heads up to an opponent that knows a
bit about the game of poker. This is because we will be relying on the fact that they will see our
bet out as a sign of weakness, and raise us in an attempt to stop the action and win the pot.
Sure, sometimes our opponent will fold when we bet out, but a lot of the time we will be raised
and be in a prime position to win a much bigger pot than if we had attempted a check raise. So
we will be winning more money in the long run by betting out and winning a huge pot every now
and then, rather than trying to be sneaky and frequently win small pots. So try betting out when
you hit a monster hand. You will be surprised at how much more you will be winning overall.
The REM Process - Range, Equity, Maximize

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > General > The REM Process
0
REM Process: Range > Equity > Maximize
Range, equity, maximize (REM) is an incredibly effective process for evaluating situations and
getting the most from every hand you play. The REM process forms the groundwork of
optimum play in no limit Texas Hold'em.
The REM process was first introduced by Flynn, Mehta and Miller in the book Professional NoLimit Hold'em: Volume I (the same book that introduces SPR).
This article will be split up in to 3 sections, covering the basics of the REM process to make it as
easy as possible for you to pick it up and incorporate it in to your game.
What is the REM process?

As mentioned, REM stands for Range, Equity, Maximize.
Range: Assign a range of hands to your opponent based on their play up to that point.
Equity: Work out how much equity you have in the hand against your opponent's range.
Maximize: Make the most +EV possible play based on the information you have
gathered.
This is a 3-step process for making the most +EV play possible in each hand you are involved
with.
Range - Give your opponent a range of hands.

Assign a range of hands to your opponent based on their play up to that point and your
knowledge of their playing style.
Let's get things straight. We're not going to be able to put our opponent on two exact cards
judging by the way they have raised preflop and checked to us on the flop. In fact, it's
exceptionally unlikely that even the best players in the world would be able to assign an exact
hand to an opponent by the river. It's just not possible to be that precise when it comes to hand
reading.
However, what is possible is to assign a certain range of hands to our opponent based on the way
they have played their hand up that point. There are two ways in which we can do this:
1. Use our knowledge of the opponent to help us form a range of hands.
2. Use poker tracking software stats to give us a more exact range of hands to assign to
them.
Assigning hand ranges without using software.

If you do not have the luxury of being able to use tracking software, you are going to have to
draw your own conclusions based on your knowledge of your opponent; more specifically on
their style of play and how they have been playing their hand so far.
Hand range example.
Note: Remember this example, as it will follow on through the rest of the article.
A tight-aggressive player makes a 3-bet against an early position raiser (who is an average
player) in a 6max game before the flop.
A 3bet from early position is almost always a sign of great strength.

We can assume that they won't be doing this with any old hand. Based on our knowledge of our
opponent and the situation, we can say that our opponent's range is like to be a high pair (Jacks
or greater) or AK. So...
Hand range for a 3-bet in middle position for our tight aggressive opponent.
Range: JJ+,AKs,AKo
This is a pretty safe assumption for this example, but assigning a hand range is not always going
to be this easy. The less information we have on our opponent, the wider the hand range should
be.
Assigning hand ranges using software.

If we are using a HUD with stats (like the ones that come with Poker Tracker 3 and Holdem
Manager) on our opponent, it makes assigning a range a whole lot easier and removes some
guesswork from the process, which makes the range more accurate.
Lets use the same example as above with the early raiser and mid position 3-bettor. However, the
difference is we have a good set of stats on the 3-bettor and it turns out that they are a little
looser than we thought. Our HUD stats show that the 3-bettor makes a 3-bet preflop 5% of the
time. Therefore, they are making a 3-bet with the top 5% of hands they are dealt.
If we check what the top 5% of hands looks like using PokerStove:
PokerStove isn't only useful for it's equity calculations y'know.
Preflop 3-betting range of 5%.

Range: TT+,AQs+,KQs,AQo+
o
So that's all pocket pairs of TT and higher, along with KQs and any AK or AQ.
Easy.
This is obviously a rough example, but it just goes to show how much more accurate you can be
when it comes to assigning hand ranges if you are using tracking software like HoldemManager
and PokerStove.
Read more about assigning hand ranges and using PokerStove in the REM Process - Range
article.
surprised.
Equity - Find out your equity.

Work out how much equity you have in the hand against your opponent's range.
Basically find out where we stand and assess the situation. What's our % equity in the hand
compared to the range we have just assigned to our opponent?
This is where the PokerStove program comes in really handy. You can figure out your equity in
the hand without PokerStove, but it requires a bunch of mathematics and so I'm not going to
bother going down that route for now. PokerStove makes it easier for the both of us.
So what do we do? We put our hand and our opponent's range in to PokerStove and hit
"evaluate". It's as easy as that. Let's say that we are actually the initial raiser holding A J and
our opponent is the 3 bettor with the range of TT+, AQs+, KQs ,AQo+.
Same 3bet situation as before but with our hand and opponent's range added.
AhJh's equity against villain's 3betting range.

As we can see, we have 34% equity in the hand against this range, which isn't great. This means
that our opponent is a 2 to 1 favourite to win at this stage of the hand (see the conversion odds
chart or use the hoRatio odds converter program if you're having trouble converting percentage
odds in to ratio odds and vice versa).
Read more about calculating equity and using PokerStove in the REM Process - Equity article.
Maximize - make the best play possible.

Make the most +EV possible play based on the information you have gathered. Maximize value.
So we have a good idea of what our opponent's range of hands is and we know what our equity is
in the hand. All the hand ranges and equity calculations are going to be worthless unless we can
maximize our value from the hand, so let's see what we can do...
In the following two examples, I will carry on the example with the raise from EP and 3-bet from
MP as outlined in the Range and Equity sections.
Maximize example 1.
Our hand: A J - 34% equity

Opponent's range: TT+, AQs+, KQs ,AQo+ - 66% equity
Note: Both players have full stacks.
In this example, we are playing $100NL and we both have full stacks. We raised to $7 and our
opponents 3-bets to $24. Seeing as our opponent's hand range is much better than our's for the
most part, the most "profitable" play for us is to fold.
The best that we can hope for is to hit a Jack on the flop. Even then we might not even be in the
best of shape, so the best plan of action is to fold as opposed to risking more money with such
poor equity in the hand. The most influential reason behind folding here though is our opponent's
superior hand range.
Maximize example 2.
Our hand: A J - 34% equity

Opponent's range: TT+, AQs+, KQs ,AQo+ - 66% equity
Note: Opponent has a 20BB stack.
We are again playing $100NL, however, our opponent only has $20 left in their stack. We raise
to $7 and our opponent 3-bets all-in to $20. We now have to call $13 to win a $28.5 pot ($20 +
$7 + the SB and BB), giving us pot odds of 2.2 to 1.
Right now we have 33% equity, which works out as 2 to 1 odds. Seeing as our pot odds are
greater than the odds of winning, it is marginally profitable for us to make this call. We do not
have to worry about playing the rest of the hand as our opponent is all in and we will not have to
face any more bets.
In this situation, calling the all-in 3-bet is the most profitable play based on our equity in the
hand.
Maximize overview.
Remember that this is just one example of an almost endless number of different situations you
can find yourself in. Maximizing value takes a lot of experience and knowledge of the game. It is
going to be something that you will find yourself working to improve throughout your poker
career.
Read more about maximizing value from your hands in the REM Process - Maximize article.
Evaluation of the REM process.

The REM process is undoubtedly the best possible framework for playing a hand in no limit
Texas Hold'em.
The hard part is developing the skills to be able to read hands, quickly work out equity and then
make the best play possible based on that information. That's where all the other strategy on this
site is going to come in handy.
You're not going to be able to calculate all the fine details in the middle of a hand, so don't
expect yourself to be able to. What you can expect to do is familiarise yourself with the process
and try your best to apply the steps to every hand you play, albeit in a much tighter space of time.
The more you work with the REM process the easier you will find it to fly through the Range Equity - Maximize steps before making your decision. The more proficient you get with it, the
more bb/100 hands you will be adding to your win rate.
The REM Process - Equity

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > General > The REM Process > Equity
1
After your have put your opponent on a range of hands, the second step in the REM process is to
find your "equity" in the hand.
The equity part mostly acts as a stepping stone for the following "maximize" step. However, as
far as stepping stones go, this is a pretty tricky one that isn't overly easy to work out accurately.
On a basic level though, it's something that we actually all do without even thinking about it.
What is equity?
Equity is our "share" of the pot that we expect to win.
It's pretty straightforward really, but if you want more of an overview of this term you should
check out the basic poker equity article.
When we work out our equity in a hand for the REM process, we compare our hand to our
opponent's range of hands (remember the range we worked out in the first step?). Once we know
our equity in the hand against this range, we can go on to make the appropriate play.
Working out equity on a basic level.

On an absolutely most-basic level, when we work out our equity we decide whether we have one
of the following:
A hand with the most equity - A strong hand that has the a strong chance of winning.
A hand with poor equity - A weak hand that has a poor chance of winning.
A hand with around evens equity - This could be a very strong draw, or a hand like AK
facing an all-in.
When we compare our hand to our opponent's possible range of hands, we just want to asses the
situation and take an educated guess to figure out where we stand in the hand.
That's all equity really is - a percentage representation of our strength in the hand. The main
thing that we need to do to help us make the best play (maximize) is to figure out how strong our
hand is based on our opponent's likely range of hands.
It is possible to work out a rough numerical idea of your equity in your head, but in all fairness
this is far from being an easy task, and when you have programs like PokerStove to help you out
when you are playing online it really makes it an unnecessary method to try and learn.
Calculating equity with PokerStove.

PokerStove is a superb tool for accurately calculating your equity in a hand. All you have to do is
input your hand against your opponent's range and let the program do the magic. No need for
working stuff out in your head.
Here are a few examples of calculating your equity against ranges of hands in PokerStove.
Equity example 1.
We raise to 5BBs preflop with A K and tight player shoves all in with their short stack size of
30BBs. We are confident that they will only be doing with with a pocket pair like JJ+ and AK.
Equity example 2.
We have K Q on a flop of T J 5 . We bet and our opponent shoves all-in. We believe that
they would only be doing this with TPTK, top two-pair or a set. Basically any hand like the
strongest top pair or better.
Equity example 3.
We are dealt A J before the flop. One player pushes all-in and it is folded around to us. The
guy at the table is moving all-in with every single hand he plays, so he could have absolutely
anything.
Are you supposed to use PokerStove to work out equity in every hand?
Of course not - that would take ages and be really annoying. I use PokerStove to work out equity
against hand ranges in two instances:
1. For post-session analysis.
2. In the middle of a big hand when I'm using the time bank.
So unless you are using PokerStove as more of a one-off in the middle of a big hand, I would use
the program off the tables when I'm analyzing my play and just generally playing around with
different scenarios.
The more you play with it, the more you will familiarise yourself with the equity of specific
hands against various ranges. This will greatly improve your basic equity calculations on the fly
and help to set you up for the following "maximize" step.
Evaluation of "equity" in the REM process.

With the use of PokerStove, this step is really quick and easy. However without using
PokerStove, figuring out your equity in a hand can involve a lot of guesswork. This is why
familiarizing yourself with the various equity percentages in different situations can prove to be
helpful when estimating equity on the spot.
The majority of the time, simply assessing the situation and using common sense is enough to
lead you safely on to the "maximize" step. After all, you don't need me (or PokerStove) to tell
you that you have bad equity in the hand when you hold 2 2 on a flop of A Q J .
When it comes to bigger decisions, then it might be a good idea to plug some cards in to the
calculator to find a more accurate equity percentage. Other than that just use common sense,
supplement that with some time playing around with PokerStove and you should be fine.
Next stop, The REM Process - Maximize.
The REM Process - Range

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > General > The REM Process > Range
1
The first step of the REM process is to put your opponents on a range of hands. In this article, I
am going to show you how to assign ranges of hands to your opponent using stats and reads.
I am going to split this article up in to two hand reading sections:
1. Preflop hand ranges - the easy bit.
2. Post flop hand ranges - the trickier bit.
Remember that your objective with hand reading is to put your opponent on a range of hands, not
two exact cards.
Preflop hand ranges.

The best way to assign a hand range to your opponent is to use the immensely useful HUD stats
from tracking programs like Poker Tracker 3 and HoldemManager.
You can estimate a fairly accurate range based on knowledge of your opponent alone without
any stats, but to teach that ability is out of the scope of this article, and using stats makes things a
hell of a lot easier. So get HoldemManager and make your life easier.
Stats are great for pin-pointing ranges.
Using the HUD stats.

On the right is a cropped screenshot of a PokerStars table with stats I have on a player using the
HUD from Holdem Manager. There are a bunch of stats shown, but the two important ones that I
am going to look at for now are:
VPIP (VP) - Voluntarily Put $ In Pot.
This is the total % of times the player will enter the pot preflop by calling or
raising.
PFR - Preflop Raise.

o
This is the % of times the player will enter a pot preflop by raising.
So that's cool - for this particular player "a_player" we can see that their VPIP is 24% and their
PFR is 16%. So we can say that a_player...
Plays 24% of all hands that they are dealt.

Raises with 16% of all hands that they are dealt.
Again, that's all well and good, but these are just figures. How can we turn these percentages in
to ranges of hands? For that, we can take an educated guess at what 24% and 16% of starting
hands looks like. Here is an excerpt from a legendary thread by Pokey at 2+2 on hand reading:
Rough guide to hand ranges based on HUD stats.

5% = "pairs 77+, AK, AQs" or "pairs 99+, AK, AQ."
10% = "pairs 66+, AK, AQ, suited aces, KQs, QJs"
15% = "any pair, AK, AQ, KQ, suited connectors 54+, any suited ace"
20% = "any pair, any two broadway, any suited ace"
25% = "any pair, any suited broadway, any ace, any suited connectors 54s+, KQo"
30% = "any pair, any ace, any suited king, any suited broadway, any suited connectors
54s+, KTo+, QJo" or "any pair, any ace, any suited king, any broadway"
40% = "any pair, any ace, any king, any two broadway, any suited connectors 32s+"
50% = "any pair, any two suited cards, any ace, any two broadway, K5o+"
This is of course just a rough guide, but nonetheless it is definitely something that is worth
familiarizing yourself with. So, if we compare our percentages with these rough hand ranges we
can conclude that our friend "a_player":
VPIP: 24% - Is entering the pot with any pair, any suited broadway, any ace and any
suited connectors.
o 22+,A2s+,KTs+,QTs+,JTs,T9s,98s,87s,76s,65s,54s,A2o+,KQo
PFR: 16% - Is raising before the flop with any pair, AK, AQ, KQ, suited connectors 54+
and any suited ace.
o
22+,A2s+,KQs,QJs,JTs,T9s,98s,87s,76s,65s,54s,AQo+,KQo
Thanks to these stats, we now have a very good idea of the sort of hands that our opponent will
enter a pot with and more specifically, what sort of hands they will be open raising with. As we
play through a hand with them we can whittle this range down even further by analyzing how
our opponent plays the flop, turn and river.
These VPIP and PFR stats are also covered in the Holdem Manager HUD tutorial and HUD
Ninja videos.
What is my opponent has stats like VPIP: 40 / PFR: 30?

Then so be it - they have a wide range of hands that they will enter pots and raise with. Don't be
phased by the fact you can't put them on a super-specific range before the flop.
It just means that they are loose and you shouldn't give them credit for premium holdings too
often. Sure, we can't get a real specific range, but we still know what sort of hands we can
include in their range, so don't be surprised when they turn up with a hand like 34 offsuit at a
showdown.
Adjust your preflop play accordingly and use the flop, turn and river betting rounds to try and
best work out what sort of hand they might be holding.
Post flop hand ranges.

This is where it gets trickier.
Using our preflop hand range as a base, our aim is to now refine that range as much as possible.
The more we (safely) reduce our opponent's range, the more information we will have in the
hand and the more +EV our plays will be. However, whittling down our opponents hand range
post flop isn't going to be quite as easy as it was to look at a bunch of stats like we did before the
flop.
It would be great if I could tell you to "do this" and "do that" to figure out exactly what your
opponent is holding, but that's just not how poker works I'm afraid. However, I can give you a
few tips to help you reduce that range.
Question every play and put yourself in your opponent's shoes.

That's right, pretend that you are playing your opponent's hand for him (or her). What hands
would "make sense" for the plays you are making? Ask yourself these questions...
Why would my opponent check on this flop?

Why would my opponent bet on this flop?
Why would my opponent raise on this flop?
Now do that for every betting round. The better you can answer those questions, the easier it will
be to reduce your opponent's range and form a more complete picture of the hand.
If you want to get really good at assigning hand ranges (why wouldn't you?), watch the Where
The Buffalo Roam video series at DeucesCracked. This is the absolute best way to learn this
particular skill.
Of course, that's a lot easier said than done, but who said poker is easy? Poker is a thinking man's
game, so put your brain to good use and always aim to try and figure out why your opponent is
playing the way they are.
If you can figure out why your opponent is making their plays, you can figure out what they are
likely to be holding.
It's a pretty non-specific strategy I know, but this is where practice comes in to play. I can't teach
you how to read hands like a champ in one article (probably not even in 5 or 6 articles for that
matter), so get out there and play some poker.
Evaluation of "range" in the REM process.

I'm sure that a lot of you were impressed with how easy it was to assign a hand range to your
opponent's preflop, but then quietly disappointed with the "use your head" approach for post flop
hand ranges.
HoldemManager stats can help with post flop hand ranges, but then that would make this article
longer than my manhood. The bulk of useful information is going to come from your experience
and knowledge anyway when it comes to post flop hand ranges.
A great follow on article from this is "putting players on a hand", which is quite long but is a
great supplement to this hand reading and range article.
Next stop, The REM Process - Equity.
How To Put Players On A Hand

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > General > How To Put Players On A Hand
1
Putting a player on a hand is at the very heart of good poker play, yet often massively
misunderstood. Most people assume that the goal is to put a player on two exact cards.
This would be great, but the truth is it's rarely possible without having spent hours and hours at
the table with a person. Occasionally you may find someone so powerfully uncreative that you'll
know exactly when they've got a huge hand and when they don't. Enjoy it, because it's rare.
But wait. All those books you've read say you should play the player. How are you supposed to
do that if you can't hope to accurately put someone on two exact cards?
Easy.
There are only a few actions you can take in poker:
1. You can raise.
2. You can call.
3. You can fold.
No limit adds the added excitement of being able to bet varying amounts (see bet sizing for more
information), but people tend to bet similar amounts whenever they bet. So with such a limited
number of actions, people will tend to take the same actions with different hands. This is why it's
so hard to put someone on two exact cards.
The key to making sense of this situation is not to guess. It's to understand that while our
information is limited, we do have information. We'll call that information a range.
A range is simply all of the hands that a player would take a particular action with. For example,
when under the gun (utg) in a six-handed online $200NL game, a solid player will raise utg with
22+/JTs+/QTs+/KTs+/AJo/KQo.
That's actually a fairly tight range, close to maybe only 17% of all hands dealt. In some ways, it's
easy to deal with someone when they have a narrow range. Fold your bad hands, reraise your
good hands, and call with those sneaky implied odds hands that can flop huge. Easy game.
What gets much trickier is post-flop play. To illustrate, let me talk through a hand to demonstrate
how thinking about a range happens from preflop to river.
surprised.
Giving opponents a range example.

I'm dealt Q Q in the CO of a $200NL game. Folds to me and I open for $7. Folds to the BB
who calls.
The BB is a player I'd call loose, but not stupid. He calls too much preflop, he isn't very
aggressive postflop, and he'll tend to overvalue hands. He had $159 at the start of the hand, $150
as we go to the flop. I cover.
So now a few things to note. I'm in the CO and I raise a lot in the CO. I attempt to steal the
blinds at a clip of about 35% when given the chance. That's a lot of hands that aren't very good.
So my range is wide. Likewise, the BB likes to call a lot and probably has some vague notion
that I like to raise a lot. Bad players see people raising and decide to stand up to them by calling
a lot more.
So he probably thinks I have a wide range of hands (if he's thinking about it at all), and I know
that he has a wide range of hands.
The flop.
We see a flop of T 5 3 . After the rake, there's $15.5 in the middle.
That's about as good a flop as you can see if you have queens. Unless the BB has TT/55/33, I'm
ahead of his hand and he likely has five outs or fewer to improve. The BB checks to me, and I
bet $10. I don't want to bet big here. The reason has to do with ranges.
If I bet big, then he'll very often fold hands like 77 or 76. He's of course never folding a flopped
set. He probably won't fold a ten for one big bet on the flop, but he might get nervous on the turn
or river and not put all his money in with his five-out draw that will rarely get there.
On this type of board. I want to get a lot of calls. He'll be making a big mistake by calling, so I
don't mind betting a small amount. I make money here not by getting him to call big bets rarely,
but by getting him to call small bets, often and incorrectly.
So, like I said, $10.
The BB checkraises to $27 total.
Well that's a surprise.
Three things. First, weird raise size. This is a site with a "Bet pot" button, and people love to use
it. The BB has intentionally not used it and instead made a small bet. I'm pretty confused by this.
He could definitely do this with a set, trying to build a bit of a pot and stack me on later streets.
But he could also think a pair of tens is good here. Hands like T9s, KTo, AT, JT, etc. are exactly
the types of hands that call out of the BB in this spot. Good players wouldn't have hands like this,
but the BB isn't a good player, so we can't eliminate them entirely.
So I decide to just call the $17 more. At this point, I think his range is T9s+/JTo+/TT/55/33.
Some people might say I'm being generous here, but remember that this is a fundamentally weak
player. Vs. a good player, I'd probably call the $17 too, but I'd call for an entirely different
reason. More on that in a bit.
With my call, the pot, minus rake, is $68. The effective stacks are now $125.
The turn.
The turn is an offsuit 6 (making it T 5 3 6 ), completing the rainbow board.
The BB checks.
Ok, that's weird. What could this mean?
Well, he could be getting fancy, going for two checkraises in a row with a set. That's an odd
play, but people who aren't good at poker tend to make odd plays. Two pair is entirely unlikely,
because of what we've estimated his flop range to be. The six is a complete brick. If he had a pair
of tens, he didn't improve. If he has a set, he doesn't need to improve. Online, you'll see this
called way ahead/way behind, or just WA/WB.
But let's not give him too much credit.
He might realize that he made a small flop raise, and so maybe thinks we're getting fancy with
AK. Or maybe we have a weak ten, like T9 (which is dominated by the majority of the BBs ten
holdings). We still have him on the same range as the flop. We know he didn't improve. But we
think he might call a turn bet not just with his sets, but a lot of his top pairs too.
So I bet $40.
Again, this isn't a spot where I want to make a big bet. I want him to call often. If he has
anything but a set, he's making a substantial mistake calling this bet, so I'm going to make a lot
of medium-ish to small bets, and look to get called very often.
Now is the moment of truth in the hand as well. If the BB c/r here, I will probably call, mostly
out of frustration, partly out of fear that he's simply overplaying a ten. If he pushes in his
remaining $85, I don't expect to be a favourite to win that money, but there's another $140 in the
pot on top of that $85, so I simply can't give away my equity in that money.
Instead, the BB just calls. I'm quite confident now he has a ten and is going down with the ship.
I'm not sure what his kicker is, but I'm positive he has a ten in his hand.
The river.
The river is a nine, which only improves T9, the BB checks, I bet enough to put him all in for
another $85 and he calls getting 2.7:1 with ATo.
Giving an opponent a range analysis.

Seems like a simple hand. Overpair wins 3/4s of a buyin from a calling station with tptk. But let's
think about how different this hand would be against a good player.
After the flop checkraise, I'd be putting a good player on a range of something like ATs/88TT/55/33/76s/+some bluffs. A good player will be bluffing me a fair amount on a board like this,
either with his gutshot or total air. A good player knows that I have absolutely nothing a lot of
the time. Even if I had a reasonably strong hand, like 88, I'd have trouble calling even a small
checkraise in this spot, because it's very likely I'll have to call turn and river bets with only a 23:1
shot at improving and no real way to know whether my hand is good or not without losing a
stack.
A good player is taking advantage of my weak range on this type of board with a completely
different range of hands.
And it's a legitimately tough spot for queens. If I push, he doesn't call very often, but when he
does call, I'm a 23:1 dog almost always. Because queens are at the very top of my range here (the
only better hands I could have are 33/55/TT/AA/KK), I really hate folding to him, because that
lets him succeed with too many of his bluffs.
So against a good player, I'm calling the small flop raise too. And given the stacks, I'm prepared
to push over a turn bet fairly often (unless it's some insane card like an ace or another T).
The turn is where it gets very different.
When that brick rolls off on the turn (though that six isn't a total brick for someone bluffing w/a
gutshot) and he checks, I'm now in a really weird spot. The pot is $68. There is only $125 left to
bet. Yet if I make a bet trying to get the rest of that $125 in the middle, I'm going to fold out
most of his bluffs (maybe he'll get stubborn with a rare ten or his gutshot+pair), and lose $125 to
his monsters.
So against a good player, I would check this turn back.
A check allows him to take gutshots or ace-high bluffs to the river. But we're not really
concerned about that much. Four-outers or three-outers are nothing to be afraid of. What we're
more concerned about is that he'll still have a reasonably wide range on the river. So if a brick
like that deuce rolls off and the good player now bets $55 on the river, we can snap-call and
expect very often to see a bluff.
One last thing to notice.

Against the bad player, I was able, and fairly quickly, to put him on a hand that had a ten in it.
He might have shown up on the river with a set, or he might have c/f the turn with some weird
bluff. But mainly, when he c/c the turn, I know he's got a ten. I don't know if it's T9 or AT, and
I'm not going to pretend to be smart enough to know. But I know pretty well where I'm at, and I
managed to win a $300+ pot because of it.
But against the good player, I'm genuinely in the dark. He might have A3. He might have 55. He
might have ATs. Because I don't know, I have to play a much smaller pot, and I'll probably lose
even that smaller pot more often.
That isn't an accident.
You're going to find yourself in a lot tougher spots vs. good players. You'd be insane to try to put
them on exact hands. It would be dangerous to try. You would have stopped playing poker
(making correct decisions based on the information you have) and started playing a guessing
game.
Take the information you have and make the best decisions you can. After that, it's up to the
cards.
Thin Value
Texas Hold'em > Strategy > General > Thin Value
0
Thin Value > Example
The term thin value is used quite a lot when discussing tricky decisions on the river in Texas
Holdem. The ability to get thin value from marginal hands is often the difference between good
players and great players, so its worth taking the time to learn about it.
Hopefully you already know the basics of getting value from hands already, but if not, read about
value betting first.
What is thin value?

Thin value is where you value bet marginal hands on the river and expect to make only a small
profit from those value bets over the long run.
Thats the basics of it, but to fully understand thin value betting were going to need to compare
"standard value bets" to "thin value bets". A slightly complicated diagram might help as well.
money.
Thin value explained.

With a strong hand you always want to bet and raise to get as much value from the hand as
possible. Thats common sense. So generally speaking, with a hand and a board like this:
Your Hand: J J
Board: J 7 4 A 2
...you are going to betting and raising all day. There is so much value in betting here its
ridiculous.
Conversely, if the hand looked like this:
Your Hand: 3 3
Board: J 7 4 A 2
...you are going to be checking until the cows come home, because you dont expect any worse
hand to call. Hence, there is no value in betting here.
The art of getting thin value is when our hand is in the middle of these two extremes and its not
quite as easy to tell whether there is value in betting our hand or not.
Thin value diagram.
This diagram highlights the difference in profit there is to be made between standard value bets,
thin value bets and when there is no value in betting based on the percentage likelihood of
having the best hand when called.
If we have the best hand greater than 50% of the time, we make a profit. If we have the best hand
less than 50% of the time, we lose money because were risking more than we get back (a
negative ROI if you will). The smaller the likelihood of having the best hand when called,
the thinner the value.
Note: When making a value bet we actually want to get called because we expect to win money
when we are called over the long run. If you dont want to get called its not a value bet, its a
bluff. See reasons for betting.
Thin value betting example.

Ive put the thin value betting example on a separate page. This article is long enough as it is.
Benefits of thin value betting. Why bet for thin value?

So why exactly should you worry about thin value? Why not just check behind with marginal
hands on the river? Well, there are two reasons:
1. You win more money by making thin value bets.
2. You become harder to play against if you make thin value bets.
o
(and if youre harder to play against, you make more money again).
1) Every time you have the opportunity to get value from your hands, no matter how marginal it
is, you should take it. The extra few BBs here and there will add to your winrate, so why would
you ignore it? If you can learn how to bet for thin value you will increase your winrate, its as
simple as that.
2) If you bet for thin value, you will be balancing your range when youre betting on the river.
With a balanced range you make it more difficult for your opponents to play against you, which
means they will make more mistakes. The more mistakes they make, the more money you will
be winning from them.
As Ive already mentioned, thin value betting often distinguishes the good players from the great
players. If you want to improve your game and your winrate, you will want to get to grips with
the art of thin value betting in poker.
How to make good thin value bets.

There are two steps to making good thin value bets:
1. You need to put your opponent on a range of hands.
2. You need to evaluate how many hands in that range that you beat or have you beat if you
bet and get called.
1) Giving your opponent a range.

If you cant work out a decent range for your opponent based on the way they have played up
until that point in the hand, your value bet will just be a shot in the dark. If you cant figure our a
good range then youre better off checking (or thinking harder).
Your opponent needs to have an elastic calling range for you to be able to make a thin value bet.
2) Evaluating the hands in that range that you beat and do not have beat if
called.
If there are lots of hands in your opponents range that can call a bet and you have beat, then there
is obviously value in betting. Conversely, if there are more hands that have you beat, there is no
value in betting.
The smaller the difference is between the two (hands you beat and hands that have you
beat), the thinner your value bet will be. The better you become at working out your
opponents range, the easier you will find it to make thinner and thinner value bets.
Its easy enough to know how to make good thin value bets, but actually doing it is another thing.
But as with all tough decisions in poker, it will get easier the more you practice.
training.
Thin value betting evaluation.

Thin value betting is tricky but it makes you money, so dont ignore it.
The key to value betting is being able to put your opponent on a range of hands. If you can do
that, thin value bets will get a lot easier. If you cant put your opponent on a range, you need to
practice more or pay more attention to the way the hands play out as you go along. This is
definitely a skill you should continually be trying to improve though anyway.
The sooner you get out of the habit of playing it safe and just checking behind with your
marginal hands, the sooner you will open up the opportunity to add to your winrate and make
more money from your sessions through thin value betting.
Try "putting players on hands" for an in depth look at assigning hand ranges to your opponents.
Also, range merging is a prime example of getting thin value in certain situations.
3-Betting & 3-Betting Light

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > General > 3-Betting
0
3-betting light is an advanced concept that adds an extra weapon to a game that has likely
become repetitive and stagnant, even if that current game strategy is winning you money at the
tables.
3-betting will shake up a mid-stakes player's game about as much as the continuation bet did
when you first found out about that when you were starting out.
This concept is going to be most useful in mid-stakes games between $50NL and $200NL.
What is 3-betting?
Why 3-bet?
When and where to 3-bet light.
How to 3-bet effectively.
What is 3-betting and 3-betting light?
3-betting.
First of all, what is a 3-bet before the flop?
A 3-bet is when there has been a raise and then another raise after that.
Simple enough, but let me give you one quick example to drive it home: After the SB and BB
post the $1 and $2 blinds, lets say there is a raise to $8 from a player in MP. If another player in
LP raises it again to $24, this is called a 3-bet.
For a quick guide to good 3bet sizing, watch the 3betting section starting at 13:39 in this bet
sizing video.
As you can imagine, the guy (or girl) making the 3-bet probably has a very good hand. You
would normally expect them to be holding something like QQ+ or AK to make this second raise
before the flop.
You might be wondering why it's called a 3-bet if there has only been two raises. Well, the BB is
actually considered to be a bet in itself, and so the first raise is the 2nd bet and the second raise is
the 3-bet.
3-betting light.
As mentioned, you would expect the player making the 3-bet to have a very strong hand like
QQ+ or AK. Therefore, 3-betting light is when you make a 3-bet with a less than premium hand
like 67, 78 or any suited connector like that.
3-betting light is where you make a 3-bet with a less than premium hand before the flop.
Seems crazy and dangerous I know, but I'm sure you thought the same thing when you first
heard about continuation betting. 3-betting light can be an incredibly +EV move when used
correctly, so don't underestimate its strength.
NLHE cash games.
Why 3-bet?
Players these days will make preflop raises with a wide range of hands. If a player makes a raise
before the flop in LP, they could have almost any hand under the sun. That's how all decent
TAGs play.
Calling these raises with a strong hand of our own (or even with a drawing hand like 78s) puts us
at a disadvantage because our opponent will have the initiative in the hand. When the flop
comes, we are only really looking to fold unless we hit top pair or better. Even then, we are not
going to feel great about our hand.
3-betting when in position will regularly put loose raisers in a position where it is -EV to call a 3bet because of their wide opening range. Not to mention taking away their initiative.
The advantages of 3-betting.
Players open with a wide range of hands, which means calling 3-bets is -EV for our
opponents.
3-betting can often be far more +EV than just calling in some cases.
Players almost always fear AA when they face a 3-bet. This gives us tremendous
leverage for the flop (so cbet!).
You take back the initiative in the hand.
Opponents will call you down with much weaker hands in future if they see you 3-bet so
lightly (metagame strategy).
Sure, making an extra reraise before the flop is going to be pretty damn scary, especially if you
are 3-betting light. However, if its going to be a +EV play you need to show some balls and play
in the way that is going to make you the most money.
Don't get me wrong though, 3-betting light isn't just to try and punish the loose raisers and hope
that they fold. There will be times when we get called when we 3-bet light, but that's not a
problem. There are still advantages to 3-betting light when we reach the flop.
When and where to 3-bet light.

So we've discussed the advantages of the simple 3-bet, but when should you 3-bet light?
You want to 3-bet light with mid connectors/suited connectors like 67, 78 and 89, or 1
gap suited connectors like 68 and 79.
You should 3-bet light in position. Playing a 3-bet pot out of position is tricky (although
not impossible).
You should mostly 3-bet raisers from LP. Raisers from EP are more likely to turn up with
a strong hand.
You should try 3-betting light against TAG (Tight-Aggressive) and semi-TAG players.
An optimum spot to 3-bet light is when a TAG from LP makes a raise when you are on the
button or in the CO.
How a good 3bet will usually play out preflop.

Apologies for the God-awful diagram, but you should get the idea. These sort of players are
likely to be raising with a wide range of hands in this position, and so are fully capable or folding
when they come up against aggression. This is why 3-betting gives us an edge.
An important point to remember is that you do not want to 3-bet light against players who are
either:
1. Super tight and are only going to raise with supreme hands. Hence our 3-bet definitely
gets called.
2. Super loose and will call regardless. We lose all of our fold equity in the hand with these
players.
This is not the only ever spot that you can 3-bet, but if you keep these guidelines in mind you
should be able to get a feel for when it's a +EV spot to 3-bet.
How to 3-bet.
In a nutshell, when you 3-bet light you ideally want your opponent to fold. This gives you an
instant and nicely-sized pot and will usually force your opponent to tighten up the hands they
open with from late position.
If we get called and miss the flop, we are almost always in the perfect situation to make a
continuation bet and take down then pot. So don't be afraid to make that cbet, it's a +EV move
over the long run. That's the basics of it, but allow me to explain a little further.
Hands not to 3-bet light with.

What to do on the flop if you are called.
3-betting light example.
Hands not to 3-bet light with.
The type of hands that you do not want to 3-bet light with are lower tier broadway hands like;
KQ, KJ QJ and also weaker aces like AJ (definitely not rag aces either). The problem is that if
you are 3-betting with these cards, the hands that your opponent is going to call with are going to
have you dominated (e.g. AQ+, JJ+).
However, if you have a lower suited connector like 78s, you still have two "free" cards that you
can do damage with. It also makes post-flop play easier as you are less likely to get tied in with a
marginal hand where you hold something like top pair weak kicker.
Stick to 3-betting premiums (QQ+, AK) and lower suited connectors (56 - 9T) only.
You are better off calling with less than premium broadway hands rather than 3-betting with
them preflop.
What to do on the flop if you are called.

If you miss the flop, make a continuation bet of about 2/3 the size of the pot. Simple as that.
A pot size bet is unnecessarily large in a 3-bet pot. 2/3 does the job and saves us money for when
it doesn't work out.
The beauty of 3-betting is that it gives you supreme power in the hand. Your opponent is always
going to have the fear that you have pocket Aces or pocket Kings at the forefront of their mind,
so take advantage of that fear. If on the odd occasion you get called, check/call on the turn and
be done with the hand. The majority of the time a good continuation bet will work wonders
though.
If on the other hand you catch a piece of the flop but nothing worth value-betting, checking and
calling may be the best option. However, a lot of the time you are going to either have a strong
hand or nothing at all, and in both of these situations you will want to cbet.
3-betting light example.

Let's say our opponent is 26/18 and raises frequently from late position. This is a simple
example:
3-betting light hand history
Our opponent here clearly made a poor call when we 3-bet, as we represented a very strong hand
like QQ+ or AK, so the chances are that he called with a hand like AJ+ and hoped for the best.
Even if our opponent did hold a hand like QQ or AJ, it is very difficult for them to call for the
fear of us holding Aces or Kings, which is why the continuation bet brings home so much money
due to the 3-bet before the flop.
Evaluation of 3-betting light.

This article is one of the longest I have ever written, yet I still feel that it could have been a bit
meatier. Congratulations if you made it this far, and I hope most of it made sense and you can
understand the theory behind 3-betting lightly and how it can be profitable.
Just be sure not to abuse 3-betting and you will be fine. 3-betting and 3-betting lightly can be
very +EV in the right spots, but they can do a lot of damage to your stack if you are not careful
with them. I'd recommend dropping down a level to experiment with 3-betting and to find your
feet with it.
It's definitely a skill that is worth perfecting and adding to your game as a mid-stakes player (or
for when you reach those levels).
PS. Don't forget to cbet if you miss the flop.
The REM Process - Maximize

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > General > The REM Process > Maximize
0
The final (and arguably most important) step in the REM process is "Maximize". This involves
making the optimum play to get the most value from your hand.
Unfortunately, the art of maximizing your profits from every hand you play is out of the scope of
one article. However, what I will be able to do is give you some groundwork for making
optimum plays at the table.
Maximizing value on a basic level.

On a basic level, optimum play is to get as much money in the middle with the best hand and
save your money when you do not.
When you have the hand with the greatest equity you want to get as much money in to the pot as
possible. When you don't have good equity in the hand you want to see future cards as cheaply as
possible, which generally involves checking and folding.
You want to play as closely as you can to the fundamental theorem of poker to help you
maximize your winnings from each hand you play.
The fundamental theorem of poker.

Every time you play a hand differently from the way you would have played it if you could see
all your opponents' cards, they gain; and every time you play your hand the same way you would
have played it if you could see all their cards, they lose.
So if we knew what our opponent was holding at all times, we would be able to make the
optimum play on every single betting round. When maximizing value from our hands, we want
to try and make the same play that we would make if we could see our opponent's holecards.
One problem.
That's all well and good, but there is a hell of a lot of middle ground where we will not know if
we are ahead of behind in a hand. Therefore, we just have to make the best play we can with the
limited information we have from the range and equity sections of the REM process.
Betting and raising.

Whenever you bet or raise, ask yourself this question:
Do I want my opponent to fold or do I want them to call?
Really think about it.
If you want them to call, you are betting for value.

If you want them to fold, you are bluffing.
That's all there is to it. If you do not know whether you want your opponent to do either, you
should not be betting.
Far too many players make bets with no reasoning behind why they are making them. The
chances are that if you do not know why you are betting, a large number of your bets are going
to be -EV.
Betting for value.

A super-common example for you. We raise in the CO and the BB calls.
Our hand: A K
Flop: A 9 7
As we all should know, on this flop we should bet out. Why? Because we have good equity
against our opponent's range, which is likely to be a weaker ace or lower pocket pair. We are
betting for value in the hope that our opponent will call with a weaker ace or a flush draw
because we have greater equity in the hand (even if they may have a better hand like 2 pair or a
set).
The equity of our AdKc against villain's range. Found using PokerStove.
Yep that's right, we actually want our opponent to call with a flush draw. If the pot is $10 and we
bet $8, they are getting terrible odds to chase their flush. Therefore, if they call they are making a
mistake and we are gaining from this mistake. If they fold on the other hand, they are making the
correct play and we gain nothing.
"Betting to protect your hand" is very bad alternate terminology for "betting for value". What are
we protecting our hand from? Players calling with bad odds and worse hands? According to the
fundamental theorem of poker we want our opponents to call with bad odds and worse hands, as
we gain nothing otherwise.
Try your best to get used to the idea of either betting for value or bluffing. "Protecting your
hand" is not the right way to explain your bets - "betting for value" is.
Bluffing.
Our hand: A Q
Flop: T 2 7
Let's say we raised preflop in the CO and the button calls. Our opponent then bets out 3/4 of the
pot on this flop. With our overcards and nut flush draw, we reraise. However, is this reraise for
value or as a bluff? In other words, do we want our opponent to call of to fold?
Well, first things first, this all depends on our opponents range. If we figure that our opponent is
the type of player to only ever bet out on this sort of flop with top pair or better, our equity in the
hand is as follows:
The equity of our AsQs against villain's range. Found using PokerStove.
As you can see, we do not have the dominant equity in the hand. So in this situation, by raising
we are hoping that our opponent will fold their better hand. Therefore we are bluffing. Simple as
that.
Sure, it's technically a semi-bluff because it's not all that bad if our opponent calls this raise, but
based on the equity we have right now our raise is a bluff. Hopefully this helps to illustrate the
difference between bluffing and betting for value.
training.
Evaluation of "maximize" in the REM process.

I only really covered the north-facing side of the tip of the ice berg in this article. I was going to
cover more on maximizing value with checking and calling, but in all honesty I would have just
been rehashing some pretty basic strategy to reinforce the same point I put across in the betting
and raising section.
Maximizing value in poker is a skill that you will be perfecting for life. A lot of the strategy you
read all boils down to making the best decisions possible and getting the most from your hands.
As long as you always think about every decision you make, you will continue to improve your
game and make optimum plays more frequently.
Poker will always be a game of broken information - one big jigsaw puzzle with a few pieces
missing. We just have to try to put it together and do the best we can with the information we
have at hand - and then make the best play we can.
Range Merging
Texas Hold'em > Strategy > General > Range Merging
1
You may find the article on thin value useful as a primer for this range merging article.
Range merging or merging your range is something that you will run in to every now and then
on poker forums and in training videos. It's quite an advanced topic, so I'm going to need your
full attention for this one.
As a word of warning, range merging was something that took me some time to fully get my
head around. Explaining this principle is likely going to be harder for me than it is for you to
understand it.
So prepare yourself to either learn everything there is to know about range merging or to sit back
and watch my teaching skills fly out of the window.
What is range merging?

Range merging is when you bet with a medium-strength hand on the river, where the board
makes your opponent believe that you can only be betting with either the nuts or bluffing with
nothing at all (most likely bluffing).
Opponents will often call with weak hands as they are confident that they will be able to catch
you out on your bluff. These hands that opponents call with are therefore known as
bluffcatchers.
However, our medium-strength hand actually beats their weak bluffcatcher that they thought
they were catching us out with, so we take the pot with that little extra value.
Range merging diagram.
I know, I know, it's impressively confusing on first glance. However, I've got a lot more
explaining to do first so bare with me. I need to go in to some more detail about those
bluffcatchers first...
What are bluffcatchers?

Bluffatchers are hands that you wouldn't bet with because they are not strong enough, but you
will more than happily call a bet with them if you have the suspicion that your opponent is going
for a bluff on the river.
Bluffcatcher example.
We are heads up against an opponent on the flop and first to act with 9 T . The flop comes A
9 7 . We bet the size of the pot and our opponent calls.
The turn is A . We check and our opponent checks behind us.
The river is J . We check and our opponent bets the size of the pot. The action is back on us.
We call with our pair of 9s. Our opponent turns over K T for a busted flush draw and we win
the pot.
Bluffcatcher example evaluation.

In this situation we do not expect our opponent to bet with a hand like a pair of Js, 9s, or 7s. This
is because they know that they only expect to get called by hands like a higher pair, Ax or better.
Therefore it is the safer option for them to check and take down the pot rather than risking more
money unnecessarily.
It is very unlikely that our opponent would bet with a mediocre hand on the river.
Therefore, because our opponent is not betting with a mediocre hand, they are either betting with
a very strong hand or they are bluffing with air (this is described as having a polarized range).
Seeing as our opponent didn't bet the turn or raise on the flop, we can safely assume that our
opponent is more likely to be bluffing as opposed to betting with a strong hand like Ax or better.
So, whilst we do not have a hand strong enough for us to want to bet out with, we are more than
happy to call this strange looking bet to catch our opponent's bluff. Hence the term bluff
catcher.
This article involves a lot of level 3 thinking. See multiple level thinking for more information
on that.
The aim of range merging is to take advantage of the logic behind what we just did.
Explanation of range merging.

To get to grips with range merging, we're going to have to turn the situation around and look at it
from the opposite angle.
Let's put ourselves in the shoes of our opponent. However, this time we have a better hand like Q
Q . Let's forget about the weakly played turn and assume that we are on the river in the same
situation as before.
Our hand: Q Q
Board: A 9 7 A J
Many players will be tempted to check and take down the pot on a board of A 9 7 A J .
After all, the last thing we want is to get caught out by an opponent that holds an Ace. However,
this is a great board to merge our range and take advantage of the player that is willing to call
with their bluffcatcher.
By merging our range (i.e. betting with hands in between the nuts and nothing at all), our
opponent is very likely going to call with a weaker hand like a pair of 9s, 7s or Js in an attempt to
catch us out on a bluff. We are get more value from the hand by merging our range, simply
because we are confident that our mediocre hand beats theirs when they think we would only bet
with the nuts or nothing at all.
Our opponent is only expecting us to bet out when we are bluffing. Betting with a mediocre hand
doesn't seem to make too much sense to them.
The added value of range merging is that our opponent is probably going to call value bets later
on down the line when we have the nuts. This is all going to be thanks to our range merging in
previous pots.
One thing to remember about range merging.

If you merge your range frequently, opponents will get wise to your game and start slowplaying
strong hands as they expect you to continue betting. Therefore, if the example hand above was
repeated, the second time around our opponent may well check with an Ace because they will be
expecting us to bet with a mediocre hand on the river.
This is more of a metagame problem more than anything, so I'm not going to go in to the ins and
outs of what your opponent thinks and how they are going to react to your plays. Just be aware of
how range merging will affect the way your opponents play against you.
training.
Evaluation of range merging.

Range merging is simply taking advantage of players who are trying to catch you out when they
think you are bluffing. This article was quite meaty, but I can split it up in to two main sections
of learning:
1. Figuring out what a bluffcatcher is and when we use it.
2. Learning how to take advantage of players using bluffcatchers.
If you think of it like that, it might be easier to break down the article and understand the
strategy.
If I'm being honest, this principle took absolutely ages for me to get my head around, even after
having it explained to me a handful of times. So if you didn't get it on the first read through, try
again today or come back and give it a go tomorrow.
This is the original range merging thread at 2+2 as posted by the infamous aejones (remember
the aejones theorem?). However, it's not the easiest read in the world.
Elastic and Inelastic Calling Ranges

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > General > Elastic and Inelastic Ranges
1
What does elasticity have to do with poker? It sounds enjoyable.

As usual, inelastic and elastic hands (more specifically ranges) are just the terms behind a
concept that you've probably considered whilst in the middle of a session, or glossed over whilst
reading other strategy articles.
In this article, I will explain what these stretchy terms mean and how you can use an
understanding of them to help you make more profitable bet sizes.
What are elastic and inelastic hands?
1. A player with an elastic hand will make their decision about whether or not to call based
on the size of the bet.

2. A player with an inelastic hand will either be calling or folding to virtually any sized bet.
The size of the bet does not affect their decision on whether or not to call.
The elasticity of a hand is determined by how much of an effect your bet size has on your
opponent's decision to call.
Note: For the following examples, assume that we are heads up and the hand has been checked to
the river. In addition, our only options are to either call or fold.
1) An elastic hand.
Our Hand: Q T
Board: A Q 8 5 2
Pot: $10
If our opponent bets between $3 and $5, we will call.

If our opponent bets between $5 and $8, we may call or fold.
If our opponent bets between $8 and $10, we will fold.
This is an elastic hand because whether or not we call is influenced by the size of our opponent's
bet. Our decision is flexible and it varies, so it's an elastic hand.
A rough diagram to highlight the

calling frequency of an elastic hand depending on the size of the bet. e.g. holding QT on a
AQ852 board.
2) An inelastic hand.
Our Hand: T 9
Board: T T 8 4 4
Pot: $10


calling frequency of an inelastic hand that is going to call regardless of the size of the bet. e.g. T9
on a TT844 board.
Conversely, our decision would be the complete opposite if we have a slightly different hand on
the same board.
Our Hand: 5 6
Board: T T 8 4 4
Pot: $10


calling frequency of an inelastic hand that is going to call regardless of the size of the bet. e.g. 56
on a TT844 board.
These are inelastic hands because the size of our opponent's bet has no effect on our decision to
call or fold. Our decision isn't flexible and it doesn't vary, so they are inelastic hands.
Elastic and inelastic ranges.

So now we know what inelastic and elastic hands are, what about ranges? Well, a range is made
up of lots of hands, so we can say that:
If a range mostly consists of elastic hands, it's an elastic range.

If a range mostly consists of inelastic hands, it's an inelastic range.
How much do I mean when I say mostly? If a range is made up of at least 75% elastic or
inelastic hands, you can safely call it an elastic or inelastic range.
We prefer to work with ranges because it's unlikely that you're going to be able to put your
opponent on one specific hand. So it's more useful to determine whether our opponent's range -as opposed to hand -- is elastic or inelastic.
Note: The degree of "elasticity" of a range will vary. Certain ranges can be more elastic or less
elastic than others. In this article I'm looking at the ranges on each end of this scale.
How to work out whether or not a range is elastic or inelastic.

How do you know if a range consists of mostly one type of hand (e.g. 75%+ inelastic hands)?
The fastest way is through intuition. If you have a lot of experience with putting opponents on
ranges of hands it will be easy to say I think they have an inelastic range in this spot. It may
not be perfectly accurate and it's not something every player will be able to do, but it is the
quickest method.
Alternatively, you could be more accurate by splitting your opponents range (the one you've
assigned to them) in to elastic hands and inelastic hands. Using hand combinations you could
then work out the percentage of each type of hand in that range. If there are more than 75%
elastic hands, then you could call it an elastic range.
How to play against an inelastic range.
If you have a good hand, bet big.

If you have a weak hand and you think your opponent will fold, bet small.
Playing against an inelastic range is easy. All you have to remember is that your opponent
already has a fixed decision in their mind, and your bet size is not going to have any effect on
that decision.
You can easily take advantage of an inelastic range by betting big with your strong hands (as
your opponents will just as happily call a big bet as they would a small bet), and by betting small
with your bluffs if you think your opponent will fold (as your opponents will just as happily fold
to a small bet as they would to a big bet).
A perfect example of exploiting an inelastic range is Zeebo's theorem. The theorem states that
No player is capable of folding a full house on any betting round, regardless of the size of the
bet. So if you're betting half-pot when your opponent could well have a full-house in their
range, you are severely missing out on value.
Playing against an inelastic ranges diagrams.
A rough
diagram to show good and poor bet sizes if your opponent has an inelastic range and you want
them to fold.
If your opponent has an inelastic range and you want them to fold, you should bet small. If you
bet big your are risking more than you need to when a smaller bet will achieve the same result.
The smaller you can bet when you want your opponent to fold their inelastic range -- whilst still
achieving a high fold frequency -- the better.
A rough
diagram to show good and poor bet sizes if your opponent has an inelastic range and you want
them to call.
If your opponent has an inelastic range and you want them to call, you should bet big. If you bet
small you are missing out on value due to the fact that your opponent is just as likely to call a
small bet as they are a big bet.
The bigger you can bet when you want your opponent to call with their inelastic range -- whilst
still achieving a high call frequency -- the better.
Note: Not all inelastic ranges are going to either call or fold 100% of the time for any bet size.
I've accounted for this with the grey areas at the extremes of each diagram above.
Playing against an inelastic range example.

Here's a basic and common example: we are in position against a half-decent opponent that
doesn't know what floating is.
We make a continuation bet on this flop:
Our Hand: A K
Board: Q 7 2
Pot: $11
On this flop, our opponent's calling range is inelastic. Why? Because our opponent's range is
essentially polarized to two types of hands:
1. Strong hands that will call. Big pairs (e.g. AQ), overpairs (KK+), mid-pocket pairs (e.g.
TT), sets, two pair, and middle pair hands (e.g. A7).
2. Weak hands that will fold. Everything else.
1) If our opponent has a strong hand like top pair or better, they are going to comfortably call any
size bet on this flop. For the most part, they are going to be just as happy to call a pot-size bet as
they would be to call a half-pot size bet.
2) Any other hand on this flop would be considered weak. If our opponent has any other hand
like a pair of 2s or a low pocket pair (these are the at the top of their "weak range"), they cannot
comfortably call a bet. They are equally as likely to fold to a half-pot bet as they would to a potsize bet.
There are virtually no hands in our opponent's range on this flop that will call a half-pot bet, but
fold to a pot-size bet.
If we plan on making a continuation bet bluff with a hand like AK, we should bet small -- around
$6. A half-pot size bet will achieve the same result as a pot-size bet, so we should bet small to
minimize our losses when our opponent does have a hand worth calling with.
How to play against an elastic range.
If you have a good hand, you should bet small enough so that worse hands than yours can
call (for thin value).
If you have a weak hand and you think your opponent will fold, you should bet just big
enough so that stronger hands will fold.
If you know that your opponent has an elastic range, you should vary your bet sizes depending
on what you want to achieve. If you want to entice your opponent to call, you should lean toward
betting a small amount. If you want your opponent to fold, you should look toward betting big.
Playing against an elastic range is a lot more difficult than playing against an inelastic range.
Against an elastic range you need to tailor your bet sizes appropriately, which requires more skill
than simply choosing either end of the scale (i.e. bet big or bet small) as you would against an
inelastic range.
Playing against an elastic range diagram.
You have
to tailor your bet sizes when playing against an elastic range if you to get the most value.
If you have a decent hand and your opponent has an elastic calling range, you want to size your
bet so that only worse hands will call.
If you size your bet too big, you will only get calls from hands that are better than yours. If you
size your bet too small, you will miss out on value from hands that are only slightly worse than
yours.
Playing against an elastic range example.

We in position against one other thoughtful player. We raise on the button and get called by the
BB. The flop is:
Our Hand: A J
Board: J 7 2
Pot: $13
Our opponent checks. We make a continuation bet of $9 and our opponent calls. The turn is as
follows:
Board: J 7 2 5
Pot: $31
Our opponent's calling range on this turn is elastic. This is because their range will respond
differently to different bet sizes. Here's a basic overview of what we could expect to get calls
from with varying bet sizes:
Small bet ($16): weak draws, strong draws, top pair+

Medium bet ($23): strong draws, top pair+
Big bet ($30): top pair+
Seeing as we want to get value from weaker hands than ours, a big bet ($30) isn't a great option.
If we make a big bet on this turn we are forcing out hands that we would get value from, such
has weaker Jx hands and most draws. Our bet size is only attractive to the parts of our opponent's
range that have us beat, such as two-pair hands or better.
Conversely, if we make a smallish bet ($18 sounds good), we will bet getting calls from the parts
of our opponent's range that we will get value from. More one-pair hands are more likely to call,
and so are flush and straight draws -- which we have good equity against.
Note: I'm sure some of you will be screaming "but don't we want drawing hands to fold?" Not
really, because they are still getting bad pot odds with our $18 bet. They are getting 2.7 to 1,
when they ideally need just over 4 to 1.
If they call with bad pot odds, we profit.
training.
Elastic and inelastic hands evaluation.

The terms "inelastic" and "elastic" calling ranges describe something you were probably already
familiar with, but didn't know much in-depth stuff about. The principles are simple:
Inelastic ranges: If you have a good hand,t, bet big.

Elastic ranges: If you have a decent hand, only bet enough so that worse hands will call.
Or to put it even more simply:
With inelastic ranges, bet sizes do not matter.

With elastic ranges, bet sizes matter.
Inelastic ranges are easy, because it's mostly about betting big and maximizing value when you
have a good hand. Elastic ranges are trickier, because you have to tailor your bet sizes to extract
as much value as possible, whilst not betting so much that only better hands will call.
As a beginner player, understanding and being able to take advantage of inelastic ranges is the
most valuable thing you could take from this article. Exploiting elastic ranges is something that
takes a lot of skill in an attempt to gain smaller profits, and is something that experienced players
will want to work on refining.
Pocket Kings Strategy

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Hands > Pocket Pairs > Kings
0
Pocket kings are the second best starting hand in Texas Holdem. There is no other starting hand
in hold'em except pocket aces that are stronger pre-flop. However, just like "pocket rockets", the
"cowboys" can also get you into trouble at the tables.
Pocket Kings have one fundamental flaw when compared to pocket aces: the possibility of an
opponent making a higher pair. Nonetheless, this quick guide on how to play pocket kings
should help you make the most of them in any hand...
Basic pocket kings strategy.

You must be aware that KK is a very vulnerable hand as any ace that appears on the board could
easily pair with an opponent's holecard to give them the higher pair than you. Even if your
opponents do not have an ace in the hole, the mere presence of an ace on the board can be
enough to scare you away from betting as heavily and extracting maximum profit from the hand.
There is roughly a 20% chance that an ace will fall on any flop, which is more often than you
would think.
NLHE cash games.
For these reasons it is important to bet or raise with pocket kings pre-flop. Similarly to pocket
aces, you do not want to be in a multi-way pot when seeing the flop, otherwise you will be
giving your opponents a greater opportunity to take the pot away from you, so you will want to
be seeing a flop with a maximum 2 opponents only.
You want to bet an amount that will help you determine the strength of your opponent's hands. It
is important that you attempt to find out whether or not they could possibly holding an ace when
they call so that you can make better judgments when the flop comes down. This is a key point,
as when raising with pocket kings:
You want to raise enough to weed out the weaker hands, and enough to know that your
opponents will have at least an ace to call you.
This means that you can give yourself a greater ability to put your opponent on a hand, and
giving yourself a better opportunity to fold to significant signs of strength if the ace does hit the
board.
Post-flop play with pocket kings can be sub divided into two situations.
1. A flop without an ace
2. A flop with an ace
Flop without an ace.

This situation is far more pleasant than the second, but it does not mean you are home and dry
yet. If you do not make a set you still only have that one pair, so we are in no position to be
slowplaying our hand just yet.
You want to play this kind of flop in a similar way to the way you would play pocket aces on the
flop, by betting and raising as much as possible to extract a decent amount of money from
players who cannot let go of top pair. Furthermore, you want to continue to make sure that your
opponents are not receiving the correct pot odds to chase after any flush or straight draws.
Even if the flop looks pretty safe and doesn't offer up any obvious draws, I am still going to be
betting and raising strongly to avoid letting other players catch up and make two pair or better. In
addition, you don't build a big pot by checking and calling, so grab the bull by the horns and start
playing some aggressive poker. If your opponents immediately fold, it's no big loss, as it would
never have developed into a big pot at any stage of the hand anyway.
Don't be afraid to bet with an overpair like pocket kings. You don't win big pots by playing
passively.
Flop with an ace.

This is obviously the less favourable position on the flop, because if your opponent holds an ace
then he has already got you beat. As already mentioned the presence of an ace on the board is
enough to prevent you from obtaining any substantial amount from your opponent if you do hold
the best hand because the ace will slow your betting down.
This means that your main objective on this flop is to determine whether or not your opponent
does indeed hold the ace. This can be done by betting in such a manner that will give you as
much information as possible depending on what action your opponent takes. Unfortunately
there are no definitive plays to help determine your opponent's hand, so you will have to rely on
your knowledge about your opponent to influence what plays you think you should make.
As a rule of thumb, I will generally make a continuation bet and go from there. If I get called, I
evaluate the situation to the best of my ability to try and figure out whether to fire again on the
turn. At the end of the day though, an ace on the flop really does throw a spanner in the works
when you hold pocket kings, and there is not a lot that you can do about it. Just try your best to
salvage the situation. A continuation bet is always a good starting point.
A continuation is always a good place to start when an ace falls on the flop when you hold
pocket kings.
Pocket kings strategy evaluation.

Many beginner players find it hard to let go of pocket kings even with an ace on the board. The
fact that they hold the second best starting hand clouds their mind to the fact that they are easily
beaten, and continue to see the hand through and end up losing a decent amount of chips to their
opponent that did indeed pair their ace.
With aces and kings, it is best to remember that there are many hands that can beat you after the
flop, because if you do not hit a set, you only have one pair at the end of the day. Try to look
more toward the ways in which you can lose, instead of the ways in which you can win, without
obscuring your mind too much with negativity.
As a general rule of thumb, bet strongly and avoid slowplaying your hand. You don't want to
give opponents the opportunity to catch up and take a big pot away from you.
Pocket Aces Strategy

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Hands > Pocket Pairs > Aces
0
Watch SplitSuit's AA video for a definitive guide on playing pocket aces in Texas
Hold'em.
Looking down and seeing the bullets' is one of the highlights of Texas Hold'em. Pocket aces is
the #1 starting hand in Hold'em; however, this is where people make the first mistake.
Pocket aces are by no means invincible, and if they are not played with caution you stand to lose
a big pot. So allow this quick guide to help you learn how to play pocket aces profitably the
next time you pick those bad boys up.
Always look to make a bet or raise with pocket aces.

We have to realize that pocket aces are not the type of hand we want to play against multiple
opponents. The ideal situation is to be heads up on the flop. Therefore limping in' in early
position is a dangerous tactic and you should avoid doing so. After all, if you do limp then you
could be facing numerous opponents on the flop, at which point you have to be prepared to fold
your hand to any significant amount of action unless you hit your set.
Always look to raise with pocket aces as opposed to limping in and trying to be tricky. The last
thing you want to happen is to be facing multiple opponents on the flop.
A second situation that could arise from limping in is being raised by another player. When
facing this raise most people will re-raise once more and this will set alarm bells ringing in the
heads of your opponents, because what kind of hand are you holding if you limp then re-raise the
raiser?
NLHE cash games.
9 times out of 10 the person making this move has a monster starting hand. Therefore you should
more often than not raise when holding pocket aces, it lets your opponents know that you have a
big hand but not how big, and it helps to define your opponents hands if they call.
Post-flop pocket aces strategy.

On the flop you again will want to be betting and raising, after all this is the only way you are
going to be able to get more money into the pot. If you are heads up against one opponent you
may want to check and induce a bluff if he is an aggressive type of player when in first position.
In general, you want to continue betting and raising to build the pot as much as possible with
pocket aces. It is not advisable to continuously slowplay this sort of hand. You make more
money by betting.
Be sure never to slowplay if the board is coordinated and your opponent is drawing to a straight
or a flush; you want to make him pay and give him the wrong pot odds to draw to it.
(Note: When playing online make sure you leave a little time between betting into the pot on the
flop. When people raise pre-flop and then bet a large amount into the pot immediately when it is
their turn to act it is a big giveaway that they are holding the over-pair, so take a little time!).
Tips for playing pocket aces.
Do not slowplay.
Try not to get too attached to the hand.
The less opponents in the hand the better.
Remember that pocket Aces are not indestructible.
It must be stressed that aces are definitely not a hand to be slowplayed. Many amateurs fall into
this bad habit because they are the #1 starting hand. But this is only before the flop. After the
flop it is a different matter, if you don't hit a set just remember... all you have is one pair.
You should always be thinking, "Okay, what could my opponent have that would beat me?" and
try to figure out whether he has that type of hand. If you try and slowplay your hand to the end,
do you think your opponent is going to call a large bet or an all-in with ace high or a pair?
Because those are the only hands you will be beating at the end. If your opponent does call, its
goodbye to your stack as very few are going to call with anything less that two-pair.
Pocket aces strategy evaluation.
Aces are not a hand to be slow played. The ideal situation is to be all in on the flop against your
opponents. However this is not going to be likely, especially in a cash game. The second best
situation is to use the tactics mentioned above by minimizing the number of opponents and
getting money into the pot by betting and even raising.
But remember, with pocket Aces you only have one pair, so be prepared to let them go when
facing a lot of action. The ability to lay down strong hands what makes the difference between
good and great players.
How To Play Small Pocket Pairs

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Hands > Pocket Pairs > Small Pocket Pairs
1
Watch SplitSuit's Baby Pairs video for 33 minutes of strategy dedicated to playing small
pocket pairs.
Small pocket pairs range from 22 to 66, where any other higher pair would be considered to be
a medium or high pocket pair. These low pairs are deceptively strong, and will often land novice
players in a lot of trouble if they are over-valued.
A small pocket pair is usually regarded as a pair between 22 and 66.
A small pocket pair is ahead of the majority of other hands pre-flop as long as an opponent does
not hold a higher pocket pair. However, post flop play can be incredibly tricky if our hand does
not improve.
So lets find out how to play small pocket pairs...
The biggest problem with small pocket pairs.
When holding a small pocket pair, there is a very high chance that the flop will bring over cards.
This will then give us an underpair to the board, and it is going to be very difficult to try and find
out whether or not we are ahead.
If we make a bet and get called, this gives us little information in whether or not our hand is
ahead. Our opponent may have a higher pair, a drawing hand, a lower pair or any other possible
hand. The simple bet and call does not tell us a lot about what our opponent is holding, and it
will prove to be costly to try and find out if we are ahead by betting on the turn and river.
NLHE cash games.
Small pocket pairs and sets.

The true strength of a small pocket pair lies in when they improve to make a set on the flop. A
set is when you make 3-of-a-kind on the flop with a pocket pair, which is different to trips, where
you make 3-of-a-kind using one holecard and two cards from the board. A set is a very hidden
and strong hand, and it is possible to make a lot of money from them when they hit because
opponents will not often suspect them.
Find out more about the different types of 3-of-a-kind hands in my article on sets and trips in
Texas Hold'em.
So instead of looking to play small pocket pair after the flop to try and find out if we are ahead,
we should just be looking to hit a set or fold. It is not very profitable and it is very difficult to
play a low pocket pair post-flop if it does not improve, so try to avoid doing so.
With small pocket pairs, the best strategy is to aim to make a set on the flop and play on, or fold
if you do not hit a set.
Pot odds and mathematics of hitting a set.

The odds of flopping a set with a pocket pair are 7 to 1, which means that we will hit a set 1 in
every 8 flops we see. These odds are not too great, and according to pot odds it means that we
will rarely be getting good enough odds pre-flop to call to see a flop and try and make our set.
The pot odds basically suggest that we will be paying too much for something that will not
happen frequently enough to make it worth our while. But, there is something very important
that we are leaving out of the pot odds equation, and that is the implied odds we have from
hitting a set.
Implied odds make playing small pocket pairs worthwhile.
The implied odds are how much we expect to win after we make our hand, and I can tell you
now, the implied odds we have for sets are HUGE. It is not uncommon for players to lose all
their money to sets if they catch a decent part of the flop, because they very rarely suspect that
their opponent has one.
Set strategy and how to play small pocket pairs.

There are two main requirements for playing small pocket pairs:
1. The opponents should have relatively deep stacks. About 70BB+ should do the trick.
2. I would avoid calling raises over 7BBs to see a flop.
1) Play small pocket pairs against deep stacked opponents.
The deeper our opponent's stack the better. This is because we are not going to hit a set too often,
but when we do we want to have the opportunity to be paid off handsomely. If our opponent has
a small stack, the reward for hitting our set and getting all-in will not justify calling raises when
we are only going to hit a set 1 time in 8.
The deeper the stack, the greater the implied odds, the greater the potential reward and the more
+EV calling to hit a set becomes. You can find out a little more information on this sort of topic
in the article on stack to pot ratios.
2) Be happy to call up to 7BB raises preflop.
The bigger the preflop raise, the worse the pot odds are and the less profitable calling to hit a set
becomes over the long run. The standard preflop raise however is about 3 or 4 BBs, which is fine
for calling in an attempt to hit a set.
However, our implied odds after hitting a set are huge, so we can afford to pay a little more to
see a flop.
Therefore, as a general rule, I would recommend calling up to 7BB raises before the flop, simply
because we can expect to get paid off pretty handsomely when we hit our set.
Don't be afraid to call up to 7BB raises (or possibly a little more depending on the situation) with
a small pocket pair. It may seem like a lot, but the returns are huge when you hit a set.
Advanced small pocket pair strategy.

If you have a strong post-flop game, it can work to your advantage to raise with pocket pairs
before the flop. This will give you the initiative in the hand and help you to take down a few
extra uncontested pots along with the bigger ones when you hit your set.
However, if you a beginner player just getting to grips with small pocket pairs, it will be easier to
take the more passive route of just calling before the flop as opposed to raising. Both methods
are profitable, so go with what you feel most comfortable with. Raising preflop with small
pocket pairs will be more +EV, but that's only if you know what you're doing.
Implied odds and sets.

I've already covered this point, but I want to stress the importance of stack sizes one more time to
really drive it home.
If our opponent has a short stack, our implied odds will decrease greatly because there is going to
be less for us to potentially win when we hit our set. Similarly, if our opponents have big stacks
then we are getting terrific implied odds for hitting our set.
The smaller our opponent's stack is, the lower our implied odds. The bigger our opponent's stack
is, the greater our implied odds.
This means we can give ourselves a little more room to work with when calling raises pre-flop; if
our opponents have short stacks we should avoid calling raises and try to get in as cheaply as
possible or not at all, whereas if our opponent has a big stack then we can afford to call a little
extra more to try and hit our set because of the good implied odds.
How to play small pocket pairs evaluation.

As you probably noticed, the strategy involving playing small pocket pairs centres primarily
around the concept of implied odds. The implied odds explain the reasoning behind the small
pocket pair strategy, so you should try and familiarise yourself with them.
The whole article basically elaborated on the basic strategy of seeing cheap flops with small
pocket pairs, and then only continuing with the hand if you hit a set. If that is the only thing that
you take away from reading this article, then dont worry, as you have probably helped save/earn
yourself a lot of money in the future from that alone.
Don't be afraid to call big raises before the flop with small pocket pairs, but be prepared to let
them go if you do not hit that set. It's a simple yet effective strategy with any pair between 22
and 66.
How To Play Ace King

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Hands > Ace King
1
Ace-King, especially when suited, is a very strong starting hand in No-Limit Holdem Poker.
However, unless you connect with the board you will have only an ace-high hand to show down
at the end. This makes playing ace-king problematic in some circumstances.
This article will look at some of the important no-limit Holdem strategy considerations when
playing ace-king. These include your stack size, position at the table and the tendencies of
opponents who are already in the pot, and those yet to act.
Basic ace-king strategy.

The worst possible outcome for ace-king is to be in a multi-way limped pot out of position and
then to miss the flop. Under these circumstances the hand should usually be folded to any serious
betting action from opponents.
Ace-King is a hand that you definitely do not want to be playing against multiple opponents.
Ace-king is in fact a drawing hand you will usually need to improve to win a showdown. At
the same time this hand has a strong likelihood of improving to become the best hand, any ace or
king on the board will give you top pair with top kicker. This makes ace-king a hand to play
strongly and positively until you encounter resistance, both before the flop and in later betting.
The ideal situation with this hand is that you take control before the flop by playing aggressive
and positive poker. Raising, especially from position, will thin the field ideally to a single
opponent. If that opponent checks to you on the flop you will often be able to take the pot away
from them with a continuation bet. When this gets called you have the added advantage of being
able to see the river for free if your opponent checks to you after the turn.
Stack sizes and playing ace king.

The stack size of both you and opponents in the hand are a critical factor in playing ace-king. If
the effective stacks (shortest stack in play) are small then your best move is often to get all-in
before the flop with this hand. This is common in tournament situations and has two possible
outcomes both of which are positive.
If you are up against small stacks, you should try and get all-in before the flop with ace king.
Either the pre-flop raiser (plus any caller) folds allowing you to take a good sized pot. Or if you
are called for example by a pair lower than Kings you get to see all 5 board cards to improve
your hand. This means you are only a little under 50% to win the hand your pot equity will also
be increased when there is blind money or a 3rd player who entered the pot then folded to your
re-raise.
When you have a deep stack holding ace-king a pre-flop re-raise can give you valuable
information on your opponent's hand. For example an opponent raises 3 times the big blind from
middle position and you re-raise a total of 8 or 9 blinds from the button. When you're opponent is
holding the hands you really fear pocket aces or kings he is likely to put in a re-raise here.
Be wary of 3-bets when you are deep stacked after making a re-raise with ace-king. This could
very well mean that your opponent holds aces or kings.
However, pairs QQ and below and other ace-high hands are more likely to call. Not only have
you defined your opponents hand, you have taken control of the hand before the flop putting
you in a position to take the pot away fairly often those times that you do miss the flop.
Player tendencies.
The tendencies of specific players, and indeed the table dynamic as a whole, will also affect the
way that you play ace-king. Before the flop you may raise to isolate a particularly weak player
seated to your right. However when a 'rock' in the same seat has entered the pot a flat call may be
the best strategy as such an opponent is more likely to tell you whether they liked the flop with
their post-flop betting patterns.
Another opponent specific move occurs at a 'wild table' here you can flat call a raise from early
position in the hope that a wild player later in the betting will re-raise, you can then push all-in
over the top representing aces or kings. When called you still have very good equity against the
wild player's range in addition to the overlay of the dead money in the pot. Since ace-king does
not play well in a multi-way pot caution is required with this move you need to be sure that an
opponent will re-raise ahead most of the time.
training.
When the betting gets heavy ahead of you a good rule of thumb for playing ace-king, especially
when not too deep stacked, is to be the player making the all-in bet and not the one calling this.
Ace-king is almost 50% to win against pairs Q-Q and below and 30% to win against pocket
Kings. However, when you are the player making the last big bet you have the added benefit of
fold-equity. The chance that you're opponent may fold increasing the profit from playing this
hand considerably.
How to play ace king evaluation.

Good no-limit Holdem play with ace-king involves all of the factors discussed above but also
and awareness of how they work together. For example a re-raise from position to define your
opponents hand is only useful against a reasonably competent opponent, from position and with
a deep stack.
Against a weaker opponent or with a short stack (15 blinds or less) your best move might be to
push all-in immediately. The combination of 'fold equity' with your winning chances giving this
play a positive expectation.
Pocket Queens Strategy

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Hands > Pocket Pairs > Queens
1
A pair of queens are almost certainly the best hand before the flop in No-Limit Texas Hold
em. However, there are two problems in playing this hand pre-flop. If you get into a raising war'
it is very likely you'll be up against the only hands you truly fear aces or kings. Then after the
flop, a high level of caution is required as an over-card to your pair could be dangerous, and so
you should be careful that you do not become married' to the hand and are able to fold if you
feel that you are beat.
This article will look at playing queens both before and after the flop in different situations.
Some of the factors that will influence your play are the tendencies and betting styles of your
opponents, the stack sizes in relation to the blinds and your position at the table.
How pocket Queens compare to other hands.

Statistically, the chances that your pair of queens are up against either kings or aces is very low.
However, if the betting gets very heavy before the flop then you will need to assess the situation
carefully based on the tendencies and possible ranges of your opponent. It is not easy to fold
pocket Queens pre-flop, but it is perfectly possible if you feel that the way your opponent'(s)
betting is distinctive of pocket Kings or Aces.
money.
For example, you raise pre-flop and get re-raised. Here your read on your opponent should guide
whether you call to see the flop or put in another re-raise before the flop. If your opponent is
super-tight and will only ever re-raise with aces, kings or ace-king then you can work out the
probability of each using card distribution.
Here there are 16 possible ways of being dealt ace-king before the flop and 6 ways each of being
dealt either pair. The probability of this opponent holding aces or kings is this approximately
43% with Ace-King at 57%. Of course you are either a small favorite or a big underdog in this
situation whether to see the flop will depend on the likelihood of your opponent folding those
times when he has Ace-King and neither of these cards appear.
Against a looser opponent there is a greater likelihood that your hand is the best before the flop,
even when re-raised. In fact against a habitual re-raiser you may in a position where you have a
dominating hand for example against Ace-Queen or a pair of Jacks.
Using position.
In this case your position at the table and effective stacks will have a bigger influence on your
strategy than card distribution. If the loose raiser is to your immediate right then a re-raise is
usually appropriate. This will prevent additional callers and ensure that you are playing the pot
heads-up in position. Calling a raise and then seeing 2 or 3 more people enter the pot can easily
ruin the strength of your hand if an ace falls on the flop it is very likely to have hit someone
who called the raise and you may have to fold.
If you re-raised in position an ace or king falling on the flop may not be a disaster for your hand.
You will have an opportunity to see your opponent act before you do on the flop and a
reasonable size continuation bet may well take the pot on the flop. In these circumstances a small
bet from your (out of position) opponent can often indicate weakness, a probe to gather
information about your hand. Here you should generally re-raise, planning to fold to an all-in
check-raise or re-raise against all but the worst opponents.
Consider stack sizes.

Stack sizes will influence how you play any hand in no-limit Holdem, a pair of queens is a hand
that is particularly sensitive to this. Facing re-raises with a deep stack has already been covered
however you need to adjust for shallow stacked play often found in tournament situations.
Once the blinds and antes reach 10% of your stack then raising and re-raising with queens
becomes the optimal play. The reason is the comparatively larger ranges of your opponents in the
shorter stacked situation. Now a 3 bet all in from a player in position is more likely to be an
under-pair to your queens (statistically speaking) than the dreaded aces or kings. In this situation
an all-in will give you the added benefit of the blinds and antes to boost your stack.
A tricky spot.
A difficult situation often arises when you are dealt a pair of queens in early position at a full
table. Here a raise is the default play, yet a loose table could see 2, 3 or even more callers before
the flop. In this case your judgment of the meaning of the bets of your opponents becomes the
critical factor particularly as you will not close the betting action after the flop.
training.
A raise and even a re-raise in this situation is the better play than checking and calling an
opponent's bet when your queens are an over-pair to the board. The presence of draws on the
board will also allow you to narrow your opponent's holdings. On a dry flop' such as 2-7-J any
opponent who is willing to get all in needs to be assessed carefully would this particular player
only 3-bet with a set or are they the kind of player who thinks that their ace-jack holding is good
here?
Pocket queens strategy evaluation.

In summary, the key to playing with a pair of queens is to use the combination of your hand
strength before the flop, good position at the table and judgment of the meaning of your
opponent's bets and raises. The comparative looseness or tight playing styles from opponents
who re-raise will give you a lot of information on how to proceed with this strong yet tricky hand
after the flop.
How To Play Rag Aces

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Hands > Rage Aces
1
The definition of holding a 'rag ace' or an 'ace-rag' is being dealt an ace with another card lower
than a ten. So the following hands can be regarded as 'rag aces': A9 A8 A7 A6 A5 A4 A3 A2.
It could be argued the range, in which the term rag ace incorporates, is smaller or greater than the
one shown. For example some would say that a rag ace ranges from A2 to A6, but in my opinion
the best way to determine an ace rag is in the range A2 to A9.
In a nutshell, a rag ace is an ace with a low kicker.
How to play aces with low kickers.

So that's enough of the background information, now how should they be played? It is typical for
a beginner player to overestimate the strength of their hand just because they hold an ace, and
this can lead them into trouble. This answer to the question on how to play aces with low kickers
is as follows...
More often than not you should be folding rag aces. This may come as no surprise to any
intermediate and experienced players as they have read this article or other articles like this, and
learnt from mistakes they have made at the table.
You should always look to fold rag aces, as they will rarely win big pots and are likely to lose
you a fair amount of money if you are out-kicked.
If you play rag aces, you are primarily looking for one thing to happen: making top pair with
your kicker on the flop. This is because this gives you the best opportunity of having the best
hand and to make money. If you pair your ace and get action from another player it is likely that
they have your ace out-kicked, especially if they raised before the flop.
money.
There may be a slight chance that your opponent is playing a rag ace worse than yours, but you
can never be sure of this and it is never ideal to be putting money into a pot when you do not
know where you stand.
Tips for playing rag aces.

1] If you pair your ace and bet out, your opponent will only be calling/raising with the better ace
leaving you unsure of where you stand, or they will fold an obvious worse hand winning a
small pot. Furthermore if you were to hold A5 on a board of AJ8, any action you would get
would either result in you losing the pot or calling to win half. In the best-case scenario of your
opponent holding an ace-rag, it is likely to be a split pot by the river.
2] If you make top pair with your kicker you have a better chance of making more money from
another player that has hit top pair with a worse kicker. However this situation is unlikely and
again with one pair you can only hope to be winning a small pot.
3] You make two pair on the flop against someone with an ace but with a better kicker. This will
usually be a profitable situation for you. However it is not common and it would be a losing play
attempting to make two-pair with a rag ace against an opponent with a better kicker. It simply
won't happen enough to make the call profitable.
Rag aces do not win big pots.
As highlighted in bold, the key idea to remember with rag aces is that they are not designed to
win big pots, and if you happen to make that two pair, it is actually going to be a losing play in
the long run. Just think about it. If a player raises you with his AQ and you call with you A6 to
see a flop, who do you think will be coming out on top the majority of the time? Hopefully this
has drilled into you that you should get away from rag aces as often as you can save yourself
some money at the table.
When can you play rag aces?

In spite of what has been mentioned above, there are certain situations that warrant playing acerag in the hole (remember that no answers in poker are that straight forward). When playing
short-handed poker you can loosen up your starting hand requirements. When there are 5 people
or less at the table it is acceptable to play any ace with good table position.
Rag aces can be played more profitably at short-handed tables, but you still have to be careful.
Rag aces are generally best avoided if you are still developing a solid, winning strategy.
The likelihood that your opponents will be holding any aces has diminished significantly enough
to change rag aces from losers to winners. The rule that you may only win small pots still
applies, but the size of these pots will be slightly increased short-handed, as players will have a
tendency to call bets with middle pairs.
Furthermore, an ace also acts as a plan B for clearing up uncontested pots with the high card. But
be sure to let paired aces go if you come up against too much action after the flop.
Blind play with rag aces.

In addition rag aces are better suited for blind play (play within the blinds and button) for the
reasons mentioned above, as once again there will only be a small number of players left in the
hand. It is likely that you have the best hand so the optimum play is to raise with any ace if it is
folded around to you on the cut-off or on the button.
If your opponent does call than you can evaluate how to play the flop with greater accuracy as
you have position on your opponent. When in the small blind you should once again raise and
hope to take the big blind. If your opponent does call then a continuation bet on the flop is likely
to take the pot down. When on the big blind with an ace rag you should raise if you feel you can
take the pot otherwise it is best to check, as you will be out of position for the hand.
When you do play rag aces, you should keep in mind two key words: Isolate and Determine.
You should realize that rag aces are not the kind of hand that you want to be playing in a multiway pot. Therefore you will want to isolate any possible opponents by raising to keep the action
heads-up if possible. If you do get the call off one opponent, you will then need to determine the
strength of your opponent's hand and if they does indeed hold the better ace than you.
There are no tips or rules to know whether or not he does; you simply have to have a good
understanding of your opponent and the way they play.
Rag aces evaluation.

If you are unsure of how to play rag aces, then you should fold them. If you are relatively new to
poker then rag aces are either going to win you small pots or lose you big ones. This type of hand
is simply not designed to win big pots and that does not help with the main aim of poker making money.
This risk you are taking to win a small pot is outweighed by the risk you are taking of losing a
big one. There are some situations in which you can profitably play ace-rags, but the profitability
margin is not great enough to concern yourself with these sorts of plays, especially if you are
unsure of what you are doing.
How To Play Drawing Hands

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Hands > Drawing Hands
0
It is a very common situation to be in when playing in the game of Texas Holdem... having a
potentially strong hand that needs another certain card to complete it. This is known as a
drawing hand, as you are drawing to a specific card or a specific type of card.
These types of hands can be very difficult to play, especially if you are facing bets and raises and
need to decide whether or not to call. However, by the end of this article you should be fully
aware of how to play drawing hands, and know when to fold and when to call when facing a
bet.
Flush draws and straight draws.
The most common drawing hands are flush draws and straight draws. When playing a drawing
hand we have to evaluate how likely it is that we will complete our hand by the next card. We
can do this by looking at the number of outs that we have.
What are outs?

An out is a card that will complete our hand. For example we have a diamond flush draw, an
out would be any diamond card. The more outs that we have, the better the chances are that we
will complete our hand on the turn of the next card.
An out is simply a card left in the deck that will complete the hand that you are drawing to.
With a typical diamond flush draw (or any flush draw) we will have a total of 9 outs, as there
will be 2 diamonds in our hand along with another 2 diamonds on the flop. There are a total of
13 diamonds in the deck, which means that 9 will be left in the deck that we will be trying to hit.
money.
Similarly, we can work out the number of outs and likelihood of completing our hand for straight
draws. There are however two different degrees of straight draw, the inside straight draw and the
open-ended straight draw. An open ended straight draw is when we can hit either card on the
ends of the straight to complete our hand.
Example of different straight draws.

If we are holding 7 8 on a board of As 5 6 , we can either hit a 4 or a 9 to make our draw.
Similarly, in an inside straight draw we are looking to hit one card in the middle of the straight to
complete our hand. For example, if we again hold 7 8c but with a board of A 5 4 , we
have to catch a 6 to complete our straight.
An open-ended straight draw has 2 outs, whereas an inside straight draw has 1 out. This makes
inside straight draws harder to complete.
Therefore, with an open ended straight draw we have 8 outs (fours 4s and four 9s), and with an
inside straight draw we have 4 outs (four 6s), meaning that we are more likely to complete an
open-ended straight draw on the turn of the next card rather than an inside straight draw.
How to work with the number of 'outs'.

As we already know, the more outs we have the better, because it improves our chances of
making our hand with the more outs we have. The real value of these figures lies in when
working out the specific odds of winning the hand. We can then use these odds to determine
whether or not it is worth calling a certain size bet to try and complete our hand.
There will be a few numbers involved in the next part of this article, but bear with me, its not as
difficult as it might appear on first impression!
Working out whether to call or fold.

We can use the number of outs to work out the odds of winning the hand by comparing it to the
number of cards we dont want that are left in the deck. If we have a flush draw on the flop, we
have 9 outs to try and make our flush by the turn. There will be 47 cards left in the deck in total,
of which 9 of these will make our hand, whilst the other 38 will not.
52 minus our holecards and the flop cards (5 in total) = 47.

o 9 cards of the same suit that we are chasing after.
o
38 are of a suit that will not complete our flush.
Now if we put these figures into a ratio of cards we want against cards we do, we get 38:9. If we
simplify this ratio using basic mathematics, we get a new easier to use ratio of roughly 4:1. Now
this figure means that for every 4 times we do not make our hand on the turn, 1 time we will, and
that is all that we need to know for the time being.
Now we know that we know that the odds of making our hand (and thus winning the pot) are 4:1,
we can use these odds to determine whether or not to call a bet or raise. When facing a bet, we
have to compare the size of the bet to the size of the pot; this will give us our pot odds.
Using the odds when facing a bet.

Lets say for example our opponent bets $20 making the pot $100. We now must call $20 to try
and win $100, but should we?
If we look at the ratio between the bet and the pot, we get 100:20, or put more simply 5:1. We
are getting better odds from the pot (4:1) than we are from the cards, as we will be winning more
for the number of times we make our hand. Therefore we should make the call. So as a general
rule, if the pot odds are better (or bigger) than the odds we are getting to make our hand, we
should call, as this will be the profitable play in the long run.
If the pot odds are bigger than the odds of completing your hand (based on the outs), you should
call.
These odds and probabilities are constantly changing depending on the type of draw we have and
the amount our opponent bets into the pot. Although it may look a little tedious and difficult at
first, it is not too hard to grasp, especially if you use the system frequently. It may seem like
more effort than it is worth to learn about the odds, but it is a great feeling when you always
know whether or not to call or fold for draws, as you will never be unsure of what to do.
This article discussed the methods of playing draws passively, to try and see the next card as
cheaply as possible. Read my article on playing drawing hands aggressively for alternative
profitable methods of playing drawing hands.
Playing Drawing Hands Aggressively

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Hands > Drawing Hands > Aggressively
0
In my previous article on playing drawing hands, I discussed how to work out whether or not to
call a bet or raise depending on the type of drawing hand we had along with the size of the bet or
raise in relation to the size of the pot.
The general idea throughout the article was to check and call to try and make our flush, straight
or any other drawing hand as cheaply as possible. This alone is a profitable way to play poker if
we use it correctly, however, there are alternate methods of playing drawing hands that could
potentially be more profitable...
Try using aggression when you are on a drawing hand.

We can play drawing hands aggressively, by betting out or even raising instead of checking and
calling. This may seem to contradict the strategy of trying to make our hands as cheaply as
possible, but it does have some very big advantages, which can lead to us making more money
from or drawing hands.
surprised.
This aggressive poker style approach is best suited to the advanced players, who are able to read
their opponents and situations well, as putting money into a pot without a made hand can become
very costly if you are unsure of what you are doing. However, if you feel that you would like to
experiment with the aggressive approach, stick to the drawing hands that will give you the nuts
on completion, such as an Ace-high flush or top straight draw.
Advantages of aggression on drawing hands.

As with many poker situations there are two ways to win a hand you can win by having the
best hand, or by making your opponent fold. The aggressive style of play lends itself well to
poker as it leaves the doorway open to win pots when you do not have the best hand.
Betting with a draw works well as a semi bluff, because we may well take the pot down straight
away without even needing to complete our hand. However, if we get a call from our opponents
then we still have the opportunity to catch the right cards to make our draw and win the pot.
To further this point, the advantage of betting out instead of checking and calling with a draw is
that it disguises our hand. By making bets or raises, our opponent is more likely to believe that
we already have a made hand, and will find it harder to put us on a draw than if we had checked
and called a bet from them.
Opponents are less likely to place you on a drawing hand if you are playing aggressively, which
can work to your advantage later on in the hand.
Because our opponents will be less concerned that we have a draw, when the next card comes
such as the 3rd card of the same suit, our opponents will be less scared and continue to bet/call
because they wont be giving us credit for the flush.
Another advantage of betting with a draw is that it builds the pot, and can force opponents into
giving us the correct pot odds to call raises if they try and take control of the hand. As the size of
the pot increases, we are more likely to be given the correct odds to call if our opponent decides
to bet and raise with a strong but vulnerable holding.
Example of using aggression on a flush draw.

Lets say we are in a hand with A 5 against one opponent, who is holding K J .
The flop comes K Q 8 giving us the nut flush draw and our opponent top pair with Jack
kicker. Now we are first to act, and we decide to bet $20 into the $40 pot.
Our opponent with top pair decides to raise, but because they are a little inexperienced yet want
to protect their hand they minimum raise it to $40. There is now $100 in the pot and we have to
call a further $20 to win $100, giving us pot odds of 5:1. The odds of completing our flush by the
next card are 4:1, so we are given the right odds to call to try and make our hand.
5:1 pot odds.

4:1 odds of completing our flush.
This is an ideal situation that has arisen from a simple aggressive bet on the flop. Even though
the semi-bluff did not work, we are still priced in to continue with the hand. If we did not make
the bet on the flop and checked, our opponent may have come out betting around $20 or more
into the pot himself, which would have given us the wrong pot odds (3:1) to try and make our
hand, forcing us to fold.
Although this looks like a perfect situation, it does appear quite often in numerous circumstances
where you can influence the amount your opponent will bet to keep the pot odds in your favour.
Even if in the above example we went on to check the turn if we didnt make our flush, our
opponent may well still be scared about the strength of our hand and bet a small amount into the
pot, which would again give us the correct odds to call. Because the pot is much larger, our
opponent will be making a much bigger mistake by giving us the correct odds, and thus we will
be profiting more from the hand in the long run from their bad play.
Pot Odds
Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Mathematics > Pot Odds
7
Pot Odds Stuff: Pot Odds : The Rule of 4 and 2 : Pot Odds Examples
Learning how to use pot odds puts an incredibly useful weapon in your poker arsenal.
Knowledge of this basic concept is fundamental in determining whether or not you will become
a winning or losing poker player.
This guide aims to explain how pot odds work and how to effectively incorporate them into your
game. It shouldn't take more than 10 minutes to read this guide from start to finish, which is
pretty good considering it could be saving (and winning) you more money for the rest of your
poker career.
What are pot odds?

Pot odds simply involves using the odds or likelihood of winning when on a drawing hand to
decide whether or not to call a bet or a raise.
Therefore when you are on a flush or straight draw, you will be able to work out whether or not
to call or fold depending on the size of the bet you are facing by making use of pot odds. Pretty
handy really.
A familiar situation you will find yourself in Texas Hold'em is holding 2 cards of the same suit
with another 2 cards of that suit on the flop. In poker this is called a flush draw or sometimes
referred to as a four flush. We will use this as an example in learning the use of pot odds.
Working out pot odds.

There are two ways that you can work out pot odds in Texas Hold'em.
1. Ratio method
2. Percentage method.
Both of these methods provide the same results, so the one you decide to use is simply a matter
of preference.
The ratio method is the most commonly used method for working out pot odds, but I
personally found the percentage method the easiest to get to grips with when I was calculating
pot odds for the first time.
1) Ratio Method.
The majority of books and forums will put pot odds in the ratio format, so it's definitely worth
while getting used to this method of calculating and working with pot odds.
You Hold:
Flop:
Now say there are two people left in the pot, you and your opponent. There is $80 in the pot and
your opponent bets $20. What should you do?
1] Calculating the card odds'.

First of all we need to find out how likely we are to catch another heart on the turn. This can be
done in many ways, but the most popular way is to find the ratio of cards in the deck that we
dont want against cards that we do want.
There are 5 cards in this hand that we know, our 2 holecards and the 3 cards on the flop.
This leaves us with 47 cards in the deck that we do not know.
Out of those 47, there are 9 cards that will make our flush and 38 that will not.
If we put this into a ratio it gives us 38:9, or roughly 4:1.
2] Compare with pot odds.

Now we know that the odds of hitting a heart on the next card are 4:1. This means for every 4
times we dont catch a heart, 1 time we will. Next we have to calculate the same ratio of odds
using the amount that is in the pot and the bet we are facing.
Our opponent has bet $20 into an $80 pot making it $100.
This means we have to call $20 to stand a chance of winning $100.
This makes our odds $100:$20 which works out to equal 5:1 pot odds.
So...
Card Odds: 4:1
Pot Odds: 5:1
This means that we should call as the odds we are getting from the pot are bigger than the odds
that we will hit our flush on the next card. In the long run we will be winning more money than
we are losing.
Remember! You should only call if the pot odds are greater than the 'card odds' (probability of
completing your draw).
If finding the card odds by working them out in your head is too time consuming (which most
beginners will) . You can find them more quickly by using odds charts. These are handy if you
print them out and stick them next to your computer and refer to them the next time you end up
with a draw.
Try SPOC if you're just starting out. It's a very handy tool for helping you work out pot odds
during play.
2) Percentage Method.
The percentage method was easier for me to get to grips with when I first starting learning pot
odds. Unfortunately, it is not as widely used as the ratio method.
For the percentage method I will use an example with a straight draw.
You Hold:
Flop:
This time your opponent bets $30 making the pot $90 in total. We will find out whether or not to
call by finding out the pot odds in percentages.
1] Finding the card odds.

To find the chance of making the straight on the next card we again need to find the number of
outs (outs are cards that will complete the hand we are trying to make, in this example we are
trying to make a straight.). There are 4 fives and 4 tens that will complete our straight giving us a
total of 8 outs.
To find the percentage chance of making the straight on the next card we simply need to double
the outs and add one.
Finding the percentage "card odds".

Double the outs: 8 * 2 = 16
Add one: 16 + 1 = 17%
17% chance of making the straight
2] Compare with pot odds.
Our opponent has bet $30 making the pot $90. This means we have to call $30 to stand a chance
of winning $120.
As you can see we have to add our own bet that we will call onto the size of the pot to find the
total pot size. This part is very important, as finding the percentage of $30 in a $90 pot will give
a very different result that the percentage of $30 in a $120 pot. Using basic mathematics we
know that $30 is 25% of the $120.
So...
Card Odds: 17%
Pot Odds: 25%
As we have already found out we have 17% chance of making the straight on the next card,
which means that we should only call 17% of what is in the pot. Therefore because we are being
forced to call 25% to play on we should fold. We would be losing money in the long run if we
called.
Remember! You should only call if the percentage chance of making your hand is greater than
the percentage of the pot you have to call.
The percentage card odds can also be found in odds charts if you find it easier to use them
instead of work them out. These are useful as a guide as you start incorporating pot odds into
your game, or if you have trouble working out the odds in the short space of time you are given
to make decisions whilst playing online.
Try playing flush and straight draws for an alternative explanation of using pot odds in poker.
Question: Why are we working out the odds for the next
card only if there are two cards to come?
Good question. If we are on the flop with a flush draw, our odds of making the best hand on the
turn are roughly 4 to 1 or 20%. However, seeing as we are on the flop there are indeed 2 more
cards to come (and not just the 1), shouldn't the "card odds" be more like 2 to 1 or 40%?
The answer.
Generally, no. This is one of the biggest mistakes players make when using pot odds.
The explanation.
When you work out your pot odds, you are comparing the pot odds for the current size of the pot
(and bet) to the chances of making your draw on the next card. If you work using the odds of
making your draw over the next two cards, you need to factor in any extra money that you will
have to pay on the turn also.
Seeing as it's incredibly unlikely that we're going to accurately guess how much more money we
might have to pay on the turn, it's far easier and infinitely more reliable to take it one card at a
time. This way, you won't end up paying more money than you should for your drawing hands
when on the flop.
The only time that you should ever use the odds for making the best hand over the next two cards
combined (e.g. using 2 to 1 odds instead of 4 to 1 odds for a flush draw) is when your only
opponent in all-in on the flop. In this instance, you can guarantee that you won't face another bet
on the turn, as your opponent has no more money to bet.
I briefly mention this stuff on my percentage odds chart and my ratio odds chart. There is also an
explanation in my article on the rule of 4 and 2 for pot odds. It's obviously a very common
mistake!
Pot odds evaluation.

Although upon first glance pot odds may appear difficult, it is one of the most basic applications
of mathematics in the game of poker. If you base your drawing decisions on pot odds, then you
will mathematically be a winner in the long run, regardless of whether or not you win the hand or
not.
training.
In addition to deciding whether or not to call, pot odds can be used to influence how much you
should bet to "protect" your hand. If you believe your opponent is drawing to a flush then you
should bet a large enough sum into the pot to give your opponents the wrong odds to call if you
think you have the best hand. Once again, regardless of whether or not your opponent wins the
particular hand, they will be losing and you will be winning in the long run.
For another take on explaining pot odds, try this pot odds guide from FirstTimePokerPlayer.com.
There are some very handy tables and examples in this Texas Hold'em strategy section that
should help to broaden your understanding of the basics of pot odds in poker.
Note: The pot odds examples used in this guide have been in the situation where you have seen
the flop and are waiting to see the turn. The same mathematics can be applied for when you are
on the turn waiting to see the river, as both odds are almost exactly the same. However, you
should remember that there will be one less unknown card left in the deck when working out the
odds because you now know what the turn card is.
Implied Odds
Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Mathematics > Implied Odds
1
I like to think that I explain implied odds a little better in the guide section. Try basic
implied odds.
Implied odds are an extension of pot odds that help you decide whether or not a drawing hand is
worth calling in the face of a raise. Essentially, the implied odds of a hand tell you how much
you expect to win after you make your draw.
If you expect to win a lot more money from your opponent after you make your draw,
you have good implied odds.
If you anticipate that you will not be able to get any more money out of your opponent on
future rounds, then you have little or no implied odds.
Implied odds indicate the amount of money that you expect to win after completing your draw.
Differences between implied odds and pot odds.

Unlike in pot odds, there are no simple mathematical rules or formulas to determine what your
implied odds are in Texas Hold'em (although you can work out how much you need to win from
the rest of the hand to make calling profitable, which is shown later in this article).
With implied odds you pretty much make an estimate of implied odds through an understanding
of your opponent and the situation. For this reason it is easier to get an idea of your implied odds
during a hand if you have been playing the game for some time.
The more you play, the more you will learn about implied odds in drawing hands and eventually
it will be easier to make an accurate estimation of your "implied odds".
However, if you are quite new to the game and this is the first time you have come across
implied odds, here are two situations below that will help to illustrate:
1. The times when you have good implied odds
2. The times when you have little or no implied odds.
Good implied odds situation.

You:
Flop:
In this hand you have an open ended straight draw. If your opponent bets into you, then you have
good implied odds because if you make your straight, it is likely that you will be able to extract
more money from your opponent on later rounds of betting. This is because your opponent will
not easily be able to estimate the strength of your hand.
Poor implied odds situation.

You:
Flop:
Once again you have an open ended straight draw. However your implied odds are far worse in
this situation because if you do make your straight when the Ace or 9 comes, the board will be
very scary for your opponent as the board could easily (and obviously) make somebody the
straight. There is little chance that you will get much more money out of your opponents unless
they have the straight also.
In general, the more disguised your hand is, the better your implied odds are.
How do implied odds affect your game?

The great thing about implied odds is that they have a knock on effect against your pot odds. If
you anticipate you will win more money from your opponent on later rounds of betting, you can
afford to make calls when your opponent is not giving you the correct pot odds to call.
For example, if you have the nut straight draw the odds that you will complete the draw on the
next card are roughly 5 to 1. If your opponent bets $25 making the pot $100, they are giving you
4 to 1 odds to call. Now if we to base our decision purely on pot odds then we should not make
the call. However, if we believe that we have good implied odds, the call becomes justifiable.
This is because we will be making more money when we make our draw, than if we folded.
The fundamental rules of implied odds to remember are:
If you have good implied odds, you can afford to call without correct pot odds.
If you have little or no implied odds, you should stick to the pot odds.
Calculating implied odds.

Even though it is not possible to calculate how much you are going to win with your implied
odds, it is possible to calculate how much you need to win to make calling profitable. This
calculation is also very straight forward.
Subtract your pot odds from the odds of hitting your draw to work out your required implied
odds.
This will then give us a new ratio that we can compare with the amount we have to call to figure
out how much money we need to take from our opponent later on in the hand to make the call
profitable (or break even).
Implied odds calculation example.

Let's say that we have a flush draw and our opponent bets $10 in to a $10 pot, which means we
have to call $10 to win a $20 pot.
Odds of completing our draw: 4.2:1 (see the ratio odds chart).
Pot odds: 2:1.
Draw odds - pot odds = 2.2:1.
So our required implied odds ratio is 2.2:1. If we multiply this 2.2 figure by the $10 bet we have
to call we get $22.
Therefore, to make calling the $10 bet with our flush draw a break-even play at worst, we need
to extract $22 from our opponent during the remainder of the hand.
Implied odds evaluation.

Implied odds are useful for deciding whether to call a bet after you have calculated the pot odds.
If you do not have the correct odds to call a bet and make your draw, then a call is justifiable if
you have good implied odds. However you should stick to the pot odds if you anticipate that you
have little or no implied odds.
training.
It should be noted that you have no implied odds if your opponent is all-in, because there will be
no betting on further rounds if nobody else in the pot. Be sure to be careful when calling large
raises, as the implied odds that you are getting may not cover the amount you have to call in
order to make your draw. The best way to obtain a greater understanding of your pot odds and
implied odds is to simply play more poker.
For the next article on everything odds in poker, have a read over reverse implied odds.
Sklansky Dollars
Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Mathematics > Sklansky Dollars
1
Imaginary Money: Sklansky Dollars : G-Bucks
Sklansky dollars (or Sklansky bucks) is a mathematical concept coined by the clearly veryhumble David Sklansky.
The origin of this concept is a bit of a mystery, although I'm sure it's from one of Sklansky's
books. Either way, it's a very well-known concept that highlights how much money you expect
to win on average from calling all-ins in Texas Holdem.
What are "Sklansky dollars"?

"Sklansky dollars" tells you how much money you expect to win from the pot based on your
equity at that point in the hand.
Sklansky dollars are imaginary, but they are useful for evaluating how much money you
effectively win from the hands you play. Sklansky bucks are worked out as follows:
Sklansky dollars = [ (total pot size) * (equity) ] - last call amount.
Sounds a little complicated, but it's really not all that bad. The best way to explain this concept is
through an example.
Sklansky dollars example.

Let's say we're playing $100NL against an aggressive opponent.
Our hand: A A
Opponent's hand: A K
Our opponent ends up pushing all-in before the flop and we make the call, accompanied by a
fairly large fist pump. The board comes:
Board: K 2 T 7 K
If your monitor is still intact you will notice that you just lost your $100. However, as you can
imagine you're going to win this pot a lot more often than you will lose it, so we both know that
this was far from being a bad call.
Sklansky dollars will show us how much money we expect to win from this call on average and
remind us that calling is indeed a profitable play over the long run.
Working out Sklansky dollars.

To work out our "Sklansky dollars" we need to:
1. Find out our equity in the hand when all in the money went in to the middle.
2. Multiply our equity by the total size of the pot.

3. Subtract our final bet or call from the final pot size.
Steps 1 and 2 are the main components. Step 3 is just an additional one that gives us a number
that can be worked with in other calculations.
1) Find our equity in the hand when all the money went in to the middle.
Using PokerStove we find that we have 87.9% equity in the hand with A A against A K
preflop. Easy enough.
2) Multiply our equity by the size of the pot.

The final pot size was $200, and our equity in the hand when all the money went in to the middle
was 87.9%.
0.879 x $200 = $175.8
So, even though we missed out on winning that big $200 pot, on average we will be winning a
$175.8 pot every time we call all-in with A A against A K before the flop.
Note: When I say "multiply our equity by the size of the pot" I mean find the percentage of the
total pot size. You obviously want to multiply $200 by 0.879 and not 87.9.
3) Subtract our final bet or call from the final pot size.
We've just lost $100, but how much will we be earning by making the call over the long run?
Just subtract our final call of $100 from the final pot size:
Sklansky dollars = $175.8 - $100 = $75.8
Therefore, we expect to win $75.8 by calling all-in for $100 with our A A in this spot.
Real money and Sklansky dollars.

In the above example:
We lost $100 in real money.

We won $75.8 in Sklansky dollars.
Just remember that Sklansky dollars are not real - it's just a $ representation of how much money
you expect to win from a pot on average based on your equity in the hand at that point.
Real dollars tell you how much money you have won or lost in the present, whereas Sklansky
dollars tell you how much you have won or lost in the grand scheme of things in poker.
Work out Sklansky dollars with PokerEV.

If you use poker tracking software like Poker Tracker 3 (which you really should be), you can
run a really cool program called PokerEV on your database to work out your Sklansky dollars for
all of your all-in hands.
This tool will basically show you how "lucky" you have been.
If you have been unlucky, your Sklansky dollars will be greater than your real money
earnings.
If you have been getting lucky in all-in situations, your Sklansky dollars will be lower
than your real dollar earnings.
What's the use of Sklansky dollars?

Sklansky dollars is not something you'll consider using in the middle of a hand, unlike pot odds.
However, Sklansky dollars is closely linked with expected value, and both of these concepts are
great for post-session analysis and working out whether or not the way you played a hand was
optimal.
Another friendly aspect of Sklansky dollars is that it's great for a bit of reassurance. Even though
you may have lost a hand due to variance, your actions may well have been profitable
nonetheless. That's always nice to know.
Over a long enough period of time your Sklansky dollar earnings will equal your real money
earnings. Real money winnings are greatly affected by variance.
In my opinion the most valuable aspect of "Sklansky dollars" is that it helps to prevent bad beats
from getting to you and affecting your play. A bad player will see the above example as a $100
loss and nothing more. A good player will see the same hand as a great play that will win a lot of
money over the long run, regardless of the short term results.
Sklansky dollars and the fundamental theorem.

Sklansky dollars also tie in with the fundamental theorem of poker:
Every time your opponent makes a mistake, you win Sklansky dollars.
Every time you make a mistake, you lose Sklansky dollars.
Nothing really groundbreaking here, but it just goes to show that in a perfect game of poker with
no variance, you would win money by making correct plays (as opposed to making mistakes) if
you were able to see your opponent's cards.
Sklansky dollars evaluation.

"Sklansky dollars" just throws luck and variance out of the window and tells you how much
money you expect to win on average from your all-in hands.
This article is longer than it really needs to be, as "Sklansky dollars" (or Sklansky bucks,
whatever you want to call it) is a really simple concept to be honest. I hope I didn't drag the life
out of it for you - I just wanted to be thorough.
And if you didn't already notice, the method for working out Sklansky Bucks is very similar to
the method for calculating expected value -- they're closely related.
Hopefully your newfound knowledge of this concept helps you to accept the fact that bad beats
happen, and that you're going to be winning more money than you lose when you get your
money in with the best of it.
Common Mistakes Using Odds

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Mathematics > Odds Mistakes
1
As a regular cash game or tournament player, it is important that you are familiar with the
mathematics of poker.
This involves working out the odds of each situation so that you can determine what the most
profitable action will be. A good player will be able to take into account their pot odds, implied
odds and even their reverse-implied odds when calculating their next action.
However, with all these calculations taking place, there are a few simple errors that can be made
when trying to work out the correct odds in each situation. The top 3 common mistakes I see are:
1. Miscalculating the odds of draws.
2. Miscalculating percentage odds.
3. Misunderstanding the difference between ratios and probability.
surprised.
1) Miscalculating the ratio odds of draws.

The most common mistake that even the best players make is working out the incorrect odds
they have for a draw. Many players will look up and remember the odds of completing such
draws like flushes and straights by the final river card. Whilst these figures may be correct, it
will not be profitable to use these odds when you are calling a bet on the flop to try and complete
your draw by the turn.
As already mentioned, many odds charts will give you the likelihood of completing a draw by
the river, for example the chance of completing a flush draw after the turn and river have been
dealt is roughly 2:1. However, if we are only using these odds to compare whether we should
call a bet on the flop to try and make our hand by the turn, we are neglecting the fact that we may
well face another bet on the turn to see the river.
When looking up the odds on draws, use the odds for the next card only when on the flop. Do not
use the odds for completing your draw by the final card.
A bet on turn is not unlikely, and so our pot odds will be worsened by the fact that we will have
to have called two sizeable bets instead of one on the flop. Therefore instead of using the odds to
complete draws by the river, we should be using the odds to complete draws by the next card
instead. Typically for flush draws, the odds of completion by the next card will be 4:1. So when
on the flop:
Odds of completing a flush by the turn: 4:1

Odds of completing a flush by the river: 2:1
Ratio odds miscalculation example.
For example, if we are on the flop with a flush draw and our opponents bet $40 making the pot
$120, we are getting 3:1 odds from the pot. Therefore this appears to make a call with 2:1 odds
of completing our hand profitable. However, we dont complete our hand on the turn and our
opponent now bets $80 into the $160 pot, again giving us 3:1 odds.
The fact that our opponent has bet again has reduced our pot odds so much that it has made our
call on the flop unprofitable. This is because if we now call the bet on the turn, we would have
effectively paid $120 into what became a $200 pot, which changes our pot odds to 1.7:1.
Therefore by using the incorrect 2:1 odds on the flop we have made an incorrect call, and we
would be losing money in the long run by making this play. However, if we had used the correct
odds of making our hand by the next card instead of the final card, which are 4:1, we could have
folded knowing that we had the wrong odds to play on and saved ourselves some money.
2) Miscalculating percentage odds.

Some players prefer to work out the percentage odds to determine whether or not to make a call
instead of using the ratio method as above. However, there is a very basic mistake that is
frequently made using this method, especially if you are already used to working with the ratio
method.
The common mistake is not adding your own call into the total size of the pot when working out
your percentage pot odds. With ratio odds it is something that you are not required to do, but
with the percentage odds it is important that you do not forget to do so.
Always add your own call amount to the total size of the pot when working out percentage odds.
Percentage odds miscalculation example.

If your opponent bets $40 into an $80 pot, the total size of the pot after you have added together
your opponents bet and your call will be $160.
Therefore your $40 call into the total pot of $160 would be worth 25% of that pot, therefore you
can then use this 25% figure along with the chance of completing your hand to determine
whether or not to call. This is the correct way to work out the odds.
The error is made when players do not add their own bet into the total pot size, so instead of
coming out with a total $160 pot, they will be working with a $120 pot, as they have forgotten to
add their own $40 into it. Therefore they will then work out the percentage of $40 out of $120,
which works out to be 33%. This is quite far off the $40 out of $160 being 25%, and it could
mean the difference between making a profitable or losing call to try and complete your draw.
3) Misunderstanding the difference between ratios and

probability.
This mistake is far less of a problem, as you will rarely ever be required to mix odds and
probabilities at the table when working out draws. However, it is useful to be aware of the
differences in them. For example, having 1 in 4 odds of completing a draw is slightly different to
having 4:1 ratio odds of completing a draw.
Ratio and probability figures in poker are different. A 4:1 ratio is not the same as a 1 in 4
fraction.
X in Y odds and X:Y (X to Y) ratios.
1 in 4. For every 4 times an event takes place, you will have the result you are after 1
time (out of those 4 trials).
4 to 1. For every 5 times an event takes place, you will have the result you are after 1
time and the unwanted result 4 times (so 5 trials in total).
The 1 in 4 odds takes place over 4 trials, where you will obtain the wanted outcome once and an
unwanted outcome 3 times. Whereas in the 4:1 ratio odds, there are 5 trials, where you will
obtain the expected outcome once, and an unwanted outcome 4 times.
As you can see, you have to add the ratio together to find the total number of trials, whereas the
total number of trials is already given to you in the fraction format. Below is a simple table to
help illustrate the differences between this particular set of odds.
4 to 1
1 in 4
Wanted
1
1
Unwanted
4
3
# Trials
5
4
Common odds mistakes evaluation.

There are numerous ways in which a player can slip up when using mathematics in poker. It is
not uncommon to even have regular veteran players make these simple mistakes, so dont be too
concerned if you make a small mistake every now and then.
This article was written to try and help make you aware of the most common mistakes so that
you can avoid them in the future. The more you play and work with odds, the better you will
become at making precise and profitable decisions at the poker table, so get out there and play!
Poker Expected Value

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Mathematics > Expected Value
Expected Value (EV) is a term you will come across again and again in forums and in poker
strategy articles. In this guide I will explain exactly what expected value is and why it is
important when it comes to making decisions at the table.
Although somewhat similar, try not to get expected value confused with equity. If you are getting
confused between the two, read the article on the difference between equity and EV.
What is expected value?

Expected value is the amount of money a certain play expects to win or lose on average.
In any given situation in poker, a check, call, bet, raise and fold will have certain expected
values. Some of these plays will win money, whereas others will lose you money. Out of the
actions that will win you money, some will win more money than others on average.
As you can guess, the aim is to make the play with the greatest expected value.
Here are two abbreviations that you will want to familiarise yourself with:
+EV - This is a positive expectation play that will win money over the long run.
-EV - This is a negative expectation play that will lose money over the long run.
How to work out expected value.

You multiply the results of the possible outcomes by their probability of happening, and then you
add all of them together.
Trust me; it's really not as difficult as I make it sound. Mathematics always looks a lot harder
before it's explained to you, so let me give you some examples.
1. Simple coin flip example.
2. A basic example with a flush draw.
1) Simple coin flip example.

Almost every good article or guide that attempts to explain expected value uses a straightforward
coin-flipping example to start off with, so I'm not going to be breaking any trends here. Let's get
started...
A friend offers to pay you $1.50 every time she flips a coin and it lands on tails.
However, every time it lands on heads you have to pay her $1.
What is the expected value of each and every coin flip? How much do we expect to win or lose
on each individual flip? Is it a profitable game for us?
To work out our expected value for this game, we need to look at the results of each possible
outcome and their probability of happening.
Possible results and their probabilities.

Heads = lose $1
o
Probability of heads = 0.5
Tails = win $1.50

o
Probability of tails = 0.5
If it's a fair coin, the probability of it landing on heads is 0.5, or 1 in 2. All we have to do now is
multiply these outcomes (the amount we win in each possible outcome) by their probability and
add them together to find the EV for each coin flip.
Working out EV for each coin flip.

EV = Heads outcome + Tails outcome
= (-$1 x 0.5) + ($1.50 x 0.5)
= (-0.5) + (0.75)
= $0.25 EV
This means that every time we flip a coin in this game we are winning $0.25 on average. Over 2
flips we should win $1.50 once and lose $1 once, given us a net profit of $0.5 over 2 flips.
Therefore, over 1 flip this works out to earn us $0.25 on average.
It doesn't make a difference if we lose 10 flips in a row, because over the long run this will
remain as a profitable game (unless our good lady friend has decided to cheat us in some way of
course). There will be variance, but over a big enough number of trials the amount we have won
should be very close to our expected value for those trials.
2) A basic example with a flush draw.

It's all well and good learning about the basics of expected value with coin flips, but how does
expected value apply to poker? It's pretty much the same thing, so let's look at a straightforward
expected value example with a flush draw.
Our hand: A 2
Board: Q K 3 7
The pot is $100 and our opponent moves all-in for $50. So we have to call $50 for a chance of
winning a total of $150. Assuming that the only way for us to win the hand is by hitting our flush
on the last card, what is the expected value of calling? In other words, is it profitable for us to
call?
We can work out if calling is profitable using pot odds, but with expected value we're going to
work out exactly how much we expect to win or lose on average by making the call.
Possible results and their probabilities.

Call and hit our flush = win $150
o
Probability of hitting our flush = 0.2
Call and miss our flush = lose $50

o
Probability of missing our flush = 0.8
The probability of hitting a flush on the river is 4.1 to 1, which is roughly 20% chance or 0.2.
Therefore, the odds of not hitting a flush will be 1 - 0.2 = 0.8. I used the outs odds charts for
these particular odds.
Also, notice how we are looking to win $150 and only lose $50 in each outcome. We are only
going to lose $50 because that is how much we are paying to try and hit our flush in this single
decision. We are not factoring in money that we have put in to the pot in previous betting rounds.
We just take the facts from this decision alone.
Working out EV for calling.

EV = Hitting flush outcome + Missing flush outcome
= ($150 x 0.2) + (-$50 x 0.8)
= ($30) + (-$40)
= -$10 EV
This means that every time we call this bet to try and hit our flush, we are losing $10 on
average. Therefore this is a -EV play and we should fold instead of call.
What is the use of expected value in poker?

Every single play you make in poker revolves around the concept of maximizing your expected
value.
If you can always manage to make the play with the greatest expected value, then you will be
able to win the most money possible from each and every session you play.
Obviously making the most +EV plays in every single situation is not going to be possible for
most, but it is something that you should strive to achieve even if you never expect to reach this
goal (as bleak as that sounds).
Good poker strategy revolves around making +EV decisions.

There is a wealth of topics and guides when it comes to poker strategy (see the Texas Hold'em
strategy section on this site for example). At the core of each of these tips and strategies is the
aim to help you make the most +EV plays possible and help you to avoid making -EV plays.
That's basically what all poker strategy is about.
How do I use expected value during play?

You don't to be honest. Expected value is not like pot odds in that you can use it on the fly to
work out whether decisions are profitable or not. You simply do not have enough time to work
out the EV of every possible play to help you find the most profitable action.
Expected value is best used for post-game analysis where you try and work out whether or not
you had made optimal plays in certain hands. EV is also a very important concept that helps to
explain why some plays are good and why some plays are bad.
Poker expected value evaluation.

Expected value in poker is the amount of money you expect to win or lose from each play you
make. The more +EV plays you make, the more money you will win. It's as simple as that.
Expected value (or EV as you will come to familiarise yourself with) isn't really a topic that is
going to revolutionize your game right now, but nonetheless it's definitely one of the most
important mathematical concepts to learn about. Working out EV in hands can get a lot more
complicated than the ones above, but the process for working out expected value is exactly the
same.
If you're familiar with the REM process, the maximize section is all about maximizing value
from your hands, which is a key component to making money from poker.
Fold Equity
Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Mathematics > Equity > Fold Equity
0
In this article I will cover the basics of fold equity and how it makes semi-bluffs profitable. It's a
fairly simple concept though, so don't be too nervous about it.
If you don't know what equity is just yet, read up on the poker equity article before reading this
one.
What is fold equity?

Fold equity is the additional equity you gain in the hand when you believe that there is a chance
that your opponent will fold to your bet.
Every time you bet, there is the chance that your opponent will fold their hand. If our opponent
folds, we win the entire pot regardless of how strong our hand is.
This chance that our opponent will give up their hand to our bet will increase our overall equity
in the hand because we are giving ourselves an additional opportunity to win the pot as opposed
to just showing down the best hand.
So every time we bet when there is a chance that our opponent will fold we are adding that little
extra equity to our hand. So when you bet, think of your overall equity like this:
Overall equity = current equity + fold equity.
The amount of fold equity that we can add to our current equity in the hand will vary from one
situation to another. On a basic level, fold equity can be summarized by the following simple
statements:
How much fold equity do we have?

If we think it is likely that our opponent will fold to our bet, we have a lot of fold equity.
If we think it is unlikely that our opponent will fold to our bet, we have little fold equity.
If we do not think our opponent will fold to our bet, we have no fold equity.
How do you get fold equity?

To get fold equity you have to bet or raise. If you are not betting or raising then you are not
giving your opponent the opportunity to fold, so you will have no fold equity.
I probably should have clarified this point at the start, but I'm sure the majority of you will have
assumed that this was the case anyway.
Mathematics of fold equity.

When you make a bet, you are basically absorbing some of your opponent's equity in the hand if
there is a chance that they will fold. Fold equity can be expressed by a straightforward equation:
Fold equity = (chance our opponent will fold) * (opponent's equity in the hand).
The % chance that your opponent will fold is based on your knowledge of your opponent. So for
example, using your experience you could say that there is a good chance that your opponent
will fold 75% of the time when making a bet in a certain situation.
Your opponent's equity in the hand is pretty self explanatory. It's just the % of the pot they
expect to win on average by the river. More specifically, it's the % equity their range has, but
don't worry about that for now.
Total equity in the hand.

Total equity = our current equity + fold equity.
As you will remember, your total equity in the hand is your current equity plus your fold equity.
Fold equity on it's own isn't all that useful, so we add it to our standard equity to give us our
overall equity in the hand.
Fold equity example.

Let's say we are on the flop and we know that our opponent is holding K J on the following
flop:
Flop: Q K 2
Our hand: 9 T - 42.4% equity.
Opponent's hand: K J - 57.6% equity.
I worked out the equity of each of these hands using PokerStove. Get it already.
Our opponent is first to act and bets in to us. However, we are a little short stacked and believe
that if we push all-in there is a 50% chance that our opponent will fold. Without even having to
work this out we can already guess that this is going to be a profitable play over the long run, but
lets do the math anyway.
Fold equity = (chance our opponent will fold) * (opponent's equity in the hand).
Fold equity = (0.5) * (57.4).
Fold equity = 28.8%.
Now let's find our total equity in the hand.
Total equity = our current equity + fold equity.

Total equity = 42.4% + 28.8%.
Total equity = 71.2%.
So every time we shove all-in with our drawing hand we will have 71.2% equity in the hand on
average. Therefore, whereas calling to complete our draw would be unprofitable with our 42.4%
equity, the addition of fold equity in the hand makes our shove a profitable play over the long
run.
The benefits of fold equity.

Fold equity is the reason why semi-bluffs can be profitable.
Fold equity is the driving force behind semi-bluffs. The vast majority of the time you will be
using fold equity to your advantage when betting or raising with a flush or a straight draw.
On their own, these draws will generally not have enough equity to make it worth calling bets
and raises. However, if you are the one betting and raising, the addition of fold equity can turn
the overall equity in your favour. So over the long run, well-played semi-bluffs with drawing
hands will be profitable.
Read the article on playing drawing hands aggressively for further discussion on this topic.
Pure bluffs and fold equity.
Whether a pure bluff is profitable or not almost completely depends on fold equity. This is
because if you have no equity in the hand based on the strength of your cards, you are relying on
fold equity alone to make the bluff profitable. For example:
Board: Q K 2 8 2
Our hand: 9 T - 0% equity.
Opponent's hand: K J - 100% equity.
Unless you believe that your opponent is folding at least 50% of the time, your bluff is not going
to be profitable. Your fold equity = total equity here (current equity = 0%), so if it's less than
50% you will be losing more money than you win over the long run.
Fold equity evaluation.

You're not expected to get out your calculator and work out your fold equity every time you run
a bluff or a semi-bluff. However, you can gauge a fairly accurate idea of your fold equity and use
it to influence your decision when contemplating a semi-bluff.
If you have little or no fold equity, strongly reconsider making that semi-bluff.
So don't worry about the numbers involved in fold equity during play, just familiarise yourself
with it and go from there. Your semi-bluffing skills should improve nicely over time.
Poker Equity (Pot Equity)

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Mathematics > Equity
2
Equity percentages in this article have been calculated using the handy and free
PokerStove.
Pot equity (or just "Poker equity") is a mathematical application to poker that helps to explain
why you should bet or check in certain situations.
What is equity in Poker?

Your equity is basically the amount of the pot that belongs to you based on the odds you have
to win at a particular point in the hand.
So if there is 60% chance that you are going to win, you have 60% equity in the hand. It's as
simple as that.
Poker equity example.

Say for example we hold A K preflop and we know for a fact that our opponent holds J T ,
and there is $30 in the pot. If we run these hands through an odds calculator it tells us that we
have a 65% chance of winning the hand, assuming that all the cards are dealt out and neither
player folds. Therefore our current pot equity is 65% of $30, or put more simply, $19.5.
This equity will not stay the same throughout the hand, because as more cards are dealt the
strength and potential of each hand will change, and thus each players equity will change with
it.
NLHE cash games.
If the flop comes J T 2 , our equity will change dramatically as we no longer have the hand
that is most likely to win the pot. If we run our hands through an odds calculator once more, it
shows that we now have a 22% chance of winning, which gives us a 22% equity of the amount
that is currently in the pot.
Furthermore, if the turn comes the Q giving us a straight, the odds of us winning the hand by
the river will dramatically increase, and thus our equity will change once more. The odds
calculator now tells us that we have a 91% chance of winning, whereas our opponent only has
9% chance of winning as they have to catch a J or a T to make a full house and win the pot.
Where do these pot equity percentages come from?

These percentage figures come from repeated computer simulations of the particular situations to
help find an accurate estimate of each hands chances of winning.
So when you put the particular hand combinations into an odds calculator, the calculator runs out
the rest of the hand thousands of times and notes down how many times each hand wins to give
an accurate figure on the likelihood of the hand holding up. The likelihood of a hand winning in
a certain situation is the same as the equity the hand has.
A great example of a free (and very useful) equity calculator is PokerStove. Try it.
How to use equity in Poker.

Its good to know what our chances of winning are and how much equity we have, but how
should we incorporate this sort of information into our game?
The answer is that you will rarely know what your opponent is exactly holding, and so it is not
really possible to work out your equity whilst at the table and use it to your advantage. However,
the principle of equity and the equity you have in each pot at each stage in the hand explains why
you should bet your hands when you think that you have the best of it.
When you have the best hand at the table, you are betting for value when you have the majority
of the equity in the hand.
Betting for value because of pot equity.

For example, on the turn in the last example where we held A K against our opponents J T
on a board of J T 2 Q , we had the nut straight and equity of 91%. This means that for
every extra dollar that we can get into the pot, we will be winning 91 cents of it. Therefore it
stands to reason that we should try to get as much money into the pot as possible, and thus we
are betting for value and trying to maximize the amount of money we will be winning from the
hand.
If you have more than 50% equity in the hand, you want to get as much money in the pot as
possible.
It may be the case that the river brings another J or T giving our opponent the better hand with a
full house, but this fact is irrelevant on the turn when we have 91% equity. So even though we
are increasing the amount of money we can lose by putting more money into a pot where we
could be outdrawn, we are also increasing the amount of money we can win.
By putting more money in the pot with the best hand at this point (even though there is the
chance that we may still lose), we will be winning more money in the long run. Dont be afraid
to put money into the pot when you feel that you have the best of it.
The principle of equity in poker also explains why you should raise with the best hand preflop.
There are a number of reasons for raising preflop, such as; reducing the number of players in the
pot, buying position, being the aggressor and so on.
Equity however is still an important principle that makes it profitable to raise preflop. Not only is
it because you may well be getting money in with the best hand and therefore betting for value,
but because you are raising the stakes with your raise, and creating opportunities to get more
money into the pot when you have good equity in the pot later in the hand.
Poker equity evaluation.

Equity in poker is a basic principle involved with poker mathematics that helps to explain the
strategy of betting when you have the best of it. By betting for value you can increase the amount
of money you will be winning from each particular hand. Similarly, by checking and folding
with the worst of it in the right situations, you can help to reduce the amount of money that you
will be losing.
Betting for value increases the amount of money you will be winning from each hand.
As already mentioned, it is often very difficult to exactly work out your equity in each situation,
but it is good to take note of the fact that you want to try and get as much money into the pot
when you are confident that you have the best hand.
training.
If you're into casino games, you should be aware of how equity is always in favour of the house,
which is why you are only going to lose money over the long run (unlike in poker where it is
possible to consistently win money). Have a look at my good friends' Online Gambling sites
website if you're interested in finding out more about casino games and gambling in general. Be
careful not to waste to much money playing casino games though, because Poker is where the
money is at!
For further reading on equity, take a look at the article on poker equity and draws.
How To Calculate Expected Value - Boxes

Method
Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Mathematics > Expected Value > How To Calculate (Boxes
Method)
0
Learning how to calculate expected value in poker can seem like a daunting task. It's one of
those topics that you put off learning, simply because it always seems a little too tricky to try and
get your head around. But to be honest, when you see equations like this
EV = ($1.60 x 0.4) + { 0.6 x [ ($2.80 x 0.05) + (-$1.20 x 0.9) ] }

I don't blame you for walking away. That kind of stuff makes Bill Chen's The Mathematics of
Poker look like The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
So, here's my attempt at helping you get your expected value calculations nailed down once and
for all. I'm going to try and make it easier for you to visualise the process with my "boxes
method". No more running away from math strategy articles and forum threads.
The three steps to calculating expected value.

In poker, you calculate expected value for a specific action. For example; what is the EV of
calling? What is the EV of folding? What is the EV of raising? -- Those are specific actions.
Once you've decided what action you want to calculate the EV of, you just need to follow these 3
simple steps:
1. The 3 steps to calculating EV (with the boxes method).
2. List all the possible outcomes of that action. (Make the boxes)
3. Find the probability and the win/loss of each outcome. (Fill the boxes)
4. Put it all together in an equation and work it out. (Solve the boxes)
Let's run through an actual example, and I'll explain each step as we go along.
The example hand situation.

We are playing $100NL against a useless short stack player. We raise to $4 with A K from
MP and this short stack player in the SB is the only caller.
Flop: K 7 4
Pot: $9
The short stack immediately moves all-in for $6 (yep, $6). After doing so, they also turn over
their hand to show us 6 5 -- they have a flush draw and a straight draw. So the situation is as
follows:
Hero: A K
Villain: 6 5
Flop: K 7 4
Pot: $15
We have to call $6 to continue. What is the EV of calling?
money.
Step 1 - List all the possible outcomes. (Make the boxes)

If we call this $6 bet, what can happen? Well, two things:
1. We call and end up winning.
2. We call and end up losing.
These are the only two possible things that can happen after we call. Easy stuff.
However, there are not always just two outcomes. There could be more or there could be less
depending on the situation. Either way, it's a nice idea to think of each outcome as it's own
separate thing -- or as I like to do, give it an imaginary box:
Step 2 - Find the probability and win/loss of each outcome.

(Fill the boxes)
Okay, so we've got our two outcomes. Now we just need to find the probability of each outcome
happening, and the amount of money we win or lose when it does happen. Let's work these out
for each of the two outcomes one at a time.
1) We call and we end up winning.

The probability.
How do we work out the probability of winning in this situation? The easiest way is to just plug
the cards in to PokerStove.
This shows us that our probability of winning when we call is 43%.

The win/loss.
If we call and win, we win the $15 in the pot.
The $15 currently in the pot is our prize. We do not count our $6 call in this amount because it
belongs to us, and we cannot win what we already own.
Note: It's important to make the distinction between money that is yours to lose and money that
is in the pot. They are two separate things. Don't get hung up on any amount of money you may
have put in to the pot earlier on in the hand -- it doesn't matter.
2) We call and we end up losing.

The probability.
If we look at the same PokerStove results as before:
We can see that the probability of losing when we call is 57%.

The win/loss.
If we call and lose, we will lose our $6 call.
The only amount of money we are losing is our $6 call. Sure, we've already put money in to the
pot, but don't think of that as belonging to us anymore. It now belongs to the pot, so it's not
something we can lose.
Tidying up step 2.
Outcome 1 - we call and we win.

o Probability = 43%
o
Win/loss = +$15
Outcome 2 - we call and we lose.

o
Probability = 57%
Win/loss = -$6
Remember how we've already put these outcomes as separate boxes? Well, let's fill these boxes
with this new information.
Step 3 - Put it all together in an equation and work it out.

(Solve the boxes)
To form our EV equation, all we need to do is multiply the probability by the win/loss in each of
the boxes, then add all the boxes together.
So, still using these boxes, our equation looks like this:
Now just work out the answers for each box:
Finally, add them all together and we get the answer to our EV calculation:
So the EV of calling with AK is +$3.03. Every time we make this call, we win $3.03 on average.
Therefore, calling -- as opposed to folding (we make $0 by folding)-- is the correct play.
This amount of money could also be referred to as $3.03 Sklansky Bucks.
It doesn't feel very mathematical using all those boxes though. How can we show it in a more
"mathematical-looking" way?
Answer: Just replace the boxes with brackets, like this:
EV =
(0.43 x $15) + (0.57 x -$6)
EV = ($6.45) + (-$3.42)
EV = +$3.03
Note: Notice how we only had 43% chance to win the hand (or 43% "equity"), yet calling is still
+EV? That's all thanks to the good pot odds we are getting when our opponent bets all-in for $6
in to a $9 pot on the flop.
Final thoughts.
I hope that nobody feels patronised by my box method for working out EV in poker. It's just
that ever since I started thinking about expected value calculations in terms of chunks or
boxes, it all became much easier. It may not be for everyone, but if this box method for
calculating expected value works for you, then I'm glad to have shared it.
This method is also easily extensible. If there is a situation where there are more than 2
outcomes, just add more boxes. The boxes are just there to split everything up and make EV
calculations easier to digest.
In all honesty, the only difficult thing about calculating expected value is the notation. The actual
method is surprisingly straightforward, and my primary hope is that this article has helped to
highlight that fact.
Reverse Implied Odds

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Mathematics > Reverse Implied Odds
1
Reverse implied odds are the opposite of implied odds. With implied odds you estimate how
much you expect to win after making a draw, but with reverse implied odds you estimate how
much you expect to lose if you complete your draw but your opponent still holds a better hand.
Reverse implied odds are how much you could expect to lose after hitting your draw.
If you find yourself on a draw, you can work out your pot odds to see whether or not a call would
be a profitable play in the long run. If you do not have the pot odds to call, you can estimate your
implied odds to gauge whether or not a call would still be profitable.
Now if you believe you have the implied odds to call a bet, you should also estimate your reverse
implied odds to weigh out whether or not you should still call to make your draw. Although this
may sound complicated, it really isn'tt too difficult to understand and there are many situations
in which you should be aware of your reverse implied odds.
Reverse implied odds example.

Lets say you are facing a bet in a multi way pot holding 6 7 and the flop comes 5 8 T .
You are now in a situation where you should certainly be considering your reverse implied odds.
If the first player to act bets and another player has called, you must think about whether you will
have the best hand when you complete your draw.
If a 4 or 9 comes, you will have made your straight, but then this also makes a
possible flush for another player.
In addition, any 9 makes a higher straight a possibility, which will again beat your
straight.
In this situation we have reverse implied odds because if we make our draw, there is a
possibility that one of our opponents will make a better hand than ours. Therefore if we make our
straight and our opponent makes a hand like a flush, we will be losing money to them from
calling down their bets with our second best hand.
If we do not have the pot odds to call the initial raisers bet, we should be folding our hand
because the reverse implied odds are outweighing any implied odds that we do have. This will be
saving us from losing more money in the long run from chasing after draws that may well not
end up being the best hand when they are completed.
Other reverse implied odds situations.

If we have weak flush draws then there is the potential that another player may be calling to hit a
higher flush than ours. So we should be wary when calling bets holding 7 8 on a 2 5 K
board because our flush draw is not very strong.
The same applies to straight draws when we are drawing to the lower end of a straight.
Furthermore, if we are on a flush or straight draw and the board has paired, there is the
possibility that an opponent will make or already has made a full house.
In a nutshell, the following hands are going to have reverse implied odds that make calling to
complete your draw quite dangerous:
Weak flush draws.

Low-end straight draws.
Mathematics of reverse implied odds.

Unfortunately for the players who like to be mathematically accurate in drawing situations,
reverse implied odds are similar to implied odds in that we cannot put an exact figure on how
much we can expect to win or lose.
Our reverse implied odds increase when there is a greater chance that our hand will not be the
best after completing our draw, and they decrease when there is a greater chance that our hand
will be the best after completing our draw.
As a basic rule, we can make calls with some reverse implied odds if our pot odds are very good,
but if we have bad pot odds and reverse implied odds, we should be looking to fold.
Evaluation.
Reverse implied odds are not there to scare you out of calling bets to make draws, but more to
make you aware that you stand to lose money if you are calling to complete a weak draw. If there
are many players in a pot you should be especially sure that your draw is strong enough to hold
up against other players in the pot that might also be calling to make their draws.
So if you are on a 9 high flush draw on the flop and there have already been a number of callers
in front of you, you have to evaluate whether you think this draw is worth calling for, as there is
a good chance that another player is on a higher flush draw than you.
G Bucks
Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Mathematics > G-Bucks
0
Imaginary Money: Sklansky Dollars : G-Bucks
G-bucks (Galfond Dollars, Gbucks, G Bucks) is a very important concept that expands upon
the concept of Sklansky Dollars when evaluating the expected value of tough decisions in no
limit Holdem.
The term G-bucks was coined by Phil Galfond (OMGClayAiken) in his article on
conceptualizing money matters. Its a great article, but its also a very long-winded one. In this
article I will attempt to condense the theory behind G bucks in to an easier to digest morsel of
delicious Holdem strategy. Tasty stuff.
What are G bucks?

G Bucks tell you how much money you would have won/lost when you compare the equity of
one hand against a range of hands.
Remember Sklansky dollars? If not, Sklansky dollars basically tell you how much money you
win from a hand vs. another in the long run. So even though you might lose $10 going all-in with
AA against KK, you actually win $16.4 from that $20 pot on average due to Sklansky dollars.
Go read up on it.
Both Sklansky dollars and G bucks tell you how much money you would have won in a certain
spot. However, the difference is that:
Sklansky dollars 1 hand against 1 hand.
G bucks 1 hand against a range of hands.
So instead of comparing your hand and your opponents hand, with G bucks you compare your
hand with your opponents range of hands. By doing this you can then go on to more
effectively work out how much money you will win or lose when calling in certain situations
based on your opponents range.
Working out G bucks.

Working out G bucks is actually really straightforward.
1. Work out an accurate range of hands that your opponent could be holding as best as
you can.
2. Plug your hand and your opponents range in to PokerStove to work out your equity in
the hand.
3. Multiply the pot size by your % equity in the hand to work out how much money you
expect to win on average.
The original article uses a more complicated method for working out the equities of a hand
versus a range. However, when you have equity calculators like PokerStove at your disposal
there is no need to take the longer route to the same place, especially if youre lazy.
After finding your equity against your range you just find the percentage equity of the pot that
you expect to win, just like you did with Sklansky dollars. The key (and most difficult) part of
the whole process is putting your opponent on an accurate range.
As I said, the concept and method for working out G bucks really isnt that difficult at all.
Nonetheless theres no harm in dishing out a few examples to really drive the concept home.
G bucks example 1.
Youre in a home cash game with a few friends, and as with any home game the majority of
them are pretty bad players and/or are fairly drunk. Stacks are $100 with blinds $0.5/$1.
Youre in the BB with AQo. Your old friend Mike from MP pushes all in and it folds around to
you. You know that Mike for whatever reason will always push all-in with any two broadway
cards and any pocket pair. He likes to gamble.
You have a think for a moment and finally decide to make the call, making the pot $201 in total.
Low and behold, Mike turns over AA as standard and the board brings no help at all, so you lose
the $201 pot. Was this a bad call given Mikes range? Surely not.
In real money: -$100

In Sklansky bucks: -$93 (worked out with AQo vs. AA in PokerStove)
What about G bucks?
If we plug in the following in to PokerStove:
Hand ranges.
Our hand: AQo
Mikes range: Any pair, any two broadway.

(22+,ATs+,KTs+,QTs+,JTs,ATo+,KTo+,QTo+,JTo)
We find that our equity with AQo against Mikes pushing range is 55.1%, which obviously
means that we have the edge in the long run.
So according to G bucks, we win $110.75 from the $201 pot on average when we call all-in with
AQ against Mike when he pushes.
Real money: -$100

Sklansky bucks: -$93
G bucks: +$110.75
G bucks example 2.
Youre playing $200NL at Full Tilt and call an $8 raise from the CO with your A Q on the
button. You know for a fact that Villain is a tight-aggressive player that bets his draws and rarely
slowplays. However, he is not a maniac and is generally a half-decent player.
Flop: Q 6 7 - Villain bets $12 in to the $17 pot and you call.
Turn: 3 - Villain bets $35 in to the $41 pot and you call.
River: 3 - The pot is now $111 and villain shoves in his remaining $145. What do you do?
Well firstly, lets give our Villain a range. Before the flop his range is really wide due to the fact
that he is an aggressive player raising from LP. Therefore his range is roughly any pair, any ace,
any suited king, any suited broadway, and a bunch of suited connectors. (I used the rough
guidelines for a 30% PFR in the range article).
Flop: Its a standard cbet and we cant really narrow his range down all that much.
Turn: This is important. On this turn it is very likely that villain would check any 1-pair hands
for pot control. The fact that he double barrels this turn indicates that he either has a strong made
hand like 2-pair or better or is semi-bluffing with a straight or A/K high flush draw.
River: The final river shove does little to modify our villains range, so were left looking at
either a busted draw or a strong made hand. So on a board of Q 6 7 3 3 after villain has
bet on all three rounds, we can assume that villains range consists of roughly:
Villain's hand range.

98s,85s,54s,98o,85o,54o Busted straight draws.
Axh (except AQh, A7h, A6h), Kxh (except KQh, K7h, K6h) Busted flush draws.
QQ+,77-66,76s,76o Made hands.
After plugging this range in to PokerStove, we find that our equity against villains range is
62.6%.
Therefore if we call the $145 bet to win a total of $401, on average we will walk away with
$251.03 G bucks for a profit of +$106.03 G bucks ($251.03 - $145) each time. Although the call
seems real risky and we will lose 1 time out of 3, if we are confident about villains range we
stand to make more money over the long run because of G bucks.
The result of this hand does not matter, as making the call is the correct play. Nonetheless, if you
like a happy ending then lets say that villain flipped over A J for a busted nut flush draw.
G bucks evaluation.
Even though this may be the first time youve read about the term G bucks, the chances are
that this particular concept has crossed your mind at some point whilst analyzing hands from
previous sessions.
The concept of G bucks is more practical than Sklansky dollars because you never truly know
the exact two cards that your opponent is holding before you make a call or a fold. Therefore G
bucks are a more accurate way of calculating how good or bad a call was (or will be) over the
long run.
If you have read the original article on G bucks by Phil Galfond you will notice that Galfond
uses the opposite viewpoint by giving our hand a perceived range and our opponent a definite
hand. As you can see I have reversed this approach, but either way both methods work out
perfectly well.
Poker Equity and Drawing Hands

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Mathematics > Equity > Drawing Hands
In my article on poker equity, I discussed how you should be betting for value to maximize your
winnings when you feel you have the best hand. Normally, if you hold the best hand at one stage
during the hand, it is typical that your hand stands the best chance of winning after all the cards
have been dealt.
However, in some situations it is possible to hold an unmade hand like a draw, but still have the
best chance of winning. Therefore in these situations you will have high equity in the pot, and it
will make sense to bet for value even if your hand is not yet complete.
Drawing hand equity example 1.

You hold Q J on a flop of T 9 4 .
If your opponent is betting heavily into you it is probable that do not hold the best hand, but
nonetheless, you will have the most equity almost regardless of what you opponent holds.
Even if you know that you opponent has a strong hand like two pair with 9 4 , your equity in
the pot will be 52% despite the fact your opponent is the one with the made hand. The only hand
that would have more equity in the pot than you at the time would be a set, but even in that
particular situation you wouldn't be too far behind.
It is perfectly possible for strong drawing hands to have more equity than already made hands
(like a pair).
Because you have such a monstrous drawing hand, there are a wide variety of cards that could
help you to make a better hand that your opponent, such as a flush or a straight. Therefore you
should bet for value even with a drawing hand in this situation, and look to get as much money
into the pot as possible at this point.
Drawing hand equity example 2.
Now lets assume that in a similar hand where we hold Q J on a flop of T 9 4 , there are
now two players in the pot instead of one. We know for a fact that opponent A holds 9 4 , and
a second opponent B holds T T . If we run these hands through an odds calculator, it shows
that we are no longer the favourite to win the hand.
The following is the equity each player has in the hand:
Our Hand: Q J - 45%

Opponent A: 9 4 - >1%
Opponent B: T T - 54%
The calculator (PokerStove) now tells us that Opponent B with their set of Tens is currently in
the lead, and is most likely to win the pot after the turn and river cards have been dealt.
Therefore seeing as we are no longer favourite to win, should we be inclined to check and fold to
avoid putting in money with the hand that has the worst potential to win? Not necessarily, as the
presence of the third player in the hand is making a big difference to our chances of making
money from this hand in the long run.
(This is where it gets a little mathsy...)
If our opponents and ourselves continue with the hand and continue to build the pot, each player
will have invested money to create 1/3 of the final pot, or 33%. However, our equity in the pot is
45%, so we would be investing 33% to get on average a return of 45% if we stick with our hand.
Therefore as you can see, if all 3 players move all in at this point we will be getting a good return
on our money.
The fact that we are not favourite to win the hand is irrelevant, because our equity and odds from
all 3 players moving in on the flop means that we will be winning money in the long run. If our
percentage equity is greater than the percentage of the pot we have invested money in, we will be
making a profitable play. Which in essence, is the same principle as pot odds.
What happens to our equity if one player folds?

The only problem that could arise at this point in the hand is if opponent A holding 9 4 folds
their hand without putting any chips into the pot. This would result in us now investing closer to
50% to the pot with only 45% equity. Therefore it would be a slightly losing play to move all in
unless our opponent is giving us the correct pot odds to continue with the hand to try and
complete our draw.
Drawing hand equity evaluation.

These two examples appear to be very confusing and mathematical, but you are not expected to
be able to work out these figures and percentages whilst sitting down at the table. The above
examples are merely shown to highlight the fact that you do not always need the current best
hand to have good equity in the pot.
If you ever hold a monster of a draw like an open-ended straight and flush draw, it is likely that
you will have very good equity in the pot and should be looking to invest as much as possible
into it.
Both of these examples work very closely with pot odds to help determine whether or not you
should call in certain situations. Therefore if you would like to know whether or not you should
be folding, calling or raising in the above examples, you should take a look at the article on pot
odds.
As a general rule, if you have more equity in the pot than you are going to invest in it, then you
should be looking to bet and raise as much as possible.
Poker Hand Combinations - Combinatorics

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Mathematics > Hand Combinations
7
For a great training video on poker combinatorics, check out this poker combos video.
Combinatorics is a big word for something that isn't all that difficult to understand. In this
article, I will go through the basics of working out hand combinations or combos in poker
and give a few examples to help show you why it is useful.
Oh, and as you've probably noticed, combinatorics, hand combinations and combos refer
to the same thing in poker. Don't get confused if they are used interchangeably.
What is poker combinatorics?

Poker combinatorics involves working out how many different combinations of hands there are
in certain situations.
For example:
How many ways can you be dealt AK?

How many ways can you be dealt 66?
How combinations of T9 are there on a flop of T32?
How many straight draw combinations are there on a flop of AT7?
Using combinatorics, you will be able to quickly work these numbers out and use them to help
you make better decisions based on the probability certain hands appearing.
Poker starting hand combinations basics.
Any two (e.g. AK or T5) = 16 combinations

Pairs (e.g. AA or TT) = 6 combinations
If you were take a hand like AK and write down all the possible ways you could be dealt this
hand from a deck of cards (e.g. A K , A K , A K etc.), you would find that there are 16
possible combinations.
See all 16 AK hand combinations.
Similarly, if you wrote down all the possible combinations of a pocket pair like JJ (e.g. J J , J
J , J J etc.), you would find that there are just 6 possible combinations.
See all 6 JJ pocket pair hand combinations.
So as you can see from these basic starting hand combinations in poker, you're almost 3 times as
likely to be dealt a non-paired hand like AK than a paired hand. That's pretty interesting in itself,
but you can do a lot more than this
Note: two extra starting hand combinations.

Fact: There are 1,326 combinations of starting hands in Texas Hold'em in total.
Working out hand combinations using known cards.

Let's say we hold KQ on a flop of KT4 (suits do not matter). How many possible combinations
of AK and TT are out there that our opponent could hold?
Unpaired hands (e.g. AK).
How to work out the total number of hand combinations for an unpaired hand like AK, JT, or
Q3.
Method: Multiply the numbers of available cards for each of the two cards.
Word equation: (1st card available cards) x (2nd card available cards) = total combinations
Example question: If we hold KQ on a KT4 flop, how many possible combinations of AK are
there?
Example answer:
There are 4 Aces and 2 Kings (4 minus the 1 on the flop and the 1 in our hand) available
in the deck.
=4x2
= 8 AK combinations
Paired hands (e.g. TT).
How to work out the total number of hand combinations for an paired hand like AA, JJ, or 44.
Method: Multiply the number of available cards by the number of available cards minus 1, then
divide by two.
Word equation: [(available cards) x (available cards - 1)] / 2 = total combinations
Example question: How many combinations of TT are there on a KT4 flop?
Example answer:
There are 3 Tens available in the deck.

= [(3) x (2)] / 2
= 3 TT combinations
Thoughts on working out hand combinations.

Working out the number of possible combinations of unpaired hands is easy enough; just
multiply the two numbers of available cards.
Working out the combinations for paired hands looks awkward at first, but it's not that tricky
when you actually try it out. Just find the number of available cards, take 1 away from that
number, multiply those two numbers together then half it.
Note: You'll also notice that this method works for working out the preflop starting hand
combinations mentioned earlier on. For example, if you're working out the number of AK
combinations as a starting hand, there are 4 Aces and 4 Kings available, so 4 x 4 = 16 AK
combinations.
Why is combinatorics useful?

Because by working out hand combinations, you can find out more useful information about a
player's range.
For example, let's say that an opponents 3betting range is roughly 2%. This means that they are
only ever 3betting AA, KK and AK. That's a very tight range indeed.
Now, just looking at this range of hands you might think that whenever this player 3bets, they
are more likely to have a big pocket pair. After all, both AA and KK are in his range, compared
to the single unpaired hand of AK. So without considering combinatorics for this 2% range, you
might think that the probability break-up of each hand looks like this:
AA = 33%
KK = 33%
AK = 33%
with the two big pairs making up the majority of this 2% 3betting range (roughly 66% in
total).
However, let's look at these hands by comparing the total combinations for each hand:
AA = 6 combinations (21.5%)
KK = 6 combinations (21.5%)
AK = 16 combinations (57%)
There are more

AK hands in a range of [AA, KK, AK] than there are AA and KK hands combined.
So out of 28 possible combinations made up from AA, KK and AK, 16 of them come from AK.
This means that when our opponent 3bets, the majority of the time he is holding AK and not a
big pocket pair.
Now obviously if you're holding a hand like 75o this is hardly comforting. However, the point is
that it's useful to realise that the probabilities of certain types of hands in a range will vary. Just
because a player either has AA or AK, it doesn't mean that they're both equally probable
holdings - they will actually be holding AK more often than not.
Analogy: If a fruit bowl contains 100 oranges, 1 apple, 1 pear and 1 grape, there is a decent range
of fruit (the "hands"). However, the the fruits are heavily weighted toward oranges, so there is a
greater chance of randomly selecting an orange from the bowl than any of the 3 other possible
fruits ("AK" in the example above).
This same method applies when you're trying to work out the probabilities of a range of possible
made hands on the flop by looking at the number of hand combinations. For example, if your
opponent could have either a straight draw or a set, which of the two is more likely?
Poker combinatorics example hand.

You have 66 on a board of A J 6 8 2 . The pot is $12 and you bet $10. Your opponent
moves all in for $60, which means you have to call $50 to win a pot of $82.
You are confident that your opponent either has a set or two pair with an Ace (i.e. AJ, A8, A6 or
A2). Don't worry about how you know this or why you're in this situation, you just are.
According to pot odds, you need to have at least a 38% chance of having the best hand to call.
You can now use combinatorics / hand combinations here to help you decide whether or not to
call.
Poker combinatorics example hand solution.

First of all, let's split our opponent's hands in to hands you beat and hands you don't beat,
working out the number of hand combinations for each.
Hands you beat.

AJ = 3 x 3 = 9 combinations
A8 = 3 x 3 = 9 combinations
22 = (3 x 2) / 2 = 3 combinations
Hands you don't beat.
AA = (3 x 2) / 2 = 3 combinations
JJ = (3 x 2) / 2 = 3 combinations
88 = (3 x 2) / 2 = 3 combinations
Adding them all up:
Total combinations = 42
Combinations you beat = 33 (79%)
Combinations you don't beat = 9 (21%)
Seeing as you have the best hand 79% of the time (or 79% "equity") and the pot odds indicate
that you only need to have the best hand 38% of the time, it makes it +EV to call.
So whereas you might have initially thought that the number of hands we beat compared to the
number of hands we didn't beat was close to 50/50 (making it likely -EV to call), after looking at
the hand combinations we can see that it is actually much closer to 80/20, making calling a
profitable play.
Being able to assign a range to your opponent is good, but understanding the different
likelihoods of the hands within that range is better.
Poker combinatorics conclusion.

Working out hand combinations in poker is simple:
Unpaired hands: Multiply the number of available cards. (e.g. AK on an AT2 flop = [3 x
4] = 12 AK combinations).
Paired hands: Find the number of available cards. Take 1 away from that number,
multiply those two numbers together and divide by 2. (e.g. TT on a AT2 flop = [3 x 2] / 2
= 3 TT combinations).
By working out hand combinations you can gain a much better understanding about opponent's
hand ranges. If you only ever deal in ranges and ignore hand combinations, you are missing out
on useful information.
It's unrealistic to think that you're going to work out all these hand combinations on the fly whilst
you're sat at the table. However, a lot of value comes from simply familiarising yourself with the
varying probabilities of different types of hands for future reference.
For example, after a while you'll start to realise that straight draws are a lot more common than
you think, and that flush draws are far less common than you think. Insights like these will help
you when you're faced with similar decisions in the future.
The next time you're doing some post session analysis, spend some time thinking about
combinatorics and noting down what you find.
Poker combinatorics further reading.

Hand combinations in poker all stem from statistics. So if you're interested in finding out more
about the math side of things, here are a few links that I found helpful:
Combinations video - Youtube (all the stuff on this channel is awesome)

Permutations and Combinations - MathForum.org
If you're more interested in finding out more about combinations in poker only, here are a few
interesting reads:
Poker Combinatorics - MicroStackesHoldem.com

COTW: Thinking About Combos - 2+2
Also, I'd highly recommend you check out the Mathematics of NL Hold'em Ep. 2 and Ep. 6 by
WiltOnTilt at DeucesCracked for some great video tutorials (and examples) on using hand
combinations in poker.
Poker Playing Styles

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Other > Playing Styles
1
If you have read Texas Hold'em strategy articles or overheard discussions between poker players,
you may have come across certain combinations of words to describe how someone plays at the
poker table.
The typical playing styles attributed to players are:
Tight-Aggressive (TAG)
Loose-Aggressive (LAG)
Tight-Passive
Loose-Passive
But what exactly does it mean to be Tight, Loose, Aggressive or Passive in Texas Hold'em? And
which playing style is the best?
surprised.
Poker playing styles explained.

The first word - tight and loose.
The first word of each playing style describes how many hands a player is perceived to be
playing, and they will either be describes as being "tight" or "loose".
A tight player will play very few hands, and only play premium hands that have a good
chance of winning.
A loose player will play a wide variety of hands and enter numerous pots with both
strong starting hands a few weaker ones.
The more hands a player enters pots with, the "looser" they are.
The second word - aggressive and passive.
The second part of each playing style describes how the particular players bet on each betting
round, and this is described as being either "aggressive" or "passive".
An aggressive player will frequently bet or raise and give a lot of action by making
strong bets.
A passive player will be more inclined to check and call, and will rarely bet out or raise
an opponent's bet.
So as you can see, by combining these two sections together with the two descriptions in each,
we can make 4 different playing styles to describe how many hands an opponent plays, and how
they play their hands by the way they bet or check.
This sort of information can be very useful when talking about strategy, as bluffing against a
Loose-Passive player who plays lots of hands and calls frequently, is not going to be as
profitable as making a bluff against a Tight-Aggressive player who only plays the best hands and
will only bet or raise with a strong hand.
Playing styles table.

Here is a quick table to show how you would normally describe a player combining each of the
various loose, tight, passive and aggressive attributes:
Check out the section starting at 24:32 of the Common Full Ring Mistakes pt. 1 video for an
overview of how to beat each of these players types.
Which out of these 4 playing styles is the best?

To play good poker you have to be able to play aggressively, as highlighted in the article on the
importance of aggression. Therefore as you can expect, the best playing style is going to be a
toss-up between playing Tight-Aggressive or Loose-Aggressive.
Playing aggressively is always better than playing passively, no question about it.
Many winning players will say that Tight-Aggressive is the best way to play as you are always
entering pots with great hands and you are playing them strongly to maximize your winnings.
This is very true, and it is often the style of play that many developing players aspire to use
correctly.
In spite of this however, it is perfectly possible to play Loose-Aggressive just as profitably or

even more profitably than the Tight-Aggressive style, but this is quite difficult to master.
The Loose aggressive style can be profitable, but it is dangerous if you do not know what you are
doing.
Playing Loose-Aggressive means that you are seeing a lot of flops and getting money into the pot
when you are often not totally sure of how strong your hand is, so it is not something that is
recommended for beginner players to try. However, the rewards can be high, as your opponents
will often pay you off when you hit monster hands as they will not give you credit for them
because of the way you have been playing up to that point.
Passive poker is never profitable.

The passive style of play is often unprofitable, and so it is advised that anyone looking to become
a winning poker player should try to bet and raise more frequently rather than just checking and
calling. The reason why passive play is often unprofitable is because you are removing one of
you options to win a hand.
You can either win by having the best hand, or by betting your opponent out of the pot. By
playing passively, you are reduced to only ever winning when you have the best hand, which is
what any old player can do.
So for the majority of players learning the game, it is recommended that you try and adopt a
Tight-Aggressive style because of the fact that it is profitable and safe to play. If after you gain
experience in playing solid, profitable poker, there is no reason why you shouldn't try and
venture out into the realms of Loose-Aggressive play to see how it works out for you.
Veteran players like the Loose-Aggressive style because it allows them to get involved in a lot of
hands and see a lot of pots, which will save them from the boredom of waiting for premium
hands all the time before they see any action. However, it is far safer to stick with the trusted
Tight-Aggressive play at first, rather than throwing yourself into the deep end with a complex
playing style that you are unfamiliar with.
For strategy and tips on how to beat each of these different playing styles (and a couple more),
watch the Player Types concept video by SplitSuit.
Playing styles evaluation.

In general, the playing style you adopt should be the one that allows you to play most profitably.
If you feel that playing Tight-Aggressive works better for you than any other style, then there is
no reason why you should consider forcing yourself to change.
Similarly, if you are a recreational player and enjoy playing passively rather than aggressively,
then that is perfectly fine and you should be comfortable with the way you play. However, you
should be aware that if you want to maximize your winnings, an aggressive style of play would
allow you to do so rather than a passive style of play.
If I had to rank the playing styles in order of how profitable they can be, I would rank them as
follows:
1. Tight-Aggressive
2. Loose-Aggressive
3. Tight-Passive
4. Loose-Passive.
The top two are interchangeable, as the loose-aggressive playing style can be very profitable for
some. However, the TAG style is best for newer players to the game, as LAG can be a very
dangerous style if you do not know what you are doing.
For more information on playing styles, check out my friend's poker player types article on his
online poker blog. It provides more in-depth explanations of the 4 different player types outlined
above with some real-life examples.
How To Improve Your Poker Game

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Other > How To Improve Your Game
0
There are a number of things you can do to improve your poker
game. It should be noted that the education in poker has a big learning
curve, where at the start a little knowledge will go a long way. As your
game develops, the improvements that you do make will become less
dramatic relative to the amount you will be winning.
Below is a short list of the top ways for improving your poker game
and taking it to the next level.
Read books.
Question every play you make.
Watch training videos.
Use software.
Visit forums.
money.
Read books.
This may seem very obvious and I am sure many of you reading this article will have read a few
poker books. This is the #1 way in which to expand your knowledge of poker as a new player,
because you will be learning the strategy and theory of what a professional poker player has
learnt in possibly 20+ years of playing the game all in a matter of hours.
You may think of it as a bit of an expense at first, but the knowledge you will gain from them
will be so beneficial that they will have paid for themselves after a few hours at the table (or
even in one hand depending on the stakes you play).
Poker books would be my top recommendation for any new player looking to build a solid
strategy for poker.
Question every bet/play you make.

This is key to becoming a self-taught player, and after all, who are you going to learn from after
the books cant teach you any more (or so you think)? Before and after you make any play in a
game, ask yourself why did I make that move? Here are a few questions that you should
contemplate asking yourself at the table:
Why did I make that bet?

What do I want to happen after I make this bet?
What will my opponent(s) think of that bet?
What kind of hand does my opponent have if he calls/raises?
In the questions above I have used the word "bet", but this can be substituted for any play such as
check/raise/call etc. Every situation in poker is unique and should be evaluated based on the
information you have received up to that point. By taking time and questioning each move, you
can make better plays in each situation and make more money in the long run.
By not thinking about the play your about to make you not only may be making a bad play, you
will not be improving your game either. How are you going to work out if you made the correct
play or not if you don't analyze every decision?
A thinking poker player is a winning poker player. Trust me on that one.
Watch training videos.

Poker training sites have become increasingly popular over recent years. These training sites cost
a little bit of money to subscribe, but anyone will tell you that the quality information you get
from the videos is easily worth the subscription fee. A few of the most popular training video
sites are:
Deuces Cracked
PokerSavvy Plus
CardRunners
Visit the strategy videos for free videos, or the training sites section for pro training site reviews.
There is also an impressive free training site called PokerTrikz. This is a great place to start if
you are a lower stakes player and just getting started with training videos. TagPoker.co.uk also
has a bunch of really good free HUSNG poker training videos aimed at lower stakes players too.
Use poker software.

When playing online poker, you can use Texas Hold'em software that will record each hand into
a database and analyze the way you play. The software can tell you a wealth of information
about your game such as how much you have won, which hands you lose money on, if you pay
too much to make your draws and so on.
You will be surprised at how much these programs can tell you about your game and they are
definitely worth investing in. The two major programs on the market today are Holdem Manager
and Poker Tracker.
These are reputable programs and both offer free trial versions for you to test them out. I highly
recommend that you try these programs and see for yourself the possibilities for improvement
they have to offer.
Very few regular, winning online poker players go without using some sort of tracking software
like Holdem Manager.
Visit forums.
There are many forums on the Internet (including the Texas Hold'em forum on this site) with
members that share the same passion for poker as you, therefore these are great places to ask
questions and read other players opinions on the game. But be sure not to take everything you
read as gospel, as many of the members will still be learning the game just like you and simply
offering their interpretation of the way some situations should be played.
There are no easy ways to becoming a better player, but it is very true that you get out what you
put in. If you put a lot of effort into your game then this will be reflected in an increasing
bankroll. Be sure to be humble in your ability as even the best players will learn something new
from time to time, you may be surprised at just how much you can learn if you try.
Taking Player Notes Tips
Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Other > Taking Player Notes
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Whenever you play poker, it is always important to try and be
aware of your opponents' actions, and what their particular style of play
may be. Especially so in the game of Texas Holdem, it is vital that you
are able to play your opponent and not just your own cards.
Therefore you should always try and take into account how your
opponent plays to help influence every decision you make to help you
choose the most profitable action possible. A simple yet effective way
of remembering an opponents style of play for key moments is taking
notes on them from past experiences at the table.
money.
Advantages of taking player notes.

Most online poker rooms will offer you the feature of being able to assign notes to individual
players at the table. Some rooms will even allow you to tag players with different symbols or
colours to help identify them from other players at the table.
The Full-Tilt Poker room has a particularly good player notes feature, as it offers you the ability
to tag a colour to your opponents as well as take notes. This particular feature is incredibly
useful, and to be honest I dont think I could see myself playing at any room that did not have the
note-taking option available.
By taking notes on your opponents you can quickly find out information on players who you
have played against before, but have since forgotten from the last time you were at the table with
them. I do believe that it is important to try and keep your notes on your opponents as simple as
possible, and to be frank, I dont want to bring up the note box and have to decipher lines of code
every time I want to find out some basic info on the other players at the table.
Keep your player notes simple and understandable. There's no need to write in a cryptic code.
So even though I want to be fully briefed on my opponents, I want to keep the notes simple and
straightforward. But what exactly should you be taking notes of on your opponents?
Key poker player notes.

Style of play.
I feel a good place to start off is to try and determine what my opponents particular style of play
is. I want to try and find out whether or not they are:
Tight-Aggressive.
Tight-Passive.
Loose-Aggressive.
or Loose-Passive.
This can be done by watching they way they play their hands. This is because this information
can be very important for where you might be forced into a difficult call or fold situation.
For example, if I have a decent hand and I am facing a large bet from my opponent, I am more
likely to call if I know my opponent is Loose-Aggressive rather than Tight-Aggressive.
Therefore I will usually shorten these tags down to TA, TP, LA and LP and stick them at the top
of the note box for quick reference when I want some info on my opponents.
Other key information.

After taking note of a particular players style of play, I want to make a few little key notes on
other aspects of their game. Below is a list of a few of the most important things I am looking for
when watching my opponents play:
Do they pay too much for draws?

Do they bet draws?
Do they make continuation bets?
Do they make float plays?
Do they over-value top pair?
Are they a calling station?
These in my opinion are the most important and profitable factors of my opponents game that I
want to be aware of. There are going to be numerous tidbits that I can pick up on and note down,
but the 5 points above are the ones that are going to help me the most. This is because knowing
these points will help me in a multitude of common situations in the game.
For example, if I know my opponent over-values top pair, I am going to bet like crazy when I am
holding a monster rather than try and slow play and sucker them in. Furthermore, If I know my
opponent pays too much with drawing hands, I am going to bet big when they are drawing to
make them pay dearly and help them make bigger and bigger mistakes by calling.
Player notes example.
As you can see, the notes are simple and effective, as they allow me to quickly see what my
opponent is like without having to try and figure out different short-handed codes I have for each
player. I dont often use the coloured tags for my opponents if they are available, as I feel that
the majority of key info will be kept within my notes. However, I will sometimes use 2 colours
like green and red to help signify a very weak player and a very strong player.
Use the colour tags to your advantage, but don't feel obliged to have to use all the different
colours available. Keep it simple.
Taking player notes evaluation.

The style of note taking as described above is the one that works best for me, so you may find
that an alternative method may work better for you. However, I like to think that the above
method is a good foundation for note taking and should help you take down key info on your
opponents if you are new to using the note-taking feature.
But you should remember that notes should build up from a few hours of play with your
opponents, as it is not easy to build up an accurate picture from a mere few minutes or hands at
the table. However, when you do take player notes, just stick with something simple and easy to
understand.
Poker Winrates
Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Other > Poker Winrates
The amount of money you win over a set period of time or hands is known as your "winrate" or
"win rate" (I'm not sure if there is meant to be a gap). In poker, winrate is a very interesting
topic for a lot of players as the higher your winrate the more money you win.
In this article I will talk about the basics of winrates as well as a few other topics to do with
winrates in poker.
Win rate basics.

Poker winrates are most commonly expressed in the 4 following ways:
bb/100 = The number of big blinds you win per 100 hands.
bb/hour = The number of big blinds you win per hour.
$/100 = The amount of money you win per 100 hands.
$/hour = The amount of money you win per hour.
The most commonly used winrate in tracking programs and on forums for no limit
Holdem these days is bb/100.
PokerTracker still uses BB/100, which is twice as much as bb/100, but I'll explain that in a
moment.
So if you have a winrate of 5 bb/100 in $1/$2 NL, you are winning $10 (5 x $2) for every 100
hands you play.
A few other win rates.

The following winrates are less common, but just be careful not to get them confused with the
ones above.
BB/100 = Big Bets per 100 hands. A big bet is 2x the big blind.
ptbb/100 = Poker Tracker Big Blinds per 100 hands. This is the same as BB/100.
So, if you have a winrate of 3 BB/100 or 3 ptbb/100 in a $0.5/$1 NL game, you would be
winning 6 bb/100 or $6 per 100 hands.
The reason why BB/100 and ptbb/100 exist is because of limit Holdem. Big bets are double
the big blind and are used on the later streets in limit Holdem. When PokerTracker first came
out it measured winrates using double the big blind for both limit and no limit games, so to save
confusion the notation "ptbb/100" was used.
If you're a SNG player and want to find out about "winrates" for tournament games, read my
article on poker ROI.
surprised.
What is a good winrate?

This is easily the most frequently asked question when it comes to win rates, and the answer is
always the same
Any winrate above 0 is good.
A winrate above 0 means that you are a winning player and you should be happy about that.
Something crazy like 95% of all online poker players lose money, so be thankful that youre
good enough to be in this elite group. However, I know that youre not going to be satisfied with
a very general answer like that. You want some figures dont you?
Rough ballpark figures for good and great winrates.

1 4 bb/100 = Great. A solid winrate if you can sustain it.
5 9 bb/100 = Amazing. This is a very high winrate at any level. Consider moving up.
10+ bb/100 = Immense. Very, very few have a winrate like this. You probably have a
small sample size though.
Once again, these are rough guidelines for good and ridiculously good winrates. If yours is much
higher, then congratulations to you and I hope it remains high. At the end of the day though as
anyone will tell you youre doing a good job if your winrate is above 0bb/100, so be happy
with what you've got.
Winrate distribution graph.
A graph to show the winrate distribution of online poker players that have played 1,000+ hands
in 2010. Image source: PokerTableRatings.com
The graph of the distribution of player winrates above highlights a few important facts:
The vast majority of poker players are losing poker players.

Most winning players have a winrate of less than 4bb/100.
Whilst winrates of 4bb/100+ are attainable, very few winning players achieve this kind of
winrate compared to those that have a winrate of less than 4bb/100. So once again, even though
you might have shook your head when I said that any winrate above 0bb/100 is good, this graph
shows just how happy you should be to fall in to that category.
How can I work out my winrate?

The vast majority of players work out their winrate by looking at their stats in HoldemManager
or PokerTracker. These programs will tell work out your winrate for you. If youre not using
either one of these programs, you are missing out.
If you dont use either of these programs, then you will have a bit of trouble figuring out your
winrate. However, if you do happen to have your total amount won and total number of hands
played, divide each side by a number that will turn your # of hands played in to 100 and you will
get your bb/100 winrate.
Seriously though, just get Poker Tracker 3 or Holdem Manager. See the software page for more
information.
When can I work out my winrate?

Or to put it another way, when will your win rate become accurate and converge toward your
actual long-term win rate?
The short answer is it takes A LOT of hands to form anywhere near an accurate winrate. There is
a lot of variance in poker, so one month you might have a winrate or 9bb/100 and the next it
might be 1bb/100.
As far as numbers of hands go, working out a win rate with anything less than 100k hands is
prone to a lot of variance. In fact, some would say your winrate wouldnt be close to accurate
unless you hit the 1 million hands mark.
Either way, you shouldnt put too much stock in to your current winrate unless you have a
ridiculous number of hands to work with. If youve only clocked up 10k hands, expect to see a
lot of change.
Working out hourly, daily, weekly etc. win rates.

So far weve just worked with bb/100, which obviously isnt going to be half as interesting as
figuring out your hourly wage from poker.
To work out winrates in terms of time, we need to have a rough idea of how many hands we play
in an hour. The rough figures for cash games are as follows:
Average hands per hour for cash games.

60 hands/hour for full ring games.
85 hands/hour for short-handed games.
So to work out our $/hour, we:
Turn our bb/100 in to a $/100 winrate by multiplying our winrate by the big blind.
Multiply this by the number of tables you play at a time (if you multi-table).
Multiply our $/X hands by 0.85 or 0.60 (this turns $/X hands in to $/hour) depending on
which game we play.
and we will be left with our hourly winrate. Easy.
To get your daily, weekly, monthly win rate and so on, you just multiply your hourly winrate by
the hours you expect to play in a day, week, month and so on.
We could both do with a few examples though couldnt we
Hourly winrate example.

You play 4 tables of 6-max 10c/25c NL Holdem and have a winrate of 6 bb/100 hands. What is
your hourly winrate?
6 bb/100 = $1.50 (6 x 25c) per 100 hands at each table.

$1.50 per 100 hands x 4 tables = $6 per 400 hands.
$6 x 0.85 = $5.10 an hour.

o
(We play 85 hands an hour on average in short-handed games, so we multiply $6

by 0.85 to get our hourly winrate)
$/hour = $5.10
Daily winrate example.

You play 1 table of full ring $1/$2 NL Holdem and have a win rate of 2 bb/100 hands. You play
an average of 3 hours a day. What is your daily win rate?
2 bb/100 = $4 per 100 hands.

$4 per 100 hands x 1 table = $4 (obviously).
$4 x 0.60 = $2.40 an hour.
(We play 60 hands an hour on average in full ring games)
$2.40 x 3 hours a day = $7.20 a day.
$/day = $7.20
Monthly winrate example.

You play 2 tables of short handed $2/$4 NL Holdem and have a win rate of 3 bb/100 hands.
You play an average of 5 hours a day and play 5 days a week. What is your monthly winrate?
3 bb/100 = $12 per 100 hands at each table.

$12 x 2 tables = $24 per 200 hands.
$24 x 0.85 = $20.40 an hour.
$20.40 x 5 hours a day = $102 a day.
$102 a day x ~20 days a month = $2,040 a month.
$/month = $2,040
For more on potential earnings, read the article on how much money you can win from online
poker.
Evaluation of win rates in poker.

Aside from being able to work out hourly winrates and so on, there are two main things that I
would like for you to take from this article.
1. A winrate greater than 0 is good. Be genuinely happy about it.
2. Focus on improving your game, not your win rate.
Dont ever fall in to the trap of trying to chase after a certain winrate. There are so many
variables involved that it might not even be attainable for you, but dont worry about it. If you
focus on playing the best possible game you can, your winrate will be as good as it needs to be.
Note: When playing from the blinds, it's actually perfectly standard to have a negative winrate.
As outlined in this video on blind play, it's expected to be making a loss from playing in the
small blind and big blind.
Winrates in poker are fun to look at (if youre winning of course, theyre not so much fun if
youre losing), but always aim for perfect play, not a specific winrate.
Poker Counterfeiting
Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Other > Counterfeit

0
Counterfeiting in poker is not exactly a strategical concept, but it's something that you should be
aware of and be prepared to deal with whenever it crops up.
Even if you've only played poker for a week, you have more than likely been counterfeited at
least once or twice -- you just didn't know there was a name for it.
So here's an explanation (with examples) of counterfeiting in Texas Hold'em with a quick
guide on what to do if and when it happens.
What is counterfeiting in Texas Hold'em?

You are counterfeited when a card comes on the board that makes one or more of your
holecards redundant (no longer as useful), without the basic value of your overall hand changing.
Note: Despite the exciting name and my little image at the top, there's nothing illegal about
counterfeiting in poker. It's a perfectly legal (albeit annoying) occurrence. It doesn't have much
to do with dodgy money either.
Being counterfeited in poker is never a good thing.
Even though the basic value of your hand hasn't changed, it usually means that you're either
going to end up losing money or not winning as much money as you could have done if you
hadn't been counterfeited.
Examples of counterfeiting in Texas Hold'em.

As awesome as that definition was, there's never any substitute for a good set of examples when
trying to explain a specific concept. Here are 2 (and a bit) common ones that you'll most
frequently run in to.
1) Two pair counterfeiting.
You have bottom two pair on this turn. Not the strongest hand in the world, but you will usually
be able to get decent value from opponents' top-pair type hands. However, lo and behold, the
river brings the following card:
Your pair of 4s has been made completely redundant thanks to the overpair on the board. The T
on the river has counterfeited your pair of 4s.
Your best hand before the river: 44-55-A

Your best hand after the river: 55-TT-A
Your hand still has the same basic value as before (two pair), but nonetheless your expectation
for the hand has decreased because of your counterfeited pair of 4s.
Why is it bad?
You are forced to use the pair of Ts on the board to make a two-pair hand of Ts and 5s, replacing
your original two-pair of 5s and 4s. You still have that pair of 4s, but it's effectively useless
because there is no such thing as three-pair in Texas Hold'em.
You've lost the advantage that using both of your holecards to make that original two-pair gave
you.
If your opponent had a pair of As on the turn, they will now have a better two-pair hand than you
(As and Ts). In addition, if your opponent has a pocket pair of 66+ they will again have just
made a better two-pair hand than you on the river.
So whereas if you hadn't been counterfeited (the board not pairing) on this river you could have
won a decent amount of money from an opponent with top pair only, you could now easily end
up losing money to a new and better two-pair hand.
NLHE cash games.
2) Straight counterfeiting.
What a perfect flop; you've just flopped the nut straight. In this sort of situation you can usually
just sit back and think about how you're going to maximize value from the hand. However, the
turn is the following:
That's pretty annoying, because now any other player at the table with any random Ace will have
a straight too, plus you're less likely to get much more action from one-pair or two-pair hands
because the board looks so scary.
Again, you still have the nut straight (so your hand value hasn't changed), but you expect to
make less money from the hand than if the J didn't show up on the turn.
But wait, it can still get worse
so now every single player left in the hand has the nut straight. Your original straight has been
completely counterfeited, as both the Ace and Jack in your hand have been rendered useless.
Why is it bad?
I've pretty much explained the negatives in this hand as we went along. In a nutshell though, the
cards in your hand gave you less of an advantage as you proceeded to be partially counterfeited
on the turn, and then fully counterfeited on the river.
You will now get no value from pairs and sets that your opponents might have held, which could
have resulted in winning a pretty big pot for yourself. Instead, you will just split the pot with the
remaining players in the hand.
3) Other counterfeiting examples.

The two-pair and straight counterfeiting examples above are the most common and obvious
counterfeiting situations you will run in to. However, here are a few more for good measure.
Note: I won't go in to too much detail with these, as I'm sure that you'll be able to see what's
going on and understand why the counterfeit cards are not good for our overall expectation.
i) Full house counterfeiting.
Any player with a card higher than a 3 will beat your hand due to them having 4-of-a-kind with a
better kicker.
ii) Flush counterfeiting.
1. On the turn, any player with a heart (the suit, not the organ) will now beat your 3-high
flush.
2. On the river, any player with a heart still beats your flush, but you now split the pot with
players that do not even have a heart.
Why is it good to know about counterfeiting in Texas

Hold'em?
So now you know all about counterfeiting, what use is it? It's not like you can prevent it or do
anything about it once it has happened.
The key thing with counterfeiting is to realise and accept what has happened, and to not let it
frustrate you.
Many amateur players get attached to their hands and fail (or intentionally ignore) the fact that
their hand has been counterfeited. They will continue to put more money in to the pot as if they
hadn't been counterfeited, which is obviously a terrible, illogical and unprofitable thing to do.
Being counterfeited is annoying and it can even seem unfair, but you have to remember that it
happens to everyone from time to time. Just learn to accept it. You either decide to deal with it or
you don't, and if you don't, prepare to lose money. Take the current strength of your hand for
what it is and go from there.
If you can keep focused when you are counterfeited you will save yourself money, and that's the
best possible outcome in these inevitable situations.
Evaluation on counterfeiting in Texas Hold'em.

Counterfeiting happens in all variants of poker where community cards are dealt, most notably
Omaha Hi Lo thanks to the two holecards that players are forced to use. In this article I have
focused on counterfeiting specifically in Texas Hold'em.
There aren't many in-depth articles out there explaining counterfeiting in poker, but as usual, the
wikipedia article on this subject has a decent explanation with a few examples.
In conclusion, being counterfeited isn't something you can control or prevent, but you can
control the way you play afterwards (which is the important part). Counterfeiting situations are a
lot like bad beats, so you should learn to deal with them in the same way.
Poker Variance
Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Other > Poker Variance
2
In this article I am going to talk about the basics of variance in poker and how it affects your
game.
There can be a lot of mathematics involved with variance. However, this is largely going to be a
non-mathsy article about variance, which Im sure will be very welcomed by a large number of
you reading this.
What is variance?
Variance is the downswings and upswings involved with playing poker.
Its quite possibly the least technical definition for a term I have ever written, but the ups and
downs of poker when it comes to winning and losing money sums it up rather well.
Variance is the difference between how much money you expect to win on average over the
long run and the results you are seeing in the short term. So for example, if according to your
win rate you expect to win $500 in a month on average but end up losing $1,000 instead, this is
attributed to variance.
Examples of variance in poker.

Going all-in with pocket aces.
Lets say that you are playing heads up against a total maniac that moves all-in on every hand.
Furthermore, by a pure stroke of luck and through the magic of me being able to make examples
up, you are dealt pocket aces 5 times in a row. Obviously, you decide to call all-in 5 times before
the flop too.
Equity of aces against a random hand from Pokerstove.

Against any random hand, AA has an 85% chance of winning. Therefore we expect to win
roughly 4 out of these 5 all-ins, although we would ideally like to win them all.
However, you actually end up losing all 5 all-ins against your opponents 5 random hands. It was
amazingly unlikely, but the fact is that it is possible and it did happen.
On average you expected to win 4 out of these 5 all-ins, but thanks to variance you ended up
winning 0 out of 5. As you can see, variance is the difference between the expected long term
results and actual short term results, in this case it is 4 buy-ins worth of variance.
Variance in graphs.
Image credit: Poker2002

As you can see from this graph the rate at which this player wins money is far from linear. Sure,
his stats may show a winrate of 1.06 BB/100, but there are times where he loses more than he
expects and wins more than he expects.
Variance compared to an expected winrate.
However, now lets say that this player had a winrate of 1.5 BB/100 (3 bb/100) over his last 1
million hands prior to this current time period. If we plot this expected winrate on the graph, we
get to see how much variance is taking place compared to what this player expects to be winning
in a perfect world.
Click To Enlarge
Over a long enough period of time his actual results will meet up with his expected results, but in
the short term the amount that he wins or loses in the hands of our good friend variance.
For more information on stuff like BB/100 and bb/100, see the article on win rates in poker.
What causes variance?

The element of luck causes variance.
As we know there is an element of skill involved in poker, but there is also a lot of luck. We
have no control over the hands that we are dealt or the cards that are dealt on the board, so this
uncertainty or luck is the cause of variance over the short term.
We all have to deal with it and its to be expected, so get used to it. Regardless of how good you
are, those 5, 10 and even 20+ buy in downswings will hit us at various points in our poker
careers.
What influences variance?

There are a few factors that can increase or decrease the amount of variance that you encounter:
1. Your playing style. If you play a very loose-aggressive style of play then you will be
involved in a lot more pots and will be consequently risking more money than your
average tight player. The looser you are and the more risks you take, the greater your
variance will be.
2. The poker game. Omaha has less variance than Holdem because the hands in Omaha
generally have less of an edge against one another when players move all-in (odds of
each hand winning are closer to 60/40 as opposed to something like 75/25). Therefore the
smaller the edges, the less the variance.
3. The betting type. No limit has greater variance than limit poker, where the amount of
money that players can put in to the pot is much smaller in relation to the blinds in limit
games than it is in no limit games. The more money you can risk, the greater the
variance.
4. The game type. Large MTTs will have much more variance than SNGs because you
expect to win far less often. However, when you do win an MTT you receive sudden
large payouts, which obviously results in higher levels of variance.
There are definitely a lot more factors that can affect the variance that you come up against in
your poker career, but these are the most obvious ones and the ones that will have the greatest
influence on the size of your ups and downs.
Anticipate your swings with a variance simulator.

To get a really good idea of how much your winnings can vary over a set number of hands, try
using this poker variance simulator from ev++.
Just enter your winrate and standard deviation (which can be found in both Holdem Manager and
PokerTracker) and see how differently the outcomes can be.
An example of a variance simulator

graph taken over 100,000 hands from evpluplus.com.
AnskyPoker.com also has a cool downloadable excel variance simulator too, but it's not as quick
and easy to use as the online simulator at ev++.
You may be surprised at the size of the possible swings and just how different your results can be
over large sample sizes. It's a real eye opener if you think your recent 5 buy-in downswing was
bad.
More information on standard deviation and variance can be found in the Holdem Manager guide
video starting at 6:16. It also gives you a quick example of how to use the ev++ variance
simulator.
How variance affects the game.

1. It makes it hard to tell if youre playing well or not.
2. Variance can be mentally draining for even the best players.
3. On a positive note, variance is the reason why the bad players keep playing.
1) Thanks to variance, you can never truly rely on your short-term results as an indication of how
well you are currently playing. You might be playing out-of-your-skin poker but still lose
money, which makes it frustratingly difficult to analyse what you might be doing right and what
you might be doing wrong.
You have to trust that you are making good plays and feel genuinely comfortable about how you
are playing, regardless of what current results attempt to indicate. Confidence in your ability at
the poker table is a very important quality to posses during a downswing. You just have to keep
learning and trust that its paying off.
2) The fact that you can lose money even when you are playing well is horrible. However, you
have to get used to it if you want to win money from poker over the long run. Playing well when
youre winning is easy; playing well when youre losing is a different kettle of fish.
Learn to play youre A game at all times or variance will get the better of you. We all
encounter bad doses of variance, but not all players can handle it.
3) On the other side of the coin, the fact that players (specifically bad ones) can win money even
when they are playing terribly is actually a good thing. If these bad players never won any
money, half of them would just quit playing. Be thankful that bad beats exist so that these bad
players can slowly but surely hand their money to you.
training.
Evaluation of variance in poker.

Variance happens. Sometimes it sends us on ridiculously good upswings, sometimes it sends on
horrendously frustrating downswings. Either way, at the end of the day you have to accept the
fact that variance plays a big part in every poker players game. If you expect variance to kick
the shit out of you once in a while, it will be much easier for you to deal with it.
For further reading, you may find the articles on expected value and Sklansky bucks interesting
too.
This particular article has only covered the general stuff about variance in poker. For a more
math-orientated look at this topic, try the article on calculating variance at AintLuck.com.
Playing Poker Drunk

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Other > Playing Drunk
0
The situation.
You've been on a night out with a couple of friends; had a good time and a "couple" of drinks,
and now you're back home thinking about what you can do to wind down the night. You notice
your computer in the corner and remember that you've still got a bit of money left in your Full
Tilt account.
You've had a little bit more to drink than you expected but no matter, you're in a pretty good
frame of mind to outplay some fish and add a little padding to your bankroll to give yourself a
nice surprise for when you log into your account in the morning.
money.
The next mistake.

You sit down at one of the 6-max tables with the least players sitting at it, this way you can get
some more direct action with the donks so that you can outplay them more effectively and pull
off a couple of nice advanced plays against them. The first 10 minutes or so go pretty well, you
haven't lost or won anything substantial yet but it's still early days.
A few minutes on things are getting pretty dull so you try a few special moves to get things
going and start some action. The next thing you know you are re-raising your opponents' bets
with air, and before long you're all-in hoping for that magical 8 to fall with a gut-shot straight
draw against an opponent who has flopped top two-pair.
You are far more susceptible to tilt when playing poker drunk. Loose inhibitions + tilt never
work out well.
Sound vaguely familiar? Maybe the last time you played drunk wasn't exactly the same; maybe
you bombed out pretty quickly or maybe you managed to get lucky and double up and win a
couple of pots. Either way there are a whole load of players who have sat down at the poker table
a little inebriated, it even happens to the best of us *cough*
The problem with playing poker drunk.

The fact of the matter is, alcohol has the fantastic ability to give you the feeling of
indestructibility along with increased levels of confidence, which are best left at the door when it
comes to playing poker.
Every time I have sat down at the poker table after having a couple of drinks, I have sat down
with the intention of playing out of my skin, playing the best poker of my life and making
incredible reads to pick up some big pots to line my bankroll. But after a couple of hands my
play starts to deteriorate, and I start to make plays for the sake of making plays without any
regard for what the correct strategy should be. I'm out to win pots rather than money, and every
drunken online session turns out to be pretty -EV.
After admitting my own faults about playing drunken poker, it's going to be pretty hard to tell
you to never play poker drunk. But nonetheless, drinking alcohol and playing poker is always
going to be EV, no matter how confident you are about your ability.
Poker is a mentally demanding game, and you need to be on top form to analyse every play and
make the most profitable decisions in every situation.
Your sober state is your peak, and every drink you have just brings your focus down below your
peak, reducing your ability to play the more you drink. So in general, to make the most out of
every session you play, you want to be at the top of your game sober and focused.
The solution? A little self control (or just prepare to lose).

Playing poker under the influence may well be one of the biggest contributing factors to why you
lose money playing online poker.
There is no one that is going to stop you from playing whilst you are drunk, so just be prepared
to lose rather than win. There have been occasions when I have won a bit of money whilst under
the influence of alcohol, but the majority of the time the drunken sessions are losing ones.
I've looked back at hand histories in the mornings and laughed at some of the plays that I've
made the night before. It's pretty obvious that it takes quite a bit of liquid confidence to check
raise all in on the turn with middle pair against a tight player that has been betting heavily on the
flop and turn.
If you can't excercise a little self control, be prepared to lose money. It's as simple as that.
training.
Playing poker drunk evaluation.

So in a nutshell, if you really don't want to chip away at your bankroll every Friday or Saturday
night, watch some re-runs of high-stakes poker, have some toast with a glass of water and leave
the computer alone the next time you stumble home looking for a little late night entertainment.
Your bankroll will thank you in the morning.
Top Mistakes Made By New Live Poker

Players
Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Other > Live Play Mistakes
0
After some stretch playing online, many players get to grips with
the rules and basic strategy and decide to venture out into live play and
head down to their local casino or card room. Live play offers a greater
poker experience where you can sit in front of other players and
attempt to hold your nerve as your opponents can stare you down
looking for tells.
This may sound very familiar to some of you reading this article, as
large numbers of players are frequently making the switch from online
to live to involve themselves in the real live poker experience. Online poker does a lot in the way
of preparing you for live play, but there are some areas that online poker cannot recreate, which
will leave you ill-equipped in a few sections of live play.
To help save yourself from making errors in your first few live sessions, I have gathered the top
mistakes that new online to live players frequently make when they sit down at the live poker
tables for the first time.
String betting.
String betting is when a player makes a bet and moves back and forth from their chip stack to
the pot to complete the bet. For example, if you intend to make a $30 bet and move three $10
stacks into the pot one at a time, then this is considered to be a string bet.
This can cause problems during live play because a player that acts after you may think that
when you move you $10 stack into the pot, that it is the only bet that you are making. Then,
thinking that you have completing your action, that player may go to make his play unaware that
you are continuing to make your bet.
NLHE cash games.
String betting is frowned upon in live play, so to avoid any confusion you should announce the
size of your bet before moving your chips, or move your chips into the centre in one motion.
String betting is an easy mistake to make, so keep an eye on your betting in your first few
sessions at the casino.
Reacting to cards.
When you are sat behind your computer screen, there is no one to see you smile when you are
dealt pocket aces or see you shake your head when you miss your draw. However, in live play
your emotions are open for everyone at the table to see, so try to remain calm when looking at
the cards as they come out.
For example, if you start to show disinterest in a hand then you leave yourself open to bluffs
from other players when you may have had the best hand at the time.
A good tip to avoid giving information away through your emotions is to look at your opponents
as the flop is dealt and not at the cards. This way you can see how your opponent reacts and you
can steady yourself before looking down at what has come out.
Acting out of turn.

Online poker software makes it impossible for you to act of turn whilst playing online, so this
slip-up catches many new live players out in their first few sessions. If you act of turn, it can
influence the decisions of players who were meant to act before you or after you.
You should always try and pay attention to when it is your turn to act and only make your play
when the action reaches you. It is common for players with strong hands to act out of turn
because they eager to make their move, so try to keep your composure when you are dealt a good
hand.
Taking cards off the table.

When you are dealt a hand, you should always keep your cards on the table and not lift them up
and take them into your lap. The cards should be left on the table because it eliminates the
possibility of you being able to switch the cards during the hand.
Even if you genuinely make the mistake of taking the cards back to your lap, other players may
become a little wary and ask that your cards be folded just to be sure that you were not cheating.
Keep your cards on the table. There is no real need to pick them up anyway (unless you are
turning them over at the showdown).
Not keeping track of pot size.

In online poker, the software will display the size of the pot and the bets at every stage of each
hand. This feature is not available in live play, and it is up to you to keep your eye on the size of
the pot. You can ask the dealer to add up the chips in the pot, but you should ask to do this in key
situations only as frequently asking the dealer to count up the chips is time consuming and will
slow down play.
Nonetheless, you should try you best to keep an eye on the pot size so that you are able to
quickly work out pot odds when necessary. The less time you spend trying to figure out your
odds, the more time you have to make the best decision possible when it is your turn to act.
Not tipping the dealer.

Many dealers rely on tips to make a decent wage. There is no set frequency or amount that you
should tip the dealers, but is generally good practice that you do.
Some people prefer to tip dealers at the end of their sessions, whereas others tip the dealer after
every decent pot they win. In addition, some people are very generous when tipping, and some
others less so. If you unsure of how much you should tip, have a look at how much other players
at the table are tipping on average and follow their lead. If you are still unsure, a very general
way to tip is about 2% of every large pot you win.
Live play mistakes evaluation.

Hopefully this article has given you an insight into what you should look out for when you start
to play poker in casinos and card rooms. It may also be in your interest to take a look at poker
etiquette to see what is acceptable at the poker tables.
You may find that a few of the above mistakes are from players not familiarizing themselves
with the rules of the game and good poker etiquette. Youre not going to get shot for making any
mistakes at the poker table, but it is good to have a knowledge about etiquette and how to play to
keep the other players and dealers happy.
Live poker further reading.
If you play a lot of poker in B&M casinos, you should check out my friend Jonathan's live poker
website. He covers a lot more than I do on live poker etiquette (and how to act at a live poker
table in general). There are also an impressive strategy section that contains articles with high
quality tips and advice.
Online Poker And Exchange Rates

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Other > Exchange Rates
0
After the UIGEA gambling legislation passed in 2006, there are
now far fewer numbers of online poker players playing in the US.
The US online players were always in the majority when compared to
the number of players outside of the US, but now the ratio has
significantly changed.
Because so many players were from the US, the majority of big name
poker rooms designed their software so that bets would be made in
USD($). This means that if you live outside of the US and decided to play at these big name sites
that only offer play in USD, the money you deposit will be converted from your home currency
into USD.
So this is where the exchange rates come into play...
surprised.
How your money gets exchanged into Dollars.

Every time money is converted from one currency to another, it has to pass through an exchange
rate so that you get an equal value of the currency you are converting to. For example, if the
exchange rate for British Pounds into American Dollars is 0.5, you will need 0.5 for $1 (which
works out as $2 for every 1).
This ensures that you get the correct amount for all of your converted currency, as it will be of
the same monetary value. Furthermore, when you wish to convert back into your original
currency, an inverse exchange rate will be used so that you should have the money converted
back across a similar rate.
However, there is one factor that has not been included so far, which is the fact that exchange
rates are constantly changing from day to day. Exchange rates are affected by the economical
health of a country, which is influenced by factors such as employment and number of exports.
How are exchange rates worked out?

The stronger the economical health of a country, the greater the value of its currency will
become and vice versa. It is for these reasons that people can make a living from trading money
from one currency to another, if they predict that one currency will increase in value over a
certain period of time.
How do exchange rates affect the non-US poker players?

Because players outside of the US do not work with USD, all of their money that they use for
online poker has to pass through these exchange rates so that it can be converted into USD to be
used to play online poker. Now if there is a player that deposits money into a room and does not
withdraw it for a substantial period of time, it gives rise to the possibility that the exchange rate
will have changed significantly.
Therefore the money in the online room could now be worth more or less depending on how the
exchange rate has changed. Therefore this should influence when money should be withdrawn
from online rooms if we intend to maximize our profits.
Normally, the exchange rate will change so slightly that it will have an insignificant effect when
depositing or withdrawing money. Furthermore, the smaller the amount of money that is taken
out, the less effect the exchange rate will have in relation to the overall bankrolls. But if large
sums of money are being withdrawn over extended periods of time, it is in a poker players
interest to keep an eye on the fluctuating exchange rates at times of deposit and withdrawal.
Online poker and exchange rates example.
Exchange rates diagram between 0ct '06 and Feb '07. (Quite old, but does the trick anyway).
An example can be drawn from the graph of the GBP/USD exchange rate between Oct '06 and
Feb '07 taken from x-rates (see diagram above).
So lets say that a British player deposits 1000 into an online poker room that converts their
money into USD. If this player deposited on Oct 10th 06 where the rate was highest, that person
would have been given a bankroll of $1854.80. Then if that player broke even for 2 months and
withdrew the $1854.80 on Jan 23rd 07 where the exchange rate was lowest, they would receive
934.55 back into their home bank account.
Home
1000 >
934.55
Exchange Rate
0.539142 >
< 0.503854
Online
$1854.80
< $1854.80
As you can see, that particular player has lost just over 65 ($130) through the fluctuation in
exchange rates (assuming they also went on to avoid the "cash out curse" too, of course). But if
he/she had waited until the exchange rate had increased in their favor, they could have saved
themselves a little more money.
So when we are converting our money, we will want to be converting to USD when the
exchange rate from our currency is low, and withdrawing when the exchange rate from our
currency is high. It is not easy to estimate how these rates will change over time unless you are
experienced in the exchange business, but it is worth keeping an eye on these rates and be aware
that your bankroll will be losing value as the exchange rates decrease. It is more important to
keep track of exchange rates after a big win, as the exchange rate will have a greater effect on the
amount you will be withdrawing.
Online poker and exchange rates evaluation.

It would be wrong to suggest that it is in an online poker players main interest to study exchange
rates in any great depth, as the amount of money that you will be losing or gaining will not be
significantly affecting the size of your bankroll.
However, it may be beneficial in keeping an eye on the exchange rates when determining
whether or not it is a good time to make a large withdrawal of money if it is not vitally
important, because there is a good possibility that you will be able to save yourself a decent sum
of money by waiting for a time with good exchange rates.
I use the x-rates site to keep an eye on the exchange rates between different currencies through
their very handy graphs and calculators.
Poker Continuation Bet

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Plays > The Continuation Bet
1
Cbetting Articles: The Continuation Bet : More Cbetting Tips : When To CBet (Examples)
: Double Barrelling
The "continuation bet" (or cbet) is becoming an increasingly popular move at the no limit
Holdem tables. The popularity of the move stems from its simplicity and effectiveness, which
means that it is easy to learn and be used appropriately on a basic level by players new to the
game.
It is hard to play any session at any level without seeing a continuation bet being utilized, and
you are putting yourself at a great disadvantage if you are not aware of it.
What is a continuation bet?

A continuation bet is simply a bet that is made on the flop if you were the pre-flop raiser, even if
you did not improve your hand on the flop.
So if you raised pre-flop with A K and the flop came 4 9 Q , you can give yourself a
chance of winning the pot by making a bet, despite the fact you have not made a pair or better.
This play is often successful because of the fact that 2 times out of 3 your opponent will not
make a pair on the flop.
money.
This means that if your opponent folded their hand each time you made a continuation bet and
they did not connect with the flop, you will be winning more pots on the flop than if you simply
checked. This is the most basic principle behind the play, but there are numerous other factors
that influence its' success.
How to make a good continuation bet.
A good continuation bet is 2/3 to 3/4 the size of the pot.

Take in to consideration reads on your opponents.
Continuation bet sizing.
A good size of a continuation bet should be around 2/3 to 3/4 the size of the pot. So if the pot
were $10, a $7 bet would be an appropriate amount for a respectable continuation bet. If the bet
is too low, it invites opponents to call because they have good pot odds if they are on a draw or if
they have a half decent hand.
A good continuation bet is between 2/3 to 3/4 of the size of the pot.
When we make this play we want to make it appear as if we have a very strong hand like top pair
or better scaring our opponents out of the pot, and betting between 2/3 to 3/4 the size of the pot
does this very effectively. However, if we over bet the pot (for example $14 into a $10 pot), we
are investing too much money into the hand and risking more than we need to when a smaller $8
bet will have the same effect.
Take in to consideration reads on your opponents.

The strength of your opponent's ability should influence your decision on whether or not a
continuation bet should be made. At the lowest levels you will find that opponents are more
willing to call bets with any sort of hand.
Avoid making continuation bets against calling stations.
The reduced likelihood of opponents folding at the lower levels means that it may not be
profitable to make continuation bets because we are unable to scare off the mediocre hands that
they will hold. In addition, the effectiveness of a continuation bet decreases against more
experienced opponents because the very good players are able to sense these type of plays and
may raise or call knowing that you may be betting with the worst hand.
This means that we should reduce the number of continuation bets we make, as they will be most
successful against the average players who are able to fold decent hands.
Using the flop to determine whether or not to continuation

bet.
The success of a continuation bet can be improved depending on what cards the flop brings.
Continuation bet example.

You hold A Q and the flop comes 2 K 6 , it is difficult for your opponent to call a
continuation bet unless they are holding at least a pair of kings. So even though your opponent
had a 2 in 3 chance of making a pair on the flop, if they make a pair with the six or the two, they
are still likely to fold because your continuation bet makes it look a though you have a pair
higher than a six or better.
Good flop for a continuation bet example hand history.
However, if you hold A Q and the flop comes J K 8 , a continuation bet is more likely to
get called because of the flush and straight draw possibilities. As you can see, the play is more
likely to work when your opponent can only call if they have a strong made hand with no draw.
Bad flop for a continuation bet example hand history.
Always consider the texture of the flop and how likely it is that your opponent will have made a
hand that they will be prepared to call a bet with. The wetter (more co-ordinated) the flop is, the
more reluctant you should be to attempt a continuation bet when you have not made a strong
hand yourself.
Factors that influence continuation betting.

1. The number of players in the pot.
2. Your position in the hand.
Number of players in the pot.

The play is more successful against 1 opponent rather than 2 or more because of the simple fact
that there is a greater chance that an opponent has connected with the flop. It is recommended
that you restrict the use of continuation bets to when you are up against one opponent, although it
is possible to fire a successful bet against multiple opponents.
The less players there are in the pot, the greater the chances of your continuation bet being
successful. Try to only use continuation bets when you are heads up in a hand.
You should also remember that the more you use continuation bets, the less respect you will get
for them as play goes on. Be aware of the frequency that you use them so that you don't end up
being on the end of a re-raise or check-raise from a player who has figured you out.
Position in the hand.

Position also helps because if you are last to act as you have the opportunity to see your
opponent act first and decide whether you believe a continuation bet will be successful. But
beware of tricky players who may expect you to make a continuation bet and check-raise you.
Continuation bets are more successful when you have position over your opponent(s).
This is not uncommon so try and get as good a knowledge of your opponent as possible before
making moves and be prepared to fold if you hold nothing. Don't feel as though you have to call
if you get raised because you are more than likely not pot-committed. Just fold your cards and
accept that the play didn't work out that time, save your chips for when you do make the hand.
Continuation bet evaluation.
Continuation bets are commonplace in today's Texas hold em poker game, so it is in your best
interest to familiarize yourself with them and start incorporating them into your play.
There are no set rules to when these plays will work, but there are guidelines as mentioned above
that you can follow to help improve the effectiveness of the play. The best way to learn how and
when to use continuation bets is to go and sit down at a table and experiment a little. The good
thing about continuation bets is that they are relatively inexpensive to use, so you won't be losing
a whole load of money trying to learn how and when to use them.
The Semi Bluff

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Plays > The Semi Bluff
0
The Semi Bluff > Semi Bluffing EV Examples
Semi-bluffing made simple at Deuces Cracked covers everything you need to know about semi
bluffing, and then some more. That video is the perfect compliment to this semi bluffing strategy
article.
Watching your bluff get called hurts; it really does hurt a lot. Not only that, but repeated poorly
executed bluffs eat away at your bankroll causing you to lose more and more money from one
session to the next.
Imagine if there was a way to take the sting out of getting called when you bluff. Better yet, what
if you could take all your bluffs and almost instantly make them profitable?
Allow me to introduce... the semi bluff.
*waits for a roar of applause and tears of gratitude and relief*
What is a semi bluff?

A semi-bluff is when you bluff, but you still have a chance of improving to make the best hand
on future cards.
For example, raising with A 4 on a flop of K Q 2 would be classed as a semi-bluff. Its
unlikely that you have the best hand right now (making it a bluff), but a diamond on the turn or
the river would give you a flush and the best hand (making it a semi-bluff).
money.
Whats the difference between a total bluff and a semi bluff?
Total bluff = no (or very little) chance of winning the hand if called.
Semi bluff = some chance of winning the hand if called.
A total bluff has absolutely no chance of winning the hand if called. Therefore, it has 0% equity
in the pot.
Note: To be more precise, Id go ahead and say that any hand with less than 10% equity can be
classed a total bluff. Sometimes even the most clear-cut bluffs will have some equity for
whatever reason.
Semi bluffs have a decent chance of winning the hand if called, so they have at least some equity
in the pot. As you can imagine, different semi bluffs will have varying chances of winning the
hand, which means that some will have more equity than others.
For example, semi bluffing with a flush and straight draw hand will have far more equity than
semi bluffing with a gutshot straight draw. In general, more chance of improving = more equity.
Semi bluffs can also only be made when there are more cards to come (so on the flop or the
turn), as those unknown cards are whats giving you the opportunity to improve. So no, you cant
semi bluff on the river. On the river, youre either making a pure bluff (0% equity) or youre
betting for value and want your opponent to call.
Semi bluffing diagram (range of semi bluffs).
A diagram to highlight the types of bet based on your equity in the hand.
A few important notes about this diagram.

The less equity you have in the hand the riskier your bluff becomes.
If you have little or no equity in the hand, your bet is virtually a total bluff.
If you have more than 50% equity you should be betting for value and hoping to see your
opponent to call instead of fold.
If your bluff gets called, youd much rather have a 35% chance of making the best hand than a
12% chance. It makes mathematical sense for a semi bluffs with higher equity to be more
profitable than semi bluffs with lower equity, because you end up winning more often with a
higher equity percentage.
How important is semi bluffing?

If youre making a bluff, its far more profitable to make semi bluffs than pure bluffs.
Try not to think of total bluffs as one thing and semi bluffs as another. They are both bluffs
at the end of the day. Instead, think of semi-bluffs as the better version of "pure bluffs" or "total
bluffs" - the good looking and wealthier older brother if you will.
The advantages of semi bluffing.

When you semi bluff, you still have the opportunity to win the hand. As a result, semi bluffs are
inherently better than total bluffs.
The fact that you have more equity in the hand with semi bluffs means youre saving much more
money over the long run. With total bluffs, you dont have that equity cushion to help you when
your bluff gets called.
For example, on a board of QT3 its far more +EV to bluff with AK than it is to bluff with 72o.
With AK your bet has fold equity + actual equity (overcards + gutshot).
With 72o your bet has fold equity only.
The more equity you have when youre putting money in to the pot the better. In fact, in the
example above betting with AK is almost certainly +EV, whereas betting with 72o is likely to be
-EV.
This is a prime example of how semi bluffs are better than total bluffs during play.
Additional advantages of semi bluffing.

It gives you the initiative in the hand. If you bet out instead of checking, you gain the initiative.
This means that its more likely that your opponent will check to you on future streets, making
your decisions a lot easier.
It can disguise your hand. Some players will expect you to check and call with drawing hands,
not bet and/or raise. Therefore, you may well win more when you hit your draw because your
opponent is less likely to give you credit for having it.
Good hands to semi bluff.
Big flush draws.

Open-ended straight draws.
Flush draws + open-ended straight draws.
All of these hands have good amounts of equity against made hands like pairs, which is the exact
reason why they are great hands for semi-bluffing.
Bad hands to semi bluff.
Gutshot straight draws.

Weak flush draws.
Care to take a wild guess as to why these arent great hands for semi bluffing? Yep, thats
right they dont have a lot of equity.
Gutshot straight draws have poor odds of hitting, which means less equity. Weak flushes have a
problems with reverse implied odds (even if you hit, you could still lose money to a stronger
flush), which means poor equity again.
Still, these hands are better to bluff with than a hand with 0% equity (or close to it). Its just that
theyre not as good as the ones above.
Check out the percentage odds chart or the ratio odds chart to compare the odds of completing
different types of drawing hands in Texas Hold'em.
Semi bluffing examples.
Read the full article on semi bluffing examples.

This article is already long enough as it is. The examples in the article linked to above also cover
the EV of bluffing with different types of hands with varying equity. Thrilling stuff.
When not to semi bluff.

Dont semi bluff if you know your opponent is going to call.
If you know that its very likely that your opponent will call your bet, it defeats the object of
bluffing.
If your opponent isnt going to fold your semi bluff loses its fold equity, so all you are left with
is your actual equity in the pot. Now, seeing as your actual equity isnt that great because you
have a drawing hand, it doesnt make sense to put more money in to the pot unnecessarily.
Evaluation of semi bluffing in poker.

The best types of bluffs are with hands that have a fair chance of winning if called. Or to put it
another way, they have a decent amount of equity in the pot although not being the best hand at
the time.
The more equity your hand has when running a semi bluff the better. Think of the equity behind
you as a safety net. The more equity you have the bigger the net is, and the more money you will
save when you fall (i.e. your bluff gets called).
This is not to say that pure bluffs dont have their place in poker. If you never make pure bluffs it
makes you easier to play against, but Im not going to get in to that here. Check out balanced
ranges for more on that.
But basically, if youre not fluent in when and when not to bluff, youre far better off making
semi bluffs than pure bluffs. If youre a beginner poker player, simply swapping pure bluffs for
semi bluffs will increase your win rate (or lessen your loss-rate) significantly.
The Check Raise

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Plays > The Check Raise
0
The "check raise" is one of the strongest and arguably the most effective moves in Texas
Hold'em poker. Regarded by some as a dishonest move and even banned in certain card rooms,
there is no doubt that the check-raise is an important weapon in any winning player's arsenal.
A check-raise is made when you check when the action gets to you, with the intention of raising
if your opponent bets, hence the name 'check-raise'.
As you can imagine it is an interesting move because at first you show weakness to your
opponent by checking, and then coming over the top of them to show a great amount of strength.
This is why it can be regarded as dishonest as it is such a deceptive play, 'trapping' your
opponent's bet into the pot.
So why should you use the check raise?

The check raise is useful in both bluffing your opponents out of pots and getting more money
into the pot when you have a good hand. The check-raise also brings a dynamic element to your
game by making you become more unpredictable to your opponents.
It is rare to find an amateur player using this move in a poker game, so if your opponents see you
using this move they can be fairly sure you know how to play good poker, and may think twice
about bluffing you out of future pots. Below are the two areas that describe how the check-raise
can be used for bluffing, and getting more money into the pot with a strong hand.
Check raise example.

Check raise example hand history.
Check-raising as a bluff and semi-bluff.

The check raise is arguably the strongest move in poker, and so for this reason it is
exceptionally useful when trying to pull off a bluff. This move is most effective against one
opponent and becomes less successful as you increase the number of opponents, which could
really be said for any type of bluff. 3 criteria should be met in order to make a good check raise:
To pull off a check-raise you have to be in first position for the obvious reason that you have to
be checking into your opponent to make them bet. If your opponent does indeed bet, then if you
raise your opponent you are showing such a high amount of strength that your opponent will fold
any marginal hands.
A check raise will only work when you are first to act, otherwise you will simply be raising (if
you are last to act).
There are certain criteria you should follow in order for this to be successful.
You should be confident that you opponent holds a marginal hand.

You should re-raise at least twice the amount of your opponent's bet.
The pot should be relatively small.
It is advisable to have some sort of drawing hand or marginal hand.
Be confident that your opponent has a hand they can fold.

Firstly, if you believe that your opponent holds a monster, there is little to no chance that a
check-raise will get them off the hand. If you know that your opponent regularly bets after a
person checks to him with no hand or with small to middle pairs, there is a far greater chance that
a check-raise in this situation will work.
Make a strong raise.

Secondly, the re-raise made by you should be at least twice your opponent's bet. For example if
your opponent bets $5 into a $10 pot, you should bet $15, re-raising another $10. This is because
a minimum re-raise is likely to have little effect on your opponent, because they will only have to
call a small amount relative to the size of the pot in order to see the next card. However, if you
are re-raising them at least twice the amount they bet, it will make them think a little bit harder
about whether they want to pay as much to see the next card.
Aim to make re raises at least twice the size of your opponent's bet. You do not want to give
them good odds to call by minimum raising.
Check raises tend to be more effective in small pots.

Thirdly, you are more likely to pull off a bluff when the pot is small. This will be because the
amount your opponent must call to see the next card will be larger relative to the size of the pot,
giving them the wrong pot odds or to call to make a second pair or to make their draw. Therefore
a check-raise will be more effective on the first actual round of betting, such as on the flop in
Hold'em. If there is no betting on the flop then a check-raise will still be as effective on the turn
because the pot has remained the same size, because there will have been no betting since the
pre-flop betting round.
Finally, you will save yourself more money in the long run if you hold a drawing hand, due to
the fact that your opponent will occasionally call your re-raise. If you have no hand, you will
have to check and give up your hand to any bets on future rounds, losing the full amount of
money you used in the actual raise.
However, if you have a good draw when your opponent calls, you stand a chance of taking the
whole pot when you make your draw. In addition to this, you are likely to get a free card after
after-check raising on the flop, because your opponent will be afraid to bet into you on future
rounds. Giving you extra opportunities to make your draw.
Check raising for extra money.

If you hit a monster hand in poker, your main objective is to get as much money from your
opponents as possible, and this is where a check-raise comes in handy. Unlike in the situation
mentioned above, you want to use the check raise a little more passively to avoid scaring your
opponents out of the hand. As with using this move to bluff opponents, there is another set of
criteria that will make this play successful when followed correctly.
The check-raise for extra money is more effective against multiple opponents.
Be sure to be in first or early position.
Do not check-raise too much.
It is advisable to check raise for extra money when there is more than one opponent in the pot,
otherwise the move will do what is mentioned in the first part of the article, showing too much
strength and making your opponent fold his marginal hand.
In the majority of situations, you are better off betting straight out as opposed to going for the
check raise. However, it is a handy play to have in your arsenal in the right spots.
It is better to attempt a check raise when you are in one of the earliest positions in the hand,
because if you are one of the last few to act, then you cannot be sure that any of the players
behind you will bet to give you the opportunity to raise.
Although you want to extract as much money form your opponents as possible, a large re-raise
may scare them all out of the hand. By minimum raising you are giving you opponents a greater
incentive to put more money into the pot, because it is not costing them as much to see the next
card.
Be sure when you do check-raise to extract extra money from your opponents, that your hand is
virtually unbeatable. You do not want to be making minimum re-raise if the board is coordinated
enough that your opponents hold hands that could possibly out-draw you.
Check raise evaluation.

When used correctly, the check-raise can be used to your advantage when you do not hold a
strong hand, and when you hold a very strong hand. It is well worth your time and effort learning
the principles put forward in this article, as it will prove to be of a tremendous value to your
poker game.
training.
This article covers the basics that you should know to help you understand how to effectively use
this move. Be careful not to over-use this move, as it will lose its credibility the more you use it
against the same opponent. The check-raise also requires a certain amount of knowledge about
your opponent, which cannot be thoroughly taught through articles. So get out there and practice!
The Free Card Play

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Plays > The Free Card
0
The free card is a term used in poker for when you or your opponent are able to see the
next card without having to call a bet. For example, if you and your opponent are in a pot and
you are first to act, by checking you are giving your opponent the opportunity to see a "free
card". There are two main reasons for using the "free card" in your game.
1. To save more money when on a draw
2. To extract more money from your opponents.
The free card is a simple and effective move that incorporates the use of the semi-bluff and the
check raise.
The free card play.

A free card play can be made to prevent our opponent from betting in to us on the turn, which
will save us more money than if we were to call a bet on the flop and another bet on the turn to
see the river.
When to make a free card play.

You should ideally be heads-up against an opponent (2 or more opponents makes it
trickier).
You should be first to act.
You should have a strong drawing hand.
You Hold:
Flop:
In this example we have the nut flush draw, and we are heads up with our opponent. We are also
first to act.
Free card plays can prove to be very successful if you hold a drawing hand (like a straight or
flush draw).
This is the perfect situation in which we can make a free card play. This can be done by checking
this flop when we are first to act. Now one of two things will happen:
1. Our opponent will bet.
2. Our opponent will check behind us.
The optimum play from our point of view would be for our opponent to check, as then we would
be getting our free card on the flop. But if our opponent bets, when the action comes back to us
we should re-raise.
By using the check-raise it disguises the strength of our hand and gives us a strong opportunity to
take a free card on the turn if our opponent calls the re-raise. When the turn card comes, and you
check once again, our opponent is less likely to bet because of our aggression on the flop.
However if they re-raise once again on the flop we can be sure they have a strong hand and we
should only call the bet if we are getting correct pot odds for the draw.
money.
This should save us money because if we called the bet on the flop, our opponent could easily
put us on a drawing hand and overcharge us on the next round of betting to see the next card.
Advantages of the free card play.

It allows us to save money on future betting rounds.
It disguises the strength of our hand.
It gives us the opportunity to take down the pot on the flop.
Giving a free card.

In other situations we would want to allow our opponents to have a free card. However, this
would not be for the same reasons as above. Let's take the following hand as an example:
You Hold:
Flop:
Here we have a dream flop; we are currently holding the nuts and there are no straight or flush
draws. However, if you were to bet this hand it is doubtful that any opponent would call. This is
because it is unlikely our opponent would have a King, and probably would not call a raise with
a 7 or a 2. If we are last to act we can check and allow our opponent to see the turn for free.
If you have the deck crippled, it is very unlikely that you are going to get any money from your
opponent on the flop.
We are hoping that a card will come down to improve their hand and allow us to take money off
of them on future betting rounds. In addition, by checking we are once again disguising the
strength of our hand. Unlike in the previous situation where we check raised to show strength
when we did not have a hand, in this situation we are trying to win extra money from the hand
through deception.
Even if the next card does not help our opponent, we are now giving them the opportunity to
bluff by showing weakness.
Now after we check, what should we do on the next betting round?

If the turn comes
then we should definitely bet or re-raise when last to act. We still have the nuts but we would
now want to protect it from any potential flushes or straights.
Don't forget to bet the turn. The only way to build the pot is by betting or raising, so don't be
afraid to bet out. If your opponent folds, it's very doubtful that you would have got any money
from them on the river anyway.
In most situations you should bet on the turn to protect the hand you have. This is because it is
your last opportunity to extract money from your opponent if they are on a draw and gain an
extra round of bets from them if they have a half decent hand. If your opponent does fold then
you have to accept that you probably would not have made much money from the hand no matter
how you played it.
Deciding whether or not to give a free card.

In some spots, it is not going to be a good idea to give a free card to our opponent. Ask yourself
this question when deciding whether or not to give your opponent the free card:
"Am I going to make more money from my opponent by giving them a free card, or am I going
to lose more money?"
If you feel that you are giving your opponent the opportunity to catch up with you and make a
better hand by giving them a free card, then you definitely should not be allowing them to see the
turn for free. If there is a chance that the turn could give them the winning hand, you should be
betting out and making them pay.
Don't give a free card to an opponent if that card could give them a better hand than you.
There is no room to try and get clever if your opponent has the opportunity to make a better hand
than you, so leave the free card play for when your opponent is a long way behind in terms of
hand strength.
The Stop And Go Play

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Plays > The Stop And Go Play
1
The "stop and go" play is a tournament manoeuvre that takes place over the pre-flop and flop
betting rounds. The play is typically used when a player is short-stacked in a tournament and has
a hand that they are willing to go all-in with in an attempt to double up.
The stop and go play is where you have a hand that you intend on moving all-in with. However,
you call an opponent's bet before the flop instead of pushing, with the intention of pushing all-in
on the flop instead.
The stop and go play situation.

In a situation where you are short-stacked in a tournament with a decent hand, the standard play
is to push all-in if an opponent has raised in front of you.
NLHE cash games.
However, if you are so short-stacked that your all-in push is not enough to make another decent
full size bet on top of your opponents raise, the chances are that they are going to have the odds
to call your bet and see all five community cards to try and make the best hand. Therefore in
these situations where you probably do not have enough chips to force your opponent to fold
with your re-raise, you may consider making a stop and go play.
The stop and go play.

The stop and go play involves you calling your opponents preflop raise with the intention of
moving all in on the flop, rather than pushing all-in over the top when facing the preflop raise
from your opponent.
By calling the bet on the flop, you have the opportunity to make your opponent fold on the flop
by pushing the remainder of your chips in then, because your opponent will now have to call
your flop bet to see two more cards instead of the opportunity to see five by calling an all-in
preflop.
Your opponent will have a tougher time calling your push on the flop than they will calling a
push pre-flop.
The stop and go play reduces the odds your opponent has to call, and so they will have to think
hard about whether they want to continue if they havent improved their hand, and 60% of the
time they wont.
Stop and go play example.

Say we are in the middle of a tournament and we are short-stacked with 1200 chips. The blinds
are 100/200 and we are holding A J on the big blind. Everyone folds to a player in late
position who makes a standard raise to 600, and lets say that we know for a fact that they are
holding a pair of Tens.
The rest of the players fold and now the action is on us. Now in this situation we could happily
move all-in, but our opponent would definitely be calling our 600 re-raise and we would be
facing a 50/50 all-in coin flip. Instead however, we could improve our chances of winning by
making a stop and go play.
So rather than coming over the top, we call our opponents raise leaving us with 600 chips left
in our stack. The flop comes Q 6 2 and we move all-in. Our opponent is now faced with a
tough decision, as they now have to call 600 into a 1300 pot with middle pair.
Our opponent has roughly 2:1 odds to call, and we may well have made a pair of queens on the
flop or be holding a higher pocket pair. Therefore if they fold, we take down a decent size pot
with the worst hand, whereas we probably would have been out of the tournament if we had
pushed all-in preflop.
Stop and go play example hand history.
Why the stop and go play works.

By putting our opponents to this tough decision on the flop, we are increasing our fold equity
and thus improving our chances of winning the hand. Even if our opponent has improved on the
flop and they decide to call, it would not make a difference if we played the hand alternately by
pushing all-in preflop, as they still would have improved their hand either way.
Our fold equity increasing by pushing on the flop instead of pushing all in before the flop.
Therefore the cards that come out on the flop will have no influence on the way we play the
hand, as our intention throughout the hand is to move all of our chips into the middle at some
point.
A couple of tips for making the stop and go play a success.

1. Always move in if first to act, and be prepared to call if bet in to if acting after our
opponent.
2. Only use the stop and go play when you are heads up.
Always move in when first to act.

If we are first to act against our opponent when making a stop and go play, we should always be
moving the rest of our chips into the middle. If we check to our opponent, we are losing our fold
equity in the hand. Therefore we should always bet out and put our opponent to a tough decision.
training.
If we are acting after our opponents however, we should always be prepared to call or raise any
bet they make regardless of what we are holding. This is because we are more than likely going
to be pot committed, and so it would be unprofitable to fold and leave ourselves with a small
stack when there is still a chance that we may win the hand and a decent sized pot.
Only use the stop and go heads up.

It should be noted that the stop and go play should only be used when we are heads up against an
opponent. If there is more than one player in the pot, it will increase the chances that one of our
opponents will have a good hand after the flop comes down. Therefore in any situation where
you are short-stacked with a hand that you are prepared to go all in with, it is better to move allin preflop rather than call in an attempt to make a stop and go play.
The Blocking Bet

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Plays > The Blocking Bet
1
The "blocking bet" (or blocker bet) is made when you are out of position and wish to see either a
showdown or a river card cheaply. If used effectively it can prevent your opponent from making
a big bet that you can not profitably call.
If used incorrectly, or in the wrong circumstances, this blocking bet is simply a waste of chips.
This article will show you how and when to use the blocking bet.
What is the blocking bet?
The blocking bet is simply where you make a smaller than average sized bet when first to act in
order to reduce the amount of money that you pay to see the next card.
By making a small bet, you anticipate that your opponent will just call and not raise. As a result,
you will not have to call what would have been a larger bet from them (in comparison to your
"blocker bet") if you had checked.
Blocking bet overview.

We will start by explaining the basics of the blocking bet and why this move can only work
when you are out of position. Next we will look at the 2 different scenarios in which the blocking
bet is used when you have a drawing hand during play and when you have a vulnerable made
hand on the river. Finally a common error in using the blocking bet and the importance of
disguising this play are covered.
NLHE cash games.
The best way to understand the block bet is to look at what you are trying to achieve. The idea is
that you see the next card or a showdown as cheaply as possible when you expect your
opponent to make a large bet when you check. The last point is the most important, if instead
your opponent would have checked behind then you are not betting to see a cheap card (for
example) you are simply building the pot!
Blocking bet example.

Let's say you limp behind another pre-flop limper with J 10 and face a re-raise from the
button (first limper folds). The flop comes A 7 2 , giving you a flush draw. You check, and
the button bets half the pot. You believe that the effective stack sizes are deep enough to give
you the correct implied odds for hitting your flush, so you make the call.
Now the turn comes and the board reads A 7 2 K .
You expect that if you check again your opponent will bet a large enough amount that you would
be unable to continue with your flush draw. As an alternative you make a small bet of 1/3rd of
the pot. This is designed to prevent your opponent from making too big a bet if he calls with
his (very likely) top pair then you get to see the river card for a relatively cheap price.
Blocking bet example hand history.
The advantages of the blocking bet.

There are two advantages to the blocking bet play.
1. If you complete your draw, you expect to get paid off well.
2. It is only necessary when you are out of position.

1) If you make your flush on the river then you are very likely to be paid off by any player with a
pair or better. The blocking bet stopped your opponent from betting an amount that you would
not have been able to call and also disguised your holding at the same time. If you miss the
river then a check and fold is probably optimal here against most opponents.
2) If the positions had been reversed you were on the button rather than the out of position
player then a blocking bet would not have been necessary here. Your opponent would have
acted before you and could have bet enough that you were unable to call. If after seeing his
flop bet called the player checked on the turn you would have been in a position to check
behind to try and make your flush with a free card.
Blocking bet advantages overview.

Blocking bets can also be used when all the cards are out. The river blocking bet is for situations
where your opponent is a habitual bluffer that is to say that a big river bet could either be a
monster hand or a complete bluff. If you have a medium strength hand such as top pair with a
reasonable kicker then a blocking bet can sometimes allow you to get to showdown cheaply.
The idea is to bet an amount that is large enough to prevent your opponent from bluffing, yet
small enough so that those times your opponent does have a very strong holding and comes over
the top you can fold only having lost a few chips. Whether to block on the river will depend on
your assessment of the particular opponent, if capable of a big river bluff then a blocking bet can
be a very effective weapon.
A common mistake when using the blocking bet.

The biggest single mistake players make with blocking bets in Texas Hold em is to only bet a
small amount when they are attempting to block. If observant opponents realize what your
smaller bets mean then you will simply not be able to make this move against them. The reason
is that the blocking bet can be countered easily with a raise, either as a bluff or a semi bluff. The
very nature of this move means that you will be making it with hands which can not call a big
bet.
Bet a sensible amount when making a blocking bet, otherwise your opponent will be more than
happy to raise and make it very difficult (and unprofitable) for you to play on.
A solution to this is to ensure that you mix in value bets where you do have a very strong holding
a good proportion of the time. If those same opponents are unable to tell whether your smaller
bets are blocking bets or for value then their best response becomes unclear. You have then
forced them into a position where they may make a mistake resulting in profit for you.
Blocking bet evaluation.
To summarize, the blocking bet is made when out of position against an opponent who will most
probably bet if you check. It is made with hands which do not want to call a big bet such as
draws during play and medium strength hands on the river.
Betting a small amount will often confuse your opponent into calling instead of raising, allowing
you to see the next card (or showdown) relatively cheaply. Ensure you mix up your blocking bets
with value raises once opponents get a read on your blocking bets they completely lose their
effectiveness.
Bet or Check Raise?

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Plays > Bet or Check Raise?
1
You are up against one opponent in a pot and you are confident that you have the best hand.
Unfortunately however, you are not helped by the fact that you are first to act.
You want to get as much money into the middle, but you are not entirely sure of the best way to
go about it. You could bet out straight away and hope to see them call, or you could try checkraising them to help increase the amount of money that gets put into the pot. But what is the most
profitable option over the long run?
Firstly, lets outline a few pros and cons of betting versus check-raising.
surprised.
Check raising.
By check raising, you are opening up the opportunity to increase the amount of money that gets
put in to the pot. This is because you will be raising your opponents bet, and so they will have to
put more money into the middle to see the next card. The more you can get them to put in the
middle, the more we can win.
The downside to check raising is that there is always the possibility that our opponent will not
bet, and we miss out on a prime opportunity to build the pot. In addition to this, the check-raise is
a very powerful move, and so by doing this we may well reduce our chances of being able to
make our opponent put more money into the pot in future (and even in the current) betting
rounds.
Pros:
Ability to get more money in to the pot.
Cons:
Shows a great deal of strength, and may force our opponent to fold.
We will not have the opportunity to check raise if our opponent checks behind us.
Betting out first.

If we bet out first as opposed to checking with the intention of raising, we are removing the
possibility of giving our opponent a free card on the occasions that they would check behind us.
In addition, although our bet shows strength, it does not show nearly as much strength as a
check-raise, so we will still have a slight air of mystery surrounding our hand (which can prove
to be very profitable).
As you can guess, the fact that we bet out first means that we restrict the amount of money that
we could possibly force our opponent to put in to the pot. This is where the check-raise has the
advantage over betting out.
Pros:
Definite opportunity to get more money in to the pot.

Our hand is more disguised than if we check raise.
Cons:
May not be able to get as much money in to the pot.
Should you bet or check raise when first to act?

The decision of whether or not to bet or check raise all depends on the situation, as these are two
viable options for building the pot. However, the vast majority of the time it is going to be better
to bet out first, rather than to try and get tricky with a check raise. It may seem as though checkraising is the more extravagant and sophisticated play, but when you are first to act the simple
bet is going to be the best choice in most cases.
If you feel that you have the best hand, you should bet out. The reason for this is that by betting
out, you eliminate the risk of giving your opponent a free card whilst not giving too much
information away about the strength of your hand. These two 'plus points' far outweigh the
potential of getting more money into the pot by attempting check raises over the long run, so
learn to save that check-raise for special occasions.
In general, you are better off betting straight out in first position as opposed to going for the
check raise.
It is better to be consistently safe, rather than going for the risky big win from time to time.
When is it best to check raise?

In my opinion, the check raise is best used in bluffing and semi-bluffing situations rather than as
a method for building the pot when you believe that you have the best hand. The true value of the
check raise is it's ability to display a great amount of strength about your hand, as opposed to the
fact that you could potentially force your opponent to place more chips in the pot.
Against weaker players who are unaware of what the check-raise implies, it could well be
effective as a pot building manoeuvre. However, against the more experienced player you are
going to be shooting yourself in the foot by letting them know that you have a very strong hand.
The check raise is most useful in bluffing and semi-bluffing situations, rather than as a method to
get as much money in to the pot as possible when you have the best hand.
An example of a situation in which I will decide to use the check raise is when I am confident
that my hand will not be outdrawn, and my opponent will not call any of my bets. Therefore I am
offering them the opportunity to bet out and try to take the hand away from me, even though I
know I have the best hand. But then still, if they do decide to bet out, I will be more inclined to
call and induce a bet on a further betting round rather than cut off the action by check-raising.
Bet or check raise overview.

As you should have been able to infer from this article, the check raise should be used quite
sparsely, as there are often going to be more profitable plays available to you. There is no doubt
that the check-raise can be effective from time to time, but there is no need to try and get fancy
with your plays when the straightforward option may well be the best (and the one that
maximizes value).
training.
Being out of position is never going to help when it comes to building a pot, so you have to do
the best you can with the situation. But as a general rule... If in doubt, just bet right out.
Double Barrelling
Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Plays > Double Barrelling
0
Cbetting Articles: The Continuation Bet : More Cbetting Tips : When To CBet (Examples)
: Double Barrelling
So you made a continuation bet on the flop, but annoyingly your opponent went ahead and called
it. Youre now stuck in an uncomfortable situation staring in to the eyes of an unwanted turn card
desperately searching for a new plan of action. What do you do?
Double barrelling or firing a second barrel is the tricky art of making another
continuation bet on the turn. Its difficult to master and forces you to risk more money than
your previous bet, so you really want to make sure that you make the right choice.
In this article I will outline the basics of firing a successful second barrel on the turn.
Firstly, mistake 0 poor continuation bets.

A lot of awkward situations on the turn are caused by poor continuation bets on the flop. If you
dont have a game plan on the flop and you blindly fire out a c-bet hoping for the best, what do
you expect to happen from time to time?
Good continuation bet strategy is out of the scope of this particular article, but its definitely
worth building a strong flop c-betting strategy before jumping in to double barrelling strategy.
Walk before you can run.
money.
Basics of double barrelling.
1. Dont bother trying to barrel a calling station.

2. Reads are important, as ever.
3. Avoid barrelling unless you have some equity.
4. Barrel on turn cards that scare your opponent.
5. Dont forget to barrel when you improve on the turn too.
1) Barrelling a calling station is fun if you want to throw money at someone, but otherwise
remember the principle that trying to bluff players that rarely fold will rape your bankroll.
2) If you know that your opponent likes to float a lot of flops - that helps. If you know your
opponent rarely continues past the flop without a premium hand that helps. If you know your
opponent likes to get to showdowns as frequently as possible that helps.
Do you see a pattern forming here? There more you think and the more you know about your
opponents, the easier it is to determine whether firing a second barrel is a good idea or not.
3) If youre firing a second barrel you are doing it as a bluff or a semi bluff to try and win the pot
there and then. As with any bluff, its always a good idea to have a hand with at least some
equity (a hand that could still win the pot on a fortunate river card) to soften the blow when your
double barrel doesnt work out.
Generally speaking, you will most likely be c-betting the flop with two overcards (eg an A K
style hand) a lot of the time, and so you should have at least when overcard when you decide to
fire that second barrel on the turn. Having just 1 overcard is the least amount of equity you
want to be barrelling with.
Don't barrel the turn unless you have some chance of winning the hand by the river if called. The
more equity you have in the hand the better. This applies to most bluffing situations in poker.
4) This is the key tip that this strategy article is going to focus upon. If the turn card scares
your opponent, it increases your chances of pushing them off their hand by firing a second
barrel. More on this in the upcoming section.
5) You also want to bet on the turn when it actually improves your hand, not just when you are
carrying on with a semi-bluff from your continuation bet. You do this for balance. Your strategy
becomes exploitable if you only ever fire a second barrel when you miss.
When to double barrel.

Good turn cards to double barrel.
The best kind of turn to double barrel on is when the turn is an overcard to the flop.
Flop: Q 7 2 -- Turn: K
Flop: J 5 3 -- Turn: A
Flop: T 7 4 -- Turn: Q
These turns are perfect to double barrel because they hit your perceived range and are bad for
your opponents range. In other words, our opponent is likely to have called our continuation
bet with hands like top or middle pair, so the overcard on the turn makes them very
uncomfortable.
These overcards could have very easily hit our range, beating the hand that they currently hold.
For our opponent, calling a bet on the turn is a difficult thing to do without a premium hand after
this scare card hits, as they will be much happier folding and saving their chips to your barrel.
Poor turn cards to double barrel.

Bad turn cards to barrel are the opposite to good turn cards to barrel. These are low cards
or undercards to the flop, or worse, cards that pair the board.
Flop: Q 7 2 -- Turn: 5
Flop: J 5 3 -- Turn: 4
Flop: T 7 4 -- Turn: 7
These cards are likely to have improved or not significantly weakened the range of hands that
our opponent would have called with on the flop. Our opponent may well have called with a
smaller pair or drawing hand, and all of these turn cards just make all those sort of hands better.
If the turn card isnt bad (or is actually good) for our opponent, theyre going to happily call yet
another bet on the turn.
In general, avoid barrelling low turn cards or cards that pair the board.
Decent turn cards to double barrel.

Decent, but not great turns to barrel are high cards that are just below the highest card on
the flop.
Flop: Q 6 2 -- Turn: T
Flop: K 5 3 -- Turn: J
Flop: A 9 4 -- Turn: Q
These cards are still slightly scary because they make it difficult for your opponent to continue
with middle or bottom pair hands that they may have called with on the flop. On the other hand,
if your opponent called with top pair on the flop they may well stick around for the ride, which is
why these turns are not amazing to barrel.
Firing a second barrel on these turns is not going to be quite as successful or easy to do as the
good turn cards, which is why I would advise to only barrel these turns with a very good read.
Double barrelling evaluation.
Double barreling in a nutshell.

Overcards to the flop are good to barrel.
Low cards or cards that pair the board are bad to barrel.
High cards that are slightly lower than the hgihest card on the flop can be decent for
barrelling.
There are so many variables and reads involved with double barrelling that Im never going to be
able to cram enough information in to one article to form a 100% complete guide to it. Try and
absorb as much as you can from what Ive thrown at you here and mix it with a bit of your own
initiative (maybe not too much if youre a new player) to form your own approach to firing that
second barrel.
Before you go, I just want to remind you that even if your attempt at double barrelling fails,
please do not feel compelled to shove it all in on the river. Youre better off folding than blindly
pushing all in out of frustration in a vain attempt to win your money back.
As always, practice makes perfect with the double barrel. Its definitely one of the scariest plays
to master, but youll get there eventually. Stick to those scary overcards for barrelling at the start
and you should do just fine.
The Float Play

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Plays > The Float Play
1
The "float play" is an advanced bluffing technique in Texas Hold em that is extended over two
betting rounds.
The principle role of the play is to make your opponent believe you have a stronger hand than
theirs via the flop and turn betting rounds, and thus closing down the action and winning the pot
on the turn.
What is the float play?

The float play essentially involves calling an opponents bet on the flop (floating the flop), and
then betting after being checked to on the turn to win the hand before seeing the river card. It is
possible to make a successful maneuver like this with any two cards, which typically makes it a
good bluffing play.
Why is the float play effective?

The play works well because it is typical for an advanced player to make a continuation bet on
the flop, regardless of whether or not they caught a piece of it. Therefore it is not uncommon that
our opponents will be making a bet on the flop with air, hoping that you did not catch a piece of
it either and that their continued aggression will give them the pot.
money.
The fact that you then call this bet will set alarm bells ringing in their heads, as they may fear
that you could well be slowplaying a very strong hand. The majority of players will then shut
down on the turn and check, which leaves us open to capitalize on their weakness by making a
strong bet to win the pot.
The float play turns out to be a great defense against the continuation bet. However, it should not
solely be used to try and pick off bets that you suspect are continuation bets.
How to make a successful float play.

There are two criteria however that have to be met before being able to pull off a good float play.
1. You should be acting after your opponent.
2. You should be heads-up with your opponent.
It is actually possible to make a float play out of position, but this is far more difficult and it is
not often recommended that you try to do so as it can become costly. In position you have the
opportunity to spot any weakness on the turn from your opponent after calling their flop bet. If
your opponent bets strongly again on the turn, you are able to comfortably fold knowing that
they more than likely have the best hand. If they check however, you are in the perfect position
to take down the pot.
A second and equally important rule for a good float play is that you should be heads-up against
your opponent. If there is more than one player in the pot, it makes it more difficult to pull off
such a complex bluff, as it is more likely that at least one of the players has a decent hand.
The float play works best heads-up and in position. In fact, I would rarely (if ever) attempt a float
play against more than one player.
The float play relies on us trying to pick off a continuation bet from our opponents, and the
addition of another player into the equation adds too many variables to make it successful, and
often our attempted display of strength will go unnoticed. Therefore it is best to keep things
simple, and stick to being in position against one opponent when attempting a float play.
Float play example.

Lets say we are on the button holding A Q , and a player from middle position makes an $8
bet in a $1/$2 NL Holdem game. The action folds to us and we make the call, both players in the
blinds fold. The flop comes 8 J 5 , which does not improve our hand. Our opponent now bets
$16 into the $19 pot.
Typically we would fold this hand as we have not connected with the flop at all, but instead we
decide to make the call as we know our opponent regularly makes continuation bets with air. The
turn comes the 3 , but this time our opponent checks to us displaying some weakness.
We now bet $40 into the $51 pot, and our opponent folds, suspecting that we have a stronger
hand than them.
Float play example hand history.
Float play example overview.

In this particular hand, our opponent may well have been making a standard continuation bet
with a hand like AK, AQ, KQ, or a middle size pocket pair like 99 or 77. Our opponent was
concerned about our call on the flop as it meant that we could be holding a wide range of hands
that beat theirs such as AJ, KJ, JJ, 88 and so on.
Therefore our strong pot size bet on the turn means that it is too expensive for our opponent to
play on, and so they give up the pot. It is important that we make a strong pot size bet, as it
confirms to our opponents that we may well have a strong hand and that we are not giving them
the correct pot odds to call to try and improve.
A strong bet on the turn is key in making our opponent think twice about playing on with their
hand.
The float play can still work even if your opponent bets on the turn after you have called their bet
on the flop. Some particularly aggressive players will fire a second barrel on the turn in an
attempt to take down the pot with air once more.
Therefore by re-raising what you feel is a second barrel or a particularly weak bet, you can still
pull off a successful float play. However, the re-raise on the turn as a float play is a very
dangerous and advanced move, which requires a very good understanding of your opponents.
Consequently, you should be more inclined towards folding if you do not know your opponents
well and they are making another bet on the turn.
Tips on making an effective float play.
Have a good read on your opponent.

Only use the float play when necessary.
It is central to note however that we should have a good read on our opponents to make a float
play like this, as it is important to be sure that our opponent is the type of player that makes
continuation bets, but will shut down and fold when they come up against any resistance. This
means that float plays will work well against your typical tight-aggressive player, rather than
calling stations that will call down bets regardless of what they think you might be representing.
(See the article on putting players on a hand for hand reading.)
It is also important to remember that float plays should not be used liberally as a regular
defense against the continuation bet. It is true that this play will snap off a few continuation
bets from time to time, but you will find yourself in sticky situations and getting check-raised on
the turn with real hands if you overuse this particular play.
The float play is not usually something that you intend to use when you enter a pot before the
flop, it is a more of a play that you can consider when faced with certain situations as they arise.
Float play spots make themselves apparent as you play; you should not go actively looking for
them.
Float play evaluation.

Floating is an advanced play that usually takes place at the $100NL Holdem games and higher,
although it does not mean it does not take place at some of the lower limits. The fact that the
bluff extends over two betting rounds and involves a good knowledge of your opponents style of
play means that it is quite a sophisticated move, but it is a very satisfying play to use when it
works well.
If you can learn to master the float play and understand situations where it can be successful, you
will find that you will have a very powerful tool in your poker arsenal. However, as it has been
mentioned in some top NL Holdem books, don't become too cocky after pulling off a successful
float. Its just another standard play in an everyday game of poker that we can call upon from
time to time.
Small Ball Poker

"Small Ball" is an advanced style of play that was initially coined by Dan Harrington in his
Harrington on Hold'em series of tournament strategy books.
However, this term and style of play later gained more recognition through strategy articles and
videos by Daniel Negreanu. You can see a bunch of videos on how to play small ball on
Negreanu's PokerVT training site.
In fairness though, it's hard to give either Harrington (or Negreanu) full credit for this style of
play. It's likely that this style had been employed by many professional poker players before
them, but they just hadn't named it.
What is small ball poker?

Essentially, small ball poker involves playing a wider range of starting hands more aggressively,
but only using small bets and raises to save you from losing too much money when certain plays
do not work out.
Small ball poker is intended to primarily be used in MTTs as opposed to SNGs and cash games.
Small ball poker video.

This video gives a basic overview of the small ball playing style.
It's impressively cheesy with some comically bad acting thrown in to the mix, but all the
essential information for basic small ball strategy is there.
Apparently, 57 suited is a hand good for flopping full houses. Also, 1:54 - 1:58 is fairly amusing.
Why can small ball poker be effective?
Loose table image.

Opponents will call more often with weaker hands.
You can exploit this when you hold a strong hand.
This style of play can be very effective because you create a very loose table image for yourself.
Therefore you should receive more action from opponents when you do have a big hand because
they will perceive you as a loose aggressive player, and may feel that you are more likely to try
and bluff them out of the pot.
surprised.
If you play small ball poker correctly, in the long run the amount you win from opponents when
they call you down with sub standard hands should outweigh the amount you lose from making
consistent raises and bets without a strong hand. This is a reason why it is important to make
small raises and bets instead of large, stronger bets.
Small ball poker benefits from players who call you down with mediocre hands because they do
not give you credit for holding a strong hand.
The image you project onto the other players at the table is key to the success of the small ball
concept. As already mentioned, the reason why this style of play is so effective is because your
opponents will be more willing to call you down with marginal hands because of the way you
have played in previous hands. So essentially, the small bets and raises that you may win or lose
pots with in earlier hands are just setting you up for bigger hands later on in the session.
Opponents must be aware of your style of play for small ball

poker to work.
It is important to remember that you are relying on your opponents to be aware of the way you
are playing for small ball poker to be successful. If your opponents are not thinking about how
you are playing, then you are going to have limited success.
If other players at the table are loose and are going to call your bets regardless of what table
image you project, then you are better off playing a tight-aggressive style rather than small ball
poker.
How to play small ball poker.
Small ball poker tips.

Play as many hands in position as you can.
Learn how to play post-flop well.
Use good starting hand selection.
When playing weaker starting hands, play hands that have drawing potential (can make
flushes or straights).
When playing small ball, you have to try and take advantage of position as frequently as
possible. It is not going to be an effective style of playing if you are raising 2.5BB from under
the gun or in any early position on a regular basis. The chances are that you are going to get a
caller and be out of position in a pot with a hand that is probably marginal.
Save the raises for when you are closer to the button and there are little to no players already in
the pot. Playing small ball poker relies on you being able to play well post flop because you are
entering so many pots and allowing other players to do so cheaply. It is going to be far easier to
outplay your opponents if there are less of them in the hand and if you have position.
You have to be an experienced player to be able to profitably employ the small ball playing style.
Small ball poker starting hand selection.

Another key point to playing successful small ball poker is starting hand selection. If you are
going to enter a pot by raising with a less than a premium hand, then it is important that the hand
you raise with has some kind of potential.
Although we are raising with less than premium hands, it does not necessarily mean that are
trying to take down the blinds alone on every hand. There is a high chance that we are going to
get a caller because our raises are relatively small, and so we are going to need a hand that we
can work with after the flop.
The type of hands we want to play when playing small ball are connecting cards and suited cards
that have some potential if/when we go to the flop.
By playing hands with potential it gives us some room to make plays and possibly make very
strong hands on or after the flop. However, you should avoid getting too involved in hands when
you hit middle or top pair. The chances are you will have a weak kicker, and as a general rule
these types of pots should never become too big if you are going to win them.
Where is small ball poker most effective?

Small ball poker is going to be most effective in situations where the blinds are small relative to
the size of the stacks. Therefore, this will be at the start of MTTs and SNGs and in cash games.
Small ball would be most suited to cash games and the early stages of tournaments.
Toward the end of tournaments the blinds will usually be too great in relation to the size of the
stacks to play small ball, as there will be little room post flop plays. The last thing you want to be
doing in a tournament is committing a quarter or more of your stack into a pot with a marginal
hand before the flop.
Small ball would therefore be most effective at the start of tournaments. It would be fine to use
in MTTs, but with SNGs there is a problem in that the structure is usually quite fast, and the
period to play effective small ball will not last for long.
In addition, the image you create will become almost worthless near the end of the SNG
tournament because the blinds will become so great that opponents will be forced into folding or
calling regardless of what your image might have been at the start of the tournament.
Like the idea of getting coached by Daniel Negreanu? Check out his PokerVT training site.
What do I think of small ball poker?
Small ball poker is basically playing LAG but making smaller bet amounts.
Raising small amounts from any position at the table with marginal hands in an attempt to
recreate the "small ball" style of play is not going to be a successful strategy in my opinion. In
spite of this, there are actually a few genuinely effective elements to the small ball style though,
such as:
Using your position to your advantage. Basically not just playing your cards but playing
your position.
Playing more aggressively to help you "buy position".
I believe that amateur players who attempt to emulate small ball poker will get themselves in to
tricky situations. You definitely need a good post-flop game to be able to play small ball poker
(or should I just say LAG?).
As your game improves you may develop in to more of a loose-aggressive style of play, but that
will not necessarily be "small ball poker". I believe that Daniel Negreanu may be trying a little
too hard to coin a super-awesome new playing style that will take over the world of poker, but at
the end of the day it's just a weak variation on an existing one.
Poker Squeeze Play

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Plays > The Squeeze Play
0
Prefer training videos? SplitSuit has made an excellent all-in-one video guide to using the
squeeze play as a bluff in FR and 6max cash games.
The "squeeze play" is an advanced (usually pre-flop) move that can be used in both cash games
and tournaments. The squeeze play can be very effective, but has to be used with caution.
What is a squeeze play?
A squeeze play is when you notice a loose player raising from early position and another player
calling this raise before you. You then make a big re-raise and take down the pot.
So basically you are taking advantage of the loose raiser and the player who thought they could
get away with calling the loose raise with a weaker hand than they would normally call with.
The loose raiser can't call because they likely raised with a weak hand.
The caller won't call because they were calling the first raise with a weak hand.
Can you see why this play works? I'll cover why the squeeze play works in more detail a little
later on.
How to make a successful squeeze play.

The implementation of the squeeze play in poker is determined by the situation, not the cards.
You have to be able to read situations well when putting the play into practice, as it can
otherwise prove to be costly. Therefore it is better to be able to understand how to use the play
from the start, rather than taking a trial and improvement route.
Squeeze play example.

A typical situation for a squeeze play will occur when a loose-aggressive player opens for a raise
pre-flop. Another player will then call this raise and the action comes to you. At this point you
make a reraise or move all-in, causing both the initial raiser and caller to fold, allowing you to
take down the pot. The basic layout is:
Player A: Raises
Player B: Calls
Player C: Re-raises All-in
Players A+B: Fold
Player C: Wins
There are other players at the table, but for the purposes of this example we will assume that they
all folded before or after Player A raised.
Squeeze play example hand history.
Squeeze plays in cash games and when deep-stacked in tournaments.
When making a squeeze play in a cash game or in the early stages of a tournament you will
likely be deep stacked, so going all in is not an option. However, it is still possible to make
successful squeeze plays if you have strong reads on your opponent.
4 times the size of the initial raise is a good rule of thumb for the size of your reraise when
making a squeeze play. Just be sure to be squeezing with hands that have potential (suited
connectors and stuff like that) in case your squeeze gets called.
If your post-flop game isn't up to scratch, I would advise against squeezing when playing cash
games or if deep-stacked in a tournament.
Why the squeeze play works.

The effectiveness of the squeeze play stems from Player As table image.
Player B knows that A has been raising a lot pre flop which means that it is less likely that he is
holding a premium hand. Therefore B decides that he can afford to call this raise with another
mediocre hand because he may well be ahead and has position on Player A.
The second player calls the initial raise because they are aware that the loose raiser is unlikely to
have a great hand.
Now when the action reaches Player C, he is aware that it is unlikely that either of the players
have strong starting hands, so he goes all-in forcing both Player A and B into a decision for all
their chips with mediocre hands. Player A folds because he is only strong enough to raise and not
call, and Player B folds because he only wanted to call the size of Player As raise to see the flop.
Player A folds because they raised with a weak hand, and player B folds because they called with
another mediocre hand under the belief that player A was weaker than them.
As you can see, the cards that Player C holds is irrelevant to the outcome of the play. The move
was employed successfully because Player C was able to accurately read the situation and act
upon it. Now before you start thinking that sounds simple enough, there are a few other factors
that are involved in making this play work.
Tips for using the squeeze play.

Reads on the other players.
Your reads on the players left to act behind you are just as important as your reads on the players
doing the raising and calling. You have to be fairly sure that you wont run into another player
acting behind you that will call your all in, otherwise you will be in a very hairy situation.
This is why it is easier to make this play when in a later position as there is less of a chance of
bumping into another player that does hold a premium hand. So by keeping the number of
players left to act behind you to a minimum, you are increasing the plays rate of success.
Table image.
Your own table image plays a very important role. If you have been involved in a number of pots
and have been making a few plays, you are not in a good position to make a squeeze play in
Texas Hold'em. The idea is to make your opponents think you have a big hand, forcing them to
fold.
Therefore if your opponents have noticed that you have been making moves with marginal hands
in the lead up to this play, it decreases the credibility of your raise and they are more likely to
call. The play will have a higher rate of success if you employ it only when you have a tight table
image.
The size of your re-raise.

Another important factor is the size of your re-raise. The re-raise must be large enough to be able
to push both your opponents off their hand, which is why the re-raise is usually an all in.
Your re-raise is most effective as an all-in (as long as you are not deep stacked).
If you are sitting with a short stack and the size of your all in is only going to be 2 or 3 times the
size of the original raise, then it is very unlikely you are going to make either of them fold as you
are giving them odds to call with most hands. As a rule of thumb you want your all-in to be at
least 5 times the size of the original raise for this play to be effective.
One last point.

A key note to point out is that the combined total of the blinds and raises should be worth
fighting for. If you are in the early stages of an MTT then there is no point is making an all-in
squeeze play because you will be risking your tournament life for a very small pot.
So the size of the pot must be big enough to fight for, but small enough so that your opponents
wont be priced in to call your all-in.
training.
Poker squeeze play evaluation.

The success of a squeeze play is determined by the accuracy of your reads on your opponents.
All you need to make the play work is; one loose raiser, one loose caller, and one strong all in.
This play will be a very strong addition to your game, but it should be used sparingly to help
keep its credibility intact.
Poker Table Image

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Psychology > Table Image
1
When sitting at the poker table, it is important to be aware of your own "table image" and the
image of the players around you. Table image is essentially what one poker player perceives
another players style to be, which is determined by the way they play poker.
For example, if a player is not playing many hands and only entering pots with premium starting
hands, the other players at the table may perceive that player to be very tight, and thus they will
have a tight table image.
Consequently, if a player is entering many pots and calling raises frequently, they may be
perceived as being a loose player, and thus they will have a loose table image.
What influences table image?

Your table image is constructed primarily from the way you play poker, but it also can be
influenced by the way you conduct yourself whilst you are at the table. It is normal for players to
build an image through their individual style of play, whether that be tight or loose, but
sometimes what you say or do at the table could potentially overshadow this and portray a
different style of play to your opponents.
Your table image will be influenced by the way you play your cards the vast majority of the
time.
If you are loud and talkative at the table, your opponents may feel that you are having a good
time and are likely to play a number of hands for the entertainment, and this will create a loose
table image.
Conversely, if you are quiet and reserved then you may be able to have the other players perceive
you as being a tight player. However, the more advanced and observant players will look straight
through what you say or do, and let the cards do the talking for when it comes to mentally
assigning you a style of play.
The importance of table image.

Table image is important is because it will influence the way your opponents play their hands
against you.
On a basic level...
Loose image
If you have a loose table image, you may find that opponents are more willing to get into pots
with you because they will know that your starting hand requirements will be lower than that of a
tight players.
Tight image
If you have a tight table image, your opponents will be more reluctant to get into pots with you
because they will fear that you will have a big hand every time you enter a pot. Both of these
styles of play have their own unique benefits.
The benefit of a tight image.

Essentially, the tight table image is beneficial because you are always going to be entering pots
with good hands, and therefore if you only play these premium starting hands, it makes sense
that you will win more pots than you lose. In addition, your opponents will continually be
concerned about the strength of your hand if you have created a tight table image for yourself.
Therefore you will be able to successfully bluff your opponents more frequently than if you had
a loose image, and pick up the occasional extra pot with the worst hand. The main downfall with
having a tight image is that you are less likely to get paid off on some of your big hands because
your opponents will believe that you have a good hand when you bet, so they will fold.
The benefit of a loose image.

Having a loose style of play also has its own set of benefits...
Whereas if you are playing tight your opponents will fold when you have big hands, you are
more likely to get paid off with these big hands if you have a loose table image. This is because
to create this loose image you will have been betting and raising frequently on previous hands,
therefore your opponents will know that you cant have a strong hand every time and call you
down in the hope that you are bluffing.
It must be said however that just because you are playing loosely, it does not mean that you will
get paid off on all of your big hands. It simply means that you will get your opponents to call you
down with a higher frequency than if you had a tight table image.
The main downfall with this image is that you leave yourself open to losing a number of chips
whilst trying to create this loose image. By entering a number of pots with substandard hands,
you can potentially find yourself in tricky situations with marginal hands and therefore losing
chips in the process.
Poker table image evaluation.

As you can see, both the loose table image and the tight table image have their pros and cons.
However, it is hard to say which one out of the two of these would prove to be the most
profitable in the long run. Both of these images and styles of play can be used and employed
profitably at the poker table if used correctly. Nevertheless it is fair to say to say that you will
experience a greater amount of variance playing the loose style and having a loose image than if
you had a tight table image.
Both the loose and tight table images have their benefits, but having a loose table image tends to
reap greater rewards.
You should also be aware that table image is only useful if your opponents are actively taking
notice of the way you play. If your opponents are not concerned about the way you are playing,
then you cannot create a table image. This is mainly true at the micro stakes where opponents are
primarily interested in the way they are playing their own hands. Therefore the importance of
table image increase as you move up the stakes and play against more advanced players.
Tilting In Poker
Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Psychology > Tilting In Poker
1
"Tilting" is a term used in poker to describe the way a player changes his or her game due to the
effects of suffering a bad beat. If a player takes a bad beat, they can be described as "going on
tilt" if they subsequently play differently to the way they would usually play.
In a nutshell, 'tilting' is simply a word to describe poor play due to frustration at the poker table.
There are many things in poker, apart form bad beats, that will potentially set you on tilt. If you
do not catch any good hands for a long period of time, you can easily become frustrated and start
to play with any rag hand that comes your way.
If you find yourself folding to your opponent's shown bluff, then once again you can become
irritated and allow your game to deviate from the norm. In addition, if you notice that you would
have flopped a monster but decided to fold pre-flop, this can also cause you to alter your game
for the worse.
Degrees of tilt in poker.

There are different degrees and varieties of 'tilt'. Some players have the misconception that going
on tilt means going all-in with any old hand pre-flop after taking a bad beat, just to vent your
frustration. Although you may see this occasionally happen at the table, there are many more
subtle forms of tilt that should not be ignored if you want to improve your game.
Tilting is not always simply moving all-in on a random hand due to frustartion from a bad beat.
Every time you enter a pot with an opponent because you are looking to even the score with
them because of the way they previously outplayed you or lucked out, you are going on tilt. You
may elect to play more pots with a certain person in an attempt to outplay them on following
streets, possibly because they had taken some of your money in an earlier hand.
Every time you do this you are effectively on tilt, because you have to ask the question: "Would I
be playing so many hands against this person if I had no problem with them?" Furthermore, you
are unnecessarily risking more of your money if you constantly try and outplay them with the
worst hand. Always remember that in poker that you are looking to win money, and not pots.
A common mistake whilst on tilt.

A typical and possibly the most common form of tilt is to chase draws.
If you are faced with a decent size bet against your flush draw, yet you willingly call without the
correct pot odds, you are on tilt. After all, would you have called the same bet if you were in a
rational state of mind?
No matter how close the odds were to being in your favour, if you still call in an attempt to make
your hand when you normally would fold, you are not playing you're A-game. It is a common
reaction for a player to chase after money that they have lost when on an unlucky streak;
therefore this emotion lends itself nicely to the structure of a drawing hand in poker.
Playing at higher stakes when tilting.

The reaction to chase money that has been lost can cause you to play higher stakes and play out
of your bankroll and ignore very important bankroll management rules. This is especially
dangerous as not only are you playing at stakes you cannot afford, but you may well be coupling
it with the typical 'tilt plays' as mentioned above.
This magnifies the severity of your tilt as you put yourself in a position where you could
potentially lose a great sum of money that took you a long time to earn. The vision of being able
to claw back all that you have lost or possibly turn a profit at the higher stakes clouds your mind
to rationality, and more often than not you will find yourself in an unhappy position in the end.
Poker tilting evaluation.

Successful players have the ability to offset the effects of tilt, which is why they are capable of
being winning players at the end of the day. Going on tilt is especially dangerous in pot limit and
no limit poker, because of the potential that most or all of your chips are at stake in any given
hand.
You can spend hours making money through good play, only to lose it all in one hand because
you went on tilt. Never forget that money saved is money earned. The more money you save
yourself from losing, the more you can add to your total winnings at the end of the day.
Poker Downswings
Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Psychology > Poker Downswings
0
For more general information on downswings in NL Hold'em, see the article on variance
in poker.
Every regular poker player knows that you can't come out of every poker session with more
money than you started with. There are always going to be sessions where you end up losing
more than you win, and often there is very little that you could have done to prevent it.
Even though poker involves a certain amount of skill, luck is something that is always going to
be a big influence on the outcome of each individual session, and it always will be. Any poker
player that plays regularly enough will find that luck gets the better of us sometimes for longer
periods than we would like, and for some, this stretch can seem never ending.
Facing a big downswing in poker.

As a frequent player at the cash or tournament tables, we are prepared to lose 2 or 3 buy ins or
not place in a number of tournaments from time to time, its just the way it goes. But
occasionally, although it doesn't happen very often, a 2 or 3 buy in loss will just be the tip of the
iceberg. We will come face to face with a seemingly never-ending stretch of bad cards and
busted draws.
NLHE cash games.
So what goes wrong?
Every coin flip all-in goes the other way, none of the draws hit, and we manage to miss every
single flop that we see. Even our AKs seem to get beat every time by hands like AQ and AJ.
Surely it's just variance you say to yourself and its not going to be long before you get back on
track and your hands start holding up again like they should. But as soon as you start to regain
some of your faith, another Ace falls on the flop when holding KK.
The effect of a big poker downswing.

The problem with these huge downswings is that they are completely out of our control, and
there is no amount of perfect play and good reads that can stop you from going down with the
swing. As the swing gets bigger, you start to question your game and wonder if you have lost the
ability you once had to win money from poker.
This can then lead to you altering your game to see if you can improve and win some of your
money back, but the new style of play is usually worse and just ends up losing you more money
than if you had just stuck with your normal game. Players always want to know how to deal with
big poker downswings, so the questions always end up being:
Where am I going wrong?

What can I do to stop the downswing?
The answers are pretty simple nowhere and nothing. Even though these are the honest answers
to the questions, they probably didn't help and probably didn't put your mind too much at ease. If
you are a solid player and continue to play your best game at all times, then you are doing
nothing wrong.
You have to remember that every hits a big poker downswing from time to time, and it's simply a
bad dose of variance slapping you about for a few sessions.
The only thing that is going wrong is your ability to have a bit of good luck once in a while, and
there is nothing you can do to get that back on track. Therefore because you have no control over
your luck, there is nothing you can do about the downswing. Once again, these probably weren't
the kind of kind of answers you wanted to hear.
How to get out of a big downswing.

The best advice anyone can give to someone in the middle of endless losing sessions is to
remember that there is light at the end of the tunnel, no matter how long it may seem sometimes.
Eventually the cards will right themselves and you will start to win some more of the coin flips
and your bankroll will be on the road to recovery.
Try to maintain a positive attitude and play the game you know best at all times. If your same
style of play allows you to win money for months and months, it does not make it a losing style
just because you haven't seen any wins for a few weeks. If the big blow to your bankroll is
having an affect on your ability to play, the best advice then is to take a break from the game and
put poker at the back of your mind for a while.
A week-long break is usually perfect for helping you to snap out of a negative frame of mind and
get your game back on track.
Give it some time before you start playing again so that when you come back you can start
afresh, the bad losing streak that you had will no longer be of any concern and you can carry
playing the way you know how.
Poker downswings evaluation.
Poker is a game of ups and downs, and unfortunately, the downs always feel a lot worse than the
ups. There is nothing that you can do to stop the long losing sessions, you just have to let the
downswing take its course and ride it out as best as you can.
Always try and maintain focus even when you are at your lowest, because by playing your best
game you will be minimizing any losses that you may have. Every poker player experiences very
bad runs and bad beats, so just try your best to play through it until you are back on the up. You
never know, the biggest upswing of your life might be just around the corner
How To Overcome Bad Beats

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Psychology > How To Overcome Bad Beats
1
There is very little in poker that can throw you off of your game
in such a dramatic way as a bad beat can. Dropping from the high of being all in on the flop with
top set against two over cards, to the low of being outdrawn to a runner-runner flush is enough to
make the biggest poker fan hate the game.
Despite this however, it is far more important than you think to deal with the frustration
before playing your next hand.
A common mistake.
Its not uncommon for a player to chase after the money they unjustly lost for the rest of the
session. Players will try and pull huge bluffs and call for any draw whilst adopting the mentality
of "If they can win with rags, then so can I".
surprised.
I'm sure as you read this you can recall a time when you have been in exactly the same position,
trying your hardest to get back the money thats sitting in the lap of the luckiest player in the
world. But do you get it back? More often than not you are losing more money in this imprudent
pursuit.
This is probably one of the main reasons why you currently can't win money playing online
poker.
How can you get over a bad beat?

It all seems so obvious now, just stop the tilting and save yourself some money. But lets be
honest, its never going to be that easy. Some beats are so bad that they can cloud your mind to all
rationality and you fritter away your remaining chips on that ten-high flush draw. But there are
things you can do to help stop such an obvious leak of chips:
1) Take a break.
Honestly, there is nothing better for saving your hard earned money than taking a break from the
game. Whether that be for a few moments or for a few days, it's the most effective way of
preserving your bankroll from tilt.
Just because you leave the game now, it doesn't mean you've lost the opportunity to win your
money back; in fact its probably the opposite. Let yourself cool down and come back when you
are in a rational frame of mind. There is always going to be a game of poker in the next ten
minutes, the next week, and even next year. Save yourself for when you can play at the top of
your game.
2) Think in terms of expectation.

Simply put, think of the money you expected to win on the particular hand that you lost with.
This can be done with the use of freely available odds calculators (like PokerStove). For
example, if you are all in holding AA against AK pre-flop, you are roughly 90% favorite to win
the hand (also know as pot equity).
So you can say you won 90% of what was in that pot - FULL STOP. The 10% chance of losing
means that you expect to lose in this situation occasionally, and this time you just got caught up
in that 10% chance. You may end up losing that particular hand but in the long run you will be
winning more.
See the article on Sklansky dollars for more information on this concept. It's a good read.
Bad beats evaluation.

Bad beats are an integral part of poker, so if you want to become a long term winner you are
going to have to get used to them. If there were no such things as bad beats, then most of us
would never have a losing session. But on the positive side, bad beats are what keep the bad
players and soft competition coming back. It tricks them into thinking they made the right play,
or that poker is always about luck. And for that we should be thankful.
Poker Chat Box Strategy

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Psychology > Chat Box Strategy
1
Note: After reading through this article as of September 2008, I think that the advice given
here is now a little outdated. I wouldn't advise that you incorporate this advice into your
everyday strategy. Nonetheless, I am going to keep this article here for anyone interested!
Almost every online poker room today has a chat box feature. This feature allows you to
communicate with the other players at the table like you can at live tables.
The online poker chat box has spawned numerous abbreviations over the years to save time
whilst typing. Below is a list of the most commonly used abbreviations:
NH - Nice Hand
NB - Nice Bet
NC - Nice Call
GG - Good Game
WP - Well Played
BRB - Be Right Back
CU - See You
WTF - What The F***
TY - Thank You
THX - Thanks
Live poker and tells.

Professional players will regularly talk to the other players at the table in live play (if it is
permitted) to try and obtain extra information of their opponents hands and their ability to play
poker. These professionals will not only be analyzing what you say, but the manner in which you
say it.
By stimulating conversation, opponents will be trying to invoke physical tells which they can
then use to judge the strength of your hand. The chat box will never be able to completely
emulate live discussion; therefore the amount of information you can gain through the chat box
is greatly reduced.
NLHE cash games.
How to use the chat box to our advantage.

However, if we are to use the chat box to our advantage, we have to look at the feature from a
different angle. Instead of trying to get information from our opponents, we should be trying to
give information to our opponents. It is far easier to portray an image of yourself rather than
extract information using the chat box feature. So what are we trying to portray, and how are we
going to portray it?
The last thing we want to do is give the impression that we are experienced poker players, so we
dont want to be talking about reverse implied odds or the gap concept in the chat box. This will
make our opponents wary of our raises, which wont help when trying to build monster pots.
We want to make the other players think that we are recreational and/or poor players who cant
lay down mediocre hands, and that we think poker is purely a game of luck. By doing this we are
setting ourselves up to win bigger pots, because our opponents will have the impression that they
will have the better hand when we are calling their raises.
So now we are looking to make our opponents think that we are substandard players. We have to
approach this carefully so that our image is authentic; so unfortunately, typing "I'm s***" into
the chat box just isn't going to cut it. The most convincing way of portraying an inexperienced
image is by giving opinions on hands that have just been played. The art comes in making what
we say subtle yet convincing. The following is a list of things that can be said at the table at
certain times to help get you started on giving everyone the impression that you are a poor
player:
"Not having as much luck today" - After folding or losing a pot.

"Any two cards can win" - At any time
"Knew I should have called" - After folding and seeing the next card when others carry
on with the hand (despite whether or not the card would have helped you)
training.
Chat box strategy overview.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to things you can say in the chat box to give
yourself the inexperienced image. Anything that contradicts good poker strategy is good enough
to be typed into the chat box. Just make sure that you do not go over the top, as over-use of the
chat feature will lower the integrity of what you are saying.
You should also remember that this little trick wont have monster pots falling at your feet, but it
should help in stimulating a little extra action when opponents come to play hands against you.
Multiple Level Thinking

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Psychology > Multiple Level Thinking
4
Whenever you sit down at the poker table, you should always be trying to outsmart and out-think
your opponents by keeping one step ahead of them at all times. It is for this reason that people
with the ability to clearly think through situations and act upon them have the ability to do well
at the poker table.
If you are unable to piece together different pieces of information to build a bigger picture of the
way each hand is played out, you will find that you will struggle to make much money from
poker.
Being able to work out why your opponent is playing in a certain way is an essential skill for any
winning poker player.
If you can figure out what your opponent may be holding, you can make the most profitable
decisions in each situation depending on what information you have managed to pick up.
The levels of thought in poker.

Working out what your opponent may be holding is not easy, and it relies on your ability to think
on a number of different levels. "Multiple Level Thinking" is a concept that was brought forward
by David Sklansky in his book NL Holdem Theory and Practice, and defines the different levels
of thought that a poker player can occupy:
Level 0: I know nothing

Level 1: What do I have?
Level 2: What does my opponent have?
Level 3: What does my opponent think I have?
Level 4: What does my opponent think that I think they have?
Level 5: What does my opponent think that I think they think I have?
I think I should probably leave it there now because of the fact that it is unlikely that any players
will be thinking above this level, in addition to the fact that it is getting pretty difficult for me to
even write down and comprehend at such a high level. But hopefully as you can see, you can
think on different levels whilst playing poker, with the most inexperienced players playing at
level 0 or 1 and the more advanced players of the game playing at 4 or above.
Overview of the different levels.

Level 0 isn't really much of a level, but I have thrown it in there to describe players who have no
idea about the rules of the game, or players who are playing poker drunk and have no idea about
what they are doing.
surprised.
Level 1 is again pretty basic, and will mainly apply to players who have just got to grips with the
rules of the game and are just about aware of the different hand ranks that apply to the game of
poker. Therefore they will spend the majority of their time trying to figure out how strong their
hand is, and thus if they have much of an opportunity to win the hand. Level 1 players will have
difficulty bluffing, as their bluffs will be made regardless of what they think their opponent may
be holding.
Level 2 is the category that most poker players will fall in to, as it encapsulates the players who
have had some experience in the game, but are probably not quite yet winning players. These
players will consider what their opponent will be holding, but probably do not quite yet have
enough knowledge of the game to make plays based on mathematics or the correct strategy for
each situation.
Level 3 players will be winning players as they are always actively thinking about the thoughts
of the other poker players around them, and so they are more aware of optimum situations for
bluffing and can make more accurate value bets. The difference between a level 2 and 3 player is
the roughly difference between that of a losing player and a winning player.
level 4 is where things start to become a little tricky, but the more advanced players will be able
to grasp hold of the thought processes at this level and use it to their advantage. However, even if
a player is able to think at this level it is unlikely that they will ever need to use this ability, as
there are not many players who will able to think at the same level as them.
Level 5 is where things start to get pretty ridiculous, and I don't think there is much use in me
going through it. I had a hard enough time writing it down, so I'm not sure how good my
explanation would be if I tried. But if you ever come across someone playing at this level, my
advice would be to leave the table as quickly as possible.
What does multiple level thinking mean to you?

The main reason as to why it is important to know about the different levels of thought is so that
you can save yourself from playing incorrectly against different types of players. There is no
point playing at level 3 if your opponent is playing at level 0, because there is no need to
consider what your opponent thinks you have if they don't even have any idea about what they
are holding themselves. You will just be over thinking' the situation and wasting you time and
effort.
Therefore to beat each type of player, you should always stick to thinking at one level above
your opponents only. If you find that a player is only concerned about what they are holding and
playing at level 1, you will be able to beat them by thinking about what they might be holding
and playing at level 2.
To beat any type of poker player, you simply need to be playing 1 level above them. Not 2 or 3,
just 1.
Therefore you should be able to bluff them successfully whereas they will not as they are not
giving any thought to the strength of your hand. There is no need to make extravagant plays
against a low level thinker because they will have no idea about what is taking place, which will
make it more likely that your advanced' play will backfire.
So for every opponent you play against, simply play at the level above him or her and you
will be able to employ a successful winning poker playing style against them. The higher the
level of thought you can use effectively the better, but also be prepared to adapt depending on the
level of your opponents. This applies to all levels from 0 and above.
Multiple level thinking evaluation.

As a general rule, you should stick to playing at one level above your opponent in order to beat
them. It is not easy to categorize your opponents as they do not come with signs informing you
of their level of thought, but you can make decent judgments by analyzing the way they play.
training.
To become a winning player you should be able to play at level 3, but this does not mean that
you should play at this level at all times. You should be flexible and change your level of thought
depending on your opponent, and you will find that you will be making more profitable plays in
the long run.
Poker Metagame
Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Psychology > Poker Metagame
1
What is the metagame?

Metagame is often referred to as the game within the game, where you make a play or decision
that has been influenced by external knowledge rather than based on fundamental strategy alone.
To put it another way, every time you make a play that goes against (or ignores) basic
mathematical strategy in poker, chances are that you are utilizing meta game strategy.
The poker metagame is the "game within the game", which focuses on information other than
cards, chips and bet sizes.
The Poker meta game is not about the cards, the size of the bets or the stack sizes. The poker
meta game is more of a thinking man's poker, where you consider the potential results of your
actions and the general gameplay to help you make the most profitable decisions at the table.
Metagame diagram.
Awful diagram I know. But hopefully it helps to push the idea that the metagame is all the stuff
that takes place in the minds of the players and away from the "physical" aspects of play.
This all sounds well and good, but I'm sure you are still a little confused, so allow me to
elaborate with an example...
Poker metagame example.

Lets say that you have been playing at a table for a short period of time and you are playing a
hand against an opponent who you know very little about. For whatever the reason, you are at
the river with a mediocre hand facing a moderately sized bet. Either way, you are confident that
over the long run, basic poker mathematics suggests that making the call would be an
unprofitable play.
However, try and think beyond the basic mathematics of this situation and consider other
outcomes of calling this bet for a second. Even though we may well be making a slightly poor
mathematical play over the long run, there are two unique advantages of calling here:
We get to see our opponent's cards.

We give ourselves a loose table image.
Being able to see our opponent's cards in this hand may well prove to be very handy for us, as it
allows us to see what type of player our opponent is. We can then use this information on them
to make better decisions in future hands because we have a better knowledge of their style of
play.
In addition to this, by making quite a weak play, we may well give the impression that we are a
poor player that calls down river bets with marginal hands. This could prove to be beneficial in
future hands as our opponent may decide to show less respect to our bets, allowing us to
potentially take down bigger pots later on down the line.
So even though we made a play that was unprofitable based purely on the mathematics of
the situation, the repercussions of that particular play may well make up for this small loss
through bigger wins in future hands. This may well have been something that you have
thought about before, and it is essentially what the poker meta game is all about.
An unprofitable play in one hand may well set you up for greater wins in a later hand due to the
metagame.
A few important metagame points.
Don't use it as an excuse to make bad plays.
The Poker Metagame changes with time.
Metagame plays are used more frequently against familiar players.
Although the above example highlights how making a slightly less profitable play could pay
off in the future, it should not be used as an excuse to regularly make poor decisions when you're
playing poker. Neither should you look to go out of your way to intentionally make unprofitable
plays with the loose hope of creating an image that will pay off on future hands. Every now and
then a metagame-style situation will crop up and make itself apparent, so don't fret about
searching for it too much.
The meta game in poker is always changing. For example, when Doyle Brunson first wrote the
book Super System, it contained top notch strategy for NL Holdem at the time it came out.
However, over the years players have become more aggressive, and so the general style of play
advocated in the book will not be as profitable as it once was.
Poker metagame evaluation.

In general, meta game plays are going to be more effective against opponents that you have
played against regularly and have a history with. This is because of the fact that you will have
an understanding of the way your opponent plays, and so you will know what makes them tick
and how to combat their style of play.
Although the meta game approach can be used against players you are unfamiliar with (for
example, betting against players with mediocre to strong hands at lower limits because they tend
to call more often with weak holdings), it is going to play a bigger role in your decisions against
players who you have sat down with at the tables before.
The Fundamental Theorem Of Poker

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Theorems > Fundamental Theorem Of Poker
0
The fundamental theory of poker was put forward by

professional poker player David Sklansky in the popular poker strategy book The Theory of
Poker.
Quoting the theory directly from the book, it states that:
Every time you play a hand differently from the way you would have played it if you could see
all your opponents' cards, they gain; and every time you play your hand the same way you would
have played it if you could see all their cards, they lose.
Conversely, every time opponents play their hands differently from the way they would have if
they could see all your cards, you gain; and every time they play their hands the same way they
would have played if they could see all your cards, you lose.
David Sklasnky, The Theory of Poker
This particular poker theorem is different to the other ones described on this site, because it is a
big general theorem as opposed to a smaller theorem that tells you what to do in X situation.
Nonetheless, it is pretty straight forward, and it is a cornerstone of every winning poker player's
game.
Is the theorem still effective?

No doubt about it; the fundamental theorem of poker always has been and always will be a
concrete theorem in the world of poker. So there's no excuses for not learning this one.
Explanation of the fundamental theorem of poker.

Imagine that the next time you play Texas Hold'em, all of your opponents' holecards will be
turned up so that you can see them. If this is the case, you would always know the strength of
your opponents' hands, and therefore you would always know whether to bet, check, raise, call
and fold every time the action gets to you. Therefore basically speaking:
If you can see that you have the best hand, you would bet. (Unless there is more value in
deception)
If you can see that you have the worst hand, you would fold. (Unless you have odds to
draw)
This means that you would be playing the most profitable game of poker possible, as you are
following the fundamental theorem of poker perfectly.
Unfortunately however, the whole point of poker is that you are never 100% sure of what your
opponent holds, which means that you are going to drift away from this perfect line of poker by
not knowing the exact cards that each player has. So the key idea is to try and play poker as
perfectly as possible even without being able to see other players' cards.
In a nutshell, a winning poker player is a player that can play as closely to the way they would if
they could see all of their opponents' cards. The more information that you can obtain from your
opponent through reads and by analysing their betting patterns, the closer you will be able to
play to this level and the more profitable your game will be.
Example of the fundamental theorem of poker.

A $1/$2 NL game and both players have $200 stacks.
Our Hand: J J
Opponent's Hand: 9 8
Board: A J 2
Let's say that we are last to act, and our opponent has bet $20 into a $20 pot on the flop. We can
also see what cards our opponent is holding. Now, according to the fundamental theorem of
poker, what should we do? Well, we have 3 possible options.
1. Fold
2. Call
3. Raise
Folding is out of the question, because we can see that we have the best hand. So we're down to
either calling or raising.
The best action here is to call. We can see that our opponent is making a pure bluff at this pot, so
if we were to raise with by far the best hand here there is very little chance that our opponent is
going to call and put more money in the pot. However, by calling we are giving our opponent the
opportunity to put more money in on the turn by bluffing again. We stand to make more from the
hand through deception, so calling has a greater expected value than raising.
However, if we can see our opponent has a hand like A 2 for two-pair, raising would
definitely be far more +EV than just calling. We can be very confident that our opponent will
call a raise, so we can get a lot more value from the hand by raising with our strong hand rather
than attempting to induce a bluff like we did in the last example.
As you can see, knowing the exact 2 cards that our opponent is holding in each situation helps us
to make the most profitable play possible.
What's the use of the fundamental theorem?

The most important idea is just to be aware of the theorem and try your best to follow it as
closely as possible by analysing your opponents' plays and reading them as best as you can.
The better your hand reading skills get, the closer you will be able to play according to the
fundamental theorem and the more money you will make.
You will not always be able to fill in all the gaps, but that is okay because neither will your
opponents. But if you can build a greater understanding of the way they play and play more
closely to the fundamental theorem of poker than they do, you will come out on top at the end of
the day.
Overview of the fundamental theorem of poker.

I think I just about covered all of what I wanted to say about the theorem in this article. The
fundamental theorem is not a small theorem that points out a small aspect of the game, it is a
whole new way of thinking and a way to approach the game.
If you can play poker with the intention of playing as closely as you can to the way you would
play if you could see all of your opponents' cards, you will do well. However, poker is poker
because you are never fully aware of what the other player holds. All of the strategy articles on
Texas Hold'em and on any other poker variant basically tries to help you play as closely to the
fundamental theorem of poker based on the limited information that you have on your
opponents.
It's as simple as that!
Zeebo's Theorem
Zeebo's theorem is quite a simple one, and is likely to be the most profitable of all the popular
poker theorems. Zeebo's theorem states that:
No player is capable of folding a full house on any betting round, regardless of the size of the
bet.
Nice and straightforward eh? Let's look into it in more detail
Is Zeebo's theorem still effective?

Yes, and it's the most reliable theorem out of all the ones listed on this site. The theorem was put
forward back in 2006, and has helped to make followers of this theorem a nice amount of money
ever since.
Why Zeebo's theorem works.

Zeebo's theorem works because of the following points:
A full-house is a very strong hand.

Full houses do not come around regularly.
Therefore players will very, very rarely fold a full house.
If you think about every possible situation of where you hold a full house in Texas Hold'em, you
will not be able to find one where you can comfortably fold the hand. Even if the bet is very
large, the chances are that you and other players will call the bet when you hold a full house.
In addition, even if your opponent holds a very weak full house, the fact that there is always the
possibility that you could be bluffing means that they are going to force themselves to call
anyway. They may not like making the call, but they are going to put that money in the middle
when they have a full house.
You may not have thought about this idea too much before, but I'm sure that you can understand
that this particular theorem holds a lot of truth at the Texas Hold'em tables.
How to use Zeebo's theorem to your advantage.

Now that you are aware of Zeebo's theorem, you need to do two things to start making money
from the use of this particular theorem.
Do not try and bluff anyone that you suspect holds a full house.
Get as much money into the pot if you think your opponent has a full house and you hold
a better hand.
Pretty straightforward right? If your opponent is never going to let go of their full house
regardless of how much money you put in the pot, you should get all your money in the middle
when you have the best of it and never bluff if you are behind.
If you can remember these two simple rules the next time you are confident that your opponent
has a full house, you will be able to save and win yourself a nice sum of money.
Zeebo's theorem example.

Just a simple example for this one. But it should highlight how useful the theorem is pretty well.
Your Hand: A J
Board: A A Q Q
Opponent's Hand: Let's say that we have good reason to suspect that they have a Q.
On this board, you should be looking to get as much money into the pot as possible. There
should be no slowplaying here if you think that your opponent has a Q, because they will have a
full house also and there is no getting away from the hand for them.
Even though they have the worst full house, they will almost always convince themselves to call
in case you might be bluffing. As much as they dislike it, they are going to call. If you put
yourself in your opponent's position, I'm sure that you can empathize and understand how you
can exploit Zeebo's theorem fully.
Zeebo's theorem example hand history.
An exception.
Although Zeebo's theorem is good 99% of the time, there's always that 1% of the time where a
tight player folds a full house. Here's a prime example of that 1% in a HSP hand between Johnny
Chan and Phil Laak.
I think Phil Laak's fold here is warranted. Chan is a very tight player and it's very unlikely that
he's raising with anything that's beaten by 77. Of course, that's easy for me to say as I know each
player's holecards. The suspiciously impressive part though is Laak's insta-fold even the very
best players would want to take a moment to think about it.
Nonetheless, these instances are rare, and even when a situation like this pops up the majority of
players will call anyway. Even though Laak's fold looks like the right play, calling is far from
horrific, and that's what most players will think as well (if they're good enough to think on that
kind of level).
Who is Zeebo?
Zeebo, "captZEEbo" or to use his full online alias "Captain Zeebo" is a professional high stakes
online poker player. Captain Zeebo's real name is Greg Lavery.
I don't know much about the guy, but here is Zeebo's blog (obviously doesn't get updated that
much) and here is a really interesting documentary on Captain Zeebo's life as a professional
poker player by Deuces Cracked. If you want to find out even more about captZEEbo, you can
also check captZEEbo's 2+2 member profile and search through all of his old posts and threads.
Zeebo's theorem overview.

If there is one poker theorem that you should learn and use at the tables, it should definitely be
Zeebo's theorem. It is pretty straightforward, and it will help to win more money. Simple as that.
There is not much else I can really add to that, except for that you should try and make a
conscious decision to think about when your opponent may have a full house. Otherwise the
opportunity to take advantage of Zeebo's theorem will just pass you by. Don't let this be an
article that you read and forget 10 minutes later. Hit the tables and think about the theorem it
will get drilled into you this way.
The Baluga Theorem

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Theorems > Baluga Theorem
1
This is another theorem from the 2006 period. A poster at the

2+2 forum named BalugaWhale put forward this handy theorem that should help with a
common yet tricky situation on the turn.
The Baluga theorem requires a little more explanation (see the example below) than most poker
theorems as it is a little more detailed, but it should be too hard to grasp. In a nutshell though, the
Baluga theorem states that:
You should strongly re-evaluate the strength of one-pair hands in the face of a raise on the
turn.
BalugaWhale, twoplustwo.com forums
Here is an example of where the Baluga Whale theorem commonly comes into play to help
explain what this theorem means.
Baluga theorem example.

Your Hand: A K
You are one of the first to act before the flop, and with your hand you decide to make a 4BB
raise. There is just one caller in late position and you both go to the flop.
The Flop: A 9 3
This is pretty much an ideal flop, so you bet 8BBs, which is around the size of the pot.
The Turn: A 9 3 7
The 7 is pretty much a harmless card, but it does bring along the flush and straight draw
possibility, so a strong pot size bet is in order here to give any drawing hands the wrong odds
to call. However, our opponent raises this bet and the action is back on us.
This has turned the hand on it's head and we are left in a tricky situation. Throughout the hand
we never really considered the fact that our opponent has us beat, as it has been all about getting
the most from our top pair.
surprised.
According the the BalugaWhale theorem, we should strongly reconsider the strength of our pair
due to this turn raise, and we should be looking to fold the majority of the time in this spot.
Baluga theorem example hand history.
Why is the Baluga theorem effective?

It is easy to see why the Baluga theorem is effective by asking yourself the following question:
Would our opponent be raising this turn with anything less than top pair?
The simple answer is no. Any turn raise is going to show a significant amount of strength, and a
weak top pair or worse is not going to warrant this sort of display of strength. I'm sure that you
can feel how much of an awkward situation this is when you hold top pair top kicker, but we
both know that folding is going to be the best move here the majority of the time.
One of the biggest problems is that we are out of position, which means the information we have
on our opponent is limited. You can try and convince yourself that the turn card was harmless
and how might you like to think that your opponent is aggressively playing a draw, but at the end
of it all you can't get away from the fact that you are in an uncomfortable situation where calling
is likely to be a losing play over the long run.
If you decide to call on the turn, what are you going to do on the river? Your opponent is almost
definitely going to be betting out as a bluff or betting with the best hand, so closing your eyes
and calling the turn bet whilst hoping for the best on the river isn't going to be a great strategy.
Is the Baluga theorem still effective today?

Yes. I would say that the Baluga theorem is one of a small number of theorems that you should
take note of and incorporate into your Texas Hold'em game.
Who is BalugaWhale?
Andrew "BalugaWhale" Seidman is a pretty well known name around the 2+2 forums. Andrew
is a professional high stakes poker player and currently coaches over at the Deuces Cracked
training site. He is actually a really awesome coach as well, which you should be able to tell
from the sample video in my Deuces Cracked review.
BalugaWhale highlights at DeucesCracked.

The Coaching Tree
Parallels 2
Andrew semi-regularly blogs at BalugaBay about general life stuff. You can also read old posts
and threads started by Andrew through his BalugaWhale 2+2 forum member page.
For what it's worth, yes, "Baluga" is a misspelling of "Beluga". Not sure if this misspelling was
actually intentional, but that's the way it stands.
Baluga Whale theorem overview.

In my opinion, the Baluga whale theorem is one of the top three theorems (along with Zeebo's
theorem and Clarkmeisters' theorem) to come out of forums over the last few years.
I'm sure that you have been in this exact same situation many times before at the tables and had
trouble making the best decision. At least now this theorem can lay your worries to rest as you
make those folds with far less concern about whether or not you made the right play.
The Clarkmeister Theorem

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Theorems > Clarkmeister Theorem
0
This is another specific theorem like the Baluga Whale theorem,

and similarly it is not too difficult to grasp. The thoerem was initially put forward for limit Texas
Hold'em games, but it works perfectly well in the no limit Texas Hold'em environment.
The Clarkmeister theorem states that:
If you are heads up and first to act on the river, if the river card is the 4th card of a same suit
you should bet.
I can't find a reliable source for this theorem, but I'm confident that it stems from the 2+2 forums
from a few years ago.
Why is the Clarkmeister theorem effective?

The Clarkmeister theorem works well because of the following reasons:
The 4 cards of the same suit are going to scare many players.
Therefore this creates a great opportunity to bluff on the river.
A strong bet will often force any player without a flush or even a weak flush to fold.
If you put yourself in the shoes of a player that is facing a strong bet after that 4-flush card hits
on the river, you can already feel yourself leaning toward folding anything less than a flush,
along with weak flushes. Therefore you can see that this is a prime opportunity for a bluff for the
player that is first to act, as you are going to fold the vast majority of your hands in this spot.
How to use Clarkmeister's theorem in Texas Hold'em.

To ensure that you get the most from the Clarkmeister theorem, make sure that you get the
fundamentals sorted before attempting the bluff.
You should be first to act on the river.

You should be heads up against your opponent.
You should make a strong bet around the size of the pot at least.
If you are not first to act, it makes your bet a lot less convincing and so the bluff will be less
effective. If your opponent checks to you and you bet, it makes it more obvious that you are
trying to pull off a bluff. Therefore as the Clarkmeister theorem states you should bet when you
are first to act.
The more players there are in the hand, the more likely it is that someone actually has a great
hand. If you are heads up there is a greatly reduced risk of your opponent actually having a
strong flush or better.
By making a strong bet, it puts your opponent to a very tough decision, and increases the chances
that they are going to fold. If you make a weak bet, then you are pretty much giving your
opponent good odds to call, and so your bluff attempt it going to be pretty poor. Show no fear
and make a decent bet if you really want the Clarkmeister theorem to work.
Important point.
When you are using the Clarkmeister theorem, you are turning your hand into a bluff. Therefore
you should not look to bet out if you want to try and extract as much money from the hand as
you can, because with the Clarkmeister theorem you are looking to get your opponent to fold.
Similarly, if you have a hand like a weak flush at this stage in the hand, you will be best served
check/calling as opposed to betting out. This is because you will only be forcing weaker hands to
fold, which doesn't provide you with any value. This would be referred to as a way ahead / way
behind situation, and so check/calling is better than bluffing.
Is the Clarkmeister theorem still effective?

Yes. It is not bullet proof like Zeebo's theorem, but I think it is on par with the Baluga theorem in
terms of reliability.
Clarkmeister theorem overview.

Unlike the crazy aejones theorem and outdated Yeti theorem, the Clarkmeister theorem is a
useful one that you should take note of. Unless you are coming up against experienced players
who are aware of this theorem and can exploit other players who use it, you should find the
Clarkmeister theorem to be profitable over the long run.
This theorem should work brilliantly against the weaker players, which means that you will be
able to steal your fair share of pots with it. Be sure to use your knowledge of your opponent and
the information from previous betting rounds to help you when deciding whether or not to make
this play, as this will help with its overall success rate.
The Yeti Theorem

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Theorems > Yeti Theorem
0
The "Yeti theorem" is quite an old theorem in poker that was

coined by a poster at the 2+2 forums some time ago. The theorem essentially states that:
A 3-bet on a dry flop (preferably paired) is almost always a bluff.
Yeti Theorem, twoplustwo.com forums -- Not the original thread, but good enough.
This means that if the flop could not give anyone a possible flush or straight draw, if you re-raise
an opponent and they raise you back, the chances are that they are bluffing.
Yeti theorem example.

Let's say that you are heads up against an opponent and you are first to act. The flop has come 8
3 3 . It does not really matter what cards you are holding or what happened before the flop, so
just take it as it is.
money.
We check to our opponent and they bet out perfectly standard. We then check-raise them and
the action is back on our opponent, as they have to call our raise to see the next card. If our
opponent once again raises this raise, then by using the Yeti theorem why can assume that they
are almost always bluffing in this situation, and so we should be able to push all in and make
them fold or call and show down the best hand.
How the Yeti theorem works.

So now we know the structure of the Yeti theorem, let's have a think about the ideas behind the
Yeti theorem. We'll assume that the flop is still 8 3 3 .
There are 2 key ideas that drive the Yeti theorem.

1. If our opponent had an 8, they would not have a strong enough hand to re-raise our check
raise.
2. If our opponent had a 3, they would be more likely to trap and call as opposed to raising
us again.
Take a few seconds to mull over these 2 ideas it's easy to read over them but not fully take
everything in, so make sure you have an idea of why these points make sense.
Our opponent has an 8.

If our opponent has an 8, their bet after we have checked to them makes perfect sense. They may
well have the best hand and they will want to take the pot without giving us the opportunity to
catch up if we missed. Now, if we check-raise it shows a great amount of strength, and it would
easily appear as though we have a 3 or an over pair at least.
No Texas Hold'em player with any common sense is going to be confident enough to call this
check-raise with just an 8, let alone make another raise, which means that a 3-bet here would be
totally out of place.
Our opponent has a 3.

If our opponent has a 3, the chances are that they will be more inclined to slowplay the hand as
opposed to come out raising and re-raising on the flop. The flop bet is not a bad play, but a
number of players are likely to check here in an attempt to trap their opponent due to the flop
being so dry.
The most peculiar play according to the Yeti theorem would be the fact that they 3-bet with their
3-of-a-kind, because this would seem like too strong of a play, where calling and trapping would
be the preferable option for the vast majority of players.
Is the Yeti theorem still effective?

In my honest opinion, the Yeti theorem is old and does not hold as much weight as it used to. So
no, I wouldn't say that it is effective anymore.
There are two main problems with the Yeti theorem in Texas Hold'em:
Players are far more aggressive these days, and 3-bets with strong hands are not entirely
rare.
Players are likely to 3-bet dry flops like 8 3 3 with overpairs.
The fact of the matter is that players are always looking to out-level their opponent (see multiple
level thinking). Therefore if your opponent knows that you think that your opponent is always
bluffing when they 3-bet dry flops, they are going to go ahead and 3-bet dry flops when they
have a strong hand. Furthermore, players will be more than happy to 3-bet with overpairs to the
board in this spot.
training.
When the Yeti theorem first came about, the chances are that it worked pretty well for many
people, but as time went by the game has developed and evolved, and so they Yeti theorem is no
longer as useful as it once was.
Yeti theorem overview.

Now, I hope that you're not too annoyed at the fact that you just read through an article on what
appears to be an outdated and useless play, because there is still something to be learned from
this theorem. In some instances the Yeti theorem will still work, but my advice would be to not
stick to the Yeti theorem as a rule of thumb, and use your own logic and thought processes when
those 3-bets come around.
Hopefully this theorem has opened your eyes a little and helped you to think about 3-betting
situations, which is really the most valuable aspect of this article. So whilst it may not have
directly helped you by adding a new weapon to your arsenal, it will have helped your general
understanding of the game.
aejones Theorem
Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Theorems > aejones Theorem
0
As with the majority of theorems, the aejones theorem was name

after a poster at the 2+2 forums named aejones - surprise surprise. This theorem is actually
pretty tongue-in-cheek, but I'm going to discuss it anyway.
The aejones theorem states that:
No one ever has anything.
aejones, twoplustwo.com forums

Aaron "aejones" Jones currently coaches at LeggoPoker. See aejones at Leggo Poker
A pretty broad and straightforward statement I know, but let's have a think about it anyway...
Is aejones' theorem effective?

If you take it literally, no. The chances are that you didn't need me to tell you that, but it's good
to make sure that everyone knows where they stand. If you use the aejones theorem during play,
you will lose money.
NLHE cash games.
But still, that's not to say that we can't salvage something useful from this theorem.
The idea behind the aejones theorem.

The driving force behind the aejones theorem is the following:
Players do not always have as strong a hand as you think they do.
Betting, raising and general aggression is often enough to make your opponent fold.
Whilst there is an element of truth in both of these points, if you go all out betting and raising as
the theorem advocates, you are not going to be winning much money. Of course there will be
times when you win pots due to your aggression forcing other players to fold, but this style of
play is just going to land you in very unfortunate spots time and time again.
Taken literally, the aejones theorem suggests that wild raises and calls are the order of the day at
the Texas Hold'em poker tables, and we both know that isn't the case for any successful poker
player.
What can you learn from the aejones theorem?

If you take this theorem with an industrial size grain of salt, you might be able to walk away
from this article with a slightly improved outlook on the game. If you ignore the disorderliness of
the basic theorem, I think that you can actually take two useful things from it:
Your opponent is not always going to have the absolute nuts.

Playing aggressive poker is much better than playing passively.
First of all, understanding that your opponents will not always have the absolute nuts when they
are betting into you will serve you well when it comes to analyzing plays and making decisions.
Because we never know the exact two cards our opponent holds, it's easy to fear the worst when
facing a bet, when the fact of the matter is that our opponent may be just as scared of what we
are holding.
The core of the aejones theorem is that players can often give too much credit for what their
opponent is holding.
I am not suggesting that you should think that you can always force your opponents to fold with
a reraise, but simply to remember that both players in a hand have concerns about what their
opponent holds. If you can sensibly take advantage of this mutual caution during play, you might
be able to pick up a few extra pots.
Secondly, as you should know, aggressive poker is winning poker. You don't win pots big pots
and make opponents fold by playing passively, so always try and play poker with controlled
aggression. Have a browse over the article on the importance of aggression in poker for more
information on this topic.
Who is aejones?
Aaron "aejones" Jones is a very high stakes professional poker player. Aaron currently records
training videos for LeggoPoker, which is a popular online poker training site. You can also read
aejones' Leggo Poker blog, which is updated fairly regularly.
If you're feeling a little stalker-ish and want to check up on aejones' past, you can read all of his
previous posts and threads at the 2+2 forums through aejones' 2+2 member account.
"aejones theorem" overview.

Despite the fact that the aejones is very tongue-in-cheek, it does actually bring up a few subtle
but useful points if you look hard enough.
This article may or may not have changed your outlook on the game, but either way the aejones
theorem is one that I thought was worth discussing to try and extract some good from it, in
addition to clearing up any confusion with what the theorem implies.
training.
At the end of the day though, just be sure to not take this theorem literally, and certainly do not
use it the next time you sit down at the tables.
Basic Sit and Go Tournament Strategy

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Tournaments > Basic SNG Strategy
0
SNG Player? Check out my rankings of the best sit and go poker sites for 2012.
A Sit and Go (SNG) is a small poker tournament, typically just a single

table, with no officially scheduled start time when enough players join the tournament will
begin. SNG tournaments have become extremely popular online and are available at a wide
range of buy-in levels from just a few dollars into the 1000s.
This article will cover the basics of SNG strategy by going through the various stages of a onetable tournament and showing how strategy changes.
We start by giving an overview of the differences between SNG strategy and that for cash
games. Next the 4 main stages of a SNG tournament are discussed separately, covering early
game, mid-game, bubble play and finally in the money play. We wrap up by looking at some
common opponent errors.
Difference between tournament and cash game strategy.

There are 2 key differences between SNG and cash game strategy.
1. The relationship between stack sizes and the increasing blind levels in SNG tournaments.
2. The way in which profits are made and the resulting relationship between chip value and
equity.
Cash game poker players typically play with deep stacks in relation to the blinds. This means
that betting occurs throughout a hand, giving you time to assess the strength of your opponents
holdings. Sit and Go strategy starts with deep stacks but before long the stacks are shallow in
relation to the blinds often 10 times the blind or less.
NLHE cash games.
This means that instead of distinct hands, SNG play deals with ranges of hands the optimal
play is to take (often small) mathematical edges against the range of hands opponents will call or
raise with. For players used to cash games, SNGs can seem like an unskilled version of poker
however those players who are adept at working with both ranges and prize pool equity have a
significant and profitable edge.
In a cash game the chips in your stack are worth exactly the dollar value assigned to them.
Through the various stages of a SNG tournament the chips you hold will actually change value.
This is due to the fact that the player who eventually wins all the chips will not win all of the
prize money.
Typically SNG tournaments pay 50% for 1st, 30% for 2nd and 20% for 3rd. If 10 players start a
$10 SNG with 1,000 chips then each chip is worth 1c at the start of the game. At the end the
winner has all 10,000 chips however the prize pool distribution gives him $50, meaning each
chip is worth 0.5c. Awareness of the changing value of chips and mathematics of prize pool
equity are most important at the bubble, when just 1 player must bust before the money.
The different stages of SNG tournaments.

Early stage.
The early stages of SNG tournaments are characterized by solid and tight poker. At this stage the
blinds will be small and stacks deep. The reason that tight play is optimal in the early stages is
due to a mid-game and bubble play dynamic known as fold equity. Since the ability to get
opponents to fold in the later stages when the blinds are relatively high is so important to the
game, tight play early is the norm to ensure that you keep enough chips for the middle stages.
Middle stage.
As the blinds get higher and number of remaining opponents begins to drop SNG play becomes
more aggressive. The middle stages are characterized by stealing blinds, raises and re-raises. In a
cash game defending your blind is not critical to success (though necessary sometimes), in a
SNG tournament blind defence is critical as is the ability to use the threat of elimination to
steal chips from your opponents.
Late stage (bubble).

The bubble is the most strategic part of any SNG tournament. With just one player to go before
the paying places these tournaments often become a battle of nerves as one player pushes all in
and the others fold. The key strategy consideration now is that you need a much better hand to
call an all-in bet than you need to move all-in yourself (see the gap concept). The reason is the
diminishing value of chips.
Example of the diminishing value of chips in SNGs.

If 4 players each have 2500 chips at the bubble then their prize pool equity is $25.
However, when 2 players get all in and one wins the pot, those 5000 chips are not worth
$50 (more like $35).
o
(This is because the double stack does not guarantee 1st place.)
So when calling an all in bet you are risking $25 worth of chips in an effort to win an
additional $10.
Thus you need a hand that is proportionally better than the raisers range a tall order
without a premium holding.
Once the bubble has burst and the remaining 3 players are in the money paying places strategy
changes once again. Since the blinds are now huge in relation to the stack sizes all-in bets are
again the norm. However without the risk of elimination players both raise and call raises with
much weaker holdings.
Adjusting to this is dependant on specific opponents. However newer SNG players need to be
aware that any pair, most aces and any 2 face cards become very strong at this stage. See the
article on short stack strategy for more information on this topic.
For a superb guide to playing the final stages of SNGs (or playing HUSNGs specifically), check
out Brokerstar's free heads up poker strategy training site.
A common early mistake.

Common errors to watch out for in SNG tournaments include overplaying easily dominated
hands early for example ace-X (ace rag) hands where the X is jack or lower.
Failing to defend your blinds during the tournament, and calling bets at the bubble without very
strong holdings are also errors. The ability to accurately assess the range of hands which
individuals will raise and call raises with is a key skill in SNG tournaments and worth spending
the time to learn.
If you want to get really good at SNGs, subscribe to SitnGo

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For more advanced SNG tournament strategy, try the what is ICM? and how to use ICM articles.
Sit and Go strategy overview.

In summary, SNG strategy is all about 3 interacting factors. Your ability to adapt to the changing
game conditions (changing gears), an understanding of how prize pool equity changes the value
of chips and the ability to accurately assess the calling and raising ranges of your opponents.
These factors are at their most important during bubble play this is where the majority of a
good SNG player profit is derived from.
Multi-Table Tournament Strategy

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Tournaments > Basic MTT Strategy
0
Multi-table poker tournaments (also known as MTT's for short)

of all field sizes and buy-in levels can be found online 24 hours a day.
This article will cover basic multi-table tournament strategy at the various stages that a
tournament will go through before the lucrative final table.
MTT prize pool structure.

We will start by looking at the key factor of how the prize pool in a multi-table online poker
tournament is distributed and the big influence this needs to have on your strategy in order to
maximize your poker winnings over time. Next we go through the early, middle (including the
bubble) and later stages of a poker tournament showing what factors influence your strategy at
each point.
Tournament prize distribution is very top heavy. The players who reach the final table will split
up to half of the total prizes between them while those who make it into the first paying spots
only will often win less than twice their initial buy-in. Even at the final table the top 3 paying
places will give a disproportionately larger payout than the other places.
This has a large effect on tournament strategy for those players who are looking to maximize
their long-term profits. Aggressive, positive play is rewarded at all stages of the tournament - by
a shot at reaching the final table. Passive play during the later stages may enable you to sneak
into the money positions however this will not make up for just a few final table appearances
when adding up profits at the end of the month or year.
Top MTT poker rooms.

1) PokerStars - Stars has the most MTTs along with the softest players. The MTT structure
is standard, but nonetheless PokerStars remains as the top room for MTTs. Easily the top choice
for MTT players. Visit PokerStars.
2) Full Tilt - Like Stars, Full Tilt has a shed load of MTTs running throughout the day. The
MTT structure is better than at Stars in my opinion, but the competition isn't quite as soft. Visit
Full Tilt.
3) Party Poker - Party is another high traffic room, so there are plenty of MTTs available.
Party has the worst MTT structure out of the 3 (although in general it's not all that bad), but the
room makes up for this by playing host to some incredibly soft MTT players. Visit Party Poker.
Early stage tournament strategy.

In the very early stages of a poker tournament the game plays in a similar way to a cash game
table. This is because the stack sizes are many times the size of the blinds, allowing betting on
the flop, turn and river for many hands. Deep Stacked play involves its own adjustments
including favoring hands which can make hidden monsters such as small pairs and suited
connectors. Hands that are easily dominated such as Ace-Ten and King-Jack should generally be
avoided at this stage.
Your strategy objective in the first few blind levels should be to accumulate chips from the
weaker opponents who will still be in the tournament at this stage. At the same time you should
avoid big gambles for all of your chips if you feel that your skill advantage will have time to
show over a larger number of small pots.
One saying for the early stages of multi-table tournaments is that you need to take the chips
from the weak players before someone else does after all they will be harder to take from a
stronger opponent later down the line.
Transitioning from early to late stages.

As the blinds and antes get higher when compared to the average stacks your tournament
strategy needs to adjust to new conditions. Since you must invest more chips to see a flop the
value of the speculative hands played in the early stages goes down.
High cards however go up in value when you are the first to enter the pot. Since calling a raise in
the middle stages requires investing a large proportion of your stack this should be avoided
where possible. Your opponents are often in the same situation meaning that youre raising
requirements can be lighter than before, especially from late position.
Playing on the bubble.

The bubble is the stage of the tournament where just a few players need to be eliminated in order
to reach the money paying places. At this stage the single most important factor affecting your
strategy are stack sizes both your own and those of your opponents.
Having a large stack at the bubble will allow you to pick up many pots uncontested as players
will be less likely to fight with a big stack when they risk busting out before the money. Other
big stacks and very short stacks should be avoided here, as they are more likely to call you.
If you have a medium stack at the bubble then you can use the knowledge that bigger stacks are
likely to steal pots to your advantage. If you are dealt a reasonably strong hand and expect the
big stack to be raising light you can have a positive expectation situation for a re-raise. Sure
you will get unlucky and bust out sometimes but your strategy for the whole tournament is to
reach the final table and doubling up could give you a chance to do so, more than making up for
losing the small in the money payout.
After the bubble bursts players will often loosen up considerably in an effort to accumulate
enough chips to reach the final table. At this stage you need to choose your spots carefully. As
with all forms of poker it is better to be the raiser rather than the caller.
MTT final table strategy.

The final table brings in yet another factor into your poker strategy thinking. Stack sizes are still
very important, but now the payout structure and your opponents strategy in relation to this
come to the fore.
The presence of a very small stack is a good example of how this affects the dynamic of the final
table. Medium stacks will see that one player is just 1 big blind away from busting and will
tighten up to avoid going out before this player. This can lead to some great opportunities to pick
up chips without too much risk.
Aggressive and positive poker are again the key elements to success at this stage of the poker
tournament. The top three places will pay proportionately more than the rest aim high by
picking fights with those opponents who look like they would like to move up in the money. Big
stacks and small stacks should again be avoided, the medium stacks are much more likely to fold
to pressure at this stage.
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biggest +EV move of the month.
PokerSavvy Plus. It will be your
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MTT strategy evaluation.

In summary, tournament strategy involves adjusting to the various stages which a poker
tournament will go through. At the same time your goal in every tournament should be to reach
the final table. Busting on the bubble never feels good however if for each time you bubble you
reach another final table then your long-term profits will be better than that of opponents who
tighten up in order to make the money.
This article is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to MTT strategy. For more information
and a bunch of other articles about playing in multi-table tournaments, try the poker tournament
strategy section at my friend's MosesBet.com website.
Sit and Go Poker ROI

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Tournaments > ROI
0
SNG Player? Find out which poker rooms have the softest sit and go games in 2012.
I'm sure you've all bumped in to the term "ROI" before, and you're probably aware that it stands
for Return On Investment. It sounds like one of those terms you'll hear thrown around inside a
business meeting along with the word "synergy".
So what's ROI got to to with poker tournaments exactly? Well, allow me to explain in this guide
to everything you need to know about ROI in poker.
What is SnG ROI?

ROI is your average profit from sit and gos. Your ROI is shown as a percentage of your SNG
buy-in + entry fee.
So for example, if you have a ROI of 10% in $10+$1 SNGs, you are making an average profit of
$1.10 from each of these games you play.
Note: ROI does take in to account the money paid in tournament fees.
If you're a cash game player, check out my poker winrates article for info on the "ROI" of cash
games.
How to work out your poker ROI.

You work out your return on investment in poker just as you would work out ROI in any other
field.
Divide your profit by your total investment, then multiply that number by 100 to get the ROI
percentage.
Equations always look more complicated than they really are.

For example, if you entered a 9-seater $10+$1 SNG at PokerStars and won the first prize of $45,
your ROI for that one game would be:
Profit = $45 - $11 = $34

Investment = $11
ROI = ($34 / $11) x 100 = 309%
This is obviously an extremely high ROI, and its far from sustainable (in reality you would
struggle to maintain an average ROI of 25%). However, this is just an example to show how easy
it is to work out ROI.
ROI is more commonly used when looking at your winnings over a much larger sample size.
Whats a good sit and go ROI?

Its very hard to work out accurate (and attainable) ROIs. However, from my experience these
percentages should give you a rough idea of what an impressive ROI would look like at each
level of 9s SNGs:
Level
less than $6
$6 / $11
$22
$33
$55
$109
$215
ROI
20%
15%
10%
7%
5%
4%
3%
These numbers are the upper limit of the sort of ROI you could hope for in SNG tournaments, so
dont be at all disappointed if your ROI is lower.
In all honesty, you should be proud of any ROI above 0%.
How can you find out your SNG ROI?

There are 3 ways:
1. Sharkscope - the simplest method, but not super accurate.
2. Tracking software (e.g. HEM or PT3) - the most accurate method, but you have to buy
the software first.

3. Notepad - if all else fails.
1) Sharkscope.
Sharkscope is a website that tracks the results of online poker tournaments. Just search for your
username and it should (hopefully) give you an indication of your average ROI from the
tournaments you have played online.
The stats are limited and theyre not 100% accurate, but its a very quick and easy way to get an
idea of your overall ROI. It's also free, but only for up to 5 searches a day. If you want to
perform more searches you have to pay to subscribe.
2) Tracking software.
Using tracking software like Holdem Manager or Poker Tracker 3 is the most accurate way of
recording your results and finding your ROI across the different levels of SNGs you have played.
This poker software costs money to buy, but they offer far more features than just the ability to
record your results and calculate ROI. If youre serious about playing SNGs and trying to win
money, I'd highly recommend you grab yourself a copy of Holdem Manager.
3) Notepad.
Nothing wrong with tracking results the old fashioned way!
It takes a little more effort than the other two options, but if you keep note of the number of
games you've played and your winnings then you can easily work out your ROI for yourself.
SNG ROI and hourly rate.
Hourly rate is the amount of money you are making from SNGs on average per hour.
Knowing your ROI per game is nice, but for many the hourly rate is a more useful statistic. So
how do you figure out your hourly rate?
Simple: Find out how many SNGs you play on average in one hour, then multiply that number
by your ROI.
Quick example of ROI and hourly rate.

Lets say you have an ROI of 6% in $11 SNGs. This means you are winning an average of $0.66
per game.
Due to the fact that you multi-table frequently, you have worked out that you play an average of
8 SNGs an hour. Therefore:
Hourly rate = ROI x SNGs per hour

Hourly rate = $0.66 x 8
Hourly rate = $5.28
So with your current ROI, youre earning $5.28 an hour from multi-tabling SNGs. Not bad, but
probably not worth quitting your day job over.
With this figure you could go on to work out how much you might earn on average in a day, a
week, a month or even a year - which is handy. Check out my article on how much can you win
from online poker? for more calculations on this sort of stuff.
Average sit and go duration.

SNG Duration
9s 70 mins
18s 95 mins
27s 110 mins
45s 125 mins
These are very rough figures, and they can obviously vary from one poker site to the next
(depending on tournament structure). Nonetheless, hopefully you can use these numbers to give
you a rough idea of how many SNGs you might be able to squeeze in per hour on average.
If you have tracking software like Holdem Manager on the other hand, it will work out your
hourly rate for you.
How many SNGs do you have to play to get a reliable ROI?
1,000.
If you want to get a rough (theres that word again) idea of what your ROI might be for sit and
gos, you want to have at least 1,000 SNGs under your belt.
Even then, your ROI from having played this many SNG tournaments isnt going to be set in
stone either, as variance can have a significant effect on your ROI over this sample size.
However, 1,000 SNGs is widely regarded as the number you want to aim for before drawing any
conclusions from or putting any stock in to your ROI.
To get a good idea of what your real ROI is though, you want to aim for 5,000 SNGs.
ROI reliability based on number of games played.
500 - a very rough idea.

1,000 - a rough idea.
5,000 - a good idea.
To prove this, watch this video on ROI simulations on Youtube, or download and try the poker
ROI simulator out for yourself. Here's a link to the original ROI simulator thread at 2+2 (it also
has a quick guide to using the program).
For even more detailed information on the reliability of your ROI based on number of games
played, feel free to wade through this article at 2+2 on SNG Poker ROI confidence intervals.
Factors that affect your ROI and hourly rate.

Your ability. The better you are at play SNGs, the higher your ROI will be from each game. This
is where Texas Hold'em strategy comes in useful.
SNG level. The higher up the stakes you go, the better the players become. This will reduce your
ROI (as shown above in the whats a good ROI? section).
Multi-tabling. Multi-tabling may decrease your overall ROI per game, but if youre playing a
greater number of SNGs profitably per hour it will increase your hourly rate.
Fees. The higher the entry fees are in the games you play, the lower your ROI will be. The fees
are the reason why the $5+$1 SNGs at Party Poker back in the day were so difficult to beat.
Type of SNG. The Turbo SNG and Super Turbo SNG structures reduce the element of skill,
which means that as a good player your ROI will suffer (blinds increase quickly, which leads to
fewer pots player with high SPRs). However, these games do not last as long as standard SNGs,
so you will be able to play many more of them in an hour. Whether or not Turbo SNGs are
generally more profitable than standard SNGs though is up for debate.
Which room you play at. If you play at a big poker room like PokerStars, the SNG tables are
going to fill up quickly, which means less time spent waiting for games to start. This will
improve your hourly rate. Conversely, if you play at a smaller room (maybe because of softer
competition), you will likely spend more time waiting for the tournament tables to fill up. Whilst
playing at the smaller room with the weaker players may well improve your ROI, it will have a
negative effect on your hourly rate.
Evaluation of sit and go ROI.
ROI stands for Return On Investment. It helps you to find how much profit youre
making from each SNG you play on average.
Hourly rate is how much money youre making from playing SNGs an hour.
An ROI greater than 0% is good.
You need to play at least 1,000 SNGs to get a half-decent idea of what your long-term
ROI might be.
Download Holdem Manager to keep track of the tournaments you play and to help you
win money from the SNgs you play.
Turbo Poker Tournament Strategy

Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Tournaments > Turbo Tournament Strategy
1
Turbo poker tournaments are becoming increasingly popular at

online poker rooms. You can usually get a nice mix of turbo, super turbo and occasionally
extreme turbo poker tournaments at the majority of the top online rooms.
As you can guess, these turbo Sit and Go tournaments do not last for long, and so they attract the
players who are looking for some fast entertainment at the poker tables.
Now, these particular tournaments with their unique (and pretty speedy) blind structures can be
tricky to play, and so require a certain strategy that is quite different to your standard Sit and Go
tournament strategy.
Basic turbo poker tournament strategy.

The turbo poker tournaments are not impossible to beat, but the fact that the pace is so fast
means that they require a little more luck than your standard SnG tournament. This is because
you are essentially playing short stack poker a lot of the time in these games, which means that a
lot of your plays are going to be reduced to all-in or fold decisions.
There is very little room for post flop play in these games, and after the first few rounds you will
not be playing much poker after the flop, as you are likely to be all in by this point. So in a
nutshell, good turbo poker tournament strategy is going to involve good starting hand
selection and picking the right spots to move in. It can be pretty frustrating having the risk all
your chips so frequently, but it's the way these games are played and how to play them
successfully.
There is no doubt that you are going to experience a lot of variance in these games, so don't
expect to see results after a handful of tournaments. You really need to play a large amount of
these games to be able to consistently win money, so get used to some pretty big swings if you
decide that you want to regularly play in turbo tournaments.
You will need to play a larger number of turbo tournaments before you start to see honest results.
Early stage strategy.
Avoid getting involved with meaningless pots.

Stick with strong hands that you would back up with your stack.
Don't be surprised to come up against wild plays early on.
The early stage of these turbo tournaments is going to be your only opportunity to play 'proper
poker', as the blinds are going to be small in relation to the size of the stacks. This will only last
for 2 or 3 levels depending on how quickly the blinds move, but up until the big blind becomes
around 1/10th the size of your starting stack, you can be prepared to play hands without having
to resort to drastic moves.
However, at the early stages of these tournaments, I'm not going to look to try and steal blinds or
pick up small pots, as they are going to have very little effect on the outcome of the tournament.
If I've got a strong hand I'm going to raise a big amount and hope to catch someone over playing
a weak ace and try and force them to put as much in the middle as possible, but this is no time to
try and pick up small pots with fancy plays.
The fact that these tournaments run so quickly means that the players at the table will already be
in a gambling frame of mind, and will be willing to risk a lot or all of their stack even when the
blinds are so small. Therefore whenever I am dealt a hand, I am always going to consider
whether or not it is one that I would back up with my whole stack. If not, then the chances are
that I am going to fold.
Middle stage strategy.
Not much room for movement, so be prepared to risk your entire stack on a hand.
Avoid trying to get tricky with marginal holdings, just stick with the big hands.
The stop and go play can be very effective in certain situations at this stage.
As with any stage of turbo tournaments, starting hand selection is going to play a huge role in the
middle stages of a tournament. If the general stack size means that players have between 7 and
12 big blinds, you are in the middle stage of the game. This will allow for a two raises before one
player is going to be all-in, so there really is not much room to move around.
In general, if I am entering a pot, then I am entering with the intention of playing for my entire
stack. If I am becoming low on chips, the blinds are likely to be valuable enough to pick up, so a
solid all-in push from late position may well be a good plan of action from time to time. Other
than this however, I am going to stick to playing with premium hands, but widening my starting
range up in late position.
At this stage, you can effectively start to use the stop and go play. This will help increase your
chances of winning a hand if you are prepared to push your entire stack in the middle, but don't
feel that it will push your opponent off the hand. It may be a good idea to call a raise and push it
in on the flop, as a small all-in reraise preflop will often give your opponent the right odds to
call.
Late stage strategy.
Play aggressively and don't be afraid to bully opponents.

Take advantage of players who tighten up.
You will miss out on the money a lot of the time, but don't let it get to you. Shoot for 1st.
When you have 6 big blinds or less, you are going to be in all-in or fold mode. It is likely that
there are very few players left in the game, and so you should be happy to push with a much
wider range or starting hands.
Don't be too afraid to stick it all in the middle because of the bubble, as you will be able to take
advantage of the players who are going fold a number of good hands just so that they can try and
sneak there way in to the money.
Play to win the tournament by taking 1st place, rather than playing it overly safe and trying to
make it into the money.
If you can show no fear of being bubbled, you will be able to pick up a large number of pots and
set yourself up to be in a good position to win the tournament. There will be times when you just
miss out on the money because of being so aggressive, but there will also be times where you
win enough to take the tournament down, so show no fear.
For help with those tough all-in decisions, try learning how to use the independent chip model.
If you can get passed the fear and frustration of constantly risking your stack, you will be able to
make optimum plays and get the better of the luck-heavy turbo poker tournaments.
How To Use The Independent Chip Model

(ICM).
Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Tournaments > ICM > How To Use ICM
1
Try out my free ICM calculator "CHIMP" to work out ICM in SNGs. It's a really handy
ICM program.
What is ICM? > How to use ICM
In my previous article that answered the question "what is ICM in

Poker?" we found out that different chip stack sizes had varying amounts of equity in the overall
tournament prize pool. To echo the last article's chip stacks example:
Player A - 5,000 chips.

Player B - 2,500 chips.
Player C - 2,500 chips.
Each player had the following amount of $ equity in the $100 prize pool that paid $50 for 1st,
$30 for 2nd, and $20 for 3rd.
Player A: (5,000 chips) = $38.33 equity.

Player B: (2,500 chips) = $30.83 equity.
Player C: (2,500 chips) = $30.83 equity.
In this article I will show you how you can use these ICM equity numbers to work out whether
or not to call all-ins from other players as we approach the money positions in Texas Holdem Sit
and Go's.
cEV and $EV.

First things first, we need to understand the difference between cEV (chip EV) and $EV (money
EV) in Sit and Go tournaments. As you should (hopefully) already know, EV standard for
"Expected Value".
cEV is the amount of tournament chips we expect to gain/lose from a play.

$EV is the amount of tournament equity or money we expect to gain/lose from a play.
cEV.
Chip EV is like standard EV in cash games. For example, if your opponent pushes all in for
1,000 chips with AQ and you call with AK, you expect on average to make 480 chips every time
you call this all in (I worked this out with some basic EV calculations).
Chip EV is just as you would expect - it's simply how many tournament chips you expect to gain
on average from each play you make.
$EV
$EV is like a slightly advanced version of cEV, as $EV indicates how much extra money you
expect to gain in prize pool equity from the tournament from each play you make.
For example, if you call an all-in with AK against AQ like in the cEV example you may earn
+480 chips, but now that you've added those extra 480 chips to your stack how much more
equity do you have in the overall prize pool? To put it another way, how much more likely are
you to win money from the tournament with those extra 480 chips?
This is the difference between cEV and $EV, where $EV is going to be a far more profitable way
to look at expected value in tournaments. $EV is pretty much the whole basis of the article, so do
not worry if you do understand what I mean by this term just yet. It will become clearer as we go
along.
money.
Using ICM when faced with tough decisions.

When faced with a tough decision, we want to work out whether calling increases our overall
prize pool equity.
For example, if we have ATo in the BB and the SB pushes all in with any random hand, we don't
care about how many tournament chips we expect to win on average by calling, we just want to
know whether calling increases our prize pool equity.
After all, we're not going to want to risk our chances of finishing in the money by placing
ourselves in a situation that's only slightly better than a coin flip. So this is where we use ICM to
work out whether making a big call near or on the bubble is profitable over the long run.
Using ICM example.

Lets say we are playing in a standard 10 player, $10+$1 tournament at PokerStars with a $100
prize pool that pays; $50 for 1st, $30 for 2nd, and $20 for 3rd. Following on from the previous
example, there are 4 players left at the table and we are in the BB holding ATo.
The blinds are 100 / 200 and the stack sizes are as follows:
(HERO BB) Player A - 2,000

(SB) Player B - 2,000
(BTN) Player C - 2,500
(CO) Player D - 3,500
Everyone folds to the SB who pushes all in for 2,000 chips. We know for a fact that this guy is
stupidly aggressive and could well be pushing all-in with any two cards. So should we call or
should we fold? Well, we need to do 3 things:
1. Work out our equity against our opponent's range.
2. Work out the changes in prize pool equity for the different outcomes (of calling and
winning/losing or folding).
3. Work out if we increase our prize pool equity by calling.
1) Work out our equity.

Let's start with the basics and work out the % chance of winning our ATo hand has against our
opponent's any 2 cards. If we input this in to PokerStove we find that our hand has 62.7% equity
against his range.
See the articles on range and range equity for more information on this particular topic.
Therefore, we can say that:
There is a 62.7% chance that we will increase our stack to 4,000 chips.
There is a 37.3% chance that we will lose all of our chips and leave the tournament with
nothing.
Calling seems a little bit risky already, but let's move on to the next step to see whether or not it's
actually going to be profitable to make this call over the long run.
2) Work out the different changes in prize pool equity.

To work this out we are going to require the use of our trusty ICM calculator. To work out the
change in our prize pool equity and which action is most profitable, we will need to work out 3
things:
1. Our equity if we call and win.
2. Our equity if we call and lose.
3. Our equity if we fold to the all-in.
In the following quick examples I'm going to omit the blinds. I could include them, but it just
makes following the example a lot easier for you if I leave them out for now.
Our equity if we call and win.
If we call and win, our chip stack increases to 4,000 and Player B gets knocked out. Using the
ICM calculator the new prize pool equity between the 3 players would be:
Player A: (4,000 chips) = $35.49 equity. <- Our prize pool equity if we call and win.
Player B: (0 chips) = $0 equity.
Player D: (3,500 chips) = $34 equity.
Our equity if we call and lose.

If we lose we are out of the tournament, so as you can guess our prize pool equity will be $0. I'll
post the equity results anyway just to keep things consistent.
Player A: (0 chips) = $0 equity. <- Our prize pool equity if we call and lose.
Our equity if we fold.

If we fold, our equity decreases a little because of the 200 chips we had to put in for the big
blind.
Player A: (1,800 chips) = $20.29 equity. <- Our prize pool equity if we fold to the all-in.
Player D: (3,500 chips) = $30.73 equity.
3) Work out if we increase our prize pool equity by calling.

So then, which action is more profitable? Calling or folding?
If we fold, our equity drops to $20.29.
If we call, 63% of the time we are going to move our equity up to $35.49 and 37% of the time
our equity will drop to $0. So if we calculate our average total prize pool equity from calling we
get:
Total prize pool equity = (0.63 * 35.49) + (0.37 * 0) = $22.36.
So, comparing the two:
Folding = $20.29.
Calling = $22.36.
As you can see, our overall prize pool equity increases by calling this all-in bet. Therefore, it is
more profitable to call with ATo over the long run against any random hand than it is to fold and
save our chips. Even though on average every time we call we are only earning an extra $2.07,
calling remains as the optimum play in this particular situation.
If your total prize pool equity decreases by calling, you should fold.
If your total prize pool equity increases by calling, you should call.
Use the SNGWiz ICM tool to help you play optimum SNG
poker.
SitNGo Wizard is the perfect tool for learning how to use the independent
chip model for making the most profitable plays in the late stages of SNG tournaments.
Get the 30 day trial of SNGWiz
SNGWiz uses all the ICM stuff we have covered in this article to calculate prize pool equity
when faced with tough decisions. The program works out whether you should push, fold or call
all-in depending on the cards, opponent hand ranges and stack sizes (which is exactly what we
have just been working out).
SNGWiz is widely regarded as the best tool for ICM calculations and for teaching you how to
play the late stages of SNGs flawlessly. It's $99 for the full version, but it's a must-have for any
serious SNG player.
Evaluation of using ICM in Sit and Go tournaments.

Now I know what you're all thinking... how the hell am I supposed to work all of this out in the
middle of a tournament? Well, in all honesty you can't, but this doesn't mean that learning about
ICM has no value.
Making decisions using the independent chip model and prize pool equity is useful for post-game
analysis and helping you to gauge risk vs. reward situations near the bubble. ICM is basically the
theory behind the common concern of "is it worth risking all my chips in this spot?". The more
you familiarise yourself with this concept, the more adept you will be at making the correct play
in tricky situations.
I know that this has been a pretty long article, but trust me, if I could have made it any shorter I
would have done! All ICM decisions boil down to at the end of the day are the 2 simple steps of
working out your equity against your opponent's hand range, then working out whether your
prize pool equity increases or decreases by calling.
To reiterate the two important concluding points of using ICM:
If your total prize pool equity decreases by calling, you should fold.
If your total prize pool equity increases by calling, you should call.
Easy, right?
Further reading on the independent chip model (ICM).
ICM by tomfmason.com
ICM by HoldemReview.com
Introduction to ICM by SitandGoPlanet.com
This article is long enough, but if I didn't cover everything or explain a few points too well, you
may benefit reading up on the same topic from other talented writers. You might find that you
respond better to other writers' teaching methods, or that reading the same idea from a different
perspective helps to reinforce a few key points.
Either way, I have found the 3 articles above to be the most useful for learning about ICM.
What Is The Independent Chip Model

(ICM)?
Texas Hold'em > Strategy > Tournaments > ICM > What Is ICM?
0
What is ICM? > How to use ICM
Easy-to-understand guides for the independent chip model (ICM) in

poker are few and far between, so I'm going to try hard to keep this article as concise and
relevant to improving your Sit and Go tournament game as possible.
In this article I aim to answer the question "what is the independent chip model?" and also
highlight how you can go about working it out.
In the next article, I will explain how ICM can be used in tournament poker to help you make
profitable decisions near the bubble. Let's get started...
What is the independent chip model?

The independent chip model assigns $ value to your chip stack in a tournament.
How much are 100 chips worth in a tournament? How about 10,000 chips? Well that all depends
on a few things:
The amount of chips in play.

The prize pool distribution.
The amount of chips in play.

If there are only 1,000 chips in play, then those 100 chips are quite valuable. However, if there
are 100,000 chips in play, then 100 chips isn't really going to be worth all that much at all.
The prize structure.

Lets say you have 100 chips (out of 1,000 left at the table), there are 5 players left and only 1st
place pays. The $ value of those 100 chips is not really a lot, as your chances of walking away
from the tournament with some money in your pocket is quite slim.
However, if there are 5 players left and there is an equal payout for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th, the
chance of you winning some money is not so bad, so your chips are worth a little more in terms
of $ overall.
Think about it, would you rather take a player's 100 chips when only 1st place pays or if 4 places
pay equally (with 5 players left at the table)? You're going to see a better ROI in the long run by
taking the player's chips when 4 places pay as opposed to 1.
In the following section I will use the ICM idea of each chip being worth something in terms of $
for working out our overall prize pool equity based on the size of our chip stack.
Using ICM to work out prize pool equity.

If you have 5,000 chips and player B and C each have 2,500 chips, how much is your 5,000
going to win for you in the long run?
In a tournament it's not like we can cash out our chips at any time for what we think they're
worth. We have to continue playing to see whether we take down 1st, 2nd or 3rd prize in the
tournament. Of course, the more chips we have compared to the other players the more likely it
is we will win one of the top prizes.
To put it another way, using the ICM we work out our prize pool equity, which is the amount of
money we expect to win from the tournament on average based on:
The current size of our stack.

The current size of the other players' stacks.
The amount of money in the prize pool and how much you get for coming 1st, 2nd, 3rd
and so on (prize pool distribution).
Basic prize pool equity example.

At the very beginning of a $20 tournament before any cards are dealt, each player has the same
stack size and therefore will have the exact same equity of $20 in the tournament. Easy enough.
To give another similar example...
There are 4 players left at the table in a $10+$1 SnG at PokerStars. The total prize pool is $100
with a standard 1st, 2nd and 3rd payout of $50, $30 and $20 (but that's kinda irrelevant for this
example). If all the players have an equal amount of chips, their prize pool equity would be
exactly the same:
Player A: (2,500 chips) = $25 equity.

Player B: (2,500 chips) = $25 equity.
Player C: (2,500 chips) = $25 equity.
This equity business obviously get's more complicated as each player's chip stack varies, but I
hope this gives you a basic idea of prize pool equity.
How to work out prize pool equity.

As we have just mentioned, we want to work out how much $ equity we have in the tournament
based on the size of our stack and our opponents' stack sizes.
When we work out our prize pool equity all we care about is the current size of the stacks. We
then use that information to work out how much money each player is expected to win from the
tournament on average. The more chips you have, the more money you are likely to win.
Each individual player's skill is not factored in to the equation. It's quite basic, but the more chips
you have the higher the probability is that you're going to win one of the top prizes.
Furthermore, ICM doesn't factor in any luck that will be involved in the tournament. We're just
looking at stack sizes for an indication of how much money each player will be winning on
average, nothing else.
Working out prize pool equity example.

We're at the final stages of a $10+$1 Sit and Go tournament with 3 other players (we are Player
A). The stack sizes and SnG payout's are as follows:
(HERO) Player A - 5,000
Player B - 2,500
Player C - 2,500
1st place - $50
2nd place - $30
3rd place - $20
As you can guess, Player A will have the most prize pool equity and players B and C will have
an equal amount of prize pool equity. Now, I could work the prize pool equity for each player
out by hand by doing a bunch of mathematics, but I'm not going to do this for 3 reasons:
1. It requires a hefty amount of mathematics and it's quite possibly the least fun thing to
work out in the world.
2. You're never going to want to work it out by yourself anyway. It just takes ages.
3. ICM calculators make working out prize pool equity super easy.
I'm going to input the numbers in to this awesome ICM calculator and skip to the results. I might
create a walkthrough to working out ICM by hand in the future, but until then this ICM
calculator is good enough for now.
So, I input the prize pool structure and the chip stacks and let the ICM calculator do the magic:
Each player's equity results.

Player A: (5,000 chips) = $38.33 equity.
Therefore, with 5,000 chips Player A expects to win $38.33 from the tournament on average.
Player B expects to win $30.83 on average and so on.
Try playing with the ICM calculator yourself to see how much money you expect to win on
average from different payout structures based on how many chips you and your opponents have.
It's pretty cool.
Evaluation of ICM.
So that's a quick overview of the independent chip model and ICM for you. Nothing
groundbreaking, but the sole intention of this article was to give you a basic understanding of the
independent chip model and prize pool equity.
Working out each player's equity in the tournament is cool and stuff, but this information isn't
very practical just yet. In the next step I'm going to use this information to work out whether or
not you should risk chips by calling all-ins toward the end of a tournament.
The how to use ICM in tournaments article will essentially help you to answer the question "is
the risk worth the reward?" when faced with tricky all-in decisions in Sit and Go tournaments.

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What is bankroll management?

What is bankroll management?

Why is bankroll management important?

Why is bankroll management important?

The following principle is key to becoming a successful poker player.

Without the proper money

What is bankroll management?

Why is bankroll management important?

So what limits should I be playing at?

Bankroll management table.

Bankroll management for pro players.

Bankroll management at short-handed tables.

Style of play and variance.

Absorbing losses and moving on.

Moving levels and taking shots.

Bankroll management evaluation.

The seats in between these will be called middle position or MP..

Poker table position diagram.

You win more money from later

The seats in Green are late position

How to use table position in poker.

Poker table position example.

The cut off.

Positional awareness graph.

A graph to show the

Poker table position evaluation.

Basic starting hand selection.

Second tier starting hands.

Top 10 Texas Hold'em starting hands.

Top 20 starting hands.

Starting hand selection and table position.

Why is table position important in starting hand selection?

The importance of starting hand selection.

Starting hand selection example.

Starting hand selection example evaluation.

Starting hand selection evaluation.

Table selection lobby figures.

Average pot size.

Average number of players per flop.

Table selection example.

Time of play and table selection.

Table selection evaluation.

How often should you bluff?

The extra advantages of bluffing in poker.

Giving yourself a loose image.

Putting your opponents on tilt.

Poker bluffing tips.

Good bluffing situations in poker.

Poker bluffing evaluation.

How should you size your bets?

Quick rule for no limit bet sizing.

Bet sizing diagram.

Why bet so big?

1. Gives opponents incorrect pot odds to continue with drawing hands.

When to make small bets.

Advantages of big bets over small bets.

A big mistake with bet sizing.

Raising before the flop.