Clay's Guide to Poker Domination
Since we are all, ahem, novice players here
is a compilation of good stuff from the web.
No-Limit Texas Hold'em
Common Mistakes
- Not releasing a decent hand when beat, thus
losing the whole stack on one hand.
- Calling with weak holdings when facing a bet.
- Playing too many starting hands.
- Not raising pre-flop with premium hands
(putting pressure on limpers holding drawing hands) and then going too far
with them after the flop.
- Over/under betting the pot (risking a lot to
win small/not protecting hand).
Basic
Pre-flop Strategy
- Most of the time you should raise/re-raise with
top-pairs (AA-QQ) and top connectors (AK, AQs)
in order to make low-pairs and various connectors pay to see flops against
you. Remember, they will often have the opportunity to double up on you if
they hit (although many beginners do not realize this and fold too often
pre-flop).
- Stick to the premium hands. You will pay dearly
to "chase" with second-best hands in NL.
- Keep most raises down to between 70% and 100%
(making it 3 times the big blind to go typically equals an 80% pot bet) in
order to save money when you get re-raised or called by stronger holdings.
If there are limpers in front of you, raise to about 4-6 times the big
blind.
- Have respect for strong tight players (for
example, you should drop AQ if a strong player raises
under the gun).
- When very weak players have entered the pot, be
inclined to call and take flops with them.
ADVICE
ON STARTING HANDS by John Vorhaus
BIG POCKET PAIRS, A-A through J-J. You're probably going to
play these hands no matter what, even though there are times when you should
throw them away, especially pocket jacks, but I don't expect a saint's patience
from you, so there you go. But here's the thing about your big pocket pairs in poker: they play best against few
opponents. That's because their high card strength is their primary asset. If
your pocket kings encounters a flop like 9-8-7, it's probably still the best hand, but the more foes it faces, the
higher the chance that someone is sitting on a straight draw and getting
the right odds to go for it. So if you have big pocket pairs, would you please
do me one little favor and raise? Raise!
Drive out the ribbon clerks. This is imperative.
Don't get cute and try to trap. You're not that
cute, and the baby rabbit with his foot in the trap is most likely to be you.
MEDIUM POCKET PAIRS lose a lot of potential to
win without help because they're so easily dominated by the flop. Your dogballs (8-8) look like happy warriors preflop,
but when the flop comes A-K-T, you have to figure
you're beat. What, then, to do with middle pairs? Fold before the flop? Oh, I
wish you would, just for the discipline you'd demonstrate. Failing that, treat
your medium pocket pairs as the drawing hands they are. They're really
not going anywhere for you unless you hit a set on the flop, and that
proposition, in Texas Hold'em, is 7.5-1 against. So
try to sneak in late in an unraised pot with lots of
callers, recognizing that your post-flop strategy is fit or fold:
Either you'll get help from the flop or you'll get gone.
Yes, there are times when you'll raise with middle
pairs in an attempt to isolate against the A-Ks and A-Js of this world. Just
don't try to force the issue by overplaying your middle pairs in early or
middle position. You're inviting too much loving attention from all the overcards (or, zounds, overpairs!) behind you.
LITTLE POCKET PAIRS are a great, chip-sucking
vacuum. We look at them and our eyes go glassy. We do some rudimentary math and
realize that we're better than even money against any unpaired hand. Against
any single unpaired hand, yes, but not against even one more than one.
(You want math? Oh, I got math. Against Ad-Kc and Qh-Jc ,
your frisky 4h-4c will lose 70% of the time! Sobering, ain't it, Bunky?) Little pairs,
even more than medium pairs, then, demand large, soft fields and unraised pots. Don't even think about playing them in early
position, because you won't know if you're going to get the soft field and unraised pot you need. Limp late into large fields or chuck
'em in the muck.
Sure, sure, sure, every now and then you'll flop a set - and confirmation bias will tell you that it
happens much more often than not. But the bottom line is that little pairs are
little poison, a disastrous leak in most people's play. If you're paying any
attention at all to the notion of starting requirements, pay attention to this:
Most players can't get away from any little pair. If you can, you'll be so far
ahead of them they'll never catch up.
Recap:
·
With BIG
PAIRS, raise to isolate.
·
With
MEDIUM PAIRS, limp late into large fields.
·
With
SMALL PAIRS, look for an excuse to fold.
GOOD ACES. Good aces are position dependent. An A-T is not a good ace in early position. You probably
need to hit the flop twice (with two aces, two tens, or an ace and a ten) to
feel confident, and you just can't count on that. The same A-T may be
considered a good ace in late position. Thus, give yourself a sliding scale.
A-K is always a good ace, A-Q likes a little position, A-J
likes a little more position and so on. A-T is a bad "good ace." I
wouldn't get all that worked up about it.
Don't get all drippy about suited big aces, either,
because they're not much stronger than unsuited big aces. In general they add
about 3% of value. 3%! That's less than I tip! And yet you'll encounter players
who consider big suited aces to be magically endowed. Don't fall into that
trap. Here's a useful rule of thumb:
If you wouldn't play an unsuited ace in a certain
situation, don't play a suited one either.
MEDIOCRE ACES. I call them mediocre aces
on purpose because I want you to think of these cards (A-9, A-8, A-7) with
abiding disdain. They're not good hands, and you shouldn't treat them as
such, even if everyone else at the poker table has other ideas. In
fact, the more excited your foes are about aces, the less enthusiastic you
should get about your middling ones. If everyone plays any ace (in a game
that's said to be below the anyace line)
then there's no way someone makes a sensible laydown
with an out-of-position A-T or A-J. Your promiscuously
played A-9 or A-8 will end up being dominated and crushed.
Sure, you'll hold dominance over the nitwits playing
baby aces, but you'll only be able to exploit that dominance if you know your
opponents very well and can put them on worse aces than your own. And look at
the bind that gets you into! If the flop comes A-big-big, you're heading for a
split pot situation, but if it comes A-little-little, you could be staring down
the barrel of a flopped two-pair.
Again I would repeat: The hand you don't play is the
hand you can't lose. With your mediocre aces, you should either be staying out
of trouble or raising with intent to clear the field
and capture the blinds either before or after the flop. At this point, you're
playing the naked strength of your ace. You're looking either for folds all
around or for calls from hands like K-J or 7-8, followed by a ragged flop you
can bet. But that's running a bluff, not betting a strong ace.
BAD ACES. Like any other hand
containing a little card, bad aces are contaminated by little poison. I can see
no rational reason for playing A-6, A-5, A-4, A-3 or A-2, even suited, except
in unraised blinds. Especially in the aforementioned anyace games (the kind you're likely to encounter at the
low limits you now play) any little ace you play is likely to be dominated and
crushed by the slightly less cheesy aces your opponents opt to play. They can't
stay out of trouble. Can you?
Talking points:
·
Good aces are position-dependent. The later the ace, the better it is.
·
Mediocre aces are trouble hands. Only play them if you're in late position with
excellent reads.
·
Bad aces are bad hands. For your profit and your peace of mind, learn to
muck bad aces.
WHEELHOUSE HANDS. In my nomenclature,
wheelhouse cards are cards between ten and ace-in most players' wheelhouse, so
to speak. A wheelhouse hand, then, is one containing two unpaired, unaced cards: K-Q, K-J, K-T, Q-J, and Q-T. Those are some
pretty hands, right? Erk. Well, maybe.
K-Q probably gets more players into more trouble
than any other hand in the history of Texas Hold'em.
It flops a top pair, good kicker, only to get crushed
by top pair, ace kicker. Remember, most people will play K-Q, but virtually everyone
plays A-K and A-Q, so if you get heat in this situation, it's probably from a
better hand.
This whole class of hands, though, represents a
slippery poker slope. If you can convince yourself that K-Q is playable, how much
argument could K-J require? And if K-J is good, what could possibly be wrong
with Q-J? Q-T? Before you know it, you're considering
any wheelhouse hand to be playable, even for raises.
Again, in all of this I don't put much more value on
suited hands than unsuited ones. All "suited" seems to do is beguile
the mind, and make us think that our hands are much, much stronger than they
are. Remember my rule of thumb: If you wouldn't play it unsuited, don't play it
suited either. Speaking of suited...
MIDDLE SUITED CONNECTORS. These hands have value in
one particular way: If everyone else is playing wheelhouse hands, and you play
something like 9-8 suited, the hand that hits you is unlikely to hit anybody
else. So I say, yeah, go ahead and play your middle suited connectors, with the
following big caveats:
·
If there are raises in front of you, don't call, not ever. Respect the
declared strength of those hands, and recognize that they're likely to bet
again after the flop.
·
If you're in late position with many callers, just call. You want to
play this holding like the drawing hand it is.
·
If you're in middle to late position and no one has entered the pot... raise!
Yes, it's a substandard hand, but you're raising for
deception here, and if you hit your hand, you'll get paid off well.
·
If you miss the flop, you're done with it. Don't chase.
This last point is crucial. If you can't get away
from suited connectors (or any hand) on the flop, you shouldn't play them in
the first place. We are our own worst enemy sometimes, and never is this more evident than when we chase, chase, chase with
little or no piece of the flop.
Okay, other Texas Hold'em
hands.
LITTLE SUITED CONNECTORS. Little
poison. Don't play.
UP-DOWNS. An up-down is something
like K-6 or Q-5 or J-7. Don't play 'em.
UP-DOWN SUITEDS. Don't play 'em
either.
GAPPED HANDS. T-8, 9-7,
8-6, etc. These forlorn ragamuffins are looking to hit the flop twice
for two pair, trips or an open-ended straight draw. It's delusional madness.
Don't play.
UGGOS. An uggo
is an ugly hand with absolutely nothing going for it. 8-3,
T-2, 9-4. Don't play. Not ever. I mean, seriously, get real.
Here's the deal with starting requirements: Either
you have them or you don't, and either you respect them or you don't. There are
plenty of players out there content to play any hand they hold. "Any two
will do," they believe, and God love them for their cherished beliefs.
Over time, they'll give you all their money... so long as you don't sink to
their level.
Every poker hand is a horse race, you
know. If every race were equal, everyone would win the same amount over time.
But the races aren't equal - not when you have the choice of racing or not
racing. When you enter the pot with good cards, it's like starting with a big
head start. When you go in with bad cards, it's like starting with a big, fat
handicap.
Having - and sticking to - a starting requirements
strategy, ensures that you usually start with the lead. Either
a big lead, as with big pocket pairs, or a small lead, as with A-big.
Start with a hand like 7-6, though, and you're back, back, back in the pack.
Yeah, you might win, but you inevitably have some catching up to do, and most
of the time you'll finish exactly where you start: behind.
How about skipping that part? If you're not the
favorite, scratch yourself from the race! There'll be another one along in a
minute.
Winning Tips on Texas Hold’em by Bill Burton
Before the Flop:
Starting Hands:
Position, Patience and Power are the key to winning in Texas Hold’em. The most important decision you will make is
choosing to play a starting hand. The biggest mistake a player makes is playing
too many hands. Being aware of your Position in relationhip
to the dealer is important in Texas Hold’em. You need
a stronger hand to act from early position because you have more players acting
after you who may raise or re-raise the pot. It is important that you are
Patient and wait for Powerful starting hands to play from the correct position.
The player to the left of
the big blind acts first before the flop. He along with the other two players to his
left are in early position. The next three players are
middle position and the ones after that are in late position. The blinds act
last before the flop and first after it. Here are some guidelines for stating
hands that I recommend you play when you are starting out. They are fairly
tight but will give you a good foundation to work with until you learn a little
more about the game.
In Early position
Raise with A-A, K-K and A-Ks from any position. (s denotes suited cards) Call with A-K, A-Qs, K-Qs and Q-Q
J-J, T-T and fold everything else.
In Middle position
Call with, 9-9, 8-8, A-Js, A-Ts, Q-Js, A-Q, K-Q
In Late position
Call with A-Xs, K-Ts, Q-Ts, J-Ts, A-J, A-T and small
pairs. (note x denotes any card) It takes a stronger
hand to call a raise than it does to make with one, If
there is a raise before it is your turn to act you should fold. Why put in two
bets with marginal hands?
Note:
Many players will play any two suited cards from any position and they will
play an Ace with any small kicker. These hands are losers in the long run and
you should avoid getting into the habit of playing them. They are traps that
will cost you money.
The Blinds
Once you post your blind the money no longer belongs to you. Many players feel
they must defend their blinds by calling all raises even with marginal hands.
Don’t waste additional money on marginal hands. Also, don’t automatically call
with the small blind if you have nothing. Saving a half bet will pay for your
next small blind.
The Flop
Deciding whether to continue playing after seeing the flop will be your second
biggest decision. It can also be one of the most costly decisions if you
continue after the flop with an inferior hand. It is said that the flop defines
your hand. That is because after the flop your hand will be 71 percent complete.
Where does this figure come from? Assuming you play your hand out to the end,
it will consist of seven cards. After the flop you have seen five cards or 5/7
of the final hand, which is equal to 71 percent. With this much of your hand
completed you should have enough information to determine whether to continue.
Poker Author Shane Smith coined the phrase “Fit or Fold. If the flop does not
fit your hand by giving you top pair, or better or a straight or flush draw,
then you should fold if there is a bet in front of you. If you played a small
pair from late position and you do not flop a third
one to make a set you should throw the pair away if there is a bet.
The Turn
If you think you have the best hand after seeing the Turn card and are first to
act, then go ahead and bet. Many players will try to
get fancy and attempt to check raise in this position. If the other players
also check, you have lost a bet or two. In low limit games the straight forward
approach is usually the best as there are plenty of players who will call you.
Make them pay. Why give them a free card if you don’t have to.
If another player raises on
the turn and you hold only one pair you are more than likely beaten and should
fold.
If you get to the Turn and you hold only two
unsuited overcards (two cards higher that any cards
on the board) with no flush or straight draws, then you should fold if there is
a bet in front of you. Too much money is lost by players who hope to catch a
miracle card on the river. The best hand you can make with two unsuited overcards is a pair which will probably lose anyways.
The River
If you have been playing properly you will not see the river card unless you
have a strong hand that is a favorite to win or you have a draw to a winning
hand. Once the river card is turned over, you know exactly what you have. If
you were drawing to a hand, you know whether you were successful or not.
Obviously if you do not make your hand you will fold.
As with the Turn you should
bet your hand if you are first to act. If you bet and the other player folds then
they more than likely would have just checked if you had checked in an attempt
to check raise.
When you get to the river there are two mistakes
that you can make. One is to call a losing bet, which will cost you the price
of a bet. The other is to fold your hand, which will cost you all the money in
the pot. Obviously folding your hand will be a far more costly mistake then
merely calling a bet. If there is a slight chance you may have the winning hand
you should call. I’m not advocating calling with nothing but you should call if
there is a chance to win.
Reading The Board
Your ability to read the board will help make you a winning player and it is
not hard to learn. Since Texas Hold’em
is played with community cards turned up for all to see, you can easily
determine the best possible hand that can be made from the board cards and two
unseen cards. It is extremely important that you learn determine how your hand
stacks up against the other possible hands that your opponents may hold. Two
situations should send up a red flag when you see them.
If there are three suited cards on the board someone
can make a flush. If a player raises when the third
suited card is turned over you should be wary of continuing. If there is a pair
on the board a player can make four of a kind or a full house.
Pay Attention
When you are not involved in a hand you should still pay attention to the game.
You can gain valuable information about your opponents simply by observing what
hands they play. It’s easy to determine the players who plays and suited cards,
or single aces by watching the hands they turn over at the end. That brings me
to one final tip.
NEVER SHOW YOUR HAND if you don’t have to. If
you win the pot because everyone else folded you are under no obligation to
show your cards. You don’t want to give away any information about yourself if
you don’t have to And player who turn over their cards when they don’t have to
are doing just that.
