POKER STRATEGY :

Folding :

The biggest issue here is paying attention . Is someone overbetting? You only know if you've been watching their showdowns or folds when raised or re-raised.You can't play poker effectively while you're talking to your girlfriend or boyfriend. You might get away with that for awhile if you're a really tight player in a big tournament.Otherwise, you need to pay attention .If you find that a player is making big raises with crap like 10 J off, then you establish that person as a target for yourself.Maybe they exhibit the same behavior with AA at some point, and you get burned. It happens. In my experience, some players get into a bully habit if they think you are a tight player. It depends on the blinds, their chips, and your chips… but you often have an advantage against those types of players when calling their BS with a mid pocket pair or what you believe to be strong overcards.

The point here, is that you have to watch their behavior to know what's going on. Players who do that usually do it in somewhat late position. If they're doing it in early position, they might be gone before you get a chance to exploit it. You have to watch to know.

Two Big Poker Mistakes Will Equal a Tournament Elimination

Here's the situation. I'm in a multi-table poker tournament. The stakes were $150 + a $12 entry fee. So, I have $162 wrapped up in this game.A friend calls right as the game starts. In large poker tournaments, I usually play only premium hands. So, I figured I could talk a little bit while I fold 20 times in a row, then pay better attention later. That was the first mistake. You should be watching everything carefully, including who lost what hand with what hand after a showdown. You should be watching how people behave in general. You can't do these things effectively while you are distracted.

Here are the details.

I'm in the small blind. Blinds are 10-20 because we are in the very early stages of this game. For the same reason, chip distribution among the 10 players at the table was fairly even.

Dealt to me
Q A

The player in first position calls 20. Everyone else folds until it gets to me. I don't consider
Q A to be a premium hand, but I called 10 to get in, expecting the big blind to check, 3 players in the hand, and one who is only there because because their chips were already paid.

Instead, the big blind raises 205. I was leary of the player who called in first position to start with. My hand needed to improve on the flop for me to have any interest at all. Here are the mistakes…

First mistake, if I'm going to play crap like
Q A in the early stages of a tournament and in late position, I should have raised it a little in an attempt to get the big blind to stay out of the hand.

After the big blind raised 205, the player in first position folded.

Second mistake, I'm still on the phone with my friend. He's also a poker player. At this point, I'm both distracted, and getting cocky because we are talking about poker. I put the big blind (that raised 205) all in. I should have folded since I was risking my entire tournament on one hand that I didn't particularly care for to start with. The big blind calls my all in. I would have preferred he folded, but I made the move, and he called.

Here's the result on the board…

4 9 3 5 J

The big blind was holding
4 A

He paired his fours, and I was eliminated. I think he made two mistakes, but it really doesn't matter when he has all of my chips, and I'm gone from the poker tournament. He misplayed, but my mistakes were mine, and I still had an opportunity to only lose 10 chips in the hand after his 205 raise. I should have taken that opportunity, because there's really no reason to risk the whole tourney over
Q A .So, first… don't get distracted. Second… don't get cocky. The two of those removed $162 from my pocket in about 15 seconds, and my mistakes were completely avoidable.

Big Chippers Play Crap. They win that way sometimes.

Here's the deal.

Large No Limit tournament. $50 buy in, with more than half the field gone.

Dealt to me, and I limp in for 100.
K Q

Here's the flop…
T Q 3 $200 in the pot plus blinds.

I have top pair, plus a good kicker. I bet $450. The other single player in the game calls. I figure he has a flush draw, and doesn't understand pot odds.

The turn is
9 .

Possible straight on the board at this point. I go all in because I think I have it. He didn't call my $450 on a straight draw, given the flop. I didn't think so, anyway.

He calls my “all in.”

River…
2 .

What's he have in the hole???
T 9 .

His 2 pair took my entire stack. Why? I started the hand with $1515. He started the hand with $5500.

Why did this happen? IMO, it's because he could afford to take the risk. Lesson: A big stack will call some crap on you, just to see what happens. In this case, his crap happened. Would I play that hand differerently? Probably not.

Limit Holdem - why it's better than NL holdem…

As I said in an earlier post… with NL holdem, it often turns out that you made a big mistake, or watched someone else make a big mistake.

You can keep all of the notes you like, but the dummies run out of money, and the smart guys will clock you if you've only met them once and caught them making a dumb move.

With limit holdem, you usually play with the same people for an hour or so, sometimes more. You get a better read on them. Are they savvy and got a bad beat? Are they dumb and deserved it? Either way,they probably both have some money left.

The savvy ones… do you know what they play? You can exploit that. The dumb ones… do you know what they play? You can exploit that.

Did you just see someone get a really bad beat? Do you assume that they are a little tilted? If you have a good hand, you exploit that too.

If you're a watcher, then limit poker is your game. If you're a bulldog, then you'll find that NL poker is your game, or you'll go broke fast. Either way, you have to know the odds, and you have to know the pot odds. We'll cover those later. The point here is to play to your strength personality-wise.

SNG Holdem - short stack - big stack - same strategy to win.

I'm playing a $50 SNG, with 10 players. 3 hands into the game, I took two people out. Suddenly, I have 3000+ chips and everyone else has 1000 or less.

We all know that big stacks bully little stacks. When I'm the little stack, I see that as a nice opportunity.

When I'm the big stack… and in this case… it's a big stack. You should tighten up and protect it. Don't bully.

Someone is waiting on you to try to bully them, and you'll find your big stack becomes average stack.

Likewise, it's ok to take a few chances when the blinds are small and you can sneak in. That might leave you with a little luck and a bigger stack. Once your stack is small, you need to tighten up and pick your spots.

When you've earned (or become lucky) and have a big stack… don't get reckless.

I won the SNG. Carefully watch what others think are good hands… but that's a different post.

Of course… the strategy changes when you're playing $200 SNGs or $20 SNGs.

One of the biggest problems with no limit games is this: By the time you know someone is dumb, they're gone. By the time someone totally outplays you, you're gone. That's why you both protect, and take very calculated risks when playing NL poker, at any level.