18
You should enter the tournament as early as possible. Presumably, you're participating in the tournament because you have some sort of edge against the field. In other words, you should be playing the tournament because it is profitable for you to do so.
Playing the earlier stages of the tournament lets you play more hands against your opponents, which (...
8
I think the writer is arguing that calling with A5 is a bad idea preflop, while your italicized thoughts from the callers position are talking about post flop.
Post flop, I think A5 on an A65 rainbow board is a strong hand; however preflop A5 is fairly weak.
The "Great" sentence from the excerpt is the writer putting the caller (who holds A5) on single ...
8
Check raising can be used to punish people who auto-bet in position too often. It's also good for semi-bluffing or building a pot when you've got a made hand vs normal betting frequencies.
It's part of a balanced strategy. If every time you have a hand you donk and every time you check you either check-call or check-fold then your opponents can take ...
8
Jam on the flop after the small blind bets $80 into a $210 pot.
This is a perfect opportunity to semi-bluff. You have 9 outs to the nut flush and 3 outs to top pair. The only hands that are going to be comfortable calling your all-in are a completed straight or combo draw. You'll get a fair amount of folds from overpairs/top pair in this spot and many good ...
8
OK, let's break it down mathematically. I'm going to use a standard poker equity calculator for this.
You have T⋄ 9⋄
You say the all-in player had a medium pocket pair. For this "exercise", let's pick 8♠8♣
Let's consider the third player a typical tight-agressive player, in this case with a standard 18% Range of hands preflop
...
8
My interpretation is that mathematically, the expectation in EV is taken across the probability distribution of poker cards that are yet to be dealt in a particular hand as well as the randomness in opponents' play, and it is assumed that every other piece of information (including situation, position, etc) you can have is already taken into account when you ...
7
Basically it depends on some factors:
the available statistics and notes to the opponents.
tournament stage
your stack
opponent's stack
General Big Blind behaviour:
we tend to defend blinds against the "stealer", who is more loose/agressive than average
we tend to defend blinds in the late tournament stage
we tend to defend the blind against the big stack ...
7
As you said, it is easy. You want to start with the maximum BB's. Play tight in beginning to increase your stack. If you join as shortstack with around 30 bb's you can be an easy victim by someone who pushes you all in without any problems. That will not happen in the beginning phase, because everyone has the same amount of bb's..
as you said, easy. :))
now ...
7
The problem with with making a standard raise with an M under 5 is that you will be left with a stack that is too low if you lose the pot. If a standard raise for this tournament is 2.5BB then you are raising to 2K to open the pot. If only the big blind calls you now have a 5K pot and a stack of 6K behind. Should you decide to push all in at this point your ...
6
In my experience:
One approach in this spots, is enter the pot only if you have position
If you don't have position enter the pot only if the rest of players are very passive
If you have premium then stab the pot strongly, since pot is very small you may want only one player to stay at it.
Always take in mind the size of your stack, it may help you to take ...
6
I think the odds that someone will have a higher straight flush is very very very low.
If you got such a hand you should assume you will win it.
How to play? well, it depends on your position and the other players play (loose, tight, aggressive, etc.)
I think the following will be a good guidelines:
If you play against aggressive/loose players, let ...
6
You have an interesting point of view about the short stacks, but this point tells me that you lack a few key things about short stack play.
As you might know, in cash games, the blinds never increase. As you might know as well, in cash games you can buy in for any amount which is between two fixed amounts, set by the casino. However, in cash games the pots ...
6
This is an excellent question. Seriously. One of the top on this site.
You can use this technique, especially in multi-table tournaments and heads'up situations. But you have to be very aware of its consequences.
Some reasons why you could do this:
1). piss other players off. This works both online and live. If you constantly take 2 - 3 or more minutes to ...
6
It's not just home games that view check-raising as "pejorative" as you say. Most of the lowball games spread in Southern California flat-out banned check-raising. The other answers are generally correct... the reasons you would check-raise are the same as why you would bet out. Sometimes, though, check-raising makes a lot more sense than just betting out ...
6
In a smaller home game just be nice. If you are a bully you might not get invited back. In my home game I had one guy that would taunt when he would win. I just did not invite him back.
Just pretend you are a guy that at least knows the rules.
Don't use terms they might look up and get better. I forget what book but a pro was ridiculing a fish and ...
6
I found some opening charts here which you might find useful:
Semi-Loose
Tight
There is also a chart here with calling, 3-betting and 4-betting ranges:
5
The books I have read by professional poker players discuss the check raise as part of a balanced strategy and discuss its use. The authors specifically point out that is perfectly acceptable. I surmise that those who object simply don't like having to cope with this particular tactic. If its a game among family or friends and someone objects, you might ...
5
Generally, low suited connectors don't have enough value to be played consistently and they have high reverse implied odds, meaning that even when you hit two pair, a straight, or a flush, it's still a second-best hand and you lose more than you should.
One time to go ahead and play them is when it's cheap to do so and you're capable enough to not lose too ...
5
If a person's end goal is to become a good enough poker player to win money consistently, play money is a great way to get started. BUT over time, it becomes less productive and at some point becomes counterproductive to learning.
It's a great place to start because:
1) There is no risk involved
2) You can learn the rules and get comfortable with general ...
4
Firstly, you should realize that when you're playing against novice players you're in a good situation because it'll be easier to capitalize on their mistakes (since they'll tend to make more of them than experienced players).
Secondly, their playing styles are very important - not all novice players play the same (in fact, not all novice players online ...
4
As well as the link Toby has suggested above take a look a the following:
the simple psychology of postflop play
How to play after the flop
Post flop strategy
Post flop play after missing flop
Top 15 Poker - Post Flop strategy
Partypoker - Post flop play
Pokerstars Pokerschool - Post Flop quiz
The last one is a quiz. There are a lot of useful quizzes on ...
4
Strategy itself is a fluid thing, and although the flow of a game and the effective strategy to beat it will constantly change, the fundamentals of good strategy don't. Wherever you play poker, it's still the same game, play money or real money!
Simply put, if you let the type of game interfere with what you believe/know to be an effective strategy, then ...
4
Like many answers in poker, it depends. If the table you are at is wild and crazy, you can tighten up, back off and let them all duke it out. Don't sit back too long though or the luckiest of the crazies will soon be the chip leader. If the table is playing tight at this point, steal more blinds than normal. But perhaps one good strategy is, don't get into ...
4
No one has answered the actual answer to the question. ICM. ICM stands for Independent Chip Model, taking storm in the late 2000's. ICM determines the value of chips at a given point in the tournament based on pay structure, and players remaining. In essence, the more chips you accumulate, the less they are worth, since the tourney is not a winner take all. ...
4
This has to do with the fact that late-position players in a poker hand have an advantage, having seen what early position players did, or didn't do.
A check raise represents an attempt by an early position player to reverse the order. That is, he will wait for the late position player to bet first, before showing his strength. If a player never check ...
4
Critical points to consider:
You are on bubble and you are second biggest stack.
Player with a lower stack just went all-in having 5 players in front of him
In double or nothing all winners get same reward ammount
What this should tell you:
You should avoid any play which risks loosing a whole stack
Opponent has something really strong
There is no need ...
4
Rich? It's extremely hard to be "rich" just by playing poker, but it's simple enough to make a living off it. The reason being that you have to be vastly superior to the field to make steady money off poker with a rake (like at Casinos). For example, in order for you to "break even" with a 7% rake, you need to be a 53.5% winning player. If you eat fancy ...
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