Holdem Poker Guru

The best poker players either have a great memory or they keep a journal. Since this book is for novice to intermediate players, let’s not worry about the great memory part. That will come if you are motivated enough. It takes extra work to write some notes after each poker session, but that extra work is directly related to the level of your motivation. Are you willing to take the time, to expend the energy to become a better player? Just picture each player in your mind and write down some things they did, either good or bad. Did they re-raise with that pair of kings? Did they slow play the draw hands? Did they check-raise with two pair? When you start writing down these incidents you will program your mind to remember more and more of them. You will find yourself more alert to what is taking place. You are not just training yourself to remember a particular hand; you also will be developing your mind to notice what all the players did. Each and every hand has lessons to be learned.
Are you motivated enough to spend time thinking about different ways to playa full house? Most poker games have fast and furious action. You don’t have time to explore each of several possible courses of action. If you have a plan in place, you can implement that plan instantly or you can choose one of several alternatives very quickly.

Suppose you catch rolled up trips in Seven Card Stud.

Are you prepared to slow play them? Or what is the best way to play three of a kind when the pot is raised and re-raised before it gets to you? Should you also raise? Or will you likely make more money if you wait until fifth street to let them know you have a good hand?

If you have a pair of tens in an Omaha game and the flop comes with a red jack and the two black tens, how do you react? You have the best possible hand with little chance of getting beat by a royal flush or four jacks. The usual play is to only call until the next betting round. However, once in a while, when you flop a monster, lead bet it. That will probably mislead most of the players and make them cautious when you lead bet the next time.

Good position is power. You can make more money and lose less money if you play position correctly. It is easier in fixed position games like Texas Hold ‘Em and Omaha Hold ‘Em to keep position in mind. In random position games like Seven Card Stud, it takes a tad more motivation to keep remembering where you are in relation to the first person to act. The more people who act in front, the more poker knowledge you have of who has what.

The discipline to throwaway marginal hands that are beat is tough to develop. It takes motivation to remind yourself that the old principle of good poker is true: When you are beat, get out! If you have the motivation to recall that axiom twenty or so times per poker session, you will cash out a lot more chips.

Remember Colorado Cal. He lacked motivation to learn how to play correctly and profitably. He lost money every year. You can learn from his experience and decrease your losses and increase your wins by becoming motivated to win. Choose good habits.

Colorado Cal had played poker for years and years. And for years and years, Colorado Cal lost money. He didn’t lose each and every time. By no means. Sometimes he got on a heater and won for weeks on end. But there was never a year that Colorado Cal ended up with a win.

We should certainly ask why Cal lost consistently.

Maybe we could learn something. Maybe we could find a way to improve our game.

Colorado Cal loved to play! Loving to play poker is not in and of itself a serious defect. However, Cal loved to play all the hands he was dealt. As a famous poker author has already written, “He never met a hand he didn’t like.” Playing a lot of hands is a serious flaw. The ability to lay down a hand is crucial for winning at poker. Colorado Cal would look at his hole cards and would find all kinds of excuses to play. The excuse he used a lot was, “Maybe I can draw out on him.”

One day over a cup of coffee, I asked Cal how a certain player named Steve played. Cal answered, “I have no idea. I never watch the other players. I guess I am not motivated enough to study their play.” That last remark is the clue we need to figure out why Cal loses. The word “motivation” is a fundamental factor in winning poker. Are you motivated? Are you motivated enough to study other players? Do you keep a journal to log your Observations of regular players? Are you motivated enough to study the best way to play a hand? Do you pay attention to position? Do you get out of the hand when you are beat? These are just a few of the things better players do, so let’s look at each one in a bit more depth.

STUDY THE HABITS OF OTHER PLAYERS

If you are truly motivated you will soon notice that some players will slow play the big pairs in Texas Hold ‘Em. However, they will often raise with them after the flop. Can you name three poker players who do that?

Again in Hold ‘Em, some players will call a raise with any two suited cards. In Seven Card Stud, some players will call with any pair, even with another one of their cards showing. That puts them in the position of severe underdog because they are drawing for only one card in the deck. In Omaha, some players will raise with a pair of aces and call all the way to the river with no improvement from the community cards. Some players will playa lot stronger when they are in late position than when they are first to act. Some players will raise with good draw hands. Some players will check-raise with draw hands.

Toby was such a player. When in a Hold ‘Em game and when he flopped a flush draw in early position, he would invariably check-raise. His thinking was that if he got there, he wanted the pot to be a big one. Also, he felt that the check-raise would be a deceptive action. Needless to say, Toby had a page all his own in my journal. Regardless of which game you play, you need to know the weaknesses and the strengths of your fellow players.

Few good poker players, if any, make money from early position. That is a fact. Sure, there is the exception when you hit a big pair, raise and get it heads-up against one other player. However, you will make only a few bucks even if you should win. Those situations are rare in the long term.
In fixed position games, like Texas Hold ‘Em and Omaha , you have an opportunity to avoid either the temptation to play or, in games with an ante, like in California, you can get up and walk around when you are in front of the blinds. You will save a few dollars over the course of a few hours’ play. In games that have random position play, such as Seven Card Stud, you do not have that opportunity. If the guy on your right is forced to bring it in, you are in a bad position for at least that betting round. There is no way to know in advance about your position.

The main reason early position is for a loser is that you can’t or shouldn’t get paid for holding a marginal hand. As you know, there are a whole lot more marginal hands than premium hands. A whole lot more. A pair of nines in Seven Card Stud is a marginal hand. If you catch that pair of nines in early position, you should muck it if there is any danger it will be raised. If you catch that same pair of nines in late or last position, it is playable, maybe even okay for a raising hand, depending on the circumstances. There is no change in the hand itself, but the position makes it demonstratively more valuable. The value added is position. If the pot is raised before the action gets to you, throw it away. If a couple of players just call with low cards showing, a raise is justified.

In Texas hold ‘Em; you should never playa king-jack off suit in early position. That same king-jack is a raising hand on or just in front of the button if there has been no previous raise. Again, no change in the rank of the cards, just a value added because of position. If you catch a flop where no one makes a hand, a bet will usually buy the pot for you.

TEST OUT THIS IDEA

If you play in a Texas Hold ‘Em poker game with an ante, such as they have in California, you have an option that I suggest. Say the $3-$6 game is nine handed. The blinds will cost you one dollar and three dollars. That figures out to about 44 cents per hand, right? In addition, there is a fifty-cent ante that disappears down the hatch. Since you can only playa very few hands in the two positions before the blinds get to you, why not take a walk and avoid the fifty-cent-a-hand ante for those two hands? Make your trip to the bathroom, talk briefly with a friend, visit with the floor man, and order a cup of coffee. Just get a brief bit of exercise. Get back just in time for your blinds and save a few bucks. Those hands are not worth fifty cents and you will not be tempted to play marginal hands like ten-jack suited hands that you don’t want to see raised behind you. The same technique works in Omaha.

Freddie has the blind in a low-limit game of Texas Hold ‘Em. Freddie has a J-10 off suit. He calls a raise made by Willie from the ninth position. It seems to me that Freddie’s call was an appropriate investment because it appeared six others would also be in the pot. The flop comes J. 7. 6 •. Freddie bets out and four players call. The next card off is a 4 ••. Again Freddie bets. He gets one caller before Willie raises. When the action gets back to him, Freddie grunts, peeks at his cards, rechecks the flop and dumps in his money to call the raise. That was not a good call.
The last card to flop is a K. Freddie checks and calls Willie’s last bet. Willie turns over a pair of queens.

The most powerful way of communicating at the poker table is by raising. Therefore, when we get raised, we need to ask ourselves a couple of questions. Questions like: “Am I beat?” “If I put more money in the pot, will I be getting a fair return on my money?”

The vast majority of poker players automatically call a raise. This automatic call is wrong.

Let’s go back to Freddie and his pair of Jacks. We know that even with top pair (before the last card), Freddie does not have a great hand. Willie is a good solid player. He is known to bluff only on rare occasions. His raise indicates a good hand. Some players in late position will raise with the middle pairs. I have never seen Willie do this. Willie, with his raise, is telling us that he has, at the very least, a pair of Jacks with a good kicker! Even if Willie had “only” A-J, K-J, or Q-J, Freddie was beat. More than likely, his raise before the flop and especially on 4th street indicates an over pair.

The “automatic call” after the raise on fourth was what most of us do. We “automatically” dump in our money. In my opinion, the bets Freddie made after the flop and after the fourth card were appropriate. He had top pair. If no one else had a jack or an over pair, he had the best hand. However, he should have revaluated after the raise. There are several reasons to make a bet, one of them being to obtain information. Freddie was doing great, he made the correct bets, but he did not listen to the information he received.

Willie’s raise was a powerful message. He was telling Freddie that he had him beat. Like most of us, Freddie did not listen to the message he was given. He could and should have saved two bets. Automatically throwing money in the pot is a terrible policy.

What Freddie should have done was review the hand.

His thought process could have gone something like this: ”Willie is a good player. He raised before the flop. He would not raise without a good hand. Certainly he knows I have a pair of jacks. What his raise means is that he has a pair of jacks beat. My only reasonably safe out is to pair my ten. It will cost me one bet to take that chance. Is there enough money in the pot to justify a call and hope to catch a ten? I have three tens to catch out of 46 unknown cards. That is about 15 to 1. I think it’s time to quit.”

My Uncle Sigurd used to say that saving money was the same as making money. Don’t throw good money away. When the message comes across to us that we are beat, it’s time to get out. We have paid for the message: don’t ignore it. When a raise is made, pause a moment to think. The best course of action could very well be to fold.

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As has been said many times, Texas holdem poker players can depend on luck to a certain extent, but in the long run it will be experience and strategy that will carry a player through and keep them on good terms with their bank manager. These necessary skills can only be acquired by a player who takes the game seriously and is prepared to study the game and analyze their own playing style, and study the styles of others, either by watching from the sidelines, or during match play.

For the casual observer, Texas holdem poker seems very straightforward. However the game was evolved by some clever people and in order to win consistently, a player will need to have some innate skills, or mathematics, cunning and knowledge of human nature to win consistently.

Texas holdem poker is a game that is played and develops in stages, and during every stage of the game, players will need to learn how to evaluate each hand as it opens. Their decisions will be based on their current chips stack situation, how many players are left in the game, their style of play as well as how many chips are still in circulation. Tactics and strategies at this stage play a much bigger part than luck does, and these are the stages when a less experienced player may well “choke” under pressure and a master Texas holdem poker tactician will take home the prizes.

Players who are consistent winners at the major Texas holdem poker tournaments don’t have to win every hand, They have long since learned that this is statistically impossible, and it is enough to survive enough hands and take some strategic ones to remain in contention. Many will have analyzed that it is enough to judge their opponents, and spot a chink in their armor Strategy is about playing a waiting game, keeping yourself afloat and your chip stack in a strong position. Many Texas holdem poker strategists will recognize that if there are two or three aggressive players on the table, it is best to sit back and let them fight it out. If the odds work out in their favor, then strategist know that they can let the game build up to the last hand. That is the one that wins the hand, the game and the tournament.

Volumes of books and online articles have been written about Texas holdem poker, how to play and how to win, There is a universal consensus that since this variation of table poker began its evolution in the poker saloons of dusty Texas in the mid nineteen fifties to the casinos of Las Vegas of the sixties and seventies and on to the desk tops of millions of computers around the World, Texas holdem poker has become probably the most popular interactive computer game of all time.

What makes Texas holdem poker attractive to many online players is that they can play in sit and go games or even tournaments where the amount that they can play for and lose is the size of their stake only. There are larger no limits poker games where no limits are set, and the players come to the table with large wads of dollars and are prepared to bet them. Obviously no limit Texas holdem poker games are not for the faint hearted or week of pocket.

In limit games, participants are each allocated a certain amount of chips to play with. These chips have no money value, they simply circulate throughout the tournament or game until the last player has them all in front of them, and they become the winner.

During the course of the game chips are used by players to intimidate, aggravate and cajole their opponents to make mistakes, bet when they shouldn’t. The more chips a player accumulates during a game allows him a higher margin for error. They can afford to make a mistake or two, before the rest of the field begins to gain on them. Always remember that on of the genius aspects of Texas holdem poker are the blind posts. These posts mean that the player cannot sit on the fence indefinitely waiting for a sure winning hand. The reason is that he blinds wears every player down, and any most of the games better tacticians have long since analyzed that it is better to preempt a situation in Texas holdem poker than to sit back and wait for it to happen.

No matter what strategy you adopt when plating Texas holdem poker, it is always important to assess as much regarding your opponent’ s playing habits as possible. Once you have read them you will be able to alter your betting strategies to match,

Some of the best players know when to bluff at Texas holdem poker. The truly great ones and the ones who consistently win prizes at the major Texas holdem tournaments both on and off line are the ones who have learned when not to bluff. These types of players are known as percentage players. They have long since realized that they do not need to win every hand, every game and even every tournament. If you check the winning tables of major tournaments over the period of the last few years, you will observe a hard core of maybe 20-25 professional Texas holdem players who consistently win prizes, and not always the first prize.

Sometimes they don’t finish up in the first three, but consistently make it to the final table. These are the true professionals who have learned the strategies and skills required to keep their heads above water and have made them wealthy by pitting their wits and their nerves against some of the more aggressive players on the Texas holdem circuit.

If you observe these players, they are usually less obtrusive, don’t wear cowboy hats or jackets with tassels. Their anonymity is what makes them very difficult to read and the low profile that they establish on the final tables of major Texas holdem poker tournaments can scare their opponents more than many other more “in your face” players because they are virtually impossible to read. Because they understand the percentage possibility of every hand, they very rarely bluff. On the other hand, they also understand that if they never bluff, their opponents will read this as being part of their strategy. So just to keep things interesting, they will bluff now and again to keep their opponents on their toes.

So the next time you recognize a player sitting at Texas holdem poker table that looks a little like your bank manager or your accountant, be wary and don’t try to bluff him.

Who would have thought that around about fifty years ago when the popularity Texas holdem poker was beginning its slow and steady spread from the bars and clubs of Dallas, Texas to Las Vegas, that now it would become the premier card game all over Europe also.

The rules, skills and strategies of Texas holdem poker seem only to apply the ribald styles of the United States, and the razzmatazz treatment that has been applied to any sports or games that have made the journey across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe to America. Most of the popular sports and games played in the United States were derivations of more conservative versions of European standards, Baseball and American football being two classic examples.

Anyone that understands the European mentality would know that Texas holdem poker is probably the last game that would catch on there. But this time the experts have been proved wrong, and Texas holdem poker has proved to be as big a hit in Europe as it has the USA.

Another example of how the Internet has taken down international barriers. Players from Europe regularly take part in on and offline Texas holdem poker tournaments and the European Poker Tour is catching on like wildfire, with prize money sufficiently mouth watering to attract some of the cream of the US circuit professionals.

An interesting phenomenon amongst the European players is the predominance of ex professional sportsmen playing the game. Former soccer professionals as well as snooker legends of the past have made a very successful transition to the sport. Obviously the time spent traveling on coaches or in hotel rooms between matches and tournaments were spent to good effect in honing their skills at Texas holdem poker. Some of them have now adopted the game as their second profession and are reaping the benefits. Obviously their fame has drawn many new players to the game and they are also enjoying the challenges and the rewards that playing and winning at Texas holdem poker can bring.

As the popularity of Texas holdem poker spreads, rumor has it that the next big market will be Asia. So all you budding professionals brush up on your Chinese!