How Do You Play Amateurs, Fish, and Downright Horrible Players?

We've all been in those games, the fish are prevalent, the maniacs are crazy, and you are stuck in the middle of it all licking your chops. But you end up losing more money than you win, you are frustrated, on tilt, almost ready to quit the game of poker, "If I can't beat these amateurs then I must really suck."

Playing these games requires a different skill set altogether. You can't play these people like you would play those tough games, the psychology is all different, the mistakes are different, and thus your strategy to exploit them must be different. I will break it down for you between all the different characters you will meet at the felt whom you have and want to take their entire stack.

How do you play the Maniac?

The maniac. One of the trickier of players to play, but often maniacs are a feast or famine type of player, they will either bust out quickly or generate a big stack which they will either cash out or blow it all away quickly.

For those who are unaware, this is the definition of a maniac. Someone who is ultra aggressive no matter the situation. Will raise with any hand, any draw, and isn't afraid to 3-bet 4-bet or even go all-in on a bluff or semi-bluff. Some more sophisticated maniacs will slow down and fold when they face fierce resistance and lots of raises and re-raises but maniacs are often the first to start the betting.

The number one strategy for this player is patience. You must continue to play a tight game, maybe even tighter now because you can't play hands that require draws like flush draws or straight draws without paying dearly every time he bets and raises.

So only play the premium hands listed here: Pocket Pairs, play them for a limp or call preflop, then hope for a set. Be aggressive with QQ-AA preflop. Fold the smaller pocket pairs if the betting and raising gets out of control and would force you to put in around 1/5 or more of your stack preflop.

Premium big cards. AK you would play aggressively preflop, and only continue playing post flop if you hit a pair or better, and/or a flush draw. AQ and AJ I would play passively preflop and continue playing post flop if you hit top pair or better, and/or a flush draw.

If this player tends to slowdown to people who push back with re raises then just call his bets when you have a good hand. If he does not, then re raise him when you have a good hand.

This player can be frustrating, but you can profit quite well off of maniacs if you are willing to be patient. Maniacs also have the side effect of loosening up the rest of the table, this will make the game even further profitable.

How do you play amateurs who don't know how to size their bets?

This is probably one of the most prevalent of people who play at the lower limits. These are people who over bet their bluffs, and under bet their good hands. They slow play every hand, and when they bluff they go nuts with huge bets. How do you play these players?

Reading is key. You must generate a pattern for this player, does he over bet his bluffs? Does he under bet his big hands? What pattern does he have when playing preflop?

Once you have these questions answered, you can easily figure out when you can call his over bet with a good hand, and when to fold your marginal hand against his small bets, but if you have a good draw you should call and make him pay for letting you see a card for cheap. Just make sure your read is accurate, there are some very shifty players who can vary up their over/under betting to their advantage depending on how they think people are reading them.

Here is a quick explanation why you shouldn't under or over bet your hands. You should keep your bets around pot sized, and vary around 2/3 to 4/3 the pot depending on the player you are playing. If you over bet your hand, you are risking too much money to win too little back. If your bluff is going to work, then it will work with a small bet as much as it would work with a big bet.

If you underbet then you allow your opponents to see cheap cards. When someone is drawing to a straight or flush then you want to make pot sized bets because it would be incorrect mathematically to chase their draws now. If they do make the call then you have induced a mistake and you should profit from these plays.

Remember this when betting or raising:

Value Bet: It's a bet you make when you want to be called. This doesn't mean this bet should be small, because if the bet is too small you are giving up the advantage you have with the best hand by giving your opponents the correct pot odds to chase their draws. A value bet's size depends on several things, the tendencies of your opponent and what their range of hands are. Generally though you can never completely predict the tendencies of your opponents, so you should figure out what draws your opponent is possibly chasing and bet so that they pot odds given are worse than the odds he has to make his hand.

Bluff: It's a bet you make when you do not want to be called. This doesn't mean this bet should be big, if it's too big you will risk too much money to win too little money.

If you opponent will fold to a half pot sized bet 50% of the time, fold to a pot sized bet 55% of the time, and fold to a one and a half pot sized bet 60% of the time then do the math.

You risk 50% of the pot or pot odds of 1:2 for a 50% chance of making him fold. That's pot odds of 33% vs 50% fold rate, you should end up having a 17% return on investment with this play.

If you put in a pot sized bet, pot odds 1:1 for a 55% chance of making him fold. That's pot odds of 50% vs 55% fold rate, you should end up having a 5% return on investment with this play.

If you put in one and a half pot sized bet, pot odds 1.5:1 for a 60% chance of making him fold. That's pot odds of 60% vs 60% fold rate, you will break even with this play.

As you can see, it's often the case that smaller is better for a bluff, if it's not then you maybe should not consider ever bluffing this player and just refer to my next section of "Calling Stations."

Semi-Bluff: A bet made when you mostly don't want to be called. However if you are called you still have a good amount of value in the hand because of draws, and even from information garnered from the bet and subsequent action from the opponents.

Example of information gathering. You are in the big blind with QQ and the action folds to the button who bets. His range is any two cards, he is probably just trying to steal the blinds. Calling here will not give you any further information and your hand is far from the nuts.

So you raise him with a "semi-bluff" in the attempt to take down the pot, or to narrow his hand range down. If he calls, then he may have a drawing hand, or is expecting to try and steal the pot again on the flop. If he raises then he thinks you are defending with anything or he may have a real hand and is now trying to define your hand.

Example of a mixed bluff/value bet. You have Jack Ten both suited to the spade. The flop comes down 8 of spades, 7 of spades, 3 or diamonds. Leaving you with a gut shot straight draw, flush draw and inside straight flush draw with two over cards for a possible top pair. You have an extreme amount of equity in this hand, but it's not a made hand. At the moment you only have Jack high, which is rarely enough to win a poker hand.

You bet here with the intention of either making everyone fold (thus profiting from "fold equity"), or you get called but with pretty large odds of making any one of your draws (thus profiting from "pot equity"). This play is a double play, in that your opponent may be "damned if he does, damned if he doesn't." The worst case scenario for this hand is a large re raise that may force you out of the hand with bad pot odds.

How do you play "fish" who are "calling stations?"

What is a calling station? It's basically a loose passive player who will call with any draw and will limp into as many pots as possible preflop. These are often the players who you will profit the most from. These are the players that almost every poker book was written about beating because this was the most common player before the recent poker explosion.

So how do you play these players? Well you play them straightforward, you play big hands, draw to your flushes and straights when the pot odds dictate it and bet aggressively when you have the big hands. Eventually they will continue to just call down with inferior hands and chase draws when the pot odds don't dictate that as a profitable play, this will result in mistake after mistake and you will profit from it.

So what hands can you play against these players? Well if the table is passive enough and your stack is big enough you can play suited connectors and small pocket pairs 99-22 for limps. You should play the premium hands aggressively unless you meet a lot of resistance, AJ+ maybe even KQ. TT-AA should also be played aggressively as well. Just be aware that even the fish hit big hands, so just because they are calling stations doesn't mean you should make their range of hands unreasonable.

Don't try and bluff these players. They can't be bluffed profitably. That's why they are called calling stations. They will call just about anything with anything, so make sure you have a good hand when you bet.

Shortstack Poker and Deepstack Poker: The Definitive Guide

As I posted earlier about the great book Professional No Limit Hold 'Em, I needed to revise some older strategies and posts. I am going to start with the subject of Short Stack poker and Deep Stack poker. I understood the differences and the advantages of both but I never really understood it tell I read this book.

So I decided to write up a final iteration for the subject of short stack and deep stack poker. First, these strategies are meant for cash games, but can be used for tournaments as well. The main difference is that these strategies are based around the idea of buying back into the game and doesn't address bubble strategies, freeze outs and payout structures for tournaments.

Now for the definitions:
It is generally excepted that 80 big blinds and less makes you a short stack. 200 big blinds and higher constitutes a deep stack. And everything in between is a middle stack.

However, I feel that strategies change greatly between 20 to 100 big blinds, and beyond 100 big blinds the strategy generally stays the same. So here are my definitions:

Ultra Short: Stack size equal to or less than 20 big blinds.
Short Stack: Stack size between around 30 to 50 big blinds.
Middle Stack: Stack size around 50 to 70 big blinds.
Deep Stack: Stack size around 80 to 100 big blinds.
Ultra Deep Stack: Stack size more than 100 big blinds.

Commitment/Committing: I will use these words a lot. What they mean is that you are in a position to commit all your chips, you have no other decisions to make except to try and put in all your chips as quickly as possible without over betting.

How do you play Ultra Short Stack Poker (20BB or less)?
Starting Hands for Ultra Short Stacks. With such a small stack, just limping into the pot puts 5% of your stack in the pot. Basically every time you play a hand or you are in the big blind, you are on the verge of a committed situation. This means that you should only play hands that you plan on committing to after the flop and when you play them, you should probably only limp or make minimum bets or at the most 3bb bets.

What hands are these then? All pocket pairs are acceptable, however smaller pocket pairs, 99 - 22 should only be played from late position and never for a big raise, with these hands you should commit on the flop with an over pair or set, check/fold the rest of the time unless you think you can steal the pot successfully.

With big pocket pairs it is acceptable to either play it slow preflop and wait to see if your hand remains an over pair or you hit your set, or you can put in a raise preflop and basically commit yourself right there preflop while trying to thin out any drawing hands. I personally advocate raising here with TT-AA but mix it up, or else risk giving away your hand strength every time.

Big cards. AK, AQ, AJ, AT, and KQ. I advocate limping with these hands, but don't be afraid to raise here as well to mix up play, but I don't like to commit myself pre flop with ace high. The reason you limp with these hands is that you have such a short stack that you can still easily commit all your chips and get called on the flop with top pair/top kicker. If you have big cards and they are suited, you can now commit yourself on the flop with flush draws and straight draws with over cards if you at least have 3 way action.

Ultra Short Summary:
AA-TT come in with a raise, commit preflop if you meet re-raises. Commit on the flop with over pair or set.
99-22 limp preflop from late position, limp from early if passive table. Commit on the flop with set.
AK, AQ, AJ, AT, KQ unsuited. Limp preflop from middle to late position, raise occasionally, play these from early position at passive table. Commit with top pair, top kicker on the flop. With top pair, good kicker, play according to your read on the opponents, but with a short stack it's often a commit or fold decision.
AK, AQ, AJ, AT, KQ suited. Limp preflop from middle to late position, early position with passive table, raise occasionally. Commit with top pair, top kicker on the flop. With top pair, good kicker, play commit or fold depending on your read. Commit with flush draws and open ended straight draws.

How do you play Short Stack Poker (30-50 big blinds)?

Here you are given a little more room to breath and make a few more decisions. You can still be easily committed preflop with raises and re-raises. You can also loosen up your preflop hand selection a little as well. You can also be more aggressive preflop as well and put some more bets in the middle with more hands.

Note: If you are playing against an Ultra Short Stack(s) and no other stack sizes in a hand, then you should revert back to the strategies of playing an Ultra Short Stack. The reason is that if you have 50 big blinds and everyone in the hand is at 20 big blinds, then you are effectively only playing with 20 big blinds as well.

Starting Hands. Again, AA-TT should be played aggressively preflop. I like the idea of putting in around 10% of your stack preflop with these hands. This will commit you, and make your decisions easier post flop when you have an over pair. So around a 3-5bb bet is good, and if you hit any resistance, don't be afraid to re-raise it and get committed preflop. If you have KK and up against AA, oh well, that's why you are playing short stacked, you don't lose as much in these situations as a deep stack would and you get to see if you hit that 20% chance of sucking out by the river.

99-22 should be played the same as before. Limped in late position, early position if playing at a passive table. If you hit your set, then commit, if not then fold.

Big Cards. AK, AQ, AJ, AT, KQ from late position should be raised. I like around 5 to 10% of your stack to go in preflop with these cards. From early position I really only like AK and AQ with the same bet sizing. If you hit top pair top kicker, commit. If you hit your flush draw, commit. If you hit your open ended straight draw, commit. This will give you the ability to semi-bluff a lot.

Suited Connectors. Suited connectors from 67 to JQ can be played from middle to late position for a limp. Early position at a passive table. You are looking for flush draws and open ended straight draws with these hands. If you are lucky and hit two pair or a set with these hands then even better, commit.

How do you play Middle Stack Poker (50-80 big blinds)?

Now you have even more room to breath, but now you must start making more decisions on the flop, turn, and river. You aren't so easily committed anymore to any hand except sets or better.

Note: If you are playing only opponents that are short or ultra short stacks, then you should play with the previous strategies.

Starting Hands. AA-TT again you should raise these guys preflop, and semi-commit after the flop with over pairs unless you pick up a read on an opponent that he for sure has a better over pair.

99-22. Farm those sets with these guys, limp with them and commit after the flop with sets. If you have 2 or more other people in the hand that will play along, then make or calling bets preflop is acceptable.

Big Cards. These guys should be played more aggressively now. Middle to late position you should raise, early position can limp or raise depending on how you want to play the hand. Again with a larger stack you can't commit on the flop with top pair top kicker. You also can't commit on a flush or straight draw anymore too, only chase these draws with sufficient pot odds and if semi-bluffing only sufficient odds to fold your opponents plus the odds to make your hand.

Suited Connectors. Just as before, they can be played, however now you can play them aggressively too since betting preflop won't commit you to your hand. Same as above, you can semi-bluff and chase draws with sufficient pot odds.

Stealing. You can now steal more often with this stack. If you have position and a good read on your opponents, you can often steal some nice sized pots. Remember that you can only bully around the stacks that are as big or bigger than you, remember that the short stacks will commit with hands that will often beat your stealing hands.

How do you play Deep Stack Poker (80-100 big blinds)?

Now you are buying in full or close to. You can no longer commit to any hands that you don't feel ultra confident in. This makes you vulnerable to being stolen against, but it also allows you to bully the medium to deep stacks with aggression.

You should really never put chips in the middle of the pot now with the intention of committing all in without medium to top set or better. If you get caught up in a betting war with second, third, fourth best straight/flush you have to be wary. Often it's good policy to avoid going all in with another deep stack unless you have the nuts or near the nuts.

Note: Again if you are playing smaller stacks, you should adjust your strategy accordingly with the previous strategy guides.

This stack and larger is all about reading. You are in the stage where you must now really pay close attention to the table. Most of your decisions will be tough and depend on your read of the opponents. If you are a really good poker player in comparison to the rest of the table, you should want the deepest stack at the table so you can exploit this advantage.

This stack and larger is all about position. Now that you must rely on reading and not whether you are committed anymore, your hands value goes up a lot with position. Position will always make your decisions a little easier, and your reads a little better.

Starting Hands. Same as above for AA-TT, be aggressive. Depend on your reads to continue in the hand if you suspect higher pocket pairs. You often won't be fully committed with these hands unless the preflop betting is wild, or until the turn or river. So read, read, read.

99-22. Farm those sets, but now if you wish to mix up your play and be unpredictable it's acceptable to raise a few of these hands preflop. Just be careful if you have a read that your opponent is on a higher set than you.

Big Cards. Be aggressive, and read your opponents. I've seen many of deep stacks lose everything to another deep stack with a king kicker to the ace kicker. Don't commit without a solid read and sufficient odds. Chase those draws and make semi-bluffs when the hand permits and the odds justify. Avoid these hands occasionally in early position at tough tables.

Suited Connectors and Suited One Gappers. Acceptable hands as always to play, mix up your limping and raising preflop. Don't suggest playing these hands in early position unless you are at a weak table with passive easy to read opponents. I won't even consider going past the flop without an open ended straight draw or flush draw, unless I think I can steal this pot based on my reads.

Stealing. You have more power to steal from big stacks. Stealing requires good reading skills and is dangerous against unknown players whom you don't know if they like to slow play big hands. Position helps, and reading is key to playing big stacks, so with razor sharp reads you can play almost any hand in every pot.

How do you play Ultra Deep Stack Poker(100 big blinds or more)?

This stack size is definitely the toughest to play. You can almost never commit everything with a stack as large as yours without a very good hand. Even then the risk of any hand is much higher as you can now lose a lot more money. Take a look at the hand during High Stakes Poker where Daniel Negreanu lost close to a million to Gus Hansen because they were both committed with first and second best hands.

This stack is played basically the same as the Deep Stack Poker guide. You are now afforded the ability to play your hand almost any which way you like preflop. Post flop you must play your hand according to your reads in the hand, and often that is aggressively pushing out the drawing hands and the weak hands, and folding to the monster hands. When you get that monster hand it is all about disguising it and keeping everyone in the hand with money going in the pot.

Of course as I've stated before, you must play according to the stack sizes around you. You can't play a deep stack strategy against an ultra short stack. What if you are in a hand with multiple stack sizes. What strategy should you take? I recommend taking the strategy towards beating the larger, looser, easier stack and hope you get lucky when it comes to taking down the shorter stacks.

This illustrates one reason it's easier to play a shorter stack. You never have to change your strategy around depending on the stack sizes around you, but the other stacks do. However, with a short stack you aren't afforded the ability to steal as many pots, to out think your opponents post flop, or play marginal hands like suited connectors.

That ends it for this article on Short Stack and Deep Stack poker. I hope this helps you all at the NL Hold Em tables. Here is what is in store for the future of the blog.

When given the time, you should expect to see some hand examples with hand analysis from me and those at poker-strategy.org.

Articles on Professional No Limit Hold Em by Two Plus Two: Stack to Pot Ratio, another article on Committment, R.E.M. Range, Equity and Maximize.

Professional No-Limit Hold 'em: Volume 1 - Book Review

Professional No-Limit Hold 'em: Volume 1 by Ed Miller, Matt Flynn and Sunny Mehta is truly a great change of pace for poker books. Published in July of 2007 it touches on the next big craze started by High Stakes Poker on GSN. The transition from No Limit Hold Em tournaments to cash games.

This is the first advanced No Limit Hold Em book that I have read and it is a masterful book that literally taught me how to think better about how I approach a hand in poker. It immediately shored up some unforeseen leaks in my game and prepares me for the higher stakes when I eventually reach them.

So what's so great about this book? Well I can't post it all here, especially since this is merely a review of the book. It's a book where all the theory and ideas that are brewed up in the mad scientist labs of two plus two forums are brought together. This books number one goal is to teach us how to plan our hands and to see a hard decision coming before it even arrives and to either avoid it or to embrace it. And if we embrace the hard decision it teaches us to hit it with a game plan that will allow us to spend more time calculating our odds and focusing on our tells because if planned correctly we should have a very polar decision to make and it will come down to the math and the tells to make the decision.

This book was so good that I plan on illustrating the concepts within my blog in the near future. It has been so good that I will revise some old blog posts regarding my various strategies and posts as the processes and ideas in this book will help me refine the strategies I've already held.

So who do I recommend this book to? Anyone serious about becoming a good No Limit Hold Em player and anyone tired of the run of the mill Hold Em books out there. This book assumes you already know about starting hand strategies, and the basics of odds. So this book isn't for complete beginners, but I suggest to complete beginners you should first read Super/System 2, then get this book and practice, practice, practice.

If you wish to purchase this book, you can get it here from Amazon. Trust me it's well worth the money.

Upcoming books I can't wait to get my hands on: Harrington on Cash Games Volume 1 and Harrington on Cash Games Volume 2.

How to Think Like A Great Poker Player.

Chances are if you are reading my blog you are or are considering becoming a poker player. I have many topics and articles ranging from starting hand considerations to more advanced plays. Today's topic is on something that you must learn to do if you want to become good at poker, you can only win so much money following what is said in the books and my articles. They are merely a foundation for a set of skills that can't be tangibly explained in a book. These skills address the idea that you can not play perfect poker, the game is magnificent because it's much like chess, it is so dynamic and full of so many decisions that you can never play a perfect game.

So enough of building up this idea, here it is. You must learn to think like a truly great poker player, this is vague I know, I will explain first by illustrating someone who doesn't think like a poker player. You have a player at the table, he just finished reading his fifth poker book, and has a set strategy when he sits at the table. His pre-flop card selection is already set in stone, his aggression is the same always, he always continuation bets the flop, he only semi-bluffs the turn, and he only bets the river with a made hand. He's ABC, plays tight and aggressive like all the books in the world of poker advocate.

Notice that I didn't mention anyone else at the table. Remember the old adage, poker is a game where you play the players not the cards. A strategy like this will only fly in the micro limit games of hold em, and even there will only be marginally profitable. This is where you must begin to think like a great poker player. So what does this mean exactly?

Thinking like a poker player is a matter of understanding everything. Your strategy is that you have no strategy. You must be as unpredictable to yourself as you are to the rest of the table. You base every decision you make at the table not based on a preset strategy but rather the situation in front of you, the gathered information before you, and your analytical decision making process. Here's an example.

You have AK on the button in a 1/2 NL game. You had one limper before you, and you raised it 8 dollars. The small blind folds, the big blind calls, and the limper raises. You decide to call. The flop comes 4, 6, 9 rainbow.

What the beginner is thinking: I have an awesome pre flop hand, I raised it pre flop to protect it and I bet my opponents also have good hands too in order to call my bet and the limpers check-raise.

It's checked around and I raise it around the pot size. The big blind folds and the early position calls. The turn comes with a 2 not matching any of the suits on the board. The EP checks again to you, you decide to follow the book and raise it the pot again. The EP calls.

The river comes another blank, a 10. Suddenly the EP leads out with an all in bet, a little over the size of the pot. Suddenly you are in a position with only AK high and the book always told you that if you think you are beat on the river fold, the book told you that you should never push your stack all in unless you know you have your opponent beat.

You don't think you have the best hand, and you fold. Suddenly the EP flips over his KJ to show you that he bluffed you, you are enraged inside, but the book told you to cool your nerves and wait for another opportunity to slow play that bastard.

What the expert is thinking: Preflop: I am dealt AK on the button, I get to see all the action except the blinds before I act. You notice nothing special about the body language of the limper when he limps into the pot, you know he is passive pre flop preferring to let in a lot of action in the hopes of hitting a monster hand, you are cautious of him because he is crafty and good. You decide to put in an 8 dollar raise into the pot to isolate the limper and maybe just take down the blinds and the limper's money right here.

The big blind eyes you menacingly, a clear tell that he thinks you are trying to steal his blinds and he feels obligated to defend, again a good player but not very crafty. Suddenly you notice the limper is now eying you intently as well, but not in a way that is meant to scare you, he is trying to read you. He decides to put in a check raise, you stop and think.

This opponent has never limped with a super premium hand in early position, he shouldn't have to read you intently if he has a premium hand. You now can eliminate a lot of hands from his arsenal, the JJ+ and probably AK or AQ is unlikely in this situation. You decide to call his bet and see what the flop comes even though you know that not raising over the top is defining your hand as AK or JJ or QQ to your opponent. The big blind who is now feeling like a little fish in a big fight reluctantly calls.

The flop comes down trashy 4, 6, 9 rainbow. The big blind checks as does the early position, now you feel like you want to put in a bet in this situation, but you really can not completely discount either opponent from having a hand that hit this trashy flop and they may be slow playing top pair knowing that I probably have a premium hand like AK with little draws now. If I believe that then I will do what they don't want me to, check and see a free card. I check.

The turn comes down with a 2 completing the rainbow of suits, making a flush impossible on the river. The big blind checks again. The early position goes into the think tank and puts out a half pot sized bet. You know that he is prone to bluffing a lot, and you feel that even though he doesn't have a premium pre flop hand that he wouldn't bet a set or over pair in this situation, he wants others to bet for him. You recognize that this bet is merely meant to try and steal the checked pot. You decide to call him, and the big blind folds.

The river comes down another blank, the 10. You notice that the early position looks a little worried, he's trying to hide it, but you can tell he is shutting down on this hand, he checks to you. You decide to bet half the pot, and make him feel like you are value betting an over pair or set that you have been trying to slow play. He looks at you, shakes his head and says he just can't call you or raise you, and folds his hand. You muck your AK and take down the healthy sized pot with nothing.

Can you tell the difference? Obviously I typed a lot more for the expert player, but that's because he was thinking about everything in the situation around him. He had no strategy but to play every player based upon the tells you pick up on them and the information you have gathered since he first started playing. The expert used a combination of strategies written in many books in this hand based on the changing dynamics of the hand. I will explain them all here, but the true purpose of this article is to help people understand what it truly takes to think like a good poker player, not one who has just read a lot of books.

First, you picked up on tells. He recognized the big blind was defending his blinds and was trying to intimidate you, an obvious sign of someone with a weak hand. The early position was only trying to read you and pick up on your tells, but this tells me that he didn't have a super premium hand because he first would never limp into a pot with a premium hand and he secondly wouldn't have taken all that time to read me and think before putting in a check-raise.

The flop, you decided to take the free card. You hit nothing and you believe your opponents think this. Your strength pre flop wouldn't have connected with this EXCEPT unless you had an over pair. This is where the check not only gives you a free card, but plants a seed of doubt in the minds of your opponents, now they think you might be slow playing your hand by not making a continuation bet.

The turn, you decided to create a trap or setup for the early position. You recognized that he was thinking really hard, he wants to define your hand with his bet, and he also wants to make you think he is value betting the turn with his half sized bet. You know that if he had hit a set or had an over pair that he would have probably checked here hoping you would finally take a stab at the pot. His bet smells fishy to you, and you think he is trying to take this pot down. A call here will grow that seed you planted and make him feel even more so that he is being slow played here.

The river, the bluff. You see that after you called he goes form super focused and intent looking, even aggressive looking to looking a little shocked. He suddenly starts to look a little discouraged and you know you have him now. He's staring at the board when the river hits, and he just keeps on staring and doesn't glance at his chips. He decides to check trying to maintain his appearance of strength, and you bet into him with a value bet bluff. You make it look like you are value betting this hand and you know he has little to nothing. He ends up folding and you take down the pot.

So how do you begin to think like this? It starts with information, you must gather information in order to think about it. Find out which players are good, what their tendencies are and recognize patterns. Of course you think about the math, the stats, the starting hand charts, etc. but these are merely a guideline for a poker expert. If he feels like he is in a good position to bluff at a pot with 72 off suit then he will. You become more adept at making a play based on what you think your opponents are doing and what they are thinking more so than making a play because you have a certain two cards in your hand.

To truly think like a good poker player you must think about what other poker players are thinking. This requires a lot of patience and skill, but it's powerful to get into the minds of your opponents to set them up for bluffs, slow plays, and the like. This requires understanding how good of a thinker your opponents are, if they are beginners, you must realize that they will think like a book with very predictable behaviors. If they are crafty players who are as good as you, then you must now put yourself in their shoes, recreate the scenario and figure out his strategy and cards based on this information.

I will admit this topic is hard to understand, and many players go their whole poker careers not understanding this important idea.

To train yourself to think like a great poker player, you must analyze a lot of poker hands and not just your own. Analyze your friends hands, the hands posted on the many online forums and get your own hands analyzed by other people. If you can tap into the thought processes of others and your own, you can recognize areas your thinking is lacking and pick up on tips and ideas from other people's thinking.

Remember even if you believe you think like an expert, that you can never stop improving. Poker is a game of imperfect information, you can never gather too much information and analyze a hand too much. The only way to be perfect at poker is to have access to your opponents whole card cameras and a mind reading decide, since that would be cheating, you instead must rely on your tells, and learned strategies to play closer and closer to perfection.

Poker Commitment.

Worry not, this isn't a post about marrying your poker buddy or getting away from the table from time to time to spend time with your loved ones.

This article will be about committment to a hand, pot and situation. This concept is often misunderstood but if mastered can be a great tool at your disposal.

I remember so many players in the early years of television poker constantly use the excuse, I'm pot committed, I have to call with my draw, or middle pair, etc. This is deffinately the wrong way to use the strategy of pot committment.

Commitment is all about making decisions ahead of time, to commit to a situation and follow through with this decision.

Here is an example to illustrate this idea. You have a medium sized stack in a cash ring game of No Limit Hold Em. You are dealt AK suited in early position, and you think to yourself before putting in your bet that you will commit your entire stack to this hand if you hit a flush draw, straight draw, pair or better. Knowing this will allow you to size your bets accordingly, you want to now make a pot that will have you betting all in on the flop or turn unless you have a read that your opponent is on AA or KK.

Of course commiting your chips to AK is not a very hard decision. Here is where commitment is a more powerful tool. You are dealt a mediocre hand in early position with a medium sized stack. You get AJ unsuited, and you now have a very big decision to make. You really only have two options that you should be debating, folding or raising. Often in this position no matter our stack size we will put in a standard raise. The idea of commitment should instead make us step back from the situation and think forward in this hand. If you bet here you begin to commit yourself to this pot especially since you are medium stacked. Eventually your stack size in comparison to the pot will make you commit all your chips.

Do you want to commit all your chips in a situation where you may be outkicked if you have paired your ace? Once you have that top pair, it is going to be difficult to lay down your hand when the pot begins to become as big as your stack, and your preflop aggression is going to beg you to make a continuation bet. Or do you fold this hand, wait for a spot in late position to commit your chips. This decision is difficult to make, and a case can be made either way.

Commitment is a tell. You should use this concept to figure out if you think your opponent is already commited to his hand. If a player is still betting or calling and suddenly the pot becomes larger than his own stack, be aware that you are probably going to have to showdown your hand against this opponent. You must understand this concept fully if you wish to read your opponents well. This will tell you whether you need to make sure you have a hand that you think will beat his, or this should tell you to fold and not even contemplate bluffing this opponent.

As I said in a previous article, you should never commit everything on a bluff. Every bluff should have an out, a way for you to escape your plan if anything goes wrong. If a good player notices that you are committed and continues to play with you, you are in trouble if you are bluffing because he believes he has a better hand than you.

Rule #1 of Commitment: Don't play a committed player unless:

He is shortstacked and may commit to anything or because you want to play the other opponents in the hand.

You feel you have your opponent beat.

Rule #2 of Commitment: Don't commit yourself unless:

You have a good hand that you don't think is beat.

You are severely shortstacked in a tourney.

Involved in a multiway pot with a strong drawing hand and you are fairly shortstacked in comparison to your opponents.

Don't Commit All Your Chips On A Bluff!

Commitment is a powerful tool to help you with your decision making before you get close to going all in, and it's a powerful tool to help you read your opponents holdings. Don't worry if your opponent is getting away with bluffs where he is committing his whole stack on the bluff, eventually someone will hit a big hand and commit with him and take all his money.

Beginner Tips: A Guide to Slow-Playing Successfully.

I covered the idea of bluffing. Now I will cover the idea of the opposite, slow-playing.

A slow play or a trap is a poker play that is meant to deceive your opponent into thinking you are weak when you really have a monster hand.

Note this is much harder to do than bluffing, however this has much less risk involved since you should already be ahead of your opponent.

This is why it's much harder to execute than a bluff. You must convince your opponent that you have a range of hands much lower than the hand you really have. Just the meer fact that you are calling bets, checking and continuing to pay to see more cards is going to immediately pin you on a range of at least mediocre hands.

Slow playing has another bad side effect. Slow playing can give your opponents cheap flops, turns and rivers that can end up defeating your good hand.

As you can see, slow playing is very dangerous and should only be used sparingly. There really is only a couple of situations when it is acceptable to slow play your big hand.

When you know your opponent has a big hand too(or thinks he does). When you know your opponent is playing a big hand, but not as big of a hand as yours, you can slow play him. A good poker player will slow down when faced with resistance with even top pair and top kicker. If a good player smells weakness and has this hand, they are often betting heavily to protect their hand. This is a good opportunity to let them continue to bet into you heavily without giving back any resistance until the end.

When your opponent bluffs a lot. This is a great play against bluffers and over aggressive opponents. This is why I mentioned in the previous article that you should never bluff your entire stack, because if you already are known for bluffing a lot, people will try and trap you for your entire stack.

When you know that you will not extract anymore from your opponents by betting. This is those situations where you know your opponent is weak and will probably fold to any bet. It's a risky situation, and often it is a good decision is to just claim the pot right there and not give your opponent any chance of winning. If you feel you can safely maximize your earnings by slow playing and allowing your opponent to see cards, then it's a perfectly fine decision, but you are running a calculated risk.

My Suggestions? I suggest a strategy with very few slow plays. I prefer a table image of aggression, with more bluffs, maybe once an orbit or every other orbit (every time the button makes a complete pass around the table). When you have your big hands and bet them strong, your opponents will not know if you are bluffing or not, if they try and call you down, you will win a lot of money. If they don't call you down, then you will win a lot of bluffed pots. It's a win win situation where you keep your opponents guessing. Only slow play when you feel you can convince someone you are drawing and induce a bluff or if you feel your opponent is so weak they won't call any bets even the minimum.

Begginer Tips: Introduction to Bluffing Successfully.

You are not afforded many advantages over your opponents. You have two weapons at your disposal to extract profit, an understanding of math and strategy, and deception.

I have already discussed the odds of poker and general strategies for poker long ago, but now I'll go into the ideas of deception. We actually understand deception within poker well before we even understand correct strategy and mathmatics. We however only understand just enough about deception to hang ourselves.

Here is what I mean. A player brand new to the game of poker with little to no experience with it will either be ultra aggressive, bluffing in the wrong spots making incorrect bet sizes, or he will be ultra conservative playing a lot of hands but never bluffing and constantly trying to slowplay his big hands.

Bluff: To try and win by betting with little to nothing of a hand with the intent of making everyone fold.

It seems easy enough, but in reality it's much harder. This is a game of deception and lies and people won't trust anything you do, you have to really convince your opponents otherwise, and often this requires multiple levels of deception.

Here is a good strategy for deception, and it will work more times than not if executed correctly. Come up with a method to decide whether to bluff or fold in certain situations. Example: Whenever you have nothing in late position with a limped pot(no one preflop has bet or raised) you look down at your watch and if the minute hand is odd you bluff, if it's even you fold.

It is odd, you lead out with a bet, showing strength. If you take down the pot, you just won the blinds and any limper's money. If not you have now set yourself up to make another bluff at the pot later on in the hand.

Here is an example:

We will just ignore what we are dealt, in this situation it is all about reading your opponents and figuring out if you can force them off their hand or if you feel your opponent is committed to his hand and just fold before you lose any more money.

You are sitting on the button, two people before you limp in, you look at nothing and see that the minute hand is odd. You decide to lead out with a standard four times the big blind bet. You make the blinds fold and one limper calls, the other folds. You can narrow his range of hands down now, he probably has something decent, KJ+, AT+, 88+. He may be slowplaying a big hand (a concept I'll touch on) or he may be chasing a drawing hand like a suited ace or a small pocket pair, but this is less likely, but remember not to completely forget about those hands.

The flop comes down 9c 10s 3c. There is a flush draw and a straight draw on the board, this doesn't look like much of a flop, and you represent strength, a pot sized bet here should make most hands other than a pocket overpair fold. If you get called or raised, beware, you are probably facing a good hand that your opponent may not fold. This means that you should fold unless you have a very good tell that suggests otherwise.

What if you get raised on a flop like this? Well you represented strength, like AK, AQ or a big pocket pair by raising preflop. He think it's possible this hand didn't help you at all and is bluffing, or hit his set or straight draw or flush draw. You need to keep representing that you have big cards, and I recommend a reraise. If you get even more resistance, then you may very well be up against something big and I suggest folding.

More than likely though you will get either a fold or call, if nothing hits that suggests a straight or flush or big pair, I recommend another bet and hopefully you get a fold here. Just remember the longer your opponent stays in the hand, and the more of his stack that he commits to the pot the harder it will become to bluff this opponent. If you fail on the turn, but still have really deep stacks you may consider a river bluff, if you don't have much more of a stack, you need to fold before you commit your entire stack on a bluff, something that is almost considered a cardinal sin among many professionals.

Here is another strategy for bluffing. You are sitting in early to middle position with nothing, when the minute hand is odd, you bet at the pot as long as no one else has shown strength, if it's even you fold.

Example: Again your cards don't matter for this example as this is purely a bluff play. You are in early position with nothing, minute hand is odd, and you decide to limp into this pot. It goes 4 handed and the flop comes 5c 6c Ts. You check, and late position puts in a half pot sized bet. You call with the intention of betting a later round when a scare card hits the board. Everyone else folds and it's now heads up.

The turn is the 8 of clubs, the perfect card for you to scare your opponent. You now lead out with a pot sized bet since you are in early position. Chances are giving your opponent every reason to believe that you are on a straight and/or flush draw is enough to make your opponent fold most of the time.

If your opponent calls or raises you should probably consider giving this hand up because he has basically shown you that he's committed to see this hand to the end no matter what. If you are deep stacked and feeling really aggressive you can put in another bet on the river if he called your turn bet.

This is but only a couple situations in which you can bluff. You will find yourself in many more situations where you can bluff at a pot successfully. To become a great bluffer you must learn to get inside the head of your opponents.

Tips for general bluffing:

Put yourself in your opponents shoes. This is probably the most important concepts of bluffing. What range of hands would you put yourself on if you were in his position looking at your actions and betting patterns. If that range of hands puts you in a position to make your opponent think he is beat, you should bluff.

Don't bluff too much or too little. It's a beginner mistake to bluff much too often or too little. Not all players you play even at beginner tables are idiots. If they see you getting involved in every pot no matter if you are showing strength or not they will sooner or later trap or slowplay you (slowplaying to come in a future article). If they see you just playing your cards all the time they will bluff you.

If you are playing an extra aggressive strategy you must now adjust the range of hands your opponents will think you carry. This will greatly change your situations in which you will bluff or not. The game of poker has a nasty effect of making players honest if they try and exploit a certain strategy too much.

Vary your play. It's better to confuse your opponents and be unpredictable than it is to follow a single strategy for too long. Sooner or later a good player will read right through your strategy and slowly take your stack because of it.

Learn to bluff online first. Bluffing raises your heart rate, blood pressure and makes you sweat. If you can learn to control these emotions and pressures first when playing online, you are more likely to be able to control them in a real live game.

Learn the tells of a bluffer. And learn to not make them when you bluff. You can learn these tells from many books and online sites, learn them well and make sure you don't make them on the felt.

Be consistent. You must make your bluffing plays look just like your normal plays. If you vary your betting when you bluff and when you have a real hand, people will begin to read that and adapt to it. You will go from a bluff king to a broke king.

Short Stack Poker - Hand Example 2-4-2008

I've been doing a lot of talk about short stack poker, and I've had a chance to play some short stack poker, here is a hand that I was involved in where having the short stack got me paid off.

MP1 ($24.75)

MP2 ($35.85)

Hero ($4.40)

Button ($19.60)

SB ($15.35)

BB ($9.95)

UTG ($14.75)

Preflop: Hero is CO with Ac, Kd.

3 folds, Hero raises to $0.75, Button raises to $1.25, 1 fold, BB calls $1, Hero raises to $4.4, Button calls $3.15, BB calls $3.15.

(Here is where having the short stack works towards making pots three plus times bigger than your current stack because players often don't respect your bets.)

Flop: ($13.30) As, Th, 7s (3 players)

BB checks, Button checks.
(I'm all in, and I hit a nice Ace here on the flop, I'm pretty sure I'm coming away with this pot as long as no one is chasing a spade draw)

Turn: ($13.30) Kc (3 players)

BB checks, Button bets $5, BB folds.
(Even better, have two pair now, pretty much sure I have the best hand here. This also shows where I get fold equity for free, I'm all in and the button with his $5 value bet here forced out one more hand that could possibly beat me.)

River: ($13.30) 9c (2 players)

Final Pot: $13.30

Hero has Ac Kd (two pair, aces and kings).

Button has Td Kh (two pair, kings and tens).

Outcome: Hero wins $13.30.

(I can't believe the button would call such a big bet pre flop. I got my money in the middle with more than likely the best hand unless the blind had a smaller pocket pair.

Where my short stack helped me is that I no longer had any more decisions to make after the flop. The big stack made a decision to force out the blind after hitting his two pair on the turn. Suddenly my equity in this pot grew and I didn't have to do anything except watch.

Finally it showed that short stacks often don't get any respect at the table, you can often get all your money in the middle with a giant hand and still have 2 or 3 people call. This can potentially be bad as you have so many hands drawing against you, but you made a great decision if you still got your money in the middle with the best of it.

If you hadn't noticed, this example also shows that I probably didn't make as much money as I would have if I had a full stack. I had my opponent dominated and could have probably extracted his whole stack on the turn and river with value bets.)