Category Archives: poker

Poor Play Or Winning Poker?

Posted on by

I have been working on a longer post, but wanted to post something worth your time. If you are a poker player who is losing badly, losing slowly, or simply frustrated by the game, this post for you. If you are not a poker player, use the ideas below and apply them to your life. In some areas of everyone’s life there is always room for improvement. Life and Poker need certain skills for success and generally they overlap.

Poker is very good once again in spite of what Card Rooms have done to tip the chips in their favor. All of the games I have access to are nine seat games. Nine seat games make it very difficult to impossible to play a sold game of poker and win over time. Internet poker generally being cut off from many poker players more than offsets nine player games as online players make the transition to live poker.

Overcoming the rake and the antes with only nine players means most average players are at a tremendous disadvantage. Playing solid poker at a loose table is losing poker over time, always has been. If you are willing to step out of your comfort zone, and come to terms with the new rules of poker, you can play a fun game and maybe even show an overall profit.

Some of the old rules still apply. If you are losing, throwing more money on the table is not going to make up for your earlier losses in most instances. Once a few hours of steady losses have gone by, if you can turn your game around and start winning, it is more likely the game will close on you than it is you will make up your losses. This is especially true if you play in the evening.

In the evenings, most players have a time in mind they want to leave at. For many it is between eight and ten o’clock. If you sat down at seven, and have been losing for a few hours, one of two things are going to happen if you choose to keep playing.

The game will tighten up, or the game will end up folding. The reason the game tightens up, is those words no one wants to hear coming out of the brushes mouth, “No list”. Those two words can tighten up a good game quicker than a maniac on a winning streak. The second reason is the time of night. The later it gets, the higher number of good players are sitting in the game with you.

Most poorer players have had their kitchen passes expire or they went broke (lost their daily limit) for the night. These poorer players, if the game keeps on going are placed by better players, who generally are not so willing to throw away chips on poor plays.

No matter what the reason, as the night goes on, the rake grinds down stacks quickly without the looser more generous players who think if they play right and tight they are going to win. So what to do in this situation? Look at your game.

How many times have you come back from behind later in the evening? How many times have you doubled or tripled your losses? You do not even need to open your book to know what the answer is. For most players a losing session is a losing session. Stopping when it is evident it is not your night, is the right thing to do.

To help you keep you out of this situation you need to be realistic about the game. Poker in most card rooms is no longer a game of solid play takes home the money. Solid play helps you survive longer, but eventually the rake wears down your castle walls to rubble.

I tried to explain this to a Hold’em Player who was both confused and curious. He was a good player, playing good cards. He started with 30 BB’s and his castle was crumbling as his frustration grew. I was stacking chips from from a win many players would not have seen the flop with. I am more realistic however. I know that hand values are no longer what they once were, and controlled loose play brings home the chips most nights.

The player of course was feeling the effects of bile rising disgust at my choice of starting cards. Good players do not play these cards. Good players wait for good starting hands and pump the pot. A few years back that was true. Today, good players take home some extra money, and the solid players go home broke and angry at how people play sh!t cards, have fun and win too.

Playing bad cards comes with experience. There is a wide swath between playing like a maniac keeping a balance of solid play and poor play. Unfortunately to be a winning player, like it or not, you are going to have to gamble occasionally.

What you think are semi junk cards when played appropriately does a lot of good things to your game. It is fun, it keeps the table guessing what you are playing, and most importantly you win bigger pots. If you are trying to play well and it is not working so well for you, work out a system for yourself where you can play any two cards once in a while and not hurt your game.

Substituting hands preflop means foregoing a better hand you may want to play to play for a hand no one will expect you to play in another round. This does take thinking and awareness of what the players at your table are playing and how strong the winning hands are. You must be in a loose game, not in a tough game ,or a game where three people are seeing every flop.

Clinging to the belief that good hands make winning poker is great. Playing strong hands wins pots. Playing only strong hands does not win large enough pots to pay for the gas to get to the card room and back home again. The choice is yours to make.

What are the goals for your playing poker? Would you rather have more fun and be able to keep playing, or play consistent good poker and eventually have to stop playing because it costs too much? Stick to losing boring poker, or give yourself a better chance of actually winning. If you still do not come closer to winning, at least you have some fun in the process. The object of Poker is to win money after all.

Share

Improve Your Poker Skills, Play a New game

Posted on by

One of the most difficult parts of playing poker is to play fair to good poker consistently. Some casual players all the way to the die hard players who should be dialing Gamblers Anonymous suffer the same malady at the tables. Players arrive at their favorite card-room with the best of intentions. They are going to only play good hands. They are only going to bet the flop with the best hands. They are only going to the show down with pat hands. In other words they are not going to chase to the river hoping to catch a miracle card.

If these Players did not exist, poker games would be very boring. Everyone would be playing correctly, the average pot would be small. Rarely would more than two players face off at the river. One hours observation of an average Low Limit Holdem game dispels the relationship between what players should be doing and what players are really doing.

Of course if it is you or I we are discussing, we always play perfectly for table conditions. We never get ruffled, and we love it deep down when someone chases to the river for that one in forty-something miracle card and gets it – even it happens way too often.

You on the other hand think you are watching your chips drain away. Throwing away hands you see the rest of the table winning with s the round crawls on. An hour or so passes, and we start playing those hands because they are looking better than an hour ago, and ‘everyone’ is winning huge pots with those same bad hands

Almost everyone at the table is playing poorly except us and that old man who has no life outside of the card room. Everyone is laughing and having fun. The problem is that old man has forty years of patience and a limited bankroll. You and I only share one of those attributes with him. My bet is it is not patience we three share.

Before you realize it, your ‘just this once’ bad play has evolved into playing as bad as everyone else at the table. Any edge you had from your skill set is now reduced to luck of the cards, and they are not feeling so lucky at the moment. But it has rewards attached, you won a big pot on your second bad hand.

One of the hardest to rules to adhere to, and one of the most expensive rules in any form of poker is: “A bad starting hand does not improve by throwing more money into the pot, and one outers rarely arrive by the river.”

Whether you think you are changing your game up, playing in late position with many callers, or the big blind with six players and one raise, a bad starting hand remains a bad starting hand. The only variable that changes over the play of a few bad hands is another players stack.

One idea that may help you improve, and only if you are not addicted to action is changing games. Some poker games are slow and boring by default. Mid level Holdem according to many players is pretty much abc poker. Learning an entirely different game may help with the boredom of throwing away hand after hand, watching some Turkey win more pots than seems humanly possible.

Ever thought about learning Omaha Hi-Low, Stud Low, Pineapple, or another poker game that may be offered? The one you never really looked at, but you see chips flying around faster than players can stack them?

Any game offered other than the game you normally play offers new challenges. You learn to think differently, value cards differently, and see card combinations in new ways. New strategy means new thinking, and new ways of thinking are good for your old game.

Two outcomes from learning a new game are possible. You may find you really enjoy playing the new game. It may be more fun, more competition, lets you think more or less, and use different strategies. You see other players in a new light, and perhaps come to appreciate the talent they bring to the game that you do not quite have, yet.

A second less obvious non-monetary win from playing a different game arrives in a round about way. Learning a new game will make you a better player in your main game. You become a better player because by learning and playing other games opens you up to knew ways of playing.

It may be easier to understand why certain plays you make are mistakes and other plays are high level plays in a different game. In the long term, with enough experience at other games, you may find you have become that Turkey others at the table are mad at and at and envious of, both at the same time. Your skill level improves as will your play.

Because we tend to do what ever our group does, it is easy to slip into the poor playing habits shared by many players in your usual game. Bad playing habits at the poker tables, are offered, learned, and reinforced every time you sit down to play in your normal game. Because it seems they all play poorly, bad play starts to become good play for you, and it is fun, when you win. Unless the penalty for bad play is somehow sternly reinforced, there is a strong tendency to play at the same level others are playing at.

Learning different types of poker games may not be the cure all, end all of unlearning reinforced bad playing habits, but they certainly help. All poker skill is built on previous skill. Poker skills are learned in a variety of ways. The basics are the ground floor to becoming an exceptional player.

Depending on the other players in your game to help you improve your game, is rarely going to happen. You may see a good player play well, but unless you can get into their mind it is hard to understand what makes them a good player.  No one is going to give you your chips back after you throw them away via poor play, and take the time to teach you what you are doing wrong.

Some players are consistent winners over time, most are consistent in they know how to play better but play poorly instead. Playing in different games can help you become your own coach. Watching yourself  learn to play in the light of a different game can help you improve faster than playing more of the same game with the same bad habits.

Share

Holdem Style, Strategy, Tactics, and Winning

Posted on by

Holdem in general is a contest of strategy and tactics contested in a fish bowl at moderate speed. While a full game of Holdem seems like separate and unique individuals of close but varying abilities in competition that idea is a little fuzzy about what really is going happening.

Time, Strategy, and Tactics are compressed. One complete round of hands can be enough to cause shift of both strategies and tactics, all in the span of a few minutes for a skilled player.

The obvious object of Holdem is for each player is to take chips away from other players, preferably as many chips as possible. To infer that taking chips is a Holdem strategy is about the same as a General planning to win a war without a plan. Between playing and winning is a lot of untested and unknown territory which must be assessed and conquered.

In most Holdem games there are two dominant strategies going at one time. Those who play strong hands and use their chips as battering rams, hoping to bash weaker opponents into submissive sheep, and those who pretend to be submissive sheep, waiting for those moments when their wide ranging tactical play scores massive damage to another players chip castle.

Unless the game of Holdem is being played for serious, causes intense pain when lost money, there is usually a sprinkling of other tacticians who’s goal is not to punish other players by taking their chips, but by making their own chips last as long as possible. They are at the table for other reasons than to win money and punish other players for poor play and inability to adapt.

Every player in the game takes on one of these roles after a quick observation of how they perceive most of the players are playing. A few players will change to what they hope is the optimum strategy of the moment, usually due to overwhelming strength of the combined opposition, the flighty nature of their hands, or turning of their luck (variation). Others find themselves on the high defensive wondering what happened, as everything was going so well, and now suddenly, it is not.

Highly sensitive skill is involved in consistently winning. Watching closely the ebb and flow of the two main competing strategies, the flow of chips around the table, general board texture, and your ones cards. While we all would like to have Aces, and make every straight and flush, some days no matter what choices you make the tide is not turning in your favor.

To be a consistent winner in Holdem, takes book knowledge, practiced and learned skills, and the ability to be flexible. To be more than a breaking even player or small winner one needs some vague and undefined skills that verge on an art form rather than learned behavior for the best players. A thick skin doesn’t hurt either.

Once a Holdem player becomes comfortable they have times when they feel invincible, and other times when they feel lost. Many players are not aware of it, but the difference of whether they are on the winning or losing coalition of the correct playing style at that moment is flexibility, other factors being neutral.

Only two factors are absolute when playing Holdem. The first written in stone absolute is the game will change from tight to loose, to aggressive to passive, sometimes in the space of a few moments. The second absolute is the most perceptive and adaptable player generally will take more of other players money than he or she give away over the session, all else being equal.

In an average game, the differences between playing styles at any one moment is negligible. Most players follow whatever the crowd is doing, depending on their insight as to who the crowd is. This is a result of safety in numbers. Everyone plays and finishes about the same state. Winners are determined by the fall of a card, rather than skill and creativity of an individual player.

There are a lot of fun ways to play Holdem, but not all of them are good for the next game you will be sitting in. Learning to successfully adapt your playing style to the players a requirement for success in building chip castles. Other areas of life are surprisingly the same.

Share

Holdem Bankroll For the New Player

Posted on by

One of the problems for serious Holdem players who have limited playing experience grapple with is knowing how much of a session bank roll is going to be needed to sit down at a particular table. That is followed by how big of a total bank roll is needed. The frustration of being a newer player is limited experience of bankroll size. Watching players at the  table is all they really have to judge how many big bets may be needed per session.

Some players peel off bills like they grow on trees. Others leave when they have lost their minimum buy-in. When I first started out, I used the wag system. I am playing $1 – 5 Stud, so sixty dollars is more than enough to sit down at the table with. After all the initial buy-in is only $20.00, so if I have three times the buy-in that should be plenty of money.

As Stud started sliding to the wayside and Holdem was gaining ground, I started to understand the initial buy-in didn’t mean very much. The low buy-in was to make it possible for someone curious to sit down, risk the minimum dollar amount and have the pleasure of being able to say they sat down at a poker table, and played poker!

As I was more lucky than I was skilled, I slowly started growing my bankroll. I also started to notice that sometimes my $60.00 was more than enough and other times, I was on my home after running out of money early in the session. On those trips home, without any real skill at making a bankroll size, I decided maybe $80.00 would be enough to cover those times when $60.00 was not enough.

Eventually, I realized that there were times in Holdem when $80.00 was barely enough to survive a few hands, let alone have any chance at winning a hand and entering the green side of the money number line. I was still making a profit over the month, so I decided to boost my session bankroll to an even $100.00. After all, Benjamin’s sure feel good when you pull one out of your wallet, and hand it over the to the cashier for chips, knowing that they are only holding it for you, and you will be back for plus the interest received when you are done playing for the day.

I moved up to $4 – 8 Holdem around that time from a spread limit game. Holdem was indeed good for my bankroll, and my play was improving too. Unfortunately other players were improving and their level of aggression was going up too. My session money doubled to two dimes, and after that three dimes. I thought $300.00 was sufficient for any game I might encounter. Until the night I sat down and the table was unusually aggressive. By the end of the first button rotation I was pulling out my third and final Benjamin out of my wallet and asking for chips.

So how much does a session of poker really cost? The Floor (Poker Room Manager) where I play suggests ten times the minimum buy in. Some players suggest ten to fifteen times one big bet. Others look in their wallet, and decide from there.

The truth of the matter is there are no hard and fast rules to how big your session bankroll should be. There are a number of deciding factors though. In no particular order: Your comfort zone, table dynamics, skill level, time of day, day of the week, total size of your bankroll, playing style.

Two hard and fast rules are do not play with more than you can comfortably afford to lose, and never play higher than you can afford. What you can afford is money you can throw into the trash can and not think about it again.

If you are playing Low Limit Holdem casually, whatever you show up with at the table that you can lose without harming the rest of your life is the correct bankroll. For many starting players, they make a decision between a Friday Night Holdem game or partying with friends.

For more serious players, as your bankroll grows, your experience should be growing too, and you know what table types you are comfortable with. As long as you stay in the parameters of the types of tables you are comfortable with, you know what you need for a bankroll at the limit you play. If you continue to grow your bankroll, protection of your bankroll is as important as session money. By the time that happens, you will have a pretty good poker knowledge base, and you will be accustomed to managing your bankroll and your session money.

Share

Holdem’s Return

Posted on by

I have not written anything about Holdem lately so I thought a post was overdue. Funny thing about the state of the economy. If you ever want to know the financial condition of your neighbors, go to a casino. Before the recession started there was a general mix of slot machines from penny to five dollar and higher slots with players waiting to get on them on a Friday night. Table games were usually full of players. Holdem tables had good games with wait lists most evenings. Life was good!

As money tightened, Casinos moved out many of the quarter and higher slot machines and replaced them with penny machines. Table games enjoyed less business. Holdem games get more serious at lower levels. What was a fun night out, was becoming an expense that many could not afford. The ATM machine could not pay out the way it used to in the previous months for players, and reloading to keep playing was no longer an option for many players.

Using Casinos as a reference, the economy is making a comeback. Not exactly a roaring comeback, but a comeback all the same. The Holdem tables are evolving too. Players are scrappier and games are getting better again. Tables are becoming looser, and a little more money is being thrown around. Tempers are less likely to erupt when a player on the ropes loses a hand, well played or not.

The downside for the Holdem is players are better skilled than players of the last beginning Holdem boom. Players no longer sit down with the fuzzy idea of hand rankings, and how to play a hand well. Access to information on Holdem is easy find on the net, bookstore and local library. Players are just plain better and more skilled when they sit down at a table.

Quite some time ago, I read a poker article about staying on top of the game. The article talked about how any poker game evolves. Players use different strategies, levels of aggressiveness fluctuate along with the times. Being a winning player five years ago, means you will be barely breaking even on a good day in the present.

One point overlooked, is no matter how much things change, some things remain the same. There are always the same number of cards in the deck available to be dealt to each player each hand. Everything else may change, but  basic poker concepts remain the same. The odds of having a pair are the same as ten years ago, or ten years in the future.

If you are a seasoned card player, and you are close to break even on a good night, maybe it is time to revamp your game? Playing the same way you played last year or the year before may not be the best way to play at your table today. Five years ago it would not be unusual to see players sit for hours and only play big hands.

Tight players never won big, but they never lost much either. Those same players were ran over without a thought. If there are any of tight players left, they only play when socializing is more important than winning.

Although an American paranoia, if you want to play winning Holdem you have to change. Even if changing means a loss. Losing is all relative. If you are losing and reloading without a second thought, good for you. I hope you are having lots of fun while you play!

If you are losing and understanding why you are losing, and making adjustments, you are on the right track. Quality poker lessons are not free. Whether you learn them at the table, buy books, or buy someone’s time and talent to teach you, the cost has to be looked at as an investment, not a loss.

The end goal of any Holdem player is to enjoy the game while they play. Playing for money is not the way to happiness. If you are going to spend your time and risk your money, it should be on something you enjoy doing. If you can not enjoy Holdem for what it is, you are punishing yourself, and wasting your money.

If you put enough thought in your game, eventually you will arrive at a point where you are both winning and having a lot of fun. That is the true nature of what Holdem is all about. The only caveat is once you think you have arrived, you need to remember it is only temporary.

Don’t stop paying attention and keep tweaking your game. If you stop, you will join the Rocks of old who can only think about when they used to play.  The economy is improving, and the games are getting good. They are also evolving. Pay attention while you sit there enjoying yourself, thinking about your seat at the WSOP.

Share

Late Night Holdem and Weak Tight Nits

Posted on by

I played live Holdem Poker this week in two different card rooms. If you have been playing poker for more than a year or so you know how the game has evolved. Holdem Poker played well means quickly adapting to different styles of play, and different strategies as players come and go. Occasionally players do not even need to leave to have the table change states in the span of two or three hands.

In the first card room it was about midnight and the game was slowing down. The table was a few seats short, and most of the players including myself were a little on the tired side. I find in games like this, the opportunity to profit comes from being able to wait for opportunity to happen rather than try to force the action.

In late night games when players who are normally in bed are at the table, two main threads are going on. Players are more prone to making mistakes. Mistakes are made both from what the players think is happening in the hand and what is going on in their head. Secondly most players are trying to win back earlier losses.

This mix of wants makes for an interesting game. There are more heads up battles between players. One player perceives another player is making a move, and is not willing to lose chips invested in the hand. The rest of the field folds and watches the battle. Tired players are correct about the same amount of time they are wrong. I think late night games in a small card room have a lot in common with an afternoon short handed game, only with more mistakes being made.

The second game was a Saturday afternoon game which is usually a good game. Players are generally loosening up, and making small moves in hope of building their stacks up for later when the lags and maniacs arrive. This was not that game, and it took me longer than it should have to adjust to the game. I made the mistake of deciding what the table was like before I actually was in the game.

This game was the largest collection of weak tight nits I have seen in a while! I did not know there were enough around to dominate a table. Yet here they were, in all their glory, folding hands waiting for big pairs, and checking unless they held the nut hand. One player proclaimed that he would never dream of betting second top pair. Three players showed some sign of agreement as if it was proclaimed from above.

I watched and listened as they chastised and ran off two players who were playing looser than they were comfortable with. It was too bad because at that moment the profit was coming from those players. The table went short handed after the second loose player was chased off and one of the nits left for other ventures.

These are hard games to make a profit in, probably the worst. If they bet or call they usually hold Aces and paint, or big pairs. If the board looks the slightest bit scary after the flop they freeze. They would rather dump chips down the rake vacuum than play against a coordinated board without the absolute nut hand.

These are the two worst games I know of for making a profit. Mistakes in either of these games are costly. In a game of tired players, one player winning a hand and leaving may cause the game to fold. When this happens you are out of a game until tomorrow.

Against experienced players who never progressed beyond weak tight, profit tends to be a small. Weak tight players take few risks, if they are in a hand past the flop, they have a rock solid hand. If you try to take advantage of this, they usually will not give you any action if you are first to bet. If you push them, they tend to leave the game for the day.

I will remember for a while anyway, to let the table do the talking, and not decide how the table is until I see or sit in the game. I also remembered why I don’t like to play late at night on weekdays, or early afternoons. Too many weak tight nits, trying to make the day go by, taking as few risks as possible.

Share