Tag Archives: strategy

Holdem Style, Strategy, Tactics, and Winning

Posted on by
Reply

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

Late Night Holdem and Weak Tight Nits

Posted on by
Reply

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

Hold’em frustration – Poker only post

Posted on by
Reply

As an average bigger limit player sitting down at a low limit Hold’em table, most of the players with the exception of you are mostly passive and semi loose, meaning they don’t like raising and love to be able to call a single bet. When you are not a loose passive player yourself, or you never learned how to adjust to passive loose games, they can cause more than a little frustration. You want to be aggressive because it works for you in your ‘normal’ game. You want to punish the other players for playing cards that should have been thrown away, because that is what you read, or were taught.

You bet and raise, and lose more chips. Getting frustrated, you crank up your aggression. After all, stepping down to this level of poor play, winning should be easy. You know you can make your losses back with a few pots in your normal game…or can you? Now you will need to win to make up for your losses at this small game, and you have to win more to show a profit in your regular game. If the cards are not there in your regular game, your session is not going to be a happy one.

When playing low limit Hold’em at a loose passive table, I prefer to think of myself as the IRS at the table using the Laffer Curve (which I just learned of). I tax the players at a rate I think they will pay to have a nice passive game. I defend them from invaders by raising, and otherwise cutting off the action of newly seated aggressive ‘bigger’ players. Usually those quick stop players leave in frustration to their bigger game, and my little kingdom belongs to me once again.

Of course passive players pay a tax to me for this service. Taxes are paid in the form of pots I win. I pay for their defense at the table in bets I may lose to a more aggressive player who just sat down. In some cases a bond of sorts is formed between the other players and myself. Of course more aggressive players will never understand how or why this works. In the animal kingdom there are many examples of mutually beneficial parasitic relationships. A savvy good player at a low limit table can become accepted as a beneficial parasite if they are wise, think about everyones game at the table, and the reason the game is there to start with.

This bonding happens by myself taking on a strong aggressive player in the defense of the passive players, sort of like a watch dog. The passive players are happy because they can continue to play almost every hand as before and they are not part of being mean to the newly seated aggressive player. Individually, they do not feel they are paying too high of a price having me sit at the table with them. I win an infrequent hand now and then, rarely raise, and seem to make some ‘lucky’ big hands, just like them.

It is like schooling fish in the ocean. No single predator fish eats the whole school of fish. They eat some of the fish, but never to the point of causing irreparable harm to the school of fish. The fish in the school know that some of them will not survive, and they accept it as their lot. The same concept happens on the African plains.

I can already hear non-thinking more aggressive players screaming that I am completely wrong! Those weak players need to be punished for playing the junk they do! When they get to the card room a few will find themselves sitting at a passive table, and they will set out to prove that they are right and I am wrong. Passive players are not stupid players.

They play that way for reasons other than to win money. If they feel they are being bullied, one of three things normally happen. They clam up, and the table becomes uber tight, they leave to find another table, go home, or turn into maniacs. Eventually they are replaced by other more aggressive players if they leave. Then the table then turns wild aggressive for a short period and then just as suddenly turns tight.

Share