Poker bankroll management, building and strategy – online poker guide

Every move has a purpose

Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 | Poker Articles, Poker Strategy | 2 Comments

No matter what your poker experience or skill level it is important to be reminded from time to time that every single action you make at the table, whether online or in person has a purpose. In this case, I am not talking about possible tells like how long you take to make a decision, how you put your chips in the pot or things like body language. Today I am focusing on the simpler things, betting, checking, raising, re-raising or check-raising.

My girlfriend played an interesting hand last week where we had a chance to discuss this. Here’s how it played out. She was on the button with AK off suit, the blinds were 50/100, there were 4 players left who all had about 2,500 chips (give or take a few) and by the time the action got to her she was alone against the blinds. She raised to 300 (a pretty standard play in this spot) and got 2 callers. So now the pot had 900 chips in it, and looked like it had the potential to be an interesting hand.

The flop came A 9 5 – all diamonds. She didn’t have a diamond in her hand but did have top pair and top kicker so I advised her to be half the pot once both of her opponents checked to her – of course, this bet is known as a continuation bet, which is to say, the person who raises before the flop continues with a bet after the flop – sometimes regardless of the flop. The continuation bet is also a standard move in this situation, it accomplishes a couple of things. First, it tells your opponents that you liked your hand before the flop and you still like it, in this particular case it says I might have the flush or more likely I have an ace with a decent kicker …. maybe another decent pair. Secondly, it forces your opponent to put you on a hand and make a decision. Depending on how your opponent(s) react then you reassess the situation yourself. Clearly, in this situation we did not want to see a re-raise and really didn’t even want to see a call, but with the continuation bet we wanted to maintain control of the hand. Small blind folded, big blind called. Not exactly what we would have hoped for but our continuation bet did get us some information and got one player out of the hand – not bad.

The next card was a 3 – also a diamond. Remember that we didn’t have a diamond at all. So, what is our play here? Well, if we didn’t put him on a flush before, it was pretty believable he had one now, like 50% believable. After the one player left in the pot checked my girlfriend commented that he had the flush and was waiting for us to bet. Whoa! Wait a minute here. Did he have the flush? Maybe. Did he have high enough of a flush to call another bet or could he lay down here? We didn’t know for sure. There were 1,800 chips in the pot at this point and I was wondering about him checking both the flop and the turn. Many of us have the patience to check the nuts and hope for our opponent to bet into us but lots of players don’t have that patience or don’t know the difference and bet big hands. With so much invested I suggested she bet 450 again, my thinking was that we got ourselves pretty deep into this hand and we would put out an information bet here. If he was waiting for us he was all-in, if he wasn’t sure he would lay down or call. He called. At this point we had committed 1,200 of our 2,500 chips to a pot that we really were not confident we were winning anymore but this had become a make or break hand. Our continuation bet got called and our information bet got called and we were likely going down on this hand. My advice to her before the river came was if he goes all in we’re out, if he checks we’re all in. After a continuation and information bet I was not sure what to call this bet, but for some reason I thought it was the play to make.

The river drew an inconsequential card, he checked, we shoved them all in, he folded and we took down a nerve racking monster of a pot and she went on to win that tournament.

While I am sure the way we played the hand was not great, I think it was a good example of three different types of bets. We never did find out what he had to call our pre flop, flop and turn bets but it was a safe bet that he didn’t have a high diamond in his hand.

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Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Strategy

A weekend of fishing, drinking and playing cards

Sunday, September 28th, 2008 | Poker Articles, Poker and Life | 1 Comment

I just returned home from a so called “Gentlemen’s weekend” with my girlfriend’s dad and 15 of his friends who I have never met before. The “Gentlemen’s weekend” has been an annual event since 1996 and this year I was invited. To the outside world the primary theme of the trip is fishing but in reality it is more of a social get-together with good food, a lot of alcohol and semi-high roller (at least on my budget) card games.

The weekend started with a boat fishing trip out at sea. For those of you who haven’t read about my dreadful previous boat fishing trip on Malta, here’s a link: Malta fishing trip. I won’t go into details about the boat trip since none of us caught anything. Still I had a personal victory by not puking all over the place, so now it’s The Ocean: 1 Mark: 1.  The next day we went fishing in a really small put and take pond. We caught 1 fish in total the first two hours, then a truck came with 50kg of farmed trout  that were released into the pond. Within 1 hour we caught about 15 fish and I managed to land three 2-3kg trouts. I haven’t really caught much in lakes before so I didn’t really know how to kill the fish I landed. I was instructed to give them a karate style chop with my hand on their necks but the damn fish just kept flopping around. Must have handed out 20 or so karate chops, where one of them painfully hit the ground because the stupid fish dodged my stroke by flopping madly. Later I managed to drop one of my fish in the lake while rinsing it so I had to borrow a net to get it back. I think the other experienced anglers were quite amused. Still I caught more fish than my girlfriends dad, so all in all the fishing part of the weekend was a success.

On a side note I have decided that I do not like the put and take concept. It just seems stupid to breed a bunch of fish catch them, then release them in a small pond where they have no chance of escaping, then catch them again and kill them. I would much rather fish in the real nature from now on.

I cannot write anything about the large amounts of alcohol consumed and the naturally associated embarrassing moments….this is one of the unwritten rules of these weekends. However I will share with you a bad beat I received in the aforementioned semi-high roller card games. The game played is called “half-twelve” – it resembles Black Jack and it’s really simple. The object of the game is to obtain a card value of 11.5. Picture cards are valued at 0.5, Aces are valued 1 or 11 and the remaining cards are valued with their face value. The maximum number of cards than can be dealt to a player is 5, and if the combined values of the cards is below 11.5 this automatically counts as 11.5. If the combined value of the cards you have been dealt exceed 11.5 you have lost the hand.

All players start with 1 card and have the option of betting the pot or any fraction of it with the card they have or receiving another card (up to a maximum of 5 cards) for any fraction of the pot. When the player thinks his hand is good enough the bank then draws his hand. When both the player and the bank are satisfied with their hand there’s a showdown. If the player wins he takes whatever fraction of the pot he wagered. If the bank wins the money wagered enters into the pot for the next player to gamble for. If there is a tie, the bank wins by default. A round ends when the bank has dealt out all the cards in a deck.

Now onto the game in question. I am up about 30$ for the evening and it is the last round of betting before a change of bank. I have proclaimed that I want to stop playing but according to the rules I have to finish the round. The pot is 50$ when the player before is dealt an Ace. He bets the pot and stands on his Ace. Having an Ace is equivalent to having pocket rockets in poker so this is where you make your money. The bank then manages to turn 5 cards with a value below 11.5 and beats the player before me. The pot is now 100$ and I look down at an Ace. I of course bet the pot and stand with my Ace and then the bank turns an 8 and the a 3 to tie my ace and beat me by default. Alas!!!! I haven’t calculated the excact odds but they are pretty slim for the bank after turning an 8. For the weekend next year I will memorize all the odds and kill at the tables. For now I have entered the 100000$ Sunday tournament at Everest Poker where I hope to revenge my losses. Things however are not looking good but I’ll write about that later.

Tags: Poker and Life, Poker Articles

BRB Free roll at Titan Poker – 27th September

Thursday, September 25th, 2008 | Poker Freeroll | No Comments

Hi Guys

We have a poker freeroll for the readers of the Poker Bankroll Blog and our Poker Forum on the 27th at Titan Poker.

Prize poll: $50.
A password to the tourney will be given to all members of our poker universe, PokerBRB and Poker Bankroll Blog. Just post a message in the tournament thread, “Poker Free Roll September 27th”, and you will be sent a password a few hours before kick off.

Titan Poker does unfortunately not accept American. But we have another freeroll October 5th at Poker Nordica (accepts Americans).

Enjoy!!

/Michael

Tags: Poker Freeroll

Coach or be coached

Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008 | Poker Articles, Poker and Life | 2 Comments

Have you ever had to teach something to someone? It can be anything at all from how to tie your shoes or kick a soccer ball to how something in your car works or some complicated aspect of your business works? I think we’ve all been in that situation on some level or another but maybe we never thought of it as teaching or coaching. When we explain something that we have come to take for granted we are forced to think about it in a way that we normally wouldn’t, which is why I think that one of the best ways to get better at poker is to find someone to teach the game to and also to look for someone whose game is at least as good as yours and see what they can teach you.

Have you ever heard of poker sweat sessions? As it happens, I discovered sweat sessions before I knew what they were called. About a year ago my girlfriend expressed an interest in learning more about poker and the approach I took with coaching her really ended up helping my game a lot as well. I found out later that the approach I took with teaching her is sometimes called a sweat session. I’ll explain how it started and what it has become and hope you’ll recognize the benefits of the approach.

Here’s how it started. She would come into the office to watch while I was playing a tournament and would ask stuff like “why did you raise with that?” and I would usually give some answer like “I have been playing very tight and this guy has folded to every raise so far and this guy seems to be just trying to last until the bubble bursts”. Then she’d comment on how she wouldn’t notice that kind of stuff or ask another question. After a while she’d sit down at the start of the tournament and I’d just start talking about what I am doing and why, basically like being a commentator on my own game. And when I say commenting on the game I really mean it, I would talk about everything going on in the game whether I was in the hand or not, stuff like “this guy is raising too much” she’d ask why I thought that “nobody gets good cards that often so clearly he is raising with just about anything or strictly based on position, but who can blame him, we’re all folding every time… I am going to wait for a hand I am willing to die with and re-raise him large when I get it”. She encouraged it because she was learning about the game but the real kicker is that I might have been learning as much or more than she was.

Not long after she started watching me play she jumped in and began playing games on my account, at a lower limit mind you, and I would basically comment on what was happening the same way we did when I was playing. Keep in mind that she had been playing in our home game for years, and watched a lot of poker on television and we have talked about the game a lot so she already had a solid foundation, so when I say I commented on the game I wouldn’t comment on what she should to with 2 5 under the gun or whether she had to call someone’s all in when she had the nuts, she had that stuff covered. She’s learned so much that the commenting has suibsided somewhat but we still talk about unusual or difficult situations or tough reads whether she is playing or I am and we continue to learn together.

Call them sweat sessions, coaching, teaching or whatever you want, I recommend you try this approach with someone and stick with it. Whether you pair up with someone who knows more or less than you about poker I predict you’ll be surprised how much you learn when you start thinking about the game in this way. As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic because I am eager to learn what other people are doing to improve their game.

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Tags: Poker and Life, Poker Articles

A great weekend of poker

Sunday, September 21st, 2008 | Poker Articles, Poker Tournament | No Comments

So my girlfriend was out of town visiting some of her friends for a birthday party. Having the place to myself I invited one of my good friends over for a weekend of poker. He arrived Friday evening at around quarter to nine and by nine o’ clock we were playing in 4 big tournaments on two laptops:

• A 150000$ Guaranteed 75$ rebuy on Titan Poker
• A 35000$ Guaranteed 10$ rebuy on Titan Poker
• A 10000£ Guaranteed 50£ buyin on Inter Poker
• A 7000£ Guranteed 30£ buyin on Inter Poker

My friend also opened some cash tables on Inter Poker so everything was set for a hopefully profitable night. We exited the two Inter Poker tourneys within an hour or so. In the 10000£ tourney we raised preflop with AK and got a A9x flop. Unfortunately our opponent called our preflop raise with A9 (bad call) and we could not throw our hand. In the 7000£ tourney we busted out with KK against 1010, all in preflop.

At the same time my friend had lost his initial 100$ buyin on Inter Poker plus another 300$. Needless to say spirits were low and so were our chip stacks in the the Titan Poker tournaments. However after the first break things started to look up. We became chipleaders in the 150000$ tournament and kept our lead for several hours. In the 35000$ tournament we climbed to the 5th largest stack and remained in the top 10 almost until the very end.

After 5-6 hours of play we finally busted out as number 15 in both tournaments (what are the odds of that happening:-)). At the time the blinds were stellar and our M’s were below 5. We pushed with 88 in the 35000$ tournament but got called by QQ. In the 150000$ tournament we pushed with A5 suited and got called by AJ.

All in all we played very conservative…waiting for the good hands and making good decisions all the way. It really helped to be two persons playing. I am more conservative than my friend so I saved us from throwing our chips away on silly calls. On the other hand my friends looser approach won us some nice pots with well timed bluffs and marginal hands.

If I should point out one negative part of our play it would probably be that we were to passive as chipleaders. We hit a cooler with no playable hands for two hours which meant that we were shortstacked entering the final battle to reach the final table. We should have used our stack more to steal blinds, playing our opponents and not our cards. I find that this is the hardest part of playing poker tournaments and I will definitely work on this part of my game. As a final note we opted to fold 99 preflop to a large raise with 25 players remaining. Looking back I think we should have taken a stand here.

Unfortunately my friend lost another 400$ on Inter Poker before we stopped playing so he did not come out of the weekend with a profit like we. He lightened up Saturday where we went to see a “shake that booty” competition in a Salsa club:-)

Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Tournament

Playing small pocket pairs

Saturday, September 20th, 2008 | Poker Articles, Poker Strategy | 3 Comments

According to the following chart on EV (estimated value), no matter where you are sitting at the table does pocket 2s have a positive EV. This means you will lose more money playing them, than you will ever win. So why do people play them?

For those how don’t know, EV (estimated value) is the average of what you expect to make on any particular hand. It’s important to note that EV and actual results will vary massively over any short term period. Once you have played enough hands (an infinite amount) your total actual results will equal the sum of the entire total EV of the plays you have made. So whenever you determine that a play is +EV you should make it EVERY time, otherwise you are losing money in the long run. (The above paragraphed was summarized from Basic Theory: Expected Value)

Before I go on, I’m going to expand this question to pocket 3s and pocket 4s as over half a million hands, they too have a negative EV.

Does this mean we should never play them? No! What I am saying is that no matter what the outcome of the hand; understand that you are putting your chips in as an underdog.

Knowing this, I made a small error in judgment in a recent home game. We were down to 5 players (top 3 paid) and I was UTG. Both blinds had a similar chip stack to mine, while the other 2 were the chip leaders. The blinds represented over 25% of my stack, so when I looked down at a pair of 2s, I had to decide whether to push or fold. I knew I could not limp in and commit this many chips without being pot committed if someone came over the top. I also knew that had I pushed, there was a good chance that 1 of the other 4 players would likely call, leaving me as an underdog (according to EV). I decided to fold, 1 of the big stacks limped and both blinds just called. The flop was 10-2-5 rainbow. !#@$%, I would have made trips and probably doubled up as the big blind had a 10 and took the pot down right there. I was a little frustrated for not taking my chance (and let my emotions show, which is a mistake but a totally different blog), but still managed to grind-it out to a2 ^nd place finish. Finishing in the money made me feel better about my choice, as I could have easily been eliminated by playing such a weak hand out of position.

Now getting back to my original question about why we play pocket 2s, 3s or 4s, JGiles and I have come up with a theory:

1) You hope to hit the third 2/3/4 and win a big pot as it is hard for your opponent to put you on trips.

2) Some people just can’t lay down any pair EVER.

3) You are getting great odds to call. Remember hitting trips on the flop is approximately 7:1, so your odds have to be close to that to call. They get worse if you chase to the river.

4) If you’ve been card dead for a while 2s, 3s, or 4s might look like a monster.

5) Tilt can make people play anything.

6) Could be late in the game and you just need to get your chips in ahead and hope nobody calls or you get a caller who doesn’t hit.

No matter what reason you use to play these dangerous hands, remember that you are gambling and over many many hands, you will lose more chips/money than you will win.

Good luck at the tables,

McTap03

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Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Strategy

Ladbrokes Poker Review

Saturday, September 20th, 2008 | Poker Articles, Poker Network, Poker Room | No Comments

Ladbrokes poker is quickly becoming one of Europe’s most popular poker rooms. Designed with the player in mind this site offers a quick smooth and user friendly interface with easy table navigation and table play. Ladbrokes easy to use software including sports betting and casino rivals the biggest poker sites on the web.

Featuring fast loose cash games with high average pots make Ladbrokes a great place for players looking for action and good profits. Being that Ladbrokes is so user friendly is it also a great place for beginner poker players to start their online poker experience. Featuring casino and sports betting allows for recreational players to have some fun between hands playing for bets as low as one dollar.

A few small downfalls to this site are server speed and the sit out feature. The server has good speed for the poker client but is slow at times when using the casino or sports betting features. Though this site does have a sit out feature for cash games, the time allotted to sit out is small and a player can easily find themselves off a table during a food or bathroom break. In conclusion this is a fun professional poker client that every online player should take time to experience.

Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Network, Poker Room

Poker Warfare

Friday, September 19th, 2008 | Poker Articles, Poker Strategy | 2 Comments

If poker is war, then chips are your ammunition and one must always use their ammunition thoughtfully – after all, once the ammo is gone, so are you.

It is with that idea that I have always been keenly aware of ensuring purpose to every chip I commit to a pot. That being said, you can’t play scared poker and win, in fact – I think it is essential to have an utter disconnect from money completely when at the felt (as strange as that may sound). Worrying about losing money has no place at the felt and will, I guarantee you, leads to loss. This is warfare people – it is not for the weak at heart or the weak minded for certain!

Every action I make (check, fold, call, raise) has a deliberate purpose and is a way of communication with my opponents on the battlefield:

The Fold is an amazing weapon in my arsenal and one that I use most frequently as a tight/aggressive player. I will use the Fold before the flop when my hole cards and position limit my tactical advances as well as when my premium cards come up short on later streets and I want to limit my damage because I feel that another player has the best of it.

There is no stronger statement however, than a Raise. If I raise, I am telling everyone at the table that this is my hand and you better either back off or get ready for battle; a declaration of attack if you will. Along the same lines, a re-raise is a full scale attack and one that most often will be met with surrender or a duel to the death (bust).

Conversely, a Call or Check are perhaps the weakest moves in poker, thus making no real statement at all outside of a desire for another cheap or free card, a simple call or check shows vulnerability and allows others to swoop in and take advantage/steal the pot from you, which is why keeping these to a minimum leads to a stronger game overall.

I haven’t mentioned the psychology of applying the bluff in these situations, but I will say briefly that I use this maneuver much like a special ops division of my poker arsenal – it is intended to confuse my opponents, send them down the wrong path and set them up for chip casualties later on. Actually, I often find that revealing a bluff can be more lucrative than getting away with one in the long run (in tournament play for example), it keeps everyone guessing and second guessing.

Make no bones about it, warfare at the felt, just as on the real battlefield, is made up of many critical decisions. Every move made must serve its purpose in order to come out on top, plant your flag, and declare the table in the name of your bankroll.

Whether you equate poker to war or even fly fishing, my point remains the same – every move is critical and should be approached carefully, with a plan and knowledge of one’s mission.  I think one of greatest lessons I’ve taken away from the most successful pros is that you need to know why you are making the actions you are making at the felt, what is the purpose, what do you want to achieve and what are you saying to your opponents by making them.

Wishing you Big Flops and Bigger Pots,
Delik

Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Strategy

Freerolls Update

Thursday, September 18th, 2008 | Poker Freeroll | 1 Comment

Hi All

All is set up for a great weekend on the PokerBRB and Poker Bankroll Blog community.

We start the weekend with a freeroll at Poker Nordica tomorrow (19th September):

Tourney Start: 9PM CET (central European time) and 2PM (Central Time, US).

Prize pool: $50

Freeroll name: PokerBRB II

Read more about the tourney on our poker forum.

On Saturday we have a freeroll at Titan Poker:

Tourney Start: 21:05 Server time (22:05 CET).

Prize Pool: $50

Freeroll name:BRB Free Roll

Remember that the only requirement to participate in these freerolls is to sign up at our forum and post a message in the freeroll thread. Easy!

Enjoy!!

Tags: Poker Freeroll

Poker etiquette and karma

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 | Poker Articles, Poker Rules | 8 Comments

I found myself in a very interesting situation the other night that really made me think so I thought I’d share it here and hope to get some response form other players. I also figure it might be a good thing for beginners to think about, so hopefully some of them will read this post as well.

During the past week I have been on a bit of a heater, finishing first in 6 straight $5 6 player tournaments and finishing second a few times. For the most part my week has gone the opposite of last week’s post, if you recall last week I was lamenting about players who were calling me weak and sucking out on me. I haven’t changed my play, it’s just that my hands have been holding up for some reason, and although that’s not the point of this post I thought I would mention it as it is a good reminder that if you’re playing well and losing keep at it. Now on to the point of today’s post, poker etiquette … and karma.

The other night I found myself on the bubble (these 6 player tourneys I play pay 2 spots) blinds were 200/400 and I had about 1,700 chips, the big stack (who really was not a good player) had 6,500 chips and the person to my right had about 800 chips, and he was sitting out – had been since about the third hand after he won a pot of around 400 chips. The chip leader got there by calling a pre flop all in earlier that was most of her chips with 45 and hit a straight and later called a significant all in with K2 and won that hand as well. She basically never folded and that was alright, if I could just get heads up against her I figured I’d have a decent chance of wining. As for the guy sitting out, some people get angry when players sit out but I could never understand that, first of all, I have started a tournament only to have something really important come up and had to leave the game so I never assume why the person is sitting out and besides, if he is giving us his chips uncontested why would I care?

I was on the button for our very first hand three-handed and folded a decent hand thinking she can steal his big blind and I will steal his small blinds and in 2 orbits he’s done and we’re heads up. I think that’s the way you play this situation regardless of the hand you are dealt and regardless of the chip count of either of the remaining players, and believe me I have been on both sides of this situation. What does the big stack do? She folds! Raise and he folds automatically and steals 400 from him, but no, she gives him another 200 so he now has 1000.

I send her a note saying let’s get rid if this guy. She responds by saying she’s the “big chips” so you 2 are playing for second (seriously that is the expression she used) I’ve heard of big stack, chip leader and other expression but never big chips, more proof that she has no concept. On the next hand I am in the big blind and she raises me all in so I fold. I’m still sending her messages trying to convince her that getting rid of him is the right thing to do, but she wants nothing to do with it and truly does not understand. Had she proven she had any concept of the game I might have played her straight up but she has no concept and I don’t want this to turn into me raising with a solid hand and getting called by her garbage and going out on the bubble with a player sitting out.

This went on for a while, at one point I folded on the button and she called (called the guy sitting out) then get this …. checked it down to the river (any bet and he auto folds) sitting out guy wins the pot. Alright now, this is getting more than a little ridiculous. I keep trying to explain the situation to her and finally when he is down to 200 chips and on the button she says, “Let’s get rid of him, since he’s sitting out”. No kidding! We took him out, I was seriously depleted and shoved the next hand and won with garbage, tried to grind it out to take her down but she hit a legit hand against my semi-legit hand and I was done.

Like I said, I have been on both sides of this situation and I play it straight and get rid of the person sitting out, as I think do most players who know what they are doing. Look, I understand that poker is a competitive game where you don’t do your opponents any favors, but now I have tagged her with a note so the next time we see each other at a table I might not play nice, karma is a funny thing.

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Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Rules