Poker bankroll management, building and strategy – online poker guide

Oldies but goldies – selected articles from the PokerBankrollBlog database

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010 | Poker Articles | No Comments

Looking through the Poker Bankroll Blog article database, I found some articles I wrote ages ago which deserve a spot in the limelight again:

Poker buy in strategy – full vs short stack:

An article dealing with poker buyin strategy, especially the pros and cons of playing a full stack strategy vs. playing a short stack strategy

Poker rakeback guide:

A poker rakeback guide covering 10 basic questions and anwers regarding rakeback.

Poker guide for beginners:

A general introduction to my poker guide for beginners series.

Poker big blind and small blind explanation:

This article, from my poker guide for beginners series, covers the basics of the small blind and the big blind concepts.

Poker starting hand strategy:

This article, from my poker guide for beginners series, covers the basics of poker starting hand strategy.

Short stack cash game strategy – bankroll project:

An update from one of my bankroll projects where I used a short stack cash game strategy.

Short stack strategy cash games – bankroll project:

An unhappy bankroll project encounter with short stack strategy cash games.

Poker calling hands – the “only” call:

Some poker calling hands fall in the category the “only” call. There’s some good poker strategy content in this article.

The Importance of Poker Bankroll Management:

If you haven’t yet realized the importance of poker bankroll management, this article will get you started.

You could be posting your articles on the Poker Bankroll Blog. Read all about it here.

Check out our Poker Freeroll and Tournament League.

Tags: Poker Articles

Lucky Ace Poker bonus deal by Poker Bankroll Blog

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Bonus | No Comments

This article belongs to the Poker Bonus series.

Poker Bankroll Blog’s Lucky Ace Poker bonus and cash back deal

If you sign up for a Lucky Ace Poker bonus and cash back deal through the Poker Bankroll Blog you will get the best Lucky Ace Poker bonus and cash back deal available on the market:

• 100% sign-up bonus up to 400$
• 25% of the sign-up bonus is paid out up front
• The remaining 75% pending bonus corresponds to a 20% cash back deal – THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST BONUSES ON THE MARKET.
• Cash back program with a potential of getting 36% cash back on your paid rake

Here’s how you sign up for the Lucky Ace Poker bonus and cash back deal:

1. Clear all cookies on your computer
2. Create a LuckyAcePoker account through this link: LuckyAcePoker sign up

Introduction to Lucky Ace Poker

Lucky Ace Poker is one of the leading sites on the shared Pacific Poker Network which has its head quarters and game servers in Gibraltar.

The Pacific Poker network does not allow US players.

The Pacific Poker network, with its average of 1600 cash players at any given time, comes in 13th place out of 32 networks on Poker Scout when it comes to player traffic. This means there’s more than plenty of players to win $ from.

I have played almost every network available and many different poker sites on each network and in my opinion LuckyAcePoker has one of the most exiting new player and rewards programs:

New player promotions

• Free license for the Pokerbility poker odds calculator
• A free seat in the 50k$ first depositor’s challenge where you can win a seat in the 50k$ Saturday Challenge
• Free seats into 7 (seven) 500$ Depositor’s freerolls upon your first deposit.
• A free seat in Saturday’s 1000$ depositor’s freeroll if you deposit more than 50$ in the given weak. This a weekly promotional offer.

Rewards / cash back program details

• Get paid 1$ for every 100 reward points earned
• You earn reward points based on the number of status points you accumulate by raking on cash games (contributed rake) and paying tournament fees. The higher your reward status is, the more reward points you earn from each status point you accumulate.
• You earn 2 status points for every 1$ raked or paid in tournament fees
• There are 6 reward status levels in total depending on the number of status points you accumulate during a month:

1. Bronze status: 1 reward point per status point = 2% cash back
2. Silver status: 2 reward points per status point = 4% cash back
3. Gold status: 4,5 reward points per status point = 9% cash back
4. Platinum status: 9 reward points per status point = 18% cash back
5. VIP status: 13,5 reward points per status point = 27% cash back
6. VIP diamond status: 18 reward points per status point = 36% cash back

• Each reward status level gives you access to special freeroll tournaments as well as buyin tournaments where you can boost your reward status.
• Bronze to platinum levels are rewarded on a monthly basis
• VIP and VIP diamond levels are rewarded on a yearly basis

Sign up bonus details

• 100% sign-up bonus up to 400$
• 25% of the sign-up bonus is paid out up front
• 75% of the sign-up bonus remains as a pending bonus
• The instant bonus has to be wagered 20 times in order for it and any winnings to be withdrawn. If for example your instant bonus is 100$ you need to wager 2000$ in order to qualify for a withdrawal. Every time you pay a tournament entry or make a bet on a cash table it counts towards your wagered amount.
• The pending bonus is cleared by a rate of 1$ for every bonus point and paid out in a lump sum once completed. You get 2 bonus points for every $ raked or paid in tournament fees. This means that the pending bonus corresponds to a 20% cash back deal.
• In order to cash out your pending bonus you also need to generate twice (2x) the pending bonus amount in rake.
• You have to clear your pending bonus within 30 days.

Additional Lucky Ace Poker Promotions

When you sign up for a Lucky Ace Poker bonus and cash back deal through the Poker Bankroll Blog you automatically qualify to join the Poker BRB tournament and freeroll league.

Here we run a monthly tournament competition with great monthly finals.

You can find more information on how to sign up for the PokerBRB tournament and freeroll league here.

If you have any questions, feel free to drop me a line at

pokerbankrollblog@gmail.com

Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Bonus

Magicholdem review – online poker odds calculator

Thursday, March 25th, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Tools | No Comments

This article belongs to the Poker Tools series

Usually I write my own reviews of poker related products, but the people behind the MagicHoldem online poker odds calculator were kind enough to put together a well written and more or less objective review of their product, which I have chosen to post here. If you like the review below and want to support the Poker Bankroll Blog I would really appreciate it if you sign up through my affiliation link above.

Online poker is a challenging game, but it need not be so hard to learn with the help of an online poker odds calculator. This review takes one of the more popular calculators, MagicHoldem, out for a test drive to see if it’s good. Read the review to see if the benefits are worth the money.

So how much will MagicHoldem set you back? There are two ways of acquiring a one year license:

• Pay $89.90 per year, or 119,9$ for a two year license.
• Register and make a small deposit (from 20$-30$) with one of the 4 different poker room affiliates available through the MagicHoldem website.

To go the license route is expensive, but even casual players will find that they can recoup that cost pretty quickly with the extra wins. Thankfully, you don’t have to go into this purchase uninformed. The developers of MagicHoldem allow the software to be demoed for 100 hands. If this still isn’t enough to convince you, their support team can give you an additional 200 hands.

What is it all about? Well, professional online poker players know that the key to playing poker is knowing the odds. Bluffing is a necessary talent, sure, but mastering the art of bluffing won’t guarantee that you win games. Consistent winners in poker know about playing the odds to their advantage. Strong players knew concepts like pot odds, where even with a weak hand, the recommendation is to bet as the pot is so large relative to the cost to try for it.

The advantage with playing online poker is that you can have calculators that do this for you and provide this information in real-time. MagicHoldem is one such tool and for the most part, does a very good job of displaying all the vital information needed during a game.

Installing MagicHoldem is straightforward. Download the odds calculator, let it install, and then run it.

Once installed, MagicHoldem automatically detects your online poker room as long as it’s one of the 100+ supported. For the most part this detection works like a charm, although there are times when resizing the window or doing other stuff can cause some problems, but for the most part, such occurrences are very rare. Contacting support is easy and so far, their replies have been both quick and knowledgeable.

However, ease of installation and hand detection are completely useless if the data displayed isn’t worth anything. Fortunately, MagicHoldem includes virtually every necessary statistic to help any player make an informed decision. In a single glance to the left side of the table, at any time of the game, you can determine all important probabilities. For example, in the screen shot provided, before the rookie all-in decision was made that there was a 44.7% of making a pair. With the 0.1% probability under the straight flush column, there was also the confirmation that it was possible to not only make the flush, but that the cards were close enough for a straight flush to also be possible. Below those stats are the pot odds calculations and the potential outs. One benefit to MagicHoldem over other odds calculators is that it graphically displays the outs which makes it easier to visualize the possibilities. It also helps confirm that the calculations are being made correctly.

All in all, the MagicHoldem online poker odds calculator provides any poker player with a wealth of information. It’s unobtrusive and blends in nicely with virtually any table. In the screen shot, the player made a newbie decision – they went all in with a hand that looks strong, but isn’t really. Here, MagicHoldem’s advice to wait and be cautiously optimistic was sensible. There are a lot of potential winning combinations with A-6 suited, but none of them are particularly likely to appear. That’s not to say that MagicHoldem’s advice is to be relied upon exclusively. Behaving in such a robotic manner is very easy to see through in the long run. However, it does make a good guide and allows the player to develop a good intrinsic sense of the cards and situation (for example, when to bet due to pot odds). Combined with solid poker strategy reading and a lot of practice, MagicHoldem definitely does make a good companion and will help most players develop winning instincts.

Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Tools

Poker losing streak

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010 | Poker and Life, Poker Strategy | No Comments

Submitted by Steve, this article belongs to the Poker Strategy series.

Poker losing streaks represent the incarnation of necessary evil in poker.Regardless of how good and lucky a player you are, you will hit a snag in the road sooner or later, and you can take that pretty much for granted.

Poker is a game of variance. You win some and you lose some, and your goal as a successful poker player is to balance things so that at the end of the day, when you add up your wins, your losses, your rakeback, your sign-up bonus and who knows what else, you should be above the dreaded red line. If you can achieve that, you’ll be a successful player.

Dealing with poker losing streaks seems pretty simple on paper, however, due to the emotional intricacy of the human race and to the often perverted ways poker finds to put one to the test, it is not nearly as simple in practice.

That would explain why some of the top poker professionals (and I’m thinking about Phil Hellmuth and Mike Matusow here) have such a tough time handling poker losing streaks. If these guys can’t do it, what chance do you – a mere commoner – stand?
Successful poker and bankroll management hinges on one thing and one thing alone: knowing when to quit. If you become adept as quitting in the right moments, you’ll be able to handle your losses better than anyone else. As a general rule, as long as you play well, and as long as you keep piling up those “Sklansky dollars”, you shouldn’t quit.

Some people set themselves session goals. Such practice is counterproductive from several angles. Suppose you say you need to log a profit of $100 before you call it the day. You start playing and you play extremely well indeed. You reach your goal before you know it, then you quit. What you’ve done is that you’ve minimized the time spent playing while on your A-game. The following day, you log in again, once again set to reach that same $100 profit mark. You get hit by
bad luck though and as your set succumbs to a straight, followed by your A-high straight being knocked cold by a boat, you find yourself $100 in the hole. You begin to tilt and to make foolhardy moves, but you can’t stop: after all, you have $200 to make up for now.How does that translate? You maximize the time you spend playing while on your worst game. So the key to
managing poker losing streaks is to just stop playing once you realize your judgment is clouded.

Being able to stop at the right time though, means that you need to be able to manage your emotions. Often when hit by losing streaks, players fall into a sort of mental rut, which ends up prolonging their suffering.

Tell yourself that it’s all math, and as long as you’re still amassing Sklansky dollars, you’re going to come out a winner on the other side of the tunnel.

It is interesting to see how many players manage their emotions badly. They let despair take over when hit by bad beats, and they begin to fear that every time they shove those chips into the middle, they’ll end up watching them shipped in the other direction. Just take a look at the posts in a poker forum, you’ll see what I’m talking about. This kind of thinking brings about more trouble as it interferes with the optimal decision making process. Staying upbeat is easy when things are going well. Keeping a stiff upper lip is much more difficult when under assault by Lady Luck though.

You could be posting your articles on the Poker Bankroll Blog. Read all about it here.

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Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Strategy

EV in poker

Thursday, March 18th, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Mathematics | 2 Comments

This article belongs to the Poker Mathematics series.

Calculating EV in poker

Before going into depths with the concept of EV in poker, some math is needed. In mathematics, the EV or expected value of a variable is defined as the probability weighted sum of the possible values for the variable in question. This may sound complicated, but it really isn’t that bad. Let’s look at the simple example of rolling a dice. In this case the possible values and probabilities are as follows:

• 1 will come up in 1 out of 6 rolls on average yielding a probability of 1/6 = 16,7%
• 2; 16,7%
• 3; 16,7%
• 4; 16,7%
• 5; 16,7%
• 6; 16,7%

So the EV for rolling a dice is: (1 x 0,167) + (2 x 0,167) + (3 x 0,167) and so on. In total this adds up to 3,5.

When it comes to EV in poker, there are basically two situations to consider, namely EV when you call a bet and EV when you make a bet.

In both cases, I will define EV in poker as the amount you will be payed back on average on a 1$ bet (including your original 1$ bet):

• EV < 1 – If you always play hands with an EV of less than 1 you will lose on average
• EV = 1 – If you always play hands with an EV equal to 1 you will break even on average
• EV > 1 – If you always play hands with an EV of more than 1 you will win on average

So ALWAYS aim to play hands with an EV larger than 1!!!

EV IN POKER WHEN CALLING A BET

It is pretty straight forward to calculate your EV when calling a bet. It’s simply the product of your probability (P) of winning the hand and the decimal pot odds (DPO) offered:

• EV = P*DPO

For a review of the difference between decimal odds (European style odds) and fractional odds (American style odds) check out my article: poker pot odds; all you need to know.

For an easy rule of thumb to calculate poker probabilities check out my article: poker probabilities; all you need to know

At this point I think an example is called for (warning, there is some math content ahead):

Let’s say you are playing an online tournament and the pot on the turn is 3000. Your only remaining opponent bets 500, what is your EV for a call? With your opponent’s bet of 500 the pot is now 3500 and you have to call 500 to stay in the pot.

In order to calculate your decimal pot odds, simply add the amount you have to call (in this case 500) to the pot (3500+500) and divide by the amount you have to call (4000/500 = 8). So your decimal pot odds is 8 in this case.

Let’s also assume that you have a total of 12 outs to win the hand on the river. Using the easy rule of thumb to calculate poker probabilities, this means that your probability of winning the hand come showdown is (2*12+1)% = 25% or alternatively 0,25.

For simplicity we are assuming that the river is checked by both you and your opponent so no extra chips enter the pot.

Now all that’s left to calculate your EV in the situation above is to multiply the probability with the pot odds, yielding an EV of 8*0,25 = 2.

This means that for every chip you call in the situation above, you will on average get 2 chips back. Or as in the case above with your 500 chip call, you can expect to get 1000 chips back, meaning you win 500 chips in total.

This result fits very well with the mathematical definition I gave of the expected value in the beginning of this article. Say you make the 500 chip call 100 times. In 75% of the cases you will lose your 500 chips, corresponding to 37500 chips. In 25% of the cases you will win 3500 chips, corresponding to 87500 chips. This means you will win on average 50000 chips in total over 100 plays, or 500 chips per play which fits perfectly with our previous result.

EV IN POKER WHEN MAKING A BET

EV in poker when making a bet is all about pot and pot odds control. You want to be choosing your bet sizes so your opponent’s EV for calling is less than 1.

Say you have a high pair and the flop comes with 2 hearts. The pot has 2000 chips in it and you’re up against 1 opponent as the first to act. In order to make sure your opponent’s expected value for calling is less than 1, you need to pay attention to the size of the bet you make. If your opponent is on a flush draw he has 9 outs to make his flush on the turn providing you do not have any hearts in your hand. 9 outs correspond to a probability of roughly 20%. What size bet should you make?

In order to answer this we need to revisit the formula for calculating EV in poker:

• EV = P*DPO

An EV equal to 1 means that you will break even on average. Inserting this into the formula above we get the following relationships between the probability P and the decimal pot odds DPO:

• DPO = 1/P
• P = 1/DPO

So for a probability of 20% for your opponent to hit his hand on the turn, you need to be offering him pot odds 5 (1/0,2) for him to break even on average and less than pot odds 5 to ensure he has an EV less than 1.

If you bet half the 2000 chip pot in the example above your opponent will be getting pot odds 4 to call, corresponding to an EV of 0,8 meaning that he on average will lose 0,2 chips for every chip he bets.

I hope this article has made you realize that understanding the concept of EV in poker is key factor of becoming a winning player in the long run.

You could be posting your articles on the Poker Bankroll Blog. Read all about it here.

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Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Mathematics

Sit and Go Double or Nothing – top facts and tips that will increase your bankroll

Sunday, March 14th, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Top 10 Lists | 1 Comment

This article belongs to the Poker Top 10 List series.

Double or Nothing SNGs are a special type of SNG where you either double your money or walk away with nothing. If you want to know more, I recently wrote an article covering the basics of DoN SNGs.

I have made a list of the top facts and tips I have found when it comes to playing sit and goes such as Double or Nothing.

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1: Practice yourself identifying the regulars at the tables. This is very important since your tactics against the regulars will be very different as compared to random players who do not know about the Independent Chip Model. In addition, you should avoid playing Double or Nothing sit and goes against too many regulars as this will dilute the edge you have. A good way of spotting regulars is to check out the poker lobby as a new DoN SNG starts up. Chances are that the players who register first are regulars.

2: Don’t worry too much about the rake. If there’s always a bad player who gets knocked out before you, then according to the ICM model, the increase in value of your chips almost covers the rake.

3. Practice good bankroll management. This means you should have roughly 25 buyins in your bankroll compared to the level you’re playing on.

4. If you’re a grinder, sit and goes such as Double or Nothing are perfect for you. The fluctuations are lower as compared to other SNGs and the games take much shorter time to play. This also means that you will be able to generate rakeback at a quicker pace.

5. Double or Nothing SNGs are still relatively new. As a results, there’s a limited amount of available literature on correct DoN strategy and as a consequence a lot of players do not play them correctly. This gives you a huge advantage providing of course you have a good grasp of the correct strategy to apply. So start practicing now!!

6. SNGs such as Double or Nothing are great for players who finish in third place more than 1st place in regular SNGs. If you make it to the money on a regular basis but do not take 1st place that often, your playing style is most likely very suitable for success in DoN SNGs. On the other hand, ff you’re a regular 1st place finisher, you should continue playing your current game.

7. Double or Nothing SNGs are very easy to multitable. The reason being, that if played correctly, you will be entering very few hands per game.

8. If you become a good DoN player, you will also have an edge in Multitable Tournament satellites. The winning strategies are very similar in these games.

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You could be posting your articles on the Poker Bankroll Blog. Read all about it here.

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Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Top 10 Lists

Top 5 Poker hands on Youtube

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Pro, Poker Top 10 Lists | 2 Comments

Submitted by Thomas, this article belongs to the Poker Top 10 list series.

There are thousands of poker hands on Youtube, but the 5 poker hands below are definitely spectacular enough to belong on a top 5 poker hands on Youtube list.

James Akenhead vs Grant Hinkle
This hand takes place at the heads-up stage of a $1,500 No-limit Hold’em event at the 2008 and see England’s James Akenhead locking horns with America’s Grant Hinkle.

Akenhead had been much the better player heads-up and Hinkle was starting to feel the pressure and made a preflop raise to 350,000 holding the lowly hand of Td4d. Akenhead looked down and found AcKh and made it $1,200,000 to play, prompting Hinkle to move all-in on a bluff. Akenhead instantly called and was in good shape to take a 10:1 chip lead.

However, the flop completely changed that as it came down ThTs4h, giving Hinkle a full house. To make matters worse the turn was the last ten in the deck, giving Hinkle quad tens, the win and $831,279. Akenhead had to make do with the $520,219 runner-up prize money.

Phil Ivey vs Paul Jackson

This hand shows the great hand reading skills of Phil Ivey, arguably the best poker player ever. The hand takes place at the heads-up stage of the 2005 Monte Carlo Millions and sees Ivey hold a 4:1 chip lead over Paul Jackson.

Jackson open-limps on the button with 6s5d and Ivey raises to 60,000 with Qh8h, which Jackson calls. The flop of JcJh7c misses both players but they both decide they want the pot and start bluffing at each other. Ivey starts proceedings by firing out 80,000, prompting Jackson to make it 170,000. Not to be outdone, Ivey makes another raise, this time to 320,000 but amazingly Jackson does not give up, instead makes it 470,000 to play!

Ivey goes into the tank for a minute or so before announcing he is all-in, causing Jackson to quickly release his hand. A truly remarkable hand.

Isaac Haxton vs Ryan Daut

After fighting his way back from a 3:1 chip disadvantage to lead by 2:1 at the Caribbean Adventure, Ryan Daut – who is a coach for one of the leaders in online poker tutorials- completed in the small blind with 7c5s and his opponent, Isaac Haxton checked with the second worst heads-up hand possible, 3d2d.

The flop missed both players completely and Haxton check/called a 300,000 bet from Daut. The turn brought the King of diamonds, making the board Qh4hAcKd and both players checked. But when the Qc arrived on the river both players thought they were entitled to the already substantial pot.

Haxton attempted to buy the pot by betting 700,000 but Daut quickly made it 2,000,000 to go. Haxton hung his head on the table and thought for around 90 seconds before announcing he was all in. There was no way Daut could call with his seven-high and he quickly mucked before being shown the extraordinary bluff from Haxton.

Oliver Hudson vs Sammy Farha

Oliver Hudson, son of actress Goldie Hawn, was eliminated on the very first hand of the 2005 World Series of Poker Main Event at the hands of Sammy Farha.

Farha opened to 200 holding AhTd and Hudson, liking his black tens, made it 450, a bet that Farha called. The flop was an unbelievable AcAdTh giving both players a full house! Both elected to slowplay their hand and check but the fireworks started with the arrival of the Qc on the turn.

First Hudson lead out for 300, Farha quickly raised to 1,300 and Hudson moved all-in. Farha instantly called and when both players revealed their hands it was apparent Hudson was drawing completely dead. $10,000 wasted in less than five minutes!

Jennifer Harman vs Corey Zeidman

Corey Zeidman inflicted a true bad beat on Jennifer Harman during the 2005 WSOP Main Event. Harman raised preflop to 200 holding QdQc and was called by Zeidman with 9d8d and Davis with As6d.

The flop came down TsJdQh, giving Harman a set of queens and Zeidman a flopped straight. Davis checked then folded after seeing Harman bet 500, Zeidman raise to 2,000 and Harman call. The turn was the ten of diamonds, filling Harman’s set into a full house and making her an almost certain winner in the hand. Zeidman lead out for 1,000 and Harman raised to 3,000. After much deliberation Zeidman called, not knowing he only had one card that could win him the pot.

Amazingly it arrives on the river in the shape of the 7d, giving him a straight flush! Harman bet 3,000 which was enough to put her opponent all-in, and he obviously quickly called and showed the nuts, prompting Harman to leave her seat at the table in disbelief.

You could be posting your articles on the Poker Bankroll Blog. Read all about it here.

Check out our Poker Freeroll and Tournament League.

Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Pro, Poker Top 10 Lists

3 bet poker strategy

Sunday, March 7th, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Strategy | No Comments

Submitted by Steve, this article belongs to the Poker Strategy series.

There are countless amounts of spots at the online  poker tables where utilizing the three bet properly will allow you to chip up hopefully without going to showdown. When I say without going to showdown I am talking about making a bluff move with a nothing hand like 45 offsuit preflop. Before I discuss this theory in detail I’d like to explain what a three bet actually is.

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3 bet stealing preflop

Here’s a few more ways to get chips when you are deep in a tournament. I recommend using these moves ONLY when you have acquired reads on your table and adjusted to your opponents tenancies. If you are at a super aggro table, you might want to skip using these steal moves. But lets face it, if you’re a good player, you can tell when players are just trying to fold to make the money and protect their stacks. Now have you ever sat at the table with that guy that always repops you when you raise taking the action away from you preflop, always seems to be raising your blinds and your folding because you pick up 29 suited. But lets face it here, poker tournaments aren’t won by sitting back and waiting for pocket AA’S. Turning your nothing hands into a situation where you can potentially represent that you have a hand even when you don’t, and get your opponents to fold.

Well what is a 3 Bet resteal ? The word pretty much dictates the action that you must take. You are stealing a pot from your opponent by reraising his raise when the situation allows you to do so . These moves are usually used deep in the tournament once you build your stack.  This is where the fun starts! The antes are high, the blinds are going up and this means you are closer to the money!! So now is the time all the weak donkeys who went crazy in the beginning should shine right? Wrong! Deepstack poker with the pressure on is about playing without any pressure on you and making sure you put the pressure on the other players by raising and reraising. You must also be fully aware aware that you want to control the table. There are things that you can do such as 3bet, under the gun steal, button steal and reraise a raiser in an attempt to defend your big blind. Listing these moves you need to understand that performing tricky moves like this leaves you vulnerable postflop. Players have a tendency to tighten up and make a lot of mistakes when the tournament is deep and they have invested a time commitment. Throw in the fact that this might be their first deep run in a tournament . Keep the pressure on! If you use your best judgment and be a selective aggressive poker player, you will succeed.

Utilizing the 3 bet is a necessity and a huge part in advancing your tournament game. So what exactly is a 3 bet? When someone raises the pot and you reraise their raise, you are three betting your opponent.  Now three betting can spark a tournament players creativity because you generally don’t always need a hand to three bet. Using the 3 bet as a steal move is a way to get chips in a tournament hopefully without going to a flop. Three betting gives you a lot better of a chance to take down the hand whether its preflop or postflop. Since you took the initiative to put the pressure on your opponent, if they call you but miss the flop, you can continuation bet and have a good chance to take down the pot right there without showdown. Now Three betting light is when you are reraising your opponent with any two cards and use the three bet as a steal. Now when I say light I mean any two cards. You have to make sure there are no short stacks at the table that are capable shoving on you because they are getting desperate. This move is based on the thought process that most people raise when its folded to them and they will raise fairly light in an attempt to get in the action. Keep in mind it takes a pretty strong hand to raise and call a reraise as long as your three bet is sized properly. There are a few solid positions at the table that the three bet can be used to your full advantage.

Three betting to defend your big blind

How many times in tournaments have you gone completely card dead and someone consistently raises your big blind and you fold because you’re not calling with 45 offsuit. Instead of just folding in those situations you can pick a good time to three bet your opponents open raise. The ideal situation would be when its folded to someone in late position and they raise your blind . The button and small blind fold, leaving you heads up with your opponent preflop and a rag hand. Now faced with a raise most people might just throw their garbage hands away which most of the time is correct. But if you are mixing up your play and taking chances you want to be picking up these pots to increase your chipstack. Again remember, this move is a steal move so your cards are irrelevant. You are not playing the strength of your hand you are playing the situation. Another benefit of three betting your opponents out of the big blind is of you do it enough players might stop raising your blinds light since you are defending them and this might lead to more walks. You are just playing the fact that you are taking the lead in the hand and being aggressive preflop, allowing you to take down pots without going to a flop. The best situation to resteal is when you are pretty deep and your opponent has a medium sized stack and is raising into you. You don’t want to resteal someone who is desperate and will most likely come over the top of your reraise. Try to pay attention to who is raising a lot and if the person raised and folded to someone else’s reraise. You can pick up valuable pots and turn a hand that most people will fold into a hand where you can ship chips into your stack.

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Defending button

There are a few things to pay attention to when trying to defend your big blind. Before you decide to reraise your opponent make sure he has enough chips left behind if he makes the fold. The same thought process goes for reraising your big blind. The value of three betting your button with any two cards as a steal move is the fact that you have position postflop and if you get called u can possibly continuation bet or check-raise the flop and take down a pot with a nothing hand. The problem with three betting on the button is that it’s sometimes and obvious steal move. Good player might pick up on it but you generally don’t have to worry about it if you have are good with your postflop play. The beauty about three betting your button is the simple fact that if you have position on your opponent for the remainder of the hand. Think about the hand your opponent must hold for him to continue the hand. Sit in your opponents chair for a second and look at the situation you are putting him in. Its folded to him and he puts in a raise with any standard opening hand let’s say for instance he’s raising with KJ. Now he’s probably thinking I can take down the blinds with this hand. But now someone reraises him making him think about the strength of his hand. When faced with a reraise most opponents will downgrade the strength of their hand. Now a good player will fold the KJ just because they don’t want to play put of position but the donkey calls you to “see a flop” which is an excuse used by donkeys from the beginning of time. Flop drops 2 5 Q rainbow. He checks and you continuation bet. Little does he know you hold the 78 off suite and he’s actually ahead! If your opponent hits the board, most of the time they will check to you so if he check calls or check raises you, obviously dump your hand. But this is a little trick that can be used in your tournaments. So go try it out and see how many nothing hands you can turn into opportunities to ship chips to your stack.  Get more Information on No Limit Texas Holdem Tournament Strategy at www.pokerbetter.com.

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What Is Lowball Poker?

Monday, March 1st, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Rules | No Comments

Submitted by Dave, this article belongs to the Poker Rules series.

Lowball poker is the encompassing term used to describe poker games which use lowball hand rankings as opposed to the more conventional high hand rankings systems. When playing lowball poker the nuts is always a low hand such as A-2-3-4-5 or 2-3-4-5-7 but obviously it depends on which game you are playing and which lowball hand rankings system it uses. This article will look at the different lowball poker hand rankings and which games use them.

The most popular system of hand rankings where lowball poker games are concerned is the ace to five system. When playing using the ace to five hand rankings the holy nuts is A-2-3-4-5 also known as the wheel. Aces are low cards and never high cards whilst straights and flushes don’t count for anything. Hands are ranked using their highest card first so 6-5-4-3-2 would always beat A-2-3-4-7 at showdown.

Razz poker uses the ace to five hand ranking system and is by far and away the most well played lowball poker game. Razz became popular in 2004 and was added to online poker sites soon after the first Razz WSOP final table was televised. It’s not a difficult game to learn and if you can already play Seven Card Stud then you should have no problems getting to grips with Razz poker.

The deuce to seven hand rankings system is another lowball system and is used when playing 2-7 Single Draw and 2-7 Triple Draw. The best possible hand is 2-3-4-5-7 because Aces are always high cards and straights and flushes do count as high hands and therefore count against you. Again the highest card is used first to determine the winner.

2-7 Single Draw and 2-7 Triple Draw are both relatively popular online with Triple Draw much more popular in the ring game format and Single Draw more popular as a tournament game. Both games have events at the World Series of Poker and are growing in popularity online and offline as the poker boom continues.

There are two other lowball hand rankings system of note. The first is ace to six which is nearly the same as ace to five accept straights and flushes do count against your hand. The nuts is an unsuited A-2-3-4-6. London Lowball is pretty much the only game which uses the ace to six system. The second system you might encounter is the 2-6 lowball hand rankings. The best possible hand is 2-3-4-5-6, aces are always high cards and straights and flushes don’t count against your hand.

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Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Rules