Poker bankroll management, building and strategy – online poker guide

How to play poker best

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building, Poker Cash Games | 2 Comments

Submitted by Cory, this article belongs to the Poker Bankroll Building series.

How to play poker best is an article written by Cory where he gives advice on how to determine your poker A game. Obviously, the best way to play poker is when you’re beating the game and winning in the long run. Read on to learn more with regards to identifying your best poker game.

Finding your best poker game can be a little tricky, but it’s something you need to work on and be honest with yourself about.  Your best poker game is the poker variant at which you have the highest hourly profit with a minimal risk of ruin.

Sometimes with variance being what it is, finding your best game can be a long and costly process, but the upshot is, you’ll get plenty of experience playing other forms of poker that you can use later.  Remember, just because you’ve had three big winning sessions in a row at no limit hold ‘em, it doesn’t necessarily mean that no limit is your best game.  You’ll need to get in thousands of hands before you really know how well you understand the finer points of no limit and how your level of understanding matches up against your regular competition.

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I spent over a year and a half just playing limit hold ‘em to see if my win rate would be higher than no limit and for a while it was.  However, I found around my hundred thousandth hand online, plus another thirty or forty thousand live hands I kind of hit a wall in my thinking of limit hold ‘em and had a difficult time progressing from that point.  The best part was, I got to learn a lot about limit poker and can hold my own in that game, so if the occasion arises where a limit game is my best choice for a particular night, I can take a break from what has become my best game, no limit and still have a positive expectation in limit.

Everyone has an opinion on whether a not poker players should specialize and I say yes and no.  I think it’s important to know what your best game is, play that one most often, learn everything you can about it and be the absolute best you can be at that particular variant.  However, neglecting the other games entirely can be a big mistake as well.

If the biggest fish you know wants to play Omaha Eight or Better and you’ve only ever played no limit Hold ‘Em, you’re giving up some pretty good money.  You don’t need to be the best Omaha player to beat someone who’s terrible at it, but having a solid understanding of it will sure help give you the best chance to separate them from their poker bankrolls in whatever game they wish to play.

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One of the best things about online poker is for just a few bucks you can get tons of hands in playing games that you’ve never or rarely played before.  PLO is probably one of my worst games, but today I played for 1 cent and 2 cent blinds and managed to hold my own.  This is a chance I couldn’t take if the only PLO games available to me were the $1-$2 PLO game that my local card room spreads.  That’s a pretty expensive way to learn.

So start your journey to find the most profitable game for you and along the way enjoy learning all of the games for very little investment.  That way, you make your bread and butter at your best game, but you can be flexible to collect easy money when it shows up somewhere else.

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Observing poker opponents

Thursday, May 27th, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Cash Games, Poker Strategy | 1 Comment

Submitted by Cory, this article belongs to the Poker Cash Games series.

Observing opponents is one of the key skills to hone as a poker player.  You need to notice what hands your opponents are showing down from which positions, how they bet, and their standard bet size etcetera.  The best time to make these observations is when you’re not in the hand.

When you’re in a pot, you have a personal vested interest on what you want the results to be.  If you’re trying to make a read in this situation, you’ll tend to put opponents on what you want them to have, in other words, any hand that you can still beat rather than what they really might have.  However, if you’re not in this pot, the outcome of the hand has little effect on you, so you’re better able to make a non-biased, logical assessment of what each player might hold.

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When you fold is the perfect time to engage yourself in the hand.  You might pick up a key body language tell that might help you when you are faced with a call for all of your chips with a marginal holding.  You may pick up a betting pattern where an opponent bets half pot when he wants a call and ¾ pot when he wants you to fold.  Players let far too much information just pass by after they fold because the football game on the big screen demands their attention once their hand is in the muck.  If they could only see how much money it costs them later on.

The tricky thing with tells is that the same reaction could mean the complete opposite when one person does it than another.  Many people who are weak tend to talk a lot more than normal.  I call this the nervous babble and it tends to happen in periods of high stress, the police pulled you over and you ramble on about how you were speeding because your mother is in the hospital and proceed to want to tell your whole life story, or going out on a date with the prettiest most popular girl at school.  However, with other people, they just like to talk a lot, so the nervous babble is less reliable and some people who normally talk a lot completely shut down when they’re bluffing.

Another great tell is the way people place chips in to the pot.  However, so many people know about the strong is weak and weak is strong system of tells they are often reversed or reverse reversed, but against novices it is still very effective.

One of my all-time favorites is when a player bets, it’s up to me to act and the player behind me is cutting out a big raise when it’s still my turn.  This means he’s almost never raising and is likely calling if I call and almost 100% of the time folding if I raise.  I see this so much on my live tables that I make it a point to get this player on my left because I know when he cuts out chips while the action is on me I can safely call with a draw and raise with a hand I want to isolate.

Observation is also paramount online.  Sometimes with the distractions of home and six tables, picking up on things can be a little more difficult than not watching the cocktail waitresses or sports on TV at a live casino, but is still required nonetheless.  Though body language clues are absent from the on line game, you still need to be paying attention to bet sizing and getting an idea of how your opponents value their hands.

Online tells become more of a question of based on your previous history with this player are they capable of showing down specific hands in a certain spot.  If a very tight player raises from UTG are they capable of having K9D, probably not, so if the board comes out K, 9, 2, you don’t really need to worry about them having two pair against your Ace King.

If you practice your reading skills on line just trying to narrow down your opponent’s possible range in each hand, when you play live you can use this same information and also add in the prospect of physical tells and opponent observation becomes a huge edge that very few players are taking full advantage of.

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Try it next time you play.  Block out all other stimuli and you’ll be amazed at how easy that fold was when you just know your opponent is showing strength based on your impartial observations.  Just see how many pots that you thought were easy folds become great stealing opportunities because you noticed that bet has always meant weakness.  Tells and betting patterns are not meant to be noticed just when you’re in the hand, but their meant to be picked up on when you’re not in the hand and taken advantage of when you’re money is at stake.

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Beating the rake in cash games

Friday, May 21st, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Cash Games, Poker Rakeback | 2 Comments

Submitted by Cory, this article belongs to the Poker Cash Games series.

If you play in low stakes games, you need to be more aware of how the rake effects how you should play.  My bread and butter game is currently $1-$2 no limit.  One of the major reasons I’m able to come out ahead consistently in this game is because I’m always cognizant of how I need to adjust my strategy with the rake as a factor.  Rooms vary significantly on how they get their cut, but if you’re playing in a low stakes live game, the rake is often going to be as much as 10% of the pot and this should help you beat it.

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This is how the rake in my favorite room works.  If a flop is seen $4 gets dropped.  It doesn’t matter if the pot is $10 or $100.  Plus if you win a pot most times you’re going to tip $1.  So, it costs you $5 to win a pot.  Let’s say you lose $10 in a pot, you’ll need to win $15 to get even.  This can be kind of tough.  Here are some ways that will help you climb that mountain.

Play even tighter from early position.  Often times in cash games it’s pretty standard to limp from middle position with suited connectors and suited aces.  Watch out though, in a small game this might not be a great idea.  Even if your dream happens and you see a six way flop with 87S for just $2 you’re thinking that you’ve got $12 in the pot, remember you actually only have $8 in the pot and if you win and tip, it’s only $7.  So even given your immediate pot odds 7:2 or 3.5:1 is just over half the price you were getting if you were in a game with no rake or tip.

The even bigger problem is if you limped in with this hand from early or middle position, it’s going to be much more difficult for you to get the maximum value if you should flop big.  If you flop the nuts, do you lead out?  Do you check raise?  Do you check call and lead the turn?  Do you check call and try to check raise the turn?  It’s very difficult not to completely polarize your range when playing out of position.

On line the rake is more player friendly, generally running at about 5%.  If you’re playing $1-$2 live, in order to match the 5% rake and tip, each pot you win will have to be $100 or more.  If you can get the pot over $100, you’ve maxed out the rake and the additional money you win is free.  That’s why if you’re going to play drawing hands, you must be in position so you have the best chance of building that huge pot when you flop the joint.

The next thing is don’t worry so much about the small pots.  If you’re playing $5-$10, taking down a small pot can pay for your gas and dinner.  At $1-$2 taking down a small pot is just allowing the casino to make their four or five bucks off you and get to the next hand quicker.  Of course sometimes you’re going to win a small pot when you flop big and don’t get any action, but don’t go after them.  If the pot is $6 and your opponent bets $2 you probably don’t have to call with that gut shot and over.  The pay off just isn’t going to be big enough as often as you’d need it to be.

Make sure you win more than your fare share of big pots.  If you play tight chances are you’re going to have the best of it more often than not when a big pot develops.  If the majority of pots that you win are $100 or more, you’ll beat the rake.  Keep in mind that you’re not going to be taking down monster pots very often, but if the game only costs $3 an orbit; you’ve got time to wait.  If you can average about a big pot every hour or so, you’ll be in good shape.  Remember, this is average, you’re not going to win a big pot once an hour, just like you’re not going to get aces on every 221st hand exactly, but sometimes you’ll drag two or three pots in an hour, other times you’ll go two or three hours without playing a hand.

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The casino is taking about a rack off the table every hour.  Think of them as your tenth opponent who is guaranteed to take $100 an hour.  How would you play this opponent?  Very tight and very aggressive.  You’d build huge pots when you have the best of it and fold when your hand or the pot isn’t worth contesting.  If you do this you’ll see a nice little win rate start to develop and you won’t be throwing away money to the house.

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How to deal with poker fish

Saturday, May 15th, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Cash Games | No Comments

Submitted by Cory, this article belongs to the Poker Cash Games series.

Cory wrote this great article on how to deal with poker fish in order to maximize your winnings against them. Basically it’s all about treating poker as your business and the poker fish as your customers. Great stuff Cory!!

A few of the biggest super stars in poker have made a name for themselves by insulting other players at the table during televised tournaments.  Unfortunately the general public who gets in to poker via TV broadcasts thinks this is just how good players should treat bad players when the bad players get lucky and win.  However, these poker fans, turned rounders are forgetting some key factors.

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First, the TV players are almost always playing tournaments where the poker fish can’t ask for a table change, or just get up and cash in their chips.  Most other poker players are likely playing cash games where they benefit from keeping the easy money at the table.

The second thing is the rounder at the local card room isn’t performing for a television audience.  Whether or not you enjoy the antics of these opinionated players, it raises the profile of the sites they represent.  Thing is, you and I aren’t representing poker sites.  Poker is our job and the card room is our office.

Just think of how house games at casinos work.  The casino spreads a game like blackjack which has a very small edge for the house, so the player might win some hands, maybe even have some big winning nights.  However, the casino knows that regardless of how much a blackjack player wins, the house will get it all back and then some.  Why else do you think the casino comps the big table game winner’s room and meals?  They want this guy to stick around and keep playing blackjack, because it’s just a matter of time before they win all of his money back.

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If you’re the better poker player, you need to have this same approach.  When a poor player draws out on you, tell him nice hand, don’t quote the odds and tell him how bad he plays, it’s bad for business.  If you beat the fish in a large pot, tell him how he played it right and you just got lucky.  It is your responsibility to make sure that your opponents are having a good time and enjoying losing their money to you.  I’ve even gone as far as buying a round of cocktails for the whole table to get a couple guys who were racking up to stay longer.  This little trick has paid dividends.

Most poker players are coming and losing.  Give them the entertainment they are paying for and they’ll come pay you to give them a fun night out more frequently.

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Folding in cash games

Thursday, May 13th, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Cash Games | No Comments

Submitted by Cory, this article belongs to the Poker Cash Games series.

The thoughts behind folding in cash games are very different to folding in tournaments because of the missing element of the ever increasing blinds. In this article, Cory takes us through the basics thoughts behind folding in deep stack cash games.

Deep stacked cash games are all about post flop playing. You rarely need to play a huge pot pre-flop because your real money is made on the later betting rounds. Here’s an example of a hand that I played yesterday that illustrates what I mean.

I’m in middle position on a ten handed table on line. I open for a 3.5X raise with Jacks, the first hand I had picked up in over an hour, and the player immediately on my left who hadn’t 3 bet one time in the two-and-a-half hours that I was on the table with him reraises pot. Two players call before it gets back to me.

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My thinking is, the absolute worst I can expect the player who three bets on my left to have is AK, but then two other players, who each had to know that this player wasn’t three betting decided to cold call. This makes hands like Tens or Jacks look like pretty weak holdings.

With my logic, my Jacks could be beat in two spots and flipping with another. Even though the pot was large, I still wasn’t getting a good price to call with my Jacks and I folded them without hesitation. Our stacks were not quite deep enough for me to call hoping to flop a set and stack somebody. My read was proven correct when the board came with three rags and AA and QQ got it all in. So I in fact was beat in two spots.

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If you’re transitioning from tournaments, especially lower buy-in live tournaments, or the shorter stacked on line variety, folding a hand as strong as JJ pre-flop can seem a little crazy and when you’re 20 BBs deep, it is pretty crazy, but a hundred or more big blinds deep, it’s still not fun, but it’s relatively easy to let a hand like Jacks or Tens hit the muck before the flop. Not having to worry about escalating blinds really opens you up to patiently waiting for very big hands that can get paid off. Only gamble on your terms in cash games.

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Live poker cash game selection

Thursday, May 6th, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Cash Games | 2 Comments

Submitted by Cory, this article belongs to the Poker Cash Games series.

Playing online poker makes certain things much easier than live poker.  Anything from hand history data bases to game selection.  To find good games on the internet, I just need to open my Full Tilt client and look at the tables for whatever stake I want to play, find the best average pot size with too many players going to the flop and get myself on the waiting list for that table.  Live it’s just not that easy.  Here are some things to help you improve your live cash game selection.

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First, find a live cash game that’s comfortable for your bankroll with a reasonable blind and rake structure.  If you’re playing low stakes, $1-$2 for example, this might be difficult to do, but it may be the single most important consideration.

About forty-five minutes from my house is a card room that spreads a $2-$2 game with a $100 max and drops $5 per hand.  So in this game, the small blind is equal to the big blind, costing me an extra dollar per orbit, $5 is coming out of every pot I win, plus a tip for the dealer, so it costs me $6 to win a pot and I’m only allowed to buy fifty big blinds at a time.  Also, the $4 from the blinds is dropped every hand, regardless of whether or not we see a flop.

About half an hour in the other direction from my house is a card room that spreads a $1-$2 game with a $200 max buy-in where $4 per hand is raked, but with a, “no flop no drop,” rule.  In this game, the small blind is indeed smaller than the big blind, I’m paying $1 less in rake for every pot I win and the house isn’t taking a cut of hands that don’t see a flop.  Which game do you suppose I can make more money in?

If I’m using good live cash game selection I’m obviously going to play in the second game, even if I enjoy the first poker room more.  Poker is about making money and making money is my business as a poker player, I need to play in the game that will give me the highest return on my investment.

Once I’m in the casino I sign up on the list for my $1-$2 no limit hold ‘em game, then I go scout the tables.  Just have a quick look around and see how many big stacks each $1-$2 game has, how many are taking a flop, are most players aggressive or passive etc.  If by chance, the first seat opens up at the only table with six tight, short stacked players and two tough players, I will sit down, buy in, play tight and immediately ask for a table change.  Asking for a table change is totally OK and not rude to the floor staff, or the players at the table you are wishing to leave.

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If I get seated at a pretty good table, but I’ve watched the $1-$2 game on table four and it’s way more fishy, I’ll ask the floor to give me a table change as soon as a seat opens on table four.

Game selecting might be a bit more difficult live than on line, but it is still one of the most important factors that go in to a winning session or a losing session.  Stop just accepting the first seat that opens up, unless it’s the seat you’ve already determined to be on your dream table.

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Goals in Poker; adjusting your expectations

Sunday, May 2nd, 2010 | Poker and Life, Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Management, Poker Cash Games, Poker Strategy, Poker Tournament | No Comments

Submitted by Cory, this article belongs to the Poker and Life series.

It’s every poker players goal and dream to drag the million dollar pots in the biggest cash games or to be sitting at the final table of the World Series with the TV lights shining.  While this is a cool goal and the dream is possible, you can’t expect to go from novice player to big time winner all in one night, one year, or probably your entire lifetime.  It is important to set goals for yourself in poker, but you want to set goals that, though challenging, are also likely to be accomplished with some work.

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Many players will never develop their abilities beyond the level of occasional hobbyist, which is fine, especially if they realize where their skill level lies.  If you can admit that you’re playing for fun, then a $200 losing session doesn’t hurt that bad.  It’s the price of a night out and the fun you got to have making jokes with your table mates was worth the price.  However, if you only have the ability of a novice and expect to win like a pro, you’re in for a lifetime of frustration.

If you develop your skills to the point where you’re a winning player and can supplement your day job with some poker earnings, it is probably not the time to quit the day job because you may have made a big score or two.  Rather, you might want to see how things go over the next year before you even entertain the idea of going “pro.”

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If you keep your expectations in step with your talent level you will always be getting better, but you won’t be nearly as frustrated with the game.  It’s important to have a healthy relationship with poker and an honest assessment of where you stand is the basis for this relationship.

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Poker betting strategy in cash games

Saturday, May 1st, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Cash Games | No Comments

Submitted by Cory, this article belongs to the Poker Cash Games series.

In small stakes games where I’m not bluffing a very large percentage of the time, I have three primary principles that determine whether and how much I should bet.  Am I betting for value, to protect my hand, or am I controlling the size of the pot?

Most beginning players might hear something about protecting top pair on a flush draw flop and end up betting pot and a half to price out the flush draw.  So they end up betting to protect their hand at the exclusion of getting value or controlling the size of the pot.  These three principles need to work together.  If there is no value in top pair then why not just fold Ace King pre-flop since I’m most likely to make a top pair top kicker type hand when I hit?

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Truth is, I want the flush draw to call, I just want the flush draw to call for a bad price.  I also don’t really want to over bet in hopes of protecting a top pair hand because now if I get called, I’ve created an oversized pot with a vulnerable hand.  Chances are, if someone wants to play a pot this big; my top pair is probably in trouble.

The trick is to bet an amount that extracts the maximum value from hands I am beating, while charging a heavy price from draws that might catch me, while simultaneously keeping the pot at a manageable size against hands that might already be ahead of me.  I don’t want to leave money on the table by not betting enough, while laying a flush draw profitable odds to chase me down, but I also don’t want to bet so much that I’m forced to call off the rest of my stack if a better hand goes all in.

These three principles are required in different proportion based on my hand strength as well as my opponent’s hand strength.  If I have the nuts, I’m obviously not worried about the pot getting too big, but I want to make sure I don’t chase all of the worse hands away by making over large bets that my opponents can’t call.  If I have a vulnerable hand like top pair, I need to make sure that I’m getting value, but that I’m not building a giant pot where I can’t choose to lay it down on the flop or on a later street.

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I have to develop an ability to judge my hand and my opponents hand, then weigh which of these three principles is most important and structure my betting accordingly.  This will help me win the most when I have the best hand, build large pots with the nuts while still leaving myself the ability to get away from a hand if my opponent pulls ahead.  Don’t just learn one of these principles and use it at the exclusion of the other two.  All three must work together every time it’s your turn to bet.

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Poker emotions in cash games

Saturday, May 1st, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Cash Games | No Comments

Submitted by Cory, this article belongs to the Poker Cash Games series.

Poker is a very emotionally challenging game.  Perhaps more difficult than any other skill required to master on your way to becoming a winning player is control over your emotions.  This could be because a winning player always has to keep two opposite emotions juxtaposed at the forefront of his or her mind.  At any moment you have to be ready to unleash unbridled aggression while in the very next moment after taking a horrible beat, you’ll need to exhibit something like placid serenity.

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It no longer seems a mystery why tilt is such a huge part of poker.  The most competitive people are usually the once who want to play and since we know that it is a psychological game of skill we tend to try outwitting people on every street.  When we fail at this the immediate reaction is to try even harder to assert our mental superiority over the table.  Without this competitive killer instinct it is near impossible to become a big winner.

However, alongside that grit and determination has to be an equally strong ability to surrender when you know you’re beat, to let a hand where someone caught a one outer for your whole stack just roll off your back and to continue to be nice to that guy who keeps questioning every play you make on a losing night.

At the first moment I start feeling frustrated at the table I run through a little script with myself.  I ask myself how I’m playing and answer honestly.  If I’m not trying to push too hard, if I’m being as aggressive as I should be in the right spots I’ll continue playing and can feel better knowing that I’ve just taken a time out to evaluate my game.  If I’m doing one of these things sub optimally I’ll ask myself if I can change it during this session.

If my answer is no I get up and leave.  If my answer is yes I stay, but if I notice after I said I’d stop trying to force the action when I shouldn’t be and I still am, I get up and leave.

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I have to always be aware of when my level of calm verses aggression is out of balance and immediately fix it or come back tomorrow.  If I’m feeling gun shy and not playing as aggressive as I should, I’m letting my opponents off easy and leaving money on the table which is the same as losing it.  If I’m not being relaxed enough, I’m giving away money in spots I should be folding.  Either way it’s losing money and I need to adjust my frame of mind or leave and wait till my emotions are back in balance.

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Poker river betting in cash games

Saturday, May 1st, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Cash Games | No Comments

Submitted by Cory, this article belongs to the Poker Cash Games series.

Nearly every poker book has a wealth of information regarding solid pre-flop strategy.  They have starting hand charts showing which hands to play and which to fold from each position and whole chapters on how to play each of these, when to call, raise, reraise etcetera.  However, these same books often devote just a paragraph or two to how to bet the river.  The problem is, in a hundred big blind cash game, the river bet is much more important.  If I’m betting in proportion to the size of the pot, most times, the biggest bet I can expect to make in a hand will be when the pot is the largest, which will be on the river.

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The big problem with teaching river betting strategy is that you need to already bring a pretty strong skill set to the table before you have a shot at playing the river anything close to properly.  First let’s think of when you should bet the river and when you shouldn’t.

I have two primary reasons for betting on fifth street.  First I have the best hand and I want a worse hand to call, or second, I know I have the worst hand, but I might be able to get a better hand to fold.  However, even when asked the most basic question, when should I bet, I already have to have strong hand reading skills.  How can I decide if I have the best or worst hand if I’m not paying attention to my opponents and correctly reading their strength?

This is one of the major reasons why novice players have such a difficult time with top pair type hands.  Often times a hand stronger than top pair isn’t folding to a final bet, but many times a hand weaker than top pair can’t justify calling that same bet.  This leads the beginning player to much frustration as it seems like they’re never getting paid off when they spike an Ace with that Ace King, or they’re losing the maximum with it.

First let’s talk about value betting.  A value bet is the amount of money I think my opponent can call with a worse hand.  Here’s where it gets tricky.  If I put my opponent on a set when I have a straight, I can make a larger bet because my opponent figures his hand to be best a large percentage of the time.  However if I have that same straight, but I correctly put my opponent on second pair, I’m going to have to bet significantly less in order to induce a call.

Not only do I need to have a consistently accurate read on my opponent’s hand strength to properly bet the river, I also need to have an idea of their tendencies.  Do they over value top pair?  Are they able to fold sets when a flush card gets there?  With this information I can deduce what percentage of the pot my opponent thinks he can call profitably.  If I think he has a weak hand, but thinks I’m capable of bluffing so he might be good 30% of the time, I can bet about 1/3 of the pot and get a call enough times to make it very profitable for me.  If my opponent is very strong and thinks he’ll show up with the best hand 80% of the time, I can bet ¾ of the pot up to the size of the pot and get him to call enough times to make even more money.

The flip side is when I’m sure I have the worst hand I need to gage how strong my opponent’s hand is compared to the texture of the board and assess if my opponent is capable of folding reasonably strong hands on scary boards.  If I’ve seen this player fold big hands before, I’m much more likely to bet a scare card on the river with nothing.  If I’ve seen another player call a river bet with top pair weak kicker when the straight and flush card hits, I’m going to be much less likely to try and bet the river with the worst hand as this type of player is not folding near enough to make this bluff profitable.

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The bottom line is to really be a winning poker player, you need to play the river properly, but the only way to do this is master hand reading skills and opponent reading skills that will help you choose when to bet, when to check and how much to bet.  Too many people think that just betting half pot or 1/3 pot on the river when they think they have the best of it is value betting.  Betting half pot in to a hand that can only call 1/3 pot is a huge mistake and betting 1/3 pot in to a hand that would have gladly called a pot sized bet is an even bigger mistake.

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