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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.

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.

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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Playing poker against weak players

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Strategy | 1 Comment

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

It is a well known fact that you will make the vast majority of your money at poker from weak players. It should be common sense that weak players are going to make more mistakes and as a result donate more money to the other players at the table.

Whether you are at the casino or playing poker online you should keep an eye out for players from countries where poker has only just started to become popular, places such as Romania and Hungary and watch out for people asking how to play poker card game. The broken English alone should be enough to have you rubbing your hands together with glee.

Although weak players are a joy to play with, they do need a special approach in order to maximise your profits against them. Firstly, never try to bluff them, ever. Even if you are thinking of representing a possible full house or stronger, your weak player will still call you often enough with second or third pair to make bluffing unprofitable. The reason bluffing does not work is they simply do not understand what you are trying to achieve by bluffing so they call anyway.

When playing against new, weak players you should value bet your hands to the maximum. Hands as weak as top pair are good enough to bet on all three streets against a typical poor player as they will simply call all the way with a wide array of draws, overcards or small pairs.

Listen to what their betting is telling you and act accordingly. They will lack both the knowledge and skills to make a decent bluff so if they have check/called the flop, done the same on the turn and then fire out a substantial bet on the river when the third flush card hits then they will have the flush almost 100% of the time so do not be making any hero calls!

Finally, although they will often suck out on you during a typical session you should try your utmost not to berate them at any point. Moaning about how poorly they played a particular hand will do one of two things, it will either let the player know he made a mistake, a mistake that he will be less likely to make in future or he may simply leave the table to find a less hostile one. Either way you will lose out.

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Double or nothing poker sit and go; the basics

Saturday, February 20th, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Strategy, Poker Tournament | No Comments

This article belongs to the Poker Tournament series.

General introduction to Double or Nothing poker sit and goes

The Double or Nothing poker sit and go (often abbreviated as DoN SNG) is a relatively new form of the popular sit and go online poker tournament format characterized by a preset (most commonly 6 or 10) number of players each buying in to the sit and go with a fixed amount of money in exchange for a stack of chips.

As the Double or Nothing term implies,  you either double your buyin or walk away with nothing. In other words, if 10 players buyin with 5$ each, the top 5 finishes will win 10$ each. The payout structure of Double or Nothing SNGs is therefore very different from standard 10 player SNGs where 1st place usually wins 50% of the total prize pool, 2nd place takes 30% and 3rd place 20%.

This difference in payout structure means that you need to approach Double or Nothing SNGs with a different strategy in order to become a winning player in the long run.

The Independent Chip model

Before going into more detail with the basics of Double or Nothing sit and go strategy we will need an introduction to the Independent Chip Model (abbreviated ICM).

The Independent Chip model is a mathematical model constructed to give you an estimate of the monetary value of the chips you have in a MTT tournament or a SNG. The basic assumption of the Independent Chip model is that an individual player’s probability of winning the tournament is equal to the number of chips the player has divided by the total number of chips in play. So if you have 32% of the chips in play, your probability of winning is 32% and so on. Keep in mind that this is an underlying assumption of the ICM model and as such these probabilities of winning should only be treated as estimations. The ICM model will also calculate the probability a player has of finishing in all other places in the tournament based on his chipstack, the total number of chips in play and the chip distribution among the other players in the tournament.

By estimating the probabilities a player has of finishing in all the positions in a tournament the Independent Chip Model can assign a monetary value to the amount of chips you have. Here’s an example that demonstrates the principle:

You are playing a regular 10 person SNG and have the chip lead. Based on the amount of chips you have, the number of chips in play and the chip distribution of your opponents, the ICM model has estimated your placement probabilities as follows:

• 1st place; pays 50$ 55%
• 2nd place; pays 30$ 30%
• 3rd place; pays 20$ 15%

The monetary value of your chips at this particular stage in the SNG is then simply the sum of the placement probabilities multiplied by the prizes for each placement. In the example above this amounts to 39,5$ (0.55*50$ + 0.3*30$ + 0.15*20$).

The mathematics behind the ICM model are not overly complicated, but nevertheless totally unrealistic to calculate by yourself within the typical 30s time limit available on online tables. As a result there are several pieces of software available which can show your chip stack equity in real time. Simply Google “ICM calculator” and you will get a ton of hits.

Using the ICM model to formulate a winning DoN SNG strategy

Due to the flat prize pool structure in DoN SNGs, there is a big difference in the monetary value of increasing your chip stack as compared to regular SNGs and multi-table tournaments. If you for example end up all in early in a 10 player 10$ Double or Nothing sit and go and double your chip stack, the equity of your chip stack will only increase roughly 5$ from the 10$ starting point to 15$. The remaining 5$ equity from the player you knocked out is divided among the remaining players on the table. In order to make a profit in the long run from a 10$ bet where you win 5$, you need to have a probability of more than 67% to win the the bet (I have written a series of articles that explain more about the relationship between odds, probabilities and EV in poker). Therefore in Double or Nothing Sit and Goes, you should not enter a pot unless you more than 67% probability of winning the pot. This means that you should play tight and wait for good hands. Take advantage of those players who do not understand the mathematics of the game and as a result have a much wider range for calling.

What the ICM model basically tells us is that Double or Nothing poker is all about preserving your chip stack. As a consequence, calling raises with small pocket pairs aiming to hit a set or with suited connectors to hit draws are to be avoided when playing Double or Nothing poker. Calling in general is actually a bad move from a mathematical point of view in these SNGs. Your actions should be dominated by raising or folding.

Playing a large stack in Double or Nothing sit and goes.

If you manage to double your chip stack early on, the equity of your stack will be almost equal to the prize in the tournament. This means that gaining additional chips has almost no added monetary value and as a consequence from a mathematical point of view you should be folding all hands where you are not at least an 80% favorite of winning. This is even more true when you reach the bubble and have a larger than average chip stack. Remember it is not your job to eliminate players when you have a large stack. It is your job to finish in the top 5.

Playing a small stack in Double or Nothing sit and goes.

If you find yourself with a smaller than average chip stack during the middle or late stages of the tournament, picking up the blinds and antes becomes important. When stealing blinds in a DoN SNG, the trick is to pick out players who have decent size stacks and seem to know the mathematics behind the game. They will almost never call an all in from you because they know they have to be a more than 80% favorite in order to make the call. This is where the power of preserving your chip stack really comes into play. Notice also how the dynamics of a DoN SNG are very different compared to a MTT. In MTTs it is often mathematically correct for the chipleader to call short stack all ins with marginal hands.

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Double or nothing poker strategy

Friday, February 19th, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Strategy, Poker Tournament | No Comments

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

In this article, Steve takes us through the basics of double or nothing SNGs and in particular double or nothing poker strategy.

Double or nothing poker introduction:

Before we get into the details of double or nothing poker strategy, let’s clarify one thing: Double or Nothings are SNGs in which half the players go home empty handed while the other half double up their buy-ins. Why do people play these SNGs? They’re excellent for bankroll building, on account of the increased odds they carry for each individual player. Technically speaking, a Double or Nothing is not that hot a proposition. However, for those with very flimsy bankrolls, these SNGs represent a good way to get their rolls out of the danger zone.

Why am I saying that Double or Nothings are not that great odds-wise? It’s simple mathematics really. If we leave the skill-factor aside, you have a 50% chance of making the money (it’s basically a coin-flip of a chance). If you apply good double or nothing poker strategy and make the money, you do not double up your buy-in. There’s the apparently insignificant matter of the tournament fee, which comes right out of your potential profits, and which kind of ruins the deal for you. Of course, in Double or Nothings your profits are supposed to come from those less skilled than yourself, those willing to give up their buy-ins on senseless calls. One of the advantages you have is that there are many people grinding away at these SNGs and many of them multi-table too. These guys won’t be able to pay as much attention to any one table as they should, so you may squeeze some additional value out of their presence at your table. You can also sign up for a rakeback or a poker prop deal to diminish the effects of the tournament fees.

Double or nothing poker strategy: the early stages:

Double or Nothings are SNGs, so you should use standard SNG strategy as your starting point. The early stages are about tightness and about some aggression. Be extremely demanding of your starting hands, and only commit on rock solid monsters. Keep your eye on your position and aim to preserve your stack. As your tournament life-blood and your only weapon at the Double or Nothing table, your stack will eventually decide whether or not you make it to the money. During the early stages, you’ll be folding a lot, and that gives you a great opportunity to study your opponents. Make your reads, put them on ranges and allow them to knock each other out.

Double or nothing poker strategy: the middle stages:

During the middle stages, you will have to loosen up. Stealing blinds is always important in a SNG and it’s no different in this case either. Keeping your opponents under pressure and stealing their blinds will allow you to maintain a stack size that will not put you in danger of extinction. When stealing blinds, position is the key factor. Don’t steal blinds from early position, or you’ll be the one to end up with the stolen goods. Try not to commit on rags from late position either. I know that blinds stealing is about making moves on less than stellar starting hands, but try to have at least a little bit of equity on your stealing hands, just in case.

Before reading the following section about double or nothing poker strategy, a short introduction to the “farmer” and “fox” terms is in place. As Steve explains, the “fox” is the kind of player who’s focused on winning the tourney, not on sailing into the money and then fading away. Because of that, in a regular tournament, he can take advantage of the bubble tightness of other players.
The “farmer” is a guy who aims for the money. This guy says his utmost goal sis to make it to the money. Once there, he’ll try to go as deep as he can, but because of his pre-bubble stance, he won’t be in a good position to do so.

Double or nothing poker strategy: the late stages:

Because once you make it to the money, the tournament is effectively over, adopting a “farmer” stance instead of a “fox” one during the late stages of the event may be the right way to go. In a regular SNG, I’d always recommend to go “fox” instead of ‘farmer” but in Double or Nothings, the farming poker strategy pays. 99% of players left in contention on the bubble will adopt the same approach though, which means that the tie-breaker here will be schooling. There’s no shame in ganging up on the weakling, and you’ll be required to do just that in order to burst that money bubble. It is obviously imperative that when you reach this stage, you’re not the weakling the other will gang up on.

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Sit N GO – POSITION IS POWER!

Sunday, January 17th, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Strategy | 4 Comments

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

WHAT IS POSITION?
Table position is where you are sitting in relationship to the dealer or ‘button’.  For this discussion we will assume a full table of 10 players.
‘Early position‘:  The two positions left of the big blind or three left of the button.
‘Middle Position’: the next four seats.
‘Late Position’ (the best position): The next two seats.

PLAY in EARLY POSITION
The first person to bet (after the blinds, which are mandatory) is the first early position player.  You will hear this as ‘he is under the gun‘.  In this position, you have no information about this hand from any of the players.  You might have a good hand, but with no information, it is prudent to check (limp in) or raise only the minimum.  With no information you can not determine the strength of any of the other players.  I have seen many ‘great hands’ played too aggressively from early position only to be swept away by a better hand or a better hand after the flop.  All early position hands should be played tightly.

PLAY in MIDDLE POSITION
From the middle positions you have a read on some of the players and can better determine the strength of your hand.  From middle position, if you have a good hand, you can loosen up a bit and bet up to the standard (three times the big blind).  Remember that you still have a few players that you have  gathered no information.  DO NOT get too aggressive from middle position as it can cost you in two ways.
1.  If you are too aggressive, the other players just might fold leaving you with just the blinds as winnings.  By being less aggressive,  you stand a better chance of increasing the pot.
2.  If you are too aggressive, you might run into that ‘buzz saw’ hand that flops the flush or straight with an 8,9 suited.

PLAY in LATE POSITION
From the late positions, you have seen and gotten information on most of the players and can make your betting decision with more authority.  Depending on the strength of your hand, you have ALL options open to you.  You can:
1.  (with a poor hand) Fold or (if no one has raised the big blind, you can decide to through in a ‘test bet’ to get more information.
2.  (with a mediocre hand) call or raise a small amount.
3.  (with a good or great hand) raise the standard or decide to ‘slow play‘ by just calling the bet.
As the table loses players, you must adjust your play by the size of your chip stack and the information you have learned from the players that are left.
Be aware that these are basic position play moves and will NOT guarantee you a win!  It’s Poker!
I get many questions on position.  Feel free to comment or use the Q&A. You will hear from me quickly.

TO SUMMARIZE

Position gives me opportunities
If I am ‘in position’, I can win with an inferior hand.
If I am NOT in position I can lose big with a superior hand.

One Stop Poker Recommendation
A recommended book you should read is Harrington on Hold’em.

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Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Strategy

The Continuation Bet

Saturday, January 16th, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Strategy | No Comments

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

Continuation betting
One of the most profitable and fundamental features of poker, including cash games and MTT strategy, is the continuation bet. Succinctly put, this is when you bet the flop regardless of the cards you hold, after raising preflop.
The continuation bet and its intrinsic value is based on the fact that your opponent(s) will miss the flop more often than not, so a continuation bet, usually of around half to a full pot sized bet, will make your opponents fold.  The stats are that 60% of the time your opponents will miss the flop; and this is where the value of continuation betting comes from.  Utilizing elements of the bluff, a continuation bet plays on the hands of your opponents, rather than the hands of yourself.  This means you’ll make money in the long run from continuation bets because your opponent won’t be able to call your bet unless he makes a hand.

When to Continuation Bet?
Some recommend that you should continuation bet 100% of flops in NL20 or below.  The reasoning is that your opponents are so poor that they won’t adapt, and won’t actually realise what you’re doing. They’ll simply assume you have a hand and fold if they have nothing.  The continuation bet is particular important, and should be ulitilised as often as possible, in hands where there are less than two opponents in the pot – this inevitably makes the continuation bet an important strategy in short-handed and heads up games.  Any more than two players in the pot will usually mean your chances of the bet working are low, because the odds are one of your opponents will have hit something – or be drawing to say the least.  In NL50 and above, it is recommended to limit the number of continuation bets you make because your opponent is cleverer and will hit back at you.

Best Flops the Continuation Bet On
This is a pertinent question.  As a player you have to remember that because you were the preflop raiser, there is a certain range of hands you must have – and as such there are flops you could have palpably missed or hit.  The best flops the continuation bet on are when you could easily have hit a big hand.  For example, Kxx could easily win you a pot with a continuation bet because this flop is one your opponents will give you credit for hitting.  Other flops worthwhile betting include those with 3 suited cards, Axx and a flop with a made pair.  A flop with 3 suited cards is a great flop to bet because your opponents needs a card of that suit to call – even if he’s hit something like top pair or two pair, because he could well already be beaten and it will be difficult for him to call.  A flop with an Ace or a made pair is also a good flop to continuation bet because you could have hit something, and it’s likely your opponents will have missed.

Worst Flops to Continuation Bet
The worst flops to continuation bet are those where it is either extremely unlikely you’ve hit something, or one where it’s very likely your opponent will have hit something.  Flops with connectors like 910J for example are very bad to continuation bet.  This is because there is a massive range of hands your opponents could have called with that could have made something here.  QK, 89 suited, A10 or even a single Q or 8 will propagate a call for pot odds.  Thus, unless you actually have something with outs that could beat a calling opponent, I wouldn’t recommend betting here.

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Throwing Multitablers a Curve Ball

Monday, January 11th, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Strategy | 1 Comment

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

If you play cash games online, especially full ring, you’re bound to run into a lot of multitablers. Hell, you might even be a multitabler yourself. Multitabling gets more and more popular everyday. Players can earn a decent hourly income at fairly low stakes where fish make up a larger percentage of the player pool. You can also rack up a lot of bonus money or rakeback in the process. I play 24 tables at once on PokerStars, and I am aware that there are 100’s of others doing the same on any given night. You can read more about my experiences as a mass tabling, microstakes professional player here.

I, like most multitablers, rely fairly heavily on a heads up display or HUD for a quick overview of each players’ stats at each table. These stats give me a lot of general information such as how loose/tight or passive/aggressive they are, as well as more specific things like how often they have folded to a continuation bet on the flop, how often they 3bet preflop (to 3bet in poker is to re-raise an initial raiser, editorial), or even how often they win at showdown. There are two basic kinds of multitablers. Both play a tight aggressive style, but one plays with a full 100bb stack, and the other buys in for only 20bb.

Many of these players are fairly easy to beat and are generally trying to stay out of your way, but some of them are going to make life quite difficult for you, especially when they are to your left (meaning they will act after you on the table, editorial). Both the full and shortstack players will 3bet you quite light (i.e re-raise you with medium hands, editorial) when you are out of position forcing you to either fold or continue with a weak hand. They’re positionally aware players, and realize that you are also positionally aware. They see you playing tight in early position and trying to steal blinds and isolate fishy limpers in late position at a much higher frequency. So they capitalize on this weakness by either 3betting you, or floating your preflop raise and applying pressure postflop.

Many people refuse to admit that they cannot overcome the positional disadvantage and just leave the table or try to get a better seat and just end up losing money on that table. Don’t fall into this trap. If there are good regulars 3betting you and floating your flop bets, or aggressive shortstacks pushing their stack in every other time you try to steal blinds or isolate, get off the table – or adjust.

It kinda sucks, but the easiest way to adjust to these guys when they have position on you, is to just tighten up considerably. But wait a second, won’t they know that we’ve tightened up and that our range is really strong now? No. I came to this conclusion because I am a mass tabler myself, and if somebody whom I have over 5k hands of data on is suddenly folding everything but Aces, I’m not going to know the difference. I’m playing way too many tables to notice and who cares anyway because I’m there just to stack fish right? The HUD displays stats based on the entire sample that you have on the player, not just for the session.

The reason that we play loose in late position is so that we can steal blinds and isolate limpers. We don’t need a strong hand to do this a lot of the time. When we have good players to our left who are fully aware of our plan however, they are going to punish us for it. In the Art of War, SunTzu says that we should ‘Appear strong when we are weak’ and appear weak when we are strong’. When we raise to 3x bb in the CO (the CO or cut-off position is the position just before the dealer button, editorial), the good regular or aggressive shortstack is going to see that as weak. They know that I’m raising over 30% of the time here and that my continuance range when facing a 3bet or shove is ridiculously tiny. But what if say tomorrow’s session, I’m on a table where I have two aggressive shortstacks and a good regular in the 3 seats to my left? Based on what their HUD is telling them, they will assume that all my late position raises represent a fairly wide range. Everytime the good regular 3bets me, he’s sticking in anywhere from 10-15 more bb into the pot, and the shortstacker is sticking in at least 20. If I tighten up drastically at this one table, I won’t be making much money from stealing blinds and isolating fish but I will have an opportunity to pick up a nice size pot whenever I pick up a strong hand that can continue against a 3bet from these players who assume my range is much wider than it actually is. I can start 4betting with greater frequency when facing a 3bet because my range will be much stronger. One thing that I have found is that if you 4bet a reg a couple times in the same session, they tend to tilt. If I’ve already 4bet them a couple of times with say QQ or KK, I can start widening my 4bet value range and begin 4betting hands like JJ and AQ which are way ahead of a lot of the hands they may decide to fight back with by 5bet shoving in frustration.

Now when I have players to my left that will let me run over the blinds and isolate the fish with impunity, then I’m going to do it even more often than I normally do. The end result will mean that I still run around the same Vp$ip (voluntarily put money in pot) overall, but I’ll be playing very loose with weak tight players to my left, and rather tight with positionally aware aggressives to my left.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed and got something out of this article. I’m currently blogging and writing articles at www.phatstackspoker.com.

Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Strategy

About Online Poker Tournaments

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009 | Poker Articles, Poker Strategy, Poker Tournament | 1 Comment

Submitted by Adam, this article belongs to the Poker Tournament series.

Online multi-table tournaments can be the most profitable games for new players.  Becoming increasingly popular, these type of games provides the easiest and fastest means of making a ton of money in poker for minimal risk.  PokerStars recent record breaking tournament for example gave $50,000 to the winner of an event costing only $1 to buy into.
The problem with new players succeeding in tournaments is that they don’t adopt the correct MTT Strategy to maximize their success.

Tournament Strategy
Unlike cash games, where optimal strategy and maximizing your expected value will make you profit; tournament strategy requires something completely different.  In tournaments you need to constantly build your stack to compete with the ever increasing blinds.  Because of this you’ll need to play much more aggressively and take bigger risks.  Blind stealing, value-shoving and overall pure bluffs are all essential to becoming a long term good tournament player.
Along with the playing strategy, you’ll also need have a large enough bankroll to cover the variance in these tournaments.  Most players recommend having a total bankroll of 40 tournament buy-ins.  This means to play $5 tournaments you have be bankrolled with about $200.  This figure maximizes your potential return whilst minimizing the risk.  The reason the figure is so high is because tournaments are notoriously difficult to cash out in.  Many tournaments run up over 1000 entrants – and with less than the top 10% getting paid off you’ll need to beat 1/100 people on average to make money.

Early Stage Strategy
Concentrate on playing only your best hands.  Throw away anything below 10J and never limp from early of middle position.  You’re at a 9 or 10 seated here, so the chances are someone will be raising the pot preflop with a monster hand like AK or QQ which will force you to fold with anything that’s beaten.  Also remember never to play rag ace hands like A7 or A3.  Because you’re almost certain to be beaten by better Ace kickers, you’ll really be relying on hitting two pair or a set with your kicker in order to take down the pot.  You won’t get the pot value to call with these hands, so don’t both.  Another tip to remember is that the blinds don’t represent much at this level; so don’t spend much time worrying about them.

Middle Stage Strategy
Here’s where you need to accumulate the most chips.  Open up your starting hand selection a little more with hands like suited connectors and low pocket pairs in middle or late position.  Try to value shove also in late positions where you have a decent hand.  The chances of players folding are very high, because in order to call you they would have needed a hand that they should have raised to begin with.   For example, in late position with J9 suited you can shove allin.  You’re very unlikely to get called with AK because surely this player would have raised anyway.  Also keep bluffing on weak and dangerous boards and focus your efforts on stealing and protecting the blinds against weak players.

Final Stage Strategy
As the table becomes short-handed remember to open up your starting hand range to include hands like A5 suited or even QJ.  Make sure you learn heads up strategy also.  The difference between 1st and 2nd place can be huge – up to 10% of the tournament prizepool. So don’t bother settling for 2nd place when you could earn hundreds or even thousands of dollars more.

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The All in Radio poker show and a poker hand analysis

Thursday, December 17th, 2009 | Poker Strategy, Poker Tournament | 3 Comments

About a month ago (November 21st to be precise) I talked on the All in radio poker show (click the link and go to 34 minutes into the show to hear my words of wisdom). I talked mostly about my favorite flop moves from Mitchell Cogert’s “Tournament Poker: 101 Winning Moves”. It is no secret that I like Mitchell’s book and consider it a must read for any serious poker player. if you have some spare time check out his tournament poker blog.

After talking on the All In Radio show I had a very good poker talk with Mitchell regarding a hand my friend Artur and I played in a tournament. I consider the email exchange worth posting here:

From me

So here’s my question:

“What is the optimal way to utilize the all in mayhem that always seems to take place in online poker tournaments once the bubble has burst and there are 5-10 tables left before the final table?”

To give an example my friend and I played some poker tournaments this Saturday and went fairly deep in 3 of them but stumbled before the final tables were reached.

Here’s one of the situations we were involved in:

200 left of a 7000 player tournament. We have 450000 chips which is about 3x average. Blinds are 3000/6000 and antes were probably around 500. On our tables the players have stack sizes of 150000-700000. The play is typical post bubble all in mayhem. People are raising and pushing their stacks to the middle with medium hands.
A couple of hand before we lost 200000 chips in a 3 way pot where we over played our middle pair.

We are dealt K2 suited in middle position and decide to raise 3xBB to steal the blinds. The BB who has 250000 chips calls. At this point we are pretty sure he does not have an ace or premium hand otherwise he would have raised us given the aggressive nature of the table. Something like a small pocket pair or QJ, J10 etc. Flop is 825. BB checks and we make a 3/4 pot continuation bet. BB calls. Turn is an Ace and BB makes a small probe bet of 30000 chips. We are convinced the Ace is a scare card for him and since we have shown strength throughout the hand we continue doing so by putting the BB all in. He instant calls with pocket sixes and takes down the pot.

We’re down to 250000 chips and end up all in preflop shortly after with KK vs AK and lose to a flopped Ace.

So within 15 minutes we went from an overall 2nd place to busting out. Afterwards we talked a lot about whether we did the right thing or not.

Do you have to be super aggressive and take risks (joining the all in mayhem) during the final stages of a tournament towards the final table, or is it a better approach to sit back a bit, win small pots and wait for decent hands?
Do you have any thoughts yourself on how to play these very late stages of a tournament?

From Mitchell

Mark:

You have 90x’s the big blind and are in second place.  The table is pushing in with all sorts of hands, according to your email.

Now you try to steal with K-2 and get called.

1.  You know people are pushing with all sorts of hands, so what is the point of this play.  If everyone is playing super loose–and you are a chip leader—tighten up.  It’s that simple.

2.  If you try to steal and get called, why are you compounding your error further with a c-bet–where players are playing loose.

You answered your own questions in the email.

In many tournaments, players will tighten up considerably near the bubble.  Then it makes sense to raise with any 2 cards in late position.  But here..after the bubble…the image of the table–super loose—and you know your chip position–in great shape with 90x’s big blind and in 2nd place—No need to rush.  Let the game come to you in these situations–they don’t happen that often–but when they do….relax.  Your opponents need to risk their stack, you don’t need to risk your stack….which you did here.

Also, please stop blindly making c-bets—a better play would have been to check the flop.  When the Ace hits on the turn, your opponent would have likely checked and you could make a bet to try to win the pot as a delayed c-bet and a scare card on the board.

I hope this helps…I am away for the Thanksgiving Holiday, so I won’t be able to read your attchments or post anything until next week.

Me again

Hi Mitchell

We wanted to represent a strong hand hence the 3/4 pot continuation bet. I get from your answer that you are not a big fan of c-bets and that it is your opinion that we build a stronger case representing an Ace by checking the flop behind the BB and then raising his probe bet on the turn once the Ace hits.

Say you do not have a big stack during the post bubble all in mayhem, would you then still recommend waiting for a solid hand and then push your chips in hoping for the best? Or would you start risking your stack with less than solid hands given the fact that everyone else are playing loose as well?

I think I am most in favor of using the stop and go in these situations. Call a preflop raise with your strong hand and push all in on the flop no matter what. If you are successful and manage to build a stack then start relaxing and let the hands come to you as you wrote in your previous mail. What do you think? Of course it all depends on how your table is playing in general. If they are playing regular tight aggressive poker you can probably get away with building your stack through stealing the blinds.

Thanks for your feedback! It is greatly appreciated.

From Mitchell

Mark, I am a fan of c-bets but not without planning ahead my line of play.

Whenever someone tells me that they raise pre-flop to steal the blinds AND They get called AND On the flop they make a c-bet…I know the player did not plan his line of play.  The line of play was to steal the blinds.  The play did not work….so end it…if you are in good chip shape.  If it gets checked to you on the turn, then bet.  If it gets bet to you, guess what, fold.  Your line of play was to steal the blinds….sorry, it didn’t happen.  It’s over….unless…your opponent is giving up–which is what a check-check means…and a 1/2 sized pot bet is fine.

Anyawy, I understand what you were doing with your 3/4th bet on the flop–but the pre-flop raise did not make sense given the the way the table was playing and your stack size.

If you don’t have a big stack at this stage, it doesn’t matter how the table is playing.  If you get a hand, push.  If you are less than around 10x’s the big blind, and you have even pocket deuces push…two paints push….position look to push depending on players to your left.

I don’t think people understand the stop and go.  They think it is simply calling a raise and then pushing all-in on the flop.  That’s like saying people who draw are artists.

The stop and go is used in situations where you have a hand, but one which may play better after the flop–and your all in move on the flop will not be auto-called due to the size of the bet on the flop.

For example, if you have pocket Jacks in the big blind, if you are low on chips after a pre-flop raiser you just push.  But, if after your pre-flop call, you have enough chips to get your opponent to fold on the flop, then use the stop and go.

I hope this helps.

From me

Hi Mitchell

It is really beneficial to get another view on things. I get where you are coming from when you say plan ahead with your c-bets. You say that if your plan was to steal the blinds and you do not succeed forget the hand. I have another possible take on the situation.

We did plan on stealing the blinds but it did not work. Instead of giving up on the hand we take another path to give ourselves an additional chance of winning the pot. If we check the flop our betting pattern can easily represent a hand with an Ace. When the Ace hits on the turn we take down the pot by raising our opponent’s probe bet.
I guess what I’m thinking is that by raising preflop you have the chance of representing different hands through your betting patterns on the later streets. Eventhough your initial plan was to steal the blinds and that did not work, who’s to say you cannot change strategy while the hand is played out. If your betting pattern is consistent then your opponents will not be able to tell whether you initially raised to steal the blinds or if you raised with a premium hand.

Regarding the stop-and-go, if I understand you correctly it is best to use it against an opponent who will risk a large portion of his stack if you move all in on the flop and who can afford to fold and still have a chance in the tournament. By making this play in the right spot, you increase your chances of taking down the pot uncontested in a situation where you are prepared to risk all your chips anyway.

From Mitchell:

Yes…and Yes.

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Thoughts on making moves in online poker tournaments

Sunday, November 15th, 2009 | Poker Articles, Poker Strategy, Poker Tournament | 9 Comments

You don’t win hands by checking; you win hands by betting.

My friend Artur keeps reminding me about this when we play online tournaments together. For some reason I tend to forget this simple mantra when I play online poker tournaments by myself.

Yesterday for example I was playing a small stakes online poker tournament on Full Tilt Poker. I was doing quite well due to some good hands coming my way. I think I had around 8000 chips when I decided to make a move under the gun with A7 suited. I raised it up to 950, the blinds being 150/250, and got one caller in middle position. The flop was rainbow KQ8. I bet 3/4 of the pot and my opponent called. At this point I started to worry that my opponent had hit either a King or a Queen so I decided to slow down and we ended up checking both the turn and river. My opponent showed pocket 9s and took down a 5000 chip pot. In retrospect this was a terrible play by me and I’ve been kicking myself about it all day long.

What annoys me is that I have a tendency to always slow down if I raise preflop, don’t hit the flop and my continuation bet gets called. I very seldom follow through on the turn. Yesterday this was exactly what I should have done. I showed strength both preflop and on the flop and with a 5000 chip pot on the turn compared to my remaining 6000 chips I should have pushed all in. There is no way my opponent could have called an all in from me on the turn. This is especially true because he did not re-raise my flop bet.

It has taken me a long time to make the transition from only betting into pots when I have a good hand to start making moves at pots where I don’t have a hand. Yesterday’s situation tells me that I am not quite there yet. To help me improve my game I have therefore made a new rule:

“Follow through on your preflop and flop moves if the size of the pot is comparable to the amount of chips you have left”

Although I risk looking like an idiot, if my opponents are trapping me, I think I will win more pots in the long run by following through. In any case it will help me grow some bigger tournament balls so to speak.

What do you think?

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