Category Archives: Uncategorized
Using opponents against eachother for reads
This is an amazingly powerful strategy against opponents who are either shortstacked or have a ton of chips. The shortstack is looking to double up and the guy with a ton of chips is looking to add to his stack. If these two wind up in a hand together, there’s bound to be fireworks. Let’s say you’re holding something like Ace ten offsuit and you have a raise followed by a re-raise. You can fold this down if the chip stacks of these two players matches the description above.
Finding the right table for your playing style
I touched on this recently in another post, and now I feel its time to elaborate more on the subject matter. When selecting a table you have several options – cost – number of players – how much you want to buy in for – what the average pot size is – number of players per flop – etc. Now, I’ve talked about all these factors separately before but now I’m going to touch on my current playing style and where I feel most comfortable.
Making use of your block chat button
Today is more about my annoyance with certain players than a tip. The block chat button is by far the most useful tool available for online players. When you get tired of the Phil Hellmuth wannabe at the table telling you how “badly he was beaten by a fish” simply block his chat. He can no longer bother you with his long winded tirades of how great of a player he is while he’s playing at the 0.10/0.25 or lower tables.
Playing the small stack in ring games
When you buy in to a ring game you have different options. Some tables are “deep stacks” meaning you’re buying at at somewhere around 50 times the big blind. Other tables allow you to buy in at 20 times the big blind. Now at 20 times the big blind you don’t have a lot of chips to play with so you’re going to have to adjust your strategy accordingly, especially when your opponents may have 100 times the big blind or more. Let’s cover a few different table options now.
An introduction to Omaha
For those who have never played the game Omaha is similar to Texas Holdem in betting rounds. There are a total of four rounds of betting – preflop, the flop, the turn, and the river. In Omaha, however, you have 4 hole cards instead of 2. That’s right 4. The other difference is you HAVE TO use 2 of your hole cards and 3 cards on the board, no exceptions. That means you will not lose to a flush if your opponent has 1 diamond in their hole cards and 4 on the board. They must have 2 diamonds in their hand and 3 on the board to actually have a flush. The same applies to the straight. None of those weird river cards to mess you up like in Holdem.
If you think youre beat, youre beat
Very simple concept today, if you think you’re behind in the hand then you probably are. It kinda goes along with that saying “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” Now that doesn’t give you license to start playing seven two offsuit thinking you’ll win. This is more in reference to pre-flop when you raise with middle pair, someone reraises you so you push back then they push back again. More than likely they’re holding something better than you. At best you’re a coin flip up against something like AQ, AK, or KQ.
Watch for the straight when you have trips
Watching out for a flush is easy, but watching for the straight when you have trips is much harder. Trust me, I know, I’ve lost hundreds to straights when holding trips. Why is it harder to keep an eye out for the straight than the flush? Straights come in weird combinations and sometimes it’s hard to believe someone actually has it. I’ll give you an example – you’re holding kings, flop comes King, Queen, Ten, giving you trips. The odds against someone holding Ace Jack and flopping a straight are over 300 to 1. But guess what it’s happened. At this point the trips have a total of 7 outs, then with the turn card blanking 10 outs. That leaves about a 28% chance to hit a full house or better by the river, and about 20% to hit the boat or better on the river. Not the greatest odds when a miracle has just happened.
I can watch poker on TV again thanks to my new Samsung P2370HD 1080p digital television
X-mas has come and gone and my brother (MMA trainer at MMA High Performance Training in Oxnard, CA) ordered me the Samsung P2370HD 1080p digital TV. Why is that good? Well, I wasn’t able to watch ESPN, ESPN2, Travel channel, and basically every other channel out there for months now because I had a fossil [...]
The importance of taking notes on opponents online
In brick and mortar poker rooms you have to rely on memory but in online poker you have the option of taking notes on all of your opponents betting patterns. This can come in real handy. If you pick up on the fact that someone likes to slowplay a hand (check-raise for example) make a note of it. Next time they make the same play you won’t fall victim to it.
The difference between short table games and full table games
Short table games and full table games are two totally different monsters. When you have less players at the table you can choose different hands than you would in a full table. Why? Well let’s do the math really quick. If there are a total of 4 players at the table and you’re one of them what is the likelihood that you have the winning hand? That’s right 1 in 4 or 25%. It really doesn’t matter what 2 cards you’re holding pre-flop, you have a 1 in 4 chance of having the winning hand by the river. Now this doesn’t mean that you should play 72 offsuit against pocket aces, it just means you can play more hands you typically wouldn’t as the chances of your opponent having a great hand against you have diminished substantially.
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