I have been thinking about writing a general type post for sometime. We really don’t have enough of them here at PF.ca. After far too much laziness I put this together. I hope it makes sense and I hope it helps some of the newer people with a bit of a starting point for learning about poker. At the end I put my top 5 things to consider and learn about to become a better player. Enjoy and be critical if you must =D
Poker is about making decisions. We are trying to make decisions that are most of the time going to the right decision. We look at our plays and actions in terms Expected Value and if that EV has a positive return we repeatedly make that play because we know it makes us money in the long run. We want all of our decisions to be decisions that make us money in the long run.
We also know that our opponents do not hold any 2 specific cards. They are holding a range of hands. We make our decisions based on how our holding fares against our opponents range. Don’t ever fall into the trap of trying to put people on 2 exact cards. It is a parlor trick used by good players to put the fear of God in their opponents. They have a range and that range gets narrower as you drive past 3rd, 4th and 5th street but it will still always be a range.
We take our opponents fresh out of the box and we label them as unknown. As we play with them and observe them we begin to put them in little boxes that defines their play and helps us understand how they think about the game. We use these observations within the context of a hand to make assumptions about their holdings and we try adjust our decisions accordingly.
Lose your bad habits and weed out the bad advice. When I decided to learn to play cash games I remember reading lots of posts about “donkeys” who go broke with AA unimproved. I not only took this advice I wore it. For a long time I made too many folds with big hands until I realized something. This statement is relative. It is relative to your opponent and the situation you are currently in. Limpy, passive guy suddenly starts raising you post flop? It is probably pretty fishy if you stack off here against this guy. Against the aggro guy who is always raising and always playing fast? Get your money in the middle with your AA against him. He flopped a set this time? Oh well, he is going to find lots of other opportunity to throw money at you. Don’t agonize over it. Move on.
Keep growing and learning. Always be trying to improve your knowledge and your game. The minute something stops growing it has started to die. Think about that.
My top 5
Position
It is the most important thing for a beginning player to learn about. Learn it, understand it, and for the love of God. Use it. The button is bliss. Widen your opening range when you are on the button. Narrow it the further you move away from it.
Manipulate the Pot Size
Big hands, big pots. Small hands, small pots. TPTK is a good hand but not a monster. Don’t always be looking to get your whole stack in the middle with it. If you succeed in playing for stacks with TPTK guess what. Your hand isn’t likely the best.
Flop a set? A straight? Guess what. It is useless if you don't bet it. Get some money in the middle and get paid for it.
Know thy Table
What is going on at your table? Someone is stuck? Someone Gambling? Someone not even have a clue? Always adjust to your table and the players around you. Poker is a lot like life or business, being successful usually entails being different that the other guy. If people are too loose, tighten up. If they are too tight, loosen up. If they play too many raised pots out of position, make them do it again and again. If he folds to too many re-raises then re-pop him again and again. Find where they are weak and exploit it. Pound on it, abuse it, show them no mercy. Ball ‘til you fucking fall. Which basically means, keep exploiting them until they adjust.
Read their story and tell your own
As you play a hand there is a story being told. As you play low limits your opponents will more often than not play very straightforward. Guy check/calls the flop and the turn and bets the third heart on the river? He hit his flush, you can fold and feel good about it. Pay attention to these lines and understand what they mean.
As your opponents improve you can tell an inconsistent story in order to get paid.
Villain in this hand is a very good regular on Full Tilt. He is a TAG and a good thinking player.
I call his button open because his range is very wide from the button (he understands position) and even though KJo is a fairly weak hand I am ahead of his range.
Now we flop top pair with a medium kicker. My hand has value but not big pot value. If I bet here he just folds all the hands that I beat and calls with all the hands I am behind and sometimes will raise me off the best hand. This is why
betting for information is a ridiculous statement uttered by morans who don’t understand the game. Don't be a moran.
I elect to call because he is aggressive from position and there is a good possibility that he may try to blow me off my hand by double barreling the turn with a worse card.
The turn is a brick and changes nothing about the hand. He fires again as I hoped he would. I call again, same reasoning as on the flop.
River Card J. Ok. Top two pair. I have the best hand here a high percentage of the time. 10-8 or Q 10 are the only draws that got there which is unlikely so what do I do now? Now I know that this opponent thinks and I know that my hand looks like a busted flush draw. If I get some money in the pot I can get paid by a ton of his range here: Any lesser 2 pair, AA, QQ, any King, likely anything he is holding with a J in it too:
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (6 handed)
Full Tilt Converter Tool from
FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: 2+2 Forums)
BB ($60.40)
UTG ($69.85)
MP ($41)
CO ($76.80)
Button ($50)
Hero ($92.50)
Preflop: Hero is SB with K:c:, J:h:.
3 folds,
Button raises to $1.75, Hero calls $1.50,
1 fold.
Flop: ($4) 9:h:, K:d:, 7:h:
(2 players)
Hero checks,
Button bets $2.5, Hero calls $2.50.
Turn: ($9) 5:s:
(2 players)
Hero checks,
Button bets $5.5, Hero calls $5.50.
River: ($20) J:s:
(2 players)
Hero bets $19, Button calls $19.
Final Pot: $58
Button mucks A:d:, 7:c:
Bet Sizing FTW
Bet sizing is the shit in deep-stack NL. If you want to get paid you need to know how to build a pot. What line gets the most in the middle when I have a big hand? What bet size commits our opponent to the pot? These are important things to think about, think about them.
I hope you like.
Caddy