General Theory Post
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
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
Comments
i have no idea how the button can call that river bet, that was very badly played. That and villains bet on the turn were two big mistakes he/she made. If villain is a regular TAG then i think he would be one of the weaker ones on FT.
by the river when you lead out any decent player on the button would most likely put you on a big hand, if i was the button guy (and i fired the turn for some odd reason) then got bet into on the river i woulda put you on a big hand on the flop and slow played it till river. I would definatly not call with a 7. I doubt anyone would think your on a busted flush draw or something like that.... i dont think villain here is a good thinking player =P
Also, I think you shoulda either check-raised the flop or lead out on the turn, or something to see if your KJ is good, if this player is TAG and playing lets assume 15-20% of preflop hands, you should be worried about your KJ if hes firing two barrels! do something to see if your KJ is good instead of hitting a jack on the river! I think in terms of +EV this situation for the way you played it, if it were against a true TAG player your play would be -EV for sure!
Villains call is pretty thin I agree. I would never have potted the river against a player who is incapable of putting me on a hand. The way I played the hand it looks exactly like a busted draw. Call, call, call, whiff the flush so I try to steal because there is a pretty fair pot in the middle.
Poor players, the weak tight kind who peddle the nuts see my river bet and think. Oh my, he must have a big hand. I fold. But what big hand do I have? If you are not thinking about that you are in trouble, you are going to get blown off a ton of hands as you move up in limits because people get more and more aggressive. If you get pegged as being weak tight you will get totally run over.
FWIW. This guy is a 2+2er. I am not going to out him but he posted a monthly graph a while back where he made over 4K at 50NL. He ain't weak.
LOL. No offense but this is exactly the point I was making in my post. If I check raise the flop he folds the worst hand. If I had done that I would have made his hand easy to play for him. I don't want him to fold the worst hand I want him to keep betting it. This is the mistake that so many players make and it is so bad. If you always bet your marginal hands you never make money with them because you fold out the worse hands (the ones that can pay you off) and get raised by the better ones.
Play against his range and make the decision that makes you the most money. Letting him fire at the pot makes me cash, it makes me vulnerable to getting sucked out on. It makes me vulnerable in that I could be call stationing the worst hand but it also makes me the most money in the long run. =D
Also our TAG who is playing 18/15 pre flop is not playing 18% of his hands from the button. It is more like 30%-35% for a good TAG, they understand the value of position.
Keep in mind the betting patterns of the other players when betting your made hand. If you check knowing that another player will likely raise and will be aggressive after you, nothing wrong with checking in this situation. Especially if they were doing the initial raising pre-flop. Or they like to try and steal the pot often.
How true is this. Falling in love with TPTK is a disaster waiting to happen. Another variation of this would be trips with a shitty kicker. If you are getting a lot of action with a pair on board and you have trips, you are likely beat if you don't have a strong kicker.
Wouldn't that be similar to backwards thinking
I am sure if he had no prior history with you or knoweldge of how you play he would definatly do something differient in the hand!
I can understand what you're saying about betting out marginal hands to drive the weaker hands away, why do that when you can keep em around (better yet have them firing when their behind!).
My question is, if you had no stats on villain and no history on who he is would you play it the same way?
If you didnt know anything him would it be better to take the pot on the flop with a check-raise rather then calling down to the river with just a KJ?
Sorry to totally take this thread off topic!
Against a player I don't know I would play this hand differently. I know that most players at 50NL are weak-tight and that big bets on the river make them think the same thing that you did. OMG, big bet he must have it!!! I fold.
I would likely bet about 1/2 pot on the river against these guys. I would more likely get called.
I am never check/raising with this hand in this spot. Maybe if the turn had been a diamond and put 2 flush draws out there I may let him fire the turn and c/r but I don't c/r the turn too much.
Nice post. Keep them coming! I agree, this forum needs more stuff like this.
Maybe we should get some people to start writing articles about playing specific types of hands, then get input on them. I would love to read stuff like that.
Shut up moran!
Well then, I'd like to take the opportunity to say...
you were a douche in grades 3 though 13
whats the policy here on reposting forum posts ? I would like to place this on my blog - I would of course credit the author and source completly
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