Late Position Poker Theory
Any military general will tell you that the most important weapon an army can have is information. When you are in the late positions you have the advantage of receiving all the available information for that betting round before you have to act. This information allows you to control the pace of the hand, and in turn, the size of the pot. Here are a couple of common situations where you can use your position to your advantage.
The first situation is when everyone folds to you, leaving you and the blinds. In this situation you should look to raise if you’re holding anything better than a queen. The odds that the blinds are holding good cards are low, so a raise forces them to make a call in a pot that has weak pot odds. This, plus the fact that they have poor position against you, makes a call difficult. The pots are small, but they will add up over a session.
The next one is when one or more players in the early positions enter the pot. If you get early callers you can be pretty sure you’re up against at least one premium hand. If you’ve been raising in late position, players will tend to slow play big cards against you. So when you get some early callers, look to limp in and hope to hit the flop in a big way.
Another common one is when you are on the button and the player to your right keeps raising you. If you have a skilled player to your right, they will test to see if they can steal the button from you. If you fold too often, this player will look to exploit this every time, and you will miss out on hands that should be profitable for you. Stand your ground, and periodically re-raise back.
Limit Holdem: Fourth-Street Concepts
Using proper fourth street tactics will not only give you control of most hands that you are in, but you’ll also begin to learn the art of putting players on certain hands. Fourth street is where a skilled player figures out what hand they’re up against. These concepts help you to begin to think like a grinder, figuring out what your opponents are holding based on the information you force them to give to you.
Most limit players will either exit the hand at this point, or stay to the end, either winning or paying off an opponent. You want to act at the crucial moment in the hand, when an opponent is deciding what they’re going to do. Many of your decisions will be based on the player type, and repeated habits of the player, you’re in the hand with. But that applies to any tactic.
The most important part of fourth street theory is the check raise. Many players that bluff a lot in limit holdem can be forced off hands by showing aggression on fourth street. The check raise is the moment where a player says “I have the best of it”. The bet doubles on fourth street, and it’s when slow playing ends and draws are decided. If you agree with that, they you must agree that the check raise on fourth street is where there’s the most opportunity to mislead your opponents. This is where skilled players represent hands and take stabs at slow action flops.
Fourth street is where the pros look to outplay weaker opponents. Learn your fourth street play and you’ll be in better shape than most players out there.
Seven-Card Stud Basics
Seven-card stud is a simpler version of poker than Omaha or Texas holdem. Stud games provide a lot of information to the players, and just about anyone can win once they learn a few basics. Let’s assume that you’re going to play smart and only play with hands like rolled trips, three to a straight, three to a flush, and pairs with a good kicker.
4th street basics for strong hands dictates you slow play four of a kind, push three of a kind, and push two pair with caution. Four of a kind should hold up, so allow your opponents to catch up and make a flush or straight. Three of a kind requires that you force the action, and hopefully some opponents out, to increase your chances of the trips holding up. Two pair requires a similar approach to the trips, but you have to watch what your opponents draw out. This hand has a good chance of being outdrawn if a lot of opponents are allowed to remain.
5th and 6th street is where you will look to grow the pot with big hands. If no one is raising you, your trips and even your two pair are probably good. Drawing hands will hope to limp forward if possible, calling as few bets as possible. Look to call just one bet if you’re on the draw. High pair may be still good, but any raise at you will mean you’re probably beat.
7th street is where you take all the information the table has to offer and decide if anyone has drawn out on you. If an opponent has 10,9,7,6 showing and has been only calling your bets, but suddenly bets out the river, you’re probably beat. Same goes for the flush draw. A re-raise on the river is something you want to avoid, and you should check the river often in 7-stud unless you have the nuts.
Watch Your Opponents
One tactic that good players employ is never watch the cards hit the table. This style of play is not an easy way to play poker, and you must have a solid knowledge of the game before implementing it. If you are capable of adding this skill you will open windows of information that you’ve been missing to this point in your poker game.
Choosing to watch your opponents instead of the cards falling will immediately provide you with tell information. It won’t give you tell information about all of your opponents, but it will provide you with all the available tells that are out there. Most players can’t help but look at the flop, some will tell you whether they hit or missed if you’re watching them at the moment the card hits the board. If you’re watching the cards you will never receive this free information.
If you watch the players you will see all sorts of different things. The opponents that miss will often show disinterest or maybe one opponent is scanning the table for possible action (a sure sign of a player looking to get involved). It will take time but after awhile you begin to develop a feel and recognition for the body language of the tables.
Try the method and you’ll see. It’s not any easy thing to do well, but once you do you’ll look differently at every opponent who doesn’t employ it. Don’t celebrate too much, skilled players will pose and bait you if they realize you’re watching. That’s how you know where the sharks are sitting. When the flop comes they’re staring back at you.
The Free Card
Often you’re in a situation against players who make large bets with the lead, making it difficult to draw to bigger hands. Getting a free card is a way around this issue. The free card is a way of showing strength early in the hand because you want to get a free card on the next betting round. The free card works so well because opponents expect an aggressive better to continue to be aggressive. Most free card tactics will be employed from the late positions because they don’t work as well in the early ones. If you’re playing at a loose table, the free card can be difficult to achieve on a regular basis.
Betting the flop with drawing hands can serve two purposes. First, your opponents may choose to raise you if they have a better, yet vulnerable, hand than yours. This allows you to decide if there are enough other players in the hand for you to remain or muck. Secondly, if your plan works and you get called and checked to the next round, you get a free chance to draw to your low percentage outs, while spending half the bets to get there.
You would look to employ this tactic in situations where you have second pair with an over card or even two over cards. Straight or flush draws are another situation where you could use a free card to help your hand. It‘s important to keep all this in mind when you find yourself on the other side of the coin. Do your best not to give free cards to your opponents, unless you have a complete monster.
Poker-playing mom punished for leaving kids
A Grandville, Mich., mom who left her kids in the car while she played in a charity poker game will have to pay $450 in fines and take some parenting classes.
Judge Steven Timmers told Diem Thi Tran Thursday that if she paid the fines and met other conditions within six months, her criminal record would show that the charges were dismissed.
The Wyoming Police report stated witnesses claimed the children — ages 5, 10 and 15 — had been in the car for as long as three hours. Tran also was charged with no valid insurance and defective equipment on the car.
Tran pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor child neglect charge. However, she has denied she was abusing the children and disputed the contention the kids were in the car for as long as three hours.
Online poker close to legal in California?
The California Gambling Control/Intrastate Online Poker Legalization Act recently passed the State Assembly and has moved to the State Senate for action.
The bill would legalize intrastate online poker, meaning online poker rooms would be licensed and regulated by the state.
Poker Voters of America President Jim Tabilio said his organization was extremely pleased with the progress of the bill.
It’s never easy to move a bill through the deliberative process of the legislature,” said Tabilio. “And legalization of online poker in a state like California presents special challenges.”
Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, the author of the bill, is hopeful it will pass by this fall.
Deuce-to-Seven Lowball
Deuce-to-seven, or Kansas City, Lowball, is the original form of lowball poker. This game has been traditionally more popular in the southern U.S., while regular ace-to-five lowball is predominant in the rest of the country and internationally. The reason for this is that deuce-to-seven is a high-stakes game with a huge win/loss variance. It can break the highest of rollers or make a guy a fortune. It’s usually played in a no-limit form without any jokers in play.
Five cards are dealt just like regular draw poker. Unlike other forms of lowball, the best hand in this game is the lowest traditional poker hand; 2, 3, 4, 5, 7. Aces are never small and straights and flushes are considered made hands, and are counted against you. Players get three draws to improve their hand with a betting round between each draw.
Drawing hands require a lot of consideration, and some hands that may seem like they are good draws may not be at all. Take for example when you’re holding four suited cards like 7h, 6h, 5h, 3h. This may appear to be a draw to a good hand, but your odds of hitting the cards you need are not good at all. The straight and flush possibilities reduce the number of outs you have to make your winning hand because any four or heart will bust up your hand. A better draw hand would be 2, 3, 4, 5, off-suit. The chance of hitting a flush is not there and even though it looks like these cards are an open-ended straight draw they are not. Remember that the aces are never low in this game.
Pot odds are calculated the same way you would in holdem. Calculate your outs to a better hand and compare that ratio with the size of the bet compared to the pot. With everyone on the table looking for the same group of cards, a player’s outs are often in the possession of another player.
The Value of Patience in Poker
One of the most important traits a player should work on developing is being patient. Winning poker can’t be forced or imposed in every game, and patience will help you determine the best approach to take in each situation. It’s truly a virtue in poker, and it’s tough to be a wining player without it.
Start by being patient with your starting hand selection. Stick to pocket pairs and hands that add up to 20 or more if you were playing blackjack. As your experience grows your hand selection choices can too. Whatever you can learn can be used in future hands against them when you have a tough decision, so take the free time you have from folding all these hands to watch how your opponents play.
Having the patience to put down a big hand when you think you may be beat is another important part of the game. If you have top pair and the board has four cards to a flush, and a player bets into you, you have to realize that you’re easily beaten. Situations like these require that you take the time to make the right decision and not be brash.
Multi-table tournament poker requires even more patience. It’s common to fold 20 straight hands before playing one, especially if the table has a lot of pre-flop raises. Good novice tournament poker is about taking advantage of your opportunities when they present themselves, not trying to create them for yourself without an intimate knowledge of the game.
Bluffing Strategies
Learning to take advantage of a spot where it appears that the table is weak is the key to a good bluff. But like every aspect of poker, bluffing properly is dependant on the setting of the hand. Advanced bluffing strategies are a long way from taking a stab at an orphaned pot or a button bet, and require that you have a solid knowledge of the game.
Good players will take advantage of the playing styles of their opponents. Tight players are more easily bluffed, so it makes more sense to try and bluff them. Bluffs work better against tight players if you start them early in the hand. It’s out of the tight player’s character to start and continue a bluff over a couple of streets, so they don’t expect you to do it either, and you get more respect for your bluff because you didn’t back off of it. Bluffing at a loose-style player is another story. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to bet with nothing into a player who will make loose calls. The best way to bluff a loose player is to let them take the lead and bluff them late in the hand. You make it look like you’ve been trapping them and you’ll be able to get them off pots. These bluffs are carefully orchestrated to appear to be something that they’re not. The best players will construct a betting pattern that they want their opponent to recognize and fold to.
Good players will hang around in hands with nothing, hoping that the board will provide a spot to make a successful bluff. This may seem stupid, but against the right opponent this can be performed over and over. The more thought out the bluff is, the better it tends to work. Remember to try and do most of your bluffing in hands where you’re against one, or at the most, two opponents. And always consider the player you’re bluffing before you try it.