Poker 101 - Final Thoughts

Hi people! The poker thing … let me apologize for that. I realize that many of my readers are most likely not that interested in reading poker strategies and discussions about probability and such … so… I’m going to end that here. If you’re interested in looking into this issue some more, might I suggest picking up a book (I highly recommend David Sklansky’s The Theory of Poker) or checking around a bit more on the web (hell, there are probably a few links to some sites in the ads section of this blog…) – seems like everyone who thinks they know how to beat the game (myself included) is eager to explain their system to you. Remember this, however, there really is no all-encompassing system to beating the game – it always comes down to doing the correct thing at the correct time and I honestly believe that no system exists capable of covering the almost countless situations that poker has to offer.

Since I have mentioned a few things that I said I would cover further in later posts, I will now expand on those subjects. Unless requested otherwise, however, this will be my final post about playing poker. I just think that this material – although possibly interesting to a few – is a bit too dry and boring for the non poker players out there. Okay, so here are the further explanations promised…

I mentioned pre-flop betting strategies back in my Hand Odds post. This is an important topic that any newcomer to the game most definitely needs to understand. I think the reasoning for the strangeness that you often see people doing on their pre-flop bets is a direct result from watching too much poker on TV. The thing that one needs to keep in mind whilst watching these broadcast events is that you never see the entire match. The World Poker Tour broadcasts seem to be the closest to showing all of the action; however the observant viewer will notice at times that the placement of the button has a tendency to skip people. Whenever you see this, hands have been played that were not shown. You also need to remember that you are only watching the final table of a multi-day tournament.

The result of all this is that the game shown ends up being nothing more than highlights and you can bet that the highlights contain a lot of hands where somebody messed up. Do not fall into the trap of thinking that you should play like the professionals on TV from watching their play. You very well might be watching one of the few times that the professional in question made a mistake. Although tournaments often end with some very interesting (sometimes controversial) plays, remember that it was the grinding done to reach the final table that even made it possible for these guys to make these plays. Unless you’re watching the tournament live and in person, you will not be privy to the hours and hours of grinding that took place prior to that final table.

Please remember this – just because you are holding a couple very good hole cards (up to and including the pair of bullets), your hand still needs three more cards to even be considered a valid poker hand. Try not to get into a situation where you actually go all-in (and somebody with a larger chip stack can call you) prior to the flop – it very well could be the last decision you make in that game. Your bullets do you no good if the person that calls your all-in bet is able to get a better hand by the river. If you’re interested in watching exactly what I am talking about, go ahead and sit down at one of those ten person, play money, sit and go tournaments. You will quickly notice something interesting – usually several people will go all-in on the first hand (it seems to average out to about three). This, of course, is horrible play. Pay attention to what happens and you will quickly see that the strongest hand going into these confrontations is often bested by a draw. The result of this is that usually one player becomes huge (chip stack wise) and a few people get knocked out. I like to refer to this as the “go big or go home” strategy. It’s intriguing enough for many to try it on a play money table since, in that incarnation, the game becomes nothing more than a game – you have nothing of actual value riding on it. In an actual money game, however, it should be obvious that this play is at best too high risk to justify.

The correct way to play your pre-flop betting is to use it as a type of control. For instance, if you’re holding the bullets, you want to get the biggest return on any money that you invest in the pot (this is actually the way you need to look at every hand you play). Use all of the information that you’ve gathered from your play up to this point and bet the appropriate amount (or call or raise – depending on the situation). Since you know that your hand is currently the best and also understand that this situation could very well change after any callers get to see the flop, you want to try to minimize the number of people that actually play against you. You need to look at the remaining chip stack of your possible opponents as well as refer to mental notes taken on opponent’s play and bet enough so that only one or two people will even call you. If one of these remaining players decides to raise you, then you have a great opportunity to play off his action and perhaps get it down to an all-in between you and him. I’ll take bullets heads-up any day of the week and twice on Sunday. Sure, you won’t be knocking out several people in one hand; however you have successfully minimized the probability that you will be getting knocked out.

What really needs to be remembered in any pre-flop action (well, any action actually … I’m just discussing pre-flop for now) is that action has multiple consequences. As I somewhat explained in my Action post, any action performed is a representation of your hole cards. You can use this to get the weaker hands to fold. The much more obvious result of a bet is that it increases the size of the pot and this is also a much wanted circumstance when you’re holding a winning hand at the river. The latter aspect is far more usable on post-flop bets and really shouldn’t be weighted highly on any pre-flop betting. You need to be able to use the pre-flop bet as a way to control the game – if you do this right, you should have very little difficulty in forcing the other players to play the game exactly how you want it played and there’s nothing better than that.

This brings us to “table image”. I mentioned several times that you need to be keeping mental notes on the action (and results there-of) of your opponents. You also need to be paying special attention to the results that have occurred from all of your action – you can rest assured that any decent opponent is paying attention to this… This is referred to as your “table image” and it has a tendency to change rather quickly at times. The main thing to remember when considering your table image is that your opponents will be much more likely to either call or raise your bets when your table image is weak (by “weak” I am referring to your appeared competence). On the flip side, of course, you are going to have a much harder time getting opponents to invest more money into a pot when your table image is strong.

Many players will purposely play around with their table image in an effort to lower it. They’ll purposely do what appear to be bone-headed plays in order to actually lose hands. Personally, I think that play like this is dangerous – for one thing, you need to make sure that the pot that you lose on your intentional bone-headed play is small enough to not cause issues with your chip stack and you have to hope that the opponents that you are playing understand table image well enough for your play to be advantageous for you. Since you are going to lose hands even when you play perfectly (remember, it’s a game of probabilities), I think losing any hand on purpose is a bad thing. Always, however, be aware of the strength of your table image and use this information when deciding how to play your action. You can actually make some of those “bad-luck streaks” work to your advantage…

Slow play. Okay, the first thing I want to mention about “slow play” is that it has absolutely nothing to do with the speed of your play! If you think that pausing for an abnormal amount of time prior to acting is slow playing, you really shouldn’t be playing this game. Sure, the drawn-out pauses can be advantageous at times (a way to play with your hand strength appearance), however this is not slow playing your hand. A “slow play” is actually a play done over multiple bets (which also means multiple board cards being displayed). The idea is to attempt to get opponents to initiate bets when you are holding a strong hand (a side-effect is that you are actually hiding the strength of your hand). This can often times increase the size of pots that you win although it usually also increases the chances of your strong hand getting out-drawn. It’s amazing how often a slow play can be shown as the mistake made in one of those bad beat stories that everyone seems so eager to share.

As a simple example of the dangers of slow playing, let’s assume that you were dealt a pair of kings. Nobody raises the bet pre-flop and you decide to “slow play” the kings and just limp in. The flop hits and the highest card is a queen (we’ll assume something like a queen, a nine and a five). You’re holding an over-pair and get a bit cocky – you check your kings and continue your slow play. The player on the button bets the pot and you make the mistake of only calling (bear in mind that you are actually slow playing your kings here for the third time – you’d probably be better off just betting the other guy out and taking the pot but greed has gotten the better of you and you continue your slow play in an effort to make the pot larger). The turn hits and it’s an ace. Oh no, now what do you do? The ace frightens you a bit, so you decide to check it to the raiser who rather quickly goes all-in. Is he crazy enough to semi-bluff an all-in with a pair of queens after an ace hit? Is it possible that he was pulling a semi-bluff with his pot-sized bet after the flop and was actually holding something like an ace-five? The thing here is that you don’t know. All you know now is that he’s willing to risk it all with his hand and that turn has severely weakened your hand. You’re faced with a very difficult decision and have nobody to blame but yourself. If you didn’t slow play your kings, you most likely would have taken the pot…

Back in the Pot Odds post, I briefly mentioned what I consider to be the most misunderstood aspect of poker – the bluff. Why I believe the bluff (and its lesser known sibling – the semi-bluff) is the most misunderstood aspect of poker is the importance that it appears to have to the non-player. I understand how somebody unfamiliar with the game can over-rate the importance of a bluff; however, in the actual game, a bluff needs to be thought of as what it actually is – a desperation play. Let me explain what I am trying to say here…

Everybody knows what a bluff is – it’s a stronger bet than your hand calls for. It’s usually a bet that’s large enough to get no callers but small enough to limit the damage that would be caused if somebody did call (I say “usually” here because, with the way some people play, it could be their elimination if called). The reason that I call it a desperation play is because you are going to – most likely – lose the bet if anyone calls. I think you can easily understand that you don’t want to be attempting this too often as, sooner or later, somebody will call your bluff.

The semi-bluff, on the other hand, is actually much stronger than your stone cold bluff. A semi-bluff is an over-bet of your hand strength in an effort to represent a stronger hand (same as the stone cold bluff); however with a semi-bluff you are already holding a hand that you feel may or may not be the best or there is some chance of making a strong hand with cards still to come. An over-bet on a draw is a semi-bluff as well as a large bet on a pair with over cards on the board. Keep in mind, however, when pulling off a semi-bluff the object is to get no callers. The great thing about the semi-bluff is that, even if you are unfortunate enough to get a caller, you might actually hit your draw making the unwanted call a good thing.

I think the last topic that I said I would expand on was from the Hand Strength post – implied odds. Implied odds are just that – pot odds based not only on what the current pot is but on what the pot can become during future betting. My advice to you on pot odds is to use them sparingly. Since you will be performing actions based on a possible pot size, you are actually complicating the game a bit too much. Not to mention that, if you are involved in a no-limit game, the implied pot odds pretty much make playing any draw seem like the right play – after all, the implied pot odds include the entire stack of your opponent. Your better off playing the pots as they stand rather than trying to predict the future although you should keep the implied pot odds in mind – they can often support a semi-bluff situation…

This basically completes my Poker 101 training. As stated above, I think I need to get back to writing articles that might be more enjoyable to a larger audience as that was the main purpose for starting this blog to begin with. If you came here looking for the poker information, that’s great! You might consider checking out some of the earlier postings as well – I think there’s some very interesting stuff in there…

bis später,

Coriolis