- DON'T fight with the loose aggressive bluffers. I know they're annoying and you just KNOW they're bluffing but don't get into a click/betting frenzy.
- Stay Tight. You'll see them winning with 93o against AA but don't lower yourself to their level.
- Respect the odds. The odds ALWAYS win in the end. If you don't have the pot odds don't bet. Ignore the times you fold and see that flush hit. It's worth repeating: The odds ALWAYS win in the end.
- Get out of the hand when it's beaten. Hanging on to 2 jacks against a possible flush, a possible straight and always the potential of 2 pair or a set is a no-no.
- Don't bluff. Unless you're heads-up or facing a max of 2 players. Even then you need some kind of hand.
- Don't give away free cards. If you're drawing fair enough but if you flop a made hand like top pair or a set then bet into it. Make the drawers pay for their cards. You will get stung occasionally but in the long run it works in your favour. Don't believe me, believe the odds.
- Pre-flop raise only with monster hands. Don't expect your raise to make much difference - you're doing it for value. See raises with excellent hands only.
- Watch the betting. Tight players who've been checking will leap into action when they make a flush, set etc. Ignore this tell at your peril.
- Table choice: Up to 45% see the flop and up to 15 times the big blind average pot size. Over that and it's a bit of a crap shoot but can still be beaten.
- Finally: Patience & Discipline.
Friday 12 June 2009
Beating These Pesky Micro Tables
I've had some success beating the fast and loose micro tables over the past 2 months. Here are my tips:
Tuesday 17 March 2009
..That fought with us upon Saint Patrick's day.
Disaster yesterday - started with $61 - don't ask - after an hour I had $81, after two hours I had $0. Ho humm. Sulked last night and 'Amazoned' Small Stakes Hold'em, Winning Big With Expert Play , The Definitive Guide to Crushing Loose Games and Amateur Opponents - by Miller, Sklansky and Malmuth. It has good revues so we shall see.
After blaming my starting hands, the way the enemy was playing - raising with 56s etc, the Radio and my dog I eventually narrowed my problem down to two areas. Bad luck and me. Ten percent bad luck and ninety percent my own bad play.
This is where I went wrong - on umpteen occasions I reckon:
Anyway, today is another day: moving right along ... (Oh, before I forget, why am I writing this blogg? I think that telling someone about something helps you to learn and understand a subject more thoughtfully.)
Overcards:
An overcard is a card on the board - flop, turn and river - which is higher than the cards in your pocket. (Do I need a glossary?)
The appearance of an overcard should shout 'Slow Down! Danger Ahead!' to you. There's more chance someone has beat your pair, out-flushed or out-straight you. When they appear: stop, look, THINK.
The board pairs:
Awoogah! Awoogah! Has someone made trips? A full house? (Swallows) four of a kind?
Ken's rule of thumb is: if the board pairs only continue if you have one of the pair or an overpair.
Thought: every once in a while, when the time is right, bet hard and fast into it to represent the trips and you may pick up the pot right there.
But generally playing a drawing hand - looking for a flush or straight - isn't a good idea unless the pot odds are very favourable.
Overcoming the boredom factor:
This is so hard for me. If I took my own advice (on a ten handed table) about starting hands and position and thought of the blinds as strictly early position I'd be playing only 12.15% of the hands dealt to me. This means that after what seems hours of sitting waiting for a hand to find yourself Under The Gun (one left of the Big Blind) with 77 ... gnnnnn! ALL the advice says muck 'em. But for one teenie tiny dollar .. So you bet. And the worst possible things happens: you win. Because then you do it again: and lose, and lose and lose and win and lose and lose and lose and ...
Or: you get a playable hand at last and you're actually in the game! Yay! Betting on the flop and turn and river and isn't this exciting and .. damn .. the flush / straight / trips sneaked past you when you were having fun and now you're down 5, 6, 7, 10 bets.
In summary: boredom makes me play poor hands out of position, hang onto hands when they're beat, stops me THINKING about the way the enemy is betting vs what's on the board.
Some suggestions:
After blaming my starting hands, the way the enemy was playing - raising with 56s etc, the Radio and my dog I eventually narrowed my problem down to two areas. Bad luck and me. Ten percent bad luck and ninety percent my own bad play.
This is where I went wrong - on umpteen occasions I reckon:
- broke the starting hand and position rule,
- paid to see the river card when I knew I was beat, I actually knew the enemy had made the flush draw from the way they were betting - even said so out loud - but still I kept putting cash into the pot, duh!
- I got over excited and bet really fast on pocket hands that got thrashed when the overcards were screaming 'Slow Down You Muppet!',
- I tried to bully the enemy off the pot way too many times,
- bluffed and failed way too many times,
- ignored those pairs which whispered 'the enemy has trips or even a full house bozo',
- over-defended my blinds,
Anyway, today is another day: moving right along ... (Oh, before I forget, why am I writing this blogg? I think that telling someone about something helps you to learn and understand a subject more thoughtfully.)
Overcards:
An overcard is a card on the board - flop, turn and river - which is higher than the cards in your pocket. (Do I need a glossary?)
The appearance of an overcard should shout 'Slow Down! Danger Ahead!' to you. There's more chance someone has beat your pair, out-flushed or out-straight you. When they appear: stop, look, THINK.
The board pairs:
Awoogah! Awoogah! Has someone made trips? A full house? (Swallows) four of a kind?
Ken's rule of thumb is: if the board pairs only continue if you have one of the pair or an overpair.
Thought: every once in a while, when the time is right, bet hard and fast into it to represent the trips and you may pick up the pot right there.
But generally playing a drawing hand - looking for a flush or straight - isn't a good idea unless the pot odds are very favourable.
Overcoming the boredom factor:
This is so hard for me. If I took my own advice (on a ten handed table) about starting hands and position and thought of the blinds as strictly early position I'd be playing only 12.15% of the hands dealt to me. This means that after what seems hours of sitting waiting for a hand to find yourself Under The Gun (one left of the Big Blind) with 77 ... gnnnnn! ALL the advice says muck 'em. But for one teenie tiny dollar .. So you bet. And the worst possible things happens: you win. Because then you do it again: and lose, and lose and lose and win and lose and lose and lose and ...
Or: you get a playable hand at last and you're actually in the game! Yay! Betting on the flop and turn and river and isn't this exciting and .. damn .. the flush / straight / trips sneaked past you when you were having fun and now you're down 5, 6, 7, 10 bets.
In summary: boredom makes me play poor hands out of position, hang onto hands when they're beat, stops me THINKING about the way the enemy is betting vs what's on the board.
Some suggestions:
- Try playing two micro-limit tables simultaneously for an hour or two. This helped me because I had to think quickly and it was so much easier to fold a bad hand and move on. It showed me what it felt like NOT to be married to a hand, to concentrate fully on only premium hands. Hands became very disposable with only the best in the right position getting the attention they deserved. Only the best flops and turns and favourable pot odds were considered. I didn't have time to mess about with under-dog hands .. the next hand would be along any second now. I didn't make any money but I now know what it feels like to be in that state of mind where only the 'right' hands are to be played all the way to the river. Also: players who you know are playing multiple tables seem to play a little tighter. I could be wrong.
- Watch the hands you're not playing and make notes. Study the enemy. If you get to see their cards make a note of how they play them. Use the hand history button to have a look. The more you know about the enemy the better. Are they tight, loose, maniacs call stations, blind stealers, blind defenders, blind losers. Know your enemy!
- Try guessing the enemy's hands when you're not playing too. A pre-flop raise? Hmmm .. let's put him on AK. He didn't bet the flop - ha! Missed his AK draw. Or .. did he have KK and he's disguising his hand? Woa - you find he had 67s. He was on the button! Of course - he had a chance so thought let's take a pop at stealing the blinds maybe? Look, take notes, THINK.
- Look at your blind play very carefully. I still haven't got this right but it's an opportunity to try playing a loose selection of hands and see if you can defend against blind stealers without going too mad. One loose player on the button raises, the SB folds .. are you simply playing random hand vs random hand? If so, is your hand in the top 50%? THINK about it. Don't just fold.
- How about a pre-flop raise with a half decent hand in a late position being the first to bet in an attempt to steal the blinds? THINK about that too. What's the table playing like? Tight? Will the enemy on the blinds fight back? If they do re-raise you is it just to scare you off?
- Music, TV, Radio? I've found they STOP me THINKING about the game and the players and although the distraction helps with my hand selection the THINKING enemy is getting to know me while I ignore clues to their strategies.
Monday 16 March 2009
Back to basics
Okay, before I get started, I stopped using Titan because there was not much going on in terms of tables to play so I signed up with Pokerstars. There's hardly any difference just Pokerstars has a lot more people on line at any one time. I just looked, it's 10:30am in the UK and there are 70,000 players on right now! What an amazing business they have. Back in 1996,CJ, a good friend of mine suggested we start a poker site on this new web thing. I said, 'Naaa. Let's go to the pub instead.' Knobhead.
These are the basics I gleaned from Ken's book: (btw: I always think in terms of a 10 seater table)
Position and starting hands: it is true what they say - they do three things; 1) make the game boring 2) increase your chances of winning enormously and 3) make the game boring! (There is a cunning solution to the 'boring factor'. More later.) It really is important where you are sat relevant to the dealer. The closer to being the last to play the better. Honest. It's true.
Here's a suggestion for starting hands:
Early position (UTG and UTG + 1): AA, KK, QQ, AKs, AQs, AK, AQ (AKs = AK same suit)
You can raise with these and call raises too.
Middle: JJ, TT, 99, 88, AJ-Ts, KQ-Js, KQ - call one raise with these
Qj-Ts, A9s, AJ-9, KJ-T, QJ-T - I wouldn't call tight players with these.
Late (D-1): 77-22, A8-A2s (be careful), KT-9s, Q9-8s, JT-9s, T9s, 98s, K9, Q9, JT
These are a suggestion but there's nothing better than trying your own and THINKING when you play. This is simply more-or-less the set I start playing with until I get to know the table and players.
You can't beat the odds: making a $1 bet to an inside straight draw where the pot is $4 will lose you money in the long term.
A little on pot odds: if you have AhTh in the pocket and the flop is Qh 5h Ac you need one more heart to make your ace flush. (tip: use the multi-coloured deck when playing on line - avoids confusion)
The odds of making your flush on the turn are about 4.3:1. If you miss you have more or less the same odds for making the flush with the river card.
Lets say the pot holds $3 and you need to decide if you should bet $1 on your flush draw.
The pot will pay you back $3 for your $1 (if you win) but will only do it 1 in 5.3 times. That's $5.3 paid out to get $3 back. Not good.
But: if the pot holds $7 you will be paid $7 for your $1 bet 1 in 5.3 times. That's $5.3 paid out and $7 paid back. Cool.
If the pot odds look a bit low, is someone behind you definitely going to bet? If so, add their bet to the pot and see how that looks. These are called Implied Odds.
There's loads on the net about calculating outs (number of cards that can complete a winning hand) and odds. These are the basics:
Flush draw (19%) - you need pot odds of 4.3:1
Open-straight (17%) - you need pot odds of 4.9:1
Inside-straight (8.7%) - you need pot odds of 10.5:1
Flush or o-straight (32%) - you need pot odds of 2.1:1
Flush OR i-straight (26%) - you need pot odds of 2.8:1
With these few basic rules I actually made money on the 5c/10c tables. Unbelievable. Not much money granted, but I was a little ahead or broke even.
When I went onto the $1/$2 tables I got thrashed though.
I realised two things: 1) the blinds were being stolen from me and costing me money over a couple of hours playing and 2) I needed to read Ken's book again.
These are what concerned me at the time:
How to deal with overcards (cards higher than ones in your hand),
What to do when the board pairs,
How to stop getting bored and maintaining discipline,
How to get more action when the other players realised I was a very tight player,
How to defend my blinds and steal others.
I'll talk about those things next.
These are the basics I gleaned from Ken's book: (btw: I always think in terms of a 10 seater table)
Position and starting hands: it is true what they say - they do three things; 1) make the game boring 2) increase your chances of winning enormously and 3) make the game boring! (There is a cunning solution to the 'boring factor'. More later.) It really is important where you are sat relevant to the dealer. The closer to being the last to play the better. Honest. It's true.
Here's a suggestion for starting hands:
Early position (UTG and UTG + 1): AA, KK, QQ, AKs, AQs, AK, AQ (AKs = AK same suit)
You can raise with these and call raises too.
Middle: JJ, TT, 99, 88, AJ-Ts, KQ-Js, KQ - call one raise with these
Qj-Ts, A9s, AJ-9, KJ-T, QJ-T - I wouldn't call tight players with these.
Late (D-1): 77-22, A8-A2s (be careful), KT-9s, Q9-8s, JT-9s, T9s, 98s, K9, Q9, JT
These are a suggestion but there's nothing better than trying your own and THINKING when you play. This is simply more-or-less the set I start playing with until I get to know the table and players.
You can't beat the odds: making a $1 bet to an inside straight draw where the pot is $4 will lose you money in the long term.
A little on pot odds: if you have AhTh in the pocket and the flop is Qh 5h Ac you need one more heart to make your ace flush. (tip: use the multi-coloured deck when playing on line - avoids confusion)
The odds of making your flush on the turn are about 4.3:1. If you miss you have more or less the same odds for making the flush with the river card.
Lets say the pot holds $3 and you need to decide if you should bet $1 on your flush draw.
The pot will pay you back $3 for your $1 (if you win) but will only do it 1 in 5.3 times. That's $5.3 paid out to get $3 back. Not good.
But: if the pot holds $7 you will be paid $7 for your $1 bet 1 in 5.3 times. That's $5.3 paid out and $7 paid back. Cool.
If the pot odds look a bit low, is someone behind you definitely going to bet? If so, add their bet to the pot and see how that looks. These are called Implied Odds.
There's loads on the net about calculating outs (number of cards that can complete a winning hand) and odds. These are the basics:
Flush draw (19%) - you need pot odds of 4.3:1
Open-straight (17%) - you need pot odds of 4.9:1
Inside-straight (8.7%) - you need pot odds of 10.5:1
Flush or o-straight (32%) - you need pot odds of 2.1:1
Flush OR i-straight (26%) - you need pot odds of 2.8:1
With these few basic rules I actually made money on the 5c/10c tables. Unbelievable. Not much money granted, but I was a little ahead or broke even.
When I went onto the $1/$2 tables I got thrashed though.
I realised two things: 1) the blinds were being stolen from me and costing me money over a couple of hours playing and 2) I needed to read Ken's book again.
These are what concerned me at the time:
How to deal with overcards (cards higher than ones in your hand),
What to do when the board pairs,
How to stop getting bored and maintaining discipline,
How to get more action when the other players realised I was a very tight player,
How to defend my blinds and steal others.
I'll talk about those things next.
Easy Money - Not
I was playing TH with some of the guys and had a brilliant revelation. It was to do with odds: how do I know when to bet or fold? In a flash of inspiration I worked out that if the odds of making your hand were less than the return of your bet on the current pot then it was a daft bet. I'm a genius! And if I only play hands with at least one pretty colour card - well, I can't possibly lose. Can I.
Armed with this secret insight I typed something into Google and ended up signed with Titan Poker. I handed over my £50 and got some dollars into my account, went onto the $1/$2 table - didn't want to draw suspicion to my 'technique' by going straight onto the big tables - and lost the lot in about 30 minutes.
Hmmm - maybe I was missing something, thought I.
So I Googled some poker tips. Oh. The 'pot odds' thing I'd 'invented' was actually quite well known in expert circles. Alright, practically every poker player on the planet knew about pot odds and the importance of hand selection. Drat!
But my interest in my new found sport - I don't get out much - was piqued so I went to Waterstones and sought help in the form of a book. They had two: a massive red one for twenty-odd quid and a more manageable tome for £7.99 titled Winner's Guide To Texas Hold'em Poker by Ken Warren. There's a picture of him on the back cover looking all plump and happy and prosperous. The copyright said 1996 but what the hell - Poker then is Poker now n'est pas? So I bought it.
And read it.
A boat load of it made a lot of sense. Some of it was suspect advice but the majority of it looked okay. So I went back on line - to the 5c/10c tables - armed with my new found knowledge and guess what .. I didn't lose!
I didn't win either but I only lost when I didn't follow Mr Warren's advice. When I followed his advice I slowly won back my bank roll.
I discovered something else: It's frikkin exciting! There were times when my heart was in my mouth, times when I actually whooped with joy and times when I called myself all kinds of rude things. I discovered it's really fun.
So, boosted but nervous, I ventured back onto the $1/$2, tables. And lost.
Next: I'll try to summarise Ken Warren's advice and explain why I lost. It's to do with stealing blinds.
Armed with this secret insight I typed something into Google and ended up signed with Titan Poker. I handed over my £50 and got some dollars into my account, went onto the $1/$2 table - didn't want to draw suspicion to my 'technique' by going straight onto the big tables - and lost the lot in about 30 minutes.
Hmmm - maybe I was missing something, thought I.
So I Googled some poker tips. Oh. The 'pot odds' thing I'd 'invented' was actually quite well known in expert circles. Alright, practically every poker player on the planet knew about pot odds and the importance of hand selection. Drat!
But my interest in my new found sport - I don't get out much - was piqued so I went to Waterstones and sought help in the form of a book. They had two: a massive red one for twenty-odd quid and a more manageable tome for £7.99 titled Winner's Guide To Texas Hold'em Poker by Ken Warren. There's a picture of him on the back cover looking all plump and happy and prosperous. The copyright said 1996 but what the hell - Poker then is Poker now n'est pas? So I bought it.
And read it.
A boat load of it made a lot of sense. Some of it was suspect advice but the majority of it looked okay. So I went back on line - to the 5c/10c tables - armed with my new found knowledge and guess what .. I didn't lose!
I didn't win either but I only lost when I didn't follow Mr Warren's advice. When I followed his advice I slowly won back my bank roll.
I discovered something else: It's frikkin exciting! There were times when my heart was in my mouth, times when I actually whooped with joy and times when I called myself all kinds of rude things. I discovered it's really fun.
So, boosted but nervous, I ventured back onto the $1/$2, tables. And lost.
Next: I'll try to summarise Ken Warren's advice and explain why I lost. It's to do with stealing blinds.
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