1.Ring
Game Strategy
A ring game is one where you can play Texas Holdem with real money
for an infinite amount of time. Having the right strategy will instill
discipline in your game and let you concentrate on the game with
the objective of maximizing your gains and minimizing your losses.Your
aim is to wager bets that have the best chance of giving you the
maximum return. Second, you must have the self-control to stop playing
once you cross a predetermined limit for every session of play.
You must modify your game strategy depending on the type of game
and the ever-changing situation in every round of a game. This adaptability
will sharpen your poker skills and give you a better advantage over
other players. Other simple points in your game strategy should
include choosing a table that has weak players and those tables
that are within your budget.You must initially play quickly and
call often and make a bluff and as the game progresses, you may
play tight and aggressive when you hit good cards, other players
will think you're bluffing. In order to have the best advantage
play only strong starting hands in early position and raise with
almost anything that looks good in late position. When you raise
with less strong hands in late position, you throw you opponent
off their game, if some comes over you, just fold.
You must have a reservoir of patience when playing ring games. I
take a break every hour for 10 minutes without forfeiting my position.
Observing other players and their moves should be an important part
of your game.
You will learn whether they are bluffing and you can determine the
strength of their hands depending on when they call or raise bets
during the different rounds of betting. Thus giving you an advantage
over your opponents.
2.
Outs, odds and probabilities...............
To calculate your hand odds, you need to know how many “outs”
your hand has.
Outs are defined as how many cards remain in the deck that help
you make your hand.
If you hold AJ of hearts and two hearts come on the flop, that leaves
9 more hearts in the deck, since there are 13 cards of each deck.
That means you have 9 outs to hit your nut flush. Remember, just
because you make your nut flush, you don’t necessarily win
the pot! When ever the board is paired and you have to make a big
call don't bother, because you don't know where you stand, someone
could already have a full house and a nut flush is hard to fold.
Probability can be figured by dividing the total outs by the remaining
cards.
To figure an approximate percentage to hit your hand after the flop,
just multiply your outs by 4. To get an approximate percentage to
hit your hand after the turn, just multiply your outs by 2.
Now that you know how to calculate odds by using outs, you need
to know what importance this has. This is where pot odds come into
play.
Pot odds is simply a ratio of the amount of money in the pot compared
with how much money it will take to call. If there is $100 in the
pot and it takes $10 to call, your pot odds are 100/10, or 10:1.
If there is $100 in the pot and it takes $20 to call, then your
pot odds are 100/20 or 5:1.
The higher the ratio, the better your pot odds are. 10:1 pot odds
means that you must win this hand 1 out of 10 times to break even.
Pot odds ratios are very useful to see how often you need to win
a hand to break even.
When you compare hand odds and pot odds, you’ll see the importance
of them. If you have a flush draw, your hand odds for making your
flush are 19% or 1.9 to 1.
Let’s say you’re in a hand with a nut flush draw and
you need to bet $10 to call. Should you call? To make that decision,
you need to know your pot odds. If your pot odds are greater than
your hand odds, then you will make a profit. Calculating your hand
odds and figuring your pot odds will help you make more money...........Here
some odds that might interest you:
Poker Implied Odds
Where pot odds take into consideration the money that's in the pot
right now, implied odds is an estimation on how much money you can
win from the bet if you hit one of your outs.
This is the simples of odds you need not to calculate anything.
Does your opponent have a stack ?t Are you able to squeeze another
20/40 out of him if you hit your hand.
You
will have no Ace 85.07% of the time
If you hold suited cards a flush will flop 118 to 1
If you have 4 parts of a flush after the flop, you will make it
1.86 to 1
AK dealt pre flop and hitting an A or K by the river 8 to 5 favorite
Two pair on flop improving to full house 5 to 1
Three of a kind improving to full house or 4-of a kind 3 to 2
Pocket pair improving to three of a kind on flop 7 to 1
No pair hand pre flop improving to a pair on the flop 4 to 1
Pocket Pair improving to three of a kind after flop 10 to 1
Two over cards improving to a pair by river 3 to 1
5 players on flop, that someone has an Ace when one is on board
1 in 1.9
4 players on flop, that someone has an Ace when one is on board
1 in 2.1
3 players on flop, that someone has an Ace when one is on board
1 in 2.9
2 players on flop, that someone has an Ace when one is on board
1 in 4.3
Pot
Odds are an absolutely CRITICAL factor in skillful, high-percentage
poker. Every poker pro and strategy book will tell you likewise.
They're mathematically complex and quite confusing for most people.
But they essentially work like this: If the money you can win in
a pot - compared to a ratio of how much you need t...o put in and
the odds of hitting your hand - will more than make up for all the
times you might lose, you should call. In other words, if you make
that same play over and over, you'll come out ahead in the long
run. The problem with simple odds calculators: They can't manage
the complexity needed to generate those odds. Calculatem Pro™,
however, can. And that's your decided edge. Calculatem Pro™
provides all the basic hand odds (even improving on the basics)
PLUS pot odds so you don't make isolated - and costly - plays based
on hand odds alone.See how you can get Calculatem Pro on my links
page.
3.
Check Raising Strategy
Check-raising is one of the most common techniques used by players
to deceive their opponents , this technique involves a player checking
during his betting turn and let his opponents behind him to open
the betting round.
Once his opponents have placed their bets, the player will then
re- raise the bet in the same betting round. It can be an overrated
technique that is situational dependent. A double-edged sword, using
it wrongly can be a costly mistake.
The majority of poker players use check-raise as a bluffing or intimidation
strategy. The criteria for it to be a bluffing strategy require
that you pursue your game passively while as an intimidation strategy,
you need to adopt an aggressive stance generally.
Furthermore, you cannot place equal emphasis on this technique with
regard to offline and online game play. Online players react differently
to that of an offline player. Thus, you have to really differentiate
the circumstances when this technique can be effective. Because
you cannot use check-raise frequently, its effectiveness is very
much debated as well.
To string along your opponents, you also need to be able to gauge
what kind of players they are. Loose and aggressive players will
generally take the “bait” while with tight players;
you will require more analysis before you can try the check-raise
technique on them.
4.
How to exploit different Styles of Players
You can categorize players in to distinct types and then play accordingly.
A passive player is one who calls in every round of the game and
you never knows if he has weak cards or strong cards. He may lack
proper betting skills and hence give you a chance to catch up .
The next type of player is one who is will continue to raise in
successive hands even though he may have average cards. Such players
raise the stakes of the game but you can lose a lot of money if
this player wins at your expense.
Another player is one who only will make a raise only with the best
cards ( Rocks). Such players limit the game to a low value so avoid
games with such a player. The other type of player is one who has
the skills but is a little risk averse. If you encounter such a
player at your table, you must adapt your strategy to take advantage
of such an under confident player (Mouse).The player who is a threat
to you is the smart player with the best skills and is usually aggressive.
He plays with confidence and you can never tell whether he is bluffing
or not, the best you can aim for is to get back your money against
such a player or out draw him.
5.
Gambling Strategy
The best gambling strategy is to pass the bet if you do not have
good cards or are sure to lose. This gives you time to analyze other
player’s cards and then to make your best move. You must learn
to classify the best starting hands into three types, the big cards,
the draws, and the milking cards. A big cards will have aces, kings
and queens in different combinations. A draw hand would comprise
of smaller value pairs while a milking hand can be suited connectors
that can lead to a flush or a straight.
A part of the best gambling strategy is to occupy the last position
on the table. This gives you ample time to study every player and
to guess his cards. Based on this you can weigh your hand and then
play accordingly call, raise or re-raise or fold to maximize your
wins and cut your loses.
Probably
the number one mistake beginning poker players make is that they
play far too many hands. When you're just starting out playing poker,
you want to play every two cards that looks good, and that means
staying in hands that aren't very good just to be part of the action.
But playing more doesn't mean winning more, it usually means losing
more. If you find you're staying in more than 25% of hands you're
dealt, you need to upgrade your starting hands.
6.
Never Play Drunk
Been
there ... done that, I have watched several people throw their chips
away when they are hammered. Having said that Fridays and Saturdays
nights are two of the best nights to be on the tables.
If you lose a big hand or get sucked out on and feel yourself going
on tilt, stand up & take a break until you feel calm later on.
Fellow players will sense your mood & take advantage of it.
As you play, one of the s best things you can do is observe your
opponents, even when you're not in a hand. Wait for your big blind
to naturally come around and use the time to observe. Identify what
types of players are at the table and especially pay attention to
people’s betting patterns. Notice what kind of pre-flop bets
will get people to fold and which won’t. Who are the aggressive
players and who are the maniacs. The more information you have,
the better you'll be able to make the correct decision in future
hands. Always buyin for table maximum,you want to have enough money
in front of you so to take advantage when you have the nuts. You
ideally want a seat with aggressive players to your right, passive
to your left, raise often they will never be able to read you. When
they have a good hand you will know..Never ask a player what he
had when you fold. He will never give you the correct information.
Never play a hand and worry about the worst possible scenario: Your
flopped trips being beaten by a straight that gets there on the
river, the straight beaten by a flush. These things happen, but
they are rarer then many players believe. Mentaly that is self-defeating
and highly unprofitable. Most of the time, trips win. Most of the
time, your full house will not be beaten by a higher full house.
Remember that. Think your decision through with all the information
you have...and then act.
7.
On-line Tells
One of the most important pre-game tells is the size of your opponent’s
buy-in. Whenever you sit down at a table, the first thing you look
at is how much your opponents have bought in for in relation to
the maximum amount allowed at that table. Most advanced players
buy in for as close to the table maximum as possible. They prefer
to have as many chips on the table as they can, which gives them
plenty of ammunition for bullying their opponents, bluffing, and
whenever they hit a monster, to maximize their winnings.
Weaker
players are more inclined to buy in for a much smaller amount, often
closer to the table minimum. By buying in short, weaker players
are hoping to protect themselves from loosing a big pot. What they
don’t realize is that the more experienced players at the
table are going to pick up on this sign of weakness. When you're
selecting a table, these are the types of players you're looking
for because they generally play scared. Be careful, though, because
there are players who buy in for less than the table maximum that
are actually winning players.
When
you’re playing on Full Tilt Poker, you can also gauge how
experienced your opponents are by simply looking around the table
and observing if any of the players possess an Iron Man chip. This
chip is awarded to players who play a certain amount of hands each
day, in effect rewarding them for being grinders. Because these
players play so often, they have spent many hours working on their
games and they tend to be some of the better players on the site.
If you are able to earn an Iron Man chip yourself, you may consider
removing the icon so you don’t advertise that you are a serious
player.
Another
way to find more information about the players sitting at your table
is to use Full Tilt Poker’s “Find a Player” feature.
Simply click on the “Requests” tab in the lobby, select
“Find a Player” and then type in your opponents’
screen names. By doing this, you can find out how many tables each
of your opponents is sitting at, which can be an extremely telling
bit of information. If one of your opponents is multi-tabling, playing
at four or more tables at once, he will generally be a solid player,
and quite often you will find that players who play this many tables
at once are professionals.
When
you add all this information together, it can tell you a great deal
about a certain player’s level of experience. If the player
you’re interested in bought in for the maximum amount, is
sporting an Iron Man chip next to his avatar and is playing at eight
tables at once, all signs point towards him being a very solid player,
which is something you should keep in mind when you are playing
a pot against this player. If most of the table fits this description,
you might even consider selecting a different table to play at.
On the other hand, if a player bought in for half of the maximum
buy-in, doesn’t have an Iron Man Chip, and is only playing
at one table, chances are he’s an inexperienced player and
you’ll probably want to play as many pots with him as you
can.
Because
all of this information can be gleaned before you even play a single
hand, you would be wise to use it when deciding which table you
want to play at. Doing this will greatly increase your chances of
winning.
7.
Bankroll Management
The
first rule in bankroll management is never play with money you can't
afford to lose. Not only could this ruin your life, but it will
undoubtedly affect your play, usually for the worse. Your bankroll
should be an amount of money set aside specifically for poker. Think
of being a sole owner of a business and you need and investment.
Your bankroll should determine the stakes in the game where you
sit down. A typical no limit cash game player should have about
20 maximum buy-ins in his/her roll. The max buy-in is usually 100
times the big blind, so that works out to 2,000 big blinds . So
if your bankroll is $1000 a good limit to play would be .25/ 50
cents. I realize that sounds like peanuts, but that's where you
start. When you build that up to $2000 then you can play 50cents/1.00.
The most common mistake my friends make is when they build their
bankroll up to level that they can move up and play at a higher
stakes, is that they cash-out half of it. Think again if you're
a sole owner of a business, would you take-out your initial investment
after one week? An easy way to build your bankroll is most poker-sites
offer you 100% bonuses on your first deposit. Some pays it all at
once and others in increments . I like the ones that pays it when
you accumulate the required; frequent players points. After you
meet the total where you're comfortable with your stakes, you cash-out
all additional funds.
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