Poker Blog

One of the basic laws of any good poker strategy is to never put yourself, or your chip stack, into a high-risk situation. Avoiding challenging players is one good way to stay on track with this goal.

Why put yourself in a situation where a stellar poker strategy isn’t enough to win the majority of the time. The fact is, highly experienced poker players, maniacs and super aggressive players (a.k.a. agros) are using their own sophisticated strategy, and they know very well what they’re doing.

Sure, you could take them on, have a pissing contest in an effort to take their stack, but what’s the point? It may deflate their ego a little bit, but if you end up on the losing end of the stick, you’ll only be more upset that such a frustrating opponent bested you. And honestly, this player has just as much chance of scooping your stack as you do of scooping his, if not more.

It’s usually better to avoid a good player, like they do in the movie Rounders, acclaimed by many as the most realistic movie about poker players ever made.

Spotting a maniac poker player isn’t very hard. They are termed “maniacs” for a reason. They will play any type of hand, from Pocket Aces to T3 off-suit, and they do so with vigor. You simply never know what they’re holding because they mix things up so wildly, betting conservatively one moment, and aggressively the next.

Super agros are also pretty easy to spot. They are much like maniacs but without the incredible range of hands. When they have a good hand, they will play it very aggressively, either scaring everyone else out or taking as many chips as they can along the way. This player will bluff on occasion, but you’ll likely never know it.

This particular poker strategy is best used in cash games. Obviously, it would not do much good in a tournament poker situation, seeing as how you can’t pick and choose your opponents in a tournament.

For tournament play, you’ll simply want to avoid playing hands against the most challenging opponents. When a maniac or extremely aggressive bettor attempts to steal the blinds, let them. Unless you have the nuts, you may easily get outplayed, and at a significant cost no doubt.

In a ring game, specifically at online poker rooms, you can view the statistics of every poker table before you claim a seat.

Statistics alone won’t divulge the exact player types you’ll find at the table, but they will help you to pick a higher potential for more suitable opponents. Once seated, sit back for the first few hands and just observe the other players. Don’t even bother putting chips into the pot unless you’re dealt some immaculate starting hand, like AA or AKs.

If you detect the presence of extremely challenging poker players – maniacs or super agros in particular – don’t waste your time. Depart from the table and keep looking for a poker game with less challenging opponents in the mix.

One of the keenest abilities of any poker playing is the ability to put an opponent on a specific range of hands. When you can accurately predict an opponent’s worst and best possible hand, you can play a lot more winning poker hands.

David Sklansky wrote in his book, Theory of Poker – in a section titled the ‘Fundamental Theorem of Poker’ – that “Every time you play a hand differently than you would have played it if you could see all your opponents’ cards, they gain; every time you play a hand the same as you would have if you could see all their cards, they lose.”

What he meant by this was that putting a player on a range of hands allows you to play as if you can actually see their hole cards. Obviously, seeing their hole cards would tell you exactly how to play your hand – Check, Call, Bet, Raise or Fold.

Now we certainly can’t get a real peek at an opponent’s cards, but through keen observation and heightened mental awareness, you can determine a precise range of hands. Assuming your opponent has the best possible hand within that range, you have virtually the same advantage as if you’d seen their hole cards.

From the beginning of a hand, approximating the hand range is more difficult, as you haven’t yet gathered enough information to really narrow it down. But if you consider all available information, you can get a decent range going.

First, how often does this player bet pre-flop? 10% or less is extremely tight, and you can always assume he has an excellent starting hand. Don’t even bother unless you’ve got a premium starter of your own. A player who continues 15%-20% of the time is fairly tight, and easier to take on.

The next bit of information you need is how often he raises pre-flop. Let’s say he plays about 17% of his hands, and raises pre-flop 15%.

If this player raises pre-flop, you can increase his range of hands to as high as A-A. If he calls a raise, but does not re-raise, his hand range falls. Then again, if it’s a multi-way pot, his hand range alters again as there are a lot of hands a tight-aggressive player will not play in a multi-way pot.

For example, you raise pre-flop with QQ, two others limp in and your focal opponent calls. His hand range would be AJ, AT, A2-9s, KQs-o, KJs, mid to high suited connectors, or any pair of 2-J.

We know he doesn’t have a pair of Queens or higher, or AK, because he would have raised to eliminate the multi-way factor.

That’s a pretty wide range of hands, so we’ll need to gather more information after the Flop to narrow it further.

• The Flop: 2c-7h-6h

You open with a sizeable bet of $20 in NL $1/$2. Both limpers bow out but your focal opponent calls without hesitation. We’ve already ruled out high pocket pairs, and we can now rule out all over cards since the flop offered all small cards, so he should have folded them to your large bet. Over pairs like 88, 99 and TT are out, because he should have raised your Flop.

The only things left are draws, weak pairs, two pair and sets. His range now contains 67s, any open-ended straight connectors, any two connected hearts, or a set of 2’s, 6’s or 7’s.

• The Turn: Th

With the high over-pair, you drop $40 into the pot and he pushes all-in over you. Now what? His hand range becomes a lot more defined. Most likely he’s hit a draw hand since he called the previous two rounds. He could also have that low to mid set. His range is a Heart Flush, 6-T Straight or a set of 2’s, 6’s or 7’s.

If you can’t beat the majority of his hand range, you should fold. In this case, you have QQ, which loses to his entire hand range. You would need at least to match his potential 6-T Straight to consider calling, but realistically, if you had this hand, you’d have been making terrible bets up to this point!

Conclusion

Putting your opponent on a range of hands can be the most useful tool you’ll ever add to your poker strategy regime. It is something you should be practicing and implementing in every poker game you play. Ranging hands will help you to make fewer mistakes, translating into less chip loss and higher pot profits at the poker table.

In a continuation to our previous poker strategy, “Learn Your Tells, and Use Them!“, a discussion on recognizing fake poker tells, we’ll be discussing how to intentionally incorporate new poker tells into your game.

Poker tells are any observable behaviourisms, spoken or unspoken, that relay information on a player’s holdings. Poker tells can be conscious or unconscious behavioural patterns or mannerisms.

On the surface, it is generally a bad idea to let any poker tells show in your poker game. But when you can successfully emit poker tells that throw your opponents off, it can be an awesome weapon in card game warfare.

It can be difficult to dupe your opponents in such a manner, as we learned from Mike “The Mad Genius of Poker” Caro in his publication of ‘Caro’s Book of Poker Tells’. Caro stated simply, “strong means weak and weak means strong”. Any veteran poker player knows that a player who is trying to appear weak is hiding a strong hand, while a weak-handed player will attempt to appear strong.

You’ll have to be a bit more deceptive, and certainly more convincing, to pull this off.

The reverse psychology method has been so overused that now days, you may actually have more success by acting like you have exactly what you are holding. Instead of betting aggressively on a bluff, you may have to act like you have nothing, which is in fact what you have. Conversely, play a strong hand tenaciously.

Unfortunately, the success of this plan will have everything to do with your opponents. If they are too inexperienced or weak themselves, they may not even be paying attention enough to know that you are emitting poker tells. If they are too experienced, they may recognize your behaviour before it does you any good.

One of the most common poker tells is the raising of the eyebrows, or widening of the eyes upon seeing your hole cards or the flop. It is so common because too many players simply can’t control their immediate reaction. They know not to let their face show such tells, but it happens so instantaneously, they just can’t always control it. In a live poker game, it can be especially useful to let yourself show a momentary widening of the eyes every once in awhile.

Anyone who is paying attention will think you’re holding Pocket Aces, while you’re smirking on the inside over something like 10-8 suited. Do this in late position and stealing the blinds could be a cinch.

Betting patterns are excellent poker tells to incorporate against more experience poker players. They are always watching for any kind of pattern in an opponent’s game. Allow yourself to be read as a pattern bettor. Bet aggressively with a big hand; more conservatively on draws. Then when you mix things up, they will never know what hit them. Suddenly an aggressive bet becomes a scary situation for them, regardless of what you’re really holding.

Don’t become overly confident in your purposeful poker tells before you can determine whether your opponents are actually falling for it. If they are reacting as you had hoped, then you know they are paying attention, and you’re playing the role of a very good actor. Swoop in for the kill!

Psychology is the business of knowing people and understanding why they do the things that they do. Not only is it one of the most lucrative doctrine practices in today’s medical field, it can turn a mediocre poker player into a phenomenally successful poker pro. However, as a poker player, you don’t have to have a master’s degree in psychology to exploit its application.

Using proper psychology can work two ways. When you get into an opponent’s head, you can start predicting his hand, as well as his reaction to different situations. If you let your opponents think they’ve gotten into your head, you can take full advantage of what they think you’re holding.

First things first, successfully reading your opponents isn’t something you can acquire in a single day, by reading an advanced poker strategy article. It is something attained through experience and deep observation.

You will find, over time, that most players fit into a category. Each of those categories come with typical tendencies. For example, there are loose, carefree players who simply love to see the flop, no matter what their starting hand is. We like to call these players “fish”. They are very easy to take advantage of as you can put them on a wide range of hands. You may get duped once or twice, but since you’re playing a more strategic poker game, way more often than not you’ll have the better hand.

Maniac poker players are a lot like fish, but with one key difference. Maniacs are extremely aggressive spenders. A fish isn’t going to risk their stack on a pitiful hand, where a maniac player uses intimidation through high raises. Again, it’s hard to put them on a hand since they are likely to bluff as often as they are holding a monster. The key to maniac players is to take them down tactfully, waiting for a great hand of your own to scoop a large portion of their stack. This will cool their heels faster than anything.

Playing against a tight player is also easy to identify, and much easier to predict their hand strength. Simple, tight poker players are not easy to defeat because they are not going to stay in a pot if they don’t think they can win it. Therefore putting them on a hand is a simple matter of observing the board, deciding what their best hands could be, and noting at what time they chose to become aggressive.

An experienced, tight poker player will either make a move as soon as he’s developed a hand, or on the next card, in an attempt to throw you off his actual holdings. The latter is actually more common. If you can determine the nuts one card prior to his aggression, it’s generally safe to assume that’s his best possible hand.

Reverse psychology works in much the same way. Knowing how other categorical player types react to various situations will allow you to mix up these tactics and fool your opponents. Never let yourself fall into a specific category. As a beginner poker player, a tight strategy is recommended, but as you advance in experience, changing up your game is crucial.

Play tight, play loose, play like a maniac – play every poker strategy in the book. Just don’t ever let yourself fall into a readable pattern. As soon as your opponents think they have you figured out, change your tactics completely. Not only will your opponents be utterly confused, they will fear you. Intimidation is one of the best poker strategies in the book, and the ability to be intimidating without having to wager a substantial amount of your chip stack is incredibly advantageous.

It can take awhile for your poker game to progress through the early and middle stages of strategic poker play. As these variable skills are implemented with consistent success, the time has come to upgrade your game once more to an advanced level of poker strategies.

Adopting New Poker Tells Intentionally

Our last intermediate poker strategy article, “Learn your Tells, and Use Them!“, spoke of how to identify the poker tells you are already giving off, and use them to your advantage.

This next section is an expansion on that theory, teaching you how to adopt new poker tells to add to your arsenal of reverse psychology warfare.

Ranging Your Opponents Hands

Something professional poker players do all of the time is putting your opponent on a hand, and most of them are pretty darn good at it!

If you’ve ever watched Daniel Negreanu on NBC’s Poker After Dark, you’ve likely heard him guess exactly what his opponent is holding. While Negreanu has perfected the art, with seemingly psychic accuracy, we’ll at least get you started on the right path by teaching you how to put your opponent on a range of hands.

If you can narrow it down close enough, you’ll at least be able to determine the strongest hand you’ll need to beat before deciding whether to make that next call or raise.

Avoiding Challenging Players

If you find that there is a specific poker player type that gives you a frequently insurmountable challenge, it is not necessary to continue playing this kind of opponent. Shakespeare once said, “Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself.” Point being, trying to get revenge by repeatedly playing these player types will only come back to bite you in the you-know-what.

The easiest solution is to simply avoid challenging players. We’ll also discuss how to cope with challenging players when they cannot be avoided, such as in a tournament situation.

Variance in Poker

Adjusting to variance in poker isn’t just about the impending swings in your bankroll. Too many poker players think they have to win more than half of the time in order to be drawing a profit.

Actually, just winning a very small percentage of the time can be incredibly lucrative so long as you play your cards right; i.e. don’t filter chips into a lost cause, and use all of the beginner, intermediate and advanced poker strategies you’ve learned thus far to gain as many chips as possible when you’re on top.

It Really is All About the Eyes

In a live poker game, you’d be surprised just how much the eyes can give away. You would naturally assume that any poker player with any kind of experience at all would be very conservative with visible poker tells, especially something so obvious as the eyes. Luckily for you, that just isn’t the case.

We’ll give you a few tips on when and what to look for in the eyes, and of course, how not to let your own eyes get you busted.