Poker Blog

In my last blog post we took a look at position and starting hands – when should you play which hand and how. In today’s post I would like to explain what we hope to see on the flop and how to play our hand from there. Please take into consideration that my whole Sit&Go strategy blog is geared towards micro limit SNGs as stated in my first post (Sit&Go Preparation). While some of the basic principles may be used in SNGs with higher buy-ins you will have to keep in mind that the game is very different at higher limits.

So we have decided to call or raise pre-flop. Our pre-flop raise will be an impressive one in the first few blind levels of our micro limit SNG. We don’t simply raise to three or four times the BB but for example to ten times the BB. In our virtual SNG with the 10/20 starting blind level and our 1,500 chip stack such a raise thus would be around roughly 200 chips. Our general strategy aims to build up big pots even pre-flop. Whenever there is a flop we want to get the most out of our opponents. Therefore the blog title Flop or Drop – we invest chips in order to help the pot grow quickly.

Let’s assume our pocket cards are QQ – according to our last article we will either raise (if we see no raise before it’s our turn), reraise (if a player raises before us) or fold (if there are two or more raises). So our raise here would be 200 chips. But how high would our potential reraise be? That basically depends on the value of the first bet on the table – we will count all the chips in play and reraise to twice the amount or slightly more. So if a player before us raised the BB to 200 we will reraise him to at least 460 chips (200 chips + 20 BB + 10 SB = 230 chips, therefore twice the pot amounts to 460 chips). Our reraise must never be below the sum of our regular raise (according to our rule above) and the current pot.

Example: Pocket cards QQ, 10/20 blind level, a player raises the BB to 50 chips – we won’t reraise to a mere 160 (50 + 20 + 10 = 80, 80 x 2 = 160) but our regular raise amount (200) plus the current pot (50 + 20 + 10 = 80), which equals a total of 280 chips. We will always use the higher amount when deciding which of our two rules to use (double pot or raise + pot). If the reraise amounts to more than half of our stack we can decide to either go all-in or fold our cards. Under no circumstances do you want to see two thirds or more of your stack on the table and then see an ace on the flop which pretty much hurts our QQ – at that point you’d already be committed and would have to play the hand to the end anyway.

What is a good flop for us?

Lets take a look at your potential starting hands and the according flops that we want to see:

• Pocket Cards: A Pair

Let’s assume your pocket cards are a Pair. Once you see the flop check for a third card for your Pair. If you don’t hit the Set the next thing you want to check is whether you have the Overpair. In both of these cases you have a strong hand that you should play accordingly.

• Pocket Cards: No Pair

You see the flop with AK, AQ, AJ or KQ – what should you hope to find in the first 3 community cards? Well, preferably your highest card – 3 times. Presumably your opponents will however drop out with your first best in that case. The next best scenarios would be – in declining order – Full House, Straight, Triple, 2 Pairs or 1 Pair. A finished Full House or Straight on the flop is of course much less probable than hitting at least a Pair. So when should you continue playing your hand and when should you fold and drop out of the current hand? If you don’t hit on the flop you will either check or fold. If you hit a Pair and it is not the Top Pair you will either check or fold. In all other cases you can basically go for it and build some pressure by betting or raising.

General notes: Carefully check the flop in order to see whether it might be dangerous. If there are 3 cards of the same colour or 3 connected cards (like 8-9-T) on the table you risk running into a Flush or Straight. In that case you will probably be better off to be on the safe side and fold your cards if someone before you bets – unless you have a card that gives you a Flush Draw or Straight Draw (or even better, you actually hit the Flush or Straight right at the flop yourself). If you bet after the flop your bet at your typical micro limit SNG should be around 2 thirds of the pot – at this limit most of the players should be tempted to call.

We hit on the flop – what now?

If you are lucky enough to have hit something like Four of a Kind or a Straight right at the flop you should try and play it slowly in order to not frighten your opponents. You want to keep them in the hand so they can help build the pot. With pocket cards of AK and a flop of AAA even the craziest maniac will probably fold if you bet half the pot or more. Instead you can decide to simply check and with a bit of luck one of the other players will bet, either in order to attempt a bluff or because he has a pair in his hole cards. You can still decide to play the hand on the turn (and even then still pretty soft) and hope for one or the other player not to believe you have the Quad.

On the turn we stick to the same principle as on the flop: First make sure that the community cards are not dangerous and bet approximately two thirds of the pot (or go all-in if your remaining stack is only marginal). We want our opponent to either pay us big time or fold his cards.

Usually most players will fold before a potential river because at some point they should realise that we have a strong hand. If you actually happen to see the river and lost to someone with two pairs (for example AA88) keep in mind that a player who is willing to pay that much pre-flop with A8 had a much worse hand than you and will end up losing that hand more often than not which means he is a losing player in the long run. This player will make this mistake again and again and he will end up paying you out considerable amounts of chips most of the times. Of course you may even end up losing with your pocket aces to someone with 72 but our aim is to become a long term successful poker player. Unlucky defeats and bad beats are just part of playing poker and there is no use crying over spilt milk. Just keep in mind that you did everything right and lady luck sometimes just smiles upon someone else.

I am often surprised that only a minority of poker players prefer cash games to tournaments. While both have their appeal I prefer cash games when trying to make money instead of playing some tournament. I do make most of them when it comes to qualifying for some live event as there is an ever increasing number of satellites nowadays that allow you to compete for a lot of money at huge events like the WSOP, WPT or EPT for the proverbial peanuts.

With all the focus on tournament play (be it multitable or Sit & Go) I feel the “original” type of poker, the cash game, is being somewhat neglected. Here you sit at the table and play for real money. Just as you see in every mainstream wild west movie. Fortunately however you don’t risk staring into the barrel of an opponent’s gun.

When playing cash games your aim isn’t being the last player sitting at the table
nor is your evening over when you have lost all your chips (you can simply buy new ones) – it is over when you want it to be, either because you simply had enough poker for one evening or you have reached your goal (or – heaven forbid – you have squandered your whole bankroll). The chips that you receive when sitting down at the table represent the exact amount of money you used to buy yourself into the game. And the money you will receive when leaving the table is vice versa the exact amount of money represented by your chips at the table.

Be warned, playing cash games can be risky when you are new to the game and have not had any experience with playing for real money. I strongly recommend you play for play money first and handle it like playing with real money (even though some of your opponents may not do the same and play a bit wild) or play some tournaments, be it Sit & Go (I urge you to read Max’ posts on Sit & Go Strategy even if you will not play SNG tournaments as you will find a lot of tips that are generally useful for new players) or multitable tournaments as you will simply pay the buy-in and the tournament fee and will not risk losing more money than what you invested in the first place.

Ready to Rumble?

Now that you feel you are ready to play your first cash game I advise you to ease into it by playing very low limits at the beginning. Start from the bottom and work your way up slowly once you think you mastered a certain limit and manage to win on a constant basis. Keep in mind that your opponents will be tougher with the increasing amount of money that you play for. Always keep an eye on your bankroll and make yourself aware of what you can afford to lose. Nothing is worse than playing cash games with money you cannot afford to lose except maybe playing with borrowed money. This is something you should never do when playing poker – on the one hand it is simply a bad idea in general but on the other hand it is strongly frowned upon by poker players. You either have the money to play or you better don’t play at all.

If you manage to get a feeling for cash games and can emerge a winning player in the long run you can make some serious money. Looking at the amounts of money that people play for at cash game tables makes it easy to understand why more and more players who consider themselves to be better than the average player enjoy playing cash games instead of tournaments. You can make a lot of money in a short time – but you can also lose a lot of money in the same time!

Information is Key

Poker is a game of patience – and of gathering as much information as possible. Even before the actual game itself. I advise you to check and compare poker tables prior to taking a seat there. Compare the average pot, the percentage of flops seen and so on. Most poker rooms allow you to gather this information while waiting in the lobby which helps you determine whether there are many loose players or not (the higher the percentage of flops seen, the looser the game) and whether you are comfortable with the average size of the pot. Most of the poker rooms nowadays will offer you this basic information in the table overview inside their lobby.

Keep in mind that even though you are not bound to a strict time schedule as in a tournament you should not try and “squeeze” a quick cash game in if there are other matters on your mind that have to be taken care of. Take your time when playing poker or the quality of your decisions will suffer tremendously from lack of concentration. And you better focus when you play for money.

In my next post I will talk about position and pocket cards and will explain to you why you should never play KQ unless you should do so. Confused? Then there is still quite a lot that you should learn about – but don’t you worry, it is not that difficult to become a competent cash game player as long as you remember a few things and make sure to stick to your bankroll management at all times (this is something that I simply cannot emphasise enough). It helps to always have a general financial plan that decides the amount of money that you use as your bankroll – especially when playing cash games – and that you manage to slam on the brakes immediately when necessary.

Today I would like to talk about satellites, a type of tournament that often gets overlooked or even ignored by some players. While it is true that you usually won’t win any cash (there are a few exceptions that add some money) you should nonetheless consider taking the time to play them. Why? Well, the so called satellites (or qualifiers) are an excellent opportunity to qualify for bigger poker tournaments (possibly big live tournaments like the WSOP, EPT or Aussie Millions) without straining your bankroll too much. If you want to play in a tournament with a $500 buy-in this can really hurt your bankroll (depending on its size of course). In most online poker rooms you will find satellites for bigger tournaments which allows you to spend only a fragment of the otherwise required buy-in.

Let’s stay at our example of the $500 buy-in tournament. A typical satellite for this tournament would be a $50 buy-in. Now the poker room will wait to see how many players sign up for the satellite and then determine how many seats for the $500 buy-in tournament will be made available. In our case you would normally get 1 seat per 10 particpants as this would equal a buy-in of $500 (10 x $50). Let’s assume at our satellite there are 100 participants, therefore we are playing for 10 seats in the big tournament.

But why did I call this blog post Satellite Strategy? Does the strategy for a satellite really differ from a regular multi table tournament strategy? And if so, how? Well, you can argue that you should play a satellite just like any other tournament up until a certain point. The main difference is that in our fictitious satellite tournament 10 people will receive a seat for the tournament that we want to qualify for. And it doesn’t matter at all whether you finish first, third or tenth! Therefore you will want to play it very safe as soon as you are getting close to the bubble and have a decent stack as opposed to a regular tournament where you will still want to increase your stack.

In our example, if you are currently placed 4th and there are only 12 players left, do try to avoid showdowns for big stakes. What good is an all-in with KK or even AA if your opponent with a bigger stack makes a call and hits a straight or flush? The result: You ended up outside of the top ten and failed to qualify (which was your only goal for that satellite to begin with). Better let others make that mistake and wait patiently for them to exit the satellite until there are only 10 players remaining. That is definitely the biggest difference between a satellite and a regular multi table tournament.

Personally I play aggressively at the beginning of a satellite in order to build my stack quickly so I can live off it in the final phase of the tournament. So from the start up until the middle of the tournament I play as I would in any other tournament – but the longer the satellite lasts and the better my current overall place in the tournament, the more careful and conservative my game. With the tournament reaching the final stages I weigh my position at the table more and more and usually will try to play only out of late position and usually avoid trying to steal the pot.

In short: At the beginning of a satellite simply play your normal game that you are comfortable with but the further the tournament proceeds the more you have to keep in mind that it really doesn’t matter whether you end up winning it or ending up at the last position that still qualifies. Your only goal when playing a satellite is to end up winning a seat for the next tournament and preserve your bankroll doing so.

I wish you the best of luck!