Archive for January, 2011

More Reasons to Raise

Wednesday, January 26th, 2011

Besides the basic three reasons to raise, there are a few other sub-reasons. Bluffing is perhaps the most obvious of these. If you do not have the best hand, but you want to create the impression that you do, a raise can sometimes get this done for you. For a bluff to be effective, you will want everyone to fold so that you can win the hand instantly, therefore, it makes sense that a bluff is most effective when there are only a couple people in the hand, and you have intuited that they have weak hands. This is when people at Bodog.com are most likely to give you the hand.

Another reason to raise is to get a free card. If you raise a bettor in an early round of wagering, they may check around to you during the next round of bets, enabling you to see the next card for free. This makes sense when you are in the last position. If you are in an early position, there will be action after your turn to bet or check, making getting the free card much more difficult.

The final reason why you may want to raise is to take away pot odds from people. If someone has a draw to a good hand and no one bets, they will be getting infinite pot odds, thus making their decision to stay in the hand very easy. But if you put in a large bet, their pot odds decrease dramatically, and they may have to fold in order to play correctly. Even better for you is when a drawing hand incorrectly calls your bet. Even though they may win occasionally, they will lose often enough to make it a worthwhile venture on your part.

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Psychology in Poker

Sunday, January 16th, 2011

Poker is as much a game of psychology as it is a game of mathematical averages and probability. Because there is a human element to the game, it is possible to win a hand, even if you have a worse starting hand. By varying your bets and your actions, you will want to disguise what you truly have and are seeking as far as cards go, and try to create a false illusion to your opponents. Since each person has a different mentality, there are countless ways to achieve this. In order to be a successful player, you need to learn how best to mask your hands and maximize the chances for your opponents to make errors in judgment while playing against you.

The main trick to be aware of when playing online is your response time. Usually, people will instantly raise a hand only if they are bluffing. Other times, raising requires a bit of thought while you determine just how much you want to raise by. Another instance where time comes into account is when you are checking. An auto-check, where you check instantly, usually means that you have a marginal hand and will fold if raised. Now that you are aware of these tells, you can use them to confuse and abuse your opponents. Remember, you want to lead your opponents to believe that you have something other than what you truly do have. This is the basic premise of poker: when your poker opponents play incorrectly against you, you will make money.

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Poker Tournament Strategy Continued

Friday, January 7th, 2011

Royal Flush in a Poker TournamentSuppose you are in a multi-table tournament and you make it to the last table. How should you alter your play to account for the potential prize money up for grabs? The first thing to consider is your chip value. Once you reach this stage, if the tournament is large enough, you are guaranteed prize money, but the amount will vary depending on the place that you finish. Obviously, you want to maximize your winnings, so you will need to adjust your playing strategy appropriately so you can stay alive in the tournament for as long as possible.

This means taking advantage of situations where your plays have a positive expected value. The last table is all about survival; the longer you stay alive, the better. This can mean letting other people fight your battles. It can also mean exploiting situations where you have a larger stack in one-on-one situations. Because players with short stacks tend to try and preserve their chips by playing only their very best hands, you can play more hands against them. They are less apt to see a hand to its end because of the fact that they do not want to waste their precious few chips. Playing more hands and playing them more aggressively will give you an edge over your opponents.

Similarly, you will want to play more cautiously against large stacks at Bodog.com. These players will want to treat you just like you are treating other short stacks. They will try to take advantage of your weakness, so it is best to avoid the larger stack players unless you have a bona fide powerful hand.

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Poker Tournament Strategy

Saturday, January 1st, 2011

Tournaments are a great way to vary your poker playing. The basic premise is that you want to be the last person with chips, thus making tournaments more about survival than they are about playing correct mathematical poker. Although many factors are the same, you will want to alter your strategy a bit in order to maximize your chances of winning big money.

Tournaments are different because you are eliminated if you lose all of your chips. Rather than being able to replenish your cash at an ATM, tournaments, for the most part, are lose and you’re out affairs. So you will want to avoid instances where you are not a favorite. Because poker is a game of averages, you will want to make sure you have a definite edge if you are going to bet a significant amount of chips, such as with an all in play. Playing averages is just not enough in a tournament situation. You want to only enter situations where you have a very good chance of winning.

Another big difference is that action between other players matters. You want others to be eliminated, but you also want to remain as a chip leader. The more people that are eliminated, the better you will finish in the poker tournament, and the more money you will win as a result. This happens more and more frequently as the tournament progresses because of a rising ante structure.

Inevitably, you will find yourself with a short stack. This makes playing hands difficult since you will be bleeding chips away with the blinds and antes. You will need to make a decision on which hand to risk the rest of your chips with in an all in situation. This is a tough position to be in, and the end result is very much a product of luck.

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