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A Hold Em Article to Instantly Improve Your Game

Table Image - Part 1


by Gary Gates

As a serious player, student or casual poker enthusiast, I�d be willing to bet you�ve come across some variation of the saying �play the man, not the cards.� Its meaning has been interpreted hundreds of ways by various poker authors, pros, and even movie directors; perhaps most famously immortalized by Matt Damon�s character in Rounders, who insists he can �play it blind� when pitted against less formidable opponents. �The cards themselves hardly matter,� he tells the judge.

Though it might work in the movies, I don�t advise that you play too many hands blind. On the contrary, you should play every hand, even the ones you�re not in, with wide open eyes. Though �play the man, not the cards� typically pertains to physical tells, or visible mannerisms that can tip off a player�s hand, I would argue that in order to best �play the man� you have to observe how he plays his cards, which in turn means the cards matter a whole lot.

From the minute you sit down at a poker table, your attitude, your outfit, your betting habits, the frequency with which you call, raise or fold and the quality of the hands you expose all combine to create a snapshot of your playing style in the eyes of the other nine people at the table trying to separate you from your money. Your opponents� perception of your playing style, also known as your �table image,� often determines how an observant player chooses to play against you and you against them. So what if we could control how other players perceive us at the poker table and use it to our advantage?

Fortunately, we can! Being aware of your table image and knowing how to take advantage of it is one of the most powerful tools at our disposal. Before you decide to be creative and make a play based on image alone, it is important to consider which of your opponents is capable of recognizing and applying the concept of table image. Assuming that everyone at the table has been watching and keeping track of your every move can be a costly mistake. You�ll often find more opponents than not who will be too preoccupied with a game on TV or a conversation with their neighbor to notice that you haven�t played a hand in an hour, so be sure that the target you attempt to exploit has been watching.

Most poker texts categorize playing styles into four major groups: tight, passive, loose and aggressive. The terms �tight� and �loose� are typically used to describe the range of hands a player is likely to play. A tight player folds most hands before the flop and only plays the upper echelon of starting hands, such as pocket aces, kings, queens, AK, etc. A loose player will get involved with a much wider variety of starting hands, including small pairs and small suited connectors. �Passive� and �aggressive� are terms used to characterize players� betting habits. A passive player does a lot of checking and calling, while an aggressive player makes a lot of bets and raises.

Part II will discuss ways to exploit table image, both projected and perceived.

Source: http://www.wisehandpoker.com/articles/index.php?article=table-image-part-1.html

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This Poker Article Will Make You A Better Player

Two Important Rules To Always Keep In Mind


Rule #1: Apply pressure.

Your bets MUST apply pressure to those acting after you. This is the first thing I tell struggling / timid players and the first thing I remind myself of when I�m running bad. You have to make sure that your bets cause the other players to have to make difficult decisions. How often do you see players opening with a minimum bet, or raising the minimum from late position? These bets don�t apply pressure, they merely build the pot.

Here�s a typical example:

Blinds are 50/100, early in a live multi-table tournament; assume everyone has 1800 in chips. You have AKo (Big Slick) in late position.

2 players call before it gets to you in the cutoff seat (one before the button). You like your hand and decide to raise. You raise to 200. While it is a fantastic idea to raise with Big Slick, you need to raise a larger amount... you need to apply pressure!

This is a very common example of a no-pressure bet that is very common by new players and bad players! If you are going to raise, you need to make a hefty sized raise to make most everyone fold!

Think about this, You have two callers who already have 100 invested plus the button, SB and BB left to act. Your raise didn�t cause anyone a second of anxiety. The button now has odds to call with many drawing hands, the BB only has to put one bet in to see the flop and there�s no way the initial limpers are going to fold for one more bet each.

What have you accomplished here? The answer is nothing good. Not only have you not isolated against a single player, which should be your goal with this hand, you have built the pot to an amount that gives the chasers a great reason to stick around!

The right move here would be to raise a minimum of 3xBB. But I think in this situation, with 2 limpers and 3 players to follow that�s amount is still probably too small. I think a bet of 4-5xBB is the better move.

This bet will apply enough pressure that you may actually win the hand right there.

But in this situation, you've bet $200 pre-flop (the minimum raise).
The SB folds and everyone else calls. The pot has 850.

The Flop comes 78K with two hearts, it�s checked to you.

You've hit Top Pair, Top Kicker which is a strong hand. You are most likely in the lead right now but there are 2 hearts on the board (you don't hold the King of Hearts, either).

You bet 200.

This was a great flop for you, but it is dangerous. There�s a possible 4 flush and 4 straight. You�ve got to bet an amount that will put pressure on the drawing hands and 200 just won�t cut it. No one is going to fold their flush draw to a 200 bet when they can win a 1000+ pot.

You need to size your bet accordingly. So, what sized bet would be good enough to put pressure on the flush draw? A bet of about � of the pot should do it.

If you put 600 in the pot, the flush draw now has a big decision to make. That bet will put more than half of their stack in the pot, if they call they�re basically committing to play for the rest of their chips. (This is a very important point. Pay attention to your opponent�s chip stack. A bet that commits their stack is a pressure bet.) If they know what they�re doing, they�ll fold right there, if not you�re about a 3:2 favorite to win the hand and more than double your stack.

In this situation you bet 200 on the flop. The BB & first limper call. The pot has 1450.

The turn is a 2 of spades. You bet 400.

The turn was great for you, it didn�t help the straight or flush draws, but your bet was again too small. A flush or straight draw only has to pay 400 for a chance at 1850. The pot is giving almost 5:1 on a 4:1(approximately) draw. A � pot bet would have put the necessary pressure on the chaser, while 400 is an easy call.

The BB calls.

The river is a T of clubs. You check, the BB bets 500 and you call. The BB shows 96s for the straight.

This is where you glare at the BB and storm off to tell your friends how your AK got cracked by 96. But this wasn�t a matter of the BB getting lucky. He played it right on every street. You made his decisions easy by not applying pressure with your bets.

The next time you�re ready to throw your chips in the pot ask yourself this question; �Is this bet going to be easy to call?� If the answer is yes, then grab some more chips and put some pressure on your opponents



Rule #2:

Don�t swim with the sharks. This is the newest addition to my rule book and it has helped me increase my winnings over the last 6 months more than anything else.

The basic rule is this. Avoid playing heads up against players who are as good as or better than you.

Get your chips from those players that are less skilled / knowledgeable than you.

There are a number of quality players that I play against every week with whom I have never been involved in a big hand. If a typical table has 4 good players and 5 poor players, why would you bang heads with the good players? Get your chips from the ones you know you can outplay.

This is really very easy to do. If a player that you believe to be better than you raises, fold. Simple. Unless you have a premium hand (AA,KK,QQ,AK), why get involved? Just wait for an opportunity against a fishy player.

That means you�ll be folding hands you might normally play, like AJ or KQs, etc. If you do have a premium hand, then don�t just call, re-raise instead. You want to try to win the hand pre-flop so you won�t be out played post flop.

Of course, you won�t always be able to avoid confrontation with a good player, but you can definitely limit it.

As an example, I recently took a trip to Tunica with a friend of mine who is a very good player. Over two days, we played at the same table for about 16 hours. In all of that time we only played one hand heads up and that one was for small dollars. I�m sure over there were several hands over those 16 hours where we could have done battle, but why would we when there was a super fish at the table giving away enough for all of the good players to share?

There are plenty of fish to get chips from, so save the sharks for the final table. Recognize who the quality players are and adjust accordingly.

Source: http://www.kickasspoker.com/poker-strategy/articles/2-poker-rules-to-live-by.htm

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Todays Hold Em Article

Poker Tip


When you have a strong hand, you want to get the most of it � so you don�t want to scare your opponents out of the pot. In this case, you call any bets that was made before you � letting the people behind you to make a raise. If they raise, you also call, and it�s good if you make them think you don�t like what you do. If nobody bets, you simply check. However when you get to the river, you turn on aggression. By that time, it�s likely some of your opponents are already invested in the pot, and it�s very much possible they would call your bets. So, when you are sure your cards are strong, you don�t want to make huge bets and raises immediately � wait till the river and then show aggression.

Source: http://www.launchpoker.com/poker_tips/

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