Win Poker Strategy

Bluffing is something that far too many players try far too often. The main reason is that amateur players see these moves on television and don’t realize that it may have taken the player hours to set up that one move on one specific player. The program edits out the hundreds of hands that led up to that point and the ones that were between them and all of a sudden, everyone thinks that bluffing is the way to play.

In order to pull off a legitimate bluff, you should be playing against the same group of people or at the same table for a long enough period of time that you can be all but assured of how they are going to react to your play. For instance, you have a player that is not afraid to play, but has shown over time that unless he has the absolute nuts, he is not willing to play against an aggressive raise that comes over the top of his bet.

What players need to focus on early is getting into pots when they have large hands and when they are in a showdown, time and time again you are showing the best two cards. Once you get into this groove, you are able to bluff early and start stealing some blinds, especially in hands that have a bunch of limpers coming into the pot. You will most likely find that an aggressive continuation bet will lead to a lot of your opponents folding because you have been beating the table.

Now there of course comes the time when you want to show the bluff that you have pulled it off and you are going to want to save this for a big hand. By showing this bluff, you are going to set people on tilt as they now start to wonder how many hands that you have managed to get away with this and how much money they have lost to you with the winning hand.

How you play from that point is going to be a read on the table. Normally, after a huge bluff, the player will tighten back up and start playing ABC poker again as he knows that everyone on the table will probably call him down to make sure he isn’t bluffing again. However, if you can manage to catch a big hand that goes to showdown soon after your big bluff, you are in a dream situation as you are going to have the entire table on tilt trying to figure out what you are doing.

This is when you can really start to make money. Take down one or two hands and then it is time to throw another bluff out there and show it again. More than likely, you are going to have to tighten up at that point, but when you have a hand, you are going to get paid off huge. You can let the table settle a little bit and then start the whole cycle all over again. This mixes up your play and allows you to run the table. Everyone is scrambling to figure out your play. Just stay one step ahead of them and continue to get paid off. Remember to show that bluff after a long string of dominant hands and you will continue to have them shaking their heads and donating money to your stack.

The new school of poker teaches that aggression will always pay off. What a lot of the current younger players don’t understand is that there is a phrase that is missing from that teaching and that is ‘well timed’. When you constantly play the same way, all you do is allow yourself to get set up and eventually get all of your money in during a horrible situation.

We have all been at the table where we have an aggressive opponent who raises on every hand and tries to steal the blinds each and every time they come around his way. He continues to pick up pots because everyone knows that the moment they get into the hand with him, they are going to have their entire stack at risk. This is not a bad thing if you know how to handle him. Turn his aggressive nature against him and force him to make a stand when you know you have the best hand.

If you are suffering from him stealing your blinds every time around the ring, you are contributing to his image. He cannot possibly be getting a winnable hand every time around. As the BB, you know what is coming and you are going to have to take a stand on occasion to get him to back off and prevent you from seeing hands when you are on the blinds. To do this, wait on a decent hand, and then push back. Make sure it is a hand that you can come right back over top of him on a big re-raise because you can be assured that the first couple of times he is going to come right back at your to test your salt. When you catch him bluffing a couple of times, he will learn to back off of your blinds.

The next situation is when you are already in the pot and he is coming back around with a continuation raise. If you have constantly folded to his raises, you are showing yourself as a weak player. This is the image you want as you try to pull off one move that is going to move his entire stack over to your side of the table. When you get the flop that gives you the monster, he is ready to go down.

Assume that you have flopped a set, straight or flush against this super-aggressive player. You are out of position and can let it go to him because you know he throws out a continuation bet each and every time that he has raised. If you have constantly folded to him, he knows that you are more than likely going to fold as soon as he fires again. Let him make his bet and then instead of pushing in your stack and giving up your hand, you will merely put in a minimal raise.

This move is the equivalent of the playground push. He pushed you and you have finally had enough and pushed back. The problem for him is that he thinks he is the bigger bully here and will generally give you one more push. This is exactly what we want to happen as when he comes right back over the top of your weak raise, you put every chip you have in the middle of the table. Whether he calls or not, you are making a monster profit on the hand. The other thing that gets accomplished here, especially if he is a younger player who thinks that he knows it all, is that you have shaken his confidence.

You have a player that has not been outplaying people, he has just been running them over. In his eyes, he has been as good as Doyle Brunson and now someone has gotten the best of him. With any luck, the move will upset him and have him out for revenge. This is when you can start to print money as he will be going in with anything in an effort to get his money back. Tilt is a beautiful thing when you are on the other end of it. Set him up and then take him down. You may look weak all night, but that doesn’t matter if you are the one walking away with the chips at the end of the session.

Re-buy tournaments can be a lot of fun, but they can also kill your bankroll of you are not careful. Many poker players get excited about the guarantees and then figure that it is only $x and it’s no big deal as long as they don’t re-buy and add on. The problem is, unless you get very lucky very early you are dooming yourself to failure by playing at a limit that you cannot afford to re-buy at.

The first hour of a re-buy tournament is far from a normal tournament. While you may think you can play conservatively and get away with not re-buying, you are going to be put to a decision time and time again by more aggressive players with huge bankrolls. When you have a $200 bankroll, you cannot play in a $10 re-buy and expect to do well.

You see, the problem is that the people with the large bankrolls have a tendency to treat this as a 5 or 6 buy in event. So in order to be effective, you need to buy into tournaments that you can do the same thing with. Playing $1 and $2 buys ins would be more to your liking.

In most cases, the first hour of play is all about getting your chips in with the best hand and hoping they hold up. Whether you like it or not, you are more than likely going to have someone at your table that is willing to throw their money into the pot every time they play a hand. This is far from a recommendation that you should play that way, you just need to realize that every time you put chips into the middle of the table, you just may have someone come over the top and put you on a decision.

The question is how do you play against this? First and foremost, don’t ever buy into a re-buy tournament unless you can take advantage of the first re-buy right off the bat. You start the tournament with double the chips and if you do manage to double up, you are well on your way to a monster stack.

You also need to plan on purchasing a double add on at the break. Anyone who plans on winning this will be doing an add on and you will fall 4,000 chips behind everyone else in the tourney if you don’t use it. Plan on it! Finally, expect to have to re-buy at least once before the break. That is a total of 6 re-buys that you should plan on paying for.

Now you can start to see how only having enough money for the buy in is a problem. A $10 re-buy should be treated more like a $60 buy in. No while you can play in a $6 tournament with a $200 bankroll, you have no right getting into a $60 tournament. You are going to be playing scared the whole time and we all know that scared money never wins.

In regards to your actual play, keep it the same way you would play normally, just expect to have some extra chips in the pot and definitely expect people to be all in on draws. Since they can re-buy, they are going to have no fear about tossing those chips in there. If you are willing to take a little risk, you can take advantage of this and use it to build a stack. If you get a little unlucky, you can either drop out or buy back in and take another shot.

Remember, when you are playing in a re-buy, expect to pay at least 4 times the buy in overall and preferably 6. Expect to be put on a decision for all of your chips at any time and when you see a draw, if you plan on buying back in if you lose your stack, exploit the situation to get the other player on the draw to put all of their chips in the middle. When your cards hold, you will find that you go into the break with a huge stack. When everyone comes back and play gets back to normal, you will be at a huge advantage and ready to make your run for the final table!

Suited connectors are a hand that comes under much scrutiny in the poker world, but it often from those that do not understand the value of how to play the hand. These are cards that can be played from virtually any position at anytime and can bring a huge bounty. You will often hear the player that loses to them scream that they could not believe the winner went in with those two cards. Blah, blah, blah! If you know how to use them, they are serious weapons.

The first reason suited connectors are so valuable is that they have a ton of flexibility. Right off the bat, you can make a flush or a straight with them. Furthermore, if you do make a straight by using both of them, it is often the nuts and a windfall of cash will come your way.

To be honest, the only time you are going to fold these cards is when there is a monster raise right in front of you. You will have no idea who is going to call behind you and therefore the odds may not be there to make the call. However, if there was a big raise and you are in late position and there are two or more callers already, get those chips in and here is why.

When someone raises out in early position, there are usually 2 scenarios. The first is that they have a pocket pair and are trying to whittle down the field or they have big cards like AK or AQ and want to eliminate the chasers. When there are multiple callers, they are more than likely also holding similar cards. The more people that call, the better your chances of hitting are as the bulk of the big cards should be in your opponent’s hands. You are sitting there with two live cards and endless possibilities, especially if you are holding onto a hand like 67, 78 or 89.

These cards are also great to have when you have a bunch of limpers in the pot ahead of you. You can make an aggressive raise and hope to either steal the pot right there or hit it on a continuation bet after the flop. You are pretty much committed to betting again unless the board comes out that you have no shot of improving on. You are also going to know where you stand if anyone calls you.

Now the beauty of these cards is that after the flop, you can get away from them relatively easy if you don’t hit, especially if you only called going in. You get out painlessly and wait for the next hand. However, when you hit, that over pair or AK/AQ will often have a hard time letting their hand go. AA and KK get tunnel vision and don’t even realize there is a low straight on board. After all, you could not have possibly called their 4x raise with 67! The next thing you know, you are scooping the pot and they are letting out a barrage that warrants and exorcism.

Do yourself a favor and start playing those suited connectors. Keep track of the results and you will find that you make more money with them than just about every other hand you are dealt.

We have gone over how to play this very tricky hand in the two most dangerous positions, early and middle, and now it is time to go over how to play them from the catbird seat. Regardless of their size, small pocket pairs in late position can be very effective if you vary your play and take advantage of weak players at the table.

Late Position

When you are in the cutoff or button position and you look down at two matching cards, you have a huge advantage. Unlike early position, you don’t stand to throw money in the put on a lot of occasions and have someone else come right over you. If they do, it is probably because they were slow playing a big pocket pair and were waiting for someone else to make a raise. In most cases, it will be a sizeable raise and tossing your hand to the muck is a no brainer.

However, that is usually the exception to the poker rule and if player are only showing moderate strength in front of you or limping in, you can steal a ton of pots by playing this hand properly. Once again, let’s assume that we are looking down at 99, except this time we are sitting on the button.

First scenario has everyone folding to you. You have only the blinds to beat and if you are playing aggressively all day, this move may get you a hit back from the BB. If not, unless he is sitting on a hand, he will more than likely fold. Made it a big enough raise that he has to really think about protecting his blind. Usually a 4 or 5x blind will get it. However, if you have been stealing, expect him to fight back and possibly come back over the top. In most cases, you can come right back at him and take down the hand. This is where your knowledge of the players comes in and will dictate to raise or fold. Just calling is not an option here.

The next scenario is when you have several limpers and the betting gets back to you. I am a strong believer in that if you are playing any cards other than small suited connectors, this situation warrants a decent raise. This way, the blinds are not getting odds to call and if it gets back around to the limpers, they are going to have to think twice about throwing more money in with their KJo. A big raise here is a cause for concern and calling will be dictated by odds. You are not really worried about callers, be more worried about how that board comes out.

If you get a board that is stacked with over cards and you have multiple callers, you are dead in the water. Your best bet is to hope it gets checked to you and then possibly hit the turn. Throwing a bet to three over cards is asking for trouble and a loss. Now if the board only shows one over and you have limited callers, meaning two or less, you can put out a continuation bet of at least half the pot to see where you stand. You may be able to take it down right there. If you get a caller and there is no draw, be very careful on the turn as you may have someone who hit with a weak kicker. This is a dangerous spot to be in. All under cards is a no brainer pot sized or better wager.

Best case scenario is that the board hits and the set hits the board. You are going to be in great shape to make a huge hit here, especially if you have multiple callers. With an aggressive raise, the table will probably check around to you. Even if they don’t, your philosophy on betting is going to be the same. Your bet should be about ¾ of the pot. It is slightly more than a normal continuation bet and just enough that if you manage to get one caller, you may just get others to follow.

The dream situation is that there is one over card and someone has managed to hit it. You see a board of 29J and after you make your bet, your doomed opponent that is looking down at his AJ thinks he is about to crush you and comes right back over the top. Depending upon your stack, you have a couple of options here. If he has a lot of money and you are similarly armed, you may just want to smooth call and let him fire on the turn. This will allow him to think he is the best and then when he makes a bet on the turn, you can push. Odds may dictate that he has to call and you get to felt him and take down a huge hand.

If either you or your opponent is looking at a stack that is right around the pot, the flop bet is the time to get the money in the pot. Say the pot is about $500 and you have $350 left and your opponent is sitting close to that. He fires a $225 bet at the pot, there is no need to waste anymore time here. Push your stack in and he has not choice to call. With there being $1050 in the middle at this point, his last $125 gives him better than 8:1 and he would have to be a moron to let the hand go.

Small pairs in late position are absolute dreams. They have a nice chance to create a big pot, scoop a lot of blinds and allow you to get out cheap when the hand goes bad. You may take a hit every now and again with them, but if you play this way, you will come out way ahead of the game at the end of the year.