The other week, I was in Atlantic City playing some low stakes Limit Holdem. The table that I was at had a pretty standard lineup for the lower limits. There really was only one player that played with any type of aggression, but he tended to get scared on the turn if someone stuck around. Otherwise, you had your typical lineup of low limit grinders and recreational players.

I started out playing somewhat tight while seeing how players were playing and also waiting for my run of 9-2 offsuit to stop. In one particular hand, I was dealt the Q-6 of on the button. Literally every player but the UTG player limped in ahead of me. I figured, sure, why not, and I threw in a call as well.

The flop fell Kc-9c-2h and action was checked to a guy in middle position. This fellow was probably in his late 50’s and looked like he might be a small business owner, maybe something along the lines of a local mom and pop grocery store. He bets out and his neighbor made the call. Action was folded around to me, and I made the call as well. Everyone else folded.

The turn fell the 6d and I now had a pair and a flush draw. Mr. store keeper bet out and was called by both his neighbor and by me. In my head I was thinking to myself “Ace of clubs on the river please.” Sure enough, the ace of clubs fell on the river. Now I was hoping for a third bet. Mr. Store Keeper bet out as expected, but his neighbor raised. I then gave him a quick look of “What?” That was actually my thought on the matter. Did he hit a lower flush? If so, party for me.

Now I was in a bit of a quandary. Do I three-bet here and risk maybe losing Mr. Store Keeper, or do I call and risk him just calling as well. I figured Mr. Store Keeper with something like K-Q and the river to scare him off. As a result, I three bet. He then caps the betting, to which I’m doing the happy dance in my head. His neighbor calls and we find out what happened.

Mr. Store Keeper turned over As-Qs for top pair only. His neighbor turned over 8-4 of clubs for a lower flush. I turned over the nuts and was pushed the pot. The players at my end of the table were congratulating me about a nice pot. Mr. Store Keeper then starts bemoaning his bad luck and tries to complain about my playing of Q-6 suited.

Let’s look at the hand from my point of view. I was on the button with Q-6 suited. Clearly a junk hand. However, look at the action ahead of me. UTG folded and then five people ahead of me made the call. At this point there 5.5 small bets in the pot. It costs me 1 bet to call. Odds are that the blind will limp in, so in effect, I am getting 6 to 1 on my money.

On the flop, I have a flush draw. With the other two players betting, I am getting 11 to 1 on my call. I am clearly in this pot to the river at this point. The turn gave me a pair with my draw, increasing my outs to win by five. (Actually, it was four outs in reality due to the one player holding a Queen, but I did not know this.)

I don’t care what hand I am playing, but in many cases, I will play nearly any hand when I am getting 6 to 1 on my money. When I am 11 to 1 with a draw or a pair, guess what, I am staying in. Had the flop missed me entirely, I would have been out on the flop, but for 6 to 1, I was seeing the flop.

Limit Holdem is mainly about math. My call only has to work one time in six to make a profit in the hand I was playing and the circumstances that presented themselves. This is one time where I used pot odds to justify a call and then to play to the river. It paid off this time. Of course, players like Mr. Store Keeper don’t know this and just look at the fact I played Q-6 suited and hit. Good. Keep doing that sir. I’m happy to take nice pots.

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Recently, Full Tilt Poker introduced a new concept into poker known as Rush Poker. With Rush Poker, when you fold a hand, you are instantly moved to another table and dealt another hand. In addition, when you are dealt a hand, you do not have to wait to fold. You can click the “Quick Fold” button and you will be moved to another table.

As a result, players receive an insane number of hands per hour. Typically, players can expect to see around 275 hands an hour in a typical Rush Poker session. Players have really flocked to these games as well with most of the tables having 750 to 1,000 players or more in the rotation.

There are a few things that you should be made aware of. First, it will be harder to get a significant read on many players since you are constantly cycling through the tables. Next, the posting of blinds can sometimes get hairy. The way that blinds are posted is that when you are moved to a table, the player that has went the longest without posting a blind will be forced to post a blind. Depending on where you are sitting, this may force you into the blind multiple hands in a row. Personally, I have been in the blinds five or six hands in a row at times.

For some of you in the US that have been playing poker since before the passage of the UIGEA, you will remember some of the lose games on PartyPoker.com. You will also remember how that many players just gave away their money. Well, prepare yourself for some of that with Rush Poker. There will be many players that will try and gamble it up and the solid players will be in great shape to make a lot of money.

Rush Poker has been criticized by some to encourage “ABC Poker.” When did playing ABC Poker become a bad thing? Especially at the limits that Rush Poker is being played. Rush Poker is currently only available .05-.10, .10-.25, .25-.50, and .50- $1 NL Holdem and .10-.25 PLO. At these lower limits, you are better suited to play solidly. Also, with the speed that you’re getting the hands, playing solid poker is a much more feasible option than when you are playing a normal speed game. You aren’t going to have to wait for long periods for playable hands. Granted, that is not saying you won’t go 20 or 30 hands without a playable hand, but 20 or 30 hands in Rush Poker goes by in a couple of minutes as opposed to a half hour, or even longer in live play.

Late position and button raises will tend to get more respect in these games due to the fact that you will not be seeing the same players often. In a regular game, you will be played back at some when you regularly raise from late position and the button. However, with the speed of the hands, unless you get someone that wants to gamble or has a hand, you will win hands a little more often with a button raise.

In a nutshell, I view Rush Poker as poker for the ADHD. With hands coming at you at warp speed, you will likely not be bored. For some, this may solve the need to multi-table and for those that have rake back, this will be like Christmas. If you get a chance, check it out. You will be glad you did.

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So you want to play live tournament poker. You have been playing online for a while and have had some reasonable scores and think that you are ready for the big time. Before you jump head first into playing live events, there are a few things that you need to consider in addition to the expense of playing the tournament.

Getting There

First, where are you playing your tournament? If you are fortunate enough to live in an area near your casino, then the most your travel may cost you is the cost of a tank of gas. However, if you are like many people, you are looking at an extensive trip to go play. If you go by airplane, you need to factor that cost into the money you are sitting aside for the tournament. The same goes for those that like to drive long distances.

Hotel Expenses

Are you going somewhere for an extended period of time? Then you will need to factor in the cost of a hotel. Even if you stay in a cheapo hotel such as Super 8 or the Days Inn, you are looking at a minimum of $40 or more a night.

Food

Of course, you have to eat, and you will need to figure in the cost of three meals a day plus any snacks and drinks you may consume. Figure $30 a day at least for these expenses, and that’s eating cheap. With many casinos, you are lucky to get a decent meal for less than $20.

Tips

Don’t forget your tip money. You typically tip for the following services in casinos: Parking, Valet, Cocktail delivery, food delivery, winning a hand in a cash game at a poker table, and housekeeping for hotel rooms. Depending on how you tip, this could prove to be fairly expensive. Even if you give $1 tips for your drinks and in your games, this can add up over time.

Spouse or Significant Other

One expense many don’t think about ahead of time is the fact that many expenses will be doubled if they take a spouse or significant other with them. Hotel expenses may not be doubled, but just about everything else will be, especially if that person plays poker. Actually, you better hope that they play poker and not slot machines or blackjack. If they play those, then figure you will be putting forth a lot of money for that.

Cash Bankroll

Many poker players will also play in the side action games. Some do so to make their money to play tournaments, while others do so to pass time. You need to have this money separate and in addition to your tournament buy-ins. There is nothing worse than spending your buy-in at the cash tables and then have to miss your tournament.

Many players don’t factor in the other expenses that go hand in hand with playing tournament poker. The expenses coupled with the buy-in is the main reason that many live tournament players that travel the circuit do not make a profit in their endeavors. The next time you are thinking about going out to play in live events, sit and make a plan about how much money it will cost to play. You may come to find out that the $500 event you want to play may end up costing double what you had planned.

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A lot of volatility has been going on in online poker lately.  A couple of players have decided to walk away for a while and another player has risen to great heights only to crash shortly thereafter.

First, lets talk about the train wreck known as Isildur1.  Isildur1 came onto Full Tilt back in November to try his hand at the high stakes games.  In a brief amount of time, he totally crush Tom Dwan, also known as durrrr, for over $5 Million.  With that big boost to his bankroll, Isildur1 decided that he would take on all challengers.  For a while, Isildur1 was hanging in there and was being dubbed the next great thing in poker.

Enter Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius.  Gus Hansen has said before that the object of poker is to keep the money away from Ivey as long as possible.  Well, Isildur1 did not listen to this advice.  Even after winning a pot off of Ivey worth over $1 Million, Ivey still managed to take over $2.9 Million dollars off of the Swede.  Patrik then took his turn with Isildur1 and ate up around over $2.1 Million.

This started a losing streak for Isildur1 that culminated in him having a nearly bankroll killing day.  In a single day against Brian Hastings, Isildur1 lost over $3.6 Million.  He then proceeded to lose the remainder of his bankroll to Brian Townsend and Cole South.  South was officially the player to bust Isildur1, at least for now.

I watched Isildur1’s play in connection to another website I report for and the fact that he had such a massive downswing did not surprise me at all.  The days that I watched him, I saw a guy that liked to draw and really like to push his draws.  If he was hitting well, then he would tough to beat.  If he was missing his draws, yum yum.  I watched one pot where he bluffed off over $200,000 in PLO with ace-high.  I know there are times you can bluff in PLO, but he seemed to had missed the boat on that day.

From what I have read, Isildur1 seemed to be a much better NL player than PLO player.  I wonder if maybe he got too caught up in the big money of the high stakes PLO games and maybe if he should stick with more NL if he comes back.  I have a feeling that we haven’t seen the last of Isildur1, but I do not think he will come back in the same fashion that he did in November.

A couple of other players have recently decided to step away from poker for a while.  The first player is Shaun Deeb.  Deeb has basically stated that he is tired of playing online tournaments and does not like what he has become as a result.  This sounds to me like a man that has become burnt out with what he does and needed to step away for a while.  I personally can relate, but in a different field.  I used to run a small business where I sold data to insurance companies.  This business took up a lot of time, but the money was great.  However, after a  few years of doing this over and over, I was ready for a change.  The economy and other factors convinced me to get out of the business entirely and eventually I became a freelance writer.  In between, I stepped away from things for a while and even took a vacation to help recharge my batteries.  I am not recommending an outright career change for Deeb, but that is an option for him.  Granted, I know he has been a highly successful player and will likely continue to do so, but is it worth it.  If he is miserable with what he does, should he continue?

The other player that has stepped away for a while was Gus Hansen.  Gus has stepped away for an all too common reason.  He is running bad.  Depending on reports you hear, Hansen is down from $7 to $9 Million.  Hansen stated in his blog that he cannot continue to take losses like this without considering a career change.  So, as a way to try and right his ship, he is going to take a study break and come up with a new plan of attack.

I have a pro friend that was in a slump a couple of years ago.  He had not cashed in any tournaments anywhere for over six months, and this player is a regular on the circuit.  Finally, he just walked away for a while and went to Mexico for a month with his family.  Upon returning, in the span of three days he won two tournaments and final tabled another one.  Hansen is perfectly capable of rebounding, but he may need to curb some of his gambling tendencies that tend to get him in trouble at the table.  Stay away from the four out draws in PLO, etc.  Gus has the ability to change up his game and I think we will see him come out more focused in 2010 and maybe with a more solid game plan.

2010 should be an interesting one in poker.  The WPT is under new management and the WSOP will be commissionerless for the first time in years.  Online poker could be near its goal of having the UIGEA overturned.  Many potentially exciting things could be in store for 2010.

- James Guill (compncards)

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There are a couple of major poker sites that are offering “Super Turbo” sit n go tournaments. The essence of the events is to start players off with a very small amount of chips and provide very short rounds. Most of these sit n go’s are done within half an hour. These events are viewed by many as virtual “luckfests”, but in reality, a solid aggressive player can still do well in these games.

First, I do not take the approach of some that like to try and gamble it up to build a lot of chips early. Most of these super turbo events start with 500 or fewer chips at 10 – 20 blinds. Gambling it up is relying totally on luck and you don’t need to do this here. In the early rounds, I will almost always only play the top 10 hands with a few variations on the button. I might play A-10 or A-9 on the button as long as there is no raise. If I am in a very passive table, I may take a flyer with a couple of face cards, but only if the pot is not raised.

If I enter a pot with a big hand, I am raising. In a normal game, I am going to raise from 3.5 times the blind to a pot sized bet. In these cases, I am going to typically overcommit on my betting pre-flop. The reason is that many players will push with utter garbage trying to gamble it up. I want them to have to pay to get lucky. Also, I do not want to price someone in that is trying to speculate with a hand in late position. Essentially, if they want to play, they are going to have to pay.

Middle pairs and small pairs I am going to see a flop with if it costs 10% of my stack or less. If I hit my set, I am playing it fast unless it is the nuts. Also, if I have a hand such as A-K or A-Q and I flop top pair, I am playing it fast. If someone flops lucky against me, so be it.

The above is how I will typically play until we get down to around the bubble. The exception is if I am at a tight table and the blinds are a significant portion of my stack. I will then pick a spot or pick a hand and run with it.

Otherwise, once you get to the bubble period, you strategy will depend a lot on several factors. First, what is your chip stack. Are you the chip leader with a decent cushion? If so, you may want to let some players knock each other around. By the time you are at the bubble in most of these games, there will likely be two stacks that basically have to pick a hand and go. There is no reason to risk a lot of chips to try and bust someone if you do not have to.

If you are a medium stack or if the stacks are somewhat even, you need to selectively gamble and be aggressive. Pick a reasonable hand and try to steal the blinds, especially if you can do it against a stack that seems to be trying to squeak into the money. There are going to be times where you will bubble as a result of your gamble. You may run into a bigger hand or you may just flop unlucky. That will happen. In most cases, this should keep you afloat and build your stack.

If you are the short stack, you want to try and push either with a legit hand that gives you the best chance to double up, or you want to push while you have some fold equity. If you can push against a stack that isn’t much larger than you, you will many times receive a fold. However, be wary of pushing against a stack that is at least 5 times your size. They will almost always call to try and get to the money.

Once you make the money, your strategy will depend on your chip stack. If you are short, push and pray. This is also relative to the other stacks. Sometimes you might be the short stack but the stacks are somewhat even. At that point you want to play like a medium stack.

A medium stack will want to knock the short stack around a bit and try and steal blinds against the other medium stack if it exists. The only time you want to really mess with the chip leader is when you have a solid hand to go to war with.

If you are the chip leader, your strategy should be determined by your stack size. If you have a nice cushion, you may want to let the other two stacks knock each other around. Many times what will happen is that you have a super short stack and in that case, you will probably want to take a shot at busting him. Of course, play your solid hands aggressively, and if you have a couple players that seem to be content to move up to 2nd, then continue to attack their stacks.

In most cases, you want to play a normal heads-up strategy once you get to that point. My only caveat to that is if the blind have gotten really high. If you are looking at 750 – 1,500 blinds and up, then you want to play pretty much any reasonable hand. In the case of the super turbos with only 300 chips as starting stacks, 500 – 1,000 is the push with anything range. When the blinds are this high, whomever is catching cards will likely win. Your best bet is to go in with a reasonable hand and hope you are not behind and don’t become unlucky.

Super turbo sit n go’s can be a lot of fun, but be aware ahead of time that there is a higher degree of luck involved. Balance out that luck with solid play and you should do well in these little tourneys. Good luck to you at the tables.

- James “Compncards” Guill

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Low stakes poker is where many people break into the game or where they go to blow off some steam. While there are some players that take low stakes game seriously, many do not. With that being said, there are a few things that you probably really should not be doing at low limit poker.

Wearing Sunglasses, Especially at $2 – $4 Limit.

Yes, this sounds like a bumper sticker, but guess what, it happens. In about 95% of cases, you will never have to worry about your players picking up physical tells on you, and even if they do, they will likely be the ONLY one. Wearing sunglasses to make you look cool is also just plain stupid in my opinion.

Bringing Way Too Much Money to the Game

I was waiting for an Omaha seat in Atlantic City recently and was killing time in $2 – $4 Limit Holdem. A guy comes to the table in a three piece suit and four racks of chips. Everyone at the table just started staring at him as he unracked. This actually unnerved him a bit. Finally, I asked, “You know this is $2 – $4 Limit right?” He says, “Ya, $2-$4 No-Limit.” “No. $2 – $4 Li-Mit.” Yes, I actually broke up the syllable. He quickly reracked and went to find his game. (Which actually didn’t go off so I don’t know what happened to him.)

Berate Other People’s Play

Seriously, why berate a player at $2 – $4? Ya, you might be pissed that your aces were cracked by 4-7. Big deal. This is also the same limits that will see seven players in the pot. You will see some variance. However, what you will also see is a steady win rate if you play proper poker. Just roll with it. There are worse things to get pissed about.

Playing Every Hand Because it Cost So Little

This sounds like normal poker strategy right? It is, but there are many players that will play every hand because it costs on average $2 to play. $2 becomes $4, and then $4 becomes $6, and the next thing you know, “Chips please!”

There are times you will play garbage because it is so cheap, such as 5 people in the pot and you are the small blind. However, playing every hand, even if you fold when you miss, will drain your stack.

Educating Other Players or Boasting About Your Game

Too many times at lower limits, you have the know it all that wants to tell you how you can improve your game. You also have the guy that who is “normally a great player, but has bankroll issues.” The know it all is usually pretty harmless, but can be annoying. The braggart is one that most people just hate and ends up being the guy people want to beat. Sometimes this works in a guys favor if the players are playing poorly to try and bust him. However, usually you will have one or two solid players at the table that will take care of his stack.

One story that the braggart reminds me of is when I went to Atlantic City after the 2006 WSOP. We had a guy at the table that was talking about how that he had made a daily tournament final table and that he was going to be the next poker superstar. He then promptly proceeded to drop $100 at the table and was gone.

A person at the table was like “Who cares if he won a daily tourney. I doubt any of us will be at the WSOP or on TV anytime soon.” No sooner as this woman says this, a friend of mine came up and asked how I was doing and how my WSOP trip was. I talked to him a bit and he went on. The same woman asked me about my trip and I told her that I had cashed in a Limit Holdem tournament. Another player at the table asked me why I was playing at that game if I could do so well in tourneys. My reaction to him was, “Because unlike that other guy, I do not think I am God’s gift to poker. Also, I am not very big into cash games.” That was the truth at the time. I mostly played tournaments and cash games bored me. In fact, that day I was playing while waiting for a Sit-N-Go to fill.

While this sounds like a bit of a rant, it is pretty much just some things you really should keep in mind or even look out for when you play in low limit live poker. If nothing else, some of the above scenarios are good for a laugh.

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What do you do when you are in the equivalent of poker hell? Let me give you an example of what happened to me during the first two levels at the 2009 World Series of Poker during the $1,500 Limit Holdem event.

About the third hand into the event, I get pocket aces. I raise and get two callers. I flop a set of aces and the pot winds up three-bet on the flop. The turn puts a flush draw on the board. Someone bets out and I raise. Still two players stay in. The river falls to complete the flush. Betting is checked to me, and I check. The button bets out and gets called by both of us. He shows a flush and I lose a big pot.

Next, I pick up A-J in late position and raise. Three players see the flop with me of K-Q-10. No flush draw on the board. I call a bet on the flop and the turn again throws a flush draw. I raise on the turn and get two callers. The river completes the flush and it is bet and raised ahead of me. This time I let go of my broadway expecting two flushes, and am correct when both the first and 2nd nut flushes are turned over.

I was not the only person suffering that day. In the first two levels I had a set cracked three times. Saw three straights flushed away and two flushes lose to a full house. The best hand of the two levels was four way with two players flopping a set of jacks. One had A-J and the other J-10. The turn put a flush on the board, which the third person made with K-Q of hearts. The river fell what seemed to be a harmless three, but then the fourth player woke up and put in a raise. The pot was capped at the river and that fourth player turned over pocket threes for a full house.

Welcome to poker hell, that special place where good hands will not hold and garbage turns into monster pots. While some people will claim that Limit Holdem is riddled with such beats, the extremes that it was occurring was painful. During the break, one of the other solid players at the table looked at me and said, “I think the best Limit Holdem players at this table are the ones with the shortest stacks.” He was right, three of us clearly played limit holdem regularly and we were the ones that were getting beat up on.

Most players would change their strategy and start playing the garbage hands. Actually, I saw one or two players try this and bust out in level three. I sat back and waited for strong hands and got what I wanted in another pair of aces. My opponent was one of the players that was playing rags to riches style poker and was getting very lucky. This time, I played my hand very fast pre-flop and when the flop came garbage, I just continued to pump the pot. I put this player on some hand such as J-10 or Q-J and confirmed as much when he decided to raise when the turn fell a jack. I put my last chips in and he turned over J-10 for a single pair. My aces held and I was back to my starting stack. A few hands later, I picked up queens and someone with jacks decided to get hyper-aggressive with me. I went from short stack to average stack in just about two hands.

When you get in a situation such as poker hell, the best thing to do is to try and play through it, especially in a tournament. Sadly, there will be times where you will not be able to battle your way out. However, many times poker hell is just a large variance in luck and luck does even out over time. Play your best game and the results will come. Good luck to you at the tables.

- James “compncards” Guill

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So you thought that you had to play at high-stakes poker or middle stakes levels to be a poker pro did you. Well I suppose you are not on your own there but you could define a poker pro as someone whose main source of income comes from poker. You could even take that a step further and say that if their soul source of income comes from poker then they are definitely a pro.

Although the definition is a little hazy, if someone is professional in their outlook and approach then in many ways they are a pro. But anyway, this isn’t the point of the article as this is to discuss being able to play poker for a living whilst playing low-stakes.

This year I wanted to see if this was possible and undertook to play online poker at NL50 for several months. In that time, I achieved an earn rate of roughly $25/hour which equates to $1000/week when converted up to a forty hour week. I simply cannot find the time to play that many hours but it wasn’t that difficult for me to make a $50,000 per year income on a pro rata basis with little bankroll and playing no more than NL50.

I am certain that this level of income would be at least equal to or above that of millions of players worldwide. This may not be enough to interest very successful players but I know for a fact that numerous poker players would give their right arm for the ability to pack in their day job and play online poker for this kind of money.

While I was doing this challenge I was also using Poker Crusher as well which can be found at www.pokercrusher.com and that helped me to be able to classify the other players tremendously. When you factor in the rakeback and the other bonuses then the world of poker can be a very profitable one indeed and you certainly do not need to be playing nosebleed levels to be able to sustain yourself playing poker.

Many very strong players struggle when playing lower levels. In fact I wrote an article about this a couple of years ago. It can be very difficult when you have a far higher mindset. In no-limit full-ring then you have to get into a very rock like frame of mind and you also have to get yourself into a mindset where you simply do not pay off the rocks.

I have folded KK pre-flop in NL50 full-ring numerous times and been correct to do so when the cards were revealed. These days, poker sites throw an awful lot of money at poker players either to keep their business of to attract their business. This means sign up bonuses, loyalty bonuses, frequent player bonuses, rakeback and all the rest of it. These must also be taken advantage of as well.

As an example, I know one such player who used his frequent player points to play free-rolls and satellites and cashed in two $1000 freerolls in the same year and also picked up a further $14,500 by coming third in a large MTT simply by using the bonuses that he had built up through being a regular player.

This was a cool $16,000 extra that was added to his yearly income without any risk whatsoever. This isn’t bad when you are already making $50k a year as an online low-stakes pro.

This article was written by Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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Weak poker players are not weak for nothing. They are either bereft of poker knowledge or significant poker knowledge or they have other personality weaknesses that get highlighted whenever they play poker. Or maybe they are strong at another form of poker and want to try their hand at a different game. Whatever makes a player weak must be exploited or at least try to be exploited.

In poker then there is one irrefutable truth and this is that you need your opponents to be making errors in order to be able to make money. You also need your opponents to be making enough errors to be able to make it worthwhile to you. But you can now add a further dynamic, you not only need your opponents making errors but you also need them to make errors in such a way so that you can exploit them.

Is this all, well no not exactly because you also need your opponents to be making less errors than you do. There is little point in your opponents making errors if you are making the same ones yourself or making different errors in greater quantity.

I have said this so often in so many different ways that I sometimes think that it is so obvious that players must know what to do. The reality is far different and the vast majority of losing players lose simply because they don’t target weak players often enough or in some cases….at all.

In fact I know of several players who have set out to play what was for them high-stakes poker merely because they didn’t want to face the ignominy of telling people that they played so low. People with ego’s are the fish food to the high-stakes sharks. The players who want to “test themselves against the best” are the favourite meal for the predators.

There is a reason why “the best” are the best and that is because they have worked tirelessly on their game and have built themselves up into almost being a “super” player. I am using the term “super” here to signify someone of very high quality. You see these “test themselves against the best” types quite frequently. To them poker is about nerve and balls and people reading, all skills that they happen to be very good at.

The problem is that there is a lot more to poker than this and certainly when it is being played online. I have known and heard of some very well known and skilled live game players who have literally lost millions of dollars online and were quickly seen as fish by the really good online professionals.

But if you can shelve the ego and really focus on beating weak players then your chances of succeeding when it comes to making money in poker will take a massive quantum leap forward. Playing weak players doesn’t always mean playing low-stakes poker either. A weak player could in actual fact be a very strong poker player technically.

A weak poker player is basically someone who is outgunned by the players who they are going up against and may still be a very good poker player overall. So just because you have heard that a certain poker player is weak then don’t go assuming that it is literally open season and that you should be looking to play with him at the earliest opportunity. The truth of the matter is that they may be weak to someone else but not necessarily to you with your own individual skill set.

This article was produced by Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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The title may sound somewhat misleading, of course you need cards in poker otherwise how could you ever play the game? This is not what I am talking about of course and what I actually mean is, do you really need strong hands to play? It all depends on the situation and it would be a big mistake to generalise here.

If you knew with a hundred percent certainty that the blinds would fold and you are on the button then you can raise without even looking at your hand. With online poker of course then you have no option but to look at your hand but you get the drift with what I am saying here.

As you gain experience then you can begin to see just how certain hands shape up in certain situations. This is what novice players seem to struggle with, it is difficult for them to see how it can be correct to fold AK on one hand and re-raise with J-9 on the next.

How can you fold AK pre-flop in a cash game? The answer is very simple, when you know that it is the worst hand. If you see two players who are the two tightest players on the table raise and then re-raise then where do you think that your AK stands in the pecking order?

At best you may be a marginal underdog against QQ or JJ or you may on a good day be tying with another AK. However, you could well be buried here against AA and KK. It is better to simply fold the hand and stay out of trouble. But this is once again where novices fall down, they see a strong hand and immediately think that they have to play it.

Let us look at an example, it has been raised to $3.50 in a NL100 ring game and our hero re-raises to $12 from the button with QQ. The big blind re-raises again and the original raiser makes a deep stack all-in shove. Our hero is sitting there with his QQ and he thinks for a while but eventually sticks his money in the middle….the big blind also calls.

Now there is literally no way with this betting sequence how a pair of queens could be the best hand against two deep stacked players who have been prepared to get all-in pre-flop. Against one opponent and you may just about justify the call but I am not convinced even then.

Against two opponents then you are virtually dead in the water. When the cards were revealed, one player had KK and the other had AA. I actually saw this hand played out with my own eyes while sitting at a table and I knew what was coming. The true art of poker is knowing when you can take junk and win with it and when you have to fold strong hands.

In no-limit hold’em then the big hands will often get you into a whole world of hurt and that’s even when you have the skill to play them well. If you don’t have that skill then you have no future playing no-limit hold’em if you continually overplay big pre-flop hands. If a hand is big pre-flop then it is only big after two cards out of seven have been seen. That equates to only 28% of the actual hand……do you still fancy your chances.

This article was written by Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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