4 Responses

1. Nikolas M

   January 29th, 2010 at 10:42 am

   1

   Calling with pairs is good but you will often have to fold the small pairs after the flop if you don’t improve to trips. The implied odds of winning a big pot with trips is usually why people call raises with small pairs. However, the poker books I have read recommend folding a small pair to a raise unless the price to call only represents 5 to 12 percent of your stack or less. Also, the raiser has to have a stack size at least as big as yours or he simply doesn’t have enough chips to pay you off should your “investment” in the small pair have a favorable result. Since you have to hit your trips against long odds and your opponent has to also hit a hand big enough to give you action on your trips, clearly a lot has to go right for you to win a big pot with a small pair starting hand. Hence, small pairs should typically be played only when they can be played cheaply.
   With aces you can go for it. With kings you can almost always go for it. With queens it helps to know something about whoever is in the hand with you. If he is some donkey who thinks ace ten is worth all his chips, you are a 7 to 3 favorite to win the hand. But if he is the type of player who would only move in with kings or aces, you need to be more careful with queens or jacks.
   I would be very careful with two royals that are not ace king or ace queen. You have to think about what kinds of hands people would be likely to get involved with when you raise with ace king or ace queen. Even pocket deuces wins about half the time against ace king since the ace king is a drawing hand that needs help from the board to improve over the deuces. The good thing, however, about ace king is that it is not a big underdog to anything except kings and aces. The problem with playing queen jack or similar hands that are a couple of notches below ace king is that you will often be dominated by something like ace jack. This is a terrible situation to be in because the hand that dominates you is a 7 to 3 favorite. Your main out is a queen or a long-shot straight. What you will find is that with hands like king queen, king jack, queen jack, etc. you will lose a lot of money when you don’t hit a straight. Let the donkeys play those hands and bust them up with your aces, kings, queens, and ace kings. Note, that it is okay to play trap hands such as queen jack but if you make just a pair as opposed to the straight that you were hoping for and someone strangely moves all in you will mostly be beat and have to fold your hand.
   So, to sum it up, push your premium hands by trying to get some money in the pot preflop but try to see some cheap flops (preferably in position) that give you good implied odds with some of the more speculative hands like suited connectors and small pairs. If you don’t hit the flop hard with your speculative hands and other players are moving mountains of chips into the pot, you can easily fold the hand. Also, run a few bluffs every now and then. Try not to bluff so often that you lose money because people know you bluff too much and call you. But try not to bluff so rarely that people think you never bluff. You want people to think that you ocassionally bluff so that when you have monster hands and they have second best hands they will give you some action on your monster hands. If you simply play ABC poker, people will know when you have good hands and you won’t be able to win. Put pressure on them with well timed bets, raises, and occasional bluffs and they will become more likely to make a mistake at some point. And since, over the long term, everyone gets the same distribution of good hands and bad hands, your opponents’ mistakes ultimately is how money is made in poker.
   Good Skill!

2. TheDover

   January 29th, 2010 at 11:13 am

   2

   Overall, Tight-Agressive is considered to be the best strategy.
   However, in order to move to a higher level, you must be able to win with marginal hands! Everyone knows how to play the big pairs, or connected or suited face cards, and the major hands. But if you fold every hand that you do not receive a top ranked starting hand, then eventually your opponents will figure out your game and play accordingly. Occasionally you must run a bluff, or try to steal the blinds when you are on the button.
   Here is a link to some pretty good NL Texas Holdem strategy that may help. http://www.thedoverpro.com/poker-strateg…
   Good Luck!

3. animekin

   January 29th, 2010 at 1:42 pm

   3

   yes thats the idea…. only idiots bluff for no reason. only bluff when you KNOW your marks and are comfortable enough to control them. bluffing otherwise is just stupidity. and ppl often misuse that tactic just for a quick pot. which is why they always get caught up.

4. LegFuJoh

   January 29th, 2010 at 3:16 pm

   4

   Doesn’t sound like you are incorporating table position into your strategy. You should.