Poker Strategies

When traveling to play poker events, cash games, and tournaments there are a few things besides good play you need to bring in your bag of tricks. Below are some tips for preparing to travel for poker.

Make A Plan
If you are planning to play a series of tournaments, take a look at the tournament schedule and get an idea of what events you are planning to play. If time allows, try to schedule in a day to take a break and enjoy the sites or do something outside of the poker room. This will help you clear your mind after a few long days of tournament play.

Choose A Hotel
There are a few things to consider when choosing a hotel. To save on rooms, get a few buddies together and split the cost of the room. Booking in advance will also save a ton of money and allow you to lock in the best rate. Also consider the proximity of the hotel to the poker room. If you are playing tournaments you will have to consider how long it will take you get ready and get to the tournament before it starts. Sometimes convenience is worth the extra cost to stay closer to where you will be spending most of your time.

Load Up On Music
This is a great time to download all that music you’ve been putting off adding to your Ipod. New tunes are a great way to entertain yourself while you are grinding it out at the tables. Make sure you get all your music together before you leave so you don’t get stuck without it when you get to the hotel. Even though the hotel might say they have internet, sometimes it runs so slow it is difficult even surf the web.

Poker Attire
Bring your lucky hoodie, shoes, socks, underwear, etc. Part of playing good poker is being comfortable and having confidence. There is no way you can play your best poker if those new jeans that cute sales girl sold you are smothering you while you’re trying to bluff someone. Bring what is comfortable and warm enough to withstand the breezy poker room.

At the WPT Bellagio I had experienced all the highs and lows of poker, and by dinner break I was the top 1 or 2 in chips. I was downing Bailey’s and coffee due to lack of sleep, but my hot streak had given me the adrenaline I needed to stay focused. After coming back from dinner break that all seemed to change.

Shortly after dinner break my table broke when I took out the last short stack on our table. We were down to four tables. After knowing my opponents inside and out and being able to push them around with my stack, I was seated at a table with unknowns. I told myself that I wasn’t going to get stupid with my chips and to play smart. I went two orbits without playing a hand before being moved to another table.

The next table didn’t bode well for me. A young aggressive German pro raised almost every hand knowing that the blinds were high enough to convince some players to fold to his raises. A few times I would reraise him to take the pot down, but his aggressiveness was keeping me from being the initiator. My cards were cold, so I was only able to pick up chips in a few spots. Without being able to pick up more pots I was swiftly losing the chip lead.

When we got down to two tables, I was sitting at an average stack and the blinds and antes were high enough that any pot could make you or break you. The German was on my table and continued to be aggressive with his big stack. There was also an equally aggressive French kid on the table who was now sitting as a short stack after bluffing his chips away. With blinds at 6,000/12,000 the German raised to 27,000. The French kid smooth called behind leaving himself with 170,000. I looked down at KK. I knew the German didn’t have a hand, but if I made it cheap enough he would see a flop no matter what he had. I wanted to keep him in the pot and take my chances of getting some chips from him. I was worried that if I raised too much that the French guy would shove feeling that he was committed. While considering my options, I counted out the chips and slid them across the line.

This is one time I should have announced my bet. Instead of raising it to 80,000 as I intended I had miscounted my chips and minraised. The German got out of the way and the Frenchman smooth called leaving himself with ten bets. Of course the flop brought an ace to which the Frenchman immediately shoved, and after careful consideration I reluctantly folded. He showed AQ. It is hard to know what the outcome would have been if I had not miscalculated my raise. It would have put the Frenchman in a position to either go all in or fold with his hand. This misstep could have saved me some chips in the event that he did go all in and I called.

I was able to knock a player out and hang on in the tournament until we reached the final table with ten players. The plan was to get to the final nine and then recess for the night to resume play the next day. Allen Cunningham, the German, and the Frenchman were at the final table so I knew it would be tough, but I was ready for the challenge. The first hand I was dealt pocket jacks, and being one of the short stacks I knew I would have to go all the way with it. I raised 2.5x and got an immediate all in from the other female at the table. I had eleven bets left with the BB coming around in two hands. I called, and she flipped over QQ. I wasn’t able to get lucky, and went out in a crushing 10th place. It was a quick end to my final table.

I was pretty happy with the way I played, but there were definite lessons to be learned. After the dinner break I made the mistake of letting up on my opponents when I should have been more aggressive. There has to be a balance when acquiring the chip lead of not being overly aggressive while still maintaining your dominance over the table. It will be something I will have to work on in the future, but overall I was glad to play well and run good in the critical points of the tournament.

The LAPC had a very successful Day 1 start for their $1 million guarantee event with almost 1,300 players. At the end of Day 1A, there were 117 players that got paid, and 18 players advanced to Day 2. This was turning out to be an interesting tournament being that a player could play all four start days and make the money every day.

The beginning of Day 1B was fairly successful for me. I went from 3,000 in starting chips to 8,000 in just the first level. The first hand I played, I had called a raise after limping in middle position with 10 9 off suit. I check called the initial raiser all the way down with just a pair of tens with over’s, a flush, and a straight possibility on the board. After putting in 2/3 of his stack in, the initial raiser announced he had king high. Coupled with good cards and great reads I continued to take down some decent size pots. My play throughout the day was consistent and determined. However, I managed to make two mistakes that really put a dent in my upward momentum.

One mistake was early in the tournament. I noticed that there was a gentleman to my right who was very tight. If he called on the flop, it generally meant that he had a good hand and he would see it until the river. I raised preflop with two suited face cards and he called my raised after everyone else folded. I flopped a flush draw and a gut shot, and since there was an ace on the flop I fired a bet after he checked to me. I was hoping to use the ace as a scare card and take it down there, but he made the call. The turn saw similar action, and I pretty much put him all in on the river. He called showing a pair of aces with a nine kicker.

Although this might have been a good play against another player, I should have known that he was the one person on the table who wouldn’t be able to lay down top pair marginal kicker. I definitely should have slowed down after he called me on the flop knowing what kind of player he was. The point is: It can’t be a good play if you don’t take the type of player into account.

In the middle stages of the tournament, I ran into another sticky situation. I had just been moved to a new table and raised in middle position with Ah Kh. The big blind called. The flop came K 6 3 rainbow. The big blind checked, I bet, he min-raised me. Since I had just sat down at the table, I didn’t have much information on this guy. I called the raise. The turn brought a 9 to which the big blind immediately over pushed all in. It seemed like he was representing a set here. I had him covered, but if I made the call and was wrong it would cripple me. I decided to lay my hand down in hopes of finding a better spot against him. Sure enough, he showed me A Q for no pair.

As it turned out, I never got another shot to take his chips. It was also the best situation I had to gain a big chip stack, and I had let it slip through my fingers.
The tournament fizzled out from there. My cards went dry, and I wasn’t able to steal any pots. I ended up pushing all in over the top of a raise with QQ and got called by KQ off. He hit a gut shot straight on the turn to knock me out 40 places from the money.

I can definitely appreciate the concept of the poker home game, as that is the way that innumerable players are introduced to poker for the first time. Personally however, I can barely tolerate them unless the conditions are absolutely perfect. The reason I play more online poker than I do live poker is because live poker moves too slow for my tastes. Players often take too long to make decisions and human dealers just can’t calculate things like side pots with the speed and accuracy of a computer. Now look at a home game, where dealing is normally handled in a community format where everyone takes a turn, including the people that don’t know to burn a card in-between each street. Ugh.

The next headache is the quality of players at these home games. I played in a few where some participants have needed to keep a hand ranking cheat sheet with them so that they can remember that a flush beats a straight. As a byproduct of their lack of information, you can count on them never making a smart call or betting the right amount depending on the situation. Sure it can be looked at as easy money as long as your patient, but I’m not patient, I need a certain amount of hands per hour and to have everyone at my table filled with at least a general understanding of how games like Texas Hold’em work.

So if you’re reading this and considering yourself a fairly informed poker player and are considering throwing a home game or helping a buddy throw one, take my advice. If you’re looking to keep the game competition and moving along, don’t invite beginners, you’ll be sitting there for 5min per hand while they’re deciding to make a call with third pair. Next, when it comes to dealing, always have two decks in play, unless everyone at the table is really adapt at shuffling quickly. The reason for two decks is that way you always have a deck shuffled and ready to go for the next hand, with one player shuffling the deck that’s not in use for that particular hand so that it’s prepared for the next round. Employ a card-shuffling machine if you like, just make sure there’s always a freshly shuffled deck ready to go.

The next suggestion is pretty hardcore and should only be used by those running a really strict home game, maybe even a home game tournament, and that’s to turn off any extrasensory devices like a television while the game is going. If you put a major boxing/UFC fight on the tube during your home game, the entire match is going to be slowed down due to everyone paying attention to the TV, which is fine as long as you don’t care about having a tightly run game.

Lastly, if you don’t already own some of the standard poker accessories like a dealer button, chip racks or nice cards, you may want to invest $50 to pick all that stuff up. It adds another level of professionalism to your games and will assist in speeding up things. Again, only take these tips to heart if want a home game to closely emulate the type of experience provided at a live card room. If you’re looking to just have a get together with friends, then play it as loosely as you want, just don’t invite me.

After some horrid downswings at the WPT Bellagio I had found some breathing room after getting lucky and winning an all in for a huge pot. My table was getting tougher with four pros now seated on my table. I had just accumulated chips when I looked down at pocket jacks. The guy on my right moved all-in in front of me. It should have been an immediate call from me because, despite his healthy chip stack, his only move for the last two hours had been all-in. I was sure it was a race, but after hours of fighting for a chip stack I didn’t want to throw it all away on a race. I had some chips to play with, and I wanted to play. I folded and he showed AQ. There is no telling if I would have won or not, but I felt good about the lay down.

My cards weren’t improving, but I was determined not to let that hinder my success. I tried to steal a few pots, but was forced to fold when someone came over the top of me. I was back down to being the short stack, so I was relieved when our table broke. I was elated when I saw towering chip stacks at the new table. This meant that if I came back I had a chance to really accumulate a bunch of chips. My first hand at the new table I shipped my chips in with 66 and busted the BB’s JJ. A few hands later I doubled up when I pushed a raised pot with five callers holding 99. In a matter of four hands, I was back in the game!

For the next few levels I went on a sick rush. When someone called me I always had a hand. When I was bluffing no one would call. When I called an all in behind, I would catch up to bust the player. I was sitting at about 70k, which was above average at the time, when I looked down at AhKh. The player to my right raised in front, I reraised, and he pushed all in. It was about 30k more for me to call. He had been showing aggression with mediocre hands, so it didn’t take me long to call when I found I would still have average stack if I lost. Since he was the most aggressive at the table besides me, I wanted to take the opportunity to knock him out. My opponent actually woke up with a hand and flipped over KK. Luckily, one of my three outs fell on the turn to knock out the young hopeful. I had taken control of my table, and I continued to dominate through calculated aggressiveness. At dinner break I found myself as one of the tournament chip leaders.

The Bellagio WPT event had started off well for me. I was playing strong, being aggressive, and dominating the table early. However, some players started to grow tired of a girl pushing them around and proceeded to put me in my place. By the third break the theme of the day was to double up the short stacks, so I was left with two moves: Ship it or fold.

I sat for a few levels not being able to pick up a good spot. Tables were starting to break down, and the two new guys to my right were raising a lot in front of me. Since I wasn’t picking anything up I was forced to fold. A young pro sat down to my left, and I could tell my the smell of tequila that it was going to be a long night if I had any plans on staying in the tournament. I was right, he was a nonstop talker and just loved the ring of his own voice. It didn’t matter if I was in a hand or not, he was talking and asking me questions about some kind of nonsense. At this point, coffee wasn’t helping my lack of sleep and this guy was swiftly wearing out his welcome.

Instead of letting him put me on tilt I muscled up a cordial face and pretended to be interested in what he was talking about. In actuality, I was so tired that it was taking all of my energy to stay focused on the table that everything he said went in one ear and out the other. It was time to start ordering the Bailey’s and coffee. Both myself and my chatty partner were in dire need of a double up. Everyone had folded to us in the blinds and I looked down at J 3 offsuit. “I’m all in.” He checked his cards and rambled something about him having a good hand to call with. “I don’t think you’d bluff me. I fold,” he said showing the ace of spades. My decision to deal with his incessant talking paid off. The blinds and antes were a significant addition to my chip stack.

With the blinds and antes going up to 400/800 I was left with eight bets. I wasn’t picking up any cards, so I was just looking for good spots to push in. There weren’t any good opportunities to push, but when I was in the small blind I picked up a good spot. The UTG+1 player raised to 2,600 with five callers behind. I looked down at K 4 off, and decided that with only 5,600 left it was time to get lucky. I went all in. The original raiser was the only caller with A J. The board came out A K 6 7 4. The pot was substantial and gave me enough to start playing again. This was the momentum I needed to stay in the game.

In December I was fortunate enough to have a final table finish at the $550 WPT Bellagio event, but the road to get there was full of ups and downs. There were moments in the tournament where I felt unstoppable, and then that was quickly washed away by a defeating blow to my chip stack where I would have to rebuild. When I got to the money I was chip leader for the tournament, and I was feeling pretty good about my chances of taking it down. Overall, I made some great plays, some bad plays, and got lucky when I needed to. In the end, the only thing standing in my way was nine other players including Allen Cunningham.

The day began with six hours of sleep, McDonalds breakfast, and lots of coffee. Two of my other poker buddies had convinced me to skip the review for my final exam and play the tournament instead. I’m sure they knew it wouldn’t be hard for me to turn down school for poker. When the tournament began, the room was filled and pros were scattered everywhere. I hit an early rush of cards and was playing really aggressively in the first few rounds. One of the young guys at my table was convinced that I was bluffing every time which allowed me to eventually trap him when I got pocket aces. I continued my aggressive style until other players started to play back at me. At this point it was time for me to switch gears.

In the first few levels of the antes I slowed down my play significantly. This was probably a mistake since this is a crucial time to pick up extra chips with the antes while still having a fair amount of fish on the table. However, I wasn’t getting cards and a few of the players were determined not to let me run them over anymore. Little by little I dwindled down until I started catching cards again.

When I started getting some breathing room with tightening my play and getting decent starting hands, this was about the time where the short stacks were making moves every chance they got. I lost a huge portion of my chip stack when I put a short stack in with my AK vs. AQ. Same guy doubled off of me again when he cracked my KK with his QQ. Then I tried to put pressure on the blinds (both short stacks) from the button by putting them both all in. The small blind called and the big blind folded. I turned over Js 7d thinking I was completely dominated. He showed 7c 3c. The runner runner clubs gave him the win he needed to double up.

In last weeks article The Basics of Pot Limit Omaha- Part I, we explored the very basics of Pot Limit Omaha. Part I went over the similarities and differences of Texas Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha. Part II will cover the basics of hand selection and what to look for when playing a starting hand. This is vital for new players because there are so many different hand combinations post flop, and your opponents hold a wide range of hands that can be used against you.

Some of the best Omaha hands are those that can play off of each other. It is much easier to make a big hand with four cards than it is with two. For this reason, Hold’em is a game of big pairs and Omaha is a game of straights, flushes, and full houses. Starting hands that are connected with flush possibilities or have small connected gaps are some of the best starting hands with the most possibilities after the flop. Any starting hand with a four flush or three of a kind should be immediately thrown away because it is very difficult make a hand with these starting cards.

Omaha is a drawing game, so hands are primarily played post flop. A great starting hand in Omaha rarely holds up after the flop, so it is essential to be selective in starting hands that have post flop possibilities. Hands like AAKQ look really appetizing before the flop, but even if you hit an ace on the flop your hand can be easily compromised if you don’t have a draw to go with it. The strongest hands post flop are those that implement made hands or stronger turn and river draws. If your hand doesn’t hold up after the flop, and you don’t have strong draws it is best to just dump it.

Although Texas Hold’em is one of the most publicized games in the poker community, games like Pot Limit Omaha are beginning to gain popularity in the casinos and on the tournament trail. Great players learn that in order to be profitable they have to stay ahead of the curve by exploiting games with less savvy players. For this reason, it is beneficial to become proficient in as many games as possible to have full reign to exploit the weaker games. Following are the general guidelines and basics to the game Pot Limit Omaha.

Pot Limit Omaha is a variation of Texas Hold’em, but each player is dealt four cards in their hand instead of two. The same structure is maintained in which there is a big and small blind with a rotating dealer button. In pot limit players are allowed to bet up to the size of the pot. The same five community cards are dealt just like in Hold’em, but the difference lies in the way the hole cards are played. Players must use two cards out of the four hole cards in their hand. These two hole cards will be used with three of the community cards on the board to make the best five card hand.

One common mistake made by new players is forgetting that two cards must be played in your hand. For example, you are holding AcAsKcQc and the board reads Ks10h3s5s2s. It is easy to mistake that you have a flush since there are four spades on the board and you are holding one in your hand. In Omaha you must have two spades in your hand even if there are four spades on the board.

One thing you hear the pros talk about in their poker columns/articles is how often they try and use their reputation and table image to bully a table and steal a lot of blinds uncontested. The only problem I have with the pros giving out this information to the standard poker player is that the typical player may not be able to identify when the conditions are right to try and steal blinds, nor possess the correct table image needed to successfully push the players in the blinds off marginal hands.

Stealing the blinds, for the most part, is a good tactic to use in deep-fielded tournaments and in games where the blinds can get relatively high in comparison to the average chip stack at the table. Your usual cash game normally isn’t the best place to aggressively try to routinely pick up the blinds, as the amount you can win normally doesn’t justify taking the risk. The same can be said for most SNG situations, especially during the early rounds.

You shouldn’t consider stealing the blinds as a strong strategy in a standard SNG tournament, as players have a tendency to defend their blinds more often in a SNG rather than in a large tournament, as they know they only have to defeat a single tables-worth of players, which gives them the extra confidence needed to want to see some flops, even if raised while holding a marginal hand.

When the blinds get high though and start becoming worth the risk in a SNG, now is the time you want to start paying close attention to how the others at the table are playing. Very tight players that are on a short stack will fold a lot of hands in the blind as they’re just looking for the one right hand to shove all-in with. Keep a mental note of what players have just 10 times the big blind, as these opponents will be very hesitant to call even min. raises unless they have a premium holding. These opportunities will give you the chance to add some health to your stack while putting yourself at minimal risk, just make sure that you have the initial chips to gamble with in the first place.

Poker enthusiasts that play poker for the sake of trying to win money put a lot of time into finding games with inexperienced players that won’t guard their money as closely as others. This is why you’ll see a lot of individuals jumping from table to table in a card room, what they’re doing is trying to find the best table to sit at, a game full of easy money. The best time to find novice-level poker players is on the weekend as typically only the hardcore players hit the cash games during the week. However, the holiday season brings in a rush of tourism that results in card rooms filling with poker hobbyists that are just excited at the chance of playing. This is when its time to enter the waters with the rest of the local sharks.

Sometimes these poker tourists can be hard to spot, but other times not so much. Look for clothing and personalities that just don’t match with the usual demeanor of the card room. Most California natives aren’t going to wear head to toe Green Bay Packer gear, plus you can normally glean a lot of information about where someone is from if you’re the talkative type that has no problem starting a conversation at the table. Now don’t expect to find half a dozen of these players at your table, all you’re trying to do is find where the loose/unskilled money in your game is.

Now of course this isn’t to say that all out of town poker players are bad, but you will definitely notice the influx of those with inferior skills during the holiday travel season. Don’t feel bad about taking their money, they’ve already set foot in the casino. If anything you’ll be helping them lighten their pockets so that they don’t spend too much on the dumb items at the card room gift shop.

I’ll be honest, there’s really no magical secret when it comes to dominating SNG games. Normally good hand selection compiled with correct bet sizes and a basic understanding of advanced strategy will propel you into the money in the softer single table tournaments. This isn’t to say though that you can’t give yourself an edge as much as possible, especially when it comes to the little things that happen in a match that may go unnoticed by other players.

When you’re playing in a live game at a brick & mortar casino/card room, you have the ability to pick up on visual tells and cues from the other players, a tool that is sorely missed when playing online. However, there are a number of telltale signs that many of your opponents will do without knowing/caring that can tip you off to the weakness/strength of their hand.

Remember that a lot of players will play SNG tournaments while other participating in another activity, whether it’s just surfing the internet, eating dinner, or multi-tabling numerous poker games at once. When someone isn’t completely focused on that one sole SNG table they’re going to act very robotically in their decisions. What you’ll want to look out for is players that check often and check quickly. This is a sign that they glanced up from their sandwich and had no interest in continuing to be in the hand. Players that exhibit this behavior will be of a low risk factor when it comes to trapping you, which means if you get into a heads-up situation with them you can bet regardless of whatever your hand is, as you will likely win the pot right there since they are playing with carelessness and predictability.

Another little sign of weakness is when players talk a lot about their decisions in the chat box. Experienced players often could care less about writing down their thoughts for the rest of the table to read as they want to protect that information and not give their opponents any type of edge. However, inexperienced yet bullish beginners will love to post things like “You must have AK, right?” in the chat box, which more often than not is them signaling that they don’t have a lot of confidence in their hand. Deceptive players may use the chat box to try and confuse others, but those opponents are few and far between.

Must online tells come the way of repetition and lack of focus. Spend a little extra time trying to predict your opponent’s actions and you’ll start to see a pattern emerge, giving you very valuable information to aid in your decision making.

Home games for poker can sometimes be the most fun you’ll ever have playing cards, as long as the conditions are right that is. The typical home game is played on a kitchen table with slippery cards, plastic chips and no real sense of structure. While this may cut the mustard for the average card player, your tastes should be elevated about that. You don’t necessarily need to drop a lot of cash on good home game gear, but it helps, plus if you constantly have the same friends over night after night you can even ask them to chip in if you think they’d be willing to help out.

First up you need to go first rate on the essential items like cards and chips. When you buy cards you’ll want to stick to brand names like Bicycle, which are very cheap. Chips will run you a little more if you go for the better, heavier clay models, but it’s worth the investment since the chips are practically good forever. From there you can start looking at the little extra items that make a game more realistic, such as a dealer button and chip racks. These poker accessories are easy to find online and generally run very cheap.

If you really want to wow your friends though you’ll want to upgrade to a full poker table the likes of which you’d see only in the best poker rooms in Vegas. I personally dropped about $1,000 on my poker table (which is in the image featured in this post), and it was worth every penny. Most poker table makers will let you customize every aspect of your table, from having wood inlay installed, or cup holders put in, or even selecting what color the felt is.

Regardless of what your budget may be however, you’ll still be able to get a good selection of items for your home game. It’ll make your friends happy, which hopefully will make them more likely to gamble on those drawing hands of theirs.

Dear Jackie,

I just had a big online hand in a cash game and my partner says I played it badly. Guy raises 5 times the blind from big blind. I had A9 of spades and called from the button. Flop is Jack high, 3 spades. So nut flush for me. He checks, I raise 5 times the blind like he did preflop (so about half the pot) he calls. Turn is a low card, not a spade. He checks again, I raise 10 times the blind, or again about half the pot. He again calls.

River is a king, not a spade. He fires off a pot size raise, I immediately go all in, he immediately folds. My partner says I double his raise, he calls. I went all in hoping we both had flushes. When he immediately folded I assume he had nothing the whole time. What do you think he had?

-Steven

Hey Steven,

It seems like you got just what you wanted from him on the flop and turn since he called you. Your flop bet is pretty tricky since most people would check the nuts here and fire a significant bet on the turn and/or river. Since he is calling your flop and turn bet, he probably puts you on top pair, two pair, or just an ace of spades.

In my opinion the minraise suggested by your partner seems to be very suspicious here. From his point of view there is no point to minriase him on the river unless you are really strong. If you had any mediocre hand you would generally just call his river bet here. 90% of the time you are beating him here on the river when you minraise him. I think more often than not, if you minraise on the river you won’t be getting a call here.

I don’t dislike the all in move here, but you have to consider the pot size relative to your stacks. If the pot size is small relative to the stacks, a smart player will deduce that it isn’t worth it to call your all in even if he feels he might be beating you. He will just wait for a better opportunity for you to make the same move where it is +EV. In this case, I would probably raise 3.5x his bet.

However, if the stack sizes correspond better with the size of the pot he might be tempted to call the all in. Where I think you made your mistake was to “immediately” move all in. In this instance it is a lot like playing a live cash game where your opponent hits the nuts and his face lights up. It is like a giant neon sign saying “Call me, call me!” I might have let the timer tick down as if your thinking it through and move all in to make it seem like you are just putting pressure on him for the pot.

Nothing spells doom in a SNG tournament faster than predictability. It’s amazing how quickly players fall into raise, call and folding patterns and stick to it like biblical testament. Most of these types of players will usually make the excuse that they are simply following a very tight method of play and only get involved with premium hands, which is fine, but there are still ways to try and camoflauge your techniques a little so that it doesn’t appear as though you are playing very roboticly.

The problem with playing the same types of hands the same way over and over again is that it makes it very easy for opponents to know how to play against you. Compound this with the note-taking tools built into just about every online site and very soon you’ll find yourself targeted by every alert opponent that likes to pay attention to how others play. Now this isn’t to say that you need to open up your hand selection to dangerous levels, but you may want to try and mix things up a little.

One of the easiest ways to get caught as a robotic player is to auto-check every time you miss a flop and then click on the “fold to any bet” box. What this tells other players is that you are only going to invest time in a hand where you flopped strong and want to play. Now all of a sudden if you raise out of nowhere, everyone at the table is going to know that you have a monster hand since up until that point you let the computer do all the work for you.

Predictability also allows you to get bullied very easily, which is something that advanced SNG players love to do. If you limp pre-flop, check on the flop and then fold to any bet, this is another major sign of weakness that will result in players betting into you even if they themselves don’t have a hand. The same goes with only betting/raising with top five premium hands like AA and KK. If every time you raise you end of up showing down a huge pocket pair, once again the rest of the table will know to stay away from you when you raise, killing your action, and then bet into you when you limp and check, effectively putting pressure on you the whole match.

The solution is to find as many ways as possible to mix it up. Make raises in late position if the action was checked around to you pre-flop and then put out a continuation bet on the flop. Maybe limp with a big hand in middle position with the hope that you can show it down on the river and prove to players that you won’t always play a hand the same way twice. Typically the only ways to change up your play is to get more aggressive, as defensive plays tend to put you more at risk as the hand progress. If you find yourself with a big chip lead in a SNG, take the opportunity to get involved in pots with hands you wouldn’t always play. Again, you don’t need your opponents to know whether or not you’re a good/bad player, you just don’t want them to be able to quickly identify how weak/strong you are in any given situation. Sometimes it only requires you to make a few plays outside of your comfort zone in order for this effect to be accomplished.

A combination of good hand selection, maximizing chip extraction and mixing up your play is about as solid as any SNG specialist can hope to play.

Suited connectors are always relatively tough to play, especially if their low suited connectors like 5-6 of clubs. The reasons you shouldn’t play hands like this definitely outnumber the reasons of why you should try to play these types of hands, though there are definitely still situations where getting involved in a pot with suited connectors does make some sense. However, far too many players like to get overly invested in a hand when they hold suited connectors, so let’s take a look at the acceptable and unacceptable scenarios so that you can avoid the same mistakes.

Let’s start off with the times to not get involved with suited connectors. Any time you’re in early position, limping in with 6-5 suited or even 10-9 suited can be tough since there is plenty of opportunity for someone else at the table to raise, in which cash you’ll likely have to fold after you limped. Raising with these types of hands if rarely the right move, unless you’re trying to make a play at the table, however this is an advanced play that can still result in a massive loss if the hand doesn’t play out to near perfection.

Calling raises with small suited connectors is also not recommended except in the rare occasions where enough of the other players have called the raise to where you are getting the right price to call and hope that you flop big. Basically, you want to avoid all situations where you are facing any type of pressure with these types of hands while the action is still on pre-flop.

Ideally, you want to try and limp with suited connectors and see a cheap flop, as if you flop big your opponent likely won’t put you on a hand that would’ve flopped a monster, and you can extract a lot of chips from their stack as a result. The safest plays with hands like these is to limp from middle and late position, as you can minimize the risk of getting raised after you’ve limped, and then you can easily fold if you missed the flop and are facing many opponents.

Just remember, suited connectors are playable only because they can flop monsters, though the vast majority of the time you are going to miss the flop, hence why you need to make sure the conditions for getting involved with suited connectors makes sense in the first place.

Dear Jackie,
I am trying to build my bankroll but I am only able to play a few times a month because I am playing off of the extra money I get from my pay check. Since I don’t have a lot of extra money I can only play lower stakes. So far when I play it is really difficult to build any kind of bankroll even if I win. Do you have any suggestions for me to build a bankroll through 1/2 NL Hold’em cash games?
Thanks,
Mike

Dear Mike,
This is an excellent question, and even the best player in the world could have trouble building a bankroll if they don’t get to play consistently. The first thing you need to do figure out what you can comfortably afford to play with when you get your paycheck. Realistically, the amount you decide to invest in poker should be an amount that won’t stress you out should you lose.
Next you should have a place to put away money that will be used just for poker. Since you can’t play all the time it is easy to use your winnings for bills, food, or other necessities because it is in your pocket. This is probably why you aren’t building. When you do win, put the profit away and forget it is there. Then you can use your initial investment to continue playing. If you lose, don’t pull the profit out. Continue to only play when you receive your paycheck. This will ensure that you are saving your profit for a bankroll.
Keeping records is always important when building a bankroll. Even though you only get to play once in awhile, you still have to be diligent in keeping a bankroll so you’ll know if you are investing more than you are winning.
It sounds like you want to stick to live cash games to build your bankroll, but don’t rule out other options of building. Online play is a great way to build with small bankrolls. It allows you to play lower stakes which will enable your monthly investment to go towards more sessions.
Tournaments can also be a good bankroll builder, but remember it is high variance. If you decide to invest in a tournament or two, make sure they only take up a small percentage of your bankroll. For this reason, you might want to wait until you’ve built up your bankroll a bit before investing in them.
Building a bankroll doesn’t happen overnight, so be patient and have fun.

When poker players ask me what type of tournaments they should play in to get some quick tournament experience, I always recommend SNGs, the reason being that many SNG players use the same strategy/tactics found in larger events, plus you’re far more likely to finish in the money in a lot of SNGs before you cash in a 100+ player tournament. Now the only question is, how do you make it consistently in the money in a SNG? There’s only one table’s worth of players to knock out, so it must be easy right? Well, kinda.

Traditionally, SNG tournaments only pay out to the top three spots, everyone else exits nothing. The main problem I have with the way a lot of amateur players will approach a SNG is simply to sit back and hope that all their opponents at the table knock each other out so that they can coast right into the money. The biggest issue with this plan is that if you are able to reach the top three using this method, you’re not going to have nearly enough chips to be able to have a true fighting chance of winning the SNG.

Why is this important? Because in the long run, SNG tournaments are only profitable if you win them. Merely coming in 3rd or 2nd on a consistent basis isn’t enough because the payouts for those finishes won’t be able to float your bankroll when you inevitably start running bad in SNG events. You need to always be aiming for the 1st place finish.

My strategy is typically to play patiently and slow in the opening rounds and try to identify who the weak players at the table are. These players will make poor calls and risk too many chips on draws and marginal hands, representing the perfect opportunity to accumulate chips off of them. Once I have these players pegged, I’m now looking to get into situations against them where I feel I have the dominate hand and can value bet my opponent for maximum value. Situations like these aren’t always possible, which is why sometimes you need to play purely on the strength of the cards you’re dealt.

You need to make the most of your big hands in a SNG, as you may never see them again. You shouldn’t be limping in all too often with large pocket pairs, as their value will diminish greatly if too many others limp into the pot as well. If there are a lot of short stacks at the table, only then may you consider limping in with a huge hand with the hope that they shove all-in and you can call and hopefully have them dominated. Otherwise, you need to make standard raises with your good hands.

Ideally you’re looking to double up at least once and put yourself in as few risking situations as possible. Don’t risk your tournament life on draws if you still have enough chips to survive and thrive in the long run. SNG success is all about optimizing short-term opportunities since these single-table tournaments don’t typically run longer than 45min. Play smart, ID the weak players, and make the most of your strong hands and you should see yourself in the top three more and more often.

Having information on your opponents is a powerful tool to getting the most out of your session. However, when this information comes from another player at the table it could be a recipe for disaster. On several occasions I’ve sat down at a table and overheard a discussion about another player’s playing style. This can be very valuable information when just sitting down at the table because initially I have no idea how he plays. On the other hand, it can also cause you to make the wrong decision in a hand.
A few months ago, I had just sat down at a table and a friend of mine leaned over to give me some information on the players. He told me that two of the guys sitting next to each other were friends and very aggressive. “They always bet with second or third pair, and they go all in or make huge bets with nothing a lot.” This seemed to be great information after just sitting down at the table. Instead of playing for an hour to recover this information myself I had just been given a gift from my friend.

It wasn’t long when I got tangled up in a hand with one of the guys. I flopped top two pair and because he was so aggressive I checked raised him on the flop. He ended up calling and put in a sizable bet on the turn. I hesitated because I had a bad feeling about it. However, I kept hearing my friend’s words ringing in my ear. “They make huge bets with nothing a lot.” Based solely on this I decided to move all in. There was an immediate call from him. He turned over his cards and I could see that he had turned a gutshot.

Had I been at the table longer, I might have been able to find a tell on my opponent that would tell me when he was bluffing and when he actually had a hand. Remember, even an aggressive player who is bluffing a lot can still wake up with a hand and play it the same way. When someone gives you much needed information at the table, it is only half the story. For this reason, you shouldn’t base your decision on only this information.

There was another occasion where I had been playing with a woman I had never seen before at the Bellagio. She seemed to be a very passive player. There were two occasions where she checked the nuts all the way down in position, and she played other hands very conservative as well.

The next day I was playing with a friend of mine on the table and this woman sat down. I told him that she was really passive and only played the nuts. He was dealt pocket queens and raised preflop with her calling behind. An ace came on board and they both checked. The turn brought a jack and she check called an $800 bet from him. On the river she moved in for about $1600. My friend took a long time to decide what he was going to do. He thought about putting her all in because he had a feeling she was bluffing, but my words were hindering his decision. In the end he folded his hand and she showed a missed gut shot for seven high. Needless to say, my friend should have ignored the information I gave him and should have listened to his own instincts.

Verifying the information you receive is the best way to go about using the information. For example, if someone tells you that your opponent is bluffing all the time, try to verify his bluffing tell before you base a decision completely on this information. Always listen to your instincts. If they are telling you that something isn’t right; something probably isn’t right. If this is the case, you shouldn’t use unverified information. You should proceed as if you didn’t know anything about the player and rerun the hand in your head. Your skill as a poker player should be the first thing you rely on, and any extra information should be supplemental to your play.

At a standard brick and mortar casino you don’t have a lot of different options when it comes to tournaments. Normally there will be a daily tournament or two at a set price and maybe a weekly tournament that’s slightly more expensive. Because of the lack of options, these tournament fields will consist of both very inexperienced players and seasoned veterans. In the online community however, tournaments, especially SNG events, are starting up every second, giving players a vast array of options, which is why it’s important to pick the right type of SNG to play in so that you can maximize your chances of winning.

If you’re playing these SNGs to win and to build your bankroll correctly, then you need to pick the games that you can beat, not necessarily just the games you can afford. The cheapest SNGs online cost as little as $1, though those games are completely saturated with beginners, ones that will make bad calls and severely limit the amount of correct, strategic plays that you can make. As you bump up through the SNG buy-in levels, the skill level of your opponents will improve quite drastically. Players in a $5 SNG will play much better than those in a $1. Now start playing in medium to high SNG tournaments that range from $40 - $100 in entry fees and you’ll more than likely be sitting with players that specialize in these types of tournaments.

If you’re new to SNGs and have a few hundred in your bankroll, you’ll want to focus on starting out in the smaller games such as the $5 buy-ins, and maybe even the $2-$3 ones so that you can first get a feel for how these special tournaments play out. You’ll know it’s time to move up to the next level when you are consistently coming in the top three and winning most of the time when you do.

Stepping into SNG games that are outside both your entry and skill range is a fast way to blow through any hard earned profits and isn’t typically recommended as taking shots in higher SNG games is not like stepping up into bigger cash games, since the amount of money you can win in a SNG is capped, while in a cash game it is not. For that reason you should stick to SNG tournaments that you are beating on a regular basis and use those wins to build your bankroll so that you can continue to move up the ladder.

A common question asked concerning the difference between SNGs and regular multi-table tournaments is whether or not bluffing has its place at the single-table Sit & Go events considering that buy-ins for these games can be very cheap and players are known to be notoriously loose when they only have to beat a handful of players in order to win the match. So does bluffing come up as a viable strategy a lot during an SNG? Let’s delve a little further into the circumstances.

Right off the top I’ll agree that standard forms of strategic bluffs definitely have their place at an SNG, especially continuation bets. A continuation bet is when a pre-flop raiser continues to bet on the flop. This is a very common strategy that is used to convey strength to the rest of the table, regardless of whether or not the flop helped the raiser’s hand. If you find yourself at a very tight/conservative SNG table, your continuation bets (which are essentially bluffs if you completely missed the flop) can often buy you the pot right there uncontested in a number of situations.

However, not all SNG tournaments are chocked full of tight players, and in fact you’ll often find loose/aggressive players seated all around you. This is why knowing the habits of your opponent is so crucial when bluffing, because you don’t want to needlessly bluff chips off on the turn or river if you’re playing against someone that will happily call with a marginal hand. In order for bluffs to work, you need to make sure the situation will allow for it to work.

That in a nutshell is why you see so many inexperienced players get their bluff picked off, they simply just didn’t tell a convincing story. An example would be if I flopped second pair against one opponent, we both check, then comes a seemingly harmless card and we both check again, and repeat for the river but all of a sudden my opponent makes a bet about 1/3rd the size of the pot. Well, if my second pair was good on the flop and the turn, it’s probably still good now, so I’m likely to call as many players will often fire a single bet on the river in order to try and pick up the pot. However, my opponent has conveyed weakness at every point in the hand, so to me his bet on the river either means he finally caught a card or he’s trying to buy the pot. If I’m getting the right price to call or even if I just feel confident that I’m ahead, I’m definitely going to commit my chips.

Telling a convincing story in order to successfully pull off a bluff is doubly hard in a SNG because you’re typically not playing against the others at the table long enough to know just how likely they are to call you. Then add in the fact that the single-table atmosphere also leads players to make big calls and frequently shove all-in with hands that in many cases could be easily dominated. In a lot of SNG situations, you aren’t going to be able to push a player off top pair on the river even if you move all-in, it’s better to just get through the hand as cheaply as possible (even if that includes folding).

Lastly, keep an eye on how many chips your opponent has in comparison to how large the pot is and how much they’ve invested in the hand so far, as that will tell you a lot about whether or not you can pull off a bluff, especially in a SNG tournament where you don’t normally start off with a lot of chips. If there’s $800 in the pot and your opponent has already made one call on either the flop or turn and they only have $250 left in their stack, bluffing them out of the pot is going to be extremely tough unless they have a drawing hand, yet I’ll still see players bet out $250 with nothing and get called by the other player who normally ends up having a marginal hand and called simply because they were getting the right price.

So overall, yes, bluffing does have a role to play in a SNG, though mainly through continuation bets and picking up small pots when opponents are exhibiting very weak/unconfident behavior. You can’t afford to be playing around with too many big bluffs in an SNG, so save those opportunities for when you really have a hand.

Even though I’ve been playing at the Bicycle Casino for around six years, I’ve never been able to participate in one of their Big Poker October tournaments, which is a month-long promotion the casino puts on every October and is packed with affordable and fun events to play in. Well, knowing that my October calendar was likely to fill up as the month progressed, I hopped into one of the first tournaments of the series this last weekend.

The buy-in was a very modest $125 and you were given $7,000 to start with. Blinds began at $25-$50 and the levels were very long, ensuring that players could be very patient with their decisions in the early rounds of the tournament, which is exactly how I like my live tournaments. Lately, as I’ve mentioned in other posts, my live tournament success has been nonexistent while my online tournament success is flourishing, so I was looking forward to getting myself back in the live play groove.

Typically, I don’t like to play a lot of pots in the first 10min of a tournament, I rather take the time to get adjusted to my surroundings, pay attention to my opponents, and just get an overall feel for the table. Much to my dismay, early on I was dealt pocket Jacks and pocket Queens in back to back hands and was unable to do anything with him, simply because my table was full of extremely loose players that appeared to have no concept of proper tournament betting concepts.

Just how bad was it? Well, with the big blind at $50, the standard pre-flop raise will be about $125-$200, with $200 being four times the big blind, which is considered a large pre-flop raise in most situations. However, in both hands the same player raised it pre-flop to $800 in early position. Sixteen times the big blind, in the first 5min of a deep stacked, slow level tournament? Risking more than 10% of my chips this early on in the tournament was not something I was looking to do, so I mucked my big pocket pairs both times, and both times the pre-flop raiser showed A-K.

Unfortunately, the wild betting continued and I went completely card dead for the next two hours. The blinds went up to $100-$200, two players would be in the hand, there would be like $600-$800 in the middle, and one of them would bet out $3,000 on the turn. Risking $3,000 to win $800? And what amazed me is the speed and confidence of which they made these bets, like they had some concept of what they were doing. Now I’m remembering why I’ve been playing just strictly online most of the time.

After two and a half hours of not playing a single hand, my table was broken up and I was sent to another table that at first glanced appeared much more reasonable, yet my inability to catch good cards followed me all the way to the other side of the room. I think the best hand I saw in nearly three hours after seeing my back to back pocket Jacks and Queens was A-J suited, and then nothing better than Ace-rag from there on out.

At this point I had just a little over 14 times the big blind and was just looking for a reason to shove and double up. The opportunity came conveniently enough when I was the big blind, looked down at Q-10 and checked my option. The board came Q-10-5 with two spades and as first to act I moved all in. I was called rather quickly by the chip leader at the table, which led me to believe he had a hand like A-Q, only for him to turn over A-K after the rest of the table had folded. My two pair held up and I little more than doubled up.

After that double up I was able to sit comfortably for a little while and hopefully catch some hands that I could play against this fairly intelligent table, but again I just couldn’t get a break. Eventually I had to go all-in again about 30min later with A-10, was called by two other players who both went all-in and turned over A-J and pocket nines. The flop came K-Q-Q, and a Jack on the turn gave me the straight, which was dominated when another Jack hit the river, giving the player in seat 1 a full house with their A-J.

Turns out I wasn’t eliminated either, I still had about $400 in chips (The blinds were $600-$1200 at this point). I moved all-in blind and to my amazement everyone folded except the big blind (there was no small blind this round as the player in that position was eliminated in the previous hand I mentioned). I turned over 10-4 and hoped I at least had two live cards, which turned out not to be the case when my opponent flipped up 10-5. We were actually going to chop the pot after the board paired on the turn, but he rivered a 5 and I was gone.

So needless to say, the tournament left me filling unsatisfied. I played for about four hours and the only real hand I won was an all-in. Sure I stole a pot here and there but that just kept me barely above the automatic shove chip count. The biggest frustration is that when I log on to play some SNG tournaments tonight after I finish writing this, I’ll probably cash in the majority of them and have a great session. I don’t really see what I could’ve done differently in the live tournament, it’s kinda hard to play 8-5 offsuit pre-flop when faced with a early position raise. Ugh, I wish brick and mortar cardrooms would offer single-table tournaments again.

Since I’ve recently gotten back into playing a lot of live poker, I figured I might as well blog about it here. Gee, what a concept. If you remember, last week I headed down to the Bike and played in one of their daily nighttime tournaments, only to find that I brought my online SNG brain with me, which resulted in some pretty dreadful early round play. Hoping to redeem myself, I slid back over to the cardroom today, this time entering in the Nooner tournament, a cheap, daily tournament that begins at 12pm. Well, unfortunately all that happened was my quickest tournament elimination ever.

My table was crazy. Everyone was raising pre-flop and three to four players would call. It didn’t matter how much you raised either, everyone was coming to the party. Then, the players would bet and call each other down to the river, and the winning hand would be something ridiculous like top pair with a weak kicker. This is after tons of raising and multiple opponents calling on every street.

Thinking that I could capitalize on the madness, I managed to get heads up on the flop with A-K against one of the looser players at the table. I flopped an Ace, he checked it to me, I bet, he called. The turn brought what appeared to be a blank, he checked, I bet, he called. The river now comes a runner-runner straight possibility, and he goes all-in. Did this guy really flat call me on the flop and turn while drawing to a runner-runner straight? I figured he missed his flush (there were two diamonds on the flop) and was just trying to maniac bluff me. I called, and sure enough he turned over the runner-runner straight for all our chips. This was only the fourth hand of a deep-stacked tournament.

Not all too pleased with the outcome, I headed over to play in the smallest no-limit cash game they offer at the Bike (an $80 buy-in nine-handed game) and took my seat. I was looking forward to some tight cash game play. Instead what I got was the loosest cash game I’ve ever played in. What is going on today?!?

Just to give you an idea of what was going down at this table, five out of the nine players would straddle the big blind, and 50% of the time someone would go all-in on the flop. Yet, no one was dominating the table. One guy would get it all in with top pair, get called by some lunatic with third pair, and double up. Then a few hands later the player who had just won that hand would get way too involved in another hand with bad cards and give it all back. Repeat for three hours straight.

It’s tough to sit back and wait for a hand when everyone else at the table is racking in huge pots with a single pair, but I knew all I needed was two pair or better to double up at any given moment. After about 20min, I flopped a set and got two players all-in. My set held up against one guy’s second pair (Seriously?) and another players missed flush draw, and I little more than doubled up. A few hands later I flopped a Queen high flush, and one opponent couldn’t wait to get it all-in on the flop. I called his all-in and he turned over pocket eights. Pocket eights, with neither of the eights being a spade and the board showing A-10-7, all spades. Yeah, pocket eights looks good enough in that spot to push all-in with. Doofus.

After that big win, the deck didn’t go cold for me pre-flop (lots of A-K, 10-10 type hands) but then I would whiff the flop heavily every time. I couldn’t even continuation bet my pre-flop raises because I knew I would get at least two callers and potentially an all-in raise. Frustrating to say the least. I ended up giving about 3/4th of my winnings back through pre-flop raises and was about to leave for the day when I looked down at K-K in early position. I wanted to thin the field so I raised five times the big blind instead of the standard three times…………five callers. Thankfully no Ace came on the flop and I eventually rivered a full house, netting me enough chips to post about a $160 profit for a little over three hours of play. Considering how heavy the swings were in that crazy game, I’ll take it.

Playing poker for a living or even as a hobby can be stressful on your body. Sitting hunched over your cards and stressing over decisions on money for hours on end is hard mentally and physically if you don’t allow yourself an outlet. For the past several months, I’ve been trying to stick to a good workout schedule that will allow my mind and body to release some of the tensions of the day. I find that this has done wonders for my mental sharpness and it has increased my patience at the table.
For most people, the hardest part of working out is getting started. It had been quite a long time since I had been on a regular workout schedule, so I put together these tips to help my fellow poker players get started on forming a regular workout routine that will have great mental and physical affects at the poker table.

Start Off Small
The mistake that most people make is that they go to work out and they over push themselves. They will over work their bodies until they are sore, and then they can’t bring themselves to make it to the gym the rest of the week. It’s all about consistency when forming a good workout routine. Set a goal to go three times a week for 30 minutes. This will ensure that you won’t over work yourself and it is an easy amount of time to set aside. As you continue to work out you can extend the time and/or days as you see fit.

Do Things You Enjoy
Working out doesn’t have to be a total drag. If you don’t like to run, then go to the pool and do laps instead. If you get bored easily, then make sure you download a movie to your iPod and bring it with you while you work out. You’ll be amazed how quickly time goes by on the treadmill when you are watching something interesting.
Check out the classes that your local gym offers. There are a ton of new workout classes out there that promote a fun atmosphere for working out. There are classes for just about anyone these days. If you want to work on your abs, there is a class for that. If you want a fun cardio dance class, there is a class for that. If you want a weight lifting class, there is a class for that. Find some classes you think might be fun and try them out.

Promote Mental Heath
There are a lot of workout routines that focus on physical and mental stability. This is super important for poker players. Yoga is a great tool in that it works on many physical needs, and it promotes breathing and meditation exercises. Meditation can really help during the course of a stressful session or when playing tournaments. It can help put you in a stronger mental state to win, and it can help bring you out of a mental state that is causing you to lose.
Pilates also works with building long lean muscle and breathing is a huge part of the practice. These breathing exercises help stabilize the core and bring oxygen to the brain. This will help with memory and making decisions. It will also help keep other players from getting reads off of you. There are many players who look at breathing patterns to get reads off of their opponents. In practicing breathing exercises, this will help you keep a more even breathing pattern when faced with big hands.

We are in a recession so most people are forced to push pennies in one way or another, and poker players should be no exception. Most poker rooms give away a lot of free stuff in order to retain locals and repeat customers. When choosing a poker room to frequent, you should take a look at the incentives that the poker rooms gives and see if they meet your needs.

A lot of poker rooms these days give way credits per hour of play. These credits can be used for buying food and getting other comps. If you are playing day in and day out, it is a great incentive to be able to eat for free. If you are paying for your meal every day at a casino, that amounts to about $15 a meal. If you play five days a week, that is $75 you could have saved if you went to a room that offered comps for food.

In order to get the comps, most rooms have a swipe card or log in system to record your play time. It is very important to religiously swipe in to get the maximum value from these offers. There are tons of players that always forget to log in and out and lose the comps for their session. Think of it as clocking into work and make sure to do it every time.

Other incentives that poker rooms give away might include tournament freerolls. Poker rooms will set a number of hours that must be accumulated over the course of weeks or months, and the players that accumulate those hours will be entered into a freeroll. Depending on the generosity and income of the poker room, these freerolls might be worth a few hundred dollars or thousands of dollars. Caesars Palace in Las Vegas has had million dollar prize pool freerolls which is well worth the time devoted to that poker room. Whatever the freeroll payout, it is free money that you should be taking advantage of.

To find out more about the incentives that your poker room offers be sure to check their website or talk to a poker room manager. If they have a mailing list, sign up for it so you can be up to date on all the offers. If you have several poker rooms in your area, don’t rule out any of them. Take a look at all the offers and choose the room that has the best offers going on. Offers may change month to month, so reevaluate regularly and take advantage of all the free money you can.

Last week I started a list of my favorite poker books, beginning with numbers 6 – 10. Here is the conclusion to that collection so that you can avoid some of the more useless books on the market and pick up a few that will definitely help advance your game.

1. “Harrington on Hold ‘em Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments: Volume 1”
One of the most complete head to toe strategy manuals available on the market today, “Harrington on Hold ‘em” is one of the best instructional tools you can have other than having a top ranked pro as your personal mentor. From discussing his own personal tight conservative to the ultra-aggressive maniacs, “Harrington on Hold ‘em” is the best new poker book that’s been released in the past 5 years and is a must for anyone that is seriously considering putting in many hours either online or in a brick and mortar casino.

2. “Phil Gordon’s Little Green Book: Lessons and Teachings in No Limit Texas Hold’em”
Having gone from computer software millionaire to one of the most recognized poker personalities in the world, Phil Gordon has a unique point of view when it comes to discussing poker. The teaching style in his book comes from a person that does not have to worry about making rent payments at the end of the month, so he doesn’t discuss the standard “Playing for food, car, etc” bankroll lectures that many other books have before. Instead it’s a straightforward, technique and strategy packed guide on No-Limit Hold em’ that’s more meat and less filler. Thinner than your usual dictionary sized poker guide, Phil’s “Little Green Book” is perfect for the player on the go.

3. “Doyle Brunson’s Super System 2”
A follow-up to the original Super System book published back in 1979, Super System 2, much like its predecessor, goes far beyond the normal boundaries of today’s standard poker books, as it covers strategies and tips for just about every form of poker game out there. While a advantage for the seasoned player that’s looking to open up his game to different poker variations such as Razz or Stud, players looking for a strict Limit or No Limit Hold Em’ book won’t have much use for the 400+ extra pages that provide no real insight on the game of Hold ‘Em. But if expanding your general knowledge of the card theory and technique is your goal, there’s none better.

4. “Ace on the River: An Advanced Poker Guide”
Written by the Robin Hood of Poker, philanthropist Barry Greenstein, Ace on the River was written (as the title suggests) as a guide for players that have advanced past the $5 home games and low limit casino games and are looking to play and win some serious poker. While the discussed strategy will benefit mid-level players to a certain degree, the level of play to which Greenstein discusses would could actually be detrimental to a player that lacks the discipline, bankroll and basic concepts that top players possess. However, if you’re a regular no-limit or high limit cash game player, this is definitely the book for you.

5. “Play Poker like the Pros”
You can’t argue with success, and “Play Poker like the Pros” author Phil Hellmuth has had plenty of that. With 9 WSOP bracelets, probably the most lucrative endorsement contracts in poker, and the ego to back it all up, he’s developed a table image and a style that allows him to become the shark in any poker fish tank he wants to swim around in. Using numerous personal stories and experiences to back up his hard fast techniques, “Play Poker like the Pros” is arguably the most personable poker book on the market. From assigning animal characteristics to your opponents to bluffing, Phil Hellmuth has written a master-class on poker that is recommended for all levels of players.

I was going through my old poker book collection the other day and realized that I’ve read FAR too many poker books, some good some bad. To spare you having to sift through the mountains of poker literature that I’ve had to endure, here is my list of the best 10 poker books to read. Today we’ll go through the bottom five, starting with #6.

6. “Caro’s Book of Poker Tells”
Mike Caro, the “Mad Genius of Poker”, has had different incarnations of this book around for many, many years now, and its still as viable today as when it was first written. While most top level amateurs and pros provide almost no information (Tells) at the table, “Poker Tells” helps you easily identify hand moments, facial expressions, and even posture clues that you can use to your advantage to determine whether your opponents hand is strong or weak. While the book does discuss finding tells in other forms of poker such as Draw Poker and Stud, most Hold ‘em players fill find this a enjoyable read.

7. “Play Poker Like Johnny Chan”
If you’ve ever wanted to play like 10 WSOP Bracelet winner Johnny Chan, then your book has arrived. If you’re a strict Hold ‘Em player, you’ll have to flip passed the sections on Stud, Omaha (Both High and Low), to get to the Hold ‘Em sections. At 240 pages, it is not as thick a read as the monstrous Super System 2, yet Chan does manage to get his point and strategy across in fewer pages than most could. For the poker player that most own any decent instructional manual

8. Hold ‘Em Poker for Advanced Players
Well before poker hit it big on TV and everyone with glasses and headphones on signed book deals, David Sklansky was one of the foremost experts on poker instructional and teaching. “Hold ‘Em Poker for Advanced Players”, when applied to the # of new players there are today, will actually benefit just about anyone looking to grind it out in the mid-level to high level limit games. Tournament players won’t find much help here (He wrote an entire book just on tournament play), but for the typical casino/online player that’s looking to make a profit, you can’t go wrong.

9. “The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King: Inside the Richest Poker Game of All Time”
While not a straightforward strategy guide on poker, this retelling by Michael Craig of the Richest Poker Game ever, when Billionaire Andy Beal took on the world’s best poker players, provides mental, emotional, and professional insight to the way these players think when there are literally millions of real dollars on the line. With top level pro’s including Johnny Chan, Jennifer Harman and the Godfather of Poker himself, Doyle Brunson each taking their turn against Beal, it provides a awe-inspiring read as you try to imagine what it would be like with $10,000,000 of your own money sitting on the table in front of you, all of it up for grabs.

10. 52 Tips for Texas Hold ‘em Poker
Published and written by Card Player Magazine founder and owner Barry Shulman, “52 Tips” is not just a bunch of one-liner poker tips that you can breeze through in 10 minutes. Each tip is thoroughly detailed and explained, and the way in which the book was complied makes it much easier to recall the information learned in as opposed to a giant 500 page poker book that’s hard to follow. As a gift for the aspiring poker player, this is a must.

There is nothing more frustrating than folding hand after hand hour after hour. Even more frustrating is the few good starting hands you get have to be folded after the flop. At some point in the session your patience will start to waver. Inevitably, you will have to decide to call it a night or frustration might get the best of you.
Recently, I had a session where I just wasn’t getting any cards. When I did get playable hands they were absolutely no good after the flop. My draws weren’t hitting. When I would bet my draws I was faced with a raise. When I did hit my draw I was behind. I sat around for over three hours just folding, and on the rare occasion I did connect with the flop I could only extract a minimal amount of chips from my opponents. At this point in my session I wasn’t winning much, but I wasn’t losing much either. It would have been a good time to just go home with a small loss and make it up the next day. However, the table was good and there were some really bad players. I thought to myself, “Well if I can just hit a hand I can make this a profitable night.”
After about four hours of waiting for a good hand I began to lose my patience. I was calling with any two cards, and raising with any two cards. I didn’t care if I had to get lucky to win, but I just wanted to bring in a pot that would cover the cost of a Wendy’s value meal. There were a number of hands where I was calling bets when I knew I was beat just to try to hit two pair. It was a losing proposition. My cards didn’t change and I was still losing, but because my patience was gone I was losing more aggressively. Eventually, I became short stacked and stuck the rest of it in with a pair of aces only to lose to a flush draw.
The lesson is not that you have to leave when you’re not hitting cards. There are plenty of times when patience has paid off and I eventually hit a great hand that makes my night. The lesson is to leave when you’ve lost your patience. If you start to lose patience at the table, it is time to get up and call it a night. Frustration is no recipe for winning.

Playing satellites is a great way to earn a seat cheaply into a bigger buy in tournament, and it is also a great way to make a profit in itself. The World Series of Poker offers a range of single table satellites which pay a single winner. These satellites range from $60-$1,000, and they pay out according to a 10 person table. For a person who plans on playing multiple satellites, it can be a quick way to make a profit on the investment.

Generally, single table satellites attract a fairly weak field of players. These players are trying to take a shot at a cheap way to win a seat into a tournament. Especially at the WSOP, a large portion of the players are tourists who would not buy into the event without winning a seat. They usually don’t have much experience with multi table or single table tournaments. Thus, you can expect that their level of play is not that sophisticated. Count on obvious over bets preflop with large pocket pairs and AK, AQ, AJ. Usually players are pretty transparent post flop as well. They will over bet their top pairs, and definitely get it all in with two pair or better. Some of this corresponds to weak players, but a large part of it is the structure that is being played.

With the $175 satellites and smaller, the rounds are only 15 minutes long. This means that players have to catch a decent hand and ride it. In the $65 satellites, players only get 800 in chips and 15 minute levels. Even when the blinds start at 25/25, losing a small pot means you are already a short stack. The $175 satellites are not much better, as they only offer 1,000 in starting chips and 15 minute levels. A lot of players realize that if they have A J or A 10, and flop top pair they should stick their chips in because they might not have time to wait for a better hand. For this reason, it is important to limp into as many unraised pots as possible because hitting a set, straight, flush, or event two pair can be a monster in attaining someone else’s chips. Most of the players playing these level satellites are playing ABC poker. If they have a big hand preflop, they let you know with the size of their raise. If they have a weak hand, they will fold to any bet.

In order to get better value, the $275 satellites and bigger are the way to go. They offer, at least, 1,500 chips and 20 minute levels. If you play a pot and lose, you won’t necessarily be so short that you only have an all in move. They also give you more time to see how players play before the blinds get so high that you can’t use the information to your advantage. These satellites also have greater chopping incentive.
Satellites have great chopping incentive, and the bigger the satellite the better incentive there is. The $65 satellites at the WSOP offer almost zero chopping incentive. Players are paid $50 in cash and $500 in chips. Since there is only one chip to be won, that will usually go to the winner. The $125 satellites offer 1,000 in tournament chips and $120 in cash, so this can be easily split up when it gets to heads up. The $175 offers 1,500 in tournament chips and $120 in cash. This could theoretically be equally chopped three ways. The bigger the payout the larger the incentive is to chop multiway. The $1,000 satellite is often chopped heads up for $5,000 a piece because the amount makes a difference to most people. With the better values, I often negotiate that third place always gets their money back. At least that way you have a least a 30% chance of making your money back to play another satellite.

Chopping is always situational, and many factors which are not discussed in this article should be taken into consideration. The general rule of thumb would be to chop unless you have your opponent at a significant lead in chips. If you are not a strong heads up player, or you feel that your opponent is hitting cards, a chop might be the right move.

I have a friend that was playing the $1,000 satellite at the WSOP. This satellite has amazing value in that it gives you 5,000 in chips and 20 minute levels, and it pays 10,000 in tournament chips, and $150 in cash. My friend got down to four handed when the rest of the table asked him to chop. He said no because he thought he had an edge over the table. He got to heads up, and his opponent asked him to chop. Again, he said no because he had his opponent 2:1. It didn’t take long, and the short stack doubled up. In a series of unfortunate hands, my friend found himself as the slightly shorter stack. My friend then flopped two pair, and went all in. He was called by his opponent’s straight flush draw, and his opponent won. My friend was upset and wishing he would have chopped heads up for an extra $4,000.

Sometimes it isn’t the most profitable choice to chop, but in most cases it can be the best decision. The money won from these satellites can be used to add to your bankroll, or to play more satellites. After winning a few satellites, you might find that you have an edge to refuse chopping heads up and play for the win.

Now that you’ve won and/or chopped several satellites, you will have a pocket full of tournament chips that have no cash value. If you are not planning on playing any tournaments, you will have to sell them to other players that do plan on using them. There are some players that sell these chips at a discount. For example, they will sell a $500 chip for $400. Why would you sell a chip for $100 discount when you can get full face value for them. The poker community is actually a pretty tight nit group who are willing to help each other out when it doesn’t mean losing money over it. Most players will buy these chips at face value, and if you can’t find anyone to buy them go to the tournament line at the start of registration. There are plenty of players that plan on buying into the event straight up, so they will be willing to just buy them from you. If that doesn’t work, then you can try to sell them at a discount. However, if everyone sells them at a discount they won’t be worth very much for players that are trying to make a living from satellites.

Some people say that they go on tilt after playing bad. They say that just knowing that they made a mistake is enough to send them over the edge. I’m from a totally different way of thinking. I know I’m not a perfect poker player, and that mistakes are inevitable. I accept that, and do my best not to make mistakes. However, when mistakes happen I am grateful that I’m able to pick up on them and learn to (hopefully) never make the mistake again. The thing that really irritates me is when I’ve made the right moves, the right read, have the player right where I want him, and inevitably they catch up and take my chips. Since I like to think that poker is a game of skill, it truly puts me on tilt when I play well and still lose. At least when I play bad and lose, I’ve invested money into my poker education.

The other day I went to play one of the DeepStack Tournaments at the Venetian in Las Vegas. I went into it thinking if I busted out it was no big deal and I would just go play cash game. Since the cash games were so juicy looking I knew I could easily get my buy in back if I busted and still make a profit for the day. I had nothing to lose…or so I thought.

The tournament started off kind of slow. I won a few small pots and lost a few small pots. I was able to limp into a five way pot when blinds were 75/150. I had 5h 3h, and the flop came out 5d 2d 3c. It was checked to me and I led out for 600. The big blind called and everyone else folded. The turn brought a 9d. He checked to me, and I bet 1100 . He looked down at his cards and made the call. I was pretty sure at this point that he probably had a flush. The river came a fourth diamond. He shot me a look and then checked. It seemed as though he didn’t like that fourth diamond hitting the river, and with no diamond in my hand I knew the only way I could win was to bet. If he hit the flush on the turn, he probably had low diamonds in his hand. It was highly likely that I could get him off his hand with a decent size bet. I assumed that a bet of 1850 would be enough to get him off his hand. After some pondering he decided to call and turned over 2c 7d. “Wow,” is all I could say as I sent my cards to the muck.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about the hand. One, I made a good read on my opponent knowing that he was weak, but I couldn’t figure out how he could make the call there. It was the first time I have been so frazzled in a tournament that I literally had to walk away for a few hands to cool off. After clearing my head, I returned ready to play again.

The next few rounds were up and down. I lost a few races with the short stacks on my table, but was able to chip up to above average. Then I got moved to another table with Tommy Vu who had the chip lead on the table. Seat two was a guy in his late twenties or so, who was boasting to the table about his recent cash in a WSOP event. This guy quite obviously had an ego, and this irritated me right away.
The blinds were 400/800, and I looked down at pocket kings in the highjack. Seat two raised to 2200 in early position. I made it 6300 to go, and he called. It was heads up, and the flop came 9 6 8 rainbow. He grabbed a stack of chips and bet, and I immediately moved all in for 15k. I was sure that I was ahead at the time, and wasn’t worried about a set or a straight. He called and turned over Ad 7d. Instead of him hitting an ace or his open ender, he went runner runner diamonds to knock me out. This was a real blow to me because I had been playing well all day with minimal mistakes, and had I won the hand I would have had the chip lead at the table, and in contention for the chip lead of the tournament.

So my fun in the tournament was over, and I should have been putting my name on the list to play cash game and make some money for the day. Instead, I walked over a slot machine, pulled out a hundred dollar bill, and proceeded to take my frustrations out on the max bet button. Before I knew it, that hundred was gone and I was off to the next machine. I realize now, that there was no amount of money short of hitting $100,000 or more that could have satisfied me. It took five machines and five hundred dollars to convince myself that my day of fun and excitement was over. I went home with the worst tilt hangover I’ve ever experienced.