In loose games, it is common for weak players to play "any ace" - a derisive term used by tight players . Any ace means playing suited and unsuited aces from many positions relative to the button. High cards are valuable in hold 'em, but it matters if your cards are suited A♣-5♣ or unsuited A♥-6♠.
In preparation to playing more in the 5-10¢ limit games, it is quite a change to play different starting hands such as ace offsuits a bit more frequently.
Playing aggressive is recommended but it doesn't seem necesary because many games are aggressive or quickly becomes aggressive once a player or two becomes aggressive and create a domino effect. Another progression in almost all games is that they become tighter and aggressive. Perhaps it is because the players came to their senses and played tighter or because the game was just loose temporarily. Keeping a game not so aggressive allows playing speculative hands for just one bet, and in an aggressive game it is too costly to play these speculative hands like J8 suited and 54 suited for two or three bets.
Add, to the small list of good poker books sources: Noted Poker Authority.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Friday, July 30, 2010
Chipping Away at Freeroll Tournaments
Ended another fruitfull day in the pits on a sour note.
The day started by playing 2-4 cents limit hold 'em and with an immediate drop in the buy-in by playing too loose. The worst play the King made was calling down, with nothing, to the river, a loose player who had T7 offsuit and made two pair. This player was so loose and seeing the flop about 75% of the time, so the King called him down to river with nothing but two high cards. The chance of making two pair with AK offsuit is the same as with T7 offsuit. The lucky fish, was from a Spanish speaking country. Putting off getting revenge, the King moved to a greener pasture - a less aggressive and loose table.
Playing tight, the losses were put in control and eventually the gains came back little by little. The best hand of the day was a full house of three aces and two nines. It was not the nuts, but the thanks to a calling station the pot was big. This play stands out also because preflop, the King cold called a raise with A9 suited fron the middle position. A9 suited is not a strong hand for cold calling but if many others cold called the raise it is a good hand. It was a passive table of about 30 cents average pot and four others cold called the raise and there were not reraises. Two aces flopped giving the King trips with a good kicker.. On the turn, a nine came making aces full of nines. This was not the nuts but close to it. After going for overcalls to build the pot on the turn, the King raised on the river and hoped for a raising war that never happened.
It is the last month of fiscal year two and financially it will be another good year, with no way of going in the red.
The day ended, on a sour note, by getting eliminated on the first hand, in a no-limit hold 'em tournament, by going all-in with aces top pair with a jack kicker and getting outdrawn by a loose player with a garbage hand who caught two pair.
The day started by playing 2-4 cents limit hold 'em and with an immediate drop in the buy-in by playing too loose. The worst play the King made was calling down, with nothing, to the river, a loose player who had T7 offsuit and made two pair. This player was so loose and seeing the flop about 75% of the time, so the King called him down to river with nothing but two high cards. The chance of making two pair with AK offsuit is the same as with T7 offsuit. The lucky fish, was from a Spanish speaking country. Putting off getting revenge, the King moved to a greener pasture - a less aggressive and loose table.
Playing tight, the losses were put in control and eventually the gains came back little by little. The best hand of the day was a full house of three aces and two nines. It was not the nuts, but the thanks to a calling station the pot was big. This play stands out also because preflop, the King cold called a raise with A9 suited fron the middle position. A9 suited is not a strong hand for cold calling but if many others cold called the raise it is a good hand. It was a passive table of about 30 cents average pot and four others cold called the raise and there were not reraises. Two aces flopped giving the King trips with a good kicker.. On the turn, a nine came making aces full of nines. This was not the nuts but close to it. After going for overcalls to build the pot on the turn, the King raised on the river and hoped for a raising war that never happened.
It is the last month of fiscal year two and financially it will be another good year, with no way of going in the red.
The day ended, on a sour note, by getting eliminated on the first hand, in a no-limit hold 'em tournament, by going all-in with aces top pair with a jack kicker and getting outdrawn by a loose player with a garbage hand who caught two pair.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Awareness and the Process of Elimination
The board reveals what possible hands there are. Straights, flushes, full houses and higher hands are way above average in strength, but their possible presence are all indicated on the board. Straights must have connected cards, flushes must have three of one suit present, and full houses must have pairs on board. So, the strong hands, or the presence of strong hands, are absolutely indicated on the board.
In his second real money session today, King had AQo and called a bet on the flop without a made hand or a strong draw - a daring move because playing overcards is risky business and not recommend for beginners. The pot was big and the board was ragged. An ace luckily came on the turn and the brave flop call paid off. On fifth street a queen made two pairs and with the process of elimination, only a set could beat two pair, so the King bet on the the river. His two pair held up and a nice pot was collected.
In his second real money session today, King had AQo and called a bet on the flop without a made hand or a strong draw - a daring move because playing overcards is risky business and not recommend for beginners. The pot was big and the board was ragged. An ace luckily came on the turn and the brave flop call paid off. On fifth street a queen made two pairs and with the process of elimination, only a set could beat two pair, so the King bet on the the river. His two pair held up and a nice pot was collected.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Play Money NL Hold 'em
From today, playing logs will be kept for no-limit gameplay with playtime measured by hands instead of time. After x amount of play money hands, the King will have to jump into playing NL real money games.
Fluctuations are less, in the long run, with ring games compare to tournaments and this is the way to go for making money. In the short term, ring games, as experienced in limit games, has some wild fluctuations. In a 10¢ buy in NL sit n go, the possible loss is just 10¢. Attract1one went 50 something tournaments without coming in the money. U.pressure went 30 something tournaments without winning.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Keeping Records
Before keeping a record of the game play (and later studying), a few times the King played some marathon sessions of limit hold 'em. Usually, these sessions were long in order to get even. Getting even is still a preoccupation, but with an improved gameplay, the ups and downs are not as steep. Getting even is not recommended and is somewhat controlled by patience - waiting another day or week with controlled no-tilt play. Having records help in weathering the downturns because long term results are the important results and if studying more than playing, the earnings will not even out and be up there.
Doubt is a terrible thing to have, was 16 months of winning due to luck and is that Perfect Storm downswing in the future. The only cure for doubt is to keep improving in some way and to review the present gameplan.
Doubt is a terrible thing to have, was 16 months of winning due to luck and is that Perfect Storm downswing in the future. The only cure for doubt is to keep improving in some way and to review the present gameplan.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Even Money Tournaments and Ring Games
PokerStars has even money tournaments, sort of. For their 2¢ and 10¢ buy-in sit n go tournaments the payouts equal the buy-ins. For tournaments above 10¢ buy-ins, the house payout is less than the buy-in.
The buy-in is the entry fee that each player pays to play in the tournament. Sometimes, in bigger sit n gos there is a buy-in fee plus another fee, whatever the case, thinking terms of the online site, they neither gain or lose from these tournaments. Just 360 players are allowed to register and with the rapidly escalating blinds these sit n gos finish fast.
For these tournaments to be even money, a participant should play no-limit hold 'em fairly well. The players who play below average will be long term losers. In addition to improving from experience, learn from books, dvds, websites and observing others. Think in the long term, because the effects of luck are diminished then. Expect to have long losing streaks and some winning streaks.
Ring games where the pot, at PokerStars is below 20¢, has no rake. The rake is only a penny for 20¢ but it adds up: saving a nickel a day adds up to over $18 in a year. Games that have just one to four players have pots that frequently stay below 20¢. In addition, playing heads up is a usefull skill to have when moving up to small stakes where the play is more aggressive, there is more bluffing and the number of opponents decrease instantly. Heads up is tough against aggressive and loose players who play well after the flop by folding and bluffing in the right mix.
The buy-in is the entry fee that each player pays to play in the tournament. Sometimes, in bigger sit n gos there is a buy-in fee plus another fee, whatever the case, thinking terms of the online site, they neither gain or lose from these tournaments. Just 360 players are allowed to register and with the rapidly escalating blinds these sit n gos finish fast.
For these tournaments to be even money, a participant should play no-limit hold 'em fairly well. The players who play below average will be long term losers. In addition to improving from experience, learn from books, dvds, websites and observing others. Think in the long term, because the effects of luck are diminished then. Expect to have long losing streaks and some winning streaks.
Ring games where the pot, at PokerStars is below 20¢, has no rake. The rake is only a penny for 20¢ but it adds up: saving a nickel a day adds up to over $18 in a year. Games that have just one to four players have pots that frequently stay below 20¢. In addition, playing heads up is a usefull skill to have when moving up to small stakes where the play is more aggressive, there is more bluffing and the number of opponents decrease instantly. Heads up is tough against aggressive and loose players who play well after the flop by folding and bluffing in the right mix.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Ed Miller
Ed Miller, Sunny Mehta and Matt Flynn are the authors of "Small Stakes No-Limit Hold 'em" and it looks like a winner. From the start, the way they break down the game is scientific and desirable. Miller's qualifications are imppecable, but even if they were not, the proof is in the pudding.
Branching out to no-limit will result in more opportunities in game selection. The smaller, online poker sites rarely have a good fixed limit-game but they always have a lot of no-limit games. With limit poker, play, with game selection, is limited to PokerStars, but with no-limit, many of the poker sites have enough microlimit no-limit games to choose from. The sites that have a lot of no-limit games are PokerStars, Full Tilt, BoDog, Absolute Poker, and the Cake Network which represents a lot of sites such as Sportsbetting.com, Sportsbook.com etc.
For sports punters, Sportsbetting.com has the best lines and the least vig of 10.5/10 for spreads and totals. Close to 90% of bets should be with them. Their site isn't as slick as the other sites and they may not offer as much information, but their prices are the best.
It is a bit of a nuisance to put in the long password to open this ebook. The plus sides of an ebook are that the pages can be magnified to make reading easier and an ebook takes up no physical space. It takes half a megabyte of disc space.
Sklansky in a You Tube interview predicted that, in the future, fixed limit poker would be the number one game. This is good, but the present has to be dealt with and the no-limit offerings are tempting.
Branching out to no-limit will result in more opportunities in game selection. The smaller, online poker sites rarely have a good fixed limit-game but they always have a lot of no-limit games. With limit poker, play, with game selection, is limited to PokerStars, but with no-limit, many of the poker sites have enough microlimit no-limit games to choose from. The sites that have a lot of no-limit games are PokerStars, Full Tilt, BoDog, Absolute Poker, and the Cake Network which represents a lot of sites such as Sportsbetting.com, Sportsbook.com etc.
For sports punters, Sportsbetting.com has the best lines and the least vig of 10.5/10 for spreads and totals. Close to 90% of bets should be with them. Their site isn't as slick as the other sites and they may not offer as much information, but their prices are the best.
It is a bit of a nuisance to put in the long password to open this ebook. The plus sides of an ebook are that the pages can be magnified to make reading easier and an ebook takes up no physical space. It takes half a megabyte of disc space.
Sklansky in a You Tube interview predicted that, in the future, fixed limit poker would be the number one game. This is good, but the present has to be dealt with and the no-limit offerings are tempting.
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