I write a lot about how poker is a game of the long run, and really needs to be viewed that way. In the heat of the moment it's reasonable to forget that, but it's a disaster to not understand this at a basic level, and merely think superficially. Here's one example.
Bankroll management is one of the most important skills necessary to be a winning player over the long haul. It's a poker skill as surely as bluffing and game choice and starting hand selection. An adequate bankroll can compensate for a lot of weaknesses in a player's game, while an inadequate bankroll can (and usually will) often kill a player playing spectacularly.
But some people have a pretty peculiar idea of what a "bankroll" is. Many players don't even have a bankroll. Microsoft's Bill Gates sometimes plays 3-6 in Las Vegas. It could be said that Bill is adequately bankrolled for that game, but more accurately, he has no poker bankroll. Bankroll is a non-issue for well-to-do players playing at a small or moderate limit.
On the other hand, for purely professional players, bankroll is everything. It's like a truck to a truck driver. If you don't have one, you don't work (or you work for someone else). Bankroll is the issue for these players.
In between these two groups falls the mass of players, and here is where a poker "bankroll" starts to befuddle many people.
I have seen quite a few people refer to something called a "session bankroll", apparently the amount of money a player should put at risk in a certain game on a certain day. Others then also wonder how much they should buy-in to a game for (for instance, $100 for a 3-6 game). It's hard to come up with two less important strategy issues in all of poker!
To winning or breakeven players with an adequate job for their lifestyle (meaning they don't absolutely need poker income to maintain their basic lifestyle), and to players who depend on poker for part of their income, how much money they put into action any particular day should be a reflection of decisions they've made based on the amount of money they have consciously deemed their overall poker bankroll. They should've already chosen to play at a limit where the results of any particular day have virtually zero ramifications to their overall bankroll -- as long as they have the sense to not turn a "day" or a "session" into a 54-hour hemorrhage-fest.
If you are a winning or breakeven player, playing at a limit you are adequately bankrolled for, what you do on Tuesday is irrelevant. What you buy-in for also is irrelevant (as long as you always have enough chips in front of you to play each hand as it should be played). The dollars you are winning or losing that day should be irrelevant in your considerations of when to quit the game. What matters is playing correctly, here and now, in conjunction with a preconceived, sensible, overall strategy. To oversimplify it, this means: play good at a limit you can afford to play. The other considerations are not just trivial, they are giving in to superficial thinking, which reflects a flaw in your mental game.
What about losing players? That's even easier. Losing players should bring to the casino exactly the amount of money they can afford to lose -- both on a dollar basis and a psychological one. And they should mentally put all that money on the table when they sit down. Buy-in for any amount more than the minimum needed to play each hand, but consider all your afford-to-lose money on the table -- no more, no less.
Bankroll issues are really more a function of personal circumstance than poker variance. So, what an adequate bankroll is for a winning or breakeven player with specific life responsibilities playing a specific game is another, more complex question. It's an important question. What is not important, as long as you exercise a microscopic amount of self-control, is how you do on any particular day. Expending brain cells to think about how much to risk on a day, or how much to sit at the table with (unless you are considering image issues), is missing the point of winning poker. Winning is all about what you do, and the reasons you do it. Forget the superficial and focus on the important.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Steal This Pot: The Poker Bluff
A great deal of an excellent poker player's profit comes from "cunning, fraud and flight." Those are the three means Paul Goodman said young men could use to avoid the draft during the Vietnam War. Thinking about the words in the context of draft avoidance helps understand how they apply to poker.
Of those three, I believe flight is the most important skill of all, since folding is the most common poker action. But today we are going to talk about fraud. Fraud can be used in bluffing, semi-bluffing, misrepresenting, deceiving, and manipulating. A lot of the ways you can use fraud can be boiled down to one word: stealing. Steal bets, steal pots, steal position, steal initiative -- excellent players take edges wherever they can find them. They create their own opportunities. They even take the opportunities that others should take.
This is an “all the market will bear” situation. There are some game types where stealing more is the right thing to do, while in some games stealing less is correct. There are no absolutes. You just need to know that you have to steal some value, some times. If you only win pots when you have the best hand, your only chance of beating poker is by playing against truly dreadful opponents. At the same time, if you try to win all the pots where you don’t have the best hand, you’ll be sleeping in the street in no time. The point is to “steal” an appropriate percentage of the pots you couldn’t win by showing down.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking “steal” equals “bluff.” Bluffing is just one way to steal in poker. You can “steal the button” by making a bet or raise with a weak hand so that you get the most advantageous position in later betting rounds. The clichéd “free card” raise is an attempt to steal a free ride for a betting round. “Stealing the blinds” can occur when a player raises with a mediocre hand because it looks like he will not be called by anyone. In HiLo games you can “steal half the pot” several ways, like by raising out other players when you hold a hand that has mediocre high value and mediocre low value but is unlikely to get scooped by one opponent.
But pure bluffing will always be the flashiest, most adrenalin-pumping action in poker. Effective bluffing results in some of the most critical income a player can create.
This is an “all the market will bear” situation. There are some game types where stealing more is the right thing to do, while in some games stealing less is correct. There are no absolutes. You just need to know that you have to steal some value, some times. If you only win pots when you have the best hand, your only chance of beating poker is by playing against truly dreadful opponents. At the same time, if you try to win all the pots where you don’t have the best hand, you’ll be sleeping in the street in no time. The point is to “steal” an appropriate percentage of the pots you couldn’t win by showing down.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking “steal” equals “bluff.” Bluffing is just one way to steal in poker. You can “steal the button” by making a bet or raise with a weak hand so that you get the most advantageous position in later betting rounds. The clichéd “free card” raise is an attempt to steal a free ride for a betting round. “Stealing the blinds” can occur when a player raises with a mediocre hand because it looks like he will not be called by anyone. In HiLo games you can “steal half the pot” several ways, like by raising out other players when you hold a hand that has mediocre high value and mediocre low value but is unlikely to get scooped by one opponent.
But pure bluffing will always be the flashiest, most adrenalin-pumping action in poker. Effective bluffing results in some of the most critical income a player can create.
Of those three, I believe flight is the most important skill of all, since folding is the most common poker action. But today we are going to talk about fraud. Fraud can be used in bluffing, semi-bluffing, misrepresenting, deceiving, and manipulating. A lot of the ways you can use fraud can be boiled down to one word: stealing. Steal bets, steal pots, steal position, steal initiative -- excellent players take edges wherever they can find them. They create their own opportunities. They even take the opportunities that others should take.
This is an “all the market will bear” situation. There are some game types where stealing more is the right thing to do, while in some games stealing less is correct. There are no absolutes. You just need to know that you have to steal some value, some times. If you only win pots when you have the best hand, your only chance of beating poker is by playing against truly dreadful opponents. At the same time, if you try to win all the pots where you don’t have the best hand, you’ll be sleeping in the street in no time. The point is to “steal” an appropriate percentage of the pots you couldn’t win by showing down.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking “steal” equals “bluff.” Bluffing is just one way to steal in poker. You can “steal the button” by making a bet or raise with a weak hand so that you get the most advantageous position in later betting rounds. The clichéd “free card” raise is an attempt to steal a free ride for a betting round. “Stealing the blinds” can occur when a player raises with a mediocre hand because it looks like he will not be called by anyone. In HiLo games you can “steal half the pot” several ways, like by raising out other players when you hold a hand that has mediocre high value and mediocre low value but is unlikely to get scooped by one opponent.
But pure bluffing will always be the flashiest, most adrenalin-pumping action in poker. Effective bluffing results in some of the most critical income a player can create.
This is an “all the market will bear” situation. There are some game types where stealing more is the right thing to do, while in some games stealing less is correct. There are no absolutes. You just need to know that you have to steal some value, some times. If you only win pots when you have the best hand, your only chance of beating poker is by playing against truly dreadful opponents. At the same time, if you try to win all the pots where you don’t have the best hand, you’ll be sleeping in the street in no time. The point is to “steal” an appropriate percentage of the pots you couldn’t win by showing down.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking “steal” equals “bluff.” Bluffing is just one way to steal in poker. You can “steal the button” by making a bet or raise with a weak hand so that you get the most advantageous position in later betting rounds. The clichéd “free card” raise is an attempt to steal a free ride for a betting round. “Stealing the blinds” can occur when a player raises with a mediocre hand because it looks like he will not be called by anyone. In HiLo games you can “steal half the pot” several ways, like by raising out other players when you hold a hand that has mediocre high value and mediocre low value but is unlikely to get scooped by one opponent.
But pure bluffing will always be the flashiest, most adrenalin-pumping action in poker. Effective bluffing results in some of the most critical income a player can create.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Winning Poker Pots: Choose Your Battles
Choosing your battles is a key concept in poker. Clearly you want to mostly play winning hands and mostly not play losing hands. You want to bet when you win and either fold or not bet when you lose. These are basics that anyone who is trying to win will understand.
But like many other aspects of poker where simple things on the surface mask complexities below the surface, choosing your battles is also extremely sophisticated. Besides just playing hands where we have, or think we have, a positive expectation, players should choose the TYPE of battles suited to their abilities, skills and bankroll. Napoleon was surely right about artillery, and the principal holds true to a very great degree in poker.
Money goes to money.
No matter what the venue, deep pockets have an edge when pockets matter. Poker is all about taking money out of, and putting money into, pockets. In big bet poker games, big stacks generally beat small stacks because they can manipulate value better. They have more options. Short stacks can peck away at little stacks time and again, but one blow from a big stack can crush a small stack.
But while that is a standard way for money to go to money, it's not the emphasis here. In poker, literally, we use money to make more money. Each bit of money we have is a little bit of artillery. The more money we have, the more tools we have to make more money. The concept of "make a mule of your money" should never be off a player's mind. It applies to both bankroll that is not sitting on the table (it is in a bank or the stock market or wherever, earning a bit of return while we essentially do nothing with it), and to the money we work on the table as we play.
Repetition makes money in poker. Getting the best of it time and again leads to winning. Applying and reapplying our advantages over our weaker, less disciplined opponents leads to poker income. It's (usually) not flashy, or even noticeable sometimes, but our advantage, our edge, makes us a bit of money every time we do anything at a poker table.
Think of the casino. It makes its money via a smallish, unsexy, regular cut of each pot or collection charge. These small sums add up to a staggering sum over time.
So it is with players. Suppose you have a choice. Your first option is to bet $100,000 on a 60/40 opportunity. Pretty sweet, but also dangerous if $100,000 is all the money you have in the world. Passing up such a bet is sensible since it is far easier to turn $100,000 into $200,000 other ways than it is to turn $0 into $100,000. But now suppose you have the option bet $1 on a 60/40 opportunity, and the opportunity to continue betting until you either have $200,000 or zero. The chances of you losing everything are astronomical.
In other words, good players want to play small pots!
Good players surely still want to play for big money. They want that $100,000 they can win, but keeping the units small drastically improves the edge for the skillful player. Bad players look for the big score. Especially in tournaments, they look to enter multiway action pots with mediocre hands. They don't have enough artillery in their hand values, nor in their chip stack. Trying to play big pots is suicide for most players, except those rare tournament players who play big stacks excellent and every other kind of stack not very well.
Good players want to send their army of soldiers out and have them gather value from every nook and cranny that they can find. "All or nothing", even with a decent edge, is not a road to success.
However, there is something worse. If big pots come along where you have an advantage, you must play them. If you do not, you are giving value away to your opponents. It's like now the rules are changed in the 60/40 game, where after you ante a $1 each, the 40% guy can raise the stakes by betting $1000 more. You can fold, because you want to only play for the $1 until you bust him, but if he keeps doing this, and you keep folding, you lose a $1 each time and thus more than lose your edge.
So, you can't turn down big pots, but you should be gearing your play (in limit poker) toward choosing to play pots where your artillery overwhelms the size of the confrontation. Especially in tournaments, where bankroll size is almost always relevant, look to play smaller pots. Paradoxically, this means that you should normally raise coming into pots. Limping attracts players, which leads to bigger pots.
You can't always get what you want, but you can get what you want more often than not if you structure your game so that you are choosing your battles.
But like many other aspects of poker where simple things on the surface mask complexities below the surface, choosing your battles is also extremely sophisticated. Besides just playing hands where we have, or think we have, a positive expectation, players should choose the TYPE of battles suited to their abilities, skills and bankroll. Napoleon was surely right about artillery, and the principal holds true to a very great degree in poker.
Money goes to money.
No matter what the venue, deep pockets have an edge when pockets matter. Poker is all about taking money out of, and putting money into, pockets. In big bet poker games, big stacks generally beat small stacks because they can manipulate value better. They have more options. Short stacks can peck away at little stacks time and again, but one blow from a big stack can crush a small stack.
But while that is a standard way for money to go to money, it's not the emphasis here. In poker, literally, we use money to make more money. Each bit of money we have is a little bit of artillery. The more money we have, the more tools we have to make more money. The concept of "make a mule of your money" should never be off a player's mind. It applies to both bankroll that is not sitting on the table (it is in a bank or the stock market or wherever, earning a bit of return while we essentially do nothing with it), and to the money we work on the table as we play.
Repetition makes money in poker. Getting the best of it time and again leads to winning. Applying and reapplying our advantages over our weaker, less disciplined opponents leads to poker income. It's (usually) not flashy, or even noticeable sometimes, but our advantage, our edge, makes us a bit of money every time we do anything at a poker table.
Think of the casino. It makes its money via a smallish, unsexy, regular cut of each pot or collection charge. These small sums add up to a staggering sum over time.
So it is with players. Suppose you have a choice. Your first option is to bet $100,000 on a 60/40 opportunity. Pretty sweet, but also dangerous if $100,000 is all the money you have in the world. Passing up such a bet is sensible since it is far easier to turn $100,000 into $200,000 other ways than it is to turn $0 into $100,000. But now suppose you have the option bet $1 on a 60/40 opportunity, and the opportunity to continue betting until you either have $200,000 or zero. The chances of you losing everything are astronomical.
In other words, good players want to play small pots!
Good players surely still want to play for big money. They want that $100,000 they can win, but keeping the units small drastically improves the edge for the skillful player. Bad players look for the big score. Especially in tournaments, they look to enter multiway action pots with mediocre hands. They don't have enough artillery in their hand values, nor in their chip stack. Trying to play big pots is suicide for most players, except those rare tournament players who play big stacks excellent and every other kind of stack not very well.
Good players want to send their army of soldiers out and have them gather value from every nook and cranny that they can find. "All or nothing", even with a decent edge, is not a road to success.
However, there is something worse. If big pots come along where you have an advantage, you must play them. If you do not, you are giving value away to your opponents. It's like now the rules are changed in the 60/40 game, where after you ante a $1 each, the 40% guy can raise the stakes by betting $1000 more. You can fold, because you want to only play for the $1 until you bust him, but if he keeps doing this, and you keep folding, you lose a $1 each time and thus more than lose your edge.
So, you can't turn down big pots, but you should be gearing your play (in limit poker) toward choosing to play pots where your artillery overwhelms the size of the confrontation. Especially in tournaments, where bankroll size is almost always relevant, look to play smaller pots. Paradoxically, this means that you should normally raise coming into pots. Limping attracts players, which leads to bigger pots.
You can't always get what you want, but you can get what you want more often than not if you structure your game so that you are choosing your battles.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Glory Days: The Skills of Poker
At the time of this writing, poker is at an all-time high in the mainstream media. The World Poker Tour has been a successful program, and ESPN is broadcasting its first "see the hole cards" World Series of Poker. The public is seeing the drama, the agony and the ecstasy of the game as never before.
But we are also seeing a glimpse of a phenomenon that plays itself out hundreds of times in the lives of thousands of players. Winning is intoxicating. Losing may hurt more for most people, but the high of winning is like any other high: we want to do it again.
The problem is: you just can't will yourself to win -- be it a tournament, a single day's play, or even an individual hand. And then, unfortunately for some, not winning is something many players simply can't handle. And being able to not win well is a fundamental, key ingredient of being a winning player. The mountain that successful players stand on is mostly a pile of carcasses of players who could not handle the downward spikes that are inevitable if you play the game.
You see them in middle-high ring games all the time -- players who once beat these games, but now are either seriously under-bankrolled or simply broke and playing on borrowed money. They still think they belong in these games. They think that the standard rules of thumb about bankroll don't apply to them. They think "I'm a 100/200 player, so I am playing 100/200", even if they barely have a bankroll for 20/40. For most of these people, the story only gets worse.
In tournament poker it plays out a little differently. Players who hit one or even several major tournaments, end up dumping their money playing over their head, or on the craps table, or on sports, drugs or fast living. They now are forced to trade on an old reputation to try and get in significant action.
By its nature poker, and especially Texas Holdem, is a minefield of "glory days." The level of skill is huge. But the level of luck is huge too. Skill is not equal, and luck certainly isn't either. While most people have a middling amount of good and bad luck, some people are lucky or unlucky for extended periods. Recognition of these periods and adaptation to them is a pure skill. If you know you are playing well but getting unlucky, you are much better off than a player who thinks he is playing well but is instead just getting lucky. Even if you merely just understand that you are playing well and getting lucky, you are way ahead of most players.
No Limit Hold'em in particular is a game of great skills combined with ridiculous amounts of random luck. Very often all the money will go in before the flop on near coin flip situations -- and where the actions of both players are no-brainer decisions where there is no other logical choice. Other poker games don't have nearly as many critical, basically absurd moments of total random luck. But that is part of the game! And not just for yourself, but for your opponents as a group too. At the end of a No Limit Holdem tournament you are facing a table of people who have invariably gotten lucky to be there, which means they have a tendency to think they are bulletproof. You don't need to get lucky to make final tables in other games, but you virtually always need to get lucky to make final tables in No Limit Holdem. And again, this is not downplaying the skill involved. It merely means there is an aspect to the game that is absent from other forms of poker where you can easily make final tables without having any significant good luck at all.
Now pity the poor player who doesn't get that. Gladly take the money they wager at you, but spare some pity too for the players who think the laws of physics and mathematics, and chaos, don't apply to them. Luck comes and goes. Skill lasts a lifetime, and gathers the money that luck can't hang onto.
Successful players who keep their feet on the ground instead of their heads in the clouds end up being successful players for all days, not just their glory days.
But we are also seeing a glimpse of a phenomenon that plays itself out hundreds of times in the lives of thousands of players. Winning is intoxicating. Losing may hurt more for most people, but the high of winning is like any other high: we want to do it again.
The problem is: you just can't will yourself to win -- be it a tournament, a single day's play, or even an individual hand. And then, unfortunately for some, not winning is something many players simply can't handle. And being able to not win well is a fundamental, key ingredient of being a winning player. The mountain that successful players stand on is mostly a pile of carcasses of players who could not handle the downward spikes that are inevitable if you play the game.
You see them in middle-high ring games all the time -- players who once beat these games, but now are either seriously under-bankrolled or simply broke and playing on borrowed money. They still think they belong in these games. They think that the standard rules of thumb about bankroll don't apply to them. They think "I'm a 100/200 player, so I am playing 100/200", even if they barely have a bankroll for 20/40. For most of these people, the story only gets worse.
In tournament poker it plays out a little differently. Players who hit one or even several major tournaments, end up dumping their money playing over their head, or on the craps table, or on sports, drugs or fast living. They now are forced to trade on an old reputation to try and get in significant action.
By its nature poker, and especially Texas Holdem, is a minefield of "glory days." The level of skill is huge. But the level of luck is huge too. Skill is not equal, and luck certainly isn't either. While most people have a middling amount of good and bad luck, some people are lucky or unlucky for extended periods. Recognition of these periods and adaptation to them is a pure skill. If you know you are playing well but getting unlucky, you are much better off than a player who thinks he is playing well but is instead just getting lucky. Even if you merely just understand that you are playing well and getting lucky, you are way ahead of most players.
No Limit Hold'em in particular is a game of great skills combined with ridiculous amounts of random luck. Very often all the money will go in before the flop on near coin flip situations -- and where the actions of both players are no-brainer decisions where there is no other logical choice. Other poker games don't have nearly as many critical, basically absurd moments of total random luck. But that is part of the game! And not just for yourself, but for your opponents as a group too. At the end of a No Limit Holdem tournament you are facing a table of people who have invariably gotten lucky to be there, which means they have a tendency to think they are bulletproof. You don't need to get lucky to make final tables in other games, but you virtually always need to get lucky to make final tables in No Limit Holdem. And again, this is not downplaying the skill involved. It merely means there is an aspect to the game that is absent from other forms of poker where you can easily make final tables without having any significant good luck at all.
Now pity the poor player who doesn't get that. Gladly take the money they wager at you, but spare some pity too for the players who think the laws of physics and mathematics, and chaos, don't apply to them. Luck comes and goes. Skill lasts a lifetime, and gathers the money that luck can't hang onto.
Successful players who keep their feet on the ground instead of their heads in the clouds end up being successful players for all days, not just their glory days.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
The Bad Beat Road
Definitions of "bad beat": 1) To lose a hand in a particularly unlucky way. Overused term used by masochistic story tellers of "bad beat stories". 2) Bad Beat Jackpot: amount of money that can be won when a player loses a qualifying hand; for instance when four of a kind loses to a straight flush.
Sometimes we do everything right but still lose to some godawful miracle suckout. But that is poker. If it can happen, sometimes it will.
With the recent influx of players into the poker world comes a lot of newbie players who don't have the perspective to recognize non-usual exceptions -- for example, if you lose with AA the first two times you get it you might have a much more warped view on their value than if you won ten times then lost two in a row with the hand. Once you have played tens of thousands of poker hands, it is a lot easier to just know that, well, shit happens.
Okay, now that is straightforward enough, but if you are a newbie player, it is actually more complex than that. While "bad beats" do occur in poker, they happen more often to new players (or weaker experienced players) because new players make mistakes that invite the bad beats.
A reader, Traves, sent me an email describing the situation well:
Dear Steve,
First I'd like to compliment you on your articles in general, they are truly some of the best I've ever read and do a fantastic job of taking the romanticism and glitter out of playing poker... I've been playing consistently for 14 years. Nowadays my online [play] is generally at PartyPoker in the NL Hold Em Tourneys.
I've noticed an overall theme in your writing that I think is very important in today's world of poker. You hit on it again directly in your basics article. It is your concerns -- if I can call them that, about the explosion of No Limit Tourneys on the Internet and high stakes play and the dangers thereof. Many people are diving into these games and have to be blowing their brains out. Televised big money tourneys are spiffy to watch but as I've played in a few real ones and watched a few more live I know how hard it is to win or even place in these mothers. I'm a fair player and the areas my Hold em game needs improving on are huge but I understand what you're writing. I see many that don't and hope you keep pounding out the message.
I'd like to give you two examples [the second example was of a hand he played right but still lost] you may find useful for future reference to further get it across to the hordes that seem to be playing online. Not everyone can be a winning player but if they aren't prepared to learn they can guarantee losing their ass. The first is a terrible play I made.
My stack is about average, I'm not short. Blinds are at 100-200. I'm in late position with JJ. One call in front, and when it comes to me, I just call. First mistake and it's the killer. [Players behind fold, and the blinds call.] Flop comes 662 offsuit.
Checked around to me, I bet 1000. SB tosses, the big blind calls and other player folds. Now goddamn it Steve, I know the BB has to have me beat but I lose the discipline and fall in love with my pocket pair. Turn is a 9. The big blind goes all in and I call. The river is a K and BB shows 63 offsuit and I'm out of the tournament.
Now, here's the ammunition for you maybe in a future article. In the chat box after the hand, three players say "Damn bad beat" and "Jacks just aren't holding up". This then was an example of a terrible play by an experienced player and more importantly a great example of players not understanding I made a bad play and created my own "bad beat".
After the first hand I went and kicked the cat. After the second hand [where he played correctly but still busted out] I went to a movie with the wife. Please keep on pounding away at the masses, de-mystifying poker.
Hands similar to Traves' occur every minute online and in casinos -- much more often than genuine bad beats. People lose hands because they screw up. In this case, Traves invited the big blind to beat him, and he did! Not only that, Traves knew he was beat, and committed the much worse sin of losing the bulk of his chips even though he knew he was beat. There is no bad beat in that, only bad poker.
Recognition of the mistake though is good poker. The worst poker is being displayed by those three people who lamented about Traves' "bad beat" with the jacks. They don't recognize that poor play lead to poor results.
Before you can apply good poker play, you have to recognize it.
Sometimes we do everything right but still lose to some godawful miracle suckout. But that is poker. If it can happen, sometimes it will.
With the recent influx of players into the poker world comes a lot of newbie players who don't have the perspective to recognize non-usual exceptions -- for example, if you lose with AA the first two times you get it you might have a much more warped view on their value than if you won ten times then lost two in a row with the hand. Once you have played tens of thousands of poker hands, it is a lot easier to just know that, well, shit happens.
Okay, now that is straightforward enough, but if you are a newbie player, it is actually more complex than that. While "bad beats" do occur in poker, they happen more often to new players (or weaker experienced players) because new players make mistakes that invite the bad beats.
A reader, Traves, sent me an email describing the situation well:
Dear Steve,
First I'd like to compliment you on your articles in general, they are truly some of the best I've ever read and do a fantastic job of taking the romanticism and glitter out of playing poker... I've been playing consistently for 14 years. Nowadays my online [play] is generally at PartyPoker in the NL Hold Em Tourneys.
I've noticed an overall theme in your writing that I think is very important in today's world of poker. You hit on it again directly in your basics article. It is your concerns -- if I can call them that, about the explosion of No Limit Tourneys on the Internet and high stakes play and the dangers thereof. Many people are diving into these games and have to be blowing their brains out. Televised big money tourneys are spiffy to watch but as I've played in a few real ones and watched a few more live I know how hard it is to win or even place in these mothers. I'm a fair player and the areas my Hold em game needs improving on are huge but I understand what you're writing. I see many that don't and hope you keep pounding out the message.
I'd like to give you two examples [the second example was of a hand he played right but still lost] you may find useful for future reference to further get it across to the hordes that seem to be playing online. Not everyone can be a winning player but if they aren't prepared to learn they can guarantee losing their ass. The first is a terrible play I made.
My stack is about average, I'm not short. Blinds are at 100-200. I'm in late position with JJ. One call in front, and when it comes to me, I just call. First mistake and it's the killer. [Players behind fold, and the blinds call.] Flop comes 662 offsuit.
Checked around to me, I bet 1000. SB tosses, the big blind calls and other player folds. Now goddamn it Steve, I know the BB has to have me beat but I lose the discipline and fall in love with my pocket pair. Turn is a 9. The big blind goes all in and I call. The river is a K and BB shows 63 offsuit and I'm out of the tournament.
Now, here's the ammunition for you maybe in a future article. In the chat box after the hand, three players say "Damn bad beat" and "Jacks just aren't holding up". This then was an example of a terrible play by an experienced player and more importantly a great example of players not understanding I made a bad play and created my own "bad beat".
After the first hand I went and kicked the cat. After the second hand [where he played correctly but still busted out] I went to a movie with the wife. Please keep on pounding away at the masses, de-mystifying poker.
Hands similar to Traves' occur every minute online and in casinos -- much more often than genuine bad beats. People lose hands because they screw up. In this case, Traves invited the big blind to beat him, and he did! Not only that, Traves knew he was beat, and committed the much worse sin of losing the bulk of his chips even though he knew he was beat. There is no bad beat in that, only bad poker.
Recognition of the mistake though is good poker. The worst poker is being displayed by those three people who lamented about Traves' "bad beat" with the jacks. They don't recognize that poor play lead to poor results.
Before you can apply good poker play, you have to recognize it.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Online Poker Strategy: Winner's guide to Internet Poker
The number of players playing poker online constantly grows, as does the number of card rooms. But strategy for online poker is still only in its adolescence. This Guide was the first of its kind when put online. It is my attempt to fill a void in poker literature. This Guide offers tips to both for players who have never played a hand online as well as those with experience who want to learn to play better -- to win, or win more. Experienced users can skip some of the basics, but even in discussions of the basics I hope experienced users find some valuable ideas. Also, many of the linked pages below offer other information that should contribute to helping you win.
Since little has been written specifically on how to beat online games, why am I? Why give away "secrets"? First, I want to encourage more and more people to enjoy poker in all its forms. Some new players, too far away or too intimidated to walk into a conventional card room, will be glad to start out in a relatively unthreatening online environment. Online free games represent the best opportunity ever for new players to learn the game. Many of these players will naturally go on to also play in casinos, so this Guide should benefit brick & mortar clubs as well as online card rooms.
Since little has been written specifically on how to beat online games, why am I? Why give away "secrets"? First, I want to encourage more and more people to enjoy poker in all its forms. Some new players, too far away or too intimidated to walk into a conventional card room, will be glad to start out in a relatively unthreatening online environment. Online free games represent the best opportunity ever for new players to learn the game. Many of these players will naturally go on to also play in casinos, so this Guide should benefit brick & mortar clubs as well as online card rooms.
Second, a site has online poker card rooms as paid advertisers, making it in my interest to create more customers for them, which in turn attracts more ad dollars. Readers should understand that I do get a benefit from writing this Guide. I'm not paid by publishers or by readers but I get compensation indirectly via advertising. So, if you find these tips helpful or thought provoking, I hope you will consider patronizing my advertisers. If they get customers, they'll pay me, and thus the online-focused pages on this website will continue to be revised and grow over time -- grow with the new technology, new card rooms and influx of new players.
Online card rooms differ in small ways, but are similar in big ways. Players should easily be able to recognize small differences between the sites when they encounter them, so almost all the concepts apply to any online poker room.
The first thing to understand is that poker online is not the same as brick & mortar casino poker (hereafter I'll call this "casino poker"). While the rules are generally the same, the way the games play are very different. The primary reason for this is that there is a complete lack of visual tells online. This means that online players must bet to gain information about their hand, whereas the same information is available to casino players from visual clues. This means that there are many more probe bets made online, which in turn leads to probe raises. The end result is that there is generally more action online than you will find in a brick and mortar casino. I’m not saying one is better than the other, or necessarily more or less profitable. They are just different in fundamental ways. Many of the abilities needed to win in casino poker of course also exist in online poker. You still need good starting cards... you still shouldn't tilt... you still shouldn't play at a level you can't afford, and so on. I'm not going to reinvent the wheel on that stuff. Check out the rest of this website, the poker magazines and books to study those things that are the same online as in a casino. A flush beats a straight online. We don't need to go over that.
Signing Up
Joining an online site is simple. You can fund your online poker account in many ways, and different card rooms may have various deposit options. In order to comply with current regulations, some online poker rooms may restrict play or deposit options based upon the state or country in which you reside. If you are facing such a restriction, the poker site will inform you of your options during the deposit process. In most cases, even if you are facing a deposit/withdrawal restriction, you will still have several different methods available to you for depositing or withdrawing funds. You may be able to deposit in any one of the following ways:
1. Directly from your checking account.
2. With a credit card.
3. Through a courier like Moneygram.
4. With a Bank Wire
5. With a personal check through the regular mail.
6. By receiving a funds transfer from another online player.
7. With a money order.
8. With an online payer like Neteller (citizens of some countries may be prohibited from using this option).
When you sign up, you don’t even need to deposit at first. You can play free games without giving any credit card or bank information. In fact, you should play the free games for at least an hour or so to get the hang of how fast the action goes, what buttons to click, what happens when you click a button if you aren't sure of what it does: all the bells and whistles of how the site works. The drawback of the free games is that they have virtually no instructional value as to the correct method of play. This is because “free” players do not pay for their chips and therefore do not place much value on correct or winning play. This pretty much eliminates the “game within the game,” which is the heart and soul of poker. The free games are, however, excellent for a total novice. They offer newbies a way to practice calculating basic odds on the fly, and discover the relative strengths of hands. Still, you should get off free games as soon as you can. Even playing the .5/.10 games will offer you far more useful learning opportunities than the free games.
Give some thought to your login or “screen” name. Some people want to be distinctive, memorable. Others want to be as anonymous as possible. Your screen name is the first bit of "table image" you present to the other players. Choose one that presents the personality you want to convey to your opponents. Keep in mind that you may be restricted from making multiple changes to your screen name or picture.
Building an Online Poker Bankroll
The first enormous difference you confront between playing poker online and in a casino is when you go to buy chips. Online card rooms may limit how much you can deposit each day, depending upon the deposit method that you choose. This means that your daily deposit limit is your de facto bankroll even if you have more funds readily available. You can start to build your online bankroll either through winning play, or by making additional deposits on subsequent days. If you are a high limit player, you should contact the support staff at the poker site about easing deposit restrictions.
Deposit limits can affect both the way that you play and the limit you are able to play at. Even if you are a winning player, if you play very aggressively, or too high for your online bankroll, you can end up broke and out of action with no way to rebuy. Don’t let this happen. Putting yourself out of action is a critical mistake.
If your online bankroll is limited, you should make sure that you are playing at a level where your bankroll can withstand the daily swings. This usually means starting lower or medium limits, and playing higher as your bankroll grows. Keep in mind that your short term swings will normally be greater online than they will be in casino poker, because the games tend to be more aggressive online. If you are trying to acquire a large online bankroll without facing deposit restrictions, consider getting funds transfer from another player. Many sites do not restrict how much players can transfer between themselves.
Cashing Out and Your Internet Bankroll
Cashing out from internet card rooms is not a problem, but you should be aware that there are some common cash out rules. First of all, you may be restricted from cashing out for 48-72 hours since your last deposit or funds transfer. This is because the poker site may have expenses associated with your deposit, and they do not want people continually depositing and cashing out. Also keep in mind that some sites require that cash outs be credited back to their original deposit method first before a check can be cut. For example, if you initially deposited $500 with your credit card, and you wanted to cash out $1,000, they site may require that you accept a $500 credit to your card and a $500 check. If you have made several deposits over time, the site may require fulfilling credits on all of these before they will honor any other method of withdrawal. Regardless of how they process cash outs, if you play at a major site, you should not run into any problems getting your money. (See also Cash Out Curse Myth)
If you want to get around this restriction, there are basically two ways to do it. The first is to make your initial deposit through a funds transfer from another player. If you deposit funds this way, all cash out options should be available to you. The second thing that you can do is to keep a large enough bankroll online, so that you are able to avoid making deposits in the first place. If you do this, then your initial deposit will be credited back, but all further withdrawals are open to the method of your choosing. Obviously, in order for this method to work, you need to be a winning player, and you need to be able to leave a substantial bankroll in your account at all times (it is a good idea to do this anyway). Continue to Online Poker Tips - Page T
Online card rooms differ in small ways, but are similar in big ways. Players should easily be able to recognize small differences between the sites when they encounter them, so almost all the concepts apply to any online poker room.
The first thing to understand is that poker online is not the same as brick & mortar casino poker (hereafter I'll call this "casino poker"). While the rules are generally the same, the way the games play are very different. The primary reason for this is that there is a complete lack of visual tells online. This means that online players must bet to gain information about their hand, whereas the same information is available to casino players from visual clues. This means that there are many more probe bets made online, which in turn leads to probe raises. The end result is that there is generally more action online than you will find in a brick and mortar casino. I’m not saying one is better than the other, or necessarily more or less profitable. They are just different in fundamental ways. Many of the abilities needed to win in casino poker of course also exist in online poker. You still need good starting cards... you still shouldn't tilt... you still shouldn't play at a level you can't afford, and so on. I'm not going to reinvent the wheel on that stuff. Check out the rest of this website, the poker magazines and books to study those things that are the same online as in a casino. A flush beats a straight online. We don't need to go over that.
Signing Up
Joining an online site is simple. You can fund your online poker account in many ways, and different card rooms may have various deposit options. In order to comply with current regulations, some online poker rooms may restrict play or deposit options based upon the state or country in which you reside. If you are facing such a restriction, the poker site will inform you of your options during the deposit process. In most cases, even if you are facing a deposit/withdrawal restriction, you will still have several different methods available to you for depositing or withdrawing funds. You may be able to deposit in any one of the following ways:
1. Directly from your checking account.
2. With a credit card.
3. Through a courier like Moneygram.
4. With a Bank Wire
5. With a personal check through the regular mail.
6. By receiving a funds transfer from another online player.
7. With a money order.
8. With an online payer like Neteller (citizens of some countries may be prohibited from using this option).
When you sign up, you don’t even need to deposit at first. You can play free games without giving any credit card or bank information. In fact, you should play the free games for at least an hour or so to get the hang of how fast the action goes, what buttons to click, what happens when you click a button if you aren't sure of what it does: all the bells and whistles of how the site works. The drawback of the free games is that they have virtually no instructional value as to the correct method of play. This is because “free” players do not pay for their chips and therefore do not place much value on correct or winning play. This pretty much eliminates the “game within the game,” which is the heart and soul of poker. The free games are, however, excellent for a total novice. They offer newbies a way to practice calculating basic odds on the fly, and discover the relative strengths of hands. Still, you should get off free games as soon as you can. Even playing the .5/.10 games will offer you far more useful learning opportunities than the free games.
Give some thought to your login or “screen” name. Some people want to be distinctive, memorable. Others want to be as anonymous as possible. Your screen name is the first bit of "table image" you present to the other players. Choose one that presents the personality you want to convey to your opponents. Keep in mind that you may be restricted from making multiple changes to your screen name or picture.
Building an Online Poker Bankroll
The first enormous difference you confront between playing poker online and in a casino is when you go to buy chips. Online card rooms may limit how much you can deposit each day, depending upon the deposit method that you choose. This means that your daily deposit limit is your de facto bankroll even if you have more funds readily available. You can start to build your online bankroll either through winning play, or by making additional deposits on subsequent days. If you are a high limit player, you should contact the support staff at the poker site about easing deposit restrictions.
Deposit limits can affect both the way that you play and the limit you are able to play at. Even if you are a winning player, if you play very aggressively, or too high for your online bankroll, you can end up broke and out of action with no way to rebuy. Don’t let this happen. Putting yourself out of action is a critical mistake.
If your online bankroll is limited, you should make sure that you are playing at a level where your bankroll can withstand the daily swings. This usually means starting lower or medium limits, and playing higher as your bankroll grows. Keep in mind that your short term swings will normally be greater online than they will be in casino poker, because the games tend to be more aggressive online. If you are trying to acquire a large online bankroll without facing deposit restrictions, consider getting funds transfer from another player. Many sites do not restrict how much players can transfer between themselves.
Cashing Out and Your Internet Bankroll
Cashing out from internet card rooms is not a problem, but you should be aware that there are some common cash out rules. First of all, you may be restricted from cashing out for 48-72 hours since your last deposit or funds transfer. This is because the poker site may have expenses associated with your deposit, and they do not want people continually depositing and cashing out. Also keep in mind that some sites require that cash outs be credited back to their original deposit method first before a check can be cut. For example, if you initially deposited $500 with your credit card, and you wanted to cash out $1,000, they site may require that you accept a $500 credit to your card and a $500 check. If you have made several deposits over time, the site may require fulfilling credits on all of these before they will honor any other method of withdrawal. Regardless of how they process cash outs, if you play at a major site, you should not run into any problems getting your money. (See also Cash Out Curse Myth)
If you want to get around this restriction, there are basically two ways to do it. The first is to make your initial deposit through a funds transfer from another player. If you deposit funds this way, all cash out options should be available to you. The second thing that you can do is to keep a large enough bankroll online, so that you are able to avoid making deposits in the first place. If you do this, then your initial deposit will be credited back, but all further withdrawals are open to the method of your choosing. Obviously, in order for this method to work, you need to be a winning player, and you need to be able to leave a substantial bankroll in your account at all times (it is a good idea to do this anyway). Continue to Online Poker Tips - Page T
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