Poker Tutorials, Tips and Tricks

Pros step into the poker game with confidence. They have such a
wealth of playing experience that they can make tough betting
decisions in a very timely manner. That means that they give the
odds proper consideration, keep appraised of the other players,
and make their play. This is the persona you need to adopt when
you play.

To be a shark you need to act the part.

Sit up straight like a professional. Clean the area around your
computer desk and stay organized. Prepare. Have any note taking
material handy. Plan your game play on a tight schedule. Start at a
precise time; review the casinos and tables for a pre-determined
period of time before you play. Be observant. Start play when you
are certain you have the right table in your sites. Watch the other
players carefully and make notes. Never be sloppy about your
playing time.

Remember, you are a shark, play at the pace of a shark. You scull
through the water, your eyes alert. You make thoughtful and
purposeful moves. You appraise your environment. Occasionally,
when the time is right and your prey is unprepared, you strike
aggressively and purposefully. You raise and re-raise. You push
out weaker players. You gain respect from all of those around you.
Your opponents know only one thing about you – that you have a
significant stack in front of you and you seem to know everyone’s
cards before they are shown.

You are never rattled even by a string of bad beats. They mean
nothing in the big picture to you. You play to win over the long
haul. Small bad breaks have no consequence for you. If you
become tired or you’re just not happy with the table, you leave.
And then after exactly one hour, you finish playing regardless of
your status and take a break. You then carefully polish your notes
regarding how you played and what you have learned – and
record your wins and losses. That’s one of your secret weapons.

You must keep detailed financial records. A business cannot be
successful without detailed financials and neither can you. You
must know exactly how much you have won or loss every time
you play. Be precise. If you won $102.50, then make that your
answer if anyone asks. Or maybe you lost $45.75. Get in the habit
of being exacting. That’s the key to tight play.

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When the stakes required to play a game of Texas Hold’em
increase, there is not a proportional increase in the average
winnings or money flow because most players, especially at the
start of play, play tighter at higher stakes.

Here’s how that works.

Higher stakes cause players to be more cautious. Pots do not grow
proportionately as the stakes and blinds increase. Your return on
investment will therefore decrease as the minimum blind goes up.

Most major online casinos release data on hands played (for a
price) on a regular basis. A recent study (June 2004) from one of
the largest online casinos, based on several million actual hands of
Poker played, revealed that the return on investment varies quite a
bit based on the maximum bet.

In the $2 games, the value of the winning pot varied from 28 to 37
times the Big Blind (BB) – the most you would have to invest to see
the flop (short of raises). The average pots were in the $60 range.
With the right cards, you could expect a return of 3000% on a
winning hand.

Are Low Stake Tables Faster?

Not necessarily. Texas Hold’em is the king of fast play. Several
$1000 plus pots were played in less than a minute and ranged as
long as 6 minutes – the same range for the small stake tables. Over
all, the average length of an online Poker game today is just over
one minute or 50-60 hands per hour.

In higher stakes games, one thing is quite clear. There are a higher
percentage of tighter and aggressive players at these tables than at
the small stake games. That means there are more sharks at the big
tables and a much better chance that you will be one of the fish.
The smart thing to do here is to say away from these kinds of
tables.

Given the fact that the return on investment is lower at the high
stake games, that the average level of play is much more
aggressive and that a much larger stake is required, there is very
little opportunity to be a consistent winner on tables with $50 and
up blinds.

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There are five main reasons to raise in Hold’em:

• You feel you have the best chance at winning the pot.

• You want your opponents to fold their drawing hands, or make a mistake by
calling.

• You are getting good pot odds to try a bluff or semi-bluff.

• You want to try for a free card.

• You want to determine the strength of your hand relative to your opponents.

One goal in poker is to give your opponents opportunities to make mistakes. When
your opponents are correct to call just a single bet, raising is sometimes a good
strategy to decrease your opponents’ pot odds and force them to cither fold or make
a mistake by calling.

Bad beat hands are not nearly as disastrous as most poker players think. When an
opponent draws to a hand that he shouldn’t, yet still wins, think of all the extra bets
you are earning on the times when he doesn’t hit his hand.

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On the Internet, you have the option of using the “in turn” buttons to select your
move even before your opponents have acted. I do not recommend the use of
these “in turn” buttons unless you are going to fold. However, some of your
opponents will use them, so it is important to recognize when they have used them
and what it might possibly indicate about the strength of their hand.
It is easy to recognize when someone has selected one of these buttons since their
move will occur almost instantaneously after the player before them
The chips enter the pot at practically the same time. This is very different than
someone just acting quickly, since in this case they are selecting move after their
opponent has acted. Let’s discuss some of the reasons why a player might raise
instantaneously.

The first reason someone might raise instantaneously is the obvious one. They
have a strong hand and decide to raise no matter what happens before them. For
example, if a middle player limps in preflop, the next player quickly raises, and the
cutoff reraise instantaneously, the cutoff probably has a super premium hand since
he was going to raise or reraise no matter what happened before him.

Sometimes players use reverse psychology to bully you into calling their strong
hands. They want you to think, “He would never raise so fast with a good hand, so
he might be bluffing.” Opponents generally have a strong hand whenever they raise
instantaneously on the turn or river and to some extent preflop. This is an online tell
common with many opponents. These tell is even stronger on the river, where I find
an instantaneous raise almost always means the nuts or close to it.

However, this tell is not nearly as useful on the flop. Many opponents will raise
instantaneously on the flop as a semi-bluff with two overcards or some other type of
draw; therefore, they could have a strong hand or are just trying for a free card. In
these cases on the flop, it is important to observe your opponent’s individual
tendencies. This online tells and others are discussed further in the “Online Tells”
chapter towards the end of the book.

One last comment about raising on the Internet. As we discussed before, players
tend to play more deceptively online than they do in a live game. Many players
believe check-raising is impolite in a home game, whereas players on the Internet
check-raise all of the time. Maybe they check-raise more since they don’t have to
face their opponent. This causes a small adjustment in your strategy when
compared to live play. On the Internet, you should be more careful betting in late
position with weak hands than you would in a live game since there is a better
chance one of your opponents might check-raise.

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There are advantages and disadvantages in playing more than one table. Of
course, only try multiple tables if you are a winning player, otherwise you will lose
your money twice as fast! If you are a winning player, there are still some
downsides that must be considered.

First, you can sometimes make mistakes by hitting the wrong button. For example,
you might call when you actually meant to fold, decreasing your earn rate for that
table. Most importantly, because you are playing two tables, it is more difficult to
evaluate your opponents. You will not be able to follow all of the betting sequences
and see all of the showdowns.

It takes a great deal of concentration to try to learn the playing styles of 18 players
at the same time. I only try playing two tables when I am fresh and alert, and am
already familiar with many of the players I am playing with. For example, I might
play a game where I am familiar with almost all the players, and then play another
game at another site. I’ll concentrate more on the action and players at the second
site to learn their styles.

Your earning rate per table will inevitably decrease since you are unable to fully
concentrate on every hand at each table. For example, you may not notice that a
player has gone on tilt and is betting and raising every hand. You then might fold a
hand that you would have called or raised had you known this opponent was
playing so loose. Therefore, if you normally earn one big blind an hour at one table,
do not expect to earn the same rate at two tables simultaneously.

You will also experience greater variances by playing two tables at the same time.
Sometimes you will lose at both and lose a lot of money in a short time. This is a big
problem if you tend to go on tilt. When playing at two tables, there are more
opportunities for something to go wrong. If you lose two bad beats pretty close
together and then go on tilt, you are jeopardizing your bankroll at two tables. If you
are like many players who get too upset when something goes wrong, I would not
recommend playing at two tables.

Although there are downsides, there is a great advantage to playing more than one
table. You can increase your overall hourly earning rate. For example, let’s assume
that you average one big bet an hour playing one table. If you are playing two
tables simultaneously, you should expect your earning rate to decrease per table. If
it decreases to 1/2 a big bet per hour, you will be earning the same per hour at two
tables but with greater fluctuations. However, if your earn rate only decreases to 3/4
a big bet per hour, your overall hourly rate will increase to 1.5 big bets per hour.
For example, you usually earn $40 an hour playing $20-$40. By playing two tables,
your earn rate might drop to $30 per table, but now you are making $60 an hour!
The ability to play multiple tables is a great advantage over live poker games. For
good players, this can add to your earning rate per hour and is more fun since there
is more action. However, playing multiple tables is not recommended until you are a
very solid player, and should only be done when you are at your full concentration
potential.

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