Free Poker Tournaments Tips for Intermediate and Aspiring Advanced Players

Hi guys, Gloves here again with another article! I know it’s been an absurdly long time – I had my first semester of college and with all that I had going on writing these articles (and even playing poker) took a back seat. But the semester is over now and I’m on summer break (and back to playing poker!) so I figure it’s time that I write my last “From the Ground Up” article (for now) and see if I can get started on a new series focusing on adjusting to real money online play.

Should be exciting. I warn you guys now, if you do not remember the previous articles, go back and read them again. Read them until you fully understand them. At least parts 5 and 6, but preferably all of them. I honestly can’t stress this enough – this article is going beyond the basics and firmly into intermediate tournament theory.

Understanding the ICM concept is the sort of thing that separates the players who win at $2 games from the players who win at $30s, and most if not all of the best sng and mtt players (both online and live) are winning simply because they understand this stuff better than their opponents.

The concepts in this article are that important. But you need to be firmly grounded in the basics discussed thus far and you need to understand how to think like a poker player.

This stuff is not easy – it took me many months to learn and I’m still getting better at applying it everyday.

Read the rest of this entry »

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• playing 30bb deep in tournament end game

No wasting time on introductions! We’re gonna dive straight into things this week. If you haven’t read the Basic Tournament Theory article out a couple weeks ago, I strongly suggest you do that before continuing as this article will build directly off that without much recap at all. Onwards and upwards!

So let’s give some more practical advice to play poker tournaments.

As discussed previously, the scaling payout structure and chips not having a direct cash value strongly impacts how we should play tournaments/sngs (excepting husngs) as opposed to cash games.

Namely, early game, when stacks are deep, we should be playing extremely tight. This holds true whether we’re playing 6 man sngs or a multiple thousand person 10 handed tournament.

This is mainly for the reason that we can’t win a tournament in the first hand, or even first 10, 20, or 50 hands. In the case of larger online MTTs’, it can take hundreds of hands to make it Heads Up for the victory.

But just one bad decision can end your tournament, even if you’ve been playing incredible poker for hours. The vast majority of the time, there will be someone with a bigger stack who can bust you, or with a relatively similar stack which can severely cripple you.

While later in the game we need to loosen up to account for chipping up for a deep run, the rising blinds, and changing table dynamics (6 handed vs 9 handed play, for example), early in tournaments this is not much of a factor at all, and we shouldn’t risk our tournament life by exposing ourselves to possibility of coolers (in addition to slowly losing chips by playing lots of weaker hands) or in relatively close spots where we’re flipping or slightly ahead of our opponents.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but in a cash game we should be taking 52/48 edges allin preflop (vs our opponent’s range) just about all the time.

Early in a tournament, however, we should pass in these spots to preserve our equity. There is significant (although relatively simple) math behind this, which I’ll get into either later this article or in a 3rd (and probably final) tournament theory article if it proves necessary.

I did promise some more practical advice, so I’ll do something I rarely do and provide some example ranges which I believe are quite reasonable.

> UTG – UTG+2: JJ+ AKo AQs+
> UTG+3 – CO: TT+ AQo+ AJs+
> BTN: 77+ ATo+ A9s+ KQo KJs+
> SB: 55+ AX+ KTo+ K8s+

This is approximately from effective stacks ~100bb all the way down to ~25bb, which covers early game play.

As you can see, these ranges are quite tight (and they only apply to unopened pots).

The one thing which could be added are joining in limpedes with suited connector type hands and smaller pocket pairs. Of course, as you become more solid in your postflop decision making you can definitely widen these ranges a little bit, but it really is true that tight is right in these games early and we should just be avoiding marginal spots.

When we do have one of these hands, we want to play it hard.
Stack off with your high pocket pairs preflop, and at lowstakes (probably any NPP free poker online game, and games on Stars through $3s at least) always stack off with AK (just trust me), and it’s also probably reasonable to stack of with AQ all the time as well.

When we hit tp+ postflop on all but the wettest boards, we want to be betting and raising and generally playing for stacks except against other solid players and nits. Anyway, even if you don’t follow these ranges hand-for-hand (and face it, you should be thinking for yourselves and modifying things to fit your games!), they should give you a general sense for just how tight we should be in early game spots.

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Play few hands, but play them fast and hard, and we should be in a generally decent position come mid and endgame, which is what’s important in MTT and SNG play.

So let’s take a short at play from ~12-~20bbs deep, which is an approximation of stacks during the standard middle game of SNGs, and is also relatively common to see in quicker-paced large field tournaments (the slower ones frequently stay deeper wire-to-wire).

Come middle game, our priorities start to shift a little bit.
We still care about survival, because all the money in tournaments comes at the end. But we need to stay on top of the rising blinds or we risk losing the value of our stack by playing too tight.

The goal here isn’t just to survive til endgame, it’s to reach endgame with a playable stack and a chance at victory, although we still do need to attempt to minimize risk. The most sensible way to do this is by widening up in unopened pots from late position.

While we should still be relatively tight from EP, our btn (button) and sb ranges should widen substantially.
A reasonable btn range is something like:

BTN: 22+ A7o+ A5s+ K9o+ K8s+ QJo QTs+

Which is significantly wider than our btn range deep. Our sb range should be substantially widened as well, but I’ll let you guys figure out exactly how to craft your ranges.

Another key difference is our opening size.
While during early game phases opening to 3x+1bb per limper is generally good sizing, in middle game we should probably be opening closer to 2.5x+1bb per limper.

The sizing effectively accomplishes the same thing (at these depths; raising to 2.5x at 100bb deep will get less folds). There’s less incentive to join limpedes here unless there are many limpers in front of you, and you generally shouldn’t be getting involved in opened pots without a relatively strong hand.

When you do, you should not be calling much; be more inclined to jam over to try and utilize the fold equity you have.

This is where I’ll cut this article. I know it’s not nearly as lengthy as some of the previous, but I really want you guys to internalize and really grasp these concepts before getting into the endgame portion, because it’s pretty dense stuff.

As always, leave a message on npp, a comment on the article or on facebook, or email me at duncelanas@hotmail.com with any questions, comments, concerns etc. I don’t bite, you’ll stay anonymous, and I’ll try to help with anything you come to me with (even if it’s a completely different poker problem unrelated to one of my articles).

I haven’t had many messages, but I think the few I have had have definitely helped people understand the content better as well as helping me learn to relay my thoughts better, so definitely feel free to contact me with anything. Until next time, I hope you play solid and run well!

- Gloves

Other articles in the free online poker From The Ground Up series by pro online poker player Gloves.

Part 1 - Patience on steroids “Common Sense Poker

Part 2 – Hand Ranges, Playable Pockets, Table Position and Limping

Part 3 - Postflop Play scenarios. Optimal play against different player styles

Part 4 – Poker math – Outs and Odds

Part 5 - Basic poker tournament theory

Hey everyone, Gloves here again with another article in my free online poker “From the Ground Up” series. This article will be focusing on some of the key differences between tournament and cash play as well as how to translate the concepts taught in my other articles to tournament play specifically.

I also plan on giving a brief introduction to a concept called ICM (independent chip model), although I’ll probably devote another entire article to it soon. I hope you all have enjoyed your Christmas and New Year’s holidays and the wait for another article hasn’t been killing you! I think I’m leaning towards writing an article every 2 weeks now to give you guys more time to digest the concepts and ask any questions that spring to mind. Now that the holidays are over the schedule will normalize again! Let’s get to the poker! 

Tournament play has 4 major differences from cash play (note that “tournament” from here on out will refer to either big tournaments or sngs of any size).

> The first is the chips used.

• > In cash game poker (ring games), you buy in directly with your cash.
• > Every time you win or lose a pot, you directly lose that much money.
• > Players can also add on to their stacks in any size increment they want at any time (typically up to 100bb maximum).
• > You’re free to leave at any time, and you pocket the profit (or suffer the loss) immediately.
• > Tournament poker, however, involves paying a buyin which gives you a set amount of chips.
• > You play the tournament until you either run out of chips or accumulate all the chips in play (excepting a few specific tournament types).

> This leads us to the second difference – payout structure.

• > Unlike ring game chips, tournament chips don’t have direct, immediate monetary value.
• > You can’t leave the table and pocket tournament chips as profit.
• > You’re paid out based on your finish position; before then your chips are worth equity but not actual cash.
• > Typically tournaments pay out approximately 10% of the field (most of the world’s best online mtt players cash somewhere between 12-17% of the time) on a sliding scale that’s generally very top heavy.

> The third difference is the blind levels (and, consequently, stacksizes).

• > In ring games, the blinds never change. If you’re playing $1/$2, the small and big blinds will always be $1 and $2 respectively.
• > Because of this and the point mentioned earlier that cash players can always “top up” their stack to 100bb deep, cash poker is almost always deeper stacked than tournament poker.
• > In tournaments, blinds consistently go up (although the number of levels in the structure and the time of each level varies by tournament).
• > While an online “deep stack” tournament may typically start at 10/20 with 3000 chips (150bbs deep, which is deeper than standard cash play), after an hour or two the average stack could easily be 50bb or less.
• > After the first 45 or so minutes of most online “turbo” tournaments, average stacks can be 12bbs or lower which means that the game basically becomes preflop shove-or-fold poker.

> The fourth difference is simpler.

• > When we sit at a fullring (9/10 handed cash game table) on most sites, play will be at least 8 handed the vast majority of the time.
• > At a 6max table, 90%+ of hands will take place with 5 or more players.
• > Tournaments (when making deep runs, at a final table, or playing a sitngo) are more frequently short handed.
• > In fact, to win a tournament, we have to win a heads up match against another opponent.

So how should we adjust our game to reflect these key differences? 

The first, most obvious thing to do is to make sure we can actually play the tournaments we sign up for!

• > An online large field regular speed or deep stack tournament can easily take 6 hours to complete, if not more!
• > Reaching the money typically happens somewhere around the 2 or 2 and a half hour mark.

> Realistically, we only make the money 10 or 15% of the time (and final table the tournament a fraction of a percent, assuming a large, multiple thousand player field, or just a few percent of the time in a multiple hundred player field), so it’s not like this will be an everyday occurrence if we’re just playing one or two tables at a time, but late in tournaments is where all the money is.

If you’ve invested 5 hours playing a tourney, have built a big stack, and are looking to convert a big score, how would you feel if you suddenly had to leave because you made plans with friends, or your wife/gf expects you to do something, or anything of that nature?

Of course, there will be emergencies that cannot be avoided. But not assuring that you have enough time to play to the end if you happen to run deep can cost you hundreds of dollars in equity from a single tournament, even something as low as a $3 or $5 buyin!

Micro and lowstakes tournaments (on pokerstars, the biggest real money poker site worldwide) almost always have thousands of dollars in the prize pool, so you can really cost yourself a lot if you have to leave late in a tourney.

Of course, this is why many players choose to play sit n goes.

• > An 18 man turbo sng (on pokerstars, again) takes about an hour start to finish.
• > So if I have 2 hours to play, I can fire up a session of 18 mans, load games for about an hour, stop loading after that time passes, and run out my games before I have to leave.
• > The time commitment for a sng is much less than for a large field tournament, where you must be prepared to commit many hours after the last game you register for starts.

While on a site like NoPayPOKER with small fields (so tourneys wrap up quicker) and less money on the line (sure, you might lose a few hundred FreeDs in equity, but that only equates to a couple bucks), this is much less of a problem.

In general you should always understand how long the games you start could take to finish, whether or not it’s 10 minutes for a hyperturbo, 45 minutes for a sng, or 8 hours for a large field mtt (multi-table tournament).

If you can’t block off the time, don’t start the game. Consider playing something shorter or sitting cash, where you can cut your session at any time.

Let’s take a brief look at how changing payout structures affect play

We’ll be taking a much more in-depth (and, you guessed it, mathematical) look at this in the near future, so this will be quite basic.

• > Play is entirely dictated by a tournament’s payout structure.  For example, consider a winner-take-all tournament.
• > We’re trying to make the most value every hand to gain all the chips in play.

> Contrast this with a (hypothetical) tournament that pays out the bottom 10% of the field (first 10% to bust).

• > The strategy for this type of tournament might be to go allin every hand and hope to lose, or to raise so we have 1 chip left, fold, and go allin the second hand.
• > Obviously this tournament isn’t real, and this will never be an ideal strategy.
• > But for now, trust me when I say that this applies to all different tournaments.

Payout structures dictate play – a winner-take-all tournament plays different from a satellite which pays the top 50 players equally which plays differently from a top heavy tournament paying 10% of the field (top heavy meaning top 3 get a large percentage of the prize pool) which plays differently from a bottom heavy (less for top 3, more for lower places percentage wise) tournament paying 10% of the field.

A couple articles from now we’ll take an exhaustive look at this. For now just try to realize this fact and dwell on how the differences might affect strategy.

• > A hint: flatter payout structures generally mean we should take less risks and play tighter. But try to get more detailed than that, if you have some time to think on it.
• > Add a reason to my hint if you can, as well.

Now we’re going to have a more in depth look at the third and fourth differences, changing blind levels (and stacksizes) and changing dynamics based on how many players are at the table.

• > As stacksizes decrease (relative to the big blind), play naturally becomes more aggressive.
• > If we’re 100bb deep early in the tournament, raising preflop to win the blinds (1.5bb) is a miniscule addition to our stack.
• > If we’re 8bb deep late, however, assuming a standard ante size of .2bb at a 10 man table we’re picking up 3.5bb, which represents an astonishing near 50% increase to our stack. Just for scooping the blinds!

This directly connects to the number of players at the table, as well.

• > With 10 people at the table there’s much less pressure on us to act because the blinds come around less often.
• > This is why in HU play it’s correct to be extremely aggressive while in ring games and early in tournaments we should be playing very very tight.
• > The blinds are very very important, especially in tournament play!
• > As tablesizes shrink, we’re paying the blinds that much more often.
• > Which means to maintain our current stacksize, we need to steal the blinds that much more.
• > But since blinds go up, maintaining our stacksize is actually shrinking our stack, as the most important measure is not the number of chips but the number of bbs we (and our opponents at the table) have.

> This cycle causes extremely aggressive (and correct) play to become the norm in tournaments when shallow stacked.

I’m going to cut the article here. I understand this is just a broad theoretical look at tournament poker. The next article will be much more practical – in fact, the most practical article I’ve written thus far.

I hope you’ve gained some understanding and this primes you for the next article, which should be out within a couple weeks.

As always, feel free to comment on the articles on facebook, on the articles themselves, on my NPP page, or by emailing me at duncelanas@hotmail.com. Questions, comments, concerns, suggestions…all is welcome! Good luck at the tables and see you soon!

Previous article – part 4

For many more free online poker lessons and the rest of Justins series see the poker lessons directory page.

Here it is, the latest free online poker article looking poker math and how it’s used in the the young aggressive style of play known to many as school 3 poker. Read and learn my friends

Hi again, everyone! Sorry for the delay in this article, what with Thanksgiving holidays, some gift shopping, getting sick, and setting up a new computer I’ve been relatively busy recently and haven’t made time to write another article. My apologies! Hopefully things will quiet down now and we’ll be getting back to roughly 1 article per week.

Today’s article is going to focus on some basic poker math, from basic tips and tricks to applying math at the table to help you make profitable decisions. I don’t really want to waste more time on the intro, so on to the poker! 

Some people may be surprised that poker is a math-based game.

When it comes down to it, poker is all about percentages, frequencies, and concepts like implied odds. Sure, there are elements of chance in poker. The best player in the world can lose for 10,000 hands, and even the worst players are sure to win big pots at times.

But making profitable decisions all boils down to the math. Odds of hitting your cards, weighting your opponents’ ranges towards certain hands, and understanding how to exploit your opponents based on their tendencies (which can be broken down into percentages).

Basics First

As with any topic (in poker or in general), we should thoroughly ground ourselves in the basics of poker math before moving on to more complex mathematical topics (things like balance, ICM, and equilibrium play (and no, I don’t expect you guys to have any idea what those mean! Don’t worry!)).

Fortunately, basic poker math is very simple, and there are several easy-to-remember tricks to help you with your calculations.

2 Core Concepts

The two most basic math concepts in poker are calculating your outs (and consequently your percentage chance of hitting one of them), and calculating pot odds. 

For those who don’t know, an “out” is a card that you feel will improve your hand to the best hand.

> Let’s say you know your opponent has top pair on the flop, and you have 4 clubs (2 in your hand and 2 on the board).
>There are 13 cards of each suit in the deck, and you know that if you hit a pair your opponent will still have a better hand than you.
> There are 9 (13-4) clubs left in the deck – for now, we’ll consider it irrelevant that your opponent may hold a club – out of the 47 cards left unknown (you know 5, your 2 hole cards and the 3 on the flop), 9 are clubs.
> You also know that since your opponent has top pair, if you hit a club you’ll improve to the best hand, so the 9 clubs are your outs.

Here’s a simple rule of thumb which is very very important.

> On each postflop street, any given card has about a 2% chance of coming (1/47 on the turn, 1/46 on the river).

> Therefore, you have approximately an 18% chance to hit on the turn, and another 18% chance to hit on the river.

If you’re placed in a situation where you’re forced allin, you realize the 36% chance to hit one of your 9 outs (18% on 2 streets), but remember that you may face another bet on the turn if you’re not allin, so you may have to fold before seeing the river.

For the sake of simplicity, we’ll assume the odds of hitting runner-runner 2 pair, a runner-runner straight, etc is negligible (in reality you maybe have 9.25 or 9.5 outs as opposed to just 9). 

Pot Odds

Are also extremely important, as without understanding the concept of pot odds we really have no idea if a call will be profitable (in postflop spots and allin spots especially).

Let’s say we’re HU and each player has 10bb stacks.

> Player 1 goes allin preflop. Player 2 has to decide whether to fold or call.

> The pot is now 11bbs (10bb from player 1 and the bb posted by player 2), so player 2 has to decide whether or not to call 9bb for the chance to win 11bb.

This is generally expressed as a ratio, the size of the pot to the size of the call needed. In this instance, the pot odds would be 11:9 (11 to 9). Simplified, this is approximately 1.2:1. 

This means that for a profitable call, player 2 has to win 1 time for every 1.2 times they lose (or, in other words, once out of every 2.2 times).

When a player is getting 1 to 1 on their money, they need to win the pot 50% of the time to break even calling. They’re profitable if they win any more than that.

Getting 2 to 1, a player needs to win only 33% of the time to break even calling (1 win for every 2 losses, or 1 win out of every 3 pots). This is why when we’re short stacked it’s correct to go allin lighter and call allin bets wider.

The blinds represent a large percentage of our chipstacks, giving us the pot odds to call (remember, if we’re even winning 35% of the time getting 2 to 1 it’s a profitable call). 

The key with pot odds is to put your opponent on a range of hands and calculate the equity of your hand against that range. This is tricky, and requires lots of practice.

When faced with a call or fold situation, though, it comes down to estimating your outs against your opponent’s range (count your outs and use the rule of 2% and 4%) and compare that to the pot odds you’re getting.

In the example above where we had 9 outs on the flop with a flush draw, our call is profitable if we’re getting roughly 2 to 1 or better.

We have ~36% chance to hit our flush and win the hand, and getting 2 to 1 pot odds we need to win 1 time in 3, which is 33%. So we should call, as we make money long term even though we win the pot well under half the time.

If we’re getting 1 to 1 odds, though, we need to win half the time. We only win ~36% of the time, so we can easily fold.

It’s important to remember, though, that pot odds are only perfect in call-or-fold spots when our calling ends the action in the hand, either because our opponent is allin or it’s on the river and our call or fold will end the hand.

When there’s future action (we decide to call on the flop and there’s turn play), pot odds won’t be perfect for our turn decision, even though it’s rarely if ever wrong to fold when we’re getting direct odds to call (we have 9 outs on the flop and are getting 8 to 1 when we only need about 4 to 1 (20%, we have ~18% equity) to continue, for example). 

Warning, now it gets more complicated.

If you’ve grasped everything up to this point, you’ve already learned some important concepts from this article.

If you have trouble understanding this, feel free to contact me (details at the end of the article) or come back to it at a later point. This is an intermediate concept in a series geared towards beginners. 

Implied Odds

For spots where there’s future play, there’s another (slightly) more complex concept, called implied odds.

Calculating implied odds is an attempt to estimate how much future value we get out of our hand when we do hit. While calculating outs and pot odds are an exact science (we have a 36% chance to hit by the river and are getting 2 to 1 on an allin, so we call!), implied odds are just an estimate and are imperfect at best.

The best way to illustrate the concept of implied odds is by setting up an example with super deep stacks.

> Let’s say we’re HU against an opponent and we’re each 10,000bbs deep.

> Our opponent raises to 3bb preflop and we call.

> We flop a 4 flush.

> Our opponent bets pot (6bb).

> We’re only ~18% chance to hit (assuming our 9 flush outs are good) on the turn and we’re getting 1 to 1 (need to hit 50% of the time for our call to be directly profitable), so according to pot odd calculations we should fold.

Implied odds, however, are attempting to estimate our future value when we do hit.

> Let’s say we call and hit the turn.

> On the turn, our opponent bets pot again (now 18bb, 6bb due to preflop action plus his 6bb bet on the flop and our 6bb call).

> We flat again.

> Our opponent pots river (now 54bb due to the 18bb pot on turn plus the 36bb bet and call), and we raise to 150bb and get called by our opponent’s top pair.

Even though we weren’t getting the pot odds (also called direct odds) to call on the flop, we called 6bb on the flop for the chance of winning a much larger pot when we do hit (due to our opponent’s turn and river bets).

Against an opponent who will be aggressively betting the turn and river a high percentage of the time, we can definitely call the flop bet (and maybe even the turn bet) even when we know we don’t have the best hand.

> In the example, calling 6bb on the flop allowed us to win a ~300bb  pot on the river.
> That’s ~300:6, or ~50:1!
> We effectively got ~50:1 on our money, and we only needed ~4:1 (remember, 9 outs = ~18% to hit on each future card). 

But this is where implied odds is an imperfect science.

While in the specific example I gave we did effectively get 50:1, let’s say our opponent pots turn and river with any hand, but only calls our river raise with top pair.

> Let’s also say our opponent has top pair 20% of the time (just making up a number here).

In that case, our calculation becomes more complicated.

> On the turn our opponent puts in another 18bbs every time, and on the river our opponent puts in another 54bbs every time, but our raise to 150 is only called 20% of the time.

> This means that the value of our raise is 30bbs (150x.2).

> So long term, we have to call 6bbs on the flop to win 102bbs (18 on turn + 54 on river bet + 30 from our river raise).

Our implied odds aren’t 50:1 here, they’re 102:6, or 17:1. This is far better than the ~4:1 we needed to call the flop, so it’s still profitable of course.

But in reality the calculations are far more clouded.

> Let’s say our opponent is only betting the turn with top pair and is shutting down on the river without top pair top kicker?

> Or our opponent is betting top pair on the turn only 70% of the time and is betting the turn as a bluff 15% of the time (with his bluff range)?

> It’s not really feasible to sit at the table (or at your computer) trying to calculate the exact implied odds of a play.

Implied odds are at best only an estimate, and in reality will never be perfect. This is unlike pot odds, which are just a brute mathematical concept.

To try and more accurately “guess” implied odds, we need to think about our opponent’s tendencies (as usual).

> If our opponent is loose and aggressive, our implied odds are usually much higher than our direct odds.

> If our opponent is tight and nitty, our implied odds and direct odds are usually closer.

Generally, though, the concept of implied odds teaches us that it’s often profitable to draw even when we don’t have the direct odds to do so.

We have to estimate our implied odds to know what the “true” cutoff is for when chasing our draws is mathematically unprofitable, but this is informed guesswork at best and it takes a lot of practice to even be passable at.

It has to do with putting our opponent on an accurate range and accurately assessing what they’ll do at each future action with each part of that range. 

Reverse Implied Odds

The last concept I’ll introduce here is called reverse-implied odds. 

We have to take into account those times when we hit our outs and we still don’t have the best hand.

This can be through our (assumed) out either improving us and our opponent (ex. we hit our flush out but it gives our opponent a higher flush), or our opponent still having a better hand than us if we hit (ex. we turn top pair but our opponent has a set).

In general, calculating reverse-implied odds is much simpler than calculating implied odds.

When we put our opponent on a range, there will be hands that improve when we improve, and this is easy to account for.

> Let’s say we have a queen high flush draw on the flop and our opponent’s range is top pair+ (top pair, overpairs, any 2 pair hand, any set) and any flush draw.

> We should realize that this range includes ace high and king high flush draws as well as 2 pairs and sets which can improve to boats even when we hit our flush.

If you were able to grasp the math presented in the implied odds segment, you’ll definitely be able to figure out the math behind this (hint: relate implied potsize to percentage that villain’s range improves to beat your hand when you hit and subtract this from implied potsize, then recalculate implied odds with the new potsize), so I won’t delve into that too deeply.

Again, the degree to which reverse-implied odds affect your implied odds varies greatly.

> Against a wide, aggressive opponent it will generally be pretty negligible

> While against a meganit who only raises with the nuts it will be quite substantial (at times even making your implied odds less than your direct odds, although extremely rarely). 

Complex section over, closing and some advice

I know the implied odds and reverse-implied odds sections were quite a bit to handle and were a bit beyond the scope of a beginner series.

That said, they’re important concepts to understand (even if you don’t utilize that understanding effectively at first), and a free online poker site like NoPayPOKER is a great place to play until you have a solid understanding of the game and can make the jump to real money play.

> I would also suggest downloading pokerstove (http://www.pokerstove.com/) or Equilab (http://www.pokerstrategy.com/software/10/), both of which are free, and messing around in them to see how the equity of different hands matches up against various ranges.

I’ll probably write an article on these (and other) tools at some point, but for now just mess around and see how hand strength changes with regard to board texture, against different ranges, in multiway pots, etc.

In order to use pot odds and implied odds, you need to be able to accurately estimate your equity against your opponent’s range, and you might learn some things that surprise you! 

If you have questions about any of the concepts in the article (estimating outs, pot odds, implied odds, reverse-implied odds) or about the tools I recommended (pokerstove and equilab), feel free to comment on the article here, on the NPP facebook page, talk to me (gloves22) in NPP chat, leave me a NPP pm, or email me at duncelanas@hotmail.com 

Good luck at the tables! 

-Gloves

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In this free online poker article Gloves looks at postflop play against the 4 main player types of loose-tight + passive-aggressive in free poker and nano stakes online poker games. Justin, over to you:

For quite some time, I didn’t know exactly what to write about in my third article. Many ideas floated through my head – cover variance perhaps, or start covering tournament strategy and how it’s fundamentally different from cash strategy.

However, while I’ll definitely cover those topics in the future, the title of this series again sprang to mind. “From the Ground Up”. And I realized that in part one some general poker mindset concepts were covered and in part two some general preflop concepts and strategy was covered (and I also introduced hand ranges, which will come into major play in this article – go back and read the hand range section in part 2 if you need a refresher).

So, logically, it makes sense to continue just as if we were progressing in a poker hand. So we get to the flop with a solid hand (remember, no playing trash!)…but, now what?

And postflop play, in my opinion, is really what makes poker such a complex, beautiful game.

Hopefully by the end of this article you readers will both see this as well as know how to play a solid postflop style.

Postflop play is the weakest aspect of most poker players’ games (including mine, no doubt!).

In poker, there are 4 different styles of player (tight/loose) + (passive/aggressive).

In the nanostakes (NPP games and real money games through 5nl (.02/.05 blinds)), each of these player types make a few key mistakes. Hopefully, we’ll look at each player type in depth and discuss how to exploit them.

First, you have the loose-aggressive (LAG) “maniac”

> These are the guys who are betting and/or raising way too often.
> They’ll often cbet (bet flop after raising preflop) almost 100% and will also bet turn and river far too often (keep in mind we hit ~33% of flops long-term).

The trick to playing these guys is to realize that their range in any given spot is extremely wide. What this means is that if you flop second or third pair, calling their bets and raises is often hugely profitable because they’re betting repeatedly with absolutely nothing so often.

They’re somewhat difficult to play against because it takes a lot of guts – calling 3 streets (each a relatively large bet, usually) with third pair weak kicker is not particularly easy, but you have to realize that against some of these guys third pair is basically the same as top pair and so you just shouldn’t fold.

That doesn’t mean to always call down any pair against these players (because there are varying degrees of maniacs; some players will really be betting and raising 100% of the time while others are betting and raising too often but not extremely so).

Another thing to note is that your draws (and as such, suited and connected hands preflop) go way up in value because if you hit your draw you’ll often get paid off bigtime (this is a concept known as implied odds, but I won’t elaborate on this until a later article).

So ultimately against these players pair hands go up in value and draws go up in value. Pay attention at the tables to get a good feel for a player’s range (is he a true spewing maniac, or is he just hyper-aggressive) and try to make these profitable “thin” (not super easy) calldowns against these players.

In general, you should also be waiting for the river to raise these players with your strong hands because they’re going to be betting all 3 streets anyway; you lose lots of value if you raise flop or turn and get them to fold.

A second major player type is the loose-passive (LP) “calling station”

> These guys are often limping or calling hands preflop and not raising very often.
> Postflop they often check-call down while only betting or raising their very strong hands.

These players are very very easy to play against, and you run into tons and tons of them in nanostakes games. Basically, you just want to widen your valuebetting range against these players and never bluff.

So you can often bet down (bet all 3 streets) with hands like weak top pair and even second pair against many of them and just check/fold your bluff hands. When you get raised, you should realize that your second pair and even top pair hands become pretty worthless and you should generally be folding (although again, it depends on the specific opponent).

Draws are also very easy to play against these guys. When we have a draw, we can just check down until we hit and then we can just start betting for value.

Out of position, don’t be afraid to lead on flop and turn if you hit a pair – in nanostakes games you won’t be exploited by these loose-passive players for doing this (against some loose-aggressive and tight-aggressive players you might be) and since they’re unlikely to bet (they’re passive) you will gain value in doing this.

A third major player type is the tight-aggressive (TAG) “ABC Player”.

> In microstakes games, these are generally the most solid opponents you’ll face, but thankfully they’re also pretty rare.

The articles in this series even advocate playing a solid, thinking TAG style.

As you move up in stakes, the real sharks tend to be LAGs, but at micros LAG players make tons of mistakes (generally being overaggressive in bad spots), and it’s also tougher to pull off bluffs (remember, LAG players bluff a lot in order to put constant pressure on their opponents).

> Basically, TAG is how we should be playing at these stakes and we should generally avoid getting into large pots with other TAGs.

> A standard TAG player will be opening reasonable ranges preflop, typically for raises, and they’ll generally be the postflop aggressor as well.

They’ll be cbetting pretty wide but shutting down on later streets a fair amount and they’re very unlikely to spew off their stacks by check-raising or betting down with air.

That said, they also won’t be calling down with their weak pair hands (think second pair and often top pair hands) or draws (without proper odds); they’ll just be generally getting out of the way OOP (Out of position) when they have nothing and playing a solid style IP (In Position) that’s hard to exploit centered around playing solid hand ranges and betting often for value and to get folds out of other tags and tight-passive players.

They don’t get out of line too much. The way to profit out of these guys (when IP) is to cbet flop wide (you’ll get a lot of folds) and to generally slow down if you’re raised.

When you’re OOP, the only real way to exploit these players is to be check/raising flop and turn wide, but you don’t really want to be check/raising with air against thinking players especially at nanos, it’s just super high variance, unnecessary, and will lead to a lot of ugly spots (like when you get flatted after c/ring).

Again, TAG is the style of play we should be emulating as it’s just all-around solid and hard to exploit – don’t get out of line too much (unless you have a read or some other reason to), pick your spots, and get lots of value from other players’ mistakes.

The final major player type is the tight-passive (TP) “rock”

> These players are also pretty common at nanostakes games.
> They often limp in as opposed to raising, and while they call as opposed to 3betting (reraising preflop) they don’t play very many hands as a standard.

They’ll rarely raise you postflop without a true nut hand (think sets or better, usually) and won’t call down without hitting a strong piece of the board (typically top pair).

Thankfully, their tendencies also make them simple to play against.

Their ranges are typically limited to pocket pairs and high card hands (KQ, AJ+ for example), so a ton of middling flops (T84r for example) can be cbet basically 100% as we’ll get folds a ton of the time. We should basically be cbetting flops very wide and shutting down on turn/river if called on flop without a good reason for continuing.

If we have a strong top pair or better, we should continue betting down after the flop. With our draws, we can again check it down until we improve and then bet (although we will rarely get value in those spots).
They’re really straightforward – they only raise with the nuts and are folding too often, so we should raise a lot and bet a lot of flops to profit against them.

Now that we have a solid grasp on the 4 main player types and how to exploit them (but remember, everything is in degrees!

Some TAGs are almost LAG, some TPs are almost LPs, etc…so you have to adjust your play to your individual opponents, these player types are just a tool to help you do that!), I’m going to touch a little bit on a more advanced postflop concept, and it might just blow your minds.

The way we play our hand CHANGES the hand our opponent has.

Think about this for a minute. I haven’t asked you to do an exercise this week, so now would be a good time…grab that notepad and write down why you feel this statement is true or false. Much less work than the last article for sure, where I asked you all to approximate a whole bunch of hand ranges and to provide reasoning for the similarities and differences!

The key to understanding why this concept is true is understanding that poker is not a game of hands, poker is a game of RANGES.

This is another amazing reason why ranges are one of if not THE most important poker concepts to understand.

To illustrate, let’s give an example. Let’s say we’re on the button and it folds around to us.

> We decide we’re going to open (22+, A7o+, A2s+, KTo+, K9s+, QJo, QJs, JTs). That’s 23.4% of hands.
> Now let’s say we’re on the button and there was a raise and a 3bet before us.
> We decide we’re only gonna raise (QQ+, AKs) in this spot.
> We’re still on the button preflop, but now we’re only playing 1.7% of hands!

This applies to postflop play as well – if our villain has x range, when we check/raise if he opts to continue his range is DIFFERENT than if we had just called.

Our actions directly affect the range of hands it’s possible for our opponents to have in any given spot. I’m going to let you guys mull over why this is important for a while.

In the future, I’ll definitely delve into it, but for now just think on it and why it might be important to understand, as the true meaning behind this is dense enough to merit its own article.

A few words of conclusion:
I’m aware that thus far things have been more theoretical than practical, and that’s for a number of reasons.

First off, poker is a very fluid, dynamic game, and I find giving specific advice for a general situation is a flawed way of doing things.

In addition, however, this series is about building your game from the ground up. Hopefully we’re establishing a sound theoretical base for a solid poker game with which you guys learn to think about poker (general to specific, as opposed to the other way around).

At that point, you can analyze your game and specific situations yourselves (although poker buddies to talk specific spots with are a great help always, and you can contact me with any comments/suggestions as well as questions (pertaining to the article or just general) by commenting on the articles, on the NPP facebook page, on my blog, or by email at duncelanas@hotmail.com) in addition to getting more into advanced poker concepts (which are really just extensions of these concepts I’m teaching you now, although some are counter-intuitive).

In the coming weeks, however, things will be a little more concrete (at least for some articles), as I have one planned on implied odds and draws already as well as some future thoughts for delving into some basic to intermediate poker math.

Hope you’ve all enjoyed, and the next article should be up in about a week!

-Gloves

Check out Gloves lesson 1 in this series here – Patience on steroids “Common Sense Poker”

Check out Gloves lesson 2 in this series here – Hand Ranges, Playable Pockets, Table Position and Limping

Check out Justins personal blog here (more advanced stuff)

Check out all the pro written NoPayPOKER.com lessons on the free online poker training page

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• how to exploit loose aggressive preflop tight passive post flop

Hey everyone, Gloves here again with part 2 of my “From the Ground Up” series. As outlined in part 1, the purpose of this series is to take your poker game to the “next level” and to get you thinking about the game analytically with a true poker mindset. This is no easy task – poker is a very deep game and one could write pages on even a single hand, and even the best in the world are learning and improving everyday.

That said, everyone’s gotta start somewhere, right? In the first article, I focused on the single most important ability for any poker player to have. 

The long version of this is “to evaluate every decision you’re presented with, take into account all the information you have, and make the best action”. Or, in short “think about every spot, try not to make mistakes”. Even shorter: “Use common sense”, or even just “think!”

In part 2, we’re going to get more practical. Again we’re going to be mirroring DM Vadnais’ series, this time in talking about playable hole cards and the importance of position.

In part 1, the only “practical” advice I gave was “start with better hands than our opponents by playing relatively tight preflop”.

That was (and is) quite sound advice, but what hands should we be playing and what hands should we be folding?

> How do our opponents’ tendencies affect that?

> How does our table position affect that?

> How does action before us affect that?

Hopefully, by the end of this article, you’ll have solid answers to these questions and be on your way to really thinking like a poker player.

Understanding Hand Ranges – The most important single poker skill of all

Before I get into that, though, I’m going to define and explain a term necessary to cover poker strategy on any level above absolute beginner. This term is “hand range”.

Basically, the term “hand range” means “the range of hands it’s possible for my opponent to have”.

Let’s say your opponent is super tight and reraises you big preflop.
An example range for them to have is (QQ,KK,AA). You don’t know which of these hands they have, but you know they have one of these 3 hands, so that’s their range.

When writing a range, though, you don’t write out every possible hand in the range. The range of (QQ, KK, AA) is shortened to (QQ+), meaning any pocket pair QQ or above. Writing (KTo+) would mean any offsuit king KT or above (so KT, KJ, KQ – note not AK because the highest card is always written first).

An “o” designation means offsuit, while an “s” designation means suited (ex: K8o+, K7s+ means any offsuit king K8 or above and any suited king K7 and above).

Understanding ranges is hands down the most important SKILL a poker player has – so if you don’t understand this section, reread it, and if you still have questions, feel free to contact me – I’ll get back to you quickly. While this is only examining ranges at the most basic level, I cannot stress how important understanding the concept of a hand range is.

Now that we (hopefully!) understand the concept of a hand range, we can get to the good stuff. I think again I’m going to ask you to grab a pad and a pen and do a couple exercises. In fact, I kinda like this concept, so I might just ask you guys to jot down some stuff each week.

Of course nothing is required, but it should help you to express some of these concepts on paper. It’ll also give you something to look back on a month or two from now and say “Man, look how much I’ve improved!” and also will make for a good review companion, so I strongly encourage taking a few minutes to jot down some answers.

Pretend you’re at a 10 handed NoPayPOKER table playing against people you’ve never seen before.
> It’s your first hand at the table, so you have absolutely no reads.

> Let’s say it folds around to you and you’re on the button.

> You, the small blind, and the big blind are all deep-stacked.

> What range of hands do you open for a raise? (try to write using the range notation I just explained!)

Alright, same table. We’ve played some hands now and we know that both the small blind and big blind are very tight.
> What range of hands are we raising now?

> How about if the small blind is tight but the big blind is loose?

> And finally: How are these 3 ranges different and why?

> How are they similar and why?

Yes, I know I’m asking you to take a few minutes to really invest some thought into these situations and your reasoning behind the differences. Hopefully, though, after reading this article you’ll be able to look at your thoughts and already see a flaw in your thinking.

Or maybe you’ll see that you’re really on the right track! Then after some play, some thought, and some time, you can look at it again and see how you’ve improved your thought processes. That’s why I’m asking you to do these things – so I can help you better, and so even away from my articles you learn to think about your own game and keep on improving.

In fact, if you’re so inclined, feel free to message me (either pm me on NPP or email me at duncelanas@hotmail.com) with your answers to these questions, and I can look over what you send to offer some personal insight on your poker thinking.

Playable hole cards

Now that you’ve put some thought into the exercises (at least some of you!), it’s time to delve into the topic of playable hole cards.

When it comes to what cards we should be playing when action comes to us, there are 3 important factors to consider:

- The action which occurred before our turn to act.
- Our table position
- Our opponents’ tendencies

The first point is pretty self explanatory. If there’s been a raise, a 3bet, and a 4bet all before action has reached us, we should definitely be folding our pocket 9s even though if it folded to us we should be opening them for a raise. The general idea is that most of the times we play a hand we should be opening for a raise as opposed to calling our opponents’ opens.

As such, we should be playing tighter generally and 3betting our strong hands. I’m not going to get into specific adjustments here, just understanding that when our opponents open we need to be tighter is enough for now.

The second point is one that many beginning players don’t think about. At a 10 handed table (or a 6 handed table, 4 handed table…any size table, really), we should be opening progressively wider as we get closer to the button.

There are 2 main reasons for this.

1) First is the fact that because there are less opponents to act behind us, there’s a smaller chance of someone being dealt a playable hand and as such a better chance of everyone folding and us taking the blinds (which is very significant, actually).

2) Second is because we’ll have position on our opponents postflop.

What does this mean? Well, when we’re on the button (for example), our opponents will have to make their action before us on every street. What this means is that we get to act with more information than them at every single point in the hand.

Again, it’s hard to state how huge of an advantage this is (seriously, I wrote 2 pretty lengthy blog posts just on this topic). Basically, the fact that we get to see what our opponent chooses to do before we have to act is a huge advantage.

Maybe our opponent leads into us, showing strength, so we fold our weak hand that we would have continuation bet. Maybe our opponent checks to us, so we continuation bet with absolutely nothing and get him to fold cause he shows weakness.

In every single postflop situation, having position on your opponent will be an advantage. While your opponent has no idea what you have (beyond the fact that you elected to play it preflop), YOU know both that your opponent elected to play their hand preflop AND how they reacted to the flop.

This is such a huge advantage that in heads-up (1-on-1) play, it’s even profitable to open 80% of button hands (including trash like T4o and 85o) just because you get to play the hand in position.

So as we have better table position, our opening ranges should naturally open up.

The third (and also very important) point to consider is our opponents’ tendencies.

> If the big blind is going allin every single hand, we shouldn’t be opening wide from the button at all – because we’ll have to fold to his shove with our weaker holdings.

> If the players left to act behind us are tight, we should loosen up because we have a better shot at stealing the blinds.

If the players behind us are loose and aggressive, there are 2 adjustments we should make.
> The first is that we should should tighten up some because we’ll be 3bet a fair amount and we’re not scooping the blinds very often.
> The second is that we should play more high card hands and less suited connector type hands.

That’s because against a loose aggressive opponent, we can play a hand like KJo, flop top pair, and get it allin and be happy with our play.

However, if we have 87s, when we flop top pair and are faced with lots of aggression, when we get it in we’ll often be dominated by stronger top pairs or hands with more outs against us.

And against this type of opponent, when we miss with our 87s and cbet the flop we’re unlikely to get many folds and our hand has less equity. So high-card hands go up in value while middle connectors go down.

Ultimately, though, it’s very hard to give concrete advice in general situations. Sure, I could give ton of example ranges to play as “a certain stack depth against a certain player type in a certain position with a certain gameflow”, but it’s just not practical.

Of course, there are some hands we’ll almost always be playing (JJ+, AQ+ for example), and some hands we’ll basically never be playing (complete trash, like 52o), but for tons of suited connectors, suited one gappers, pocket pairs, and midstrength hands in general the answer to what you should play and when is “it depends on the situation”.

The great thing about NPP is that it’s a free online poker site – you can change around your ranges and see what works and what doesn’t, how you should adjust in certain spots, etc. with absolutely no monetary loss. So experiment away!

Just remember to internalize the concepts and apply them, and your experiments will lead in a good direction.

Again, generally:

- Play tighter in early position, looser in late position
- Play tighter against loose players, looser against tight players (preflop)
- Play tighter against aggressive players, looser against passive players (preflop)
- Play tighter if there has been action before you
- Almost always play your premiums, almost never play trash

I suppose I should give a couple examples to illustrate. Although they won’t be a complete guide position by position, hopefully you’ll get an idea of how to account for different villain types and a general idea of how important position is.

- Under the gun (first position) 10 handed example range: (TT+, AQo+, AJs+)
- Button range vs tight blinds: (22+, A2o+, A2s+, K6o+, K5s+, Q9o+, Q8s+, JTo, JTs, T9s, 98s, 87s, 76s)
- Button range vs loose blinds: (22+, A7o+, A2s+, K8o+, K8s+, QTo+, Q9s+, JTs)
- Button range readless: (22+, A7o+, A2s+, K8o+, K7s+, Q9o+, Q9s+, JTs, T9s, 98s)

Limping – What’s it all about and when should you do it?

Now we’ll discuss the one topic left relatively uncovered thus far – limping.

When should we limp preflop? The answer is almost never.

There are, however, a couple situations where we could and should be limping.

> First is a spot where we’re against a loose passive opponent with a marginal hand. Basically, when our opponent is rarely folding to a raise, isn’t attacking our limp often, and our hand isn’t particularly strong but is strong enough to see a flop.

> Second (and much much more common, especially in free poker playmoney and microstakes games), is in what’s known as a limpede.

A limpede is basically when a whole bunch of players decide to limp preflop (limp+stampede = limpede!)

We should join in these “limpedes” when we have either suited connectors or low pocket pairs.

Basically, we’re joining the limpede because we have the chance to flop a very strong hand (in the case of suited connectors, a flush, straight, or combo draw, while with pocket pairs we’re trying to flop a set) for very cheap.

Our goal is ONLY to flop a very strong hand – if we don’t (even if we have something like second pair or a weak top pair) most of the time we’re going to be giving up and check/folding the flop.

That pretty much brings my second article to a conclusion. Remember, feel free to contact me with any questions/comments/concerns you may have (and your ranges and reasoning for the exercises I gave you – I’ll let you know if you’re on the right track!) either by commenting on the article, my blog (which I’ll update soon, I promise!) sending me a NPP pm, or emailing me at duncelanas@hotmail.com . Hope you enjoyed the read and learned something! Good luck at the tables, talk to you guys soon!

- Gloves

Check out Gloves lesson 1 in this series here Patience on steroids “Common Sense Poker”

Check out gloves personal blog here (more advanced stuff)

Check out all the pro written NoPayPOKER.com lessons on the free online poker training page

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Free Online Poker for beginners part 1

A big welcome to Justin (Gloves), NoPayPOKER’s newest poker writer. He is a full time online poker pro and also enjoys the free online poker games at NoPay. He has generously offered to write online poker training lessons for us in order to help any all of you (who want to be helped play better, more successful poker online. See his About Me section below for more info.

So, Gloves, over to you:

Let’s be honest. There are some players here on NPP who just enjoy pressing the allin button and having their fingers crossed while the board runs out. There are some who are here to sit in chat and make friends without playing a serious game of poker.

There are some who really don’t care about improving, about playing solidly, who just want a casual game – and while they may not be here just to gamble they think “This feels right, so I’m gonna do it! I don’t care if it’s wrong, it’s good enough for me!”. There are plenty of guys just like this – NPP is a free online poker site after all – and while I hold nothing against these people and wish them all the best, if you’re one of them, this series really won’t be for you.

However, if you are:

> A beginning player who doesn’t know where to go next to improve.
> A casual player with some interest in becoming better at poker, making more profit each month, and maybe eventually dipping into real money poker.
> Or a serious recreational player looking to plug leaks and learn to beat NPP and microstakes real money games solidly.

Then hopefully this series will motivate you to work hard and improve your game while giving you the tools to do it.

I will assume that you guys know the basic structure and rules of a NLHE game – if you don’t, I believe DM Vadnais has written an excellent series for true poker beginners which goes over the rules, hand rankings, and various odds and ends you need to know to understand the mechanics of what’s “going on” at the tables (even if you don’t understand why!).

About Me
I suppose since this is my first article, I should give a bit of background on myself. My name’s Justin; I’ve been playing poker of various formats for a few years now. I started out grinding low stakes SNGs (18 man turbos, to be exact) on stars, did some dabbling in MTTs (successful) and cash games (not so much…) before I finally found my niche in  husngs (1vs1 games). I currently am a poker pro – playing poker is my sole source of income – and I hope to continue this throughout college (yes, I’m that young) and maybe beyond.

I’m currently grinding $60 hyperturbo HUSnGs with plans to move up to $100′s soon (and maybe eventually beyond). Basically I’m the prototypical “young internet grinder” who can make a decent hourly at midstakes HU games and is excited to write about poker to an audience interested in learning and improving their games.

While I’ve written a few strategy pieces on my NPP blog (and will continue to cover more advanced concepts and musings there), I’ve never had the opportunity to really write poker articles to a larger audience – so please bear with me especially for the first few of these!

If there are any questions, comments, or suggestions, don’t hesitate to post either on the article or on my blog, to send me a NPP message, or email me at duncelanas@hotmail.com . I’ll address every comment I get to the best of my ability (and the ones I receive privately will remain that way), so fire away! I know asking questions of players better than myself helped me when I was a beginner (and even more so now that I’m more advanced), so you guys shouldn’t be afraid to ask ANYTHING! There really are no bad questions.

With all that out of the way, let’s get on to some free online poker talk.

What is the key to being a good poker player? Stop and consider this for a moment. If you’re up for the exercise, grab a pad and jot down some thoughts as to what the answer might be.

This “golden question”, if you will, may seem like the end all be all in poker. I can hear some thoughts drifting through your minds: “I bet it’s “soulreading” our opponent’s hand!”;“Is there some secret strategy which makes players successful?”;”It’s pulling off that huge bluff, isn’t it?”.

The answer is none of these. The key to becoming a solid poker player is to make reasoned, logical decisions at every opportunity. In other words, to “use common sense at all times”. I know, seems like a real copout, doesn’t it? Common sense? “Psh!” you say…”I have plenty of common sense and I’m not winning much at all!”. But common sense, you’ll come to realize, just isn’t that common when it comes to poker.

The failing most people have in this area is how they view poker.

> Many think of poker like some sort of slot machine, something along the lines of “I’m feeling lucky! Let’s gamble!”.
> Another common misstep is the “Oh, it’s just playmoney!” view.
> In reality, poker is a skill based game where making good decisions directly correlates to long term profits.

While the result of each hand, tournament, and session is heavily influenced by luck, in the long run skill wins out and the players playing a profitable style will…well…profit!

If you just start to think of poker in this way – if all you ever take from this entire series is that poker is a skill game and playing better will lead to direct profits – I will be happy (although not satisfied, cause I hope you get a lot more out of it than that!).

When you view poker in this way, you see that “common sense” really is the key to winning at poker.

Those big bluffs you see top pros make on tv? They all have incredibly solid (and often somewhat complex) reasoning behind them. The internet pros making tens to hundreds of thousands per year? They make their money by grinding out a high volume of hands playing a style more solid than their opponents’.

Even on NoPayPoker, it stands to reason that better poker players profit more than the worse ones. This is seemingly obvious, and yet is missed by so many people.

So how do you win at poker? By structuring your game around sound fundamentals and a solid foundation of poker knowledge (hence the title, From the Ground Up).

DM Vadnais starts off his “Building a Bankroll” series (which targets the same audience as this does) with an article about how “patience” is the most important skill a poker player could have. While I disagree with him on a great deal of things in his writing (which is part of the reason I asked to write this series), I think he was really on the mark there.

My “key”, to use “common sense”, is really just a more general way to say that (although it expands much further than just “patience”).

How does “use common sense” equate to “be patient” in a poker game?

> Well in a standard NLHE (no-limit Hold’em) hand, each player gets 2 cards facedown before any betting (excluding the posting of blinds) takes place.
> Applying the “be patient” reasoning, we wind up with something like “We should wait for hands we can play profitably and then play those because we’ll profit.
> Since relatively few hands can be played profitably, we’ll be tight preflop.”
> Applying the “use common sense” reasoning, we wind up with “Well, poker is a game where we make money from our opponents.
> If we invest money with stronger hands than them, we’ll profit against them.

Therefore, we should only play stronger hands preflop so we can profit, and as such should generally play tight.”.

Where I feel the “common sense” concept outstrips the “patience” concept is in the fact that the “common sense” line of thought is much more logical in the reasoning it lends to your decisions.

It’s the difference between “this hand is profitable so we play it” and “this hand is profitable because…so we play it”, which I feel is ultimately quite significant when trying to build a game on solid foundations.

We want to know what we’re doing at all times – but more importantly WHY we’re doing it beyond just thinking “oh, I read this in an article”.

My blog posts on poker decision making goes into this in quite some detail, although they might be well over the head of some readers of this article (that’s fine, though, this series and my writings as a whole will hopefully help take your game from its current point to the point where you can understand my blog posts with ease).

So we’ve established that the way to win at poker is to make profitable decisions based on our knowledge of poker.

The easiest application of this is playing tight (no trash hands!) preflop.

It’s logical to think that starting out with stronger hands than our opponents preflop will lead to us having better hands postflop and making money off our opponents, and the way to start with stronger hands than our opponents preflop is to play tight and fold our trash.

This extends to many other basic poker concepts, such as value-betting “we should bet when we’re ahead of our opponents to make money”, bluffing “we should bluff when we can’t win the pot unless our opponent folds and our opponent is likely to fold”, and beyond. But those are concepts which will be explored more in depth in future articles in this series.

So that pretty much brings my first ever article to its conclusion! Feel free to: leave a comment here, leave a comment on my blog, send me a PM, talk to me in NPP chat, or send me an email at duncelanas@hotmail.com with any questions, comments, concerns, and suggestions.

Plan right now is to have at least 1 new article per week (possibly 2 on some weeks) somewhat indefinitely, so be sure to check back often! Hope you’ve enjoyed – I know I’ve enjoyed writing this – and see you all soon in my next article! Til then, good luck at the tables!

-Gloves

More resources:

NoPayPOKER Lesson Series List Page – All our “formal” lessons, the DM Vadnais series and Gloves lessons as they come on.

Gloves NoPay Blog for more complex poker training and theory.

Free Online Poker Money vs. ‘Real Money’; NoPayPoker.com vs.Internet Gaming Sites
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In closing this series of Articles a brief explanation of the ‘best strategies’ you can deploy at the ‘real money’ Internet gaming sites is appropriate.

I’ll label these strategies as ‘The Texas Hold-Em Bible’. And, while some of the items held within the list that follows will be a summary of ‘poker advisories’ offered up in Articles 1 through 6, all 13 ‘best strategies’ are worthy of your careful consideration. Better stated, from my perspective, all 13 are worthy of your inclusion in ‘real money’ game play. Yet, once again, I’ll repeat: “no clones, no robots, no duplicitive play”.
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—- Patience: if you can’t bring patience to a ‘real money’ table, quickly self-identify with the word ‘absent’; you don’t belong in a poker game. Patience represents 50% of all the skills you’ll use while winning money on the Internets’ faux-felt.
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—- Playable Pockets: if you can’t memorize a Playable Pockets Matrix (PPM) prior to playing at a ‘real money’ table, or, if you can’t abide by a Playable Pockets Dictum (either mine or your own) while playing at a ‘real money’ table, identify with the words ‘fools folly’; you don’t belong in a poker game.

In all candor, the simple combination of Patience (see above) and Playable Pockets, absent any other ‘best strategies’, is good enough to make you a winner on the Internets’ faux-felt.
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—- Flops Percentages: if you can’t compete at a ‘real money’ table with a ‘Flops Seen Percentage’ of less than 20%, and, if you can’t compete at a ‘real money’ table with a ‘Flops Seen Win Percentage’ of greater than 40%, then you’re lying to yourself about both the level of patience that you bring to the game and the manner in which you use a Playable Pockets Matrix or Dictum.

And, when the lies are a reality, identify with the phrase ‘I may not look stupid, but I am’, you don’t belong in a poker game.
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—- Set-Mining: if you’re gonna’ be an ‘all-in chip-flinger’ every time you’ve been dealt a pocket pair at a ‘real money’ table, do yourself a huge favor, identify with the acronym ‘SOS’ (Stuck On Stupid), and abandon all Internet gaming sites.

Then, remain a full-time player at NoPay. Or, get serious! Set-Mining is one of only two poker strategies that produces a Return On Investment (ROI) of greater than 100%.

Plus, the ‘solid’ players who combine both Patience and Playable Pockets with Set-Mining CAN NOT lose cash in ‘real money’ games over the long-term. It’s absolutely impossible.
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—- Slow-Play: It’s the second of the two strategies that produces an ROI of greater than 100%, and, while you don’t have to use it to be a long-term winner in ‘real money’ games on the Internet (as described in the last strategy about Set-Mining), only a clown wouldn’t use it.

So, if you want to partner up with ”Pukie’, be my guest. But, if you want to add considerably to your ever growing bankroll as a ‘real money’ player, be certain that Slow-Play is a part of your game.

I mean, we don’t need to be nuclear physicists to quietly hold our ‘nut’ flush, check post-river to one or more ‘bananahead’ chip-flingers, and then, only then, come over the top.
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—- Question the Honesty of the Game: Collusion, bots, random number generators, juiced decks, algorithms - All of which could have easily frightened away many a good player. But, it didn’t send y’all rushing back to NoPay to play ‘farm animal’ poker.

No Way! Each of you, given the possibility of it initially costing you a dollar or two, have learned to not only question the honesty of the game, but y’all have learned how to identify the ‘bs’, and, subsequently, both avoid it and get around it. No matter what ‘roadblock’ has been placed before you, your DETOUR sign is at the ready, and you’ll quickly proceed down the alternate highway to money winnings.
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—- Targeting the ‘bananaheads’: There will likely be a number of ‘solid’ players at your ‘real money’ tables, and, of equal import, there will likely be a few ‘bananaheads’ present as well.

Certainly, as all of you have come to know, it’s more difficult to beat the bad players. But, it’s a fact of poker life that bigger winnings will come from the times when you get to ‘whoop up’ on the Bozo’s, the ‘bananaheads’, and the ‘PukieDumbo’ minions.

Thus, it’s a ‘winning strategy’ to identify and target these bad players. And, with conservative, carefully orchestrated play, you’re going to use your ‘heavy’ pockets, sets, and post-river ‘nut’ hands to ship these ‘Farm Animals’ off to gooseneck travel adventures.
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—- Ego, Emotions, and State of Mind: Your ego was dropped the moment you got on-line.

You don’t ever bring it to a poker table. And, your emotions are always in balance. A loss on the river, serendipitously dealt by Lady Luck, does not cause you an emotional swing towards stupidity. A win on the river, serendipitously dealt by Lady Luck, does not cause you an emotional swing towards over-confidence.

Any elevated, extreme, or intense emotional movement up or down is an immediate cause for your use of the EXIT sign, you simply move away from your PC, and stay away until your emotions return to a balanced position.

Plus, y’all don’t ever play poker for ‘real money’ when your state of mind is in disarray; be it a personal matter, a family issue, a work concern, or anything else that might cause you to lose focus.

Remember, your Consistentency of Focus (COF), serving as your foundation for Visual Safeguards, can be severely comprimised by any Ego, Emotions, or State of Mind conflict.
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—- Bankroll Management and Risk Tolerance: You ain’t playing in any ‘real money’ ring game (cash game) with more than 5% of your bankroll. And, you ain’t buying into any MTT game (tournament game) with more than 2% of your bankroll.

Plus, you’re fully versed on the fact that any loss or win is cause for an immediate adjustment to the 5% and 2% dollar values. For damn sure, if you lost in a poker session, you won’t ever ‘up’ the percentage of your bankroll in your next poker session. EVER! It’s a constant, it’s always 5% (cash game), or 2% (MTT game).

Additionally, you have a firm grip on your Risk Tolerance. And, you’ll never put an amount of money at risk that exceeds your personal tolerance level; regardless of how you arrived at that tolerance level….whether it was my way, figuring out how much currency you could destroy without it bothering you, or, whether it was your way, whatever that may have been. Risk Tolerance is the principal underlying element within Emotions Management.
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—- Deceptions and False Images: Think of yourself as a part-time actor while playing for ‘real money’ on the Internet.

And, no, you’re not ‘acting’ as a poker player….you are a poker player. But, you can be a ‘thesbian’ regarding the ways in which you play your cards.

Your game should include ‘deceits’, ‘lies’, ‘falsehoods’, and honest ‘chicanery’. Now, with those thoughts in mind, take a few minutes to read, or re-read, Article 3 of the ‘Brick and Mortar’ series.

You can find it easily by clicking on this link: Article 3 of the ‘Brick and Mortar’. Quite naturally, however, since the materials in the B & M article are meant to be used at a ‘live’ poker table, you’ll need to adjust the ‘tutorials’ to fit with your future use at an on-line poker table. But, y’all will have little trouble in doing so, you ain’t ‘Pukie’.
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—- Pot Odds and Implied Odds: Both are incredibly relevant to your ‘real money’ game play; both are to be used by each of you in just about all post-flop and post-turn betting situations.

You should never be playing a hand without a constancy of arithmetic calculations. And, whenever the resulting calculation does not provide you with ‘advantaged’ Pot Odds, you need to fold (unless Implied Odds suggest otherwise).

Plus, understand that ‘advantaged’ Pot Odds are defined by at least a 50% ROI.

> For example, your late position A/4 of hearts has been witness to a flop that contains 2 hearts and no board pair.

> You have about a 1 in 3 chance of winning the hand, and, Pot Odds of 2 to 1 would make for a long-term ‘break even’.

> Well, you ain’t playing to break even, you’re playing to win money.

> Therefore, you’ll need Pot Odds of at least 3 to 1 to attain a long-term ROI of 50%, Pot Odds of 7 to 2 for an ROI of 75%, or Pot Odds of 4 to 1 for an ROI of 100%.

Simple Arithmetic, all of which is based on your 9 ‘outs’ (the 9 available hearts in the deck).
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—- In low stakes games always be certain to get rid of the garbage hands when you’re holding a premium pocket (AA, KK, QQ, AK, and AQs). We want as many of the ridiculous potential calls to the BB gone….they could hit on the flop with cards that match their garbage pockets, and we would then face a situation where our ability to read hands becomes compromised.
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—- The Peter Principle: As delineated in the classic textbook written by Peter Drucker, titled “Management”, tells us that at some point all of us have taken one step too many up the ‘responsibility/functionality’ ladder; and, that we need to take a step backwards.

True, the book was directed at the business world; but, it applies to poker as well. We might reach the level of successfully competing on-line in $2/$4 NL poker, yet, every time we take our game to the $5/$10 level we get outplayed.

It’s the ‘Peter Principle’, and we’ve gone too far. It’s time to go back to the stakes level where we’ve routinely won money.

It ain’t a failure, it’s merely a recognition of our God given ability. It’s actually a major success; we were smart enough to identify our ‘responsibility/functionality’ limit, and we continue to play and win in a game we love.
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Next, the importance of ‘Cashing Out’ is not just something to be considered, it’s paramount to the whole goal of winning money.

And, it often times has a substantive correlation to ‘The Peter Principal’, often times, not always. Hypothetically, if you began your ‘real money’ play with a bankroll of $200, you started your ‘feaux-felt’ playing with $10 in a cash game (5%) or $4 in a tournament game (2%).

Not surprisingly, given that you’ve disciplined yourself with ‘The Texas Hold-Em Bible’, you’ve regularly done some winning, and, over time, you’ve managed to increase your player account balance to $2,000.
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Then, equally not surprising, you’ve stepped up to higher stakes games. And, while the regularity of winning at 10c/20c, 25c/50c, and 50c/$1 no-limit games seemed all too easy, the $1/$2 games produced very poor results, either a zero ROI, or a negative ROI (Return On Investment).

And, after a few attempts at altering the outcome in the $1/$2 games, your intellect identified with ‘The Peter Principal’; you recognized that you stepped up to an arena that is/was beyond your ability to compete successfully. It’s Okay! You didn’t fail! You’ve made yourself a ‘true’ winner.
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The time has come to start ‘Cashing Out’. And, no one has ever won money on an Internet Gaming Site who hasn’t cashed out their winnings. In fact, you’d never be able to describe yourself as a ‘cash winner’ if you didn’t cash out from your player account; the money ain’t yours until it’s either in your bank account or in your pocket.
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In the end, you’ve found the level of stakes play that will accomodate your player skills, that will reward your command of the game, that will provide a reasonable Return On Investment, and, that will cause you to be ‘Cashing Out’ with a high degree of frequency. What could be better? You’re a winning poker player. I love it.
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However, how much money should you be cashing out at any one time?

Certainly, you don’t want to cash out an amount of money that would require you to step down in stakes, you’re performing well at the ‘Peter Principal’ level minus 1; and, in said instance, as described above, that game play is at the 50c/$1 tables.

So, you need to maintain a player account balance that allows you to continue to play in those cash games (with attention paid to the 5% Rule). Thus, when cashing out, be certain to leave a bankroll that permits your continued play.
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Alternately, you could use a 20% cash out guideline. Simply stated, when you’re taking money from the Internet Gaming Site, when you’re cashing out, every withdrawal is 20% of the money in your account.

A $2,000 balance would translate into a $400 cash out. Yet, you can never withdraw 20% if it is going to leave a remaining balance that would not accomodate your play in accordance with the 5% (cash games) and 2% (tournament games) bankroll usage rule.
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But, cash out as often as you can; remembering that the money isn’t really yours until it’s in your hometown bank or in your hip pocket. Money left on an Internet Gaming Site, albeit won, ain’t yours while the site is holding it, and, since playing poker is ONLY about winning money, be sure to take the money whenever possible.

It’s your’s when you have it, it could be part of a ‘bankruptcy’ in cyberspace. Cash out with regularity; it’s your money.
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Finally, it’s certainly true that I get paid to write, for NoPay, and for other poker forums.

Yet, be aware of the fact that I do not write about poker because of the money I receive, I write about poker because of the money you, and others can win or receive.

The very same is true of the poker lecture series I give annually, the poker classroom sessions I teach two times a year, the selective private tutoring that I conduct on a monthly basis, the syndicated poker column that I write, and the Limited Edition Poker Book that I wrote 4 years ago.
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Plus, just about all of the money I receive is donated to Child Welfare charities throughout the United States. Should you care? That’s your business. But, keep in mind the very famous quote: “No man is as tall as he who stoops to help a child”. And, under no set of circumstances do I ever allow that quote to describe me. However, I’d be extremely pleased if it were to describe you.
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Additionally, I want to take this opportunity to thank my friend Michael Tanaka, the owner of NoPayPoker. Not because he allowed my scribblings to be readily accessable to the NoPay membership, but because he believes in learning. He understands that poker is a game of skills, and he wanted members to develop those skills, or, at the very least, to have a chance to develop those skills. “Thank you Michael”.
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Best of Luck at the Tables,
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D. Michael
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(c) copyright, November, 2011; all rights reserved by D. M. Vadnais

See all DM’s free poker training lessons on the “master” list of free poker lessons page.

Incoming search terms:

• games angre beat
• play online side pocket win real money
• the texas hold\em bible

So here we go for part 6 of 7 of the graduating from free online poker to playing poker online with real money…in the hope of winning more than you lose!

In this chapter D.M.Vadnais will cover Bad Plays, what he terms ‘D’ Codes and the hardy annual subjects of pot odds and implied odds in the context of online poker real money gameplay. Read on…

Part and parcel of the rationale for playing quality pockets, premium pockets, lies in the rationale for not playing garbage pockets.

And, to make that very point, a brief description of the ‘bad plays’ made by some of the competitors at the ‘real money’ Internet gaming sites are about to become known to you.

Additionally, the high level of poker mayhem, perpetrated by the incredibly dumb people making ‘bad plays’, brings our understanding of the game ‘front and center’ to an often repeated set of words: “It’s harder to beat bad players than it is to beat good players”.

Yet, regrettably, as you quite possibly suspected, the dreaded Rectal Cranial Inversion (RCI), a substantive factor in the mayhem, a principal factor regarding the dumb players, is not solely limited to just ‘PukieDumbo’ and her/his friends; its’ symptoms are readily noticeable, and it can be diagnosed anywhere that poker is played.

Plus, a few of the total ‘bananaheads’, all suffering along with ‘Pukie’ from the very same RCI disorder, have a constant presence on the ‘real money’ Internet poker tables.

Therefore, you’re gonna’ have to use your poker skills in a ‘moment-to-moment’ environment; you’ll not be allowing your Consistency of Focus (COF) to wane for any one second, during any one minute.

Else, the ‘bad players’, the hard to beat players, are gonna’ put you in a ‘donkfest’; and, your mastery of the game will slide into a flamboyant fiasco.

Now, It’s my hope that you’ll be both entertained and monetarily rewarded by the ‘bananaheads’ routine of being ‘Stuck On Stupid’ (SOS). [An acronym that you can comfortably say out loud in public].

Or, with the thought of getting some help for these ‘Inversion’ imbeciles, possibly with volunteered tutorial tasks, maybe you’ll become a supporting member of the the ‘Fund Unlimited Cranial Kindness Educational Days Under Program’. [Once you've constructed it, please be careful to NOT say this acronym out loud in public; you might cause yourself some embarrassment.]

And, yes, it’s true that the SOS play, fairly commonplace at ‘free money poker’ NoPayPoker, is less visible at ‘real money’ Internet poker sites. But, it is visible. It exists. It happens.

And, it’s all an open invitation for the ‘solid’ players to reap rewards.

Y’all are amongst that group; you’ve demonstrated your poker playing patience and skills on a consistent basis, you’ve positioned yourselves as winning poker players, you’ve built a bankroll, you’ve expanded that bankroll, and you’ve regularly left the ‘pinatas’, ‘pinheads’, ‘pukies’, and ‘pansies’ on the gooseneck trailer bound for the ‘farm animal’ pastures.

Their self-induced introduction to the ‘Alpha Bull’ was merely given an assist by you….don’t ever think that you meant them any harm.

One of the reasons for ‘Pukie’ (PD) and his minions to have come ‘backside to snout’ with the Alpha Bull relates to both a failure to understand….and a failure to avoid….poker’s bad plays. You do not make ‘Bad Plays’; y’all know that.

Yet, poor PD, and thousands like him, have yet to collect enough intellect, and develop enough thought processes, such that they might also ‘understand’ and ‘avoid’ the absolute stupidities tied to the atrocious play that they regularly bring to the tables.

They have no ability to look at 2 pocket cards and think of the word garbage; their mindset, however limited it may be, automatically dictates the action of flinging chips into the pot.

Yet, true to form, garbage pockets, over the long-term, produce garbage results.

Garbage pockets, over the long-term, produce massive ‘real money’ loses. And, Garbage pockets, over the long-term, as are routinely played by PD and the ‘bananaheads’, are the largest cause for massive runs to the drug stores and pharmacies where creams, lotions, lubricants, and antibiotics are sold. [Could the latter have anything at all to do with the 'Alpha Bull? I honestly don't know; but, like you, I can easily speculate as to the veracity of the implication.] Maybe we should all buy some CVS and Walgreens stock !!!!

So, to keep ‘garbage pockets’ in the momentary forefront, and, to serve as a perennial reminder NOT to commit these forays into the worlds of ‘insanity’ and ‘stupidity’, here’s a brief description of some of the ‘Bad Plays’ you’ve been a witness to in the past at NoPay and some of the ‘Bad Plays’ you’ll be a witness to at the ‘real money’ Internet gaming sites

Not necessarily in order of dumbness level; however, on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the dumbest, each is assigned a ‘Dumbo Code’ (DC):

—- Playing an Ace/Rag pocket – DC 9

How many times have you seen ‘Bozo’ play A/8 offsuit in early position only to be pounded into oblivion by ‘Mr_Solid’ holding pocket A/K or A/Q or A/J in middle or late position?

The ace/raggers, a commonplace name for the dummies who regularly go ‘wacko’ at the sight of an ace, belong in Poker Prison; their play, as compared to a minimal standard of quality, can be best labeled as criminal.

This gets a DC of 9. And, YOU WILL NEVER DO THIS (heads-up play would be an exception).

—- Playing a King/Rag pocket. DC 9

Are you laughing at ‘Bozo’? You should be. But, in that he plays A/8 from early position, his theory is why not K/7 or K/8.

However, regarding the latter, ‘Bozo’ ain’t Detroit Doug….a rock solid player, living in Las Vegas, who made hordes of cash using K/8 as his favorite pocket. And, of note, Doug only played the cards from late position. ‘Bozo’ simply flings chips because he’s gotten a pocket king; and that’s sheer stupidity.

This gets a DC of 9.  And, YOU WILL NEVER DO THIS (heads-up play could be an exception).

—- Gut-Shot Draws to a Straight.

Pre-river, ‘Bozo’ needs a 9 to fill a gut-shot straight. DC 9

The Pot Odds are giving him 3 to 1 on his money. But, the board also shows a flush draw. So, only 3 of the available 9′s could give him the hand.

He’s about a 14 to 1 underdog, he calls, and he’s a near certainty for admission to the No Brain Institute (NBI); a long-term care facility for the terminally stupid. This gets a DC of 9. And, YOU WILL NEVER DO THIS.

—- Open-End Draws to a Straight. DC 8 –

Pre-river, ‘Bozo’ needs an 8 or a 3 to fill an open-end straight, and, he’s again getting 3 to 1 on his money. Plus, the board also shows a flush draw. He’s a 7 to 1 underdog, and, possibly, only half as stupid as before, he calls. Clearly, the semi-private room at NBI is now ready for him. [This gets a DC of 8.] And, YOU WILL NEVER DO THIS.

—- Flopping a Pair and Betting Into Over Cards. DC 9

‘Bozo’ holds pocket A/6, and he caught a pair of 6′s on the flop; it showed 6/J/K. Suddenly, and without warning, the ‘Duh’ microbes in his mostly empty brain forced him to bet into the pot, into the 2 overcards.

Why would he care that there’s a Jack and a King on the board? He has no idea that the chance of any one of his 4 competitors to have hit a pair of Jacks or Kings is about 40%. Plus, he has no idea that the chance of any one of his 4 competitors to catch a Queen or an Ace on the turn or river is about 30%.

‘Bozo’ is about a 2 to 1 underdog….but, he’s betting the sixes. And, his bet is pretty close to being an ‘insult to stupidity’. [This gets a DC of 9.] And, YOU WILL NEVER DO THIS (heads-up play would be an exception).

—- All-In Betting with Low and Middle Pocket Pairs. DC10

‘Bozo’ gets dealt any one of the low or middle pocket pairs (22, 33, 44, 55, 66, 77, 88, 99, TT, or JJ), and becomes a ‘chip-flinger’; ALL-IN.

He has no comprehension of how much can be won over the long-term by set-mining; he has failed to understand that set-mining produces an ROI of greater than 100%.

And, of note, he has no idea how quickly he has been labeled by all the ‘solid’ players nearby as an amateur.

Additionally, the ‘ALL-IN’ bet made by ‘Bozo’ is not ‘pretty close’ to being an ‘insult to stupidity’….it’s far worse. [This gets a DC of 10.] And, YOU WILL NEVER DO THIS.

—- Extreme over-the-top raises. DC10

‘Bozo’ holds the current ‘nuts’ hand (an Ace high flush), and a competitor makes a large post-flop bet into the pot.

Then, once again, the ‘Duh’ microbes kick in, and ‘Bozo’ stupidly pushes out a monster raise (or an ‘all-in’ raise). The competitor folds. The intransigence consuming ‘Bozo’, his inability to move away from the SOS status he holds so sacred, is mind boggling.

He clearly fails to recognize the merits of ‘slow-play’. Had he opted to ‘smooth call’, allowing the bettor, post-turn and post-river, to continue to be the bettor, he would have won much more money at the end of the hand. [This gets a DC of 10.] And, YOU WILL NEVER DO THIS. Frankly, if you ever did do this, if you ever replicated this level of stupidity, I’d find an old M-16 and hunt you down.

—- Excessive pre-flop betting with pocket Jacks. DC9

‘Bozo’ has pocket Jacks, and doesn’t realize that it’s one of the most difficult pockets to play. And, as you might expect, he tosses a very large bet into the pot.

He’s completely unaware of the fact that the chance of one Ace, one King, or one Queen appearing within the flop is, on average, a minimum of 66% while playing against 1 competitor, 60% while playing against 2 competitors, and 54% while playing against 3 competitors.

So, in all of these instances, he’s an underdog; not the favorite. And, when the overcard appears, ‘Bozo’ generally gets a quick ‘intro’ to the Alpha Bull.

[This gets a DC of 9.] And, YOU WILL NEVER DO THIS (heads-up play being the only exception).

—- Eastern European Poison Poker. DC9

Even if you are from eastern Europe, you ought not be playing like an eastern European. Their poison is the combination of pocket cards and the flop; it’s only after they’ve seen 5 cards that a decision is made as to whether they play the hand, or, they don’t play the hand.

They have no Playable Pockets Matrix (PPM), thus, they have no dictum regarding playable pockets; nor do they have any understanding of Positive Expected Value (+EV) and Negative Expected Value (-EV). [This gets a DC of 9.] And, YOU WILL NEVER DO THIS.

—- Playing suited and unsuited rag connectors. DC9

‘Bozo’ is dealt the 6 and 7 of hearts. And, he’s delighted, stupidly delighted; he automatically believes that he’ll end up with a straight or a flush.

Unfortunately, for him, the actual chance of catching either a straight or a flush is less than 2%. Which, at best, taking into account the possibility of ‘Bozo’ boarding 2 pairs, gives him about a 1 in 35 shot at winning the hand. [This gets a DC of 9.] And, YOU WILL NEVER DO THIS (not even when you’re playing heads-up).

—- No attention given to the habits of other players. DC8

‘MisterC’ is a very conservative player. He almost always folds. And, he only plays a hand when he holds pocket Aces or pocket Kings. Every ‘solid’ player at the table knows this; frankly, even the average players know it.

But, not ‘Bozo’; he never pays attention, he’s the ultimate ‘Insult to Stupidity’. So, when ‘MisterC’ goes all-in with KK, and ‘Bozo’ calls with pocket Q/9 suited, then loses, then catches the ‘dimwits’ shuttle bus to the waiting gooseneck trailer, he does so without any comprehension as to how fundamentally stupid he is. [This gets a DC of 8.] And, YOU WILL NEVER DO THIS.

Now, the above list of 11 ‘bad plays’ could be expanded to 33 or more ‘bad plays’, and, I know full well that almost all of you could easily write a synopsis of the added 22+ ‘insane’ and ‘stupid’ poker mayhem actions regularly put forth by ‘Bozo’ and the marauding band of ‘bananaheads’.

Also, I’m completely at rest with the knowledge that none of you would ever duplicate the stupidities of the marauders, and, that none of you would ever be assigned a ‘Dumbo Code’ for something you did at a poker table. Or, for something you even thought about doing at a poker table.

All of you are winners!

All of you have the words “YOU WILL NEVER DO THIS” properly matched to the 11, 22, 33, or whatever number of ‘bad plays’ exist in the game of poker.

- You do not have ‘Duh’ microbes in your head; you have functional brains and rational thoughts.

- You play the game with ‘smarts’, it’s a ‘solid’ game that you bring to the tables, your poker strategies were long ago proven to be successful, and you win money.

- Bottom line: you ain’t ‘Pukie’, you ain’t ‘Bozo’, you ain’t a ‘bananahead’, and you’ve never had the occasion to meet the Alpha Bull. Nor will you.

Yet, it’s imperative that you maintain a rigorous vigilance in your search for, and observations of, the streaming stupidities displayed by any number of ‘real money’ players.

In many respects, as was the case in my B & M (Brick and Mortar) playing days, these ‘bananaheads’ contribute a continuous flow of cash to one’s bankroll, and it would be counter productive to allow their ignorance to fall by the wayside….simply stated, you’ve got to pay attention to their inability to play poker, you’ve got to pay attention to their ‘bad plays’, and, when opportunity rules supreme, you’ve got to take advantage of the ‘knowledge base’ constructed by your clever, constant, and cohesive attentiveness.

Their money deservedly should become your money….it’s poker justice; plus, you’re the court, the judge, and the jury.

- Take their money; your judicial black robe, used as a metaphor concerning your advanced poker expertise, provides you with the subpoena and license to do so.

- Simply think of it as the marauding band of bozo’s paying court fees and big fines.

- Yet, for now, store the black robe in the closet; you don’t need it for the picture we’re about to paint.

And, the ‘worded picture’ serves a singular purpose.

In the hope of making the ‘attentiveness’ task a fun event, draw a parallel; every time you witness a stupid play.

Think of ‘Pukie’ trying to entertain the Alpha Bull while marching through a dung filled ‘farm animal’ pasture, dressed in knee-high pink tights, wearing a baby blue frilled blouse, a pastel yellow feathered hat, ankle high white socks, black shoes, twirling a baton, leading a group of 76 morons, all of whom are blowing into a child’s toot horn….then, with that picture present in your mind, laugh at PD and all of his/her ‘bananheads’ in tow.

Or, laugh now, and every time you observe a PD stupidity, remember your current laughter.

OK….leaving morons, toot horns, white socks, bad plays, and Dumbo Codes behind, let’s renew our forward progression by  bringing Pot Odds and Implied Odds into a state of comprehensive understanding.

And, of significant note, once y’all have added the proper use of Pot Odds, the proper use of Implied Odds, and the ability to lay down once powerful cards (doing so when you’re not in an ‘advantaged’ position), to all of the other ‘skill sets’ you’ve already developed in your game, IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO NOT WIN MONEY WHILE PLAYING POKER.

Did you read that? I wrote the word impossible.

And, you’re 100% mandated to keep it in proper perspective. Impossible to not win money….yes !!!! 

However, that ‘impossibility’ applies to ONLY low stakes poker play on the Internet. A bit more ‘info’ concerning ‘low stakes’ versus ‘high stakes’ will be presented in the final segment of this Article.

Here, then, is a brief ‘intro’ to Pot Odds and Implied Odds:

——– Pot Odds relate to the amount of money occupying the center of the table.

If, for example, there was a total of $4 in the pot, and you were considering a call of $1, your $1 would be getting Pot Odds of 4 to 1 (the $4 that is already in the pot, versus the $1 that you would need to put into the pot).

Thus, Pot Odds can be best described as follows: The current size of the pot as it relates to the amount of money that you would need to put into the pot.

——– Implied Odds relate to the amount of money that is stacked in front of the other participants who are playing in the current hand, plus the amount of money that is in the current pot.

If, for example, ‘PlayerA’ had a stack of $20, ‘PlayerB’ had a stack of $30, the pot held $4, only the three of you remained in the hand, and you needed to call a $1 bet, you would be getting Implied Odds of as much as 54 to 1 ($54 to your $1; where the $54 is comprised of PlayerA’s $20 stack, PlayerB’s $30 stack, and the Pot’s $4 (one caveat: your stack must be equal to or greater than PlayerB’s stack)).

So, Implied Odds always gets defined as follows: The cumulative total of your competitors stacks (who are playing the hand), plus the size of the current pot, less your uncovered stack amount, where the combined total of the three relates to the amount of money that you would need to put into the pot.

Next, a ‘fast-track’ summary of how you should be using Pot Odds and Implied Odds at Internet gaming sites.

- First off, make certain you understand that Pot Odds are your baseline guarantee for winning.

- Not necessarily in any one hand, but over the long-term.

- And, while the novice player might need a detailed narrative on how to use Pot odds on offense (seeking out ROI advantaged plays), or how to use Pot Odds on defense (protecting a current ‘nuts’ hand), you don’t.

Principally because each of you could write the ‘detailed narrative’.

So, any attempt by me to do so in this Article would be a waste of time. [If, by chance or circumstance, you are a novice, get out of here....immediately, you don't belong in a tutorial environment that is beyond your level of expertise; start reading the 'Building a Bankroll' and 'Expanding Your Bankroll' series of Articles.]

Also, maintain an arithmetic avenue that keeps every calculation exceedingly simple.

KISS, or Keep It Simple S@#thead (the Marine Corps version of the acronym). Don’t be using 47 unseen cards, or 46 unseen cards, when you’re in the process of determining the current Pot Odds.

ALWAYS USE THE NUMBER 50….it makes every computation easy, and it never produces an ‘out of range’ or ‘distorted’ result.

For example, post-flop, you hold 9 outs to a ‘nut’ flush.

- You’ve seen 5 cards, you’ve not seen 47 cards.

 - The math: 9 in 47 gives you a 38.3% chance of catching the flush on the turn or river, while, 9 in 50 gives you a 36.0% chance of catching the flush on the turn or river.

- Who cares about the difference of 2.3%?

- It’s obvious that you have approximately a 1 in 3 chance of ending up with the ‘nut’ flush.

- And, 2 to 1 Pot Odds would make you ‘dead even’ over the long-term.

- Which, with an M16 at the ready, you have zip, zero, zilch interest in.

- What you really want would be Pot Odds of 4 to 1 or better….certainly no less than 3 to 1; but only if Implied Odds suggest that the 3 to 1 could be vastly greater.

Alternately, Implied Odds are your key to taking down monster pots.

Not necessarily in any one hand, but over the long-term.

Allow me to present just one example.

• > In late position, while holding pocket Ace/Four suited (diamonds)
• > You get to limp into a pot
• > The Small Blind (SB) limps
• > The Big Blind (BB) checks
• > And, in total, pre-flop, there are 5 players remaining in the hand.

- Remember, the suited Ace/Four in late position is a playable pocket with a +EV when all of the conditionals have been met; and, they were all met in this example.

• > Then, the flop shows 3d/5d/6s.
• > You now have a ‘nut’ 4 flush draw plus an open-end straight draw.
• > The pot holds $5, the SB bets $2, the other 3 players call, and the bet comes to you.

There is a total of $13 in the pot, and the Pot Odds on the $2 call you would need to make are 6.5 to 1.

• > Plus, each of the 4 players you’re competing against have your remaining $30 chip stack covered.
• > So, the Implied Odds are greater than 66 to 1.

- Additionally, you have 15 outs (not counting the potential for a pair of aces)….

- The 15 outs include the 9 diamonds remaining in the count of unseen cards (to make the ‘nut’ flush)

- And the three 2′s, and the three 7′s (to make the straight (the 2 and 7 of diamonds are included in the total of 9 diamonds)).

- Therefore, pre-turn, you have a 36% chance of hitting the flush, and a 24% chance of hitting the straight. Or, a near 60% likelihood of winning the hand.

In the end, not only do the Pot Odds tell you to make the $2 call, but the Implied Odds are screaming at you to make the call.

• > Yes, they’re f@#king screaming.
• > And none of us need to be graduate science students with organic chemistry as our major to understand what an incredibly advantageous position the Implied Odds have put us in.
• > Frankly, it’s even possible that ‘Pukie’ would understand that he needs to call the $2 bet.
• > We have a better than 58% chance of winning the hand.
• > Plus, we’re not only getting Pot Odds of greater than 6 to 1, we’re also getting Implied Odds of about 66 to 1.

Finally, some sage advice on a topic I mentioned earlier: more ‘info’ concerning ‘low stakes’ versus ‘high stakes’ play on the Internet.

Where, y’all must recognize that most of you have put together your bankroll while playing at NoPay. And, while that effort was both impressive and commendable, it was accomplished as a result of ‘whooping up’ on very bad players.

In all candor, it didn’t take much more than your arrival at the tables with a degree of patience, a sense of playable pockets, and a ‘player note’, or a few ‘player notes’, about the ‘farm animals’ you were competing against.

I mean, shipping players like ‘PukieDumbo’ to the farm animal pastures simply isn’t a major accomplishment. Plus, it didn’t cost you a single penny to build your bankroll, to load up the gooseneck trailer, or, to direct PD to the whereabouts of the nearest drug store….it was all free.

And, again, be mindful of the fact that your poker prowess is never meant to do ‘Pukie’ or any ‘bananhead’ harm; it’s their SOS approach to playing poker that consistently puts them in harms way….not the quality of your play.

You’ve done well, and you’re certainly prepared for poker gaming on the Internet’s felt.

Yet, as previously stated, your poker cash gaming needs to be restricted to ‘low stake’ poker play.

And, for current purposes, we’ll define ‘low stake’ as follows: cash games of no greater than $1/$2 tables, MTT games of no greater than $10 buy-in’s, and SNG games of no greater than $5 buy-ins.

Plus, all of the preceding is always subject to the 5% bankroll management rule.

Quite naturally, many of you might be asking the questions; “Why exclude ‘high stake’ play”? “Why can’t I use my ever expanding bankroll in bigger games”?

And, there are a number of very good answers to both questions.

—- First, and foremost, as the stake levels increase, the level of cheating increases (collusion, bots, and algorithms).

—- Second, as the stake levels increase, the ‘Quality of Play’ increases (more skilled players, fewer ‘Pukie’ clones).

—- Third, as the stake levels increase, the rationale for playing at a Brick and Mortar venue increases (reading tells, serious player notes, deceits, and other poker skills get added to your game; resulting in more advantaged play and higher ROI’s (please read the ‘Brick and Mortar’ series of Articles)).

—- Fourth, as the stake levels increase, the probability of slamming yourself head-first into the ‘Peter Principle’ brick wall increases (surely an uncomfortable thought, but a realty).

Last, please note that Article 7 of this series (the last Article; not only in this series, but also the last Article to be written for NoPayPoker) will not be posted until December 1st. My schedule is filled with 7 weeks of travel between late August and mid November….some of which is holiday related, and some of which is poker related; lectures, classrooms, and private tutoring. I’ll be in Missouri, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, New York, Vermont, Quebec, Spain, and Mexico. And, while I’ll be both working and having fun, I expect y’all to be winning money and having fun at the Internet gaming sites

Best of Luck at the Tables,

D. Michael

(c) copyright, September, 2011; all rights reserved by D. M. Vadnais

[AUTHOR'S NOTE: The contents that follow are not intended for the newcomer or novice to the game; you may well find that it would be a bit like reading a foreign language. If you possess limited experience with No-Limit Texas Hold-Em, prior to reading these materials, please first read the three series of Articles entitled 'An Introduction to The Game: Poker 101' (7 Chapters), 'Building a Bankroll' (11 Articles), and 'Expanding Your Bankroll' (10 Articles). Then, please read Articles 1 through 4 of this series of Articles (in the end, there will be a total of 7 Articles). Once done, the 'foreign language' will simply become a 'language of poker'.]

This Article is a continuation of the previous post (July, 2011); ‘Premium Pockets Dictate Your Game Play – Part 1′ (Article 4). And, while the overall theme to the text and tutorials that follow will categorically align with ‘Premium Pockets’, please note that we’ve already handled the ‘heavy’ pockets in Article 4.

The focus of these poker words, sentences, and paragraphs relate to the ‘light’ pockets: Ace/Paint, Paint/Paint, Low Pocket Pairs (22 through JJ), and Ace/Rag suited (A5s, A4s, A3s, and A2s). All of which, dependent on your table position, can possess a Positive Expected Value (+EV).

Let’s begin with Ace/Paint….that would be:

• A/Q offsuit
• A/J suited
• A/J offsuit
• A/T suited
• A/T offsuit

Remember that A/K suited, A/K offsuit, and A/Q suited, were all included in the ‘heavy’ pockets category contained within Part 1 of this Article).

And, as a fitting start to our playable pockets strategies regarding Ace/Paint , allow me to ask what would you do with pocket A/J suited when you’re seated in the Under The Gun (UTG) table position (immediately to the left of the Big Blind)?

Well….I hope you answered with the word“fold”. A/J suited in early position holds a Negative Expected Value (-EV). However, if you answered in any other way, you’re not alone.

Actually, you’re in some fairly good company; greater than 99% of all ‘solid’ poker players would not have said “fold”.

They’d be eager to play the suited A/J. And, their eagerness is not difficult to understand; the 2 pocket cards tend to create a ‘hidden smile’.

Yet, given the extensive study performed by the University of Chicago, given the results of that study (where every 2 card pocket combination by table position, after running a ‘billions of hands’ simulation, was assigned a Negative Expected Value (-EV) or a Positive Expected Value (+EV), given your experiences with the 2 cards in early position, given my experiences with the 2 cards in early position, playing the A/Js in early position on a consistent basis will unquestionably generate long-term loses.

Plus, as a memory refresher, the ONLY pockets that are playable from early position are A/A, K/K, Q/Q, A/K, and A/Qs….these are the ONLY pockets that carry with them a Positive Expected Value.

Not happy with the above? Yes? It’s both understandable and OK. No clones, no robots, no duplicitive play. You need to blend your game play with your personality, your nuances….and, more importantly, with your ‘reads’ on the players at your table.

Should you be competing with a group of only conservative individuals, people who are only going to participate in a hand when they hold ‘heavy’ pockets, the A/Js can, and will, bring about profitability.

• If you call the BB, and everyone folds except the Small Blind and Big Blind players, your suited A/J has become a dominant pocket….
• we could, for all intents and purposes, even go as far as labeling it a ‘conditional heavy’ pocket.
• Afterall, you’ve ended up playing against what should be called two ‘average’ pockets (Q/8 being the traditionally described ‘average’ pocket).

Or, should you be competing with a group of only loose and aggressive individuals, people who are going to participate in an inordinate number of hands, in a non-justifiable number of hands, in hands where they routinely hold ‘garbage’ pockets, the A/Js can, and will, bring about profitability.

However, if the players at the table replicate the ‘include all styles of play’, as was the case in the University of Chicago study, your suited Ace/Jack is a ‘long-term’ loser. And, as such, it becomes a mandatory fold.

So, when ‘all one style of play’ dominates the table, play the A/Js with a limp-in bet, and, when ‘multiple styles of play’ dominate the table, lay down the A/Js. In the end, you’re gonna’ win money.

Do we now create a dictum for the other Ace/Paint pockets? The A/Q offsuit, the A/J offsuit, the A/T suited, and the A/T offsuit. Sure we do!

From early position at the table these pocket cards are long-term bankroll drainers. And, since our principal reason, in fact, our singular reason, for playing at ‘real money’ Internet poker sites is TO WIN MONEY, we fundamentally have zero interest in dumping cash to a pot when we hold pocket cards with a Negative Expected Value (-EV).

Oh, sure, Pukie is inclined to give away money at the poker tables, and, sure, his/her ‘loser’ friends are inclined to give away money at the poker tables….but, you’re not; nor will you ever be.

Alternately, we have every reason to be investing cash in a pot when we hold pocket cards with a Positive Expected Value (+EV). And, the Ace/Paint pockets all possess a +EV when we’re seated in middle or late position. Plus, the Ace/Paint pockets from middle or late position should be cause for us to push around the weak players, possibly with a 3x the BB raise, maybe more.

And, they should be cause for us to conservatively approach the solid players, possibly with only a ‘limp’ to the BB. Again, though, any and all decisions as to how you play these +EV Ace/Paint pockets is conditioned on your knowledge about the competitors at the table. No clones, no robots, no duplicitive play.

Next, y’all should have a fairly constant approach to the way in which you handle Paint/Paint pockets; K/Q, K/J, K/T, Q/J, Q/T, and J/T….both suited and unsuited.

• First off, none of these pockets are playable from early position.
• They all merit a ‘fold’, they all hold a Negative Expected Value (-EV) (from early position).
• But, when you’ve been dealt these pockets in both middle position at the table and late position at the table, the Negative EV turns into a Positive EV.
• All 12 of these pockets become playable, all will win money for you on a long-term basis; not necessarily in any one hand, nor in any one playing session.

The soundest and most profitable manner in which these pockets should be played is ‘conservative’ with unsuited Paint/Paint, a ‘limp’ to the BB is acceptable, and, ‘passively aggressive’ with suited Paint/Paint, calling a raise to 3x the BB is acceptable.

This baseline takes into account the fact that while both suited and unsuited Paint/Paint pockets have the potential to witness a ‘high pair/decent kicker’ flop, they also have the potential for a ‘Broadway’, or near ‘Broadway’ Straight.

And, the baseline also takes into account the fact that the suited Paint/Paint pockets have the added potential for a Flush. Where, the possibility of the Flush justifies the 3x the BB call….yet, if no one raised to 3x the BB, there is no need for you to be the player who raises; take a free ride to the flop, simply call the BB.

At this point, I doubt that there is a demand for any additional ‘scribblings’ on Paint/Paint pockets.

However, there is a need for both a ‘tale of caution’ and a ‘tale of passive aggression’; and both tales involve the same circumstance.

• When you’ve flopped a pair, and the flop includes an overcard, be damn sure that you know your opponent extremely well should he/she be betting into the overcard.
• And, as is often the case in ALL of your ‘real money’ poker play, the overwhelming importance of knowing your competition’s game is paramount to your success.
• …the more you know about your opponents, the more you’re gonna’ win.

As an example, it’s perfectly OK to lay down your flopped Tens, Jacks, Queens, or Kings when a ‘solid’ player is tossing money into the pot because an Ace or an overcard (versus your flopped pair) was included within the flop; that would be the ‘tale of caution’.

And, conversely, as a secondary example, don’t be quick to fold when a Bozo is betting into the overcard after you’ve flopped a pair; that would be the ‘tale of passive aggression’. And, to take the latter one step forward, to change passive aggression into true aggression, knowing full well that it was a ‘pinhead’ who bet into the flop, consider coming over-the-top.

You understand his game, and you’ve often seen him bet a draw, a bluff, or some other equally stupid play against one or more flopped overcards.

Always be completely aware of your opponents betting habits, quality of play, and tendency towards utter ignorance….just because it’s a ‘real money’ game doesn’t mean that the minions who emulate the play of ‘PukieDumbo’ are not present.

Often these documented ‘bananabrains’ have yet to lose the whole of their bankrolls, and they’re at the table, your table; practicing ‘stupidities’. Therefore, it’s incumbent upon you to open the door to ‘Dummyville’.

Heck, for all you know, they may thank you for the rapid demise that greets them in the doorway’s portal, and, they may be equally grateful for the subsequent ‘gooseneck’ ride to the ‘farm animal’ pastures; where stench, slop, dung, muck, mire, and fly infestations rule supreme (tell me….what could be more fitting for these donkey-like critters?).

Moving on, the Low Pocket Pairs (22 through JJ) take center stage.

And, as many of you may readily surmise it’s a ‘favorite’ topic of mine….it’s often in my poker writings, lectures, and classroom sessions. For the best of reaasons!!!!!!

• These cards are the foundation to set-mining.
• Which, if you recall, were assailed by ‘Pukie’ in an absurdly stupid chat lobby post at NoPayPOKER (written about in considerable detail within Article 1).

And, while there is no reason to repeat the ‘tutorial’ contained within Article 1, there is every reason to remind you that set-mining is one of only two poker strategies that produce a 100%+ Return On Investment (ROI).

And, translated into ‘real money’ lingo, an ROI at that level means for every $1.00 you put into the various pots you’re playing in, you will win $2.00, or more.

Consider the following data about the Low Pocket Pairs (22, 33, 44, 55, 66, 77, 88, 99, TT, and JJ):

• Pre-flop, there is a 1 in 8 chance that you will hit a set with a 3 card board
• There is a 1 in 6 chance that you will hit a set with a 4 card board
• There is a 1 in 5 chance that you will hit a set with a 5 card board.
• And, importantly, anytime that you do hit a set, you’re at least a 5 to 2 favorite to win the hand (on average).

These facts are pure arithmetic; there’s no speculation, no projection, no wishful thinking, and no ‘PukieDumbo’ insanities contained within the aritmetic.

Plus, in that the 1 in 5 chance exists, be certain to allow a few thoughts about Implied Odds to rattle around in your brain….Pukie can’t do that, but you can; he/she doesn’t have a functional cranial area, you do.

So, how should the Low Pocket Pairs (LPP) be played?

• My first answer is “your way”; you’re capable of rational thought; you ain’t Pukie, you’re not Stuck On Stupid (SOS).
• You can capsulate into one formula both the 1 in 5 chance of hitting a set and the presence of Implied Odds; while PD and his/her imbicilic followers have no such ability.

They simply engage all of their chips, throw them into the pot, and, with every ounce of ‘shallow’ that represents their game, they holler out the words “All In”….allowing them to briefly satisfy their miniscule ego’s, and, allowing them to summon up the false pretense that they’re actually playing poker. Hey! Do the words “Ruby Bagonia” or  “Stupid is as stupid does” mean anything to ya’?.

My second answer is “you might want to try my way”. Yet, once again I’ll offer up sage advice: no clones, no robots, no duplicitive play.

However, I’ll tell you with absolute certainty that ‘my way’ produces greater than a 100% ROI. And, while I am now a retired professional poker player from the Gulf Coast Rounders Circuit, my 9 years of Brick and Mortar experience can’t be overlooked. I won tons of money playing the LPP’s ‘my way’, and there’s no reason that you shouldn’t win a whole bunch of cash on the Internet playing the LPP’s in like fashion….you decide: your way, diligently constructed, or ‘my way’, with a bit of duplicitive play.

Here, then, is a description of the LPP strategy employed by me during the 9 years of B & M cash game play (principally $5/$10 No-Limit games with a buy-in of approximately $2,500….sometimes higher).

• First, divide the Low Pocket Pairs into 2 groups.
• Group ‘A’, which includes 22, 33, 44, 55, 66, 77, and 88
• Group ‘B’,which includes 99, TT, and JJ.
• Group ‘A’ is intended to pursue pure set-mining.
• Group ‘B’ is intended to pursue both set-mining and post-flop dominant pairs (where the pocket Nines, Tens, and Jacks end up as the post-flop high pair; i.e. a rainbow flop of 2/5/8, while you’re holding pocket Tens)

The Group ‘A’ pairs (22 through 88)

• Should always be a reason for calling the BB from any position at the table.
• And, they should always be a reason for calling up to a 3x the BB raise in late position….
• ONLY late position.
• When playing to the BB in early or middle position, and a raise occurs, fold.
• When playing to a 3x the BB raise in late position, and a second raise occurs, fold.

Also, when a set comes with the flop, and there is no straight or flush draw, it should always become a ‘slow-play’ situation.

We want one or more participants at the table betting into the pot, rather than having ourselves betting into the pot; in many respects we’re looking for someone who caught the high pair/decent kicker to take on an aggressive approach to the hand; while we timidly (and falsely) play the part of the sucker who’s calling.

Post river, it’s our hope, expectation, and frequent reality that their aggression is cause for a large ‘real money’ movement from their stack to our stack….and, remember, on average, we’re a 5 to 2 favorite that such will occur.

The Group ‘B’ pairs (99, TT, and JJ) are played in similar fashion.

• However, there is one added element to our play regarding the higher pocket pairs.
• The set-mining is described above, but the pocket-held overpair is not (nor can it be; we won’t often hold a pocket overpair when we’re playing the low pocket pairs (22 through 88)).
• Yet, with Nines, Tens, or Jacks, there exists the possibility that the flop will not produce a card that becomes an overcard to our pair.
• And, when the flop fails to show an overcard, we need to take an aggressive approach to the hand.
• Certainly, a pot sized bet, at a minimum, is necessary.
• But, a bet that is 100% greater than a pot sized bet is a much more advantaged play.

The pot sized bet gives a competitor 2 to 1 Pot Odds.

And, many players with any number of hands, including ace/rag, when the rag showed in the flop, would be willing to call the bet.

Obviously, they’re disenfranchised from sensible thought, since they’d be calling from a disadvantaged position. However, a bet that is 100% greater than a pot sized bet, gives the competitor Pot Odds of 3 to 2.

And, while one might argue that there isn’t significant difference between Pot Odds of 2 to 1 and Pot Odds of 3 to 2 (where I would strongly disagree), there remains a very big difference in the image created by the larger bet.

The average competitor will view the larger bet as a statement of dominance, creating some momentary emotional dismay. This alone is often cause for the competitor to fold.

Plus, on a personal note, given my own level of disdain for all ‘ace/raggers’ (the individuals who always play ace/rag suited and unsuited from any position at the table, and, always play ace/rag suited and unsuited regardless of the amount of money bet), you could have actually seen me make an all-in bet while playing professionally.

And, any such first hand witness to me doing so would have likely been in the above overpair situation: i.e, I had Jack/Jack, the flop was 3/7/9, and the ‘ace/ragger’ made a large bet (holding pocket A/9).

My ‘over-the-top all-in bet’ would often be called, and I was about a 7 to 1 favorite. However, keep in mind, I knew with certainty, because of my player notes, that my opponent was an ‘ace/ragger’….and, without that knowledge, you can’t do likewise.

With it, you can. Also, I was playing in a hand with a 52 card deck; it was not a ‘juiced deck’. And, whether you like it or not, when you’re playing on the Internet, there is a very high probability that you will be playing with a ‘juiced deck’.

Therefore, if it’s a Random Number Generator with a 92 number database, there is a 3x greater chance that an Ace will hit on the turn or river….and, this reduces the 7 to 1 favorite status down to a little over 2 to 1. [Another reason to be playing at an Internet site with a VERIFIED Random Number Generator.

See if you can find a site where the RNG has been certified by a firm like Price Waterhouse Coopers (the most prestigious and trusted public accounting firm on earth).

The last of the 'light' playable pockets is Ace/Rag suited; which includes ONLY A/5s, A/4s, A/3s, and A/2s....

• Each of these 4 pockets possess a Positive Expected Value (+EV)
• That +EV is founded in the potential for ending up with a flush or a straight.

It's NEVER, again, NEVER, A/9s, A/8s, A/7s, or A/6s....these 4 pockets all possess a Negative Expected Value (-EV).

1. Additionally, the A/5s, A/4s, A/3s, and A/2s are ONLY playable from late position at the Table
2. They're ONLY playable as a 'limp' to the BB
3. They're ONLY playable with 3 or more participants in the hand
4. They're ONLY playable when one or more 'large stack' competitors are playing the hand.
5. [Note: all 4 conditionals must be met; else you're folding.]

When you’re dealt these pocket cards in both early position and middle position, it’s an ‘autofold’ in your brain; see the cards, fold, and watch the hand being played.

When you’re dealt these pocket cards in late position and a raise to the BB has been made, it’s also an ‘autofold’ in your brain; see the cards, fold, and watch the hand being played.

However, in late position, with ALL of the ‘conditionals’ met, you have approximately a 1 in 11 chance of winning the hand; or, in other words, you are a 10 to 1 underdog. Thus, you’re playing the hand ONLY because of Implied Odds….and, those Implied Odds better be somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 to 1 or better (generally 5x your underdog status).

Over every extended period of time, you will have saved a bundle of money by ‘tossing’ these suited Ace/Rags into the muck when you’re not in late position at the table and when you weren’t able to meet all of the conditionals while in late position at the table.

Alternately, over every extended period of time, you will have made a bundle of money by playing these suited Ace/Rags (A/5s, A/4s, A/3s, and A/2s) when you were in late position at the table and ALL of the ‘conditionals’ were met….again, ALL of the conditionals.

Plus, there is one added play associated with the 4 pockets: If you’re the Small Blind (SB) or Big Blind (BB), and you can get away with playing for only the cost of the BB, do so.

In summarizing all of the above:

• Ace/Paint is a fold in early position, and it’s a play in middle or late position.
• Paint/Paint is a fold in early position, a ‘conditional play’ in middle position, and a play in late position.
• Low Pocket Pairs are a ‘limp’ in early position, a ‘limp’ in middle position, and an ‘up to 3x the BB’ play in late position.
• Ace/Rag suited is a fold in early position, a fold in middle position, and a ‘conditional play’ in late position.
• Plus, in light of our creed, “no clones, no robots, no duplicitive play”, any and all of the above pockets are playable from anywhere at the table dependent on your ‘reads’ concerning the opponents at your table.
• You’re in the game to win money, and if you can take advantage of a ‘loose and aggressive’ group, or, if you can take advantage of a ‘conservative and passive’ group, you gotta’ do so.

Also, while the above summary might have come across as simplistic, the truth is that everything to do with Playable Pockets is far from simplistic; it’s relatively complex.

• It involves a considerable amount of arithmetic.
• It’s a test on your level of patience.
• It requires an ability to slide in and out of different styles of play.
• It mandates that you develope a ‘read’ on the players at your table.
• Additionally, it’s always an adjunct to your goals; where, in a cash game, you hold a singular goal, and in a Multi Table Tournament (MTT) you hold a miscellany of goals.

The cash game goal is only about winning money….nothing else. However, the MTT goals include pre-requisites to the ‘winning money’ goal.

You need to reach the general area of the bubble, you need to get into the money, you need to exceed your ‘buy-in’ within the money payout positions, you need to make the final table, and, quite naturally, you want to win the tournament.

All of which, except the latter, should be regularly accomplished; provided, of course, that Patience and the Playable Pockets guidelines are generally adhered to.

The exception, winning the tournament, requires one additional factor….Lady Luck has to visit you at least once or twice; you’re usually not going to win any tournament without her help.

Best of Luck at the Tables,
D. Michael
(c) copyright, August, 2011; all rights reserved by D. M. Vadnais