Suppose your playing any type of poker, free online poker or cash and you have A-10 and the board comes up 8-6-Q-3-2. What hands do you expect your opponent to have? It may be Q-x, 7-6 or something.

However, notice the board: It contains no opportunities for Straights to form. So you can figure out that if your opponent called (just called) your last two bets which are bluffs, then you can put him on a Straight draw (possibly 9-7 or 10-9).

Now you want your opponent to believe that you have a Queen, but you feel that you have the best hand (and let us assume that you really do have the best hand). Let us add that you won’t call a bet, because you have nothing, and you won’t raise a bettor. Should you still bet, or just check?

Let us see the differences between the outcomes of these two actions. Suppose you are first to act, and you just check. If you just check, are you quite sure that your opponent will reveal his busted Straight draw? No.

If he has a hand as good as J-8 or 9-6 expect a showdown. But if your opponent missed his draws, then he will try to save himself the embarrassment of being a draw-chaser by bluffing, and you will fold.

He won’t check Nine-high or Ten-high, of course. Expect a small bet which you won’t call.

If your opponent is first to act and checks, and you check, it is with the conviction that your Ace-high is the best hand. However, revealing Ace-high will cement your reputation as a bluffer, and if you repeat bluffing later, others will be running you down with less than premium hands, such as second top Pair or even a small pocket Pair.
So you gain chips now, but at the cost of cramping your aggressive (maybe loose-aggressive) style.

Now suppose you are first to act, and you bet. Because your opponent has a busted draw, do not expect that he will call. You still win the pot. Furthermore, because the hand ended before you show down your hole cards, then your opponent will be left guessing as to what your hand really was.

This is the position you want to put your opponent in – he has a lot of guesswork to do, and his brain will be muddled as to what you are holding and as to what you may be holding if you repeat your bluffing later.

Even someone with 9-8 may fold. Why? Because you played strongly in the Flop and the Turn – and still in the river. Your opponent might put you on the Queen or on an overpair or eve J-J; in either case, he thinks his second top Pair is beat.

If your opponent checks, and you bet, it is almost the same as if you are first to act, and you bet.

Bluffing with the best hand is nearly a contradiction in terms: you bluff only if you make better hands fold. But, in this case, it may be better to make anybody else fold – best hand or worst hand – so as to preserve your unreadability which will pay off later.

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It’s one of those uncommon instances, it can happen in free online poker games and high stakes alike, when you have J-9, for example, and you flop J-J-9. You check, and your opponent bets, you call. Turn comes a 6, you check again, and your opponent bets. You call. River comes a 2. You check for the last time, your opponent bets a big amount which could be even an all-in, then you call. You finally reveal your monster J-9 against your opponent’s, say, 9-7.

Usually with strong made hands (like A-K in a flop of A-10-3) we bet aggressively with the hope that our opponents will take that for a bluff and play back, or that they will put us on a draw and call us, or that they have a showdown-quality hand which is not strong enough for our hand and then call us. Or that they will be not willing to call with their draw (say, K-Q) and fold.

But with very strong made hands, especially on the Flop, like the J-9 example above, we can slow play. That is to say, we play passively on the hope that our opponent will bet strongly so we can take away most of their chips.

Note that with a J-9 in the J-J-9 Flop, our checks may mean, that we may not have anything, or we may have just a draw (say, Q-10) so that they will bet on the hope that they will drive out our draw. They can’t. Our hand is like an erect statue already that is nearly impossible to demolish. The 9-7 our opponent has is decent enough to take to showdown.

But with the above, what we really want our opponent to have is the Q-10. Our check may mean that we may have nothing so that they may check along with us or semi-bluff with the open-end Straight draw. We just call.

Why wouldn’t we do the same with, say, A-J? Because with A-J, we have only Trips, and we do not want to give our opponent free cards to complete a Straight that can kill off our Trips. So we bet big, or raise big, and hope that the opponent folds, or at least put your opponent in the awkward situation of calling without sufficient pot odds.

But with J-9, we can just play it slowly. Because if your opponent hits his Straight, then he will bet big, so you can raise him. And it escalates to all-ins and calls and in a jiffy all or most of his chips are yours!

If your opponent didn’t hit his Straight, however, your slow play might mean to him that you’re the one on a draw, and you are playing passively because you are waiting for the right cards to fall. Nope! The right cards have already fallen! He will bluff, and you can take away all you can. Or he may just be in the proper mood to bluff with any hand (say, K-9 or eve A-K) and you can take his chips.

So, with very big hands that are nearly impossible to beat, we should play it slowly because you want your opponent’s hand to improve into a nearly-matched hand. If he hits his Straight, for example. If you raise him he may be scared away from completing his Straight, and you will get less chips than you would by slow-playing.

Or with 9-7, he may hit an additional Nine, thus giving him a smaller Full House. Another reason is that if your opponent is in such a mood to bluff that he is willing to bluff all the way, even with nothing, then you can strip off his chips, so give him that chance to bluff.

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Winging it, especially in free poker games but at times even in quite high stakes live and online poker games has become a standard type of play for many people these days. I understand the complexities of pot odds and implied odds but, one can never understand the odds of someone just playing their “gut”.

Almost everyone I know has a favourite hand as do I, but to play against people that will play anything (and do very well!) can lend to a change in style and technique. Poker pros say to fold “bad” hands and to that I ask what those hands are. When your pocket pair of queens gets beat by someone just loose enough to raise you with eight nine off suit then again I ask what is a bad hand?

I can honestly say that I believe there are no bad hands. Any two cards you end up with are gold if you play them right. I’ve seen someone fold pocket queens to a loose player only to find out they were bluffed off the hand.

As much as I hate being ruled at a poker table by someone that should not have a prayer, I have to commend them for the sheer stupidity that led to their massive chip stack!

Now understand that all of my views for this article are based on tournament play, and usually with rebuys. Cash games are a totally different matter. I won’t delve into that area as I don’t play a lot of cash.

Now let’s say you buy into a nice friendly home game tournament with rebuys for thirty-five dollars. Now say that you have only ten players for your tourney. Let’s assume that of those ten you have one loose player. And by loose I’m talking about that guy, you know the one, raising nearly every hand no matter the cards, getting beat on occasion but in general getting lucky and acquiring most of the chips early on.

How can this be you ask? Well I ask also!!

The great thing about rebuys and no limit is the ability to outlast those kind of players. If you do get taken out early on by the loose cannon there is still the chance to get it back with a rebuy or two.

My strategy only applies to my game play against such players and I must admit that it doesn’t always pan out but, overall the odds lean slightly in my favour. And that’s not to say that I’m a better player, only that these type of players usually can’t stop the crazy plays that got them all their chips. All you can do is hope that they stay loose and you still have enough chips to stay in it till they go bust.

I hope for at least my sake that the loose players I sit down at the table with won’t ever read this!

My point is that if any one of these players could change their play at the correct point in the game then we would all be in trouble. Think about it, give the loose cannon a mass of chips, and then all of a sudden they don’t play anything except for the “premium” hands for the rest of the tourney. In most cases I believe this person would be the top paid person of the night! If they could only find the switch to flip!

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Whether you are playing in a cash or free poker games tournament or a Sit’n Go poker  game, poker is a card game that involves a mix of chance, skill, bluffing and intimidation.

To get started you will need to know what the cards are and the values placed on the hands. You will also need to learn the basic rules of the game you are playing. To avoid making bad bets, you should understand the lingo and know how to bet smart.

Poker is played with a standard deck of 52 cards. The cards are ranked from high to low, with the ace being the highest and the 2 being the lowest. The cards are also separated into four suits.

The suits are clubs, spades, hearts, and diamonds. The object of the game is to end up with the highest ranked hand.

From best to worst, the hands are ranked in the following order: Royal Flush, Straight Flush, Four-of-a-Kind, Full House, Flush, Straight, Three-of-a-Kind, Two Pair, One Pair, and high card.

1. A Royal Flush is composed of the 10, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace, all of the same suit—no suit is ranked higher than the other.
2. A Straight Flush is composed of five cards in numerical order, all in the same suit.
3. Four-of-a-Kind is four cards of the same numerical rank and another random card.
4. A Full House is composed of three cards with the same numerical order; the two remaining cards will also be of the same numerical order: Three-of-a-Kind with a Pair.
5. A Flush is composed of five cards of the same suit that are not in numerical order.
6. A Straight is five cards in numerical order, the suits must be mixed.
7. Three-of-a-Kind is three cards of the same numerical order with two random cards that are not a pair.
8. Two Pair is two sets of pairs with a random card.
9. One Pair is one pair and three random cards.
10. If nobody has any of these hands, the player having the highest ranked card wins.

There are basic rules involved in playing poker.

Each player must ante or make a token bet before the cards are dealt. The dealer then deals the cards, clockwise, face down around the table.

After the hands have been dealt, play begins. Each player looks at his or her cards; then, the first player either places a bet or checks. If the player does check, the next player can open by making a bet.

If a bet is made, the player has the next player has the option to see, or call the bet, raise the bet, or fold. After all the bets have been made, the players remaining in the hand will start the betting process all over again.

After all the betting is over, it is time to for the players to show their hands. The highest hand wins.

Bluffing, pretending to have better cards than you actually do, is a strategy of the game. A player who bluffs is trying to scare the other players out of the hand by making them think that he or she has the best possible hand.

An aggressive player is one who bets high early in the game and forces others to abandon their hands due to the fact that they are scared to bet so high.

A conservative player usually bets the minimum and is quick to fold if the cards are not in his or her favor. Smart betting includes not being afraid to fold, keeping a “poker face”, no alcohol, and maintaining control.

3 Key Rules Now

1. If you have nothing in your hand to begin with, don’t expect the cards to get better, go ahead and fold.
2. Do not drink; alcohol will make you bet irresponsibly.
3. Always bet within your means, never over your head.

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Today I came across an example which I want to share with you. It’s about Bubbling satellites. I played a couple of these last week, and I have encountered it a couple times.

I played the $11 double shootout satellites to a $215 tournament on another site. Top 2 makes the ticket. I made the top 3. As so often, there are 2 bigger stacks and one shorter stack. And today I was the shorter stack.

I had about 1500; my 2 adversaries had about 7000. Blinds were 75-150, so not much room to play for me. But my opponents were both playing super tight. This is one of the tells you have to immediately pick up on when you get close to the tickets.

This means that they are players who are most likely barely have $200 as a current bankroll, and do not want to mess anything up (since its so damn much for them). That’s of course what you have to take advantage of.

Getting back to the situation, my 2 opponents were super tight. They could’ve easily taken me out, but instead I stole my way up to about 3000 in about 10 minutes.
At this point when you get reraised, be sure to fold, and let them have it. With the way the are playing, there will be many more opportunities.

The kept on avoiding me until they both caught a big hand (AA vs KQ where AA flopped a set and KQ the straight.) So they went on and knocked each other out. And I made the ticket.

Now I want to try to give you some advice how to maximize your chances.

1 – Always try to be aggressive.

The bigger your stack, the better. Always raise the shorties Big Blind. Since they are short they can’t afford to play.
So they have the chance push or fold. They will most often fold though, since you are so aggressive and are hoping you will go battle with the bigger stacks.

2 – DO NOT battle with the bigger stacks, unless you have premium hands!

You want the money from the shorter stacks, not the bigger who can either knock you out or cripple you!

Even if you have KK and there’s an ace on the flop, FOLD! You want to kill shorties, it doesn’t matter if you ship some chips to a larger stack.

3 – When you raise the shorties, and you get reraised (all-in), don’t hesitate to call!

These shorties often fill up with frustration and will often push with any ace or medium king.

Don’t be afraid to call with 10-8, where you are often only 60-40 behind. When the short stack has less then 30% of your stack, I would call with just about anything (given the blinds represent a reasonable portion of your stack)

I hope that this article makes it a little clearer to you that being aggressive is the best way in cashing in satellites on both the cash sites as well as free online poker.
Remember the minute you start tightening up and let the shorter stacks roam freely, you’re bringing problems that could be easily avoided!

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