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Basic Poker Strategy - Counting Odds Part 2
The basic positions which you should know:
1. (Small Blind, SB) - the player in this position plays penultimate on preflop and the first in other rounds. Same will be called the bet which the player should make automatically on preflop (half of big blind).
2. (Big Blind, BB) - the player also plays last on preflop, but the second in the all other rounds. Also the automatic bet which the player should make on preflop (the minimal bet on flop and half of bet on turn&river) refers to also.
3. An early position - the third player also called being UTG(under the gun), it makes first bet on preflop.
4,5. Early positions
6,7,8. Middle positions (MP)
9. The late position (LP) - Also called cutoff, the player makes actions penultimate.
10. The late position (LP) - also known as button or dealer, the player makes bet last in all rounds.
Position is very important in texas Holdem. This is the cards that better to playing on preflope, strategy on following rounds, etc. Most favourable is late positions when player already knows about bets of other opponents and can make aproximate estimation about strenght of their cards.
Previous article was about counting odds but this is not all, there are also discounted and potential chances. Here it is necessary to know following things:
1. The card which can improve your hand, can also improve a hand of your opponent, given him stronger combination. Example: You have AQ opponent A9 on flop 945 if an ace comes on turn this will give you top pair but also give second pair to opponent.
2. If your bet will not be last at the current round it is possible to assume, that the following player can raise the bet.
3. Also it is necessary to consider, that the given round is not last, the necessary card will probably come and you can on river bet or raise the bet of other player that will give additional money.
Chances the basic concept of poker strategy-Odds.
This concept occurs from the theory of probability and shows, what probability will required cards come or not. What for to us to know chances? It is necessary that your bet was profitable and you should do it only when bet*chances> bank.
One more important concept - Pot Odds (chances of bank). Pot odds is defined as the attitude of the bet which the player should make to size of pot, player should only be when its chances higher, than chances of bank.
So, before making any bet, you need to estimate the combination on hands that will be strongest on river, discounted odds when you make combination but still lose and implied odds: additional bets/raises that you may get on turn or river.
How To Read Players In Poker Each player is individual with his own pattern of game. But they can be divided into four types which allows to define easily the style of game against each of them. Players can be either tight - loose, agressive - passive and combined tight agressive, loose passive and etc. Tight - player enter the game only with strongest card like At-Ak, 88-AA. His bets and raises often will mean strong combination, however vulnerable to bluff, always use it against them. Loose player playing wide range of hands. it may call with 52to the river. Agressive - inconvenient opponent if is moderately aggressive, difficult to know what card it have 4 cards for the flush or set. Passive - bets and raises rarely, only when sure of having strongest cards usually not less than two pair, afraid of 3 cards to flush and straight on the board. As you may already undestand loose-passive is most profitable opponent when tight-agressive is not. Of course all not so easy, one may be loose on preflop and tight postflop, agressive flop and passive on turn and river, so its very important to write notes on players, especially in tournaments. What type of game chose for yourself? Basically there are two recomendations: tight-passive play on loose table and tight-agressive on tight table.Tight - passive play on loose table profitable more than agressive because loose players mostly always will call to the river and still beat you, so there is no need to impose opponets to fold on flop before they buld they flushes and straights.In most cases as you will play against 3-5 players bet and raise only with very strong hand. Such tables have more than 30% flop view. Tight - agressive play on tight tables, as you play against tight players too, bluff them often! This will not only gives whole pot instantly but also makes it hard to read you hands. This tables have less than 30% flop view. You can ask a question what exact cards to choose to enter the game. Preflop stage of a game is easy to formalize, there is preflop starting hands for tight tables and loose tables To find poker room with the most loose players use our quality table Poker Outs Any experienced player will tell to you, that one of the major thigs that good poker player should know is ability quickly to count the chances. The good poker player must quickly count, what chances it have with current cards, what chances different combinations on flop, turn and river. Let's understand how quickly to count up the chances. Pretend for a moment, that you have Q-6 (queen and six) clubs. Game is Texas Holdem. On there also two clubs cards. In this situation approximately 36% chance or 1/3 that one more club card on both flop and river. So you can raise and reraise with two or more players on flop to build a pot and to force opponents to fold. This one of well known tricks, therefore it is not use it too often, it will make game too transparent. To count this probability, count cards in a deck excluding yours and on the flop (cards of opponets are considered as though they in a deck), based on this you will have probabilities of various combinations at you and also what is not less important at opponents . In this example at you is 9 clubs in a deck (13 overall, a minus 2 at you, a minus 2 on a table). You will need just to increase 9 on 4 to get percent probablity of receiving flush on the river. After this we shall count, whether it is necessary to enter into pot. You need to compare cost of an enter in pot (how many costs call) to its size. We shall pretend, that pot is $50, the player has put $10, two have called, so, in bank will be $80. With current hands call will be profitable only if odds are 1 to 3. Here odds 8 to 1, and chances of a hand 1 to 3, so call is very profitable. Do not forget that just odds don't quarantee a victory but playing in such manner will give positive return on a long run. And ofcourse only mathematics not all in poker, play players, admit is it calling station invulnerable to raising or shy player who can fold on the occasional bet. This table simplifies counting odds, flop mean chances of collecting combination after getting two cards from flop to the river, turn after getting one card i.e. from flop to the turn and turn to the river. You may open it when playing poker for some time, then you will remember it and count all chances automatically. Amount of outs Flop chances Turn chances 20 1:0,5 1:1,3 19 1:0,5 1:1,5 18 1:0,6 1:1,6 17 1:0,7 1:1,8 16 1:0,8 1:1,9 15 (flush with two overcards) 1:0,8 1:2,1 14 1:1 1:2,4 13 1:1,1 1:2,6 12 (flush and overcard) 1:1,2 1:3 11 1:1,4 1:3,3 10 1:1,6 1:3,7 9 (flush like on example) 1:1,9 1:4 8 (2 ended straight draw) 1:2,2 1:5 7 1:2,6 1:6 6 (two overpairs) 1:3 1:7 5 1:4 1:8 4 (1 ended straigh draw) 1:5 1:11 3 (high card) 1:7 1:15 2 (pair) 1:11 1:23 1 1:23 1:46 After the first success reading of this article you can decide to play higher limits Main reasons why you lose at poker Poker game tables and tournaments description Poker rooms offers various kinds of game tables and tournaments. All this can seem complex, especially when open a poker software for a first time:) But actually they are defined on some types, simple for understanding. Most common is cash or also called ring game, different versions on tables with a maximum of players are 10, 6, 5, 2 persons and 1on1 or heads up. To join such game you need to have minimum buy-in or password(which is very rare) and if there is no avaliable place you can join waiting list. Limits in various rooms vary from $0,01 / $ 0,02 up to $100 / $ 200. Almost all poker rooms take a rake for they services (World poker exchange for example refund all rake back to players account each week). Usually they take over 5% from pot if it reaches flop. Freezeout tournaments don't allow re-buys and add-ons, if you lose all chips then you mus leave the game. Satellites - participation in such tournaments does not give any money: here you sbattle for a place in the big tournament. Satellites can pass both behind one, and behind several tables, entrance payments can be very small (from $1), at all to be absent or reach several hundreds dollars. Such tournaments - the chance to get for pair dollars on tournament with many thousands prize-winning fund. Freerol - free to entry with no buy-in, the real chance to win realy big money by not risking your own. But it very competive gathering over 500-2000 players to make it regular method to earn money. Tournaments on one table - Sit▓n▓Go: Players receive the fixed quantity of chips and game is continued until there is remained only one. After some fixed period of time blinds will be raised (For example after 3 mins from 5/10 to 10/20) These tournaments also going on various amount of players. Such tournament begins, as soon as the necessary quantity of players will gather and pays an entrance fee (buy-in) which will be later distributed between winers minus room fee, usually 5-10%. For sit'n'go tournament on 6 person 2 places paid, when on 10 person three places. Multi-Table Tournaments here amount of tables can fo up to several hundreds or even thousands. Here tournament tables are automatically balanced at leaving players, players transfer on other table, thus behind a table all time makes quantity of players 8-10. However there are tournaments simulating real one, where game is continued until all players leaving behind one table then winners rise on a level above. Tournament begins during in planned time, and the players registered on it receives an invtation to join. During the game player can purchase addtional chips (re-buy and addon) Winnings will be paid based on the amount of players. But if you will see quaranted under tournament name this mean that there is quaranted amount of money will be put by room in to prize pool, re-buys here usually not allowed. That's not all also you need to know importance of position at the table and how to count odds Main reasons why you lose at poker 5 Card Stud/draw - The Description Of Game At present there are only two main versions of five-card poker: without an exchange and poker with an exchange. Poker with an exchange not popular online. Every player get five cards and a round of trade starts. After this it is possible to replace any amount of cards from a deck. In other two roundes also it is possible to exchange cards. Also there is a rare version of five-card poker as low, here your primary goal will collect the weakest combination. Now about poker without an exchange. Bets is defined by the size ЮМРЕ, players gets on beginning two cards, one visible and one invisible. A round of trade there will begin the player with the maximum visible card. In the case when two players have identical cards, there begins the player sitting to the left of the dealer. Since the third card all futher is visible, thus the round of trade will begin as before with the highest visible card. On showdown most strongest hand wins. Main reasons why you lose at poker Card Stud - The Description Of Game This game overall have less dispersion (money put in risk in period of time) compared to Texas holdem. So it maybe profitable to clear bonuses on games other than Texas Holdem. But as all other games it also much less popular compared to Holdem, so you will need to search for biggest rooms to find full tables. In the start of the game all players place bets in the amount of ante. Player gets two invisible visible card, one with the highest visible card(same for other rounds) will start the game placing first bet. In the event of same cards, first starts player sitting to the left of the dealer. There are 5 rounds of trade, after first round the fourth cards emerged on the table(visible), player with highest visible cards start the game. On the fifth and sixth round players also gets one visible card and only on last seven round card is invisible. Like all other poker games first two rounds played with small bets, other with big. 7 card stud (as omaha) have High-low version too, weak hand there will be without a pair and not higher 8, 32568, flushes and straights don't count. Pots are divided and one player can get the pot, receiving both combinations or if no one have combination from 8 or lower. Why you lose at poker? Most likely you recently have started to play poker or you were comprehended with a series of badbeats, if ask this question. It is principal causes, luck in poker means a little in long term. So why you lose at poker? The main reason is: because others play better than you, also always when you are entered into the pot, poker the room takes the rake 5% from it for service, that actually rather big sum. For example on a long table 2\4 the limit is 10 dollars at an hour. How it is possible to affect this parameter? To play on bonuses, rakeback or World poker exchange, they return 100 % rake every week. Now it is difficult to find rakeback more than 30 %, it is better to play on bonuses, they have an equivalent of rakeback not less than 70 % It was idle time. To stop losing at poker it is necessary: 1. Learn to play better than the others 5-7 players for a long table or 3-4 for short, and it is unessential to become the pro, in the beginning choose tables with a low limit 0.5\1 and poker rooms with weak players. Where to find guys playing poker lose? Try big poker rooms with wide variety of games like Poker stars, Party poker or middle sized like Pacific poker, Bodog and also look at this game quality table. Now they will play losing poker, not you. So if you constantly lose on a certain limit go down and try there. 2. Study strategy of poker. On our site is basic principles of strategy of poker following which it is possible to win in low limit holdem, they include such articles as card rankings, importance of position, counting odds and etc.. 3. For the further learning of strategy in the theory the best way will be reading of poker books. 4. Practice: you can open the table of starting hands for loose or tight tables depending on a situation, the table of chances and train you skills 5. Work on the emotions, very often we know the right decision but we lose in poker because can't follow it. 6. Do notes on opponents, study their style and a manner of game, you will be amazed how often lose in different situation with strongest hand. 7. During game shutdown any music, the TV and all rest that can disturb you. 8. Don't go in tilt after long losing streak, leave the game if feel tilting. Poker is gambling on money and consequently, never play on money which you can't lose in poker, especially never go in a debt to play in poker. When you play poker and especially in NoLimit poker for the large sums of money often it is necessary to go all in, and here very much much is solved with a case and success. Never play on that limit to which are not yet ready and if you bankroll does not allow it. However the majority of poker players lose. Why? All professional poker players spent a lot of time in poker and work hard. For the man at which poker is a hobby, it plays few times in a week or in a month on weekends off it is not too necessary... And there is nothing wrong in this. But in fact nobody wants to fell yourself a loser, whether not so? The online Sit & Go ( SNG ) games are a popular choice for many cyber poker players. Let's take a look at a strategy for the typical No Limit game with the common three places paid payout structure. In our game we'll assume that 1st place pays 50% of the buy in, 2nd place pays out 30%, and 3rd pays 20%. This payout structure leads us to our first strategy decision. That is, are we going to be playing to finish in the money or are we playing to win? Some will argue that we must play for first place. They would argue that only the larger payoffs will enable us to be a net winning player. The buy in includes a steep rake for the house they argue and only by playing to win can we overcome this charge. For example in a $10 SNG the poker room may charge you $10+1 with the house keeping the dollar. This is over 9% that goes to the house. Larger SNGs usually have slightly smaller charges but they are still significant. In our example a first place finish pays two and a half times more than a third place finish. That justifies taking some risks. Playing for first early means playing more aggressively. It means taking chances early in an attempt to build up a large chip stack. With the large stack you can control the action. You can push people around and put them all-in. Sometimes things will go your way and you'll find yourself sitting on top of a pile of chips. Other times this more risky strategy will leave you crippled or out of the tournament early. Proponents of the play to win strategy don't mind busting out of a SNG early. They figure that it's better to go out early and just get into another game than to lose out on the bubble wasting all that time and effort. Other players play to get in the money. If they make it to the cash, they reason; then they can try to move up. These player will tend to lay low and avoid the action early in the tourney. They want to avoid the aggressive action that can break out at the beginning of the SNG. The finish-in-the-money player is seeking to shorten her odds by letting the other players take each other out. She reasons that if one or two players make a quick exit that significantly helps her chances. Furthermore, one of the players eliminated early might be a powerful player who just suffered a bad beat. A player using this strategy tries to cultivate a tight table image that they can later exploit. So the mantra of a finish in the money strategy could be, "Don't gamble early." So which strategy should you adopt? Like most decisions in poker the answer is, "It depends". Online SNGs are unique in that we don't have much of an opportunity to engage in table selection. Typically when a table opens up for registration there is a 'land rush' for any available seat. We don't get the luxury of observing a table for a round or so like we do at a normal ring game. We have to figure out our opponents on the fly. If you play regularly, your notes can be a great help. But usually the first few hands will be a learning experience. Who are the aggressors and who are the maniacs? Who is sitting out the early action? Is this an aggressive table or is everyone playing tight? What's my position relative to the aggressors? If you find yourself in a crazy game where several players are going all-in in a suicide pact, that's great. Sit back for awhile and let them chew each other up. You are hoping that several of these guys make a quick exit. The blinds should still be relatively low and you'll have plenty of time to pick your spots. Your chances of finishing in the money are good. If you find yourself at the other extreme and no one is stepping out of line, seek to take charge of this type of game. Look for opportunities to play your opponent more so than the cards. You're going for the gold in this type of game. Most games will require tactics that mix the two basic strategies. As an example, last night I was in a SNG that was very aggressive at first. Four players were strongly contesting each pot. I chose to sit back and really picked my spots. I managed to stay pretty much even lurking around third or fourth place. After about 25 minutes, the character of the game changed. Two of the aggressive players were eliminated. The other two had accumulated large chip stacks. At this point it seemed none of the remaining 8 players wanted to play aggressively. The two high stacks seemed content. The other six of us were slow to recognize the new situation. Finally, I picked up on the new situation and started picking up some easy pots. As with most games, the character of that game changed several times. Each time it was important to recognize the change and adapt. The default strategy that I feel most comfortable with is to play conservatively early. Don't gamble and play very tightly. Wait for the field to thin. As you near the bubble use your tight table image to play aggressively and steal a few pots. Your opponents may be reluctant to contest a pot and risk busting out on the bubble. But recognize that this strategy is a strategy now widely espoused by the better SNG players. You may need to take your tactical thinking to another level if someone else is aware of what you are up to. So, while I'll enter the game with a basic thumbnail strategy; I think the important point is to not get wedded to either SNG objective. A good businessman will ask himself everyday, "What business am I in today?" He knows that conditions and opportunity are ever changing. He must adapt in order to survive and to thrive. Perhaps sit & go players should ask themselves a similar question, "What type of game am I in right now?" Asking this question on an ongoing basis will point us in the right direction. Play for the win when conditions are right to do so. Play to place in the money when that's the best choice. By being flexible and adjusting our objective when needed we can enhance our SNG play and boost our win rate. |
