Poker Strategies - Part 1

This particular section on poker startegies discusses which hands you should play, when to play them, how to play them, as well as when and when not to bluff. Remember your main advantage will be that when you enter a pot you will usually have a better starting hand than your opponent. And, when you get an unfavorable flop you will have the discipline to muck your hand and save those big turn and river bets.

You may ask yourself how do I accomplish this, after all the cards get dealt out randomly, so how can I ensure that I start with better cards than the rest of teh players around the table?

Well remember that patience and discipline we spoke about, of course you do, I mentioned them about twenty times. You need to exercise those two qualities very rigidly.

You can ensure that you will usually enter the pot with the best starting hand. It’s not easy, you may find yourself getting bored, having to fold over and over again. But if you do have the discipline to follow this strategy and to not to play any garbage hands, and not to play any hands out of position, I assure you that you will beat these low limit games.

Most of the low limit players simply can’t be bluffed so don’t try and bluff them, ever. We will use a technique called a semi-bluff, but never a pure bluff. Your edge will be that you usually have a better starting hand than they do. As such you will be doing a lot of value betting, that is putting in as much money as you can into the pot with what figures to be the best hand. That is your strategy in a nutshell.

The first thing you should know is that holdem poker is a highly positional game. I want to stress that since this is aimed at a beginner/intermediate player I am not going to spend too much time discussing position. Position will be discussed but at a rudimentary level. The higher the limit the more important position is. In No Limit position is of paramount importance.

Even in low limit games position is important and can seem somewhat complicated. Let us try and shed some light on this. The best position is the button. If you have the button you are always last to act during each betting round of that particular hand. You have the luxury of gaining all sorts of information about the strength or weaknesses of your opponents hands based on their actions. Since they must always act before you, you will always be armed with important information you would not be privy to in a weaker position.

If everyone checks to you, and you have a mediocre hand you can bet it. If you have nothing you can check and give yourself a free card. If you have a hand that you want to try and limit the field on you can raise, or re-raise in the hopes of driving out other players (the blinds in particular). If you have an average hand like pocket nines and the pot has been raised, and re-raised you can muck your hand without it costing you a thing. There are tremendous advantages to always being able to act last, and as such you will be able to play some hands on the button that you can not play from early position.

The next best position is one seat to the right of the button. In this seat you will always be second last to act, and if the player on the button folds, you will be last to act. As you move further and further away from the button your positional advantage decreases. The worst position is the first seat to the right of the big blind, as its name denotes "under the gun" it is a place you don’t really want to be in without holding a strong hand. The worse you position the stronger your hand must be to ender the pot. So there are much less hands you would be willing to enter the pot with under the gun as opposed to on the button.

You will notice that I discuss in great detail how to play your cards before the flop and on the flop. I don’t even bother with detailed analysis on how to play your hands on the turn, and on the river. The reason for this is because all of these hands I will discuss play pretty much the same on the turn and on the river. If you are willing to continue with your hand after the flop, you should suspect that you currently have the best hand, otherwise you usually should fold. Thus, if you have the best hand, bet and protect your hand, make your opponents pay if they want to draw out on you. Never let your opponents have a free draw to beat you. If your opponents shown considerable strength and re-raise you, you will either muck your hand if you know you are beat, or you will check and call the hand down if you believe there is still a reasonable chance you may still have the best hand.


Starting Hands

Hand 1 Pocket Aces A A . (Pre-Flop)


This is the best hand you can start with. You will raise and re-raise with this hand from any position. The objective of your raises or re-raises is two-fold. You want to get as much money in the pot with your big boss hand as possible and you also want to limit the field. NEVER, and I mean NEVER slow play your aces in a low limit holdem game. I’ve seen them get cracked so many times by people doing this (myself included) it’s not funny. While this is the best hand there is in holdem, it does much better against a limited number of opponents, one or two and it is vulnerable if played against many players. To put this in perspective for you it only wins about a third of the time against a full table, but it wins about 75% of the time against only one or two opponents. So I reiterate, raise, or re-raise with your pocket aces before the flop from any position.

(Pocket Aces On the Flop)

OK, you have done you job pre-flop and jammed the pot as hard as you could. Hopefully you have limited the field to only one or two opponents. If your game is sensible you should have no more than a couple of opponents. On most any flop you will again play it quite aggressively. If you are in early position bet, in mid to late position raise a ragged flop of say 2d 7s Jc is a terrific flop for you. Your aces are very likely the best hand, and you should continue to jam the pot. A flop like 7h 7d Ks is another great flop for you. It is usually quite easy to play pocket aces when you get most flops. Although aces are a terrific starting hand there are some scare flops to this hand. This is when playing pocket aces isn’t so easy. It takes judgment and discipline to get away from them when they are beat. Lets look at a couple of dangerous flops to your pocket aces.

Suppose the flop is 10c Jd Qs if there was a pre-flop raiser(s) other than you it is very possible one of them holds an AK, if he does, you are in serious trouble. If there is a lot of action on the flop, (a bet, and a raise) you can be pretty sure that your aces are in big trouble. (If there was a 3 or 4 bet on the flop you are certain that your pocket aces are no longer winning, you are up against either a straight or 3 of a kind). With a flop like this likely your only out is the K, to make a straight, and even if you hit the K you will probably at most get half the pot. An ace doesn’t help you, even though you make a set, because if someone didn’t already have the straight they will now. Likely at least one of you opponents already has a straight with a K so you would be looking for 1 of 3 available kings at most. The odds of hitting one of the remaining kings are just too long. The correct play on a flop like this with a lot of action is to fold.

Another scare flop for aces is something like 8d 9d Jd . Players do like to play suited connectors like 10Q or 107 or Ace x suited. Actually in the low limit games many of your opponents will play any suited cards (which is a big mistake that you will not make), but nonetheless they do play them. So any suited flop with 3 connected cards is a very dangerous flop to your pocket aces. Note that if you had the Ace of clubs you would be willing to check and call the hand down. You must even call the river unless there is considerable action on the river indicating that you are beat. You must always remember that although you started off with the best possible starting hand, pocket aces is still only a one pair hand, and sometimes you will have to release the hand when you get an unfavorable flop
 

One of the biggest problems beginner’s have is getting married to their good hands. After all, you might only get a hand like AA once or twice a night. Be that as it may, you must be willing to get away from the hand when you get a dangerous flop with any kind of action. When you get a dangerous flop with action, you need to muck those aces, at first it will be hard, after a little experience you will eventually realize its often a no-brainer. This is a problem I see on a daily basis even at the high buy in NL tournaments where I spend most of my days. Never get married to a hand, after all you will get another one in less than a minute.

Hand 2 Pocket Kings K K . (Pre-Flop)

This is the second best hand you can start with. You will play them pretty much the same way you play aces, jam the pot as hard as you can before the flop for the same reasons I have listed above.

(Pocket Kings Post Flop)

Once again you will play the flop very aggressively like you did with pocket aces. You have to worry about the same kind of dangerous flops we just went over that make pocket aces vulnerable. Kings have one addition liability that aces don’t have. If an ace hits the flop you must shut down. Players play hands such as AK, AQ, AJ, and A10 under a raise. In low limit holdem many players play ace any for any amount of bets (of course you won’t be one of these weak players, but there are lots of the online). This is why if an ace hits the flop you must shut down. If there is any action at all on the flop you pocket kings have to go in the muck, THEY HAVE TO!

It doesn’t matter how pretty those pocket kings look in your hand. It doesn’t matter that you only get them once or twice a night. It doesn’t matter if they are your favorite hand. The hand is beat, you know it (now you do right?), so do the right thing, throw them in the muck. Save your self a bunch of bets. At the end of a session if you can make three or four correct lay downs that might amount to your profits for that session. After all, a bet saved is a bet earned. This is another huge weakness many players have. They know what they should do. They know player X has an ace, they know they should fold. But rather than doing the right thing they make crying calls and lament about how the world isn’t fair, how the poker gods are out to get them. They completely ignore the fact that they voluntarily choose to donate a large number of chips to the pot when they knew they were beat. They didn’t have to loose those chips and they knew it, but those darn pocket kings sure did look pretty. Don’t be one of those players. Don’t get married to your hands. Enough said.

Hand 3 Pocket Queens Q Q . (Pre-Flop)

In my opinion this is the 3rd best starting hand you can have. If someone wants to tell me they like AK better I wouldn’t put up too much of a fuss. These two hands run pretty close. In low limit holdem AK might even do better at a full table, but we will talk about that hand next. Right now you have QQ, so how do you play them? Well very much like your pocket aces and your pocket kings, especially at the low limit games. You bring them in for a raise from any position for two reasons. Firstly, to get as much money in the pot with what is likely the best hand before the flop, and secondly to limit the field. At the low limit games I want you to re-raise with your QQ from any position (a tactic I would not endorse at the higher limit games).

Here is why you must play you pocket queens so aggressively before the flop in the low limit games. For the following reasons, firstly, the low limit games tend to have a lot of maniacs who play any two cards for a single bet, any two connected, any two suited etc. The higher limits still have these types of players however they tend to be a lot less of them. You need to drive these players out before the flop because like the other big pairs they do well against one or two customers, and tend to go way down in value against lager fields. QQ loses even more value than the other two bigger pairs because it is more vulnerable (it has more over cards).

Against four or more callers if an over card hits somebody is pretty much guaranteed to have one of the over cards and your hand turns to a two out drawing hand if at best. Or in other words, it turns into trash and should be treated as such. In a scenario such as the one I just described if there is a bettor and a caller, with players yet to act behind you QQ should be mucked every time. This is why QQ is a very difficult hand to play at low limits, you have to put in two or three bets before the flop to try and limit the field. Hopefully you achieve your objective, but sometimes you won’t be able to do it. The other players my have legitimate hands, or they just might feel like playing their Ax and Kx suited hands against you. Don’t try to figure it out, you can’t. You can’t put many of these players on a thought or a hand, because very often they don’t have either. Always remember what your primary edge over these players is. That you are almost always starting with a better hand than do, and you will have the discipline to get away from them when they are beat.

(Pocket Queens Post Flop)

So you are lucky enough to limit the field to one or two players and you get a flop with no over cards. Go ahead and bet, if you are bet into raise, if you get re-raised, its time to slow down. Take a good look at the board. Think about the kind of cards your opponents might be playing. Have they been showing down reasonable hands? Have they been raising with nothing, or only when they have a premium hand? Is there a J or a 10 on the flop? If so do you think they might have a hand like AJ or A10? Did they 4 bet you before the flop? If so they may have a bigger pair than yours. Does the flop have suited connectors, or is it completely ragged? You must always be asking yourself these types of questions as you play if you hope to be a winner, no matter what the limit.

Use your discretion and play the hand out as you see fit. If no one is playing back at you continue to lead all the way, and don’t wimp out on the river. You will notice one thing as you move up in limits. The good players rarely miss out on that last value bet on the river when they have the best hand. Occasionally they get check raised because of it, but the number of extra bets they pick up by value betting there top pair on the river more than compensates for this negative outcome.

If the flop comes something like Ac Kh 2d and there is any action at all you likely are in big trouble and will want to get away from the hand even for a single bet. You can only continue to play if you opponent has shown you that he is a maniac, otherwise you must muck your Pocket Queens. If only one over card hits the board and you are heads up you are still in pretty good shape. If he checks to you, bet. If he bets into you call him, or you may even raise him, but if you get 3 bet you will have to release your hand. Then as long as the turn doesn’t hurt you too much continue with the hand. You will have to use some discretion when playing this hand, but if you have played it aggressively you probably will have a sufficiently large pot to justify calling even if you are not sure where you are at.

Hand 4 Big Slick A K (Pre-Flop)

This is another one of the premium holdem hands. You will want to raise this hand from any position other than the blinds. If you are a very aggressive player go ahead and raise it from the blinds as well. Don’t re-raise this hand from the blinds as AK is a positional hand and you will be first to act for the entire hand, its just not worth a re-raise from the blinds. If you are in late position you can put in a re-raise, as you will have position on your foes.

Hand 4 Big Slick A K (Post-Flop)

If you flop either an Ace or a King, you will have top pair, top kicker. This is the flop you are hoping for, so bet it strong. In this situation if you are first to act bet the flop, if someone else bets, raise or re-raise them. Much like the big pairs, this hand plays better against a limited field, especially if you hit the flop. If there is a lot of action again slow down and try and think about what your opponents have. Unless the board is scary, or one of your opponents has shown considerable strength with his bets, continue to lead at the pot. If the flop is ragged say 3s 6h Jd you will need to evaluate the situation. If you are in early position against more than one caller you should just check the flop. You only have over cards and there is a good chance you will get raised if you bet. If there is a single bet, you will call and hope to hit an A or K on the turn.
 

If you miss check and fold if you opponent bets.

You had a good starting hand, but you missed, you have no pair.

Don’t call the big turn bet here (remember the bets are twice as big as they were on the flop now), it’s a losing proposition in the long run, so don’t do it.

If you are in late position against only one caller with the same flop and are checked to you should bet. You may win the pot right there if you opponent folds.

There is also a good chance you are still holding the best hand even if you missed the flop. Your opponent may have a hand like AQ, KQ, or AJ, all hands that he may have called your pre-flop raise with. If the turn comes a blank, say 8 , and your opponent checks again only bet if your have a read on your opponent and you think he might fold. You need to observe the game to know this.

If he if bluff proof (he never lays down a hand) just check and hope to show down your hand against him. If you are lucky enough to catch an ace or a king on the river, value bet your hand if he checks. Don’t miss that extra bet, these value bets are tough, but they eventually will represent most if not all of your profits in a session. If you miss the river you will likely have to fold if your opponent bets.

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