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Poker |
| Your main strategy change should occur right at the top, in the
selection of starting hands. In hold'em, the quality of your starting
hand should directly depend on the amount of money you have to pay to
see the flop compared to the return you expect if you get 1ucky and hit
your hand. Why? Because your hand wi11 miss the flop such a high
percentage of the time. As it becomes more expensive to see the flop,
you need to increase your chances of hitting your hand by increasing the
quality of the cards you start with. Because of the differences between
spread and structured limits, you can limp into a poker to see thc flop
for half as much money in a spread-limit game (e.g., $2) as in a
structured-limit game (e.g., $4). Since thc price to see the flop
differs so much between structured- and spread-limit games, your
strategy has to differ, too. Suppose you are dealt a drawing hand, such as the 8d 6d in early position. In your basic structured- limit game, this hand is a marginal starting hand for several reasons. The 8d 6d plays well in only a specific type of situation -- a large, multi-way poker -- and when you are one of the first players to act, you have no guarantee that your poker will be multi-way (unless you are playing in a very loose and passive game). Since you can't know whether or not the poker will be multi-way when you are in early position, it is very important that you get to see the flop for a small bet -- in other words, as cheaply as possible. The earlier your position in the hand, the more likely it is that someone will raise behind you and the less likely it is that you will get to see the flop for a single small bet. This is where these types of hands can get very expensive. In structured-limit games, once you've called the initial small bet you are almost always forced to call any subsequent raises because of how much money is in the poker. Suppose you're in a $4-$8 game where there is $6 in blinds. You limp for $4, a player raises behind you making it $8 to go, and the blinds fold. There is already $l8 in the poker when you have to make the decision whether or not to call the extra $4 raise. There is too much money in the poker to fold your hand for $4. The call is automatic. Since you will frequently be playing for two or more small bets, hands like 8d 6d, played in early position, can be very dangerous and expensive to play -- unless, of course, you are a very good player, capable of getting off this hand cheaply after the flop when you hit it badly and squeezing out those extra bets when you hit it well. A spread-limit game is a totally different story. Drawing hands such as the 8d 6dare clearly playable, even in early position. First, since players only have to pay half as much to see the flop, they are much more likely to limp into most pokers. This means that the poker in a spread- limit game is more likely to be both un-raised and multi-way. Which means you are more likely to get to see the flop for only a small bet since spread-limit games tend to play much more loose and passive than their structured cousins. Second, even if there is a raise behind you when you limp in early position, you do not have to play for the extra bet in a spread-limit game. This is because, compared to the same scenario in a structured-limit game, there is not as much money in the poker relative to the size of the bet. Take a $2-$4-$8-$8 game where there is $.3 in blinds, for example. You limp in for $2, there is a raise behind you making it $6 t0 go, and the blinds fold. In this game, there is only $11 in thc poker when you have to make the decision whether or not to call the $9 raise (as opposed to $18 in the poker in the same situation in the structured- limit game). Because there is so much less money in the poker in spread-limit, when the poker is raised behind your limp, it is easy to throw your hand away for the extra $4.Now that you've found your table with a live one or two, be patient. More than just having the discipline to play good hands and the stomach for surviving the variance, you should realize that most of our income in Hold 'em comes from AA and KK, with notable mention to the other pocket pairs and AK. Your object is to not lose too much while waiting for these premium hands, and particularly not to lose too much to these hands when other players get them. At $10-$20 and below, go ahead and make it 3 bets if you can before the flop with your AA or KK; you'll be surprised at how little respect you get with people calling you all the way to the river even though your betting is screaming "I HAVE POCKET ACES!!!" And respect preflop raises done by other players, dumping a lot of hands you would normally play such as AT and KJ or even AJ and KQ, as you don't want to make top pair versus an overpair. On the flop, don't bet into someone who has made it three bets unless you can beat the shit out of AA and KK and *want* to be raised back and then just call and go for a check-raise on the turn. |
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