Holdem Poker Tips

I know it isn’t the prettiest topic to discuss in the world but it is one that needs to be addressed nonetheless. Running bad and getting cold decked are two of the worst situations a poker player can find themselves in. How well you play the game has nothing to do with it. When variance hits you the wrong way and the cards do not fall in your favor it can set a number of bad things in motion if you are not careful. I am going to talk about how to cope with a bad run and recognize it before you begin to develop bad habits that make it worse.

Recognition

If you are new to the game of poker this will be the most difficult task for you to understand. Knowing when you are running bad is essential for a number of reasons such as:

1. Bankroll management
2. Emotional control
3. Stave off developing bad habits

Those are just a few of the reasons you need to be capable of recognizing when things are not going your way.

In order to understand what a bad run is you can simply examine what it looks and feels like when you are running good. You are hitting all of your outs and even doing it when you are not a favorite. You seem to pick up better hands and more of them when you are in a session. Your mindset is balanced and you “know” you are going to make a profit. The tempo and rhythm of the game seem to fit perfectly with how you are playing. Conversely, the polar opposite takes place when you are running bad. No matter how well you play you always seem to lose the one outer or miss the draw even when you are 50/50in the hand. Things seem to be going against you at every turn. You begin to lose confidence in your game. Second guessing your play also begins to set it. Nothing you do seems to be enough to win a pot.

Control

As I stated earlier, running bad has nothing to do with your skill as a poker player. However, understanding what to do when you hit a bad run of cards separates the good players from the broke ones. You need to have a great deal of emotional and self-control to even play the game of poker let alone win a tournament or have consistent session that are profitable. That means when things are not going your way you do not begin to force the action. Many players will start to play more hands when they run bad. Others will begin making moves in the wrong spots opening themselves up to easily be picked off in Texas Holdem poker tournaments or giving up maximum profit in cash games. This is why controlling your emotional state is important when you are running bad and in most cases keep you from losing more than you should.

What to Do?

So now that we have defined what to look for and what can happen when you are dealing with a bad run we can discuss what you need to do. I realize that everyone is different. Personalities, styles of play and approaches to the game all make up who we are as poker players. One solutions doesn’t necessarily fit everyone so we will discuss a few that may help you get your game back on track.

1. Understand Variance – over and over again I hear poker players talk about how there is no way they should lose with Aces heads-up. What they do not seem to understand is that being a favorite does not mean you are an automatic winner. This is where understanding variance comes into play. All we can do is get our chips in the middle with the best hand and hope it works out. By studying how variance works and some of the math behind it things become clearer for us to understand when our favorite doesn’t work out.
2. Take a Break – taking a break from the game always helps when things are not going quite right for you. Sometimes a bad run will last a couple of days and other times it can last for weeks, months or even a year. Only you know how much time you need to recalibrate your thinking.
3. Cards come in waves – cards tend to come in waves both good and bad. Knowing this can help you adjust your game. When you are running good you play more. The same rules apply when you are running bad only in the opposite direction. When things are not going your way slow down for a while until the tide turns.
4. Don’t second guess – second guessing is not your friend in the game of poker. If you feel you are not making the correct decisions then by all means step away from the game. However, if you know you are making the correct decisions but continue to get poor outcomes you cannot allow it to change your game. Remember, making the correct decisions will benefit you MOST of the time sans variance striking at the most in-opportune time.

Great poker players and good play are measured over the long term. Don’t allow a bad run of cards to destroy your confidence. Use it as an opportunity to learn and improve when you have some down time. I prefer to read strategy when I am running bad and re-think my approach as I analyze what has happened. Use that down time constructively and not only will you survive but you will thrive!

Curtis Mayfield III

So where exactly is your poker game? How much have you improved? If so, what did you do to improve your game and can you carry it over to the next level? All of these questions are relevant questions that we need to be asking ourselves as we continue on our journey in the poker world.

Poker has always been a game about knowledge and self-improvement. It used to be that you could literally play thousands of hands over a number of hours and eventually you would gain the requisite experience necessary to have a solid grasp of the game. Today, in the computer age of instant access and online poker, just about anyone with an internet connection can gain years of knowledge and experience with the click of a button. All of that knowledge can be picked up in a relatively short period of time.

True, there is no substitute for experience but the learning curve is a lot shorter than it used to be and if you are not on top of your game and working to constantly evolve your game you will find yourself left behind. Players today simply are hungry for knowledge. They are talking, reading, writing and even watching video in order to gain any and every edge they can to compete in both low and high stakes poker tournaments and cash games. Poker strategy from pros and internet poker pros is readily available if one seeks it out.

So how do you improve your game?
I believe the first thing that anyone that plays live or online poker needs to do is to be brutally honest with yourself.  This is not always an easy thing to do but it is certainly a necessary thing to do if you intend to keep up. Poker is a lot like many other sports in that the game has evolved. For instance: As little as six years ago almost no one even knew the game existed other than hard core poker players that grew up with the game in their homes playing with family and eventually continued to play as adults. The game also had many middle aged and older players that simply sat and socialized as they earned a few bucks over a beer. Yes, tournaments were being played and you definitely had your regular gamblers and pros that played the game as well.

Also, the game was more of a small pot game that was played to the River. Today, the game is much younger with players like Peter Eastgate, Annette Obrestad and many others that have had major successes in live poker tournaments translating their games from the internet to brick and mortar poker rooms. The play also has become increasingly more aggressive pre-flop as the years have passed by. No one is afraid to get their chips in the middle on a flush draw early in a poker tournament anymore where as back in the day that was something that was a major no no.

I believe video has also been a major tool in helping new players to learn the game so quickly. Obviously, if you are multi-tabling you are going to see a lot more hands a lot faster than if you are playing live. The more experience the better the player, if you have the talent that is. Also, I noticed that the number of poker strategy books available is completely off the charts today whereas only a few years ago you had to dig and beg the clerk to find anything outside of Super System. As the public has become more aware of Texas Hold’em the curiosity and banter about the game has leaked into the work place where hands are being discussed constantly among co-workers and friends alike. Simply put there are so many more avenues to obtain knowledge about the game. So, there are no excuses for anyone that really wants to work at it and become a good poker player. If you prefer learning via reading - it’s there for you. If you prefer videos - it’s there for you too. Talking about the game with poker players that you respect will always be a tool utilized by those players in the know. I do it almost each and every day. So don’t be afraid to reach out and grab the information that is available to you. It doesn’t cost you much more than a little bit of your time. Trust me, it’s time well spent.

Curtis Mayfield III

We spend a lot time writing and talking about what should be done at a poker table. I talk about poker strategy, poker tournaments and even cash games when detailing what makes us the best players that we can be. However, not all situations in a poker room require you to understand pot odds or calculate them. Some situations just require good ole common sense and the ability to recognize negative EV (expected value) when you see it. Once you can see it you can avoid it like the plague!

Arguments are Bad
For as much as I would love to say that every poker room is the friendliest place in the world that would not be an accurate assessment. How many times have you sat at a poker table and watched two players whine and scowl at each other thinking that one is intimidating the other. The reality of the situation is that being angry at another player for slow rolling, slow play, talking on the phone or any other infraction can be detrimental to your own game. Some things in life are simply not worth the energy to get angry over. However, there are situations that do pop up in the heat of battle that need to be addressed. I have always recommended that when a player is out of line you have the dealer and / or the poker room manager deal with it. Poker players are a microcosm of society and that means you are going to be around a whole lot of really good people mixed in with a few idiots. You don’t have to let the idiots take over your table with bad behavior. Let the dealers deal with the stupidity and if they refuse to step up get the poker room manager to restore order if necessary.

Lose your Ego
Having a lot of confidence is a pre-requisite to becoming a successful poker player. However, when that confidence develops into ego you begin to make poor decisions which will ultimately lead to your own demise if you allow it to. Yes, all competitive ventures require the participants to walk that fine line. How do you find a happy medium?

For me I refuse to make the game a one on one competition until I am heads-up for all the money. I realize how simple that sounds but consider how many times we have all sat around the poker table and watched 2 players get into it with each other hand after hand, bluff after bluff until one of us that was watching the action picks up a hand and busts one of the two that were hammering at each other?

It happens believe it or not.
There are some poker players that take it very personal when they lose a pot. This bodes well for you but can prove to be extremely frustrating for the player that can’t handle small setbacks. Even in cash games you cannot allow your ego to control your bets and overall assessment of the game. By doing so you give up every bit of the edge you worked so hard for by reading about, playing and understanding poker strategy. That doesn’t quite sound like anything a good poker player would have any interest in. The fact of the matter is that you are going to lose pots. Even when you are running good and dominating the table you will still lose pots along the way. However, how you deal with those losses says a whole lot about how successful you may become.

You must learn to let the small pots go as well as bad beats on the larger pots too. Dwelling on the negative experiences breeds negative thinking. Negative thinking yields negative results. That is not the place you want to be. Think about the long term outcome and view the small loses and bad beats for what they are. By doing that you will fair a lot better over the long run and save yourself a lot of heartache.

Curtis Mayfield III

I think that most of us understand that playing Texas Hold’em poker is like playing a game of chess with chips. The difference being that you as a poker player can be any of the chess pieces you wish. This line of thinking is extremely powerful when used correctly. Poker strategy comes in all shapes, sizes and forms. There is no one particular style of play that makes a player a great player. It is only when the style of play is merged with superior skill and solid poker strategy that it becomes potent. One of the things that I like to study in any poker player is their ability to get a call when they have a made hand on the river. So many times I see players online as well as live either under or over bet the pot without getting the desired results. It doesn’t have to be that way.

Count those Chips

You cannot make good value bets without understanding how many chips your opponent has. Seriously, you need to either ask for a count or get one verbally when you are not sure. The reasoning behind knowing your opponents chip count is that it gives you the information you need to make the correct bet size when you have the best hand on the river. Let’s take a look at how this plays out below:

Hero $15,000 chips [A][K] (Middle Position)

Villain $22,000 chips [8][8] (Button)

Situation: You are midway through a 180 player multi-table online poker tournament. You get involved in a pot holding Ace King and each of you has hit a hand. The blinds are $600 / $300

The flop comes down [Q[8][T] and your opponent checks his set of eights.

The turn brings a [X] and your opponent checks again. The river is a [J}!

Your opponent, feeling he has the best hand, decides to bet out $4000 making the pot worth $7,050. Now is the time when knowing your opponents chip count makes a huge difference. The first question you should be asking yourself is “what kind of bet can I make that my opponent will call?” Armed with the knowledge that your opponent is about even in chips with you at this point you can begin to narrow your options. There was a standard raise pre-flop and only one caller. You know if you push your entire stack that your opponent is more likely to fold than hold on to his setoff eights as he tends to be scared out of pots from time to time.

Finally, you decide to raise it up to $9000. Your opponent thinks about it and reluctantly calls.

Summary: Because you had the knowledge and understanding of how your opponent tends to not like to put all of his chips in the middle without the nuts you were able use that information against him. There is no value in making a value bet that never gets called.

Shoving is not always the best move when you have the best hand. Remember, poker requires constant evaluation and re-evaluation based on the poker players involved. What may get you a call with one player may not be the correct play against a player that has a different style. Throughout the course of the poker tournament or cash game it is up to you to determine what and where the optimal play is based on your understanding of the players involved.

In cash games the thinking can vary. My cash games tend to fluctuate between being very tight and aggressive to very loose and aggressive. That means you need to be aware of those dynamics and adjust your game accordingly. Having said that I have witnessed many all-ins on the river that seem to get called regularly. I know that may seem strange to those that do not play live cash games regularly but it does happen a lot more frequently than one might think. In any event pay attention and make your value bets good ones. In the long run your game will improve and so will your chip stack.

Curtis Mayfield III

Playing solid position poker is part of the fundamentals of poker that I preach about regularly. So many poker players, particularly no limit Texas Holdem players, tend to get involved in pots at the worst times simply because the hands they hold are played out of position. By playing hands out of position you negate the prospects of playing the hand in many situations. On the other hand the players that understand position and how to use it are almost poetic in their use of it to significantly increase their chip stacks.

How important is position in poker? It is so important that the majority of the chips earned by most players are earned due to position and savvy post flop play.

What is position?

Position is the ability to act last in the hand. It really is as simple as that. You have the benefit of seeing how your opponent(s) are going to approach the hand and you now have the opportunity to act based on where you believe you are in the hand accordingly. So what does this mean for you? It means a few things. First, you can control the size of the pot when you act last in the hand. Second, if you are beat on the Turn or River you can get away from the hand with minimal loss. Third, it is probably the best place to steal from base on your image of your opponents and how they are playing against you.

I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to have position. Clearly you have significant options available to you that other players do not simply because you get to act last in the hand. Let’s take a look at position in action.

Our players are involved in a multi-table tournament with no antes early in the tournament with $50/$25 blinds:

Player1 $1800 (Button) [A][Q]

Player2 $3000 (EP) [J][J]

Player2 opens the pot for $150 and the action folds around to the button. The button decides to make it $600 to go and puts pressure back on Player1 in early position. Now all of the sudden [J][J] doesn’t look all that good. A few things have to be going through the initial raisers mind. “Obviously the rest of his chips are going in the middle if I call this bet. He probably has a big hand and his bet looks like he wants a call.” Yes, there is a method to the madness in how this hand was bet by Player1.

Even those observing the game would be likely to believe that Player1 has some kind of premium hand based on how he decided to bet it. Also, being low on chips certainly plays into the decision making process. We can also deduce that Player1 is not going to fold under any circumstances pre-flop and most likely post-flop either. The aggressive position based play of Player1 results in Player2 folding his hand and giving up the pot with the best hand.

Hand Selection

Part of playing good position is also hand selection. There is a reason that successful poker players do not play small pairs, suited connected and other speculative hands from early position early on in poker tournaments. The reason is that it is way too easy for another player to raise you off of the hand and therefore you have just donated to a pot you will never rake. Again, solid fundamentals tell us that we need to play stronger hands from early position unless our chip stack allows us the luxury to do otherwise early in poker tournaments.

Position and Feel

So many people talk about having a feel for the game of poker. There is a lot of truth to that statement and it is even more evident as you watch some of the better players use their feel for the game to help accumulate chips. The reason I bring this up is simple. You must develop your ability to sense when another player is not telling the truth. This means smelling out bluffs or bets that simply do not add up. By having position you are able to put pressure on a player by choosing a bet size that you believe will be enough to push them off of the hand. This takes a feel for the player as well as a feel for the ebb and flow of the table you happen to be playing at as well. The only way to acquire this kind of feel for the game is to play and gain that experience. This is particularly true of live tournament and cash game players.

Just remember that position is everything in poker. Learn how to use it to your benefit and exploit weakness when you sense it in your opponents.

Curtis Mayfield III

It’s a really powerful concept for those of you who play shorthanded or heads-up hold’em. And for players in full-handed games, it will help explain how to play a recurring situation, too. I’m talking about the small blind, my friends. About two weeks ago, I sent an E-mail tip to my Preferred On-line Mailing List. I’ve enhanced that tip especially for you. Get ready, because this advice is hot and it’s coming right at you … Here’s one of the areas of poker where I believe even strong players falter. Let’s say that you’re playing limit hold’em, just you and one opponent. Picture that. Now, erase that picture. We’ll get back to it in a minute. Picture that same opponent, but this time you’re in a regular ring game. Well, when you’re in a full-handed game, you realize that if everyone folds and you’re in the small blind, you don’t really need a lot of strength to call or raise the big blind.

Should you usually stay in with 10-8 offsuit? You bet - either raise or just call. But you shouldn’t fold often. Repeating: Raise or call most of the time. What about 9-5 offsuit? Well, that’s a little trickier. Against many aggressive and sensible opponents, you’ll probably lose money playing that hand, but it’s close.

Why is it close? Because, let’s say that it’s a $100-$200 game. The blinds then are $50 small, $100 large. This means that you can just call for $50 and get 3-to-1 money odds at this point (subject to adjustment), provided that your opponent doesn’t raise. In a sense, you’re getting a 50 percent discount over what it would cost if you had to call that $100 cold. Without being too picky about how we analyze it, that means that if this play wouldn’t lose $50 if you called cold, you probably should call for $50. And guess what? That 9-5 doesn’t lose $50 if you call cold against many opponents with random hands. So, what’s the problem with calling? A couple of big ones:

1. You might get raised because the big blind is live.

2. Your opponent in the big blind has position over you and will be acting last on every future betting round. This turns out to be a pretty big issue, and people who think position doesn’t much matter heads up are quite wrong. But, despite this positional disadvantage on all future rounds of betting, it’s often worth calling. And you might even raise, hoping that your opponent will fold his big blind. In fact, you should raise frequently against too conservative foes. Opponents who don’t defend their big blinds are good targets to put on your left. Generally, players on your left have a positional advantage and you’ll lose money to them forever. Unless there is a great difference, favoring you, between your skill and theirs, you probably will lose money against players on your left for your lifetime. There’s nothing much you can do about it, except to minimize the advantage with prudent decisions. But don’t despair. If you’re a skillful player, you’ll make much more than enough money from players to your right to cover this misfortune.

Neutralizing the Disadvantage But when you have a player to your left who inadequately defends the big blind, you can go a long way toward neutralizing this overall positional disadvantage. So, in addition to other seating factors that we’ve talked about in the past, consider changing to a seat where a player who doesn’t defend the blind often enough sits to your left. This will allow you to make money with weak hands that you otherwise would have thrown away. And many of the hands that you normally would play will be more profitable, because you sometimes will win the blind without a contest - and the amount of the blind usually surpasses the profit that you could expect against an active opponent.

But where was I? Oh - what can we play in the small blind against the big blind after everyone else has folded? Our conclusion is that - depending on the opponent, our image, and other factors - 10-8 offsuit is very likely playable in the small blind, and 9-5 offsuit might be. Hands such as 7-3 offsuit, 9-4 offsuit, and 7-2 offsuit, or even suited, often shouldn’t be played.

Now, here’s the deal. All that was about what you should do in a full-handed hold’em game when you’re the small blind vs. a big blind. But, suppose instead that the game is two-handed from the get-go. Now what?

I’ll tell you now what! Now, by convention, the blinds are reversed. Except on the first round of betting, the small blind is in the dealing position and will act last. The big blind, except for the first betting round, will act first. How does this change things? Monumentally! I’ve been able to consistently route opponents who don’t adjust correctly. You don’t need anywhere near as powerful hands now to raise or call the big blind as you did in the full-handed game after everyone else folded.

Huh? But, Mad Genius of Poker, you just said that you didn’t even need very much to call or raise previously. That’s right. And now you often don’t need anything at all. In some games against overly cautious opponents, you don’t need anything specific to play. Absolutely everything will do!

The Reasons Why, Two reasons:

1. There’s something I call the “bunching factor.” This means that when players voluntarily fold, it tends to imply that better-than-average cards remain among the players yet to act. This is logical when you think about it, because opponents are more likely to fold bad cards than good cards. And this means that when everyone folds before you raise that big blind, well … that big blind is more likely to hold a strong hand than he would if he were starting with a random deal. So, raising the big blind from the small-blind position in a full-handed game after everyone folds is not quite as good a deal as you might think (but usually it’s good enough). Raising the big blind from the small-blind position in a heads-up game is better than you might think.

2. Heads up, you’re going to be able to act last on the second, third, and fourth (final) hold’em betting rounds. This positional advantage can make up a lot of ground. This reversal of position when heads up also means that you usually should be defensive with medium-strong hands from the big-blind position and aggressive with them from the small-blind position. In other words, in a heads-up game in the big-blind position, you shouldn’t three-bet against a raise as often as you would in a full-handed game if everyone folded and then the small blind raised. You also should fold more hands in the big blind than you would in a ring game when the small blind raises.

Think about what I’ve said, and if you ever get the opportunity to destroy an unsuspecting heads-up hold’em foe

By: Mike Caro

Pot sizes grow quickly throughout a poker hand in No Limit Texas holdem and you need to be careful that you are controlling the size of the pot relative to the strength of your hand. If you do not there is the danger that you become pot committed and there are scenarios where you can be forced to commit your entire stack in an unfavourable situation simply because you must call due to the pot odds. By controlling the pot size this exerts control over the hand itself and is another winning edge you can take over your opponent.

Controlling the pot consists of your consideration of two main areas. Your assessment of your hand strength against the range of your opponent along with your stack size; your opponents stack size and your opponent’s style help you decide the best course of action to take in the hand. You can then move to the second stage which is how you implement your strategy based on the observations made and drill down bet sizes and tactics for each street. Let’s look at both factors in turn.

The stack sizes of yours and your opponents stack relative to the blinds can help you judge how far along the hand it will be before either party in the hand will be all-in or pot committed. For example you will not plan to bluff someone off a hand when most of their stack is bet on calling your initial raise. You must observe your opponents carefully as the way you exert pot control over a strong player differs from how you approach playing a weaker opponent. Knowing their potential hand holdings can only be known from watching their showdowns and then working back through the hand to see their raises pre-flop, post flop and on the following streets. If you feel that they are super aggressive (think Carlos Mortensen) then you may not be able to check to keep the pot small. Because professionals make much of their plays via the reads they have made on their opponents that is why a player reading the game well tends to go deep in a tournament.

Taking on board as much of the above information as possible you can implement the best strategy to proceed through the pot. Against a weaker poker opponent we can use the top pair top kicker example as a pivot. A weaker player may play less than the strength of top pair so against these players you should maximise value and bet pot sized bets throughout the hand. Should they just call, call, call throughout this pot control method you are likely to be ahead as their range is wider. Against an opponent you have classified as tricky and able, if they call the larger bets it become less likely they are holding anything less than a hand that can beat top pair top kicker. This is why it is wise to keep the pots smaller against more aggressive and tricky opponents.

The lesson to take from this article is the size of a pot you engineer against a particular opponent is not purely down to the strength of your own hand. How you play top set against one player at the table differs from how you would play against another player with a better stack, style and level of ability. If you tend to play hands the same ways then you are not getting the maximum value from the hands despite winning them. Simply winning any pot in any spot is not enough; you must seek to play the pot optimally against the opponent in question. Therefore observing them carefully is very important from the very first hand of the tournament as you can never get enough information to be 100% sure you are making the right move.

We haven’t talked about poker tells for a long time. Recently I revised Caro’s Book of Tells — The Body Language of Poker, and put it back into print. While I was working on that revision, I thought, reasoned, pondered, and concentrated. Sometimes I did all four at once. Pretty soon it became clear to me that there were three central reasons why most serious players never master poker tells.

Before we survey that subject and discover those three central secrets for tell failure, let’s talk a little about the theory of tells. Poker tells are all around you, but you must learn to see them. If you don’t, you’ll consider them to be like the fairies of lore, magical manifestations of minds that meander — not real, not serious, not valuable, and not verifiable by photograph. But tells are real, serious, and valuable. And you can photograph them. In fact, I did exactly that for my Book of Tells.

Poker Tells Described Simply

Let’s make a bet. I’ll bet you that the majority of typical poker players haven’t discovered one measly tell in their lifetimes that they can reliably use over and over against more than one opponent. Sure, many have spotted tells now and then. When Jack is bluffing, he often reaches for his coffee cup, grabs the handle, and stops. Stops dead. Doesn’t bring the cup to his lips. Doesn’t even lift the cup. Fine. That’s a tell.

But it’s a tell in isolation. In order to use it, you have to be playing poker against Jack. He has to have coffee nearby. He has to make this one move. And this habit must remain from session to session. That’s a problem, because most peculiar tells are just short-term habits and will soon fade as repeated mannerisms, to be replaced by others.

So, wouldn’t it be better if you knew some reliable tells that apply to Jack all the time? And why stop there? Wouldn’t it be better still if you knew some reliable tells that apply to Jack and other opponents? Is that asking for too much? Nope.

Universal tells that are shared by many, many opponents are real. They are the basis of my 25-year investigation into the science of reading body language in poker. Is it really a “science”? Maybe not, but it feels like a science and I like to say it. It sells more books, too. Where was I? OK, I remember: A lot of your opponents share tells in common.

All of these common tells arise from a single fact. That fact is: Most of your weak and average opponents are forced into an arena where they feel uncomfortable. They feel uncomfortable because they are — in effect — forced to lie about their hands. They can’t just tell you the truth or you’d always know what they hold and be able to beat them for all of their money. (Because these tells are so powerful, their lies will speak the truth about their poker hands and you might beat them out of all of their money anyway. Oh, well.)

The “lies” are not usually stated. Instead, they typically are comprised of what your opponents try to imply through body language and tone of voice. We can’t get into the hundreds of tells today, but it comes down to this …

Your opponents usually will try to act as if they have weak hands when they have strong hands, and strong hands when they have weak hands. So, when an opponent sighs, shrugs as if bewildered, and says “I bet” in a sad tone of voice, you can be pretty sure that he holds a very strong hand. If you don’t hold one also, you usually should fold. Conversely, if an opponent makes a subtle extra movement to bolster his bet and make it seem a little stronger, there’s a good chance he’s weak.

More Tells That Most Players Don’t See

Beyond these tells from actors, there are involuntary tells of which your opponents are unaware. There are nonacted tells, like trembling hands, that are almost never a sign of true nervousness. Bluffers do not shake. They bolster themselves so as not to give you clues that they’re bluffing. They’re afraid to move for fear you will “read” them. Bluffers often are rigid, and sometimes they don’t breathe.

Players with real hands are more relaxed and animated. These are powerful clues. Also, players who have strong hands often pretend not to be interested. They’ll look away while the action approaches. They don’t want you to have any clues that they’re going to bet or raise, so they pretend to be focusing on something else. Sometimes they look as if they’re watching imaginary butterflies dance to their left as the players to their right decide what to do. Conversely, when their hands are weak, they’ll scrutinize the action as if interested. These are easy tells. They’re all around you.

But why doesn’t everyone see them? Good question. It’s not just that everyone doesn’t see them. It’s that most opponents don’t see them. And that’s even stranger. Worse yet, some players deny that tells exist or profess that they have little value. This is like the blind preaching to the sighted about what isn’t there.

I believe there are three major reasons why serious poker players fail to win significant extra profit through mastering tells.

Tell Failure No. 1: Looking All Around You

You’re never going to master tells if you look all around you to spot them. Yes, I’ve said that they are all around you, but if that’s where you look, you probably won’t see any. There are so many things happening at the poker table that interpretation becomes monumentally difficult. You’ve got to focus on just one player while you’re learning to spot tells. As you get more proficient, you will automatically spot other tells while still focusing mainly on just a single player. It’s magic. You’ll see.

But you’ll never see by trying to grasp every tell at once. I can’t do it, and neither can you. And don’t expect to see what you’re looking for immediately. Observe and be patient. Find an opponent who is likely to exhibit tells. Some aren’t. Eventually, you’ll pick up the opponent’s mannerisms. And what’s really exciting is that most of them will conform to my broad theory of tells — actors pretending to be weak when strong and vice versa.

Don’t expect to see a lot of tells, either. If I can pick up three powerful tells in an hour, I’m very happy. Some of them save me a whole pot. There may be many lesser tells, but these minor ones should be weighted and factored into your fold-call-raise and betting decisions, just like other things — such as the opponent’s wagering habits and deductions you make from betting sequences and faceup cards.

Tell Failure No. 2:

Looking For Tells That Make You Call

If you’re like most players, you have a bias toward calling. You didn’t drive to the casino hoping to throw hands away. This is when a rudimentary knowledge of tells can be dangerous. You need to fight the urge to only look for tells that indicate that you should call, and ignore those that indicate that you should throw your hand away.

The truth is, there are more tells that indicate that you should fold than there are those that indicate that you should call. And those should-fold tells are usually more blatant. They are the ones where opponents act weak — sigh, shrug, use sad voices, look away — and they’re often the most profitable. The problem is that profit is hard to measure directly. After all, each time you act in accordance with these tells, you’ve folded and won nothing stackable. However, you won something theoretically — the money you didn’t lose. And that adds up in a hurry.

Of course, if you only looked for tells that caused you to call, you’d still be ahead of where you’d be if you didn’t use any tells at all, right? Probably not. That’s because players tend to manufacture let-me-call tells in their minds and put too much emphasis on weak indications. I believe the result of this is that many players end up using tells as a justification for playing bad hands and making weak calls. Please don’t do that.

Tell Failure No. 3:

Showing Pride in Your Success With Tells

One of the worst things you can do is convey to your opponents how proud you are about having spotted a tell. This makes your foes aware that you’re scrutinizing them. It also makes the player you just profited from aware of the specific tell you spotted. This means that he’s probably going to correct the mannerism and not provide the same tell in the future.

I’ve actually seen supposedly smart professionals say something like, “I knew you were bluffing when …,” and then go on to describe a very profitable tell that could have been used again and again if the pro had let his ego float to the shallow side of the pool and kept his mouth shut.

I even go to the trouble of hesitating when I’m 100 percent certain that I’ve spotted a tell. I then pretend to act indecisively. That way, my opponent is much less likely to realize that he’s broadcast a tell, and I’m much more likely to profit from it many more times.

So, yes, tells are all around you. They’re worth mastering, because they — along with related psychology — can account for most of the additional profit you make in poker once you’ve mastered the fundamentals. But remember the three “tell failures” we’ve discussed today. Otherwise, you might be better off believing that tells, like fairies, really don’t exist.

Reprinted with permission from DoylesRoom www.doylesroom.com

About DoylesRoom.com:
Online since 2004, DoylesRoom is the only online poker site to proudly bear the legendary Doyle Brunson name. The newest addition to the Cake Poker Network, DoylesRoom offers its players access to unequaled poker promotions, fast action, and countless opportunities to play with Doyle Brunson and other legends of the game. Poker players from North America and around the world can compete for the biggest stakes on the web or sharpen their poker skills while playing Texas Hold‘em and other popular games for free. With free poker software, lessons, tournaments, nonstop Sit-and-Go tournaments and ring games available at all limits, DoylesRoom is the preeminent poker destination for real live game play—online or anywhere.

Play Live Poker in Florida

Grand Island, Nebraska, 1965. I’m playing a little too conservatively, but winning nonetheless. I haven’t mastered most of the tricky tactics, tells, and psychological warfare yet, so I resort to just playing tighter than my foes. That, of course, is what you should do during your training stages – and even beyond. Tight turns out to be the simplest way to beat weak opponents who play far too many pots. Of course, you can liberalize and win still more money, but when you’re just guessing about which bet or raise is right in what situations, it’s often better to just stay out of trouble and play super tight. Yes, although it will be hard for many to believe, I wasn’t always an “action player,” profiting from small edges and mixing up my play. I went through periods as a rock. But please don’t tell anyone.

Anyway, I’m just out of high school and have been appointed sports editor for the Daily Independent, a newspaper that serves the city of about 25,000 and its surrounding community. Being sports editor carries special privileges, one of which is that I can be a special guest at the local VFW and play in their quasi-legal poker games.
What does “no-limit” mean?

There are two poker tables, both full of players. I’m in the $1 limit game – stakes that inflation has made less meaningful today. Nearby is a no-limit game that is perceived as a step up in stature. I’m not sure why. While the term “no-limit” carries its own prestige, the actual money changing hands was probably about the same as in my game.

“No-limit” isn’t a measure of a poker game’s size, as many casual poker players seem to think. Instead, it’s a style of wagering. In no-limit games, the size of the average wagers is dictated by the size of the antes or blinds. That money, placed in the pot before the players make decisions about further wagering, represents the target. The bigger the target is, the bigger the rewards you’re pursuing and the more often you should bet.

But, I’m sidetracked again. What we just shared may be important, but it’s not the point. There was a not-so-big no-limit game going on at the table next to me. It involved some local businessmen, mostly. Now, the atmosphere was normally peaceful. Lots of friendly chiding, laughter, good cheer. Then what? Well, then the peace was suddenly shattered with the bellow of an irate player from the next table.

“You might as well take out a gun and just steal fifty bucks from me!” And the angry man – a big, burly guy about 40 – reached into the pot, which wasn’t his to handle, and began hurling handfuls of chips against the VFW walls. They rattled and rolled everywhere.

“Hey, calm down, what are you doing?” the rightful winner of the pot protested, trying to scoop in as many chips as possible, partially salvaging the pot.
Sandbagger Scourned

This seemed to enrage the loser even more. “Damn sandbagger!” he ranted and threw two more handfuls of chips at once, awkwardly, his wrists colliding in mid-air, making him wince in agony. “Rotten sandbagger! Just take out a gun and rob me,” he said, repeating his original thoughts.

It was an incident that I’ll never forget. The game had been ace-to-five lowball. I learned later that the winner had drawn two cards and made a wheel, which is the best hand you can possibly have in this form of poker – five, four, three, deuce, ace. The loser had stood pat on his six-high – a super hand that figures to win most of the time. The winner had looked at his cards, realized that he’d made the wheel and couldn’t be beat, pondered for dramatic purposes, and checked.

No doubt the loser felt even more confident after that check. He was solidly in the driver’s seat now and he bet $10. The opponent quickly raised $40. The loser called and the resulting showdown caused the blow-up.

Okay, fine. Now I’ve got a few things to say.

First, if you’re one of those players who think that sandbagging is unsportsmanlike, then you don’t fully understand the nature of poker. You see, sandbagging – which is the term given to checking a hand into an opponent and then raising after that opponent bets – is a perfectly appropriate tactic in poker. Now, it’s true that in some home games (and in some forms of lowball), checking-and-then-raising is not allowed. Fine. Just fine. That rule takes an element of skill out of the game, but fine. Wherever sandbagging is allowed by rule – and that’s almost everywhere in serious poker circles – it’s proper to do it.

Here’s the truth. If you never sandbag, you’re giving astute opponents an opportunity to bet medium-strong hands with impunity after you check. Think about it. You might have a fairly good hand – one strong enough that you’ll have to call with it, barring a tell to the contrary. Okay, let’s suppose it’s strong enough to call with, because the pot is laying you large enough odds that you could lose the same call many times for each time you won and still turn a profit.

For instance, if after you check and your opponent bets, there’s $100 in the pot and it costs you $10 to call, you only need to win once in 11 attempts in this same situation to break even. That’s because 10 times you’d lose $10 each for a total of $100, but once you’d win the whole $100 already in the pot, a profit of $100 – nothing gained, nothing lost. So, if you figure you have one chance in 10 of winning, you should definitely make the call. Over time, you’ll lose $90 on nine tries and win $100 once. Your profit will be $10 for those theoretical 10 tries, so you win $1 per call – and, conversely, you lose $1 each time you don’t call.
Think Along

Now, think hard. We’ve just determined that if you win once in 10 times, it’s worth calling and you’ll average a $1 gain, but do you want your opponent to bet? No. You want your opponent to check after you do. That’s because, despite the fact that you earn $1 by calling, you actually lose money on the call itself.

Huh? How much? Well, let’s examine this. You called 10 times and lost nine times — $90. Once you won $10 – that’s right, don’t get confused. This time we’re looking at your profit or loss on just the bet itself. Your opponent’s bet is $10. Your call is $10. You’ll win or lose $10 on that exchange each time you call. So, for 10 calls, you lose $80 ($90 lost and $10 gained).

The average cost of your call is $8. From a mathematical point of view, the question is simply: Is the $8 I’m losing by calling the bet less or more than my theoretical share of the pot in a showdown? If it’s more, you should fold, because the cost of the call overwhelms its value. If the cost of the call is less than its value, in terms of your average share of the pot, you should call.

Yes, I know, you’re supposed to call despite the fact that you’re losing $8 on the exchange, because you win the whole pot if you have the better hand – and the pot is big enough relative to your changes of winning. But, wait! Wouldn’t you be happier if you got to see the showdown without having to suffer that average $8 loss?

Well, here’s the key. You’re less likely to suffer that $8 loss if you occasionally sandbag against an astute opponent. That way, it makes it uncomfortable for him to bet medium-strong hands after you check, because you’re more likely to have him beat, and he might have to face a raise. He’ll still bet these hands sometimes, but he probably won’t bet them as often. And whenever he doesn’t bet them, for fear of your raise, you save money.

Of course, that’s simplistic. I’ve spent 30 years analyzing these situations, using both logic and my own computer simulations. Trust me when I say it can be complicated. There are other factors involved. Bluffing is also a factor. So is the fact that when you sandbag a strong hand, you want your opponent to bet, and the fact that you’ve previously sandbagged will discourage this.
The Basic Truth

But, despite these complications and others, we shouldn’t lose sight of the basic truth. If we never sandbag, and our opponent is rational and aware, we’re providing him with extra opportunities to win money from us. So, don’t let anyone tell you there’s something unkind or unethical about sandbagging. It’s sometimes a necessary part of poker.

But I’m not done. That advice focuses on astute opponents. Strong opponents. Now I’m going to say something that may shock you. I seldom sandbag at all against weak players who are having a good time giving me their money. I don’t usually sandbag even when it’s clear to me that I’ll make more money right now by doing it. Why?

Here’s the reason. I try to create an atmosphere in which my weak opponents have a good time. I reward them for making weak plays and beating me by giggling, being friendly, and praising them. I want to encourage this weak behavior, because I know that’s where my profit comes from in the long run. One quick way to change their mood and make them less likely to play and bet weak hands against me is to sandbag. You see, sandbagging seems like an act of war to these players. Remember the man who lost the pot in Grand Island, Nebraska? That’s how they may feel, even if they don’t vocally express their displeasure.

What happens when you sandbag these weak, carefree players is you teach them a new trick. They may start sandbagging more often themselves and change the whole fun, loose nature of the game. But, worse, you’re demonstrating that you’re playing poker seriously. This will often make them more wary and selective about the hands they play and the wagers they make. By using sophisticated strategy against weak opponents, you’ll often alert them to the fact that there really is strategy. They’ll stop giving you their money as readily – and all because you decided to show them how clever you are by sandbagging.

So, my advice today is:

1. Don’t let anyone tell you that sandbagging is unsportsmanlike. It’s part of poker and sometimes necessary.

2. Sandbag mostly against sophisticated opponents who will appreciate and understand it.

3. Seldom sandbag against weak opponents who are throwing profit your way by playing loose and friendly.

It’s a really powerful concept for those of you who play shorthanded or heads-up hold’em. And for players in full-handed games, it will help explain how to play a recurring situation, too. I’m talking about the small blind, my friends. About two weeks ago, I sent an E-mail tip to my Preferred On-line Mailing List. I’ve enhanced that tip especially for you. Get ready, because this advice is hot and it’s coming right at you … Here’s one of the areas of poker where I believe even strong players falter. Let’s say that you’re playing limit hold’em, just you and one opponent. Picture that. Now, erase that picture. We’ll get back to it in a minute. Picture that same opponent, but this time you’re in a regular ring game. Well, when you’re in a full-handed game, you realize that if everyone folds and you’re in the small blind, you don’t really need a lot of strength to call or raise the big blind.

Should you usually stay in with 10-8 offsuit? You bet - either raise or just call. But you shouldn’t fold often. Repeating: Raise or call most of the time. What about 9-5 offsuit? Well, that’s a little trickier. Against many aggressive and sensible opponents, you’ll probably lose money playing that hand, but it’s close.

Why is it close? Because, let’s say that it’s a $100-$200 game. The blinds then are $50 small, $100 large. This means that you can just call for $50 and get 3-to-1 money odds at this point (subject to adjustment), provided that your opponent doesn’t raise. In a sense, you’re getting a 50 percent discount over what it would cost if you had to call that $100 cold. Without being too picky about how we analyze it, that means that if this play wouldn’t lose $50 if you called cold, you probably should call for $50. And guess what? That 9-5 doesn’t lose $50 if you call cold against many opponents with random hands. So, what’s the problem with calling? A couple of big ones:

1. You might get raised because the big blind is live.

2. Your opponent in the big blind has position over you and will be acting last on every future betting round. This turns out to be a pretty big issue, and people who think position doesn’t much matter heads up are quite wrong. But, despite this positional disadvantage on all future rounds of betting, it’s often worth calling. And you might even raise, hoping that your opponent will fold his big blind. In fact, you should raise frequently against too conservative foes. Opponents who don’t defend their big blinds are good targets to put on your left. Generally, players on your left have a positional advantage and you’ll lose money to them forever. Unless there is a great difference, favoring you, between your skill and theirs, you probably will lose money against players on your left for your lifetime. There’s nothing much you can do about it, except to minimize the advantage with prudent decisions. But don’t despair. If you’re a skillful player, you’ll make much more than enough money from players to your right to cover this misfortune.

Neutralizing the Disadvantage But when you have a player to your left who inadequately defends the big blind, you can go a long way toward neutralizing this overall positional disadvantage. So, in addition to other seating factors that we’ve talked about in the past, consider changing to a seat where a player who doesn’t defend the blind often enough sits to your left. This will allow you to make money with weak hands that you otherwise would have thrown away. And many of the hands that you normally would play will be more profitable, because you sometimes will win the blind without a contest - and the amount of the blind usually surpasses the profit that you could expect against an active opponent.

But where was I? Oh - what can we play in the small blind against the big blind after everyone else has folded? Our conclusion is that - depending on the opponent, our image, and other factors - 10-8 offsuit is very likely playable in the small blind, and 9-5 offsuit might be. Hands such as 7-3 offsuit, 9-4 offsuit, and 7-2 offsuit, or even suited, often shouldn’t be played.

Now, here’s the deal. All that was about what you should do in a full-handed hold’em game when you’re the small blind vs. a big blind. But, suppose instead that the game is two-handed from the get-go. Now what?

I’ll tell you now what! Now, by convention, the blinds are reversed. Except on the first round of betting, the small blind is in the dealing position and will act last. The big blind, except for the first betting round, will act first. How does this change things? Monumentally! I’ve been able to consistently route opponents who don’t adjust correctly. You don’t need anywhere near as powerful hands now to raise or call the big blind as you did in the full-handed game after everyone else folded.

Huh? But, Mad Genius of Poker, you just said that you didn’t even need very much to call or raise previously. That’s right. And now you often don’t need anything at all. In some games against overly cautious opponents, you don’t need anything specific to play. Absolutely everything will do!

The Reasons Why Why is that? Two reasons:

1. There’s something I call the “bunching factor.” This means that when players voluntarily fold, it tends to imply that better-than-average cards remain among the players yet to act. This is logical when you think about it, because opponents are more likely to fold bad cards than good cards. And this means that when everyone folds before you raise that big blind, well … that big blind is more likely to hold a strong hand than he would if he were starting with a random deal. So, raising the big blind from the small-blind position in a full-handed game after everyone folds is not quite as good a deal as you might think (but usually it’s good enough). Raising the big blind from the small-blind position in a heads-up game is better than you might think.

2. Heads up, you’re going to be able to act last on the second, third, and fourth (final) hold’em betting rounds. This positional advantage can make up a lot of ground. This reversal of position when heads up also means that you usually should be defensive with medium-strong hands from the big-blind position and aggressive with them from the small-blind position. In other words, in a heads-up game in the big-blind position, you shouldn’t three-bet against a raise as often as you would in a full-handed game if everyone folded and then the small blind raised. You also should fold more hands in the big blind than you would in a ring game when the small blind raises.

Think about what I’ve said, and if you ever get the opportunity to destroy an unsuspecting heads-up hold’em foe –

well, who am I to hold you back?

Reprinted with permission from DoylesRoom www.doylesroom.com

About DoylesRoom.com:
Online since 2004, DoylesRoom is the only online poker site to proudly bear the legendary Doyle Brunson name. The newest addition to the Cake Poker Network, DoylesRoom offers its players access to unequaled poker promotions, fast action, and countless opportunities to play with Doyle Brunson and other legends of the game. Poker players from North America and around the world can compete for the biggest stakes on the web or sharpen their poker skills while playing Texas Hold‘em and other popular games for free. With free poker software, lessons, tournaments, nonstop Sit-and-Go tournaments and ring games available at all limits, DoylesRoom is the preeminent poker destination for real live game play—online or anywhere.