Strategy

So which hands should you fold and which hands should you hold? If there was a correct answer to this, we'd all do the same thing and over time the only profitable position would be the dealers! The truth is that there is no magic formula but there are good basic principles and that's what I'll try and show you here. If you print this out and stick it to your computer I would be very surprised if you didn't see a noticeable increase in your returns.

While its nigh impossible to order starting hands perfectly, here is a good guide (in descending order). (An "s" means that the two cards are of the same suit, an "o" means they are off-suit ie: different suits).

Does this mean you should play or raise with these hands regardless, whenever you get them? NO!!! But hands other then these should be discarded unless you are using an advanced strategy (and if you are, why are you reading this beginners guide?!). The number of players who think they should raise/call with A4o online is what has fuelled the stories of good players making millions!

If this list seems hard to memorise then do what I do and create a short mnemonic. Unless I am a blind or button, I will automatically muck anything that isn't:

1. A Pocket Pair

2. Two cards unsuited where one is over ten with a kicker over 8

3. Suited connectors (consecutive cards of the same suit, i.e.: 8, 9 of spades) higher than 6

4. An Ace with a suited kicker of any value.

Part 2: Special Positional Play

The Button: is the seat where dealer button is, it's also sometimes called "The Cut Off". This is arguably the most powerful position in the ring and some players will call with any two cards from there! The power of the button is that you are late to bet in the pre-flop betting round and then last to bet on all subsequent rounds. When on the button you can steal the blinds pre-flop if it has been folded around to you (a bet of 3-4 times the big blind should suffice) or you can flat call with a weak hand if it has been called in a few places ahead of you.

The Small Blind: is to the immediate left of the button. In many ways, this is a bad position to be in. You have put some chips into the pot but you are not last to bet on the pre-flop betting round and you will be first to bet on every round afterwards. That said, you have the advantage of seeing a lot of the betting pre-flop before it gets to you. If you like the flop you will be the first to get your raise in which can make a big difference. You shouldn't be afraid to muck a terrible hand in the small blind but alternatively if no-one has raised it before you, you can make up the difference with a hand you might otherwise throw away.

The Big Blind: is to the immediate left of the small blind. This is the position everyone hates! You are forced into the pot with a random hand. Yours are the chips that everyone wants to steal and even if you get to see a flop, you will probably be playing a weak hand. Raises from the BB are to be feared. If you consider it from his point of view, if the pot is unraised pre-flop when it gets to him, all he has to do it check and he'll get to see a free flop. By choosing to raise, he's not only putting more of his chips into the pot but also giving everyone who called an opportunity to re-raise him! Why would he do such a thing without a good hand?? He may of course be stealing but it's not against the rules of the game for Big Blind to actually have a big hand! If you are in the BB and its called around to you, be wary of raising the pot on a medium hand, anyone who is trapping with AA, KK etc. will get another chance to raise it again. Regardless you are costing yourself more then you should be paying to see a flop!

Under The Gun: This position is also called "The Irish Position" because of the aggressive raising habit of Irish players in early positions and is just after the big blind. You should either play the strongest hands from this position or represent the strongest hands on a steal!

Under the gun, you will be first to bet on the pre-flop round and third to bet on all subsequent rounds, a combination which makes it a bad position to play from with a medium or marginal hand. My rule of thumb for this position (and indeed all of early position and medium position) is that I will only call with hands that can also call a reasonable subsequent raise.

Part 1: General Positional Play

Let's presume you are in a 9 person tournament game. The button indicates where the virtual dealer is and the players act from the left of this button, clockwise. This means if you are the first player going clockwise from this button you will post the small blind. The second player from this button with post the big blind and the third player will be the first to speak after the cards are dealt (the nickname for that position is "Under the Gun").

Under-The-Gun and the next two players to bet after him are in what we call "Early Position".

The next three players are in Mid Position and the last three (consisting of the player who is nominal dealer and the two blinds) are in Late Position.

In early position you should play only quality hands. You should be much more selective about the hands you chose to limp in with here because there are so many players to act after you that you may well have to call a raise to see a flop. Playing hands like 89 of spades here is a bit crazy because you can't realistically call a decent raise with it. As we will see later, if you were in late position 89 of spades may well be worth calling the blinds.

On tables where there is commonly a raise put in before the flop and where no one seems to be paying attention to positional play, I'll simply call with AA in early position so that if/when someone raises and a few people call I can bet All-In and either win a reasonable pot or tempt someone to call me, knowing I'm well ahead! Any decent player will be very wary of a flat call in early position from a player they respect!

Conversely Early Position can be a great place to put in a steal as good players will respect a medium sized raise from the early position. This is a semi-advanced play though as it may require you to represent something on the flop to maintain the bluff.

Mid Position in many ways is the worst position to be in. You may be facing a raise from early position and you still don't know what the guys behind you are going to do. All the same, you are later in the round of betting and so can play hands like Q9 and KJ with a clear conscience! If a player in early position simply calls you need to be careful but you can also use it to your advantage. If you ALSO simply call it will discourage players behind you from raising on a bluff. They may even think "I'll simply call with my AK and see if I get an A or a K on the flop, just to be sure".

Late Position is where every player wants to be. You see all of the action in front of you and have a lot of information you can use to make your decision to fold, call or raise. Frequently if it has been folded around to the players in late position, one of them will raise it on a steal. Most commonly it will be the player who has the button. Remember that the players in the blinds were forced to put out the blinds before they saw their cards. It's unlikely they have a hand they want to play with, let alone call a raise with! Late position allows you to call with more speculative hands like 89 suited or KJ off-suit.

Think of how you'll use your notes in the future, it's most likely you'll want to glance at them when making a decision. Don't try to get too advanced, keep it fairly straightforward. What level is this player in my opinion? Is he fish, shark, whale or baboon? Fish are just plain poor players who don't understand odds and don't want to. Sharks are the predators of the game avoid them as a professional courtesy. Whales have tons of money and so are immune to being hurt by their size, but you can make a good living from hanging around them and picking up their oversized bets. Players who often call to each other I name Baboons. You know when you put in a $5 raise and 6 players simply call it... they're baboons.

Once I have an idea of the type of players at the table, you need to note their different styles. Does this guy raise with flush/straight draws or only when he has a made hand? (That single point of information can save or make you a fortune). Does this guy like to bluff raise with 6,4o preflop and then represent any Ace that comes if he doesn't hit? Or does he only raise preflop with one of the top dozen hands? Does he limp with small pairs or make big raises to get heads up with someone. Is he bluff-happy or is he a rock?

We will go into further detail on the notes you should keep on your opposition in future weeks.

The blinds are now 300/600 with a 75 ante and I am in the big blind with 89 of clubs. A young player raises to 2000 from early position. The cut off and small blind both call and with over 7000 in the pot already I put in the 1400 to see a flop.

The flop comes down J Q 4 giving me an inside straight draw, there are also two hearts giving a possible flush draw. The small blind checks as do we all. The turn is an innocuous 7 and everybody checks again. The river is a King and the small blind and I check and the initial raiser moves all in. Cut off folds, and after a small think the small blind calls for all his remaining 6000 or so chips. Obviously I fold, but what hands are turned over?

The small blind had JJ and had slow played his hand with not only a possible flush draw but a straight draw on the flop as well. By not betting he has let someone catch a gut-shot draw and consequently been busted out of the tournament. There 8750 in the pot after the flop and I doubt very much he would have had a caller had he moved all in on the flop. He would have more than doubled up on this hand. Even if he had been called it would have been a bad beat, however most players will lay-down a gut-shot for this kind of bet. The moral of this tale is if you hit a big hand on a drawing board then you make it as expensive as possible for someone to outdraw you. Most times you will take a big pot uncontested, some of the time you will win a bigger pot when they call and miss and occasionally they will get lucky and bust you. If you let them see the river for free or too cheap then the pot will only get bigger when you are losing it!

Had this flop been a two way pot then checking it to induce a bluff may be fine but you need to put a bet in on the turn.

Let's put it in money terms using the example described. So, say the raiser is loose and may call the draw half the time and we play it over 10 times and assume he does not call with Ace high when he misses.

5 times you win 8750 that is in the pot which equals 43750

4 times you win the 8750 plus the extra 6000 he calls which equals 59000

1 time you lose when he calls and hits his card, a loss of your 6000

43750+59000-6000 = profitability of 96750 chips

Now play it the way it happened:

Remember I could have hit my 10 for a straight also and the other player is drawing dead.

3 times one of your opponents hits their draw and you lose your 6000 chips calling.

7 times you win 8750

So 61250-18000 = profitability of 43250 which is less than half of fast playing them.

Of course in a moment of madness the player with my hand may also call which makes fast playing even better as you are still a clear favourite to win a bigger pot.

The moral of this tale - Always fast play the nuts on a drawing board in a multi way pot.

You are the big blind on the first hand of the world series of poker at your table. The first player to act goes all in. How many players going all in ahead of you would it take to make you drop the Aces?

Ok, so the question is silly because it could never really happen but its an interesting gedanken* experiment. Would you call two all ins? Would you call three? Is there any number of all ins that would make you drop the hand?

You have the strongest hand in poker but after a certain number of hands (about 3-4) you know that the odds are that one of them will win this hand rather then you. Still, you have the best individual chance of winning, indeed the odds are even better for AA against the other top five hands than against random muck!

Here's my personal view on it. I don't play a big stack particularly well so the reward for all this risk is reduced for me personally. Also, I'm unlikely in my lifetime to be able to afford two chances at the World Series (one would be enough right now!!) so I would probably prefer to fold the hand and not take such a high stakes gamble all in one go! These are not good poker reasons to fold a hand though...

But what's the "correct" play? Well... I'll give you that when I get back from Vegas in 5 weeks time!

Haven't qualified for the World Series? Maybe you weren't playing your pocket rockets right

Consider first of all that for a long time the first to act (often referred to as Early Postion or Under The Gun) was considered the worst position to be in around the table. You have to act initially without hearing anything from your opponents and you will be early in the betting round on each subsequent round after the first. This was deemed to be a handicap until historically Irish players realised you could steal a lot of pots by being overly aggressive when in this position. In fact, long before Gus Hansen could say the word raise, players like Noel Furlong and Padraig Parkinson were raising from first position and taking down pots.

How were they doing that? Well, if you've played poker for a while you will realise that there are often hands where the first person to bet it, wins it. These are hands where the flop really hasn't helped anyone and no-one feels confident enough in their hand to call a decent bet. The first person to get a bet in is likely to take the pot!

But whats this got to do with the Stop and Go technique? Well, Stop-n-Go is an extension of this idea in order to defeat a bigger hand from the blinds. Suppose you have TT in the big blind and your opponent has AK. If you reraise him he's likely to call you or rereraise you himself. Inevitably all the money will end up in the middle and you will find yourself in the classic coinflip "race". Can you do anything to improve your odds beyond 50-50? Here's a different approach...

Since AK is a very strong hand preflop (fearing only KK or AA) if you reraise preflop he's very likely to call. In fact, psychologically it is very hard to take a player off a hand if they have raised it preflop with a reraise unless that reraise is a large all-in. Not something you typically want to do with TT, as in our example. This is where you use the rules of Hold'em to gain an advantage. Stop and Go only works if you are acting before your opponent in the round.

In our example, you simply flat call the AK's raise. The flop is more likely to come without a card over T then it is to have an over card. When the flop hits, you will be *first* to act this time and you confidently bet your over pair and most likely take the pot. AK will find it very hard to call your bet here with only 2 cards to come. So, for the same amount of chips that you were going to reraise him (and find yourself in a coin flip), you've successfully bought yourself a nice pot.

But what if the board comes AKQ? Now you either bet to represent a solid hit of say, two pair and hope your opponent was also holding a medium pair (not my preferred play!). Or you check/fold and congratulate yourself that you didn't end up in a race and out of the game!

Danger Danger Will Robinson! This approach is not without its dangers. If you find yourself walking into Aces, there is little you're opponent will find to fear in your bet. It's possible he will consider that you might have trips but there are few players out there who will put down Aces for that reason. Additionally you may well be WALKING into trips yourself. These are the dangers of playing poker, nothing is certain. However, consider that you *were* about to reraise all in. You were willing to commit all your chips to this hand against your opponent so the outcome is likely to have been the same. You've simply bought yourself a second chance to bet at your opponent and win by making him fold.

So try this technique next time instead of rereraising but be sure you have early position to get the rest of your bet in first!