Recent Poker Strategy

One thing that has helped my game a ton is to not bet marginal hands on the river. If you just want to see the showdown, then you should just check. If you bet, you're asking for a better hand to raise, and a worse hand to fold. It depends on the opponent but is usually true. If you check, everyone thinks that's a weakness, and they will often bet with nothing, like if they missed their draw. Then you call and take it down. It's commonly known as "inducing a bluff" and it works well.

Another strategy that I've been trying to employ is manipulating the size of the pot preflop. For example, if I'm on the button with AK, and there are already 4 or more players in, I might not raise. At the low limits I play, I know the BB will call and every other limper will call too. If I thought anyone would fold, then maybe I would raise. If I raise, the pot will be 12.5 bets, and everyone will have odds to call with gutshots and all kinds of other crap after the flop. Your preflop raise makes it correct for those players to call with their drawing hands on the flop. And if you don't raise preflop with KK, then you get to see if an ace flops, and get out cheaply if one does.

I've been trying not to cold-call with hands that will be dominated. For example, if an early position player raises, and another cold-calls, I don't want to call with KQo. What do I think those two players have? AK and AQ both have me dominated, and AA, KK, and QQ would be bad too. With an early position raise and cold-caller, odds are good that one of them has one of those hands, plus everyone still has a chance to call behind me.

Pay attention to which players are in the blinds. If everyone limps in, or even worse, if there's a raise and the big blind calls, the flop is J44, and the big blind bets, I usually believe that he has a 4. After all, especially with a raise, who's the player most likely to have a 4? The blinds don't usually like to bluff out of position like this with several players still to act. Of course, if this player is an expert, then it's more likely to be a bluff. Don't try to bluff bad players like this; they won't even notice. In addition, at low limits, players that bet usually have it. Unless everyone has checked to them - the low limit players can't stand to let a flop get checked around unless it's really scary.

What's the difference between holding AT and the flop comes T99, or having AT and the flop comes TJJ? In the first case, if another T comes, you have the top full house. But in the second case, if the T comes, you have the bottom full house and any J beats you. Frankly, I hate being in a hand like that, especially with a lot of opponents in low limit games, because someone always ends up with trips.

Don't tap on the aquarium, as Phil Gordon and the Tiltboys say. Bad beats happen. Hell, 22 is going to beat AA heads-up 20% of the time. That's not lottery odds. Suck it up and be glad that your opponents are willing to put all their money in with bad hands. It's not the results of the one hand that matter, it's the results in the long run. You hear it all the time "How could you call with that?" There are some players out there who want opponents to call only when dominated and fold whenever they bluff. Players with this attitude are just as bad as bad players. And I love them all! In fact, be nice to bad players. That's the way to make the money. In addition, if you're rude to other players, they will go out of their way to get revenge. Some players think this is good, because those players will play poorly, but they might actually tighten up and trap you with a good hand.

- schneid