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-Matty
1. Develop strong starting hand requirements. Choose what hands you play and stick to them as best as possible. A tight player should only play mid-to-high pocket pairs, high suited connectors and high suited face cards. Loose players can play more hands but unless wreckless play is your playing style (which in my experience isn’t very profitable) you need to buckle down on your starting hands.
More on Starting Hand Requirements.
2. Take into account your position at the table relative to the dealer and the blinds. If you act within the first two to three positions after the big blind than you should play your tightest game here. Play the lowest number of hands in this area of the table because you will be out of the position the rest of the hand and will have to act with minimal information about your other opponents. Once you enter middle positon which are the two to three spots after first position you can loosen up a little bit but still keep it fairly tight. Once you reach late position which is the button and the one or two spots to the right of the button, you can play your loosest game here to take advantage of your position. In the blinds I suggest playing similar hand requirements as late position but if it folds around and only the dealer calls or its just you and the big blind fold only the worst of hands.
More on Table Position.
3. When you make a raise pre-flop do not ever raise based on the strength of your hands (ex. raising 5x the blind with aces but 2-3x with 10s). Your raises should be based on table position and the amount of players in the pot. If its a family pot, it is going to take a bigger raise to drive them out due to being offered pot odds. In earlier position you can safely raise less and as you get to later positon your raises can get to the 5x the big blind range. I wouldn’t suggest going higher than 5x the big blind unless its multiway and you have a monster that you don’t want a lot of players against. Remember, you don’t want aces or kings in a multiway pot, try to get it down to at most 2-3 players.
More on Pre-Flop Betting.
4. After making a pre-flop raise, if the action checks to you it is wise to make a bet around 1/2 the pot (make sure to vary it just to keep opponents guessing) whether or not your hand hits, that way your opponents can’t think “He checks when he misses and only bets when he hits.” This strategy is called making a continuation bet. For example, you have A-K the flop comes 2-5-9 you make a bet. Make a similar sized bet even with a flop of A-2-7. That way opponents won’t know when you have it and you are more likely to get paid.
More on Continuation Betting.
5. When you flop a monster hand like trips, straight or flush its often a profitable strategy to check it to your opponents and let them bet then smooth call when action comes back to you. Repeat this on the turn and then if you think your monster held up you can either bet if you think your opponent will check the river or check it one more time then put in a value raise over the top to try to get a little bit more out of it. This strategy is known as slow playing or trapping. Be cautious though, if you flop trips or a straight and theres better draws on the board like two hearts or even three hearts than you may want to speed up and price opponents out from getting a cheap card to make their flush.
More on Slow Playing/Trapping.
6. When you think or know you’re beat then fold. Unless you’re being offered ridiculous pot odds to call than just discipline yourself and make the fold. Great players learn to lay down great hands. If you have trouble knowing when you’re beat than perhaps you should play a very tight game until you improve so that way you are ahead of opponents most of the time.
7. Do NOT ever give a free cards when you make a hand on the flop. The only exception is if it is a very safe flop for a monster hand that is unlikely to be beaten on later streets. You don’t want to give a free card that beats you when a bet might have gotten them off the draw.
Congratulations, you are now almost ready to DOMINATE the poker table.
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I just made over an hour of poker strategies and tips to teach you guys some various techniques and tips to take to the poker table. To access them just sign up for the newsletter over at the main site at http://www.mega-poker.net and you will receive one in each e-mail sent out.
I’ve read dozens of poker literature and don’t remember a whole lot of play on making moves “in the dark.” I’ve been using it more and more during live play and against weak to moderate players it is very effective in throwing off their reads and normal moves because it completely conceals the strength of your hand.
A strategy to try out is to call the small blind with a connector or whatever and when the big blind checks announce that you check dark. What you’re looking for here is to flop a huge straight draw or two pair, that way if anyone bets you set yourself up for a perfect check-raise situation and most opponents I’ve used it against couldn’t even put me on a range of hands.
I also utilized a form of this against a calling station/maniacal player that would go all the way with any piece of the board. I wanted to protect my hand so right after he called my post-flop bet I put in a huge bet in the dark before the turn. I got lucky and hit trips on the turn and a boat on the river that ended up doubling me up because the board was K-4-10-K-9… I held K-9s and he called me down with jack-four off (complete donk).
While this move can backfire if you make a dark bet and the next card hurts your hand and/or improves another. I use it very often in the small blind to make up for having to be out of position the rest of the hand. It prevents me from having to show weakness by checking AFTER seeing the flop from first to act post-flop and allows me to see what everyone else does before making a decision. Since it covers up your hand strength so well players will often bet at you and you will often have to fold but when you flop a monster with this strategy you should certainly get paid off big a lot of the time.
So I’ve been playing around with early tournament strategy as of late since its usually a time to play very tight, I tried altering my starting hands around a little bit to see what gave me higher levels of success. I was playing around with this strategy on Full Tilt and found a pretty high level of success with it.
First off, I played this strategy for the first hour to hour and a half of the tournament, when blinds started at 10-20 and got up to about 200-400 before I switched up. I only played pocket pairs, A-K, A-Q and A-Js during this early stage period. What I did with all pocket pairs besides AA, KK, QQ, JJ was I would limp in and basically “set or die” meaning if I didn’t flop a set I’d most likely check/fold. If I did set I would usually trap the other players in the pot unless the flop was ugly for my set, such as a straight draw, flush draw or a combination of the two. This strategy requires some luck because you’re not always going to flop a set, I believe flopping a set is one every seven to eight times so you’re going to need to catch a few cards for this to work.
If there is a raise and I hold a lower pair like 7s and below I’ll usually call them if they’re 3x the bb or lower because in most cases if you can check the original bettor will continuation bet and you will be able to either call and further your trap or check-raise… In most cases, especially online this could end up in you winning all of your opponents chips. Be smart with this strategy and analyze the flops so you can alter your play… I’ll provide two quick examples of a great flop for your hand and a bad one and how the player in the example played.
Example 1: You hold 5-5 in middle position and the player who is acting right before you raises 2.5x the big blind. You elect to call and everyone folds except the big blind who also calls. The flop comes 5d-As-9c. This is a beautiful flop, no obvious straight draws.. An ace came out which is a likely holding for a raiser meaning that the chances of your bet, check-raise or inducing a bet from that player is very high. So the original bettor makes a continuation bet of half the pot and since the flop was sexy for your hand you just call and the big blind also calls. The turn comes Jc and there are now two straight draw possibilities but they are a long shot. The bettor bets half the pot again and you call, the big blind also calls. The river comes 10s giving K-Q a straight and 7-8 a straight. These hands are possible holdings, K-Q more likely than 7-8 but you believe both players are holding some sort of ace. The original bettor bets the pot, you reraise to 3x the pot and both players call. You show down trip 5s, the original raiser shows A-K and the big blind shows A-5, you collect a massive pot with your set.
Example 2: You hold 10-10 on the button… The player under the gun, who is an aggressive player, raises 3x the big blind and it folds around to you, you call and the small blind calls. The flop comes Qd-Jd-10s. Bad flop for your hand even though you made bottom set and are probably ahead right now. The problem is there are two diamonds out there and an open-ended straight draw is on on the board. 9-8 has a straight, K-9 has a straight and A-K has a straight, A-K the most possible holding here. The original raiser bets 2/3 of the pot and you have to decide if he’s on a draw, has it already or hit a pair. The problem here is that if your opponent has a draw your fast play, reraising will probably get called anyway, especially by this aggressive player. You decide to move all in and get called by Q-Js… The turn and river come As-2d and your set barely holds up dodging a myriad of outs….
You’re not going to win every time with this strategy, but when you do its usually for huge pots, this is long ball poker and it works very well early… Once it gets near the money however switch it up and loosen up your game a little bit.
-The M
The M's Poker Blog - Mega-Poker.Net