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3.30pm Thursday 27th October

I have got Ah Kd Jh Jd in the SB in a 200$ buy in PL O8B 7 handed ring game. (In this game both the SB and BB post blinds of 2$) I have managed to work my buy in up from 200$ to 345$ after about 45 minutes of play. After a couple of limpers I check and the BB checks too. The flop comes:

Ac Qs 3s (8$ in the pot, 4 players).

It is checked around. I have to admit I am not paying a lot of attention to this table. I am also playing at 2 shorthanded 5/10$ hold’em games and one full 10/20$ hold’em game.

Turn is Tc.

I bet 6$. The BB folds but both limpers call. The first limper only has 5$ left at this point whilst the second limper has about 150$ left.

River 2d

I check. They both check behind. I show my hand. The first limper folds and the second limper shows 8c 8s 4c 4s.

9am Monday 24th October

For the past 18 months I have played exclusively at Empire. I would usually single (or occasionally two table) the high limit games there and have had success over a long period of time. Apart from the monthly bonus or two I would receive from Empire (which it would be stupid not to take advantage of given that I played there anyway) I have never really considered bonus chasing. However, with the action drying up at Empire I decided to reassess my options as to where to play and also whether I could take advantage of the bonus schemes that different sites are offering. After reading about the 666$ bonus at HOLDEM poker I decided to deposit some money there and to play there for the week.

2.45pm Thursday 27th October

I log on to HOLDEM poker and sit myself down at 2 shorthanded 5/10$ hold’em games, one full 10/20$ hold’em game and a 200$ buy in PL O8B ring game.

My “bonus chase” to date is not going great. In search of my FREE 666$ I am already down 1400$. On the positive side, I am flying through the hands I need to play to get the bonus. At this point I have already got 3/5ths of the required points in no time whatsoever. When you are playing 4 tables at once it doesn’t take too long to get those raked hands in.

In my second hand at the O8B game I have 2c3c4s7c in the SB. After 3 limpers I check and the BB checks. The flop comes:

Ac 8c 7s (10$ in the pot, 5 players).

I have the nut low (with protection), bottom pair and a flush draw.

It is checked to the Button who bets 7$. I check raise the pot (to 31$) and only the Button calls.

Turn is 5s (72$ in the pot, 2 players)

I bet the pot and the Button calls

River is Kh (216$ in the pot, 2 players)

I have committed 105$ to this pot. At this point the Button only has 65$ left. Given the percentage of chips he has in the pot I cannot see him folding. Given that I am going to call a bet anyway, and if he has the same low my pair of 7s may be good, I go all in for my last 93$. The Button folds and I pick up the 309$ pot. The Button types something along the lines of “both flush draws and the straight draw, cannot hit a thing today”

3.31pm Thursday 27th October

To recap, I have checked the nut high Broadway on the river and the two players have checked behind me. The last player has shown 8c 8s 4c 4s for a pair of eights and 8432A for low.

As fortune would have it, I did not immediately click back to one of the hold’em tables because a strange thing happened. The whole pot got pushed to me. This took a few seconds to register as I was already thinking about my river check and whether I was right to try and entice a bet from the short stack and then check-raise the pot if the late player called when I was 100% sure he did not have the same nut high as me.

What was going on here? Was there a programming error? I looked up to the top of the table and noticed the words “Hi Lo” were missing from the table description. I had spent the last 45 minutes at this table playing a different game to everyone else and had still managed to turn 200$ into nearly 370$. After a huge sigh of relief I started to think about the second hand of the session and my bold betting with a low flush draw and a pair of 7s Very Happy

At this point I stopped playing at all the tables and tried to assess what was happening.

8pm Sunday 30th October

I finally accumulated the points I needed to get the bonus. I acquired the last 2/5ths of the points I needed playing just one table of O8B and one table of hold’em and, although it took a lot longer to get the points, I managed to finish only 40$ down (so 626$ up with bonus). This was a big improvement on the 1400$ hole I had found myself in.

My game has always been based on good game selection skills and the ability to study my opponents so that I can maximise gains and minimise losses. All of that had gone out of the window. Instead I had sat down at the first tables I could find, leapt from one table to the next making decisions without any reference to the playing styles of the opponents who were involved in the hand.

Hold’em is all about your opponents and their cards, not you and your holding. Admittedly, some hands do play themselves to a certain degree (usually when you have a very weak hand or sometimes an exceptionally strong hand) but most of the time when you are involved in a hand your opponent(s) should be influencing your decision making.

Now I know what some of you are thinking. “It is different for us low limit players where the size of the bonus may be far in excess of our potential winnings”. There seems to be a mentality here of just get the hands in as quickly as possible and hopefully at the end of the chase you may be slightly up but even if you are slightly down you will have had a good result with the bonus payment.

It may be that in the short term this strategy is the best way to build a bankroll. However, it does nothing for improving you as a player. When I first started playing, the software only allowed me to play one table a time. I can confirm that I did not play more hands through boredom. Rather I concentrated on what was going on at the table and making the right play in the circumstances. In fact, this week has shown me that I play MORE hands when I multitable because I know that even if I lose what might be a marginally negative decision, I will be playing another hand in a minute.

Most importantly, I learn from my mistakes when I single table. If I play a hand and win or lose I replay the hand over and over in my head because it is usually a few minutes, at least, before I am involved again. When multitabling I might make a decision to call a river bet with third pair. After making the decision another table pops up and I never get the opportunity to evaluate my call and the play throughout the hand and what conclusions I should form about my opponent because of that hand.

So what have I learnt this week? I’d have made more money just concentrating on what I do well and then picking the bonus up at some time in the future when I had played the requisite hands. What advice can I pass on? For those playing low limits, if your aim is to eventually play higher limits, do not concentrate solely on increasing your bankroll through bonus chasing. Getting your bankroll big enough to play 5/10 is not going to do you any good if you are going to be out of your depth when you get there. Instead, spend some time acquiring a poker education. With all the bonus schemes on offer, improving as a player may not be the best way to obtain a short term increase in bankroll but it is the only sure way of attaining longevity in this game and maximising long term profit.
 


Just to recap, in last month’s article I looked at the following:

1. Which site should I log in at?
2. What game should I play?
3. What format should I play?
4. How many opponents should I play against?
5. What betting structure should I play?
6. What limit should I play?
7. How many tables should I play?

Now I am going to look at some more decisions:

8. Which table(s) should I choose?

Obviously, this is only a consideration in regard to ring games because under a tournament structure you have your table randomly allocated. However, if you are going to play a ring game then table selection can have a major impact on your expectation.

Let’s imagine that after asking the above questions (1-7) you are going to play 2 full (10 player) 3/6$ Hold’em tables. However, there are 30 tables available at the site you are logged in at. Which tables should you choose?

Most beginners make the mistake of ticking the “first available” table box as they desire to start playing as quickly as possible. This is clearly a mistake as the aim is to try and find a table where your opponents are making as many mistakes as possible.

A high average pot is a good indicator of this but you should be aware that when there is a high average pot there will often be one player getting the table worked up because he is playing every hand aggressively. Two things often happen:

1) the queue is so long for the table that by the time you join the table the maniac has bust out and you are left at a table of people who practice what they think is "game selection" (so normally above average players)
2) even if the maniac is still there you have one seat you can take and it is pot luck whether it gives you good position over him so that you can play the hands you would like to play (see decision 9 for more discussion on this).

Other good indicators of a profitable table are if you see a player who is on your buddy list (i.e. you have played with him before and have noted he is a poor player) or if a number of players are extremely short stacked.

Ideally, once you have found a good table you would like to observe for a circuit or two but realistically, given the amount of time it can take for a good table to break up (especially if there are one or two extremely short stacked), you should probably start as soon as it is your turn to post the big blind.

9. Where should I sit?

When it comes to seat selection, the ideal situation is to have loose players acting before you and tight players acting after you. In this scenario, you will know when you have the opportunity to play the more speculative hands because you will often have many limpers before it is your turn to act. Furthermore, with tight players behind you, on the odd occasion it is folded to you the opportunity is there to raise and steal the blinds.

Even if I intend to play at a full table I will always try and pick a table which only has 6 or 7 players currently seated so that I have a wider choice of seat selection (and most of the time the table will fill up around me). Once at the table, assuming I know none of my opponents; I will sit to the left of as many of the weaker looking players (short stacks) as possible. If it becomes clear that there is a more profitable seat at the table I will think nothing of leaving the table and rejoining in the more profitable seat.

10. What day / time of day should I play?

Unfortunately, this is a decision which for most is outside of their control because of other factors (jobs, family, sleep and so on) but if you had total freedom to play whenever you wanted, when would be the most profitable time to play?

From experience, I would say that the play is weaker at weekends than during the week. This is because you get more recreational players who can only play at the weekend.

In regard to the time you should be playing, it is clear that most sites are busiest during U.S evening time. This gives you a wider selection of players to play against and more opportunity to practice game selection.

11. How much should I buy in for?

In NL (no limit), assuming you are a winning player, you will always want at least the maximum buy-in in front of you. When I am playing NL, I always rebuy back to the full buy in as soon as I dip under this amount .

In limit, of course, how much you can win is not dictated by your stack but instead, by the betting limit. Most players will automatically click the standard buy-in (usually about 25 big bets). The key is to make sure you always have enough to cover a potential cap on each street because you never know if the next hand is going to be the one where you are going to hit a huge hand.

12. What name should I choose?

Is this an important decision? Apart from looking back on your name in three years time and wishing you had chosen something more glamorous, could it possibly have an influence (no matter how small) on your winnings?

It would be hard to prove one way or the other, although it is fair to say that you can usually get some kind of feel about the personality of an opponent by the name he has chosen.

13. Should I participate in any chat?

Observing the chat box is a really good way of getting a handle on how your opponents think (or are thinking at that moment). That is why I would never complain about profanities or turn off someone’s chat. Comments like “I can’t believe you raised with nothing” or “2 outer again” when in the first instance you had a huge draw against a big field and in the second you actually had 11 outs, gives you information which may be useful in future hands.


I hope that the last two articles have provided you with some interesting thoughts on the decisions you should be making before you play a hand. Remember though, this game is not static and that throughout your session you should be re-evaluating the decisions constantly to ensure that you are always playing under the most profitable conditions.

Next month, I am going to look at the 5 hands that helped form me as a player. Until then, keep focusing on your decisions to ensure you stay one step ahead of your opponents.

To discuss this article, other decisions to be made at the table, or to leave comments for the author, please visit the ITH Forums.
 



Before looking at them in detail, I should point out that most of the decisions listed below cannot be made in isolation. Depending on your poker knowledge and the state of your bankroll, you may give additional weight to some decisions over others. In some situations, the answer to one of the questions may be so important that it will override all of the other decisions.

1. Which site should I log in at?

The bigger the site, the more likely you will be to find the type of game and limit you want to play. Furthermore, the greater the potential number of opponents, the bigger the advantage for someone who is willing to scout around to ensure he plays with opponents who make plenty of mistakes.

Small sites will allow you to build up information on a fixed number of opponents, but in my opinion this only compensates for a wider choice of tables if the general standard of play is poor.

Other factors you will take into account when deciding upon which site to play at will be speed of cash outs, customer service, software playability and bonus schemes.

2. What game should I play?

Hold’em is the most commonly played game but that does not necessarily mean it is the game you should play. In the last 12 months, most of my profit has been derived from Omaha hi/lo (O8B) even though most of my hours logged have been at hold’em. The advantage of hold’em is the sheer weight of literature you can draw upon to improve your game. Of course, that literature is available to your opponents too!

With games other than Hold’em you will often find players making more mistakes due to lack of education. With certain games, the mistakes that they make will provide you with a greater edge than Hold’em could offer. For example, I would rather have a player call my EP raise with QQQ7 in O8B than I would have a player call my raise with Q7s in Hold’em.

3. What format should I play?

The choice is between tournament and ring games. The tournament structure will range from a single table Sit and Go (SnG) to huge multitable tournaments.

Ring games allow you to choose a profitable table and take advantage of seat selection. Even if you have not played with the opponents at your table before, the advantage of ring games is that you can usually make general assumptions based on stack size. Of course, if after a couple of circuits you realise that the table you are at is not profitable (or no longer profitable) you are free to change tables.

With tournaments you have no information on any of your opponents (unless you have played with some of your opponents before) and you are unable to make any assumptions until the cards are dealt. However, with large fields you have the potential for a great return on your initial buy in.

4. How many opponents should I play against?

For beginners, I strongly advise sticking to full tables while you pick up the basics. Once you have a greater feel for the game and more experience in adapting to your opponents’ playing styles, then it may be the time to move to the shorthanded tables. Sometimes, even if you have a sufficient feel for the game to succeed in the long run, the short term fluctuations inherent in shorthanded play can be a deterrent for the risk averse.

Shorthanded play requires more decisions and therefore someone will benefit from the additional mistakes being made. The key is not to be the person making them!

With fewer players at the table, playing your opponents (rather than playing mainly your cards) becomes more and more important. At its most extreme, if you decide to try heads up play your optimal strategy will depend almost entirely on the playing characteristics of your opponent.

5. What betting structure should I play?

The three main choices are Limit, Pot Limit (PL) or No Limit (NL).

Most beginners start out after watching poker on TV and mistakenly believe that NL is the way to go. However, I would advise anyone taking up the game to start with limit. By starting with limit you can get a feel for pot odds and starting hand requirements, essential skills for any format of the game.

Once you have progressed as a player, you can then decide to make the switch to PL and NL. If you do decide to play NL, I can tell you from experience that as you progress towards the higher limits the standard of play is extremely tough (especially in larger buy in SnGs). Fortunately, there never seems to be an end to the poor players willing to take a shot in limit ring games and that is why most players who play online for a living derive their income from limit ring games.

6. What limit should I play?

This decision is a function of the size of your bankroll, your ability and the profitability of the tables on offer.

Many people forget about table profitability and will not even think about playing a table at a limit below their usual limit. For example, even if your have the bankroll to play 5/10 it would be foolish to play the table with the 22% see flop percentage and 48$ average pot when there is a free seat at a 3/6 table with an average pot of 50$.

7. How many tables should I play?

Just like I advise beginners to play full limit ring games, I also advise them just to play just one table whilst they are picking up the basics.

The truth is that you “should” achieve your highest big bet per 100 hands figure (bb/100) playing a single table. However, you will be limited by the number of hands you can play if you only play one table.

In my opinion, many players underestimate the hit their bb/100 takes when they add additional tables. This is particularly true when the standard of the opponents’ play is reasonable or better.

At high limits I would never play more than 2 tables of hold’em. However, I am quite prepared to have four or more full O8B tables open because the game is more mathematical and to a certain degree (at full tables), less opponent dependent.

To conclude, it would seem logical to make the decisions which will provide you with the most profit. That is not to say that profit should be your only consideration. Your decisions will be influenced by other factors such as the amount of time you have to play and the need to gain experience so as to improve certain aspects of your game.

One factor which influences many players’ decisions is a need for “action”. In a lot of cases, this need for action can distort the decision making process so much that it becomes the most important factor. I know many players who log on, go to the x$/y$ section and sit down at the first 4 x$/y$ 6 max tables they can find with available seats. If you are one of those players, you should really ask yourself whether you are taking every step to maximise your profit.

In next month’s article I am going to look at some less obvious decisions and how they too can provide additional profitability. Until then, try putting your thinking cap on well before you have posted your first blind.

For questions about this article for the author, or comments regarding this article, please visit this thread in the ITH Forums.
 


Hand 1. End of 2002. 5 handed 10/20 at Pokerroom.

I had been playing for about 6 to 8 weeks and I had made every single beginner’s mistake. To say at this point that I knew nothing about the game would be an under statement.

After losing 6000$ through ignorance I had worked another buy in of 600$ up to 1000$ (at 10/20$) before dropping down to 500$. Despite having supposedly finished for the day at 4pm, I found myself later in the evening down to about 350$ playing 5 handed 10/20. The following hand then came up.

I had KK and raised a limper and the big blind and limper called. The flop came 77x and the flop was capped. The turn was an A. I ended up calling a capped turn. The river was a blank and I called a capped river.

My opponents both had A7 and split the pot. Why did I call all those bets when it was obvious I was beaten? It was because I didn’t know any better. I had just watched a few hands on TV and decided this was a way I could make money. I was totally clueless and these players were making a fortune out of me. Unfortunately, for them, they decided to take this opportunity to berate my play with derogatory comments as well as making remarks like “I hope you can rebuy”.

Thankfully, I took their comments as a sign I should leave and I didn’t play again for 6 weeks. In that period I read everything I could find online about poker strategy and tactics. After the 6 weeks, I took the 100$ and decided to use some bankroll management. It took 6 months of constant improvement and grinding at the low limits but I eventually recovered my initial losses of 6000$ and was ready to successfully play the 10/20 game again.

What would have happened to me if those players had kept quiet I don’t know. Maybe I would have bust out a few more times and given up on the game. One thing I know, I have NEVER said anything about another poker player at the table. I have NEVER commented on the play of a hand. No poor player is ever going to see the light because I have not got the sense to keep my mouth shut.

Hand 2. Mid 2003. 10 handed 15/30 at Party.

I have 8s 8c on the button. The two other players of note in this hand and are UTG and UTG+1. They are both a bit loose but tend to read hands pretty well and usually play accordingly.

UTG limps, UTG+1 calls, two others call and I think a raise is in order. I raise and the SB, BB and 4 limpers call.

14 Small Bets. Flop Kd Td 8d
Check to the UTG who bets. UTG+1 calls, two limpers call, I raise. SB and BB fold. The UTG and UTG+1 call and the other two fold.

11 Big Bets. Turn Qd
UTG checks, UTG+1 checks, I check.

11 Big Bets River Ts
UTG bets, UTG+1 raises. What should I do?

The relevance of this hand is that it was the first hand that I ever posted at a poker forum. After initially posting it at 2+2, I later posted it at ITH. I only spent a month or so posting at 2+2 before making ITH my permanent home in September 2003.

Engaging in strategy and tactical discussions at ITH enabled me to improve rapidly as a player. You can only learn so much from reading books. You learn far more by discussing specific hands and positions with other “thinking” players. I remember feeling intimidated at first about posting hand examples and discussing poker with players who may have more experience than me but I have no doubt that it was the best poker decision I ever made.

Hand 3. Beginning of 2004. 7 handed 30/60 at Empire.

The fact that I had a Royal Flush is not significant. The thing that stands out about this hand is the way my opponent played. He is an excellent player who has been successful online for a long period of time.

My opponent open raised from the cut off with AK and I was the only caller from the Big Blind with QTs. The board came AKJ with two of my suit. I check-raised the flop, he three bet and I capped.

The turn was the A which completed my Royal flush and gave him the second nuts. I bet, he raised, I three bet and he capped.

The river was a blank.
I bet and he called.

He worked out that the only hand I was leading into him after that betting sequence was another AK (unlikely given that I would have 3 bet preflop) or QTs.

“Playing the player” is such a key factor in successful poker. I know a lot of players who would have capped that river thinking if I had the Royal Flush so be it, QTs was only one hand combination out of all the possible hands I could have. My opponent knew better and there have been numerous times since that I have made similar player related plays and I always think back to this hand.

Hand 4. Mid/End 2005. 4 handed 50/100 at Empire.

I was having a real stinker of a session. The game was even more loose and aggressive than most high limit short handed games. One player in particular seemed to be raising anything every hand and was not being moved off any pots as soon as he got a pair (and every hand he was getting at least a pair). I on the other hand was getting nothing and any time I got something half playable I was missing the board completely.

Anyway, a hand came up where the aggressive player open raised from the SB and I had Q3s suited in the BB. Given he was raising any two here I decided to call to see if I could hit something (hoping to make a dent in the 3500$+ I was already down for this session).

The flop looked nice QQ3 (two suited). We capped the flop (at this point he could still have any two).

The turn was an offsuit 2. We capped the turn.

The river was a 6 (completing the flush draw). After he three bet the river I had to make a decision whether to cap. I decided there was enough chance he didn’t have Q6 to make capping the river the right play. He had Q6…

So I lost 1100$ on that hand dropping my loss to the session to around 5000$ and I just remember being totally pragmatic about the situation. If I had already reached playing enlightenment, I had now reached financial enlightenment. I knew that with time I would see my bankroll reach a new peak and I realised that losing that hand meant nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Hand 5. January 2006, 8 handed 30/60 O8B at Pokerstars.

Towards the middle of 2005, Omaha high low (O8B), be it limit or Pot Limit, became my game of choice. In fact, in the last 8 weeks I would guess that I have played only about 50 hands of hold’em.

I like O8B because my edge over my opponents is far greater than my edge in hold’em. In hold’em, due to a) the nature of the game and b) the amount of literature out there I was finding that my edge at the high limit games was getting smaller and smaller. It is true to say that there is almost a universally accepted way of playing profitable hold’em and that most of the players playing high limit hold’em are thinking the same way.

This is not the case at O8B. There is a shortage of literature and that which is out there is not very good. Consequently, players are coming up with their own way of playing. Even at the high limits, some of their systems are extremely unprofitable.

Anyway, the reason I am posting this hand is not because it highlights anything strategic or that I learnt something meaningful from the hand. I just like it because I split a 1/3rd of the low pot and won the whole of the high pot with my 8 high !!! At the end of the day, poker is still just a game and I am pleased to say that I still have fun playing it.

4 limpers, the SB limps and I check 2s 3c 4c 8d in the BB.

Flop A67r (6 players – 6 small bets)
Checked to the button who bet. I called as did two others.

Turn 6r (4 players – 5 big bets)

I checked, the next player bet. The next player raised. The flop bettor folded. I cold called and the turn bettor called.

River K (3 players – 11 big bets)
It was checked down.


I’ll leave it to you to work out what hands my opponents had but I hope you enjoyed this quick recap of my poker career. If you have any questions or if you have 5 hands of your own that you would like to share, I would be interested in reading them at my Ask Pilchard forum at ITH.
 
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