Post by Admin on Dec 17, 2014 15:39:45 GMT -8
scaredAce
How many times have you played in a poker tournament only to find yourself not getting any cards and being forced to watch your stack shrink slowly as the blinds and antes crank up?
This is one of the toughest things to deal with as a poker player. You sit there, folding hand after hand, while the guy three seats to your right plays almost every hand and sees his stack triple. You are thinking this guy is a card rack and are jealous of his good fortune. What you don’t realize is that he’s only had good hands 30% of the time. The rest of the time he’s been employing various strategies — most related to his understanding of his opponents and his position at the table — to pick up chips.
He’s not relying on his cards to win pots — he’s relying on his opponents’ weaknesses and mistakes. That’s what makes poker a game that isn’t just about the cards. No, there’s so much more to it and this article is going to go over some of the ways you can accumulate chips without needing to make the best hand.
Planning and Execution
There are numerous moves you can make in a poker tournament to help build your stack. Some of them will involve taking advantage of your opponents’ shortcomings. Others will involve using position to your advantage. And in some situations you’ll be representing a hand you don’t have by playing it the way you would if you had an actual hand.
When you are going to employ a move in order to get chips without necessarily showing down the best hand, it is important to keep two ideas in mind.
First, you must ensure that the move makes sense. That is, it must be believable to your opponent according to your tendencies and the way the hand plays out. If your actions don’t add up, your opponent is likely to pick you off and you’ll lose even more of that precious stack.
Second, you must make the move against a player who is capable of falling for it. Too many players make the mistake of trying to make a move at the wrong time, such as when a player is pot committed or against a calling station. Find the right opponent and the right situation and then pull the trigger — regardless of what cards you hold.
Here are a few creative plays you can add to your game when the cards aren’t going your way — or even if you just want to apply pressure to your table to increase the likelihood you’ll get paid off when you do finally start making hands. I’ll divide these seven plays into two categories: preflop and postflop moves.
Preflop Moves
◾1. The “represent the slow-played big pair” move
With this move you are trying to represent that you have a big pocket pair. Typically the way this best works is to limp in from early position and if it is raised before it gets back to you, reraise as if you had limped in with {A-}{A-} or {K-}{K-}. The move only works if there is a single raise and the action gets back to you. Don’t make the mistake of doing it when the pot has been raised and reraised, as it is much less likely to be convincing or to work.
◾2. The “punishing limpers using position” move
If you are at a passive table that is limping in a lot and you have established a tight image, you can pick up a nice-sized pot by following a series of limps with a large raise from late position or the blinds with a marginal hand. Make sure you make the same kind of raise that you would with a legitimate hand.
◾3. The squeeze play
The squeeze play is a popular move, and can work for you if you’re careful to not get picked off by smart, observant players. A player raises and a second one calls, and when the action gets to you that’s when you can reraise to put the “squeeze” on your opponents.
The reason this move works is that the flat-caller usually doesn’t have a good enough hand to withstand a reraise. If that player did, he would have made the reraise himself. Meanwhile the initial raiser has to worry about what the flat-caller will do, thus being in a bad position as well from which the player can usually proceed with only the best of hands.
◾4. The “you aren’t stealing my blinds resteal” move
If a player has raised from late position on your big blind, this can be a perfect opportunity to pick up some chips. It’s most likely that the player is stealing and will therefore fold to a good-sized reraise. However, you need to be careful that the person making the initial raise is not super tight or the type of player who is capable of coming back over the top of you with air.
Postflop Moves
◾5. Representing on a dry board in an unraised pot
How many times have you completed the small blind or checked the big blind and seen a flop like {8-Clubs}{5-Diamonds}{3-Spades}, only to check-fold to the button limper? Most of the time it’s very unlikely this flop has hit the button, and the player is simply taking advantage of position when betting and claiming the pot. So why not represent the flop? A ragged flop is more likely to hit a random blind hand than it is someone who has voluntarily put chips into the pot, and this move aggressively takes advantage of that fact.
There are two ways to deploy this move: by leading out or check-raising. Leading out is the more cost-effective approach, because if your opponent raises you, you can let the hand go easily without a significant loss. However, the problem here is that your opponent might take advantage of your positional disadvantage and float you to see what you do on the turn. You can take this option away by check-raising. Check-raising will cost more in chips if your opponent has a legitimate hand, but it will also make it much harder for your opponent to proceed because you are representing true strength.
◾6. The float
This is another popular move that is tried a lot, so be judicious when applying it. The way this move works is that you call a bet on the flop in position in order to take the pot away from your foe on the turn. When your opponent checks to you on the turn, he is most often telling you he no longer likes his hand and is giving you an opportunity to take the pot away. For more on this one, read “Understanding Floating in Position.”
◾7. Representing following a scare card
This one’s a bit harder to pull off and can be expensive because it requires calling a bet in the hope that a certain card arrives. For example, let’s say the flop provides possible straight and flush draws and you feel your opponent has something along the lines of top pair. You don’t think you can use the float move successfully, but if a sufficiently scary, draw-completing card comes on the turn you could represent a big hand and induce a fold.
If that straight card or flush card comes, you bet or even raise, telling your opponent you hit your hand. Often you can get an opponent to lay down a legitimate hand in this situation — just don’t make this move against opponents who have shown they can’t fold if they have a piece of the flop.
There’s more to poker than just the cards. Knowing how to win pots without depending on getting dealt the best hands is what often sets winning players apart from the rest.
How many times have you played in a poker tournament only to find yourself not getting any cards and being forced to watch your stack shrink slowly as the blinds and antes crank up?
This is one of the toughest things to deal with as a poker player. You sit there, folding hand after hand, while the guy three seats to your right plays almost every hand and sees his stack triple. You are thinking this guy is a card rack and are jealous of his good fortune. What you don’t realize is that he’s only had good hands 30% of the time. The rest of the time he’s been employing various strategies — most related to his understanding of his opponents and his position at the table — to pick up chips.
He’s not relying on his cards to win pots — he’s relying on his opponents’ weaknesses and mistakes. That’s what makes poker a game that isn’t just about the cards. No, there’s so much more to it and this article is going to go over some of the ways you can accumulate chips without needing to make the best hand.
Planning and Execution
There are numerous moves you can make in a poker tournament to help build your stack. Some of them will involve taking advantage of your opponents’ shortcomings. Others will involve using position to your advantage. And in some situations you’ll be representing a hand you don’t have by playing it the way you would if you had an actual hand.
When you are going to employ a move in order to get chips without necessarily showing down the best hand, it is important to keep two ideas in mind.
First, you must ensure that the move makes sense. That is, it must be believable to your opponent according to your tendencies and the way the hand plays out. If your actions don’t add up, your opponent is likely to pick you off and you’ll lose even more of that precious stack.
Second, you must make the move against a player who is capable of falling for it. Too many players make the mistake of trying to make a move at the wrong time, such as when a player is pot committed or against a calling station. Find the right opponent and the right situation and then pull the trigger — regardless of what cards you hold.
Here are a few creative plays you can add to your game when the cards aren’t going your way — or even if you just want to apply pressure to your table to increase the likelihood you’ll get paid off when you do finally start making hands. I’ll divide these seven plays into two categories: preflop and postflop moves.
Preflop Moves
◾1. The “represent the slow-played big pair” move
With this move you are trying to represent that you have a big pocket pair. Typically the way this best works is to limp in from early position and if it is raised before it gets back to you, reraise as if you had limped in with {A-}{A-} or {K-}{K-}. The move only works if there is a single raise and the action gets back to you. Don’t make the mistake of doing it when the pot has been raised and reraised, as it is much less likely to be convincing or to work.
◾2. The “punishing limpers using position” move
If you are at a passive table that is limping in a lot and you have established a tight image, you can pick up a nice-sized pot by following a series of limps with a large raise from late position or the blinds with a marginal hand. Make sure you make the same kind of raise that you would with a legitimate hand.
◾3. The squeeze play
The squeeze play is a popular move, and can work for you if you’re careful to not get picked off by smart, observant players. A player raises and a second one calls, and when the action gets to you that’s when you can reraise to put the “squeeze” on your opponents.
The reason this move works is that the flat-caller usually doesn’t have a good enough hand to withstand a reraise. If that player did, he would have made the reraise himself. Meanwhile the initial raiser has to worry about what the flat-caller will do, thus being in a bad position as well from which the player can usually proceed with only the best of hands.
◾4. The “you aren’t stealing my blinds resteal” move
If a player has raised from late position on your big blind, this can be a perfect opportunity to pick up some chips. It’s most likely that the player is stealing and will therefore fold to a good-sized reraise. However, you need to be careful that the person making the initial raise is not super tight or the type of player who is capable of coming back over the top of you with air.
Postflop Moves
◾5. Representing on a dry board in an unraised pot
How many times have you completed the small blind or checked the big blind and seen a flop like {8-Clubs}{5-Diamonds}{3-Spades}, only to check-fold to the button limper? Most of the time it’s very unlikely this flop has hit the button, and the player is simply taking advantage of position when betting and claiming the pot. So why not represent the flop? A ragged flop is more likely to hit a random blind hand than it is someone who has voluntarily put chips into the pot, and this move aggressively takes advantage of that fact.
There are two ways to deploy this move: by leading out or check-raising. Leading out is the more cost-effective approach, because if your opponent raises you, you can let the hand go easily without a significant loss. However, the problem here is that your opponent might take advantage of your positional disadvantage and float you to see what you do on the turn. You can take this option away by check-raising. Check-raising will cost more in chips if your opponent has a legitimate hand, but it will also make it much harder for your opponent to proceed because you are representing true strength.
◾6. The float
This is another popular move that is tried a lot, so be judicious when applying it. The way this move works is that you call a bet on the flop in position in order to take the pot away from your foe on the turn. When your opponent checks to you on the turn, he is most often telling you he no longer likes his hand and is giving you an opportunity to take the pot away. For more on this one, read “Understanding Floating in Position.”
◾7. Representing following a scare card
This one’s a bit harder to pull off and can be expensive because it requires calling a bet in the hope that a certain card arrives. For example, let’s say the flop provides possible straight and flush draws and you feel your opponent has something along the lines of top pair. You don’t think you can use the float move successfully, but if a sufficiently scary, draw-completing card comes on the turn you could represent a big hand and induce a fold.
If that straight card or flush card comes, you bet or even raise, telling your opponent you hit your hand. Often you can get an opponent to lay down a legitimate hand in this situation — just don’t make this move against opponents who have shown they can’t fold if they have a piece of the flop.
There’s more to poker than just the cards. Knowing how to win pots without depending on getting dealt the best hands is what often sets winning players apart from the rest.