Here’s the situation. I’m in a multi-table poker tournament. The stakes were $150 + a $12 entry fee. So, I have $162 wrapped up in this game.

A friend calls right as the game starts. In large poker tournaments, I usually play only premium hands. So, I figured I could talk a little bit while I fold 20 times in a row, then pay better attention later. That was the first mistake. You should be watching everything carefully, including who lost what hand with what hand after a showdown. You should be watching how people behave in general. You can’t do these things effectively while you are distracted.

Here are the details.

I’m in the small blind. Blinds are 10-20 because we are in the very early stages of this game. For the same reason, chip distribution among the 10 players at the table was fairly even.

Dealt to me
Q A

The player in first position calls 20. Everyone else folds until it gets to me. I don’t consider
Q A to be a premium hand, but I called 10 to get in, expecting the big blind to check, 3 players in the hand, and one who is only there because because their chips were already paid.

Instead, the big blind raises 205. I was leary of the player who called in first position to start with. My hand needed to improve on the flop for me to have any interest at all. Here are the mistakes…

First mistake, if I’m going to play crap like
Q A in the early stages of a tournament and in late position, I should have raised it a little in an attempt to get the big blind to stay out of the hand.

After the big blind raised 205, the player in first position folded.

Second mistake, I’m still on the phone with my friend. He’s also a poker player. At this point, I’m both distracted, and getting cocky because we are talking about poker. I put the big blind (that raised 205) all in. I should have folded since I was risking my entire tournament on one hand that I didn’t particularly care for to start with. The big blind calls my all in. I would have preferred he folded, but I made the move, and he called.

Here’s the result on the board…

The big blind was holding
4 A

He paired his fours, and I was eliminated. I think he made two mistakes, but it really doesn’t matter when he has all of my chips, and I’m gone from the poker tournament. He misplayed, but my mistakes were mine, and I still had an opportunity to only lose 10 chips in the hand after his 205 raise. I should have taken that opportunity, because there’s really no reason to risk the whole tourney over
Q A .

So, first… don’t get distracted. Second… don’t get cocky. The two of those removed $162 from my pocket in about 15 seconds, and my mistakes were completely avoidable.

Posted by as Learn Poker, Texas Hold Em, How to Play Poker at 4:20 PM GMT

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First of all, you must have an understanding of pot odds before you even care about implied odds.

Here’s a quick example of implied odds.

You’re dealt
6 6 .

No Limit Game. You’re in a late position. There are two raises ahead of you. Let’s say it’s the first hand. Two people raise for 125 chips. Since you’re in a late position, you run little risk of that getting pumped higher. Do you call? Maybe.

You’re likely beat by one of those raisers, already.

If you run little risk of the pot being inflated, here’s why you call. Your chances of flopping the set are roughly 1 in 8.

Your dream flop is
a 6 4 . Why? You just flopped your set. One of the raisers also probably hit their ace. So, you have an opportunity to take their entire stack, or possibly 2 entire stacks.

That is one thing people talk about when they talk about implied odds. If you hit, you have a much bigger payoff, bigger than the 8-1. If you don’t flop your set, and have nothing else, exit at your first opportunity. This is also something you shouldn’t do when you feel the pot might get inflated. You don’t want to be in a 3 way all in race with a 66, and you don’t want to lose your 125 without seeing a flop. So, thinking about implied odds in an early position is riskier.

Posted by as Learn Poker, Texas Hold Em, How to Play Poker at 10:18 PM BST

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I’m playing a $50 SNG, with 10 players. 3 hands into the game, I took two people out. Suddenly, I have 3000+ chips and everyone else has 1000 or less.

We all know that big stacks bully little stacks. When I’m the little stack, I see that as a nice opportunity.

When I’m the big stack… and in this case… it’s a big stack. You should tighten up and protect it. Don’t bully.

Someone is waiting on you to try to bully them, and you’ll find your big stack becomes average stack.

Likewise, it’s ok to take a few chances when the blinds are small and you can sneak in. That might leave you with a little luck and a bigger stack. Once your stack is small, you need to tighten up and pick your spots.

When you’ve earned (or become lucky) and have a big stack… don’t get reckless.

I won the SNG. Carefully watch what others think are good hands… but that’s a different post.

Of course… the strategy changes when you’re playing $200 SNGs or $20 SNGs.

One of the biggest problems with no limit games is this: By the time you know someone is dumb, they’re gone. By the time someone totally outplays you, you’re gone. That’s why you both protect, and take very calculated risks when playing NL poker, at any level.

Posted by as Learn Poker, Texas Hold Em, How to Play Poker at 7:01 AM BST

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I hear this complaint a lot!

I can’t play Poker Stars on a Macintosh!

While it certainly is true, PokerStars does not have a version for the Macintosh; PokerStars is not the only choice in online poker! There are several online poker rooms that allow you to play on your Mac!

Looking for Macintosh Poker? Try these sites.

Hollywood Poker - Play their online version over the web. Works for Windows, Mac, and Linux too! 500% first deposit bonus! Play in special celebrity knock out tournaments! Very cool site.

Bugsys Club - is one of my favorite sites and they recently added support for Mac OS X. They offer some pretty cool features such as Poker Leagues where you can measure your skills against other players and win extra cash every week. Plus they offer small satellites for the WPT, WSOP, and EPT. I really dig this site and you will see me playing here as all the time.

Poker School Online - now has a Macintosh Poker Version. Plus you can play at Bugsys Club with the same software!

Poker Room - You’ve seen the advertisements on TV. Did you know they have a web based version of their software? This software works for Macintosh, Linux, and PC users!

So Macintosh users quit complaining about not having Mac Poker versions! And start playing poker!
- Fittsy

Posted by as Learn Poker, How to Play Poker, Cool Poker Sites at 6:25 PM BST

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I was in 3rd place in a 27 player NL Hold’em SNG on PokerStars today.

Here is how the hand played out.

I was dealt
Q Q in the big blind.

I had been playing these aggressively in the past. This was actually my 4th wire pair of Hilton Sisters in this SNG. So this time I decided to slow play since there were already several callers.

Bad move on my part. Pairs are better against only one or two opponents. If you have several callers you want to be playing higher hand like a flush or straight draw.

The flop was:
J T 9

Nice. I’ve got the high pair and a straight draw. Time to make a move. One player checks. I raise T1000. Two players fold and my opponent raises all in.

I’ve got him covered by about T1000 so I call. I figure I’ve got a pretty good hand and even if he had been slow playing aces I have the straight draw. I doubted he was slow playing but it was still a risk I’d take. If I beat this guy I’d go into the tournament lead.

He turns over:
K J

Awesome for me! I’m 81.31% favored to win the hand!

The turn is
4 The river is
J

What a load of crap! He just made a set of Jacks. At that point he was 9/1 odds to loose. I was 90.91% favored to win!

Argh!

Oh well. Thats poker.

My fault for not betting and trying to slow play against 3 opponents. If I had only one it might have been a good move, but against 3 it was pretty dumb!

- Fittsy

Posted by as Learn Poker, Texas Hold Em, How to Play Poker at 5:44 PM BST

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I mentioned this a few days ago in a post.

Mike Caro wrote an excellent article on how players are learning to play Hold’em by watching TV.

Tonight I had a perfect example.

I didn’t get the hand history but here is a rough breakdown.

Early in a SNG I am dealt pocket aces. I raise 5x the bet. I get two callers.

The flop comes something like 9 3 3.

I make a bet of 1/3rd my stack, about 15x the minimum.

Again I’m probably playing my cards too much, not thinking about my opponents. So when I am raised, I reraise and go all in.

My opponent turns over a K3 off suit.

So this idiot called my raise for 10x the bet with K3 off suit!

The he happens to flop a set.

I end up getting a boat. 3’s over aces. The third better gets a boat 3’s over 9s. The asshole who called with K3 offsuit, got 4 of a kind and almost tripled his stack.

The really telling part was the comments after the hand. I pointed out how I thought it was pretty loose to call my raise with only a K3 off suit. He went on to say “Its only $5.” Hello?!? What does that have do with your crappy play? Do you go into every low limit game and play loose just because it is low limit? Do you miraculously play good poker once you get to higher limit tables?

Somehow I doubt it. This is one of those TV Poker players that thinks playing wild and loose is a good way to play. Unfortunately calling 10x the bet with K3 off suit isn’t going to win very often. He’ll definitely end up loosing more hands in the long run. He got lucky this time, but playing like that regularly is a surefire way to loose your bankroll!

- Fittsy

Posted by as Learn Poker, Texas Hold Em, How to Play Poker at 11:45 PM BST

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Did you learn to play Poker watching Poker tournaments on TV?

Mike Caro the esteemed poker pro and one of the best known poker authors wrote an awesome article about people who learn poker watching tv.

He points out that the television shows take an hour or even a few hours of a tournament that lasted several days. The television producers have simply pulled up the most interesting hands and edited them together. This means that they may edit out dozens of hands between the hands that air on tv. For example you may have missed the player folding weak hands or even folding large hands because he felt he was beaten. The hands that air on tv are typically hands where people go all in, or where people suck out because they are the most interesting hands to watch.

The problem becomes that this show isn’t a good lesson on “How to play poker”. Instead it is a show on what makes for interesting poker.

What really happens is that professional players vary their play. They may play it tight 80% of the time, but 20% of the time they have to play loose to put their opponents off. By varying their play they can fool their opponents and sometimes get a few extra bets out of them when they have the nuts, or get them to fold when they have nothing but rags.

Poker on TV is often only showing you that 20% where the player is playing loose. New players often see professionals playing weak hands. They don’t see the hundreds of times a player has to fold over the course of a day. Instead they show things like Doyle Brunson winning with the hammer (7,2) . After watching this they think this hand is cool or fun to play when in fact it is the WEAKEST hand in all of Texas Hold Em.

Check out Mike Caro’s article. It is worth a read.

- Fittsy

Mike Caro is a professional player. He has earned the nickname the “Mad Genius of Poker”. He has written 8 books on poker and is considered to be the worlds foremost authority of poker strategy. Mike has joined Doyle Brunson to create Doyle’s Room. Doyle’s is a cool new poker room which has regular “knockout” tournaments where you can play against Doyle Brunson, Ted Brunson (Doyle’s son and 2005 WSOP champion), and Mike Caro.

Posted by as Learn Poker, How to Play Poker, Tips from Poker Pros at 6:36 AM BST

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Check out this hand from a Poker Stars 27 person Sit N Go.

Only 5 players left at the table as we’re waiting for one more person to be knocked out so we can sort out the final table.

Seat 2: Lassiter (4510 in chips)
Seat 4: richie6 (2740 in chips)
Seat 5: Big Weck (1400 in chips)
Seat 6: wiredawg (6055 in chips)
Seat 7: teddybear51 (7065 in chips)
teddybear51: posts small blind 75

Lassiter: posts big blind 150

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Lassiter
A A richie6: calls 150
Big Weck: folds
wiredawg: raises 300 to 450
teddybear51: folds
Lassiter: raises 600 to 1050
richie6: folds
wiredawg: calls 600

*** FLOP ***
J T K Lassiter: bets 750
wiredawg: raises 2700 to 3450
Lassiter: raises 10 to 3460 and is all-in
wiredawg: calls 10

*** TURN ***
2 *** RIVER ***
3 *** SHOW DOWN ***
Lassiter: shows
A A (a pair of Aces)
wiredawg: shows
J K (two pair, Kings and Jacks)

Again now that I look back, I probably should have realized Wiredawg had something. On the other hand I had reraised Wiredawg, how did he ever call me with only JK off suit? Probably a bad play on his part pre-flop.

Of course once we saw the flop Wiredawg had to know he had a good chance. I thought my aces were top pair, and if they weren’t a Q would make my straight, I also had an outside option for runner runner spades… I should have payed attention to his betting patterns better and realized he might have two high cards like KK or JJ. In fact I probably should have put him on JJ and made a value bet after the flop. If he raised, I could fold knowing that I was right and he in fact had trip Jacks.

The point is I thought I had a good hand with my aces. Maybe I should have gone all in pre-flop. Thats when my odds were best. After the flop I should have realized there were a lot of hands that my opponent might have that could beat me. KK, JJ, 1010. I didn’t think he could possibly have played a KJ that aggressively preflop! Oh well.

During this hand the 10th player was knocked out and at the time I was knocked out new players were being added to our table. So technically I made the final table and went out in 9th place.

This one really dissappointed me.
- Fittsy

Posted by as Learn Poker, Texas Hold Em, How to Play Poker at 7:50 AM BST

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