Defend Your Big Blind . . . When You Know How

Defend Your Big Blind . . . When You Know How

Playing hands when seated in the big blind -- the second position to the left of the dealer button -- can be tricky. On the one hand, you’re in bad position because you’ll have to act early in all future betting rounds. On the other, you’ve already invested money in the pot.

Let's look at a $10-$20 Limit Texas Hold'em game scenario.

In the big blind, you hold 7-8 offsuit. A player in middle position raises the pot and now it’s just you and he left in the hand. Sure, 7-8 isn't a very strong hand, and you wouldn't play it from an early position outside the blinds, but should you call with this hand if you've already invested a bet?

Take a look at the math.

Your opponent has thrown $20 in the pot. In addition, there’s also $5 from the small blind, plus the $10 you've already put in. That adds up to $35. It only costs you $10 to call. You’re getting odds of 3.5:1, and you only have one player to beat.

It’s clear that 7-8 offsuit isn't going to be a favorite over most of the hands your opponent will raise with, but since you’re getting such favorable odds, it doesn't have to be. Consider that if your opponent raised with A-K, your 7-8 still has a thirty-eight percent chance to win the pot.

Making the call is a reasonable play.

In a No Limit Hold'em tournament, it really gets interesting, especially when antes are added to the mix. Once again, you’re in the big blind. This time your hand is 6-4 offsuit. There are nine players at the table who have anted 100 each, and the blinds are 400-800. Right off the bat, there’s 2,100 in the pot.

A tight player, representing a strong hand, raises the minimum under the gun (the position that must act first). Everyone folds to you, and you’re faced with the prospect of putting 800 in to call. With his 1,600 raise, the pot now totals 3,700.

You only have to call 800 more to win 3,700, giving you close to 5:1 odds. Even if your opponent shows you that he has pocket aces you'd still want to call this bet; pocket rockets are only slightly better than a 4:1 favorite against 6-4 offsuit.

There are some drawbacks, however, to defending your blind with trash hands.

When you start with garbage out of position, you might find yourself forced to make very difficult decisions. For example, if the flop comes 9-6-2, should you bet with your 6-4? Should you check and then fold to a bet? What about a check-raise?

Playing optimal poker isn't easy. The very best players in the world -- those that consistently make correct decisions in sticky situations -- are generally known as tough blind defenders. Without doubt, they do the math, but they’re also very confident in their ability to read opponents and to strategically bluff them out.

Ideally, that should be your goal as well.

You need to learn to defend your big blind, but it's not a strategy a beginner can master immediately. As a novice, you'd be better off folding some of your big blind garbage so you won't make costly mistakes later in the hand. Even the best professionals won't defend a big blind with 7-2 offsuit (with the exception of Gus Hansen who's known to be an extremely loose player).

By defending your big blind more often, and contesting more pots, you'll send a message to the rest of the table that your big blind "is not for sale". That's a table presence that really works.

Incidentally, if you know that a certain player in the big blind will only call a raise with a very strong hand, never give him a break. Apply maximum pressure on him.

However, if a big blind player sometimes re-raises, or calls most of the time, give him a little respect. Instead of raising his big blind at will, be more selective against him, and go after easier targets.

© 2009 Card Shark Media. All rights reserved.

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WSOP Main Event: Squeezing tighter

by Howard Swains on July 13, 2009 3:00 PM

The chatter among media representatives and tournament officials over the past couple of days has usually included the following line: "Yeah, but it's certain to slow down soon." The observation refers to the furious pace of eliminations since the bubble burst on Saturday; we have shed more than 450 players in what amounts to little more than four levels, meaning two days have been called to a premature close.

No one, however, seems to have told the players. Although seasoned tournament observers predicted a slight hurry-up in the post-bubble period, none expected the extent of the flurry, and even in yesterday's closing stages, players were still getting all their chips in the middle, despite the relatively low blind levels. There's a chance that overnight, the remaining players have made calculations based on "M" and the like, or read the countless internet forums where this is being discussed, but we really cannot be sure.

The loose target today is likely to be a reduction from 185 to about 90, with between four and five levels of play scheduled. So far, though, we have paid scant regard to these schedules, and today may be no different.

What we do know is this: today will another crucial passage of play, again featuring countless stars of the game. For Team PokerStars Pro, Noah Boeken now leads the charge and the table draw has put him right next to his countryman and colleague Thierry van den Berg. Expect "Double Dutch" headlines throughout the day. Dennis Phillips and Joe Hachem are also on the same table: Phillips was in or around the tournament chip lead this time last year, taking it all the way to November's final table. On day six in 2005, Hachem was already champion.

Our braniacs are today centred on Peter Eastgate. Not since Greg Raymer and Hachem returned in 2005 and 2006, respectively, has a defending Main Event champion even reached the money. We are now attempting to figure out in what place Eastgate will need to finish in this monstrous field to outdo his colleagues as the most successful returning hero. Have no doubt, this is already a terrific achievement from the Dane, and it is now just a case of by how much can he surpass all expectations.

And then there's ElkY. After a wonderful day three, when he flew to the top of the leaderboard, the Frenchman endured a difficult day four and five. But Bertrand Grospellier still has in the neighbourhood of a million chips. That's enough to make a comeback surge.

All this, plus the obvious focus on those PokerStars qualifiers still in the mix. Remember the names Affleck, Akenhead, Ramage, Shou and plenty more. They could be household names come November.

Play is due to begin at noon, Vegas time. We are ready.

5 Big Leaks to Cut From Your C Game

5 Big Leaks to Cut From Your C Game

By Sean Lind

User rating:

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Even the best players have C game leaks Before you can work on lopping off your C game, you need to pinpoint all of the individual elements that actually make it up.

If you don't know what your C game is, or how you're supposed to lop it, read this article first:

• Lopping Off Your C Game

What exactly are the root causes when you play your worst game? What loses you the most money?

These are the most common causes of playing your C game:

• Tilt
• Exhaustion
• Distraction
• Being out-skilled
• Playing scared

By far the most common cause of the C game is tilt, so that's a good place to start.

1. Tilt

When most players think of being on tilt, they think "super-tilt" - Phil Hellmuth kicking over chairs and calling people idiots, or a red-faced Mike Matusow yelling at other players on ESPN.

Realistically though, tilt comes in tons of different forms and degrees and can be caused by almost anything.

Even Negreanu gets tilted: just watch HSP.

The simplest definition is any time your emotions are making you play anything less than your A game, you're on tilt. You don't need to be steaming or frothing at the mouth. If you're at all emotionally distracted, you're losing money.

And because of the elusive nature of it, it can also be difficult to stop yourself from playing on some degree of tilt.

The best advice is to listen to the little thoughts in your head. As soon as you hear yourself think, "Wow this is frustrating," or "Jesus, will I ever get a single card higher than a 9?"- even something like "That guy's really damn annoying " - you're on tilt.

Although all levels of tilt detract from your game, some obviously do so more than others. The "light" tilt, such as finding a player annoying, may only be enough to bring you down to your high-B game.

Playing your B game isn't ideal, but it's not going to cost you lots of money. You have no need to leave the table when it happens.

But any time tilt reaches a point where you're clearly playing your C game, you need to get up or log off and leave the game. When you're on full-steam tilt, it's not possible to calm down enough to return to your A game in a matter of minutes.

By leaving the game, you're 100% eliminating this aspect of the C game. If you always leave when you're steaming, you'll completely remove the outer ring from your circle of play.

You've lopped it off, and your whole game benefits as a result.

2. Exhaustion

It's just not possible to play your A game when you're exhausted.

When you've reached that level of tiredness, you're thinking neither quickly nor clearly - two of the most critical requirements for playing good poker. And it's when you start getting tired - well before you become exhausted - that it's time to leave the game.

Exhaustion: It costs you money.

Exhaustion is a sneaky devil. You don't notice how tired you're getting until it's too late. If you're seated at the table, it's easy to fall into a rut where you don't move or do anything other than play cards.

You need to get up, take short breaks and walk around. Assess how you're doing mentally off the table so you can go back and make better choices on the table.

When you start to feel tired at all, cash in your chips and go find your pillow. The goal is not to limit the amount of time you spend playing your C game - the goal is to completely remove each ring of the C game from your play.

3. Distraction

Pretty self-explanatory. If you're distracted, you're not playing your best poker.

Try to sit facing away from TVs, stop flirting with the cocktail waitress, turn off your MSN. Limit your distractions and focus on poker.

If you're trying to limit distractions, the last thing you want to do is bring some ones of your own with you to the table. If you came to play poker, do exactly that.

4. Being Out-Skilled

If your A game is only as good as your opponent's B game, you're hooped. The quality of your game is best evaluated by comparing your game to that of your opponents.

When you're beat, you're beat. Get up and get out.

5. Running Scared

Try not to bring distractions with you to the table.

The final item that causes C-game play is fear.

A No-Limit poker player has to be willing to put all of his or her chips across the line at any given moment. If you're scared of losing what you have in front of you, it's not possible to play a proper game.

You need to have the money to lose (have a proper bankroll), and you need to be willing to lose it.

You can't be scared of the money or the other players. People do very strange things when they're under stress or scared. And strange things at the poker table equate to lost money.

Have a bankroll, be confident and strip this ring from your C game entirely.

It's not enough to try to limit or avoid the elements that bring on your C game either. C-game catalysts are like tumors. You have to completely remove them or they'll grow back into your game, eventually bringing you down.

In a nutshell:

Stay calm, stay positive, be healthy and get sleep. Stay focused, play within your skill level and be fearless. The rest will take care of itself.

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Poker Player Alliance's National Poker Week Set for July 19 - 25

Poker Player Alliance's National Poker Week Set for July 19 - 25

The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) announced National Poker Week will be held July 19-25, to rally the PPA’s nationwide membership and send a message to lawmakers that their constituents support poker and legislation that regulates and licenses online poker.

“Our members—the poker players of America—are our best advocates to protect the future of poker,” PPA Chairman and former Senator Alfonse D’Amato (pictured right) said. “National Poker Week, with events in Washington, D.C., and across the country, is the PPA’s way to make it clear to my former colleagues in the U.S. Congress that poker is important to voters and is here to stay.”

PPA’s state directors and half a dozen professional poker players will meet with members of Congress in Washington, DC to ask them to support Barney Frank’s (D-MA) bill to license and regulate online poker,. They will also deliver a petition to President Obama asking his support to exempt poker from the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), and for the licensing and regulation of online poker. To sign the online petition visit, http://www.pokerpetition.com/.

PPA will also organize telephone and email campaigns to Congressional offices for poker players to make their voices heard. You can visit http://www.nationalpokerweek.com/ to learn how to be an advocate for the game during National Poker Week.

In addition to meetings with members of Congress, PPA will host a charity poker tournament on Tuesday, July 21, benefiting the USO and the Malone House at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Wounded servicemen and women will be playing alongside poker pros, PPA’s state directors, members of Congress and their staff. PPA is covering all administrative costs so that all proceeds from the event go directly to the USO.

PPA is working with leading technology providers to host a “tech demo” that highlights the ability to regulate online poker through programs to verify age and ensure fairness of play, among other things.

PPA also announced MyPokerStory.com, a program to collect and record stories from poker players across the nation on why poker is so important to them and why they believe the government should keep poker legal. People can record their own video and upload it directly to http://www.mypokerstory.com/, or visit the PPA booth at the World Series of Poker and record and submit a video there. Everyone who submits a video will be entered into a drawing to win our special Grand Prize: a two-night Las Vegas vacation (with airfare) for two. Runners up will also be selected for other special PPA prizes.

For more information, please visit http://www.nationalpokerweek.com/, and to sign the PPA’s petition to President Obama, please visit http://www.pokerpetition.com/.

WSOP Blog

Home > Blog > WSOP Blog > Top 5 Most Memorable Hands in Main Event...

JUN

30

2009

Top 5 Most Memorable Hands in Main Event History

Published by: Daniel Skolovy

Posted In: WSOP Blog, Tournament Trail

It's that time of year again: World Series of Poker Main Event time. If that doesn't get your heart pumping, you're either dead or not a poker player.

The Main Event is a two-week-long poker super grind. With the thousands of tables comes millions of hands, storylines, brags, beats and of course a shit-ton of variance.

The Main Event is where names are made and fortunes are won. It's simply the biggest poker spectacle in the world.

If that isn't memorable enough on its own, I took the liberty of searching around and finding my top five most memorable WSOP ME hands.

In no particular order, we have:

5) Phil Ivey, Final-Table Bubble Boy

With 10 left in the 2003 Main Event, Phil Ivey turns a full house with 9 9 on a Q 6 Q 9 board against Chris Moneymaker, who gets it all in with A Q.

The A river bails the accountant out and, as we all know, Moneymaker goes on to ship maybe the most significant bracelet in WSOP history.

Such a sick beat because its F Phil Ivey and he usually just stares bad beats off.

Had the river bricked, Ivey almost certainly would go on to win the Main Event and its $2.5 million first-place prize.

But before you go and start feeling bad for him, give this a thought: The massive pot helps Moneymaker go on to win the whole thing.

Moneymaker winning the Main Event and making the incredible $39 to $2.5 million score initiates the whole "poker boom." Millions of players flock to online poker rooms hoping to be the next Moneymaker.

Ivey has an owner's stake in Full Tilt Poker, and because of the poker boom Moneymaker helped create, Ivey has made the $2.5 million he would have made for shipping the bracelet several times over.

4) "You Call, Gonna Be All Over, Baby"

Heads-up for the bracelet vs. Kevin McBride in 1998, Scotty is in fine form, smoking and drinking Michelobs.

In the final hand, the board runs out 9-9-8-8-8 and Scotty ships it in on the river. McBride's in the tank when Scotty drops the famous bomb, "You call, gonna be all over, baby."

McBride makes the call, says he'll play the board and it's "all over, baby" when Scotty shows the J 9 for the bigger full house.

3) Raymer's Back-to-Back Plans Flushed

Most people don't remember that a year after he won the bracelet in the 2004 Main Event, Greg Raymer was still alive in the final 30 of the 2005 Main Event and was drawing very live for back-to-back Main Event wins.

These weren't pre-boom Main Events either. In 2004, Raymer bested 2,576 players. in 2005, there were 5,619.

To win in 2004 and come in the top 30 the very next year is an incredible feat on its own. But it could have been even better.

With twice the average stack he gets involved in a pot with Aaron Kanter (2005's luckbox). With K K, Raymer bet a six-high flop and again on the turn.

Kanter, who called the flop with overcards, now raises the turn with a queen-high flush draw. Raymer ships it in and Kanter insta-calls with nothing but a flush draw.

The river obv binks the flush and Raymer is left with the small stack.

Had he won the pot, he would have been chip leader and had a stack that was 4x average. From there he could have easily cruised to the final table.

But it wasn't meant to be and he ended up busting out 24th.

2) "He's Going All In and Chan Has Him. Johnny Chan the Master"

Speaking of back to back, in the hand immortalized by the movie Rounders, Johnny Chan check-calls three streets with the nuts vs. Erik Seidel, successfully getting Seidel to shove with top pair.

Winning the hand, Chan takes the second of his back-to-back Main Events in 1987 and 1988. Seidel is similarly immortalized for losing the hand a decade later, and remains stuck answering questions about it to this day.

1) Matusow Gets Matusowed

Mike Matusow is no stranger to going deep in the Main Event. Going on to win it, though, is a different story.

When the big one gets deep, the cards get cold for "The Mouth" and Matusow has had his share of Main Event scars.

In 2005, Matusow find himself at the final table, and it doesn't take long for the card gods to start having some fun. In the very first hand of the televised table, Mike is dealt K K.

The only problem is Scott Lazar is dealt A A. They obviously get it all-in and the flop comes Q 6 K. Matusow binks the two outer!!!

The turn of course comes the 2, and Matusow instantly looks like he lost the hand.

He's right when the river comes J. Scott Lazar makes the runner-runner flush to severely cripple him.

Such a sick hand if only for the incredible range of emotions Matusow must have gone through.

First, the crippling feeling of the disgusting KK vs AA cooler at the Main Event final table. But then you bink the two outer and it's like you just came back from the dead.

Then of course the board runs out a four-flush, and the pot feels like it was snatched right out of your hands.

Its like you go from zero to 100 all the way back to zero in five short minutes. I think it's pretty amazing Matusow didn't have a heart attack.

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You can bet even more memories are waiting to happen this year. The 2009 Main Event kicks off Friday, so keep it locked to PokerListings for coverage.

Any hands you think rank as more memorable than these, fire off a comment below.

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When switching from No-Limit to Limit Hold 'em tournaments, you'll need to make some important adjustments to your game. In this week's tip, Aaron Bartley shows you how you should approach a Limit Hold 'em tournament.

192

Adjusting to Limit Hold’em Tournaments

Aaron Bartley

July 1st, 2009

While No-Limit Hold ‘em and Limit Hold ‘em tournaments might look the same to a casual observer, they’re completely different. In a No-Limit Hold ‘em tournament, one big hand can either set you up for a run to the final table or send you home early. That’s not how it works in a Limit Hold ‘em tournament – a single hand is never going to define your entire tournament. You should approach a Limit Hold ‘em tournament more like a cash game by trying to slowly accumulate chips and limiting your mistakes. For players making the transition from No-Limit to Limit Hold ‘em tournaments, a good rule of thumb is to play a little tighter before the flop and a little looser after the flop.

There are several reasons you should play tighter before the flop in a Limit Hold ‘em tournament. One is that you’re rarely, if ever, going to be able to make anyone fold his hand for a single raise before the flop – there’s no point in trying to bully an opponent when you have a weak hand.

You’ll also see a lot more showdowns in Limit than you will in No-Limit. You need to start the hand off right by only playing hands you’re comfortable going all the way with like a big pocket pair, an Ace with a big kicker or maybe even a suited connector.

Another reason for tightening up before the flop is that there are no antes in Limit tournaments. Because the antes come into play so quickly in No-Limit Hold ‘em tournaments, you have to start making moves to steal pots just to prevent your stack from eroding down to nothing. In a Limit Hold ‘em tournament there’s very little incentive to make these moves because of the lack of antes. If you want, you can just sit on your chip stack without having to worry about losing too much ground.

While you’re tightening up before the flop in a Limit tournament, you’re going to want to loosen up after the flop. Again, there are several reasons for this. Because it’s Limit, you know exactly how much it’s going to cost if you call someone down—even if you lose the hand. You’re not going to be charged as much to find out if your opponent’s bluffing or to see if you can catch one of your outs. Unless you’re playing against a really tight player you can be comfortable calling a couple bets.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. Let’s say you raise from the button with A-K, the big blind calls, and the flop comes 9-9-2. Your opponent checks, you bet, and he calls. The turn is a 6, and you both check. The river is another harmless-looking card, but this time your opponent leads out with a bet. Although you only have Ace-high, you shouldn’t be afraid to call. Since you showed weakness on the turn by just checking, he could be betting with any hand. While this might include pairs that beat you, it could also include a weaker Ace or a bluff.

In this situation in No-Limit Hold ‘em, he could bet half or all the pot to make you fold; but in a Limit tournament, you can afford to call because of the odds you’re getting. The pot has four big bets in it and you only have to call one big bet to see his hand, so you’re getting four-to-one on your money. Of course, it really depends on what sort of player you’re up against. If he’s really tight and you’ve never seen him get out of line, you should fold. But if there’s any chance he might be bluffing, this should be a fairly easy call.

By the same token, when you make a hand like top pair you should bet it aggressively because a lot of players will call you down with hands like ace-high and bottom pair or try to push you off your hand. If you’re at a table full of loose players, you can even raise on the river with top pair or make a value bet with middle pair.

Playing a little tighter before the flop and a little looser after the flop is one of the most important adjustments you should make when switching from No-Limit Hold ‘em to Limit Hold ‘em tournaments. Making this one simple alteration to your game will give you a leg up on the competition because many of your opponents will continue to play exactly as they do in No-Limit Hold ‘em tournaments.

There Are No Friends at the Poker Table

There Are No Friends at the Poker Table

Yes, it's true. I would check-raise my own mother if it meant that I could beat her for all of her chips. The same holds true for my brother, my golf buddies,
and any professional poker player friends of mine.

Frankly, that's the only way to act at the poker table.

At the World Series of Poker, players are randomly seated at one of many tables. In past years, though, exceptions were made in special circumstances. For example, if a husband and wife were seated at the same table, one of the two would be moved to another table.

However, if both players happened to make the final table, then obviously they'd have to play there, which can make for an unpleasant situation.

Along these lines, there is one form of cheating that you may not be aware of. In fact, you might be doing it yourself.

Have you ever been in a poker tournament and decided to take it easy on a buddy who was down on his luck?

Let's say, you had the absolute nut hand, but checked to him because you didn't want to beat him. That’s cheating. That may sound harsh, but it's the truth. Even though you might not see any harm in it, and your intentions are all well and good, soft playing your friends is a form of collusion. It’s called team play.

Soft playing really is a big deal. If you’re caught doing it in a tournament, whether it was intentional or not, you might receive a penalty. Tournament officials can put you in the penalty box for an allotted amount time or even disqualify you from the tournament.

More often than not, the offending player doesn't feel like he's cheating. He just doesn't understand why it's wrong to take it easy on somebody.

Tournaments generally pay ten percent of the field. Survival is critical; the longer you’re alive in a tournament, the closer you get to cashing in on a payday. By slow playing and not betting your strong hands against a friend, you’re hurting every remaining player’s chance of cashing in.

Let's look at an extreme example to help illustrate why this practice has no place in poker.

It's a No Limit Hold'em tournament where the top 27 players are in the money; there are currently 28 remaining. The next player eliminated gets nothing at all – the infamous bubble.

Now, suppose you’re the chip leader, in the big blind, and have a huge stack. The blinds are at 500-1,000. Your buddy, conversely, is the shortest stack with just 1,500 in chips. He decides to go all-in, raising you a measly 500 more. You look down at your cards and see A-K.

With your big slick, it's very likely you’ll eliminate your buddy if you call. In fact, even if you were dealt 2-7 offsuit, it would still be correct to call, based on pot odds.

However, let's say you decide to be a nice guy and let him have the 1,500 in blinds, allowing him to double his chips to 3,000. Well, you've just cheated all the other players in the tournament.

If your pal now happens to make it into the money, he'll be taking a spot that likely should have been someone else's. Sure, giving the pot away didn't hurt you much, but by letting your buddy have it, you've made a world of difference to his stack, and to the integrity of the game.

Poker isn’t a team sport. It's every player for himself, and it simply has to be that way. I realize that it can be uncomfortable to knock out your friends, but the alternative is flat out cheating. It's your responsibility to play hard against all of your opponents, even if you have a relationship with them.

If you want to do your friends a favor, don't do it at the poker table. Take them out for a beer if you win the tournament. In fact, buy them dinner.

What you can't do, though, is give anybody a break -- ever.

© 2009 Card Shark Media. All rights reserved.

Pocket Jacks Part 1: Pre-Flop Play

Pocket Jacks Part 1: Pre-Flop Play

By Sean Lind

User rating:

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(196 votes)

A pair of jacks ... get it? The one hand that gives beginners more trouble than ace-king or even ace-queen has to be pocket jacks.

JJ is such a trouble hand that most beginners actually hate having it dealt to them.

All of these players get a twinge of excitement when they see the pair of jacks they've been dealt, reveling in the knowledge of holding a top 5 hand.

This euphoria is typically short-lived once they remember their less-than-stellar track record with it.

Faulty Pre-Flop Play

Oftentimes beginners will overraise JJ pre-flop, raising 20BB or more. The idea is to win the pot without having to see a flop (no flop = no choices to make, and no chance to lose money), or get called and assume the other player has a higher pair.

Occasionally beginners open-push the hand, unwilling to make any decisions (they must be Yakshi readers). This is obviously a flawed approach, although the logic used to make the move seems solid.

They almost never lose the pot when they make this move, making their win-loss ratio for the hand staggeringly high. And while this logic is absolutely sound, unfortunately for these players it fails to take into account some fundamental poker concepts.

Every time they do win this way, they rarely win more than just the blinds (occasionally they'll pick up some limped money as well). When they lose however, they lose their stack.

If you buy in for 100BB (standard to most cash games), and you win the blinds eight times (8 x 1.5 = 12BB) for every one loss (-100BB), you end up losing 9.8BB ((12 - 100)/9 = -9.8BB) every time you make this move.

Dan Harrington talks alot about middle hands in his books.

(Where did the 8-1 ratio come from? You have a 1-220 chance of being dealt any specific pocket pair. Your chances of being dealt aces, queens or kings are three times as great: 3-220.

There are nine other players on the table on a full 10-player ring game, giving total odds of 27-220 (1-8) for one player to have one pocket pair higher than JJ.)

The idea here is not to get exact numbers, as there are flaws in this equation. For example, what about all the times JJ sucks out and beats the overpair? This will account for about one win out of every 10 losses, a total BB/hand change of about 1.2BB.

We're also assuming that every time a player has QQ or better, they are making the call.

Rather than nail down the numbers precisely, this example drives home the concept that this play loses money every time it's made. How much money is irrelevant. It's a perfect example of way ahead or far behind. The only hands that ever call you are the ones that have you beat.

The sole exception to this will be the rare times you get a player making the call with A-K (or even A-Q). In the long run the win-vs.-loss ratio of JJ against A-K about evens out, making this scenario moot in this context.

Check out the links at the bottom of this piece for ideas on how to play A-K or A-Q, and for an explanation of why calling with either hand in this situation is a mistake.

Pre-Flop Choices

Now that we've removed the idea of overraising or open-pushing the hand pre-flop, we can begin to explore some more suitable, and profitable, solutions to the problem.

Poker is truly a situational game. If you replayed the same hand multiple times, each player receiving the same cards without any memory of what happened the previous deals, you would play the same hand differently every time depending on a few variables:

• Your position at the table
• Your position relative to any "extreme players"
• The position of the other big hands at the table
• Chaos theory whims and anomalies

The most obvious of all of these is your position at the table. It's simple to understand that you will need to play the JJ differently if you're under the gun than if you're on the button.

Better position = more knowledge. Knowledge is worth money, money is power; then when you get the power, you get the woman.

Limit players have a better feel for the true strength of JJ than exclusively No-Limit players.

Extreme players will change how you play your hand. If you have a player moving all-in blind almost every hand, how you play your hand will change depending on if that player acts before or after you in that hand - regardless of your true position on the table.

If one of the other hands dealt is A-K, how you play your jacks will change dramatically depending on whether A-K plays before or after you. If it's before they will most likely take the lead; if they play after you, they will most likely follow you.

Chaos theory is applicable to almost all scenarios, not just in poker. Run the exact same hand twice, without changing a single variable, and chances are the hand will run exactly the same as it did the first time. This is true for almost every time you rerun the hand.

But every so often something will change. A player will suddenly get "creative" and do something out of the ordinary.

It gets the name "chaos" because there is no way to predict how or when the events will happen. There are some amazing mathematical minds doing astounding work in chaos, proving that even some of the most seemingly random events actually belong to a pattern.

The idea with jacks pre-flop is to gain information on the other hands. If no one has a higher pair, you have the most equity; thus if you open-raise, your raise is a value raise. If there are players with a higher pair, your raise serves as an information raise.

If there is a raise ahead of you, you have two choices. Call and make your decisions post-flop without any (or much more) information, or make a three-bet pre-flop. If you get moved in on it's an easy fold, but if you get called you're now playing a very large pot, most likely with a dominated hand.

Moving all-in against a raise pre-flop is similar to the early example of moving all-in with jacks. In this scenario you're more often dominated (since the raise typically means the other player has a good hand), so moving in here is a very -EV play.

More often than not, you want to be raising this hand pre-flop: you want to take control of the pot, but at the same time you want to keep the pot small.

Your goal with jacks, in a full-ring cash game, should never be to get it all-in unimproved. To keep the pots small, you want to check and call at certain points during the hand, rather than betting and raising at every opportunity.

Unfortunately it's not always apparent whether you have the best hand or not going to the flop. Jacks are simply one pair, with three ranks of cards higher than them.

Even as an overpair, jacks are still classified as a "small pot hand." Your best bet with unimproved jacks is to control the pot - keep it small and manageable.

In the next article we'll take a look at the numbers, cementing in your mind the statistical power of jacks. Part three of the series will finish by exploring post-flop play and where jacks stand in a tournament setting.

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Ace-Queen Part 3: Some Ideas on Play

Ace-Queen Part 3: Some Ideas on Play

By Sean Lind

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The final installment of a three-part article. After all the talk of where A-Q stacks up according to the numbers, we can now make decisions on how to play it.

The Middle Hand

As explained in other articles, such as Big Hand, Small Pot Part 2: The Middle Hand, it never makes sense to bet the middle hand. This is an example of that sort of scenario. A-Q is a high middle in the world of playable hands, but it is still in the middle nonetheless.

Players new to poker are quick to pick up that A-Q is a top 5% hand, and feel that that number alone should make it a profitable play. But without the necessary skill, experience and ability to read other players, playing A-Q in early position - or for very new beginners, even playing A-Qo at all - can be a losing play.

Players such as Daniel Negreanu have openly talked about A-Q losing them money long-term and being a trouble hand. But that doesn't mean they won't play it. Being a top 5% hand, it is statistically profitable, but only if you can dump it when you run into the lose-money scenarios.

Forget ace-queen; what about ace-Gene?

How to Play A-Q

I started writing this article to try and hammer out some good ideas and guidelines on how to play the hand. Unfortunately, I don't think it's possible to explain in print. From everything I've explained in this article, it becomes clear that to play A-Q profitably, it's a purely situational hand.

You have to play it differently, or not at all, depending on the table you're on and the players you're with. If you're up against nine players who will only play top-five hands, A-Q is a losing hand. If you're up against players who will play any two cards, the numbers will back up A-Q to make you money.

How you play A-Q on Titan Poker may be completely different to how you would play A-Q on PokerStars.

No matter how you play it, you need to be making information plays. You need some way to get a solid read on what you're up against. It's better to lose two bets pre-flop, or on the flop, than to lose eight bets across five streets.

Early Position

In my first year of poker I quickly noticed A-Q as being a trouble hand for me, and began to experiment with different ways of playing it.

One of the ways I experimented was to limp-reraising A-Q from early position. If your No. 1 goal is to gain information about the other hands, this can be a great way to do it at a low-medium limit No-Limit table (click here for a list of top online rooms offering these limits).

With the amount of strength shown by a limp reraise, you can be sure the other player has a hand that dominates you if they call or come back over the top. In these scenarios you lose three bets, compared to losing one where you miss, or a stack when you hit a setup flop.

One thing to remember with this play, and any information play, is the motives you had for making the play in the first place. If the person does call you after making the limp reraise, you have to sign right off, and be willing to dump the hand, no matter what the flop (other than flopping broadway).

Even flopping top two in this scenario will put you at risk of losing your stack against two of the top-five hands, winning nearly nothing against KK, and winning small to a stack against A-K. Remember, with the strength you showed pre-flop, A-K will be less likely to pay you out on an A-Q2 board. Chances of you having AA or QQ are very real, making it a hard call for them to make.

Making this move is only a good idea against ABC players. ABC players will react to this move exactly in-line with the strength of the hand they're holding.

If you attempt this move against tricky players, you can put yourself into poor spots. For example, if you make this move against a player known to raise, bet, call and three-bet light, you will gain no information going to the flop.

You have now built a statistically very large pre-flop heads up pot, with no information in the hand. This makes post-flop decisions very difficult. Against such a player, if you think hitting your ace or queen is good, the size of the pot will dictate how much it will sting if you're wrong.

Sometimes, the best choice is just to fold.

Late Position

As in all other aspects of poker, the single most important factor next to the strength of your hand is playing your position.

In late position, I would advocate raising an unopened pot with A-Q almost every time. It is a top 5% hand, and if no one is showing strength, it is most likely best. If you are behind a raiser, it has to be a read-based play. Against anyone resembling a tight player, it wouldn't be a mistake to muck the hand.

Even if the raiser is a nutbar, you have to remember that even nutbars get dealt monster hands, and they will be raising those just like all the rest. Playing A-Q in a raised pot is a purely read-based scenario. If you're at a table where you are outmatched, A-Q is better left in the muck, than in your hand.

Even though I would advocate limp-reraising with A-Q in certain situations, I would rarely, if ever, encourage reraising from late position with it. Your reraise is going to force everyone else in the hand to fold to the original raiser, isolating them and you.

Good players here can smooth-call virtually any hand to either set a trap, set up a bluff, or try tocrack you. You won't gain enough information from a good player in this scenario to make it a valuable play.

I don't like to have to count on luck to make my hand profitable. Smooth-calling a raise is obviously a poor option. You have no information on the hand by making this move, and are putting yourself into the exact scenarios I listed earlier. Those ended as -EV.

I feel that A-Q is better mucked behind a raise without having a serious read on the other players at the table. If you're able to read them blind, then having A-Q is irrelevant, as your cards no longer matter.

Afterthoughts

A-Q is by far the biggest trouble hand in poker. For this reason alone, unless you have a good reason, and a good spot to play it, it's best left mucked.

I would be interested to get your feedback on this article, and your thoughts on A-Q. If you have any comments to make, questions or whatnot, post comments on this page, or jump into our forum.

Ace-Queen Part 2: The True Value

Ace-Queen Part 2: The True Value

By Sean Lind

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Part two of a three-part article on the biggest trouble hand in poker. This article will turn A-Q into a long-term winning hand for the serious player.

In part one of this three-part series I discussed the statistical strength of A-Q, and began to look into where it stands at a full table. Here in part two I'll get into more depth on its full-ring-game status.

A-Q's Sticking Points

I'm going to run some scenarios by you here. I'm not worried about getting exact with math - these are meant to be generalizations.

If you raise A-Q pre-flop, you will be up against four different categories of hands:

1. Hands that have A-Q dominated
2. Hands that A-Q dominates
3. Coin flips
4. Rags

1. Hands that have A-Q dominated: AA, KK, QQ, A-K

Allen Cunningham used A-Q to knock out 5th place finisher Justin Bonomo in last night's WSOPC Las Vegas.

We can put our A-Q win rate at 0% for AA, KK and QQ. You should be raised out of the pot pre-flop. If you do somehow see a flop, you lose somewhere around 90% the time on average. The big pots you win will be canceled out by the big pots you lose when flopping A-Q against aces or queens.

With A-K it's a little trickier. Let's say you get raised out pre-flop 50% of the time. The other 50% of the time you're seeing variety of flops:

• Ace-high board: you lose significant money

• Queen-high board: you win small money

• A-Q-high board: you win significant money

• A-Q-K high board: you lose significant money

• Flopping straights: you make medium - large money

• Flopping straight draws: you lose medium money

• Flops that miss you: you lose small money

If you just look at the options, you'll see that all the results work to almost cancel each other out. The problem with my little list is that we haven't weighted the options with probability. The odds of you missing everything are by far the highest.

The odds of an ace-high board are more than double those of an A-Q-high board.

The odds of flopping a straight are half those of flopping a straight draw.

Once you weight it, you'll see that A-Q vs. A-K is a very negative EV proposition. Not only do you lose 50% off the bat, out of the other 50% you lose considerable money. This makes our first group of hands less than a 0% win rate, or -EV.

2. Hands that A-Q dominates: A-J, K-Q, A-T, Q-J

All of these hands are similar to the scenario as the A-Q vs. A-K, but in reverse. You dominate all these hands. The only difference is that these hands are weaker, making them more likely to fold to you pre-flop, and less likely to play heavy after the flop. You make less money against any one of these than you lose against A-K.

Collectively they become more profitable than your losses against A-K. This makes the second group of hands a +EV scenario with a positive win rate.

3. Coin Flips: 22-JJ

Even though 22-77 are not in the top 20 hands, in a cash game it still can make sense to see lots of flops with them. People will be calling your single raise with these hands. These are the possible scenarios on the flop (excluding random flushes and straights winning/losing to boats):

• You both flop nothing
• You flop top pair
• Your opponent hits a set, you hit nothing
• You hit top pair or better, your opponent hits a set

When you both flop nothing, I'm going to put it at a 50% win rate. Half the time the player has a low enough pair they will fold; the other half they don't, and won't.

All this information becomes moot when playing a Gus Hansen style of poker.

Where you flop the top pair, and they miss, they fold. The times they do call and hit a set vs. the times they do call and miss will even out in the long run.

They hit a set, you hit nothing. You fold.

You hit top pair, they hit a set. You lose significant money.

For the third series of hands, you lose significant money on the whole. There are no scenarios where you will win big pots consistently, but there is a scenario where you will lose them.

If you hit a straight vs. a set, you will win a big pot, but the amount of times you win vs. the times you lose when the board pairs cancel each other out.

4. Rags

These hands all fold to you pre-flop, giving you a 100% win rate, but yielding almost no money.

The Results

1. Hands that have A-Q dominated: -EV (medium loss)
2. Hands that A-Q dominates: +EV (medium win)
3. Coin flips: -EV (large loss)
4. Rags: +EV (very small win)

In all of the scenarios listed, the calculations reveal A-Q's potential for losing significant money in the long run. You have no ability to control what type of hands the other players will be playing against you, forcing you into many -EV situations with A-Q.

The final aspect to discuss is flushes. A-Q suited hitting a flush will have the nuts. The small pots you win will cancel out with the small losses you take chasing and missing (with acceptable odds). When you do hit the flush, you win small to very big pots.

I feel that this aspect of A-Q suited is enough to push the win rate out of the red and into the black. If you only ever played A-Qs in ABC poker against solid ABC players, it would be +EV and A-Qo would be -EV. A combination of both of them should come out somewhere around even.

If you are able to avoid running into sour situations, and only play the pots that are good for you with A-Q, being the top 5% hand it is, it has the potential to make some serious coin.

In the final part of this article, I'll go through some ideas of how to play A-Q. After all, all of this information is useless without a way to put it to use.

Ace-Queen Part 1: The Worst Best Hand

Ace-Queen Part 1: The Worst Best Hand

By Sean Lind

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Ladies, gentlemen and everything in between, it's time we face the music and stop overplaying ace-queen.

Daniel Negreanu used to call A-Q "1.4," named after how many million he has lost with it.

It is singlehandedly the biggest trouble hand in poker. A-Q is a Top 10 hand, but is not a premium hand. That distinction must be clear before we go any further.

Here are a couple of Top 10 Hold'em starting-hand lists for full tables:

Hellmuth's Top 10	Caro's Main Top 10
1. AA 2. KK 3. QQ 4. A-K suited 5. JJ 6. 10-10 7. 9-9 8. 8-8 9. A-Q suited 10. 7-7	1. AA 2. KK 3. QQ 4. J-J 5. A-K suited 6. A-Q suited 7. 10-10 8. A-K offsuit 9. K-Q suited 10. A-J suited

Hellmuth's mix is founded on a combination of probability, poker experience and feel, while Caro's list is strictly mathematics. Caro has three Top 10 starting-hand lists, one for full tables, one for heads-up, and one main list working as an average for the two.

The Poker Brat

The difference to notice between the two lists is the placement of A-Q by both players. Mathematically A-Q should end up in sixth place. It's the trouble-hand aspects of A-Q which have caused Hellmuth to demote A-Q down his list to No. 9.

A premium hand is one of the top five hands in this list. The order of the Top 5 isn't the same on both lists, but the hands are.

How to play the different hands pre-flop is covered in some other articles on the site, mainly this one: Hold'em Before the Flop: A Beginner's Guide. If you're a beginner, start here.

From this point on I'm going to assume you're an intermediate to advanced player, with the ability to make reads and tricky plays, and that you're confident enough to play marginal hands from mid position.

How A-Q Stacks Up

No matter what charts you use, A-Q suited is in the top 10. The first thing to accept is that A-Q suited is not a top 10 hand, but does make it into the top 20.

If you played ABC poker by following a chart of hands, A-Q suited (A-Qs) is one you would never play in early position, and would only play in an unraised or unopened pot in middle to late.

Being in the top 20 hands means that A-Qs and A-Qo are in the best 10% of possible starting hands. Of all the possible starting hands, only 5.85% of all possible hands are equal in strength to A-Qo, or stronger than it. A-Qs is only beat by 3.77% of all possible starting hands.

The average for A-Q is 4.81%. For this article we're going to use 5% as our number.

One thing to know about poker is that your math and odds only have to be close. If you can get it within a percent or two, that's all you need to know.

As long as your decisions are +EV, the true amount doesn't matter. Being 64% or 65% to hit makes no difference to the hand or how you'll play it; don't sweat the exact math.

Should You Raise?

Playing ABC poker, you will only ever be playing the top 20 starting hands. Just under 10% of the possible hands you can be dealt are playable in an ABC game.

On average you should be playing one hand per orbit, three hands per hour in live poker. Online poker play will have up to three times more hands dealt per hour on a single table.

If only 5% of hands are better than your A-Q, the odds are you have the most hand equity. With the most equity, you should be raising, and pumping the pot.

If only 10% of hands are playable, and this is in the middle of those playable ones, it should by all means be played, and be played hard.

Ladies and gentlemen, Mike Caro!

Unfortunately, poker isn't as straightforward as this. Things are never quite as obvious as they seem.

A great example I learned reading Mike Caro's new book Caro's Most Profitable Hold'em Advice: Years ago, before people really began to study poker, there was very little scientific advice and knowledge about the game.

At this point in poker's life, many top players believed that J-T suited was the best starting hand in poker. It was the highest suited connector possible with full straight potential. It doesn't "dead end" on the top end as Q-J would.

If we look at A-Q only in the context of how it stacks up in the hand charts, I think we'll be missing some important aspects to the hand, working on only half-truths.

The truth is simple and obvious if we look at results from poker experience: A-Q does not win 95% of the time.

In the next article we'll continue dissecting A-Q, adding some more insight to the true value of the hand, and in part three we'll follow up with some suggestions on how to play it.

Preflop Play In Pot Limit Hold EM

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The unique betting structure of Pot-Limit Hold ‘em tournaments makes raising before the flop a tricky proposition. You need to be aware of the crucial difference this makes between Pot-Limit and No-Limit Hold ‘em and in this week’s tip, Rafe Furst shows you how to make the necessary adjustments to your game.

191

Preflop Play in Pot-Limit Hold’em Tournaments

Rafe Furst

June 24th, 2009

To succeed in Pot-Limit Hold ‘em tournaments, No-Limit Hold ‘em players need to make certain adjustments to their game. Perhaps the biggest modification you need to make is to recognize the importance of being the second raiser before the flop rather than the first, a change necessitated in large part by Pot-Limit’s unique betting structure.

If you’re the first player to move all-in before the flop in a No-Limit tournament, you will have a huge advantage over your opponents because, according to David Sklansky’s “Gap Concept,” you need a much better hand to call a raise than you do to make a raise. Taking advantage of this discrepancy, experienced No-Limit players are able to steal enough pots late in tournaments to keep themselves alive.

However, in Pot-Limit tournaments, you can’t make this play because you can bet no more than the size of the pot at any one time; unless you’re short-stacked, you won’t be able to get all your chips into the pot with an initial raise. In this situation the advantage goes to the second player to raise before the flop because such a raise will often be big enough to force all but the very best hands to fold.

Therefore, whenever you raise before the flop in a Pot-Limit Hold ‘em tournament, you need be prepared to get re-raised for all your chips. It’s very similar to boxing in that every time you make a punch you’re opening yourself up to a counterpunch. Every time you put in a raise, you need to be willing to go all the way with your hand. If you’re unwilling to do this, then you shouldn’t have made that opening raise in the first place.

Here’s an example of how difficult it is to be the first raiser in a Pot-Limit Hold ‘em tournament. Let’s say that you have 13,000 chips in your stack, the blinds are 500/1,000 and you pick up A-Q under the gun. In No-Limit you could just shove your entire chip stack into the pot and you’d probably win the blinds and antes, but in Pot-Limit the most you can bet in this situation is 3,500, leaving you vulnerable to a re-raise. If someone sitting behind you makes it 12,000 to go, you’re going to be faced with a very difficult decision, having to call with the last of your chips with a hand that could easily be dominated. Even though your opponent might have a hand as weak as K-Q, you’d be wise to muck your cards and wait for a better spot.

Here’s another example, which shows just how powerful being the second raiser is in Pot-Limit. With three players left in the 1,500 Pot-Limit Hold ‘em event at the 2006 World Series of Poker, Eric Lynch raised three times the big blind from the button, and I picked up A-Q in the small blind. Normally being in the small blind is considered very bad position; but because of the nature of Pot-Limit Hold ‘em, being in early position can actually give you an advantage over the players sitting behind you.

In this instance, Eric’s initial raise allowed me to make a very large re-raise and if he had come over the top of my bet, I was going to be right there with him. He just called, but I still really liked my situation. I knew the flop was going to miss him two-thirds of the time, so I figured I could lead out with a bet no matter what the flop was and two-thirds of the time he would be forced to fold. Add to that the possibility that I might actually hit an Ace or Queen on the flop and I felt really good about moving all in on the flop no matter what it brought, which is exactly what I did.

The advantage the second raiser has over the first has the biggest impact on players with short stacks. If you’re playing No-Limit and you’ve got a short stack, you should be looking to move all-in the first chance you get in an effort to steal the blinds and antes and keep yourself afloat, but making this move in Pot-Limit requires a much more specific scenario. You need to wait for an opponent to make an opening raise and that player needs to be capable of laying down a big hand in the face of an all-in re-raise. Once your stack dips below eight or nine big blinds, however, you can stop looking for opportunities to re-raise and instead start making the initial raise with hands you’re willing to go all the way with if someone comes over the top of your raise.

As you can see, the unique betting structure of Pot-Limit Hold ‘em tournaments makes putting in the first raise before the flop a tricky proposition. If you want to be successful in these tournaments, you need to be aware of this crucial difference from No-Limit Hold ‘em tournaments and make the necessary adjustments to your game.

The Rematch

Eastgate vs. Demidov: The Rematch

Peter Eastgate vs. Ivan Demidov was one of the classic World Series of Poker* Main Event confrontations, and now PokerStars is recreating that epic encounter with an online grudge match. Heads-up poker is the purest form of the game and this battle is set to be another classic - and you get involved too, by playing in our fan tournaments. Ladies and Gentlemen, we bring you Eastgate vs. Demidov: The Rematch. Let’s get ready to rumble!

At stake are bragging rights and $10,000 to the charity of the winner’s choice. You can take part too and show your support for the player that you think will win, by playing in one of two fan tournaments. One tournament will be for players that think Eastgate will win, and the other for people that think Demidov will win. The winner’s tournament will have $10,000 added, so you can win cash as well as support your favorite player. Who do you think will win?

These two Team PokerStars Pros first met back in November last year, as the final two players from a field of 6,844 in the WSOP* $10,000 World Championship Main Event in Las Vegas. This rest was history, as the young Dane Eastgate scooped the second biggest prize in the history of poker - $9,152,416, while Demidov took home $5,809,595 for second place.

This Rematch will recreate that clash by replicating the Main Event conditions. The two players will begin with the same stacks that they had in Vegas, and the blind structure will be the same too. Will Eastgate underline his superiority by winning again? Can Demidov set the record straight and even the score? It’s time to find out.

How to play

The fan tournaments have a $11 buy-in and take place June 26 at 14:15 ET, and are followed by Eastgate vs. Demidov: The Rematch at 18:00 ET on the same day. You can register for the fan tournaments by selecting ‘Tourney’ and ‘Special’ in the PokerStars lobby. The heads-up match will be there too, so make sure you open that table and watch the action unfold.

Both fan tournaments will have the standard PokerStars 15% payout structure, but the winner’s tournament will also have $10,000 added to the prize pool, with the top 100 finishers splitting the money, receiving $100 each. Please note this extra cash will be credited to players’ accounts 24 hours after the tourney.

If you have any questions about Eastgate vs. Demidov: The Rematch please contact support@pokerstars.com.