These easy 101 poker tips helps
you to make sure you're one of the few players that make money at the world's
greatest game.
41-60 poker tips:
41.Test The Waters Before You Dive In
The best way to break into new limits is to
take an occasional shot at the higher limit. When I plan on moving up in Sit 'N
Goes, I'll open one game at the new limit and several at my current limit. That
way I can gain confidence and get a feel for the new players before I dive in
and put my bankroll at risk.
42.Take Notes On Your Opponents
I don't mean writing "donkey" in
their notes. I mean write down any move your opponent makes that's unusual like
"raised with 10-8 suited from middle position in an unopened pot" or
"re-raised with pocket tens from the small blind." These notes will
help you put your opponents on a hand when you're playing against them.
43.Buddy List The Fish
I have dozens of buddies in each of my poker
accounts but none of them are actually friends of mine. All of them, however,
are very poor poker players. This practice is often called "fish
stalking" and it can be very profitable. If you find a couple of your fish
buddies at a table, sit down and clean up.
44.Use Proper Table Selection
Poker is a predatory game. You make money when
you play against players worse than you and you lose money when you play
against players better than you so it only makes sense to seek out worse
players. Don't just sit down at the first table with an open chair. Do a little
research to see which table has the loosest and most passive players.
Loose-passive players are ATM machines. They'll feed you cash all day long.
45.Use The Right Statistics When Selecting
Tables
The two most important statistics to use when
selecting a table are the "% to the flop" and the "average pot
size." A high percentage of players seeing the flop means the table is
loose and a higher than average pot size means that the players give a lot of
action. You need both of these statistics to be favorable for the game to be
good. Just be careful when players leave and new ones join. Fish splashing
around tend to attract sharks.
46.Don't Drink And Play
I know it's fun. I've done it more times than I
care to admit and I almost always end up losing money. Your judgment will be
impaired after a couple of drinks and you'll start making the wrong moves and
missing out on opportunities. If you're playing to win, play sober.
47.Know Your Game
Are you playing a freezeout, a shootout, a
rebuy or a bounty? Different tournaments require different strategies. For
example, freezeouts reward tight play and giving up a hand in marginal
situations early on, however if you're in a bounty tournament it might be
advantageous to try to take out the player if you think you have a reasonable
chance of winning.
48.Drop Down In Limits To Test A New Strategy
It's good to learn new strategies and
incorporate them into your game, but it's a fundamental law of psychology that
any new strategy will perform worse than your current strategy at first even if
the new strategy is superior. That's because it takes time to integrate the new
strategy into your personal style. Drop down in limits until you master your
new stratey to minimize the impact on your bankroll.
49.Value Bet On The River
If you're not sure where you are in a hand but
think that there's a reasonable chance you're ahead, make a smallish value bet
on the river if you think your opponent will call with a second best hand.
Those little calls will start to add up to big bucks.
50.Don't Value Bet Weak Hands
Don't value bet if the only hands that will
call are hands that beat you. If the only thing you beat is a pure bluff,
either check the river or bet an amount you don't think your opponent can call.
It doesn't make any sense to bet an amount that your opponent would call with
second pair if second pair beats you.
51.Don't Fall In Love With Paint
This is a common mistake new players make. They
think that KJ, QJ, and K10 are big hands and play them like they're AK. Those
hands are stealing hands and they can get you into big trouble if you play them
fast when you make top pair. Raising from the button with KJ in an unopened pot
is a good idea. Raising KJ from under the gun in a full ring game is not.
52.Check/Raise More Often
I think check/raises are one of the most
underused moves in poker. It's hard to chase out draws when you're in early
position when there are several players to act behind you. If you bet 2/3 pot
and get one caller, the rest will call with great odds. Check instead and let
your opponents bet then drop the hammer. Not only will you chase out more
players, but you'll also make your opponents think twice about trying to steal
the pot when you check to them.
53.Use All-In Bluffs Sparingly
I blame TV for this one. When tournaments are
cut for TV, it looks like someone bluffs all-in every 10th hand when in reality
3 or 4 hours might have passed before someone made this move. It's generally a
bad idea to go all-in on a bluff when a call would have you drawing dead. It's
much better to go all-in to double up rather than get your opponent to fold.
54.Beware Moves You See On TV
As I said, TV producers cut tournaments down to
the interesting hands so you don't see that Allen Cunningham folded for 3 hours
to establish a tight image. All you see is that he re-raised from the small
blind with 56 suited when three other people where in the pot. TV shows pros
making moves out of context. Keep that in mind before you think that it's a
good idea to raise from the small blind every time you have suited connectors.
55.Learn How To Play Tournaments
There's a reason that the top poker pros are on
the tournament circuit - that's where the money is. You can build your bankroll
a lot faster playing single and multi-table tournaments than you can grinding
away for a couple big blinds per hour at the cash tables.
56.Play At Limits That Matter To You
If you consider $10 to be pocket change, then
don't play $0.05/$0.10 No-Limit unless you have the discipline to play
conservatively. It's generally better to play at a limit that will get you
thinking rather than a limit where you'll call big bets because "it's only
a couple of dollars."
57.Beware Uncharacteristic Moves
If a player has been raising four times the big
blind every time for two hours solid and then min raises all of the sudden, you
need to stop and think. A highly uncharacteristic move could mean a monster. I
would fold most decent hands in this situation. If I decided I wanted to play
the hand, I'd probably re-raise to see if my suspicions were valid.
58.Make Your Own Step Tournaments
Here's something I like to do for fun to test
my skills at higher limits without risking a ton of money. I'll buy-in to a low
limit Sit 'N Go and roll up until I lose. Let's say I buy into a $2 SNG and
win. I'll take the $10 and buy into a $5 SNG. Now let's say that I got second
in the $5 SNG, I'll take the $15 and buy into a $10 SNG. I'll repeat this
process until I fail to make the money and then I'll start over again. It's a
fun way to try higher stakes.
59.Know When You're Pot Committed
Can you tell when you have to call even if you
know you're beat? If not you're losing a lot of money by folding when you
should call. I' ve seen players fold on the turn when there's $20 in the pot
and they only have $2 left in their stack. I don't care what I have in that situation;
I'm calling and praying for a miracle card. At worst you'll win $22 five
percent of the time, but if you fold you'll lose $20 one hundred percent of the
time.
60.Understand That Expected Value (EV) Changes
EV is how much a given move will make or lose
over the long haul. "That move was EV+" is a favorite defense of
intermediate players. It might have been true that shoving with Q10 suited on a
big blind who only calls with the top 10% of their playing range was EV+…at
first. But the big blind is likely to change their calling range if they see
you shoving every other hand with some mediocre holdings. If the big blind
decides to open up against you, your EV will change and you might not know it
until it's too late.
