Poker Tactics - How to Bet

Betting is an art form or a science that takes some observation and experimentation in order to determine the best way to maximize your chips.  As Sklansky writes in his book, the best poker play is the one that makes other players make the wrong decision.  If you have the best hand you want him to stay in and pay more.  And if he has the best hand you want to know that and fold faster than a towel in a hotel laundry.

This is my results of a year's worth of betting habits: the best strategy involves many factors that all contribute like player behaviour, other player most likely hands, aggression, the outs available and even the previous history of your won hands.  And betting in a tournament - normally no limit - is completely different than betting in a ring game also known as a cash game.  The bottom line is it depends.  The main factor seems to be your opponents technique.

A bad player doesn't read the board and thinks his pocket aces are always the best.  For this sort of player you can outright re-raise with the best hand and they will still call you.  Reap the whirlwind.



For a good cautious player you can sometimes get them to fold to aggression  if they didn't hit their flop. If they reraise you, then they probably did or they are defending their blinds.  If you didn't hit yours you should fold on a reraise.  Cautious conservative players normally stop trying to defend their blind after the turn and before the river.  Another bet here might do the trick.  To get a good cautious player to donate more money sometimes reraises on marginal hands should be replaced by calling when you hold monster hands.  You can reraise now for a little more or perhaps you can grind out a little more chips from two more rounds of betting.  A reraise is a warning flag to cautious players, and it may induce a fold. Either strategy works to a point.



For bad cautious players, betting seems like a feared thing- you are actually offering them a chance at more money.  For these players you are better of to bet and continue betting. Of course, even bad players can be holding pocket AA.

Poker Tactics - A Poker Inquiry

Poker players need to do many things quickly when it becomes their turn to play.  Most times your brain wants to do other things, but if you wish to be successful then a consistent method of approaching the hand is a useful process to take.  Any time you miss getting the truthful information can be a costly experience.

In the Army, and other walks of life, people recite a series of sayings or actions in a repetitive, machine-like way as a means to force oneself to remember the information on time and on cue to make better decisions under stress.

Poker is a similar business made up of three actions : raise, call, or fold.  sounds like a walk of life that could benefit from some repetitive actions to help insure every decision under stress is better.

I made up a short list of questions to ask oneself as a way to counter the brains automatic lazy needs.  I call it an inquiry because it is a method for augmenting knowledge, resolving doubt, or solving a problem. The idea is to get into the habit of saying it to yourself, in your head (because you would look crazy saying it aloud at a poker table and of course it would give you away ) during every hand at every street.  You won't do it all the time, but when it counts if you use it wisely it may augment your knowledge, resolve any doubt or solve the problem of what you should do next.

The idea with my inquiry is to keep it short and to the point. I have seen lists of questions that experts want to know after every street.  But they are fooling themselves if they think the average human being can repeat 20 questions let alone 30 questions.  If you want people to use it, then it must be short and sweet and to the point (or succinct).

Here are my questions:

1. What is the nuts?
2. What am I holding?
3. How likely is opponent holding nuts?
4. How likely can I bluff this player?
5. How likely can I improve to the nuts?
6. What are the odds of the draw?
7. What will the pot give me?

There it is. Seven questions you can rattle off in your sleep. It's that kind of simple system that can make any hand better played but not be so long people just ignore it when they need it the most.  I wrote these questions once while playing online. I did this out of frustation when I didn't see a flush on the board that could beat my straight. It's a beginner skill to spot a flush on the board and I mistook the betting for he had AK but I didn't see the obvious possibility that he had AK suited in hearts which would give him the right to re-raise my re-raises. 

Then I went back and asked myself should you change the order of the questions or change the questions?  The answer to both was no, that they make sense and they need to be asked in about the same order.  You need to start with what you hold and work from there.

Your answers to the questions can be as simple as I don't know but at least then you get a better picture.  Perhaps only one of the questions helps you for this hand? So what, one answer more is better than nothing.

In the words of Francis Bacon:

A prudent question is one half of wisdom.

Poker Tactics - May you survive the good times

There is an old saying, when I first heard it it was called a farm saying:
"May you survive the good times".

It' s meaning may not be clear at first but when you ponder it a while the deeper meaning is clear.  There will be times, like on a farm, when you have a bumper crop as they call it and you have been shown some good fortune after hard work.  This is a time to celebrate.

But there will be other times when there is a drought on a farm and that causes smaller crops and even famine.  The deprivation may last for a while and you may suffer if you are unprepared. For some farmers a drought meant starvation and death.

Often times farmers might spend too much of that extra celebrating, but later on when there isn't enough that unneccessary spending may cost you the farm.

In my opinion, the saying is a warning that you need preserve enough, to save enough, of that good fortune in the times that are good to hold you into the next good fortune.  I hear droughts can last seven year

The smart players talk about stack management and this is just another way of saying it.  It is a great thing to win $25,000 at a poker tournament except when you blow it all on bad decisions and don't have enough saved up for the next one.

My biggest strength is being able to drive up large pots and win them, not all of them but enough of them to shoot up a tournaments rankings.

My biggest weakness is I fritter away some of those large pots playing low probability hands against opponents who have waited all tournament play pocket aces.  It's not a good thing to lose it all in a few bad situations. It's worse to let that happen again and again.

There is a simple set of rules to change how much your stack varies at the poker table:

Stick to a set list of good cards
Fold really bad hands after the flop
Restrict the amount of bluffing you do
Fold when you suspect you are beaten

In other words, play really really boring and conservative.

If you want to win at it, and that is what all players wish, then you need to be disciplined.