This brings up a serious point about poker and once again it just shows how many areas of the game are down to each specific individual. Irrespective of what you learn or from who, you are never going to be able to emulate another human beings attitude towards money and risk.

This is something that many poker players never ever get to master, they are great theoreticians and they know a vast amount of things but putting money and sometimes sizeable money on the line does not come easy. Even if you do it then can you do it and still feel comfortable about it without it affecting your poker game….few can.

If the money is affecting you then you are not playing optimal poker and if you are not playing optimal poker then the gap (if there is one) between you and your opponents just got a whole lot narrower. If you sense that an opponent has bet just trying to pick the pot up and you fold instead of re-raising because you are afraid to put money at risk with no hand then the money is affecting you.

The top poker players in the world are NOT the most knowledgeable about the game, but they have one very important thing in common……they don’t blink when it comes to risking vast amounts of money. But these players are totally different animals to me, they thrive and get off on playing with large amounts of money and the greater the amount the more the kick.

There must be some chemical reaction taking place in their brain because I have played poker for a long time but I have never come close to this type of mindset. These players have become immune to playing for massive amounts of money but that does not necessarily make them great players in my book. If you put most of them into a tough $30-$60 Limit Hold’em game full of working pro’s then they would lose.

Yet make the game $2000-$4000 Limit and they suddenly come alive and the adrenalin is flowing like rocket fuel. This is why it is sheer madness that many players try and emulate them. They are trying to emulate something that they cannot possibly touch and that is their own psychological and physiological make up. You are what you are, sure you can improve your game and be better than 99.99% of the players out there but changing your character and personality is a completely different thing.

Many players who play in these “nosebleed” games are addicted gamblers who also wager huge sums of money on other sports which they have no expertise in whatsoever. They crave action like a junkie craves a fix and because they have big money they are able to play for huge stakes. It is fortunate that some of them are very good poker players because they need to be because of their bad habits.

I have heard many people say that their dream is to play in the world series or to play in Las Vegas or to play on television. If they manage one of these then they think that they have made it in poker. I know players who have managed all three and are still broke. Playing in the World Series is not an achievement, all you have to do is get yourself over there with a bit of money and you are in.

Success in poker is measured by TWO things, money won and time played. Anybody who tells me that have picked up $20,000 coming second in an online poker tournament is not going to impress me if they have only been playing for a year. You are still in the short-term after twelve months. Likewise if some dude says that they have been playing poker for thirty years….so what! How much money have they won in that thirty years is what I want to know.

So what I am trying to say here is to be very careful and do not jump in regardless of what hype you happen to hear because that is what it is….hype. The people who are at the top in poker need fresh novices coming in at the bottom so they can earn their seven figure salaries. They know that these people at the bottom need heroes and something to believe otherwise they will pack it in.

I make money from poker but I do it and have done it on MY terms and my schedule and not because of some rubbish that I have heard or read.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

His reasons are because the information that goes into the odds compilation is incomplete and the 11-1 is only an estimate and could therefore be inaccurate. This means that the price of 12 or 13-1 may be insufficient to provide him with an overlay.

This problem of incomplete information also applies to poker because we cannot see our opponents cards (at least I never get to see them). On many occasions, we simply do not know how much it will cost us to play on or how much more money will subsequently enter the pot.

Imagine for a minute that you are seated in the big blind with a hand like 7-5 in a multi-way un-raised pot. The flop comes A-6-3 rainbow. The small blind bets out and it is now on you. Let us say there were four limpers and the small blind called as well. The pot is now offering you 7-1 and it is 11-1 to hit your hand. This is a very complex problem because all sorts of factors are at work here.

1. Will my hand win the pot if it improves.
2. My call will not close the betting.
3. Are my opponents capable of paying me off if I hit the hand?
4. My hand could get counterfeited and I could end up splitting the pot with another straight.
5. What types of players are to act after me?
6. Is the pot raised or not.
7. Does the flop texture indicate that a call will likely get raised?

The list could go on, it is fair to say that no player in the world has the ability to accurately calculate implied odds in limit Texas Hold’em on a consistent basis especially in complex scenarios and especially in speeded up internet play. In this problem, I would take a leaf out of my friends book and refuse to call unless I could be fairly certain of a substantial overlay. The two most important things to consider in this situation are.

1. How likely am I to get raised if I call
2. Will the pot reach a level that is substantially more than the minimum 11 small bets that I currently need for the play to break even.

The closer you are in your estimation, the better you will be. No two situations are the same because no two table line ups are the same. As always, there is no substitute for table awareness. Unfortunately, this means a lot of hard work but whoever said poker was easy. But that is the intense fascination with the game and I for one love it.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

Many authors have written about the subject of implied odds without fully underlining the fact of how difficult a subject it really is. There are many factors at work when attempting to estimate the future size of a pot. For instance, the overall caliber of your opponents will have a substantial effect on any future action that you will receive after you make your hand.

Good players are far less likely to pay you off in many circumstances and the implied odds that you thought you were receiving on the flop may not have even been there at all.

The quality of the opposition is rarely discussed when attempting to debate the subject of implied odds and yet it is by far the most important factor to take into account. Another crucial element in the problem is the type of hand that you are drawing to and how concealed it is.

Flush draws are far more obvious than straight draws and straight draws also differ widely when it comes to how concealed they are. Gut-shots and double belly buster straight draws will drag more money into the pot on average than a far less concealed open ended draw.

When you couple this with the complexity of all the different player types that you will encounter on the poker table, we have the makings of a very difficult subject.

We could easily envisage many situations where two players are in the exact same seat with the same hand, same flop and same pot size. Yet, one may have a relatively straight forward call and the other an easy fold.

I have always been a very keen poker student as well as a very active player. During my studies, I have never been afraid to use concepts and principles from other fields of endeavour that are non-poker related.

I have always believed that if you are flexible in your thinking, then important facts and ideas can emerge in areas where most people would fail to look.

One such example involves the sport of horse racing and the work of professional gamblers in that field. One very successful pro punter who I happen to know personally has been using a very successful handicapping system for years.

Historically, his system has been providing him with very accurate odds for horses in certain types of races. However, he once revealed to me that he will not get involved with a bet unless he has a significant overlay.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

These six descriptive words are pertinent to my personality and character. Some time ago, I along with my partner did a psychological evaluation on myself. I have always had the ability to self analyse myself and I know full well my personality defects and am aware of my weaknesses….guess that makes me lucky because you need that to succeed in poker.

I asked her to write out one word descriptions of my personality and not to pull any punches because I wanted honesty. I did exactly the same and we did 25 answers each, amazingly we had no fewer than 17 identical words on our lists when we compared them.

As I looked down the list, something striking hit me that I had simply not comprehended before. There was not one single description of my personality that was an advantage when playing Limit Texas Hold’em poker full ring games but yet there were no fewer than six descriptions that were either pro short handed NL or anti full ring limit.

This is the kind of thing that a player can go an entire lifetime and never notice and it took me a few years I have to confess. Suddenly I realised why I was not enjoying poker online and why I had trouble concentrating for more than an hour at a time……I was bored out of my skull because the games did not fit my personality. It is like listening to a conversation where the topic has absolutely no interest for you at all. Yet that same person could drone on about something that interests you and you would be enthralled.

So I started to play six handed NL ring games and never looked back. I was earning far more money not because I knew the game any better but because I was concentrating far more intently for longer periods because I was thoroughly enjoying what I was doing for the first time. This is precisely why it is a fallacy to think that just because a pro is successful in $100-$200 games that they could beat all games below that.

They possibly COULD beat all of the games below that but the fact is that it is far from certain. If grinding it out proves impossible then they are not going to beat $2-$4 for instance. This is why many players play poker tournaments, they are just not cut out for the constant repetitive full ring games. But it does underline the point once again that in poker, in order to succeed you really must understand yourself as well as understand your opponents.

You will often be able to feel the flow of the poker game if you can learn to tap into that. The different player moods of your opponents can shift with each pot that they win and lose. They can shift with how tight they have been or how loose they have been or even who has needled them. You really need to be playing single tables in online poker to be able to tap into this game feel but when you do then it is a tremendous feeling.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

If I sit down at a poker table and there has not been a raise for three rounds before the flop then I know that this is not a fast table. This means that the players are limping in trying to make big poker hands as cheaply as possible.

If the table speed is slow then I will do the opposite and play fast because it is this type of game where I can take control of pots by making non conventional plays like open raising with a 7-5 of clubs for instance. Deviation plays like this can be very expensive when attempted in the wrong game. I play hands like this for numerous reasons.

A It makes my poker game un-readable and confuses my opponents.
B. It gives me added chances to take someone’s entire stack.
C. The game speed is slow and I can take control of hands easier.

The flip side to this is if I sit down in a poker game that is very fast and there are raises all over the place. The speed of the game is fast so I am going to be playing in a slow gear and will basically just let the maniacs get on with it. In fact if the game were six handed then I may well just go and find myself an easier game to beat. Most of my aggressive style will be nullified by my aggressive opponents basically doing the same thing.

My style takes advantage of fear and caution and “book” play on the part of my opponents. I win money in poker and a lot of money at that by being prepared to do things that other people feel uncomfortable doing. Money in poker does not come easy; I have never said that it does. But sometimes you just have to back off and find yourself an easier table and there is no shame in that at all.

There are far too many available games in NL Texas Hold’em poker and especially in my favourite six handed games for me to waste time and money by sitting in games where a persons natural aggressive tendencies are the theoretically correct way to play the game even if they do not realise that fact themselves.

What table Speed suits you?

It took me an awful long time to find something out about table speed. This was that differing table speeds suited different people depending on their personality. From my own personal experience, I studied for years to beat Limit Hold’em full ring games. Yet these games require a tremendous amount of disciplined folding to be successful in them. More on this in part three of the series.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

Hand 31: Big Blind, Q-5, three players limp as does small blind, I check. Flop K-Q-9 rainbow and it gets checked around. Turn card is another Q. SB checks and I fire £20 and all fold. Stack size £620

Hand 32: Small Blind, 8h-5h, all fold to button who raises to £20, I fold. Stack size £618.

I now mentally switch to playing fast again as the time is right and I have been the tightest player on the table for three whole rounds. Switching gears and varying your speed like this continually throws your opponents a curve ball. I have been playing for about forty five minutes and am ahead by £118 without once having had a premium hand. My biggest poker hands were A-Q and I FOLDED THAT.

This just goes to show you that you do not need to wait for premium hands to win at poker. All you need is the skill to recognise profitable situations and the nerve to get your betting arm in motion. It would have been nice to have been dealt a premium hand during this slow period and trapped someone who thought that I was still a maniac but you cannot have everything can you.

Hand 33: Button, K-K, folded to cut-off who calls and I raise to £20. BB calls as does limper. Flop 8s-4s-2c. BB checks, limper bets £40 and I raise to £120, both fold. Stack size £700.

Typical, I decide to change gears to fast and get dealt a premium hand. I needed to raise here because I do not want to make it cheap for players to hit second best hands against me. I was taking the bettor to have a hand like A-8 suited or 9-9 or maybe 9-8 or 8-7 suited.

Hand 34: Cut-off, A-6, folded to me and I decide to increase speed by raising to £15 and test the blinds. Three out of my original five opponents have gone and been replaced so they will be unaware of my previous tight spell and I want to see what I can get away with here. Button folds and SB calls. Flop 5-4-A, SB checks and I check. Turn is the Ks, SB checks and I check. River card is a jack and SB bets £15 and I call it very rapidly and take the pot. Stack size £735.

In these situations with a weak ace I like to control the pot size. Either my pair of aces are well in front and likely to stay there or I am buried. I am not overly concerned about an out draw having only one opponent in a small pot. Here checking and inducing a bluff is the play that I like to make and it reduces my losses if my hand is behind.

Hand 35: Ad-Kd, UTG calls and I raise to £20, button calls, blinds fold and limper calls. Flop is great 3-K-8. Limper checks and I bet £45 and both fold. Stack size £782

Hand 36: UTG, 6-5, I fold. I was contemplating raising here because I am in a fast gear but I impulsively clicked the fold button. I have raised and shown aggression for three hands straight and the table never got to see my premium hands but they did see the A-6. Maybe the fold was more prudent and I was UTG. Stack size £782

Carl “The Dean” Sampson
Come and see one of the best poker blogs on the Internet at bwin poker blog

Now it is interesting to point out here that our hero had some highly relevant data on the big blind and they were 44/17/1.9 which made them a very aggressive poker player in six max games. The flop is good and comes Jh-9c-3d and the big blind checks and our hero makes the obvious $20 bet and gets called.

The turn card is the 4d and the big blind checks again and our hero bets only to get check-raised. Now here I think we are looking at two distinct lines of play. Folding is clearly not an option in limit play and especially against a highly aggressive opponent at $20-$40 limit poker. So we are certainly calling here at the very least but in this instance then a three bet is probably required.

Having top pair and top kicker is still a strong holding in this situation but your opponent does not know that our hero is this strong. So the turn check-raise sort of becomes part of a standard line and cannot be considered to be ahead at this point.

Now our hero has to decide how to proceed as calling and then possibly calling the river or raising the river or re-raising the turn are both viable alternatives. The problem with three betting the turn is in if you get four bet and this now puts you into a tough spot. Much of how you play this hand from this point onwards comes down to having specific reads.

Against aggressive opponents like this then three betting is a highly attractive alternative as your hand is likely ahead of their range given what type of player that they are and what statistics they have. There are many draws that the aggressive big blind could be trying to semi-bluff with like Q-10, 10-8 or even a diamond draw. They could even have a hand like A-9 or A-4.

The good side to three betting the turn with hands like top pair and top kicker is that not only will you often be ahead but your aggressive play will often lead your opponent into backing down with hands that are superior to you like with weak two pair hands for instance.

One of the keys to successful limit play is to play without fear. In fact this can be said of any online poker game. Powerful aggressive players will often force you into making plays that can force you into passivity and $20-$40 is certainly a level where the average player will try to make you do that.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson
Play Texas Hold’em poker at one of the best sites around

It is the same with maniacs (loose aggressive) as their constant barrage of bets, raises and re-raises make them formidable opponents. They know that given the right type of timid opponents then they can make them fold all sorts of mediocre hands and they can end up taking pots down with absolute junk.

It seems that whenever you bet they raise or whenever you check they bet. When you are running cold then they tend to absolutely murder you. The thing is with loose aggressive players is that their constant aggression has two distinct advantages. Firstly they take advantage of timid and cautious play. The second advantage is that they also beat players who are running bad!

There is a third advantage as well and that loose aggressive play can play huge dividends as well in other ways because it can seriously tilt players when you outdraw them or you are sitting there with a big hand like AA on the very hand that they decide to play back at you with. This is a very interesting yet often overlooked factor of loose aggressive play.

You make a raise with AA after raising or re-raising the last ten hands. Your opponent in the cut-off is starting to get a little steamed that you are denying him opportunities so he raises and you four bet him…they have Q-J and shove which you call.

Here in this instance your previous play has tilted them into overplaying their hand and getting stacked. So how do you combat loose aggressive players? Well for a start you are far better off having position on them. You can then attack their range rather than them attacking yours. You will have position on them rather than the other way around. Re-raising to isolate will give you a strategic advantage.

Although do be aware of loose aggressive players who simply refuse to be bullied in this way and play back at players who three bet them. Another option may be to leave the table as well and this is an option that is rarely exercised. If you are constantly getting your steal raises called or three bet or you are getting pots taken away from you post flop by loose aggressive maniacs then you need to make the proper adjustments.

If those adjustments are not very palatable then your best remaining option may be to leave the game. If more players left poker games or sought out a new seat then more poker players would be winning poker players. Making money in online poker is a complex variable of interwoven factors that carefully interact with each other to create an internet poker strategy that will make you money.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

Assume that the river card was already revealed and no betting to expect. Then when revealing of the pocket cards came, player A flipped just one card over, he had a pair of Q’s. Player B followed and flipped his two cards over, he had a straight then and so started to collect his winnings. However, before he was able to collect everything, player A flipped his other card over and surprisingly he had a full house. Player B was upset but then insisted that once player 1 unveiled he had a pair of Q’s, he can’t already change that. Player B also said that player A can’t use his other card to have his full house because it was already too late.

Is it significant, the way you reveal your cards?

Thanks in advance.

Kind regards,
David Myers
David,

How you reveal your cards does not matter. Since Player A had a full house, he gets the pot. This is however a serious breach of etiquette known as slow rolling. In tournaments you can receive a penalty for such actions. In a cash game, you are likely to receive a punch in the face.

I played no limit holdem with some business partners. Well, one hand came down to two players, player A and player B. Before the river, player A was hoping back then for a flush with clubs in the pocket and two on the table. Player B was already committed to pocket with QQ. River card came and good for player A as he got his flush. Suddenly, without betting or even checking, he showed his cards. A keen observer who was around since the start of the game said that he mucked. Later, he admitted his mistake that he had forgotten however everyone at the table believed then it was a muck. What do you think? And if in case no one went all in, what will be the verdict?

Thanks!

Schultz
Schultz,

This was not a muck. He just prematurely showed his hand. Action could continue as normal, but the other player would have added information.