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

But I have seen it many times and I am sure you have committed the sin many times yourself, you called with a hand when you KNEW full well that you were beat. Your calling instinct took over and it was as though you were not in control of the hand for that split second. All top poker professionals have this character flaw but some have it more than others.

I am sure that you will have seen some player on television try to explain why he has just called his entire stack off thinking that a player was bluffing, they try to get away with it by saying that they “had a read” on the player and this was why they made the call.

But televised poker rarely shows players calling their money off simply because it does not make for good television. They edit the program and show successful bluffs, bluffs that were picked off and big pots with big hand vs big hand unless it was a hand where someone got knocked out. So beware of that calling reflex but look out for it in others as well.

There comes a time in every poker players life when they are facing an out and out bully on their table. Being the bully is something that I rarely am over all simply because at the level that I play at the players will simply not stand for it for long. I try to be the bully in selected moments when I am in a pot (selective aggression) and I feel that this style works better for me personally rather than playing in a maniac kind of a way.

But you will encounter these players on your table and like I said in an earlier piece, it is very important where these people are sat in relation to you on your table.

Firstly you have to establish what type of a bully they are. Are they being a bully in general by betting and raising almost anything that moves or are they a selective bully type like me. The selective bully is far more difficult to combat because they are playing in such a way that it seems like they are not bullying at all but just betting their strong hand that seems to come around with the correct frequency which makes it look like they have a hand even more.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

This makes bluffing in certain situations quite risky and especially in online poker play where all a player has to do to call is to click a mouse button. Plus what we have here is an underlying principle that is very important, hopefully as you are playing you will be taking notes on the other players. You might not be able to see their faces but their betting patterns will reveal many things to you.

But one of the things that I look out for are the constant callers. Either they are suffering from this calling reflex or maybe curiosity just gets the better of them and they just have to know what you have and so they stick the money in. You have to know who these people are because bluffing at the wrong times in no limit poker can be expensive. Just because a player has called your bluff does not make it a good call if they have called for the wrong reason.

Bu the sheer pace of online play means that a player can have called without thinking the situation through and in many instances they do not have the time to think it through anyway so they call on reflex. Now let me tell you a little secret that I have that enables me to win certain pots online when I am bluffing. Because when I am bluffing I want my opponent to fold then I need to assist him with that fold and I do this sometimes by giving them a moment of pause.

In the blink of an eye the action is on me and I am heads up with one other player. It is on the turn and I have bet the flop and been called. What I don’t want is to bet immediately, this gives my opponent less time to think, I want him to think that his hand is second best and that carrying on is futile. So I pause to allow him time to THINK IN MY TIME as well as his own. This just slows the game down a little bit and stops them from getting carried away and calling you with something weak like third pair.

Don’t get me wrong here, there are not many situations where I can utilise this play but I need to make you away of the calling reflex action. Because the style of play that I am teaching you is aggressive, what you do not want to see happen is for you to end up bluffing your money off to the tight passive players who only ever check/call. Please look out for the second part of this article coming shortly.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

Why Bother Check-Raising?

In order to check first you must be in early position in the hand. Being in early position is not an advantage as late position, as we all know, is better. Many opponents will bet into you with any two cards. Your subsequent raise not only (potentially) wins the pot at this point but reminds opponents that you are capable of making this move. Later in the cash game or tournament you may check to hopefully earn a free card. Remembering you may be planning to check raise, your opponent with less than a premium hand may check back which is good for you in that situation.

Check-raising strengthens your status in early position in an otherwise weak situation. It must not be over-used, however, as if you are called it gets progressively more difficult to continue given your position and likelihood your hand may be beaten as the bets get bigger on each street.

Check Raise as a Bluff

Have you heard of the squeeze play from early position in a cash game? This is similar but often in this case you do not have Aces, as it appears. A check raise looks like a really strong move or a blatant bluff. Before you implement this strategy reflect on how your opponents may perceive your play so far, they may think you are very loose and consider the move a bluff or perhaps you have played tight and therefore look like a rock? If you have a tight image a check raise should get most hands to fold.

You will regularly see a check raise with a strong drawing hand in cash games as it gives players a second chance to winning the pot. It also sets up a final barrel bluff on the turn or river if the players miss their draw. If you are called on the check raise and then raised on the turn you should consider what hands your opponents could have then work out if pot odds allow you to continue.

Check Raise to Build the Pot

Because check raising is done so frequently with drawing hands it can look like a steal more than a pot building strategy. So use it as a pot building strategy! Many players dislike the check raise but it is a vital mechanism to reign in the late position players who steal every pot when checked to. By check raising on the flop you may gain bets you would otherwise lose making a similar bet resulting in a fold on the turn.

There is nothing wrong with check raising and players who moan about it are too passive or scared to have a go at using it. It will make you money in Holdem if you use it correctly and observe your opponents carefully before trying it. It is a good tool to have in a cash game situation.

By Malcolm Clarke

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

But the most important person that you need to keep an eye on is yourself. To succeed in poker means that you are going to have to eliminate most of your weaknesses. If you aspire to reach the top then you are going to have to get rid of nearly all if not all of them.

But many of those weaknesses are very subtle in nature and even many top poker players are unaware that they have weaknesses in certain areas. Once a player reaches a certain level of knowledge then they will play poker to a certain extent in a way that reflects their personality. I have often heard musicians say the very same thing about playing a musical instrument in a way that reflects their personality and I can full understand what they mean.

Many people who play Texas Hold’em poker may wonder what personality has to do with it, they play a solid mechanical game that they never deviate from. But if you think that you never deviate from this supposed “automatic” game then you are deluding yourself. In poker many situations basically play themselves. The good hands play themselves as well as the bad hands. But it is all of the in between hands that require the most skill and judgment.

But it is in this area where your judgment can be directed down a certain path by certain personality characteristics that are present in all of us. Let us say for instance that you were a naturally aggressive and impulsive individual in everyday life. These traits WILL show themselves on the poker table, sometimes it can be a good thing but many times it is bad.

It is in the area of marginal decisions where a person’s individual personality can take over. If you get dealt AA or any other premium hand for that matter before the flop then you are going to raise with it irrespective of what type of personality you have and likewise fold with junk. But in a marginal situation, the naturally aggressive person will lean towards doing the aggressive action while the more passive individual will lean towards passivity in the poker hand.

There are certain personality characteristics that can be very damaging at poker and I know from personal experience. A few years ago, a thought occurred to me that a certain part of my make up was losing me an awful lot of money over the space of a year.

I am very cynical of human nature and extremely mistrusting of people and especially ones that I do not know well. Couple this with the fact that whenever I play poker then I am always looking to rob some ones high teeth. More on this interesting subject in part two!

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

Whenever I sit down in any poker game I am watching my opponents like a hawk. But it is sheer naivety and ignorance to think that at least SOME of them are not watching you as well……of course they are. The level to which they are watching can vary from the very keen players who take notes to the player who is merely subconsciously observing.

Whenever I play poker, I do not try to create a particular image unlike many players. I just play my normal poker game and let the natural flow of the cards do that for me. If for instance I sit down at a table full of players who I do not know and get dealt four premium raising hands on the spin and I win those four pots without a showdown then the rest of the table is hardly going to believe that I am playing normally are they.

They are going to be seeing me as a loose maniac who they cannot wait to play back at and put into line. Yet I have been playing entirely normally but unless your opponents have seen that then they cannot possibly know. But I need to be aware of how much I have been raising and betting because the rest of the table are going to be basing SOME of their decisions around what I am doing or what I have done, this concept applies whether you are playing poker tournaments or cash games.

So in this instance, I will back off from playing a marginal hand or attempting a bluff because I feel that the probability of me being called has increased. This is what I call “Speed” and it falls into several categories. When certain players sit down to play, they sit down with a set system and never deviate. If the poker game is very weak then you may earn money doing this but be advised, the ONLY poker game that you are capable of beating by playing this way is a very weak one.

People who play at the same speed are easy to beat. Passive players who stay that way are easy meat, the very aggressive players can be beaten although these types can be dangerous in the short term. I am constantly watching my opponents and the overall speed of the game. If there is a lot of loose calling and raising going off then I change speeds and slow down. What is the point in bluffing if you are going to get called or raising with marginal hands if they are going to get re-raised.

Professionals refer to this as “changing gears” and you may have come across this expression either in a book or magazine or by hearing it on TV. I do not go into ANY game with a set plan in the strictest sense of the word. My plan if you can call it that is to mould my play around what is happening on the poker table RIGHT NOW.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

Hand 38: Small Blind, J-8, folded to cut-off who raises to £20, I fold. Stack size £797.

Hand 39: Button, 8-3, folded to me and I fold. Stack size £797

Hand 40: Cut-off, A-10, Player to my right raises to £15 and I fold and keep out of trouble with a dangerous hand. Stack size £797

Hand 41: 8-5, UTG calls, folded to me and I raise to £20, all fold. Stack size £809.

Hand 42: UTG, A-4, I fold. Stack size £809

Hand 43: Big Blind, Kh-5h, 3 Limpers and SB calls, I check. Flop 3-9-7 and all check. Turn card is an ace and it is checked to button who ends matters with a £20 bet. Stack size £804.

Hand 44: Small Blind, 10-6, folded to me and I raise to £15 and take it. Stack size £809.

Hand 45: Button, Q-J, Two limpers and I raise to £25 and all fold. Stack size £826.

I was still playing fast here even for a six handed poker game but no one on the table was trying to keep me honest and I was getting away with too much for me to stop. Throw in a couple of genuine hands and this was a highly profitable hour of play for me. This is a typical hour for me in many ways, the only differences being that £326 is way above what my proper hourly rate is and I got lucky with the 8-5 big time on hand 15.

Basically this is the type of poker game that I love. Most of the players were letting me get away with things and no one was being overly aggressive. Aggressive players and maniacs can really take you for a ride when they get lucky. You get them all in and in bad shape and they outdraw you not once but several times in the session with gut-shot draws against top set etc.

What I hope that this session highlights is in how straight forward I played. However I must stress that since this session was played some years ago, games at these levels have become seriously tougher.

I now use Poker Office at the NL400 to NL600 levels although it is also rare that I play as high as this now online and my usual levels are NL100 and NL200. It also has to be said that my level of play and the average player at this level at the time that this was played meant far greater value. Most if not all players didn’t use tracking software like Poker Office back then so there was a high level of naivety about the games at that time which needs to be factored in.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson
Come and see the excellent blog at bwin poker blog

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

Hand 17: A-3, UTG calls, everyone folds to me and I fold. Stack size £607.

Hand 18: UTG, A-7, I fold Stack size £607

Hand 19: Big Blind, Q-7, Folded around to cut-off who calls, button raises to £30 and I fold. Stack size £602

Hand 20: Small Blind, 10c-7c, UTG calls, other players fold to me and I call, BB checks. Flop A-Q-5. I check, BB bets £12 and this ends matters. Stack size £597

Hand 21: Button, K-J, Everyone limps in and I fold. It is very tempting to call with this hand for a fiver and many players would raise. But many people play their hands as if they are independent of each other like spins on Roulette. I am playing to a set online poker strategy, being the only player on the table to fold is going to stand out. Players will start to think that I am now protecting my winnings. If they are not thinking it yet then they will after another couple of rounds. Besides the hand is marginal at best and big trouble at worst. Stack size £597

Hand 22: Cut-off, 5-4, Everyone folds to me and I fold. If I am in a fast gear then I would raise in this situation with little connectors. I like them because your cards are live if somebody plays with you. Stack size £597

Hand 23: 10-7, I fold. Stack size £597

Hand 24: UTG, Kh-10h, I fold, yes I was tempted again as this is a fair hand in a six handed poker game. But I did say two or three rounds before I change gears again. Stack size £597

Hand 25: Big Blind, 9-3, Folded to SB who calls and I check. Normally when I am playing in a fast gear then I will raise this weak call but I am trying to paint a picture for the future. Flop comes 9-2-8, SB checks and I bet £7 and take it. Stack size £602

Hand 26: Small Blind, A-Q, Folded around to cut-off who raises to £15, button folds and I fold. Chances are that my hand is best here and this is a very serious test of my game plan.

But my position is bad and if I call then the big blind may come along too. I avoid any potential big confrontation with a trouble hand and stick to my plan although I am fast approaching the time where I will be changing gears again. Stack size £600

Hand 27: Button, K-Q, UTG raises to £20, folded to me and I fold. There is a famous saying in poker “a bettor be, a caller never be”. Stack size £600

Hand 28: Cut-off, Q-3, folded to me and I fold. Stack size £600.

Hand 29: 6-4, I fold. Stack size £600

Carl “The Dean” Sampson