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Tips from the Pros |
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Top 10 Poker Rooms
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Say you're playing in a low-stakes ring game. The blinds are $.50 and $1, and it's folded to you in middle position. You find a nice hand - pocket Tens - and bring it in for a standard raise of three times the big blind. It's folded around to a player in late position, who re-raises the minimum amount, making it $5 to go.
I've seen this sort of play repeatedly in the past few months while researching my next No-Limit Hold 'em book by playing in low-stakes games. Every time I've been faced with a minimum re-raise, I've been up against a monster - pocket Kings or Aces. A player who opts for the small raise may think he's being crafty by getting me to put a little extra money in the pot while he holds a big hand. But this is not a profitable play. There are two major problems with the minimum raise. I've already mentioned the first problem: My opponent has telegraphed his hand. And making good decisions is pretty easy when you know exactly what your opponent holds. The second problem is mathematical. My opponent is giving me 5 to 1 to call the additional raise. (In this example, my extra $2 will give me a chance win $10.) When I make the call, I know that I stand to win a very big pot. My implied odds - the money I stand to make if I hit my hand - more than justify the call. If my opponent started the hand with a $100 stack, I could get paid at a rate of 50 to 1. So I call and see a flop. If there's no Ten on the board, I'm done with the hand. And if there is a Ten, I'm going to wipe my opponent out. As I said, poker is a pretty easy when you know what your opponent holds. What's the proper play when you hold Aces and a player has raised in front of you? Find the "Bet Pot" button and click it. Put pressure on a player who you know is starting with a second-best hand. Who knows, if he's got pocket Queens or A-K, he may be willing to put his entire stack in pre-flop. If he holds something like Jacks or Tens, your big raise will minimize your opponent's implied odds. You should be wary of minimum raises at other stages of a hand, as well. Say you raised pre-flop with A-K and one player called. You hit top pair top kicker on a K-8-4 board. You bet out the size of the pot and your opponent min-raises you. At this point, you need to be very concerned that your opponent has hit a set. You have to wonder why he'd be raising an amount that almost begs for your call. My advice here is twofold: first is that you should all but eliminate the minimum raise from your game. In some rare circumstances when you hit a full house or quads, it might be appropriate, but that's about it. Second is that alarm bells should go off whenever you see a min raise. Your opponent probably has a big hand and you need to proceed accordingly. Phil Gordon Sign up to Full Tilt Poker right here and get $600 free! Check out our review of FullTiltPoker.net and pick up the latest Full Tilt Poker Bonus Code to get the exclusive FTR bonus. A Big Stack Mistake at the 2006 WSOP* - By Phil GordonPro Tip: 67 A Big Stack Mistake at the 2006 WSOP* Phil Gordon July 3, 2006 I went pretty deep in the first event at the World Series of Poker*, a $1,500 No-Limit Hold 'em tournament. While I wasn't pleased with the outcome - I finished 45th in a 2,776 player field - I was happy with my play. For this tip, I'm going to share an interesting hand from the tournament - one where I made a mistake. It was late in the first day of play, and things had been going well. My stack had grown to over 60,000 and I was among the chip leaders. The average stack was around 20,000 at that point, the blinds were 600-1,200 with a 200 ante, and I was fortunate enough to be at a timid table. I was stealing with impunity. I was meeting so little resistance that, at points, I was able to steal the blinds and antes four times per orbit. I'd raise pre-flop, everyone would fold, and I'd add valuable chips to my stack. After some time at this table, an under-the-gun player raised all-in pre-flop for a little over 20,000 in chips. It was folded to me on the button, and I found Ace-King off-suit. I decided to call. My opponent also had Ace-King, but he was suited with hearts. I lost the large pot when my opponent hit his flush. It would be easy to write off the hand as plain old bad luck. After all, we started with hands of almost identical strength. But, the truth is, I shouldn't have played the hand at all. Sure, Ace-King is a strong hand, but it's no better than a three to one favorite over something like Ace-Queen. Against other hands my opponent could have held, like pocket 10s or Jacks, it's a slight underdog. There were also factors beyond the math that I should have considered. For instance, given the table dynamics, there was no need for me to risk one-third of my chips on this hand. If I had folded, I could have gone back to stealing, padding my stack while risking only a fraction of my chips. What's more is that, after I lost, I had to become more conservative, as I no longer had a big chip advantage over the other players. Losing that pot had other consequences, as well. In this tournament, the blind-to-stack ratio didn't allow for a lot of play. For much of the tournament, the average stack had no more than 12 or 13 big blinds. When I lost those chips, I could no longer re-raise pre-flop, then fold to an all-in if my move didn't work out. If someone raised before the action got to me, I had only two choices; fold or move in. There are plenty more tournaments to come in the WSOP* and I'm hopeful that, in the following weeks, I'll win my first bracelet. To do that, of course, I'll also have to do a better job of protecting my chips the next time I have a big stack. Phil Gordon Sign up to Full Tilt Poker right here and get $600 free! Check out our review of FullTiltPoker.net and pick up the latest Full Tilt Poker Bonus Code to get the exclusive FTR bonus. Related Articles
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