When you hold a pocket-pair preflop, it’s nice to know the odds of whether or not someone behind you holds a bigger pair.  This article offers a ‘quick and dirty’ method for making that calculation.

I was playing in a sit and go tournament at Full Tilt a while back with my fiancée looking on. We were down to three-handed, all the stacks were about the same, though I was the short stack. The blinds were very high — the average stack was about 12 big blinds. I had 2-2 on the button. I raised all-in and was called by 6-6. I went broke.

“That was a really bad play, Phil. How can you go all-in there?” she said.

I protested vigorously: “Honey, it is well against the odds that either of my opponents will have a higher pocket pair. With only 12 big blinds, I’m either all-in or I fold in this situation. Doing anything else is just crazy, I think. Especially because we’re already in the money, and the difference between second and third place isn’t very significant.”

“Well, I think it’s much more likely for them to have a pocket pair. What are the exact odds?” she asked.

I didn’t know off the top of my head, which just seemed to give her more ammunition for her argument. It is hard to argue odds when you don’t know them. So, I set off to do some math so I could “prove” to her that I was right. In the process, I “discovered” a general mathematical formula that everyone can use when arguing with a significant other.

I’m calling this rule the “Gordon Pair Principle” (GPP). I’ve always wanted a theorem named after me, and so here it is. A few years back, I got zero credit for naming the “Rule of 4 and 2,” and I’m a little on tilt about it. Now, I’m not claiming that I discovered the “Rule of 4 and 2,” but I do claim naming it and referring to it in print as such for the first time (see my book “Poker: The Real Deal”).

So, here goes.

The Gordon Pair Principle
Let C = percent chance someone left to act has a bigger pocket pair Let N = number of players left to act Let R = number of higher ranks than your pocket pair (i.e., if you have Q-Q, there are two ranks higher. If you have 8-8, there are six ranks higher)

Some examples:
You have pockets 10s and there are six players left to act. Someone will have a bigger pocket pair about 12 percent of the time.

You have pocket kings under the gun in a 10-handed game. You’ll be up against pocket aces (and probably broke) about 4.5 percent of the time.

Now, this formula isn’t exact, but it is a damned close approximation. It’s definitely close enough to use when arguing with your significant other. Of course, I showed her this calculation after about an hour of work and she still thinks I made a stupid play despite the fact that my 2-2 is the best hand there 88 percent of the time.

Good luck at the tables!

If you’re USA-based, like Phil, you can play some great online at Bookmaker Poker or BetOnline Poker.

There are many factors that affect your decisions at the poker table. Obviously, the cards you’re dealt often dictate whether you’ll even consider getting involved in a hand, but they’re just one part of the equation.

Once you’re playing, things like your physical state can also affect your play. If you’re hungry, tired or even a little drunk, you’re not likely to play your best, and your decisions may not be as smart. Emotion is a factor too. When you’re winning, you often feel like you can make any hand you need to win a pot. When you’re losing, however, a continued string of beats can seem unbearable. This can lead to tilt and keep you from playing at the top of your game.

Using this kind of information against your opponents is one of the keys to becoming a winning player. If you know they’re a little tired or a little tilted, you can determine if they’re likely to call a well-timed bet or bluff.

For example, let’s say you river the nuts and want to induce your opponent to put more money into the pot. What do you do? The answer often depends on your opponent, and what size bet you think you can get them to call.

One factor to consider is how well your opponent is doing in the game. Are they winning or losing? Let’s say you know a player sat down with $500 and they now have $710. This player is much more likely to call a bet of $140 to $170 on the river than a bet of $220 or $250, because the additional money pushes them through what I like to call their “pain barrier”.

For your opponent, calling a $170 bet means they’ll still be up for the session, even if they lose the pot. Calling $220 or more means they’ll be down. For many players, the psychological difference between these two scenarios is huge, even if they don’t realize it.

There are other factors that can help you manipulate your opponent’s pain barrier at the table. For example, a player who is sitting with case money (i.e., they don’t have any more money in their pocket or stored in the cashier) is much more likely to be pushed off a hand by a big bet if they’re holding any kind of marginal hand. The pain barrier becomes even more effective if you know your opponent is about to quit the game. They might have had a phone call from a spouse or be going to dinner soon; then the $250 bet in the situation above works even more often, as most players don’t want to finish their session on a losing note.

Obviously, using the pain barrier won’t work every time but, if used properly, it’s a great weapon to have in your arsenal.

Joe Beevers

If you’re USA-based, like Phil, you can play some great online at Bookmaker Poker or BetOnline Poker.

By Mike Caro

Sometimes we get so involved in thinking about deeper and deeper poker strategy that we forget to refresh our memories about some of the most powerful, basic, and profitable concepts. One of those topics is poker seating. I believe the concept is so important that almost any skillful player who is neglecting this aspect of poker can expect to see profits increase by at least half by faithfully acting on this powerful poker truth. Here’s the script for my audio lecture…

I teach that choosing the right seat in a poker game is one of the most important factors in increasing your profit. I’m right.

You see, there’s no such thing as a lucky seat in poker. Luck is always apparent after the fact, looking in the rear-view mirror. But there’s no rational reason to suspect, in advance, whether you’ll be lucky or unlucky. It’s all random. And that applies to poker seats as well as to poker people.

Looking back, there are hot seats and cold seats; lucky seats and unlucky ones. But before that good luck or bad luck happened, there was no logical reason to suspect that it would. The lucky seat could have turned out unlucky and the unlucky seat could have turned out lucky.

Superstition:

So, when I talk about choosing the right seat, forget about finding a lucky seat. That’s just superstition. And I don’t allow my students to practice superstition at the poker table.

Well, if there’s no way to determine which seat is lucky, why bother thinking about selecting or changing seats at all? A seat is a seat, right?

No, I didn’t say that. I said you can’t determine lucky seats, but you can determine winning seats. You can determine profitable seats.

Here’s the deal. In poker the action happens clockwise, coming from your right, moving to you, and continuing to your left. Visualize the action. Here it comes from your right. Now it’s your turn. Now the action passes to your left. That’s poker.

And, you know what? When you get to act after someone else, you have an advantage. We call this a positional advantage. It means you get to see what another player decides to do first and then you act. It’s always to your advantage when your opponent acts before you do; it’s always to your disadvantage when you act before your opponent does.

That’s important and I’ll repeat it. You always have an advantage when your opponent acts first; you always have a disadvantage when you act first. This concept is so powerful that if you could put a weather satellite up in space and point its camera down on a poker table, you’d see the money mostly flowing ’round and ’round the table in a clockwise direction.

OK, so far, that’s not a big revelation and just knowing it isn’t helpful. So, let’s make it helpful. At first, you might think that a seat doesn’t matter, because positional advantage evens out. After all, for every player who sits nearby to your right – giving you a positional advantage — there’s a player who sits nearby to your left – taking advantage of you. True, so very true.

Which opponents belong where:

But here’s the trick. There are certain types of players you can profit from more than others by using your positional advantage. And those players belong on your right. And there are certain players who harm you less than others, because they don’t make the most of their positional advantage. And those players belong on your left.

Now, there’s a lot more to seating in poker than that, and I could write a huge book about just the nuances of attacking blinds, getting walks when you’re in the blind, sandbagging, and much, much more. And it all fine-tunes our strategy for knowing what seats are best and how to get the most out of the seat you’re in relative to the types of opponents sitting nearby. But we’ll save that for another day and talk about the most profitable seating consideration right now. This is where the gold is buried.

Your main consideration should be to place the loosest and weakest players on your right, because those are the ones who supply the most profit. Many players are always eager to call a single bet, but they think twice about calling a raise. These are typical loose players who lose the most money in poker games. And you’ll get the biggest share of their losses if you sit immediately to their left (so they’re on your right), thus maximizing your positional advantage.

Why it works:

Let’s look at a ludicrously simple example to illustrate this point. Someone has made the first bet. You’ve got a good hand and are playing an aggressive style, which means you raise frequently to earn extra profit. Suppose your loosest opponent is on your left, holding a weak hand, and acts after you. You raise. Now your loose opponent thinks, “Well, I would have called just to see if I could get lucky, but now I’m going to fold, because even I’m not stupid enough to call a raise.” So, assuming you’re going to win this pot, how many bets did you just gain from this loose opponent? None, right. He folded. But now suppose he’s on your right and you act after him. He calls, because it’s just a single bet and that’s the kind of guy he is. Now you raise. It gets back to him and he thinks, “Wow. I shouldn’t have played this garbage, but it’s just one more bet to me now.” So, he calls. Now, how many bets has he put in your pot? Two. And that magic happens only because he was sitting on your right and not on your left.

The one other seating consideration we’re going to learn today is that tight, un-aggressive players belong on your left. They’ll still have a positional advantage against you, but they won’t profit from it very often, because they don’t play many pots. They simply won’t interfere with your strategy as often as other players, so you can afford to have them on your left.

So, today we’ve learned two important keys about seating in poker. You want the loosest opponents on your right and the tightest ones on your left. Of course, you won’t always be able to select or change seats, but you should keep this advice in mind and use it whenever you can. Again. Loose players belong on your right. Tight players belong on your left.

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I’d like to share some strategies for playing short-handed Limit Hold ‘em.

You’ll probably know that hand values change in short-handed play and that it’s proper to play a greater percentage of hands than would be wise at a full ring game. In these games, I play a lot of hands. So many, in fact, I’ve gotten the reputation of being something of a maniac. But there is a method to my madness. By the end of this article, I think you’ll agree.

Button Play

In a three- or four-handed Limit Hold ‘em cash game, I will raise about two of every three times I have the button. The quality of my hand is essentially irrelevant. The position raise puts me in control of the hand and, even if I’m holding total trash, the pressure puts the blinds in a spot where they need to catch a piece of the flop.

For example, say I raise on the button and the big blind calls with a modest but playable hand, maybe Qc-Td. Now, if the flop comes with any Ace or King, the blind is going to have a very difficult time continuing with the hand if he checks and I bet the flop. In fact, the blind is going to have a very difficult time continuing on any board that doesn’t contain a Queen or Ten.

If I follow up my raise and bet the flop with, say, 7-high, and get called or check-raised, it’s very easy to lay down the hand. I know this is going to happen at times, but I pick up the pot often enough to make the constant button aggression profitable.

Small Blind Play

When playing against opponents who raise frequently in position, I’m sure to respond with aggression in the small blind. If I’m holding a hand that’s likely best at a three-handed table – something as modest as A-9 might qualify – and I’m facing a button raise, I take control of the hand and three-bet. That puts additional pressure on the big blind. If I only call the button raise, the big blind will be getting great odds (5:1) to call the additional bet. And I’d far prefer to play the hand heads-up.

After three-betting from the small blind, I follow up with a bet on the flop almost 100 percent of the time. Since I represented a big hand pre-flop, I want to put my opponent to a decision immediately. Once I see how my opponent reacts, I can decide how I should proceed with the hand. I’ll have to give it up sometimes, but the pressure will force a lot of folds.

Big Blind Play

The big blind is the only place where I’m content to call bets pre-flop. In fact, a call is my usual reaction to a button raise. If I start with a moderate hand, I can see the flop and decide how to proceed. If I start with a strong hand, like pocket Aces or Kings, I’ll still call and look to check-raise the flop. I don’t like to three-bet from the big blind because it tends to announce my hand. My opponents know that I’m starting with a very big hand.

Overall Goal

As you can probably tell by now, I believe that aggression is key to success in short-handed Limit Hold ‘em. I think the constant bets and raises create two dynamics that can be exploited for profit. First, by being the aggressor, I have the opportunity to pick up a number of pots where both my opponent and I miss the flop.

Second, the aggression has the tendency to lead opponents to make some very bad decisions. After some time, opponents may call bets on every street with nothing more than Ace- or King-high. When they start doing that, I can tighten up and only bet hands that are likely to be winners at showdown.

At times my style may look maniacal. But in short-handed limit play, it works.

John

[John D’Agostino is Nicknamed “Jdags” and has won 2 WPT final tables in the last 12 months]

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While playing on Full Tilt Poker, I have said that there are three topics I won’t discuss in table chat; politics, religion, and whether online poker is rigged. That’s because many people’s opinions on those topics are hardened and not amenable to friendly or productive discussion.

Away from the table, I’ll venture a couple of comments about improbable events in poker. While not direct instruction in the tactics and strategy of play, these comments may help you take “bad beats” in stride — and that, in turn, is an essential part of poker maturity.

First, let’s consider what most would view as a typical “bad beat” — a lower pocket pair winning against a higher pocket pair in hold ’em, such as KK beating AA. When those hands share one suit, the chance of the worse hand winning is about 18%. The chance of the lower pair winning twice — that is, the next two times that such hands happen to go against each other — is about 3%. If in one session of play, a lower pocket pair beat a higher pocket pair twice, that might seem a little, well, weird to some players.

Consider another situation involving chance. When two dice are thrown, the chance of rolling “snake eyes” (1-1) is about 3% — about the same as a lower pocket pair beating a higher pocket pair twice.

Suppose there were 600 craps tables using standard, unaltered dice with nine players around each table — a total of 5,400 players — and these tables operated for a three-hour “session.” How many players would observe snake eyes being thrown at least once? The statistical expectation result is not important. The point is that it’s easy to intuitively see that a large number of players would.

Further, do you think some players might see snake eyes thrown several times in an evening — say, three or four times? (That is equivalent to six or eight poker “bad beats.”) And if some of those players would be inclined to report their observation on forums and in chat, then it might seem to some as if the dice were “fixed.”

Let’s go back to poker. Recently, I played a hand of No-Limit Hold ‘Em on Full Tilt Poker. An opponent four seats in front of the button open-raised pre-flop. It was folded around to me in the big blind, and I called. I semi-bluff check-raised the flop, continued with a semi-bluff bet on the turn, was raised all-in, and called the raise. I made my draw on the river. After the hand my opponent chatted:

opponent: ur horrible steve
opponent: why the [****] did u call that?
opponent: horrible that this site rewards that

(Confidential to opponent: I know these comments were made in the heat of the moment after a big loss and don’t necessarily reflect your considered view.)

Let’s take a look at my call on the turn. I held Ad Td; my opponent held Kd Kc. The board was Qd 9d 7h Jc.

With my opponent’s actual holding, I had 16 outs to win the pot on the river, making me a 1.75 to 1 underdog. Of course, it could have been worse for me against other holdings, but even the worst case for me would have been to be up against K-T (a made straight), and then I would have been only a 3 to 1 underdog.

After my bet and the opponent’s all in-raise, I was getting pot odds of 3.7 to 1 to call, so the call is clearly correct. But it seemed to my opponent — and to at least one observer — that I made a bad call, and that my winning with a 36% chance to do so when I called was a bad beat for my opponent.

The moral of this story: While “bad beats” (low-probability events) do occur, sometimes a closer examination of a poker hand can change first impressions and allow you to continue to play with a cooler, clearer head.

Steve Brecher

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Most players know that pre-flop position is important in hold ’em. The earlier your position, the more players there are behind you and, unless you hold pocket Aces, the bigger the chance that one of them will have a hand better than yours.

There is another aspect to position: It’s better to act after your opponent(s) rather than before. But for this tip, I’m going to investigate the chances that a player behind you will have a better hand.

There is no universal definition of what “better” means when comparing hold ’em starting hands. For this article, I needed some reasonable, quantifiable criterion. So in the following, I’m assuming that one hand is “better” than another if its showdown equity is greater. A hand’s showdown equity against another hand is the average portion of the pot it will win across all possible combinations of board cards. This is similar to the percentages that TV poker programs display next to player hands when the players are all-in. If you’re interested in investigating this for yourself, there are several free computer programs and websites which calculate the showdown equities of user-specified competing hands.

For example, Ah 2d all-in pre-flop against Kc Qc will, over all possible boards, win an average of 53.9% of the pot. So the A-2 is the “better” hand against K-Q suited by our definition. Obviously, it is not better for all purposes; at a full table I’d usually open-raise in early position with K-Q suited, but toss A-2 offsuit.

Given some specific hand category – such as K-Q suited – we’ll need to know the chance that a random hand dealt from the remaining 50 cards will be “better.” This requires that we have a showdown equity calculation for each of the 1,225 possible opposing hands and tabulate against how many of them the K-Q suited has the worse (less than 50%) equity. It turns out that 238 of the 1,225 possible opponent hands are “better” in this sense. So we say that the chance of a random hand being better than K-Q suited is 238/1,225 or 19.4%; conversely, the chance that a random hand will not be better is 80.6%. This tabulation would be too tedious to do by hand. For the example results below, I developed some simple software to do the calculations.

Suppose that you are considering an opening bet pre-flop. There are players yet to act behind you. I’ll denote the number of hands to play behind you as N. For example, if you’re on the button, then there are two hands – the blinds – behind you, and N would be equal to 2. What is the probability that none of some number of random hands will be better than yours? It is the chance that one random hand will not be better than yours multiplied by itself N-1 times, which is the same as saying it’s that probability raised to the Nth power. For example, if there’s a 40% chance that a random hand won’t be better (i.e., a 60% chance it will be better), then the chance that none of three random hands will be better is 40% x 40% x 40%, or 0.4 to the 3rd power, which equals 0.064. Hence, the chance that at least one of the three hands will be better is 1.0 – 0.064 or 0.936 or 94%.

I think the most interesting thing about these numbers is the difference between earlier and later positions. This is something to consider when you’re thinking of open-raising in early position.

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There really are some good reasons to play poker online…and not many reasons I can think of not to! Certainly the fact it’s been recently deemed “illegal activity” (and right up their with gun running, child molestation and cattle rustling) surely must add to its allure?

Those of you who are still a bit stand-offish about computers and the “Internets” or the old school who think bluffing and the more intricate poker plays can’t be achieved online, should at least try it before you dismiss it and get on with your own preferred illegal activities.

Here’s some basics: (in no particular order…)

1. As long as you’re playing at a reputable, licensed poker room you can scarper with your winnings whenever you want. No dirty looks, no fearing for your life. No other player knows where you – or your family pet lives (unless you tell them). Which is good.

2. You can play from the comfort of your own home (or, if you’re a little bit naughty, no, I mean bored, office). No driving, no messing about with public transport (as if!), no looking for somewhere to park. Easy.

3. It doesn’t matter if you have a rubbish poker face. Develop sudden facial tics on receiving A-A, orgasm, whoop, or weep. No-one will ever know. Except your neighbours, and they (probably) won’t know why.

4. The rake at all poker rooms PokerLabRat.com rates and recommends is low (5% or under), and consistent. All sites publish this so you can’t feel too ripped off! All the sites we recommend also have a no flop no drop policy on rake.

5. No-one knows who you are. If you’d rather people didn’t know you liked a spot of poker, or indeed that you make $70K a month as a poker pro, there’s no need for anyone to ever find out. So that’s no awkward moments, no bumping into people down the local market.

6. If you’re new to the game, “online” is actually a relaxed and non-intimidating environment in which to play. There are no rough looking blokes who you’re frankly terrified of beating, and you won’t catch any snide glances if you make a mistake. You can even turn off the table chat at most good poker rooms if you get sick of the abbreviations. e.g. GHM (great hand mate…damned Aussies! Oi!).

7. Unlike many casinos or card rooms, there’s no dress code. Should the mood take you, feel free to play in your undies – or even less (just don’t tell us about it, at least not in detail unless you’re attractive!) No bad hair day hangups either!

8. You can play for as little or as long as you like. You don’t get kicked out because it’s late, and you don’t have to hammer down the door to get the poker room open in the morning. Great 24×7. Play for as long as you want, when you want.

9. Many of the top poker rooms give you bonuses on your first deposit. Some of the better ones run regular offers, competitions and promotions which mean you get more fun for your money. You don’t get this at your local card school. Having said that, they don’t give you free taco chips.

10. There aren’t any dealers to tip. This one’s often debated at casinos and card rooms and online there are no feelings of obligation, uncertainty or embarrassment.

11. There are always lots of poker tables and lots of willing opponents at a wide range of table stakes so you can always find a game that suits you. Add to this all the tournaments that are on offer, and there’s more poker action online than you can shake a stick at. (What the hell does that really mean?)

12. Online shuffling at online poker rooms has been proven to be more random than in the real world. Sophisticated software and tracking makes cheating and collusion difficult to get away with. So don’t try it. Ever.

13. Lots of online poker rooms have tables at stakes lower than you’ll find in a casino or real life poker room. With tables starting at $0.05/$0.10 and tournaments at $0.10, you can get your poker fun without having to risk the shirt off your back. Freerolls (with no raked hand requirements) also are an option until you get bored with the “all in all out” free roll munters.

14. If you rate yourself, you can play at multiple tables at once. Only attempt this if you’re an experienced player: if you’re playing at two tables you can double your potential winnings but you can also double your losses.

15. Playing online is much faster. Faster is better. Snappy spontaneous decisions, quick wins, no laboring the point. Life is just too short and quite frankly you improve at poker through EXPERIENCE (along with lots of LUCK), so the more you play the better your judgement and instinct (SKILL).

16. It’s easy to get started. Most poker room software guides you through the game telling you what to do and when so you can’t get things wrong and look like a total dork (unless you’re playing at Full Tilt and you’ve chosen a gnome, guppy or similarly stupid avatar). Using software also eliminates dealer error (really, it happens to even the best of them) and you can’t accidentally muck a winning hand.

There’s lots of choice when it comes to poker networks including the iPoker Network, Microgaming Poker, Chico Poker and WPN Poker Networks. Check out the latest poker room reviews before you decide where to play your next hand of poker.

We’ve all seen the big poker tournaments on TV where famous players battle against Joe Schmuck for the big money at the WSOP & the WPT surrounded by TV cameras.  Well, you can get into poker tournament action in the privacy of your own home and for very small stakes. You can get a whole lot of entertainment for as little as $1.

POKER CASH GAMES – WHAM BAM – WHAT HAPPENED TO MY MONEY?
Let’s face it, while cash games may pay the rent for seasoned poker professionals, they’re not so much fun for the average Joe (or Josephine), as you’ll frequently find yourself facing off against some shark carrying a $500 bankroll & playing on the $1/$2 tables. If you’re carrying just $30 in loose chips then that puts you at a big disadvantage before the cards are even dealt. There is a simple way to make sure that you’re starting off on a level playing field though – play in online poker tournaments instead!

MULTIPLAYER POKER TOURNAMENTS – JUST THE TICKET FOR ONLINE MONEY MAKING!
Poker Tournaments are big news, & most online poker sites host as many as 20 tournaments an hour. Buy-ins (entry fees) range from as little as a buck to as much as $1000. The bigger the entry fee the bigger the prizes (& probably the smarter the opponents too). You pay your fee, grab the same amount of chips as everyone else & play against like-minded individuals on a series of tables battling it out for the final table and all the chips.

You don’t have to win the poker tournament to win cash –  usually the top 10% of players will be paid out in cash (credited to your poker account). No matter how many chips you have (& possibly lose) you can never lose more than your initial entry fee. So multiplayer poker tournaments are fun and exciting – and surprinsingly inexpensive to learn to play well at.

So who has the best Multiplayer Poker Tournaments Online?

OUR TOP 2 RECOMMENDED POKER TOURNAMENT SITES

BetOnline Poker (Chico Poker Network – Boutique-style poker – very stylish with some great play features. Players from around the world including most USA residents welcome)

Bet365 Poker (a member of Europe’s biggest poker network, iPoker, no US players, but heaps of international currencies accepted with squizillions of payment methods)

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FREEROLLS.  PLAY ‘EM, LOVE ‘EM – THEN LEAVE ‘EM!
You can play for free in some online poker tournaments – they’re called Freerolls – and as the name suggests they cost nothing to enter. Freerolls vary from site to site (and not all poker rooms offer them). Usually you need to make a deposit, or play a certain amount of real money poker at cash tables to be eligible enter a Freeroll.

The problem with freerolls is twofold

1. Firstly as they’re free the majority of players don’t care about risks & go all-in quickly to try & get as many chips as soon as possible. Yawn.
2. Secondly, Freerolls can have thousands of entrants & so it’s hard to do well in them. (Sometimes the tables fill within minutes anyways… why stress it to play with total munters?)

Freerolls have their place (as a bit of fun on a rainy afternoon), but they’re nothing like playing in a smaller tournament where every has paid in a (say) $5 entry free & is playing hard to win. In the same way that the “play money” tables didn’t prepare you for “cash tables” – Freerolls are not that much like tournaments either.

In No-Limit Hold ’em, drawing hands can be very difficult to play out of position. Most beginners take a straightforward approach when they flop something like a straight or a flush draw; they check, then call a bet and hope the turn brings something helpful. But, simply check-calling can present difficulties later in a hand. If you miss on the turn, you’ll probably have to check and, oftentimes, end up facing a turn bet that is too large to call. Any bet of normal size in relation to the pot will be too large because the odds against hitting your hand are typically more than 4-to-1.

The problems don’t end there. What happens if you check-call the flop, then hit your draw on the turn? If you check the turn, your opponent might very well check behind you, fearing that you hit. If you lead at the pot, you’re pretty much announcing that you made your hand and your opponent might fold. So, even if you hit, you may not get paid in proportion to the risk you took by calling on a draw.

Rather than check-call, I often like to check-raise when I flop a draw out of position. This sort of situation comes up most frequently when playing from the blinds. For example, say that I’m in the big blind with Ad-6d and I call a raise from a late position player who popped it to three times the big blind. The flop, Td-5d-3s, gives me the nut flush draw.

After calling from the blind, I’d expect to check the flop almost every time. It’s the natural progression of the hand: my opponent took the lead pre-flop and I’m going to allow him to keep it. I’d expect him to make a continuation bet most of the time, even when he misses the flop completely. Most aggressive players will stab at small pots in these situations.

If he does bet, this is the perfect kind of flop for a check-raise. It’s likely that my opponent raised with two big cards – something like A-K or A-Q – and, if that’s the case, he’s missed this flop completely and will almost certainly fold to the check-raise. Or, if he’s got something like A-T or K-T, he may be worried that he’s run into a bigger hand and he’ll likely just call the raise.

If he does call the check-raise, I can then make a decision on the turn. Sometimes I’ll check and sometimes I’ll lead out, regardless of whether I hit my draw. If I missed, I may continue the semi-bluff or I may check with the hope that my check-raise on the flop was sufficient to make my opponent nervous and get me a free river card. If I hit, I may choose to continue my aggressive play and put my opponent to a decision or, I may check, deceptively representing fear of my opponent’s having the draw.

Of course, things won’t always work out. If the initial raiser has something like pocket Aces or a set, I’m likely to be re-raised and shut out of the hand. But nothing works out every time in poker.

Try varying your play when you flop draws. Look for opportunities to check-raise. It may be the best way to proceed with a draw when playing out of position.

Steve

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Many beginner poker players naturally gravitate toward a level of game where they feel most comfortable. The reasons for their choice may vary, but often include the size of their starting bankroll, and the amount of money they feel comfortable wagering in a particular hand or throughout a session.

This is perfectly normal and reasonable. One of the things that separate truly profitable players from winning players, however, is their willingness to step out of their comfort zone and explore higher limit games.

After a few hundred hours of play, many people can determine whether or not they are beating their regular games. For those players who are showing a profit, there are some for whom taking home an extra $100 or $200 per week is perfectly acceptable. They’re mainly playing for fun and the winnings are a nice benefit. For others, however, poker may be a steady source of income, and boosting their bottom line could significantly affect their lives away from the table.

One of the smartest things these players can do is to stretch their games and play at higher limits. With proper planning, and the right approach, the rewards can be immeasurable. To that end, I have some suggestions for players who are thinking about taking their game to the next level.

First and most important, make sure you have the bankroll to sustain yourself at a higher level. If you take a shot and lose, you shouldn’t have to worry about rebuilding your bankroll from scratch. A good recommendation is to stockpile enough money so that you can comfortably afford between eight and 10 buy-ins before you have to retreat to a smaller game.

This leads to my second piece of advice, which is not to let a few losing sessions affect your attitude or impair your judgment. I’m not saying that losing doesn’t sting and that tilt doesn’t happen. They do. But, players who successfully move up the ladder understand that not every session will be a winning one, and that by constantly analyzing their games – and those of their opponents’ – they’ll be able to make adjustments that will help them succeed.

When moving up the poker ladder, you’ll inevitably encounter players with more experience and skill than you possess. Recognizing these players and learning from them is one of the smartest moves you can make. Conversely, letting your ego and pride get in the way of observing these players can lead you to keep investing money in a losing situation and, eventually, affect your overall performance and excitement toward the game.

Remember, successful people fail more often than unsuccessful people. Successful people try new things, fall down, pick themselves up, and try again. So, if your first attempt to move up to a higher stakes game falls short of your expectations, don’t despair. Look at your play and the play of your opponents, regroup, and try again. The experience will be worth it.

Ben

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