When you know your hand is no good, even though you have a monster, just throw it away. Listen to your gut and throw those cards in the muck. In the long run, you will come out way ahead simply by getting away from it.

When playing online tournaments, it never ceases to amaze me how many players get eliminated in the first 5 minutes – often in the first hand!

Do not get involved in one of these early acts of madness unless you have the stone cold nuts. Likewise, there’s no need to risk your tournament life on a coin flip while the blinds are so small. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Let the crazies knock each other out with the knowledge that you can take their chips later. When you get close to the money it is a great time to change gears and steal some blinds and pots away from the many people who are playing just to survive and scrape into the money. Play to win – all the big money is at the top. If you played 50 multi-table tournaments, you are financially better off winning one than placing 20^th in all of them!

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We’ve all seen situations unfold on TV where a hand like 7-8 suited or pocket 5s manages to crack some big pocket pair like Aces or Kings. We sit back in the comfort of our living rooms and say, “Well, if they can do it, so can I!”

While it is true that these hands can sometimes take down monster pots, the fact is, playing these kinds of marginal hands can often lead many players – especially newer ones – into a big trap. They start playing suited connectors and small pocket pairs much too frequently and, eventually, find themselves in situations where they’re forced to make tough decisions for lots of chips.

I suggest that you stay away from suited connectors altogether – especially if you’re a newer player – as I truly believe these are overvalued holdings. But if you do feel the need to play these kinds of hands, the first rule to remember is to always play them when you have position. If you limp or raise from early position with suited connectors, it’s simply a bad play.

Another point to consider is that you’re going to be investing a lot of chips after the flop if you’ve got a flush or straight draw. You’re not playing hands like 7-8 to fold when the flop comes 5-6-T, but you will only make your hand about a third of the time. When you don’t complete your draw, you might be able to push an opponent with a moderate holding out of the pot, but someone with a strong hand or a better draw isn’t going anywhere.

One especially dangerous hand to be wary of is 9-8, both suited and unsuited. Why? Well, let’s say you see a flop and it comes 10-J-Q. You’ve hit a straight and someone bets into your made hand. Many players are going to push all-in here, but that can be a costly mistake because there’s a good chance that someone else in the pot is holding a hand like A-K and will walk away with all of your chips.

Personally, I think you’re better off making a hand with something like 5-6 or even 4-5, because you’re less likely to be putting a lot of chips into a pot with the second-best hand. Playing 9-8 is simply a recipe for going broke.

When it comes to small pocket pairs, you have even less wiggle room. Basically, your only option is to get lucky and hit a set on the flop. I see a lot of players raising pre-flop with these hands because they think they have the best hand at the moment – and maybe they do. But this can sometimes be a huge mistake. You’re draining all the value out of these hands, because they pay off most when you flop a set and are able to bust someone.

If you are going to play a hand like pocket 5s, my suggestion is to once again only play when you have position – limping or raising from early position is bound to get you in a heap of trouble. Try to get in cheap and hit your set. If you don’t connect with the flop, do your best to keep control of the betting and force people out of the pot if it doesn’t look like they hit their hand either.

Suited connectors and small pocket pairs are just dangerous hands to be playing, no doubt about it. You might look like a genius when you flop the nuts and somebody pays you off, but the odds say that’s just not going to happen too often. The more likely scenario is that if you play these kinds of purely speculative hands more than you should, it’s going to lead to nothing but a huge drain on your bankroll.

PHIL GORDON

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When I’m sitting behind a big stack of chips at a No Limit Hold’em table, I like to use it as a weapon to keep the pressure on my opponents. But before I get into how to do that there are 2 things you need to consider: a) you have to be comfortable playing aggressively b)you have to have good enough post flop judgement to get away with playing a lot of hands. If you don’t fit that description – for example, you built your big stack with one or two huge pots – then you probably won’t want to play a big stack the way I like to play one!

That said, playing aggressively with a large stack is my personal favourite style of play because you get to play a lot more hands than normal, which keeps the game fun and interesting. It also helps me to pay closer attention because, naturally, if you are playing more hands, you’re going to be more involved (rather than ordering drinks, talking on the phone or watching what’s on TV).

I also like playing an attacking style because you have a lot more post-flop decisions; this is when you can really out-play weaker players! Post-flop, you have to rely on your reading abilities. If you’re a good reader (Phil Hellmuth and Chris Ferguson are players with very strong reading abilities), you can afford to play many more hands.

Another reason I like playing aggressively with a big stack is because people really become afraid of you; so many times they become more and more passive. If people play passively toward you, it makes it easier to rob and steal blinds.

In No Limit Hold’em, you don’t want people to attack; you want to be the attacker. Unless you have the absolute nuts – and in Hold’em you’re not going to have the nuts very often – you don’t want people to call, because most of the time, they’re going to have a live hand or a live draw. You would rather win the money right there; if they don’t call, they can’t win the pot.

What you need to do to maintain and increase your big stack is raise pre-flop frequently. This really works well after the antes start, playing too many hands is a very risky policy. Say you’re bringing it in for 3 times the big blind. For example, the blinds are 200 and 400, and you bring it in for 1,200 and everybody folds; your reward is only 600. So contested posts aside, you have to get away with it 2 out of 3 times just to break even. But if you’ve got antes and blind money in the pot, now all of a sudden you don’t have to get away with it as frequently. When there’s already 1,000 or 1,200 in the pot, and you can bring it in for 1,200, you can do the math: All you have to do is get away with a little more than every other time. And as an added bonus, you may win some of the contested pots.Especially if you’re playing at a passive table, it’s important to attack because it makes your opponents afraid to bring it in for a raise. Players are going to pass up a lot of hands, leaving it where the pot still hasn’t been opened when it gets around to you, and that’s when you can attack with some weaker and marginal hands.

You don’t have to have aces every time to raise with a big stack. And mixing it up will also allow you to get paid off when you do have big hands. If you occasionally show down J-8(os) or 7-8(s), or even K-2(s) or Q-4, some really funky hands, now they get to thinking, “Does he really have a big hand this time or is he just playing garbage again?” If you play tight, where you’re not really playing many hands, it’s hard to win tournaments, because alarms go off in people’s heads when you do play a hand. You have to give action to get action!

Here’s a golden rule for me: Try not to play your big stack against other big stacks. Say you’re at a table where there are 4 short stacks, 3 mediums and 2 other large stacks. Why would you want to attack the other 2 large stacks when 7 other stacks can’t even cripple you? Just in case you’re wrong, if you make a wrong read, or in case they get lucky, or in case you don’t get lucky – in those cases, you want to be up against a player who doesn’t have you covered or almost covered. You’re better off aggressively attacking the small stacks and somewhat aggressively attacking the medium stacks. I know several top pros will disagree, but I prefer not to play too often against other big stacks, because they can afford to bet you out of hands and prevent you from getting the right price to take a shot with a drawing hand.

On the flip side, many people play a style to protect big stacks. I don’t agree with that style of play either, because I feel you need to use your stack as a weapon to attack and break down your opponents. This style is not for the weak hearted! Even though it is going to produce big swings, the results can be phenomenal. You shouldn’t play just to protect your big stack and sit on it, because that’s how you can get anted and blinded down to become a medium stack, and the next thing you know, you’re a small stack. And just like that, your advantage is gone.

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It isn’t easy playing against a super aggressive player. Forgive me for stating the obvious, but I enjoy playing against a player who is weak-passive, into a lot of pots, and just gives me the pots all the time.

Against aggressive players I have to play in a way I’m not necessarily comfortable playing. But a lot of it is just a matter of will. Your will has to be stronger than their will. You have to force them to conform to what’s happening at the table, rather than having them force you to conform.

The best way to fight aggression is with aggression of your own – as long as you’re in the right position. You want the aggressive player to be in front of you. If you have the aggressive player behind you, well, you’re out of luck, because he’ll have position on you most of the time and it’s going to be tough to make the moves.

But let’s assume he’s in front of you. When he opens up in middle position, you can adjust your play based on the fact that he doesn’t necessarily have as good a hand as a more conservative player who just opened up in middle position. If you have a hand like K-Q, you probably wouldn’t play that against a raise from a conservative player. You have to have a stronger hand than what your opponent has in order to play from that position, and K-Q doesn’t quite fit the bill. But against an aggressive player, who could be playing garbage, K-Q becomes a good starting hand.

You can choose a couple of ways of playing it. You can call and see if you can use your position to beat him after the flop – but because he’s an aggressive player, he might be able to manoeuvre and do things against you. So there’s a simple solution to that: instead of calling, you take a chance and make a decent raise of four times his raise, with the knowledge that (a) you rate to have a better hand, and (b) the aggressive player is not used to having a player re-raise him. Believe it or not, aggressive as they are, they don’t want to play big pots. They want to play small to medium pots, manipulate the pots, and be able to out manoeuvre you. This way you’re telling him, “you aren’t playing a small pot this time, it’s a big one, and now you have to call or come back over the top of me”.

Now some of the aggressive players, if you do this too much to them, they’re going to say to themselves, “he’s fooling around with me”, and they’re going to take a stand. They are either going to call you, and then do something after the flop, pretend they have a hand; or they’re going to raise right away, and then you have to make up your mind to call or not.

The only consolation I can give is, the aggressive player doesn’t want to get into this. So, if you think he’s a better player than you, that’s what you want to do, you want to make him uncomfortable. You do that a few times to him, and believe me, he’ll stop dead in his tracks.

There’s also a third options, besides calling or putting in a substantial raise, and that’s to put in a small raise. If you do this, the aggressive player will typically re-raise you, and since probably he has a weaker hand than normal for a re-raise, you can now carry it on to the next level and re-raise him. Of course you’re running the risk that this time around, he does have a good hand. Remember, just because an aggressive player raises all the time doesn’t mean when you get into a rising match with him he can’t have aces. He can have aces or kings, and you’re just out of luck.

Again, playing this aggressively isn’t really my style, and I’m not comfortable with it. But as long as I know the other guy is going to be uncomfortable, then that’s fine – I’m willing to suffer through it to force him to suffer through it.

To make matters even worse…
There’s no easy advice for taking on an aggressive player when you’re short stacked. At that point, you just have to pick a hand that maybe you’re not particularly comfortable with – like K-J or A-10 or A-9, and if you figure this aggressive player has a hand that rates to be weaker than that, then you just go all in.

The truth is, at that point, you literally don’t care whether he calls you or throws the hand away. Because if you calls you and he does have a weaker hand, then you’re going to double up your chips. If he has a better hand and he beats you, well, all right, so you’re out of the tournament. When you have a short stack, you’re not giving up as much. People with short stacks don’t have a long future anyway so you might as well gamble.
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In my last tip, I discussed the basic principles of implied odds. As you’ll recall, your implied odds are the total amount you can win in a given pot, divided by the number of chips you’re putting into the pot. Put another way, implied odds calculate future action and betting that may occur in a hand, while pot odds focus on the here and now of the hand.

Now that you have an understanding of the differences between pot odds and implied odds, it’s time to look at some of the more advanced concepts involved with implied odds, along with some common mistakes that many players make by misapplying these rules.

Estimating Implied Odds – One of the most common errors that many players – both amateur and professional alike – make is to overestimate their implied odds in a given hand. For example, in season one of Poker After Dark, a certain well-known pro called a very strong bet of mine on the turn with nothing more than a gut-shot straight draw. He reasoned that I would never put him on a straight if he hit his hand and that I would pay him off on the river if he caught his four-outer.

While he may have been right, in theory, he still made a huge mistake to call me in this hand because even if all of my chips ended up in the center, he still wasn’t getting the right odds to call.

Let’s look at the numbers to see what I mean. My opponent was looking for four cards to make his hand on the river, which means he only had about a 9 percent chance of hitting. This means he needed implied of odds of at least 9-1 to justify his call, which based on the size of my remaining chip stack, he wasn’t even close to getting.

Generally speaking, implied odds aren’t going to help you if you’re looking for four or five outs to make your hand. Ideally, you should have nine or more cards that can make your hand before you start worrying about the implied odds in a hand.

Miscalculating Implied Odds – One of the most common mistakes I see is when players think they’re getting implied odds, but really aren’t. For example, let’s say two players are involved in a hand and one of them pushes all-in on the turn. The second player in the hand is on either a flush or a straight draw, and makes the call.

If the pot odds are correct here, it’s a good call. However, if the pot odds are bad, so is the call because there aren’t any more chips going into the pot on the river, which means the implied odds in this hand simply don’t exist. By failing to make the distinction between pot odds and implied odds, many inexperienced players end up putting their chips at risk more often than they should.

Telegraphing Your Hand – There are many times when players will properly calculate their implied odds in a hand and make a good call only to find they can’t get paid off when they hit their hands. Why you ask? The answer is simple: they telegraph their hand.

There’s nothing wrong with taking your time when you’re faced with a big decision in a hand. Just remember though, the longer you take to determine what you’re going to do, the more information you may be giving your opponent about your cards. Let’s say you took your time calling on the flop and then lead out after a flush card comes on the turn. Chances are your opponent will drop his hand assuming – probably rightly – that you just made your flush.

If your play in a hand looks obvious, it probably is, which means the implied odds you thought you had after the flop probably never even existed in the first place. In a practical sense, this means that you should factor your opponent’s style into your equation when you’re thinking about your implied odds in a hand. If he’s loose and a gambler, your odds are going to be better than if he’s tight and solid.

Protecting Your Hand – On the flip side of the coin, you should learn to protect your big hands against opponents who may be drawing against you. Limit your bets to about half the size of the pot to make sure you’re not giving them the right odds to call. If they do call and a scare card hits the board, you can still negate their implied odds by checking your hand down or letting it go if your opponent leads out with a bet.

Beware of Negative Implied Odds – This is one of the harder – and most important – concepts to grasp. Negative implied odds mean that you need to be worried about hitting your hand and still paying off an opponent who hit a better hand against you. If you bet out after making your Jack-high flush and your opponent raises behind you, you may have to pay him off even if you think he’s holding a better flush. One way to handle this situation and to limit your potential losses is to think of the total pot as being worth a little less than it actually is before you consider making your call. If the odds don’t add up, proceed with caution.

Learning the nuances of implied odds takes time and practice, but in the long run, mastering this part of the game is worth the effort. Learn to start thinking about what may possibly happen on later streets in a hand before you commit to any action early on and you’ll be well on your way to the next level.

Andy Bloch
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This item continues on from our previous posting “Waiting for the Bubble” where John Juanda discussed short stack and big stack bubble strategy.

MEDIUM STACK STRATEGY
This is where it gets tricky, because when you have a medium stack, you have a lot to lose. Let’s say you have 50,000 in chips. After starting the tournament with 10,000. And if you get into the money, they pay you $10,000, or close to that. Now, if you lose your whole 50,000 you end up with nothing, and that’s a lot of chips to lose for no payout. But here’s one way to play when you have a medium stack: Let’s say the big stack has already folded in front of you, and now it’s just you and players with fewer chips than you left to act – when this happens, YOU become the big stack. Now you can play very aggressively, knowing that the players with fewer chips are not going to defend their blind or call your raise unless they have a huge hand.

Also, it is possible when you have a medium stack to take advantage of players with big stacks. Remember, if an experienced player has the big stack, then you know he’s going to be playing aggressively. He doesn’t even need a hand. By knowing that, every time he raises, you can just come over the top of him and re-raise him, even though you don’t have a hand. This guy has a million in chips, he doesn’t need to have anything to raise, he’s going to raise with 7-2 offsuit. Knowing that, you can say to yourself “alright, I have nothing either, but if he makes it 10,000 just going to make it 50,000. I don’t think he can call, because he most likely doesn’t have anything.”  It’s kind of a risky play, but it works a lot of the time – especially when you have a good read on somebody. Sometimes people have tells, such as raising different amounts when they have a good hand as opposed to when they don’t have a hand. You can really take advantage of that.

Here’s another example of high-level strategy on the bubble:

In a tournament a few years back, there was this really good player, and we were down to hand-for-hand play. A short stacked player moved all-in, and this good guy, who had been doing well was now chip leader, he looked at his hand, and he had A-K in the big blind. And he just mucked the hand! And you know what? It was the right play!

Here’s why: At the time, at the table, it was easy for him to steal. He was the huge chip leader, everybody was afraid of him, so he must have been thinking “Why would I call with A-K? I might lose with A-K. I’m just going to throw it away, then the next hand, everybody’s going to fold, and I’m going to raise again”.

If he had called and busted this guy with his A-K, then hand-to-hand play would be all over. We’d reach the money, and his huge advantage would disappear. He wouldn’t be able to make these moves anymore. But by laying down A-K, he can raise nine out of the next ten hands and probably win eight of them. Which one is more profitable? Smart.

Sometimes it makes sense to throw away the best hand, because when you’re big stack, you’re in such a unique situation. This is something that a lot of mat guys don’t understand. They’ll think “Oh, I’m getting good pot odds here, I’m like 20 percent favourite.” But who cares about being a 20 percent favourite when you can rob people blind? Yes, the odds are in your favour here, genius, but just throw it away because if you do, you’ve got potential to win every pot with virtually no risk.

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I’ve had tournaments in which I’ve gone from being the shortest stack at the table to the chip leader while waiting for the bubble to burst. Hand-for-hand play is a great time to build up chips, as long as you can handle the risk – in other words, be willing to go broke – to take advantage of the situation.

The key, regardless of whether you’re the big stack, a medium stack or the shortest stack at the table is to be the aggressor – the one doing the raising and re-raising, not the one calling other people’s raises (unless you have a big hand).

When the bubble is approaching, you have to remember that most players are going to get very tight. People might throw away a good hand, like a pair of jacks, or even a pair of queens or A-K.

They might think that they have the best hand, but they’re not sure, so they just throw it away because they want to make it into the money. They play very differently than they did the rest of the tournament. And because you know people are trying to play more conservatively you can play more aggressively against them.

SHORT STACK STRATEGY
When I have the short stack, I generally just try to find a hand that I like and go all in with it. But here’s the key point: I’ll be the one raising and re-raising all-in; I won’t be the one calling (unless I have a premium hand). If you think about it, the cost of calling is very high. Let’s say you’re short stacked, and someone makes a raise that would put you all-in. By calling, you have to beat this guy after all five cards to win the hand. But if you’re moving all-in first, a lot of the time you’re not going to get called, you still have a chance to win. So, by moving all-in, you have two chances to win: either nobody calls you or, if you’re called, you might win after five cards. When you call someone’s all-in raise, you have to have the best hand at the end; that’s the only way to win.

And remember, other people are thinking the same as you. They don’t want to be the caller, they want to be the raiser. So that makes it even more likely that people will fold when you go all-in. That’s the beauty of it. When the bubble is coming, it’s so much more likely for your all-in move to work.

BIG STACK STRATEGY
When you have the big stack, it’s just plain easy. If you’ve been playing at that table for a while, and you’ve been doing your homework and paying attention, then you know which players are playing tight, and you can steal from them. You’re the big stack, and they’re not going to mess with you.

But one of the mistakes that I see amateurs make when they have the big stack is to call all-in raises with weak hands. Let’s say the small stack, somebody that has been playing conservatively, moves all-in. Good players would never call that guy without a premium hand. You know he’s not going to be playing bad hands. He’s one spot out of the money, so he’s going to be playing very conservatively. But I’ve seen bad players with big stacks just call with hands such as A-7 offsuit or K-8 suited. Good players just will never do this. Why get involved in those hands? You’re in such a unique position where you can keep stealing. You don’t even need a hand. You can just wait until nobody raises, then you raise, you become the first one in, and a good percentage of the time, everybody’s just going to fold because they don’t want to mess with you.

When you’re the big stack, you need to play smart and just take advantage of the situation. You want to raise somebody that’s easy picking instead of just calling and calling. Remember people will fold most of the time. When you’re on the bubble, about nine out of ten times, there will be no flop. By raising and being the aggressor, most of the time you’re just going to win it right there.

We’ll continue John Juanda’s poker strategy coaching on bubble play “ Medium Stack Strategy” in the next blog posting… (this is just getting crazy long).

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