The Poker Lab Rat

Fifth Street is the big decision point in Seven-Card Stud because that’s the critical juncture in the hand when you have to put in your first big bet. While it’s nice to have a made hand at this point, you don’t always need one to put in a raise on Fifth Street. If you have a big draw, that can be enough to warrant raising your opponent. Some players don’t think like this, and I believe that’s a costly mistake.

Here’s an example of a situation where I believe raising with a draw is the correct play. Let’s say your opponent is showing an Ace, and you have a 7 of diamonds up and a 6 and 7 of spades in the hole, giving you a pair of 7s. You and your opponent are the only players involved in the hand, and he opens with a raise. You call.

On the turn your opponent catches an offsuit Jack and bets. You catch the 9 of spades. You have a pretty nice hand at this point. Not only do you have a pair of 7s, but you also have three cards to a flush and three cards to a straight so there are a lot of cards you can catch that will give you a big draw. You definitely want to call in this spot.

On Fifth Street your opponent catches a 6 so now he has an Ace, Jack, and 6 showing. You catch the deuce of spades, which is a very interesting card. You now have a pair of 7s and four spades to a flush, but your opponent is unaware of how strong you are because one of your 7s and two of your spades are hidden.

Your opponent leads out with a bet once again. Now here’s the question. Should you simply call or should you raise? Even if your opponent has two Aces, I would prefer to have two 7s and four spades in this situation so you should be aggressive and put in a raise. You should do this for a couple of reasons. First, even if he does have a pair of Aces, you’re still the favorite. You are about a 58 percent favorite to win the hand so you’re getting the best of it right now.

The other reason you should raise is that it will get you a free card if you fail to hit your draw. Let’s say you go ahead and raise on Fifth Street, and your opponent calls. Since he called your raise, you can be pretty certain he has a pair that can beat your 7s. Then on Sixth Street he catches a 4 and you catch the 3 of diamonds, a card that doesn’t help your hand at all.

If your opponent is a weak player, he is probably going to check it to you because he’s going to be scared of that raise you put in on Fifth Street. If he does in fact check, then you succeeded in accomplishing exactly what you set out to do. You got extra money into the pot on Fifth Street when you had the best of it, and now that you missed your draw and don’t have the best of it anymore you’re happy to get a free card. Now you have one more shot at drawing out on him.

This is a clear example of why it pays to be aggressive on Fifth Street in Seven-Card Stud. Some players would just call in this situation, but I think that’s a big mistake. Being aggressive and sticking in a raise has two clear advantages over simply calling. It will get more money into the pot those times you do make your hand, and it will get you a free card those times you don’t. The bottom line is that you need to be aggressive when playing Seven-Card Stud because it’s the aggressive player who usually wins.

Keith is a native Midwesterner, born in Dayton, Ohio and indisputably one of the best 7-Card Stud players in the world. You can find him playing online at FullTiltPoker.com - join him at a table some time.

>> Visit FulllTiltPoker.com

Read the latest reviews on FullTilt Poker:

>>Full Tilt Poker Review at PokerLabRat.com
>>Review and Rating of FullTiltPoker.com at the GoonersGuide.com

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The semi-bluff is one of the most powerful weapons in any poker player’s arsenal. If there’s a decent chance you can steal a pot by semi-bluffing, you should usually take it. But, as with any play you make at the table, the semi-bluff is always most effective when you use it at the correct time in the correct situation. Semi-bluff too much and your opponents will know when you’re on the draw; semi-bluff too little and your opponents will know to fold whenever you bet. The key to semi-bluffing is to always mix things up and never become too predictable with your betting patterns.

Let’s say that you’ve flopped the nut flush draw and are pretty certain your opponent has connected with the flop in some way, be it top pair or maybe even a set. A lot of players like to check-raise as a semi-bluff in this spot. There are a couple of problems with this play: first, if you always check-raise in this spot then your opponent will be able to put you on a draw very easily. Second, if your opponent really does have a hand, there’s no need to check-raise here because there’s no way he’s folding and there’s a good chance he’ll pay you off anyway if you hit your hand.

A better move in this spot might be not semi-bluffing and just calling instead. This way, if you hit your flush on the turn, your options are wide open – checking, calling or raising are all viable plays − and your opponent won’t be able to put you on a hand quite as easily. By not semi-bluffing, you increase your chances of winning a bigger pot when your opponent actually has a strong hand. There are players out there who’ll assume you’re not on the draw if you don’t semi-bluff, so use that to your advantage.

Now, if you don’t think that your opponent has a strong hand or your draw isn’t that strong (say a low flush draw), this is the perfect time for a semi-bluff. The semi-bluff should be used as a tool to steal pots when the opportunity arises, not as a means of building big pots.

Another good way to mix up your semi-bluffing game plan is to wait until the turn to semi-bluff rather than always doing it on the flop. This can be a dangerous play because you’ve only got one card to come on the turn and you’re not getting the same odds. But it also means that your opponent is less likely to think that you’re semi-bluffing and put you on the draw. It looks pretty strong if you call on the flop and then raise on the turn; your opponent might think you’ve flopped the nuts and throw away a pretty strong hand.

Another advantage to semi-bluffing on the turn rather than the flop is that you could pick up additional outs on the turn. Say you have a gut-shot straight draw on the flop and then pick up a flush draw on the turn. You’ve just gone from four outs to about 12, which might be worth a shot at taking down the pot right then and there. A lot of players will also have trouble putting you on the flush draw in this spot; it’s just harder to see that flush draw on the turn than it is on the flop.

Once again, the key to a good semi-bluff is picking the right spot to pull it off. Choose poorly and you could stand to lose a good portion of your stack; choose well and you could throw your opponents off balance and hit them where it hurts when you make your hand.

Andy Bloch plays online exclusively at Full Tilt Poker - join him and other top pros at a table sometime. It’s a great way to learn some new tricks, make some money or just show off your skills.

>> Visit FulllTiltPoker.com

Read the latest reviews on FullTilt Poker:

>>Full Tilt Poker Review at PokerLabRat.com
>>Review and Rating of FullTiltPoker.com at the GoonersGuide.com

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Deciding how active you want to be at the beginning of a tournament depends heavily on what type of tournament you’re playing in. If it’s a standard Sit & Go, I always recommend playing tight and conserving chips early. If it’s a Multi-Table Tournament or a Shootout Tournament then you should consider a more active style in the early phase.

Part of the goal in doing this is to accumulate chips. But another part of the goal is to establish an image that will help get you chips later. It can be a rewarding way to play, but you need to understand that there’s also a downside to the image this type of play will create.

When you put constant pressure on other players, it’s eventually going to make them fight back. You don’t have to raise large amounts and you don’t have to get involved in huge pots, but by raising with a lot of hands, your opponents are going to play back at you with a wider and wider range of hands. They’re going to start calling and three-betting with more marginal hands, and that’s going to open them up and make them susceptible to giving you their chips more often.

If you’re looking to accumulate chips, you don’t want your table locked down in super-tight mode. You don’t want to have to grind out a few chips every orbit – you want to get into your opponents’ heads and provoke them into spewing chips. You’ll find that once one player at the table does it, it tends to have a domino effect and lead other people to start making mistakes.

The downside, however, is that your bluffs won’t work very often, and that’s something you have to be aware of. For example, let’s say I’ve been playing a lot of pots and developed a loose image in a six-handed table, and I’m dealt A-Q suited under the gun. That’s a good hand at a full table, and it’s even better six-handed. So I make a pot-sized raise, and the big blind calls. The flop is J-10-6, which isn’t exactly a hit for me, but it isn’t a total miss; I have a straight draw and two over cards. I’m going to make a normal continuation bet and I figure my opponent can’t call me without a decent hand. In this case, I bet, he calls and the turn is a three, so I decide to give it one more shot and raise my bet a little bit because I want him to fold. Instead, he calls.

A four now falls on the river. I didn’t hit anything and he’s clearly shown that he’s ready to call anything; I can’t expect to bet him off the hand. In my mind, I’m putting him on a hand possibly as weak as 10-2, but I don’t think I can get him to lay that down, so I check, give up the pot and he wins with 6-7.

Of course I’m going to be a little frustrated to learn that he called twice with third pair. He had to have put me on A-K or A-Q or thought I was raising under the gun with rags and, the truth is, people will begin to think that way because I’ve raised a lot of pots. Because of this, people are going to start calling me extremely light.

In the short-term, that can be a bad thing; but in the long-term, it should be good. If the same hand happens later but I have A-J or Aces or Kings, or even some trash hand that connects, I’m going to get paid off.

This is why the positives of playing an active style early ultimately outweigh the negatives. Even if you lose a pot because your image keeps people hanging around, it can set you up to win an even bigger pot later on.

Aaron Bartley plays poker online at FullTiltPoker.com. Join him at a table sometime (players from around the world including the United States of America are accepted at this popular online poker site).

For the latest views and reviews on FullTiltPoker.com online poker room check out:

PokerLabRat.com’s Full Tilt Poker Review…
Full Tilt Poker Review and Rating at GoonersGuide.com…

Compare Full Tilt to other US-friendly online poker sites - or just visit FullTiltPoker.com for a look around!

Going into any rebuy tournament, you should know before the first cards are dealt how much money you’re willing to invest. Whether you’re playing with a single bullet (not planning to rebuy at all), enough money to rebuy 50 times, or somewhere in between, you should have a number in your mind. You need to know from the start how many risks you can afford to take, and play accordingly.

For me personally, I don’t believe in playing with a single bullet or with unlimited ammo. If you’re only planning on making one buy-in, then why not play a regular No-Limit Hold ’em tournament? Playing a rebuy tournament with only one bullet, you have no safety net and you’re giving the other players a significant edge over you because they’re able to exploit your reluctance to gamble.

If you’re pushing your stack in over and over, looking to accumulate chips and willing to go broke repeatedly, there’s a certain amount of upside to that, but I don’t believe it’s the best expected value play. Yes, that maniacal approach can sometimes get you into the post-rebuy period with a large chip stack, which of course provides an edge for the rest of the tournament. The problem is that if you’ve spent something like $25,000 in a $1,000 buy-in tournament, you have to finish that much higher in the money to come out ahead. A lot of times when you’re rebuying that many times, just making the money doesn’t cover how much you’ve invested into the tournament.

My personal rule of thumb is that I like to be willing to invest in the tournament in accordance to the payout amounts. I don’t ever want to get to the point where I’m investing significantly more money than the lowest money place pays. So in a $1,000 rebuy tournament, I’m willing to put about $8,000 into it. Some days, it’s just not your day, the cards aren’t falling your way and you have to leave and come back and play another day. It’s foolish to sit there and keep putting your stack in the middle when you have no edge and often times you’re up against a better hand.

When you’re playing this middle-of-the-road strategy, it’s important to identify the maniacal players from the outset because they’re going to be very dangerous, but they’re also going to provide you with your best opportunities to chip up. These players are actually the prime reason to play in a rebuy tournament, because you can feast on them. They’re going to open with all types of hands from all different positions, so you can call with marginal hands in position such as 10-9 suited, 8-7 suited, 3-4 suited, even one-gappers such as 6-8 suited. I also want to put a lot of pressure on this type of player before the flop if I have a big hand like Aces, Kings, or Queens, simply because this is the type of player who’s really willing to gamble and might just go ahead and ship the rest of his stack in right there.

In the last 10 to 15 minutes of the rebuy period, if you’ve been able to acquire a stack, this is a critical time in the tournament to play smart. If the hyper-aggressive players don’t have a lot of chips, they’re going to be pushing it all in almost every hand to give themselves a shot at a big stack heading into the post-rebuy period. If you have an edge in a given hand against these guys, use it, but you don’t want to gamble too much. Remember that you’ve acquired a stack now and it’s your goal to maintain that stack in and after the rebuy period.

Michael Gracz plays online at Full Tilt Poker. Polish-born, Gracz has one WPT Championship, one WSOP bracelet and was named CardPlayer’s 2005 “Breakthrough Player of the Year” Gracz was born in Poland in 1980

Compare FullTilt Poker to other poker sites that accept USA players.

Here’s Mike Caro’s latest poker tip: Don’t Be Aggressive When You’re Losing

You don’t have the same intimidation factor over your opponents when you’re losing as you do when you’re winning. For that reason, you’ll make more money, or lose less, if you ride out your losing streak by reverting to a conservative game plan.

When the cards bring you out of it, your opponents will be intimidated again and you’ll be able to manipulate them with faster action and fancier plays. Remember, you shouldn’t be superstitious or believe that the cards will continue to be hot or cold. But that’s what many of your opponents think. So, take advantage of it by being more aggressive when you’re winning and less aggressive when you’re losing and opponents are inspired and less likely to play poorly.

You can chat and play with the “Mad Genius”, Mike Caro, every Wednesday night at 9:30pm ET in the DoylesRoom.com Texas Holdem Bounty Tournament.

For more on Doyles Room online poker site check out these reviews:
>>PokerLabRat.com Doyles Room Poker Review
>>Gooners Guide to Gambling DoylesRoom.com Poker Site Review

NOTE: Doyle Brunson’s Poker Room currently is unable to accept any New US-based Players (due to Microgaming Poker Network licencing). American players who already have an account with DoylesRoom.com can still safely play and continue to have access as usual to their accounts. 

We’re not joking - the Bad Beat Jackpot - you know, where you get paid to take a caning like a man - has grown to almost nine hundred thousand dollars over the festive season. It’s now just begging to be struck in January! Will you be one of the lucky players sitting at the table?

Here’s an item from Jason at Carbon Poker on Bad Beat: Bad Miss…
 
Only a day after the Bad Beat Jackpot at Carbon Poker surpassed the $800,000 mark it had its closest call yet.

I guess you know that you have to have quad 7’s or better busted to have the jackpot pay out, so when a player had quad 6’s busted by a straight flush, the tension must have been at a definitive high.

Taking place on the now infamous Bad Beat La Grand Place table at the $.50/$1 stakes, it started with Shoe12 being dealt pocket sixes. The action starts with a fold, a call from Clintasaurus, a raise by Shoe12and two callers. The flop falls 10(d)♦ 4(s)♠ and 6(s)♠. Destroyerhere leads the betting with top pair - 10(c)♣ and A(h)♥ in his hand. Clintasaurus raises on a straight flush draw and and Shoe12 with a set of sixes makes the call followed by destroyerhere.

The turn - 5(s)♠.

Top pair for destroyer, a straight flush for Clintasaurus and trips for Shoe12.

Destroyer leads of with a check, Clintasaurus slowplays and continues the check, to Shoe12 who bets twice the blind. Destroyer folds as Clintasaurus makes the call. The River comes - 6(s)♣

Clintasaurus checks, followed by a bet by Shoe12, a raise by Clintasaurus, two more re-raises take place before Shoe12 pushes all in. Clintasaurus makes the call to show 8(s)♠7(s)♠ as shoe turns quad sixes.

Unlucky Shoe12, and well played Clintasaurus. The Bad Beat marches on!

>>Check out Carbon Poker
>>Read what the team at PokerLabRat.com think of Carbon Poker
>>Second opinion? Read the Carbon Poker Review at GoonersGuide.com

When you’re at the table playing live poker, the only notes you can take - at least inconspicuously - are mental ones. Online, however, you’re granted a tremendous opportunity that doesn’t exist in live play. It’s important to take advantage of this and keep notes on your opponents. If you’re going to do this, you need to do it right. This means including key details to give the notes relevance when you find yourself calling upon them later.

One thing that many poker players overlook is the importance of including the date. I always type the date alongside my note on a player so that if I come across that note when playing against him six months later, I’ll know to follow it with caution because a player’s style can change greatly in that time span. On the other hand, if I were to play him again a few days later, chances are he hasn’t overhauled his game too drastically in that time period.

The first time that I observe a specific trait about someone, I’ll follow it with a question mark. So if I saw someone try to bluff with King-high after being checked to twice, I could make a note like: “Feed this player some rope and they won’t be able to resist?” Since I’m basing the note on a sample set of only one hand, I use the question mark. If I see the player bluff like that two or three more times, I’ll delete the question mark. Just because you see something one time, it doesn’t mean it’s a staple of that person’s game.

It’s also important to make your notes as detailed as possible. Something like “has no clue how to handle short-stacks” is a decent starting point, but you want to follow it up with specifics so the note resonates in the future. You’ll want to add more information, such as: “Called a short-stack’s $70 open out of position with pocket 4s and check-raised all in with three over-cards and no draw.” A note like that says it all.

One thing that I always make a note of is any player who posts blinds the instant they sit down at a cash game instead of being patient enough to wait for it. Are they really that desperate to play a hand? Posting out of position is terrible play, especially under the gun. It demonstrates impatience. I prefer to write a note and include their stack size, something like: “2nd position post with a 20 BB stack.” That tells me a lot about how impatient this person is.

Of course, there are two sides to every aspect of poker; always remember that other people may be taking notes on you. This serves as an excellent reason to constantly mix up your play. It’s crucial to adapt your game, especially online, because people are looking for patterns much more than in live play. If you get caught bluffing and lose some money, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If you think your opponents paid attention to that and might have taken a note on it, use that knowledge against them. Let them think you’re aggressive and then get them to pay off your value bets when you make a hand.

You can go so far as to take notes on how you think your opponents view your play; that’s how comprehensive and advanced they can be. Start by simply taking notes on your opponents’ tendencies. If you include the right details, you’ll be rewarded in future pots with those players.
Paul Wasicka plays online at Full Tilt Poker. His main claim to fame is that he finished 2nd in the 2006 WSOP Main Event (earning more than $6.1 million – and was disappointed in his performance). Paul also won the 2007 National Heads-Up Championship. You can play with and chat to Paul online at FullTiltPoker.com - you’ll find him at a table highlighted in red in their lobby (the red means a pro is registered/playing).

What else is happening at Full Tilt Poker in January?

Sit & Go Madness returns, starting on Friday, January 9th at 16:00 ET through Sunday, January 11th at 16:00 ET. Earn your share of more than $75K in cash and prizes. Even if you don’t place on the Leaderboards, every player who wins a SNG Madness tournament will be entered into a Raffle for more than 1,000 prizes, including Full Tilt Poker gear, tournament tokens and FTOPS XI entries.
 
It’s the New Year – and a fresh opportunity to take on the Iron Man Challenge in 2009.
Your reward will be Iron Man medals to spend in the Iron Man Store on tournament tokens, cash bonuses, private tables and more. You’ll also have an opportunity to play in Iron Man Freerolls and win prize money up to $100K.

If you’re new to the Iron Man Challenge, get warmed up with the One-A-Day Freeroll. By playing each day of the month – and earning just one Full Tilt point every day – you’ll qualify for this exclusive $2K Freeroll.

>>Full Tilt Poker Review

Here’s a short but sweet item from the team at Bodog Poker with their picks for the top 5 Poker Tournaments of the 2008 poker calendar.

In 2008, Peter Eastgate became the youngest WSOP Main Event champion in history. (Image courtesy of Bodog Poker)

1. WSOP Main Event is still the premier tournament of the year. It was the biggest prize pool of the year, and second biggest of all time. The final eight players all became millionaires, with a first-place prize of $9 million.

2. WSOP $50,000 HORSE Event should be the most highly regarded tournament because it’s the best professionals playing five different forms of poker. This year first place winner Scotty Nguyen won almost $2 million.

3. WPT World Championship $25,000 event at the Bellagio is the final event of the season. First place money of $3.3 million went to professional David Chiu.

4. The Aussie Millions main event is always a popular tournament. First-prize money of $1,250,000 AUS went to Howard Lederer.

5. The WSOP Europe has to make the list after the popularity it showed this year. John Juanda took home the £868,800 first-place prize.

>>For more on Bodog Poker and how they compare to otehr top ranking poker sites, check out the latest poker reviews for January 2009 at PokerLabRat.com.