The Poker Lab Rat

As you may know, I teach that it’s usually wrong to call the big blind early with small pairs, such as 2-2, 3-3, and 4-4. Many things work against these hold ‘em hands, such as (1) you can make three of a kind and lose to a larger three-of-a-kind, (2) if you get lucky enough that your pair might matter, a bigger pair (or bigger two-pair when there’s a major pair on board and your second pair isn’t large enough) might beat you, and (3) two bigger pairs might show up on the board, leaving you with essentially no hand at all.

But if this argument — and the simulation of millions of hands which I’ve done by computer — doesn’t convince you, here’s some more bad news: You usually can afford to call a single raise after you call the blind with a small pair, but not a double raise. So, if you call, and there’s a raise, and then there’s a re-raise, you should usually fold. But in folding, you’re surrendering a first bet without any shot at the pot whatsoever.

When I talk to people who are trying to analyze whether these small pairs are profitable in an early position, they seldom mention the fact that you might have to throw the hand away without seeing the flop. So, even if you can argue that the small pair is a close decision without the forced-to-fold factor, it is not a close decision when that factor is correctly considered. Once again: Seldom play small pairs from an early position, unless you’re in a very loose game with very timid opponents who don’t raise aggressively AND you can outplay those opponents on later betting rounds.

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

For the latest player reviews of Doyles Room Poker site (now on the Cake Poker Network and accepting Americans again) check out the following:

>>PokerLabRat.com Doyles Room Poker Review
>>GoonersGuide.com Review and Rating of DoylesRoom.com Poker

Check out the directory of Poker sites we recommend here.

Here’s the latest contribution to PokerLabRat.com from the team at Bodog Poker. Check them out if you’re looking for a no hassle online poker room that welcomes players from around the World including Americans. 

If you’re going to play poker online or in casinos you will run into two types of players - there are the recreational players and the professionals. A recreational player can be anyone from a novice, who barely has a clue how to play, to a weekend grinder who treats poker as a serious hobby. Professional players live the game of poker, and have a lot of experience playing the game and recognizing situations they’ve been in many times before. Both types of player can be beaten if you’re able to recognize their level of play, and then play them accordingly.

A common leak in cash games you’ll encounter in a recreational player is that they’ll play too many hands. They’ve been waiting all week to play poker, and they don’t feel like waiting for pocket aces when they’ve only got four or five hours to play. Recreational players will try to limp into as many pots as they can, hoping to hit a flop in a big way. Professional players are more interested in the long-term gain of poker, so they practice a patient game regardless of how limited a session may be.

Another good way to determine if an opponent is a recreational player is by their river bets. A player making a river bet when the only hands that would possibly pay them off would beat them, or raising a bet with second best when they could have just called, are sure signs of a player who just isn’t into the game that much. A professional player knows not to put himself into a situation where he could easily be getting trapped, when there’s little or no chance the bet can be called.

An easy way to recognize a professional player is if they change playing styles during a session of play. Recreational players play the way they play. The have their moves and they set their traps. They repeat betting patterns over and over again and become predictable. They have their game and they don’t even attempt to change it. Professional players are experienced enough to recognize the tempo of the game, and adjust their playing style to best combat other players. They’ll also change up the way they play to keep everyone guessing on their style.

Online one of the easiest ways to recognize a professional is by the time they take to play. If there’s always a pause when it’s their turn, it’s not because they’re still on dial-up. This player is likely playing numerous tables at once. You should be able to find out how many they’re playing through the poker room software, and any player that’s playing more than four tables at a time tends to be a professional, or at least a really good recreational player that’s very serious about their hobby.

It helps to know if an opponent is a pro or a part-time grinder. There are lots of good recreational players, but there are few bad professionals. Stay out of the games with too many pros in them; it’s always a tough game to beat.

Practice your poker skills. Start playing online poker with Bodog now!

For more on Bodog Poker, check out the latest poker room reviews at:
>>PokerLabRat.com’s Review of Bodog Poker
>>GoonersGuide.com Bodog Poker Site Review and Rating

The team at PokerLabRat.com has been waiting with interest as two top names in the online poker arena have transitioned to new poker player consolidation networks this month.

First up we can happily report that the poker room, promoted by none other than the great Doyle Brunson himself (DoylesRoom.com), has successfully transferred to the Cake Poker Network.

This move allows Doyles Room poker to continue to offer great online poker to players from around the world - including the USA (except residents of  WA, KY and LA).

Doyles Room has introduced some new promotions (such as the Gold Card Jackpot where special gold cards are dealt at random as hole cards at real money ring game tables) Be first to collect the entire deck of 52 gold cards in any Series and you’II win $52,000! You can also redeem them as you go for tournament entry, etc.

In general the new poker compares favorably with the previous Microgaming poker client. It’s stylish, quick to play and offers some good levels of action…they jury is still out on the Real Time Gaming casino side games now on offer at Doyle Room Poker, we seem to still have major access difficulties but assume this is just a wrinkle in the transfer and will be ironed out shortly.

>>Visit Doyles Room Poker Site
>>Find out more about DoylesRoom.com in the latest PokerLabRat.com Review

This week has also seen the poker division of one of the UK largest companies, Ladbrokes, transition from a stand-alone Microgaming-powered Poker site to become a member of the Microgaming Poker Network. This will have huge impact on this poker Network, especially at the big money cash game level as Ladbrokes was renowned for some of more lucrative UK and European poker play.

Poker games will be available in both U.S. Dollars and Euros, retaining the convenience-factor for European players (sorry, Germans cannot become members of Ladbrokes Poker). Ladbrokes offers web access in 11 languages, accepts 16 currencies and has a wide range of popular payment methods available for players.

The move has come at a great time for poker players wanting to experience this popular poker network as the $4,000,000 Ladbrokes Rake Race runs monthly until April 2009. This poker promotion rewards the top 3,000 cash game players in the Ladbrokes Rake Race Leaderboard with an automatic monthly payout (min prize $100) with no claim required - that’s a share of an extra $1,000,000 in prizes you can play for each month.

To celebrate the move, Ladbrokes are currently offering new players a welcome bonus of up to $1000 as a 100% first deposit match. Only the very committed players will be able to achieve the full $1000 (requiring 10,000 raked hands in 30 days) but even novices should be able to earn a $50 bonus having deposited $50, as this only requires 600 raked hands… be there or be square! 

>>Visit Ladbrokes Poker
>>Find out more about LadbrokesPoker.com in the latest PokerLabRat.com Review

Here’s the latest item from the team at Bodog Poker… it’s aimed at rookie poker players. 

Playing in your first couple of poker tournaments can be an intimidating experience. Many new players get wrapped up in the action and make basic mistakes that they should never make. We all have to start somewhere and learn the game along the way, but here’s a list of basic mistakes that no one should be making at the tables . . .

Playing too many hands is the most common of rookie mistakes. Novice players don’t understand that rag hands have a lower winning percentage than premium ones. They’ll play anything hoping to hit two pair or trips. This mistake just bleeds their chip stack quickly until they get knocked out of the tournament. They need to learn some starting hand strategy and tighten up their game.

Pricing in their opponents is the most common mistake a rookie will make when they have the lead in a hand. Instead of knowing to bet their hand for value, rookie players often bet too small of an amount when they’re leading early on. Doing this allows their opponents to call the bet with drawing hands because the pot odds are low enough to justify the call. If enough players are still in the hand, the rookie player’s lead will often get out-drawn and they’ll lose the hand.

Chasing a straight with the sucker end is another situation where rookies get into big trouble. If a board is 6-J-10 and they hold 9-8, even if the queen comes on a later street they could still be way behind. It’s a good move to only call bets if you do hit the queen, and not to raise in that situation. A big bet from an opponent will usually tell them that someone has the bigger straight. This can also apply to a small flush when the hand has some other callers in it.

Going all-in pre-flop is another mistake that rookies often make. This move is dangerous at the best of times, even with pocket aces. Most times the rookie will not get any action on their hand, and if they do it’s from a big hand. The only time you’ll want to go all-in pre-flop is if a short-stack player has tried to force the action. Then you can go all-in to isolate them from other callers with your dominant hand.

Bluffing too often is a common rookie mistake for the aggressive type of rookie. These players use the all-in bet as a way to steal pots, but this play will eventually backfire on them and cost them a big amount of chips in a hand they shouldn’t even have even been in. They should limit their bluffs so they can be hidden, and it looks like they have the goods every time they have to show their cards at showdown.

Getting emotional is another one you’ll see. Novice players don’t understand that poker has a lot of losing for every player, and they give up, or tilt out, when things go wrong for a while. They will give up after a bad beat, and essentially throw away their final chips because they figure they can’t come back. They let frustration take over and dump chips for no reason - other than they’re not strong-minded enough to accept that they can’t win them all.

Ready for some tournament poker? Take off with Bodog Flight Club to some of the world’s most exotic locations to play in the world’s finest poker events!

NEWS: Bodog Poker is now available to Mac users via a brand new flash based poker client.

For more on Bodog Poker check out the following:
>>Bodog Poker Review at PokerLabRat.com
>>Review & Rating of Bodog Poker at GoonersGuide.com