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This is ostensibly common knowledge. If you ask some randomly chosen small stakes no-limit players for strategy advice, you’re guaranteed to be told that you should be aggressive. But something gets lost in translation between their “be aggressive” advice and how these same players actually play when they are at the table. Most small stakes players are way, way too passive. My goal with this series has been to show you some common situations where average players often miss the opportunity to be aggressive.
Aggressive preflop play pays. Here are four tips to make your preflop game tougher.

Tip 1. Don’t limp in without being willing to sometimes limp-reraise as a bluff.
Small stakes no-limit players love to limp into pots. Most, but not all, of these limps are bad. The typical preflop open limp is made with a weak hand like T-7 suited that the limper should have folded instead.
Limping in is okay with a hand like T-9 suited in a game where raising won’t win you the blinds, and you’re likely to see a flop without a raise behind you.
If you limp in with a weak suited hand and someone makes a substantial raise behind you, generally fold. But you should be willing sometimes to turn the hand into a bluff with a limp-reraise. Here’s an example.
You limp in for $2 in a loose live $1-$2 game with T 9 . Another player limps, and then the cutoff raises to $12. The cutoff is the most aggressive player at the table, and he raises fairly frequently with position. The blinds fold. Both you and the cutoff have $300 stacks. Consider reraising to $35 or $40.
It’s a simple play. A limp-reraise often means pocket aces, and your opponent raises loosely. Your opponent will usually have a so-so hand and fold for fear you have aces. Don’t try this against players who tighten their raising standards after limpers. Don’t overuse this play. Don’t limp into lots of pots. But if you do limp and get raised, this bluff should be in your bag of tricks.

 

Tip 2. Raise limpers with position.
Most of the time when someone limps into a pot, they have a trashy hand like T-7 suited. When you’re on the button and there’s one or two limpers to you, raise a lot of hands. Raise K-6 suited. Raise T-9 offsuit. Raise A-4 offsuit. Raise 6-5 suited.
If your opponents like to limp in and then fold to a raise, make the raise big enough that they’ll fold. You’ll win lots of small pots uncontested. When you get called, you’ll have position against someone with a trashy hand. As long as your opponent isn’t lucky enough to make two pair or better by the turn, you should be able to steal most of the pots with flop and turn bets regardless of what you hold.
This is my bread-and-butter play at small stakes no-limit hold’em. One or two players limp. I have two passable cards and position. I raise preflop planning to bet most flops and many turns. It works again and again.

Tip 3. Never call a reraise without a specific postflop plan.
In small stakes games, preflop reraises usually mean business. For a random player in a live $1-$2 or $2-$5 game, I’d guess a reraiser had pocket queens or better or possibly A-K. Don’t call these reraises. There’s no money in it.
Some players will reraise with more hands than these. They’ll reraise with pocket jacks and pocket tens, with A-Q and even some weaker hands. Against these relatively few players who reraise light, you can consider calling. But even then, never call a reraise without a specific postflop plan.
What do I mean by that? Basically I mean that you need to win some pots without hitting your hand. If you call a $60 reraise in a $2-$5 game with 5-5, and your plan is to fold if you don’t flop a set, you are going to lose a ton of money. (Fold small pairs to a large preflop reraise. They don’t play well in reraised pots.)
There are two ways to win pots without hitting your hand. You can count on your opponent to check it down when he misses, or you can run some bluffs. In small stakes games, the former plan is likely to be your best chance. So don’t call a preflop reraise unless you know that your opponent will reraise without a super premium hand, and you also know that your opponent will frequently just check postflop without a strong pair or better.

Tip 4. Pay attention.
“Duh,” you say. Okay, maybe you know to pay attention, but do you really do it hand after hand? You should. People give off far more tells preflop than on any other betting round. It’s because they aren’t invested in the hand yet, so they are careless about their mannerisms.
You’re in the cutoff with Q 9 . A bad player limped in, and everyone else folded to you. What should you do? According to Tip 2, you should raise. But before you do that, look to your left. What is the button doing? Does he look like he plans to fold? Or is he counting out chips for a raise? If he’s folding, raise away. If he’s counting out chips, maybe you should fold instead. Always look to your left preflop, particularly when you are one or two positions off the button, and you have a borderline hand. The information your opponents give away is extremely valuable.
Thinking about limping into the pot with a weak hand? Don’t. That didn’t convince you? Okay, at least check to see if someone straddled. Straddled pots play much bigger than unstraddled pots. Don’t try to sneak into straddled pots. Pay attention. Paying attention preflop will save you and make you a lot of money over time.

Final Thoughts
Many small stakes players approach preflop play in a fundamentally different way than they approach play after the flop. Postflop they are cautious, unwilling to put much money at risk without good prospects to make a strong hand. Preflop, on the other hand, they view like playing the lottery, tossing in a few chips with any old hand.
Good preflop play follows the same principles as good postflop play. Fold trash hands. When you’re out of position, be even more selective. Don’t call aimlessly trying to see a flop. Put money in the pot only with purpose. When other players show weakness, attack them with aggression. If you follow these principles, you’ll be well ahead of the game.

Making Poker Easier by playing Tight

For many beginning poker players, every hand looks good.  After all, what’s the excitement of poker if you can’t take your hand into the flop to see if you hit anything?  And this concept works pretty good actually….when you’re playing practice poker.  However, anybody who is playing poker for money should stay clear of this philosophy since it can end up costing a person lots of money in the long-run.
That’s why you need to play as tightly as possible in the beginning so you avoid bleeding out money.  Now most poker strategists preach that you should play as aggressively as possible so you can be successful.  However, the problem with this is that beginners don’t have the necessary skills to play aggressively from the onset.  Aggressive play takes lots of experience and you simply can’t fake this until you develop the necessary skill set.

With this in mind, you should only be raising pre-flop with premium hands like J-J through A-A (as common strategy dictates) and playing good hands in middle to late position.  Playing premium hands pre-flop is easy, but you’ll have a lot more difficulty with other cards such as A-10 or K-J.  Some beginners will overvalue these hands and it’s a mistake that will end up costing them major money.
Instead, you want to treat hands like A-10 and K-J with caution since they are not able to dominate premium hands and you needs lots of help from the board to win.  Seeing as how this is the case, play tight and try to see flops cheaply until you develop a better feel for when to play aggressively.  When you do develop more skills, you can open your range of starting hands.

Poker #4 : My Poker Education Tips

                  My Poker Education Tips

Playing more poker isn’t the only way to win more money at the tables. Education is just as important as every second you spend playing hands. Education will help you to make all the right decisions in nearly every situation. Just as you dedicate a certain amount of time a day to playing; you should be spending an equal amount of time bettering yourself at the game by all sorts of education. There are articles, videos, and forums that you can view to become better. All of these will help build your knowledge of poker, which will in turn make you money.
Poker Forums (Hand Histories):
When you are actually playing poker you are learning, but there is a lot of down time because you are folding a lot of hands. When you read forum posts, they are strictly the interesting hands that you would have questions about if you yourself came across them on the tables. Not only do you get to review the hand and see what yourself and others think about the situation, but you also have no risk of your own money involved! The best thing about education is that for the most part it doesn’t cost you anything. Posting your own hand histories is very important as well. This makes it possible for other people to see the approach you took in the hand and your reasoning, letting them give you feedback about what you did well and what you did poorly.
Poker Videos:
Another great form of education is watching pro videos. Watching a professional play can help show you the right plays to make and more importantly WHY. When you watch a video, you should be taking notes. This helps you to look for key things that you are doing wrong when you yourself play. If you are unsure about situations to re-raise then you can watch a few videos and look for that specifically. Having the ability to do this is extremely useful especially with monitoring your own play. If you see that you aren’t stealing the blinds enough then you can watch for how often a professional does it to help you get on track with your steal attempts. Taking notes will help the learning process a lot because it forces you to answer the question “Why am I taking this action in this situation?” which will ultimately help you to better understand the game as a whole.
Poker Strategy Articles:
Strategy articles are also a good source of information intake. You can find strategy articles on almost any element of the game. By reading strategy articles you can look at a certain aspect of the game and have it broken down for you. Taking notes on strategy articles is also a good idea. Again, understanding why you do certain things will help you in situations like it. If you read an article about loosening up on the button, you might not read about the exact situation that you will be in, but you will read about a situation much like it. Taking notes to help understand “why” will help you relate the situations with one another, increasing your ability to make the right play.
Education is the heart of bettering your skill level of poker. The more you know the better you are. The better you are the more money you make which is the ultimate goal. Reading articles, posting and responding on poker forums, and watching videos will all build your foundation of skill at poker. Taking notes will force you to understand the game more and ultimately win more money.

Poker #3 : 4 Lethal Mistakes Beginning Poker Players Make

Poker is not a science. It can’t be boiled down to a series of events and reactions. It’s an art. The best players learn to roll with the punches and come back swinging. Things go wrong. Cards land badly. Bankrolls dip desperately low. But, each time, a veteran poker player will consider his odds, keep his cool and sometimes, come back to fight another day. On the other hand, novice poker players make a ton of rookie mistakes. And when they do, the veterans on the table move in for the kill. Below, you’ll find 4 of the most lethal (and common) mistakes that novice players make.

Mistake #1: Getting Emotional

The pros make it look easy. But, keeping your cool when your luck turns bad is a learned skill. Beginning players often don’t control their emotions. But, on the table, luck turns quickly and small things start to annoy. Great hands get buried. The player next to you distracts and irritates you. But, when you get angry, you lose your focus. And when that happens, the sharks on the table smell the blood and come to feed.

Mistake #2: Bluffing Too Often

New poker players make this mistake all the time. And trust me… experienced players notice it quickly. The problem is that rookies watch movies or a poker cable channel and think they can get away with murder on the table. What they don’t realize is that there are 2 problems with that. First, veteran players have seen it all and can smell most of it a mile away. Second, beginners are usually bad bluffers. Combine those 2 dynamics and you have a novice who’s bankroll is about to get pummeled.

Mistake #3: Not Understanding Pot Odds

To be fair, even experienced poker players often neglect to figure out the pot odds of a hand. There’s no excuse, but it happens. That being said, rookies often don’t even understand the odds. That can make them call too often, bumping against maximum bets with poor hands. For the savvy player who keeps the odds in his head during a hand, the rookie is just fresh meat.

Mistake #4: Imitating Other Players

This happens a lot. Most beginners learn poker by watching more experienced players. That’s fine because it’s a great way to learn strategy. The trap most novices fall into though, is simply copying what other players are doing. They don’t understand poker strategy. Here’s the problem. If you’re imitating a great player’s moves without knowing why he’s making them, you’ll begin to follow a trend that others will pick up on. You’ll be predictable. If you copy a poor player’s move, you’re setting yourself up for failure. It’s a common rookie mistake, but it can be deadly on the table.

Becoming A Better Poker Player

If you’re a beginner, understand that nobody is a “born poker player.” The professional players that you see on TV or in tournaments developed the skills they need to win. Everybody makes mistakes. A lot of pros have made the mistakes I’ve described above. The difference is that they learned from them. If they bluffed badly, they fixed the problem. If they angered quickly, they developed control. If you want to be a proficient poker player, understand the game. Identify the mistakes you’re making and fix them.
By the way, the 4 mistakes above are just a quick sampling. Beginner poker players make a ton of others. So, we’ll be coming back to this soon. Stay tuned.

Poker #2 : 10 Tips for beginners

1. Don't Play Every Hand / Do Fold More

Probably the number one mistake beginning poker players make is that they play far too many hands. When you're just starting out playing poker, you want to play poker, and that means staying in hands that aren't very good just to be part of the action. But playing more doesn't mean winning more, it usually means losing more. If you find you're staying in half or more the hands you're dealt, you need to upgrade your starting hand requirements.

2. Don't Play Drunk

Countless nights have I sat across a table from someone & watched them get plastered silly and throw away their entire stack of chips. I've been that person too - and there are nights where you're just playing with friends for low stakes and it's more about the fun than the poker - but if you're in a casino, watch the alcohol. The truth is, while you may be more relaxed after 2 drinks, it may lead to you playing looser and less sharply, even if one's not 'drunk.'

3. Don't Bluff Just For Bluffing's Sake

A lot of beginner's understand that bluffing is a part of poker, but not exactly how. There's is NO rule that one must bluff a certain amount or at all during a poker game, but many players don't feel like they've won unless they've tried a poker bluff. Bluffs only work in certain situations & against certain people, and if you know a player always calls to the showdown, it is literally impossible to bluff that player. It's better never to bluff than to bluff "just to bluff."

4. Don't Stay in a Hand Just Because You're Already In It

Another common mistake beginners make is to think that "Well, I've already put that much in the pot, I have to stay in now." Nope. You can't win a pot just by throwing money at it. There may be cases when pot odds warrant a call, but if you're sure you're beaten, and there's no way your hand can improve to be the best hand, you should fold right away. The money you've already put in the pot isn't yours anymore, and you can't get it back just by playing a hand all the way to the end.

5. Don't Call at the End of a Hand to "Keep Someone Honest"

This one follows the last tip. I see a lot of players look at another player's final bet, look at the hand, & say "I know you've got me, but I have to keep you honest," as they throw in a final call. It may be worth it to see if a player really has the hand if you're not sure & you're gaining information that will help you later on, but if you really feel a player has the hand he's representing & you're beat, why give him another pile of your money? Those bets will add up over an evening.

6. Don't Play When Mad, Sad, or in a Generally Bad Mood

When you play poker, you shouldn't do it to escape from being depressed or having a really bad day. You start out on tilt -- playing emotionally, not rationally -- and you won't play your best. Likewise, if during a poker game, you lose a big hand or get sucked out on and feel yourself going on tilt, stand up & take a break until you feel calm later on. Fellow players will sense your mood & take advantage of it.

7. Do Pay Attention to the Cards on the Table

When you first start playing, it's enough just to remember how to play and pay attention to your own hand. But once you've got that down, it's incredibly important to look at what's going on at the table. In Texas Hold'em, figure out what the best possible hand would be to fit the flop. Make sure you notice flush & straight possibilities.

8. Do Pay Attention to the Other Players

As you play, one of the single best things you can do is observe your opponents, even when you're not in a hand. If you know if one player always raises in a certain position, & another has a when he bluffs, & a 3rd folds to every re-raise, you can use that information to help you decide how to play against them. Once you know that player 3 always folds to a re-raise on a river, that's when you can bluff & steal a pot.

9. Don't Play at too High Limits

There are many reasons people move up to a higher limit game than they usually play. Good reasons like they've been winning consistently at a lower lever & are ready to move up, & bad reasons like the line is shorter for higher limits or you want to impress someone. Don't play at stakes that make you think about the actual money in terms of day-to-day life or with money you can't lose. Even if you had one super-good night at $2/4, resist the urge to play $5/10. The next tip explains more why.

10. Do Pick the Right Game for Your Skill Level & Bankroll

One of the reasons you shouldn't jump into a $5/10 game after winning a huge bunch of money at $2/4 is because as the stakes rise, so does the average skill level of the players sitting there. You want to be one of the best at the table, not the fish who sits down with sharks. If you're making stacks of money at a lower level game, why move? You're winning stacks of money. The swings up & down at higher limits are much bigger, and one big night's win won't last long at a high-stakes game.

Poker #1 : Knowing when to say when

How do you know when it's time to end a session of playing cash?

This a vital question for anyone who takes the game seriously and wants to actually make money over time. The conventional poker wisdom on the subject is: you should keep playing in a game when you are confident that you have an edge.

The catch here is that you have to be able to assess your edge pretty keenly. This turns out to be significantly more difficult in practice than in theory. While most of us are able to judge fairly accurately whether or not we are playing our "A" game, it's not always obvious whether our A game is good enough to prevail at a given table. And if, for any number of everyday reasons, we've regressed to our B game, it can be hard to say for sure that the B game isn't plenty adequate to prevail over the competition.

Should I stop playing the moment I know I'm not playing my A game?

In my view, not necessarily. There are a whole lot of circumstances in which my B game can handily generate profit. Maybe not maximum profit, but enough to make the game worth the candle. If we all only played when we could bring our A game, most of us would hardly play at all. And for a person who's playing small stakes, that's not going to be enough. Maybe if you're Phil Ivey you can afford to only play your A game. (But, hey, I've seen him looking pretty bored and disgruntled at the poker table, so I suspect he doesn't always bring his best to the table. On the other hand, his B game is more than sufficient to put most everyone else in the shade, so why wouldn't he play it at stakes he can easily afford? My guess is that when he plays for nosebleed stakes, he does in fact bring only his A game.)

Should I set a stop-loss and quit when I'm down a certain amount of money for the session?

In many cases, this makes a lot of sense. But not for the reasons you might think. It's not the monetary loss for any one session, in either absolute or relative terms, that matters. It's the cumulative effect generated by losing over the length of a session: eventually you can start feeling like a loser. And it's really hard to play well when you know in your bones that you are A LOSER. A stop-loss policy is fundamentally a tilt-management ~ not a bankroll-management ~ technique.

Should I set an earnings goal for the session and stop when I reach it to lock in the win?

Again, the conventional wisdom is no: if you're winning, and you believe your edge is such that you can keep winning, you should play on.

But there's a catch. Success is a double-edged sword. There is a such a thing as success-tilt; that's when, because you're doing well, you start to suspect you are poker god. The upshot of this excess of self-confidence is that you play less and less optimally, because in your heart of hearts you have begun to believe that you can do no wrong and that you are just that much better than your competition. You are fated to crush them.

Yeah. Not so much.

It would, actually, be better in those cases to quit while you're ahead. This has two benefits. First, you end the session on a positive note; you reward yourself by booking a profit. And you avoid the trap of hubris... which can lead to giving all your gains back and then some. The emotional crash that ensues when you turn a profit into a loss through success-tilt is even worse than a plain ol' gradual decline in a losing session.

A highly-evolved professional will get past being influenced by the highs and lows of session results. When you find such a professional, I will shake his or her hand and bow in respect. I will seek to be his or her apprentice. I aspire to attain that level of detachment myself.

But until I do, I think I'm going to institute some personal guidelines and see how applying a little session discipline to my live cash game works for me. The first one will be the requirement that I step away from the table for fifteen minutes when I reach 2x my buy-in. And that I walk away from the table for a full hour when I get to 3x my buy-in, and seriously consider not returning. The same time-out intervals should apply to losses at -1x and -2x buy-in.
 
To finish, here is a video of an impressive bluff :