You’ve seen it on TV, you’ve watched your friends play it during parties, and you’re absolutely mystified by what is going on and yet feel a strange compulsion to understand it
and partake in all the fun. Sure, you might lose a few bucks, but you figure that’s the price of admission at Poker University. Fortunately you have the internet and
PokerHandReplays.com at your disposal and are armed with articles and replays of actual hands to show you the right way to play, and that gives you a leg up on the competition!
For you beginners out there, here’s what I suggest – Take $200. Kiss it goodbye. Imagine as if right there and then you set it on fire and it’s gone in a puff of
smoke. Then in reality take that $200, deposit it using one of our methods on the site (we hook you up with the strategy goods, you can hook us up with the referral!) and start playing
10nl tables. The “10nl” level (you will see this on forums) means that the maximum buy-in is $10 and the blinds are $0.05 and $0.10. Proper “bankroll management”
is the key to long term success at the tables and there’s many reasons why you should adhere to it – especially when you are winning and the temptation is there to play one or even two
levels above you. If you do give in to the temptation of playing a level outside of your bankroll zone, eventually you WILL go broke and have to start from scratch. So – start at
the 20 buy-ins minimum rule to every level and the 10nl game is good because it’s really where I started to see “real” poker being played.
So let’s take a look at some hands and you can see some big “dos” and “don’ts” and I’ll explain what you need to know. First the idea of a
“Trouble Hand” (as explained in further detail in a previously published article) is illustrated here at the micro stakes…
Here’s a great hand in terms of one you should NOT play at a beginner. Yes, you have position which you’ve read is everything in poker. Yes, you have two very sexy cards in a
Ten and a King. This is a hand, unless folded around to you on the cutoff position (so you could steal with it), that should be folded all the time. As it is in this hand we have two
players that show no strength that call the big blind. With this dubious hand our hero improperly calls. This is the absolute worst decision out of the three (call, fold, raise) the hero
could have made.
Raising – A proper raise would be 4x the big blinds PLUS one more big blind for each limper (someone who just calls the big blind preflop), meaning a raise to $0.60. To a table where
nobody has shown strength this is a great play and chances are it would be folded around (for the win) or get 1 caller with a speculative hand (like 33 or 66 or something to that effect). With
that one caller a continuation bet on a decent flop would take it down.
Folding – With a marginal hand with a lot of people that want to see a fold, you get out of the way with a hand that will cause you much more trouble than it’s worth. What if
someone is in the hand with KJ or KQ already and a King flops? You’re in trouble. There’s no shame at all in folding.
Calling – You have no idea where you stand, and are just along for the ride. Short of flopping AQJ for the nuts any flop (even with 2 Kings in it) you don’t quite know where you
are.
In a six way hand (meaning 6 people are to the flop which is ludicrous) we see a AT3 (Ace, Ten, Three) flop. One of the limpers in middle position min-bet ten cents into a sixty cent
pot. This is most likely either a pair of tens, or a pocket pair like 44 or 55, or maybe even a weak Ace. With this many people it’s doubtful that someone with nothing makes a
min-bet here rather than check. Our hero, with his pair of tens for middle pair, calls the bet, which isn’t horrible since he’s getting good value to see the turn. We get two
more callers (this is where you have to think that your pair of Tens is no good) for the turn.
The turn is a King. This is absolutely the place where our hero has to recognize either he is crushing this hand or still behind to a bigger two pair (AT) or a set (three of a kind). So
to find out where he is in the hand he bets the pot. Yet again two people call this bet and we see a brick river (brick = a card that misses everyone) of a 6. Our hero then bets $0.85 at
the river … a bet smaller in dollar value than his turn bet (sign of weakness) and immediately the button player “Mishkec” jumps on the hero for a ~3x raise for about 66% of the
pot. He might have been slowplaying a worst hand … we cannot imagine exactly what he was thinking but the small river bet our hero made either cost him money or got him more committed to
a losing hand.
The lessons to learn from this hand:
- Do NOT get into hands (especially multi-way) with trouble or dubious hands like KT. Other hands like KJ, QT,
QK, JT, and even AJ … these are all situational only and not recommended to play as you start out your poker life.
- Don’t bet when you know you are logically beat. There’s no shame in shutting it down and not
putting any more of your hard earned money in the pot when you know you are flat out beat.
- Don’t make dumb calls and go along for the ride.
Here’s one last quick example of the same principles at work:
Here’s a hand that I don’t recommend you ever play in early position (defined as the first, second, or third person to act after the big blind). The raise is okay but not perfect
– again remember to go for 4x the big blind. The button flat calls the raise and we see a flop of Ten, Nine, Four “rainbow” meaning all different suits. This is a pretty
weird flop and calling hands like JT (Jack Ten), 78, 9T or even KQ or JQ aren’t going anywhere and a continuation bet (a bet where you follow up your preflop raise with a bet on the flop)
here isn’t recommended but our hero does something foolish and check-raises for no reason. The raise size is actually really good and as a pure bluff to represent a set is fine but no
overcards or open ended straight draws really would get away from this. The river is another 4 which is NOT good for another bet … the story isn’t believable at this
point. Our villain puts in a half of his stack and our hero calls with two overs and a flush draw … if our villain had something like JT with no flush draw our hero is about a 68-32%
underdog at the turn. The river bricks, the villain puts in the rest of his stack, and our hero folds with Ace high.
Again the same lessons:
- Got into a hand preflop that really should have been folded
- Told an unbelievable story with the betting pattern, it looked like he was bluffing
- Called a bet with barely any hope of winning
So don’t make these mistakes and keep your play very solid. Here are some tips for good play…
- Make your preflop bets (when you are first to raise) 4x the big blind and add 1 more big blind if anyone limped in
before you.
- Do not get into trouble hands early in your poker career. Stay tight and slowly and gradually increase the
range of starting hands that you play.
- Don’t call down a hand when you have an easily beat hand, it’s a very unprofitable situation
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Check Sean's blog for updates on his poker journey at: http://www.icemonkey9.com
If you are familiar with a HUD or have already read through the article, what we are going to do in this article is run a quiz for you by providing a hand up until a certain point and then
offer you the stats of the villain.
