Winning poker strategies
Winning poker strategies
Tools over rules: Poker takes a minute to learn and lifetime to master (Brunson). Poker is a very situational game, and no fixed strategy can be devised that is optimal in all situations. That’s why this article will cover only general concepts, tools and strategies that all masters of the game understand and apply in their game. Read on and build a solid foundation for your game.
The objective and the winning mentality: Poker is gambling, hence your goal is to maximize the amount of money that you will win on average on your decisions (Miller). In other words, you strive to maximise your expectation. If you have a positive expectation then someone must have a negative expectation, which basically means their making a mistake. And the only way you can earn any money on poker in the long run, is if someone makes a mistake. Don’t get discouraged if someone calls your all-in and draws out on you with 22 against your AA. Focus on making correct decisions not the short-term results and bad beats.
Skills to pay the bills: If you plan on becoming a consistent winner, there are several areas of poker skills which you should focus on: hand selection, buying a free-card, semi-bluffing, raising, bankroll management, check-raising, slowplaying, reading hands, reading tells, image projection, game selection, and varying your game to name a few. It’s important to understand that some skills are more vital than others in some types of poker and limits. In this short no limit article we will focus on the basics, but a list of references for further reading [reading list] is supplied at the end should you be hungry for more.
Bankroll management: There are plenty of players who play great but are constantly broke. Their Achilles heel is their bankroll management. Although there is no doubt that poker is a skill game, there is also plenty of luck involved. If you always sit down at the table with all your money, your destined to go broke in no time. Without going into details, a good rule of thumb is to never sit down at a table with more than 5% of your bankroll. If you’re better than the field you’ll have no problem tackling the variance and staying alive.
Position: This is one of the most important concepts in poker, especially no limit. Since poker is a turn based game, who ever acts last will have more information than the player who has to act first in the hand. If you have more information than your opponents, the more likely you are to make correct decisions and your opponents are more likely to make mistakes. There are two types of position: a) Absolute Position: This is your position relative to the button. If you’re on the button, you’ll have the luxury of having all the other players in the hand act before it’s your turn. b) Relative Position: This is your position relative to the likely bettor (Sklansky). You want to sit to the right of the likely bettor in a multi-way hand. If you limp under the gun, and the next guy raises, now you’ll have all the other players act before it gets back to you. Contrast this to a scenario where one player open raises and you call in the next seat, now you have no idea as to what the rest of the table might do. TIP: Play most of your hands in a “late” position, meaning you are (one of) the last players to act in a hand; you’ll win more money when you have the best hand, and lose less when you’re behind.
Hand selection: There is much to be said about hand-selection, but the basics are easy to comprehend. The more players you have behind you yet to act, the tighter you should play. For more information see any of the books at the end.
Bluffing and slowplaying: Bluffing must be incorporated in your game; if you never bluff, your opponents know that you have a hand when you bet. Your opponent tendencies greatly affect your bluffs. Be more prone to bluff a tight player than a lose player. In general you should bet just enough to get your opponents to fold. A rule of thumb is that the size of your bet should be around 50%-100% of the size of the pot, just like any other value bet. In tournaments you should be more inclined to bluff medium stacks, and slowplay short and big stacks. Also note that you need a harmonic balance between your bluffs and slowplays. If you bluff a lot, then you need to slowplay less, compared to a player who bluffs seldom, who [he] needs to slowplay more often.
Bet size: Different hands and situations call for different bet sizes. But a good guide line is to bet around 3xBB if you open pre-flop, and add one BB to your raise for each limper. A re-raise is usually around 3x the previous raise. When you value bet, you should always bet enough to induce a mistake.
Cash game: Since you can always buy-in for more, and given that you’re managing your bankroll wisely, the correct strategy is simply focusing on maximizing your expectation. You do this by playing good poker, and surrounding yourself with bad players. The “fish” usually play very timidly, they like to limp and call a lot, and are not very found of raising. Good players tend to play more selective aggressive. But how do you find these juicy fish without scanning table after table? Here is a little secret: in the cash-game lobby there are several columns next to the tables. Take a good look at a) “Players per flop” and b) “Avg. Pot.” Some players just pick the first available table and others want to find the table with the biggest pots. But if you stop to think for minute, you’ll realize that a high “Avg. pot2 and a low “Players per flop” means that the table most likely is packed with good players. What you should do is to look for a high value for “players per flop” and a low “avg. pot”.
Sit ‘n’ go tournaments: A lot of players play quite loose early, because it’s so cheap to see flops and when they get close to the money, they’ll tighten up. This is completely wrong. Since the prices are relatively low compared to the buy-in, it’s very important to get in the money regularly, rather than aim for a win. The correct strategy is thus to play very tight early, and then step on the gas pedal when the game short-handed. When it’s 4 handed, and your one spot from the money, the play is very dominated by the sizes of the stacks. The medium stacks have to be very careful, while the small and big stacks should play aggressively. Regardless of stack size, you should be much more inclined to push all in rather than call.
Multi table tournaments: In these tournaments the fields are often huge, and the top prizes heavy. Contrary to the Sit ‘n’ go tournaments, your overall goal is not merely making the money, but winning some serious cash. Some advocate a tight play early on. Others point out that that most of the bad players bust quite early, and if you want some of those chips you got to play. If you’re a beginner, choose the former. In the later levels many players have dropped out, and the stacks are quite uneven but everybody usually has fewer chips compared to the blinds than at the start. This means that stealing the blinds or re-stealing has a significant impact on your stack. Since the big stacks can afford to lose some chips and since the small stacks are ready to give up, the target of steals should be the medium stacks. Good luck!
Further reading:
- Getting Started in Hold’em by Ed Miller (This book is one of the best introductions to both Limit and No Limit Hold’em.)
- Harrington on Hold’em – Expert Strategy For No-Limit Tournaments, Volume 1
- Harrington on Hold’em – Expert Strategy for No-Limit Tournaments, Volume 2
- The End Game by Dan Harrington and Bill Robertie. (These two books are considered the definitive work on no limit tournaments; the first book focuses on the early levels of tournament and is also applicable to cash games. The second book deals with the later stages of tournament play.)
- No Limit Hold’em: Theory and Practice by David Sklansky & Ed Miller. (This is an excellent book which introduces many deep No Limit concepts.)
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