Wise Guys Results (16th – 22nd January)

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32Red’s Wise Guys

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Want to tighten up your game? Try Fixed Limit

Every day we break little rules or do something we know isn’t quite right, whether it’s not always looking properly when crossing the road, stealing a quick call on the mobile while driving or playing too loose at the poker table. While the first two errors in judgement might have the most serious potential consequences, the poker sin presents us with problems we can so easily avoid.

Yet all of us seem to find it difficult to concentrate on the ‘tight’ part of the much sought after tight-aggressive strategy. By ‘concentrate’ I mean succeed in avoiding loose pre-flop play throughout a session, rather than adhering to the (golden) rules most of the time and allowing ourselves the luxury of indulging in weak and wasteful play when we feel like it. (Note that there is an important distinction to be made between deliberately changing gears occasionally to unsettle the opposition and make ourselves less predictable, and thoughtlessly joining in the fun with a weak holding just for the sake of it).

Online poker‘s fluency, convenience and anonymity are great attractions that have served to power the poker explosion over the last decade or so, but they also contribute to voluntary loose pre-flop play. So used to what amounts to more or less constant action, we don’t seem to be able to resist the temptation, even though we know that playing a patient, tight game will still allow us to get involved in more than enough interesting hands.

Unfortunately loose bets will, over time, have a cumulatively serious negative effect on our prospects – all the more frustrating when we knew we were making all these mistakes in the first place, over and over again. Such a liberal ‘strategy’ is of course compounded when multi-tabling.

This isn’t the first time I’ll return to one of poker’s fundamentals and, moreover, it won’t be the last. If you have a particular problem tightening up in No Limit, I suggest switching to Fixed Limit with a view to exorcising the demon. Without the prospect of catching someone out with our poor hand by striking lucky and getting all-in, the futile, over-optimistic nature of loose pre-flop play is highlighted and the message consequently hits home more readily than is the case in NL.

Good luck at the tables!

Angus Dunnington (AngusD at the 32Red Poker tables)
32Red Poker Ambassador

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No Limit: Can we play a full ring table in short-handed mode?

The answer should really be no, but that isn’t to say we should discount the possibility altogether. In the ‘old’ days, when online poker more mirrored the traditional casino version, full tables were not only considered a good starting point for beginners – as is still the case – but also a more popular choice for experienced players than we see today.

As the game became more tactical and aggressive the 6-max tables saw a considerable gain in popularity, the modern style of getting involved more in the action being the appropriate way of addressing the more frequent blinds.

So-called tighter players prefer to stick to full ring games, which have the additional attraction of being cheaper due to the cost per hand thanks to the ‘longer’ orbit – this might seem insignificant but over many hands makes a big difference. ‘Fewer’ blinds also means that not needing a compensatory loose approach tends to produce less variance and this, in turn, allows us to feel a little more relaxed than might be the case at a 6-max table.

Because there are far more short-handed tables nowadays (as well as heads-up tables, where tight in its literal poker sense simply won’t work), and because short-handed poker is viewed as the more fashionable and exciting game, people tend to discount full ring as an option despite the fact that it might well suit them better. But even if we ultimately end up choosing 6-max there’s something to be said for trying out bigger tables in order to better appreciate such aspects of the game as hand selection and patience. Full ring play also places more emphasis on stronger hands and implied odds.

Furthermore, once we have spent some time on both kinds of table we can return to full ring and exploit the players who are clearly the archetypal tight, conservative, no-risk full ring regulars as well as those who demonstrate little or no experience and are just too loose. It is indeed possible to apply short-handed bullying tactics and (re)steals and so on at a full table, rather than feeling that by definition we must revert to a style of ABC poker that runs the risk of being one-paced.

Poker has evolved enough over the years to afford us some flexibility.

Good luck at the tables!

Angus Dunnington (AngusD at the 32Red tables)
32Red Poker Ambassador

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Chat Box Tells

Chat Box Tells

The subject of so-called ‘tells’ crops up all over television nowadays and is by no means limited to poker coverage. The idea that some kind of uncanny people-reading skill affords you the power to bring criminals to justice is a trendy television theme if Lie to Me and The Mentalist are anything to go by.

Studying tells is indeed very useful when it comes to live poker, but in online poker is there anything to be gained from observing what appears in the chat box? Are certain types of comment or players’ tones of conversation indicative of something we can exploit? Of course there is no definitive guide or table we can refer to, and chat can mean anything or absolutely nothing, but as we gain experience it is true that there are tells to look out for even against invisible opposition.

First, while not being a deep and meaningful tell, the fact that some people constantly chat away with their cyber table talk is perhaps the most reliable giveaway of all. Clearly, if a player is so busy typing while playing, having to switch his gaze from the screen to the keyboard, both making sure his spelling is correct and following what other players are saying (these players don’t like making chat box errors, and need to keep track of who is saying what), then it is safe to say that here we have an opponent who isn’t properly observing the game itself. He may follow those hands he is involved in but can’t be focusing on the rest of the game and, consequently, won’t have noticed a few of our continuation bets, for instance, meaning he will follow up a pre-flop call with a fold to our c-bet unless he has a good hand. Other players’ bluffing tendencies, calls, limping, aggression, passivity and all manner of useful information simply passes the super-chatter by, so as well as being able to directly exploit his play, we might also notice when someone else is trying to do the same. Ironically, some players make a point of chatting all the time to engage other players and generally distract the table, but more often than not this is to the detriment of their own play.

Remember that we shouldn’t get caught up following chat, rather take note of it and then  concentrate on focusing on the game.

Insults and over-reactions are not unusual, the worst being followed up by a poker manager giving a warning that continued abuse will result in a chat ban. Such comments could well be the manifestation of a player’s anger, in which case we simply note that this particular player might not, albeit temporarily, have enough emotional control and that this might subsequently lead to some risky, irrational play not too far in the future. It might also be a completely level-headed attempt to put off the opposition by getting them involved in some heated, lengthy argument about who is the lucky idiot and so on; it could be a bit of both.

It is easy to see which players do allow themselves to be distracted by getting involved, and their play will almost always suffer as a consequence – even if it means they fail to follow the play for a while as they continue to argue their position or comment on someone else’s play/behaviour.

As for the one who started the chat box frenzy, we should keep an eye out for when they suddenly go quiet or tone down their behaviour while they are in a potentially significant pot, because it is likely he now needs his full attention for playing his hand. Note that this doesn’t automatically indicate a strong hand, as it is possible (as would be the case with similar behaviour in a live game) that he is engineering a bluff of some sort and wants to avoid giving something away while chatting. Note that it is more difficult to chat while working out how to present a bluff than it is to simultaneously chat while betting a strong made hand. With this in mind, a player who is happy to chat while contesting a pot tends more often than not to actually have a proper hand.

Of course all this needs a sensible approach when contemplating whether or not this or that player’s chat indicates anything exploitable, and we must remember that with online poker it is much easier to mislead. But by observing certain comments and behaviour and how this relates to actual play we can find useful tells.

And don’t invest so much energy on looking for chat tells that it causes us to lose focus on the game; rather we should quickly note any possibly significant chat (and others’ reactions) and get back to the play.

And it should go without saying that by not getting involved ourselves we are not going to give anything away…

Good luck at the tables!

Angus Dunnington (AngusD)
32Red Poker Ambassador

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Online Poker in the Land of the Free

Online Poker in the Land of the Free

Since the USA’s controversial Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006 the massive number of enthusiasts in the spiritual home of poker have been unable to freely benefit from the global online poker explosion.

But with a fervour that has been compared to that seen during Prohibition, the game’s popularity has continued to stoke the fire of legal, social and moral debate to the point where, while prominent politicians team up with economists and player-driven lobbying organisations, poker also finds itself in the news with stories of Hollywood and sporting megastars allegedly involved in clandestine big money games.

Thus it was not without irony recently that, on the very same day an ‘agreement’ was finally reached regarding the USA’s debt ceiling, the cause of online poker in the land of the free received considerable support from Republican Congressman Michael Grimm.

Grimm was voicing his support for FairPlayUSA, which was set up to educate the public and policymakers with a view to sorting out what at best are very ambiguous laws surrounding online gambling, most notably to establish a framework to facilitate Americans’ right to play online poker. Note that FairPlayUSA is quite different from similar organisations in that it isn’t necessarily looking for UIGEA to be scrapped, rather that federal legislation creates definitions of legal online poker while simultaneously addressing related illegal activities.

In his statement Grimm applauded ‘…the efforts of FairPlayUSA for launching its coalition to combat illegal gambling. As a former FBI agent, I fully support the efforts to create a strong regulatory framework for legal online poker… With many adult online poker players in my District of Staten Island and Brooklyn, I support their right to continue playing.’ Referring to the fundamental issue of online poker’s ability to legally contribute to the economy, he went on to say ‘Together we must fight for the return of quality, good paying jobs to the United States and a strong regulatory framework for legal online poker will contribute to that goal.’

Angus Dunnington (AngusD)
32Red Poker Ambassador

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Anonymous tables: Hand distributions

Anonymous tables: Hand distributions

As predicted, it did not take long after their introduction for Anonymous tables to become very popular at all levels. Indeed this new format, in doing away (by removing everyone’s identity) with players’ being able to use exploitative software such as data mining tools, has revolutionised online poker to return us to a more level playing field.

But this isn’t to say that certain elements of the game such as hand distribution are now completely redundant. With this in mind, those players who have hitherto not involved themselves with poker software – and are thus unlikely to have studied the implications of hand distribution – will improve their game by giving the subject some thought now, even as they sit down at Anonymous tables.

We can use hand distributions to help us decide what to do in specific situations, such as whether/how much to bet/reraise, calling bets on the river, bluffing and so on. And, remember, we must also be aware of our own hand distributions and how our opponents perceive our ranges.

Of course in order to address this part of the game as well as possible on an Anonymous table we need to very closely observe the play, getting into the habit of paying proper attention to the action regardless of whether we’re involved in a hand. Don’t switch off and watch television, for example, every time we fold, as this means missing out on information, all of which is important over time.

The more experience we have, the more we understand about what kind of hands people tend to get involved with, how these ranges (hand distribution) widen as position improves around to the button, and how different styles and personalities lead different players to favour different ranges. Armed with this combination of experience and observation we should be able to get a good enough idea of our opponents’ varying ranges to exploit them accordingly.

When we first sit down it is fair to assign players an initial ‘standard’ hand distribution that we can modify as play develops. Thus a starting point for an under-the-gun (UTG) raise in an unraised pot might be a range of, for instance, AA down to JJ, plus all AK hands and AQs. Then after someone has raised UTG with KQ and, a couple of minutes later, QJ from the same position, we can widen this particular player’s range considerably. If he is opening with QJ, then it is quite probable his range UTG is something along the lines of AA-88, AK-AT, KQ-KT, QJ-QT. While it is important to have as much info as possible in determining plausible hand distributions, we could then put this player on a range for Button raises as wide as AA-55, AK-Ax, KQ-K9, QJ-Q9, JT-J9, T9s-65s.

It shouldn’t take long to learn something useful about players’ ranges, how they act and react within their range, or even that some players give little or no thought to positional considerations when raising pre-flop. Even if accumulating all this information doesn’t succeed in helping us during a given session, the process itself is clearly going to help improve our game as we grow more used to following the action and incorporating an appreciation of hand distribution into our play.

Good luck at the tables!

Angus Dunnington (AngusD)
32Red Poker Ambassador

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Diamond Royale

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The hunt is on for a Royal Flush of diamonds…

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Be the first player to make a diamond Royal Flush and claim the Diamond Royale (DR) progressive jackpot.  Our  DR tournaments are played on the classic game of no-limit Texas Hold’em and offer 1500 starting chips with 10 minute blind levels.  Each game is guaranteed at €150 and costs a tiny €6 + €1 to enter.  While all buyins go towards the game’s prize pool, all tournament fees go towards the DR jackpot which we’ve started off at €500…

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Phil Ivey breaks silence over Full Tilt crisis; files lawsuit against Tiltware.

Phil Ivey breaks silence over Full Tilt crisis; files lawsuit against Tiltware.

After the prolonged and conspicuous silence of a host of big name players sponsored by online poker rooms battling with the US, one of the game’s most recognisable and high profile stars has brought out the proverbial bargepole – in the form of an official press release on his website – with which to distance himself from the problems at Full Tilt.

Not only has he taken a stand on principle, supporting the many players who have been adversely affected by opting out of this summer’s World Series of Poker, he has also set in motion the filing of a lawsuit against Tiltware in relation to these account problems. For such a player to give up his chance of winning the ultimate prize in poker is one thing, but this latter action suggests Ivey is interested in more than merely repairing the damage to his reputation caused by his association with Full Tilt, rather that he is willing to use what influence he has to address what he calls ‘non-action’ regarding player funds.

Here’s the statement in full:

‘For many years, I have been proud to call myself a poker player. This great sport has taken me to places I only imagined going and I have been blessed with much success. It is therefore with deep regret that I believe I am compelled to release the following statement.

I am deeply disappointed and embarrassed that Full Tilt players have not been paid money they are owed. I am equally embarrassed that as a result many players cannot compete in tournaments and have suffered economic harm. I am not playing in the World Series of Poker as I do not believe it is fair that I compete when others cannot. I am doing everything I can to seek a solution to the problem as quickly as possible.

My name and reputation have been dragged through the mud, through the inactivity and indecision of others and on behalf of all poker players I refuse to remain silent any longer. I have electronically filed a lawsuit against Tiltware related to the unsettled player accounts. As I am sure the public can imagine, this was not an easy decision for me.

I whole heartedly refuse to accept non-action as to repayment of players funds and I am angered that people who have supported me throughout my career have been treated so poorly.

I sincerely hope this statement will ignite those capable of resolving the problems into immediate action and would like to clarify that until a solution is reached that cements the security of all players, both US and International, I will, as I have for the last six weeks, dedicate the entirety of my time and efforts to finding a solution for those who have been wronged by the painfully slow process of repayment.’

It will be interesting to see in what way, if any, other top names follow Ivey’s lead.

Angus Dunnington
32Red Poker Ambassador

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No Limit Cash Games: When it’s time to leave

No Limit Cash Games: When it’s time to leave

After recently discussing the importance of table selection and some key factors and situations we should be looking for to find optimum playing conditions, it’s a good idea to think about when we should leave a table – regardless of how good it might have looked at some point.

The beauty of online poker is how the vast number of games constantly on the go affords us the luxury of being able to pick and choose what is best for us, so there’s no point hanging around if for whatever reason the playing conditions conspire against us.

One good reason to seek pastures new is when we have managed to win quite a bit of money. Of course this in itself certainly isn’t cause to stand up as the aim when we sat down was to do just that. But if it becomes apparent that the players we have been winning from have started to change how they play, with their adjustments resulting in a definite, unfavourable shift in the mechanics of the game, then our perfect conditions are no longer there, and it’s time to acknowledge that we’ve got as much as we could out of the table, and leave. That was then, and this is now; it’s simply no longer the same table (in fact, by now, we are attracting attention for the wrong reasons, and we could even call it a poor table).

Like it or not, there’s a chance we find a great table that ticks all the desirable boxes, sit down at the perfect seat relative to the important players/stacks, and then despite our best efforts proceed to get completely outplayed. If we keep seeing our ostensibly strong hands being beaten by even better ones, grow increasingly frustrated when opponents drop out of the race too early when we have very strong hands (thus ‘cheating’ us out of money) and are generally finding the game tough going, perhaps folding when we feel we should have stayed in or being intimidated into not betting enough and so on, then we’re probably on a table where the others are playing a better game. Rather than learn a lesson the hard way, we should just leave, analyse what happened and improve for the experience.

While some players either fail to notice these two ‘problems’ or (worse) ignore them and stubbornly refuse to find a new table, these are nevertheless pretty fundamental factors that help us make the decision to leave.

A more subtle scenario is one that crops up quite early in the game. This is when we make a few plays that are sufficiently conspicuous – and poor – to give us an undesirable table image. For example, during the first orbit we raise preflop on the button, get a single caller, make the standard continuation bet on a random (missed) flop in response to a check, are faced with a hefty reraise and duly fold. The very same thing then happens a few hands later. During the first couple of orbits we also see our poorly timed bluff on the river called, pay too much for a failed draw and limp a couple of times out of position before calling a raise and check-folding the flop. It might be possible to turn what is clearly an awful table image to our advantage with the ingenuity of a Bond villain, but in reality we have severely damaged our prospects. The table need not be collectively strong to use this information, everyone will play with more confidence against us and we won’t have the influence we were hoping for. We have made a good table unplayable within a few minutes’ play! Bad news, and the sooner we leave the better.

Remember there will always be other tables just waiting to be found and, if we keep feeling that we have to leave what was initially a good game, then perhaps the most sensible option is to take a break and return refreshed, in a more positive frame of mind.

Good luck at the tables!

AngusD
32Red Poker Ambassador

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No Limit Cash Games: Table Selection

No Limit Cash Games: Table Selection

Some players don’t even bother spending time on table selection but in neglecting this vital part of the game are losing an edge (or giving additional edge to the opposition) before they’ve even seen any cards. It doesn’t take long to make these necessary preparations, which should become habit if we are to make the best of our time at the tables.

Different players prefer different conditions, depending on style, stack size, expected table image and so on, so the main aim when we first log on and are looking to sit down at a cash game is not only finding a good table, but also a good seat (sitting in the wrong place relative to the key players clearly reduces the ‘quality’ – to us – of the table).

Typically (let‘s assume, for example, that we play with at least a 60% stack), having found a table with plenty of action (decent average pot and players per flop figures), we should look at the position of any available seats relative to the varying stack sizes. Ideally, we want position on medium to high stacks and loose/aggressive players, as sitting to the left of the big stacks simply means we have position on the money (chips tend to flow clockwise around the table), and having position on very loose/maniac players allows us to essentially ‘hide’ behind their bets. Note, on the other hand, that sitting to the right of a maniac means we can see how the rest of the table responds before play reaches us, thus affording us trapping opportunities (basically, there’s more than one way to exploit these players); but giving such a player position also means they can disrupt our game.

Of course we can’t have position on everyone, so we don’t mind sitting to the right of a short stack or a particularly tight player because either they won‘t be throwing much money around or won’t be getting involved too much.

Once these observations have helped us find a suitable seat, we should then closely follow the game to see who tends to do what. Who raises liberally, and how do they continue on the flop? Who doesn’t raise enough? Do some play differently depending on position? Do players seem to have no appreciation of position? Are there multiple limpers? Who limps too much, and then folds to even the slightest show of aggression on the flop? Who calls too many raises? Who limps and still calls a raise with mediocre hands? The more we find out the better, and the more we are justified in choosing this table.

Meanwhile, make a conscious effort to keep in mind how others might be looking for the same clues in our own play, in which case we must be aware of how we are perceived based on certain plays, and use this to best establish our ideal table image.

Good luck at the tables (once you have selected one properly…)

AngusD

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