Fixed Limit: The Big Blind

How best to handle our BB is always tricky, regardless of the format we’re playing, although some games are easier than others. In the case of a NL cash game, for example, the pre-flop raise can be big enough to make folding an easy decision, but in FL the betting cap means that subsequent pot odds are more significant in the BB. Consequently calling with non-premium hands can offer decent value. The trick in making the best of this awkward position is to be on the lookout for opportunities to turn our BB situation around to our advantage.

While I advocate getting used to folding what tend to end up as lost causes, it helps to recognise, for instance, the NL-style Button raisers so that we can try to turn the tables on them by calling and then putting them under pressure on the flop.

Incidentally we often read about ‘defending’ the blinds and so on but, from a psychological perspective, I think it’s preferable to approach this kind of situation, when faced in the BB with a pre-flop raise from the Button (and nobody else left in the hand), to see a call itself as an act of aggression. The point is not to be passive but to assume the initiative. And remember that taking such a stand costs us little.

Let’s say we are in the BB on a €0.20/0.40 short-handed FL table. It’s folded round to the Button, who seems to be have been making more than his fair share of raises, and does so again; the SB folds. The pot now stands at €0.70 (3.5 ‘small bets’), and we need to invest only one more small bet of €0.20 to see the flop. Thus we are getting odds of 3.5/1 to lock horns with the raiser. Notice that our actual starting hand is not a critical factor here, rather the attractive odds and the dynamics of the scenario.

Against this type of player – whose primary aim is to steal the blinds without a fight – we are simply looking for the kind of flop that misses even a generous raising range of starting hands, so something like 2c 5d 7h is ideal and thus ripe for the taking. As far as a Button holding such as Ac Ts is concerned, not only is this a useless flop, but of course we could have gone along for a cheap ride with anything. Apart from the fact that our random holding could well have connected here we might anyway have been calling with a better hand than AT.

As long as we have a solid table image we are in a perfect position to take the pot now with a decent sized bet, while there is also the more adventurous option of a check-raise (but remember checking offers a free card). Essentially we are using the psychology of the situation (based on what we have observed about this player thus far, as well as our perceived table image) to transform a random BB pre-flop call into a steal by – in this case – representing mediocre hole cards when the rags flop misses the raiser.

As with many things in life, this kind of play should be used selectively and not habitually, but it is the richness of poker that enables us to maximise profitable situations from the collective employment of such luxuries. As usual, experience helps, so don’t automatically call in the BB, but don’t automatically fold, either.

Good luck at the tables!

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

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Wise Guys Results (26th Dec – 1st Jan)

Win at the 32Red Poker cash tables and you may qualify for even more cash rewards with our Wise Guys weekly leaderboards. Yes, we reward our biggest winners at 32Red Poker and we reward them well, with over $1,000 in prizes every week!

Congratulations to last week’s prize winners…

32Red’s Wise Guys

32Red Poker rewards loyalty, and winners – so if you’re a winning player, don’t be shy and try out our Wise Guysweekly competition. Have fun at the tables and good luck this week!

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No Limit: Do the strong hands win the biggest pots?

It’s easy to assume that the best hands must win most money but this is not the case in No Limit poker. Indeed ‘strong’ hands can lead us into a lot of trouble. Note that in a Limit game with a holding of AK we would almost always be willing to go the distance after flopping top pair on a board such as K83, the point being that we’re never going to lose an enormous pot.

With the same hand and flop in a NL game, however, considerable aggression from the opposition should set alarm bells ringing because the potential downside is limited only by stack sizes – we could lose whatever we have on the table in one hand.

Let’s have a look at a selection of holdings and what kind of hands/pots they tend to win.

Starting with the dream holdings like aces and kings, we are far more likely to win a pot when we have an overpair than when we get lucky on the flop. This is because with AA on a flop of A93, for instance, we are rarely going to be up against someone with the remaining ace and, consequently, will either be way too strong to tempt in lesser hands or perhaps find ourselves in a critical race against a draw.

Small pocket pairs, on the other hand, are a different animal and much easier to play. With a holding of 44 the flop will typically either see us catch a well disguised monster that could net us a big reward (for example on a flop of A94) or leave us with our modest duo with a flop featuring overcards (and a prudent fold round the corner).

Unpaired but strong holdings such as AK are awkward. If we hit top pair it can be difficult to judge to what extent we should commit, while even missing is by no means clear-cut as Big Slick, for example, would like to see the turn and river. Obviously other factors come into play such as how many people see the flop, stack sizes and so on, but this kind of holding looks good but can be problematic.

 
Meanwhile, suited connectors (and even the likes of 86s), are similar to small pairs in that it is usually pretty clear once the flop has arrived to see how best to continue the hand – we’ll either get a juicy flop that gives us a ready-made hand or a draw or we’ll miss completely.

Generally, it’s well worth keeping in mind – especially for those players switching from Limit to No Limit – that top pairs and overpairs are limited in terms of what they will win while effectively ‘limitless’ when it comes to losing. We won’t be able to bring along with us too many lesser hands but always run the risk of paying off stronger hands that we often see only once the damage has been done – hence the ability to fold in the face of big bets being an imperative part of a strong player’s armoury. Experienced players are well aware that pairs win small pots and lose big ones.

Good luck at the tables!

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

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32 Days of Poker!

We might have been bemoaning the fact that as far as shops and television ads are concerned Christmas seems to start earlier and earlier every year, but at least we know that with 32Red Poker we’re in for some tasty treats once December arrives.

Until January 1st, each day brings at least one Christmas surprise, from free money (the present we all like but dare not ask for) for racking up Redbacks, to freerolls, added-value tournaments, free tickets and an assortment of other goodies.

Whether it’s Christmas cheer we’re after in the shape of Survivor tournaments with a buy-in of one cent(!), Multiplicity events that require just a single raked hand in the previous seven days(!!) to enter or the ever popular Everyone’s a Bounty events at €5 + €0.50, these are far better things to find in our Christmas stocking than the usual fare of chocolate coins and a few nuts…

The main event to make a note of in the festive diary is the Goodbye 2011 €5,000 Freeroll, which starts at 9pm on Tuesday 27^th December – perfectly timed for when the usual Christmas ‘fun’ has started to wind down – and resumes for those still in contention on Wednesday 28^th at 9pm. With a nice and sober set up of a 5000-chip starting stack and 20 minute blind levels, this will offer us an opportunity – safe in the knowledge that there’ll be plenty food and drink left over – to settle down to some ‘proper’ poker, with enough poor souls still recovering from the previous days to donate enough to maintain a healthy virtual pile…

To see 32Red’s Poker Tree click HERE and get clicking on the baubles to see what’s on offer…

Good luck at the tables!

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

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Heads Up Sit & Go Strategy

While Sit & Go tournaments offer an exciting, one-table competitive experience that don’t take too much time (meaning we can play a number of them in one session), it’s possible to step up a gear or three for the even more thrilling ride of the heads up S&G.

These differ significantly from HU cash, remember, in that the blinds increase – and at quite a pace when we consider that hands just whiz by, and we’re involved in every single one of them. The trick, in an ideal world, is to bamboozle the opposition in every department. We need to be crafty, tricky, manipulative and pretty fearless (as opposed to reckless!).

With only the one opponent it follows that this format can be rather rewarding if we are fortunate enough to be up against opponents who don’t perform as well as we do and, with this in mind, the more we think about strategy and the more experience we rack up the more successful we’ll become. Variance can obviously be cruel in this particular game but that shouldn’t put anyone off making the effort if they feel more suited to this gladiatorial battle than its less cut-throat relations.

‘Mastering’ post-flop play is absolutely essential as we need to exploit players’ passivity and be prepared to bluff much more than is called for in other games. Indeed approaching a HU S&G with too conservative a strategy just won’t do. We will get our fingers burnt but, in the long-run, the key to being a winning player will be determined by our ability to play the critical hands well with a view to at least gaining a decisive lead.

Loose-aggressive is the way to go, in terms of both style and attitude, but we also need to be able to adapt quickly to what’s coming from the other side of the table while simultaneously trying deny the opposition useful reads on our own play.

Against tight players the way to gain the initiative is to raise pre-flop and post-flop (not being afraid to get busy out of position), double/triple-barrel and generally apply constant pressure – at least for as long as we can get away with it. It’s not unusual to get our own way and emerge with the much bigger stack, which in turn affords us the opportunity to widen our range and thus increase the likelihood of hitting a well disguised monster.

Conversely, against loose players it’s necessary to tighten up, letting go of unpromising hands and being aggressive with decent aces, pairs and suited connectors, mixing in opening aggression post-flop with check-raises.

Position is at least as important here as other formats as being in position affords us a continual advantage in 50% of all hands. Remember that continuation bets need succeed only a third of the time to break even. We should raise a lot pre-flop in position to deny the opposition value limps and build juicy pots that we are perfectly placed (in position!) to steal on the turn or river.

There is obviously a great deal more to heads up Sit & Go play but the points here form the foundations on which an effective strategy is based.

Good luck at the tables!

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

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Making a stand against bluffers

We are all prone, unfortunately, to providing others with ways of taking our money. Obviously we should be working hard to constantly evaluate our play and determine to keep leaks and mistakes to a minimum.

But some players are rude enough to steal our money through bluffing us out of a pot. Is this not our fault because we are being prudent in folding, or another weakness in our play in that we don’t do enough to combat steals?

The good news is that we are able to trap these players, and another weapon in our armoury is putting up enough of a fight to prevent them from messing with our game so that they pick on someone else or even move on for pastures new. It’s a nice feeling to catch out a bluffer and some players actively seek them out but, in the main, they are a nuisance, and we can concentrate our efforts in exploiting other kinds of players so fighting our corner is a good strategy.

It’s not too difficult to identify bluffers, who probably prefer to call themselves ‘loose aggressive’ players. They are the ones who can’t resist peppering the pot with bets they hope are big enough to scare everyone off. This can work out well for us sometimes, but can be more than an inconvenience, for example when we have a marginal holding or when their throwing money around interferes with how we were planning to approach a hand.

The problem most players have when wondering how to address bluffers is that taking a stand requires a certain leap of faith. But the longer we dither and fail to act the longer our own strategies are disrupted – indeed if we can’t properly respond we’re better off leaving and finding a table where we can operate, but this, of course, isn’t the right attitude.

One advantage of having a table image tight enough to attract bluffers is that when we do elect to hit back at them they are more likely to believe us. At some point we should allow them to bluff and, preferably with a hand that has some kind of positive relation to the board (numerous outs, for example), raise big enough to turn the tables and force them out of the pot. Note that there’s no point doing this for the prize of a small pot.

Once might be enough, but generally a bluffer will soon get the message and, fingers duly burnt, leave us alone. The point of their game is to steal pots, and when we have established that we are not to be messed with they won’t take the risk any more. This also enables us to better read them when, after backing off, they do get involved.

The desired result is that by demonstrating the steel to fight our corner we get to play the type of game we want while disrupting someone else in the process. Getting our own way and frustrating others is a key part of the game.

Good luck at the tables!

Angus Dunnington (AngusD at the 32Red 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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A common mistake on the river

One of the problems with poker is that, when we try to adhere to this or that guideline and introduce into our armoury more ways of playing, if we fail to read situations properly our action instead becomes a mistake rather than a money earner.

One such common error is throwing in a raise on the river because we convinced ourselves we were way ahead, or making unnecessary would-be ‘value’ bets, calling big bets/raises and generally being unable to acknowledge that we are beaten.

For example if we raised in position pre-flop with a hand like AsKs and get a lone caller we run the risk of overestimating our chances on a ragged board that features an ace. Let’s say the flop comes Ac 4s 9d, our opponent checks and we make a ¾ pot bet that is called. The turn brings the 2d, we are checked to again and we bet roughly ¾ pot, with another call. The 4c appears on the river but this time, instead of checking, the opponent bets around 1/7^th of the pot. Given the way the hand has panned out thus far we figure that a possible holding could be an ace with a weaker kicker so we see this as an opportunity to extract some additional value, raising to triple the bet… After a slight pause we see a call followed by the chips heading away from us because all this time we have been up against 4d 6d. Thus the result of our attempting to earn a little extra did succeed in making a bigger pot, albeit one that we didn’t get to collect – we made our opponent some cash!

This is easily done, especially in view of how we assumed the initiative right from the beginning. A very similar mistake is when the hand follows the same path and we bet the river when checked to and call a raise with what turns out to be the worst hand.

It is an imperative to continually reassess during a hand so that we can make more realistic evaluations, ideally picking up warning signs along the way that help facilitate the decision making process. In this case our opponent check-calling considerable bets should serve as a wake-up call and alert us to the fact that we may well be holding second best despite our strong looking hand. When the board pairs, incidentally, the alarm bells should be at their loudest. At least then we can avoid falling into traps. It makes more sense to just call these bets and check out rather than expose ourselves to bad situations – remember that raising/betting with a pair on the river tends only to be called by a better hand.

Generally, a dangerous looking board and an opponent who wakes up (or checks after check-calling big bets) need treating with respect.

Good luck at the tables!

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

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Adjusting Play

Yet another comparison between poker and life (no apologies) is that we need to learn how to adjust to changing circumstances. We might have read here and there that it is important to mix up our play a little (note that this article is aimed at No Limit). This should indeed be something we are willing to do, but making deliberate adjustments is more important – and effective – than randomly altering our game.

The latter tactic, for all but the more experienced players, can often confuse the player wielding the weapon more than those it is directed against.

Adjusting play after getting a feel of the dynamics of a table and any habits and weaknesses (not forgetting strengths!) of the opposition, on the other hand, has specific aims and thus more achievable results.

If it becomes evident that there are more players than is usual limping and calling raises pre-flop we should tighten up a little if we have also been loose, instead betting strongly with premium hands as we are likely to be called and thus able to build a pot. Conversely, once we have been able to establish that we are in a tight game we can exploit the situation by widening our range and stepping up a gear or two.

Passive players prone to folding at the first hint of trouble should be mercilessly put under pressure, and usually avoided when they wake up with bold bets. Against players like this who are really tight we should also start playing with suited connectors and small pairs because, when we hit monsters, they are not going to let their big pairs and other strong made hands go. Extra-aggressive players also require us to adjust, ideally with a view to trapping them.

Of course we’re dealing here with adjustments rather than sudden, drastic, inconspicuous 180-degree shifts in how we bet and so on, and clearly these need to be made with our own table image in mind. We are not going to trap these players with an out-of-character play that sets off alarm bells. After a long enough period during which we have set out our stall such that opponents might find aspects of our play predictable, it’s time to craftily make a few changes that will ultimately give them a nasty shock.

If we have gone quiet, then choosing to return to battle by raising with a marginal or speculative hand – rather than a strong one – is a good, tricky play that can reap big rewards on uneventful flops. Noticeable aggression on our part – with a wide hand range – can be gradually stripped down.

The important thing to remember is that a game ebbs and flows, and we must learn how to make appropriate changes that maximise our chances. As we gain experience it becomes possible to anticipate these shifts so that we can engineer adjustments with maximum effect. Blindly continuing with the same approach regardless of what is going on around us is a recipe for disaster!

Good luck at the tables!

Angus Dunnington
32Red Poker Ambassador  

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Don’t Min-Raise!

In a recent article about bet sizing we looked at how it is important to make sure we put in bets that are big enough to do the job in order to extract value from our strong hands, force the opposition to pay for draws, get information and so on. As well as feeling uncomfortable when making 3/4 pot bets, for example, many players have the same problem when it comes to raising so, to push the point home that we need to take the bull by the horns, this time we will look at what is wrong with the minimum raise.

First and foremost, if the point of the raise is to build a pot that we believe we have a good chance of winning, then we are missing out on value. Indeed if we are in the habit of doing this at every betting juncture, then the cumulative difference between the small pots we’re winning and the bigger pots we should be building is going to hold us back in our quest to progress. Big hands need big raises.

With a min-raise we are often committing a poker sin in that, instead of being the aggressor and taking the initiative, we are actually doing opponents a favour in many situations by helping them out with favourable pot odds for draws. If by raising too passively we are pricing someone in to overtake us then this is a serious leak in our game, and when it does happen it’s certainly due to poor play rather than bad luck. Moreover, we need to apply pressure with big raises to also take into account implied odds, so only slightly increasing a min-raise isn’t enough. (Note that with each successive call of a min-raise opponents are getting increasingly favourable odds).

Finally, apart from these numerical reasons to avoid the min-raise, it’s also a particular mistake pre-flop with a monster because, nowadays, with so many more experienced, thinking players around, it’s very likely when we believe we are being clever with premium hands (namely AA and KK) that we are in fact doing the opposite and instead ‘showing’ our cards.

The problem is that a min-raise isn’t intended to win the pot there and then, which means that opponents can effectively discount hands such as 10 10, AQ and AJ – holdings which, if we aren’t just calling with, we would prefer to play more aggressively – as well as small pairs, with which we’d like to see flops cheaply. Meanwhile, we are hardly going to be bluffing with a min-raise, either. All things considered, our min-raise essentially indicates aces or kings (this kind of bet doesn’t help QQ), so our logic has backfired. Poker might be a tricky game but often the obvious play is the best play; if we really must be crafty in this pre-flop situation we would be better off just calling to disguise our hand.

Generally, avoid the min-raise.

Good luck at the tables!

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

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