Wise Guys Results (21st – 27th Nov)

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!

Why We Lose at Poker (2)

Here are more reasons why we lose at poker. As I always say, these are all rather obvious yet we seem to break our own rules and guidelines rather easily. Let’s try to make a new start by being as sensible as possible at the tables…

Position

Position, position, position. Position. This is certainly one of the aspects of the game we know about but with which we take terrible liberties.

Good position, clearly, means late position. As one of the last players to act after the flop we see how the opposition plays first and can use this vital information accordingly when it’s our turn; ideally we want to be the dealer/button so that we are last of all to act.

It follows that the better position we have the better reads we get and, in turn, the more flexibility in terms of starting hands. Being armed with the information afforded us by having position allows us to play more hands, with more aggression, than when in early position.

DO NOT carelessly play based only on the cards, with no consideration for position. Position is everything.

Too Loose, You Lose

Yet another poker sin we all knowingly commit. Premium starting hands are thus called for a reason – they are the ones we should limit ourselves to playing, rather than finding something magical in hands like K4 suited or T7. Getting into the habit of automatically limping in with poor hands and then having to let go when the poor pre-flop hand is still awful post-flop (or – worse – stubbornly refusing to give up) will cost a lot of money in the long-run.

Limiting yourself to playing a range along the lines of, for example, pocket pairs (how small should depend on the situation), AK, AQ, AJ/T suited, KQ in late position and suited connectors, while folding everything else pre-flop, should keep you sufficiently entertained as well as considerably reduce unnecessary cumulative losses.

Odds

Poker might be gambling, but at least we are able to make decisions armed with true numbers in the form of odds. This knowledge, and using it optimally, is imperative to success in poker. If you haven’t yet acquainted yourself with both card odds and pot odds (weighing up the odds of making a hand with the potential reward) you are not doing yourself justice and are undoubtedly wasting money! Fortunately, 32Red Poker is at hand – visit Pot Odds + Card Odds = Winners to improve your game.

Bluffing

While bluffing seems so exciting on television, this poker art has the nasty habit of backfiring. Note also that with the arrival of Anonymous tables we will see quite a bit more bluffing, so be careful not to get carried away. One good reason to think twice before bluffing at the lower levels is that your opponents probably won’t appreciate odds enough to know when they are ‘beaten’ and will therefore not back down. Folding isn’t fun, so they prefer to stay in with a chance of winning even with mediocre hands. Bluffing in good position is obviously better than in early position because there is much more information with which to make decisions.

Remember not to bluff too much as this will be exploited by observant players.

Money Management

Simply play within the limits of your bankroll if you want to avoid disaster. Never sit down with more than 5% of your bankroll, for instance (or be even more prudent if you prefer). Start at low levels or tournament buy-ins while building up experience, otherwise by the time you’re really beginning to appreciate more about various aspects of the game you won’t be able to put your knowledge into practice!

Patience and prudence.
Good luck!

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

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Related Articles

• Why we lose at poker (Part 1)
• Why we lose at poker (Part 2)

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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Wise Guys Results (14th – 20th Nov)

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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Satellite and Sit & Go Strategy Revisited

Having seen some pretty drastic approaches in both sit & go and satellites recently I thought we should have a few reminders about how we might try to weave our way through the one-table jungle…

First, the desperate all-or-nothing factor inspires some players to go into do or die mode at the earliest opportunity, jumping into pots with big bets to pick up not very much in blinds, tempting fate at a full table of unknown hole cards in the process. This works every now and then but is certainly not the best way to skin this particular rabbit. Assuming such aggression earns a couple of hundred chips to add to an original stack of 2000, for instance, then what is this gain worth in practical terms when we take the potential risk into account? The answer is very little when a full table of players remains. There is simply no point getting too busy when the blinds are at their lowest. Note that it is perfectly acceptable to try the occasional value (speculative) mini-gamble early as the rewards can be considerable and the investment is so low that the hand is easy to get away from when nothing hits. This is quite different from over-betting with a view to netting meagre rewards (and in a way that involves being effectively pot-committed). Remember that we have to (typically) steal seven or eight lots of blinds at level one to earn the same amount as one steal at a higher level.

Of course there is nothing wrong with some kind of tempered aggression that might succeed in both picking up a few blinds and establishing a not-to-be-messed with table image that can be exploited later, and some experienced players manage (more than their fair share of the time) to gradually bully their way to first with apparent ease. But all the time this kind of player accumulates chips and works through the gears while making sure he doesn’t put too much of his stack in jeopardy.

It follows, then, that survival is a major consideration even in these circumstances, and the target should be to remain in the running so that, when the field has been narrowed down to, say, three or four, we are in with a shout and ready to step up a gear or three. By now it is likely that someone – for one reason or another – has become a runaway chip leader, but as long as we have enough chips with which to get involved, the all-important top place(s) will still be up for grabs.

Additionally, as the game progresses we should be able to get some kind of read about the remaining players – does anyone seem unable to adapt to the changing situation, for example; is the chip leader afraid to risk his position or is he more interested in seeing other players get eliminated? We should start to throw chips around at this stage as the blinds are too big to either ignore or to fail to defend, while we should also remember that the short(er) stacks are more likely to be taking chances to double up with virtually any two hole cards, so gunning for their chips with a decent holding is a fair option.

If we manage to get heads-up, then being second of two with 20% of the chips on the table is a far better prospect than being second of five with 25%. We’ve got to be (still) in it to win it, remember, and even from a 20%-80% chip distribution it takes only two all-in wins for a role-reversal.

Satellites can be the route to potentially big rewards or a means of saving money in buy-ins for bigger tournaments, so it is worth having a good think about them and approaching them sensibly, with a good mix of safety and increasing aggression – not forgetting putting ourselves in the opposition’s shoes as we approach the business end…

Good luck at the tables!

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

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A missed flop isn’t a missed pot

Too many players tend to lose interest and be too willing to simply give up the hunt more or less automatically when they miss the flop. But seeing three cards appear that have absolutely no relation to our own doesn’t necessarily mean we must miss out on the opportunity to win whatever the pot has to offer.

Instead we should weigh up how the flop might have affected other players, consider what they perceive to be our role in the hand and any other relevant factors and make a decision accordingly as to whether we should indeed fold to aggression or take a stab. Even if we conclude that it’s not worth it this time, at least the process itself helps us improve our analytical ability as well as gain a useful understanding of what the other players are up to – information is key, and we can expect to pick up something that could prove crucial in a later hand. Taking every ‘poor’ flop as an excuse to surf the web or be otherwise distracted, breaking off only to fold, is a luxury we can’t afford, the cumulative effect being to seriously handicap our game (and thus our bankroll).

Incidentally, while multi-tabling is all the rage, and when done properly offers up increased profits and so on, if it takes up so much time that we feel practically forced to fold away missed flops without the chance to have a proper look, then it might be worth scaling down the operation so that we are able to actually think (if only until we are better able to carry out this and other aspects of the game, at which point we can add tables).

Obviously some missed flops are better than others. If we put in a pre-flop raise on the button with QsJs and bring along three other players to see a flop of 7h 7d 6h, then chances are we are neither ahead nor likely to be ahead as the hand progresses. If it’s checked round to us it could well be that anyone who caught some or more of the flop is just waiting for our continuation bet before pouncing, so we should check and see what comes next. This is a bad flop/situation to get involved in but learning why nevertheless helps us improve.

On the other hand, the same pre-flop button raise with the same hand but with only one caller and a flop featuring 9s 2h 6d is a different prospect entirely. This time we should bet out and, most of the time, we will pick up the pot. It is very unlikely that our opponent was only calling with an overpair, and we’ll know immediately that they have something if they remain in the hand – assuming we make a proper sized bet (at least 2/3 pot, preferably closer to 3/4). Lazily checking a missed flop in this kind of scenario is a poker sin that will result in the chips heading in the wrong direction much of the time.

Good luck at the tables!

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

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Wise Guys Results (7th – 13th Nov)

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 Guys weekly competition. Have fun at the tables and good luck this week!

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Backraising (but don’t overdo it!)

Backraising is when we call a pre-flop raise with the intention of responding to another raise by re-raising. This particular play – very similar to the check-raise in that we deliberately hold our fire until our (re-)raise can bring with it more impact – is seen increasingly often nowadays, and we come across it more as we gain experience and spend more time at the tables with more seasoned, tricky players.

We can use different tools for different purposes, but typically the backraise is deployed as a weapon against players who like to 3-bet liberally and squeeze play practitioners. The reasoning is that these players will have wider than usual ranges within which they use these tactics, so if we hold something like JJ, for example, we can expect to be ahead of their range and would therefore like to exploit this advantage as much as we can. The mechanics of the hand will be as follows: we call a standard pre-flop raise in the cut-off with JJ in the knowledge that our neighbour on the button has been busy applying the pressure with 3-bets and squeezes. The button obliges, the initial raiser (out of position to two potential opponents) elects to stand aside and we throw more fuel on the fire with a sizeable reraise. The desired result will be either that we are heads-up with what will usually be the stronger hand, or the 3-bettor will also fold. Note that this latter scenario nets us a bigger prize for our efforts than had we simply reraised initially, which would give the button (and the raiser) reasons to fold. Furthermore, by backraising we present the button with the opportunity to incorrectly continue the raising war by shoving with a lesser pair.

Additionally, should nobody take the bait so that we end up seeing the flop heads-up against the initial raiser, then the positive for us here is being in position for the rest of the action with a reasonably well disguised good hand.

Obviously this specific play can’t be rolled out too much because we don’t want our opponents to pick up on our habit and severely punish us, and it’s something that also needs a decent ability to read table dynamics and players’ tendencies if we are to execute it effectively. But with some practice – a ‘free’ way to learn is by watching strong players, as this tactic will crop up sooner or later – we can use the backraise to get players out of their comfort zone, induce them to invest more in hands that are weaker than ours, enhance our table image (in that using this strategy a little is better than too much or not at all) and generally keep everyone on their toes.

Good luck at the tables!

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

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