Wise Guys Results (30th Jan – 5th Feb)

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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Fixed Limit: Know When to Hold’em, Know When to Fold’em… Part 2

Having considered in Part 1 that folding isn’t a sin, now we turn to making a stand.

Here is a typical scenario. We have AJ, raise pre-flop with three callers and the flop comes QJ2 (rainbow). We then react to checks with a bet and are met with a raise, which everyone calls. The turn brings a 6, the other two players fold to the raiser’s bet, and it’s decision time…

Eight small bets pre-flop, eight more on the flop and the current big bet total 18 small bets thus far. It is quite possible that the raiser has a stronger hand, so folding is an option. Is there an argument for calling all the way to the showdown? Well, yes.

Calling here and on the river costs four small bets and will generate a final showdown pot of 24 small bets. Consequently we would need to win this pot 1/6 of the time to justify staying in. Unless our opponent has a hand such as QJ or AQ, for example, then we typically have five outs in the form of the remaining aces and jacks. This equates to only a 1/8 chance of picking up the pot by making the draw which, usually, will not happen when the river card appears.

But we call a bet on the river anyway because at the turn we factored in the very realistic possibility that the opponent was bluffing, was betting a failed draw or was even (poorly) trying to protect his own pair of jacks with a lower kicker.

Too many players incorrectly fold because, apart from not wanting to ‘waste’ chips when prospects of winning the pot seem slim, they want to avoid the embarrassment of being seen ‘foolishly’ gifting chips to the winning hand.

Folding on the river in this example is a big mistake as it fails to adhere to the imperative conclusion to the play, and could well be a case of a pair of jacks donating a 23 bet pot to a hand like king high.

Folding on the river is obviously correct if a flush draw, for example, has missed, or if a raising war between two or three players indicates that we are beaten, but there are many situations in which folding is a terrible play. By all means we fold the many times when a miracle is needed, but if we are prepared to continue with a decent hand for one last bet it makes potentially profitable decisions easier to arrive at.

Making a stand on the river doesn’t require us to walk on water…

Good luck at the tables!

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

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Fixed Limit: Know When to Hold’em, Know When to Fold’em… Part 1

That’s how the song goes, and it’s pretty good advice, of course. Many Fixed Limit players – particularly at the lower limit tables – see the ‘f’ of fixed as meaning ‘friendly’ or ‘fun’ because the betting structure affords them the opportunity to see more flops and subsequent betting stages with average or mediocre hands.

This can collectively lead to the strongest early hand being overtaken if several players go along for what they consider to be a cheap ride and one of them hits (the so-called ‘schooling’ scenario). However, chasing very long shots is generally not a good idea, especially against a small field. Unfortunately for too many players, ‘fun’ has a much more attractive ring to it than the key poker f-word: FOLD.

Folding is a fundamental part of every successful player’s armoury. In fact the first decision we are presented with (pre-flop) is whether or not to fold and, in many cases, that is exactly what we should do.

Playing or folding when the flop comes should be a fairly simple decision, but then comes the turn, which tends to be a critical point of the hand. Calling here – assuming our hand is strong – could subsequently mean calling on the river, which means throwing another two big bets (four small bets) into the pot. Consider this when weighing up the pros and cons, as a turn and river call after single pre-flop and flop raises (four small bets) would mean doubling the investment thus far.

But now that I have championed the cause of happy folding, don’t be afraid to call, either.. we’ll discuss this in Part 2.

Good luck at the tables!

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

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Wise Guys Results (23rd – 29th January)

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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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 (16th – 22nd January)

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: It isn’t ‘the more the merrier’ for hands like AJ

Some people ‘like’ some hands more than others, and it is not unusual to see players grow attached to certain types of holding and be willing to gamble with them, while dismissing others. We often use AK and medium pairs in examples of what might happen with this or that starting hand, but in determining a range when looking for effective strategies – and in order to better understand other players – it pays to spend some time investigating how other hands fare.

Acquainting ourselves with the values of hole cards in relation to what the opposition might be holding is always an interesting exercise, as it can be surprising to learn how the odds of winning a pot at the showdown alter as circumstances change.

One striking feature of multi-table tournament play (also applicable to a 10-player Sit & Go) is the over-playing of holdings that feature an ace with a decent looking kicker. Let’s take AJ as an example. Put this in a simulation with most hands and it will be the favourite, and this seems enough for most would-be aggressive types to jump in all guns blazing even when there is no guarantee that the pot will be contested by the minimum number of players.

These same players, on the other hand, view suited connectors as too speculative. Putting together, for instance, As Jc and 8h 9h in a heads-up all the way to the showdown, sees the AJ a fairly decent favourite at 58.5% approximately. But now if we throw a third holding into the mix, in this example 5d 5c, we have a new set of expected winning percentages: As Jc at 36.1%, 8h 9h at 34.7% and 5d 5c certainly not too far behind at 29.2%. Clearly, prospects don’t look anywhere near as rosy for the player with the ace, who is now only marginally more likely to pick up the pot than the initial underdog 8h 9h, while the pair of fives is also in with a fighting chance. Things get even worse for the AJ with the addition of Ad 4d, the suited ace being another hand that is typically an attractive one to the ace worshippers. Of course the extra ace has a significant impact on proceedings, giving us 8h 9h at 34.9%, As Jc at 26.4%, 5d 5c at 25.6% and Ad 4d trailing behind (but still breathing) at 13.1%.

One valuable lesson here is that a holding featuring an ace becomes increasingly vulnerable with each additional opponent, which does appear to be stating the obvious, but is nevertheless ignored or insufficiently respected by those who think nothing of going all-in with AJ, for example, regardless of position or the number of players still to bet.

An understanding of the maths is indeed important if we are to approach NL with confidence, but a deep appreciation of the conditions of the pot being contested is imperative.

Good luck at the tables!

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

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JANUARY SALES!

The January Sales are now on at 32Red Poker with exclusive bonuses, added-money freerolls and free tournament tickets, don’t miss out!

Find the best bargains and discounts this January at 32Red Poker!

FREE POKER QUIZ!

Congratulations to jazverige for winning our last Poker Quiz! (click here for details).

Welcome to 32Red’s regularly updated Poker Quiz section where we ask you all sorts of poker questions and all you have to do is answer them correctly to enter our draw for free cash prizes & tournament tickets!

Are you ready?

 

How many raked hands are required to enter our January Sales freerolls?

A: 1 raked hand
B: 10 raked hands
C: 32 raked hands

Click here for a clue!

Post your answers belowand if we pick your name out of the hat and you’ve posted the correct answer, we’ll give you a free poker chip worth €32!

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Wise Guys Results (9th – 15th January)

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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