Learning From Others

In poker there is no one way of doing things. If there were then there would only be one poker book in the world, everyone who enjoys poker would read it, and consequently enough no one would make any money because we would all know how to play each situation in the same way. Which would mean the only way to win is completely with luck and no skill. And as poker players luck is an element however not the key. I often find myself discussing poker with my own crew of players that I know and have different approaches on the game. Not to mention read forums regularly to see if there is any new information from other players across the globe. I am able to do this thanks to Pocketfives.com which is a great tool for players who love to discuss poker and follow the online poker scene. From that I have found an article that I found very informative for those who take a methodical approach to the game. It is by Paul "Grapsfan" Herzog a contributing writer for Pocketfives.com. I hope you gain from it as I did, although I do not consider myself very methodical it does give some information that you can learn from.

Making Tough Decisions Easier: By Paul "Grapsfan" Herzog


No Limit Hold’em is a complicated game. The breadth and depth of necessary decisions demanded are as varied as in chess, reversi, bridge or backgammon (which is most like poker in its luck element). Attempt to account for every variable in every decision and you’ll make yourself certifiably insane. The best way to handle difficult situations is to minimize their number. By eliminating as many external variables as possible, you can simplify your game, and your life playing it.

Game theory experts call this “play optimization.” There are moves you can make in a game which are correct, and cannot be exploited by your opponents. Let’s take a look at a common example in No Limit Hold’em tournaments. It is almost always correct to call with the likely-to-be worst hand if you’re getting 2:1 pot odds, since you are rarely much worse than 33% to win as an underdog.

- 75o is 34% against AKs
- A5s is 30% against AQo
- K4o is 28% against QQ

So let’s say you have one of these hands while playing an MTT. You’re in late position with a big stack, and the blinds are fairly short (less than 20 big blinds). You raise your standard 2.5x to 3x the big blind in a steal attempt, and the SB or BB shoves. Now you’re faced with a difficult decision…what’s his shoving range? Has he been tight or loose? How aggressive does he think I am? What does he think my range is, and what impact does that have on his range?

There’s an easy way around this. Your raise has to be enough to give you 2:1 on your money if you’re forced to call a re-raise. Your play is unexploitable pre-flop. You are getting the right price against the tightest shoving range (except your opponent is Allen Kessler).

How much do you bet? We can devise a fairly simple formula to find out. At the start of a hand, there are approximately 2.5 big blinds in the pot (SB + BB + antes). The short-stack in question has “S” big blinds remaining, which will also be part of the overall pot. We are looking for the “N” number of blinds to bet-and-raise.

When your opponent shoves, he’s calling N, and raising the rest of his stack, S – N. In order to get 2:1 on your money, the amount you’re calling off, (S – N), has to be ½ of the rest of the chips in the pot. Solving our equation with freshman algebra now looks like this:

(S – N) = ½ (S + N + 2.5)
2(S – N) = S + N + 2.5
S = 3N + 2.5
3N = S – 2.5
N = 1/3 S - .833

For simplicity’s sake, let’s call it N = 1/3S – 1.

Let’s assign some real numbers to see how accurately this works. The blinds are 150/300 with a 25 ante. Our targeted big blind has 5400 chips after posting the blind. Our equation says we should raise to 1500. If we do so, after our opponent shoves, we will have to call 3900 more. There are 5400 + 1500 + 300 + 150 + 225 = 7575 chips in the pot. Our pot odds are 1.95:1. Pretty close estimation from a simple formula.

Why not just shove? Well, if you’re the small blind and you’re stealing from the big, shoving is fine from a game theory perspective. But, in my experience, most players think you’re stronger if you just put out a raise than shove, so you’re actually losing fold equity by shoving than making the “N” bet.

So, do you make this play every time you have an opponent with the right stack size in the blinds? Personally, I save this play until the antes come in. Otherwise, you’re committing an extra blind with each raise to achieve the same 2:1 ratio. You’re also losing the opportunity to establish a tight image in the first five or six levels of a tournament, if you happen to want that kind of thing.

If your opponent in the big blind has also been known to be a big fan of the stop-and-go flop play, you may also wish to consider either tightening up your range for the “N” bet or just going with a standard raise. If you have a hand which needs a really specific flop to be good (low connectors or one-gappers, for example), you’re committing far too many chips pre-flop, and spewing them off with a flop fold to a stop-and-go.

Poker’s tough enough in the best of times. Developing tips and tricks to optimize what you’re doing can help weather the worst of variance storms. It’s worth the effort to find a way to make the tough decisions easier.

The Bounce Back Kid!!

Lately I have been really in the slumps in both my personal, professional, and poker life. The past couple weeks have been a test of not collapsing under an enormous amount of stress. Within the past two weeks, my car was booted by the City of Chicago and then swiftly impounded. That was a mere $945 to get out of the pound, my brother looked out for me and paid it off but now im in the whole with him, paying him $100 every week when I get paid. On top of that, my job has been cutting hours due to the fact the company over hired due to a holiday rush that we haven't received. Now im only making $200 roughly per week. Oh and did I mention I have a frickin' title loan out on my car!!! I am a magnet for bad debt, oh and then there is poker. I dont think I have ran this bad is atleast a year or two. I have not been able to cash or atleast play well since I played in the WSOP Circuit Event back in October at the Horseshoe in Hammond, Indiana. I played well that day and was proud of myself, however since then, I have been in a slump and with all this other stuff going on around me I am in the dumps. With so much on my mind I want to escape into poker and have fun while I pick up pots from the fish at a ring game. However, in my state of mind I would be easy pickings. I have noticed that I dont have the confidence in my game I once did and if I dont have the conviction in my own skill how can I be successful. Well while going through my email I saw an article from Fulltiltpoker.com that has given me some perspective about things. And I would now like to share with you that particular article that was written by Matt Vengrin.

Recharging The Batteries: Matt Vengrin

One of the great things about poker, especially online poker, is that the game is always there when you're ready to play. It's not like being a baseball player, where you're at the mercy of your team's schedule, or like being a doctor, where you have to respond to emergency calls. With poker, you can walk away from the game for a little while, and it will be there when you get back. That's why I strongly advocate taking breaks occasionally, especially if you pick up on signs that your play isn't as sharp as it should be.

The main sign to look for is that your desire to play is waning. You should play poker when you want to play. It sounds obvious, but too many of us inexplicably keep playing even when we don't want to.

I also find that when I'm experiencing a lot of negative feelings, that's a good time for a break. If I'm feeling negative, not just from poker, but maybe from something else going on in my life, that's going to affect my play, usually for the worse.

The other thing I keep an eye out for is when I'm gambling more than usual. If I'm playing tournaments and I'm finding that I'm too willing to get all my chips in on a coin flip, that's a sign that I'm not playing my best and I need to walk away rather than let myself burn out.

Whatever your particular signs may be, the fact is that if you're consistently losing, chances are there's a reason for it. A lot of players will say, “Oh, I'm just running bad,” but it's rare that that's all there is to it.

And when I take a break, I really take a break − I totally distance myself from the game. I don't play at all for a few days. That allows me to take a step back, get a different perspective, and come back hungry to play well.

At the 2008 World Series of Poker, a situation arose where I called upon my discipline to take a break even though a part of me really didn't want to. My favorite event was coming up − Half Omaha/Half Hold 'Em - but I could feel myself getting burned out. I hadn't cashed yet and I'd finished on the bubble three times, so I was really demoralized.

Half Omaha/Half Hold 'Em is my favorite tournament and even though I was really looking forward to it, I knew if I played, I wasn't likely to do well and I would make myself tired for other upcoming events. So instead of playing, I headed to Malibu for a couple of days and visited a friend; I went to the beach and totally distanced myself from poker. And the first event I played when I got back was Event #29, $3,000 No-Limit Hold 'Em, and I placed third for a payday of more than $165,000, my biggest live tournament cash to date.

Basically, I liken a poker player's mental processing to a battery: when a battery's life runs low, you need to recharge it. And the best way to recharge is to take a little break from the game. You'll find that some of your best results come when your mind is fresh and when you're playing because you truly want to be playing.

......After reading this article I am going to take a little hiatus of playing poker and just relax and try to get these other circumstances resolved and garner my focus back to poker. I still plan on playing in a couple events in the WSOP events in 2009 so I am going to get prepaired by doing nothing and relaxing for a little bit. Stepping away to gain some perspective. I hope that those of you that are going through a tough time at the tables or in life just take a moment to take a step back and BREATHE!!!! I know it seems like there is no hope in sight, I still have some stress pinned inside while I write this, but I truely believe that everything will work out because it is supposed to and I know I deserve it.