October 7, 2008 | Posted by admin
Well I tried to log on to Duplicate Poker today and discovered that as of yesterday, October 5th, the company is no longer in business. I requested my bankroll, all $13 of it, and should be getting a check soon. Thankfully it was all free money. I’m saddened by this loss as I was just starting to enjoy the site. Guess I should have spent more time on it, then again every site I play on where I start with free cash seems to go down at one point. I had won $200 free money (as in I didn’t risk anything, they just gave me some cash to play with and I made something with it) over at USA Poker but unfortunately they closed down to US players. Ironic huh considering the name. Anyway, I know that isn’t a lot of cash to have in one’s pocket but keep in mind it was all FREE money. I didn’t risk a dime to get it and it sure beats playing for play chips.
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Tags: duplicate poker, online poker | 
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August 17, 2008 | Posted by admin
OK, so I wrote a review of Duplicate Poker a couple weeks ago saying I was unsure of whether or not I liked the place. Well, now I like them. I think thats why they give you a couple dollars for free when you first sign up. The playing style over there is completely unique, having another player with the same cards at a different table. You are against him but you are also against your table. I learned, and this is why I like it now, to ignore my counterpart at the other table. Duplicate Poker will tell you how you are doing vs him for the first couple hands. In the beginning I was obsessed with that thing, trying to always play better than him. That was screwing me up. I ignore him now. I just play my way and now I’m winning tournaments. Amazing concept. Anyway great site.
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August 2, 2008 | Posted by admin
Well I’ve now played in quite a few home tournament games again and have learned I need to work on my heads up skills as well as a few other points. I’ve racked up 4 2nd place finishes out of 9 games, 0 firsts and then a lot of other random outs. For the past 2 weeks I’ve placed 2nd in the first game then been knocked out quickly in the second game. Blinds go up after each person goes out so perhaps I’m getting used to playing with the larger blinds from the first game and can’t adjust accordingly for the second game. Or perhaps I’m just burned out on playing by the time the second game comes around. I’m still working on that. My reads have been going out as of late as well, I’m more focused on my own damn hand then what everyone else has at the table. I know this is a major problem with me as of late, especially considering that I’m playing against the exact same people almost every week. I seem to do better playing blind, as in not looking at my own hand. If I’m playing off my opponents checks and bets I do better but hey thats how you’re really supposed to play, off the opponent. The cards don’t matter. So I need to find the proper balance.
As for those 4 2nd place finishes 3 of them I had the chip lead going into them. I seem to crack against extremely aggressive players. This used to not be a problem for me. Then again I may just be warming up again. I’ve turned into a lets see the flop type player then I fold to bets. I need to adjust that as well. Any pointers from any of my readers would be greatly appreciated. I seem to be focusing in on a lot of well if I raise big no one will call me with garbage or if I call their big raise and hit with garbage they won’t be expecting it. I think this is a big hole I picked up from trying to play like Gus Hansen a few years back. Blindly wildly aggressive used to be my style. I’ve tightened up quite a bit now that I don’t booze while I play. I guess I just need to readjust and change around my style to less of a numbers game and more of a read game. I’ll keep you updated as to the increase / decrease in my ability and once I have my game back down pat I’ll be putting out a revised version of From Goldfish to Piranha which will more than likely be called The Poker Struggle.
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August 2, 2008 | Posted by admin
This has to be the most interesting site I’ve ever played on. Right now they are giving people $3 of real money just for signing up. The way the game works is kinda odd but interesting at the same time. If you sign up for say a sit n go with 8 players its 2 tables of 4 players. You have a twin at the other table who receives the same exact cards as you. After a certain number of hands either you or your twin move on to the next round based on who has more chips. So not only are you playing against the players at your table but you are also playing against your twin who has the exact same cards as you. How you play the cards is up to you. This does bring in some interesting angles to how you play being that you don’t want to play poorly but at the same time you are dealing with 3 different personality types at the table as your twin. You may be able to steal pots at your table but he can’t. Or vice versa. It makes it kinda hard to win. I don’t know if I want to recommend this place or not at this point. I’ve played a couple tournaments and haven’t made it to the final round yet. Quite a few losses right before the money. The thing I don’t like about this is being forced to play hands I typically wouldn’t because I’m concerned with what my twin is doing at the other table. Then again I may just need to play more in this style of poker to become comfortable with it. I don’t know, I’ll come up with an answer for you guys later.
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June 27, 2008 | Posted by admin
If any of you have picked up From Goldfish To Piranha (its available for free on the left side of this page) you’ve noticed I have a section set up on how to start your own poker home game. The advice was good when I wrote it for the area I wrote it in but now that I’ve moved counties I’m finding it harder to start a home game. Playing with people I know from work is easy and (believe it or not) when I did a search of my city plus poker I wound up finding a guy on myspace who just so happened to have a game the next night (which I missed because I’m currently working nights) but using things like meetup isn’t working as well as I had hoped. There are games nearby just not nearby enough for me. I’m on the meetup groups up in Beaverton and Portland, OR but I haven’t lived there in over a year. Depending on the area in which you live meetup may be useful. I started a group over at facebook as well, so far no luck. We’ll see what happens.
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June 27, 2008 | Posted by admin
Well I’m now one of those guys who plays poker at facebook. Kinda interesting if you ask me, even though its not for real money. Then again I used to spend a lot of time playing good ole 2-4 limit yahoo poker. Anyway drop me a line over at facebook if you have a chance, we’ll play some fake money poker over there. I should shortly have a review up of how the freeroll tournaments go at a new online poker site I just downloaded. I’ll have the name and how the tourney is soon. USA Poker used to have the best freerolls (won $200 for free) but they don’t allow US players anymore.
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February 26, 2008 | Posted by admin
I watched this just to prove I’ll watch anything poker related. For some reason Pokerstars sponsored it. OK here goes. The annoying girl from Alpha Dog (the one who was pissed that the 15 year old kid was kidnapped) is the star. Her dad, Mike Madsen from Reservoir Dogs, taught her how to play cards. Then he drove off a cliff and died. So the annoying girl, named Ace, is in med school. She meets up with some local poker players. They go to the ALL IN CASINO and she plays cards. At one point she has pocket aces, some other guy has (I believe) kings, another guy jacks, then someone else Q10. The board is A K J. They all move all in. She winds up winning the hand with a boat. I can’t shake this feeling that one of the other players actually had quads and they ignored the fact, I’ll have to watch it again. You can tell this is another one of those “let’s cash in on the poker craze” movies as elements of it don’t make sense. For instance, Ace knocks out some player in the qualifying tourney for the ALL IN Poker Tournament at the ALL IN Casino put on by ,who else, Pokerstars then the guy she knocks out winds up at the final table even though only the top 2 players qualified for the final table. Guess they’ll attach their name to anything. Basically Ace whines at everyone about the difference between right and wrong the whole movie just like she does in Alpha Dog. Those kinds of people really bug me for some reason.
This is not a good poker movie. Hell, its not a good movie at all. I walked out to smoke cigarettes several times. Then again if you’re like me and you have to see every poker movie or every Michael Madsen movie (I even have the first film he was ever in where he stuggles as an alcoholic or something, I bought it for $1) then you’ll have to pick this up.
Hey, guess what, if you order this movie after clicking on the link above, I’ll get a 4% commission! With a price of $4, that’s like well um…. 0.16 whole cents. Unless 6 of you order, then I’ll get 6%, a whopping 0.24 cents! Aren’t you glad I disclosed that to you?
Categories: Television | Tags: | 2 Comments »
January 23, 2008 | Posted by admin
Wow, a real poker movie for a change, not just some movie Hollywood put out with a few poker players in it that’s really about some coming of age or love story. You know the movies I’m talking about. If you don’t I’ll get you the names of them later. The coming of age story is about some punk kid who is supposedly good at poker then blows the rent money on roulette. The love story has Drew Barrymore in it. Enough ranting though, back to Rounders.
Rounders stars Matt Damon as poker player Michael McDermott. At the start of the movie Mike goes to play poker in a Russian poker club in New York ran by Teddy KGB (John Malkovich.) Mike throws down 30K and winds up losing it all in a single hand to Teddy. Mike then retires from poker at the urging of his nagging girlfriend and turns to law school and driving a truck at night. Mike’s girlfriend is very suspicious of him going to play poker all the time. Mike winds up running into his professor while his professor is playing cards with the local judges. Mike says he can read everyone’s hand blind for a summer clerkship. Mike reads the hands and impresses the judges. Mike’s girlfriend gets mad at him and rants about how he’s a “hustler” and poker has never gotten him anywhere. He borrows her car and picks up his old poker buddy Worm, played by Edward Norton, from prison. Mike and Worm go off to play cards. And thus the poker movie really begins.
This is actually a poker movie, not just a movie that has poker in it but is really a love story. Johnny Chan does appear in Rounders for a brief cameo. The thing I love about this movie is they actually refer to playing poker as a skill, not as a game of luck. They have players picking up tells on each other and playing good poker. Granted they go a little overboard with a tell but hey they have to make the movie appear to non poker players as well. The fact that the writer actually took the time to make a believable poker movie impressed me. Matt Damon actually entered the WSOP because of this movie. He didn’t do very well, but hey who cares, he played. I can’t say enough good about this film as a poker film. It’s kinda like Poolhall Junkies for pool players, a believable pool playing movie, its not just some character who plays pool, the guys actually play pool.
The point I’m trying to drive home here is if you like poker you will appreciate this film. I know there are a lot of films out there where they pretend the film is about poker but its not. This is not one of those. This is a real poker movie. A great add for anyone’s collection.
Hey, if you order the movie from the link above I’ll get a commission from it! If you leave my site now and go directly to Amazon.com without clicking on the link I will not get my 4-6% commission (4% is if 5 or less people order in a month, 6% is if 6 or more order) and you’ll still pay the same price for the movie.
Categories: Television | Tags: | 5 Comments »
January 21, 2008 | Posted by admin
Dusty Hill of ZZ Top, Ace Frehley of KISS, Scott Ian of Anthrax, Sully Erna of Godsmack, Vinnie Paul of Pantera, plus 2 amateur online players from UltimateBetTV and a representative for a Vegas Casino (sorry forgot the guy’s name) all took part in VH1 Classic’s Celebrity Rock Poker Tournament hosted by Phil Hellmuth. Antonio Esfandiari and Phil Laak “The Unibomber” made special guest appearances to give coaching lessons before the game and to help out with interviews after players were knocked out.
The tourney started with Ace picking up a lucky pot from Scott Ian when he picked up trip 4’s on the river. I started flipping back and forth on the remote after I saw that happen. Sully Erna was announced as the longest lasting celebrity at the ’06 WSOP, no mention of his ’07 run. The info button on the TV told me it was from ’07 so I’m assuming early ’07. VH1 Classic was added to my TV package 2 days ago so it was new for me.
Basically think of the old Celebrity Poker Showdown show from (I believe) Bravo that was on back in ’05 combined with the Ultimate Bet poker show that used to be on Fox Sports Net. For some reason the VH1 Classic logo had to cover the third flop card and the turn card leaving only the suits visible which made the hands kinda hard to follow if you weren’t paying complete attention to the show, which a lot of the time I wasn’t.
Vinnie Paul went out first, followed up by one of the amateurs, then (I believe) Dusty Hill of ZZ Top, who not only lost the hand but his keychain to Sully. Next was another amateur. Sully knocked out both Ace and the Vegas casino guy with pocket rockets leaving the game heads up between Sully and Scott. Sully had something like 65,000 chips to Scott’s 15k. Sully’s basically a pro, Scott has barely played poker.
Scott calls away all his chips and catches a flush on the river to double up. Next hand Scott doubles up again because Sully can’t read newbies. Even Phil and the other announcer guy called Scott a newbie. Long story short Sully tries to make a move on Scott who keeps picking up ace something and the new champ is Scott Ian of Anthrax.
Every player that winds up eliminated gets to play for a trip to Alaska on a cruise in a head’s up tourney in the back. They show the knock out hand for each head’s up game. The Vegas guy winds up going against Sully for the title. Sully wins. In a side note Vinnie Paul of Pantera knocked out the first two opponents in the head’s up challenge. Each player had a check donated to charity.
The big winner of the night winds up being Sully since he wins the Alaska trip. I feel bad for Sully, I really do, as we all know that I cannot stand playing against new players. There is no rhyme or reason to how they play and Sully tried to play against Scott as though Scott had some idea of what he was doing, which against newbies is always wrong. So the outcome of the tourney wound up being something like the way it usually went on Celebrity Poker Showdown with the “pro” Hollywood player almost winning but then losing in the end.
I know that Scott Ian knows that he got lucky against Sully during this tourney. He knew that Sully was the huge favorite to win the whole thing. Then again maybe winning this tourney will get Scott Ian playing a lot more poker and he may grow into a great player. On a side note I saw Scott Ian at a Stone Sour concert in Hollywood back in ’02. He was in the upstairs bar section of the House of Blues.
Categories: Television | Tags: | 1 Comment »
January 21, 2008 | Posted by admin
I really, really dislike rebuy tournaments. I’ve played in 2 my whole life and never made it past the 4th round. By the way, the 4th round is where the casino (typically) stops allowing rebuys. For those of you unfamiliar with the rebuy tournament here’s how it works.
You pay x amount of money to enter the tournament. At my local casino its $30. For the first 2 rounds if you go out for any reason you can buy back into the tournament for $10. Also, to add insult to injury if you were playing at the table before the tourney starts you are given additional chips to start with that those who simply entered the tournament don’t get to start with. Locally its 500 starting chips and either 600 or 650, I forget which of the two, if you were playing earlier. Blinds start at 25 / 50 and double every 10 minutes. Each time the blinds double, the level doubles. So you can start with 600 chips, move all in, lose 500 then the next 100 on the following hand then buy back in for $10 and get another 500 chips. When the level goes up to 50 / 100 blinds the $10 buys you 750 chips. So now those who haven’t played a hand are sitting on approx 425 chips (forced blinds) yet the terrible player at the table could have already lost somewhere in the vicinity of 1500 chips and IS STILL PLAYING. Round 3 with 100 / 200 you get 1000 chips for $10. At the end of round 3 you can both rebuy and ADD ON (a total of $30, $10 for the rebuy and $20 for the add on) and gain 2,000 chips to your stack. For those of you doing the math, the player who has been waiting to pick up a hand went from 425 at the start of the first round to 275 at the start of the second round to, well, out if they never picked up a good starting hand and refused to buy back in.
Basically my problem with rebuy tournaments is that it rewards bad play. The odds don’t really come into consideration. I remember the first rebuy tourney I played in I had A 10 offsuit and moved all in during round 2. So with the blinds at 50 – 100 I put 425 chips into the pot. I had 4 callers, one of the guys was playing in both a blackjack and poker tourney at the same time so he was just moving all in every hand and had already bought back in twice and was now somehow in the chip lead with “great” calls like 72 all in vs AK and winning. My callers had K10, Q9, and if I remember correctly K6. 10 came on the flop as did a 9. Turn was another 9 then a queen on the river. The chip lead guy who was making all the bad calls had the Q9.
I still remember that day because the guy my brother and I deemed a terrible card player at our home game wound up winning the entire tournament. My brother was at a table with him watching him call all ins with hands like A2 (keep in mind there are 10 people at the table) and he was winning. Rebuy tournament strategy is no strategy. Throw all the chips in you can and hope you win. If you don’t buy back in.
Guys at the table my brother was at were telling him that if you don’t throw in at least $50 into the tourney you stand no chance of winning. Rewarding bad play in poker is terrible. I prefer no rebuys much more. My local casino has a great no rebuy tourney. The buy in used to be $60, now its $120. 5,000 starting chips with the blinds starting at 25 / 50. Much more room to make moves, play smart, wait for chances, and basically just play good poker. Rebuys are set up to rotate players in and out very quickly, not to measure who is the best player at the table. Luck plays way too big of a factor into winning the rebuy tournament, as does how much money you are looking to throw away on playing non quality hands.
Categories: Strategy | Tags: | 2 Comments »
January 19, 2008 | Posted by admin
I only have 1 of the DVD’s from this series, I know the package contains his wallet sized cards for review at the table on odds and outs, my 1 DVD was found in the dollar section of WalMart. Now for the basics of his video.
Howard does pretty much what Phil Hellmuth does in his DVD package. He goes over the basics of hold em from how to deal to teaching someone how to put in their blinds all the way to pre flop card selection. He falls pretty much into the same category as Hellmuth telling new players to avoid playing with a lot of different cards, just waiting for the better hands to play. I don’t believe he has a top 10 hand list like Hellmuth, at least not on this DVD anyway.
From what I remember of the DVD, I watched it about a month ago, it covers mostly basic poker playing fundamentals so someone new to the game can pick it up and not lose too many pots trying to play something like 64 suited out of early position. There wasn’t anything really here for advanced or intermediate players, its mostly for beginners. If you want to teach someone how to play poker then this is a quality DVD. If you already know the basics then I’d say skip it.
I have a confession to make. If you click on the dvd link above and order, I’ll get a commission. If you stop navigating this site now and go to Amazon without clicking on the link above, I won’t. You’ll pay the same price for the DVD, but I won’t get commission.
Categories: Television | Tags: | 5 Comments »
January 19, 2008 | Posted by admin
I’ve been playing around with this theory for awhile. I read somewhere that Beatovin would make me access the mathematical side of my brain so I tried that out. That was a big no go for me. I quickly switched back to my usual music.
And what is my usual music while playing poker? Deftones White Pony, Alien Ant Farm and Audioslave, the first album. I’ve tried playing while listening to rap, my last attempt being Brotha Lynch Hung and well I became extremely aggressive at the table and was out within the first 15 minutes.
Back when I used to play a lot of pool and was obsessed with Eminem I was able to stay completely focused on the game at hand during “What’s The Difference” or “Forgot About Dre.” When I say focused I mean beating my opponent in 1-2 turns. Typically I miss a few times a game but for some reason that music made me focus on the task at hand. Same went for songs by Propaghandi, I started playing better.
So that’s why I’ve posed the question. Was is the music that made me play better or was I more focused on the task at hand because of my ‘obsession’ with the song(s) at hand. Music does affect ones mood for good or bad so the theory that certain songs will at least temporarily change ones playing ability does make sense. Then again this goes into superstition. It’s a belief inside ones mind that a certain song makes them better or not. When the song hits they play better. This is somewhat a sign of mental conditioning, forcing oneself to play better in a certain condition than another.
Regardless of superstition music can affect the way you play. Finding the music that keeps you calm and relaxed can make you better for the long run.
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January 19, 2008 | Posted by admin
How can anyone possibly say that Omaha is better than Texas Hold Em? It’s very easy actually. Now before I start, for the sake of argument I’m talking about only Omaha, not Omaha High/Low. I’ll explain High/Low at the end. So what’s the difference between Omaha and Texas you ask? Well in Texas you start with 2 hole cards, in Omaha its 4. So you get 2 extra cards in Omaha. But that’s not all, you now have 6 different starting hands! In Texas you only have 1. Why would you want only 1 starting hand when you can have 6? It’s just smart shopping if you ask me. In Texas you and your opponent either have something or you don’t. That’s all there is to it. In Omaha you have a chance to make several different hands, making your drawing power greater.
Also being “rivered” (losing because of a river card long shot) does not happen as often. Well at least in the case of straights and flushes at least. In Hold Em all you need is 1 of the suit in your hand and 4 on the board to have a flush. Or 5 on the board and the pot is split if no one has a higher card of that suit. Same thing goes for straights, if there are 4 cards to a straight on the board and you have the 1 card in your hand that would finish the straight then you have it. Or in the case of a straight on the board all the players split if no one has a higher straight. THIS CANNOT HAPPEN IN OMAHA. The rules to Omaha state that you must use 2 hole cards and 3 cards on the board. In other words having 1 spade in your hand and 4 spades on the board (or even 5) will NOT give you a flush. You MUST have 2 spade cards (in this example) in your hole cards and 3 on the board to hold a flush. Same thing applies to the straight. If the board came 6,7,8,9 you would have to have any of the following hands – 5,6 ; 5,7; 5,8; 5,9; 6;10; 7,10 ; 8;10; 9,10; or 10, J. That straight possibility only had a possible 9 different starting hands (not counting suit.) The same example in Texas has 27 different starting hands (not counting suit.) Both examples include the 10,J but Texas has 5x and 10x. It doesn’t matter what the x card is in Texas. Of course 10,J would win it all and the 10x would beat any 5x but that’s not the point. The point is there’s way too many different starting hands in Texas that give away a straight to someone with 4 straight cards on the board.
The straight and flush drawing power in Texas makes the game stupid at times. 2,2 can beat A,A if one of the 2’s is a club; A,A has no club; and 4 clubs pop up on the board. A,A can even lose to A,A (yes it’s happened) when 1 player catches 4 running suited cards on the flop. Like I said before that will NEVER happen in Omaha. I’ve seen K,10 defeat A,J because there were 4 straight cards on the board and the 10 finished off the straight. Allowing players to use 4 or 5 cards on the board makes for ridiculous beats at times, especially against beginners. I’ve seen AQ lose to K2 on the river because AQ had the ace on the flop (flop A,10,J) turn didn’t help anyone (turn x is not Q,K,2,9) and the river came Q. So that gave K2 a straight on the river and the AQ had 2 pair. There was no flush draw on the board so it was pretty much a beginner going for his long shot draw (3 cards only left in the deck to help him win on the river, the 3 remaining Q’s) and it happened. Using the 4 2 method of quick probabilities (multiply # of outs by 4 on the flop, 2 on the turn) we see the percentage was 6%. Now according to the % calculator found at Cardplayer.com if there are 2 players its 6.8% for the K2. With 5 players if no one else had any of the following cards but the 2 player’s we’ve been talking about (A,K,Q,J,10,9,2) The K,2 has a 7.9% chance of winning.The A,Q is over 80% with 5 players at the table.
Now I know it must sound like I’m setting up lifeboat scenarios but I honestly see A LOT of bad beats in Texas that I don’t think should have happened, well at least not as often as I’ve seen it being that the %’s don’t match up with how many occurrences I’ve seen of each. Especially on the Internet. Weaker hands in the % seem to win quite often in Hold Em. I know that’s a contradictory statement but I’m just speaking from what I’ve seen. It’s the below 20% beats that I’m most sick of though. Which is why I definitely prefer the lack of drawing power Omaha holds when it comes to miracle straights and flushes.
Basically what I’m saying is Omaha involves more skill, at least at the beginner level. At the professional level most pros won’t go all in with K2 on the flop or pre flop in the example I gave above. And most pros won’t call an all in with K2 pre flop or on the flop. But when it comes to beginner’s they seem to like face cards. Any face card is worth a call. I’ve seen J2 beat AQ in a $10 buy in table with 0.25/0.50 blinds and the all in pre flop raise was over $6. Pro’s might try to make a move by going all in with the J2 hoping to pick up the blinds if they sensed weakness in everyone but RARELY will a pro CALL an all in with J2. Unless the pot odds dictated it or the read was there that the hand was weak. AQ is not weak against J2. If its head’s up the percentage is 68.3% to 31.8% in favor of the AQ. And that’s if both hands are unsuited. Make the AQ suited and its 70.4% for the AQ. Alas, beginners know nothing of pot odds or properly putting an opponent on a hand so stupid beats like this happen.
Now in Omaha you are not just stuck with that 1 starting hand. Let’s say you have the AQ from the previous example in your hole cards for your Omaha hand. YOU ALSO HAVE XY AS WELL for starting hands. So here are your 6 different starting possibilities: AQ, AX, AY, QX, QY, XY. If you don’t have 2 cards of the same suit then a flush is COMPLETELY OUT OF THE QUESTION FOR YOUR HAND. Now why is having 6 different starting hands a good thing? Because it enables you to draw toward many different hands at the same time. The days of going hours in Texas where no one sees better than a pair are gone when you play Omaha. 2 pair is incredibly common because you have 4 different cards to try and match up with the 5 on the board.
Omaha has an amazing straight possibly system as well. Let’s say you start with the hole cards 6,7,8,9 (suit doesn’t matter in this example.) The flop comes 5 7 A. If you catch a 4, a 6, an 8, or a 9 you will have the straight. (If all your opponents don’t have a 4,6,7,8,or 9 and none are in the discard then you have a total of 13 outs. [4*4,6*3.8*3,9*3]) Your odds of hitting a straight are much greater in a scenario like this than in Texas because you have so many more possibilities open to you since you only use 2 cards in your hand yet already hold all the necessary straight cards in your hand.
And the chance of 2 of your cards coming out on the turn and the river do not make your hand as worthless in the end. You still have 6,7,8,9 and the board is now 5,7,A, 6, 8. Of course anyone with 10, J would win this hand but that doesn’t really matter at this point.
Now in Texas you may have had the hole cards 8,9 or 4,8 on the turn or 4,9 on the river and been forced to share your straight pot of 5,7,A,6,8 (that you had on the turn but some idiot with A9 or A4 or overcard 4/9 called because they’re idiots and think the overcard is good for some reason prior to the river) with someone who does not truly deserve to share the pot with you. Granted 2,3 or 2,4 would be worth while drawing hands and the 2,4 deserves to split the A9 or A4 does not deserve to split a pot with its 4,8 or 8,9 counterpart that went all in on the turn and was called by the terrible hand that ended up tying.
It’s an impossible scenario in Omaha. Your hand or your opponents hand must have at least 2 of the following cards in it for a straight to have happened (on example 5,7,A,6,8) – 3,4; 4,5; 4,6; 4,7; 4,8; 5,9; 6,9; 7,9; 8,9; or 9,10; 10, J for the win.
And as I said before a flush is only a flush when you have 2 flush cards in your hand. Sometimes players will end up splitting a pot in Texas because neither one of them backed down to the others bluff and the board was all of one suit. Or someone was calling along because they wanted to catch their miracle 4th suited card to ruin your hand of 3 of a kind. If your opponent doesn’t have the flush when there are 3 of that suit on the board then he will NEVER beat you with that flush. It’s wonderful. The opponent either has the flush or he doesn’t when there are 3 suited cards on board. There’s none of that praying that the turn or river card don’t come up a certain suit because it will cost you a hand. The flush is Yes or No, not Please Try Again. The “you have 2 more shots to finish off your flush” in Texas leads to loose calls and terrible beats where the move seems questionable at best.
I’m sure Omaha is full of bad beats as well but I’ve never felt worse about losing a hand when it was a 4 card luck flush or straight that my opponent wasn’t even going for. I do not like losing when my hand is totally dominant to someone who just happened to have all the right suit for that particular flop and turn or river. Or the 1 magical card that will finish off a miracle straight on the river.
For some reason knowing that my opponent has to have AT LEAST 2 of that suit or at least 2 cards to complete the straight on board in his hole cards makes the game seem more skillful and less lucky. Calling the whole time with the worst hand (let’s say a pair or overcard there aren’t any other possibilities on the straight side, on the flush side you can add weaker 2 pair to the list or missed straight draw) then making a 4 card on the board 1 in your hand miracle straight/flush. In the case of the botched straight and instead you made a flush on the river that’s COMPLETELY different than having middle/bottom pair and being behind in the hand yet thinking you’re ahead (or bluffing against someone with a real hand) and not knowing about the draw until the river and someone having to call out your hand for you as the winner. Knowing you have a straight draw and 1 card of the same suit as the 3 on the board makes your draw more powerful and is a legit call.
Full Houses are also quite different in Omaha. Let’s say the board looks something along the lines of this – 4,4,A,7,7. How many full house possibilities are available? 2. [In Texas there are 25. Any 4,x or 7,x possibility and AA.] Omaha’s only 2 possible full houses are 4,7 and A,A. There are still many 3 of a kind possibilities (any 4,x or 7,x hand except for 4,7) so now the kicker with your hand becomes the important factor instead of having to split the pot in Texas. Texas would allow someone with 7,2 to split the pot with 7,K. The only 7,X hand that would have superiority over any other is 7,A because it’s a greater full house. In Omaha 7,5 will beat 7,3 and below (7,4 is excluded because it’s a full house). The player with 7,K will win just like they should over the 7,2 because it’s a better kicker and the better cards in Omaha.
To sum it up Omaha does not reward bad play as often as Texas does. Playing with beginners in Texas can often be frustrating as they hit hands that almost seem impossible if it weren’t for the players unbelievable luck to win with garbage. Now in Omaha the amateur has a much better chance against the beginner. Flushes and straights are always Yes/No; split pots on full houses are MUCH LESS LIKELY and no one is going to catch a lucky river card that makes those hands you weren’t worried about 1 card prior now an ugly reality. The river card either makes your opponents 3 useable cards on the board better or the card is useless. The strictness of the rules of Omaha basically eliminate lucky miracle draws. And that makes the game much more fair for everyone.
OMAHA HIGH/LOW. To start with there is a LOW QUALIFIER for low hands. In most games the low qualifier is 8. Ace is low. This means you must have 5 cards in your hand that are under 8 to even qualify to be eligible for the low. A PAIR will disqualify your low hand. Straights and flushes do not work against you as they do in 2 7 Triple Draw. The BEST HAND in Low is called a Wheel. It is 5,4,3,2,A or a 5 high straight. The next best hand is 6,4,3,2,A or 6-4 low. Then 6,5,3,2,A. Moving on to 6,5,4,2,A. (notice the missing 3.). Next 6,5,4,3,A (no 2) ; 6,5,4,3,2 ; 7,4,3,2,A ; 7,5,3,2,A. There are a total of 56 hands (not including suit) that fall into the 8 low qualifier. Any 6 high beats a 7 or 8 high any 7 high beats 8 high.
There are different low games but they have their own standard of rules. The 8 qualifier described above applies to Omaha and 7 card stud high/low. Well really any game with H/L. What’s the point of H/L? To split up the pot. The guy with the best HIGH hand and the best LOW hand split the pot. If 5,4,3,2,A or 6,5,4,3,2 or 7,6,5,4,3 or 8,7,6,5,4 was the best HIGH hand it may also be the best LOW hand and that person wins the entire pot (both the high and the low). Winning the high with the 8 high straight and the low with that same 8 high straight is unlikely. HOWEVER, you may use 2 different hole cards and 2 different board cards (there’s only 5 on board and you used 3 for the high straight so no matter what you have to pick 1 of those 3 again if you use the remaining 2 board cards for your low hand) to qualify for the LOW. So say the person with the 8 high straight had the hole cards 8,7, A, 2. The player would use the 8, 7 toward the 8 high straight and put the A, 2 toward the low hand to win the High and Low.
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January 19, 2008 | Posted by admin
I had to cover this. I’ve been playing with new players / guys who have no idea what outs and odds are for years now, thanks to television. I’ve tried many strategies and, well, it depends on the style of new player on how you wanna play them so we’ll just go with the new players who love to fish (draw) at you no matter what.
Bet big when you have a hand. For awhile I was trying to do the exact opposite. I was playing my cards as opposed to the player. I thought for whatever reason that playing the player went out the window but I was way wrong. If you have something good preflop bet big. Just don’t bluff if you don’t hit on the flop. You never bluff new players. They will keep calling you because they don’t know any better. The way to beat the new player is to bet when you hold good cards. When you hit you keep betting. They will call you. If they don’t, you won the pot so be happy with that. More than often though they will call you.
Don’t get fancy. Like I said above don’t bluff. Also don’t get yourself into weird hands like 86 suited because you want to knock them out faster. If you can limp in from late position than, maybe, yeah do it. But other than that leave it be. They aren’t going to pick up on your hand selection and even if they do they’re still going to call you when you have the best hand. I’ve seen new players call away all their chips with middle pair and a 2 kicker. They’ll call away all their chips with an inside straight draw. Hell, they’ll call away all their chips with an ace high in some cases.
Remember your outs and odds. Play the outs and odds. Things happen sometimes. That’s why its called “odds.” You aren’t always going to win. But if you’re playing with odds and outs at least you have a better chance of winning more often. Never forget the odds and outs. Position isn’t as important against a new player as the odds and outs. Things like check raising are unnecessary against new players because they’ll raise you or call your all in whenever they think they have a hand. Checking a good hand against a new player gives them a chance to check to a free card to beat you and that’s about it. Always bet when you have something good against a new player.
Important tip – New players know what they know about poker from either playing 5 card draw with their family way back when or from what they’ve seen on TV. If its from what they know from TV then they are expecting to be involved in a lot of big pots. That’s what they show on TV, big pots and big hands. Taking a few small pots here and there aren’t shown as much because it doesn’t make for “exciting televison.” This is why putting all your chips in with a good hand makes a lot of sense. The new players want either the rush of the big pot or simply don’t know anything else. They see big pots on TV and think thats how poker is played. So play big pots when you have winning cards and you’ll more than likely get a bite.
Of course, you may run across the new player who only knows how to bet when they have a hand. Yes, they exist as well. This type will more than likely blind itself out very quick. Let them. Fold when they bet. Bet when they check. With this type weak is weak and strong is strong. There are no gears, no strategy. If they have a hand you’ll know. If they don’t, you’ll know. Betting at them makes them go away, unless they have a hand. If they have a hand stay out of the pot. It’s that simple.
There isn’t much of a middle ground to new players. They either always like to play or they love to fold unless they hold something. Figure out which of the two types it is and take advantage. Stay out of pots with new players who only play when they hold cards and play very strong and bet big when you’re up against the type who love to play tons of pots.
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January 19, 2008 | Posted by admin
Almost every pro, semi-pro, and amateur will tell you that position matters, that you should fold almost all hands from early position because you don’t have enough information about what everyone is holding at the table. It’s hard to face a big raise without great cards out of early position because you are forced to bet first for the rest of the hand with a total lack of information on what your opponent is planning on doing. They get to see what you are going to do before they have to invest a chip. But I thought of another reason.
Pot Odds. It’s not cost effective to play a lot of hands out of early position because you have no idea how much money will be in the pot later. Opponents can force you to make a “non cost effective” play with a late position raise. Remember that poker is all about odds. You can make cost effective plays or non cost effective plays. When you are chasing a straight draw there should be enough cash in the pot to make it a good call. Announcers of poker shows talk about how the pot odds tell them they should make a call. Players make livings off of the slight edge they hold based on the odds of the game. You become a winning poker player by playing the right odds. You become a losing player by not playing with the odds. Granted people go on streaks, sometimes good, sometimes bad but in the end the odds don’t lie. If you are making plays that are statistically correct then in the long run you’ll be a winning player. Maybe not that day, maybe not even that year, but eventually the odds catch up with everyone. You can run good for a little bit playing against the odds but the only way to guarantee success is by understanding the odds.
Yes acting first for the rest of the hand puts you at a great disadvantage. Then again playing rags occasionally from early position can pay off if your table image puts you playing mostly quality hands from early position but then you have to raise from early position when its your turn to act and well thats a whole other topic. My point is being at the disadvantage of having to act first is not as big a deal as the pot odds concept.
Lack of information from early position also makes it difficult to determine the implied odds with the hand. A player using implied odds determines how much money they will have to invest into a pot to win the entire pot. All the numbers are predicted based on what the player thinks will happen by the end of the hand. Being that you don’t know how many players will be involved in the hand when you are in early position nor do you know how much it will end up costing to even see a flop it makes it incredibly difficult to figure out if its worth playing the hand or not based on the implied odds.
How To Play Out Of Early Position Pre Flop
Pre flop strategy from Early Position is probably the most straight forward and easy to play out of position in hold em. Basically if you don’t have an excellent hand (examples include AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AK, AQ) then you fold. AJ is even a questionable hand in early position, at least at full tables, because someone may have you beaten in late position with something along the lines of AA, AK, or AQ. If you’re playing at a tight table then you definately want to raise pre flop with any of the hands above to ensure that no one sees a cheap flop to out draw you. If the table is looser then you can add a few hands to the list such as AJ or A Ten to, hopefully, eliminate a few of the players from seeing the flop.
Your biggest disadvantage in Early Position comes on the flop when you once again have to act first. If you raised pre flop and didn’t hit its typically safe to bet unless you have a lot of loose players at the table who will call with just about anything. Your pre flop raise and bet at the flop will leave opponents believing you had a big pair pre flop and are continuing to bet at it. Of course if you wind up reraised and didn’t make a pair on the flop its safe to fold your hand.
Before betting or folding out of any position always remember what kind of opponent you are up against. Loose players may be calling you all the way to the river with something along the lines of A7 offsuit thinking their ace is good. Others may be making a play at you after they pick up on a betting pattern or body tell.
As long as you don’t play many hands out of Early Position you should be able to pick up a good amount of pots on the Button (in late position) or from free flops in the blinds. Early Position is always a difficult spot to be in unless you have an incredibly strong hand that can stand being raised or reraised throughout the flop, turn, and river. If you start playing weak hands out of Early Position opponents will constantly raise the pot in later positions just to steal the chips you put in the pot hoping to see something cheap and after a few hands that will start to destroy your bankroll. Avoid anything that (at worst) isn’t AT suited or above. AT suited, AJ, AJ suited, AQ, AQ suited, AK, AK suited, JJ (which can land you in a world of trouble if the flop has a Q, K, and / or A on it), QQ, KK, AA or even KQ suited. Even hands like QJ suited can be trouble in early position when faced with a large raise from an opponent in late position if the flop doesn’t hit for you (or worse you make a pair but are up against KQ or AQ if the Q hit.)
Fold, fold, and fold again in Early Position unless you have one of the best starting hands in Hold ‘Em otherwise your bankroll will start to shrink and your head will hurt from all the “bad beats” you took.
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