How to Beat the Poker Fish and Call Machine
January 2, 2008
You can win many rounds of poker if you simply observe other players and their body language. You must carefully observe each move to determine if the player is a professional or a novice.
A poker fish is usually a beginner who is highly enthusiastic and will bet even with average cards. You will find the poker fish at the lower limit poker games though they may occasionally play at the higher limit tables.
You can win several games if poker fish are present at your table.
You may lose a few games, but on an average the more you sit at a table, the more you will win against them. Once you recognize a poker fish at your table, you can develop a proper strategy and beat them hollow. You can beat the fish by calculating the pot odds for your hand. They are playing based on pure luck while you can maximize your chances by using proper probability and your player reading skills.
How different poker room players differ!
December 31, 2007
A few days ago I was sent a CD from Mansion Poker offering me $15 no deposit free cash. Obviously how could I refuse such kind contribution to my bankroll. All went fine, I registered, money was credited to my account and all. So thanks Mansion.
What is interesting is how the different large poker rooms or ones that work on a poker network can be so different in player ability. Mansion runs off the Ongame poker network, and peaks at around 25k players online. All poker rooms on this network exclude US based players.
Now here’s the point, they are the worst bunch of players per table I’ve come across. And it’s bloody brilliant! Now I’m wondering are European players simply bad, has it to do with the strong currency exchange rate so those dollars seem less important. Or is it a cultural difference, poker is quite a new phenomena to Europe, but in the US it’s always been a popular pastime so are US players inheriantly more skillful at the game?
I’ve been sitting at 5c-10c cash tables, and my observations are as follows.
1) Players will call all-in bets chasing 1 outer straight draws.
2) They’ll call down middle and bottom pair against sizable bets.
3) 60% players see the flop most hands (full ring). I’ve yet to find a tight table.
4) They are unable to lay down top pair, bad kicker.
5) $5-6+ pots can be generated with marginal hands held by all players.
6) Reading opponent card strength is hard when they call down your big bets with often junk hands.
7) Bluffing is completely impossible.
Variance swings can be large due to table looseness.
9) 1/2c rings games on Poker Stars have better players.
10) Limpers who call the 10c blind are often willing to then call a 50c-80c preflop raise holding connectors, face card + random junk kicker. Maybe some strange distorted idea of pot odds/implied odds.
11) A couple of sharks sit at most of these tables, waiting to exploit these terrible players.
Women’s Poker Spotlight: ‘Women’s Intuition’ at the Table
December 28, 2007
Have you ever attended a poker seminar with a topic of “How to Play Against Women”? I was very surprised when I saw this topic on the agenda for a WPT Boot Camp about a year ago. I’ve never forgotten the subject, nor the many questions asked by the seminar’s male attendees.
It has always been my belief that women are more intuitive than men, a view shared by many others. As more women find success in poker, you will hear about this subject. I recently watched the WPT show from The Shooting Star that featured the heads-up match between Ted Forrest and JJ Liu.
When JJ was interviewed, she made a remark that made me think hard on the subject. JJ said, “Because I’m a woman, the men automatically think they can bluff me, but when they do, it becomes easier for me to read them.” JJ hit on the one area where I believe women have an advantage over men, intuition.
Those Lyin’ Eyes
December 27, 2007
It’s a slow news cycle these days, so I’m going to do one of those meta-posts about blogging and reporting. The Politico has a piece on NYT columnist Frank Rich’s criticism of media heavyweights David Broder (often called the “Dean of political journalists”) and Mark Halperin (who writes The Page for Time magazine and founded the uber-insider tip sheet The Note over at ABC). The jist of the piece is that Rich never leaves Manhattan so how can he write about what the coverage of races in Iowa and Manhattan. Halperin in particular says of his own on-the-ground reporting that
“I am able to talk to the candidates and their senior staff and watch the faces of Iowans….[I can] see the looks in their (the candidates’ and staffers’) eyes and the body language.”
Now, let’s step back and try to see this in a larger context. In poker, it was once widely believed that watching your opponents’ movements and demeanor — looking for “tells” in the parlance of the game — was an important part of good poker playing. It might follow then that, in a live tournament, a player who has had experience playing live poker games should have an advantage someone who plays poker online. Then in 2003, the World Series of Poker was won by a man who had only played poker online prior to the tournament.
Daniel Negreanu on Poker: The Buy-In: What’s the Right Amount?
December 24, 2007
Whether it’s a Friday night game with your buddies, a weekend trip to Vegas to play in a casino, or a daily cardroom game where you’re trying to make a living, the amount of your buy-in can have a significant long-term impact on your results.
When playing in a No Limit cash game, the appropriate buy-in amount will actually differ from person to person. You need to consider several factors.
Are you an experienced player or a beginner?
Be honest with yourself. This can be difficult, especially if you let your ego get in the way. Unless you have at least one thousand hours of play under your belt in any particular game, lean toward buying in for the minimum amount. In a typical $5-$10 blind No Limit game, the minimum buy-in would be $200. That’s just where a beginner should start.
How do you handle pressure?
Read More?
Daniel Negreanu on Poker: The Buy-In: What’s the Right Amount?
December 21, 2007
Whether it’s a Friday night game with your buddies, a weekend trip to Vegas to play in a casino, or a daily cardroom game where you’re trying to make a living, the amount of your buy-in can have a significant long-term impact on your results.
When playing in a No Limit cash game, the appropriate buy-in amount will actually differ from person to person. You need to consider several factors.
Are you an experienced player or a beginner?
Be honest with yourself. This can be difficult, especially if you let your ego get in the way. Unless you have at least one thousand hours of play under your belt in any particular game, lean toward buying in for the minimum amount. In a typical $5-$10 blind No Limit game, the minimum buy-in would be $200. That’s just where a beginner should start.
How do you handle pressure?
Read More?
Maximum Value
December 21, 2007
When you have the best hand, it’s all about maximizing value.
How you do it is the tricky part.
At the 2007 World Series of Poker $10,000-buy-in main event, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson held J-10 suited in the small blind. With the blinds at $50-$100, a player in late position raised to $300. Another player called. Ferguson made it $1,150 to go.
“I thought I might be able to pick up the pot right there, and if not, I thought I had a disguised hand if I hit something,” said Ferguson, the 2000 main event champion. “If I don’t hit something, I thought I might be able to steal it on the flop, so I have a couple chances at this point.
Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society is Growing
December 17, 2007
The Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society (GPSTS), the brainchild of students at Harvard led by law school professor Charles Nesson, is catching on fast around the world, putting forward poker as an educational tool that especially applies to law and business, and also supporting an open education in an open internet, and raising awareness for the legality of poker.
“Poker teaches many lessons that are transferable to the challenges of life, including strategic understanding of risk, resource management and self control,” said Nesson, a tenured professor on the Harvard faculty for close to forty years, and founder of Harvard’s Berkman Center on Internet Law. “Know when to hold’em, and when to fold’em, as the song says.”
The organization also aims to promote the teaching of poker in an attempt to legitimize it, a goal in line with the Poker Players Alliance and other industry organizations.
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