Lately I have been obsessed with playing the micro-limit heads up tourneys on Poker Stars. Last night I won 10 out of 12 sit downs with pretty much ease. My strategy you ask? Well it was a mixture of hyper-aggressive plays and big lay downs. Basically my strategy was to raise every chance I could get unless I wanted to trap the person. And if they came over the top of my raises I would have to give serious thought to the hand and what I thought they had. I probably made some big lay downs where I had the best hand, but I would make up for losing whatever I did usually on the next hand with more hyper aggressive raises.
Not once did I put in all of my chips on a mediocre hand, that was one rule I wanted to stick by. I had lots of all ins through the night, but these were money making hands where I knew I had probably the best hand and that I felt my opponent would call me with a mediocre holding. In my many battles last night I found myself up against players who just seemed to be worn down by my aggressive play. After about 20-30 hands of this style of play most people just ended up folding almost all of their hands because they knew I would raise pre-flop. This gave me the "accumulator" mindset where I just want to get as many chips as I could. Even blind stealing started to be lucrative heads up because you see so many hands. With the blinds still small ($10-20, with $1,500 starting chips) I could literally win 10 hands pre-flop by just raising. Also with this style of play, if the folder actually felt like betting, it was a pretty good indicator by this time that they had a hand and gave me the opportunity of just letting them have that round of blinds (im nice sometimes like that).
Part of this hyper aggressive playing style is something I have picked up in Gus Hansen's book "Every Hand Revealed." In the book Gus basically describes every hand he played in the 2007 Aussie Millions and how he won the tournament. Reading this book just about destroyed my tournament play. I thought to myself "Well if Gus can play like this, I can too" and I was wrong. His style is almost like a calculated maniac with just amazing reading abilities. No matter how much I played this style in tournaments it just wouldn't go well. I was never able to get away from hands I thought I could win with and ultimately ended up losing with. Plus, im not Gus Hansen and I don't think I get as much respect at the table as he does.
Anyways my point is this. I have now taken a step back from trying to be Gus and now have a better understanding of bluffing. For the last several years I would rarely bluff, and I mean rarely. On a typical night at the pub I play at I would bluff maybe 6-10 times in a whole 4 hour session, and most of those were bluff induced. Now, after reading his book, I see a whole new light to this game and it works great in heads up play. The simple theory: Raise, Raise a lot. This serves 2 purposes. 1. If you raise all of the time pre-flop your opponent can never place you on a hand. Because you are raising with junk (and most of the time your opponent has junk as well) you would be surprised at how many people just throw away the hand without seeing a flop. You do this enough and pre-flop blind steals will really add up. 2. When you raise you are fluctuating your EV and your opponents EV, if you can do this to your advantage by letting the player bet into you when you have a great hand, and betting a player out when you don't have a good hand, this gets to be lucrative as well. My suggestion to anyone who wants to get into heads up play is read Gus's book because it will show you just how calculated you can be while walking that fine line of a crazy maniac hyper aggressive player that no one wants to go heads up against.
Anyways, im running out of time today, so I will be back at another time. Hopefully with more examples of my poker playing and some decent strategies and tips I pick up around the table.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Thursday, September 18, 2008
What to do when you flop a made hand
Flopping a made hand can be one of the most lucrative plays in No-Limit Texas Hold Em poker. Depending on your table position should depend on what your next action should be.
Suppose you hold JQo (Jack, Queen, Offsuit) in the small blind position and you see the flop four handed leaving 3 more actions behind you on the flop. Lets say the flop comes 9, 10, King (rainbow). Very few people are going to be strong on this flop. Most of the people at the table will be on a straight draw or a high card like someone in late position calling with an AK.
Since you are first to act with a made hand, your table observation should of informed you before the hand on who plays aggressive and who is playing passive. If you have any aggressive players behind you then you would probably want to check-raise here. A check raise is when you check in early position with the hopes of someone behind you betting into the pot so that you may re-raise over them.
A straight is a fairly strong hand in poker, especially on our fictitious board here where we flopped a rainbow (3 suits, no draw for flush) Realistically if one of your opponents holds an AK here (typical of a tight aggressive player) then he is going to bet the pot in late position giving you the option of check raising him.
Lets say the next card on the turn is a 5 followed by a 2 on the river. Now you really have the board dominated, there is no way for any of your opponents to make a straight unless they have the exact same hand as you, which would result in a split pot. You are probably going to want to lead out with a bet here on the turn and another bet on the river. If you trapped any of the 4 people from the original flop then you have some room here to make a substantial amount of money. On a made hand, with no flushes or other straights available on the board and no full house you just want to pull as much money from your opponents as possible. Another words, don't get greedy, try to make bets that you think people will call. The more money you get stuffed in the pot, the bigger it will be for you on showdown.
Good Luck Players!
Suppose you hold JQo (Jack, Queen, Offsuit) in the small blind position and you see the flop four handed leaving 3 more actions behind you on the flop. Lets say the flop comes 9, 10, King (rainbow). Very few people are going to be strong on this flop. Most of the people at the table will be on a straight draw or a high card like someone in late position calling with an AK.
Since you are first to act with a made hand, your table observation should of informed you before the hand on who plays aggressive and who is playing passive. If you have any aggressive players behind you then you would probably want to check-raise here. A check raise is when you check in early position with the hopes of someone behind you betting into the pot so that you may re-raise over them.
A straight is a fairly strong hand in poker, especially on our fictitious board here where we flopped a rainbow (3 suits, no draw for flush) Realistically if one of your opponents holds an AK here (typical of a tight aggressive player) then he is going to bet the pot in late position giving you the option of check raising him.
Lets say the next card on the turn is a 5 followed by a 2 on the river. Now you really have the board dominated, there is no way for any of your opponents to make a straight unless they have the exact same hand as you, which would result in a split pot. You are probably going to want to lead out with a bet here on the turn and another bet on the river. If you trapped any of the 4 people from the original flop then you have some room here to make a substantial amount of money. On a made hand, with no flushes or other straights available on the board and no full house you just want to pull as much money from your opponents as possible. Another words, don't get greedy, try to make bets that you think people will call. The more money you get stuffed in the pot, the bigger it will be for you on showdown.
Good Luck Players!
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Bad Beats, Everyone Has Them
Everywhere you go you hear the tale. Some guy got runner runner and took someone else out. Some guy called all in with a nut flush draw and hit. Somebodies full house got beat by a bigger full house. Everybody remembers their bad beats, it seems in this day and age everywhere you go you can hear a tale of wondrous luck and misfortune. For some reason, as humans, we tend to remember the bad beats over the good ones. I have tried to concentrate this blog more on strategies and past "good" experiences, if for nothing more then to remind myself that playing no limit hold em poker does have its extreme ups.
Well this is one bad beat that I just have to share, mainly because it was an awkward experience that I should of been prepared for. I was called by one of my friends to come over and play cards with him and his roomates at his place on saturday night. I asked him what the buy in was and he said "$10" now this sounded pretty hokey, I don't play many low limit cash tourneys like this, especially at home games usually the minimum buy ins are $20. So i reluctantly agreed, I figured these people would be a bunch of fish and no where in the same league as me. And I was right.
I show up to 7 other people, 2 girls and the rest guys. Since it was there game they made the rules, winner takes all and it was a deep chip stack, something along the lines of $20,000 in chips. So when I sat down, I figured if I could take some good chip stacks down I could win this thing pretty easily by just playing smarter then everyone else. Well, as some would say, you just can't beat stupid.
The tourney went really well for the most part for being a single table game. Which is a table game I am very familiar with. I was getting just amazing hands and even finding myself folding 10Js because it was almost too easy. One several hands I would raise over four times the blind, something that would be a huge red flag for normal players, especially in early position. But in this game, everyone would call, making the pots pre-flop just massive. Several hands I would do this with pocket kings, and pocket aces, both raking in huge earnings for me. I played every trick in the book, check calls, check raises, early position blind steals, slowplaying made hands, the whole nine yards. I managed to take out 3 people in one hand which left the table pretty short handed and me with a massive chip lead.
Well after another hour or so of playing the last two people are in this home game tourney. Myself, and one other guy. We battle back and forth for about 10 hands, he takes a lot of chips on a couple hands and leaves us pretty even.
Well I get pocket aces and he has me by about 5000 in chips. I raise pre flop to four times the blind, he calls instantly. The board comes out, A 6 8 rainbow. Giving me a set. I bet huge, he calls me. Next card is a 9, making the board A 6 8 9 I go all in. He thinks for about five seconds, not nearly long enough to play out the hand in his head.
I turn over my aces, and he sighs, showing A7c I just about jump out of my chair because this is how this game has gone all night. People making just idiotic calls with huge raises from me, me showing the best made hand and them giving me their chips with the look of "who invited this guy" I was pretty excited, there was no way I was going to lose this hand, I was gonna walk outta this house with $70 and use it for a poker tourney at the local casino the next morning.
Well, as it seems, luck comes in strange and often times unfortunate ways. The river card in this case was a 5, making the board A 6 8 9 5 and giving my opponent the runner runner straight. Im not sure on the exact odds of this, but I was blown away at the call. Now normally I would be pretty upset on such a bad beat, maybe im getting numb to bad beats, maybe it was the fact that I just dominated a bunch of noobs in a game they knew nothing about for a measly $10. Either way, I wasn't all that upset about it, mainly because I had fun and at the end told them all that poker is my second job. Not like they couldn't tell that from the pwnage they just received. Either way, I lost, my opponent won and I received yet another lesson in poker strategy.
"No matter how good you are against a weaker player, sometimes you just can't beat stupid calls."
Keep up the grinding poker players!!!
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Four of a Kind with Pocket Deuces!
I was playing in a pokerstars tourney last night. I was down to 70cents in my cash account. Not willing to give a cent (literally) and uploading another $20 into my account, I decided to try a micro-limit tournament. The one I chose was a 10cent buy in, with 360 entrants, and it was a turbo game (meaning blinds went up faster then normal).
I ended up taking 5th in the tourney and netting myself a whopping $2.20, enough to buy into another couple micro tournaments. I had some phenomenal hands over the course of the tourney. I played very very tight aggressive poker and only played roughly 22% of all the hands I saw. One hand, in particular, stands out. The ultimate grand daddy of hands, Four of a Kind!
I play under the username "shockviper" (as seen in red lettering) so below you will see my table position and betting decisions as well as button placement. The blinds were 50/100 and we were in "round iv" of the tournament. Im dealt pocket deuces in the hot seat, play goes like this:
I limp in with pocket deuces in late position. The small blind calls and the big blind checks. The board comes out (Qd 2d Qs) giving myself a fullhouse. The first 3 spots check and Toto bets $200. Fuzzy folds and 1twoface calls the $200. Knowing the pot is now at $1100 I raise with an $800 bet, basically betting the pot. Cristina36 folds and Another Kame folds. But to my surprise, Isaya2 calls the $1000. Toto folds and 1twoface raises $523 putting himself all in for a total of $1523. At this point I put one of them on a Queen with a set, and the other one on a flush draw, which im hoping will hit. I call 1twofaces raise and so does isaya2.
The next card is a 9d placing a flush possibility on the board. Im hoping isaya2 has a flush here and bets. But instead the player checks, I go all in with $2363 and isaya2 calls with the rest of their chips ($447).
And the river card to my surprise is a 2c giving me a whopping four of a kind. Of course at this point I have every one all in, so its showdown time. I for sure thought that isaya2 was on a flush draw (which I was right) but I thought that 1twoface would show a queen, possibly a full house. Instead the player turned over pocket 10's.
It was a funny night for me, on this particular hand I was multi tabling at the time, and on the other table I was playing I also had pocket deuces (although I ended up folding those).
This example is the perfect reason why you should always play aggressive and at least see a flop with a pocket pair most of the time. If I had folded these (which I sometimes do in early position if their are raises in back of me) then I would of never seen this monster hand and would of been kicking myself. This win propelled me forward into the tourney giving me a substantial chip lead for most of the evening. Three hours later I finally finished 5th place and walked away happy with my miniscule $2.20 win, but feeling elated that I saw four of a kind.
Happy Grinding poker players!
I ended up taking 5th in the tourney and netting myself a whopping $2.20, enough to buy into another couple micro tournaments. I had some phenomenal hands over the course of the tourney. I played very very tight aggressive poker and only played roughly 22% of all the hands I saw. One hand, in particular, stands out. The ultimate grand daddy of hands, Four of a Kind!
I play under the username "shockviper" (as seen in red lettering) so below you will see my table position and betting decisions as well as button placement. The blinds were 50/100 and we were in "round iv" of the tournament. Im dealt pocket deuces in the hot seat, play goes like this:
I limp in with pocket deuces in late position. The small blind calls and the big blind checks. The board comes out (Qd 2d Qs) giving myself a fullhouse. The first 3 spots check and Toto bets $200. Fuzzy folds and 1twoface calls the $200. Knowing the pot is now at $1100 I raise with an $800 bet, basically betting the pot. Cristina36 folds and Another Kame folds. But to my surprise, Isaya2 calls the $1000. Toto folds and 1twoface raises $523 putting himself all in for a total of $1523. At this point I put one of them on a Queen with a set, and the other one on a flush draw, which im hoping will hit. I call 1twofaces raise and so does isaya2.
The next card is a 9d placing a flush possibility on the board. Im hoping isaya2 has a flush here and bets. But instead the player checks, I go all in with $2363 and isaya2 calls with the rest of their chips ($447).
And the river card to my surprise is a 2c giving me a whopping four of a kind. Of course at this point I have every one all in, so its showdown time. I for sure thought that isaya2 was on a flush draw (which I was right) but I thought that 1twoface would show a queen, possibly a full house. Instead the player turned over pocket 10's.
It was a funny night for me, on this particular hand I was multi tabling at the time, and on the other table I was playing I also had pocket deuces (although I ended up folding those).
This example is the perfect reason why you should always play aggressive and at least see a flop with a pocket pair most of the time. If I had folded these (which I sometimes do in early position if their are raises in back of me) then I would of never seen this monster hand and would of been kicking myself. This win propelled me forward into the tourney giving me a substantial chip lead for most of the evening. Three hours later I finally finished 5th place and walked away happy with my miniscule $2.20 win, but feeling elated that I saw four of a kind.
Happy Grinding poker players!
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Arizona Aces - Arizona's Premier Poker Club
Welcome to my Arizona Aces Blog!!! Arizona Aces is a premier poker club located in Tempe Arizona. The best part about playing at AA is their is no RAKE, so everything you win, you truly do win. Of course tipping the professional dealers is much appreciated.
I started this blog to track my many poker games, progress, weird things I see at the table, bad beats and huge takedowns and so on. I have been playing No-Limit Texas Hold Em poker religiously for over 3 years now. I consider myself pretty well versed in the game and I play mostly real life hand games. I would say about 10-15% of my poker games I play are online and strictly only on Pokerstars.
Recently I have been playing Casino Tournaments as I am an avid tourney player and consider that my best skill. Although I can hang in the ring games, I still do not have the patience to play open ring no limit games, so for now I stick to tourneys and so far it has paid off very very nicely.
Well this blog is really just to introduce Arizona Aces to the internets and particularly people who are looking for good money games in Arizona without going to a casino. So without further ado, here is all the info you need to play at AA. Good luck, and I will see you at the table!
Tournaments & Cash Games Schedule
Hours of operation:
Cash games run during all open hours!!!
Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri: 7pm to 8am
Saturday: 5pm to 8am
CLOSED on Sunday & Wednesday
Tournaments:
All blinds are 25 minutes and structure is very slow!!
· Every Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri:
$25 No RebuyTournament starts 7PM!
$25 gets 2000 chips $5 dealer appreciation gets another 2000 chips!
· Second Saturday of every month:
$100 DEEPSTACK No Rebuy Tournament starts 5PM!
$100 gets 3000 chips $15 dealer appreciation gets another 3000 chips!
· Last Saturday of every month:
$200 DEEPSTACK No Rebuy Tournament starts 5PM!
$200 gets 4000 chips $20 dealer appreciation gets another 4000 chips!
· All Other Saturdays:
$50 No Rebuy Tournament starts 5PM!
$50 gets 2000 chips $10 dealer appreciation gets another 2000 chips!
NO LIMIT & LIMIT CASH GAMES: Run all night to 8AM!
$2/$5 NL Min/Max buyin = $200/$1000 Runs Saturday 8pm and as demanded!
$1/$2 NL Min/Max buyin = $40/$400 Runs everyday!
$4/$8 Limit Hold’em & Mixed games Min/Max buyin = $40/Unlimited Runs as demanded!
NO RAKE! NO TOURNEY FEES! 100% of tourney entry gets paid out! No rake in the cash game! Food, soda, bottled water, energy drinks & Gatorade will be on hand. Walk-ins are welcome!
(We are on University just west of McClintock in the University Plaza. Pull in by the Thai food restaurant)
Arizona Aces
1435 E University Dr. Suite C-108
Tempe, AZ 85281
QUESTIONS Contact (four eight zero)968-2386
I started this blog to track my many poker games, progress, weird things I see at the table, bad beats and huge takedowns and so on. I have been playing No-Limit Texas Hold Em poker religiously for over 3 years now. I consider myself pretty well versed in the game and I play mostly real life hand games. I would say about 10-15% of my poker games I play are online and strictly only on Pokerstars.
Recently I have been playing Casino Tournaments as I am an avid tourney player and consider that my best skill. Although I can hang in the ring games, I still do not have the patience to play open ring no limit games, so for now I stick to tourneys and so far it has paid off very very nicely.
Well this blog is really just to introduce Arizona Aces to the internets and particularly people who are looking for good money games in Arizona without going to a casino. So without further ado, here is all the info you need to play at AA. Good luck, and I will see you at the table!
Tournaments & Cash Games Schedule
Hours of operation:
Cash games run during all open hours!!!
Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri: 7pm to 8am
Saturday: 5pm to 8am
CLOSED on Sunday & Wednesday
Tournaments:
All blinds are 25 minutes and structure is very slow!!
· Every Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri:
$25 No RebuyTournament starts 7PM!
$25 gets 2000 chips $5 dealer appreciation gets another 2000 chips!
· Second Saturday of every month:
$100 DEEPSTACK No Rebuy Tournament starts 5PM!
$100 gets 3000 chips $15 dealer appreciation gets another 3000 chips!
· Last Saturday of every month:
$200 DEEPSTACK No Rebuy Tournament starts 5PM!
$200 gets 4000 chips $20 dealer appreciation gets another 4000 chips!
· All Other Saturdays:
$50 No Rebuy Tournament starts 5PM!
$50 gets 2000 chips $10 dealer appreciation gets another 2000 chips!
NO LIMIT & LIMIT CASH GAMES: Run all night to 8AM!
$2/$5 NL Min/Max buyin = $200/$1000 Runs Saturday 8pm and as demanded!
$1/$2 NL Min/Max buyin = $40/$400 Runs everyday!
$4/$8 Limit Hold’em & Mixed games Min/Max buyin = $40/Unlimited Runs as demanded!
NO RAKE! NO TOURNEY FEES! 100% of tourney entry gets paid out! No rake in the cash game! Food, soda, bottled water, energy drinks & Gatorade will be on hand. Walk-ins are welcome!
(We are on University just west of McClintock in the University Plaza. Pull in by the Thai food restaurant)
Arizona Aces
1435 E University Dr. Suite C-108
Tempe, AZ 85281
QUESTIONS Contact (four eight zero)968-2386
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