Daniel Negreanu: Pros don’t overplay coin-flip situations

Fans of televised poker have heard a commentator use the terms "coin flip" and "race situation" to describe a big all-in altercation. These terms are typically used when a player with a pair risks it all against another player with two overcards, such as pocket sixes versus A-K.

While that’s a traditional type of coin flip, a race can occur any time there’s an all-in pot where the odds are even close to 50-50. I’ll explain why it’s usually a better idea to gamble on a coin flip after the flop as opposed to before.

The most important reason why it’s dangerous to risk all your chips pre-flop is that you simply can’t be certain that you are even in a coin-flip situation at that time.

You could actually be a much bigger underdog than that. Say you’re playing pocket sixes against a higher pair, such as 9-9. The outlook is dismal in this situation, as you would have just a 19 percent chance to win the pot. That’s not a coin flip; you’re a 4-to-1 underdog!

You see, even a lowly starting hand like pocket sixes is a favorite against a seemingly strong hand like A-K. But the real problem with playing the sixes is that you’re banking on the best-case outcome to win the pot before the flop. Either you’re in a coin flip as a small favorite or you’re a massive underdog against a bigger pair.

Rookies often make this mistake. They’ll overplay these hands before the flop by calling big all-in bets. Or even worse, they’ll re-raise all-in.

Professionals, on the other hand, dread the idea of shoving all their chips into the pot in coin-flip situations. Once they push their chips in, they understand that skill is no longer a factor. Instead, they’re simply at the mercy of Lady Luck.

That’s why pros wait to take their chances with coin flips until after the flop.

It’s often said that to win a poker tournament, you have to win your fair share of coin flips. That’s true. But it’s not often mentioned that you can choose when to do your gambling. You’ll be much safer to delay moving all-in until after the flop, especially if you hit a two-way draw like a straight and flush draw, a pair and a draw, or a draw and overcards.

OK, say you hold 4h-6h and the flop comes Jh-6d-3h, giving you a pair and a flush draw. It’s impossible to be drawing dead against your opponent in this situation. If he has three of a kind, you still can hit your flush. And if he’s on a better flush draw, well, you’re still in the lead with a pair of sixes.

This is the kind of situation where you can gamble aggressively because you can’t be a massive underdog. Even if your opponent holds As-Ad, you’d still be the favorite with a 51.6 percent chance to win. If he has Ah-Kh for the better flush draw, you’d be favored to win a little over 52 percent of the time. And in the worst possible case, if he has three jacks, you’d still manage to win the pot 30 percent of the time.

Do what the pros do and wait until after the flop to try to win a race. That way you can be fairly certain that you’re in no worse shape than a coin-flip situation. Also, by playing aggressively after the flop, you might actually force your opponent to fold his stronger hand, thus winning the pot without even having to see the next two cards.

● Go to www.cardsharkmedia.com/book.html for information about Daniel Negreanu’s newest book, "More Hold’em Wisdom for All Players."

Source: azstarnet.com

Online Poker Tools

When you play online, you have the opportunity to use your computer to help you play. Software programs have been developed to aid players trying to win at the tables. Players are hungry for these tools that will help them win more.

Poker Tracker is a very popular poker tool. With Poker Tracker you can look at your past play in a very precise way. You also collect data on the play of your opponents, which will show you their styles.

This software takes you hand history, and organizes it so it can be studied. It organizes according to hole cards, or by position. You can look at your winningets hands, and the losers.

This is an excellent tool to analyze your game. You can see how you’re winning, Also, you can see what hands, or plays, are costing you money, Players also use this software to learn more about their opponents playing styles.

Poker Sherlock is an incredible tool to attack the cash games online. Poker Sherlock has a huge, growing, data base of players that they have statistics on. You get access to this data base when you join.

When you launch the software, it works automatically. When you go to the poker table it will give you the stats on all the players that are in the data base. This way you can see if the table is even worth playing at. Too many sharks, and you should stay away.

Once you sit downm, Poker Sherlock will update after every hand that you play. You will know who the good and bad players are immediately. Ny knowing your opponents playing styles, you will read their plays much better,

Sit N Go Power Tool (SNGPT) is designed to help you make mathematical decisions in SNG situations. In many SNG situations the blinds get very big in relation to the stacks at the table. When this happens, you just can’t wait for good hands, you need to play. The basic question is whether to push all in, or fold.

If that is the case, we need to know when it is correct to go all in, and when is it right to fold. The SNGPT will give us the answer with a mathematical certainty. The only subjective variable is that you must decide the range of hands that you think might call your all in move.

Most of the mistakes players made when the blinds go up in an SNG are either, playing to passively, or just raising, and having to fold when one of your opponents goes all in after you. This software teaches you the correct decisions in this part of the game.

Here we have seen an example of three poker tools that can help you become a winning player. Online players are taking advantage of these tools to gain an edge over those who don’t. Don’t get left behind, use some poker tools to play better online poker.

Want To Score By Reading Your Opponents in Online Poker Games?

As there exist some differences between online poker and live poker games, so players need to change their ways of reading opponents comparing with that used in live poker. In live poker games, you play face to face with your opponents and can read them by means of body-language, and could become familiar with their habits or styles of playing, thus helping you to make decisions when your turn comes. However, when playing online poker, players couldn’t see each other when they take their actions. So, what they should do to read their opponents?

Online poker provides players with a ‘mask’ where they can hide behind, thus making the concealment of your bad poker face a child’s play. Unfortunately this whole deal works in both directions: it’ll be a lot tougher for you to get reads on opponents as well. Anyway, although your visual information about your opponents will be reduced, but there are still other ways of reading them.

First, the time a player takes to respond to other players’ actions reveals something about that player. If the player immediately takes actions to bet or raise after others, he or she may has a strong hand. If the player takes a longer time to respond, he is USUALLY hesitating and keeps a weak hand. So when you get a strong hand, you could wait a bit longer before taking actions, thus preventing others predicting your hands.

Then, you could watch others’ playing styles and take a note to be familiar with your opponents. Some players always play aggressively whenever they got strong hands and always fold when they got no nuts. So what you need to do is just to observe and record them in mind.

Besides, the online chat is also another clue for you to read your opponents. The player who constantly chats, will most probably not be a dangerous one. If someone complains online, being rude and trying to insult others out of sheer frustration, you’ll know that he’s not only a fish, but also a socially challenged specimen. Do not get drawn into the senseless yapping. Take note, and focus on your game.

Reading your opponents online thus is possible as there are still resources for you to make full use of, though it is more difficult than in live poker. Just sharpen your eyes and catch the tinny clues revealed by your opponents, then you will stand more powerful than them.

Online Poker Strategies and Texas Hold’em Poker Strategies

Play Tight

One winning poker strategy is if everyone at the Texas Holdem poker table plays loose, then no one can win. The players will trade pots back and forth while the casino slowly rakes all their money. The better Texas Holdem players will lose less, but in the long run, no one can win. It’s also true that no one can win if everyone plays tight. The tight players will trade smaller pots back and forth while the casino rakes all their money. The better Texas Holdem players will lose less, but no one can win.

Position

Another winning poker strategy is that most Texas Holdem poker players agree that more hole cards can be played profitably in late position than in early upholstery cleaning brooklyn Any Texas Holdem hole cards that win money in early position will certainly win more money in late postion. Any hole cards that lose money in early position are probably not worth playing in any position.

Rakes

Casinos and poker rooms either rake each pot or charge the players on a time basis. It’s part of the poker player’s overhead. There are various methods of collecting from the players, but it really boils down medical missions two ways. If the money is taken from the pot, it’s a rake. If the money is collected from the players equally, it’s a time charge although it might be called something else.

Tokes

Tokes are an important part of the dealers’ income and part of the poker player’s overhead. You want the dealers to make their money, but keep your toking affordable.

Play Records

A fifth winning poker strategy is if you don’t keep records of your Texas Holdem poker playing, start now. Make a form on your computer and print some copies. If you have the software, set up a database on your hard drive. At least get a notebook and a calculator. If you need to make notes in the casino, write on the upholstery cleaning berkeley of a keno ticket and copy the information to your play records when you get home. Accurate play records will tell you a lot about yourself, your strategy and your opponents.

Strategy Variations

Another winning poker strategy is Texas Holdem poker players and Texas Holdem experts know that you should vary your play to confuse and bewilder the other players. If you play every hand the same way, you risk being labeled a robot by your fellow players and you memory foam review get any respect at the poker table. Not only that, you’ll have to endure all the poker articles and player remarks about how easy you are to beat in Texas Holdem poker because you’re so predictable.

Online Poker Strategy

Online poker rooms make it easier for the average person to play poker without having to wager vast sums of money, and this is especially true of the free online poker rooms. Whatever your game is though, be it free or not, you will find that knowing some online poker strategy and game plays will be of great help to you.

It is true that with the advent of online poker, more and more people are learning to play poker, and as such it behooves the new player to learn as much online poker strategy as they can. This will not only give them an advantage over the other poker players who don’t use any type of strategy to play, but it also gives you a better starting position, as you will be ready for any contingency.

The main trick to winning at online poker, or indeed any type of poker, is practice and experience. Without either by your side, no amount of knowledge of online poker strategy and game plays will be of help to you.

To that end, it is to your benefit if you spend more time playing the game of poker rather than reading about poker strategies and things. Leave that to a time when you are better able to play poker without having to stop and think about whether or not you have a possible good hand or not!

In short, use online poker strategy and game plays only when you have the knowledge and the know-how to play poker properly.

Another thing that you will want to keep an eye out for when you are looking into these online poker strategy and game plays, is whether or not they are out and out poker cheats, or even whether they are borderline poker cheats.

Either way you will want to be careful when you are dealing with these strategies which fall into gray areas as you could be penalized for having used them, even if you were unaware of what they were to begin with. Remember, ignorance is not an acceptable excuse in most places, and you want to be very careful when dealing with strategies and things which could be construed as cheating.

When all is said and done however, you will find that once you are more conversant with playing the game of poker, using an online poker strategy will be of help to you, but only when you have become conversant with the game.

Until then you might as well be playing blindly for all the good utilizing an online poker strategy will do for you. Learn to play poker first, then go in for the poker strategies. This is the first poker strategy that you should learn.

Playing Poker by Daniel Negreanu : Cash-game, Tournament Skills Differ

There’s plenty of discussion on Internet poker forums about the differences between tournament and cash-game players. The general consensus is that cash-game players are superior. And while I do believe there is some truth to that sentiment, it is important to recognize that the skills required for each format are vastly different.

The most obvious difference between a cash game and a tournament is that in tournament play, once your chips are gone, so are you. In a cash game, you can always dig into your pocket for more money.

As a result, tournament players think in terms of survival and play their hands to avoid losing all of their chips. Cash game players think differently. They’re concerned about getting full value for hands when they’re ahead and minimizing losses when they’re behind.

Another difference between big buy-in tournaments and high-stakes cash games is the caliber of players who compete in each. Even in the $10,000 WSOP main event, you’re sure to find a high percentage of low-skilled amateur players. That’s just not the case in high-stakes cash games, where the tables are littered with professional sharks.

No one would argue that it’s much easier to beat a bunch of amateurs than it is trying to outwit elite professionals. Sure, you might take a few bad beats against amateur players who don’t know what they’re doing. But at the same time, it will be much easier to get all of their chips in situations where pros would simply fold.

You see, beating amateurs in tournaments is all about taking their money by playing fundamentally sound poker. That approach isn’t good enough when playing pros in cash games.

And that’s where Phil Hellmuth comes in. Even though Hellmuth has won 11 WSOP bracelets — all of them in hold’em events — he simply doesn’t get a lot of respect from cash-game grinders.

Hellmuth has mastered two of the most important concepts of tournament play: Survival is king, and bluffing should rarely be used. He also knows that weak players will eventually make big mistakes, and when that happens, he’ll clean up.

Or else he’ll take a bad beat and throw one of his patented temper tantrums!

If Hellmuth tried that same patient, non-bluffing style of play against top cash-game players, he’d see his chip stack slowly dwindle away. He’d never be able to trap his opponents; they’d see right through his strategy. Phil would be continuously hammered into submission before and after the flop.

You see, Hellmuth’s successful approach to tournament poker just doesn’t translate into the world of high-stakes cash-game poker.

Tournament play demands patience to survive and win. Winning at cash games demands a whole other level of thought and deception. You need to reach into your bag of tricks and run the occasional big bluff to be a consistent cash-game winner.

Don’t get me wrong, not all cash-game players properly adapt to tournament play and tournament opposition, either. They attempt bluffs that might work in cash games but fail miserably in tournament play. They don’t realize that many amateur players aren’t skilled enough to recognize when they should just fold their hands.

I am most challenged by playing cash games against the world’s top players. These games force me to think several moves in advance, like in a game of chess. And though I also find tournaments fun to play, they just don’t provide the constant brain buzz that cash-game players crave.

– Online poker training is now available from Daniel Negreanu. Visit www.PokerVT.com.