Poker Course

[Vinny]

who's in for strip poker?

[Antrax]

/in for GL poker tournament
Antrax

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"Look, that's why there's rules, understand? So that you think before you break 'em" - Lu-Tze, Thief of Time

[dethwing]

mmmm....gl Poker....

[Sami]

Originally posted by Borodog:

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First of all, there's a word for this: cheating.

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I obviously did not mean that. I specifically said that your home game was composed of couples. You all know each other, and therefore know who is coupled with whom. Should play in a game of, say, three couples be different from play in a game of six individuals? Of course no signalling or other secret communications would be allowed between couples.

[This message has been edited by Sami (edited 11-12-2003 07:39 AM).]

[Quailman]

[Sniklac16]

Ok I have a quick question. It's probably off course, but if two or more players get a full house, does the hand go to the player with the higer full house? Or is it considered a draw still?

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"I fly by night and hide by day"

[Quailman]

Asked by Sami and answered by Antrax (replies 14 & 15) The higher triplet wins out. The pairs don't matter, since you cannot both have the same triplet. (Unless you're playing with multiple wildcards. In that case, you could both have the same triplet, and the higher pair would win. If all cards are the same, you draw and split the pot)

[Fried Egg]

What is meant by a "hi-lo split"?

[Quailman]

The best and worst hands split the pot. That gives you a chance to win some cash when you are dealt some lousy cards. Borodog can get into the strategies on this front. Everyone is participating in the same betting process, though some (maybe one or none) are betting that they have the absolute worst poker hand possible, or at least worse than anyone else's. If you think you are the only one going low (or high), you can raise repeatedly, causing the other players to have to call just to see if they can win their share.

[Sami]

Originally posted by Quailman:

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...there's going to be some sort of communication going on, verbal or otherwise.

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Right, but that communication is open and not secret. Everyone would see me make a face or whatever at my SO, and would know why. I guess the question I'm really getting at is, if each couple is playing honestly, is individually trying to maximize your winnings the only way to maximize total couple winnings?

[Dr. Borodog]

I have no objections to people getting together to play online for practice, as long as you keep this in mind:

Playing for play is completely different than playing for real.

What I mean by that is that when people play poker for monopoly money, or even for low enough real money stakes that it may as well be monopoly money, they play significantly differently than when it matters to them. When everyone stays in a hand to the end, for example, you may as well be rolling dice (recall what we said at the beginning about everyone being dealt their hands face up, one after the other?). It's completely random in that case, and you are purely gambling. If that's the kind of game you enjoy, then be my guest.

That is not to say that people cannot play a good game of poker for play money. That's not true. But they do have to be in the correct mindset. They have to be of the mindset that the "points" matter. That it's like any other card game, like hearts, or spades, where ther is a winner, and there are losers. If you can get people to cherrish the points they still have to the point where they will not throw them away for the hell of it, then they're acting like it's money, and you can learn something playing that game.

But it takes only one person who'll bet every time, raise every time, pretending he's a billionaire, to destroy that atmosphere.

And Sami, the only adjustments to your strategy when playing with your significant other should come from considerations of preserving domestic tranquility. ;-)

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You will respect my philosophai.

[This message has been edited by Dr. Borodog (edited 11-12-2003 10:11 AM).]

[Chuck]

If you can afford to lose the money then it's not really poker. Real poker is when you have a straight but have to bet your car to stay in.

[Suspence]

Never thought of it that way, Boro, but it is completely true.

So is there a way that we can try to make the game matter without using money?

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I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature

[Fried Egg]

Play for sexual favours?

[Chuck]

No matter how much you value the points, I don't think that playing for Monopoly money just to see who's best is quite the same as playing for real money. With real money I'd be happy to make a nice profit even if someone else makes more. If I'm playing to see who's best then "second place" is just a polite way of saying "loser".

The best way to win at poker is to play only against inferior players. Unless you're just playing socially for small stakes you should get out of the game when it becomes apparent that the other players are better than you.

[Dr. Borodog]

We'll quickly learn the rules for the 3 most popular games: 7 card stud, 5 card draw, and Texas Hold'em.

Seven Card Stud

In 7-stud everyone is dealt 2 cards face down (their "hole," or "pocket" cards) and one card face up. There is usually both a small ante from all players and a forced bet (but not specifically to the dealer's left; I'll explain in a moment). You can, of course adjust to your taste. The betting structure at my house is a rather large ante from all, and no forced bets, if we have 4 or fewer, and if we have five or more, we have no antes, but big and little blind bets to the left of the dealer.

Your up card is called your "door card." In many casinos, the lowest door card is the "bring in" and is forced to make a bet (that's the forced bet I alluded to earlier). Play then follows clockwise (to the left) with players either calling, raising, or folding this forced bet. When it gets back to the bring in, his bet is considered "live," in that he may raise the bet himself. If it's been raised ahead of him, he can of course fold, and if everyone else has just called, he may check to end the betting round.

One more card is then dealt to all face up, for a total of four: two down, two up. The player with the highest hand showing "has the power," in other words, he has the option of opening the betting (he may of course, check). Play then proceeds clockwise until the pot is right.

This process, one card up followed by a betting round, is completed two more times, leaving 4 cards up, and two down. The final card comes face down, with a final betting round. You now have 7 cards, 4 up, 3 down. There have been 5 betting rounds. To summarize:

2 cards down + 1 up + a betting round
+ (1 card up + a betting round) x 3
+ 1 card down + a betting round
Showdown. Best 5 card hand wins.

You may have to adjust your first round rules according to the betting structure. For example, when we play with large antes, there is no bring in; the high door card immediately has the power and may open the betting. When we play with big and little blinds, the pot must be made right starting from the player to the big blind's left, so the highest (or lowest) door card is irrelevant on the first round.

The size of the bets on each round may vary according to your structure, of course. At my house you may bet or raise a minimum of a quarter and a maximum of $2 (in intervals of a quarter) at any time. Some games use a fixed bet (say $1) for the first 3 rounds and then double it for the last 2 (to $2).

Variation: 5 card stud
5-stud is very rare nowadays. It is characterized by poor average hand quality and small pots. It is not an "action" game. In 5-stud. Each player gets dealt 1 card face down and 1 up, followed by a betting round. 3 more cards come, all face up, totalling 4 betting rounds.

5 card draw
Each player is dealt 5 cards, all face down. Play proceeds to the dealers left with each player having the option to open the betting in turn, After the pot is right, players may exchange some number of cards for new ones from the deck ("draw"). The number of cards to be drawn may depend on the number of people playing. If there are 5 or fewer, a player may redraw his entire hand. If there are 6 players, the usual rule is a maximum of 3 or "4 with an ace" (you may draw 4 if you keep an ace and show it). With more than 6 players playing draw becomes problematic, as there may not be enough cards in the deck. After the draw, there is a second betting round, and a showdown.

Variation: 5-draw with a joker (Mexican Poker)
A joker may be inserted into the deck for a total of 53 cards. The joker is NOT "wild," i.e., it cannot be any old thing you want it to be. The joker can ONLY be an ace, or be used to complete a straight or flush.

Variation: Shotgun
Shotgun, or 5-card double draw, is identical to 5-draw, except that there is a second draw and a 3 betting round added. This can only be played with 5 or fewer players, with the draw rules being a maximum of 3 on the first draw, and 2 on the second. Shotgun raises the average hand without resorting to kooky wild card schemes. Beware though! Each player may see a maximum of 10 cards! These hands can be strong! I played a hand of shotgun a few weeks back where my full house beat someone else's full house, but lost to 4 queens!

Texas Hold'em
In Texas Hold'em, everyone is dealt two hole cards, and there is a betting round (remember the action starts to the left of the forced, or blind, bets). Then the "Flop" is dealt: 3 community cards are dealt face up that everyone may use. There is another betting round. A fourth community card is dealt face up, called "the turn" or "Fourth Street." Another betting round. A final community card is dealt, "the river" or "Fifth Street." The final betting round and showdown follows. There is a total of 4 betting rounds: pre-flop, on the flop, on the turn, and on the river. In many casions games the structures is that the small blind is half of the big blind, and the big blind is a full bet, the same size as all bets and raise on the first two betting rounds. On the last two rounds, the size of the bets double. SO for example, the small blind might be $0.50, the big blind $1, with all bets and raises pre- and post-flop being $1 as well. Then the bets and raises on the turn and river would be $2.

To make your best hold'em hand, you use ANY combination of your 2 hole cards plus the five community cards to make your best 5 card poker hand. You may even "play the board," i.e not use either of your two cards at all.

Omaha
Omaha is very much like hold'em in the structure and the deal of the community cards (flop, turn, river). The only difference is that you are dealt four hole cards and you MUST use TWO and EXACTLY TWO of your hole cards and THREE and EXACTLY THREE of the community cards to make your hand! I cannot emphasize this enough! Your full house will rapidly shrivel to two pair when you remember suddenly that you cannot use three of your hole cards!

Variation: Omaha high-low split, 8 or better
This is Omaha, except that the high hand and the low hand split the pot. Straights and flushes do NOT count against a low hand: the best low hand is A2345 (called a "wheel" or a "bicycle"). You may DIFFERENT combinations of cards for high and low, but for each you still must use exactly two hole cards and exactly three table cards. For a hand to qualify as low, it must be no higher than an 8 high (that means no cards higher than an 8 and no pairs; AA234 is NOT a low; neither is A2349). An implication of these rules is that if there are no 3 unique low cards (8 or lower) on board, there can be no low! There is a low only 58% of the time. If there is no low, the high hand "scoops." It is possible for hands to tie. If the low is tied, then the high gets his half, and the two lows split the other half (i.e., they got "quartered").

Exercise
Get a standard deck of playing cards, and deal some hands out from each of the preceeding games. For example, deal out 10 5 card draw hands, face up. Pick the most promising looking one, save it, and shuffle the rest back together. Then decide how many cards you're going to draw on your hand, and deal out as many draws of that size as you possibly can from the remainder of the deck. For example, if you kept a hand of 3 9s, you'd draw two. There are 47 cards in the rest of the deck, so you can deal out 23 two card draws. You will quickly get an idea of the odds of improving various hands. There's only 1 other 9 in the deck; so the odds of improving to 4 of a kind are about 22 to 1 against (they're a little worse than that; the last 9 might be the 47th card). But you'd be surprised that your odds of improving are better than that; you'll probably deal your self a couple of pairs along the way, which would improve you to a full house! S0 your odds of improving a strong hand (which 3 9s certainly is) are actually more like 8:1 against.

As another example, deal out 26 two card hold'em starting hands. Pick the most promising ones (big cards, pairs, suited connectors like 89 of spades), and set them to the side, face up. Take the rest of the cards, reshuffle them, and deal out as many 5 card "boards" as you can. Compare your set of hole cards to each board, and see "who" wins. You'll see pairs win, two pair, three of a kind, even straights, flushes, and full houses!

Mostly, you want to practice reading boards in the flop games, because it can sometimes be difficult to see what you have, but more importantly to see what it is possible for someone else to have. This is particularly true in Omaha, and Omaha hi-lo split 8 or better can make you want to tear your hair out identifying the best possible low!

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You will respect my philosophai.



[This message has been edited by Dr. Borodog (edited 11-12-2003 11:19 AM).]

[Quailman]

[Dr. Borodog]

This is why "cards speak." There is no silly declaring for lows, and if your cards show a flush, you have a flush. Period. Make sure people know this at the beginning of the game.



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You will respect my philosophai.

[Dr. Borodog]

All Cards Are Created Equal . . .
. . . it’s just that some are more equal than other.

Recall the exercise where we dealt out a bunch of hands face up. Most were crap, remember? Why would you ever want to risk your money on crap? Well, you shouldn’t. Recall the First Law:

You would lose most hands you are dealt if you played them. Therefore, don’t play them.

What this means is that simply, you should wait for good starting cards. What are good starting cards? They are the cards that have a chance of becoming winners. Sometimes it’s easy to see what good starters should be. In 7-stud if you start with “rolled up” (i.e. 3 of a kind) Aces, you should play that hand! In hold’em, if you start with Pocket Rockets (i.e., a pair of Aces in the hole), you should play that hand! But what about lesser starters?

We’ll take Texas Hold’em as our example. In hold’em, you only get 2 starting cards before you have to decide to play or not. That means there are only 169 distinct starting hands. Any two cards can win! Hence, you will see many people do just that: play any two cards. After all, how can you win if you don’t play, right?

Wrong. The trick is that while any two cards can win, some combinations of two cards are much more LIKELY to win. This means that if you play only these hands, in the long run, it will be much more likely that you’re a winner. If you play hands that are much less likely to win (i.e. they are much more likely to lose) then it is much more likely that you’ll be a loser.

So, different starting hands have different values. In hold’em, AA has the highest value, always. Usually, the worst starting hand in hold’em is 72 offsuit (meaning the 7 and the 2 are not suited). Why is that the worst starting hand? Because the cards are low, and they cannot “reach” to form a straight, and it's not suited, so you're that much less likely to hit a flush (we’ll see later that 72 offsuit is not always the worst starting hand; it depends).

As your first rules of thumb, look for at least these starters in these games:

7-stud: 3 high cards (preferably with a couple higher than anyone else’s door card), a 3 flush, a 3 straight, a big pair, a smaller pair with a high kicker (preferably higher than anyone else’s door card). Make sure your cards are live if you have a small pair or a 3 flush or straight. This means that if you have pocket 5s, and see the other two 5s as door cards, you’re not getting any more! If you have a three flush, and see 3 or more of your suit out as door cards, that’s not good. If you have a three straight, and see 3 or more of your straight cards out as door cards, that’s not good.

5-daw: Fold your junk. You need at least a pair or higher, or a 4 straight or 4 flush. Obviously, higher pairs are better than lower pairs. To be more discriminating, we’ll see how other factors in the game should affect your starters later on (in fact, in many situations, most pairs are also junk).

Hold’em: Pairs, big cards, suited connectors (like 98 of spades), a big card with a suited buddy (like A8 of diamonds). Obviously, the higher your cards are, the better. We’ll see how to adjust these to other factors in the game later on.

Omaha: Omaha is tricky. You want all 4 of your hole cards working together somehow. Remember, an Omaha starting hand is like holding six different hold’em hands at once; you want all 6 of those hands to be good, if possible. Therefore you want high, coordinated cards (if you’re not playing hi-low split). A hand like AAKQ double suited is a great hand. AQKJ double suited is great. You don’t generally want to have any “danglers” (useless cards), So if you’ve got something like AJT4, it would be nice if the 4 was at least suited with something else (preferably the Ace).

Omaha hi-lo split 8 or better: Wow. Every hand of this game is like a Mensa test. Just keep this in mind: They don’t call it Omaha hi-lo-middle. You want to either have high, coordinated cards, just like regular Omaha (remember, 42% of the time, there is no low!), or you want to have low coordinated cards (remember, 58% of the time, there is a low!), or (preferably) you want to have hands that have a chance to “scoop” the whole pot, even if there is a low. So hands like AKQJ double suited, or A234, or the monster of monsters, AA23 double suited are what you want to have. If you never played a hand with a 6, 7, 8, or 9 in in, you probably would improve your profits immediately (this is not always true, of course, we’ll see later, again, that other factors influence your starting hands).


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You will respect my philosophai.



[This message has been edited by Dr. Borodog (edited 11-12-2003 12:53 PM).]

[Dr. Borodog]

Probability, Odds, and Expected Value

The probability of something is the chance that it is likely to occur, and is measured in percent (%). The probability that I will win a coin flip is 50%. If I have a 4 flush, and there are 47 unseen cards in the deck, 9 of which complete my flush, and I get to draw one card, the probability that I will make my flush is 9/47x100%, or about 19%.

Odds are the ratio of probable wins to probable losses (or vice versa). It the above example, I will lose 81% of the time, and win 19% of the time. The odds are therefore about 4.25 to 1 against me to make my flush (81/19 ~ 4.25). This would be written as 4.25:1 against. I am an underdog to win. If I’m playing hold’em against one opponent, and before the flop I have AA, I’m almost a 6:1 favorite to win.

Expected value is a gambling concept. It is the expected return on a bet, calculated on the assumption that you could make that same bet many times. For example, if you and I wager a dollar each on the flip of a coin, that bet has an expected value of 0. If however, I could somehow convince you to wager $2 against my $1 on the same coin flip, each flip would have an expected value of $0.50. If we flipped the coin 100 times, I would win $2 50 times, and lose $1 50 times, for a net gain of $50 in 100 flips, or $0.50 per flip.

So, what does this all get us? First of all, remember: It’s not about winning hands. I know poker players that will fold immediately if they think are “behind” in a hand. Sometimes this is a good idea, sometimes it’s extraordinarily bad. Their thought process is this: “I have this 4 flush, but if I pay the $2 to see the next card, I’ll lose almost all the time. I’d better just fold and save the money.”

What they fail to take into account, and what some players only take into account in a very rudimentary, instinctual way, is that the pot is offering them money to draw. Sure, they’ll lose most of the time, but is the pot offering them enough money to make up for it? This brings us to the concept of pot odds.

Take for example a game of hold’em. It is after the turn, and you are 4 to a flush, with one last card to come. You are certain that your opponent has a real hand, like a pair of Aces, but you are equally certain that if your flush hits, you will win. He bets $2. The pot is $10 after his bet. Do you call?

Of course! The pot is offering you $10 against the $2 you have to pay to call. That’s 5:1 on your money. But the odds against making your flush are only 4.1:1 (37 losers:9 winners) against you. If you played this hand 46 times, you’d lose 37 of them, and only win 9. The 37 loses would each cost you $2, for a total cost of $74. But the 9 wins would get you $10 each, for a total of $90. Thus over 46 hands you net $16, for an expected value of about $0.35 per wager (a significant return on your investment of over 17%; I’d take that in my mutual fund, wouldn’t you?).

Thus, Owen’s Second Law of Poker: Call a bet in order to draw when the pot odds warrant it.

Many players do this instinctively: “We’ll there’s not much chance I’ll make this, but that pot sure is big!”

Many players will make the cardinal mistake of paying to draw when the odds do NOT warrant it. For example, if above the pot was only $8 on the end, the pot would only be offering 4:1, while the odds on the flush were 4.1:1 against. Calling this bet would still lose you $74 in 37 hands, but you’d only win $72 in the other 9, for a net loss of $2 over the 46 hands, or an E.V. of -$0.04 (this bet is so close to break even though, that you may sometimes want to call it, just to give the “illusion of action,” which we’ll get to later).

Some odds on drawing: flush draws are over 4:1 against, open-ended straight draws are nearly 5:1 against, and inside straight draws are over 10:1 against (the exact numbers depend on how many cards you’ve seen). These are all for one card to come; a good rule of thumb is to cut these in half with two cards to come (but see below!).

So as long as the pot is offering you sufficient odds, you can chortle gleefully even when your draw doesn’t come (as it most likely won’t), because if you keep playing correctly, every bet is paying you! But it gets even better, when we talk about implied odds.

Implied Odds
Take the same hold’em example, but now, rather than there being 1 card to come, there are 2 (i.e. it is after the flop, but before the turn). You are still 4 to a flush. Now, the odds that you will improve to a flush by the last card are significantly improved. The odds against you making your flush by the river are now only about 1.85:1 against you! Does this mean that you can now call a bet on the turn with pot odds as low as 1.85:1?

Emphatically NOT. Many players do this, and it is WRONG. What they fail to take into account is the money that they will have to pay to call on the river if they miss on the turn. So you CANNOT simply call a bet with the pot odds that barely beat the total odds you’ll make a hand by the last card, especially if you are the only person calling the bettor.

However, there is good news. Another thing people don’t take into account is the extra money that will be in the pot by the time you win (if your card hits), due to the later betting rounds, if there are several people playing. These are the implied odds. Implied odds get better the more people are playing in the hand. So the more people are in the hand, you can start shading your pot odds requirements down toward the odds you’ll make the hand by the last card. Another way to think about this is the “Just one more” concept. If there are several people in the hand, you’ll pay for just one more card, even though the current pods odds do not quite warrant it, because you know that if the very next card hits, you’ll win a lot more than is currently in the pot from those people. If your very next card does not hit, you can fold without qualm because now the pot odds certainly don’t warrant a draw for the last card.

If anyone wishes, I’ll write down a full example of the above concept, including numbers, to prove that it works. Just remember this, if there are 4 people likely to be calling with more cards to come, you can shade down your pot odd requirements to 3:1 for flush and open-ended straight draws, and perhaps 8:1 against for inside straight draws.

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You will respect my philosophai.

[This message has been edited by Dr. Borodog (edited 11-12-2003 02:17 PM).]

[Dr. Borodog]

By the way, that is why the old adage that "Only a sucker draws to an inside straight" can sometimes not be true. If you offered me 20:1 on my money, I'd draw on an inside straight in a heartbeat!


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You will respect my philosophai.

[borschevsky]

Just posting to say that I'm following the thread, and I think it's a great idea. All Boro's posts so far are very clear and well-written. Looking forward to the stuff on position.

Also I'm in if people want to play online practice games.

[This message has been edited by borschevsky (edited 11-12-2003 03:00 PM).]

[Pablo]

Only a sucker offers 20:1 against filling an inside straight.

[Dr. Borodog]

Social and Anti-Social Cards

Some of the discussion above may have gotten you thinking. You might have noticed that I said that for a drawing hand, it’s better that there are other people playing.

Think about that. Isn’t that strange? Every other person in the hand increases the chances that someone will have a hand that’s better than yours, right? So why could you possibly want to have more people playing? The answer has to do with odds of winning, pot odds and implied pot odds, and what I like to call social hands and anti-social hands.

Consider texas hold’em as an example. If two people are playing heads up, and one of them holds AA prior to the flop, he is a huge favorite. He will win something like 85% of the time.

But now look what happens if he’s at a full table, say 10 people, all with random hands. He is still a huge favorite over any one player, but he is now a big underdog to beat them all! In fact, it’s better than 2:1 against him, if everyone were to stay in to the end. This happens because there are so many hands out that the odds that somebody has the perfect cards to fit with those on the board go way up.

Hence, some hands, the kinds of hands that can win unassisted are better in heads up play. These include big cards, like high pairs.

Consider now another hand. A hand like 76 of clubs. This hand is clearly a bad hand to have heads up. You’re already behind anyone with so much as an 8. The odds of this hand winning against a random hand are poor. The odds of this hand winning against a single hand that has show strength (perhaps the AA from above) are long indeed. But wait!

What about the concept that we talked about before, pot odds? What if you’re playing hold’em, and you know that with a certain number of players against you, this hand will only win 1 time in 4 (for example), or 3:1 against. Now imagine that several people have already called ahead of you. Say it’s $1 for you to play this crummy 76 of clubs, but the pot is already $4. Remember the pot odds! The pot is now enticing you, offering you 4:1 on your money against a 3:1 gamble. If there were one less caller, the call would be marginal (3:1), if there were 2 less, the call would not be worth it at all (only 2:1).

So drawing hands, hands that are only likely to win with improvement, like to have other players in the pot. Why? Because they will still only rarely win, so when they do, you need a lot of players (and hence money) in the pot to make it worth the risk!

So Big Cards are anti-social, and like a small number of players. But Drawing Cards are social, and like a large number of players.


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You will respect my philosophai.



[This message has been edited by Dr. Borodog (edited 11-12-2003 03:12 PM).]

[Quailman]

I'm guessing all these odds are based on not seeing any of the other cards. Your odds of filling that straight significantly decrease if you can see two of the possible four cards that would fill it sitting in another player's hand.

[Dr. Borodog]

Of course. It is also quite likely that if you're playing 7 stud, need a 6, and see someone else with 578 on their board, that they may indeed have one of your 6s.



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You will respect my philosophai.

[Dr. Borodog]

The number of people in the pot

What does this new-found information tells us? It tells us that we damn well better try to manipulate the number of people in the pot!

For example, if you have big cards, you want to raise as much as you can. Why? To lower people's pot odds! Say for example, the same hold'em situation was as before. I still have the 76, the pot is $4, but $2 of that is the raise from the guy with AA. Now I'm only getting 2:1 on my bet, not to mention that one person ahead of me has already shown strength (implying that should my long odds draw not hit, it is unlikely that I will just happen to beat him anyway). So I do the only thing I can. I fold.

This is good for the guy with AA - it increases the chances that he'll win the pot. Now imagine that I didn't fold. I paid the money, even though the odds didn't warrant it. This is good for the guy with the big cards too! Even though the odds he'll win the pot go down, he's still the favorite, which means he'll win slightly more more when he does.

So betting and raising when you are in the lead can (almost) never do you wrong. This brings us to Owen's Third Law of Poker: When you're ahead, make them pay for their draws. It both narrows the field (increasing the chances you'll win the pot), and puts more money in the pot that you're the favorite to win.

Conversely, when you have a drawing hand, you need to get in cheap. If it looks like you'll make it into the pot with sufficient odds, then call. But beware people acting behind you! They can raise and destroy your pot odds. We'll see more about this later when we talk about position.

There can be some important exceptions to the above rules, which we'll cover in the next section.


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You will respect my philosophai.



[This message has been edited by Dr. Borodog (edited 11-12-2003 03:34 PM).]

[Dr. Borodog]

Adjusting your starting requirements to the number of players

The other thing that changes with the number of people in the pot is the average winning hand. It's easy to see that if most hands are junk (which they are), then of two random junk hands played against each other, one steaming pile of crap will be a winner. Hence, the fewer people there are in a pot, the poorer the average winning hand. Conversely, the more people in the pot, the higher the average winning hand. Perversely, this means that the powerhouse starting cards want to narrow the field, so that they can win unimproved, with say, only a pair of Aces, while the weaker starting hands (the drawing hands) want a bunch of people in to justify drawing on a monster, like a straight or a flush!

What this means is that the number of people playing in a hand, and palying in the average hand in them game, should influence your starting hands. When the number of players goes down, you should significantly loosen up your standards (again, if only you and one other person were playing, your crappy cards will be winners half the time!) as to what you consider "big cards." Meanwhile, as the number of players goes down, you should tighten up your "drawing hands" since there will be fewer times where the pot odds justify playing these hands. When the number of players goes up, just the opposite is true: you have to raise your standards for big cards, since the average hand goes up, but you can loosen up your standards for drawing hands, since the pot odds are more likely to be sufficient for your draws.

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You will respect my philosophai.



[This message has been edited by Dr. Borodog (edited 11-12-2003 03:50 PM).]

[Dr. Borodog]

Position

These concepts bring us to the idea of position. By position we mean your position in the betting order. Typically the first person to act on any betting round is said to be "under the gun," and generally is at disadvantage. The last person to act on any betting round has a big advantage (in most games). Games like 7-stud, where "the power" changes from betting round to betting round (and hence who is first and last changes) are less positional, although there is still some advantage to being last on any individual betting round. Games like Texas Hold'em and 5-draw have an ENORMOUS advantage for the last position. In a game like Omaha, position does not matter nearly so much, although it makes a slight difference.

Why does the last person to act have an advantage? Because he gets to see what every other player does first. His is an informational advantage. In general the second to last person has almost as much information, with only one unknown behind him.

The players who have to act early are in the worst situation, they have to decide what to do with zero information at all. What does this mean? Well, take our hold'em example. Say there are 9 people playing, and you are "under the gun" before the flop, to the left of the player with the big blind. It is $1 to you, and there is $1.50 in the pot. You have 76 suited.

You my friend, are in a world of hurt.

You're currently getting only 1.5:1 on your call. But someone might call behind you, right? Possibly. Who knows, they all might call, making it 8:1! But then again, the guy to your left might raise, and everyone fold around to you. Now you're looking at a guy who raised in early position (meaning he probably has a monster) the pot is a measly $2.5, and it's another $1. 2.5:1. Terrible odds. You must fold.

You just flushed a buck.

Even if enough people have called to make the pot now offer you say $6:$1, you have to remember, you already put in a dollar! You've actually only gotten $5:$2. Ugh. You'll lose money in the long run if you keep doing that.

So what do you do? Only play power house big cards from early position, and generally raise with them, to narrow the field. What is "early" depends on the number of players, but I like to divide up early middle and late into the first 40%, the next 40%, and the last 20% of players. Obviously, with only 7 people playing, theres some give, but that brings us back to what we were talking about earlier with adjusting to the number of players.

Now picture yourself in last position in the same scenario. You already know if you'll have sufficient callers to make your hand worth a call. No mystery at all. Each player has slightly more information than the last, and hence can play slightly weaker starters depending on the action in front of him.

Another note on position: In games with blind bets to the dealer's left, the last player's (i.e., the dealer's) positional advantage on the first round is somewhat mitigated by the fact that both blinds are "live," and they could possibly raise him. This still isn't probably so bad, though. If he's decided to play a drawing hand, that means there's a significant number of callers ahead of him who are reluctant to not call the raise after they've already called the first bet. It's likely he'll still end up with sufficient odds for a call. And the blinds need a monster hand to raise with, so it's rare.

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You will respect my philosophai.



[This message has been edited by Dr. Borodog (edited 11-12-2003 04:12 PM).]

[Dr. Borodog]

SO, what does position mean to real staring hands? Here are some rules of thumb positional effects in different games.

7 stud - If you have the power, then you must act first. This mitigates the strength you have because of your high cards. If you feel like you're ahead, make them pay. If it looks like you might be ahead, you might as well make them pay and see where you stand (who calls, who raises?). Remember, 7 -stud is a long game with many betting rounds.

If it's the first round, and there are blinds or a bring in bet or the bet from the power that you have to call, remember your position. How many people are left to act behind you? Do they have big scary cards? Tread lightly with marginal hands. The earlier you are, the less information you have about who will raise or call, so it's difficult to judge the pot odds. Because 7-stud has so many betting rounds, the implied odds can be high; you'd probably still want to call a 3 flush or 3 straight even from early position (recall the "just one more card" concept), unless the cards were low and/or some of your cards are dead (as people's door cards).

5-draw - position is powerful. You probably only want to bet out with a high pair, and call a bet with only a very high pair, and raise only with something that will beat Aces from early position. You may relax all these the later in the betting round you are.

Hold'em - We'll have to wait until I've figured out how to make a table in UBB. Anyone know?


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You will respect my philosophai.

[Dr. Borodog]

I'll explain this in a minute:

code:

---

            SUITED   


    2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 T J Q K A


  2 7 8 8               8 7 5


  3   7 7 7             8 7 5


  4     7 6 7 8         8 7 5 


U 5     8 6 5 6 8       8 7 5 


N 6       8 6 5 6 8     8 7 5 S


S 7         8 5 5 5 7 8 8 7 5 U


U 8           8 4 4 5 6 7 7 5 I


I 9             7 3 4 4 5 6 5 T


T T             8 7 2 3 4 4 3 E


E J             8 7 5 1 3 3 2 D


D Q               8 6 5 1 2 2 


  K               8 6 5 4 1 1


  A               8 6 4 3 2 1         


            UNSUITED

---

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You will respect my philosophai.

[This message has been edited by Dr. Borodog (edited 11-12-2003 05:47 PM).]

[Dr. Borodog]

OK. That little chart is my own invention, based on the starting hand rankings of David Sklanksy. The starting hands fall into 8 groups. Group 1 is the most powerfull, and wants to play heads up. Group 8 is the weakest, and desperately needs large pot odds to make it worthwhile. All the other groups are in between somewhere, and change value relative to each other depending on the number of people playing. So fewer people playing raises the value of the big card groups relative to the drawing hand groups, while more people playing raises the value of the drawing hands versus the big hands.

The upper triangular portion are the suited hands like AKs, while the lower triangular portion are the unsuited hands like AK. The diagonal are the pairs.

In general, the earlier your position, the better the group you need. Even in later position to play a weaker group, you still need callers in front to provide the pot odds required to call. If there are raises in fron of you, significantly tighten up your starting requirements, because if you've got high cards, someone just showed strength, so you need higher cards still, and if you're drawing, they've just cut down your pot odds.

I won't tell you specifically which hands to play when. It depends on the structure, the mood, the number of players. You'll quickly get a feel for it. Just remember that the group 8 drawing hands need at lest 5 other callers in an unraised pot to make them worthwile, and then they'll be barely profitable. That should give you some idea of the range you need to work within.

Note also that there is overlap between "big cards" and "drawing hands." They blend into one another, like for example, QJ. Is that big cards, or a drawing hand? With lots of callers, it's a drawing hand. With few, it's big cards. So with a small game, you'd probably want to raise with it, to narrow the field, as you always want to do with big cards.


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You will respect my philosophai.



[This message has been edited by Dr. Borodog (edited 11-12-2003 06:05 PM).]

[Dr. Borodog]

In Omaha, position is not nearly so important. This is because in Omaha there is not the range of hand values in hold'em. In hold'em, the Group 1 hands above are big favorites above the other groups. There is no equivalent to the group 1 hands in Omaha. There are only good hands, and terrible hands. So it's very hard to adjust for position very much in Omaha. In early position, you might consider not playing a hand with a dangler, but in late position, with several callers in an unraised pot, you may play a hand with a dangler.

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You will respect my philosophai.

[This message has been edited by Dr. Borodog (edited 11-12-2003 06:10 PM).]

[Dr. Borodog]

The Gap Concept

The gap concept is very important in poker. The gap is this: You need a stronger hand to call a bet than to make it yourself, and a stronger hand still to call a raise than to make it yourself. We are assuming that you have a real hand, rather than a drawing hand. If you have a drawing hand, your pot odds and implied odds simply dictate whether or not the pot is worth a call.

The reason for the gap is this: Most hands are crap. Therefore, a pretty good hand is exactly that: pretty good. That means it's likely to be best, and you should bet it if no one else has. BUT, if someone else has already bet, then they are indicating that THEY have at least a pretty good hand. Why would you risk just a pretty good hand when he at least has a pretty good hand, and may have a very good hand? You shouldn't. You should probably fold these unless you have a very good hand yourself. Which brings us to the next point:

If you have a good enough hand to be calling a bet or raise, then you should be raising. Again we assume that you do not have a drawing hand that is not yet made.

So why is this? Well, if he may either have a pretty good hand or a very good hand, and you know that you have a very good hand, it is again likely that you are in front, and should raise. This has the added benefit that you will chase out people who could possibly draw out on you (and thus lose you the pot). In fact, if everyone else is chased out, you can then just call and see what develops.

Hence we see on of the truisms of a good poker player: You should play looser on offense, tighter on defense, and when you play, play aggressively. This is the source of the "raise or fold" school of poker (which is NOT what you want to be doing, but it sure as hell can look that way to others!).

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You will respect my philosophai.

[This message has been edited by Dr. Borodog (edited 11-12-2003 06:32 PM).]

[Dr. Borodog]

Why You Bet

This brings us to a question. What are we trying to do when we bet? There are several things a bet might accomplish:

1. Win the pot immediately.
2. Get more money into the pot that we expect to win (a value bet).
3. Narrow the field, making it more likely that we'll win the pot.
4. Take control of the hand
5. To gain information

So if you are betting with the intention of doing any of these things, and likely you will be trying to do more than one at a time, you must ask yourself, will this bet accomplish what I want it too? If the answer is no, or even if the bet will accomplish something you specifically DON'T want it to do, you should re-evaluate whether you should make the bet at all.

For example, imagine that you are playing 7-stud. You have a pair of aces showing after the last card. It is quite clear your only opponent has being drawing on a flush. So either he made it on the last card, or he didn't. You are either ahead, or massively behind. It is likely that you are ahead, of course. Most likely he didn't hit the flush. Should you bet?

No! Of course not! If he did NOT hit the flush, he certainly won't call you with something that cannot beat the Aces you have showing, and you'll win nothing more than you would have. But if he has you beat, he'll certainly raise, which you'll have to call because the pot is large and he could be bluffing you. So you'll win nothing extra when you win, and lose two more bets when you lose.

Similarly in hold'em, if you're the dealer with Aces, and several people have called, raising with your aces is now unlikely to narrow the field, since everyone has already called one bet, they'll call for another, especially since they'll all assume you're just making a positional raise (more on that later). And they'll be correct to do so, since doubling the size of the pot leaves their pot odds unchaged on their now double bet. And you'll lose that extra bet 2/3 of the time now. You'll wish you'd just kept your chips in front of you and waited to see what came on the flop.


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You will respect my philosophai.

[This message has been edited by Dr. Borodog (edited 11-12-2003 06:46 PM).]

[Dr. Borodog]

I'd probably still raise AA any time any where though. You're still getting great odds on the money.

A better example would be limping in with 33, and the flop comes 345 of diamonds. Are you ahead? Probably. If you bet, is anyone sitting on a straight or flush draw going anywhere? No. Doesn't that mean they're paying you? Not if their ganged up odds of beating you make the pot odds on your bet unwise.


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You will respect my philosophai.

[PhantasyStarOnline]

Originally posted by Dr. Borodog:

---

...will this bet accomplish what I want it too?...

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GAH! It's to! Only one o!

[Dr. Borodog]

And AA is only about a 4-5:1 favorite over KK (the suits matter), not 6:1.


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You will respect my philosophai.

[Dr. Borodog]

Anyone still reading these?


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You will respect my philosophai.

[test78]

I certainly am...
Oh, and I am enjoying them a lot too, thanks for the crash course, though I must say I will definitely need a lot of practice before I can put to effective use all of the concepts you are teaching...