Advanced Hold’em for Home Games
This book is not about some rote staring hand system, it’s about understanding the play at the table. Playing bad hands and bad position leads to failure.
Yes the Math does matter.
The true essence of poker is a meld of math, mental strategy, and the performing arts
By
The Donk Crew
SMASHWORDS EDITION
*****
PUBLISHED BY:
Lassen Technical Press on Smashwords
Advanced Holdem for Home Games
Copyright © Lassen Technical Press 2009, 2010
All Rights reserved
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Lassen Technical Press, Chester Ca. 96020
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CHAPTER ONE
Introduction
Introduction to Texas Hold’em
This book is not about hand theory, yet we will cover this topic but, rather a look into the mental game of Poker and how to beat games by understanding the real game going on at the table. For many this book will be a startling revelation of what is truly going on at the table. You may not want to share this information with your poker buddies because you will soon be able to hold over them at the table. This information can be used at the table or enhance your understanding of the game inside the game when watching televised poker. There is some basic knowledge of the game and tournament play in the first part of the book but the majority of the book is based upon cash games since this is the real Texas Hold’em. However, much of the material in the cash game sections is relevant to the tournament play.
Texas Hold’em has become the media game of choice. Television has revived a game that was declining in popularity in the last 30 years with the advent of the hole card cam. Other poker games that were the most prevalent before this boom were low ball and Stud. These games have gone mainly by the way side, home games and casinos are hosting mainly Texas Hold’em. Texas Hold’em is a very simple game to understand and a very complicated game to master.
There are multiple places to play including the internet, casinos and home games. The internet can be convenient but at the same time is full of sharks and people using tracking software which is tough to beat. This software automatically tracks your play for them on most poker sites. This software then tells a player how you have played previously even showing hands and outcomes. This software will be the downfall of the internet sites if it is not controlled. Casinos have their sharks but they are using their experience and knowledge. Home games are where a majority of players play and where most people get their first experience of playing for money.
Hold'em is a game of position; by this we mean that position dominates the style of play. The button has the best position and is last to act after the flop and on each subsequent street. This means that the other players left in the game each have to act before the button and the button has all this information before acting. This allows the button to have a much weaker hand than others in the game. Position moves counter clock wise away from the button. As the position progressively moves away from the button a player will need a stronger hand in each position to make up for the other players who will act behind them. Hold'em is also a game of pressure and the person who has to act first has the most pressure and the button can apply as much or as little as he/she determines. As you will see later this allows the button in many cases to control the game. Many books have charts for starting hands in each position. This is based upon the mathematical model of playing poker. When a player is in position and the other players have checked and no one is slow playing a big hand a big bet will most likely take down the pot. (See the sections on playing position and bluffing)
The game has 4 phases:
Pre-flop
Flop
Turn or 4th Street
River or 5th Street
Before the cards are dealt the two players to the left of the dealer must put in the small and big blinds. The first player to the left of the dealer button is the small blind which is generally 1/2 that of the big blind which is put in by the player to the left of the small blind. For example, if the blinds are 25 and 50 the small blind would put in the 25 and the big blind would put in the 50.
Each phase has a round of betting, in the pre-flop phase each player is dealt 2 cards face down and then the players must decide if they are going to play or not. If they decide to play, they have a couple of choices either call the existing bet or raise. Depending upon your hand and position this information will go into the decision to call or raise. After all the betting is done pre-flop the dealer then burns one card and then turns face up the next 3 cards from the deck. These are the flop community cards that each player uses with the two hole cards to make the best 5 card hand. The betting again starts around the table starting with the small blind if they are still in the game. Each player still in decides again to bet, call or fold depending upon their evaluation of the hole cards with the community cards. When this round of betting is completed the dealer again burns a card off the top of the deck and then places the next card face up on the table, the turn card, with the other community cards. A round of betting again starts with the first person still in the game, starting again with the small blind. When this round is completed the river card is dealt again like the turn card the dealer burns a card and places the last card face up. A final round of betting takes place and the cards are turned up and the best 5 card hand wins. While this is a very simple explanation of the game the mastery of the game is a life long struggle.
Novice players play the cards they are dealt and this usually decides who wins. At the highest levels, the players play the players and position and much less the cards. In solid games the hand is over many times before the last card is dealt because the good players make bets in such a way the other players are priced out to continue. This rarely happens in a weak home game, players are unaware they need to fold and will call down to the river hoping to get lucky. At the highest levels players play with specific betting patterns and playing the odds, not looking to get lucky except in the case of televised poker. They play in a way to reduce the effects of lucky play. Even going to the extremes to get insurance, make deals or even in big cash games play the remaining cards more than once in order to reduce their variance or luck factor.
Good dealer management is when burning a card when dealing the flop, turn and river is to put the burn card under the first card in the flop and then under the turn and river cards with a portion of the burn card exposed to the players this will ensure you have properly burned a card and all the players can see it.
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CHAPTER TWO
Tournament Play
Introduction to Tournament Play
People are looking for places to play and how to play Texas Hold’em tournaments. Casinos and home games generally have a small buy-in price and players play until they run out of chips. Depending upon the tournament structure they may be able to buy-in a second time. However, the very attractive feature of tournaments is the limiting of the cost to the player and providing large returns to successful players. Pay structures in smaller tournaments usually are 1 place for each 10 players.
Tournament play is much different than cash play the goal of the people running the tournaments is to get the game over in a short period of time usually about 2 to 4 hours. To accomplish this goal, they raise the blinds every few minutes. Blinds are low at the beginning of the tournament and starting stacks are large. In a typical low buy-in tournament, the buy-in is around 50 dollars and the staring stack is usually between 1500 and 2000 tournament dollars. These are tournament chips and have no relation to real dollars. The blinds may start at 10 and 20 dollars, again tournament dollars.
With little knowledge of tournament strategy the best way to proceed is to play very tight. In the beginning, the blinds are small in comparison to the stacks i.e. 20 dollars to 1500. Nevertheless, as the tournament progress this changes quickly. Generally, the blinds double each time period or blind. These periods are generally between 20 to 40 minutes for quick tournaments while others the blinds may be 2 hours or longer depending upon the tournament. The longer the period the more it supports better play, the shorter the time the more aggressive play is rewarded. This reason is why many young players play without fear, costing them little to get into the tournament, can play aggressive and get lucky and win. This is not saying there are not good players playing tournaments they have a limited strategy based upon the blinds going up. They know how to put the other players to the test by pushing their hands and making other players make decisions outside of their comfort zone. The basic play is to play tight using position in the beginning when the blinds are low and the pots are small. Then as the blinds get much bigger stealing the blinds becomes profitable. Stealing blinds is where a player in late position opens with a raise with any hand putting pressure on the blinds to fold; counting on the odds they will not have a hand. Many players think this is done with just any hand but that is not the proper play, a player should have a hand that can win a good percentage of the time. This play is generally made from the button, cut-off or one in front of the cut-off. The definition of the cut-off position is the position just before the button. They can do this because players tend to tighten up as they get closer to the final table or the money so good players see this and take advantage of this. To counter this play the blinds may play back at the raiser by re-raising the raiser.
When the blinds are very big this creates much bigger pots and now people are now deciding to put in all their chips in and put their tournament life on the line. As the blinds go up wait for a very big hand such as A’s, K’s for AK and go all in with them in the middle to the late portion of the tournament. This strategy allows players without any knowledge of the game to play. Using this strategy a player can gain playing experience while learning the game.
Most beginners play way too many hands even in tournaments they think playing is a social thing. If you are playing to win you need to only play hands in positions where they are profitable. There are hands that have a positive outcome by playing them over time and hands that have a negative outcome over time. If you are interested in this, there are many fine books out there including Doyle's book. Others include David Sklansky the first poker theorist and Dan Harrington’s books on tournament and cash play.
The overall riding strategy again used by most tournament players is putting people to the test by very aggressive play. They can make bets with nothing if they believe they have a read on your play. There are two types of play at tables one is aggressive where players are raising pre-flop and fewer players in each hand and the other is passive where several players are limping in calling the blind without raising. For example, an aggressive table with a lot of raising pre-flop a player under the gun (this is the player left of the big blind which is first to act before the flop) this player needs a much bigger hand to play than the player with the dealer button. The reason for this is the first player to act has little to no information on what others are going to do. While the player on the button only has 2 players to act behind him the other 7 have already folded or called or raised. The button player has this information and can make a better decision so if everyone in front of him has folded, he can play a much lower value starting hand. If the player under the gun is first to enter the pot we may expect he has something like a big Pair A’s-J’s or AK. Where everyone folds to the button, he may enter with 10 9 or something like this a much weaker hand. If players are limping then playing suited connectors like 10 9 suited would be a good hand in middle to late position.
Remember the good players in the game can quickly read how you are playing and adjust their games to it. Good players look for unskilled players, then determine how many hands you were playing, and if you called with bad cards or folded to first bets. They would then tailor their play to use this information to their advantage. Because of this, novice players should play fewer hands and play bigger pots when you do. This doesn't mean the luck factor will not help or hurt you. It just means the best way to counter act the ability of the good player is to raise pots. This keeps players from limping in with marginal cards and then using their playing skills to out play the novice or mostly unskilled players. When you have a good hand make a raise, and as long as you believe you have the best hand keep the pressure on with bets and raises. They may play back at you, which means they re-raised not believing you are strong, but if you have a good hand stay with it (you need to know what is a good hand is in this situation). When you show down good hands and win the players will play less against you and this will allow you to eventually steal blinds.
Tournament Play
Basic tournament play as we have stated before is to play tight in the beginning. This means throwing away hands that you might normally play. The reason for this is that getting into a pot with a good, but not great hand may put you into a situation where you could be forced to make an all-in decision early when the pots are still small or lay down many hands eating at your stack. This is not saying you should not play good hands in the proper position this is ABC poker, which is addressed later in the book. What you need to do is be careful, waiting will naturally make the pots bigger and the results are a much larger stack when the play is executed. Surviving all-ins diminishes as the number of times you go all-in increases. Pots naturally increase as blinds go up and players are eliminated. Getting all your chips into the middle with a hand until later will make the return on the play much better. The objective is to get to the money and then the final table, lastly winning the tournament.
Tournaments favor aggressive play and experienced players will use information about you and how you play against you. If you show weakness by checking because you played a weak hand the good player will immediately go after you forcing you to maybe fold what could be the best hand. Resulting from playing this weak hand or position and now even though it very well could be the best hand you may not have the chips to defend it. Good players look at chips as a weapon to be used to win the tournament, they want to accumulate them and then use them to destroy their opponents. This is a basic strategy from the timeless book “The Art of War” written in China hundreds of years ago. You want to take supplies and weapons from your foe and use them against them.
If things have not gone well and your stack is shrinking, you will need to start thinking about getting it all in. You need to think about this before your stack is too low for a couple of reasons. First you need to be able to put in enough chips to limit the number of callers. Second if you wait too long the number chips you have after the double up will still be small and again find yourself in the same place quickly and your chances of doubling the next time may go down. Going all-in works until it doesn't and when it doesn't you’re out. Usually the number of chips that is recommended for looking for a good hand to go all in is about 10 times the big blind. The quality of the hands you go all in with drops usually, because you cannot wait for a big hand. Again position and then number of players effect this decision as well. There is another consideration; being dominated when you go all-in. This is the worst possible situation for you, playing a small Ace like A 4 or similar has a very likely chance of being dominated if played from an early position. A good rule when trying to decide to get the money in using an Ace small card is the Ace Rule. This rule is in the back of the book states if your kicker on the Ace is equal to or greater than the number of players left to act before the flop including the blinds then your chance of being good is much better and going in here is probably good. If not going in with a J10 is better than being dominated by an Ace.
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CHAPTER THREE
Cash Games
Introduction to Hold’em Cash Games
There are two types of Hold'em games limit and no-limit. Limit games play very different from no-limit and the betting and raising is limited to fixed increments. This changes how hands are played. You cannot go all-in unless it’s within the fixed limits. This means you cannot make a pot sized or greater raise to force an opponent off a hand or to protect your own. Fish playing in low limit games will just about play every hand and call all the way down to the river. No-Limit is the focus of this booklet; it has been referred to as the Cadillac of poker games. It allows the player freedom to be creative in how to play the game. At the highest levels, the game is a meld of poker strategy, math, art and acting rolled into a performance played out for the others at the table.
Home games play very differently from casino games about 60% of the home games are weak with passive and other types of players, 10% are very good games and the rest likely 30% or more are not really poker games they have become, for the most part, glorified show downs or freeze outs i.e. No-Fold’em-Hold'em. Players not knowing the difference between aggressive tournament play and cash games. This has been the effect of tournaments and people watching televised poker. Television has created a false sense that there is action on every hand. This however, is far from the truth, television editors cut out the non action hands poker can be boring at times. So players watching television believe that players play every hand. They believe that Hold’em is just pushing hard and hoping to make a hand. Unlike many casino games where there are good players mixed into the game, most home game players have no idea of what good play is. People playing these games call raises in early positions with weak Aces like A 3 suited and when they hit the bottom pair will call bets to the river on this bottom pair. While they will win some because of luck, refer to Phil Hellmuth’s statement that he would win all Hold’em games if luck weren’t involved. Players in these games have different styles and are easy to beat in the long run if you know how to identify them and to play against them accordingly.
Luck or a bad beat is not really luck but the percentages of a card coming actually happening. If a player has only 5% chance of catching his card, and it comes it is still 5% and he should win 5 hands out of 100. While we talk about a bad beat as if it shouldn't happen it is just the actual percentages playing out; nothing more or less. We have coined the term bad beat to represent these small percentages and to transfer the blame to the other player. When we refer to luck or a bad beat in the book, we are using the word luck to refer to this definition. Luck is then defined as making a bad play for most players or a calculated play with the correct math odds for very good player and the long odds hit.
There will be some good players at these games as well, and you should stay out of each other's' way. If you observe the table you can pick out the good players by their table mannerisms, and how they are observing the table. Playing in these games is not an excuse for playing bad poker or going into a calling frenzy with junk. To be a successful player and to win over a long stretch you must still play solid poker and not be sucked into the orgy of bad play. If you do not want to spend the time to make yourself better, or you still want to play social poker this book is not for you.
Weak games are by definition games, which can be beat by straight forward play with players who are un-observant. This gives you a big edge because no one is paying attention to the way you are playing. About 30% of home games are hard to beat because the format of the game is wrong. Some of the players in these games claim to be strong players only because they can play aggressive in tournaments. However, they don’t know pot odds, outs, expressed or implied odds. The trick is to play the 60% which are profitable because of proper game structure. The other 30% are not worth playing because you will get sucked into playing moron poker as well. The good 10% will play ok after some experience just remember good players will be doing what is in this book. Even in the good games you will find the fish as described in the chapters to come. In some games, you may be the fish if you get yourself into a tough game, and you cannot find the fish, he is you.
The 30% games are usually characterized by rules, which limit the game in some way. Some with a small initial buy-in and small maximum re-buys people are encouraged to play bad with aggressive bets with little to nothing. In these games with the small buy-ins and limited re-buys generate a game where the first couple of hands are basically showdowns and then the people winning these hands have far more money than what a person can re-buy for. This makes playing against them one sided and can then push the table around, players need to be able to re-buy enough to even out the game. A player needs to be able to put other players to the test; if he cannot re-buy enough then the game creates an artificial environment for the over-aggressive players. These fish then can flourish in this environment even with bad play.
Differences between Tournament and Cash Games
Tournaments and Cash games differ significantly in the way they are played. Tournaments have a style built in which favors lucky play. Tournaments in the beginning are deep stacked and players using a tight strategy can keep from getting eliminated as the blinds and antes go up until it is basically a showdown game, where the outcome of the cards determines the winner many times. Refer to Moneymaker who won the 2003 World Series of Poker, his win which is attributed to the big boom in poker today. He was heads up with Sammy Farah who is a top professional player. Chris had learned over the course of the tournament that aggressive play combined with bluffing at the right time could earn him pots. The last couple of hands Sammy was unable to read Chris since his play was not predictable and lacked professional skills for betting and raising. Chris confused Sammy and pulled off a big bluff. Then Chris picked up a hand that was not a great hand heads up but hit the flop hard and Chris was able to get Sammy to go all in and win.
Many of you are familiar with Sammy from High Stakes Poker. Had Chris been playing in a cash game against Sammy, it would have been a whole different outcome. Sammy would have sheared him like a sheep. Cash games require skills including hand selection, position, betting, knowledge about when to check, to check raise and to fold. The differences between cash games and tournaments are the blinds and antes stay the same and when you run out of money on the table you can re-buy and stay in the game. This fundamental difference between tournaments and cash games is not understood by most players. They have learned that aggression wins them pots in tournaments but this is based upon being broke you’re out. This difference while seems small is actually huge. Aggression will not force someone off their good hand if they can just re-buy if they believe their hand is good. In a tournament a player will lay down a good hand because of the broke you’re out problem. Other differences include blinds staying constant. This removes the need to accumulate chips to keep up or to go all in because of the rising blinds. This doesn’t occur in cash games. Players can just wait for a hand instead of being pressured to move in with a marginal hand. In high stakes deep stacked games such as Sammy plays in there are very few all-ins. This requires that players play a very sound game not relying on luck or over-aggressive play. Players who don’t adhere to sound play will attract others who will observe their play and within a short time relieve them of their money. Again we are not saying (luck) doesn’t enter the equation, but for professionals they play in a way that diminishes this effect. Good players are not getting their money in with hands which are marginal, that is top pair or an over pair without a play. For good players playing poker is a way of making money, and if they were playing dumb and relying on luck they would be broke. Top players are willing to lay down hands to reduce luck and variances in their play. These players are not above gambling or making a play if they see or read weakness. If their analysis tells them the return would make it profitable including playing a hand which if they win can put another player, especially a professional on tilt. The cost of losing a few hands would be paid back in large returns if they can get the player on tilt. Almost every player can go on tilt and professionals try to reduce this in their play, but they still will do it and other players are willing to try and put them on it.
Now for the good part home games don’t play like games at casinos for the most part. They are people who think they play good poker but call almost every bet. They have a hard time not being in every pot. They will call with any kind of draw, 3rd pair and even when 4 to a suit are on the board with no card in that suit drawing to a straight. The only way to make money consistently is to play tight and when you have a hand make a very large raise, and you still may get called.
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CHAPTER FOUR
Basics of the Game
Betting/Raising, Calling and Checking
Betting/raising has 5 main functions
To get a player with a better hand to lay down his hand.
To build a pot
To give drawing hands the improper odds to draw at a hand.
To get information on the strength of your hand, a probe bet.
To block a bigger bet from another player
Calling has 2 main functions.
To keep from building a pot with a weak hand or a drawing hand.
To allow the opponent to believe you are weak and let them take control of betting.
Checking has 3 main functions.
To keep from building a pot with a weak hand or a drawing hand.
To let a player take control who you are planning to check-raise.
To get a player with a weaker hand to catch up.
We put them in this order for a reason, betting/raising first because we want your first thought to be about betting and raising.
These simple rules are the foundation of most poker strategies. Each decision you make to bet, call or check should be based upon these rules. In No Limit Hold’em the betting is done in several increments. Good players will bet a little larger or smaller for each increment, they do this to not be consistent to establish a pattern. Patterns are deadly to poker players if others pick up on this it will cost them a lot of money. To disguise what a raise or bet is they will vary the amount based upon the table below. So a 1/3 pot plus bet the other player has to decide if it’s a probe bet or is it a value bet. Hiding the intent of a bet using the proper betting amounts with the variance of betting keeps other good players guessing.
Pre-flop
Raises between 3 to 5 times the big blind in normal betting. When playing loose the opening bet may be 2 to 2.5 to reduce the amount at risk (refer to small ball poker in the advanced section in the back of the book). Re-raise can be between 2 to 3 times the bet of the other player up to all in.
After the flop
1/3 pot -------- Probe or blocking bet
1/2 pot -------- generally a value bet
3/4 pot -------- Pot building
Pot ------------- Pot building and to give bad drawing odds.
Hand Play
We put this section here to keep this in mind as you read the book. We will do this in several sections which may seem out of place but in the larger scheme of things will make sense.
Hands which look good are not as playable as most people think are hands like KJ suited or off suit, which are very susceptible to being dominated by A’s, K’s, AKs, AK, KQs, KQ so while the KJ looks good it could be the second best hand to a lot of other hands. Therefore, playing hands like this should be done with caution. Hands like KJ, K10, QJ, and Q10 etc. They look good they are not for playing by novices in bad position. Good players do play them, but they will have an exit strategy if the pots start getting big.
Big hands are not a single pair; do not build big pots with these hands in the early part of the tournament or cash game. Check at least one street in order to reduce the size of the pot. Remember as a hand progresses a single pair goes down in value and 2 pair, a set or better may very well be the best hand. With all this said remember in short hand play less than 8 players the better these trouble cards become. When down to 3 players or so then KJ off suit may be a big hand but remember it is still only a drawing hand. Any non paired hand is just a drawing hand like AK. If you don't pair up on the board you will lose to a pair of 2’s.
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CHAPTER FIVE
Who is at the Table
Identifying the Prey
The first thing to learn is to be observant at the table. In order to identify the types of players at the table you will need to observe how they play. This includes hand selection, number of hands played per round, betting patterns and how they play specific hands. They will, for the most part, check a set on the flop and then bet the turn. When you see this pattern it will be a little less than 50% of the time will have a set. Since we are talking about weak poker players, they will do the same things over and over, they are unaware there is another way to play or become aware you are tracking them. Once you know how they play and have categorized them, you then tailor your play when in a hand with them, mostly playing opposite of what they are playing. ABC poker is playing straight forward poker which is the best form for playing in these games. Playing tight with quality hands from position should be a recipe for breaking these players. Remember they will not roll over and die, but you must play good poker. Playing too many hands out of position is the quickest way to lose. This does not mean you cannot limp out of position with playable hands but remember the key is the selection of hands. When weak players limp in and get raised in late position they will almost always react the same each time. If they fold, they will almost always fold if they call, they will almost always call. Observe how other players react, then use this information to your advantage. When a player folds you can push weaker hands and make them fold and when the player calls you can make a player call with a weaker hand and in the long term taking his money. In a weak game the normal amount is not enough, weak players do not respect raises therefore raising as much as ten big blinds may not be enough. Weak players do not like being bluffed out of a pot. If they think you are bluffing they may go all in.
Making money playing poker is about not playing too many weak hands out of position looking to get lucky, this is what the fish at the table are doing. Yes again they will draw out, and they will get their share of premium hands but in the long run they will have played too many hands and will lose. There are three types of fish at the table each one has its own identifying markings and when you know what to look for it will be easy to identify them.
Weak Tight player, this is the most prominent fish like a good flounder, they play hands very predictable and are good eating. They may play a sort of good selection of hands but, they are still likely playing way too many hands and playing very weak hands like A 3 suited or K9 from incorrect positions. When they hit the flop they bet and when they don’t they check. They usually make a bigger bet with their stronger hands and smaller bets with weaker ones. They may call a bet with middle pair and when they are behind on the turn fold to a big bet. With these players a big bet on a flop A 10 6 flop it is quickly interpreted as the weak player holding an Ace, the weak player may have a strong or weak kicker it doesn't matter. Good players see this play, and they can move in on these players with nothing but forcing the player to put his whole stack of cash up for a single Ace. However, the pro already categorized this player as weak tight and knew he would fold to a large bet. Weak tight players like to call bets on the flop and fold to bets on the turn if they have nothing. So in the end the flounder will fold most of the time making this a positive play for the good player and a nice meal.
Calling-Stations, the most delectable fish like a grilled swordfish, they, however, are fewer in numbers. When you find one this is great and multiple in the same game this is all you can eat baby. This fish is defined by calling all reasonable bets with anything. You cannot bluff a calling-station; therefore, making bets when you don’t have a hand are futile and dumb. They will call all the way to the river and may go all-in with a single pair; they may even make bets to hold off your much larger ones. They will however, draw out with a bad hand and they will get premium hands so they are not going to just give all their money away every hand, again you will need to play good poker. When you get a good hand all you have to do is make reasonable bets and they will call all the way to the river. If they have almost anything you may get them to call an all-in bet. The bet however should be sized closer to the size of their stack. When an-all in bet is no different than putting in the exact amount they have left, they will mostly fold to the all-in. If the player places the exact amount they have left in the pot they will mostly call, go figure. When the calling-station starts aggressively betting you can be sure he has a big hand, or what he thinks is a big hand, since he may not know what is a big hand is.
Loose Aggressive, these fish are imitation Piranha, they look and act fierce but when a good player plays against them, they become like gold fish. These players are least prevalent at most tables. Players are identified by very aggressive over betting and playing way too many hands. They try to be tricky by playing opposite and slow playing to trap you. Other times playing fast and loose trying to bluff you out of many hands. You need to play tight aggressive against these players, forcing them to make mistakes. You cannot bluff this player either; they live on bluffing and believe everyone else bluffs as much as they do. They will overextend and make bets that will take themselves down. Just play sound tight ABC poker against them.
How to Classify Players
Observation of players at the table is the main job of a good poker player. He is looking to classify players to their type, number of hands they play, the selection of hands and how the players play draws and made hands. Most weak players play opposite to the way a good player should play checking their draws and only betting their made hands. This information allows the good poker player the advantage of seeing what a player is doing and to quickly put that player on a range of hands and then act upon it. Again using Sammy as the player, Phil Lock said in a High Stakes Interview “Sammy is hard to play against because he quickly puts a player on a hand and then acts upon that information which makes it very hard to play against him”. The job of classifying players is one of urgency since by the time you can classify a player, another player may have feasted on this player and his money is gone. It will take seeing a player act in the same manner a couple of times in order to be sure his play is consistent. Now let us diverge a moment, when you read this book and classify these players don’t go around telling people they are fish or calling them a calling station even when they draw out on you. This is going to happen it is a part of the game, and understand the quote by Phil Gordon “don’t tap on the tank”. We don’t want to disturb the fish, we want them to go on playing in the game and the same way and we want them to come back next time. When they draw out on you don't go on tilt you know this is going to happen.
The nice thing about fish is that, they will play the same way time after time. When you see the actions such as a player calling hands down to the river and showing third pair you can quickly designate this person as a calling-station. Make sure you see this a couple of times and not classify a player who believes his opponent was playing big cards with a middle to low cards on the board and trying to check the hand down to catch a bluff.
Some questions to answer for each player:
Does the player call to the river with poor cards?
If yes, then this is a calling-station.
Does the player check big hands and bet weak ones?
If yes then this is an opposite player trying to play tricky they can be in any category, but you need to classify them and be aware of them. A slow play is easier and more comfortable for a weak player than bluffing so most games will see much more slow play than big bluffs.
How many hands does each player play per round?
If they play 2 or less per ten hands then this player is tight and is playing good poker, if they play 4 or 5 or more per round they are very loose, playing way too many hands.
Does the player raise many hands pushing around the table?