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i'm writing this for a friend of mine, and i put a decent ammount of thought into it, so hopefully at least one other person will find it helpful. basically, its just a set of training wheels for getting started in online micro play. it is not the optimal approach to playing micro, but i think that it is better, more educational, and easier to implement than a lot of conventional wisdom. first off, lets take poker tournament schedule look at the environment, nl 2-25. in general, there are two main types of players at these levels, beginners, and intermediates. beginners are either new to the game and lack a basic understanding of game mechanics, or simply don't care. intermediates know about starting hand ranges and poker tournament importance of agression and position, but tend to get themselves into precarious situations which wipe out long stretches of playing solid poker.
keep this in mind, because its very important at these levels: -the downfall of beginning players is making bad calls. -the downfall of intermediate players is making Poker Gratuit bad bets. i'll go ahead and assume that anyone reading this with any real interest is an intermediate player, so i'm going to focus on this a minute, because i think its the single largest factor that separates intermediates from players that show a profit.
the cardinal rule of small-time holdem: IF YOU STAND A REASONABLE CHANCE OF WINNING A POT AT SHOWDOWN, BUT THERE IS NOT poker tournament schedule REASONABLE CHANCE THAT A BET WILL BE CALLED BY A LESSER HAND, DO NOT BET. this is an important rule online poker tournaments all levels of holdem, but even more so at low levels, because the overall level of agression is much less, therefore poker tournament chances of showing down marginal hands without a fight is much higher. you can Tournoi de Poker bluff with any two cards, so there isn't much point in wasting a winner, while at the same time raising the probability of getting called when you actually are bluffing. i really can't stress this enough.
preflop play: this is poker tournament schedule phase of poker tournament game that i think people get a little carried away with, much like in chess. people feel safer having lots of hard and fast rules prepared ahead of time, but its really not that big of a deal as long as you don't make glaring blunders. instead of using robotic calculation to determine what seats you can play what hands from, its much more important to understand hand types, basic scenarios, and to have a PLAN for playing your hand. its far better to have an idea of what you're going to do with a hand from beginning to end, and why, then Full Tit Poker it is to make razor sharp mathematical assessments of what you should and shouldn't play. playing the right hands won't do you much good if you butcher them anyway. hand types
when deciding whether free poker tournaments not to play poker tournament schedule hand, you really have to consider under what conditions it plays well. often times you'll hear people say things like "i went ahead and limped in, because my hand plays well multiway". well, that might be true, but its also an oversimplification. the real difference in play isn't between heads-up and multiway pots, its between raised and unraised pots. once poker tournament schedule pot is raised, everyone's hand is more defined on the flop, and certain things are more likely to happen, while certain things are less likely to happen. at low levels, when people raise coming into a pot, it usually means they have one of two things: two big cards, or a medium/large pair. while some people will call a raise with any piece of trash, poker tournament probability becomes much lower. the most common hands that people call with are two big cards, pairs, suited aces, and other suited connectors.
so, what difference does any of this make? you're Pardise Poker either going to make a hand or you won't. well, it makes a huge difference. lets say for instance you have poker tournament schedule 5d6d. if you are in a 6 way limped pot, you can get online poker tournaments a lot of trouble with a hand like this. the big blind has 2 random cards, and as most people won't fold anything in the small blind in a limped pot, there's 2 more nearly random cards to add to the mix. also, even though most players won't call poker tournament schedule raise with suited trash or unsuited connectors, they will limp in with them. as a result, you're holding a drawing hand that's often drawing to second best, which can cost you a lot of money. poker tournament best hands that you can have in limped pots are Axs and pocket pairs, because they can make hands strong enough that you can bet confidently without having any idea what your opponents are holding. keep this online poker tournaments mind. playing in unraised pots is another huge factor that can make or break you at these levels in terms of profitability. overplaying strong, but not super strong hands in unraised pots is the undoing of many intermediate players which might otherwise be money makers. don't invest a lot of money in unraised pots unless you have poker tournament schedule VERY strong hand, free poker tournaments a draw to the nuts. remember, its not a big deal to throw away the best hand online poker tournaments a small pot. all good players do it on poker tournament schedule regular basis. on poker tournament other hand, its hard to overcome losing big money with second best hand when you get beat by something stronger.
so, we've just established hand category number 1: hands that play well in both raised and unraised multiway pots. (Axs and pocket pairs). the hands are also good enough to play heads up in raised pots if both you and your opponent have large enough stacks. since there is so much less raising at micro levels than there is at higher levels, its usually a good idea to limp these hands from any seat on the table. if someone raises behind you, poker tournament factor that determines whether or not you call is the sizes of the stacks. if a person has 15x what the bet to you is left behind in their stack, its worth it to call them with any pair. if they have 20x, its worth it to call them with Axs. you can call more Sydney Poker often when poker tournament raise is in front of you, because you will gain some advantage from your position later online poker tournaments the hand. if the decision is borderline, just go ahead and call. remember, people don't raise as much at this level, so often they're pretty excited about their hand, and won't let it go even when its obvious that they should. also, these hands are strong enough to raise from late position, but its usually more profitable to limp with them, because other players will be making the mistakes online poker tournaments unraised pots that you will be working Winnipeg Poker hard to avoid.
the next category of hands is hands that play well in multiway raised pots, but not so much in limped pots, aka suited connectors. with hands like 56-9Ts, its usually not a good idea to limp in up front before you have a lot of experience under your belt. there just is no GREAT result possible preflop, and it can be very dangerous for reasons desribed above. i will usually Calgary Poker just throw these hands away in early and middle position when no one has entered a pot, but i WILL call poker tournament schedule raise with them. poker tournament reason why is because those dangers i talked about are now minimal. online poker tournaments a raised pot, there's much less fear of having a dominated draw with a hand like this, and when you get a big piece of the board, the hand that's raising usually doesn't. i will hop into an unraised pot with these hands from late position when Full Tilt Poker Jersey i'm being given good odds, but its very important to tread lightly in these sorts of hands. remember, if you're playing a hand because you're being given good odds, then its ok not to be real active with it other than when you get poker tournament schedule stellar flop. that's the luxory that good odds afford you.
the next category of hands is flexible hands, aka, big suiteys. KQs/QJs/KJs. these hands are pretty strong in both raised and unraised pots, but can also be dangerous for you in both. poker tournament nice thing about these hands, is that because they have both immediate power and big hand potential, you can play them in poker tournament schedule number of ways without it being incorrect. how you should play them should just depend on the conditions at your table, and using this small sample of hands to work on making poker adjustments will help your game improve. if you're at a table where people are timid preflop, you should lean towards the agressive side with these hands. if you're at a very loose table, you might decide that its better to just limp online poker tournaments and see what develops without investing a lot of money. i use the same criteria for calling raises with these hands as i do with Axs. if someone with a deep stack raises, i'll go ahead and look them up, even though its not unlikely that my hand is dominated. i'm not looking to play a big pot if i make top pair. i'm looking more to pick up a big combo draw or two Absoloute Poker pair that i can bust linux online poker poker tournament raiser with. also, these hands should be raised in late postion, so long as its not over the top of a bunch of limpers. they are pretty powerful when there's only a couple of people left behind you preflop, so you want to make them pay to see the flop.
the next hand category is big pockets. AA/KK/QQ. you want to raise and reraise these hands at any position on the table at these limits. there's no reason to be sneaky with them, because there are just too many players that fall in love with things like AJs to really worry about being coy. although, if someone 3 or 4bets you when you hold QQ, you need to stop for a minute and make poker tournament schedule decision. would you rate your opponent as a beginner free poker tournaments an intermediate player based on what you have seen so far? if you rate them as a beginner, go ahead and stick your chips in. if you rate them as an intermediate player, you should probably throw your hand away if you don't each still have Everist Poker large stacks of chips left behind you. if that's poker tournament case, then you can call and try and catch a set on the flop. sometimes you'll be folding the best hand by playing this way, but its so easy to grind away opponents at these levels, that it really isn't worth subjecting yourself to speculative all-in maneuvers preflop, especially if your bankroll can't stand a lot of variance.
AK gets its own category, because there isn't another hand that plays quite like it at these levels. if you're playing 5 handed or less, AQ is pretty similar though. this hand plays much better in raised pots than in unraised pots, so you want to raise it from anywhere on the table. i don't like reraising with it though, for poker tournament schedule couple of reasons. poker tournament first reason is that there are a lot of beginners that will move online poker tournaments on you with a wide range of hands, including any small pocket, which really waste your hand. the second reason is that if you have a raiser in front of you, its not unlikely at all that you have him dominated. you don't want to scare Texas Holdeum him off preflop, because most players at this level don't have the discipline to get away from top pair with a hand like KQ/AQ/KJ. you want to vacuum as many chips in as possible from these people to make up for the times when you get busted by sets and draws.
AQs-ATs are a lot stronger than poker tournament other big suiteys and Axs, because not only can they make the nut flush draw, but they can also make top pair with top kicker poker tournament schedule reasonable ammount of the time. i like to limp these hands in early position, but raise with them from the middle and better. i'll also call a raise with them from anywhere on poker tournament table, because they catch so many good flops. AQ/AJ/AT/KQ/KJ/KT/QJ i don't like these hands, because they almost never win a real big pot, and they are pretty poor multiway hands. you won't want to always just throw them away though. they are still pretty powerful, even though they aren't all that profitable. i'll raise Ablsolute Poker these hands from the button if there aren't already multiple limpers ahead of me, and i'll raise them from the cutoff if i have timid players behind me. some people would recommend that you don't play these hands at all, but you really need to learn how to play them to be successful in the long run. its another group that will sharpen your skills a bit. just be careful with them, and don't call raises with them. you're not looking to play a big pot with these hands. post flop play
playing post flop is really too complex to use specific preformulated rules to dictate your play. poker tournament best approach is to have a general plan that's consistant with your preflop play. when the flop comes out, keep online poker tournaments mind what happened before the flop, what you're looking for, and what size of pot you want to play. a lot of players seem to forget why they played poker tournament schedule hand in the first place, and lose a lot of money by donking Everest Pokr off chips when they get an OK flop, but not poker tournament flop they were looking for when they made their original decision. for instance, if you play an A8s, because you want to try and win a big pot with a flush, don't go bananas just because you make top pair on the flop.
also, don't forget the cardinal rule. if you catch a piece of the flop that's reasonably likely to result in your hand in winning at showdown, but its not reasonably likely that a bet on your part will be called by a lesser hand, DONT BET. if you have something like second pair on poker tournament flop, just try to keep it cheap and show your hand down. your pair means absolutely nothing if you never get to actually show it. you'll also shake more money out of other hands following this rule. for instance, lets say you're on the button with 99. someone raises in middle position, you call, and the flop comes Q72. its checked Titan Pok to you, and you also check. now and 8 comes off on the turn, and poker tournament person online poker tournaments front of you makes poker tournament schedule medium sized bet. this is an easy call, because the 8 most likely didn't improve your opponents hand beyond yours. in fact, it likely didn't improve it all, and you just earned some extra chips that you wouldn't have if you bet on the flop. against bad players, snapping off these random, ill-conceived bluffs and poor catches will much more than make up for the times people run you down or take a pot away from you. there are a lot of scenarios where you would be better off to take a different approach than this, depending on the player and poker tournament board, but its very important to keep the concept in mind and do your best to apply it whenever you can. once you get good at it, you'll realise just how bad a lot of your opponents are. playing draws
when you flop a draw, its very important that you assess two things before deciding which route you should take. 1)the strength of your draw Pacifik Poker. 2)the caliber of your opponent not all draws are created equal. if you hold KhQh on a board of JhTh2 you have poker tournament schedule much stronger draw than if you held a 6h7h on the same board. with the first hand, not only do you have the second nut flush draw, but you also have 2 overcards to poker tournament top pair, and and open ended straight draw. your hand will actually win more often than an AJ will Royal Vegas Poker Bonus, so this is an important distinction to make against players that aren't capable against laying down top pair.
not all opponents are created equal. in low limits, most players just aren't very balanced at all. they are either very passive, or very agressive. a lot of intermediate players will make a continuation bet any time they have raised a pot, free poker tournaments bet into any pot that's checked to them on the flop. against these players, raising or check/raising your draw, whether its a standard draw (8/9 outs) or a combo draw (11+ outs) is poker tournament schedule very strong play. they will have to throw their hand away so often that the times you lose a big pot when you miss your draw are more than made up for by all the free money you take when the hand ends on poker tournament flop. against more passive opponents, the more passive approach is more profitable. often, they will let you draw cards cheaply, or for free, so it is incredibly easy to get the better of it. you simply check or call, and if you hit your draw, you bet it. the beauty of passive players, is that they also tend to make loose calls if they have anything at all, so making a big draw against them is literally free money. playing top pair with top kicker
just like with playing a draw, assessing your opponent is vital when you make top pair with top kicker. an agressive intermediate player will Full Tilt Pocker often play back at your bets with either his own top pair or a draw, whereas passive beginners seldom have poker tournament courage to play back post flop with anything less than an overpair. with a hand like tptk, you're probably not going to improve, so its usually best to make poker tournament schedule decision on the flop as to whether or not you are ahead. you always want to make a strong bet with this hand, but what do you do when you get raised? well, that depends on the board of course. if the board is paired, or there are 3 of a suit you don't hold, you should usually let your hand go. most of poker tournament time, its really more about the player than anything though. against an intermediate player, with a board like A89, and 2 of a suit, you're usually best to just send your money in when you get played back at. its more likely that your opponent is on a draw or weaker ace than it is that he has you beat. if the board were K82, all of different suits, then you have poker tournament schedule very borderline decision to make. against a passive opponent, the decision is much easier. if they call your bet, just keep on betting, barring a disaster. if they raise your bet, just throw your hand away unless you have additional ways to win. remember, passive Canadian Neteller Alternatives beginners just aren't all that courageous, so when they get excited after poker tournament flop, you better look out. if you fall in love with hand every time you make top pair, you're going to cost yourself a lot of money. playing top pair without top kicker
this really gets back to the cardinal rule. a lot of times you will call a raise with poker tournament schedule hand like KJs, and make top pair with your king. pretty good, right? well, maybe not. you're going to be online poker tournaments a lot of trouble if the original raiser had AK or KQ. if i was not the preflop raiser, i just play these type of hands poker tournament same way i would play a middle pair. i'll call a continuation bet and try to stay in the hand until the end, but if the action gets hot, i'm done with poker tournament hand. if, however, i was the preflop raiser, i'm going to play it about the same as i would making top pair with top kicker, and apply the same player and board assessments. i'll lose a big pot here and there, but not nearly so much as when i wasn't poker tournament raiser. playing a set
playing poker tournament schedule set (by set, i mean you hold 66, and there is a 6 on the board. if you hold a 67, and the board is 66T, then you should apply the cardinal rule, although your hand is still fairly strong)at these limits is pretty easy. you simply make a big bet or a big raise with it any time poker tournament bet is to you. even if the board is really scary, you're golden. for every time you're facing poker tournament schedule made draw on the flop, there's 4 times that someone is trying to chase you down on a scary board with a draw that's about a 3:1 underdog. also, even when someone does hit their draw on you, you still have a pretty decent chance of redrawing to a full house. don't break your head trying to get away from or getting max value out of your sets at this level. just bet and raise them. the same applies to straights, flushes, full houses, quads, whatever. just bet, and bet big. you'll be pleasantly surprised at poker tournament crap people call with. the only exception to this rule is when you make a big hand on the river and no one has shown much interest. at that point, you just want to get what you think you can get Linux Poker
. playing a miss there is more than 1 way to play a miss at these levels when you are the preflop raiser, but there is usually only one logical way to play a miss when you are not: fold. don't try to bluff at poker tournament pot when you didn't make yourself look strong before the flop. there are just too many call happies and maniacs for this to be a profitable plan. this is why you have to be selective about what you play before the flop.
when you miss and you were the preflop raiser, it all comes down to poker tournament players again. if you're free poker tournaments the pot with a goober that's playing every suited trash hand he can get his hands on and calling any time he gets any piece of the flop, there isn't much sense in trying to bump him out of the pot. again, poker tournament cardinal rule comes into play. since he plays such bad hands, your miss isn't unlikely to still be ahead. not only that, but its not unlikely your opponent will call you with anything at all that beats an ace high. against a little more sophisticated Poker Hands player, you usually want to bet your miss, especially if its checked to you. he'll fold enough to make it profitable, and if you don't at least make some bluffs, he'll be stealing pots from you on the next street. this also makes it easier for you to get paid off when you actually do have a hand. against decent players, making a continuation bet is almost always profitable in heads-up situations, the real key to remember, is that you don't want to lose profit by ending hands when you have something marginal that could win anyway. against really good players, this would be a bad approach, since they will catch on to you after a while, but most players at this level just aren't observant enough to ever figure this out. in multiway pots, just forget about betting your misses unless your opponents stand out as unusually weak. not only will it lose you money, but you're also giving up a lot of free cards. passive players won't put any heat on you, and intermediates become aware quickly that bluffing into multiways doesn't work so well also. anyways, i realise this isn't exactly comprehensive, but i think Online Poker 18 that it covers the most important concepts of micro limit play, and i hope at least one person finds it helpful.