The Poker Mag

As any skilled poker player will testify, these two aspects of the game can have a very big influence on the results you achieve within a night, a week, or even a year.

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The difference between the two is that one is in your hands, and the other is not. When it comes to composure, everything rests on your ability to remain utterly focussed no matter how much a bad beat, or run of poor cards, begins to frustrate you.

Because even in the middle of a boring run of seeing no cards, suddenly you can find yourself with a crucial moment needing your judgement to be at it’s pinnacle. Whilst it is true that even the most perfect of decisions can result in a blow to your chipstack, you simply have to disregard these moments of bad luck and keep making the right choices.
Personally I am only ever truly disappointed in myself after a tournament if I know I have made key mistakes. If I feel my play has been at the best it can be, getting eliminated never hurts as much. If the architect of your downfall was misfortune, you know you did all you could as a poker player.

There is nothing better than to be playing poker great and being quite lucky, and it is in these instances that you might find yourself feeling invincible. Be wary though, because luck turns quickly. If you have lost that concentration and composure when it does, you will probably not limit the damage as well as you potentially can.

This is a very interesting hand I watched recently, and one which had a discussion thread attached to it.
Our player in question (who we shall call player K) had been dealt (10s,10h) from the position adjacent to the button. The third player after the big blind seat was the first caller, the next player raised from 40 to 120 in chips. Player K then flat calls with a stack of 3,500, the blinds fold, and the original caller matches the bet. The flop then falls (10c,6s,Ah).

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The first player to act checks, our second player checks, as does player K with his set of tens. The turn is a seemingly harmless (5c) and the first player checks, after which the second player raises it 160. Player K reraises to 480, the first player folds, and our original raiser reraises again heavily, causing all the chips to go in. The set of Tens are beaten by a set of Aces, and as the players disscussing the hand pointed out, it was very unlucky for player K, who played the hand reasonably well.

It was not an impossible situation to avoid though. If we go back to where our player raises to 120 preflop, pocket Tens are very playable, but your key danger is from an overpair. If you reraise to 500 here, your opponents reaction will tell you a great deal. In this type of game ($1 tournament) you will find that almost every player with an overpair to Tens, will then shove all in over the top when the action gets back around to them. You are still left with a tricky fold, but it is very possible due to the information you bought for 380 more chips. The result, in all probability, is that you get away from the hand with a relatively healthy 3,000 stack still intact.

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This hand is a prime example of why players often check a hand down when there is a short stack all in. Usually, it is in the best interests of both players to not bet unless they hit well, as it maximises the chances of a player being eliminated, which is beneficial for both players.
Having just suffered a terrible beat with (K,K) I pushed my last 700 chips in with (Jc,8s) knowing that I needed to gamble with a hand before the big blind hit me.

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I was quickly called by a player who it later turned out, was holding (Q,Q). one other player also called though with (Q,10). The flop came down (4,8,9) and our player with (Q,Q) checked. For some reason, the second player immediately shoved his entire 15,000 in, and after some thought the other player folded (Q,Q) face up. Needless to say when he saw the all in raiser had nothing but a weak straight draw he wasn’t too pleased, because if they had checked the pot down, he would have eliminated me. As it turned out, this absurd all in bet saved me from elimination, as my pair of Eights held up. The person who made this all in bet is not overly experienced, and so I guess you can forgive him for making such a move. It is easy for me to say that though because it threw me the lifeline that eventually led to me fighting back to win the tournament.
This move also came back to bite the player who had forced (Q,Q) out too, as it was me who went on to seriously damage his chipstack later, and it was the player who had been forced out, who eventually eliminated him.
Although you can certainly say that everyone has the right to play their cards how they wish, this just goes to show the fickle nature of fortune in poker. When you are in this position, the best option I feel, is always to maximise the chance of eliminating a player.

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This was another hand from my recent live game, and as it transpired, was the hand that put my opponent on the brink of elimination. After a tournament of amazing hands and plays, I had hung on to survive in the early stages from as little as 300 chips, and one hand from that part of the tournament returned to me when I was heads up at the final table. I am not usually one for superstition, but given the nature of the game that evening, and the fact that I was pressuring my opponent preflop to try and overturn a slight defecit in the chip counts, I pushed all in with (Jc,8c).

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This hand had trebled me up earlier in the tournament when I was all in for 700 chips, and as I sat at the final table with 48,000 I felt that playing it aggressivley heads up, would allow me to pick up the blinds preflop. My opponent had only flat called and so I didn’t feel her hand was very strong. The fact was though, that she was slow playing a monster of (A,A) and just waiting for me to continue with my preflop aggressive play. Needless to say, my all in was instantly called.
Whatever had happened up to that point in the tournament, it had always seemed that somehow, I had survived, and so part of me still felt, even as the flop didn’t seem to help me in the slightest, that a miracle would happen. Sure enough, something mirculous did indeed happen, as I first picked up an inside straight draw on the turn, then hit my four outer on the river as the (5d) fell. I immediately apologised to my opponent as getting lucky is not the way I would rather win. But after the way the tournament had unfolded, I somehow knew that the story was never going to end with me finishing second place.
Oddly enough, I had hit running cards to make a miraculous straight, and that was the exact same way in which my chipstack had initially been almost wiped out by an opponent, when I was holding (K,K) early in the tournament.

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Anyone who plays poker can tell you, that the difference between playing poker successfully, or losing money over a period of time, is your ability to understand why your opponent is making a play that they are. Each hand has a story behind it that can be unscrambled, as there is almost always logical reasoning behind every decision a player makes. The moment a player raises preflop, you can usually narrow their possibilities down for the cards they are holding.

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They will almost certainly not be raising from early position with a weak hand, and the size of the bet gives it’s own clues too. Each subsequent betting round and decision they make, gives you more information to work with. If you are the one who raises first preflop, and you are faced with a reraise, you can say that the hand you are up against is likely to be stronger than if they had simply made the first raise.
If you are starting to feel that your opponent has a particular hand after they make certain moves on the flop, work backwards, considering if they were holding those cards, would they have made the previous moves they have in the hand. You couldn’t say that a player probably has two pair or top pair on a flop of (2,4,8) if they have reraised you preflop, for instance.
The key to reading in my opinion, is logic. Do not simply guess at what they might have, examine each possibility in your mind and you will find it’s not as difficult as you think to discount some hands and accept others as more probable scenarios.

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When we find ourselves raking in a nice pot, or indeed watching one being raked in by our opponent, it can sometimes have an effect on our confidence. Especially in times where we play a hand very well or make a mistake, there always seems to be some sort of momentum in poker while we play. This is perhaps not quite so noticeable for players who play very conservatively as much of the game is about waiting, but for most of us, when we get involved in a few pots, we can grow or shrink in confidence.

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This confidence that grows from success at the tables can carry us on to play better poker over the course of a session, in the same way as tilt can ruin our logical play if we are susceptible to it. You could perhaps say that such lucky or unlucky runs can shape the course of a week playing the game, or even a month. If you feel like everything is going your way, you are bound to be playing your best poker I feel.

I suppose that these winning runs are not entirely like a pendulum swinging in terms of momentum, as with poker, things can change very quickly indeed. The best thing we can do as players, is to try and plough on with our logical play when the going gets tough. As for when the momentum is with us, enjoy playing the game and continue to press your advantage without taking too many risks.

I cannot speak for other players of course, but I know from my own experiences that sometimes in poker, it is possible to try too hard. This can apply either in the sense of trying to win too many pots when you do not have the cards to back you up, or simply seeing too many flops, especially when the blinds are low.

It is easy to say that if you are in the sort of game with several players limping in to see flops, and the blinds are still low, that there is a lot of value in seeing flops in case you hit very well. In some senses this is true, but if you are choosing to see lots of flops with numerous players, you cannot try too hard to steal these pots when you miss.

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The evident problem with this, being that with several players taking flops, big draws and flopped two pairs and the like, will materialise more often, and you can easily play your way into trouble.

there is another side of the coin too however. Perhaps recently, I could say I have been trying too hard to make a great fold, when what I should really do is to consider that the pot odds are just about right to call, then shut my eyes and announce just that. Whilst I usually like to play aggressively, I do not enjoy being in three way pots where the action suddenly escalates, and will often put down my hand in this situation even if I happen to have hit the board quite well.

Sometimes in poker it is far better to try and let your game flow and have no fear of losing, than always looking to make a great fold when the raises and reraises start mounting up.

When it comes to amateur players and Omaha, there are several mistakes that tend to get made. When I talk of amateur players, I do not simply mean players who are unskilled at poker in general, merely ones who are new to Omaha. I personally know a player who is an excellent Holdem player, but has difficulty making the transition to Omaha. On two seperate occassions I have seen him move all in with a big pocket pair in his hand and nothing to back it up. He lost both times, and I guess you can say we all have to go through a learning curve, with each game we play.

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Pairs in Omaha are not really any sort of hand, whether you have top pair, a pocket pair, or two pairs even. of course you can argue that this depends on the texture of the board cards and the interest shown by other players involved, but we can certainly say that generally speaking, you will need more than a pair or two pair to win a pot in Omaha.

Consider these types of hands building blocks towards making a strong hand, rather than contenders to win a pot.
As far as pocket pairs in Omaha are concerned, I feel they take up good space in my hand that could be used for cards which open up many more doors for straights or possible flushes. This may sound strange, but the fact is that if you go into an Omaha hand with (A,3,8,A) as your hole cards, and you are not suited, you are looking for mainly an Ace to make your hand strong enough to perhaps win the pot. Even then, a straight or flush could easily outdraw you.

So without one of two Aces in the deck, or some sort of miracle (8,8,3) combination appearing, this hand really doesn’t hold much scope for improvement. It is important then in Omaha, to understand what makes a hand, and what makes a potential one.

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This aspect of poker is relatively new to the game as far as I know, and in my local game, has become an almost weekly occurence. Players who are left in the latter stages of the game will often decide to split the money and end the game without having to play heads up at all. To my way of thinking, I can agree that they are entitled to split the prize money if they please, but they should play on regardless, in keeping with the spirit of the game.

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The game of poker is about surviving and battling away long enough to eventually win all the chps in play, and until that has been done, no player has emerged the victor. I believe that if any player wants to be able to claim to have won a tournament, they need to have the skill to go on and win the heads up battle too.
My suspicion is that there are too many players out there who are very weak at playing heads up, and so they simply want to split the money and end the game with two players left, still being able to claim that they both won the tournament. In actual fact they didn’t, they both came second, because neither had the courage to fight for the outright victory.

If points are beig awarded in a league situation too, it would be very unfair indeed for both players to receive points for 1st place. Because in actual fact, neither of them have the strategy, or the inclination, to play heads up poker and rightfully claim those points by winning. I think that in this situation, both players should be awarded the points for second place. If you happen to be one of those type of players who likes to stop the game and not have to play heads up, then that’s your choice. Personally though, I feel these players are far less worthy winners than those players who can switch styles to play heads up, get stuck into a duel with their opponent, and ultimately, finish the job.

First of all, I would say for any players starting out in the game, make yourself aware of the hand rankings by playing poker for fun. I started out with Five Card Draw which helped me grasp the general rules of the game, and understand how the betting worked.

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If your ultimate goal is to play Holdem well, then there is no harm starting off in an online poker room playing for 1 and 2 cent blinds in a cash game either. Once you understand the basics however, I would not advise immediately moving up to bigger tables, because there is much more to poker than originally meets the eye, and you could find yourself losing chips fast. Do not feel worried about having to read up on the finer points of the game, as we all need to give our learning curve a boost sometimes. Most online sites offer tips and poker schooling for new players, and I would spend some time watching poker tournaments on television too. In this way, you will begin to see how very basic Holdem is played, and the contrast with poker at higher levels.

As most poker players will tell you, when you are starting to play the game seriously, it is better to play too tight than too loose. If you go to a local tournament as a beginner, I would say fold anything preflop that isn’t, either pocket sixes or higher, or (A,J) (A,Q) (A,K) (K,Q). The (K,Q) and (A,J) are marginal, but on the whole, these hands should be fine to see a flop with, as long as there isnt a big raise preflop. Other than that, raise when you hit the flop, and never be afraid to consult books or other players for advice.