Heads Up No Limit Hold'Em Poker

Heads Up No Limit Hold'Em Poker

 Heads-up play is one of the most important and exciting aspects of poker, especially no limit, and many players could benefit from strengthening this aspect of their game.

 

Position is crucial in heads-up play. So is aggression and a serious ability to read your opponent. What you may not understand is, playing aggressively in position can often be the deciding factor in whether or not you win the pot. You can have a much worse hand, but if you trust your reads, you can often take the pot with the right community cards being shown.

 Playing in Position

I don't recommend playing that many raised pots out of position.  In other words, don't call a lot of raises from the big blind. Hands like two face cards, A-8 and up, and pairs are worth re-raising with. Hands like 6-7 or 8-9 suited are fairly worthless because suited connectors like these can be easily dominated by larger hands and lose a lot of their value heads up.

In general, I'm looking for big cards like K-10. Even though these cards are easily dominated in bigger or ring games, they play much stronger heads up. If I hit a big pair with cards like these I can feel comfortable going with it, which is something that's hard to do with middle cards like 6-7 or 5-6.
I'm usually going to do one of two things in the big blind when I'm heads up; fold or re-raise. My standard re-raise is between three and four times my opponent's bet, and by pumping up the pot pre-flop, I'm making it difficult for my opponent to call me with marginal hands. If he does call, I can always make a post-flop continuation bet or lay down my hand if I've missed and my opponent leads out at the pot.
The only time I call out of position is when my opponent plays back at me by moving in a lot. My decision here comes back to paying attention to my opponent's tendencies and going with my reads.

Your Ability of Reading is Fundamental

Reading your opponent becomes even more important in heads-up play. Due to the fact that your opponent is likely to raise with a much larger range of hands heads up, making reads is much more difficult. Learning to gauge your opponent's hand requires paying close attention to their patterns. Do they always raise the button? How often do they call your button raises? Do they ever re-raise from the big blind? Asking questions like these helps to narrow down their possibilities.
You have to trust your reads enough to act on them. If you sense strength, will you lay down what appears to be the second best hand?  If you sense weakness, will you apply the correct amount of pressure it takes to win the pot?

In my experience in both ring games and heads up, many players try to accumulate chips too quickly. If you just sit back and wait for your opponents to make mistakes, you'll end up with all of the chips in the end. For instance, you should avoid making pot-sized bets when smaller bets will usually accomplish the same goals with less risk. Sometimes half-pot bets are even too high and betting the minimum is enough to gather the information you need about your opponent's hand.
This becomes especially true when your opponent becomes short-stacked. In these cases, I will usually limp on the button once they are around the 10 big blind range. If I do raise, I must have a hand I'm willing to go with because my opponent's only options are folding or pushing. Some people think it's weak to limp on the button, but I don't want to keep folding semi-decent hands in this situation. By limping when my opponent is short, they have to decide if they want to gamble with a high-risk/low-reward all-in move to win one of my blinds.
In heads-up tournaments you want to play in position, trust your reads, and play small pots to build a lead. Once you have a  lead, then you're looking for hands to gamble with against your opponent's short stack.
How have your heads up situations gone, are you a success in the heads up part of a tournament or is your string suit ring games???

The Semi Bluff

The Semi-Bluff

 

One of the most powerful weapons in any poker player’s satchel. If in fact there is a reasonable chance you can steal a pot by semi-bluffing, you should pounce on it for sure. But, as with any play you make at the table, the semi-bluff is always most effective when you use it at the correct time in the correct situation. Semi-bluff at a more often than not pace and your opponents will know when you’re on the draw or think you are straight up bluffing. Semi-bluff at the right times (strategy plays a role here) and your opponents will know to fold whenever you bet. The key to semi-bluffing is to constantly change your pace, keep it fresh and never be too predictable with your betting patterns.
Let’s say that you’ve flopped the nut flush draw and are pretty certain your enemy has connected with the flop one way or another, whether a pair, set or top pair.
A better move in this spot might be not semi-bluffing but instead just calling. This way, if you hit your flush on the turn, your options have now become endless; check, call or raising are all situations you can choose to participate in, and your opponent won’t be able to put you on a hand quite as easily ( especially with your ability to switch up your betting pattern. By not semi-bluffing, you increase your chances of winning a bigger pot when your opponent actually has a strong hand. There are players out there who’ll ASSume you’re not on the draw if you don’t semi-bluff, so be sure to cash on those opportunities.

Here is your chance, if you don’t think that your opponent has a strong hand or your draw isn’t that strong (for example a low flush draw), this is the perfect time for a semi-bluff. The semi-bluff should be used as a tool to steal pots when the opportunity is sure to arise, not as a means of building big pots.







Another good way to mix up your semi-bluffing game plan is to press until the turn to semi-bluff rather than always jumping on the opportunity on the flop. This can be a dangerous play because you’ve only got one card to come on the turn and you’re not getting the same odds. But it also means that your opponent is less likely to think that you’re semi-bluffing and put you on the draw. It looks pretty strong if you call on the flop and then raise on the turn; your opponent might think you’ve flopped the nuts and throw away a pretty strong hand.
Another advantage to semi-bluffing on the turn rather than the flop is that you could be so fortunate as to pick up a few more outs on the turn.

Lets consider this; if you have a gut-shot straight draw on the flop and then pick up a flush draw on the turn. You’ve just gone from four outs to about 12, which might be worth a shot at taking down the pot right then and there. A lot of players will also have trouble deciding to put you on the flush draw in this spot; it’s just harder to see that flush draw on the turn than it is on the flop.

Once again, the key to a good semi-bluff is picking the right spot to pull it off. Choose poorly and you could stand to lose a good portion of your stack; choose well and you could throw your opponents off balance and hit them where it hurts when you make your hand. 

How are your Semi-bluff experiences going, are you a serial bluffer, or are you controlled, whats your personality at the table, glasses, hat, hood, Ipod.  I want to know!

Continuation Betting and the Importance of Position at the Table

Continuation Betting and the Importance of Position at the Table

When deciding whether or not to make a continuation bet on the flop, one truly critical factor in that situation is your position at the table.  You're playing a hand,  you raise before the flop from under the gun and get called by the player sitting in the big blind position. You should strongly consider making a continuation bet most of the time, whether the flop helped you or not, this portrays that your preflop raise from the worst position at the table holds a very big hand. In the same situation, your opponent's call before the flop doesn't signify nearly as much strength because he was getting a huge discounted price to call from the big blind. If he checks to you on the flop, you should make a continuation bet at least 90-95 percent of the time, mixing in a check here and there when you have a hand like A-J or A-Q and hit the flop with your ace or queen.
Now let's say you make a preflop raise on the button and get called by the big blind. You still have position on your opponent, but he's probably not going to give you any credit for having a strong hand because stealing blinds from the button is so common on the button. There's a chance he might check-raise you with absolutely nothing, so you should be much more inclined to check after your opponent checks, especially if you actually have a decent hand like pocket eights on a 9-5-2 flop or A-K on a T-Q-5 flop. In the second situation, you would be better off checking and taking a free card with A-K because you're likely drawing to ten outs and, even if you don't improve, your hand is still strong enough to have showdown value on the river. If you do decide to make a continuation bet and get called, you can almost always have a good idea your opponent has a better hand than the one you hold at the time. You should then take a free card on the turn, which will give you another shot at hitting one of your outs on the river.  
Continuation bets have become common also, so preparation is a must due to the fact the your opponent has seen this dance before.  Your opponent looks at this as a steal attempt in this situation, you should be prepared to go all the way with your hand whenever you're short-stacked and connect with the flop. For example, if you only have 50 big blinds in your stack, you raise from the button with J-10 suited and the flop comes 9-J-5, you need to be willing to get all your chips into the middle of the table. You should make a continuation bet most of the time, but occasionally you're going to want to check behind in this spot in order to disguise the strength of your hand. Now if you had 70 big blinds in your stack in the same situation, you might want to check behind because you're a little too deep to entice an opponent who has a J to want to put you all in. If you check, most of the cards that fall on the turn won't hurt you. Only an A, K, or J would give you much concern. Having disguised the strength of your hand, you can then bet for value on the turn and the river. Your turn bet will most likely get called by many hands worse than yours, including those holding small pocket pairs. If your opponent checks to you again on the river, you should continue to bet for value, but if he leads out with a bet you should just call. If you raise, you're only going to get called by a better hand than yours.
Now let's turn it around and say you're out of position. You raise before the flop from middle position and get called by the player holding the button. Now you're in much more of a sticky situation if you decide to come out and make a continuation bet because, if your opponent calls, you're going to have to act first on the turn and if you check the turn your opponent will often dive in on your shown weakness, and make a large bet.  

However, there's a great way to take advantage of this situation. Wait until you actually have a strong hand on the flop, top pair or better, and make a continuation bet and get called, this is a great spot for you to check the turn. By doing this it will appear to your opponent that you're conceding the pot, and more often than not, it will fool him into believing he has the better hand. If the flop is J-4-2 and you have Q-J and check on the turn, your opponent could try to put you all in with a hand like pocket nines, whereas if you bet the turn he would probably fold that hand.  
 If you want to succeed in tournaments, you should always be very aware of your position at the table when deciding whether or not you should make a continuation bet on the flop.  What types of horror stories have you experienced, did a continuation bet fall apart at the seams for you, or was there success I want to know!

Protect That Built Up BankRoll

 

 Protect That Built Up Bank Roll

For most players, the lure of playing in high-stakes ring games or tournaments is not only an ultimate goal, but for some and more often than not a trap that leaves you broke. While there's no doubt that these games can provide huge rewards, the sad truth is that many beginners often leap into the depths of the sharks, destroying their self-confidence and leaving their bankrolls floating in a new bank account.
My advice to these players sounds simple, but is harder to execute; stay in the shallow end until you and your bankroll are ready to venture into deeper waters.

When I first started playing, I would build up a few hundred dollars and immediately move up to the next level, usually a level that I was sitting in with the minimum, just to get in.  This was always a pour move, I would run well for a while but, all it would take was a bad string or an over eager tournament entry and there goes all that hard work (and money) . I would build a bank roll to buy into the big tournament on sundays because the first time I played it I cashed, but the next six times were not so good, slowly there went my role and I had to start from scratch.  In the poker world, that can take more patience and understanding than ever imaginable.  Understand your means and do not think of yourself as a pro, play within your means!


When I finally tried my hand at another large tournament, I was sure to work at it differently, and in turn started playing satellites to get an entry.  After some diligence, Payoff! I won a seat into the tournament I was spending my roll on, now I am not spending a dime and getting a chance at over $150,000.

Because I didn't have as much of my bankroll invested in my tournament entry, I played the event without fear that I would be crippled again if I failed to cash. As it turned out, I took 11th place and walked away from the table with a great chunk of change for my future poker sessions. Eliminating the true downside of spending by satelliting into the event let me really put thought and feel on the poker and play a more solid and confident game than I could have if I had bought into the event with the roll I had built up.


While satellites are one of the most common and popular ways to secure your entry into a big buy-in event, they aren't the only option. For players who don't want to take their chances in satellites, search out a backer, family member or friend or even another player can be a reasonable source to play in bigger events than they can afford on their own. Before you go down this path, however, be sure to consider all aspects of the deal being offered and determine how much of your potential winning you're willing to give away.
No matter what path you choose, I fully recommend that you never commit more than 5-10% of your bankroll to an individual event or ring game.

Remember, building up a bankroll represents more than just the funds you have at your disposal. It's a constant reminder of the hours of work it took to grind and, as such, it's something that deserves protection. Treat your bankroll properly, remember it is still considered a job, treat it like one and you will reap the benefits for a long time.

Let me know what your bank roll strategies are, do you have issues with this job, or does it come as a natural way of doing things?

Keeping Close Track of Your Poker Winnings

 

 Keeping Close Track of Your Poker Winnings

HONESTY!!!!!

No one truly cares about your bank role.  Really! I promise, unless you are buying people things they don't care.  So, if you are losing money DO NOT casually stop keeping records to forget about the loses.  You are only lying to yourself.  This functions as a great pick me up as a poker player, as far as seeing progression in your game and bank account.  A great way to help out with managing your roll is to keep records of your play.  Keep accurate up-to-date records and you can use these for personal analysis.  Accurate records not only help you keep track of how you’re doing, they also allow you to analyze your game and keep you honest with yourself. We all like to believe that we’re winning players, but everyday that may not be the exact case.
Here are a few key situations to keep track of every time you play:

• Overall bankroll (to pretty much keep you honest and not jump into higher stakes games)
• Time span at which you sat in on a game
• What was the buy in to the table, and how big a table
• How much you made (Maybe think of looking at this poker stat from an hourly point of view)

Keeping records of these Poker situations will really help putting your game into true perspective. I tend to have a minor temper issue ( easy example, road rage) so maybe tracking your attitude or manor might not be a bad idea, which in the end may lead to having more control of yourself.  How you feel when you play and what frame of mind you’re in are truly important to the final outcome of your "money making" experience. 
Keep track of things like when you get tired and how long into a session you are when you start to get tired. When you are not playing to par, note that and note also the mistakes you made, so you can go back and try to correct them the next time out. Whether you admit it or not, poker is a game of emotion; one bad swing can break you, so as a serious money maker it is very important to realize your emotions, and try to leave the truly emotional feelings off the table.

Keep these records on a daily basis
go back through them each month to analyze your play. Be honest with yourself about what you see (remember, you are the only one involved, the only one you are lying to is YOURSELF). You’re looking for patterns:  I lost again when I played for an hour too long or I won more than normal when I played a shorter session, or I was tired than and lost this much, keep track.
If you notice a pattern and see that you’re losing at one particular game or limit, ask yourself: “What am I doing wrong here?” The truth hurts sometimes, but honesty will prevail, don’t let your ego get in the way of becoming a winning poker player. If your records show that you’re not doing well, it’s time to eat your pride move down to a lower limit, and re-evaluate your game and start it over once again, but without losing confidence.

Having exposure to these records right in front of you allows you to be honest about yourself as a poker player. Your notes are not going to lie unless you make them, so be patient and honest and go get your hands on that cash.

Good luck Let me know your thoughts on this, do you take notes, how are your practices working out?