If you are a cash game player looking to cash in big in tournaments then you must forget about winning hands and focus on winning the tournament. Because most big hand confrontations result in a big pot, whilst you are focused on your amount of big blinds held in your stack your decisions must be about chipping up rather than winning chips. The fundamental difference to cash games is that the chips are not real money so the maximum amount you can lose is your tournament buy-in, and you must accumulate all of the chips to win the tournament rather than just ending play with more than you started with as you do in a cash game. The hands you are dealt will be the same in as in a Texas Hold’em poker cash game, but you will play them very differently.

Both the lack of time and limited losses regardless of your stack size means you can be slightly more speculative and willing to flip to win the tournament in 50/50 spots. This is where luck decides whether you get a big win or not. It is not wrong to take a 60/40 flip for a big finish in a poker tournament. That is how bracelets are won in WSOP events.

In a cash game, for example, you would never fold AA. In a tournament, however, you would have to consider folding if, with three players remaining in a large tournament, a player had a very small stack went all-in and was called with the blinds high. Your Aces are devalued against two players with the possibility of more action in later streets between you and the larger stack. You can move up a spot and go heads up if the larger stacked player wins the hand and retain all of your chips for the heads up battle. The extra chips he wins in this hand will not matter that much because you would still be behind in chips regardless. Many players would consider a fold here, but only if the prize they can win is extremely large for them in terms of their bankroll or personal net worth.

I play my tournaments on bwin.com and it is easy to get into a pattern of going all-in with decent hands in a desperate attempt to get lucky and earn some chips. Your tournament thinking must be extremely focused on learning about your opponents who you are sitting with. It is highly unlikely you will meet regular players in these massive fields enough that you will sit at a table and know most of them immediately. There is no shortcut for watching and observing closely. As I have said before if you reach a point where you have a decision to make and you are not sure about an opponent then you have not been watching closely enough.

Consider your tournament status each round when you get on the button. Do you need to chip up quickly? If you are short enough you may be looking for the right hand with which to shove, or the right person to re-raise off a hand. Look for spots where you can use your position to bully a player that is capable of folding from a hand. Sometimes they will shove and you will have to let go, but many times they will fold. Tournament poker is about learning about your opponents and squeezing chips from them. Your actual hand is not critical, because you must play weaker hands due to the time constraints a tournament puts on you. Waiting for premium hands only is not an option, unfortunately.

Think about what it is you need to achieve in the short term to remain above chip average. If you have a large stack you want to pick up blinds and only engage when you need to. Remember many players shove against a big stack hoping to flip for a double-up. If you are forced to flip for a proportion of your stack then do it with a very strong hand so you have an edge. I prefer slowing down with a big stack but always assess its size against other big stacks, blinds and tournament average.

Hopefully we will get to compete against each other on the bwin.com poker tables and I will rue the day I ever gave you this advice!

By Malcolm Clarke

In a live poker room or casino you will see many players indulging their passion for the other casino games like Blackjack or Roulette. As luck plays such a large part in these games it is there you see a large consideration for what makes players lucky. Some players will not play on a certain day or in a certain pit because they believe it is unlucky for them. It can never be proven that any of this is true; the mind has a wonderful way of trying to decipher random acts.

The actual superstitions used by poker players can sometimes be comical. But, as the old saying goes, it does not hurt to try these things. I know of a player who always unties his shoes and reties them tightly as he believes having loose laces is unlucky! Fortunately most superstitions are procedural, like wearing a lucky pair of pants or lucky shirt. You should avoid any superstitions that are unsanitary or unhygienic as this is not only unpleasant for you but unpleasant for those playing around you. Some superstitions are very bizarre.

As the casinos know that superstitions cannot guarantee success and in reality has little effect on their profits other than altering a players state of mind they go to considerable lengths to adhere to customers concerns regarding luck and superstition. The MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas underwent a major renovation in 1998 to remove the doorway that was in the design of a Lion’s mouth because the Asian gambling community said that was unlucky in their culture. Rather than risk the players going to a different casino en masse, they redecorated.

At the poker table you may see superstition in action. Some players believe that they have always had good results with pocket eights, so they always play that hand! They may even announce it to the table. This alteration because of a belief in luck leaves them vulnerable if a bad board texture for pocket eights hits and they continue to play their lucky hand. This may work for them or against them but over the long term the hand will perform as it should so it is best to ignore what they say about luck and just play in conjunction with what the situation merits. Each time they win with their lucky hand, this further reinforces their belief in the luck of that hand, often the hand is a lot weaker than 88 too.

If you do have superstitions and this helps you feel in a positive frame of mind for playing poker then I will never criticise you for that. I am a big believer in taking whatever tangible or perceived advantages you can get at the poker table and turning that into profits for yourself. Whatever works for you should be continued but I would draw the line at having every movement or thought dictated by a perceived notion of luck or superstition. You will always take bad beats unfortunately and luck itself is random. All we can do is simply cling on for the ride and hope it works with us more than it works against us.

Perhaps you are a lucky person by nature or you believe bad beats happens far too often to you and you consider yourself to be unlucky most of the time. Either way I will excuse you if you are holding a rabbit’s foot whilst reading this article.

By Malcolm Clarke

The worst thing you can do is hit the poker tables and in a hazy frenzy of excitement and euphoria go on to lose all of your money. You need to remain in control of your poker playing. Ask yourself what skill level do you perceive yourself to be at the moment and what is the reason you deposited what you did (in our case $200)? If that is your full poker bankroll then you need to play carefully to preserve it.

If you are a new player it is very important to try out the play money tables first in order to familiarise yourself with the software, how to bet, which button to fold, how the bet sliders work for betting and so on. This is vital because you must be able to choose your desired action and input it into the poker software correctly every time. Mis-clicks are often very costly and the risk of clicking the wrong thing is much higher when you are unfamiliar with a new poker room.

There are a variety of different poker games on offer at each poker room and I would suggest reading widely on each before you try them out. The size of your overall bankroll will allow you to set aside a portion of it for trying new games, money that you expect to lose learning about the strategies required to beat each type of game. Professionals refer to this type of loss as “paying your tuition” as while you lose pots to better players they in turn are showing you how to win. For a good player this trade-off for learning is worth it in the long run.

Start with one table and once you are used to it you can try adding more tables until you reach a point where you no longer feel comfortable with the speed of the poker games. For some players that can be four tables, others much more. Whatever you are comfortable with playing is the right amount of tables for you but do not rush into playing too many tables. A profitable player at two tables can be a losing player at four so watch your results carefully when increasing how many tables you play. Just because Boku87 plays twenty tables or more at once does not mean you or I should play that many.

Hopefully the initial deposit you have made will be the only one you ever make. Tom “Durrrr” Dwan is known to have deposited $75 once and is rumoured to have a poker bankroll of around $14 million today have never re-deposited. Of course he is one of the best poker players in the world but there is no reason why if you have the skills to beat poker you cannot deposit once then run that into something much larger. If you need to deposit money over and over to continue playing then there is something fundamentally wrong with your play.

On my poker site myself and another editor are doing our own $20 bankroll challenge. We hope to run that up to something larger and have set ourselves strict rules on how to achieve that. This gives us a goal and a reason to play rather than just randomly playing poker. Having goals is also important. Have we mentioned winning pots? Make sure you do that too!

By Malcolm Clarke

This may further persuade you to prefer playing online poker to live poker where such things are disguised thanks to the automated way chips are counted, handled and stacked in online poker. But discussing how to stack chips to disguise your inexperience for live poker tournaments this article will help you in that spot where getting that bluff through means the difference between bubbling out and cashing for you. As you will be aware already, not appearing as a poker novice gives you an edge on the competition and you can look novice if your chip stack is disorganised and not stacked in a professional way.

Remember when players do not know who you are they must look for anything to help them classify you. You could be a top professional online player that no-one has seen live or you could be a lucky fish who is dead money and it is a race for your opponents to get your chips before you bust out.

Chips need to be stacked and you cannot leave them in a big pile to disguise your chip stack size. Some players play with their stacks and create mini towers to alleviate the boredom between hands. Providing they are stacked in such a way where you can quickly count your chips and know where you are in terms of stack size at all times you are heading in the right direction. As the blinds go up in a poker tournament knowing your exact amount of “M’s” or big bets is important in knowing whether to call, raise or simply shove all-in.

My personal preference is stacking them like pool balls in a rack. For example, if I have $1.5 million chips I would stack them in stacks of $100,000 so ten of them would be in a large triangle. I know straight away that is $1 million chips. The rest of the chips would be stacked in similar round number amounts so I can quickly count them up. Any chips left over from the round numbers I keep together in a small stack that I either shuffle or sit on top of the chip towers so I can either use them to bet with or count separately. Quickly counting your stack makes you look in control and experienced.

Juan Carlos Mortensen, the 2001 World Series of Poker Main Event winner, is known for very elaborate chip stacks that when he has a large stack look like minor works of art. This reflects Mortensen’s very create mind and his style of poker reflects this. John Juanda, on the other hand, likes to keep his chips in a straight line. It is no co-incidence that his poker playing is very organised, solid and well thought out. What clues do you give away about your own play in your chip stack?

Only a very observant and good poker player will look at your stack and make assumptions about your poker game, but remember that these quality players are the ones we need to shield information from most of all. Stack you chips carefully, always know how many chips you have and change up your style of stacking if any player mentions that you stack a certain way. Keep your opponents guessing at all times during any cash game or poker tournament.

By Malcolm Clarke

You should start learning PLO at the micro-stakes games. This limits the damage a bad run will make to your bankroll and lets you learn the nuances of the game without losing too much money in the beginning. Treating the game like Texas Hold ‘em where you started at the micro limits and over time built up your success and experience is certainly the recommended path to follow with PLO, indeed any new poker game you wish to learn.

You will encounter three types of opponent in the micro-stakes games of PLO. The first is the player that has migrated from Holdem and does not care about the changes they need to make. You beat this player by caring about the changes and learning them diligently. The second type of player is the complete fish who loves online poker but is unfortunately not very good at it. The third type of player is the solid player but fortunately there are far fewer solid PLO players than in Holdem games.

Because the pots are small in real terms players play micro stakes PLO even more aggressively than they normally would. This increases the games calling and raising even more. Players make a common error of playing too many hands and I have read that over 80% of PLO starting hands can look like they are playable. You can take an immediate advantage by researching good starting hand strategy for Pot Limit Omaha and not getting drawn into the madness that can ensue in online PLO micro stakes games. When you play you will hold on average a starting hand that has a better chance of winning the pot than your loose opponents, this gives you a great edge over them.

Do not overvalue pairs! Your opponents hold four hole cards and even if they are making small errors playing those cards they are still in the hand with more chances to hit their miracle cards to win. Chasing none nut draws (draws that if hit you still have possible hands your opponents could hold to beat you) is also dangerous and something that you will see over and over in PLO at the micro-limits. Players understand that it is a drawing game, but they get carried away with this and are too loose. Can you see yet why being tight with starting hands and valuing hands correctly is profitable? There will be action when you need it in PLO, unfortunately also action when you don’t.

Bluffing, therefore, becomes something should be used with care and rarely in a micro stakes game where players generally call regardless of board texture or opponent aggression. Most of the pots will be multi-way with multiple opponents, many of whom disregard position, or do not understand what a strong or weak hand is in PLO and call when they should fold. The way to beat the micro limits is to be very tight aggressive. Fold the trash and when the hand comes that you need to win a pot build it quickly. Make sure it is the nuts or very strong when you do it.

One of the principles that can be applied from No Limit Texas Hold’em is that you should always build a pot relative to your hand strength. This means when you hold a weak hand try and control the pot size and when you get a big hand create a big pot. That fundamental concept of poker is true for most games and most definitely true for PLO. Enjoy fishing!

By Malcolm Clarke

In every hand of Razz players must post an ante before their cards are dealt. As in other forms of Stud games the player is dealt three cards, two face down and one face up. The player with the highest up card or door card must make the opening bet, known in Stud games as the bring in. This bet is usually half of whatever the small blind is for the game. If they wish, the opening player can make the bet the full amount of the small blind. The action then continues clockwise around the table as in other forms of poker.

In poker you are looking to get your money with the best hand possible. The top hand in Razz where you want your money in the pot is A-2-3-4-5, which is known as a five low. This is not because it is a straight as flushes and straights do not count in Razz, but they are the five lowest cards in the deck. In Stud Lo you cannot get any lower in a five card hand. This is the stone cold nuts in Razz; the second nuts would be a six low, and so on.

The action during the hand after each card is dealt follows what you are used to from other Stud games. You have two face down cards, four face up cards and the last card goes face down. After Fourth Street the player with the lowest up cards acts first. E.g. if you were in a hand with X-X-A-3 against X-X-A-4 the player with A-3 would act first. After the betting the player with the lowest hand wins the pot.

Your hand is named after the highest card you have. For example, holding 10-5-3-2-A is a “Ten Low” hand (the Ace always plays low in Razz). Unlike Texas Hold ‘em you need to avoid pairs and sets. Everything is opposite to what you are used to where hands that are totally weak in Stud Hi like A-3-5-6-7 is actually a very strong hand as the 7 low (the third nuts in fact).

Some strategy considerations for hole cards are to fold pairs, as this greatly reduces your chances of a good low hand, and bet aggressively with A-2-3, which are technically the strength of AA or KK for the Holdem expert. You should watch the up cards of your opponent very carefully as most of their hand is exposed in a Stud game. Remember the old saying that is so true in all forms of Stud Poker, if you cannot beat what you can see, fold. Razz is a drawing game and players do not fold often due to them not fully understanding the game and the fact Razz is a limit game, so getting caught up in chasing a Jack low hand is not a great poker strategy for Razz.

If you can master Razz it is an enjoyable form of Poker and very different from what you will be used to playing. Contrary to popular opinion there is skill in Razz. That skill comes from knowing the odds, knowing the best time to draw for a hand even when the odds seems good and being able to play correctly before the flop. A good Stud player should be able to adapt well to this game. You will need luck to win, but luck is part of all poker.

Good luck!

By Malcolm Clarke

In No Limit Hold’em calculating implied odds is harder because after the flop opponents usually do not invest a great deal with a bad hand. They have a clear idea whether their hand is any good and because the bet sizes increase quickly after the flop it crystallises their decision making. Like many other things in No Limit, classifying your opponent and understanding their potential range is a big part of deciding on implied pot odds.

Implied odds are about calculating what you may earn in bets in the future if you continue in the hand and improve. It may not be worth gambling for improvement if hitting that card results in zero pay-off. There are many considerations you must make. What hands could your opponent have? What could he think you are betting with? What is your table image? What is his stack size? Opponent dependant, the same spot against two different players could yield very different implied odds.

Let us assume that in a hand you hold Jh-10h and you enter into a pot at blinds of 100/200 with a stack of 10,000. You raise to 600. Another player with the same stack size as you calls from the big blind. The flop is Kh-4h-2s. Your opponent bets into you with an 800 bet into the 1500 pot. The pot is 2300, costing you 800 to call. You have slightly worse than three to one pot odds which is not good for the flush draw. You know, however, that your opponent probably has a King or pocket queens to make this bet. If you believe the opponent will continue to bet if a flush card hit on the turn then your implied odds are good. If you think your opponent will only bet if a heart does not hit your implied odds are bad and therefore you should fold here giving your opponent credit for not continuing to bet in the face of a bad board texture.

Implied odds are not the only consideration in a hand. You should note in the example above that the opponent bet into you as the aggressor which indicates either real strength or lack of appreciation for position. Your information about the opponent whether this is the strength or ignorance of his play will help you make your decision on what to do. Players taking one shot to win the pot then giving up on the turn makes implied odds much smaller and chasing drawing hands more difficult due to the aggressive way online poker usually plays out.

Correct use of implied odds is deciding what you expect to win if you hit your hand. If you expect to win nothing due to the flop, scare cards or the tight style of your opponent and an obvious flush on the board may lean you to make a fold. You normally have more implied odds against loose players or amateur players. Professional tight players do not expose themselves to such leaks and implied odds are harder to manipulate. Put a simpler way, good players are harder to trap into betting when they are behind in hands.

You should consider implied odds as part of your hand reading and opponent classification. It is closely related to value betting and bet sizing. It is the relationship between extracting as much as possible from every winning hand and minimising losses when the expected reward is too small to make the gamble worth it.

By Malcolm Clarke

The hand is as follows. $30,000 starting stacks with blinds 50/100. Barry raises to 300 and Trickett calls with 5h-3h. Flop is 2s-4h-9c. Greenstein continuation bets 450 and Trickett calls (Barry likes to c-bet). The turn is 6s making Tricketts straight. Greenstein checks, Trickett bets 800 and Barry re-raises to 2100. Trickett raises again to 6000 and Barry calls. River is 2c and Barry checks. What do you do as Trickett now that Barry has checked?

In my email response to the magazine which I hope earns me the set of chips as the prize winning entry I said that Trickett must check. I will describe below why I feel this way.

Greenstein is a tight player. The pre-flop action is not surprising but from middle position Greenstein is likely to hold something reasonable. I agree with Tricketts line that Greenstein would continuation bet a lot of the time so calling to the turn is fine. If we miss on the turn we can fold to a bet or take a free card to the river.

The turn card is 6s, giving us our straight. Barry checks so Trickett bets 800 expecting to take down the pot. Barry’s check raise is significant; he probably has something now, maybe a pocket pair like tens, jacks or better. But would he have checked with these hands on the flop hoping to check raise straight away? Possibly. Barry re-raise and then calling of Tricketts raise is the clearest indication yet of the strength of Barry’s hand. The flat call pre-flop by Trickett could have resulted in Sam hitting a set yet Barry re-raises anyway. Barry is out of position and betting so big suggests to me Barry flopped his set and is hoping Sam holds an overpair. I would suggest Barry has 44 at this point. Sam is happy building the pot with his hidden straight providing the board does not pair.

The river 2c pairs the board and Barry would now have the boat (full house). Barry checks to Trickett. This all but guarantees he has the best hand. Barry was the caller on the turn and would not call such a large amount to draw. He must have had the set already. The pairing of the board and then checking is giving Trickett rope to hang himself. Trickett must not bet into Greenstein who will probably check raise knowing he has the best hand. He is giving Trickett the chance to try and value bet because he knows he is safe no matter what and checking to showdown now is fine because it is so early in the poker tournament. Another reason for checking is that betting into Trickett completely gives away that despite all the dangers on the board he is still prepared to bet and therefore must have the full house betting into a double re-raiser out of position.

Checking also holds value for Trickett because the blinds are low enough to not bet at this point in the tournament. There will be spots where the action will give him the chance to value bet an opponent more likely to hold air than Barry Greenstein.

If I win the hand reading competition I will let you know. Comment below if you think that I have missed something or you see the hand differently. It is an interesting hand and if you do guess right what is going on congratulate yourself because many players would catch the straight and bet or die. Hopefully Trickett folded, if I am right in thinking Barry got a nice full house here.

By Malcolm Clarke

Some Casino Bets

• Poker: This is a game of skill where the players compete against each other and not against the house. Here there is no house edge except for the small amount that the online casino takes for releasing each pot. You should place your bets on a poker only after you have become a pro at it.
• Blackjack: If you know how to count your cards then you definitely have an edge over other players. Though card counting is not illegal, it must be disguised or you might get barred from playing further. However, if you have already mastered the art, then go ahead and place the largest of bets on the game.
• Video Poker: This game can help you win thousands of dollars if you make the right playing decisions. Various video poker games also offer 100% payback if the players manage to make use of the perfect strategy.
• Craps: The house edge in this game is 1.14 percent. If you consider laying double odds then you can lower the edge to .59. However the safest bet would be to place your money when the shooter is on the pass line.
• Pai Gow Banker: In this game the player can choose to be the banker while the game is in progress. As the banker, the player would have to pay a five percent commission to the house. As a player you would win the bet of all the other players that you manage to beat. If you are not very clued-up about the game then it would be better to learn the skill of setting hands before you place your bets.

Hand History Reviews

This is a really powerful way to improve your poker game and something many players neglect. I should do more hand analysis sessions than I currently do. You can buy Poker Tracker for around $80 and this is a great investment for any player wanting to improve to the next level. You can configure the program to automatically put your hands into the program for analysis.

The program helps you see which hands you struggle to win and in which position, what hands are your most profitable and you can even replay the action in a specific hand to analyse how you could have played differently and if this would have been better or worse for your results. Reviewing hand histories is something only the serious poker players do and something recreational poker players should be doing.

Study Poker Strategy

Learning the required poker strategies to win in certain situations is paramount to your success. Rather than just playing your cards, learn to play your opponents. Read the poker books on spotting tells made by opponents that are written by the likes of Mike Caro and Joe Navarro, particularly if you play live poker. For online poker specialists, learn to multi-table and employ proper conservative bankroll management. If you have aspirations on becoming a professional poker player than doing this type of thing is a real step towards achieving your goal in poker.

Goal Setting & Planning

Take some time to write down everything you want to achieve in poker. Be realistic and practical. I would prefer to see players write “Win $5000 per month for the next six months” or “Play 2000 hands per day for the next month and show a profit” than “Win the WSOP Main Event”. But if this really is your goal then write it down. Think practically about making enough for a living and then start thinking about prestige achievements and raising your profile.

Next write down exactly where you are right now and devise a step by step plan for achieving the goals. Then go and do it. Each day check that you are attaining your goals and if you look after the small achievements then the bigger achievements will follow. You automatically become a more dedicated poker player and in turn the improvements in your poker game will be evident in your long term results.

All of the above techniques for taking poker more seriously should improve your level of poker play. Nothing comes easy and doing things the easy way is known as the easy way for a reason. Dedication requires effort, but it will be worth it when you start regularly beating the cash games and winning the bigger online poker tournaments. Your bankroll and lifestyle will thank you for the change you make from being a recreational poker enthusiast to serious poker player.

By Malcolm Clarke