When a big hand versus big hand confrontation occurs a lot of the time the money goes into the middle and it is a case of best hand wins. Both players may know the other has a strong hand but in texas hold ‘em you need to be willing to bet on your good hands and often they will be the best. There is always a chance your opponent could be bluffing or overplaying a weaker hand so your chances to win are always a couple of notches higher than the mathematical odds suggest i.e. if you push all-in your opponent could fold as well as hold a losing hand. They could even fold the best hand!

A poker school cannot teach you specific situations where you should raise and specific situations where you should fold. They give you the basics, like a hiker would use a map, but you decide when, where and how you walk in texas holdem.

Nearly every poker article I stress the importance of watching your opponents. This fills in the blanks when a decision is required. I played a hand against my good friend Rob and it played out like this. I had AK and after raising three times the big blind Rob called. The flop was a rainbow Q-X-X. We both checked the flop and the turn was a Jack, giving me a straight draw. He checked to me and I checked again. Rob likes to bet when he thinks he can get me to fold or when he has something, so his check was suspicious to me. The river was a blank, I had missed my draw, I could have bet the draw on the turn but my stack was dwindling and I was into shove territory and I believed I might be beaten. After I checked again Rob bet around three quarters of the pot. I instantly folded. If Rob has something on the river, he bets to get paid off. He showed me a pair of queens. I was right, he had been slowplaying.

Do you see how my information on how Rob plays helped me during that hand? Without that information I might have shoved on the turn and lost to the hidden pair of queens. That would not have been a bad play but precise knowledge of his style and awareness of how he perceives my own play saved me. I had a feeling I was beaten when he checked because he is still learning deception and tends to be a weak is strong, strong is weak type of player. In this hand I lost the pot but I kept some of my stack and was able to fight on. I do not remember who won this match, which means I probably lost!

Watch your opponents carefully. Learn not only what they do right but what they do wrong and get an idea in your head over what a bet means, what a check means and what a raise means. If you are right you immediately have a massive advantage over them. Another general concept to finish with in this article is if you think you are beat in texas holdem, it is better to fold than continue in the hand getting confused by the incomplete information you always have during a poker hand.

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 poker cash game or tournament.

By Malcolm Clarke