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

If another big stack has signalled their intention to attack you repeatedly then the rules of the game have changed. If two big stacks have some sort of unwritten unspoken agreement to leave each other alone then I can possibly understand it. But if the other big stack opens up and commence hostilities towards you then what are you going to do about it?

Are you going to sit there releasing blind after blind and hand after hand all because you fear a confrontation with another big stack? Are you going to miss opportunity after opportunity because the other big stack opposite you also fears a confrontation with you? All this does not make sense and you must treat each separate situation entirely on its merits and it is a gross mistake to generalise.

Generic poker advice is fine for novices who need a broad track to run on and a few tips and strategies that they can learn and master as quickly as possible in order to limit the damage. But having set rules and conditions and systems is fine to a point but there must come a time when you must leave them behind if you desire to push on into achieving true expertise.

A rubber inflatable ring will prevent a non swimmer from drowning but if that person has hopes of ever becoming a competitive swimmer then there has to come a time when they have to discard that ring.

I see this all too often with the people who come to me for poker coaching or to learn how to play poker and it is also apparent on many poker forums. Many people simply ask the wrong types of questions in poker and if you ask the wrong questions then how in heavens name can you get the right answers? When someone asks “how do you play A-J in early position in a full nine handed ring game?” then just how do you go about answering a question like this?

Do you simply give him what he wants to hear and tell him some generic basic way to play the game or do you tell him that “it all depends on the situation and a whole bunch of factors”. Because I will bet you a pound to a penny that if you give him the latter answer that he will not be happy with that.

But yet the variables in poker are as close to infinite as you can probably get. Just how in heavens name can you replicate the same combination of table limits, players, stack sizes, player moods, game history and all the rest of it that combines together in order to decide on the correct course of action?

Poker is a game where you have to be a flexible situational thinker if you desire to play or understand the game to a high level. I truly believe that in order to be really successful in poker then you have to be totally in love with the game. That means that you must get immense satisfaction with learning and studying the game and also that you must be in no big hurry to start earning money.

This last point is crucial to success. The hype and accounts of players winning six and seven figure sums will be incredibly alluring but you must resist the temptation to become involved until you are absolutely one hundred percent ready. Would a sophisticated army or a country go into a war without being entirely ready if they had a choice? Some have in the past and suffered defeat because of it.

But let those words echo in your ear one last time…..evolution not revolution because I will end this chapter with another of my favourite quotes and yes, I have a few…… “fail to prepare, prepare to fail”…….need I say more?

Carl “The Dean” Sampson
Author – “Winning Cash Game Poker”

These little gems of wisdom really hit the nail on the head and they really strike a chord with me. Let us take a look at that statement for a minute because when we dig beneath the surface of those three words, it reveals the truth about selecting the appropriate level for an awful lot of players.

If the level of play is not motivating you to play well and the money is meaningless then you will slowly bleed money and under no circumstances will you be a winning player. You could take a player like Phil Hellmuth who is one of the greatest no limit hold’em players on the planet and he could easily be a fish in a $2-$4 limit game.

Many people would totally fail to comprehend that and would find it difficult to understand how a player who is successful when playing for hundreds of thousands of dollars could fare so poorly when playing for low stakes. By the way Phil, I am not saying that you couldn’t beat a $2-$4 game so please don’t come looking for me.

But you get the idea of what I am trying to say. All of the material that is presented inside this series means an awful lot to me simply because they are either mistakes that I have made in the past or lessons that I have learned or sessions that I have played. I want you to not only see poker for what it really is but to hopefully learn from the countless mistakes that I have made down the years.

If the writing of this series can save just a small number of people from personal and financial heartache then I will retire a very happy man safe in the knowledge that my efforts have served to help others.

But I am going to round this chapter off by repeating once again that the process of mastering and to learn poker is a long and painful one. A problem made all the worse by too many people who don’t really fully understand what they are talking about rehashing old material that was either wrong in the first place or is now out of date.

Another example is the “big stack” myth. There has long been a supposed golden rule in poker that two big stacks should not go head to head against each other and that they should concentrate on the smaller stacks who do not have the chip strength to bust them.

This rule applies more to tournament poker than cash games but my point is to underline how even long standing supposed poker wisdom can be wrong.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson
Author – “Winning Cash Game Poker”

Yet a limit player who is playing $30-$60 is risking $60 every time that they bet from the turn onwards and sits down at the table not with $200 but with $3000. Do not get the wrong impression here, I am not comparing a $30-$60 player and a $30-$60 game with a $1-$2 player and a $1-$2 game. It is just that I am making an example to those people who think that playing no limit Texas Hold em poker is the ultimate test of bravery.

At the end of the day, it all depends on the limits that you are playing at but it is surprising just how many players are attracted to no limit hold’em for macho reasons. Many have problems beating this game that go beyond technical issues. The problem with beating a game like no limit hold’em for many people is that it is a game that cruelly exposes indiscipline and technical flaws.

I once told a story on the Hendon Mob forum about a student of mine who was struggling to beat the game at the $1-$2 level despite easily having the game to do so. He would send me hand examples and as I read through them, it was amazing that this guy could be a break even player as his play was spot on for hand after hand after hand.

But then, it was like something snapped within him and he gets himself all in for his entire stack with two low pair on board that had all sorts of draws that had completed. He had no business being in the hand and certainly no business getting all in. But the starting fact of the matter was that this player knew full well that he was making a mistake before he did it, while he was doing it and after he did it.

So why in heavens name did he do when he knew full well that he was making the wrong play? Good question and it is not easy to get to the root of the problem but one thing is certain, when you persevere in doing something that you know to be wrong and know full well that you will get punished for it then you have serious problems with your discipline.

This is precisely what I meant by discipline, I was not referring to folding junk hands for an hour or two. Of course these personality traits could be fine in everyday life where money is not at risk but yet if you place certain personality traits into a poker environment or a certain poker environment then this is the time when problems can arise.

Lets face it, if you are impulsive, over zealous, impatient, restless, easily upset etc then what makes you think that these everyday personality traits will not harm you at the poker table. Let me tell you something very important and you would be well advised to never forget this, poker is a microcosm of every life. The things that you do in everyday life and how you behave in everyday life will surely immerge at the poker table.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson
Author – “Winning Cash Game Poker”

If you have been studying the game for about a year or two from starting at the beginner level then you have basically scratched the surface. At this early stage you will probably be blissfully unaware of how important it really is to understand yourself as a person in order to know what is the correct path to take with regards your poker career.

It took me a long time to realise that my personality was not suited to playing certain forms of poker. You are potentially making a huge error if you try to emulate or copy someone else. This applies however good or famous the player is that you are looking to copy. Chances are that the way that they play will not fit your own personal style but many players never ever get to know what their own style actually is because they spend too much time copying and not enough time thinking and analysing.

For instance, I have certain character traits that prohibit me from having what I consider to be a positive expectation in many forms of poker. I lose concentration after several hours which is not good for tournament poker and long cash game sessions. I become bored by inaction which is not good for playing full limit or no limit Texas Holdem ring games.

I love the mind games and psychological warfare that are in poker which are mainly absent when you are multi-tabling. I struggle to stay disciplined when I play below certain stakes. Once again I could go on and on repeating scenarios where I would be playing less than optimal poker but the point is that you must be aware of what suits your personality.

The poker boom has brought with it vast numbers of new players who are all eager to play poker. The vast majority of these people have seen poker either on television or through poker magazines and the internet. The form of poker that they have been introduced to initially has been no limit Texas hold’em.

Without realising it, they have actually been introduced to what is perhaps the most testing and brutal form of poker that there is. But even when people do indeed realise how tough it is or if someone tells them then many players misunderstand why this form of poker is just so tough.

Look out for the next part of this series coming shortly.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson
Author – “Winning Cash Game Poker”

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

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

180 player SNG tournaments are becoming extremely popular online and are the game of choice for many poker professionals who grind their living in multi table tournaments. Many bankroll challenges in the Internet poker forum threads are made up of ROI charts showing a consistent profit in these games when multi-tabled and played over a large volume. Ever the curious poker player, I decided to take some time to learn about the game and why it has become so popular. This is what I found.

At first glance these Sit and go poker tournaments are more like a multi table tournament than a sit and go. In fact the only reason they are called sit and go is because they start when all seats are filled. 180 players in the tournament is not too large and not too small and because you already know the payouts before you start you can learn the exact style required to regularly profit from them.

One player called “Underdog” showed his 1,800 game records and showed a healthy 67% return. This equated to a $5,000+ overall profit and he cashed 324 times (18%) and won 20 times (1.1%). He claimed to be a solid none professional player. This certainly looks encouraging and his buy-ins was only at the $4.40 level. Eureka! I have found a game to beat consistently and make good profits with small buy-ins. But when I investigated further I noticed that within a one month period another successful player had a downswing (despite being a massive winner in these games) or over 700 games! He obviously had the skill to carry on robotically and play optimally believing in his ability to get those wins and avoid the inevitable bad beats he was suffering. Unfortunately the old metagame concepts that I write so extensively about were again rearing their head.

Swings are a part of everyone’s poker games. Tom “Durrrr” Dwan has lost over $2 million in the last two days, but he believes he will get it all back with interest providing he keeps playing. If the best players like Durrrr are tolerating swings it will happen to us too. Part of pokers skill is taking these runs on the chin and objectively assessing whether it is variance or lack of ability. If you have not got this ability you will find it hard to make poker pay over the long term.

Playing a high amount of these SNG tournaments with 180 players is a great way to learn MTT strategy. I play almost exclusively these types of tournaments and am learning something new every time. Think of the advantage you hold getting this large amount of practise. Having limited but reasonably sized fields ensures that the time you spend playing poker can be more controlled in terms of time and potential prizes. This gives you a better idea of what is required from your play. After 500 games you will not be perfect but you will have experienced plenty of spots where a mistake was made but will not be repeated. That means a big improvement in your game right away!

When analysing your stats for this type of SNG make a note of how many times you finish in each of the cash positions. Payments are made normally for 18th place and higher. If you notice you are finishing lots of times in positions 14 – 20 then you are probably not being aggressive enough on the bubble where the other players are thinking “I must cash, I must cash”. There are blinds and antes to steal here and if you adjust your play and improve these 14th place finishes to 8th or higher this means a more efficient profit chart in the future.

Considering these tournaments have been lauded as a grinder’s paradise for such a long time I think that some of the Internet players will be getting burned out and a new breed can step in and profit. Let that new breed contain this author and my readers who spot the opportunity to profit and grab it with both hands! Keep your eyes open for more opportunities for profits at bwin poker blog.

By Malcolm Clarke

Proper planning and preparation promotes poker playing perfection!

Equally as profound, preparing incorrectly will see you playing less than perfectly. Whatever your efforts into learning how to play poker correctly this will be diluted by a lack of good preparation. Distraction opportunities abound when playing an online poker game so here are a few things you should do to make each session of poker the session where your ‘A’ game shines. Your opponents will be quite happy to take your chips if you ignore proper preparation before you play.

Mute the Phone

If you are midway through the second level of the tournament and your mobile phone rings, meaning you chat for 45 minutes about something that happened at work, gossip about a friend or sports event you are not concentrating on what you are doing. You are not looking at how Player A plays under the gun or whether Player B likes to re-raise when holding a strong draw. This could hurt you later in the tournament. Focus hard, switch off the mobile and concentrate on gaining that all important observational information.

Sitting Comfortably?

When you are sitting in front of a computer screen for a long time you must be comfortable. You can buy computer chairs designed for optimal back shaping. The basic requirement is that if you go deep into a poker tournament you are not squirming around thinking how much your back hurts whilst playing poker. Let all of your efforts be in busting your opponents and not in trying to regain movement in your back because of a terrible chair.

No E-Mail and Bring Food!

During your online poker session you will be hoping to have a tournament run that lasts for four hours or be sitting at a fantastic cash game table for as long as you can. Bring some snacks and drinks with you so you do not need to leave your computer desk, even for a second! Resist the urge to check email, surf the Internet, even in the early parts of a tournament when you are folding nearly everything. This is the time you see how your opponents play, so use that time properly.

Check Your Schedule

My biggest temptation is to start a tournament when I am at a loss to do something for two hours. I then may deep into the tournament only to find my 6pm appointment that seemed so far away at 3pm is now looming and I am nearing the final table. This can make you play bad. I have seen players start going all-in and saying in chat “Please call as I have to go”. Admittedly this is at lower limits but do not waste buy-ins unless you can complete the tournament.

No Messenger or Skype

The Internet allows us to communicate with anyone from anywhere in the world. I am terrible for chatting to my sister down south over Skype whilst playing. I will never win a big tournament watching her dogs perform their latest tricks on webcam. Discipline is an extremely important factor of poker so avoid the use of Internet media to distract you from beating the game.

Record the Tournament

Using a screen recorder will help you later during your hand history review sessions. It will be painful to watch your bust out hand when you knew you were beat but this will ensure you never make the same mistake twice. Search the Internet for free screen recording programs. Your game will reap the benefit of it. Hand history sessions are far better I have found when you get to watch videos of your play rather than lots of statistics.

Set a Series of Goals

Do you want to become a pro? Earn $2000 this month? Maybe both? Set a series of goals so each time you sit down for a session you stick at it and make the most of it. Each session is a step closer to your goals so by setting them you get clarity in your objectives.

Enjoy your poker play this weekend. As Poker Hall of Fame Inductee Mike Sexton says, “May all your cards be live and your pots be monsters!”

By Malcolm Clarke