Top 10 best poker players without a WSOP bracelet

I’ve broken this column up into three sections to differentiate between players with a long history of bad luck, and players who just haven’t won yet –I’ve also set aside a third category for one superstar player who I’ll start calling Dan Marino or Charles Barkley!

Long-Time Pros with no WSOP Jewelry
     • Marcel Luske –Just under $2.5 million in career tournament earnings; 20 WSOP cashes; 7 WSOP final tables.

While I was researching this article I was bit amazed that Luske had never won a bracelet; given the Dutchman’s skill level in multiple forms of poker. His best chance came in the $5k Seven Card Stud Championship in 2004, where he finished 2nd. Marcel also has two 3rd place finishes in WSOP events.

     • Andy Bloch – Over $3 million in career tournament earnings; 21 WSOP cashes; 8 WSOP final tables.

Bloch, a former member of the infamous MIT blackjack team, has been a long-time tournament poker competitor. Bloch has two runner-up finishes in WSOP events: In 2006 he finished 2nd in the $50k H.O.R.S.E. tournament, and in 2008 he finished 2nd in the $10k Pot Limit Hold’ Em tournament.

     • Phil Gordon – Over $1.1 million in career tournament earnings; 15 WSOP cashes; Finished 4th in 2001 Main Event

Gordon is perhaps best known as the host of Bravo’s Celebrity Poker Showdown, one of the first televised poker shows. The self-made millionaire has also had some success on the felt, but has yet to win a coveted bracelet. Gordon has two 3rd place finishes to go along with his 4th place finish in the main Event in 2001.

     • Bill Gazes – Close to $2 million in career tournament earnings; 28 WSOP cashes; has cashed 9 years in a row at the WSOP.

Gazes, a long-time pro, wallowed in anonymity for years; until a horrendous field goal attempt on ESPN’s ‘The Nuts’ segment skyrocketed him into the mainstream of the poker world (make sure you thank that intern that beaned you with the ball Billy!) Gazes came close to capturing a bracelet in the 2007 $5k H.O.R.S.E. event where he finished 2nd.

     • Gavin Smith – Almost $4 million in career tournament earnings; WPT player of the year; 15 WSOP cashes.

Gavin is well known for his propensity to make ‘prop’ bets, and to make the payout extremely embarrassing to the loser (Google, Gavin Smith+Prop bet, for a good laugh). He’s also known for being one of the best poker players in the world. His chance to add a bracelet to his impressive resume came up short in the $1,500 Pot Limit Hold’ Em event in 2007, where he finished as the bridesmaid.

     • Mike “The Grinder” Mizrachi – Over $6.7 million in career tournament earnings; 19 WSOP cashes; 2 WPT titles.

I had a tough time deciding if “The Grinder should be considered a long-time pro, or an up-and-comer; but when I saw he has 19 WSOP cashes the decision became crystal clear. Mizrachi’s closest brush with a bracelet came in 2008 when he finished 3rd in the $10k Pot Limit Omaha Championship.

Young Guns Seeking Their First Bracelet     • Tom Dwan – There is no doubt in my mind that Dwan, better known as ‘durrr’, will win multiple bracelets. His incredible skill-set, and his absolute fearlessness will make him a force in live tournaments.
     • Patrik Antonius – Antonius has already made three final tables at the WSOP; in only 4 years of playing. Considered one of the best cash game players in the world, it’s unlikely a bracelet will avoid him for very long.
     • Ivan Demidov – Demidov burst onto the poker scene last year, and has only been playing poker since 2006! His runner-up finish in the 2008 Main Event cemented the Russian as one of the top new players.

How On Earth Hasn’t He Won A Bracelet???
      • Gus Hansen – Over $5 million in career tournament earnings; 2 WPT titles; Won the 2007 Aussie Million.

In my opinion the only reason Gus has yet to win a bracelet is because he only plays $10k events. His ‘snobbery’ of the lower buy-in tournaments severely limits his chances of winning a bracelet each year. The typical top flight pro probably enters 30+ each year at the WSOP; Gus enters about 5; tops!

Hansen’s closest brush with a WSOP bracelet came in 2008 in the World Championship Mixed Event, where he finished 10th.

Expected Value

The term "Expected Value" (also referred to as "EV" or "Expectation") is used a lot in poker strategy discussions, and if you've wondered what it means but never dared to ask, this is the article for you! The term originates in math (specifically probability mathematics) and is used to describe the long-term average outcome of a given scenario. In order to calculate expected value, you take every possible outcome, multiply each by the probability of that outcome happening, and then adding those numbers altogether. Sounds tricky? Let's look at an example.

If you have a die, ordinary randomized six-sided die, and apply the above reasoning to find out what the expected value of rolling the die is, you end up with this:

Rolling a  has a probability of 1/6.
Rolling a  has a probability of 1/6.
Rolling a  has a probability of 1/6.
Rolling a  has a probability of 1/6.
Rolling a  has a probability of 1/6.
Rolling a  has a probability of 1/6.

Multiplying the values with their respective probability gives:

• 1 * 1/6 = 1/6
• 2 * 1/6 = 2/6
• 3 * 1/6 = 3/6
• 4 * 1/6 = 4/6
• 5 * 1/6 = 5/6
• 6 * 1/6 = 6/6

Adding them together gives:

1/6 + 2/6 + 3/6 + 4/6 + 5/6 + 6/6 = 3.5

Thus, your expected value of a randomized die is 3.5. What if the die was weighted, so that the number "6" had a 50% chance of coming up? Well, if all the other numbers still had a uniform distribution ("equal chance of coming up in regards to each other"), you get this:

• 1 * 1/10 = 1/10
• 2 * 1/10 = 2/10
• 3 * 1/10 = 3/10
• 4 * 1/10 = 4/10
• 5 * 1/10 = 5/10
• 6 * 1/2 = 3

The sum of which is 4.5. Do you see why all the other numbers now only have a 10% chance of coming up?

How does Expected Value relate to Poker?

Now, enough with the dice. We're poker players, let's focus on cards.

Expected Value is the basis for most non-psychogical poker strategies. Like limping with medium pairs if the pot is not raised and there are other players who limp as well - that's a play that may have positive Expected Value. The poker dilemma, mathematically speaking, is to always make the decision that has the highest expected value (for the sake of stringency it might be worth pointing out that the highest expected value may in some cases be negative, but less negative than any other course of action).

To explain how expected value relates to poker, let's work with a (relatively) common scenario. You're playing Texas Hold'em, and you've somehow found yourself heads-up on the river, holding these cards:

And the board shows:

You're in first position, the pot is $100, and the big bet is $10. Do you bet?

Let's say, for the sake of argument, that your opponent can hold any two cards and will always fold if he doesn't have a club. Let's also stipulate that he'll call a bet with any club, and make it two bets if he has the K♣ or Q♣. Let's also say that in case you check, he will bet with any club and check with no clubs.

Let's do the math. Since he can hold any two cards, each of the individual clubs is as likely to be in his hand (and let's pretend that he can't have two of them - because we know him well enough to know that he would have raised the turn if he did).

Note: We do not bother adding in the times when he has no club at all, in these scenarios. Your opponent will fold if you bet, and check if you check in these cases, and you will then always win the pot uncontested. For the mathematically curious, this actually has implications on the expected value for the situation as a whole, but not for the specific purpose that we're discussing it here: Determining the correct strategy.

Scenario 1: You bet!

If he calls, we know that it will be with an inferior hand because he would have bet a better hand. There are 6 possible clubs that he will call with. So six times, you will win an extra $10. As there are 8 clubs available, the chance of him calling is 6/8 (six out of eight):

If he raises, we know that you have a worse hand, and you will have lost $10.

So your expected value of betting here is $7.5 + (-)2.5 = $5. Not bad.

Scenario 2: You check, with the intention of calling if he bets.

(As above, you can safely ignore all the times when he has no clubs)

6 times out of 8, you will win when you call his bet, and 2 times you will lose.

Here, again, is your expected value $5. Okay, so checking is as good as betting in this theoretical situation. What if we check with the intention of raising if he bets?

Scenario 3: You check, with the intention of raising if he bets

In order to figure this out properly, we now need to stipulate that he will always re-raise with the nuts, so if he does have the K♣, he will re-raise you and you will fold. To avoid adding too much confusion, we will pretend that he will still call your raise with any other club.

If he has the K♣ you will fold and lose $20:

If he has the queen, you will get a showdown, but still lose $20.

If he has any other club, you will win $20:

Sum: 

Conclusion on Expected Value

In this theoretical situation, your expected value is $6 higher if you check and raise, instead of betting out. To maximize your winnings, therefore, you should always check in this situation, and raise if he bets, because that will give you an average profit that's half a big bet higher than just betting out (or checking and calling). With the relatively small edges that are in effect for poker players, getting those extra 0.5BB in where you can is often the difference between a long term winner and a long term loser.

Playing Poker Professionally

"Poker is a hard way to make an easy living"

It's a popular poker quote and whoever was the first to say it was one very smart man. I think very few people have the ability to become a truly successful professional poker player. Notice the emphasis on successful. There are many people who play poker professionally and barely scrape by month after month. However, in my opinion those people are not truly successful professionals.

So why is it so hard to play poker successfully on a long-term scale? Surely it can't be that hard? Everyone thinks they are an expert at poker… "Surely all these idiots will just donate me money!" Well, it may sometimes seem that way but the games may not be as easy as you think.

What it Takes to be a Professional Poker Player

First of all you need the technical skills to be a winner in at least one form of the game. Second of all you need to be sure about it by putting in a large sample size. Thirdly, you need to be able to deal with the financial and emotional swings. And finally you need to play high enough stakes or a large enough volume of hands and sustain it month-in, month-out. Still think it's easy? Ok, give it a shot for 6 months and tell me what you think! Here are a few other traits that good professional players usually exhibit:

• Self-motivation - You will not always want to play poker. Especially if you are in a downswing or your friends are doing something that seems like more fun. Sometimes, though, when a game is really good, other things just have to be put on hold.
• Discipline - Sometimes you need to take a shot at a higher limit game when the table looks juicy. However, doing undisciplined things like chasing losses and playing on tilt will make you go broke before you even realize what happened.
• Adaptability - There are a lot of things you may need to adapt to. You may need to adjust to a new schedule possibly, new stakes, new players, new styles and even new sites or new games. Change with the times or get left behind.
• Creativity - You can't always play ABC poker. Sometimes you need to mix things up, confuse your opponents and try some new strategies.

Why so Many Wannabe Pro Poker Players Fail

One major reason why many players don’t make it is because they do not practice smart bankroll management. Always leave yourself with outs! It's ok to use aggressive bankroll strategies, that is fine. But you have to be able to move down as well as up fast. If you can't do that you may go busto like hundreds of other players who have gone on a hot streak, climbed up the stakes too quickly then eventually lost it all playing in games they cannot beat.

Other players play great when they are winning and are running good. But when things start to go the other way, they compound their bad run by tilting, spewing and generally losing their mind like a donkey. Unless you have experienced a huge downswing/break-even stretch over 75k hands in your career, you can't truly know if your good enough to make it. The best players in the world don’t have “downswings.” They play well enough during these stretches so that they become “break-even stretches.” If you get a graph of any top online pro, you will notice that they will have sections of hands where they make tons of money, then sections where they break-even/lose a little for a while and then repeat the cycle.

Other players don’t succeed playing professionally because they have other issues in life which aren’t directly related to poker. Say you are trying to play professionally and are 6 tabling NL100. Over the past 6months, you have earned $3500 a month playing poker, You also have a monthly nut of $2500, i.e., how much you spend on rent, food, gas, electricity, etc. This leaves you with $1000 a month left to play poker with. Smart people will spend that money on learning to increase your income, e.g., poker training, poker coaching, adding money to your bankroll. 

Dumb people lose money playing blackjack, sports betting or purchasing a $30k car on finance. These people put themselves in unnecessarily tight financial spots and put themselves in situations where they start to eat into their bankroll to keep up their lifestyle and ultimately go broke. See also, How Much Money can you Make Playing Poker.

Final Thoughts on Going Pro

Hopefully you are getting the idea by now. Becoming a poker pro isn’t as easy or as desirable as it seems. A lot of people can't deal with the stress of long break-even/losing stretches. If you go through some good times, put the money aside for the bad times that will most definitely follow.

Please try and stay level headed. Take it from someone who has succeeded in playing professionally for the past 2 years. Maybe I am not as skilled as some of the best players on the planet and my income hasn’t really increased exponentially over the past 2 years. I’m not struggling by any means but I’m not a millionaire yet either. If you are young and contemplating not going to college to pursue a poker career, its most likely a bad idea. I would only do it if you are earning over $100k a year already playing poker.

The games aren’t going to get any easier and you will continually have to get better as mid stakes are only going to get harder and harder as the fish lose their money, regulars get better, and there is not a constant influx of new players. I’m not going to say things look bleak since we have the possibility of regulated poker in the US (which of course may not affect players in the rest of the world anyway), but poker may never return to the days where there is an abundant supply of fish just giving away their money. Good luck at the tables. Play smart, play aggressive but controlled and don't go busto!

Make A Living Playing Online Poker - Play Poker For A Living

Become process orientated:

Successful poker players look at everything from the process point of view. Every action has an expected value against a range of hands. Poker does a very good job of tricking the mind, its only natural for people to associate winning with playing well and losing with playing bad. Good poker players recognise that winning and playing well are not mutually exclusive. Excellent players look at every action or decision independently from results and try to figure out the best or “most +EV” play.

Commitment to learning:

You to really enjoy playing poker online. If you don’t enjoy learning about poker you will not spend enough time studying poker and consequently never be educated enough to win at a high level. Poker learning can be done on and off the table. To start off I would advise you to do the vast majority of your poker learning off the table by reading books, watching training videos and analysing your past hands. Then when you get good and have the fundamentals down, more of your advances will come from playing. Poker is both and art form and a science, you need to study the science and practice the art.

Develop your extrasensory perception:

I kind of joke when I say this but I think its right to a certain degree. A lot of the time I make what I know is the correct play but often find it hard to reason exactly why I did it at the moment in time. My brain is the most complex range calculator known to man and I’m constantly weighting peoples ranges and frequencies in my head. Sometimes I will be mentally aware of exactly what I’m doing, other times I will have an almost “6th sense” and know what to do because I’m drawing on some bizarre hand that happened 6months ago the same way but cant mentally recall it in the moment. There is no way to develop this kind of knowledge except to gain experience, the 2 million+ hands I have played have given me experience that no training video can teach you.

Don’t be stubborn and always question yourself:

In order to improve you need to be highly critical of your own ideas. Some very good winning players have some opposing ideas on various topics. To improve my game I try to absorb as much knowledge from as many successful professionals as possible, retain the information that makes sense to me, sits well with my overall philosophy of poker and reject the information that doesn’t make sense to me.

In my earlier days of playing professionally I became pretty stubborn, many of my friends can attest to this due to the insane long arguments we have had about various topics on AIM. Whats the takeaway from this, always keep your brain open to new information and constantly question what you think is correct. There are several things I believed 2 years ago which I know for a fact are now wrong. As you get better you will eliminate more and more of these “leaks” and become a better player because of it.

You need heart:

I guess this last point is kind of cheesy but its true. You 100% must have a ton of heart and love for poker. I remember in my first year of playing I had a few months where I thought I ran bad. Little did I know, I had barely scratched the surface when it came to running bad and variance. Its not a question of if a huge downswing will come its a question of when. As the saying goes, at some point you will run worse than you ever thought was imaginable. These downswings break many men, only the people with the heart and the bankroll to suck it up survive.

7 Habits of highly successful poker players

There are certain traits that successful poker players exude. And it’s very likely they aren’t even aware that they excel in these areas; like a basketball player’s height, or sprinter’s speed, it’s just god-given ability.

However, if you are cognizant of these seven traits, you can work to improve on them. 

Mental preparation

Being mentally prepared to play has to do with playing under good conditions, and in the right frame of mind. If you are exhausted, hungry, drunk/high, or stressed out, you will not be playing your best. And when you’re not playing your best you are unlikely to win.

These issues don’t necessarily have to arise at the poker table; many players sit down in a game after a fight with their wife, or a bad day at work, and are one bad beat away from full blown tilt. On the other hand, playing in the right frame of mind will often allow you to handle a couple of bad beats without going on tilt. That said, four or five bad beats can tilt the most mentally prepared player!

Disciplined

A disciplined poker player knows what to do, and has the patience to wait for the right situations. Discipline means you can go an entire session without winning a pot, or see a never-ending string of K3, Q6, and J4 all night long, and still have the discipline to fold AT, even though it’s the best hand you’ve seen all night.

Discipline is what keeps you playing the ‘right way’ when every other urge is telling you to do something else.

Try to improve

Whether it’s reading books, browsing poker forums, or discussing hands with other players; a winning player never rests on his or her laurels. Winning players know there is no such thing as a perfect poker player, so they are always trying to improve their skills any way they can.

Mentally Tough

There is an old saying: “Anyone can lead during good times; it’s under adversity that true leaders will emerge.” Mental toughness is the ability to take every bad beat, cooler, and run of bad cards in stride. Players that go on full-blown-life-tilt after a single bad beat will never hold on to their winnings long enough to be considered a winning player. It’s the players who can reign in their emotions, and perform well when things are going bad, as well as when things are going good that take home the money. 

Fearless

Fearlessness doesn’t mean you are willing to snap off a bluff at any time; fearlessness means you will never let fear come between you and the right decision. Some players start thinking about the money they may lose, how silly they make look, and other things instead of making the right decision.

Often called playing scared, a player who is fearful –for whatever reason—is a sitting duck. Poker is a game of patience, but when the time is right you have to strike. Fearful players have the patience, but when the time comes they simply cannot pull the trigger.

Focused
Winning players are focused on the game: Not the baseball game on TV, the poker game they are involved in. Focused players are not browsing the web or talking on the phone when they play online. Focused players are not checking out the cocktail waitress or chit chatting with their buddy when they play in the casino. Being focused means you are 100% focused on the game, and all the tiny bits of information that are being given away by the other players.

Cheerful
A good poker player makes other people enjoy losing to them. He doesn’t belittle their play, moan about his terrible luck, or rudely talk to the dealer/waitress/staff. A winning player creates a good atmosphere --an atmosphere that makes people feel welcome-- and a game the casual player wants to play in.

Learning to Fold

In pretty much every kind of poker game folding is a big part of learning how to win. Patience is a key element of a winning poker player and it can only be achieved if you learn how to fold. Learning how to fold enough to become a winner is not an easy task to accomplish. Once you are able to gain enough discipline to fold, then the rest will all fall into place.

In Texas Hold’em it is said that you should only see an average of 20% of the flops. That means that you should be folding 80% of the time. Tight players will fold even more then 80% of the time. Not only do you need to know how to fold before the flop but it is also important to be able to fold during the hand as well. Knowing when your beat and folding when you know you are beat sometimes, just as good as knowing you are ahead and winning a pot from it.

There is only a small amount of starting hands that are worth playing before the flop. Even then, after the flop there is nothing guaranteeing that those cards will still be good. Saving your money, and using it wisely is a very important part of poker. You only have so much ammunition and if you overuse it then you will not have any when it comes time for a real battle worth fighting.

It makes it a lot easier to fold when you think about how many other chances you will have to get better hands. Poker is not all about the cards you have, but it is the core of the game without a doubt. At some tables you will need cards to win because people call so much. At tables like this folding is an essential. If you are playing at a very tight table, then you might fold less and see more flops. It really depends on your opponents and what is going on at the table.

No matter what is going on you should still be folding more then you play for sure. There is no reason to be playing more hands then you fold. Learning to fold can save you a lot of money, and be the difference between a winning poker night and a losing poker night. There is a lot of poker hands played in a session, and all the times you call instead of fold will add up. You must think about if it will be worth it when all said and done. That is why there are pot odds and probabilities. Whoever made the formula up, had a very good reason for doing so and it makes perfect sense.

3 Common Poker Myths

Myth #1

You have to be lucky all the time to win poker. This is easily the most pervasive and all-encompassing myth that exists today about poker and despite the fact that education campaigns have largely dispelled this myth in certain parts of the world, there is still a large majority of people that believe it. Poker frequently gets lumped into the mix with games like blackjack and other online gambling casino ventures and for that reason people still believe earnestly that poker is a game that requires you to be lucky all of the time in order to win.

The truth is that poker is a game of skill that contains a luck element. Even if you are lucky all the time, it is still possible to lose. Similarly, a great poker player can take below average luck over the short term and still turn it into a winning or break-even poker session through their play. Players that learn how to minimize losses and maximize wins become poker professionals and the fact that those professionals exist is proof that poker is a game of skill rather than a game of luck.

Myth #2

Perhaps the second most pervasive myth about poker is that all of the poker games that you find are crooked in one way or another. If you are playing offline poker in a back alley card room this might be true, but if you then take a closer look at the casinos and professional card rooms that all contain poker, what you will find is a heavy amount of government regulation. Many of these casinos and card rooms are run by government entities and for that reason their rake generates revenue for the state. Because the state wants people to come back and play more and more poker over the course of time, they are going to do everything in their power to keep the games as fair as possible. This is why the myth of crookedness is a myth to begin with.

Myth #3

The final myth worth mentioning about poker is that there is no way to win at poker consistently and over the long term. Any poker player with any amount of experience knows that this is not true. It is not true because of the first two myths. You do not need luck to win even in the short term sometimes in poker and the poker games that you will play in are not fixed. Because both of these things are true, so too is it true that it is possible to win consistently in poker.

How do you win in poker? You win through proper strategy. All of the strategy articles that you read on this website and others will help you win in poker. But before you can apply any of it, you need to truly convince yourself that the three myths discussed here are indeed myths. Once you understand that, anything is possible in the world of poker and the sky is truly the limit.

Common Misconceptions

Before we get into the nuts and bolts of poker, let's go over some common misconceptions about the game:

1. Winners always win.

Even the very best players in the world get crushed on a semi-regular basis. Everyone -- and I mean everyone -- loses. There's a big element of chance in poker, and while you can adopt strategies of play that ensure a long-term profit, you can still have a tough night ... or series of nights. Losing streaks happen, and you need to be prepared for them.

2. Poker is all about picking up your opponents' "tells" and having a good poker face.

Get this idea out of your head immediately. Yes, the ability to read body language does play a part in advanced poker, but not as much as you might think. And of course in online play, the art of reading tells is pretty much useless -- you could skip around naked, screaming "boo-ya" at the top of your lungs, and nobody would know. Your time is much better spent learning the ins and outs of actual game play.

3. Poker is all about bluffing.

No question, the bluff is a hugely important part of poker. But again, it's not nearly as important as you might think.

Chances are you'll start your poker career playing for low stakes at a place like Pokerit.eu . At these tables, most people just don't fold, so bluffing won't get you very far. Also, the structure of limit play makes bluffing problematic.

Now that you know what to forget, let's talk about what you need to learn. Of course you have to know the rules of limit Texas hold'em. But just because you understand the rules doesn't mean you know how to play the game.

Beginning players are often overwhelmed by how much information they have to process, and process quickly, in the very middle of game play. The key is to focus on what's important.

That's what this guide is all about. We'll teach you what questions you need to be asking yourself constantly, and we'll even provide you with a few of the answers. First up: What style of play is the right style for you?

Easy Post-Flop Exercises

Qs Qd -- Early Position

You raised pre-flop and were called by two late-position players. The flop was Ac Ks 4c. You bet out on the flop. One player raises and the other calls. What factors do you consider?

• Cards: The flop was an absolute nightmare for you . If either of your opponents holds either and ace or a king, you're way behind.
• Action: Your opponent's raise indicates strength. The call from the other player may indicated a flush draw.
• Odds: You will hit a 3rd Queen on the turn about 1 out of every 23 times. If that doesn't sound bad enough, the Qc may give someone a flush. The pot odds are not sufficient for you to call and see the turn.

Your move: Fold. Laying down QQ is never fun, but throwing money at this pot is a terrible idea.

Note: the bet on the flop may or may not be a something you'd want to do. The bet has two advantages. One, it gives your opponents a chance to fold if the flop missed them. Second, it get you very accurate information. Now you know you're in terrible shape. However, given the board a check-fold might be a good decision.

Ad Ks -- Late Position

You raised pre-flop and were called by both blinds. The flop was Kd 7c 4h. The small blind bet and the big blind folded. What factors do you need to consider?

• Cards: The flop is excellent. You have top-pair, top-kicker, and there are flush draws and only one straight draw on board. You have to think you have the best hand.
• Action: The bet from the small blind could indicate a weak King. Or it may mean nothing much at all.

Your move: Raise. You're almost certainly ahead, and you want to get money in the pot while you're winning.

9h Th -- Late Position
You limped with 4 other players to see a flop of Ah Js 4h. An early position player bets and all fold to you. What factors do you consider.

• Cards: Given the nature of the board, you can be pretty certain that you are behind. But you've flopped a nice flush draw.
• Action: The early position bet likely indicates that the early position player has an Ace.
• Odds: It's going to cost you $1 to see the turn. Pre-flop $4 went into the pot,and the early-position player's bet ads another $1, for a total of $5. You are roughly a 4:1 underdog to hit your flush on the turn. This means that you're getting proper pot odds to draw for the flush.

Your move: Call. Trying to hit that flush has a positive expectation with that much money in the pot.


A-T -- Big blind
This is the same situation the one of the previous page, but reversed. Two limpers, the small blind, and you see the flop. The flop is Ah Js 4h. What factors do you consider?

• Cards. You have top pair with a pretty good kicker. Not bad.
• Action. There was no pre-flop aggression. You have to think you have the best hand.
• Odds. You're ahead here. You want to push the advantage.

Getting Away from Top Pair, Good Kicker

Many players just cannot get away from top pair, good kicker. In order to have long term success at the poker table, you simply have to be able to get away from it when the circumstances dictate. This is especially true in cash games, where you aren’t factoring in ever-increasing blinds. Let’s look at 1 scenario that makes a strong case for folding top pair:

You’ve got Ad Jd in a full ring game. You raised preflop and the flop came down Ac 9c 10s. You made a pot-sized bet and your opponent called. The turn card was an ugly one, the Kc, which completed any flush draw and the QJ straight draw. You are tentative, but you decide to bet half the pot (which can also be debated). Your opponent immediately makes a substantial raise.

In my opinion, this is almost always a fold situation. There are simply too many hands that can beat you: any 2 clubs, or QJ, are strong possibilities. Although some of these holdings are more likely than others, your opponent could also hold AK, A10, A9, K10, K9, 910, or a set. AQ has you beat too.

You have to ask yourself, based on how the action has unfolded, what could my opponent have that I can beat? In this instance, you really can only beat a bluff. It is unlikely that your opponent would play the hand this way with a weaker ace, or something like middle pair with 4 cards to a flush. Sure, you have top pair with a gutshot straight draw, but you could already be drawing dead.

Knowing your opponent is key as always, but even against a loose aggressive player, folding is most likely the right play here. In the end, top pair, good kicker is just one pair. On a scary board with lots of action, good players won’t hesitate to let it go.

Folding when you think you're ahead (ring games)

When you're headsup with another player and think you might be ahead, you need to figure it out and make the right play. If you're ahead (or think they'll fold), raise. If you're behind, fold. If you have odds and will get paid off if you hit, call. However, if you're in a multi-way pot, things become a little more difficult.

There are times when you can have the best hand and still be an underdog. In Omaha, this is a regular occurrence, but it is true in Hold 'em as well. Imagine a hand where an opponent made a call with 22 (no heart) and a flop of Th9s5h. You have [Qh Jh] for an open-ended straight draw and flush draw plus two over-cards. You have 9 flush outs, 6 more straight outs (excluding the two hearts) and 6 pair outs for 21 outs total. You're over 72% to win. From his perspective, the only hands he can beat are 2 over-cards. That means if he is ahead, you still have 6 outs for a bigger pair. 

If you're willing to push this hand hard, then you have to at least have a draw bigger than that like a straight draw or flush draw, which would give me enough outs (10 for a gutshot and 2 over-cards to 15 for a flush draw and 2 over-cards) to be only a slight underdog or even a slight favorite. This is a drastic example so let's move on.

In a multi-way pot there are often times when you believe that you're ahead and you still can't call. Not only is there a chance that you're behind, but you think you'll get called by big draws if you raise. Here is a real hand I played last night...

I have Kc Jc and limp after 2 others on the button. The blinds and the 3 of us limpers see the flop...J96 (2 spades). The SB whom is a habitual semi-bluffer/(thinks he's tricky) player leads out for about 75% of the pot. I'm not too worried about him because I think he is the type that would check-raise big if he two pair or better (bad play btw). If it were heads-up, I'd probably raise trying to take away his odds and/or find out where I'm at. The problem was that he got called in 2 places before it got around to me. Now I have a choice. I can raise big or fold. I believe that this situation is a bad place for a call. Because I believe that the SB could very likely have a drawing hand and I think the two callers are also drawing (this board is too coordinated to slowplay something), I'm likely to get called on a flop raise. Also, because of the way this hand has played out so far, it is difficult to put an opponent on any rational hand range. The worst part about this hand is that I don’t know what turn card I want to see except maybe another jack or a non-spade deuce/trey/four.

This is a hand that I'm either barely ahead or way behind already. Either way, I may get more than one caller for my raise at which point I'll be put into a difficult situation on later streets if I'm called and a semi-scare card appears. The board is so coordinated that I'll most likely not know where I stand for the rest of the hand. The turn/river is where the money is made or lost with big stacks and I'll have to guess if I'm ahead or not. I can fold and save myself heartache and if I'm losing any EV, it isn't much.

So if you're put into a situation where you're either barely ahead or way behind, it is any easy fold. There is no need to play thin edges unless you're in a game where you think you're the worst player at the table and need every possible edge you can get.

Why Can't I Win Money From Online Poker?

Why can’t I win money at online poker? Where am I going wrong? What do I need to do to improve my poker game?

I don’t know. Those are some pretty vague questions right there. Maybe if you sent me some stats, graphs and a few hand histories then I might be able to do something. Then again, this isn’t really much of a dialogue, so that’s not going to work either.

However, what I can do is give you a bunch of reasons as to why you can’t win money from online poker and ideas for what you could do to improve. How does, say, a nice, round 26 reasons sound?

Reasons why you lose money playing online poker.

You’ve played 1,000 hands. Ever heard of variance? Don’t draw any conclusions until you hit at least 10,000 hands, and even then you can’t really rely on the results from that sample size. Just play lots of hands before you resign yourself to the losers’ corner.

You don’t use bankroll management. If you don’t use BR management, you’re never going to be able to consistently win money from poker. And no, I’m not just saying that to scare you.

You play too many hands. Sure, all hands in poker have a chance of winning, but then I also have a chance of having a threesome. Just because an event can happen it doesn’t mean that you should put your money behind it. The odds aren’t always going to be in your favour.

You undervalue position. How many articles and tips is it going to take before you start to understand that position is actually way more important than you think it is? Have you not noticed how much easier it is to play from the button than it is UTG?

You make minraises before and after the flop. Why? Raise 3BB + 1BB for each limper preflop and bet at least 2/3rds of the pot postflop and you’ll do much better for yourself. See bet sizing for more details.
You multi-table too many tables. Yeah sure, all the cool kids are multi-tabling but that doesn’t mean you have to too. Take you time and play within your comfort zone. I’m sure that if I had a Ferrari as my first car I would have crashed it. Thank God that I was broke and had to settle for a washing machine with wheels.
You chase draws too much. Blindly chasing after any and every flush and straight draw isn’t going to pay off. Pot odds will sort you out.

You make crying calls. It’s nice to be able to see your opponent’s hand at the end, but if it’s costing you money then it’s not really all that nice at all. Learn to be content with your decision and fold if you think you’re behind.

You blame the poker room and not yourself. PokerStars is rigged!!11!! - of course. It couldn’t possibly that you have leaks in your game could it. Winning players look inward not outward when they are losing.
You haven’t read any poker books. Even in this high-tech world of training videos, interactive seminars and snowboarding, there is still room for the good old-fashioned poker books. The better ones are still incredibly helpful, so don't overlook them.

You chase after stats. You are 28/16/2 and apparently you need to play 22/18/3 to be a winning poker player at 6max NLHE, so you force yourself to play less hands and raise more. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works. Focus on playing good poker and the stats will take care of themselves.

You play whilst on tilt. Yes, that’s right. Shoving all-in with 63 offsuit UTG is by far the most effective way to get your money back after that bad beat.

You make fancy plays against micro stakes players. Floating the flop and check raising the turn isn’t going to go down too well if the guy on the other side of the screen is dribbling, scratching his balls and randomly clicking buttons. Keep it simple. Bet your good hands and check/fold your bad hands.

You don’t value bet big enough. Seriously, crank your value bets up and your winrate will skyrocket. Why bet $20 in to a $100 pot when you can get called by a $100 bet? Bigger value bets = bigger wins.
You don’t value bet at all. Even worse! If you have a good hand, get some money for it. Don’t be afraid to lose 1 time out of 10 or whatever. Not value betting is like never crossing the road because you’re always afraid of getting run over.

You call raises with weak hands and then fold to further action. If you don’t have a plan for later on in the hand you’re no better than a monkey clicking buttons. You should always have a plan of action for later streets. Fold on that turn if you don’t know what you’re going to do on the river.

You don’t continuation bet. Continuation bets can pick up loads o’ little pots. Adding the cbet to your game is an instant winrate booster.

You continuation bet too much. Easy now tiger, cbets are good and all but not necessarily 100% of the time. On some flops you’re much better off checking. See this video on continuation betting for a quick quite on when and when not to cbet.

You don’t double barrel. This is often because you just cbet too much. If you’re not prepared to double barrel then hold back on those cbets.

You double barrel too much. Just because your continuation bet got called it doesn’t mean you need to go ahead and throw the kitchen sink at your opponent to get them off the hand. Pick your spots.

You triple barrel too much. I think this is going to be the biggest bankroll rapist. Poor triple barrels are going to ravage your bankroll until it’s a quivering mess.

You don’t 3bet enough. If you’re not 3betting your AKs and AQs against loose raises you are missing out on easy money. Put money in the middle with strong hands.

You call too many 3bets. If you raise and get 3bet by a tight player, what sort of hands do you think your AJo is beating?

You don’t get rakeback. This isn’t going to fix the root of the problem, but if you’re a break even or marginal losing player then rakeback can turn you in to a winning player overnight.

You play when you’re tired or drunk. As a rule of thumb, if it's not legal for you to drive, then you shouldn’t play poker either. As sad as it is to say this, think of poker as a sport. You need to be in good condition, otherwise your results will suffer.

You have a “lucky” hand. No, J3o isn’t lucky and it’s not going to win you any money.
Any of those help you out?

Use these tips and try at www.pokerit.eu

Betting the Right Amount

The size of your bets in no-limit poker is a critical aspect of your strategy. When to bet and how much to bet depends on your goal in the hand. Consider the situation including your hand, the board, your opponent’s hand, how the hand has been played so far, your opponent’s playing style, the size of the pot, and then bet with a specific purpose in mind.

Whether you have a great hand, you are bluffing, or you are trying to get information about your opponent’s hand, your bet should have a purpose.

NOTE: This section is intended to help you in cash games. Tournament betting strategy is drastically different because the stack sizes are often smaller than cash game stack sizes. The ultimate goal of tournaments is to survive, but the goal in cash games is to make money over the long run.

Preflop Betting

The goal of playing no-limit cash games is to win the big pots. You should always be looking for an opportunity to win a big pot instead of putting chips at risk trying to win small pots like stealing the blinds. In cash games with deep stacks (a lot of chips relative to the size of the blinds), stealing the blinds will only account for a small profit if you are successful. More importantly, stealing too much can get you into trouble if you get caught a few times. Tournament players become accustomed to stealing blinds in order to “chip up” (slowly accumulate chips) and stay ahead of the increasing blinds. In cash games, the blinds will never be raised and the amount of chips you have relative to the size of the blinds allows you to play a more conservative game preflop and wait for opportunities to win big pots.

Raising

When you raise in no-limit games, keep the bet sizes consistent so you don’t give away the strength of your hand by how much you bet. The size of your bets should be based on the number of hands you are going to play and your skill level compared to the other players at the table. Determine a range of hands that you will be comfortable playing preflop. If you think you are a superior player and play well with a loose table image, you can play a lot of hands and be profitable. Otherwise, a tight-aggressive style of play will be to your advantage, which means playing fewer hands.

If your starting hand range is large, set your standard preflop raise to about 2.5 times the big blind. If the range of hands you’re going to play is small, set your standard preflop raise to about 4.5 times the big blind. The more hands you play, the smaller amount you should raise so you're not losing much when you're up against a bigger hand, which will be more often. Making smaller raises will also get you more action from mediocre hands as well and if you are a superior player, you should win more over the long run.

If you're new to no-limit games or prefer a tighter table image, consider using the bigger standard raising amount and play fewer hands preflop than in limit. Start with strong hands and force your opponents to pay a steep price to outdraw.

The reason that you should make the same size raise with every hand that you're willing to play is to avoid giving away the strength of your hand. There are a couple adjustments you can make to get the most value from your hands:

-Adding any limper money already in the pot to the size of your raise will give your opponents worse pot odds to make a call. If your standard raise is three times the big blind, and there are 2 limpers, make your bet five times the big blind.

-The worse your position will be after the flop, the more you may want to add to your bet. When you are in early position, you may want to add a big blind or two to your standard bet in order to get fewer callers with better position. Position is crucial in a hand so you don’t want allow players in the hand cheaply with a positional advantage on you.

The key is that you should only change the amount of your raise based on hand conditions such as position, the number of players that have already called and the types of opponents at the table. Do not change the amount you raise based on the quality of your cards.

9 Tips for Low Level Cash Games

1) Internet poker affords players the opportunity to play for real money at stakes far lower than are generally available in traditional casinos. At the very low end are Omaha and Hold’em games with $0.02/$0.04 betting structures, while the upper end of low-limit is generally considered to be a $4/$4 structure. This can be both a boon and a bane. 

On the one hand, it gives you the chance as a beginner to gradually hone your knowledge and strategy and then advance to ever so slightly higher limits when your progress merits doing so. On the other hand, you must be very careful to not think that because the stakes in your beginning games are so low, the money doesn’t matter so much and therefore you don’t need to be sharp about your game and improving it.

2) Be especially careful not to equate low-limit internet poker with poker games you might play for fun with friends and family. Understand that, even though the majority of low-limit internet players will be beginners, some percentage will be A) experienced players looking to either try out a new strategy about which they have either thought or read about and B) Much better players looking to earn their buy-in money for higher limit tables from less experienced players.

3) While it’s true that when you’re up against those beginners who don’t take low-limit stakes seriously you’ll be able to earn money off them with relative ease, that action is not honing your skills for higher-stakes games. To the extent possible you should seek out internet tables where your opponents are very serious about the game, despite the low stakes. With so many players on each poker site, it could be months before you face the same player again. But you have a recourse— namely, taking notes on your opponents. On most sites, if you right click on an opponent you are given an option to take notes on his/her play style. By all means, do take such notes. Develop a personal poker shorthand (for example, LC can stand for “Loose Cannon.”) Then in the future, when you recognize a player, you can consult your notes and therefore be that much further ahead.

4) Inexperienced players have a tendency to play too many starting hands. The temptation to see the flop, for them, is overwhelming. Understand that you can learn as much from staying out of a hand and observing how the others play as you can from staying in. Do not play garbage hole cards. Instead, fold them, and then pay attention to how the remaining players place their bets, how long they take to act, and all the other signs that will give you an advantage when you are playing against them with hole cards statistically favored to win.

5) A special warning is in order for when you are playing low stakes no-limit games. Televised poker is almost always of the no-limit variety and therefore many ill-advised beginners itch to get in on that specific kind of action. Because the internet makes so readily available the playing of low stakes no-limit games, many people heedlessly go “all in” (when all-in is twenty cents) in situations where no player with one brain cell to rub against another would. You must exercise extreme caution against getting caught up in the foolishness, because if you develop bad habits for no-limit play then you will never successfully advance to higher stakes, no-limit games.

6) For the same reasons that many on-line players will go all-in unjustifiably, they will also call unjustifiably in low-limit games. Don’t get sucked into the cycle. When one or more opponents are calling stations and you don’t have a hand that justifies your calling and/or raising, throw that hand right into the muck.

7) Beginners must be aware of the enormous difference between a $0.05/$0.10 poker game and a $25/$50 one. Some people spend a month or two winning overall in the low-limit games and then erroneously presume that they can successfully make a quantum leap to much higher stakes games without going through the necessary intermediary steps as part of their learning curve. It is wise to spend between 20 and 40 hours playing at each stakes level before progressing to the next higher level. If after less time you feel you are seriously outmatching all of your opponents at a given level, you can consider going up, but do so with due caution.

The importance of supplementing your practice with reading and studying about poker can not be overemphasized. If you find yourself doing poorly at on-line tables, give it a break for a little while, and in that time, study. Our era of poker enjoys a plethora of well-written books, magazines, and on-line tips about the game.

9) In sum, do not let out of your mind for one second the idea that you as a beginner should use low stakes internet poker games as learning tools to advance your skills, prepping you for eventual big wins in higher stakes games.

10 Steps to Improve your Game

Every poker player who has read any book or magazine article about poker knows that thinking is a large part of the game. Unfortunately, many well intentioned players don’t know how to think about poker. They know there are many important decisions that will affect whether they will win, but they often don’t know how to get started. This overwhelms them and causes them to retreat to just playing based on their intuition – often an unprofitable result.

For those of you who have found yourself in this sort of quandary, let me start you off in the right direction. This is not meant to be an exhaustive study – but just the bare bones necessary to focus your attention on the beginning steps.

Learn the following in this order to improve your game:

1. Good starting hands.

Poker literature is full of them. Go to the bookstore or the library and look through the poker books to find the good starting hands for the limit or no limit hold ‘em game you’re playing. Experts may differ on the bottom of the list, but they are in full agreement of the very best hands. Learn them..

2. Position

Understand how position affects what hands you play and how you play your hand. You don’t have to know, with complete certainty, every single hand you are willing to play from every position. But you should develop a general understanding of how some hands are better from some positions than they are from other positions. Use this to determine how and whether to play your hand.

3. Discipline

Learn to throw away bad hands. Simple as that. Once you apply your knowledge of good starting hands with your understanding of position, you need to get away from those unprofitable hands.

4. Aggression

Learn to raise and re-raise with high quality hands. In no limit learn to bet many multiples of the big blind when the situation calls for it..

5. Evaluate the flop turn and river for yourself.

Ask yourself if the board helped you, and if so how? Learn to understand how the flop, turn and river helped you. You need to understand, quickly, how it improved your hand by either making a hand immediately or giving you powerful draws.

6. Evaluate how the board helped your opponents.

Your hand doesn’t improve in a vacuum. The board applies to everyone else who is still left in the hand. How was it likely to have helped or hurt them?

7. What does my opponent(s) probably have?

Where do you stand relative to the other players? This is often tough to evaluate, requiring as it does that you put a lot of information together. But you need to put your opponent on at least a range of hands. Use their betting habits, your rudimentary categorization of them into a general category of player, and a basic understanding of simple tells to help you. And make sure to think about your hand relative to what you think they are likely to have.

8. What are the odds that I and my opponents will improve and what are we likely to improve to?

You need to learn and understand the basic odds for improving hands on the flop. If you have four of a suit on the flop, for example, what are the odds you’ll make that flush? Similarly with two pair, with a pair, etc. Know these. They’re easy to learn; and you must learn them. This will give you a basic understanding of how likely it is that you will win the hand if you and your opponent stay until the end.

9. What do I want my opponent to do?

Sometimes you want to induce your opponent to fold. Sometimes you want a call. Sometimes you want a call of a large bet or a fold. You need to figure this out based on what you think your opponent is likely to have, what you have, the odds that your opponent is likely to improve to a better hand than yours, and the odds that you are getting.

10. How much should I bet?

What size bet will accomplish what you want? Once you’ve determined the range of hands your opponent is likely to have you need to think about what you want to do about it. If you think you are behind and likely to stay behind until the end of the hand, with your opponent either betting or calling, then you need to check and fold to a bet. If, on the other hand, you determine that you are either ahead or can convince your opponent to fold then you need to think about what size bet will accomplish what you want.