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Expected value in poker is commonly referred to as Expectation or EV. The term expected value had originated from the world of probability mathematics. It basically means a given scenario’s average outcome over the long run.

How to calculate expected value?

In order to do that, every possible outcome has to be considered. Each of these outcomes has to be multiplied by the probability of the outcome taking place. Then all these numbers have to be added together. The whole thing sounds really confusing, so let me use an example to make it clearer.

Suppose you possess a randomized and very ordinary six sided die. And after rolling the die, you want to calculate the expected value by applying the theory given above. The results are given below. (I assume you are aware of the concept of probability)

If you roll a 6, the probability will be 1/6.
If you roll a 5, the probability will be 1/6.
If you roll a 4, the probability will be 1/6.
If you roll a 3, the probability will be 1/6.
If you roll a 2, the probability will be 1/6.
If you roll a 1, the probability will be 1/6.

Now you have to multiply these values by their respective probabilities. The results are as follows.

1 x 1/6 = 1/6
2 x 1/6 = 2/6
3 x 1/6 = 3/6
4 x 1/6 = 4/6
5 x 1/6 = 5/6
6 x 1/6 = 6/6

Now you have to add all these together and the result will be as follows.

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

Therefore, as you can see, 3.5 is the expected value of that randomized die. Suppose, the casino guys had weighted the die. This means that the chances of any one value showing up aren’t the same as in the previous case of a neutral die. Let’s assume that the casino guys have weighted it such that at least half the times, the number 6 will show up. For the other attempts, the remaining 5 values can show up randomly with equal probability. That means, the probability of 6 showing up is ½ and the probability of each of the remaining values showing up is 1/10. The result will be as follows.

1 x 1/10 = 1/10
2 x 1/10 = 2/10
3 x 1/10 = 3/10
4 x 1/10 = 4/10
5 x 1/10 = 5/10
6 x ½ = 3

When you add all these up, the resultant sum equals 4.5. I hope now you can understand the reason behind other numbers having only a 10% chance of showing up.

Expected Value in Poker

So far, I was discussing the dice. Let us now move on to cards, as in poker.

The poker strategies that you normally witness are of two types – psychological (since poker is a mental game) and non psychological (since poker is also based on mathematics). Most of the non psychological poker strategies have their roots based in expected value. Suppose you are in a game where nobody has raised the pot and you are limping along with the help of very medium pairs.

Many of your opponents are also limping like you. There may be a positive expected value in a game like this. And in the world of poker, the biggest dilemma from a mathematical point of view, is to take the decision that yields the highest expected value. At times, the EV turns out to be negative. However, it is far less negative compared to other courses of action.

Let me now describe a very common scenario to explain the relationship between poker and expected value. Suppose you are in a game of Texas Hold’em. Your position is heads up on the river. The cards you are holding are J and A of hearts. The display on the score board is A 10 5 8 3.

Your position is first. $10 is the big bet. $100 is the worth of the pot. The question is, should you bet in this situation?

For the sake of the argument, let us suppose any two cards could be held by your opponent and if he doesn’t possess a club, chances are that he will fold, always. And let us also suppose that he will use his club to call a bet. He may also move on to two bets if the cards on him are Q or K. If you check in this situation, your opponent will check without the clubs or bet with the help of any club.

Now comes the mathematics part. We know that he is holding any two cards. Therefore, it is extremely likely that he might be holding each of those individual clubs. Let us also suppose that he is not holding both sets of clubs; because if he did, he would most probably raise the turn with them.

In the first scenario, you ought to bet. And if he calls your bet, the hand on him will be an inferior one. We can tell this for sure, because if he had a better hand, he would’ve placed a bet earlier. Your opponent can call with possibly 6 different kinds of clubs. Therefore, you stand the opportunity of winning some extra $10 at least six times. The total number of clubs available is eight. So he would probably call six out of eight times.

$10 x 6/8 = $ 7.5

You possess a worse hand now and he has raised. You will lose $10.

Negative $10 x 2/8 = Negative $2.5

The expected value of betting in this case is as follows.

$7.5 + Negative 2.5 = $5

That’s not so bad!

You might wonder whether all these calculations are real or not and if it is possible to apply these calculations. To tell the truth, correct or strategically sound poker is played by poker pros based on exactly these types of calculations. It is the expected value that determines plays like calling with decent hands in the absence of strong hands; bluffing; check raising, etc.

Conclusion

Judging by the calculations, you’ve probably realized that it is not really easy to sit there at the poker table and calculate all the exact values. There are only a handful of people who can do this effectively. But this expected value dictates all the sound strategies which poker pros apply in their games. Your job is to analyze and review your own decisions, dissect a specific hand and then ponder on how you can or could have won more. You do that for enough number of games and do it all the time, eventually it will get easier.

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Position is everything in poker. Position is akin to having possession of the ball with 20 seconds left in a tie basketball game: You have the opportunity to win, and to do so, you must be aggressive. If you’re passive and don’t take attack the basket, you’ll likely run out of time or wind up taking a well-defended outside shot. In poker, if you don’t take the opportunity to bet and raise when you have position, you’re losing out on golden opportunities. Try observing any poker pro on TV. When they have position, they tend to attack, even if they know they have the worst hand.

The value of table position is not only defined by absolute position, but relative position as well. Relative position is your position in relation to the pre-flop raiser, and it can often be more effective than have absolute position. When we take into consideration relative position, we must reassess the strength of our position and, of course, our hand.

Say you are on the button. Player A calls from the big blind. The player to the immediate right of you (in the cutoff), Player B, makes a raise. Here is a situation where, although you were are last to act initially, Player A is the one who closes off the betting. In this case, it’s actually better to be to the right of the pre-flop raiser. Why is this?

Sandwiched between players

Going with the aforementioned example, let’s say you are dealt K-J. The player in the cutoff, Player B, makes a raise and both you and Player A call. The flop comes J-9-5. You have top pair with the second best kicker. But here is the, ahem, kicker.

Nowadays, it’s safe to assume that the pre-flop raiser is going to make a continuation bet the majority of the time (depending on the stakes you play). Since the other players expect this move, it’s common to check to the pre-flop raiser. Player A does just that. Player B indeed makes a continuation bet.

Now, the power of being the last to act lies in the ability to see all of your opponent’s decisions beforehand, and then make a bet according to their perceived strength and hand range. However, you are no longer last to act in this instance. Player A will act last (assuming he does not re-raise). Player A was likely to check no matter what, so it’s difficult to put him on a range of hands. Unless he is certain that he has the best hand, he probably won’t lead out.

Essentially, you are sandwiched, or trapped, between two players who are tough to put on a range of hands because their fairly common moves did not indicate how strong or weak they were.

It’s possible that Player B holds a hand like A-J, a mid-range pocket pair or maybe even an overpair. It’s also quite possible that he is bluffing with a hand like K-Q. To add to our dilemma, we are unaware of Player A’s next move. He could be preparing to make a re-raise, whereby we would have to seriously consider a fold.

Professional No-Limit Hold ‘em example

Ed Miller, author of NotedPokerAuthority.com and multiple books, including Professional No-Limit Hold ‘em: Volume 1, brings this example to the table: A maniac has been going all in every hand at 9-handed, $1/$2 cash game table. He has $270, and you sit down for the max of $100. You decide you will call him with sixes or better, or A-10 or better. Two seats open up at the table, one to the immediate right of this maniac, and one to the immediate left. Which seat do you take? Ed writes:


Consider your worst all-in hand, ace-ten offsuit. If you sit to this person’s immediate left and call all-in, any of the other players could play as well. If one of them has AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AK, AQ, or AJ, you take the worst of it. However, if you sit to the immediate right of the slider, you see what everyone else does before you commit. You can limp with ace-ten offsuit, then get all-in if no one else calls him. If instead someone plays, you can fold.

With relative position, you will often get to check to the likely bettor, then see how every other opponent reacts before committing your chips. That is why, contrary to conventional wisdom, it can sometimes be better to be on the right of a very aggressive player. Most of the time, however, absolute position is more important than relative position.

While it’s a contrived and unlikely example, Ed uses this point to illustrate how relative position can be more important than absolute position. On the other hand, unless you’re in late position, like the cutoff, you can run into plenty of problems by checking and seeing how everyone else bets. What if you have Q-Q and you check and let the blinds limp in. The flop comes 9-9-4. The BB goes all in for $100. What do you do now? How does a check-raise make you more money if you know this player is going to go all in regardless of what you do? By check-raising you’re inviting more players into the hand, who, especially if they have a small stack, might just be tagging along for the pot odds.

Also, don’t think this kind of maniacal play doesn’t happen, although I’ve only seen it a handful of times. If you’re patient, the money will come to you.

Conclusion

When considering relative position, it is better to be to the immediate right of the pre-flop raiser than it is to be to the immediate left. Against good players, you should expect a continuation bet most of the time; thus, you will be last to act. You don’t want to be to the immediate left of the pre-flop raiser. Here you will be first to act when the raiser makes a continuation bet, and it’s difficult to gauge the strength of the other player(s) in the hand who checked before the raiser.

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You have heard a lot about poker and its popularity. You regularly watch various famous poker tournaments on TV. You have also read up a few bestselling books on poker, and you brush up your knowledge regularly by browsing through the “poker tips” sites. You took it up with a lot of enthusiasm; yet you lose… endlessly!

After endless rounds of losses, you are now deeply frustrated.

Hold on before you lose hope. This is a very familiar picture, and there are plenty of things you can do to improve your game.
Poker is not a very easy game, it is certainly not child’s play and plenty of people suck at poker, like you.

Why do people lose?

The very first thing you need to do to stop your poker losses is to change yourself. Unless you change yourself from what you are now into what you want yourself to be six months from now, you won’t improve your game.

However, before we move on to that, let us look into some of the commonest reasons behind losing at poker.

• You don’t know how to play it right! People give a whole bunch of reasons such as bad luck, opponents cheating, rigged games, or even blame the dealer for their misfortune where in reality, the biggest reason for their loss is that they don’t really know how to play well in a number of situations.
• When a player is wealthy and does not have to worry about money matters, he may not care much about losing
  Professional, successful poker players are extremely disciplined. When this discipline is missing from a player’s life, he starts losing at poker as he does not follow any plans.
• Sometimes, emotional fools lose a lot at poker. When a player’s actions are dictated by his emotions, instead of by reason, he is bound to lose.
• There are many players who have taken up poker to infuse some action into their otherwise boring lives; they play poker as it affords so much excitement and fun. These people also don’t care much about losing.
• Distraction is the next big cause I wish to highlight. When you are doing other stuff while playing poker, your concentration is divided and you commit mistakes which make you lose. This is especially a problem when playing online in the comfort of your home.
• However, I feel the number one cause behind losing at poker is alcohol. How can you expect to win a game of reason and wits when your senses are totally blurred by alcohol and you are inebriated?

It is possible to rectify all of these problems except wealth. Stinking rich fellows hardly ever become winning poker players because they never feel the sting while losing money. Rumor has it that Guy Laliberte – a billionaire – has lost close to $18 million till 2008, but has it changed anything about his lifestyle? Heck, people in his position might even see losing a few millions at poker as a boost to their glamor quotient.

How to minimize poker losses and stop being a loser?

Following are some ways in which you can minimize your poker losses and stop being a loser.

Using poker tracking software (e.g. Hold’em Manager) can help you plug your losses as these applications highlight the potential leaks which make your game suffer. They also allow you to review your statistics and monitor them. If you choose to study optimal play, you will be able to bring about the required adaptations to your poker game.

Most poker gurus will advise consistent losers to play ABC poker – the tight aggressive style of poker. When you are playing tight, you become extremely selective about the hands you choose to play. The aggressive style demands you to raise or bet rather than call. You will find a summary of this style through the VPIP/PFR/AG statistics.

Poker leaks are the culprits behind many poker losses. You should educate yourself about the top and most common poker leaks. You will find a lot of good websites on this topic on the Internet. Your next task is to make sure that these leaks don’t occur in your case. If your game is free of leaks, you will stop losing money at poker.

When a player calls too much and too frequently, he stands to lose money at poker. Your VPIP should be between 20% and 10% if you are playing full ring no limit Texas Hold’em cash games. However, when the VPIP reaches 50%, you will no longer be able to profit. To succeed in this case, you need to start out with stronger starting hands in a stringent manner.

The biggest reason behind poker losses is tilt. If you are on a long losing streak, you should continuously remind yourself that tilt is your nemesis and you should stay away from it.

When you are playing Texas Hold’em poker, your big blind should be 1/3000 or 1/5000th part of your bankroll. Suppose you possess $5k. Your playing limit should be 50 cents/$1 NLHE. If you play $1/$2, you will be risking your whole bankroll.

When you play within limits and still lose, you have the option of moving down to a lower limit. This way you can again reduce your losses. And if you succeed at the lower limit, you have the option of moving up to the full limit again. The key to minimizing poker losses is to learn how to move up and down with the synchronized increase and decrease in your poker bankroll.

That brings us to the topic of bankroll management. The most basic thing here is to add only that part of your money to your bankroll, which you will not use for anything else other than poker. This exclusivity helps you keep your personal life and finances completely free from the rise and falls of your professional poker career. The next thing to do is to ensure that you play within the bankroll limits. It also means ensuring you’re able to play enough number of games by choosing the right bet sizes.

Conclusion

I hate to tell you, but there isn’t any magic pill that will make you a winner. Reading up and being enthusiastic about poker are great things, but they don’t make successful careers on their own. Implement everything your learn and refine your strategy. Learn to read others as well as they are able to read you. Play a lot but keep within your means. Eventually, you’ll stop losing.

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Now we are all scared of playing against poker maniacs – you know the types with a VPIP/PFR/AG statistics of 80/30/3.5 or something like that! The type everybody avoids so much because of his preference for big bets. The type who makes the pot reach 40 big blinds by the river whenever he plays a hand with someone. The type who commits himself to the whole stack while playing hands.

It doesn’t matter if he has good cards on him or crappy ones, a maniac will always raise or bet and bluff his way out. You have no other choice but to call his bets till the river to find out what he is exactly up to. And this is not all. You might be doing everything in your capacity to contain him, but suddenly you realize that his cards really are good and what you thought of a lull in his fortune was just his way of baiting you in so he could get you to put more of your money into the pot.

So how do you hold your own something like this, and most importantly, how do you figure out whether such an opponent has a good hand or a bad one at any given point – especially when playing online?

To play or not to play

Before getting into the psyche of a maniac player, you first have to identify such a player by watching the styles of all your opponents. I personally feel you should take the help of poker edge as it shows you the statistics of all the players, including those with whom you haven’t yet played.

Trust me, there will be many times when you’d just want to avoid the hassle and leave the table. There are plenty of tables where you can play your safe game and make small, incremental wins over the hours. Bigger websites such as PokerStars allow you to do this, as they have so many tables. And this is a pretty safe strategy because maniacs usually don’t play at many tables. Besides, maniac poker players are pretty rare. So if you move out, you may not meet someone like him again.

The other strategy is to cling to the table, deal with the increasing variance silently and then turn the table on this maniac by exploiting him. However, it is the path taken by top poker pros who possess a lot of skill and experience beneath their belts. If you are skilled yourself, you can sit beside the maniac and silently control the betting. Or you should try to sustain his aggression by tightening yourself up.

How to beat such maniacs?

Your job is to tolerate and withstand his huge swings. In the meantime, examine and study his betting styles. Maniac poker players might be, well maniacs, but they don’t like to commit poker suicide. Therefore, at times, this maniac will fold his hands. Maniacs usually aren’t skilled poker players. Their skills are spent on wild bluffing and playing weak hands like a champion.

But they can’t really play their strong hands that well. Their bet sizes always vary for monster hands and for bluffs. Maniacs usually place abnormally large bets. But if you are a careful observer, you will be able to detect patterns. Maniacs have a tendency to place larger bets if they possess stronger hands. This pattern becomes ubiquitous during raising preflop.

However, if you take into account the long term picture, you will find that poker maniacs usually turn out to be heavy losers. And if you master the art of handling these maniacs properly, you will gain a lot of money from them. These poker maniacs have huge egos and playing poker is a way of dominating the rest of the players at the table. Their playing style is extremely loose. It doesn’t matter if the odds are very poor. They will still choose to call large bets.

What to expect while playing against these maniacs?

Firstly, expect huge, super large pots (not seen in normal situations) even if the hands are standard.

Secondly, you have to observe this maniac player and make necessary notes.

Watching them play an orbit or two will give you a fairly good idea about their idiosyncrasies and how they get involved with all the hands they play.

How to react while playing against a maniac?

As mentioned before, maniacs tend to lose over the long run; they are LAG, and therefore, losing players. It is your job to beat the pulp out of such a player by allowing him to dig his own grave. Allow him to do all the calling and betting using your good hands till the river stage. If your hand is super strong, you can deal with him any way you want. Otherwise, you should call, as raising maniacs are dangerous creatures.

When playing against a maniac, you might be better off shifting your entire focus on his style rather than observing the others around you for a while. If there’s a pattern to his gameplay – there usually is even in the middle of all the madness he might bring along – you should be able to observe it sooner rather than later.

You have to realize that all the large bets are different, just as all the maniac players are different and unique in their own strange ways. All you have to do is to distinguish their bet sizes from their hand strengths. You will also have to observe the way these players deal with their big hands. A maniac will tone down his aggression if he has a really good hand so that he might get paid off. On the other hand, another maniac might force his opponents to fold by making larger bets with wild bluffs. However, because each maniac is unique and different, this is not a blanket rule and you need to find out the particular hidden playing style of your opponent.

Conclusion

Play against a maniac only if you are a braveheart who is not prone to tilting, and if you are able to deal with his wild swings. Otherwise, it is better to seek out greener pastures at other tables.

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When you buy in for the minimum amount, it is referred to as short stacking. In PokerStars, this amounts to 20 big blinds. Therefore, if you are playing in a no limits 100 Hold’em cash game, 100 big blinds will be the maximum buy in, i.e. $100; $60 will be the average stack; and the short stacks will have $20.

Short stackers can be of two types: the first types are the beginners or novices whose aim is to reduce their risks and learn the ropes of the game. Beginners are always advised to buy in for the minimum at first. Only after that should they try to adapt themselves to the innumerable poker traps they may encounter.

The second type of short stackers is very systematic and they come armed with various skills. They are pretty robotic as players. Today’s article is dedicated to these advanced short stackers and how you should handle or play against these types.

Getting into the Inner Psyche of Short Stackers

Short stackers play like human robots — monotonously and systematically — without applying brains. In most cases pushing all in preflop or playing a fold is their preferred strategy. These types rarely ever check and prefer to bet or fold the whole of their stack.

Usually they don’t call a bet at all. That means the burden of taking tough decisions is passed on to your shoulders, and the game’s strategic aspect is largely eliminated for them.

Short stacking players are looked upon as extremely annoying in online poker circles. Let me explain why: suppose a short stacker goes in for an additional 16 big blinds and raises a player all in, and the latter has either raised or has been limping with four big blinds preflop before our short stacker. In such a situation, this latter player will feel forced to get into a big gamble or forego his bet. Obviously, he will not choose to go all in unless he has a really strong hand.

Thus, short stackers often create high reward vs. high risk situations for other opponents. And these precarious situations often transform into coin flipping scenarios for 20 big blinds. Normal players, however, choose the standard style of playing affordable flops before committing so many chips, as that is safer. That’s one more reason why short stackers are perceived as so annoying.

Another reason why short stackers are universally disliked is that they use the minimum amount to buy in and the moment they double their money, they choose to leave the table. This basically means, after winning an all in bet, short stackers take to their heels. And the opponent playing against him never gets another chance to reclaim his money back!

You can never really win huge amounts of money from a short stacker; after all, their “all in” amount too is just the minimum buy in. By the same virtue, they can’t put a dent in the chip stack of a deep stacker either, however, many players still aren’t comfortable handling such players.

If you were to ever come against such a player, here are a few tips that might come in handy.

How to Play Against Short Stackers?

Short stackers sometimes use a bit of variation in their strategy. So they either aim for pushing all in at the flop or they choose to call or raise preflop. Their strange strategies often turn out to be winners. Do you know why? Because short stackers use fold equity as their source of profits. On top of that, careful players who don’t wish to gamble away 20 big blinds also tend to fold a bit too much.

However, folding may not always be the right option. You see, short stackers don’t always calculate their chances well. Just like maniacs (maniac poker players, not the really mentally retarded ones), each short stacker too is different and unique and possesses different ranges.

Therefore, you should always take the help of VPIP/PFR statistics to determine your opponent’s range. When VPIP/PFR = 6/6, {AJ +, TT+} (VPIP = 5.88%) will be the likely range. {AT +, 88 +} is the likely range when 8/8 is the VPIP/PFR.

Usually a reference all in range {AJ +, TT +} is used by a skilled short stacker to pull his VPIP/PFR up to 7% or 8%. In doing so, the short stacker will also try to add flexibility to the reference all-in range. He will also try to loosen himself up when the opportunity is ripe.

Suppose you are in a situation where you raise four big blinds at preflop. The short stacker on the other hand 3 bets you all in. It is assumed that the pot contains 25.5 big blinds, the hand does not involve any other player, and you have to call 16 big blinds. In this situation, you can use any hand that has a 38.55% equity or greater to call. Also, let’s assume {AJ +, TT+} is the short stacker’s all in range.

You can use PokerStove to find out that {AQ +, 22 +} is the range to which all these hands correspond (when their equity 38.5% vs. all in range). If this short stacker has a loose shoving range, for e.g. {AT +, 88+}, {AJ +, 33 +} will be his calling range. A tighter range of {AQ +, JJ +} will boast of a calling range of {AK +, 55 +}. You should ideally call with top aces or pocket pairs but discard the extremely low ones.

So you see, short stackers may be annoying, but there is a systematic way of handling their game, and even beating them when your cards permit it.

Conclusion

While understanding and figuring out each and every opponent is a major challenge, it is also one of the most interesting aspects of professional poker. If you enjoy this process and know how to learn from your mistakes, this world is for you. I hope this article helped you a bit further in your quest for poker success. Until next time, ciao!

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After learning up the basics of poker, it is time to move on to more complex concepts. Today, we will discuss hand ranges and how to determine them.

What is a hand range?

Players who are strong and commendable have a tendency to play a few specific cards/hands before the flop, which is referred to as hand range. A player might not be conscious about his range, but all players, whether they realize it or not, have a hand range. Some players choose to go by their instincts/intuition while selecting their playing cards; others prefer to follow charts on starting hands.

Put in simple words, either your opponent or you could be holding a set of possible hands before the flop to initiate a specific action. This is called hand range, and it includes all possible hands that can be held by someone. Here’s an example:

If you type out a hand range, it may look like the following. R = {JTs, KQo, KTs +, ATo +, A2s +, 22 +}. Now for their respective meanings. JTs refers to JT suited. KQo means KQ off suit. KTs + refers to suited KQ, KJ, KT. Off suit aces from AT to AK are represented by ATo +. A2s represents suited aces from A2 to AK. 22 + means pocket pairs from 22 to AA.

Hand ranges are usually defined according to a number of other factors in addition to the type of cards one might hold. For example:

• The tilt factor of a player
• The earlier bets of a player in a particular hand
• The HUD stats of a player (aggression, VPIP etc etc)
• The position of a player
• How the player behaved or dealt with his cards in a past hand that is identical to the hand taking place at this moment

Therefore, if you can analyze properly and carefully on the basis of the factors mentioned above, it is possible to accurately guess an opponent’s hand range 99% of the times. However, you need to remember that even if one parameter’s value is altered, the whole range will change significantly.

Why are hand ranges so important?

The answer is simple: while judging your opponent’s move, is it better to grapple around in the dark or should you opt for a more logical structured method? Hand ranges will allow you to logically structure your thinking patterns about how to put an opponent on a hand. And because of hand range, it is also possible to determine the probability of an opponent holding various kinds of hands in one single range.

This allows you to speculate fairly accurately upon what you should expect from your opponent.

When you take hand range into account, you also learn how to detect particular playing patterns in your opponents. Observing this is enough to provide sound fodder for your thoughts and also help you identify the hand preferences of your opponents in general. In other words, when you have this kind of information under your belt, you automatically become more skilful. Your judgment is accelerated, your hand reading ability improves drastically, and you are easily be able to identify all the situations that recur constantly at some tables.

Simply put, thinking in terms of hand ranges offers a multitude of benefits.

All the best poker players in the world are aware of this concept and make use of it when choosing their moves.

How to figure out an opponent’s range?

The problem with beginners is that only when they are in the middle of a hand, do they truly become concerned about their opponent’s range. When they can’t figure it out or when they realize they’re at a disadvantage, they fold; and immediately afterwards, their mind gets distracted away from the game until the next hand is dealt.

The ambitious players looking to improve their game, however, try to figure out an opponent’s range in order to benefit from it in the next hand. In fact, when you’re out of the hand, that’s probably the best time to do this because you’re not encumbered by thoughts of thinking about the pot size, your bankroll, or keeping your tells hidden.

In online poker, it’s not hard to find out someone’s history and figure out the kind of player they are. Based on that information and from what you have gleaned by watching their betting styles, you can guess which cards they would most likely play.

Let me give you an example: suppose a very tight opponent chooses to bet five times the big blind before the flop. Then he makes a very ugly flop of 4d 7h 2s and makes a pot sized continuation bet on this. It will take only experience to figure out that this player is holding AK at the worst or a big pocket pair before the flop.

Conclusion

It is extremely essential in Texas Hold’em to be able to read hands and hand ranges accurately. And while there are tools along with plenty of websites on the Internet offering free use of their poker odds or range calculators which can help you, the ultimate goal is to be able to grasp these things intuitively. Do that, and you’ll have far more success than any amount of bluffing will ever bring you.

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Poker game selection is something you should definitely master if you want to become a winning poker player. The reason I want to emphasize more on this is that nobody really appreciates it as one of the very necessary, although tough, poker skills; what’s even more baffling about this ignorance is that game selection ranks highly among the least controversial winning strategies in poker.

How to exercise good poker game selection?

Professional poker players, for whom poker is a way of living and earning a livelihood, look at their entire country, neighboring countries, or even worldwide when they consider game selection. They always search for the best possible games to earn the maximum amount of money. In hindsight, it makes perfect sense too seeing how easy it would be for you to be at the top at a tournament that doesn’t feature any top-ranking players! It’s possible that the winner would get only $10,000, but isn’t a small amount won better than a large prize you could never obtain? That’s why game selection is important.

How do Las Vegas games differ from Los Angeles games?

You will find the widest selection of games in Los Angeles – between $ 60 / 120; the widest selection of stud games in the north east; and the largest numbers of some of the biggest games in Las Vegas – $ 100/200.

Vegas games are tighter as the casinos out there take a percentage out of every pot – also known as the house rake. California games are far more aggressive and looser compared to Vegas games. That’s because the cost is equally distributed between all the players through a technique of time collection or button drop.

Understandably, it is the tourists – the much maligned and oft ridiculed species – who turn out to be the weakest poker players in Las Vegas. These ‘poker dumb’ tourists hardly ever play poker regularly and are there to “spend” money rather than to make it.

The Los Angeles games, on the other hand, are totally different because they rarely get tourists the way Las Vegas casinos do. In other words, even the weakest players in these casinos are regulars on the circuit, have mastered a wide range of strategies and tricks, and are more difficult to beat.

How to choose based on the type of player you are:

The easiest strategy for winning against any opponent is to attack and exploit his weakness. However, the weaknesses of weak players can be so varied and different, that it may easily confuse you. So let’s try and make this job a little easier:

Texas Hold’em is the most popular poker game among all, and it is also the most popular preference among the weakest players. This is because the weaknesses of weak players are better protected in Hold’em than in Stud or Omaha.

In other words, weak players should stay far away from these two games as their chances of winning there are zero. Playing Hold’em, however, offers them at least a fighting chance.

For an excellent player, Texas Hold’em games can be profitable as they offer greater random luck and higher variance, especially if decent players are in the same game. There is a whole range of stuff going on in Hold’em games that an excellent player can utilize to initiate action.

Of course, the hallmark of a winning and successful poker player is versatility in any situation. He should be able to play in any type of casino, he should be able to play any type of game with any limit.

Despite this, a good player will always pay attention to which game he wants to select—after all, who doesn’t want that advantage of choice to maximize their profits?

Another factor to keep in mind is that you may have bankroll considerations or temperamental preferences, which would limit the type of games you may be able to play. For e.g. because a game of Omaha is super boring, a player may decide to opt out of it and play Texas Hold’em instead. However, such temperamental decisions are conscious ones. Ideally, you should always choose to play a game that will be profitable for you money-wise. If you consciously select a not-so-profitable game, you should have a very good reason for doing so.

Table selection and poker game selection are both highly critical factors both when you have extremely limited choices or thousands of choices. For e.g. when you play online poker, you can choose from hundreds of games with the click of a mouse. Finding out that single best game from among hundreds is really tough and nobody is asking you to do that as a mandatory step. It’s easy to let go and just pick any game. That, however, would not be a very wise idea.

Conclusion

Experienced players never trivialize poker game selection. If you have made up your mind about something, you should be able to ask yourself – and receive the answer — about why you are playing at a particular table or why you have chosen a specific game.
There are a number of players who tend to take game selection for granted. This also means that you have a good chance of being across a few players who don’t really know why they have chosen to be at your table.

Do not make the same mistake that they did. While you should prepare yourself to play against anyone at any game, you should always choose the games you know you can win more easily than the others.

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Range, Equity, Maximize is a process outlined in the book Professional No-Limit Hold’em: Volume 1, by Matt Flynn, Sunny Mehta and Ed Miller. It is a three-step process for making better decisions at the poker table. Before we delve into the specifics, it’s important to have a general definition of each term:



• Range: The possible hands an opponent could hold, given that opponent’s actions up to this point.
• Equity: The percent chance your hand will win at any point during the hand.
• Maximize: The value of your hand based on the information you have thus far.

Range

Goal: To put your opponent on a range of hands, based on their action up to that point in the hand and what you know about their playing style.

You’re almost never going to be able to guess what two cards your opponents’ hold; that’s why it’s better to put your opponents on a range of hands. Putting your opponents on a range of hands isn’t easy. You need to keep track of every move made at the table, which requires a great deal of patience. It’s easy to get tunnel vision and become overly concerned with your own actions, so much so that your attention is diverted away from other players. For many, this tends to take place when they have a big hand. They don’t want to seem overly concerned, so they stop paying attention and miss out on valuable clues, patterns or even tells.

Remember, just because an opponent is not in a hand doesn’t mean you can’t gain information from them. In home games particularly, inexperienced poker players will look at the flop and issue a disgusted look or slightly shake their head, indicating they wish they had stayed in the hand. This can provide you with information for the current and future hands.

Keeping track of your opponents’ moves and determining a range means asking questions to yourself during the course of the hand. For instance: How much did the player in early position raise? What types of players are calling? Who limped in?

Before you put these players on a range of hands, you have to ask yourself, “What type of players am I up against?” Obviously if you are playing online and have no previous hand history against a particular player, you can forego this question.

Another option is to use an HUD (Heads Up Display), like PokerTracker 3 or Hold’em Manager, which will actually show the percent of times a player makes a specific move. For instance, if a player only makes a 3-bet pre-flop 4% of the time, you can use a piece of software like PokerStove to find the top 4% of hands, which can help clue you in.

Example: Say you are at a 9-player $1/$2 NL Hold’em table. You are in early position with As-Qs and raise $6 to make it $8 all day. A player in middle position calls, as does a player in late position, who is a tighter player.

The flop comes out Qh-Jh-2c. Since you are first to act, you lead out with a $16 bet. Middle position folds, but the late position player calls.

With this call, you can probably eliminate the possibility that your opponent flopped a set, because with a flush draw on board he most likely would have re-raised. It’s unlikely he has any pocket pair. He wouldn’t call with a pair lower than Jacks, and if he had something like Kings he would have raised. At this point he might have something like: A-Q, Q-J, K-Q, A-J, Ah-Kh, Ah-10h, Kh-10h, 10h-9h.

The turn is a 3h. The board now reads Qh-Jh-2c -3h. You lead out with $24. Your opponent re-raises you to $50. Now, a flush is the most probable hand your opponent holds. It’s highly unlikely that he opponent called your initial raise with anything less than 10h-9h. Since he probably has the flush, he may have called with 10h-9h, Ah-10h, Ah-Kh or Kh-10h.

Equity

Goal: To find out how much equity you have in the hand against your opponent’s range.

Now, if you’re excellent at poker mathematics you might be able to figure this out in your head, but for 99.9% of us, I suggest using PokerStove or PokerSleuth. It’s simple: Just plug in your hand, click the hands you think your opponent might be holding—or type in a percentage, and PokerStove will calculator your equity on the fly.

Example: Per our earlier example, you have 0% equity this hand, seeing as how we put your opponent on a flush and you cannot make a better hand.

Maximize

Goal: To get the most value out of your hand based on the information you have thus far.

Example: Going along with our example, the best action for us is to fold. You have top pair with the best kicker, but there is a big flush draw looming on the board. In the rare occurrence that your opponent doesn’t have a flush draw, that he took a chance by just calling with, for instance, a set of Jacks, you are still way behind. Your best play is to fold.

Conclusion

Most every example of the REM process demonstrates a hand where you are ahead, but it’s just as important to use in those situations, as it is to use when you are way behind in a hand. You gotta know when to fold ‘em.

If you play a lot of online poker, HUD’s like Poker Tracker 3 and odds calculators like PokerStove will expedite this process and give you and edge up on the competition.

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All the successful poker players who prefer Texas Hold’em and online poker are also huge fans of HUD (head up display). But what is HUD? Allow me to explain: when you wish to collect real time info about all the opponents at your table, you take the help of this advanced software program.

You can learn about numerous secret tendencies and unique playing styles of your opponents or glimpse into their profiles. You can even get to know whether your opponents have an aggressive or loose playing pattern along with various other kinds of necessary facts by using HUD.

I’ve already covered how important such data is in order to succeed at poker. And HUD helps you in this respect even more by providing you with all kinds of information you could possibly need.

What is HUD or Head Up Display?

People in the military aviation sector coined the term “head up display.” For them, it was a data presentation device with a transparent display that does not require a user to turn his gaze away from his viewpoint in order to see the reading clearly.

The HUD that is used in online poker is also a type of transparent display used for showing statistical data that relates to the game under way.

When you look at an enlarged image of HUD, a rectangular box choc-a-block with numbers placed close to each player will become apparent. Let us suppose there are nine statistics for each of the players in every single box. Two lines divide all these nine statistics in such a way that there are five and four statistics on each line respectively. There will also be a circled box corresponding to some player.

Let us suppose his username is XYZ. Keep gazing at this circled box. The HUD’s first line will display the number of hands and the VPIP/PFR/AF. You will, therefore, get to know how many hands you possess within your database for XYZ. Knowing this information will help you better decode XYZ’s playing style and betting tendencies.

Let us now suppose XYZ’s VPIP = 18, that is, 18% of hands. This indicates that he is a tight player, but loose at times — a player who is tight by nature but isn’t a rock really. Let us also suppose XYZ’s PFR amounts to 10%. This is close to his optimal aggression prior to flop. AF (= 28%) refers to the aggression factor.

Thus you are getting a complete rock solid picture of XYZ’s playing patterns which will, in turn, help you plan your strategy of combat against him.

Poker HUD Stats

Now let us suppose, XYZ’s readings for the second line are 56 / 52 / 2 / 44 / 7. The numbers given here represent the percentages of c bet, c bet to fold, 3 bet, 3 bet to fold along with check raise.

Let us first decode the meanings of all these percentages. XYZ’s 56% c bet represents the frequency of his continuation bets. After raising pre flop , XYZ decides to go in for continuation bets 56% of the times, which is a bit more than half. This figure is a pretty low percentage and reveals that XYZ prefers moderate amounts of bluffing. His tendency to fold against a c bet occurs 52% of the times. This is also a very low figure. And it indicates that XYZ sometimes tends to doubt or float.

A three bet figure of only 2% is again very low. But it implies that the person prefers to play in a straightforward manner. And because he places three bets 44% of the times only, we can now become sure that he is indeed a doubting Thomas, as mentioned earlier. Needless to point out – this figure is lower than average. However, if you also notice that XYZ check raises 7% of the times which is a rather high figure, you’ll see that he has a tendency to trap his opponents.

This is why HUD is considered so powerful. You can receive sharp profiling as well as extremely precise statistics by using this tool.
The moment you look at the HUD box, you get a complete detailed summary of the playing style of a particular player, and you can work around their idiosyncrasies or exploit their weaknesses.

This example revolved only around nine statistics and discussed only a specific display. But you can customize a HUD in many different ways; it is also possible to change displays. You can choose from over a hundred statistics and dozens of displays for each player, which is just great!

Having said that, it is better not to dabble with 50 or 100 statistics while multi tabling because your computer system will invariably slow down. It also confuses many players. Besides, online poker tables are filled up by many strange players with unknown histories. In such cases, majority of the statistics won’t be able to converge any way. Instead, I will advice you to go with a handful of reference statistics that are solid.

HUD Types

Two different types of HUDs are currently available on the market. One type is characterized by its preference for using its very own central database, usually containing millions of poker players online. I will recommend Poker Edge for this category.

The other type of HUD will access the database created by you. Sometimes, players create their own database through data mining or by collecting histories of hands. This is the database used by HUDs like Hold’em Manager. The latter doubles up as a HUD as well as a poker tracking software, and it is the best on the market in its class at the moment.

Conclusion

Information is everything in today’s world. And HUDs are able to provide you with just that. Use them wisely, and you’ll notice your predictions get more accurate over time.

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PokerStars may have been getting a lot of bad press in America of late but in Europe they go from strength to strength. The United Kingdom Ireland Poker Tour, (UKIPT), has stopped off in Newcastle this weekend at the Aspers Casino, and over the course of the last few days there has been some great action, and it will finish later today when the final eight players return to battle it out for the top prize of £67,000.

A total of 554 players started out in the £550 Main Event and now we are down to just eight. The two leading players are the ones to beat as they have significantly more chips than the others. The final table is made up of six players from the United Kingdom and two from Ireland, all of whom are looking for their first UKIPT title. Included in the final eight are two PokerStars qualifiers Tim Slater and Jonathan Gawith, and both will be hoping for a good finish today. Below is a list of players at the final table and their chips.

Final Table Placings and Chips.

1st Richard Sinclair -1,938,000
2nd Rajesh Verma – 1,343,000
3rd Rakesh Paul Gupta – 958,000
4th James Morris – 926,000
5th Jonathan Gawith – 898,000
6th Tim Slater – 858,000
7th Tadhg Ryan – 836,000
8th Barry Foley – 446,000

James Morris may yet have something to say on who wins the title, especially if yesterday is anything to go by. He was not afraid to shove all-in on a number of occasions and if he were to double up early today he may take some stopping. At one point his pocket rockets were busted, but he slowly moved back up the field and finished the day in fourth spot with 926,000 chips. He could make life difficult for the top two with his aggressive style when play commences later today.

At the start of play yesterday the chip leader was John Shipley, but he was not able to build on his good play from the previous day and eventually finished in 41st place and cashed for £1,100. There were two previous UKIPT champions in the field at the start of play yesterday but neither looked like making the final table. Nick Abou Risk has won two titles before, but he was knocked out in 37th place winning £1,100, and the other was local boy Gareth Walker. Walker won the Nottingham leg of the tour earlier in the year, but he struggled to make any impact yesterday and was eliminated in 52nd place and with it cashed for £970.

The final table starts at 3pm today and chip leader Richard Sinclair will want to carry on from where he left off yesterday. Once he got the chip lead he went in to overdrive, bullying the smaller stacks and he will fancy his chances later today. It should be a great day at Aspers with plenty of great poker in store.