Online No-Limit Texas Hold'em Poker for Beginners - Part 10

There is a time to delay though. I emphasize over and over in this writing the need to do everything fast in the end game. The ONLY time you don't is when you actually have something.

I'm not talking about AA or KK here. I'm talking about when you have done your normal raise to steal, he calls, and you flop a monster! Whether it is trips, or a full house, or maybe a straight or flush, you have to now act to get him to throw all his chips in.

Since you have been raising and calling so fast all the time, and now you are hesitating, your opponent always assumes you aren't sure about your hand. This goes for every part of the game, not just end game.

How long do you have to hesitate? I usually wait until the game, at PartyPoker, starts beeping. Usually about a full 5 or 10 count. Any more, and he'll assume you stepped away or weren't paying attention. Then I put in my bet. Or, in the case of flopping the nuts, I check.

I really play it like I am apprehensive about putting any more chips in. If he is raising, it is just perfect. He raises, delay, delay, delay, and call. Next card. He raises again. Delay. Call. After the river card, if he hasn't put all his chips in, you are REALLY going to have to sell out. Wait, wait, wait, and then make an all-in "bluff" at it. Hopefully he calls, and he's out, or you've doubled up.

In a recent game, I was dealt K9 suited. A pretty decent hand for playing the end game. I, of course, raise over the top and he calls. Flop comes Q 9 4 with no flush possible. I have 9's. I bet. He calls. Turn is a 9. I have trips. I bet. He raises. I call. River is a 9. I have the Nuts.

How am I going to get him to put his chips in? Most people WILL NOT believe there is four of a kind out there. There rarely is when there are 3 on the board.

I, of course, don't bet right away. I delay until the thing starts beeping, then I put in a bet that will leave me some cash left over if I'm wrong. WHY?? Why not just go all-in?? I'll tell you.

With four of a kind, I don't expect him to call. I am hoping he has the full house and will call, but I don't want to scare him off. So, I delay a long time so as to imply that I am wondering if my hand will be good enough. Then, when I finally "decide" to play, I put in a bet that is not all-in.

I want to imply that, if I'm wrong and my "bluff" gets called, and I don't win, that I will still have some chips left to play. If you put all your chips in, a LOT of times it means you are serious and the other guy will fold it up. Especially if he has a marginal hand.

But, to make a LARGE bet, and leave a little bit left behind, and not betting enough to put the other guy all-in, it implies that it is just a bluff, and you DON'T want him to call. Your contingency plan is being short-stacked in the event of him actually calling and beating your nothing hand.

He played it exactly as I thought he would. He was the large stack at that point. He saw my delay as weakness, and he saw through my pathetic bluff bet. As any good player should do with the large stack, he called, and RAISED to make sure I had to go all-in.

This is EXACTLY what I wanted, and what I was trying to sell. I sold it perfectly. I was not bluffing, of course, went all-in, and revealed my nut 9's. After I doubled up, I wrote to him and said I didn't think he'd call. He said he had the Q for a boat 9's full of Q's.

I asked him if he liked the delay. He said he loved it.

This is acting. You have to ACT when you are pretty sure you have a winner, or you have the nuts, and you want to get paid. This is especially true in the end game. You play fast, raise fast, call fast, and fold fast.

Then WHAM! You slow down.

You show a sign of weakness. In all your previous hands, it gets to you, you instantly raise over the top. He thinks, and then calls. Flop comes, he checks, you instantly raise. You are saying, "I raised pre-flop, and now I've seen the flop and it's made my hand better, so I'm raising again. What don't you understand?" It is at this point he usually folds.

But then, you catch a great flop, and your opponent sees you slow down. Check it around, or raise with much deliberation. He sees you as weaker than the other hands and tries to exploit it. This acting works just tremendously against the all-in raiser.

You can act pre-flop also. Say you actually get AA or KK and are in the SB. Take your time, delay it pretty good, and then just call the BB. A lot of times, since you've been raising every time, they will bet back into you, just to steal your increased blind money and not have to see a card.

Hopefully, they will raise back all-in. Or, they may just want to see the flop for free. You see the flop, and check. See how long they will keep checking for. Hopefully, you will catch your trips AND bait them. Remember to delay on every decision.

More often than not though, if I have AA or KK, I play them exactly like any other decent hand. I raise over the top and hope for a call, thus doubling the amount I am going to make. Then I bet on the flop if I don't get trips. He will usually fold. So, at least, I secure double his BB investment.

With only calling to the BB, and not getting trips on the flop, and not raising, and slow-playing it, you are welcoming a chance to get beat. He could have caught two-pair. Or he might on the turn or the river.

Pre-flop, every hand has hope. I raise pre-flop, even with good hands, preying on that hope. Seeing the flop either increases confidence, or eliminates hope. If the hope is gone, he won't put any more chips into the pot. If he catches something, you don't want that either.

More often than not, when they call the raise pre-flop with their Q 4os, the flop won't help them, and they will fold to your raise. That is why you need to raise most often pre-flop. Get them to put in twice as much. That way, when the flop comes with 2 over cards, they are folding to any bet.

Gigging them for twice as much pre-flop is a tried and true way of winning the end game.

RULE #2: DON'T BE 4th

In a one-table SNG, only 3 spots are paid. You DO NOT want to be the 4th guy. Sometimes you can't help it, as you are too short stacked, or you take a bad beat and are out. But, for the most part, you can control it.

As long as the blinds don't totally take your stack away, you should play MUCH tighter. You want to steal the blinds as described above. Just be VERY AWARE of where everyone's chip count is, and when the blinds are going to go up again.

1200 chips is a lot of looks with a 300 blind, but not nearly as many at a 400 blind. Especially, if you are going to raise over the top. In that case, you had better be sure. I made a mistake today and finished 4th. I will tell you where I slipped up, so that hopefully, you can avoid a big mistake.

4-man game. I am UTG with 1200 chips. There's an ass to my left on the button. He has repeatedly re-raised me to all-in, and then I fold, so I am going to play tighter hands.

He has 3200 or so, as does the guy to my right in the BB. The player in the SB only has 260 chips. In order to finish in the money, all I have to do is wait for the guy in the small blind to lose a hand. With 1200 chips, I have been raising over the top with the 300 blind. This has been working well. I was a bit distracted, and this is how the end played out.

Initially, I did not notice the blinds go to 200/400. As I said, I was distracted. I got Q5 suited hearts. A pretty good hand to steal with. Not really paying attention, I hit the button that said, RAISE TO 800. So I have 800 in there and 400 in the bank.

The ass to my left calls, both of the blinds fold, as expected. This drops the guy in the SB to 60 chips. Flop comes, Kc, As, 7c. 2 over cards and NONE of my suit. I've got no way to win and I definitely don't want to go all-in, so I check.

The ass to my left bets 400 to put me all-in, so I fold. Deal comes; I notice that I'm all-in as the blinds are 400! I get K 10os and figure I'd be raising with this anyway. Guy to my left folds, the guy with 60 chips folds, of course. The guy in the SB calls. I REALLY wanted him to fold as I was just starting to realize what a mistake I had made last hand.

We flip over.

I have K10. He has 77. I have 6 outs plus the straight draw and 5 cards to beat him. If you read the above "how to play pairs JJ-22" you know that this is almost EXACTLY the situation you want with a pocket pair. One-on-one.

Better yet if I would have had, say 6 3os. I would NEED 2 cards. As it was, I only needed one. Of course, I didn't get it.

Was I mad that I didn't make a pair of either my K or my 10 in 5 cards? Of course, but I knew the odds of it happening weren't good. I was more tilted that I finished 4th because of my own error the previous hand.

With the Q5 suited, I made the raise because I was distracted and didn't really notice that the guy in the SB had only 60 chips, and I didn't notice the blinds had gone up.

What could have distracted me? Well, I play a LOT during the day, and I'm watching my kids. My 4 month-old daughter had just started screaming, so I was changing her poopy diaper and trying to play at the same time. Is this an excuse? Of course it is. I doubt ANY of the top poker players play with the kind of distractions I have to endure. But it's still an excuse.

In the same situation, undistracted, I should have known the blinds went up to 400. I also should have known that the guy to my left would call, or even raise me, as he had for quite some time and I'd never called him, as it was always an all-in call. I also would have noticed that the SB was down to 60 chips.

But, say I did raise and everything happened the same, and the ass to my left raised me all-in post-flop. I was probably beaten, but I hadn't called his raise but once all game. There were still a couple more cards to come. I could have gotten running 5's, running Q's or 10 J and probably had the nuts or tied for them.

I am thinking I should have called instead of letting my fate be decided by a hand I had no control over. Turns out, I got a good hand, and, in my opinion, got a bit unlucky to not beat the pair of 7's, but you can't win with a 25% draw all the time.

What I should have done was fold the Q5 suited.

In that same situation, with someone so close to being eliminated and putting me in the money, I should have hit fold. I would have been down to 800 chips. Then, the SB comes. If I don't get AA, KK, QQ, or AK, I should fold it down. I'm then down to 600 chips.

Now the guy with 60 chips is in the BB and he's all in. Again, I shouldn't bet unless I have AA, KK, QQ, or AK. If I did have those hands, I should raise them to put myself all-in. Anything else, fold it up. Wait until the guy with 60 chips gets eliminated.

That's a little extreme. I suppose I'd play AQ, AJ, A10, and any of them suited. You just don't want to make a mistake. Fold just about everything down until you are in 3rd place. I'd hate to play AJ, have two K's come on the flop, and be eliminated in 4th place. Or even one K would do it. Folding is the best way to stay out of harms way.

By folding the Q5, I would have had a 400 chip look at my K10. The guy in the SB would have called, maybe raised with his 77. It would be tough NOT to call a raise with K10, but in this situation, with the guy with 60 chips watching and out of the hand, it would take DISCIPLINE not to lose any more chips. If the guy with 77 only calls, I should check, check, check. Unless I grab high pair, it isn't worth the risk to bet. So, I lose that hand.

I am in the SB, paying 200. My stack is now 600 chips. Unless I have a top 5 hand, fold it down. The next hand, I am on the button.

Mr. 60-chips is now in the BB. If both of the other guys call, the MOST he can get out of the hand with is 180 chips. As long as I don't call, he will be ALL-IN in the SB also. That is IF he wins while in the BB. So he will have to win back-to-back all-ins, or tie them, to stay in contention.

Again, if I have a top 5 hand, I should go ahead and play, as I'll need the chips to stay alive against the other large stacks. But anything less is introducing the risk of taking 4th, and being out of the money.

If I don't get a top 5 hand, I should just watch. I have 600 chips and am on the button. If the guy with 60 chips wins while in the BB, he will then be in the SB, also all-in. I can watch that hand too.

If he gets lucky and does win back to back through the blinds, I have a problem. I will be forced out by the time the small blind gets to me, as I have 600 chips left.

Hopefully, I will get a good hand and be able to stave elimination off for another round. It could happen. It may not. At this point, I am finally going to need some luck.

I can take a look at my big blind hand, and if it's good, play it. Or, I can always fold it and try to win with my small blind hand, sight unseen.

This being said, how many hands have I seen since I decided to fold the Q5 suited? There was the K10os. My button hand. My UTG hand. My big blind hand, and my small blind hand. Five hands.

Hopefully I will have caught something decent in those five hands. You just have to know your situation. Finishing in the money is better than finishing out of it. Don't be fourth. Do everything you can to not be fourth.