Online No-Limit Texas Hold'em Poker for Beginners - Part 7
Playing in Position
As I have mentioned before, in the definitions, Playing in Position is THE most important skill in Texas Hold'em Poker. You absolutely want to get your best hands when you are on the button, as you can dictate the action. More importantly, when you are on the button, or in late position, you can play lesser hands without it potentially costing you as much.
On the button is the best position in poker. You are "in Position" if you are on the button. What this really means is, nobody is betting behind you.
When you are in the blinds, you are in early position, or more accurately, out of position. The next couple spots after the button are still in early to mid position and are weak spots.
The best way to think about it is, how many people are behind you that may potentially raise your call? That is the question. When you are in the small blind, EVERYONE is behind you. When you are on the button, only the blinds are behind you, pre-flop. After that, you are last to bet. You get to see what everyone else does before you get to decide what to do.
From here on out, I am going to label the spots 1-10 in a ten person SNG assuming all 10 players are still in. 1 is the small blind, 10 is on the button. Play flows around the table, clockwise, from 1 to 10
Tight in front, loose in back
Tight in front, loose in back is an old adage about playing poker. It is THE way to play Hold'em. I touched on it briefly in the starting hands section. I will reiterate here.
Playing "tight" is only playing good hands. In our groupings, we are talking group four or higher. Playing loose is playing just about anything. In our groupings, group five and down. Anything out of the groupings is REALLY loose.
The ONLY time to play cards that loose is in the end game, with four or five players left, or if you are on the button and can limp in.
Since you can see how everyone has bet ahead of you, playing on the button is the best spot in poker. If someone ahead of you raises more than you are comfortable putting in, you can fold without it costing you anything. The blinds only have this advantage pre-flop, but it costs them a bet, and a half-bet, apiece.
From the button, with low blinds, I would say to play just about anything. If no one has raised, with only players calling the BB, what will it hurt to limp-in by only paying, say, 3-6% of your stack? If you catch a miracle flop, it will pay for itself, possibly, 100-fold.
Again, you need discipline when you limp-in. You are looking for trips, 4-card flush draw, or two-pair. If the betting doesn't get heavy, then stay in the hand. Otherwise, get out.
In early position, say positions one through five, you only want to play good hands. Top hands. You can try to limp it in from here, with lower blinds and playing at a pretty passive table. If someone raises behind you, though, you need the discipline to fold it down. You don't have a good hand, and are in bad position. That's two strikes against your chances this hand already.
If you know you have maniacs, or even good strong betting players behind you, don't even waste the money trying to limp-in a bad hand looking for a miracle flop from these positions. At the 30 blind and above, it's just a terrible idea. There will be better hands. Or, at least, the same hands with better position.
On the button, and a couple spots to his right, is late position. When you are in spots eight, nine, and the button, you can loosen up a bit and play worse hands. In the later positions, say seven through button, make sure to keep your eye open for folks folding behind you.
Personally, without a raise on the table, I think it's crazy to fold the button position, but that's just me. If you are in position seven, and eight through ten fold, you are now on the button. I LOVE when this happens. Not only did three people volunteer not to play, but they also donated the best spot on the table to you.
There are a few advantages to playing the button, besides the obvious advantage of betting last. I will go into that next.
Playing on the Button
Playing the button, or position ten, is the best spot in the game. You will be on the button once every time around the table, but as mentioned above, when others fold they may donate the button to you. There are a few things you can do just because you are in late position.
First, you can steal the blinds. If everyone has folded, and all that is left in is you and the blinds, you can make an obnoxious raise over the top, hoping they will fold. A "button-raise". I would not recommend doing this unless you have, at least, a top 84 hand, and the blinds are 50 or more. Once the blinds get to 50, you make 75 chips when they fold.
However, if someone in the blinds is short-stacked, expect a re-raise to their all-in. It's a LOT easier to double-up against one opponent regardless of what they have. Players in the blinds that are short-stacked are waiting for just such an opportunity, as pre-flop is the only time they bet last.
You can do this when the blinds are 30 or 15, but you really aren't making much. Later in the game, with higher blinds, 100+, even with a raise to 200, expect the SB to fold, and then it's you against the BB, if he doesn't fold. This match up is all explained in the End Game section below.
You can also steal the table, especially at the lower blinds early in the game. If you have a somewhat decent hand, and six people have put in their 30 chip blind, from the button, you can go all-in. Or raise an obscene amount like 500. All-in usually works better. You don't want to play the hand, but you do want to collect 180 chips and not show your cards.
In this situation, you hope nobody was slowplaying a top 4 hand. Just by everyone limping it in, it usually means nobody had anything. More often than not, you will collect and move on to the next hand.
Two for the Price of One
Secondly, there is a trick you can do on the button that will get you two cards for the price of one, most often. Let's say it's a 15 blind, and there are eight people in. Everyone limped in without anyone raising. Flop comes. Everyone checks it around to you.
Now, a lot of times, the button just checks. But the best thing to do in this situation is to throw out a "feeler" bet. Throw out one bet. In this case 15 chips. This is also called betting for information. What it often does though, is gives you both the turn and the river for the price of one bet.
So it's checked around to you, and you put out a 15 bet. As it goes around, 3 people fold, the other 4 call. That eliminated 3 people from catching something later on. You will always see this. The best part happens next.
The turn card comes, and since it's human nature not to want to get re-raised, everyone "checks to the bettor". If you want to at this point, you can bet, but beware of slow-playing players. When everyone checks around, I just check, and voila, everyone knows his or her hand.
This trick works just excellently when you are trying to make a straight or a flush. The feeler BB bet is usually low enough for someone slow-playing to just call, and not re-raise.
In the previous example at the 15 blinds, you limped in your small suited connector for 15. You got two more of your suit on the flop. Everyone checks, you raise 15 chips. Most everyone calls. Turn comes and it's no help. Everyone checks to the bettor. You check. River comes for basically free.
Now you know whether or not you made your flush and can bet accordingly.
You paid 30 chips to see all 7 cards. You know exactly what you have, and you know what the nut hand is. At the higher blinds, say 50 or 100+, it is not uncommon just to see everyone fold to your feeler bet.
The feeler bet is also called betting for information. Say the flop comes AAQ. You know somebody has to have something, yet everyone checks. You throw in a bet that is double the blind, in this case, Let's say 60. With that flop, almost everyone without an ace or Q will fold. Most likely someone will at least call, or raise over the top. Now you know at least half of their hand. You can compare it to yours and see if you want to go on.
With a killer flop like that, and everyone checking, if nobody had anything they will fold. Oftentimes you will steal the pot just for a semi-aggressive feeler bet from the button.
Play the button for all it is worth. After all, you don't get that many hands with the button.
The "Pot-Committed" Fallacy
Being "pot-committed" is defined as putting a decent amount of your chips into the pot, realizing you won't have a winning hand, and staying in the hand until it's conclusion. Often, especially in limit Hold'em, players will set traps to get their opponent "pot-committed" and take all their money with a superior hand.
I will state this now: There is no such thing as pot-committed. Pot-committed is a fallacy. It is an excuse. Many players use it as an excuse to justify their losing. You should not use this excuse.
Most often, a player is said to be pot-committed when he has unknowingly put too many chips into a pot with a losing hand. Then, when he realizes he has the losing hand, he pays to play the hand to completion just to make sure his opponent was not bluffing.
Rarely is his opponent bluffing, and now the player is eliminated, or severely short-stacked. Pot-committed is an excuse the opponent is hoping the player uses to justify GIVING away all his chips. Good players set traps keeping the term pot-committed in mind.
Every player has his "loss threshold". This is the point where a player decides he's in too deep to turn back. For some it's ½ their stack. Others, it's ¾. Others, it totally depends on the condition and how good the actual hand they have is, even if it's a loser.
Many players use the term pot-committed to justify their losing with the big slick. AK is only a good hand when an ace or king comes up on the board. Many a player has played the slick to the river, and beyond, in the hopes that ace-high, king-kicker is good enough to win. With 5 cards on the board that aren't aces or kings, that doesn't happen very often.
Somebody is going to pair something.
I've even seen folks with the slick throw the rest of their stack in, after the river card, hoping to bluff the other folks. The person with high pair is most often happy to oblige, and the slick is out.
You have to know your loss threshold, and try to ignore it. You are never out of a game until all your chips are gone. You can always, theoretically, come back and win if you have chips. The lower your stack though, the better the hands you will need to receive, and quickly.
The reason pot-committed is a fallacy is that you can ALWAYS click the FOLD button. You can fold at any time, as long as you have chips left. Some people think it's not worth playing if they've lost almost all their chips, and toss the rest in. Even when they know they are beat.
Don't do this.
Even having some chips is better than having none. I have seen plenty of people come back from a devastating hit to finish in the money. My personal best is taking a bad beat with the other guy all-in, only having 65 chips left, and winning the game.
65 chips.
Granted, it was early, so I could take a look at a few hands because the blinds weren't going to force me out, but I still needed some good hands, and some luck. Most often when a guy gets that low, you see him all-in the next hand, with 5 callers, and he has 8 3os. Out.
I would say that the toughest thing to do in poker is to lay down a hand that you've spent a lot of chips on, even though you know it's a loser. Once you know you've lost a hand, or are going to lose, lay down the hand. At least, don't throw any more serious money at it.
Let's say you make your trips on the flop and don't want to see any more cards, as there is a flush draw with the flop. You want to make it expensive to chase it, so of your 800 chips, you throw in 450. The guy calls.
The turn doesn't help you, but it doesn't complete his flush if that is what he's going for. He checks. You throw up another 250, lowering your stack to 100 chips. He calls. River comes and it doesn't give you the boat but it does complete his flush.
He bets 100 to put you all-in. It is at this point you start to believe he may be bluffing. Maybe he only has 2 pair. Maybe he has trips, but they are lower as you have trips with the high card on the board. Maybe he was hoping to make his own boat, and missed, and is now trying to steal it by representing the flush. If he doesn't have the flush, you are certain you have the nuts. He hasn't lead with a bet, and now he's bluffing knowing you won't call because if you are wrong, you are done. You think, "I'll show his bluffing ass."
You call. It's flipped. He has the flush. You are out.
At this point you say to yourself, "I had to call, I was pot-committed."
Or.
"Pot odds. It was 100 to win 1600, 16-1 with the nuts barring the flush."
Both of these statements are you deluding yourself. You could have just as easily clicked fold as you clicked call. Your opponent bet EXACTLY as he was chasing a flush, then when he made it, he raised to see if he could get the rest of your chips. There was nothing sinister. No cloak and dagger.
You say to yourself, "How could he pay that much to chase a flush? Doesn't he know that he only has roughly a 35% chance to get it? Boy is he stupid." Unfortunately, there are MANY folks who will chase down that flush. Especially if the pot keeps getting more lucrative. Especially at PartyPoker.com. "Home of the flush" they should call the place.
Most people will chase the flush, no matter how much you pay, if they know you are not chasing it also. By you raising 450 to take the pot, you were saying, essentially, "I want the pot, do not chase straights or flushes." At more expensive buy-ins, raising the pot 200% may work as a deterrent. It does not work very often at the $6 and $11 dollar SNG's.
These players will chase almost every flush. And, from my observations, they will be rewarded somewhere around 75% of the time. It is uncanny how many flushes you will see at PartyPoker.com. You will see as many hands won with a flush in 20 minutes at PartyPoker as you would in 2 hours at a casino. Maybe more. But that is a different subject altogether.
Lay Down a Loser
Obviously, you should have folded. You should have known you should have folded, and folded. Now, knowing what you know, and realizing the odds of someone chasing a flush every hand is pretty good, here is how you could have played in the above scenario.
If you still chose to raise 450, and he called, that should be the end of your deterring. You have dropped your stack from 800 to 350. Turn no help. He checks. You can give a token raise if you'd like, say 50 or so, or just check it. He's going to chase it to the end, and you have put a ton of chips in the pot already, why make it worse?
Granted, if he misses the flush, you will wish you had laid into him a bit more, but you can't know that until after the river card is down. If he makes the theoretical flush, and checks, just check it. If he doesn't have it, you win. If he was baiting you, he can have all the chips you already put in.
The only way I'd pay to see what he has in this case is if he makes it affordable. Say 50 or so. Most likely, as before, he'll put in enough chips to make you go all-in, hoping he's bluffing. He's hoping your curiosity, and the fact that over ½ your chips are in the pot, you will see it through and give him all your chips.
It takes control to lay down the trips. With having 300-350 chips left, you can still play. You can still easily make a comeback and win. Lay it down.
If I get trips on the flop, and the flush draw is there, I will raise as a deterrent. Only I won't raise a lot. Maybe 75, 100 or 125. Then, if he doesn't get it on the turn, I double the previous to 150, 200 or 250.
Then if he theoretically makes the flush on the river, I just check. I am in less than ½ my stack and I tried to deter him. Sometimes, if I get a caller after the initial raise, I'll check on the turn and save the chips. Generally speaking, chasers will pay as little as they can to see the next card. You tried to raise them out initially; it didn't work, so check it in.
It works both ways though. Say you are the chaser and your opponent makes the big raise, 450, on the flop, and the 250 on the turn. You call, river comes, and your flush isn't realized. Fold it up.
A lot of times, I will see folks with the busted flush raise the other guy, trying to bluff that they weren't chasing the flush the whole time.
This is silly.
As we know, the opponent has the nut trips and is happy to call, or re-raise whatever you are willing to throw out there. With the busted flush, check it down. You are "pot-committed", you think. No. You spent a lot of money to see the river card; you didn't make your hand, fold it down and see other hands.
You have to know to fold down a losing hand. More often than not, you know you have a loser. You chased a few big bets with your pair of 10's, and a third 10 never fell. There is a K and a Q on the board. Do you honestly think you have a chance?
People were raising, or calling your raises. Now, after the river card, they are raising again. Fold it down. Sure, they may be bluffing. They may be representing the flop.
YOU ONLY KNOW, FOR SURE, WHAT YOU HAVE!
You know you have a pair of 10's, and it's just not good enough. There will be other hands. Fold down a losing hand.
If you don't call, and you do the right thing and fold it down, you can now try to rebuild. If you call, and lose the hand, you are done. Nobody wants to be short-stacked, but you will be there many times during your poker career.
The only exception to folding down a losing hand is when the blinds will eat you up. Say, if your opponent is trying to put you all-in, and all you have left is 100 chips or so anyway, and the blinds are 100, or 200 or 300 etc, you may just want to call and make sure he isn't bluffing. Just for your own sanity.
You know he isn't, and you know you have a loser, but the blinds are going to kill you. You will be relying on luck to get back ahead, and luck is something you don't want to rely on playing poker. Perhaps you should call him down and see if it all was a ruse.
This is the only exception.
If all you have left is 100, and the blinds are 50 or less, or more importantly, there are a bunch of people left in, you will get a lot of looks at hands for your 100 chips. You can pick your time to play, and try to double up.
A chip, a chair, and a prayer.