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Position

April 16, 2010

Your position at the poker table during a hand should have a big influence on the way you play any hand. Your position can determine how much money you win, or even whether or not you actually win the hand.

Position in poker is something that is all too often overlooked by newcomers to the game, and sometimes even by some of the more experienced players. To become a solid player, you have to exercise good poker strategy and use position to your advantage. If you are not always trying to keep aware of your position at the table, then you are leaving a big hole in your game.

Your position in each hand is determined by the placement of the ‘button’. The ‘button’ is the dealer’s seat and all actions must take place one after another in an anticlockwise motion from player to player, starting with the player to the immediate left of the dealer.

The group of players who will be the first few to act on each betting round are known as players in ‘early position’, and therefore the players who will be the last few to act on each round are known as the players in ‘late position’. As you might have already guessed, the players in between these two groups are known as players in ‘middle position’. The button is the best seat in the hand because that player will be acting last on every round of the hand, except only for pre-flop.

The players who are in late position have an advantage over the other players at the table because they will be the last to act on every betting round. This means that they are able to see how their opponents act and play their hand before they have to decide how to play their own hand.

For example, if a player in late position sees an opponent check before them, they can infer that there opponent has a weak hand, and so they may decide to make a bluff to try and take down the pot. If the positions had been switched around however, the player now in early position will have a harder time trying to run a successful bluff, because they no longer have any information on the strength of their opponent’s hand. Being out of position in any hand can cause many problems, and hinder any good Texas Holdem strategy you might posses.

When deciding whether or not to enter a pot you should always be considering your position at the table. If you are one of the first to act you have to remember that your opponents will have access to more information about your hand on each betting round, and so will be able to have the greater ability to bluff you off of your hand if you show any weakness. Knowing how to bluff in poker is important, but even more important is knowing when to bluff.

If you intend to play a hand from early position, you should make sure it is a premium hand to give yourself the best chance of winning. Consequently, you can loosen up your starting hand requirements in the later positions because you will have the advantage of acting last on each round.

Mathematics and Poker

April 16, 2010

A big question amongst many poker players is whether or not you need a good knowledge of poker mathematicsto be a winning poker player. The simple answer is that it is by no means essential to incorporate mathematics into every situation, but by doing so you should be giving yourself more of an edge. The maths involved in poker decisions is not complex by any means, and anyone with a standard level of education is able to perform the calculations quickly in their heads whilst at the poker table.

Mathematics can be used in poker to work out the probability of certain cards being dealt at any point during the hand. If we are able to work out the probabilities, we can then determine whether or not it is worth calling a bet to chase after a draw. So obviously if we can work out that a certain draw is unlikely to be completed by the river, we will be less inclined to call big bets to try and catch those cards. Using the probability of completing a draw along with the amount you have to call in relation to the pot to figure out whether it is profitable to chase after a draw is called pot odds.

Pot odds can be worked out calculating the number of outs in relation to the number of cards left in the deck as well as the bet amount we have to call in relation to the size of the pot, then these number are compared to work out if a call is profitable.

For example, if we are on the flop and we have a flush draw, there are 9 cards left in the deck to complete our hand. There are 47 cards in total left in the deck, 38 of which will not make our draw, so by putting these numbers together we get a ratio of 38:9, or put more simply, 4:1 odds of making our flush by the next card. Therefore, for every 4 cards that will not make our hand, the other 1 card will. If you find this method difficult, you can use poker odds charts to help you quickly figure the odds out.

The next step is to work out the ratio between the size of the bet we have to call and the total amount in the pot. So if the size of the pot is $50 and we have to call $10 to try and hit our flush, the odds we are being given are 50:10, or put more simply, 5:1. Now when comparing the two ratios, we have 4:1 odds of completing our hand with 5:1 odds to try and hit our hand. This means that the odds are in our favour because the odds we are getting from the pot are greater than the odds we are getting from the cards. Therefore if we make the call, this will be a profitable call in the long run.

As mentioned, mathematics is all about winning money from online Texas Holdem in the long run. Just because you are able to work out the pot odds for each individual hand, it does not mean that you are more likely to win the hand. You may lose many hands in a row, but as long as you have the correct pot odds to call each time, in the long run you will come out on top as a winner. Poker mathematics is a great weapon to add to your poker arsenal, and it is good to know when you should and should not call bets for each drawing situation.

Mistakes in Poker

December 10, 2009

Here we go over some of the mistakes commonly played in poker. Read more

3 Tips For The Beginner Poker Player

August 27, 2009

So you like the idea of playing poker online. Although the actual game and rules of poker are fairly simple, the skill behind the game is another thing.

The best thing to do before you start depositing money into a game you little about, is to familiarise yourself with the rules of betting, calling , raising and folding. You need to know the hand ranks. You don’t want to be betting on what you think is a winning hand when in reality it isn’t.

Here are three tips to get you started on the road to being a poker player.

• Probably the best way to familiarise yourself with the poker room is to play on the play section. You won’t have to worry about betting all your savings while you’re still figuring out what button does what. Arranging to ‘meet’ friends online and play on the play money tables. Most poker sites offer this service and if not there is always the find a friend service.
• Experiment with different poker strategies to find the poker style and poker play that suits you. Don’t just try one type of strategy at the beginning; use this chance to try out different strategies. Playing just one style makes it very easy for more skilled poker players to pick up on your play and tells. When you first start playing it can be very frustrating to get bullied around the table by the more advanced player.
•  If you win a few big hands when you first start out, don’t let it go to your head. You still got a lot of learning ahead of you. Keep a level head on your good days as well as your bad days. It will help you concentrate better and in turn make you a better player.

 Poker does have an element of luck in it, but as always the luck will run out and this is when the skilful poker player comes through.