The continuation bet is pretty much an automatic bet that you make when you’ve raised pre-flop. This shows aggression. The purpose: steal as many pots as possible and mask the true strength of your hand.
Lets start with an example:
You have AJs in late position, a full 2/4 NL game. There are 3 limpers, you raise to 15, and only one player calls. The flop comes out 2, 7, 10. Rags. Your opponent has checked, and now you’ve got two options:
- Check in turn, and show weakness.
- Throw out a continuation bet. Most of the time you’ll take the pot down.
You need to understand that this continuation bet does not mean you should start a betting war every, single time that you raise at Poker Stars. It’s sole purpose is to steal as many pots as possible, whilst masking hand-strength. If someone re-raises, and you haven’t hit, run!
This is a very important aspect of the game for every poker player. Luckily, as a Texas hold-em player on FullTilt Poker.net, the pot odds and odds of completing your poker hands are relatively easy to calculate compared to other variation of poker.
In this article, I will just teach you quite an easy way to calculate poker odds at the table. This will give you a fairly accurate idea of what your odds will be. The downside to this shortcut is that it is not 100% accurate, but it is very, very close to the real odds if you were to calculate them the long(er) way.
You may be asking why knowing your odds is so important. This is simple really, by knowing your chances of completing your hand and winning the pot, this will give you good information so that you can make informed decisions about when to call, and in the long run make you a consistent winner.
As an example, if you were to gamble at FullTiltPoker on something as simple as a flip of a coin, you would be expecting 1:1 on your money as there is a 50% chance of it being either heads or tails. If you played this all night you should break even. Now for arguments sake somebody offered you 2:1 on your money based on a coin flip this would make it a very profitable thing to play. In theory you should lose half of the flips – but the ones that you do win, you will be making 2:1 on your money and, in the long run, come out in front.
The first thing you will need to know when calculating the chances of making your hand are your outs. What cards will make my hand?
For instance if you are holding two hearts, and the flop also contains to hearts you are drawing to a flush with two cards still to come. Now there are still 9 hearts in the deck that can complete the flush for you.
In the short cut method I am about to teach you consider each of your outs to be worth 2% then multiply that by how many cards are still to come. So for your flush draw you calculation should be as follows
9 outs X 2% = 18% 18% X two cards to come = 36%
As you can see you have about a 36% (By calculating the long way you will find your odds are 35%, so you can see the shortcut is very close) chance of making your hand, which means you will make it about 1/3 of the times you play it.
Does this mean I should only call one in every three times I flop a flush draw?
No, the answer to that question is you should call based on the pot odds.
Pot odds sound scary but are very simple, they are merely just the money in the pot (plus the bet) in ratio to how much it will cost you to call.
For instance, if there is $40 in the pot and your opponent bets $10 the pot odds are 5:1, which means you will need to win the hand 1 out of every 6 times to break even.
Now you know that you are going to make your flush and win the pot 1 out of every 3 times, so in the long run you will make a tidy profit if your opponent offers you odds like this.
So as you can see if the pot odds are greater than the odds of making your hand you should call as in the long run this is profitable. But if the pot odds are shorter than your hand odds you should generally fold.
Of course this is just a quick guide so that you know how to calculate poker odds for your own use. You will need to consider many more aspects of the hand at Poker Stars.com before deciding whether to call, fold or raise. Things such as “implied odds” need to be taken into account, and of course the obvious things such as if your opponent is bluffing.
I will go into more depth about pot odds and ‘implied odds’ in the coming weeks, but for now I want you to get just a general idea about how to use pot odds and give you the basic calculation to assist you in your game play.
Keep updated for more articles about pot odds and ‘implied odds” in the coming weeks
Position at the table at a site like Full Tilt is an underestimated part of poker game-play, and – if you know how to use your table position wisely – you’ll save a lot more money. I’ll start by defining just exactly what position is: basically, it’s your place at the table relative to the dealer button.
Poker Terms to know:
- Under the Gun – First person to act pre-flop. (Person after big blind)
- Middle Position – 2nd to 5th after BB.
- Late position – anything after middle position, right back round to the dealer button.
- Full-Ring – This means the table is full, it has 10 players.
- Short-handed – Fewer players, ~5 or 6.
Under the Gun.
You really cannot limp with anything shy of a good poker hand. How do you know what a ‘good’ hand is in this particular situation? Put it this way: is this the sort of hand that you’d call a raise with?
A lot of players at FullTiltPoker and other poker strategy articles will tell you not to limp, at all. I can’t agree with this strategy whole heartedly; to the contrary, I feel a call (under the gun) of moderate suited connectors is usually not a waste of money. The underlying principle is that because there are so many players still to act, it’s more likely that a raise will occur and you’ll be forced to muck your mediocre hand.
Middle Position.
Generally, raise with pockets over 7′s, and any AJ or higher (AJ, AQ, AK). Of course, you must also keep in mind (when raising) who has already called. Note how many callers have called before you. If there aren’t any, raising with your big Ace is not so strongly advised. You still want to see the flop.
Late Position.
Again, you must observe the number of callers prior to you. Are there a lot of limpers? Play your weaker hands.
As a general rule, you must remember that small blind and the other early positions are the worst positions to be in, and the dealer is always the best seat. (last to act.) You must also understand though, that there are large advantages in acting and betting first – it is much harder to call a bet, than it is to make one.
There are two different types of poker tells: acting tells, and the unconscious tells. How do you know if a tell is unconscious or a deliberate act? If a player thinks that you’re watching them, and then exhibits a tell that we’ve gone over (or you’ve read elsewhere) in an obvious manner, they’re probably acting. This article doesn’t cover acts. (Another will, mind you.)
An unconscious poker tell is a tell that a player will expose when they think you’re not looking… they won’t even know they’re doing it.
Impatience
Tapping the poker table
There are two people left in a pot, yourself and Player X. You’re first to act, you check and then Player X bets. He then starts tapping the table. Most players confuse this poker tell if they notice it: they think, he’s being impatient because he’s bluffing and just wants to claim this pot. Wrong. He doesn’t even notice that he’s tapping the table, and, in fact, he’s got a very strong hand. In these instances, even with a strong hand, you should only call. (Or fold)
Shuffling hole cards
If you notice this after a player has bet, it’s essentially the exact same poker tell as above. Pass, or only call – don’t raise.
Guarding hole cards.
A lot of players do this. I did it myself before becoming aware that this actually gave away information. Take a look around the table on www.PokerStars.com at various stages of hands to see who exhibits this tell – you’ll probably spot it on 50% of all poker players. It’s apparently an intrinsic part of human nature to cover or ‘protect’ things that are of value to us… including cards.
Covering of mouth.
This is more commonly seen in amateur players. As a ploy to hide their face, they’ll raise their hand to their mouth – subconsciously believing that this will aid in them pulling off their bluff. If you see a player do this, don’t hesitate to call with bottom or a medium pair. Be careful when utilizing this tell; a lot of players may naturally raise their hands to their mouth regularly & obviously they’re not going to be bluffing each time they do this. Take note of which players do this frequently, as this tell cannot be applied to them.
Quiet = Bluff.
A player’s usually talking, laughing and just being generally obnoxious… Now, they’re actively betting into a poker pot and have suddenly fallen silent. What does this usually tell you? Well, the player’s trying not to instigate a call by angering anybody else. Basically, they’re limiting their moves and avoiding drawing attention to themselves while bluffing. A good way to help recognize this tell FullTilt.com is by asking the player a simple question. Even just “how was Melbourne’s football game on the weekend, hey?” – if the person would usually flow with an answer, and suddenly fumbles for words and can’t find a sentence to put together, they’re probably bluffing.
Talkative = Strong.
On the other hand, a poker player who casually talks about anything that interests them during a poker hand is probably not bluffing. To the contrary, it is more than likely that they’ll have a strong hand.
As a general rule for recognizing bluffs, you’ll need to analyze what sort of person the poker player is. When a player suddenly acts somewhat out of character, it’s highly likely that they’re bluffing or are weak. Remember that these tells aren’t gospel and will vary from player to player, and they’ll also be a lot more subtle with some players.
Ever been in a friendly free game of poker with a few friends and thought “well stuff it, its only a freepoker game what do I have to lose by calling this raise with 2 5 off suit?”
I’ll tell you exactly what you have to lose, and more importantly what you don’t get the chance to gain.
First and foremost, if you are serious about improving the way you play poker online and refining your poker skills, play every game, ever set of cards, as you would if there were real stakes on the line. Although there may not be an immediate reward for playing your hand well, like a nice juicy cash pot; in the bigger picture the reward can be much greater, it will be experience, and that isn’t something you can win or buy!
What better way to improve your game than when there is no money on the line? For this reason free games can be invaluable. Free games of poker are a great way to fine tune your skills and try to make plays you wouldn’t other wise have the guts to make.
Knowledge is another great asset that you stand to gain from playing in free games. You can work on learning to read your opponents at no cost to your hip pocket.
When I first started playing at PokerStars.de I focused only on what cards I had in my hand and the cards on the board. After a while I realized that poker was much, much more than just what cards I had, its also what my opponent is holding (which can be even more important than the cards that you hold in your own hand). So I figured I had to learn how to read players and put them on a hand.
Now how did I go about learning these skills that I needed? Free tournaments of course! I would go down to one or two free poker tournaments per week and do something that may seem a bit strange at first but ended up teaching me a lot. I would play my hands as I usually would, but every fourth or fifth I would play my hand without looking at my cards! I would be playing the other players in the pot, if I thought someone was bluffing I would call them regardless of my two faceless cards, if I put them on a genuine hand I would fold. This cost me no real money to do, and it allowed me to see if my read was correct when the other player was forced to open his hand. By doing this I gained valuable skills that I will have with me for the rest of my life.
Secondly have you heard the saying “you play as you train”? well think of free games as your training! if you fool around calling on long odds, entering pots with hands you usually wouldn’t, and in general just playing poor poker you will teach yourself bad habits and these could be the difference of coming out a winner or a looser when it counts!
Poker is a game that can never be mastered, and there is always something to learn no matter how many years you have been playing at PokerStar.de!
So don’t dismiss a free game as just a waste of time, and just fool around. Instead see them as a great opportunity to improve your game, fine tune your skills and perhaps make a great play or two that you other wise wouldn’t have the courage to make.
When you get dealt suited cards on www.BodogLife.com, they will obviously be either connected or gapped; I will start by giving you some basic advice for playing the suited connecting cards.
Suited connecting cards are fantastic hands to draw with especially if they are high cards such as AK, KQ, OJ, I would suggest you raise with these hands and obviously if someone else raises first you should call (unless you know your opponent well and know he/she would seldom raise with any hand smaller than AA, KK, QQ and perhaps AK)
Whilst these are fantastic hands to draw with, they are not fantastic hands in themselves. Yes they have the potential to grow into very powerful hands, but if the community cards don’t help you improve, your hand could quickly become worthless. Its important to realize this and be prepared to lay these cards down if its necessary to do so. I’ve played against a lot of players who also fall in love with these hands and are very reluctant to let them go regardless of what comes on the flop, turn and river.
When playing the lower and middle connected suited cards 8-7, 7-6, 6-5; these hands you should aim to see the flop as cheaply as possible and if not aided by the flop get out, also keep in mind that even though you may improve your hand other opponents can also improve their hands.
Alternatively when being dealt suited cards on BodogPoker they may be gapped/ spaced; obviously the smaller the space the more chance you have of making a strait with these hands. For example to use both your cards in a straight when they are gapped by 3 eg. 9-5 the only possible cards to make this straight would be 8-7-6. Whereas to use both your cards and they were for arguments sake 9-7 there are many more possibilities (J-10-8, 10-8-6, or 8-6-5).
Other tips: While pre-flop suited cards have no more worth than unsuited cards of the same rank, they do have one thing that the unsuited cards don’t have, and that is the potential to make a flush.
With suited cards its much more acceptable to play them with larger gaps than the unsuited cards for the exact reason above. Particularly if one of them is an ace. In late position you may even want to enter a pot with Ace-2 suited just for the pure fact of the flush potential. Note: when playing the ace with a suited low card beware of any aces that my fall on the community cards, because you could run into kicker problems if you are not careful. On the upside though you could always pair your low card as well which can often pay huge dividends as players with ace and a large kicker (such as a king) will problem think that he/she has the best hand and will be very reluctant to lay it down.
Aces
How many times have you heard players on PartyPoker.net complain that their “aces got cracked” or how much they hate getting pocket aces because they always loose?
There are two main reasons that this happens to poker players
A) They don’t raise (or raise enough) pre-flop in the hope that more players will enter the pot and that they will be able to slow play their aces to win a larger pot.
B) They fall in love with their cards. (See Falling in love with your cards)
If you are lucky enough to be dealt pocket Aces it is mandatory that you raise no matter your position. If someone re-raises you, re-raise them right back with no fear because at this point at time there is no other hand that can possibly beat yours.
If you fail in an attempt to slow play (which is also a very successful strategy), don’t be too disappointed if someone outruns you on the flop, turn, or river. Also as explained in Falling in love with your cards on Full Tillt Poker, you must always keep an opened mind to what other players might be holding, and if it is obvious that you are probably beat fold your hand; this will not be the last time you get dealt pocket aces and you must realize that although they are the strongest starting hand, they are not always the hand that will eventually win the pot.
Kings
Pocket kings are the next strongest hand you can be dealt in Texas hold-em poker. As with aces you should raise from any position at the table, and re-raise if someone else raises. The chances that one of your opponents holding pocket aces is very slim so don’t be afraid to re-raise someone if they raise the bet first.
The main thing to be wary of when playing pocket kings is the community cards. If the community cards hold an ace this could be a large danger for your kings; many players, particularly armatures, will call raises with any ace no matter how small their kicker may be. For this reason an ace on the board is always a large threat, particularly when multiple players have entered the pot.
Queens Jacks and Tens
When holding these cards you most likely have one of the strongest if not the strongest starting hand at the table. The main thing to worry about when holding these cards is once again the community cards, but this time its much more of a danger as there are more over cards that opponents could be holding. You MUST raise large enough to push players holding aces and kings with weak kickers out of the pot, this will increase the chances or your pair holding up. You must also be prepared to lay down these pocket pairs if the flop contains over cards and you believe that an opponent could be holding one of them!
Middle and low pairs (9-2)
These middle and low pairs are best played in a late position; or only play in an early position if it is cheap enough to see the flop.
With middle pairs like 9 8 7 on a site like Ful Tilt Poker you may play these in any position (obviously the later the position the better as having other players act first will give you valuable information in aiding you to make the correct decisions). With these pairs you may be lucky enough to flop a set (three of a kind) and hopefully one or more of your opponents is holding over pairs, as this tends to be a very profitable play in Texas hold-em. Alternatively all the cards may be lower than your pocket pair leaving you with top pair (ruling out another play holding higher pockets), the main risk of this low flop means that the cards will be very close together which could potentially give an opponent a straight.
With the lower pockets you are almost certainly aiming to make a set and trap an opponent with a high pair or two pair. When this comes off it is very effective, but keep in mind the odds of flopping a set are only about 1 in 10 times. I would advise you to call in a late position, and if an early position (such as the blinds) call if it is cheap enough to do so.
Remember: you can always fold your hand once you have seen the flop, so seeing a cheap flop with low pockets can be quite profitable.
This is probably the most basic but most efficient way to start improving your poker immediately!
Considering that poker is a game where winners are decided by the decisions that they make, by simply refining the hands that you enter a pot with will decrease the amount of pots you lose, and also increase the amount you win. Choosing which hands to play at TitanPoker.com is the first decision every poker player will have to make every single hand, so it is a much more important decision than you may think.
Obviously your position on the table will greatly determine the range of starting hands that you will be willing to play. Also the size of the blinds (typically if in a tournament where blinds are continually increasing) will help determine the cards that you should consider entering a pot with.
In general you will be able to play a much broader range of cards at Titan Poker.com when in a late position (such as on the button) because the chances of there being a raise from this point is much slimmer. In an early position the range of cards you should play will be substantially smaller than a mid to late position (especially if in a poker game where players are raising quite frequently)
There are 169 different combinations of hole-cards that you can be dealt in Texas hold-em;
These hands can be grouped as
Pairs
Suited cards (connected and gapped/ spaced)
Unsuited cards (connected or gapped/spaced)
For strategies and tips on how to play each of the above types of combinations simply click on them.
Most people pay little attention to how another person stacks their poker chips, as they think it bares little to no significance on how they play. Wrong. Here’s why…
Chip Stacking
Neat, tidy chip-stack
These players are generally tight players. (Refer to my beginner’s guide to poker strategy for elaboration) They’re at FullTiltPoker to gamble, but not to lose their money. A player like this will usually fold if the odds are against them. This tell tells us two things:
- We should scarcely enter a pot against this player with a mediocre or marginal poker hand.
- This one is more important to us. A lot of players will actually stack their winnings separately for them to keep track of. Why does this help us? Well, when betting, we can bet more than this persons winnings and – given their nature – they’ll probably fold unless they’ve got a rock-solid hand. (Something you should probably deduce before trying to bet them out!)
Messy, scattered chip-stack.
This lets us know that the player is loose. They’re at FullTiltPoker.com to gamble, ready to splash some chips around and you can use this to your advantage. If a player is really this uncaring (sometimes you’ll find players in between) and their stack is all over the place, they’re literally a calling station. Just watch out for suckouts!
I just won a big pot.
I couldn’t really think of a fitting heading for this one… But anyway, this refers to when players have just won a big pot and still haven’t had time to stack their poker chips yet. More often than not, they’ll see their hole cards before stacking them and then splash some chips into the pot with a marginal hand – something you should be wary of. More so than that, if a player starts betting into a pot after they’ve just won one, then you should also know that in most cases they’re not bluffing. To the contrary, they’ll probably have quick a solid hand.
As we all know, falling in love in real life always has a chance of ending in heart break; although it might be amazing at the start, things could turn sour faster than you think.
The same principles can apply in poker. I’ve seen far too many player fall in love with their hole cards, then be completely oblivious to what their opponents could be holding. Metaphorically speaking, this is the same as being oblivious to a partner that could be cheating on you.
You just don’t do it.
Recently, I was playing poker at Full Tilt Poker against an opponent who did exactly the thing that I am trying to warn you against. Now this opponent was no amateur, they were quite an experienced poker player and perhaps shouldn’t have made the mistake that they did, but this just goes to show that anyone can fall in love with their cards.
This opponent was lucky enough to be dealt what we all hope for: Aces in the hole. He was on big blind, and when most players limped in, he raised. I was on the button with 10 jack of hearts, called his raise, as did one other player before me. Up until this point, my opponent has played his hand flawlessly, he raised to narrow the field of players that could beat him as well as stopping players with weaker cards seeing the flop cheaply.
So now there are three players in the pot and we see the flop, eight of clubs, nine of hearts and ace of hearts. BANG just like seeing the woman of his dreams my opponent was in love, he had flopped his set of aces. But – as you can see – I had flopped a flush draw and also an open ended strait draw.
Straight away, he bet into the pot and the other player folded. With so many outs, it made the odds a no-brainer to call. The turn was a lousy 3 of spades, no help to me. Not to worry though, as I still had 15 outs left in the deck. Immediately he bet again, not enough to make the odds too long for me to call though, it seems as though he was trying to keep me in the pot to extract as much money from me as possible. I call, and on the river falls the five of hearts.
Completely oblivious to the third heart that had just fallen, he bet into me with no fear and I immediately raised him to not give him anytime to think. Without too much thought process, he pushes all in. I call, knowing I have him dominated. With much authority and pride, he shows me his pretty set of aces. I calmly show him my flush and the look on his face – I will never forget, it was as if he had just caught his partner in the act of cheating. He got up from his seat and walked off without saying a word.
In hindsight, he will know he made a mistake, but in the heat of the moment and the love for the “monster” he had just been dealt, his eyes were wide shut and didn’t even consider what I could be holding. He isn’t the first player to make this mistake on Full Tilt, and certainly won’t be the last. We have all made this mistake and when we look back on it we say “DAMN, how did I not know that he had made a straight”. A quick re-assessment of our hand and what our opponents could be calling with can save you a lot of money in the long run.
Just like a relationship that’s gone sour, its best to release your hand when its obvious that you have been outrun, no matter how much love you had for the cards when they were first dealt!
