I get a lot of the ideas for my submissions to Muppet Poker from Yahoo Answers, because I see the same questions pop up time and time again. I’ll generally only pick a topic to write about if I’ve seen very little information about it elsewhere… Hence this article. Cold decking is a method of cheating in poker (and, for that matter, in any card game). Basically, the name refers to switching the deck during the game, and is derived from the fact that the new deck is colder (temperature-wise) than the old deck that was in play. You can switch decks all you want on sites like PokerStars.net and FullTiltPoker.net.
What this really mean is that someone’s introducing a stacked deck into play. This can advantage both players and casinos. Casinos? Yes, Casinos.
Player Advantage
In home games, usually the dealer button is rotated around the table along with the cards and everybody takes turns at dealing. Your sly friend has another deck sitting under the table that has been stacked to his advantage and he gives this the old switch-a-roo to get it up on the table. He then gives the deck a quick false shuffle, a few false cuts and deals the cards. Low n Behold, he’s got pocket Aces, and takes down the pot.
Casino Advantage
When I say “casino” here, I mean the term in the loosest sense possible. Any poker games that are collecting rake are casinos here, including your beloved poker rooms, Bodog.com and PokerStars.com.
I am not saying that all casinos do it (though, I am quite sure there are a few that do), but it is quite feasible, especially in online poker rooms. Basically, cold-decking in this sense would not be favorable to any one player in particular. Rather, it would give a couple of players significantly strong hands, in order to promote aggressive betting (in fact, in online poker, it’d be feasible for the cards to be dealt to the most statistically-proven aggressive players) in order to build a larger pot. As you all know, a larger pot = a larger rake. (For those that are still not following, a larger rake = more money for the casinos!)
I could go on and on at how people can rip you off at pocker… But then this site wouldn’t be about poker, it’d be about card manipulation!
A key aspect of poker at PokerStars (that is remarkably under-credited) is changing up your game. You never bluff? Bullshit. If you’re serious: you both suck at poker and at reading other people at the poker table. Please refer to earlier articles on Muppet Poker!! It’s time to learn to bluff…
By now, you should be able to discern between whether or not your opponent has a strong hand, or a weak hand. You may not (yet) know how to use this to your advantage besides when not to call, but it’s time to learn about when to bet. A perfect metaphor for bluffing is as follows (I think it was Daniel Negreanu who said it):
Bluffing is like a story. You’re trying to convince the other player that you’ve got X,Y cards when you’ve really got A,B cards. You do this by betting – through a beginning, middle and an end.
Here’s what I call blatant stupidity:
You’re at www.PokerStars.de playing the board & the flop, turn and river have all come down – every round has been checked – and now the river is knocked onto you, sitting on the button. What do you do? Throw in a bet, about the pot-size, in the hopes of stealing the pot. Stupid. More than likely someone will call you on your bluff with a mediocre pair, or even ace high. You told an unconvincing story.
Here’s how to bluff properly in poker:
Ideally, you should start your bluff pre-flop. (Starting after the flop is fine too, if there are few players left in the pot already) Tell your story – you raise 3x the big blind, everyone folds with the exception of one other player.
It’s now heads up poker on Poker Stars.de; you’re holding 3,8o and your opponent is holding A10d. Flops falls Q, 10, 3. You caught a pair, but so did your opponent. You throw 5,500 into a pot that’s now 9,000. Your opponent calls. Turn: Q. Now, you can throw in another bet (remember, you can probably guess that your opponent doesn’t have top pair or better, otherwise he’d have re-raised with his nice kicker that he would *have* to be holding) or you can check and see what he does. Checking is the wrong move – you’ll show him weakness and he’ll probably bet to see where his two pair is at anyway (and then you’ll either have to fold or re-raise him to save/win your money) Throw out your bluff (which will always be the final bet in this situation), and you’ll chase your opponent out of the pot.
Yes, bluffing does require a lucky flop sometimes. But hey, you still had the worse hand and told your story to your opponent who now thinks he “read” you like a picture book. Don’t show your hand, you’ll only show that you’re being an ass 
How much money should you spend playing poker??
If you’re only looking for fun (or are a novice), then you shouldn’t invest more than what is “fun” to lose. You can also play for free at Full Tilt Poker and PokerStar.net. We understand that it’s never fun to lose, but I guess this amount is just something that you’re not going to worry about if you do lose it.
If you’re looking to play a little more seriously, and actually use it to earn a consistent income, then you’d better be prepared to manage your finances properly! Be prepared to bank 300 big bets (big blinds) at the specific limit that you’re playing. If you’re playing 2/4$, you should have a bankroll of $1200 (simple math: 4*300). This will prevent you from losing your entire bankroll because you were stiffed.
It’s a great idea to take note of your session records. The way I did this was to create an Excel spreadsheet, with a column for Date, Buy-In, Cash-Out. Down the bottom is an aggregate “score”, if you will, of how much you’ve lost/won in total. It’s also handy for tax purposes!
Whilst Matty and I have discussed calculating poker pot odds in the past, we haven’t yet discussed another important piece of information to know: Implied Poker Odds. This basically refers to calculating your odds based on the current pot value and the potential pot value.
Hypothetically, you’re in a game at www.PokerStars.net with 5 other players at the poker table. The hole cards have been dealt and you take a look: Jh3h. The pot is $15 after the blinds. The 3rd and 4th position fold while the last player calls, you follow, making 35$ total.
The flop is: 9hQdQh. You’ve got a relatively decent chance of making a flash draw (~35%) and it will be Jack high (technically, Queen high. But because everyone plays that card… you get the idea.)
You watch the action: the SB bets folds, BB bets 40, the last player folds, and the ball is in your court. Do you call or fold?
Gut reaction is call; your chances of completing a flush are decent, and there’s an outside (real outside) chance of completing either a straight or a straight-flush. Whilst it’s true that other players could be holding either a full book, or a higher flush, there’s very little chance of this.
Pot odds would advise you to fold. Your instinct is right, though, this is not a hand you should back away from. The potential winnings you will get from completing you flush, make up for the difference in the call.
The dealer flips the turn – 4h. You’ve got your flush but keep your face blank. Big blind calls, the other player calls – you raise to $15. As expected, the blind checks but your opponent meets your bet. After the river, the blind folds while your loose opponent checks. You call; your opponent calls and you show your flush – his cards turn out to be Queen-high trips. In the end, you win a hell of a lot more than the original $55 that you would have folded on.
The succeeding table gives you an insight to the odds of you completing certain hands in a regular game of texas hold’em at StarPoker. You will not need to know *all* of these, but it is important to have a general understanding of the chances of certain situations coming to fruition.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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.
Slow playing is risky business… A lot of poker players at FullTilt Poker that *think* they’re good at poker will slow play way too often.
Basically, here’s a list of hands that a person might slow-play:
- They’ve flopped their set.
- They’ve nailed their flush.
- They’ve nailed their straight.
- They’ve flopped two pair.
- They’ve booked up.
When slow playing, you must note what is actually on the board! I’ve seen far too many players bust their hand by slow playing their set, or their two pair, when there’s a flush draw on the board. Observe. Check to see if there are hands that have a reasonable chance of beating you:
- Is there a flush draw out there?
- A straight draw?
- If you’ve flopped a flush holding two low cards, you’ve got to keep in mind that other people are still drawing to a higher flush.
You must not overvalue your hand; it’s great you’ve flopped your set with your pocket pair, but you cannot slow play it if there’s a potential flush out there. It’s just not safe betting. You’re letting people draw cheaply – is your hand strong enough?
A great time to slow-play:
- You’ve flopped the nuts (or a very strong hand.. i.e. 7d, 7s or Kd, Kh)
- There are minimal draws on the board. (3d, 7h, Ks)
- The pot is small.
- You want your opponents to catch up a bit. You’re so far ahead that it is very unlikely they will catch up completely.
Hopefully another player at Full Tilt Poker has caught a pair of kings and will call you down, but you want to check this one out and let others improve their hands so that they bet and they think they’re ahead.
A bad time to slow-play:
- You’ve flopped your set. (Hole cards: 2s, 2d)
- The flop holds 2 suited cards, and they’re also connected. (7d, 8d, 2h)
- The pot is large, and there are still 4 other players in it.
What will happen in the latter example is that people have great odds to call with their drawing hands, so you must be careful even when betting aggressively. Just don’t slow play!
Muppet Rule #1: Don’t overvalue your hand!
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.
