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!
Here’s a brief summary of how poker works. It’s actually quite a difficult game to get started just by reading articles, so you’ll need some hands on experience! Go download PokerStars or another online poker room, like FullTiltPoker or PartyPoker.net and start playing for free.
In texas hold em (a poker variant), players receive 2 down-cards as their personal hand (also known as hole cards), after which there is a betting round. 3 community cards are turned simultaneously (called the flop) and another then betting round occurs. The next 2 community cards are turned 1 at a time, with a betting round after each. A player may use any five-card combination from among the community cards and their hole cards. A player can even use all community cards and no hole cards to form their hand (known as “playing the board”). There’s a dealer button to indicate where the deal starts. Usual rules includes the use of 2 blinds (’small’ and ‘big’), but it is possible to play poker with 1 blind, multiple blinds, an ante, or combination of blinds plus an ante.
The object of the game is to form the best possible five card poker hand. This can be achieved through using a combination of your own hole cards and the community cards. Whoever has the strongest hand takes down the pot.
Betting Rounds
1.The dealer deals each player their own 2 hole cards face down.
2.1st betting round (known as the pre-flop betting round)
3.The dealer burns a card then turns over 3 community cards. (known as the flop)
4.2nd betting round
5.The dealer burns 1 card, then flips over 1 as a community card (the turn)
6.3rd betting round
7.The dealer burns 1 card, then flips over 1 community card (the river)
8.Last betting round
9.Showdown (Remaining players show their hand. The aggressor/bettor must show his hand first)
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.
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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
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.
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.
