Squezze

Hi Guys

A squeeze is a bluff made pre-flop in the form of a large raise after there has already been one raise and at least one caller. After one player raises and at least one other player cold calls, a heavy re-raise is made: it is called a squeeze.

The idea behind this move is that the open raiser will find himself squeezed between you and the cold callers not knowing how they will react. The remaining players will rarely have a hand strong enough to call with. Your attack to the dead money in the pot will frequently be successful.

Note that you need to have a strong tight table image and it makes no sense to make this move if the opposition is very loose or the initial raising player only raises a few hands, so that he will rarely fold them.

Poker Bluff

Hi Guys,

What about this one ? Was it so scary ????



We didnt saw the first part of the hand to know if Phil's actions could make us thinking he had pocket kings.....So....

Best regards

Don't do this !!!!

Regards
JotaP

Donk Bet

Donk bet is an unexpected or risky bet made by a player who was not the aggressor in the first place, usualy into a player who was the bet aggressor.

A typical situation for a donkbet is when a player calls a raise in the first round and then bets into the raiser in the next round.

Donkbets started to be dumb moves by inexperienced players but know can also be deceptive maneouvers made to trick an opponent since they are often viewed as weak play. They are also used as blockbets. This means that a small bet is made to keep the opponent from making a large one that could put us out of the hand.

This can also be called a bet out of nowhere.

Rebuy MTT

In Rebuy MTT, should we always rebuy ? And should we always add-on ?
If you won't rebuy, play freezeouts. You must take the right attitude towards R&A MTTs, and that means being willing to rebuy some times if you are playing well and just getting unlucky.
BUT, rebuys should not be always taken. An unskilled player should not rebuy. He doubles his buy-in but does not double his chances of finishing ITM (in the money). On the other hand, the more skill a player has, the more often he should rebuy. The more chips the player has accumulated the less often he should add-on.
Always rebuying and adding on can be a mistake. Most of the time, rebuying and adding on is a good move for the skilled, well bankrolled player.
That's only my opinion, of course....

The Dance

Hi Guys,

Is this a dance ???

Reason to raise pre-flop

In this post, I will describe the reasons to raise pre-flop:

1º Gain position for the rest of the hand
Acting last in a hand on all post-flop streets is an advantage that’s worth your investment. By Raising, you may put out the late position players and, this way, gain position on the hand.

2º Make opponents play more predictably
Poker is all about the deductive course of determining what hole cards your opponent is most likely to hold. When you just limp, you lower the risk of your opponents to enter the hand. By raising it becomes more difficult for most opponents to disguise their hands.

3º Build pots
The larger pots get, the more likely bad opponents are to make mistakes, especially if they’re already committed to the pot.

4º Narrow the field
There are certainly situations where you prefer to play multi-way pots, but the general rule is that the fewer opponents you have, the greater the chance that you are going to win the pot.

5º Frustrate opponents
When you raise preflop, you opponents will have to fold some hands that they would have played if they were allowed to limp. Eventually, most players will get annoyed and try to go over you (but this time you could have the nuts (or close to it)).

6º Take the initiative
In heads up pots, your opponents miss the flop more than they hit. The same is true for you. Whoever takes the lead in the betting pre-flop is likely to win the pot where neither player flops anything. Raising pre-flop creates the presumption that you have something, and when your opponent misses (or flops weak), it dramatically increases the chance that you’ll be able to win the pot with a bet on the flop.
It is this sort of thinking on "raising" that stops your aggression from being pointless and instead develops it into a tool for increasing both your control over the game and your wining rate.

7º For value
Raise strong hands because you make money when people call with worse.

8º To isolate
When a fish limps in, you can often get it heads up with the fish, and outplay them after the flop even when you dont have a good hand.

9º To steal the blinds
Blind stealing is immediately profitable and should be attempted a lot of the time you get the opportunity.

How to get over a bad beat

Anyone out there that is a poker player knows how rough it can be sometimes getting a bad beat, especially when you know the odds. I have learned to deal pretty well with bad beats, but sometimes I just cannot help getting a bit upset. It is really important that you realize how fast things can turn around and that the quicker you get over a bad beat the better.

Be mentally strong, don't lose discipline...Think you just took this horrible beat, but your wife (girlfriend) and/or kids are far more important than this money will ever be (specially if your are using a proper Bankroll management).

The next time you are the victim of a bad beat, try and look at it in the way that you got your opponent to do exactly what you wanted them to do. They made a big mistake, you were way ahead, and they won the pot. That is very likely a positive EV play that you’ve executed perfectly, and even though you did not win it this time, you have actually won.

If you are going to be a successful poker player, things like this cannot affect you. The mentality that “sh** happens” and that you just don’t care about money have to come into play.

Please Behave

Hi Guys,

Poker is not only winning with Aces Kings or AKs. Poker is winning when you have the best hand (even if it is with King High). I don't know what happened before this hand but Phil was way out of line (as mike say on the video).



Regards
JotaP

Playing Pocket Aces

Hi Guys,

Well, the hand that everybody is dreaming with. But how should we play it ?

In my particular opinion, I always raise (I limp 5% of the time with them). I don't want too many people in a pot. Raising preserves my edge. When you slow play pocket aces, you let bad hands see the flop cheap. Getting money into the pot by raising with our bullets is a likely way of making the pot big. If you don't put money into the pot, then you're not building it.

Dan Harrington's advice on poker strategy in Harrington on Hold'em is aimed at tournament play, but looking at his opinion on pocket aces pre-flop is worthwhile for cash games too. Harrington suggests that if you are playing online and no one has entered the pot yet, you should always raise with AA pre-flop. His opinion is that slow playing aces is a way to prevent players from getting a read on you, and players online don't meet up often enough for that to matter. He suggests that in real tournaments you should raise with these hands, in this situation, 80% of the time and just limp in 20% of the time.

Harrington says that going all-in pre-flop with AA should be a rare move, since you do want to win some money, not just the blinds. All in bets dissuade action. The only time you might make this move is if you were at an active table where you had already seen some all in bets get called, and even then, you wouldn't make this move a lot.

In late position, Harrington suggests not raising more than 3 times the big blind with your AA. You want to look like you are trying to steal the big blind. I think if you have had some action before you, like a raise and a re-raise, going all in pre-flop is a good move though.

In early position, Doyle Brunson Super System suggests limping in with AA. He also says that if he is in middle position, and no one else has come in, he will play it the same way. In late position he will raise with them, hoping that someone will re-raise him and he can put them all-in. If other players have come in or bet, then he raises with AA or KK.

In Hellmuth's book “Play Poker Like the Pros”, he gives different advice to players with different levels of experience. His advice to beginners is to go all in pre-flop with AA, KK, QQ, or AK. He does discuss trying to trap other players with pocket aces, but he also points out that it is a risky move that might result in a lot of frustration.

I don’t agree that pushing all in every time you have pocket aces is the best strategy pre-flop. I think it will discourage action and leave you winning some very small pots.

The consensus seems to be that raising with pocket aces is a good strategy, but slow playing them sometimes makes sense too (but timing is important in this situation).

Reasons to Play Limit

Hi Guys,

If you have just arrived to the poker World, your skill may not be the best. So, why not try to start learning by playing limit holdem ?
There are some advantages in playing limit hold'em:

1- You will lose only one more big bet, not 50 or 100, when your opponent makes his hand on the river.

2- If you get caught bluffing, it won't cost you a big part of stack. It's still only one bet.

3- It is a lot easier to put your opponent on a hand by observing his betting patterns.

4- It allows bad players to keep making the same mistakes, providing you more profitability.

5- You can run bad for a year and still have money to play. In No limit hold'em, you could be broke in a week.

Give it a try...

Regards

Aggression Factor

Hi Guys,

There's an important subtlelty to understand regarding AF vis-a-vis someone's looseness. A rock who only sees the flop 15% of the time and folds the flop 50% of the time may produce an AF of 3.0 by merely betting legitimate hands. Because they are so tight, they nearly always have a pair or high cards when they come in. Consequently, the 3.0 AF doesn't actually suggest excessive agression. The mere fact that they're on one of the few hands they didn't fold tells you they are holding strong cards; StraighforwardPlay will lead to a lot of bets and raises.

Generally speaking, an AF below 0.75 is to be considered passive; many poor online players have an AF's of 0.75 or lower. An AF over 1.5 is considered aggressive.

Someone with a very low AF who bets or raises is very likely to have the strength they represent. You must respect their bet when deciding how to play your hand.

Someone with a very high AF is likely to be bluffing or semi-bluffing much of the time. You may call or raise back more.

But you must take into consideration that someone who sees the flop 70% of the time and who has a 1.3, or 1.4 AF is incredibly aggressive. Someone seeing almost every flop can't possibly be catching their cards that often!!! So a high AF tells you they must be bluffing and semi-bluffing, over and over again.

What about your case…..

Most good players suggest that a good player's AF will tend to be above 2.0 and some advise even 3.0. The best advice I can give you is that once your aggression is over 1.5, do not try to to raise it merely for the sake of raising your AF. You either need to add aggression at the right times, or to reduce your bad calls. If your problem is calling too much, adding reckless aggression will not solve your calling problem! If you study when to avoid bad calls, and study when to add appropriate aggression, your AF will rise and so will your profitability. If you just bet all the time, your AF will raise, that’s a fact, but your variance will explode and the results may be disastrous!

John