sportsbook poker

SHORT-STACKING

sportbookpoker — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:49:28 +0000

One excellent way to get used to cash play from an SNG background, without worrying about pot control, is to ’short-stack’. This means to buy into a cash game with the minimum buy-in, usually a 20 big blind stack. Deep-stack cash players often get upset at short-stackers, because you’re forcing them to play for shallower effective stacks than they would like. There are plenty of tables requiring higher minimum buy-ins that these players can patronise.

If your edge is bigger playing with a short stack, then you should absolutely do so. The types of decisions you’ll be faced with as a short-stacker are similar to those during the middle-to-late phase of a sit-n-go. Resteals are key. For instance, suppose you are in the small blind holding a pair of nines. The hijack raises and the button calls. In a deep-stacked situation, you would have to decide whether to call or raise, and then decide on a plan for each of the remaining streets. With a stack of 20 BB, however, the decision is simple: Go all-in pre-flop and don’t look back.

In summary, short-stacking is a good way to transition from SNGs to cash no- limit hold’em. Once you are ready to play with deeper stacks, start by playing a tight-aggressive style, sticking with quality starting hands, even though your game may feature winning loose-aggressive players.

Remember to have a plan for the entire hand. If you don’t want to play for all your chips with a one-pair hand, you might have to check and call where you would normally bet and raise playing a sit-n-go. And lastly, never stop searching for the most profitable table. You win money in any game from the mistakes your opponents make, and weaker players will always make more mistakes.

CASH IS A DIFFERENT ANIMAL The blinds are constant in cash, so there are...
POT CONTROL Depending on your opponent(s) and how strong your hand is,...
How Good Is Your Poker? STARTING THIS MONTH I would like to add a slightly...

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POT CONTROL

sportbookpoker — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:42:02 +0000

Depending on your opponent(s) and how strong your hand is, you want the pot to be somewhere between very small and stack-size. What hand strength is good enough to play for your entire stack? In a sit-n-go, the answer is often top pair or better. Suppose the blinds are 25-50 and you raise to 150 on the button with king-jack. The big blind calls and the flop comes king-high.

With more than 20 percent of your remaining stack now sitting in the middle, you should rarely be hesitant to bet the rest of your chips during the hand. This same hand would play differently in a cash game, however. Suppose it is $1-$2 no-limit hold’em with a $200 buy-in. You raise to $6 on the button with your king-jack and the big blind calls. Now the pot is $13, but you have nearly $200 left. Unless your opponent is very loose, he will almost certainly need a better hand than a pair of kings to put his entire remaining stack in the center with comparatively little already out there.

With your strong top-pair hand, you still want to play a decent-size pot to get paid off by lower pairs and drawing hands. If your opponent checks the flop, tend to go ahead and bet for this reason. If he instead leads out for a pot-size bet, however, you should then often flat-call.

Raising is aggressive, but sets the hand up for a huge pot. This concept is why many good players will bet right into you with a monster hand – if you raise, then they’ve gotten you committed to a very large pot. Think about how big a pot you want to play, and do what it takes to make the pot that size. If that means making a passive call instead of an aggressive raise, or checking behind with a one-pair hand when the pot is already large, then by all means do so.

SHORT-STACKING One excellent way to get used to cash play...
The flop comes KV-96-3+ 2 The flop comes KV-96-3+ and both blinds check to...
DIFFERENCES ARE SIGNIFICANT The strategy differences between cash and SNGs are therefore significant....

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LOOSE-AGGRESSIVE PLAYERS

sportbookpoker — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:41:21 +0000

The loose-aggressive players in your game may be winning opponents, whereas they tend to be losers in SNGs. These players will be more concerned with the bigger pots. They enter with a wide range of starting hands and if they are good players, will play more carefully at the turn and river – trying to use their loose image to get paid off when they have made a strong hand. Understand what they are doing and you’ll do fine.

Next, the deeper average stack sizes in cash make the concept of pot-size control an important one. I discuss this concept at length in my book on heads-up, and the essence is: The stronger your hand, the bigger you want the pot to be.

CASH IS A DIFFERENT ANIMAL The blinds are constant in cash, so there are...
SHORT-STACKING One excellent way to get used to cash play...

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DIFFERENCES ARE SIGNIFICANT

sportbookpoker — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:40:47 +0000

The strategy differences between cash and SNGs are therefore significant. You must play SNGs in a tight-aggressive style early, transitioning to loose-aggressive when the blinds are high and fewer players remain. In a cash game, it is possible to win playing either a tight or loose style – as long as you are still aggressive. If you are inexperienced playing cash, you should begin by playing tight-aggressive. It’s a more straightforward style: You only enter pots with strong starting hands, and then bet for value after the flop. The only downside is the this style is also more predictable.

For instance, when you raise in early potion in a nine-handed game, an observant opponent will know that you ha, one of only a few hands (perhaps pock.- -pairs nines through aces, A-Q or A-K).

If you’re new to cash, you won’t playing the high-stakes games, course, and there are plenty of inobservant low-stakes players who will put off your early position raises wit weaker hands no matter how tight-_- you’ve been playing so far. A somewhere predictable tight-aggressive style :1 fine in these games, but you should, still be aware of how the observant players in the game will perceive you As a compromise, you might raise wit’ the occasional low pocket pair or suit end connectors from early or middle, position.

These hands will balance your range, keep you unpredictable and can still pay off big. Don’t get carried away, though; stick mostly to strong starting hands when you are starting out.

SHORT-STACKING One excellent way to get used to cash play...
LOOSE-AGGRESSIVE PLAYERS The loose-aggressive players in your game may be winning opponents,...
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CASH IS A DIFFERENT ANIMAL

sportbookpoker — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:38:21 +0000

The blinds are constant in cash, so there are no ‘game phases’ as there are in SNGs. The stacks tend to be much deeper stacks in cash than SNGs. This statement is a generalization; you can fall to a 10 BB (big blind) stack in cash without rebuying, and some SNGs start with 100 BB stacks. In general, though, cash is played with stacks of 50-100 BB or deeper, whereas most of the important decisions in SNGs take place with stacks of 20 BB or fewer.

Chips do not change value in cash-game play. In SNG play, it’s important to understand that you are playing for equity rather than chips. Suppose you are one of two big stacks on the bubble. You would not call an all-in from the other big stack unless you had a very large edge, because doing so risks your entire equity when you are almost guaranteed a money finish. Cash play is different, however – chips and money are identical. You are correct to take any edge.

(In practice, you might decline to call off your entire stack in cash with a very small edge, in order to lower variance. In theory, though, you’re correct to seize even the smallest edge.)

SHORT-STACKING One excellent way to get used to cash play...
LOOSE-AGGRESSIVE PLAYERS The loose-aggressive players in your game may be winning opponents,...
POT CONTROL Depending on your opponent(s) and how strong your hand is,...

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A Sit-n-Go Player’s Guide to No – Limit Cash Games

sportbookpoker — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:37:08 +0000

EVEN IF no-limit sit-n-go tournaments (SNGs) are your specialty, it’s helpful to understand the basics of different poker variations and forms. Not only may you find yourself playing different games during your career as a poker player, but learning other variations will increase your understanding of SNGs as well.

In a previous column, we discussed the transition from SNGs to Multi-Table Tournaments (MTTs). Today we will approach cash no-limit hold’em from an SNG background. First, a quick review of how cash play differs from SNGs.

DIFFERENCES ARE SIGNIFICANT The strategy differences between cash and SNGs are therefore significant....
CASH IS A DIFFERENT ANIMAL The blinds are constant in cash, so there are...

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Both opponents check to you again

sportbookpoker — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:23:36 +0000

4 Both opponents check to you again, and you are sitting there with basically nothing. What is your play?

A. Bet B. Check

Many players would reason here that they couldn’t win this hand by checking, and they would be right. But the fact is that you couldn’t win this hand by betting either. You gave up all right to bluff this river when you checked the turn. Checking the turn after raising preflop and betting the flop and then getting called just smells too much like a player from sports book poker who is weak and who is afraid to take another stab at it.

You already know that someone is sitting out there with some kind of made hand. Are you so desperate to win a $13 pot that you are going to risk a huge over-bet bluff against two players in order to get your hands on it? You decide to fire at the pot and make a $10 bet on the end, and the small blind calls you and shows the K, -10+ for top pair – don’t say I didn’t warn you!

The flop comes KV-96-3+ 2 The flop comes KV-96-3+ and both blinds check to...
The turn card is the 24, giving you a flush draw 3 The turn card is the 24, giving you a...

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The turn card is the 24, giving you a flush draw

sportbookpoker — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:20:55 +0000

3 The turn card is the 24, giving you a flush draw. Both blinds check to you. What is your play?

A. Bet B. Check

In this instance it is prudent to check the hand back, as your continuation bet was called by both players and there are no possible draws out there except an inside-straight draw. This means that at least one of your opponents is sitting there with some kind of made hand and is content to let you bluff your money off.

Many players adopt a defensive check/calling mode when they have something mediocre that they believe may be the best hand. Against only one opponent, it may well be correct to fire again, but against two players it would appear that you are going to have to make a flush to win this hand.

How Good Is Your Poker? STARTING THIS MONTH I would like to add a slightly...

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The flop comes KV-96-3+

sportbookpoker — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:20:32 +0000

2 The flop comes KV-96-3+ and both blinds check to you.

What is your play? A. Bet B. check

There are two cards in the playing zone of hands that either get played more often or create some kind of draw, and those cards are the king and the nine. As the preflop raiser, you are well set to represent the king, as you may have an ace-king or king-queen combination or possibly a hand like ace-jack.

Against one opponent, making a continuation bet would be mandatory, but with the presence of an extra player, the hand becomes a little more problematic. This is why the difference between checking and betting is not great and why checking it back has been awarded eight points.

You bet $3 into the $4.50 pot and both opponents call, making $13.50 in the pot.

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The turn card is the 24, giving you a flush draw 3 The turn card is the 24, giving you a...
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How Good Is Your Poker?

sportbookpoker — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:16:09 +0000

STARTING THIS MONTH I would like to add a slightly different flavour to our monthly quiz. So far we have covered mostly limit hold’em, but from here on I would like to test you on other forms of poker, and this will include actual hands I have played on my sponsor’s site, Sportsbook Poker. The hand this month takes place at a $0.5041 blind no-limit hold’em ten-handed table online. With a $100 maximum buy-in and several players deliberately playing a short stack, this was never going to be a hugely profitable game, but this hand was very illuminating just the same. The low-stakes full ring games on sports book com are pretty tight and most players don’t get out of line, and the ones who do only do so occasionally. In this hand it was folded to me in the cutoff seat (one to the right of the button) and I held the 84-7A.

The players to my left had the folio. ing stacks:

You have $116. Come on now, what is your play? A. Raise B. Limp C. Fold

In this situation, there is nothing-. wrong with folding, as you have a haithat needs implied odds to be profitable unless you can outplay the opposition. is for this very reason that limping alor. is the wrong play as it is unlikely that yc will either flop the monster or create tl-. multi-way pot that you are after. Yc could easily get raised by the ‘button c-your left after what is a very weak limp. I can understand the fact that you a, trying to hit a big flop, but the overall ca fibre of play in NL100 games is not j poor as you may think. They may not be the Sportsbook Las Vegas A. Stars, but they are not there just to throw money at you. But because your hand relatively weak, folding is still awarded with eight points here.

But I like to try to create errors by rr opponents – errors like calling my raise and then meekly check-folding the flo-. whenever they miss. I also like to explo:- players who are easily pushed off the blinds.

Those blinds may not seem much, but those uncontested 75-cent pots add ap over the course of a year. But I also select hands that allow me the opportunity to make a big hand just in case I get played along with. This allows me to try to exploit another potential error – getting someone to overplay a good second best hand. It also needs to be mentioned that short stacks tend to be very tight and tend to play really condensed ranges, and the big blind fits the bill perfectly here. If your analysis and reasoning went along similar lines, then reward yourself with a nice big fat 10 BONUS POINTS! You decide to open-raise to $1.50 and the button folds, but both blinds call your raise, making a $4.50 pot.

The flop comes KV-96-3+ and both blinds check to you
The turn card is the 24, giving you a flush draw. Both blinds check to you. What is your play?
Both opponents check to you again, and you are sitting there with basically nothing. What is your play?

SHORT-STACKING One excellent way to get used to cash play...

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