Comments on: 7 Easy Steps to No-Limit Hold’em Success — Step 4: Big Pots for Big Hands

By: JJS

JJS — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 00:42:50 +0000

Guys (unlucky & mike) there are no magical, mysterious cosmic forces at work that cause you to get worse cards than anyone else. The simple fact is, if you play at low stakes where a lot of people see the flop and are calling stations, you are just going to lose the majority of hands that you play.

The trick is, when you win a pot you win enough money to more than make up for multiple losses. If you play +EV hands then this will happen over time.

Don’t think about winning hands, think about winning money.

Ed’s excellent article “Donkeys Always Draw” might be helpful to you guys.

By: mike

mike — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 08:21:11 +0000

i am so unlucky i got KK in bb guy bets 10 and 4 people call gets back to me i make it 35 2 callers flop KQ6 check check guy bets 30 guy calls 30 i raise 40 more and get him all in the other guy calls so i bet his remaining 60 blind turn J river 10. one guy folded pkt 10s pre and another folded 10 5 well the 2 people in the hand had JJ the shorter stack and the bigger stack had AQ guy hits a 1 outer on me there was only one 10 left in the deck

By: unlucky

unlucky — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 03:50:53 +0000

I am just unlucky, i play tight, i play to the rules…but i always seem to loose to some muppet with 2, 10..ill play A,K, A,Q and any pair 9 or over..the flop will be 19,10,2…
I loose..i am quiting poker due to being a freak of luck…not on the good side..

I THINK IF YOU PLAY POKER, SOME PEOPLE ARE JUST BORN LUCKY AS DUCK!!

By: andy nelson

andy nelson — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 17:10:59 +0000

Bob Ciaffone writes in his book pot limit and no limit hold em, “A lot of big-bet players have the bad habit of checking whenever they make a big hand. This works out badly for several reasons. First, it makes things too easy for an opponent to read you and thus do the right thing. Second it creates a place in the betting where the opponent knows you have a big hand and has a chance to release his own hand and get away with a minor injury. If you simply keep charging the pot with bets on each street, there is no spot where he can be sure you are loaded for bear. Third, betting right out a good bit of the time with big hands gives more credibiliy to the many occasions where you will be betting and hoping the opponent will fold. Lastly and perhaps most important, a check raising style shows you are thinking about the game in the wrong way. Your goal in no limit is to win all your opponents money, not take little pecks. At hold em, it is not easy to flop a hand big enough that you are hoping to back it with your whole stack. When you are fortunate enough to do so, think postively. BIG HANDS ARE MEANT TO PLAY BIG POTS. TRAIN YOUR SIGHTS ON YOUR OPPONENT’S ENTIRE STACK. PLAY THE HAND THE BEST WAY TO GET DOUBLED UP. It is faulty thinking to say to yourself , “I have three jacks, so I am going to make sure I win something with them.” WITH A BIG HAND, AIM AT A BIG GOAL; DOUBLING UP.”
The book, Pot limit and no limit poker by Ciaffone is outstanding. It is the best 14 pages ever written on the subject! True, there are better books such as supersysem, Little green book, No limit hold em theory and practice etc. However, all of these books are much longer. The Harrington on hold em series, for instance, each book is at least 300 pages. In just 14 pages Ciaffone lays a great foundation for no limit. This makes it very easy to digest.
Actually, I think that No limit hold em theory and practice is Ciaffone’s book expanded to 316 pages. I like No limit theory and practice better than Harrington’s. Harrington talks about why A-10 is not so good because you have a weak kicker. Theory and practice teaches hold em at a much deeper level.

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 18:22:45 +0000

Great series. Now for a potentially dumb question (I’m still trying to figure this game out) – how do you know when your set is or gets beat? In example above, say I lead out with pot sized bet ($15), and I get called or reraised – how can I differentiate between draw (78), Top pair (Aq) or set of Q’s? And say he calls, then turn comes 9 and I bet 2nd chunk and he re-raises – again, how do I know when to just let the hand go? Worse yet, second chunk goes in, hesitation and then a call, then river comes and all the money is in, even though a scare card may have come out? I try not to have the “monsters under the bed” approach, but sometimes…

Thanks, and again, great series!!! Looking for parts 6 and 7, and the new book too!
Scott

By: Todd

Todd — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 11:39:12 +0000

Devaince,

I think Sklansky’s article presents a very specific scenario and that betting there is, at most, a small mistake. The parameters are that it is a limped pot with 4 other straightforward players and the flop comes 732r. With this flop, it is unlikely anyone has much. It is also not 1/2 where you will get a looser calls like AXo or KJo on the flop.

I think that since the players are straightforward and the game is 5/10, then the expectation is that overcard hands like JT, A8s and QJ are going to fold. They may catch something on the turn and pay off a bet. Hands like 44, 55 and 66 aren’t going to call a lot of bets anyway, so they will probably will pay you off on the turn. I think, though, that you do potentially lose bets there if an A drops on the turn and you start betting. Finally, there are no 2 pair hands on that board given the players.

Where you might lose bets is to 88, 99, 22 and 33. Those hands probably don’t raise preflop and will pay off significant bets on the flop, turn and river. They are also likely to be out there given the 5 way action. I think you lose a big payday with 22. It’s not guaranteed to get 3rd set all-in if you don’t start betting until the river.

By: cpk

cpk — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 02:21:18 +0000

Deviance–

Lots of very good NL players disagreed with David on that article, so it’s obviously not as free from controversy as David says it is.

I will say that check-CR is going to look a lot more suspicious to “decent, straightforward” players than check, bet. Or even bet-bet, obviously.

By: Deviance

Deviance — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 00:11:35 +0000

Ed,

I’m curious of your thoughts on the flopped set scenario contained in the article David Sklansky wrote in the latest 2+2 magazine titled “It Doesn’t Always Depend”. His suggested plan seems to go against what you wrote here about swinging for the fences and not slowplaying. What do you think?

By: Todd

Todd — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 16:43:41 +0000

One of the chunks is a raise. something like check/raise flop/bet turn/bet river or villain bet- you raise flop/bet turn/bet river. The villains bet (or raise) is one of the chunks.

There is a nice section on this in NL Hold ‘em Theory and Practice.

Todd

By: Greg

Greg — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 16:24:55 +0000

I don’t understand the four smaller chunks. There are three streets in Hold’em. How do you get in four bets after flopping a set?