Four Simple Steps To Conquering Crazy Games
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Several issues ago, I gave you a foolproof strategy to beat wild no-limit games by buying in short. Since then, a number of readers have asked me the natural question, “So I use your strategy and double up. Then what?”
Good question. Fortunately, the strategic ideas stay much the same. Just follow these four simple steps.
Prepare Yourself Mentally To Get Stacked
You will get stacked in crazy games. It’s not uncommon to get stacked two or three times in a session. You can’t protect yourself from this. If you plan your strategy around not getting stacked, you will lose. Sure, you won’t lose it all in one hand, but if you refuse to get all-in, over a series of hands you will eventually lose it all. Wild players will escalate the betting and challenge you to play all-in pots. Don’t hide from it. Embrace it. Big pots are fun, after all. They’re even more fun when you have the edge, which you will if you keep reading.
Always bring at least five buy-ins with you to the cardroom. If that’s too much money, then drop down in stakes. If you can’t drop down, then buy in for less. You are far better off splitting your $300 into six $50 buy-ins than you are buying in for $200 and playing like a wimp.
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Tags: card player, cardplayer, dead-money, no-limit-holdem, poker, poker-psychology, wild-games
Great article as usual, but I did find this paragraph a bit confusing:
For instance, say five players limp, and you make it $20 to go with A-Q. Four players call, so there’s $100 in the pot. The flop comes A-J-8 with two of a suit. Everyone checks to you. You could move all-in immediately. Or, depending on the situation, you could bet around the size of the pot. But by betting less, you’re not holding back so you can fold if things get a little scary. That money is going in eventually, just not this minute. If a scary turn card comes and someone else bets, you’re calling. This is a crazy game, after all, and in crazy games people do crazy things. You have only $80 left, and there’s already at least $380 in the pot. No folding.
I take “But by betting less” to mean, by betting the pot, i.e. $100. In other words, you start with $200, bet $20 on the flop, $100 on the turn, and have $80 behind.
The $380 is a bit confusing — I take that to mean, $100 preflop, $200 on the flop (you bet $100 and got called), and now you’re facing an $80 bet on the turn if the flush comes in, giving you 380:80 => almost 5:1 on your last $80 call. Is that right?
It seems like, in deciding whether to push the flop for $180 into a $100 pot, you’d also want to consider what amount will induce the flush draws to make incorrect calls. If they’ll incorrectly call $100 (getting 2:1, but with additional betting to see the last card) but not incorrectly call $180, wouldn’t you rather bet $100 than push for $180?