Archive for the 'Adjusting Your Play' Category

Betting For Value Versus Inducing A Bluff

When you’re out of position with a made hand, the most common decision is whether to bet your hand for value or to check it, looking to induce a bluff.
I find that most players tend to make this decision more based on their overall style than on any individual situation. Some players tend to bet [...]

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Avoid Adjustment Tilt

Recently I benefited from a serious case of what I call adjustment tilt. I was in a live $2-$5 no-limit game. Most of the players, including me, had helped to start the game a few hours earlier, so we were familiar with each others’ play.
Some of the players had modestly weak-tight tendencies, so I made [...]

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Playing Small Pocket Pairs Preflop in 6-Max No-Limit Hold’em

This is a rapid fire article on playing small pocket pairs preflop in 6-max no-limit. By small pairs I mean roughly 66 and worse. I’m going to give you some basic rules of thumb and an outline of the general reasoning behind them. I’m not going to go in-depth because Playing Small Pocket Pairs Preflop [...]

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Q&A #109: Adjusting To A 50BB Buy-In With An Extra Blind

If you play mostly online, then many of the no-limit games will have a fairly standard structure: two blinds, one half the size of the other, and a 100BB maximum buy-in. Lately I’ve seen some of the sites are experimenting with 200BB maximum buy-ins in some of the games, but Q&A #109: Adjusting To A [...]

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Q&A #106: Opening On The Button and Isolating Limpers

The button in no-limit is an immensely profitable position. For me it is far more profitable than any other position. Even the cutoff, which can offer the illusion that it’s almost as good, isn’t really close.
When everyone folds to me on the button in an online 6-max game, and I Q&A #106: Opening On The [...]

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Combatting Light 3-Bets By 4-Betting Or Calling In Position

If you play online no-limit, at least at the $0.50-$1 level or above, you’re bound to run into the light 3-bet. You open for $3.50 on the button in a $0.50-$1 game, the small blind folds, and then the big blind makes it $12 to go.
Now that’s just a 3-bet. Combatting Light 3-Bets By 4-Betting [...]

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Q&A #100: Variable Preflop Raise Sizing In Microstakes Online Games

When No Limit Hold ‘em: Theory and Practice first came out, there was a lot of hubbub about a very simple idea. We suggested that it makes sense to vary your preflop raise sizes based on the situation: your Q&A #100: Variable Preflop Raise Sizing In Microstakes Online Games|401|3.95|USD|| opponents, your hand, the [...]

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A No-Limit Four-Bet Preflop Bluff

Ever since I started making the Poker Made Simple series at Stoxpoker, I’ve been regularly playing the $0.25-$0.50 blind 6-max games on Full Tilt to get a better feeling for what topics to emphasize in my simplified strategy for beating these games. One thing that I know frustrates a A No-Limit Four-Bet Preflop Bluff |400|3.95|USD|| [...]

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Q&A #98: Talking 6-Max No-Limit Hold’em Out Of Position Preflop Blues

You’re playing 6-max and your under the gun. You just got dealt one of your opening-quality hands, and you pot it. Everyone folds to the button… who calls. Hrmm. Is that a good thing, or a bad thing? It could be either. And whether it’s good or not, there’s a Q&A #98: Talking 6-Max No-Limit [...]

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Four Simple Steps To Conquering Crazy Games

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. Four Simple Steps To Conquering Crazy [...]

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