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Foreword

Actually I don't like Mike Caro but there's one thing that makes me respect "The Mad Genius". Once he said: "Winning is easy". And it really is.

Sometimes you think that all these poker books don't help much. In fact - they don't help fatalists. But if you think you're the master of your fate, then Caro's words must become a motto for you. Winning IS easy!

How to Study?

Playing poker can seem like traveling to a different country. First of all it has own language. A player who doesn't have a grasp of the terminology may as well just save time and hand their wallet to the dealer. Poker also has it's own set of rules that govern what happens on the table. Within those rules are subtleties and variations that could reduce the uninformed player in tears.

If a new player is immersed in this culture long enough, they will eventually pick up on all the rules and terminology. This may take a while though and the sharp learning curve may result in maxed out credit cards and the occasional bankruptcy. LaunchPoker.com has provided a way to help the new player learn the poker terrain without all that mucking about with trial and error.

Before starting this test you may want to read the rules and study the hand ranking. This will provide a base in the basics for the newbie. If you have any questions you can contact one of our experts or just ask in our forum.

Ginger or Mary Ann?

The argument about limit vs. no limit has become as heated as the ongoing spat over Ginger or Mary Ann. No Limit poker, much like the sultry Ginger, is the movie star of the gaming world. It has flash, dramatics, and scoring can seem easy. Whenever somebody on television is pulling in a big pot you can be sure that they are playing no limit hold’em. The limit game is understated, subtle, and requires a combination of patience and skill to score.

It All Comes Down to Money

When you play either, the cards are the same, the game is the same, so what is the real difference? It all comes down to money. Money is in an integral part of the strategy of poker. It is in the back of the mind of each player when they look at their cards and wonder what to do. Unless Thurston Howell suddenly steps in and backs you with his enormously deep pockets, how much you are willing to lose is going to be tied to your strategy.

What Is the Real Difference?

Limit poker means there is a maximum on how much a player can bet or raise. There are also limits on the size of the pot. Once the pot reaches its pre-set maximum, then all betting is done. The advantage here is that it provides a safety net to the player. Someone who is new to the game will be better able to survive their mistakes because there is only so much they can lose on any one hand. It also requires a higher degree of poker skill to win big in a limit game. By taking away the ability for somebody with a large bankroll to bully and intimidate the field with his massive stack of chips, you force it to come down to actual game play. If somebody is holding a pair of Jacks, and raises by two thousand dollars, there is a pretty good chance that most of the other people at the table are going to fold. They don’t know he has a measly pair of jacks, and most are not going to waste a couple weeks pay to find out. In a limit game those pair of jacks will have to stand on their own against what the rest of the table is holding. To succeed in a limit game, a player must be more patient and content to pick his opponents apart instead of trying to tear out big chunks.

It All Comes Down to Money AGAIN!

No Limit hold’em is the darling of the poker world. It is exciting and the money can be big. The advantage to the no limit game is that the rewards for a good hand are not limited some pre-defined pot maximum. Why should the payout on a royal flush be the same as somebody who has won with three kings? Also, in No Limit game, the money becomes part of the strategy. The more chips you collect, the more control of the table you have. Playing aggressive poker with a big stack will make people afraid to challenge your three kings if you raise the pot beyond the comfort zone of your competitors.

Many beginners who play No Limit hold’em generally get used to life without a shirt. Conversely, many seasoned veterans are bored by the limited game. Generally beginners learn the game in the safety of limits. Then go on to the wild world of No Limit Hold’em.

If the only ingredient to winning poker were understanding the hierarchy of cards, the World Series of Poker would include third graders, savants, and the occasional imaginary friend. There is so much more that goes into winning poker then just the cards. The intangible aspects of the game are what separate the amateur from the professional.

Concentration and Observation

When playing poker, self involvement is not your friend. Concentrate on everything when you playing. Use your eyes and ears when studying your opponent. Listen to what is coming out of their mouths while observing what is going on with their body language. Many player talk loose and play tight. Later on they may switch this up on you. Take the measure of the player on every hand.

If sheer observation is not providing the information your looking for, start to prod him. Throw a bluff at your opponent and start looking for weak points. Over time, you should get a good snap shot of how your opponent plays, and reacts. Be careful to not get so involved in looking for cracks in your adversary that you become an open book yourself.

Psychology

There is also a psychology to the game. Play aggressive. This sort of play will intimidate weaker players at the table and limit the number of serious threats to your stack of chips.

Remember bluffing also has a psychological effect on a player. Lying is not something most people are comfortable with, no matter how at ease they seem to be doing it. Bluffing and lying are the same thing. When a player is bluffing there may be some physiological sign. Watch a player’s body language. They may give themselves away with an unconscious movement or action that happens only when they are bluffing. There will be those with unusually good body control. Fortunately they cannot control their heartbeat. When you see a player’s neck just throbbing away, the cause of this will probably be a bluff they are trying to perpetrate.

ESP

Most people know that ESP stands for Extra Sensory Perception. There is a sort of ESP that comes with time though. Lets call it Experience Sensory Perception. A player who has developed this sort of ESP will be able to work on instinct in times when they have nothing else to lean on. In the words of Obi Wan Kenobi, “Trust your feelings”.

Mathematics

Poker mathematics deals with the expected situation when we bet, call, raise or fold. Understanding the mathematical expectation on poker will help you in predicting your winning chance or the situation that makes you loose the bet. So, you know when it is the time to bet, to fold, to raise or to call in order to optimize your winning and minimize your loosing of money.

In a particular play, you may think and you feel optimistic for its winning chance. However, later you know that it is not the best one as you find another better play. For example, you have a full house of a five card draw. The opponent before you bets. You think that the best thing to do is to raise, as you know that if you raise, the player will call. However, the two opponents after you will certainly fold. If you decide to call, you feel sure that the two players after you will call. In short, if you raise, you will get one unit, and if you call, you will get two unit. So, the best decision in this situation is calling.

Mathematical expectation can also lead the player to realize that one particular play having a less profit to the player rather that the other. For example, when you predict that you will loose 75 cents including the ante, you should play on as it is better than folding it when the ante is a dollar.

Understanding mathematical expectation can also leads you to a sense of equanimity. It means that by doing the play based on the understanding on mathematical expectation, you will not feel surprised on the amount of money you loose as you has already known that it is the best play you can. The same thing happens if you win the game. You will know the exact amount that you will gain through this winning.

More years ago then I care to think about, a citizen of ancient Greece named Pythagoras, sat down and worked out a theorem of mathematics and how it works in the world. Not only was this a breakthrough in the field of mathematics, but it was the first recorded instance of somebody having way to much time on their hands. There are other, less known theorems. For example, chaos theory talks about butterflies flittering about and changing weather on completely separate continents. Due to the general insanity behind this idea, the message behind this theorem seems to be “Don’t smoke crack”. Less known then these two theorems, but more relevant to our general interest on this site is the “Fundamental Theorem of Poker”.

David Sklansky expresses this theorem beautifully in his book, “The Theory of Poker”. He writes that the ”Fundamental Theorem of Poker states that the best way for players to play is the way they would play if they knew their opponent’s cards”. In other words, “duh”. Obviously though, this is more complex then just the words stated in the theorem. Unless you have superpowers, or somebody behind your opponents with binoculars, there is no way you can actually know what they have in their hands.

Let's say you're holding jh and 10h. While your opponent is holding ks and qd. The flop comes: qh 8c 7h. You check, your opponent bets, and in response, you call. Then the turn comes: ad. You bet, trying to represent aces. If your opponent knew what you had, his correct play would be to raise you so much it would cost too much to draw to a flush or a straight on the last card, and you would have to fold. Therefore if your opponent only calls, you have gained. You have gained not just because you are getting a relatively cheap final card, but because your opponent did not make the correct play. Obviously if your opponent folds, you have gained tremendously since he has thrown away the best hand.

How could the opponent have known what was in your hand? How would they have known raising was the correct call? You are dealing with odds and probability. The odds of you completing your flush or straight were not good. If you pulled another Jack, the opponent could still beat you with a pair of Kings or Queens. The odds that you would pull three Jacks were equal to the odds the opponent would a triplet of Kings and Queens. You can see where this is going.

Staying on the happy side of the odds will result in more wins then losses. Occasionally that 10% chance that a player is going to beat you with an unlikely straight, is going to happen, and you will watch your money go into their stack.

Remember the words from the book, “The Theory of Poker”: “Every time you play a hand differently from the way you would have played it if you could see all your opponent’s cards, they gain; and every time you play your hand the same way you would have played it if you could see all their cards, they lose. Conversely, every time opponents play their hands differently from the way they would have if they could see all your cards, you gain; and every time they play their hands the same way they would have played if they could see all your cards, you lose.

My thanks to David Sklansky and his book “The Theory of Poker” for the contributions they made to this article.

I mentioned something about positions at the table to a friend of mine. She answered back with the type of details about her summer college intern that were only fit for the "Spice Channel". If the words "table" and "position" send you into the Larry Flynt zone, this is not the article for you. We are referring to a player's position at the Texas Hold'Em table.

We are going to take a high level view of the positions around a Texas Hold'Em table. There are strategies for certain places around the table. To get the specifics on the strategy involved here, see the articles Your Position At The Table In No-Limit Texas Hold'Em and First and Last position.

The Button: The button, also known as the dealer button, is the reference point for all other positions. The actual button is a small round disk that is moved from player to player in a clockwise direction following each hand. Theoretically, this indicates who the dealer for of each hand is. If you don?t have a small, red button handy, a "Kerry/Edwards in 04" button will do just as well. Something useful might as well come from them.

Small Blind: If you are sitting in the small blind spot, you are the person immediately to the left of the dealer "button" prior to the cards being dealt.

Big Blind: The Big Blind spot sounds like something you find on a Ford Explorer. In reality it is the second spot clockwise from the dealer.

Early Position: The two position directly to the left of the blinds are referred to as the early positions.

Middle Position: The no-mans land between the early and late positions is commonly referred to as the middle position. Generally these are the fifth, sixth, and seventh seats.

Late Position: The late positions are the two people seated directly to the right of the button. From this position the player has the advantage of acting after most of the other players have finished their turns.

There are inherent advantages and disadvantages that come from each spot on the table. Some places to sit are better then others. That is why the seat designations will change each time the button is moved. This makes it fair for everyone involved.

Taking something that you really shouldn’t have is frowned upon in the real world. Most in a civilized society call this stealing. Using the principles that work in poker, such as deception and guile, landed the Adelphia boys in a place where striped pajamas are high fashion and strip searches are considered recreational activity. Luckily though, using your position at the poker table to steal a pot will not net you such dire consequences.

There are times when your position at the table will allow you take a pot you would not have otherwise won. Statistically speaking, it is the best hand that wins most of the time, regardless of position. So what we actually mean by “taking a pot you would not have otherwise won”, we are referring to the amount of money. Using your positional advantage at the table you can squeeze out some extra bets that may have otherwise stayed far out of your reach, in your opponents wallet.

The last position is the place you want to be. When your turn comes in the rotation for this spot, take advantage of the opportunity. Most players live in fear of somebody raising behind them. When you are in the last position you are the guy they are looking at and praying you won’t raise. This position gives you the freedom to play more loose and aggressive. The person in last position can dictate the behavior of the table with their play.

Let’s say you have a strong hand and are in the last position. Playing a little possum won’t hurt the pot size. The folks in front of you, who are calculating their pot odds based on your raises, may fold if you look overly aggressive. You can bluff the pot odds by playing it tight and simply calling their bets for a couple rounds, thus artificially inflating the pot. They will feel safe if you pretend to be weak, and stay in the game.

Many poker players are inherently timid, and fold in the face of a challenge. If you have a weak hand, raising from the last place may scare the other folks away, even those who could have beaten you.

The last place is the power position, when you have it, enjoy it. The next round somebody will be doing to you what you hope to be doing to them.

The terms “longhand” and “shorthand” are just the sport of pokers way of describing how many people are sitting at your table. A longhand game resembles a house party with free beer and a buffet table. You cant swing a dead chicken in the room without hitting somebody who wants to play at your table. Longhand poker generally has 8 or more people playing.

Conversely, shorthand resembles a day when you have begged all your friends and relatives to help you move from one house to another. In short, there are a lot of excuses why folks couldn’t show up, and very few actually bodies in the vicinity. Shorthand poker is when six or less people are facing off around the table.

There has been a lot written about both these games and how they should be played. In this article let’s focus on the beginning. What starting hands should you be looking for in shorthand and longhand games?

When playing shorthand poker, your starting game is going to depend heavily on what sort of table you are playing at. If there is a lot of action at your table, such as raiseing, reraising and players throwing money around like Donald Trump at a strip club, then you fold any starting hand that is less then AA, KK, AK, QQ, and JJ. Trying to stay in this sort of aggressive, shorthanded game may mean losing in a meaningless war of attrition. When playing more cautious and conservative hands, you can play with hand values that are a little less then the ones stated earlier.

The longhand poker is obviously technically the same game as shorthand, but the presence of extra people changes the circumstances. Poker Grand Poobah, David Sklansky, identifies several categories of starting hands you will be looking for when playing longhand poker.

AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AK

These are the best hands, bar none. Raise like a group of Amish on barn building day when you are holding these cards. If you hold AA, you especially want to swell the pot as much as possible.

TT, 99, AQ, KQ

Good but not great, some restraint will benefit you when holding these hands. You generally need help from the board. Almost always in low-limit, you will need to hit a set with TT or 99 to win.

88, AJ, AT, KJ, QJ, JT, QT

These are good hands. However, be careful playing AJ, AT, KJ as these hands are vulnerable to losing to a higher kicker (i.e. if an Ace is on the board, but someone else has AK, you would lose because he has a higher 'kicker').

Ax suited (x means any small card), Kx suited (x should be 7 or higher preferably) 77, 66, T9, 98, 87, 76 (only play the connecting cards if they are suited and you can play hands with a one card gap, like T8, as well). These hands win about as often as Ms. Michigan wins the Ms. America contest. If you play with these cards, you will need a lot of help from the board.

Small pocket pairs (55, 44, 33, 22)

Don’t play these hands unless you are the type of person who thinks using pasta as a bungee chord is a good way to enjoy a weekend outing.

Be mindful of your starting hand because this is where most players win or lose their money.

Think of heads up play as the poker version of tennis. It is one on one, with serves and returns. In fact it has almost every element of the game of tennis except for sweating and tiny little skirts.

Like any other game of poker, position is key. Instead of the button going around the table, it goes back and forth between the players. When the button is in your possession you will be the one who is posting the small blind in this format. This means that you get to act first, before the flop and last after it. This means you can take the lead in the pot, and then add some pressure by acting post flop. You want to do most of your attacking when you have the button. The button's main advantage is that there are three rounds of betting after the flop, which means if you wish you can launch three attacks at your opponent and essentially put most of their stack on the line.

Heads up poker is a horse of another color. Even experienced players can get sloppy in a one on one situation. If you keep running into conflicts in the early stages then the chances are that you have exposed some kind of weakness in their play – for example do they frequently call raises or check-raise out of position, thereby making themselves vulnerable, or do they play passively from the button allowing you to take a few more liberties? Do they bluff too much or too little, or always respond to your play in certain ways? Do they raise too much or too little, letting you into hands or ruining the dynamics of their game?

In all of these situation you can behave like the campus bully giving a wedgie to a member of the computer club. All of these are weaknesses that you can look to exploit through the course of the game, and you should of course adjust accordingly to them. Remember this is not about ego and dangerous moves are not often rewarded. It is all about the person who has all the chips in the end.

Poker players, like members of the animal community, come in a number of varieties. When Darwin sat on his island, invading the privacy of any species unfortunate enough to be in range of his binoculars, I doubt he considered the evolution of the poker player. Evolved these card players have though. Most of us are familiar with only two types, tight and loose. There are other different kinds that get lost in the mix of these two general headings.

First we have the occasional poker player. This is the guy who plays every now and then with his buddies from work. He is more likely to put a lamp shade on his head while singing old “Loverboy” tunes then know what to do in even the most basic competitive situation. Poker is recreational to this player. Big money is rarely won or lost, and victory during the game is less important then just the companionship the hobby brings. Occasional players are often mistaken for loose players. Their lack of experience often makes them look aggressive, when actually it is just ignorance.

The habitual poker player is the card version of a semi pro player. They know enough about the odds of the game to be occasionally dangerous, but many big wins are as much by accident as they are by design. This is a pro player in its larval stage, and still has much to learn about the game. Habitual players will take any game they can and part of their income is based on their poker activities. You can see them hanging around in big games, usually losing.

Poker chiselers are players with more advanced knowledge about game play and odds then the habitual player. They tend to forego proper play in favor of shortcuts though. Always looking for a way to protect their stack during a game, they will steal chips and fake out antes. Never turn your back on a poker chiseler.

The professional poker operator is someone who makes their living on the periphery of the poker world. They tend to be employees of casinos who help out with the games. If they see a game that doesn’t have much going, they will join in to jump start the table. They are paid a salary by the casino to do this, but risk their own money when playing. This is the true intermediate player who is grooming themselves for the pro circuit. Against the average casino competition the professional poker operator will win more often then they lose.

The poker professional is the person who you see on ESPN playing WSOP events. These people have their lives so tightly intertwined with the game that it would take surgery to separate the two. There yearly income is based on what they at the table and they tend to shun low limit games. The poker professional is also referred to as a poker hustler.

The poker cheat is a person who uses his prowess for evil, not good. The ultimate goal is not to win the game, but not to get caught. This player can cheat in multiple ways. For example, they may deal off the bottom of the deck, switch poker hands, not cut the deck, etc. These players are also called sharks, sharps, or hand muckers.

These are the six most common form of poker players, so which one are you?

People are natural liars. It is the one thing that ties together every person of every economic level, every color and creed. In other words, a lie, like death, is society’s great equalizer. The middle aged man who says “Honest honey, the painter must have left it”, to explain why a leather mask with a zipper where the mouth should be is laying on the bed, is as much a liar as the leader of the free world when he announced to a confused nation, “Read my lips, I did not have sexual relations with that woman”. Knowing that we lie as easily as we breathe makes most wonder why anything that is uttered by homo-sapiens is believed. The one force as powerful as the lie is our need to trust. This makes lying a powerful tool in the poker players arsenal.

Because of the nature of the game, the advantage you can gain from deception is limited. Telling the player to your left, “of course I love you”, might be confuse them emotionally, but probably won’t affect the outcome of the hand. This lie is best saved for a third date, when thoughts of how nice the object of your affections underwear would look hanging from your ceiling fan keep bouncing through your head. Prominent forms of deception in poker are bluffing, semi bluffing, and slow play.

Bluffing is traditionally an attempt to fool your opponents into thinking your hand is much better then it actually is. In short, you are trying to use deception to get the players around you to fold their superior hands so you can win with your sub-par cards. Most people think that bluffing is an all-purpose solution to every game, but it’s not. Bluffing in a low limit game is almost useless. It is a rare occasion when folks do not call to a showdown. There simply is so little on the line, players tend to take their chances going all the way. Bluffing is far more effective in high limit or no limit games. Calling in these situations can be expensive and players will think twice if the confidence in their hand can be shaken. For example, betting at the flop with a high card on the board gives the impression that you are holding a high pair, whether you have this pair or not. Raising when a flush is possible signals to the table that you are holding a flush. It doesn’t matter if it’s true, as long as the table thinks it’s true.

Semi-bluffing is the same as bluffing except for the fact that you actually possess a strong draw. In other words, you may only have Ace high, but you stand a good chance of hitting a spade flush or making a pair of Aces or Kings. So yes, technically you’re bluffing, but your bluff may also prove to be prophetic. If you bet with this hand, you have a high likelihood of possessing a strong hand on later betting rounds. The difference between a bluff and a semi-bluff is that with a bluff you are holding nothing and will, in all likelihood, not upgrade your nothing. A semi-bluff may actually be a self fulfilling prophecy. Your cards have potential, and may actually turn out to be a winning hand. Much like a proper bluff, semi-bluffing works best in high-limit and no-limit games.

Slowplaying is a bluff in reverse. It is when a competitor is playing possum with a big hand. We all know there are advantages to making players believe that your hand is stronger then it is, but what some don’t know is that there is a huge edge to convincing folks your position is far weaker then your cards actually are. If the table gets the idea your holding a big hand, they will fold without putting money into the pot. This doesn’t do you any good. You want them to grow that pot for all they are worth, if you can fool some folks into going “all-in”, even better. You should slowplay if two conditions are met:

- You hold a whopper and there is almost no chance of someone drawing on you.

- You will only get action if some other cards come out that will improve your opponents' hands. Nonetheless, these cards are not good enough to make their hands beat your hand.

No matter who you are, deception is somewhere in your nature. Make it pay off for you during a hand of poker and lie your little tail off.