One of the most difficult aspects of poker is learning to judge just how good (or how bad) your own game is. You really can’t judge the competition unless you can measure them against your own game. I mean how much good does it do you to know the table is full of intermediate players, if you have no clue as to how you stack up against intermediate players? Poker is profitable for winning players because less talented players who overrate their own game and are therefore willing to sit down at a table where they clearly are at a huge deficit in raw poker skill.

The best players at any level really don’t want to play each other but they will start a game with some empty seats to see who they can get to sit down with them. Many players, who cannot assess their own skill level, will take those seats. Regardless of how good your are, there are games out there where you will be the fish and plenty of sharks waiting for you to sit down.

Be honest with yourself when assessing your own game. Keep good records and know which games are losing propositions for you. Understand that there are profitable games and losing games at every level. What you want to do is to play for profit at the tables that you can compete fairly or better yet run over. You also want to be improving your game to move up to play for bigger stakes against better players. Only honesty about how good your game is will get you there.

-this is Beginner’s Poker Blog Post #192

Sometimes it just happens, you are an average stack in a tournament and just not getting any real hands, when you look down and see pocket aces. And if that weren’t enough, a player raises in front of you and gets two callers. You reraise big and get it heads up and the poor soul with the KK, gives you his entire stack. Two hands later, you are still stacking all those chips and you get AK and hit a five player flop with QJ10 and the guy with the JJ hands you his stack. The run continues and you go from average stack to the chip leader in about an hour. The big pairs just keep coming and when they don’t you hit the flop so hard with your rags in the big blind that you trap another player.

You are Getting Hit Over the Head by the Deck. Also called “Getting Hit by the Deck”. In other poker parlance, we might say you are “On a Rush” but whatever you want to call a really big run of cards, it will happen and you should play it strong. Now true mathematical players will tell you that a good run of cards can end on one hand and become a horrible bad streak on the next. What they miss is the human factor. When you are on a run of cards, when the deck is hitting you over the head, everyone at your table knows it and they will be wary of you. No matter how analytical a player may be, when he sees someone on a hot streak, there is a very strong tendency to stay out of the way of the hot player.

Use this to your advantage. When you have a big card rush, play more hands, even though other players will not believe you have a hand every time; they also know that you are getting hit over the head by the deck and they will avoid you and you will accumulate more chips than the rush really should give you. Remember card players can be superstitious and they also can get hit over the head.

-this is Beginner’s Poker Blog Post #191

Congratulations! You have made a final table. The question now comes up: Is there an optimal strategy for playing a final table?

Well, not to dodge the question but…. it depends! Stack size is important and, of course, reads on your opponents. But at a final table, what is really most important is the prize pool. If this is a small tournament, you might not even be in the money yet when you reach the final table. So knowing the prize pool is important in final table play. Most tournaments are very top heavy in the payouts. Generally speaking as much as 1/2 to 2/3 of the prize pool will be in the first three places. So winning is paramount and finishing high is next in line.

Often beginning players will be hanging on to finish a place or two high, we call that ladder climbing. Conservative play at a final table may move you up but you will not win by playing tight. You can do that your first tournament or two but a good players goes for the win and not just making the money.

In tournaments the money is always weighted heavily towards the top three places, so aiming for the win is the only thing that you should be interested in. The major edge the top players have is that they all have a winning mindset. When they make a final table it’s not their first and they know it won’t be their last either. They take advantage of the fact that a lot of players are merely looking to climb one step further up the pay ladder, with each rung worth an increasing amount of money. You need to form that winning state of mind too.

-this is Beginner’s Poker Blog Post #190

The classic Stop-N-Go move is when you call a raise with the intention of betting out on the next round. A simply example will illustrate this often very powerful tactic. You have 1,500 chips and your opponent has 5,000. He bets 800 when the board is J92, you have J10. You hold top pair but with a medium kicker. Now often players will simply move all in here and take their chances but your opponent is unlikely to fold to a raise of 700 after already betting out 800 on the flop.

So you use the Stop-N-Go. You call the 800 and no matter what card hits the turn you immediately bet out your remaining 700 chips. Now you opponent actually has a decision, only the river remains and if they are not holding top pair or have a weak kicker, they might think better of calling your bet. After all you called the flop raise but are now firing your remaining chips all in.

The beauty of the Stop-N-Go is that you are getting all your chips in, which you intended to do anyway but by holding back some of them to bet on the next round, you offer your opponent and opportunity to fold, which they would not have done to a minimal raise on the prior betting round. Clearly, being first to act is a nearly necessary element of the Stop-N-Go move. You do not want to be calling with your last chips, you must be betting out, offering the fold option to your opponent.

Join our forum discussion on the Stop-N-Go move.

-this is Beginner’s Poker Blog Post #189

The “All In!” bet. For poker the all in is “the” move. Its a penalty kick in the last minute of the World Cup; a walk off home run in the ninth inning of the World Series, its winning eight gold medals in the Olympics. But… it is also the last move you will make in a No Limit tournament. Everyone who does not win the event will end their tournament by moving all in.

There is a lot to say about the all in bet but let us just focus on one aspect. You want to move all in and make your opponent fold or call you rather than pushing your chips all in to call someone else’s bet. The big bet puts other players to the test, do they want to risk a big stack to call your big move?

No one can outplay you after the all in bet; there is no more play left in the hand, you are all in and all five cards are going to come out. In this sense the all in bet is the true equalizer, which is why you often hear this advice: “If your opponent is a better poker player than you, use the all in to force them to make big decisions.” Their post-flop skill is neutralized by your all in move, there is no more play in the hand and the cards will prevail. On the other hand, the less skilled player may well use the all in bet against you to force you off good but not premium hands. Remember then that the all in bet is a tool and is not always backed up by good or even average cards. The all in bet stands on its own as a powerful poker advantage, when used effectively. But never forget in a one thousand player tournament–999 players will move all in and lose.

-this is Beginner’s Poker Blog Post #188

So you have a playable hand, not great but playable and someone raises the pot in front of you. Here is where a lot of beginning players give away too many of their chips unnecessarily. When someone raises in front of you, you should tighten up your starting hand requirements. Say you are holding A10 suited in middle position and you are prepared to limp in matching the big blind. But before the action is on you, someone raises to 3X the big blind. What do you do?

Well, of course, it depends. You will want to ask yourself what kind of player is the raiser. Does he put in a lot of pre-flop raises? Would he try to steal from that position? But more importantly is a question to ask yourself: Is this hand worth playing in a raised pot? You were ready to limp the A10 but now the pot is raised. Is it worth three times the original bet? You should be playing fewer and better hands after a raise. Is A10s a hand you want to play here?

Yes, you could get bluffed out of some pots by a random steal raise. Yes, you might have flopped good and yes, it does depend. But first a standard guideline: You should tighten up your starting hand requirements facing a pre-flop raise. Not everyone is stealing, not everyone is bluffing. Over the long term, which is how we all should play poker, as one long game. Over the long term, folding marginal hands to a raise is the correct play. Not a rule. Not carved in stone and certainly subject to our read on the raiser but a very solid guideline to long term winning poker.

There are always several options for each hand and pre-flop in a raised pot, one of the very best options is often to fold.

-this is Beginner’s Poker Blog Post #187

Tournament Director’s Association Rule 39: Dealers will be responsible for calling string raises (bets).

When you make a bet or a raise, you are required to make that bet in one motion. This means you cannot say put out 300 to call a bet and then go back to your stack to get more chips in order to raise. A two motion bet is called a string bet and will be (or should be) called by the dealer and not allowed.

However, the whole problem of string bets can be eliminated if you simply announce your bet. If you want to bet 500 and you say “500″, then you can drop your chips, misbet, knock your stack over or faint. The bet is 500 and there can be no string bet call made against you.

Also if you simply announce “Raise” you can put out the amount to make the call and then go back to your stack once to get the amount of chips you wish to raise. If any part of betting is unclear, then remember the golden rule: If you announce the amount of your bet, then that is the bet you have made and how you fumble or move your chips does not matter. You announced your bet and you get to make that bet.

Beginning players would be wise to make verbal calls and verbal raises to avoid and mistakes in moving your chips. Remember a string bet must be taken back but all of the players at the table know you wanted to make that bet, so they have additional information on your hand without having to call the string raise.

-this is Beginner’s Poker Blog Post #186

In the previous post we talked about attacking weakness but weak players will not be the only targets you have at the poker table. But even good players, maybe even players better than you will not have a hand every time. What you need to do when you play a hand is to apply pressure. Pressure pushes other players out of a hand. Pressure makes other players wary of playing against you. And pressure will build the pots when you have a big hand.

The way you apply pressure is with your chip stack. Let’s take an obvious example. You are in late position with AK and two players have limped in for 100. What do you do? Well you could fold, but we already know you are not a weak player. You could call and see a flop. You could raise. Let’s say you raise the minimum to 200. One or both of the blinds now have great odds to call and the two limpers have even better odds and probably better hands. You applied no pressure.

If you raised to 400, now the blinds need to wake up with a real hand to make the 350 or 300 chip call. Both limpers also face a 300 call and those small pocket pairs they limped with are not looking so good anymore. If they limped with AQ or AJ, you are just hoping they make the bad call. But they are faced with this bad call because you put pressure on them. Think of your chips as your foot soldiers and use them to pressure your opponents into folding and giving you the pot or making bad calls and giving you an even bigger pot.

-this is Beginner’s Poker Blog Post #185

One key to winning at the poker table is to play against weak players and avoid strong players. The first step in playing the weak player is identifying them. Weak players call instead of raising and check instead of betting. Weak players seldom, if ever, bluff and if they do raise, they only do it with a monster hand. Weak players are easy to read and so easy to play against. Once you have found the weak links at the table. You msut go after them.

It often doesn’t matter what cards you have against a weak player, your big weapon is betting. Weak players are reluctant to call bets with anything but the nuts. If they check, you must bet. If they call a bet and you are behind them — raise. The key to playing the weak player is keeping the pressure on them. Keep betting, keep raising until they play back at you. Some never will.

-this is Beginner’s Poker Blog Post #184

Ask any poker player what was one of the earliest skills they learned that really improved their game and many will say: Putting a Player on a Hand. The skill is easy to learn and difficult to master. All you do is guess what each player in a hand are holding. You should do it every time a hand is dealt, whether you are playing the hand or not. What did they raise with? What would they limp with? What cards does he need to call the post-flop bet? What does she have to put in a raise on the turn?

At first, when cards are shown on the river, you will be wrong a lot more often than you are right. So put the players on a range of hands until you are getting more right than wrong. Slowly you will find you are getting better and better at this and you will also begin to notice that many players are easy to read because they do not change up their play enough. The key to this important poker skill is practice. Stop looking at the game on the plasma screen, stop reading your email and practice putting a player on a hand.

Join us in the Online Poker Forum to discuss Putting a Player on a Hand.

-this is Beginner’s Poker Blog Post #183