Just about everyone begins their poker career at the low limit tables, where they’ll stay for awhile, learn the fundamentals of the game, and then consider moving up to either higher limits or no-limit. However, making the switch to a no-limit game may not be the best course of action for you, at least maybe not at the moment. Here are some of the fundamental differences between limit and no-limit hold’em so that you can best calculate which style of play you can profit the most from.
Limit
Limit hold’em, especially at $2-$4 and $3-$6 levels, is incredibly less stressful than even the cheapest live no-limit games. You can only invest so much of your bankroll into any given hand, and the amount that can be raised will always be manageable to the point where it will be easy to make most of your fold/call/raise decisions. Skilled limit players enjoy limit poker because the swings are far less dramatic, and they can grind out a much more consistent profit, versus in no-limit where you can have a six hour winning session only to turn around and lose it all in just a few big hands.
Limit is also the better format for those that don’t want to have a lot of decision-making needed to be able to make correct plays. When your opponent can only bet $6 on the turn, figuring out what to do next is going to be very simple. However, in a $200 buy-in no-limit game, your opponent can instead bet $30 or more into the turn, making the decision more critical and stressful for you.
Limit play rewards players who have the patience to consistently play premium hands, while at the same time minimizing the chances of bluffs and other taxing plays that will otherwise be found in a no-limit game. If low stress and straightforward poker interests you, limit is your game.
No Limit
No limit hold’em is considered the most popular form of poker on the planet. The action can be extremely fast paced, the pots can grow to immense proportions at any time, and a wider range of styles can be put into play. The big risk/big reward mentality entices a lot of player to enter the no-limit games, but you need to make sure you have the skills necessary to compete at the accelerated pace. As with limit poker, you can make a career in no-limit by sticking to the premium hands, though you may become easy classified as a extremely tight player by your opponents. To have a better shot at excelling in no-limit hold’em, you’ll need to be able to expand your hand selection accordingly based on a number of different variables throughout a session, and this heightened need of awareness can really put a strain on players.
Advanced plays like bluffs and semi-bluffs play a much more prominent role at the no-limit tables, since now players can now bet enough to make opponents think twice about calling with a mediocre hand, where in limit the decision should be easy to make by comparsion. Possibly the biggest difference in no-limit, however, are the wildly unpredictable swings a player can experience in their bankroll. Like I said earlier, you could be playing perfect poker for hours during a game, earning a consistent profit, only to get drawn into putting all your chips in during a round where you get trapped by a monster hand or suffer a bad beat. Losing your entire stack like that can be downright traumatic for many players, so make sure you have the mindset to be able to turn around from big losses and continue to play strong poker.
If you are the poker player taking the game a little more seriously than just having a night out with the boys, one important aspect is keeping good records. This is important for several reasons. First, it is always a good idea to know if you are a winning or losing player. Poker should be evaluated over a period of time, not just by the last session played. Usually players prominently remember the big cash they had a week ago, or the loss when someone sucked out on them, but they don’t remember in between. Keeping good records every time you play will help you to keep track of overall stats. If over the course of a month you find you are losing more than winning, then you will be able to evaluate what is going wrong.
Keeping good records will also tell you how much you are making per hour. If you are a serious poker player considering quitting your job to play poker, you should find out if you are making more at your day job than poker. This can be easily evaluated by calculating your hours of playing and dividing that by your profit. If you are making more at your day job, then you should wait to quit.
There are a few websites that lend themselves to helping players keep track of their stats, but I prefer to make a spreadsheet on excel. Excel will allow you to keep track of all the aspects that you find important. These are the essential items to keep track of:
1. Date
2. Buy In
3. Place and Limit
4. Hours Played
5. Cash Out Amount
You can also add things like tips, comps, player points earned, food, and notes. Make sure to keep accurate records so at the end of a week, month, etc. you can go back and view your progress. Keeping good stats not only tells you how you are doing over a period of time, but it also is good practice in bankroll management and bookkeeping. Your friends will also be impressed when you can show them your profit margin on paper.
Read enough poker magazines and you’ll hear about megastar online poker players that play 6 tables at once spread across 4 computer/TV screens. And as with all things since the poker boom like wearing sunglasses or listening to music at the table, the rest of the community wants to jump in and be like the pros. However, if you don’t know how to adjust your game correctly to play multiple tables at once, the only thing that’s going to happen is that your losses will quintuple.
Multiple table play can be tedious work, requiring a ridiculous amount of concentration. Because of this, most players will remove themselves from playing super advanced theory and strategy and instead switch gears and adopt a much tighter style. Playing bad cards and trying to bluff opponents is hard enough when you just have one table to focus on, but if you constantly have to watch 3-5 other tables at the same time, you’re not going to be able to play anything less than strong cards.
To decide whether or not you should attempt playing more than one table at once, you need to evaluate how well your doing at your current limit. If you typically play $4-$8 limit and are dominating the tables, go ahead and bump up to two tables at once, but come down to like a $3-$6 limit to start. This way you’ll put a little less of your bankroll at stake and can get the hang of playing your usual strategy across two games. If you’re losing too much money but want to keep learning how to play multi-table cash games, come down to a even lower limit, maybe even micro-limit. The goal is to not win right off the bat, the goal is to learn how to find a style that suits you when playing more than one table at a time.
Its 12:00 am and you find yourself at the final table after 9 hours of grueling play, and there are only four players left. Unfortunately everyone is pretty even stacked. Someone finally asks, “Do you guys want to just chop?” The day has been long, and everyone is starting to wear down. What do you do? Some pros advocate chopping if you can find an advantage to doing so. Other pros say absolutely not. In my opinion there are times where chopping can be beneficial. In the scenario stated above I think chopping would be the best avenue. The reason is because you are worn down and are likely to make mistakes that could cost you a lot of money, and everyone is even in chips. Most of the prize pool goes to first and second place, so if you finish third there is a significant decrease in profit. Chopping the money four ways will even everyone out.
There are plenty of reasons not to chop. If you feel that you are playing well, are alert, and you can see that your opponents are getting tired, then you might want to consider not chopping four ways. Since you are playing well, you can wait for your opponent to make a mistake and capitalize on it. At this point you may decide to play it out or make another deal. If you have a sizable chip lead over your players, then chopping shouldn’t be an option for you. If you are tired and fear that you might make a mistake, then offer to chop and give you a little extra on top.
One method that I like to use is chopping four ways and playing for an extra amount. For example, there are four players left and the remaining prize pool is $10,000. Each player gets $2,000 and then the table will play for the remaining $2,000. First off, this really speeds the game up. Players will start to play looser knowing they are guaranteed taking home a sizable return on their investment. The extra $2,000 for first is a great incentive to finish out the tournament, and it gives the winning player the ability to have a first place finish instead of a chopping finish.
Of course there are hundreds of ways to chop in tournaments, and there are thousands of different deals to be made. The main factor in chopping is assessing how you and your opponents are playing, how you feel, and what the chip stacks are. These are all indicators of how the rest of the tournament will proceed. If you feel you will benefit from a chop, then you should chop. If you feel that you are going to make 1st or 2nd place money, then you shouldn’t chop because you will lose out on a majority of what you could have won.
( PRWEB ) December 4, 2008 — Once again bringing together the most talented and celebrated poker players in the game, the fifth season of NBC’s hit late night show Poker After Dark was recently filmed at the Golden Nugget Las Vegas, resulting in thirteen weeks of action-packed new episodes that will air in 2009. Viewers will see a more balanced mix of both cash games and tournaments than they have in the past, with seven weeks of cash games and six weeks of the popular single table no-limit hold’em winner-take-all tournaments taking place, all in six-handed formats. Fans of the show will be treated to the return of many of their favorite players, along with the introduction of several new players that they have been asking to see.
This season, an interesting mix of fourteen players will make their PAD debut, including online phenoms Taylor “Green Plastic” Caby, Cole “CTS” South, David “Raptor” Benefield, and Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies. Celebrities Don Cheadle, Jason Alexander and Orel Hershiser will headline one star-studded match, while online qualifier Arnold Thimons gets his shot in another Dream Match. The remaining newcomers are John Phan, Kenny Tran, amateur Bob Safai, Max Pescatori, Dario Minieri, and 2008 WSOP Main Event runner-up Ivan Demidov.
Tournament overview
As mentioned above, six new $20,000 buy-in winner-take-all tournaments were filmed. One entitled “The Magnificent Six” will feature six of poker’s most recognizable faces in Chris Ferguson, Howard Lederer, Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, and Phil Hellmuth. There are no soft spots in this lineup for sure! National pride will be on the line in the “USA vs. Italy” as the United States will be represented by Ferguson, Lederer, and 2008 World Series of Poker Player of the Year Erick Lindgren, while Marco Traniello and 2008 WSOP bracelet winners Max Pescatori and Dario Minieri will play for Italy. Look for this to be an extremely tough match.
“Celebrities and Mentors” will feature three pros and three poker playing celebrities who credit these pros with helping them improve their games. Former MLB pitcher Orel Hershiser received some coaching prior to his success in the 2008 National Heads-Up Poker Championship from Gavin Smith; actor/comedian Jason Alexander cites Barry Greenstein with giving him pointers on how to become a better player, and accomplished actor Don Cheadle has received some tutoring from poker professional/author/commentator Phil Gordon. This will be a fun match to watch and one for the record books.
In the past, the “International Week” matches on Poker After Dark have proven very popular, and the third edition of this theme features yet another stellar lineup. Those competing will be “Yukon” Brad Booth from Canada, David Benyamine from France, Alan Cunningham of the United States, 2008 WSOPE Champion John Juanda from Indonesia, red-hot tournament player John “The Razor” Phan from Vietnam, and the only player to have reached the final table at both the 2008 WSOP and WSOPE in Russia’s young rising talent Ivan Demidov. This promises to be a great match-up sure to spark interest the world over.
There will be a “Dream Match III” as 44 year-old amateur Arnold Thimons from Greensburg, PA has chosen Phil Laak, Jennifer Tilly, Mike Matusow, Johnny Chan, and Daniel Negreanu as the players he wants to compete against for the $120,000 first place prize. And rounding out the tournaments will be “Sit-N-Talk” featuring six players not shy about engaging in banter at the tables in Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari, Jennifer Harman, David Grey, Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, Jean-Robert Bellande, and Vanessa Rousso.
All in all, six great matches that should interest and entertain even the most casual of fans.
Cash game overview
The cash games will all be no-limit hold’em with $200/$400 blinds. The minimum buy-in will be $100,000 and the maximum $250,000. Straddles and antes may be employed at the discretion of the players, as well as increasing the stakes should all players agree.
One week will be another “Nets vs. Vets” and will feature three new pros that have enjoyed tremendous success in online cash game play against three seasoned veterans of cash games in live settings. The newcomers, all instructors at CardRunners.com who have tremendous fan bases online, include Taylor Caby, Cole South, and David Benefield. The “Vets” are “The Godfather of Poker” Doyle Brunson, actor/comedian/commentator Gabe Kaplan, and high-stakes action-player Eli Elezra. This game is sure to generate a considerable amount of interest, especially among those in the Internet community.
Two full weeks will be devoted to “The Hellmuth Bash” as the Poker Brat himself goes up against Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Antonio Esfandiari, Phil Laak, Kenny “Sick Call” Tran, and high-stakes recreational player Bob Safai. Whether the definition of the word “bash” applies to dissing an opponent or a party where everyone has a great time will be left to the viewers to determine.
Another two weeks will be featured in “Railbird Heaven,” where viewers can now watch several of the players in the biggest games on the Internet in a live setting rather than logging on to an online poker site where no hole cards are shown. This game will showcase the skills of high-stakes cash game players Patrik Antonius, Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Gus Hansen, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, and David “Viffer” Peat, who will share time with Hansen. Look for additional side action between these players in the form of props and never-before-seen “flips,” which are sure to have even casual fans shaking their heads in disbelief.
The remaining two weeks of cash game action has the potential to be among the most talked about games ever televised. This game will feature Eli Elezra, Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius, Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, and exciting newcomer Ilari Sahamies of Finland. Expect more prop bets from this group, and strap yourself in for some wild swings.
In addition to these new episodes, the final three matches that were filmed during Season 4 that have not yet aired will now kickoff Season 5 beginning on December 29, bringing the number of new episodes that will be shown in 2009 to a minimum of sixteen. Popular model Leeann Tweeden will return as the show’s host, while Ali Nejad will provide limited commentary. More detailed information about air dates through the beginning of July, as well as profiles on all of the players, old and new, can be found at www.nbcsports.msnbc.com/poker. For those who do not have the ability to stay up late to watch or have recording devices, the episodes can also be seen online within hours after the show airs at the above website. But however one watches, the next season of Poker After Dark should be “must see” viewing for poker fans around the world, and is certain to have fans clamoring for more.
If there’s one thing I always try to stress about poker, it’s that you need to know your wins and losses down to a T. How much goes into your hobby versus how much comes out? Again, if you have the disposable income and mentality that you just want to play poker no matter what the losses are, that’s fine, but the majority of players can’t afford that type of lifestyle, so we have to minimize our losses at every opportunity. One area that players often don’t factor into their win/loss ratio is the entry fee’s of tournaments and the add-on’s/rebuys that may be offered. Since most players will never see a final table or make it into the money, this is one of the prime examples of losing money in poker unnecessarily.
A rebuy should not be treated as just a way to play a tournament for another hour or so. Correct rebuy strategy should involve how you’re doing in the tournament thus far, how far you think you can realistically last in this tournament, and the cost of the rebuy. Small events may offer rebuys and add-ons for as little as $15-$20. At that cost you can afford to extend your fun a little, especially if you catch a bad beat early on.
However, if the rebuy stretches into the three digits and you are totally outclassed at the table you’re playing at, you should really consider just leaving after you lose all your chips. That money you’ll save will be better spent on cheap sit & go’s online and other smaller limit game.
As far as add-on’s go, if it’s cheap enough, I’ll almost always do a add-on right at the final deadline for deciding whether or not to do so, which is typically during the 3rd round or so of a tournament. If I can add another 30-40% of chips to my stack for cheap and I feel that I can now use my larger stack to play more aggressively and further my way into a field of average level players, I’m more than likely going to do it.
No two situations are alike, you need to be able to remove all pride and ego from the situation and make a decision based purely on the financial risk/reward terms of the situation.
Telling the Right Story
Bluffing is a lot like when kids fib to their friends at school to make them look cool. You can’t tell a story that doesn’t make sense, or else your friends will catch on. In poker, bluffing is fibbing, and if you don’t do it well other players will call you out. One complaint that I hear a lot is, “I bet and I don’t know how he calls me with that crappy hand!” Usually the hand goes something like this…
5 limpers into a pot in a 2/5 game
Flop: 10d Js 3h
Action: Checks around
Turn: 2c
Action: Check around, late position makes it $20, BB calls, everyone else folds
River: 7d
Action: BB checks, late position makes it $30, BB calls
BB wins the pot with Jc4d
Late position mucks
One of the main problems with this hand is that the bluffing didn’t make sense. Any smart player would conclude that if it was checked on the flop, there are no flushes or straights, and the aggressor was not in the blinds, so J4 off suite is probably good in that situation. Since the betting came on the turn and river, it could easily be assumed that the better has a 10, 2, 3, or nothing at all. Either of which is crushed by a Jack (even with a crappy kicker.) A better play would have been to bet on the flop. In late position a bet of $10 or $15 could have taken down the pot. The BB would have to assume you had a Jack and his kicker was no good. In the rare event that he does call you, a bet on the turn would get him off of his hand.
Remember, it is not profitable to bluff just to bluff. You can’t assume that your chips are going to be enough to get someone off of a marginal hand. It has to look as if you have something. Therefore, if you are trying to represent top pair, you can’t bluff on the turn when the lowest card comes out. Bluffs need to look consistent to how you would play the cards you are representing. I’ve seen several players make superhero calls with King high, leaving their opponent dejected and asking how they made that call. Almost always it is because the bluffer was telling a story with their chips that didn’t make sense. Know the story you are trying to tell, and bluffing at the right times will be much easier.
Bluffing is an art and a skill that when utilized correctly, it can make you a lot of money. When practiced incorrectly, it can cost you. Since bluffing is an art that is situational and is dependent on a multitude of factors, I thought it would be beneficial to go over some of the basic and intermediate concepts behind bluffing. All too often I see people bluffing at pots when there is no value in it, or I see people bluffing a lot of chips when a small amount will do. There are also players that bluff at the wrong time and good players are able to see that the play doesn’t make sense. These are all common mistakes that cost money, but hopefully soon you will be able to make lots of money from your bluffs.
Knowing Your Opponent
With any hand you play, it is important to know your opponent. However, it is almost impossible to be a successful bluffer if you don’t know how your opponent plays, their tells, or what their image is. It would be like me sending you fishing with worms, but having no clue what kind of fish you are trying to catch. Being able to put your opponent on a range of hands is a good start to knowing when to bluff. If you know that your opponent only plays prime hands for a raise, and the board comes out low cards, that would be a great time for you to bluff. On the other hand, you would also know not to bluff that same opponent if the board came out high cards.
Knowing your opponents image is essential to bluffing. Most people can be bluffed given the right circumstances, but sometimes there is that person that doesn’t fold. These players can be easily spotted because they are loose and aggressive. They play a lot of hands and hardly ever fold to a bet. They will usually play any two cards and just like the feeling of getting lucky or making people fold the best hand. This is not a person you want to bluff. If you do try to bluff these people, they will call you all the way down and will probably win on the river with a pair of deuces. It is better to reserve your bullets for the people that will fold.
One person to be careful of is the super tight rock on your table. If you notice that there is a player who hardly ever plays a hand, and who folds to most bets, be careful if you decide that you are going to bluff him. If you bluff the flop and he calls, this should send off warning bells that he has a hand. Since he is a tight player, he will most likely call your bet all the way down, so you will have no idea what he actually has. However, be assured that if he is calling, he has a better hand than you do, and it is probably time to cut your losses unless you have a draw.
Knowing who your opponents are and the range of hands they play is the foundation to being able to bluff successfully. If you are unsure to what kind of opponent you are bluffing, there is a considerable amount of guess work that might cost you a lot of money in the end. Take a round or two to get a good handle on how the players play at your table before you jump in and try to steamroll everyone.
When being dealt their hands, most players are focused solely on their own two cards, making decisions on what type of play they want to make. However, some of the most important information about an opponents hand can be deciphered to a great extent during these opening moments when they first peak at their cards. By understanding the meaning behind certain body language, you can give yourself an edge against players who are not paying attention to their natural emotions.
In order to catch these moments, you’re going to have to discipline yourself to not look at your own cards until it is your turn to act. Every pro in the world will agree with this habit, as it prevents your opponents from using your own body language against you. Now, look for the players at the table who are not waiting for their turn to act before looking at their cards. What do they do after they peak at their hand? Players that have general disinterest in their cards will look around the room or watch TV as if they don’t have a care in the world, most likely because they are about to fold when the action comes around to them.
On the other hand, if you see a player all of a sudden correct his posture, pull his chair forward and sit upright, you know he just looked at two cards he really wants to play, most likely a big pocket pair because small pairs and cards like A-J will not prompt most players to shift their body. I’ve even seen players reach for their chips pre-flop after looking at their cards, telegraphing far in advance that they plan on raising. You wouldn’t think someone would do something so obvious as that, but I’ve seen it myself.
It won’t happen every hand and it might not occur that often at all, but picking up on these slight tells can give you valuable information that will help you decide on how best to play that particular hand. And just because you think your opponent looked down at pocket aces doesn’t mean you need to throw your hand away if you can get in for cheap with cards like suited connectors, where you can possibly flop big against someone with a pocket pair who did not improve their hand on the flop. Keep your eyes open, and I guarantee you will see what I’m talking about.
When the fifth season of “High Stakes Poker” begins on cable channel GSN, a debut tentatively scheduled for March 1, poker fans will again see all of the signature fixtures that have made the show so popular.
It will again feature poker’s most recognizable live-game players, stalwarts such as Doyle Brunson and Phil Hellmuth.
It will also include the czars of Internet poker’s “nosebleed” stakes who have generated huge followings under their online screen handles, such as Tom Dwan (“durrrr”) and Ilari Sahamies (“Ziigmund.”)
Don’t forget the bundled $50,000 bricks of U.S. currency — in play along with high-denomination poker chips — that give the show extra flair, or the verbal jousting that regularly occurs to accompany monster-size pots.
What viewers won’t see, though, is poker pro Phil Laak polishing off a plate of sushi during a break in the action as he holds forth on a play scheduled to open on London’s West End in the spring — and, believe it or not, how it relates to his view of the contemporary poker scene.
The production, “Grasses of a Thousand Colours,” will be directed by Andre Gregory and was written by his longtime collaborator Wallace Shawn, the accomplished actor and playwright.
Or, as Laak put it: “You remember the guy in ‘The Princess Bride’ who goes, ‘Inconceivable!’ ”
The play will keep Laak’s girlfriend, Jennifer Tilly, busy in London, Laak said, during a period that overlaps the World Poker Tour Championship, a $25,000-entry tournament at the Bellagio that Laak has circled on his calendar.
“I can’t wait to see the play, but it looks like Jennifer and I won’t be in the same town for a while,” Laak said on the “High Stakes Poker” set at the Golden Nugget this past weekend. “I would never miss the 25K event at the Bellagio.”
Laak also considers any taping of “High Stakes Poker” one of the few “must-play” events on the poker circuit, having competed in every season but the first.
The show, which portrays a high-stakes cash poker game rather than a tournament, made its debut on GSN (Cox cable channel 344) in January 2006 after a taping at the Golden Nugget in November 2005. Subsequent seasons were taped at the Palms and at the South Point (twice).
As in previous seasons, about 27 hours of play from the weekend will be divided into a series of hourlong episodes.
“It’s such a ‘sick’ honor to be invited to this thing,” Laak said. “To poker’s credit, there are so many tournaments with really cool structures now that you don’t have to travel too much if you don’t want to. For me, I’ve been sticking mostly to the West Coast or London, and that’s enough to keep me busy.
“You can’t get a game like this too often.”
Players are required to sit down at the table with at least $200,000, although some have opted to bring as much as $1 million to the “High Stakes” game.
The appeal of the show is easy to explain, Laak said: All poker fans know how to play no-limit Texas hold ’em, and many believe they have what it takes (with the exception of a ready supply of bricks of $100 bills, perhaps) to beat the best at their own game.
“This is phenomenal for poker,” Laak said. “You might see some funny stuff happening in the hands, stuff that looks ‘sick’ on TV, but it actually has game theory behind it, which the average viewer might miss out on. So an average viewer might think, ‘Oh, I could do that.’ You know, they would have called the bet in that spot.”
Laak is far from the only player who places a premium on making it to “High Stakes Poker,” according to Kevin Belinkoff, a consultant on the show who has been involved since its creation.
The roster of players varies somewhat by season, but it’s safe to say there are more players willing to compete than spots in the game, Belinkoff said.
“We get requests from everywhere,” Belinkoff said. “We try to get a nice mix of personalities and players of different ages and levels of experience that tell the story of what’s going on.
“If you’re a brash, obnoxious guy, we’ll find a place for you. But we might not put you with some other brash, obnoxious guys if we think that would blow up the table. Some guys are quiet, and there’s a place for them, too.”
Although the heart of the order consists of high-stakes professional poker players, the show’s executives round out the lineup with a selection of personalities from the entertainment industry.
A poker subculture thrives in Hollywood circles, said Sam Simon, the acclaimed TV producer who was competing on “High Stakes Poker” for the first time this weekend.
Simon, known for his work on “The Simpsons,” “Taxi” and “Cheers,” calls himself a recreational poker player and participates in a $5 and $10 no-limit hold ’em home game a couple of times a week.
Among his peers in show business, Simon gave high marks to Tobey Maguire and Hank Azaria for poker acumen.
“There are a few legendary home games in Hollywood, and the poker boom after Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker (in 2003) reverberated in Hollywood, too,” Simon said. “Then, you have people with a lot of money and a lot of time, so you’ve got some big games that go in Hollywood.
“I think it’s probably the same as it is all over America. It’s just that some of these guys happen to have bigger bankrolls.”
By Jeff Haney
