The Stop and Go — Limit Holdem
By · CommentsThe “Stop and Go” is a fairly unusual play in holdem, and particularly in limit holdem, which is what I was playing tonight when a very good female professional player employed it against me. And I’m pretty sure she made a chump out of me with it, though I can’t be positive as the hands weren’t shown.
Stop and Go occurs when an out-of-position player leads at the flop, gets raised, just calls (stop!)– and then leads again on the turn (go!). It’s unusual because when a player really likes their hand they are far more likely to re-raise the flop and continue the turn. And when they are doubtful about their hand, they will just call the flop raise, and then check on the turn. Stop and go is employed far more frequently in no-limit holdem — where it can be used as a way to control the pot size without ceding the initiative — than in limit hold’em. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever been faced with the play in the six months since I returned to playing limit holdem.
At any rate, here’s how the hand went down: Read More→
Using Player Tendencies to Bluff — Limit Holdem
By · CommentsToday when playing $40-80 limit holdem at Bay101 I used my knowledge of a player’s tendencies to bluff him out of a hand. In a previous hand I had seen him just call a raise from a middle position opener while in the small blind, and lead out at an Ace-high flop. The raiser folded, so I was left to surmise that he had called with an Ace-high hand, and led out when he flopped top pair. (Neither of which play I recommend. When heads-up, playable Ace-high hands should be three-bet from the small blind, to seize the initiative, force the big blind out, and create dead money in the pot. But as played, I would usually check-raise the flop to win an extra small bet from the original raiser.) I made a mental note that this player simply called some Ace-high hands in the small blind heads-up. Read More→
On Hiatus
By · CommentsRegrettably, due to the DOJ’s enforcement action against US-facing poker sites, I will be taking a break from posting to this blog. The next year should be an interesting one concerning the future of online poker in the United States. I believe, based on my reading of the federal statutes, that online poker is not illegal. Nor should it be. Poker is a game of skill, and forbidding the playing of it is an unwarranted government intrusion into our personal liberties. I hope that the affected sites have the courage to fight this battle in the courts.
I’m currently working on teaching myself Pot Limit Omaha online, multi-tabling the $1-2 stakes. Since I’m also working on increasing the number of tables I play at once (up to 20), I have also taken to “short-stacking” the games, which makes my decisions easier. That’s not to say they are easy, by any means. PLO is an extraordinarily complex game, as the following hand I played recently illustrates:
How I Got Broke (3-06-11) — NLH Tournament
By · CommentsYesterday was the $215 buy-in Pokerstars Sunday Million 5th Anniversary Tournament. They put a $5 million prize money guarantee on the tournament, which means they needed 23,225 entrants just to get their money back! Not to worry, 59,128 players entered, and the total prize money was $11.8 million, with $1.6 million and a lamborghini reserved for first place. Crazy. Read More→
How I Got Broke (1-30-11) — NLH Tournament
By · CommentsIt’s time for me to start writing a little about poker tournaments, and I think the best way to get started is to write a regular feature on how I happen to get broke in the Pokerstars online $215 NLH tournament ($1.5M prize money guaranteed) every Sunday.
Don’t Fall in Love! — No Limit Holdem
By · CommentsThere’s a lot more to poker than simply understanding the strength of your own hands. If you want to be a winning player, then you have to understand the strength of your opponent’s hand as well. You should know when you have a chance to steal the pot, even though your hand is weak. And you should know when your hand is beat, even though it is extremely strong.
This last point is the subject of this post. In no limit holdem especially, it can be very dangerous to “fall in love” with your big hands. Falling in love with the wrong hand — like falling in love with the wrong person — can lead to financial ruin!
Here’s a hand I played a couple of days ago that illustrates my point: Read More→
Inducing River Bluffs — Pot Limit Omaha
By · CommentsSometimes the best way to win a big pot from your opponent when you know you have the best hand is to check to him in the hope that he will bet, rather than bet the hand yourself. This is definitely the case when you have reached the river and you put your opponent on a busted draw. Since he doesn’t have a hand to call your river bet, your best play is to check to him, and hope your display of weakness induces him to bluff. I played a hand online today in $1-2 PLO that illustrates this concept.
