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Poker Strategy - Deception
Bluffing and Slow playing are
two deceptive techniques you should employ.
Bluffing
Contrary to popular belief,
bluffing is almost useless in a low limit game
(anything less than $2-4). Rarely will people
not call to a showdown, so there is no point in
scaring people out of the pot. I suggest waiting
to bluff until you play at a higher limit. When
you play at a higher limit, it's best to bluff
when you 'represent' something and there are only
one or two opponents in the pot. For example,
betting at the flop with a high card on the board
'represents' a pair, raising when a flush is possible
'represents' the flush.
Slow playing
Slow playing means deceiving
your opponents into thinking you have less of
a hand then you do. For example, suppose you hold
KK. The flop comes K33, so you flopped a full
house! There is no need to scare people out of
the pot because there is little chance of someone
drawing out on you. Thus, you should wait to the
turn or maybe even river to jam the pot with bets
and raises. You should slow play 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,
but these cards are not good enough to make
these hands beat yours.
Poker Strategy - Tilt
Being on tilt means letting
your emotions disrupt your ability to play. All
poker players go on tilt at least once during
their career, but limiting these episodes is essential
to winning at poker. Poker is a game that requires
reason. If you have JQ of spades, and the flop
comes AQ10, all of hearts, and there is a lot
of betting action, you need to know to fold. If
you were on tilt, you would let your emotions
take control and make you do whatever it took
to take down the pot. You would keep chasing,
hoping to catch a king and hoping that no one
had a flush.
In general, people who get upset
and don't stay focused and reasonable will lose
all the money they brought to the table.
Poker is almost anti-human in
the way it triggers emotions but rewards people
who are made of stone. I don't mean to scare you
or act as if all poker players are unemotional
stones, but it is imperative to stay focused and
rational while at the poker table.
Generally, most players tilt
due to a bad beat or if they just can’t seem to
win a hand. Some players have a slight tilt after
they win a big hand or two, but those episodes
generally are much shorter than tilts caused by
losing.
For example, take a hand I played
recently. I had AQ and the flop came AQ2. I bet
and was called. A 10 came on the turn. Bet, call.
River was a 7. I bet and he raised. I decided
to just call, thinking he may have actually had
KJ. No, he had 77. The idiot had called me to
the river with little hope but won on a very lucky
river catch. Needless to say, I was not playing
well the next couple of hands.
While going on tilt is natural,
you need to limit it. Generally, the best way
is to sit out a couple of hands and go on a walk.
Another good way to handle a bad beat is to just
think about all the bad beats you have laid in
the past. After the bad beat I mentioned above,
I sat back and thought about the time I stupidly
went all in a pot limit Omaha with bottom set.
I had 33J7, 3J7 of spades, and there was 368 on
the board- the 8 was a spade. My opponent had
88, the best hand when all the money went into
the pot. I was lucky enough to catch a backdoor
flush on the turn-river and took down a huge pot.
I went on to win the most money that day that
I have ever won. If I had lost that hand, I probably
would have called it quits and never would have
won all of that money. Thinking about the time
I pulled off this bad beat and went on to win
such a huge sum helps me get through the times
that some idiot rivers me.
Many people, myself included,
tend to curse at the computer if they get bad
beat. However, for myself at least, cursing is
not nearly as therapeutic as thinking about that
huge bad beat I laid at the Omaha table. Cursing
tends to make you madder and will cause you to
develop some bad habits. When you are about to
go on tilt, sit out and think of happy thoughts
(as cheesy as it sounds, it's true) and hopefully
you can resume playing your best.
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