Aces Up by John Reeves (book suggestions TXT) 📕

re-raise hard, it becomes more of an poker odds game - with aggressive betting.

Betting strategically is dependent on your position at the table, which revolves with the hands. An early position, where you are behind the blinds, means you must act early, and you won't get a chance to see the actions of other players at the table. Alternately, a late position, where you are on or slightly in front of the blinds, means you get to witness all the other players take their actions first. With a weaker hand, you may be less inclined to call or bet with a full table.

Books have been written on the topic of betting, and pro players will all give you varying inside tips and tricks. Don't be predictable, and try different plays to see what works best for you. Don't fall into a pattern yourself, where you are consistently betting hard on high pairs or limping in with low pairs. Keep your game fluid, and you will be rewarded in the end.

Poker Tells and How to Read Them

One of the key skills most good poker players have is the ability to read their opponents at the table. That is why you hear so much about “poker tells.” A “tell” is any physical reaction, kind of behavior, or habit that gives (or tells) the other players information about your hand. If you learn the most common tells, you can not only watch your own behavior to make sure your body language isn’t telling all your secrets, but also watch for the habits and tics in the poker players you’re at the table with. If you can accurately read your opponent’s tells, you’ll make the right decisions against them more often and win more money.

Everyone has their own unique tics and tells, and it’s great to watch individuals and pick up on their unique tells. Luckily, there are also a few involuntary and common tells that you can watch for even the first time you sit down with someone. As a general rule, remember that when a player acts strong, he’s probably weak, and when a player acts weak, he's probably got a really strong hand.

Poker Tells that Say "I Have a Good Hand!"

* Acting Uninterested in a Hand While Still in It
This is usually a sign of a strong hand. The player is pretending that he’s not excited about his cards - but he is.

* Shaking Hands
During a hand, if you notice a player’s hands are shaking as she places her bet, she probably has gotten a really, really good hand. Perhaps the nuts.

* Rapid Breathing
Some players can control the shakes, but it's harder to control the automatic heart-racing that comes when you see pocket aces or hit the flop really hard. If you can see a player's chest visibly rising and falling, they have an excellent hand

* Sighing and Shrugging
If a player makes a show of sighing or shrugging, and says things like “Oh, I guess I’ll call,” or even “Why am I calling?” he probably is overacting and is trying to hide a big hand.

* Glancing at Chips After Looking at Hole Cards
When a player looks down and sees strong hole or pocket cards, she may glance over at her chips to see just how much she can bet.

Poker Tells that Say "I Have a Weak Hand!"

* Staring Down Other Players
If an opponent is staring you down, he’s trying to represent strength. Usually though, he has a weak hand - he might have something, but it’s something that can be beaten or drawn out on.

* Holding Breath
Often, inexperienced players will hold their breath if they are bluffing.

Poker Tells that Say "I Have a Drawing Hand."

* Checking Hole Cards After a Flop
If the flop shows the possibility of giving someone a flush or straight draw, watch for people re-checking their hole cards. They’re checking to see if they have a piece of it - whether that black Ace was a spade or a club. The player doesn’t have the flush or straight at that point, because if they did, they wouldn’t have to check, but she is seeing if she has a draw to it.

* Taking a Long Time Before Calling a Bet
If a player looks into the pot and seems to be doing some calculating in his head, he probably is. He’s most likely figuring out the pot odds to see if it’s worth it to try and catch the cards he needs to complete his drawing hand.


A final note: more experienced players may give off false tells, so the first thing to read about other players is if they’re novices or pros.


Mastering the Art of Bluffing in Poker

Some players - and it's only a few of them, to be sure - never bluff. After you figure out who they are, playing against them is easy. If they bet once all the cards are out, you can safely throw your hand away unless you believe that your hand is superior to theirs. If it is, you should raise.

Other people are habitual bluffers. When they bet, you have to call as long as you are holding any reasonable hand. Although habitual bluffers will also make real hands every now and then, the fact that they bluff far too often makes your decision easy. By calling, you'll win far more money in the long run than you would save by folding.
Keep 'em guessing


Bluffing and Being Bluffed

No easy answer exists concerning players who bluff some, but not all, of the time. Opponents who bluff some of the time are better poker players
than those found at either end of the bluffing spectrum. Better players, of course, can keep you guessing about whether or not they are bluffing. And when you're forced to guess, you will be wrong some of the time. That's just the way it is.

Of course, you may be able to pick up a tell (a revealing gesture) and know when your opponent is bluffing, but that's not too likely in most cases. The sad truth is that players who keep you guessing are going to give you much more trouble than predictable opponents.

In most low-limit games, players bluff much too often. After all, when you play fixed-limit poker, all it costs is one additional bet to see someone's hand. And the pots are usually big enough, relative to the size of a bet, to make calling the right decision.

Here's an example: Suppose the pot contains $90, and your opponent makes a $10 bet. That pot now contains $100, and the cost of your call is only $10. Even if you figure your opponent to be bluffing only one time in ten, you should call. By calling, the laws of probability suggest that you'd lose a $10 bet nine times, for a loss of $90. Although you'd win only once, that pot would be worth $100. After ten such occurrences, you'd show a net profit of $10. As a result, you could say that regardless of the outcome of any particular hand, each call was worth one dollar to you.
The threat of bluffing

The threat of a bluff is just as important as a bluff itself. A good player - one who bluffs neither too often nor too infrequently, and seems to do so under the right conditions - has something else going for him, too. It's the threat of a bluff. Does she have the goods or is she bluffing? How can you tell? If you can't, how do you know what to do when he bets?

These answers don't come easily, and even top-notch players are not going to have a terrific batting average in most cases. As a result, the threat of a bluff combined with the bluff itself, is designed to help a player win some pots that he would otherwise lose and to win more money in pots where he actually has the best hand.

After all, if you have the best hand and come out betting, your opponent won't always know whether you're bluffing or not. If a lot of money is in the pot, he'll probably call. That's the less costly error. After all, if she were to throw the winning hand away and relinquish a big pot, that's a much more costly screw up than calling one additional bet.

Bluffing and the threat of bluffing go hand in hand. A bluff can enable a player to win a pot he figured to lose if the hands were shown down. The threat of a bluff enables a player with a good hand to win more money than he would if the opponent knew he never bluffed.

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Publication Date: 01-07-2010

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