Best Poker Advice ever?

[JohnBond]

The following 2002 column arose from a conversation Roy and I had at a time I was getting clobbered (There have alas been too many such times.) It still ranks among best ever poker advice for me, and I keep a copy on my desk. For density of quality info per column inch, it's a monster.


Some of my Best Advice
by Roy Cooke

People are always asking me for advice. They want to know about this play or that situation. Generally, they are looking for simple one-dimensional answers to complex questions. And, of course, I don’t have simple answers. There are no set rules. All poker decisions are situational. Hands play differently based on the styles of your opponents, and no two situations are ever identical. That is why there is no basic strategy that will turn you into a world-class player. You need to be able to adjust your strategy based on the current situation. That said, there are several basic concepts that govern my play, which I can recommend to you.

The most important poker decision you make on a day-to-day basis is choosing your game. The best game for you is not the game with the biggest pots. Rather, it is the game in which you have the biggest overall edge. Choose games in which you have a large edge over your opponents. You may make more money playing much higher with a smaller edge over your opponents, but if you choose to do that, you should have a proportionately larger bankroll and be highly capable of handling the downswings appropriately.

The value of position is often stated, but in the plays I observe most players make, it is nonetheless underrated. Always take your position into consideration when determining a play. This includes position in relation to a bettor and the playing styles of the players yet to act behind you. Having an accurate feel for this will add great value to your poker game.

The blind structure is a factor that dictates how you should play. If the game has a two-chip/three-chip blind, you need to play more aggressively, since the small blind is almost always correct in calling. A two-chip/four-chip blind structure makes trapping a play with higher value.

There are two major errors players make: They either call when they should fold or fold when they should call. Most players tend to have an M.O. and don’t change! It is best to try to make players who call too much call more, and players who fold too much fold more. The play of your hands and the plays you make against them to gain/lose more/fewer bets should incorporate this concept. Also, psychological edges can be found with many of your opponents, and can be a major factor in these types of decisions.

Accurately handicapping your opposition is a key element in winning poker. When observing opponents, try to determine their weaknesses and which plays will work best to take advantage of those weaknesses. The ability to outplay your opponents is an important factor in determining if you should play a marginal hand. The greater your ability to read/outplay your opponents, the looser you should play. The better your opponents play you, the tighter you should play. I find that most players have a tendency to overrate themselves and underrate their opposition in applying this concept. If anything, you should take the opposite approach. Give your opponents a little more credit and yourself a little less. That is, be conservative in your handicapping.

If you’re going to be a winning poker player against experienced opponents, you need to be a playmaker. Always consider how a hand will play in the current situation. Is it a hand that does better with a few opponents? With several opponents? Will it play better if you isolate? Make a play that is your best option, if possible. When determining the play to make, always consider the playing styles of your opponents, including those who are yet to act. When making a play, determine what you want your opponent to do for your best interests, and then make the play that manipulates him into doing it. This includes psychological ploys. Think moves ahead.

Compute the price on all of your plays. It is a very important concept, and will help you gain feel. When analyzing a play, count the bets and the expectation you gain/lose from them. Think in terms of expectation. When considering a call with a hand that you think may be second-best, determine the implied price you are receiving from the pot. This includes the chance that your hand will win, the likelihood (based on who your opponents are) that you’ll win additional money beyond what is already in the pot, and the true price of the call, including the possibility that it will get raised behind you. When determining if you should call without the best hand, take into consideration the chance that the hand you are drawing to will not be good. Even if there is a small chance that your hand will not be good, your odds required to make the call must increase considerably.

Your play should vary significantly depending on how loose or aggressive a game is. Furthermore, your game selection should at least in part be based on what type of field you do best against. If you are playing against aggressive players, induce bluffs from them and take away some of their aggression. The looser the game, the less aggressively you should play your medium wired pairs. When playing loose, passive players, play lots of hands. You will get a lot of volume and opportunities to make hands cheaply that will result in large payoffs. When playing loose, aggressive players, play very solid cards. You will make the best hand more often than your opponents will, and the action will always be available. Carefully pick your spots, based on reads of your loose, aggressive opponents, to make plays against them. In loose, aggressive games, position yourself tactically so that you can raise a bettor to protect a hand that you may make. Don’t make a marginal raise preflop that puts you in a precarious post-flop position. When playing in a very loose game, try to keep the pots small preflop with your marginal hands. Don’t take marginal edges. This removes value from your post-flop plays by giving your opponents a better price to draw at you.

Determining if you should slow-play a hand is contingent upon a combined analysis of the size of the pot, the likelihood that your opponents will draw out on you, and the likelihood that your opponents will fold if you bet. You almost always should bet a draw if you think there is any chance you could win the pot with a bet. When you bet a draw, you give yourself another way to win the pot (if everyone folds, currently or subsequently). Also, you might win a bigger pot if you make your hand. It also creates deception in your opponents’ minds. If you are in position and playing a field of intimidated opponents, consider raising for a free card. This play works well with players who have the M.O. of checking to the raiser. It does not work against opponents who like to lead. Use your cards to randomize your play. You should be able to utilize deception in your game without having to make plays that will cost you a lot in the way of expectation.

The larger the pot is, the more you should play your hand in a manner that will protect your hand. This includes taking more risk in an effort to protect it. Winning a big pot without competition is not a bad thing, unless your hand cannot be drawn out on. The smaller the pot, the more important it is to trap and make plays that will garner you extra bets. That is because the bets have more value than the current size of the pot.

When reading hands and players, determine if a player is capable of making the kind of play you are giving him credit for. Base your plays on his capabilities, on how he thinks, on his emotional state, and on how he reacts. Make deceptive plays against players who put a lot of emphasis on reading hands. Do not make these plays against players who don’t notice or understand them.

The vast majority of poker decisions add or subtract only a very little from your day’s/week’s/month’s/life’s expectation. But those little bits add up, and can make the difference between being a winner and a loser. That said, it is the minority of key decisions that will make the biggest difference in your results. When you are unsure of a situation, don’t make plays that may put you in a position of having to make a tough decision. Inevitably, some of those tough decisions will be errors, and many of them will be big-volume errors.

This may be some of the most comprehensive poker advice I’ve ever crammed into one column. It by no means covers everything, but an awful lot of key basics are here. If I were you, I would probably cut this out and save it, and maybe even laminate it.

[AAAAdam]

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"Never masturbate while playing online."

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How about in a live game. It creates certain image that your opponents won't soon forget.

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If acting strong indicates weakness and acting weak indicates strength, I'd have to put such an opponent on a bluff, though I'd be candidly afraid to call his hand. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[binions]

Good stuff.

[Ralphie]

This might sound like a joke to some of you, but trust me it is not. I have played online and in live games up to $100/$200 limit. I can tell you with 100% confidence that if you play long enough with different people you will be cheated at times.

The most basic and common is the good old team play. It comes in a few flavors but here a the most common variations. Active collusion is no holds barred team play it includes the most obivious plays, such as cross rasing when one player has the nuts and using well positioned bets and raises to steal pots from medium strength hands. Passive collusion is when players tell each other what cards they folded so their partner(s) can use this information to calculate their odds and read hands more accurately that other players. This is much more diffucult to detect than active collusion, but do not underestimate its strength. Imagine you raise with AK preflop and get one caller. The flop comes JJT and you decide that not only might AK be the best but you have outs and its very hard to call without a jack. You decide to bet, and should win this pot as your opponent has nothing. But your opponent has a passive collusion agreement with 2 other players who each tell him they foled a jack, so he raises you and bets out on the turn. Unless a queen falls you will have an tough time calling in this spot and your opponent knows it.

Another sytle of collusion involes one player who appears like a maniac and usually two or more other "good" players. The maniac can do almost what ever he wants with total impunity, and therefore can get away with many strange plays that benifit the rest of the team.

The signals used very greatly but include finger sigals, touching specific parts of the body, especially the face. Placement of chips on the back of the cards, verbal signals and even electronic devices complete with toe switches in the shoes and vibrating pagers.

These groups can be found everywhere poker is played for money, but are very common in the middle to high limit games in LA. This can be attributed to the fact that they have had poker rooms for a long time with litte or no real gaming enforcement to speak of. (By the way if you want to report a gaming violation you need to contact the Dept of Justice if you are in California. Nevada and New Jersey have gaming commissions for this purpose and to regulate gaming in general. Something totally lacking in California.)

Another favorite of the LA teams is to position players behind you who can see your cards and sigal the value to partners in the game. A common method is the "girlfriend" who like you sit behind her boyfriend and "watch". Chip runners and floorpersons and massage people are also perfect for this. A gentle rub on a specific part of the back, shoulder or whereever can be used to signal the cards of players sitting to either side. Put two of these in a game working together and you can see almost everyones cards!

Marked cards are shunned by the best cheaters, but can still be found in use by some less skilled cheaters and dealers. The most common form of marked cards are those bent, crimped or dented with fingernail or chip. The plastic KEM cards used by most major poker rooms are somewhat resistant to rough handling, but can be shaped with a little practice. Bent cards can be used not only to determine players hole cards, but also the turn and river to come. Unfortunately the best marks are pretty much invisible to the untrained eye, with some even requiring special contact lenses to see them. Shade work the most popular for semi skilled cheaters to use. These types of marking use dye of a very light tint to shade specific parts of the card. Alternitively the whole back of the card is often tinted, EXCEPT for a specific area, patch or line. This is usually harder to see with the untrained eye. To see these marks try tilting your head and looking at the card from an low angle at a distance of about 5 feet. One major advantage of shade work is that it is actually easier to see from a distance, if you inspect the cards at a distance of 1 foot or less you will not see it at all, period. If the cards are marked to help the dealer cheat then they can be marked with tiny pin pricks, or roughing fluid that can be felt by the dealer as he deals the cards. Obiviously these types of marking would be done before the game, with the marked decks being switched in by dealers or floorpeople. If you think this sounds far fetched you should be aware that the person hosting the WSOP a few years back said in an interview that he has be offered sums in the mid five figures to put a marked deck in play at the final talbe of a WSOP event.

This bring us to the dealer. Some crews use dealers to help them win. The best dealers can do just about anything you can imagine, including stacking the deck, false shuffles where all cards remian in the same order, dealing seconds, controlling the flop and more. The number moves is limited only by the imagination, The good news is that these move take a long time to learn and perfect so the chance of running into this type of dealer in the middle limits (20/40- 100/200) are not too high. But there is one very simple, very effective techinque being used today, which requires very little skill. I hesitate to post about it here for fear that it will be used to cheat people, but if nobody says anything I guess only the cheaters will know about it. With just a little practice a dealer can learn to discreetly peek at the top card of the deck. With just a little more practice the dealer can peek at the second card from the top (ie the first card of the flop or the turn/river) and signal it to his/her accomplice. The dealers I saw practicing this techinque in LA would use specific fingers and/or touching parts of the face to signal cards. One female Asian dealer would scratch her hands using a different finger each time to signal the value of the upcoming flop/turn/river cards to teammates. With more practice you can learn to deal seconds. Now you can peek at the top card, if your player wants that card, you burn the real turn/river by dealing a second and actually use the burn card for the turn/river. This more than doubles your chance of hitting your draws, and allows you to bet the draws knowing they will fill. It also allows you to save a bet if you are going to miss. Very powerful yet wonderfully simple. Your best bet at spotting this techinque is to watch for the peek and sigal. A good peeker will be very hard to catch but it can be done. The most common techniques for peeking are the heel peek and the bubble peek. Also be aware that there is another variation on this play where the dealer uses their first two fingers to lift the the index corner of the second card from the rest of the deck about an eighth of an inch so the index becomes visible and can be flashed to a player, usually sitting in seat 6 7 or 8. There is also an effective way to lift the rear corner index and flash it to seat 1. These moves are best described with pictures or video so I will give you a few references at the end of
this post.

No post on cheating would be complete without mentioning the holdout man (would holdout person be more PC?). These players are skilled at palming and switching cards during play. They will retain one card when folding then switch in it later when needed. You absolutly cannot spot these guys, they are really that good. They will often use partners to create small diversions at key moments and sometimes even partner with dealers to ensure they can get past a deck count (or more likley that the deck will not be counted) and get a chance to clean up (replace the missing card) before the next dealer change. Like I said these guys are good so the chance of you or the camera catching them is slim, but there are some tells you can watch for. Players who always play using one arm, even to stack chips, may be using the other hand to hold out. Also watch for players who always remove their hand(s) from view immediately after folding. Any holdout man worth his salt will handle the cards the same way everytime, whether switching or not, so there will be no noticable change when they make thier move.

These days there are also specialized electronics for cheating. Miniature wireless cameras can be used to spy on hole cards. Cameras in cell phones pose a huge threat in this regard, especially as the cameras continue to improve in resolution. I believe that any casino interested in security should not allow any object other than chips or cards on the table, especially electronics like cell phones or cd/mp3 players ect. Although I do sometimes listen to music when I play, the truth is that headphones can be attached to a reciever/cell phone allowing a player to get information from a partner outside the game, possibly one viewing images from a camera at the table.

If you want to learn more about cheating I suggest the book "Gambling Scams" by Darwin Ortiz. This guy is amazing and also has some excellent videos if you can find them. When you see the stuff this guy can do you will be scared! Also video is often the best way to learn these moves. There is a series called the "Gambling Protection Series" by Steve Forte. These tapes feature many amazing sleights of hand that are used to cheat. They are all performed by a a guy whose face you never see and is only referred to as JB, but take my word for it "JB" is INCREDIBLE. He can do SO many moves PERFECTLY. This guys is the real deal folks and it is a pleasure to watch him in action, although a bit scary at the same time. My advice to you is to try to learn to do each move yourself just a little. You will probalby never be good enough (and hopefully have no desire )to do it in a game, but, this will give you an excellent feel for how the move works and what it may look like. If you play at limits $20/$40 or above, especially in LA, you will be amazed at how much of this activity you will see once your eyes have been opened to the most common tricks.

Anyways its time for bed. I hope this information stops you from being seperated from your hard won money!!!

[Seahorse]

Play one limit lower than you think you can.

[papa_georgio]

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Play one limit lower than you think you can.

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Good one. Especially for beginners.

[popniklas]

"Most players tend to have an M.O. and don’t change!"

What's an M.O? Great words by Cooke, btw.

[binions]

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"Most players tend to have an M.O. and don’t change!"

What's an M.O? Great words by Cooke, btw.

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Modus Operandi. Method of operation.

[ChipWisperer]

Even more afraid to collect the chips. That is definitely a tell; you know they are playing King/Jack-offsuit.

[cianosheehan]

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