What is in your NL bag of tricks?

[PokerFink]

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-betting
-raising
-fastplaying

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This is the nuts.

Fastplaying is the new slowplaying. Fastplaying rules. Everyone complains about how "these idiots call everything!" Well, there is an easy way to combat that. FASTPLAY!

Bet your set. Raise it. Bet pot when you flop the nuts. Raise pot. Push all-in with the nuts. If you hit your draw, bet out the pot. FASTPLAY!

I cannot stress this enough. Let me know if you aren't convinced, I will show you examples.

[PokerFink]

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I was trying to estimate the amount of money that bluffing and semi-bluffing has cost me over the past 3 months today. The number I came to was 3K. I [censored] you not.

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This is gold too.

This is directly related to the above point.

Don't bother making moves unless you have a strong read that the move will actually work. DO NOT bluff or semi-bluff into a vacuum. It's not +EV.

[PokerFink]

One move that does work: The Stop N Go.

This is the best way to deal with players who stab at a lot of pots on the flop, especially from the button.

The best time to use it is when you see a free flop from the BB with garbage and flop bottom pair or mid pair on an ugly board. Checks to the button who stabs at the pot. Call it, get heads up, and lead the turn with a PSB. I find this is much better than check/raising.

You can also do this with air if you are confident the button was stabbing with air, but I like doing it with a small piece of the board because it is that much more likely the button has air.

By the way, nice post LessThanMrT. Welcome to the forums.

[whittiphil]

You got some info in this thread that it takes a lot of people 3 months and $1000 of buyins to figure out.

Play few hands.
Bet TPTK
Bet Set
Bet any strong hand.

fold TPTK to a check raise. This is +EV to the maximum unless you have a *very* good read.

Nice post, it got some great replies

[pokerjoker]

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there's a little comment I'd like to make on continuation betting, about what I saw in other threads about this. People there said that they usually bet from half pot to potsize when making continuation bets, and they mentioned that you should make sure that you are betting an amount with which you are winning more than 50% of the continuation bets to make them worthwhile.

However, not everyone realizes that the pots you lose when continuation goes wrong are much bigger than those you take down. Say the pot is $20, and you bet half pot for continuation with your AK that missed or what not. That's a $10 bet. If you successfully push out your opponent, you take down a $20 pot. If you get called or raised, most likely you're beat and you're losing a $40 pot.

So to make continuation worthwhile, you must win over 66% of the time if you bet 1/2 pot, over 75% of the time if you bet pot and so on. So are they really worth the risk?

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You are assuming you have absolutely 0% chance of making a hand on the flop.

[pokerjoker]

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Posting UTG.

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why?

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-betting
-raising
-fastplaying

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This is the nuts.

Fastplaying is the new slowplaying. Fastplaying rules. Everyone complains about how "these idiots call everything!" Well, there is an easy way to combat that. FASTPLAY!

Bet your set. Raise it. Bet pot when you flop the nuts. Raise pot. Push all-in with the nuts. If you hit your draw, bet out the pot. FASTPLAY!

I cannot stress this enough. Let me know if you aren't convinced, I will show you examples.

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I could not agree more from my limited experience.

I have developed this playing style after bad beat after bad beat on, of course, Party Poker (Well, I used to classify them as bad beats; now I write them off to my cheapness and letting people draw out on me too cheaply) [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] It wasn't long before I figured out that you make them pay for the draws and that the river is for suckers (unless I am drawing) [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] Since I switched to "bet the pot, take the pot" play, my game has improved (or at least my winnings).

When I become complacent and get away from this style trying to get fancy, I notice big leaks in the plumbing…

The one caveat I have been thinking about, however, is that I am missing some bets I could be picking up...thoughts?

I came up with my slogan about the missed bets: rather take it down a bet light than to lose it an extra bet deep. Is my thinking sound, generally speaking?

I find a lot of tricks and moves work at these levels - even 25NL - its just that they only work on an opponent by opponent basis...
I was on a table last night - there was 1 player I would always continue bet after missing the flop with AK/AQ/AJ - normally 3/4+- to full .ie. $3 to a $3.50 pot -- at the same time there was another player I would either overbet (say $5-6 in the above example) one in 3 or so or simply check because he would only call the raise with something of equal power which he would not fold to a normal bet.

1 guy I would nearly always fold to his re-raise - another I would smooth call with a big hand or re-raise with a mediocre hand (which he normally lay it down) - it all depends - and I disagree with some posters - players at the lower levels are not all dummies - many are yes - but some do think about the game.

Oh and I personally try to mix up my monsters - check with the flopped Full House - or continue bet like I had AK - keeps em guessing!

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I'm not familiar with the stop n go or blocking bets.

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Stop and go- When shortstacked, just calling with a M<10 stack then autopushing a flop to maximize FE. A concept more associated with tournaments. See FossilMan's post in the Anthology of Wisdom in the MTT forum.


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FYP

[LockLow34]

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Applying a way ahead or way behind line is another trick that players should learn.

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i forgot one: dont fastplay one pair

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If someone could explain this one, another player has a possibility of learning these concepts

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You want to play for big pots when you have a huge hand (a set or better), and you generally want to keep one pair pots small. The reason? Because you only have one pair and the hand is thus very vulnerable. For example, if you have aces, you want to raise preflop to get it heads up. Say you get one caller and the board is Q-7-2r. You have position, so you bet the flop and he calls. The turn comes 10. He checks the turn, you might want to (and I would) check behind on the turn. this is in order to keep the pot smaller. Right now, you're probably WA/WB (way ahead or way behind). He's either got something like K-Q or most likely flopped a set on you. With just a pair of aces, I want to keep the pot fairly small and see a fairly cheap showdown, so I check behind on the turn with the intention of calling a pot size bet on the river from him (since I've showed weakness you'll often induce a bluff or a "value bet" from K-Q). Say Villain flopped a set and decides to just call the turn and then bet on the river, you end up putting a lot more money into this pot than you do if you check behind on the turn. And again, you just have aces.

So in sum, build big pots with real strong hands and try to play for small pots with vulnerable hands, like one pair.

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You mean...*gasp*...play AFTER the flop with aces? Golllllllly, whoda thunk it? [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]