Its not about odds.

Edit: This manily applies to tournament play.

Poker is not about odds. People who play odds get burned all the time, especially online. Knowing odds should be a tool in your arsenal but shouldn't be the main weapon.

How many times do you see omeone go out online and they type obsenities and stuff and say "I had 4:1 or 3:1 pot odds!" Like they should win 100% of the time with those odds.

Well here are my keys to being succesful online.

1.) Keep the pot small. No limit games can get out of hand very fast. For example, if you flop high pair but the board is full of draws, and you want to drive your oponent out of the hand, a lot of people move all in, or bet half there stack to get someone to fold. This is not a wise choice, you are making the pot large unnessiasrily. A lot of times a 150 chip bet will get a guy to fold, just as well as a 500 chip bet, the difference is that the 1/10 chance that he calls you and wins means you lost that many more chips.

Another thing, if your trying at a bluff, try not to go all in with it. Think about how cheaply you can bluff and still get the player to fold.

Lastly, think about getting slowplayed. If you flop middle pair an he checks to you, keep the pot small to avoid getting duped by a slowplay. Check, or raise a small ammount.

2.) Avoid pre flop play at all costs. You main goal, should be to see the flop as cheaply as possible with the least ammount of people as possible. Sometimes this requires a raise, and sometimes it requires a limp, even with a good hand.
I always like to see a flop with at least 2 other people, because that maximizes my chance of hitting something, while others hit something as well.

If you have a good starting hand, of course you want to bet preflop, but you want to do so with caution. Remeber, in holdem, before the flop, your only seeing 2/7 cards. You still have 5 cards left to see. Anyone who is agressivley betting preflop will get burned, even if the "odds" are in your favor.

Avoid all ins preflop like the plaugue. I see it all the time on tv now, and its just the stupiedest play immaginanble with a game like holdem. People think the key to winning holdem is going all in preflop with the best hand, and hoping to double up. That is the dumbest idea ever. What you want to do is trap your oponents, when you have a nut hand you want to maximize profit. Over the long run, this will be the best bet.

3.) Your preflop hand means nothing. get that through your head. Your seeing 2/7 cards, and if you want to take risks preflop, your not going to be succesful in the long run.

Now, about odds:

I will often fold TT - QQ preflop is someone is agresivly betting. The theory here is that I will wait until its cheap for me to enter and out play after the flop, rather than making a risk by putting up a lot of my stack pre flop when any ace hand or king hand can take me out.

The key to holdem is controlling the pot size. Maximizing profit with nut hands. Avoiding stupid risks. And not relying on odds all the time.

[chessforlife]

of course there's more to it than odds, but odds are important.

to not put a lot of money in pre-flop when you have a good idea that you're a 2-1, 4-1 favorite is not good poker

[Bez]

I hate being all-in pre-flop with AA.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

A lot of times a 150 chip bet will get a guy to fold, just as well as a 500 chip bet

and

Think about how cheaply you can bluff and still get the player to fold.


Two good points. Many players overbet their hands and waste chips when they get played back at.

However:

I always like to see a flop with at least 2 other people, because that maximizes my chance of hitting something, while others hit something as well.


This is silly, some hands play better heads-up, some like multiway action.

Anyone who is agressivley betting preflop will get burned, even if the "odds" are in your favor.


First of all, this is very stack-size vs. blind size dependent. But for example, you're much more likely to get burned playing AKo passively preflop than aggressively. If you have 12 BB in your stack, and there's a raise and a call in front of you, the correct play is all-in.

I will often fold TT - QQ preflop is someone is agresivly betting.

Again, this depends on who the players are who are doing the betting, but sure, QQ-TT can be folded to a raise and reraise, especially if the reraiser is know to be tight.


The key to holdem is controlling the pot size. Maximizing profit with nut hands. Avoiding stupid risks. And not relying on odds all the time.

Sorry. In MTT's this is a recipe for getting close to the money with a small stack.

Yes, I agree with a lot of what you say.

My MTT strategy was always been to get close to the bubble playing passivley, and then hit it hard and agressive from there on.

What I meant is that, anyone who is betting agressivley preflop A LOT will eventually get burned, even if the odds are always in your favor.

I failed to mention that you will indeed win quite a few hands this way, but the risk you take in doing so is eventually mgoing to get you busted in a MTT.

[ QUOTE ]

I will often fold TT - QQ preflop is someone is agresivly betting. The theory here is that I will wait until its cheap for me to enter and out play after the flop, rather than making a risk by putting up a lot of my stack pre flop when any ace hand or king hand can take me out.


[/ QUOTE ]

Waiting around does not win you MTTs. You can't play like a pussy. I agree with seeing flops cheaply at times but if you have a powerful hand, it's best to put your money on it and play it hard.

I would only fold 10-10 + if I had bet it agressivley and got raised and reraised or something like that.

I wouldn't play it like a pussy, but how often do you get tens or jacks online, only to go all in and find aces kings or queens waiting for you. It happens quite a bit, to me at least.

You look like a passive player. It's tougher to make your nut hands pay when you are passive...

Most of the time when you are holding JJ QQ or KK you will not run into a better pocket pair. Unless you have a great read on the player and are sure he is holding a better hand you should assume you are holding the best hand.