Entry

What skills are important for Texas Hold'em?

What are skills important for Texas Hold'em?

What skills are required to play Texas Hold'em?

Mar 15th, 2008 17:07
ha mo, John Mathu, Paoelin Meol, http://www.marchmadnessUSA.com http://www.NCAASportsBlog.com http://roulettegame.blogspot.com

(Hold 'em) Poker Skills in Order of Importance
Disclaimer: I'm a poker novice, not an expert.
0. Table selection
1. Hand selection
2. Reading opponents' hands
3. Opponent assessment
4. Heads up play, bluffing, and semi-bluffing
5. Seat selection
6. Check-raising
7. Getting tells
8. Pot odds calculations
The exact order of importance of skills varies by game type. For
example, you cannot read your opponent when your opponent does not know
what he has. The list above is geared towards mid-level games where some
sanity prevails but the game is not at an expert level either.
0. Table Selection.
By far the most important skill is table selection, so it ranks better
than #1, it's #0. It doesn't matter how well you play if you are always
picking the games with no fish where even an expert can't beat the rake.
Most of your income will come from a few very bad players. If you play
fairly well, you won't lose much to the better players, nor win much
from the slightly inferior players; it's the fish that count.
1. Hand selection
Now that you've found your table with a live one or two, be patient.
More than just having the discipline to play good hands and the stomach
for surviving the variance, you should realize that most of our income
in Hold 'em comes from AA and KK, with notable mention to the other
pocket pairs and AK. Your object is to not lose too much while waiting
for these premium hands, and particularly not to lose too much to these
hands when other players get them. At $10-$20 and below, go ahead and
make it 3 bets if you can before the flop with your AA or KK; you'll be
surprised at how little respect you get with people calling you all the
way to the river even though your betting is screaming "I HAVE POCKET
ACES!!!" And respect preflop raises done by other players, dumping a lot
of hands you would normally play such as AT and KJ or even AJ and KQ, as
you don't want to make top pair versus an overpair. On the flop, don't
bet into someone who has made it three bets unless you can beat the shit
out of AA and KK and *want* to be raised back and then just call and go
for a check-raise on the turn.
2. Reading opponents' hands
Now, think about the range of hands and their probabilities that your
opponents could have. Initially, when the players receive their first
two cards, every possible two card hand is equally probable (unless you
start grouping them like 87 offsuit, pocket aces, etc., but you get the
idea.) Every action a player takes gives you information that you can
use to adjust these probabilities. It's a Bayesian inference problem.
Unfortunately, actually applying Bayes' rule exactly is beyond any puny
human brain's capability. So, you make a major approximation and
essentially just keep around a set of possible hands, which you then
prune down as action take place.
Suppose a player just calls preflop in early position and the flop comes
Q 7 2 offsuit and he suddenly goes berserk by reraising, you have to
think about what hands are likely. The hands that make sense to reraise
like that are AQ, KQ, Q7, 72, Q2, 77, and 22. QQ would probably be
slow-played here instead. Now join that set with the possible hands
before the flop. We can just look at these hands and see which are
reasonable to just call preflop in early position. AQ and KQ are often
raised in early position, but at least sometimes they just call, so they
are still consistent. Q7, 72, and Q2 are not reasonable calls from early
position. 77 and 22 are reasonable calls, though tight players would
probably dump the 22. So that leaves AQ, KQ, 77, and 22 as his possible
hands, which has narrowed down the field quite a bit. Be aware also of
how other players may interpret your betting.
3. Opponent assessment
As play goes along, give yourself a running commentary of the events,
"she open-raises, he folds, he cold-calls...". You must make a lot of
mental notes based on this, and you must do this even when you're not in
a hand, because in addition to being useful during a hand, it's useful
for later hands. You want to see the frequency with which a player sees
the flop, the frequency with which a player defends his blinds from
raises, and the hands a player open-raises with, raises with, reraises
with, cold-calls with, and just calls with. This in conjunction with
narrowing down the hands above will often give you a good idea of what's
going on even when there is no showdown. Your goal is to stereotype each
player, as well as to note particular idiosyncrasies of the individuals
for use not only now but in future sessions.
4. Heads up play, semi-bluffing, and bluffing
Especially when heads-up, you should be constantly applying pressure to
the other player to make him fold. You may reraise when you think you're
either beaten badly or your opponent is bluffing. It's a bit like chess
or wargames, with attacks, feints, counterattacks, and graceful
retreats. This is part of the "feel" of poker that's hard to put into
words, but hopefully you get the idea. Bluffing and semi-bluffing is
important to keep yourself unpredictable, and with since you're keeping
track of the ranges of plausible hands, it's quite likely you'll often
know where your opponent stands. Cold bluffing is usually restricted to
the river, where you might bet into one or two opponents (who might
fold) if you have no chance of winning the pot if there is a showdown.
Semi-bluffing is betting with a hand that is not likely best but has
some big outs. Your opponent may fold immediately, and if not, you may
hit your out and your opponent may seriously misread you. There is an
important balance here; you must have sufficiently tight hand selection
criteria such that when you do bet your opponent is positively terrified
that you may have a big hand like an overpair. Semi-bluffing is very
powerful, because you've been so careful in choosing your starting hands
that even if you aren't there yet you are likely to get there.
5. Seat selection
Generally, you want the loose aggressive players to your right and the
tight passive players to your left. This is so that you can see a raise
coming before calling the first bet. However, if the game is tight
enough that it is being folded around to the blinds often, then you want
some very tight passive players in the two seats to your right, so that
your blinds will not be stolen. This is a very important skill, and just
because you've found a good table, doesn't mean that every seat at that
table would be a winning seat on average for you.
6. Check-raising
Because the nature of fixed limit Hold 'em makes calling one bet often
correct for very weak hands, it's difficult to protect your hand. A
major weapon you have to protect your hand is check-raising. However,
you must be conscious of where you think the bettor will be. Typically,
if you had a made but vulnerable hand you would check in early position
if you thought there would be a bet in late position; you then raise and
the players in between face two bets plus a risk of a reraise by the
late position player, making it difficult for them to call. If you have
an invulnerable hand that you want to make everyone pay you through the
nose for, then you would check in early position if you thought there
would be an early position bet, and then you would raise after everyone
trailed in calling behind. The down side of check-raising is that you
risk giving a free card if no one bets.
7. Getting tells
Be aware of tells. If a player has his hands on his chips and is leaning
forward, all ready to raise if you bet, usually this is an act intended
to get you to just check, as the player in fact does not what to raise
you or maybe even call a bet. Two other incredibly valuable tells are
the "what the heck, I raise" tell (get *out*, he has a monster!) and the
"let me check to see if I have one of that suit with three on the board"
tell (so you know he doesn't have a flush already.) Remember that if
they think they're being watched, players typically act the opposite of
what they have.
8. Pot odds calculations
Be aware of pot odds. You can count the number of "outs" you have to
estimate if calling is a positive expected value play. You may be
surprised that I rank this so low. Although it is a subjective opinion,
particularly when heads up it's much more important outplay your
opponent rather than outdraw him. In loose games, outdrawing becomes
much more important, but then the pots are so big that you usually have
odds for any half way reasonable draw anyway.
For more information visit:
http://olympicssports.blogspot.com	
http://marchmadnessforum.blogspot.com	
http://soccertournament.blogspot.com	
http://horsebettingsite.blogspot.com	
http://winningplayatblackjack.blogspot.com	
http://kenogaming.blogspot.com	
http://gamebaccarat.blogspot.com	
http://roulettegame.blogspot.com	
http://onlineslotsentertainment.blogspot.com	
http://internetcraps.blogspot.com	
http://casinobackgammon.blogspot.com	
http://majorbaseball.blogspot.com	
http://ncaafootballseries.blogspot.com
http://www.chiefcyberpicks.com
http://www.onlinebingoreviewdirectory.com
http://www.onlinecasinoreviewdirectory.com
http://www.skillgameschief.com
http://www.skillgamesdirectory.com
http://www.skillgamesportal.com
http://www.skillgamesearch.com
http://www.onlinepokerreviewdirectory.com
http://www.pokerstarsnetwork.com
http://www.chiefbrand.com
http://chiefcyberpicks.blogspot.com/	
http://pokerguideforreview.blogspot.com	
http://onlinebingoreview.blogspot.com	
http://bingonline.blogspot.com	
http://pokerwebsitereview.blogspot.com/	
http://skillgamereviews.blogspot.com
http://www.chiefcyberpicks.us
http://www.NCAASportsBlog.com
http://www.casinogaminginsider.com
http://www.marchmadnessUSA.com
http://www.nflchampionshipblog.com
http://www.worldgamingarticles.com
http://www.superbowl.us
Sorce:conjelco.com
http://www.tantofa.com
http://www.fantofa.com
http://www.mantofa.com
http://www.tanpola.com
http://www.tampola.com
http://www.mozmar.com
http://www.yamot.com
http://www.templatestemp.com