Thoughts after 2 months of playing Poker every weekend, from lost every night to win almost every night in home parties. A couple strategies and lessons learnt:
- Read your opponents’ types is the most important lesson one needs to learn. Look for your opponents’ tells.
- Most players in home parties are newbies, don’t bluff with air. Semi bluff occasionally to balance your hands. Value bet is normally the right choice.
- Play aggressively and balance your hands.
- Steal the pot when at position.
- Find the right pace in playing hands. Play differently in dry and wet board.
Essential Poker Math Reading Notes
Money Matters
Bankroll management is important. Practicing sound poker bankroll management involves recognizing that the amount of money you have in your poker bankroll should always be dictating the stakes for which you play.
In the case of tournaments, the numbers listed below refer to the number of tourney buy-ins. Thus if you like to play $5 multi-table tournaments, a number of 100 (as a minimum) refers to having $500 in your bankroll with which to play. Meanwhile for cash games, the numbers refer to the number of buy-ins into the game wherein a buy-in represents the maximum amount allowed in the game. In other words, if the $0.10/$0.25 NLHE game you like to play allows a maximum buy-in of $25, a figure of 100 refers to having $2,500 in your bankroll with which to play.
Positives of Good BRM
- Professionalism
- Improves goal setting
- Reduced risk
Badly managed 💵 is scared money. Playing w/o considering bank management or logics, playing in desperate manner to win the pot.
Solution to avoid scared $: $$ in the pot is inconsequent and make best decision based on EV perspective.
Position Matters
SB = Small Blind
BB = Big Blind
UTG = Under the Gun
MP = Middle Position
CO = Cut Off
BTN = Dealer / Button
Three Advantages in Poker
Position, Card, Skill
Hand Ranges
s for suited, o for off-suited.
Any Pocket Pair: 22+
Pocket Jacks or Better: JJ+
KQ or Better: KQ+
AJ suited or Better: AJs+
Ranged-based thinking is an important concept. Read your opponents’ hand range based on their moves.
Bet Sizing by Pot Size
A 1/3 pot sized bet means the same as 2NL through 500NL.
Thinking in Big Blinds
A unit of how many blinds to bet, in bb.
Effective Stack Sizes
Effective stack size is the size of the smallest stack between two different players in a hand. Knowing effective stack sizes is an essential concept in basic poker strategy — how we play a particular hand will vary greatly depending upon our opponents’ stack sizes.
Leveraging Effective Stack Sizes and SPRs
In general, a short-stacker with a lower SPR will be more likely to commit to a hand with a more marginal holding. Conversely, a deep-stacker with a higher SPR will be less likely to commit to a hand with a marginal holding.
Basic Player Types
Tagging Your Opponents
Determine if a player is good or bad:
Look at their stack sizes: typically a good player would have at least 100bb stack.
Look at how their chips are stacked: are they nicely stacked into 20 chip stacks, or erratically into small stacks?
Are they performing chip tricks? Decent regulars will often perform tricks, such as the shuffling the chops.
Are they listening to music? Decent regulars will often listen to music on their cell phones.
Are they drinking alcohol or do they appear drunk? If so, they’re bad.
Good Player Types
NITs: really tight players.
TAGs: Tight Aggressive Players
LAGs: Loose Aggressive Players
Bad Player Types
Loose Passive
When you play against a loose passive opponent, you will see him limping in pre-flop a majority of the time. A passive opponent will only raise pre-flop with the top of his starting hand range.
Calling stations
Calling stations hate to fold. Calling stations love to limp and see flops, but tend to not fold to aggression, making them almost impossible to bluff.
Bad Aggressive
Uncontrolled aggression.
Fundamental Poker Math Concepts
Probability
Probability of Being Dealt Pocket Aces: 0.452%
Probability of being dealt any two suited cards: 23.53%
Probability of Making an open ended straight draw on the turn: 17.02%. Lots of people tend to erroneously overestimate the probability of making straight and flush draws.
Probability of Flopping a set or better: 11.76%.
Odds
Odds are another way of expressing probability. Odds are commonly expressed as ratios, such as 2:1, which is stated as 2-to-1.
Understand Equity
Equity is our share of the pot if a hand is played to showdown.
Case Analysis
Pot Odds
Pot odds are the IMMEDIATE odds we’re being offered when we call a bet in poker.
Example:
Suppose there is $10 in the pot going to the river. Villain bets all-in for a total of $10 and the action is on us. If we can w are risking $10 to win $20 already in pot. Our reward:risk ratio is 2:1 and our pot odds is 1 / 3 = 33%. We call if we expect to win at least 33% of the time.
Reward: Pot Size
Risk: amount to call.
Implied Odds
Implied odds is an extension of pot odds. It reflects how much we expect to win on later streets when we hit our drawing hand.
Good Implied Odds: if we expect to win a lot of $$ from our opponent on later streets of betting after we make our draw.
Implied Odds Works Well When:
- Aggressive Opponents
- Against calling stations
- When you are in position
- In multi-way pots
- When we’re deep stacked.
When Implies Odds Don’t Work
- Against Tight Opponents
- Against short-stackers
- End of action spots
- When you are out of position
- With obvious draws
Common Draws and Outs
Outputs You Should Memorize
- Flush draw: 9 outs
- Open ended straight draw: 8 outs
- Over cards 2 pair draw: 6 outs
- Gut shot straight draw: 4 outs
Discounting Outs
Certain outs that complete our draw also complete our opponents’ draw to a better made hand.
Dirty Outs
It completes a better draw for one of our opponents.
Rule of 2 and 4
The Rule of 2 & 4 is a very easy way to estimate our equity while we are playing a hand w/o any complicated math or equity calculators.
Two steps:
- Count our outs for our draws.
- Multiply our draws by 2 or 4 based upon the criteria below:
- > Multiply outs x2 on the flop if we are not being put all-in or calling an all-in
- > Multiply outs x4 on the flop if we’re being put all-in or are calling an all-in
- > Multiply outs x2 on the turn no matter the circumstance.
Outs to Equity Chart
Chapter 10 Introduction to Expected Value
EV is how much we expect to win or lose on average, over the long run based on a specific scenario in poker.
Chapter 11 Can We Call?
3 Steps:
- Determine our pot odds and implied odds.
- Determine our equity in the hand.
- Compare our pot and implied odds with our equity to determine if calling is +EV or -EV.
