It’s only by mastering all the avenues of the game that you can truly get to a level where you can pick and choose whichever game looks most profitable on any particular day.

The Variations

Five Card Stud and Five Card Draw! Remember those ? Yeah exactly, from being one of the most popular poker games they’re nowadays more or less totally forgotten. They’ve been substituted with Seven Card Stud which itself has dwindled in popularity recently, which brings me to the point that if you haven’t been keeping on top of the variations or don’t know about them you’re really not going to last long in the world of poker.

No Limit Hold’Em

No Limit Hold’em which initially looked like it was heading for extinction due to the nature of its high wage, hard cash games (almost always won by the tightest player) instead has today become one of the most popular and in style versions of the game.

How this could all happen is thanks to none other than our trusty friend the television. Not only did it make No Limit Hold’Em seem cool to play but maybe even glamourous at times. With it’s instant on screen appeal it has to be said that pokers recent revival to the masses can only be attributed entirely to how Hold’Em itself rose to popularity as an entertainment piece.

So as one of the most currently in style versions of poker one great piece of advice we recommend to all newbie poker players is to begin learning the variants of this game because there are a few. Ever heard of Counting Limit, No Limit, Ready Money Games and Play Offs. If not you better start learning and practicing them.

Omaha

We’re not referring to the Omaha beach front here, but the version of Hold ’em you ought to study next. Ok so Pot Limit Omaha doesn’t work exceptionally well due to you having to make up your mind yes or no to call bets on the river whilst a third flush card hits. With you holding a Queen high flush, it’s simply not a huge pronouncement if you just have to call 1 bet whilst having 12 in the pot.

However, if you’re playing Pot-Limit and your adversary bets the volume of the pot on the river, whether you ought to call with your Queen high flush or not does become a significantly tougher resolution. So it does have its challenges and certainly one thing you’ll quickly realise with Pot-Limit games is that they demand a little more proficiency than No-Limit games due to the simple reason that you don’t have the all in shift to rely on. Becoming skilled at playing before and after the flop is essential in this version of the game.

Hi/Lo, 2-7 Triple Draw & More

Played Hi/Lo version of the game ? If no then again you ought to gain knowledge of the Hi/Lo games, predominantly Stud Hi/Lo and Omaha Hi/Lo. Another good game is 2-7 Triple Draw, a marvelous action game which is climbing steps exceptionally well in the poker world. Like the top card games, it has a whole bunch of statistical essentials to it, but there is much card reading and bluffing to it as well. In 2-7, a draw hand with one card to come is more or less at all times a small fry to a hand that stands pat, thus if you have a 9 and can compel your adversary to crack his 9 you would get yourself some major upper hand benefit.

Practice Poker Online

Fresh poker players are fortunate this day and age since they’re able to study and become skilled through playing online. There’s a huge variety of offers for this, and the internet is stuffed up with all sorts of online casinos and poker playing sites, both human vs. human and human vs. machine.

It’s possible to play a whole session of Sit & Go whilst you’re getting your bacon cooked. Sit & Go’s can be quite gainful, and a superlative means of putting new strategies to test. By revising your hand record afterwards, you can spot your wins and fails as well as take notes on how you charged with a big pile and how you did with a dumpy pile.

To become the best you have to practice and playing online is your best bet.

Yet, even though aggression can work marvels for you as a poker player, it has to be used wisely Luke, or you’ll get dragged to the dark side.

What Is Aggressive Poker

Many youthful players take aggression the wrong way when facing hands like A-Q and A-J, making vast raises like it was a clever go, while actually digging their own sore graves. Taking such risks is in no way justified, especially when there are so many bad players around. Patience is the name of the game.

A lot of newer players are accountable of mishandling hostility. They spot their preferred competitor on television pulling off a massive bluff or dominating through aggression, and want to emulate that. Unfortunately, most players following that line of behavior do not know just how to be the warrior type, and random aggression just won’t do to help them take control of the table. Much thought and calculation is required, and a cool head is a special must when pushing an aggressive stance.

Playing Aggressive Vs Playing Loose

Now, playing aggressive poker is NOT equivalent to playing loose. Aggressive is not about making bets on every single row, or never dropping off a hand before the face-off. In fact if you’re going to play aggressive you’re probably better off not playing as many hands as the majority of your adversaries.

Consider you are aggressive when you raise more than you call, and when you bet more than you check, and usually bet further than the smallest token amount allowed; that makes it for aggressive stance. And it’s also a lot about being selective, not about winning every pot, but rather the greater pots.

Examples

Picture a pre-flop situation when you’re coming from a late position. Raising pre-flop instead of simply calling you can compel your adversary to pay and see the flop, and put up the pot that you are bent on winning. Making a bet pre-flop will in addition stand for a tough hand which would serve for bluffing subsequent to the flop, if the flop does not help you. In case of there being various callers pre-flop, then raising will moreover augment the volume of the pot when the others have to call your raise, that or compel them to fold, reducing their prospect to back into a hand afterwards.

Practice Makes Perfect

Recognizing the right moment for aggression will come with time and as you gain knowledge of the game. You may think you’re not the aggressive type and that this type of play just won’t work with you, but give it time and you’ll eventually get the hang of it.

Warnings For Beginners

Oh and all of you beginners out there who want to play like Darth Vader, a word of advice would be not to center your complete game on aggression at first. Play it firmly, focusing on the essentials and when you get that down, then and only then can you begin to consider the subject of putting in some hostility. Aggressive poker is something you’ll have to master, but is not as simple as just charging against an opponent with all you’ve got.

When it comes to Poker, sometimes less is more, and when it comes to tournament Poker, sometimes it’s wise not to let your eagerness for aggressive “domination” go forward. Even though that one Hold’em starter may look as tempting as a Baywatch Babe you’d be wise to learn the difference between a good starting hand, and one that’s just calling for a folding even when you find yourself suited to the occasion.

So when faced with one of those hands where you clearly see the domination potential and there’s another player whose entered the pot with his own will, then you know you have a call for a pre-flop folding. Why, you ask ? In two words the “Gap Concept” defined by David Sklansky as being “the difference between the hand you need to call an opener with, and that with which you would have opened yourself”.

For those of you that want that in plain english, it’s simply the observation that you need a stronger hand to call a raise with, than you would have needed to make the original opening bet.

Filling The Gap

First of all, you should take into consideration whether you’re the opener act or not. If you don’t have the first act, then you must make a note of the following. Has a raise happened in front of your eyes? If the answer be positive, then this “Gap Concept” advices you to move onto labeling the raiser (so to speak) as one type of player or another, whether he be the “loose” or the “tight” type.

Also, if you do have the opener act, take a good long look at your opponents stack size in order to resolve whether the concept may or may not be applied here.

POT BEEN RAISED: If the pot has indeed been raised PRIOR to it getting to you, then it is of capital importance that you understand the mindset and position from which the players are raising.

AGGRESIVE: Talking about aggression, if the player is the loose-warrior type, you could consider the gap as good as gone (most times, though not always) of the hands you can get a re-raise or a call from, since there will be an amplified range of hands for the player to raise with, thus leaving you a wide range of hands to counter attack. In this case, you may like to play a King-Jack hand against this kind of adversary.

TIGHT: Forget about King-Jack when facing a tight player. For in this case the gap has become even smaller, and you may find yourself narrowing the gap to the point of folding all but those premium hands (kings, aces, queens) your opponent is most likely to be raising with from a primal stance.

Playing Your Odds

Example 1
Let’s say you got a K-Q off suit on the button. You raise. It looks like a good hand for stealing blinds, sure… But… should a middle player have a raise PRIOR to the flop, you better throw that K-Q is as far away from you as possible, as it is easily dominated by the hands your rival is most likely to raise with from his middle stance.

Example 2
You adversary has a raise in the first stance with A-K, which folds at you on button with 7-2 off-suit (a hand doesn’t get any worse than that, or does it?). Calling there would get you like a 65-35 out of game.

Now, suppose you’ve got A-Q on button, against that very same A-K raise. Your hand would be now around 75-25 out, which is actually even worse than with 2-7.

The point is that it’s very difficult to fold A-Q to a single pre-flop, but should that raise have come form an early stance and you reasonably suspect your opponent to have a premium hand, A-Q would certainly become effortlessly dominated.

Final Words

So it goes to say that when it comes to pre-flop strategies it’s a good policy to hold your horses and retain yourself from playing easily dominated hands. You should never be confident from being suited, since a hand doesn’t become playable just because it’s suited; it’s the ranks of the cards that matters and many times suited hands can often be mediocre making them best left alone.

An Overview

First of all, let’s go over the basics of the strategy. The ‘Small Ball’ strategy at its roots is a way of minimizing risk by keeping the pot as small as possible. This is a key part of the strategy so if you think you’re doing great playing ‘Small Ball‘ but are going into big pots then you’re definitely not applying it correctly.

Secondly however great a poker strategy is, it’s only effective when you know your opponent has no idea you’re playing it. That makes your game unpredictable and being unpredictable is probably the biggest part of any game. Unfortunately since the ‘Small Ball‘ strategy is so well known throughout the poker world it’s a little to easy to pick out when you see it in play.

Transmitting Weakness

Most beginners struggle when applying this strategy because they never really know whether their raise represented weakness. The ‘Small Ball‘ strategy says you should avoid raising as much as possible, make limps or just minimum raises before the flop and always bet less than half the pot. From the outset these restrictions automatically transmit weakness to the opponent meaning they’ll probably end up raising you and forcing you out of the play.

Most beginners who play this strategy will eventually start to call as they won’t want to give up a top pair. This will again lead to larger pots and thus you’re throwing the strategy out of the window. Let’s take a look at a quick example.

An Example

Blinds are 100/200, John has A J and is using the ‘Small Ball‘. He minimum raises from a latter position and Dave calls it. Flop is 7 6 J, good flop for John, Dave checks and John makes just a weak bet of 250 in a 900 pot. Seeing this Dave calls.

The turn produces a 2 and John makes another small bet this time of 500, Dave makes a standard raise to 1.5K which following the Small Ball strategy should really mean John should fold, but John’s confused! His weak bets mean he can’t really decide whether he’s actually ahead of his opponent or if his opponent is just trying to bluff or semi-bluff him.

A strong bet earlier on may have forced Dave out of the game but letting him play on after the flop means Dave is able to very cheaply play along and maybe even pick out some cards putting him in a strong position.

So John going on instinct because he feels his hand is pretty good eventually calls, he just can’t force himself to lay down a strong pair with a top kicker that easily. Now he’s playing a 3.8K pot with one card to come, river is a K and Dave makes a continuation bet of 2200. John is an amateur, and finds himself in an extremely marginal situation with a huge pot going on and with no idea where he’s standing. Seeing the opponent’s hand will cost him a lot of chips which is not the idea for a small ball player.

Textbooks says he should fold his spot as his pair of jacks seems no good, but most beginners will call because they feel their weak bets allowed a bluff from the opponent. In some cases this is true but in many cases the opponent is usually holding a double pair or even a set that could leave John with few big blinds left in the tournament.

Even if he was just bluffing this play won’t be profitable in the long run and goes against the principles of small balling where the idea is not to risk so many chips with just a pair. Going back to the start this unfortunate sequence of events all kicked off from the initial weak bet of 250 that lead John down this confusing path.

Small Balling It

The above is one of the main reasons I’m not a big fan of the ‘Small Ball’ not only does it make it extremely difficult for beginners to know where they stand but once your opponent picks up on the fact that you’re small balling they can easily outplay you with a few big raises. Following the strategy means you’ll not only end up laying down mediocre hands but you’ll often be forced to fold on your best hands.

In conclusion the ‘Small Ball’ strategy is no good for beginners and certainly only useful in the hands of more experienced players like Daniel Negreanu who know how to use it without fault.