4:44am: Everyone can agree that there’s a specific course of events in poker that would cause them to “tilt”. For each person, that course of events and the threshold for tilting are different but the lowest common denominator is that we all tilt in some, way shape or form. Let’s be honest, we’d all be winning players if we could learn to control our emotions and not tilt, right? It’s a good thing I don’t have to answer that question because tilt will always exist for a couple of reasons (a) losing money never feels good, and (b) there is so much injustice in poker.

“How on earth can I stop from tilting?” That’s the magic question to which we’d all like a magic bullet. What is the secret to not getting angry after a bad beat? How can one reasonably be expected to control his/her emotions after a runner runner disaster for a large chunk of their bankroll?

If I could answer that question with 100% confidence, I wouldn’t need to play poker because I’d set up shop in a nice little office and play counselor all day long. My client list would be nearly infinite, as you could imagine. But seriously, I will do the best I can to put it into perspective for you and help you avoid the downward spiral, mind consuming seige that is tilt.

First off, in order to answer the questions above, we need to establish a concrete definition of tilt. For all intents and purposes, we will define tilt as “a state of mental confusion or frustration in which a player adopts a less than optimal strategy.” In fact, it almost helps if you define tilt as a temporary illness. Much the same way doctors diagnose a disease, we must diagnose the symptoms of tilt. The key here, however, is to diagnose these symptoms in the early stages so that these feelings don’t permeate into your game. This involves you being brutally honest with yourself and identify when you’re in a state of tilt. If you find yourself checking just three of these ten symptoms, then you’re probably tilting:

- An immense feeling of frustration and anger towards both the player and the game itself
- Strong desire to exact revenge or spite your opponent
- Complete loss of patience in the game you’re playing
- Trying too hard to win each hand dealt
- Second guessing every single decision made
- The concepts of table image and logic have gone totally out the door
- Chasing draws without proper odds
- Sudden bursts of unexplained and illogical aggression
- Overvaluing marginal hands
- The inability to press the fold button

All of these things can be detrimental to your game, or even worse: destroy your bankroll, or even — depending on the situation — ruin lives.

So let’s put a stop to it already, or at least try. Here are five simple suggestions from me to you that will help you stay off tilt:

1. Always, always think long term. Poker isn’t about winning the battle. It’s about winning the war. If you’re a winning player, there’s absolutely no question your results will return to form over time. Why is this so hard for people to see at the time? If that is the million dollar question, then the million dollar solution is: TRUST THE MATH. A good example of this is the swingy phenomenon of coin flips. Literal coin flips, that is. If we flip a coin 100 times, it’s completely within reason that it lands on heads 75 times out of 100 when of course the odds are exactly 50%. Let’s take that same coin and flip it 900 more times, totaling 1,000 flips. This time, heads is only slightly ahead of tails (513 to 487 - 51.3% to 48.7%).  Going even further, let’s flip the coin 10,000 times. This time, the number of heads outcomes are eerily close to the number of tails outcomes — (5,023 to 4,977 - 50.23% to 49.77%). Point being, as the number of flips increases infinitely, the closer the percentages will gravitate towards either other, eventually totally leveling out at 50 percent within fractions of decimal points.

It’s important to just recognize that when you’re running bad you are just caught in one of these deviations (see the first 100 flips), and that it will eventually come to an end. Like we’ve discussed before, the best solution is volume. But equally as important as volume is maintaining your composure during these times and realize that mathematics doesn’t always take the same path, but it always, always leads to the same point — no matter how you slice the pie. Put every single ounce of trust left in your body on the mathematics of poker. I promise it will even out for you over time. When? It could take a while, but hang in there. That’s why long term thinking is the key to success.

2. Learn to let go. You need a break. It’s extremely important to recognize when you’re in the beginning stages of tilt so to avoid anything totally devastating happening. I can’t tell you how many times (in my past) that I ignored this advice, and found myself thinking “things can’t get worse”. Things can always get worse, and I cannot stress that enough. A good friend of mine once told me (and it’s so true): “when you play to get even, you get even worse”. It’s time to let go and swallow your pride when you feel even three of those ten symptoms creeping in. You’ve lost, get over it. It’s perfectly normal to lose.

3. Find a healthy way to express your anger. Some of this might sound a little crass, but that’s only because we all have different ways of expressing anger. Get a punching bag. Masturbate. Go punt a football 40 yards outside. Cry, if you have to. The idea here is to not keep the anger bottled up and to express it in a way that’s not going to hurt anybody physically or mentally. If you keep these hostile feelings inside, you’re going to feel a permanent resentment towards poker (which is where I believe the term “perma-tilt” came from.)

4. Be happy you got the money in good (if bad beats are causing you to tilt). Fish pay your bills. I know that it’s a very pride swallowing thing on nights where you constantly get the money in good, only to lose to runner runner and miracle cards over and over and over again — only to have your -35% roi opponent (who think he’s a genius) taunt you in the chat. Rejoice during times like these. Don’t get angry. Be happy that (a) poker is still a very beatable game because (b) people keep putting their money in bad. And for re-assurance about when that will turn around, see point #1.

5. Remember that it happens to everyone. You lost $300 tonight, and it seems like the complete end of the world, right? To that, I say: no it’s not, and misery loves company. Open up a $200/$400 NL cash game table and watch people lose Plasma TVs, Cars, and even HOMES in these games. Seeing someone lose a $140,000 pot on a two outer on the river suddenly puts things into perspective for you. Maybe things aren’t that bad? Like I said before, it can always get worse. Always.

6. Detach yourself from the results. This is perhaps the hardest of the six suggestions, but it’s completely necessary in order to avoid going on tilt. Everyone likes to win, and most poker players are very competitive people, but there comes a point where winning can mean TOO much to you. We hear the term “results oriented” a lot, and this is where that phrase comes into play. Don’t worry about the outcome of one particular hand. Worry about the outcome of the same hand ran 100, 1000, and 10,000 times, which ties back into long term thinking. Complete emotional attachment might be asking too much, but I definitely think it’s completely reasonable for you to not care AS much when you happen to get unlucky. It’s just a game.

============

Another suggestion is to look up some bad beat videos on youtube (there’s tons). One of the most important things to remember when you’re on tilt is that you’re not alone — thousands of people are having the exact SAME problem as you at the exact same moment. Yes, they are getting two outed. Yes, they took a runner runner beat tonight. And yes, they keep getting counterfeited when they flop two pair and their opponent calls them down. Watching videos of this happening to other people re-assures that it’s not just some conspiracy against you and your account. Variance in poker is real, and it happens to everyone. No exceptions.

Someone once told me that it’s the little things that count so here are a few small suggestions in order to avoid falling into the downward spiral: (a) if you have a gym membership, go work out. Kill two birds with one stone: improve your body and get the pent up frustration out of your system. (b) a very cold/hot shower — very underrated as a means of refreshing your mind set. (c) surround yourself with people who ground you and are a calming force in your life. It’s important not to be alone during these times, because when this happens sometimes you spend too much time in your head instead of in the presence of other human beings.

I could literally go on all night, as this is a topic that I’m very familiar with. While these suggestions aren’t for everyone, hopefully I’ve put a creative spin on at least one thing that you will take from this article that will take you one step closer to solving this huge problem that many people have.

Start a Clean Slate at a New Room, a New Sharkscope, and Keep HFL Free in the Process

3:28am: Most players would readily admit that playing small pocket pairs isn’t their favorite thing in the world to do. Some would sooner enjoy mowing the lawn, or scrubbing dirty pots and pans. That’s because small pocket pairs are not easy to play, as even I will admit.

There’s gotta be some kind of rule book or chart somewhere telling us what to do when dealt pocket fours, right?

Not even close. Playing small pocket pairs is much more a balancing act than anything else. First off, you must recognize your hand for what it is: it’s just a pair. Of course there’s the slightly optimistic anticipation of the possibility that you will flop a set with that bad boy and felt your opponent, but 19 times out of 20 that’s not going to happen.

Let’s take a look at how I usually approach the situation, according to “type of board” and for each opponent type (TAG and LAG). For example’s sake, let’s assume we’re holding pocket fives (5c5s) in this case. Let’s also assumed that you and your opponent are fairly equally stacked at 1500 a piece. Let’s also assume that your opponent has raised on the button (60) and you elect to just call in the 10/20 blinds:

1. Nondescript board - 9d 7s 2c. Against a LAG opponent, I would recommend check raising this flop pretty hard, and then folding to a shove or any kind of bet on the turn/river. You need to make a bold statement with your hand on the flop in order to find out where you’re at. Let’s say you check, and your opponent bets 2/3 the pot (90). Check raising to, say, 350 right here should tell you fairly quickly where you are at. Every now and then someone will float you with AJ, AQ, AK in this spot, but nearly all other hands that have not connected with this board are going into the muck. If you get called, I would say it’s pretty safe to put on the brakes. Your opponent will likely be a little timid as well, and you may even get to a showdown that you normally may not have seen — with the best hand.

Against a TAG opponent, I probably lead out for the pot. The reason I suggest this line is because a TAG opponent is going to play relatively more straight forward, and those who are playing tight will usually have the discipline to lay down over cards in this situation. If you get called, I would say theres an 80% chance you are already beat, in which case you saved yourself from being curious later on if you had just check/called the whole way through.

2. Board with at least two paints - As Qc 3c. While this is a less-than-desirable board for your hand, it’s fairly cut and dry and actually a little easier to play than on a nondescript board. In my honest opinion, after having played 7,000+ heads up sngs lifetime, that there’s no significant value in betting in this spot - no matter if your opponent is LAG or TAG. LAG opponents are a little harder to put on hands than TAG opponents, and could have been raising with any two, so your hand is more likely to be good against someone who is LAG in this spot. However, you could get into some trouble betting this hand because a good LAG is going to put you to a decision on this flop, and that’s a decision you’re not going to want to have to make. The TAG opponent almost certainly has you beat in this spot because tight players like to play paint cards, so betting usually isn’t a good idea in this spot either. I always tell people to keep your decisions as easy as possible, because it keeps your mind fresh and playing balanced. Having to decipher 3-4 levels of thought to determine whether a mediocre pair is good in this spot is too tall a task in these blind levels, and therefore not worth the brain power in chips. So to that, I say suck up the pride and check/fold.

3. “Drawy” board - 7h 9h Jh. There’s a number of ways you could go about doing this. Surprisingly, players in this day and age have progressed to the point where if you lead out strong here, they usually won’t just call. Whether or not they are on a draw, you will usually be faced with either a fold or a raise. I find this to hold true for both TAG and LAG players. Your hand may or may not be good, but I think the play regardless of whether your opponent is TAG or LAG is to lead out pretty strong (120), and then check/fold if you feel any sort of resistance whatsoever. If you get called, odds are your opponent either has (a) a heart, (b) one or more of the cards on the board, or (c) over cards and (a) combined. In any of those three cases, you aren’t far enough ahead to invest a lot of money in this pot, so it’s safe to put the breaks on after the initial information-seeking bet.

4. A paired board with an over card - 9c 9s Kd. A LAG player is probably going to make a continuation bet on this flop, so you can make a strong argument for check raising here. However, this time if you get called, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re beat. If you check to your opponent, and he bets 90 in this spot, a check raise to 240 will take it down roughly 55% of the time. From the other 45% that you get called, I would venture to say that against a LAG opponent you are ahead 40% of the time. A good portion of the time what you’re looking at in this spot is someone who has a pair higher than yours, but also didn’t connect with the board (see: pocket nines). However, more than likely you’re looking at someone who is just floating you with a strong ace. From here, the best line is to take, in my opinion, is that if the turn is lower than your card (2, 3, 4) then I would bet hard, and fold to a raise. If the turn is higher than my pair, then I would probably bet small and fold to a raise. The river should usually be checked in either case, to which you should use pot odds accordingly when faced with a bet from a LAG player.

The TAG is probably going to let you know where they are at, but there’s a good chance that they connected with the high card on the board. A solid TAG would probably still make a continuation on this flop, so my advice to you would be to make one hard check raise, see what happens, and then shut it down if you get called because you’re almost certainly beat.

5. Paired board with an under card - 10s 10c 3d. You’re almost always good in this spot, no matter if your opponent is TAG or LAG. The correct play here is to trust that your hand is good now, and will stay good because your opponent simply has over cards. I would bet each street for value in this situation.

6. Low board with one over card - 6s 4d 2c. Did your opponent really call you with a 6? That’s the question you need to ask yourself, and decide quickly because if you believe that they do not hold a 6, you have to play this hand like you have top pair, and bet out accordingly. Against a LAG, I would probably recommend check raising the flop and then betting out (if you believe they don’t hold a 6) with medium sized bets. Against a TAG player, I would just lead out and call a small raise, but fold to a large one. In either case, if you’re already beat you have a pretty solid backup plan in case a 5 or a 3 hits, and it’s going to be really hard for your opponent to put you on a gut shot draw if your straight does fill up. It get’s slightly complicated if you make your set, but you’re usually still good in that case. Just make sure to keep the pot small until you’re sure where you stand.

7. Low board with no over cards - 2s 3c 4c. In this case, even against pocket Kings, your hand is still around 40% to win so it’s justifiable to felt this hand against even a TAG. I’m almost never folding this hand against and LAG player, so you should play it as aggressively as possible. Against a TAG, I would probably bet out, and/or call all raises, and only fold if I believe my opponent has a set.

8. Flopping a set - 5s Jc Kd. I saved the best for last, for two reasons. (1) because this is the situation we all dream of, right? and (2) because it’s the least likely to happen. I actually compare this situation to sitting in the weeds for 2 days straight with a sniper rifle, waiting for something to cross your path and then finally, something slowly drifts in front of your cross hairs. All analogies aside, I would say that the main thing you need to do is just make sure that your opponent doesn’t fold. That being said, I think it actually depends on what you perceive your opponent’s opinion of you to be. If you feel that your opponent thinks you’re a tight player, I would probably make small bets or check the flop and set the trap for later. If your opponent considers you loose and reckless, then I would probably just bet out with the hand, and hope to get raised. Either way, I truly believe betting out with monster hands is the new “slowplaying”, because people sniff out slowplays way better than they used to, in general.

So there you have it. Whether you agree or disagree with my advice, one thing is certain: there’s more than one way to skin a cat. This is far from a “guide” on how to play small pocket pairs in heads up sngs, but if you have taken at least one or two small “pointers” from this very subjective article, then my work here is finished.

Start a Clean Slate at a New Room, a New Sharkscope, and Keep HFL Free in the Process

10:03pm: With me finally getting completely settled into my brand new home, with my brand new office, I have finally been able to dedicate the time necessary into putting in some serious volume heads up. Join me, why don’t you? — in becoming a complete heads up machine (that is, if your desire is to do this for a living). We’ve been preaching volume, volume, and more volume for quite some time, but it feels like the weight of the world on your shoulders everyday when you feel like you have to play 20+ games. Being as such, it would be beneficial if we invented some sort of routine/program to follow in order to break it down and seem like less of a burden.

So let’s do this: committ to playing 24 heads up sit n gos a day, 5 days a week. Break each day into eight segments consisting of three games a piece. Play each segment however you’d like. Take as many breaks in between each segment as you need, and play them whenever you’d like. The only catch is that you must play the required eight segments each day. This includes times when you go 6-0 in your first two segments and you don’t want to “ruin” your unblemished record by continuing, so you decide to stop for the day. No, you are not allowed to do that. No matter how you cut it, you are going to play eight segments of three games per day.

Here is a link to a sample spreadsheet I am using to keep track of these segments.

So why this method? What does it change? How does it help you?

Well, it does a few things:

• Keeps your thoughts/mindset encapsulated, meaning you only worry about the present, and not the past or the future
• It prevents the player from taking a results-oriented approach
• It keeps things in perspective because it gives variance a fighting chance of evening out
• It’s a completely organized, streamlined approach and is much more business-like than just randomly playing games whenever one feels like it.
• It will allow you to follow a regulated schedule, which makes the process seem much more like a job and less like gambling.
• Each segment is a fresh start. When you go 0-3 in one segment, the next is a new chapter in which you are entitled to forget that the chapter before it even existed.

The three game segment approach also yields a forced result. There are no ties. There are four different outcomes:

• 3-0
• 2-1
• 1-2
• 0-3

If you’re anything like me, you’d consider 75% of those results “managable”. The only one of the four you REALLY don’t want to see is 0-3. Anything else should be considered acceptable results. Even if you finish 0-3 in any of your segments, that’s ok — that’s why you play eight of them.

Another thing you should note is that I have chosen Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday as the days dedicated to playing my sessions. These days were specifically chosen and hand-picked, based on the days of the week which were most profitable, as determined by Sharkscope. If you’d like to find out which days of the week are most profitable for you, simply click your name and then “More Options” and then “Graph Results By..” and then “Day of the Week”. Choose your days wisely, as I have. You can even choose to play the hours of the day which are also most profitable for you. Relying on this data also assumes that you have a relatively large sample size, or else the data is meaningless. 1000 heads up matches should be a large enough sample size to yield the information you need in regards to this.

Remember, heads up sngs are nothing more than mindset tweaks and making self-psychological manipulations in order to keep yourself grounded, and to keep the results steady, upward, and consistent. Implementing this organized approach is a big step into getting serious about heads up sngs for some serious extra cash, if not for a living.

10:30pm: You hear it all the time: be aggressive. Aggression, aggression, aggression is supposed to be the key to winning poker, right? No doubt there’s some truth to that. So what makes you or anyone an aggressive player? Are you classified as an aggressive player if you bluff a lot? To answer this question, let’s backtrack and define the different types of aggression. There are two forms: (a) wreckless and (b) well timed.

Wreckless aggression is pretty much an illogical, alpha-male sort of aggression for those with bigger egos than IQs. People who are wrecklessly aggressive bluff in spots where:

• There is no value in doing so.
• Fold equity doesn’t justify the push
• Their table image has been established such that the whole purpose of bluffing has been negated
• They have no regard for the range of cards they will get called with in spots they choose to push

On the other hand, well timed aggression is aggression that is completely deliberate and well thought out. If bluffing is “madness” then well timed aggression is definitely the method behind the madness. Well timed aggression may consist of times where:

• The estimated odds of your opponent folding offset the smaller chance you will get called
• You have established a level of trust with your opponent such that the move is well disguised
• The board is such that your opponent has more cards that could beat them than cards that cannot
• Your opponent cannot logically call without one or two exact cards in their hand

Either way, obviously the result we are trying to acheive is to get our opponent to fold, which is why we call this technique bluffing. We don’t have a hand, and we would like to win the pot without having to show our cards.

Now that we’ve established the two kinds of aggression (that consequently lead to bluffing), let’s decide which kind is a more suitable choice for the winning heads up sit n go player. While I award brownie points for courage for those who practice wreckless aggression, the path to true heads up sng success is paved with well timed aggression. There are simply times when it makes absolutely no sense to bluff. Let’s examine these times:

• In the 10/20 blinds, and you only have 20 invested in the pot. Your opponent has bet the pot, and you have absolutely nothing. Let it go, there is no value in protecting what little you have in the pot at this point. Wait until the blinds mean something to start stealing.
• When you suspect that your opponent has caught on to the fact that you’ve been stealing quite a few pots. The more pots you drag, even if they are small, the more likely you are going to be forced at some point to prove you’ve got the goods. People catch on. This is why I suggest waiting until later to start firing with air, because establishing a tight image early on is worth more later on when the blinds actually hurt to lose.
• When you’ve just shown a bluff. I can’t tell you how many times I see people show a bluff, and then try the same move again no more than 10 seconds later. I’m well aware that some people would think that I would think that there’s no way someone would do it twice in a row without having the goods, therefore I might give them the benefit of the doubt and fold the second time. Problem with that thinking is that most people aren’t on that 2nd-3rd level of thinking, and will simply call you the next time you bet big — as they should, because you have betrayed their trust.
• When pride is starting to get in the way. We’ve seen this situation before: you’re trying to bluff someone, and they keep calling you with bottom pair — and frankly, it’s pissing you off. First off, STOP. This is not about pride, or bragging rights, or who’s got the biggest kahunas. This is about money, and it’s clear that your opponent doesn’t trust you. To counter balance this, you should probably take him to a place I like to call “value city”. It’s nice up there.
• When the risk/reward ratio is too low. Way too often, I see people fire 400 on the river into a pot with 80 chips in it, I fold, and then they show me 9 3 offsuit. Ok, so what? You risked 400 chips to get 40 of your own back? Even if I fold 9 times out of 10, that’s only a net profit of [40 x 9] = 360 chips. The one time you get called you lose 440 chips. Does that sound like a winning proposition to you? I would sure hope not.

After everything I’ve just presented you with, the main thing you need to know is that wreckless aggression is -EV, while well timed aggression is +EV. There has to be some kind of deliberacy within your system of bluffing for it to be effective. Just because something is deliberate and premeditated doesn’t mean it is dechipherable. The trick to effective bluffing is coming up with your own undechiperable method of aggression.

The key to successful bluffing is to be a good storyteller, because when you bluff, you are attempting to tell a story — even if false. The story has to be believable, or else the whole purpose of such a move is null and void. When your opponent is faced with a tough call in the later stages of the hand, they will probably try to piece together the fragments of the story to see if everything “fits”, and then come to a conclusion on whether or not your story is believable to them. Wreckless aggression and well timed aggression aside, there is a such thing as a good bluff and a bad bluff. Let’s try to pick them apart.

• The bad: You’ve played pretty tight the whole match. Whenever you’ve raised, you usually held two cards 10 or higher (KQ, AK, QJ, etc), and your opponent knows this. This time you’ve raised to 90 (from 30) preflop with AsKd - and the flop comes: 5d 6c 9h. You make a pot-sized continuation bet, and your opponent calls. The pot is now 540.The turn is 7h. Your opponent checks to you, and you decide to check behind, hoping to hit one of your overcards. The river is a total brick: 2s, and your opponent once again checks to you.

  Being perfectly honest with yourself, you’re probably a little upset that you have so much money invested in this pot with such a premium hand, and you’ve totally missed the board. You’re almost 100% sure you’re beat but you feel your opponent can’t call unless they hold an 8, so you decide that you want to throw a temper tantrum (because you missed) and steal this pot by betting 500 on the river. You do so, and your opponent goes into the tank.It is at this moment that your opponent is piecing together the story you have just told them to see if it makes any sense. Every time you’ve raised preflop, you’ve held two high cards. Therefore, there’s really no scenario with you raising preflop that involves you holding an 8 in your hand, unless you raised with 88, but that’s not entirely likely. You checked the turn when the straight hit the board, which means that you were either scared of the card, or you totally loved it. If you had an overpair, you would have probably bet the turn to see where you were at with the intention of folding to a raise.

  In addition to this, if you had an overpair, the river bet is entirely too large for this holding to make sense. With an overpair, you would want a call. 500 screams, “please don’t call me”. Therefore, a logical mindset would deduce that you’d either have the straight or nothing at all in this spot.Given your normal preflop raising range, and your betting patterns on this board, it now starts to make sense that the story you are trying to tell is false. Your opponent calls with A9, and you were caught in a fairly non well-thought-out bluff.

• The good: Good bluffs involve manipulating “sure fire” information. That is, the rare times when you are able to put your opponent on a VERY specific range of hands. This will enable you to represent cards that you know are scary for your opponents hand. For example, as stated before in one of my articles (on Tells, I believe) most opponents who raise 4x preflop are holding mid pocket pairs almost all day. Your opponent believes you to be a relatively loose player, but knows that your calling range is a lot more narrow than your raising range. Therefore, when they make a 4x raise preflop and you call, it is reasonable to assume that they are thinking that you are holding overcards to their middle pair preflop.Let’s say that your opponent makes it 80 to go in the 10/20 blinds preflop on the button, and you call not even looking at your cards. In fact, it would be a good exercise in this hand to stick a post it note on where your cards are just to emphasize that cards aren’t as important as the storytelling is.

  The pot is now 160, and the flop comes 2c 3c 9s. You believe your opponent to be holding 44-88. They make a bet of half the pot (80 - which, by the way screams “I’m leaving myself room to fold this weak hand”), and you decide to call with the intention of bluffing the turn if (a) the flush completes or (b) an overcard hits. The pot is now 320, which means you have 160 chips invested into the hand.

  The turn is an excellent card to pull this move off (Kc). Your opponent bets half the pot once again (160), but this time, you decide to raise and represent either/or the club or the king. You decide to raise to 460, making it another 300 to call for your opponent. Once again, as we discussed before, this is the moment where your opponent goes into the tank and pieces together the story. Here are some of the facts that add up to your raising seeming truthful:

  1. You are sure your opponent perceives you as tight, and you called a 4x raise preflop

  2. You just called the flop, which is often what someone with overcards and more frequently, a flush draw would do.

  3. Your opponent doesn’t know that you know that their 4x raise means “middle pocket pair”, and as a tight player, you’ve shown a tendency to at least have the highest card on the board in raising situations

  4. A flush draw just completed, which is yet another way their hand could be beat.When you add up all the facts, the benefits of folding outweigh the risks of calling, and since your story seems believable, your opponent decides to lay his hand down, and you drag the pot.

So to summarize, equally as imporant as how you bluff is the times you choose to do so. Think about these things, and whether or not the bluffs you tend to make do, in fact, make any sense at all. Before you think about pulling the trigger, make sure all the facts line up. Then and only then will you begin to see the true value in storytelling.

4:13pm: Annie Duke opened up recently to PokerNews.com regarding the whole UB/AP ordeal, and also the direction of online poker in general. Whether or not you support UB/AP, the one thing that cannot be disputed is that the company running these two sites has made some mistakes. Are you ready to forgive? Annie Duke is, and here’s why:

11:16pm: Pick up any poker book — and I do mean ANY — and I guarantee you that you will find written at least five times written in different ways that you should always be raising the button when only the blinds remain, and nearly 100% of the time heads up. Time and time again, you heed their warning, and never stop pounding the big blind with your button raises but it never seems to translate into anything more than you playing a big pot with a hand you have no idea how to play postflop, am I right?

Anyone who has seen my tutorials quickly remarks about the odd number of times I limp (for the most part in the early blinds), and are equally as baffled at how this strategy can translate into such a positively-sloped profit graph.

Raising is traditionally to be taken as a sign of strength, and limping as a sign of weakness. However, recently in poker there has been more of a shift towards each one indicating the opposite. Fortunately for you, most people are still unaware of this fact, which will allow you do this:

Setup Hand #1:

PokerStars Game #18343957608: Tournament #93189771, $100+$5 Hold’em No Limit - Match Round I, Level II (15/30) - 2008/06/24 - 00:03:12 (ET)
Table ‘93189771 1′ 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: trujm (2230 in chips)
Seat 2: DGDeuce11 (770 in chips)
trujm: posts small blind 15
DGDeuce11: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to trujm [9c 7c]
trujm: calls 15
DGDeuce11: raises 740 to 770 and is all-in
trujm: folds
Uncalled bet (740) returned to DGDeuce11
DGDeuce11 collected 60 from pot
DGDeuce11: doesn’t show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 60 | Rake 0
Seat 1: trujm (button) (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: DGDeuce11 (big blind) collected (60)

Setup Hand #2:

PokerStars Game #18343939281: Tournament #93189771, $100+$5 Hold’em No Limit - Match Round I, Level II (15/30) - 2008/06/24 - 00:02:06 (ET)
Table ‘93189771 1′ 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: trujm (2585 in chips)
Seat 2: DGDeuce11 (415 in chips)
trujm: posts small blind 15
DGDeuce11: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to trujm [7c 9h]
trujm: calls 15
DGDeuce11: raises 385 to 415 and is all-in
trujm: folds
Uncalled bet (385) returned to DGDeuce11
DGDeuce11 collected 60 from pot
DGDeuce11: doesn’t show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 60 | Rake 0
Seat 1: trujm (button) (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: DGDeuce11 (big blind) collected (60)

The Kill:

PokerStars Game #18343981563: Tournament #93189771, $100+$5 Hold’em No Limit - Match Round I, Level II (15/30) - 2008/06/24 - 00:04:38 (ET)
Table ‘93189771 1′ 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: trujm (2320 in chips)
Seat 2: DGDeuce11 (680 in chips)
trujm: posts small blind 15
DGDeuce11: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to trujm [Kh As]
trujm: calls 15
DGDeuce11: raises 650 to 680 and is all-in
trujm: calls 650
*** FLOP *** [4s Tc 7d]
*** TURN *** [4s Tc 7d] [7c]
*** RIVER *** [4s Tc 7d 7c] [9s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
DGDeuce11: shows [6c Ah] (a pair of Sevens)
trujm: shows [Kh As] (a pair of Sevens - Ace+King kicker)
trujm collected 1360 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1360 | Rake 0
Board [4s Tc 7d 7c 9s]
Seat 1: trujm (button) (small blind) showed [Kh As] and won (1360) with a pair of Sevens
Seat 2: DGDeuce11 (big blind) showed [6c Ah] and lost with a pair of Sevens

There’s a certain point in a heads up sng where grind your opponent down to the point where they will start open shoving — either on the button or when you limp into the pot. When I limped the first two hands, I was relatively sure he was at this point, and would indeed soon start shoving. I needed to implant the idea that limping equals weakness into his head, so I made some loose calls preflop knowing that I was probably going to have to fold them. This was done, of course, with the hopes that I would eventually wake up with a hand (which I did) and would play the hand the exact same way that I did when I was truly weak — to induce a shove. Our opponent bit, and he put his money in as a big time dog. The hand held, and I won the match.

The moral of the story is that the problem a lot of people have with limping sometimes simply has more to do with ego trips, and commitment to play “power poker” than it does with actually using it effectively. There’s a time and a place to pound the big blind, but you’d be surprised at the whole new set of tools available to you when you limp into the pot a lot. A good portion of the time you will get even more action this way.

Try it sometime.

There’s more than one way to skin a cat.

12:17am: This was a great post I found on PocketFives, and decided to post it as an article here. If gbmantis has a problem with it, I will remove it no questions asked. I think he hit the nail on the head completely in respect to why we play the game. Someone told me today that they felt I played too passive (no names). If I could have posted a response in the PokerStars chat box, this would be it. Like I said before, grinding isn’t pretty. It isn’t for glory, fame or to live a pipe dream. It’s to pay the bills. Enjoy everyone.

======================

So i took 11th place in a WSOP event the other night (yeah, brag post blah blah whatever), got my heart broke by bubbling the son of a bitch, and my mind got wondering…….Why the fuck do we as poker players put ourselves through this shit? Obviously its all for the glory of the bracelet, or maybe even just the glory of taking down a $3 mtt like when I first started, its all the same…..as Herm Edwards quipped, “We play to win the game!” But are tournies really worth playing for the joy of it when you win? Does the “hapiness” that you receive from winning 1 in 100 or 200 tournies or whatever outweigh the other 99 times or so that end up in failure and frustration?

I went into thought about this at the pool today for quite a while and I really dont think that it is worth it. Or at least it isn’t worth it if the reason you play is to win the game. But what if the reason you play isnt for the win? What if you play to make the most money, to give yourself the greatest amount of total happiness, and improve your life, and give yourself additional freedoms? I think thats the reason why im playing poker professionally these days. Does anyone here honestly think that the most money is to be made in MTTs, whether online or live?

Additionally, is anyone going to make the argument that grinding MTTs professionally is a healthy lifestyle? You arent making your own hours when youre an MTT pro, you’re a slave to the schedule. You play when the big tournies are. If the WCOOP main event falls on your mothers birthday, ….you have to either be a bad son or a bad poker pro that day…. someone is gonna be unhappy, either you or mom. Cash games allow you to schedule your poker around your life. With tournaments, you schedule your life around poker. That’s no life, it really isn’t. It’s hollow.

Poker is a great game, the best one in the world, it really is, but there is more to life than that. I truly believe there are few MTT pros who are truly happy in their life. Many rich, few happy.

So why play tournies? Is the transition to cash games really THAT difficult?

Obviously, “tourney donks” will struggle when they first make a transition to cash games. The whole goal of the game is different, its not even the same game.
But a good poker player is a good poker player, I truly believe that. I think all of the best tourney players would be studs in cash games if they put in the time to learn.

I guess the only reason why I’m not a cash game personally is because of the dreaded downswong. They can be freakin brutal in cash games…..seriously uber freaking brutal, obviously. But you can go busto just as fast playing MTTs if youre not smart with it and play within your roll.

No real reason for any of this, just wanted to share my thoughts on no limit texas hold them tournies on the interwebz (and in real life i suppose).

In the end, I guess I really think tournies are super lame, and they promote and contribute to unhealthy lifestyles. I think after this WSOP im gonna learn cash games and pwn some n00bz. Is that even possible, or should i just stick to my day job?

7:31pm: This topic is one of the toughest situations in all of texas hold em, and especially in a heads up format because you see more of these situations than you would at a 6/9/10 handed table. Should you fire the final bullet after all the cards have been dealt? What factors decide when it’s right and when it’s wrong? Is it instinct, math, or psychology? No matter what the answer, simply put: if you fail to assign correct values to hands (especially on the river), you will fail at poker.

We’re all guilty of missing the river value bet in some way, shape or form — myself included. On the other hand, we’re also been guilty of betting hands that we shouldn’t. In playing heads up sngs, we simply play too many hands to get it right every single time. While mistakes are inevitable, what we can seek to do is cut down on them significantly and make sure that our play on the river is as accurate as possible in such a manner that it’s not a leak in your bankroll.

There’s four ways to make mistakes on the river:

• Betting when you should be checking
• Checking when you should be betting
• Betting too much
• Not betting enough

Let’s take a look at one example of each, and determine which one of the four is most detrimental to your bankroll.

1. Betting when you should be checking

   This one should be relatively easy to fix. This is because it’s easier and less risky to stop betting than it is to start. This is also the mistake most people will readily admit to making. The fix is relatively easy; Simply tune down the aggression factor a little. One of my favorite pieces of advice to people regarding poker is: “You can only gonna get called if you’re beat”.

   For example, you hold 2c2d and the board came out in this order: 2s3s4d, Turn: 5s, River 10s. You’ve bet every stage of the hand up to the river, and your opponent has just called you up until that point. I’ve seen so many people bet their hand in this situation, and while I will yield while it is “read dependent” at times, long term it’s simply not a winning play to make a bet here. Sometimes your opponent’s hand has more ways to beat you than it does to lose, and in these situations you should cease betting. You’re beat here if your opponent holds a spade (9), an Ace (3 [discount As]), or a Six (3 [discount 6s]). That’s immediately 15 cards that your opponent has two shots at having (one for each hole card). In addition to all of this, your opponent could also have 33, 44, 55, or 10 10. Add in all of that, and you are reduced to nearly 50/50 odds of your hand being good. Value bets in this spot rarely make sense.

2. Checking when you should be betting

   This is perhaps the hardest of the four to fix because there are so many factors that go into doing it correctly. Missing value bets on the river has long been a thorn in many a poker players’ side. Let’s run through an example of a situation where a value bet should be made where a check is often the play.

   Equal stacks (1500), and you hold AdKc on the button, and you raised preflop to 60 (from 20). Your opponent (who very rarely draws) called, and the flop was AsKd4c. Your opponent checks, and you bet 100 on the flop, and your opponent simply calls. The pot is now 320. The turn brings Jh. Once again, your opponent checks and you bet a good portion of the pot (250), and your opponent once again calls. The pot is now 820. The river is Qd, and your opponent checks to you.

   At this point, many people would check out of fear that their opponent holds a ten. While it might backfire on you sometimes, it’s better to bet here than check. Let’s look at why:

   Your opponent rarely draws, which usually means their hand is made when they bet or call. If your opponent called you on the flop, it’s a good indicator that they were holding an ace, or a lower two pair (first scenario being more likely). The only way your hand wouldn’t be good at this point is if they happened to be holding A10. Assuming that the first card they are holding is an ace, from an “outs perspective” their second card now has 4 outs to beat you. Add to this the fact that your opponent has checked to you, and slowly but surely you start to realize that it makes more sense to bet here rather than check. Your opponent will more than likely also not put you on a 10, and will often call with a slightly weaker hand.

   Since you bet every stage of the hand, and are continuing to fire on a scary board, your opponent might also incorrectly assume that you are weak. Level 1-2 thinking is that betting means weakness and checking means strength. If your opponent subscribes to this theory, then you will probably get a call here with a weaker hand.

   Also, in this spot many times your opponent will call you out of plain curiosity. Since you fired 3 bullets, and since they probably aren’t putting you on a ten here, your opponent might call just to see they are beat. I can’t tell you how many times my opponent calls and flips over a pair of kings in this spot.

   We now have 3 instances where betting produced a positive result, and one where it produced a negative result. The negative result causes you to to lose the same as you gain when a positive result is produced, therefore your opponent can hold a ten 25% of the time or less for this to be a winning play, and realistically the odds of your opponent holding a ten here are considerably less than 25%.

3. Betting too much

   This is simply a case of assigning incorrect values to hands. If you price yourself into calling when your opponent shoves, then you have to be sure that the hand you’re pushing with is considerably more likely to be good than not. One of the biggest makes my opponents make is overvaluing weak hands (such as 1 pair, bottom two pair, or the bottom end of a 4 card straight). You can generally get a “feel” for what hand strengths are worth over large sample sizes. This may seem overly simplistic, but it’s true: big hands should win big pots, and small hands should win small pots. If you’re only holding a pair, and the pot is slightly bigger than it usually is when you’re holding a pair then you might want to reconsider the amount your fire on the river, if at all. To cure this, simply take 5-10 seconds before you bet and ask yourself, “what is this hand really worth?”

4. Not betting enough

   This one is a mystery to me sometimes. There are times when you know you will get paid if you bet huge, but some still chose to under-fire on the river. Here is a classic example:

   You hold 7d8s. The board reads: 2c3s4d5h6c. You’ve bet out on every stage of the hand, so your opponent has a significant amount invested in the hand. The play here is to push — nearly every single time. Your opponent will usually call to chop, and even if they aren’t calling to chop they will almost certainly call you to win (so they think) with a single seven in their hand. There’s no reason why you should let them off the hook with this kind of board with that hand, and you stand way more to gain by them calling and losing the whole match than you do if you bet not as much and lure them into a call they normally wouldn’t make.

Which one of these mistakes is most detrimental to your bankroll? They are all really bad, but all in all I’d have to say #2. This is because it’s the hardest to correct. You have to be very honest and critical with yourself in evaluating your river play. Think about chips you’ve wasted in your life on the river card. Sickening, huh?

2:29pm: Part 1 discussed how motivations behind listening to music can effect a poker session in a +EV manner. We also established that the motivation most likely to product positive results is “to motivate” and “to stimulate the mood”. No matter what your musical preferences, it’s hard to argue against rock and hip hop for this specific purpose. Below is a short list of some songs that you should consider loading up on your Ipod before starting your poker session — because they motivate AND stimulate the mood.

I. Rock

Survivor - Eye of the Tiger
Ozzy Osbourne - Crazy Train
Gary Glitter - Rock and Roll, Part 2
Phil Collins - I Can Feel It
Bon Jovi - You Give Love a Bad Name
Disturbed - Down With the Sickness
Earshot - Wait
Enter Sandman - Metallica
Fuel - Won’t Back Down
Queen - We Will Rock You
Vince DiCola - Training Montage
White Zombie - Thunderkiss 65
P.O.D - Boom
AC/DC - You Shook Me All Night Long
Linkin Park - Papercut
AFI - The Leaving Song
Saliva - Click Click Boom
EMF - Unbelievable
Bon Jovi - Everyday

II. Hip Hop

Trick Daddy - Let’s Go
Bonecrusher - Never Scared
Awnaw - Nappy Roots feat. Marcos of POD
Equalizer - Sam Spence Remix
T.I - Big Things Poppin
Three Six Mafia - Hypnotize Cash Money
Black Eyed Peas - Let’s Get it Started
B.G. - For a Minute
Kanye West - Stronger
Nelly - #1
Snap - The Power
Joe Budden - Pump it Up
DJ Kool - Let Me Clear My Throat
Eminem - Lose Yourself
Fort Minor - Remember the Name

There you have it. While this list couldn’t even begin to do the “pump you up” genre of music justice, it’s a good place to start in order to get your brain jogging. Start loading up your favorite mp3 player with these songs, and you are more likely to product some winning poker sessions because ANY edge in poker is crucial.

11:12pm: Here is a pretty interesting article that I found written by Full Tilt pro Aaron Bartley. HFL regs: what do you think of it? Do you use it?

=========================