Quality of Your Hand

If you have a great starting hand, the decision to call or fold is quite simple. If, however, your holdings are average, you must look at the odds. Many players fail to consider odds when deciding whether to call a short-stack all-in. They think, “He is all-in and must have a hand. My ten – nine is surely no good here.” While your 10-9 may be behind now, you also may be getting sufficient odds to make the call. Poker is a game of incomplete information. As a result, there is no way to determine your exact odds, however by examining your hand against a range of hands, you can determine whether to call or fold.

Opposition Hand Ranges

Late in the tournament, short stacked players will move in with a wide range of hands. They will move with premium hands, as well as suited aces, connectors, small pocket pairs, and even their favorite hands – (i.e. – 7-2).

Let us look at how some random hands fair against your 10-9 offsuit:

· A-K vs. 10-9 10-9 prevails 37% of the time

· 6-6 vs. 10-9 10-9 will go on to win 48% of the time

· As-6s vs. 10-9 10-9 will go on to win 42% of the time

· Any pair, any suited, any two high cards vs. 10-9 – 10-9 will go on to win 44% of the time

· A-9 vs. 10-9 10-9 wins only 33% of the time

You can conclude that the only time you are way behind on this absolute poker download is when you are in a domination situation – such as A-9 vs. 10-9. Otherwise, you are at or around coin toss territory. As a result, you are incorrect to a huge degree by folding when you are getting around 2 to 1 to call.

By thinking through your odds when calling short stack all-ins, you will dominate the sit and go scene. Use your favorite poker calculator to run scenarios. Learn what hands hold up against other hands. Refine your game so you may know optimally when to call all-in bets from short stacks.

Firstly, you must be certain that you are totally and completely comfortable playing at the level you are playing. Even if your bankroll is $10,000, you might not be comfortable putting $200 at risk in one tournament. If that is you, then find a lesser buy-in. Unless you are very comfortable at the buy-in level, you will not play optimally. You will find yourself folding hands you should stay with and making plays based on emotion, which lead to disaster.

Secondly, be sure that your bankroll contains at least 100 buy-ins at the level you are playing – on average. I say on average, because there is nothing wrong with taking an occasional shot down the field. However, do not overdo it. If your bankroll is $1000, then you should be playing tournaments that are near the $10 range more often than not. Again, that is not to say that you cannot enter the Millions on Sunday. However, make sure you are playing $10 tournaments as the rule, not the exception. Otherwise, you will fall victim to the negative end of variance and go real broke very quick.

Finally, as your poker bankroll grows or shrinks, adjust the limits you are playing. If your bankroll drops down to $500, then move down and focus on $5 tournaments. On the other hand, should your bankroll grow to $2000, move up and begin playing $20 tournaments on average.

Playing poker at a level that is comfortable to both you and to your bankroll is key for having a long and profitable career as a tournament poker player. By sticking to games that are one one-hundredth of your bankroll, you will be certain to tough it out and you greatly reduce the risk of going broke all at once.

Most often, we make crying calls at Poker Star when we have misplayed a hand – whether it was playing a hand in such a manner that caused our opposition to correctly catch up, or outdraw us. We also tend to make crying calls on the river when we have missed our draws and pray that our ace high is good – justifying the call with some excuse such as “there was too much money in the pot to fold.”

Bad Crying Calls

In the big blind, with pocket aces you put in a sizable preflop raise, which is called by two players. The flop comes out King – Five – Seven in a rainbow. The small blind comes out and fires a pot size bet, which you raise – squeezing the middle player out of the hand. The turn delivers another King, which the small blind checks, and you check behind. The River is a blank. The small blind bets half the pot. From past observations, you put the small blind on a king – top pair in that hand. The turn gave him trips, which he checked to you. His stop and go bet on the river suggested strongly he was trying to extract some extra chips from you. Because you know the player, you need not waste your time making the call. You can just comfortably fold knowing with great certainty you are beat.

Good Crying Calls

Again, in the big blind, this time holding Ace Queen suited, the button – who is an aggressive player raises. You and two other players call. The board comes out with flush and straight possibilities. The PokerStar.net preflop aggressor continues betting throughout the hand, giving the impression he is trying to bully his way into taking down the pot. You have the flush draw and a backdoor straight draw. The river seemingly helps no one. He over bets into you heads up. You think for some time, knowing this player is bluff capable, and has you on a flush draw, trying to take down the pot. Here is an appropriate time to make a big river call with ace high, as the board did not seem to help anyone, and there is a missed draw on the board as well.

While there is a time and place for crying calls, it is safely stated that one should not always be skeptical, nor should one always be afraid to make a big call on the river. Assessing the situation, understanding your opposition, and reconstructing the hand is key to determining whether to make the crying river call.

As an example, action folds to you. You sit in mid-position with Ace Nine suited. Making a raise here is simple, and even standard. However, in the event you face a raise from an earlier position player, the way you value your suited ace changes.

The reason for this is due to the initial raise. When action folded to you, you felt as if your suited ace is the best hand. You are comfortable opening for a raise because no one has yet to enter the pot voluntarily. In the latter example, however, you feel as if your Ace Nine is not the best hand. The early raiser already showed interest in the pot, as well as strength by raising. As a result, you feel your hand is inferior to their holding, and as a result, you smartly fold.

Going back to the initial raise with A-9, we raise with that hand because the pot has not been opened and because our opposition falls into the category of the Gap Concept as well. They too must think about what they are holding, whether they are dominated, and whether or not they will have the best hand when flopping top pair.

When facing the raise on PokerStar.com, you should tighten your starting hand standards significantly, according to the Gap Concept. You fear your ace is dominated, and as a result, you choose not to play. When you hit your ace, you will be a costly second best. Playing a dominated hand can be extremely problematic, and this is why the “gap concept” was born. The gap concept can help save you from many of those. Remember, it is easier to make a raise than it is to call one.

Razz poker is a fairly unknown poker game to most poker players, but it has been becoming more popular throughout online poker rooms. Razz is very similar to playing seven card stud except for a few slight differences so if you know how to play seven card stud then you will be able to easily learn how to play Razz poker. To start a hand of Razz every player needs to put in an ante into the pot and then the cards will be dealt out.

The cards are dealt the same way in Razz as they are in seven card stud so if you don’t know how the cards are dealt then you need to make sure you learn how they are. There are a few differences in Razz poker though and they are as followed.

• The player who has the highest valued up card on third street needs to make the come in bet.

• After third street the lowest valued hand on carbon poker will be the first to act in the hand and if there is a tie then the player closet to the dealer in a clockwise rotation will go first.

• Just like when you’re playing seven card stud when you play in Razz limit games you will use the low betting amount on the third and fourth street and then you will use the high betting amount for the remaining betting rounds in the hand.

• When a player has a pair showing in their up cards the dealer will always announce when the pair hits unless it’s a pair of facecards as they aren’t announced.

The goal when you’re playing Razz is that you want to have the lowest possible five card poker hand which is the main difference between Razz and seven card stud. You also can’t use any pairs in order to make your low hand on PKR Download and if you need to use a pair then anyone with five single cards would beat you. The best possible poker hand in Razz is 5-4-3-2-A. In Razz your hand is only as good as your fifth card so if you have an A-2-3-4-Q then you aren’t going to win because practically everyone will have a lower hand then Q high.

When you play Razz poker a lot of players don’t really understand the game so if you learn how you should play the game then you have a big advantage. The first thing you need to learn is how to choose good starting hands in Razz. Typically you should only play hands when your first three cards are under 8 without any pairs. If you have an A-2 and a high card then you could also consider playing the hand if you’re getting in for cheap.

Razz Poker is a very unique poker game and a welcome change from most poker games. Since you’re aiming to get the lowest hand possible it’s a lot different then other poker games and you will be able to use different strategies then you’re used too.