Texas Hold Em Tips and Tricks Please

[celticgrl]

Hey guys and gals of CS was wondering if you all had any trips and tricks for me for Texas Hold'em. I just got chosen today to play in Texas Hold'em tournament on the 21st hosted by Donnie Wahlberg (Please no NKOTB or Blue Bloods suck jokes). I have only ever played for fun so if anybody has any pointers for please give a girl a hand.

[KhirasHY]

Disclaimer: I play a TON of Texas Hold 'em (on average, once or twice a week at the local casinos, turning a profit about 90% of the time). I'm not just rambling I have won tournaments for entry into WSOP events, as well as the main event itself, and though I've obviously never won, I've done well each time, taking home some nice profits. I've sat at tables and played hands with guys who do nothing but this as a career, and even won a few hands doing it, so it's safe to say I've learned a thing or two

First, people think it's a bit of a cliche, but I always tell people to wear a good pair of sunglasses when they want to play seriously. The reason is simple: guys like Doyle Brunson and other pros often say they can spot someone's hand the second they see their eyes, and it really is true if you know what to look for. A momentary twitch towards your chips, or someone's cards can tip them off as to exactly what you're hoping for in a hand. It is almost impossible for a lot of people to master those impulses, but it's easy to make them harder to spot. I even go a step further and wear a hoodie, and I tend to do well by having a lot of my features covered up, which makes people guess. Also, wearing a hoodie has a secondary bonus: if the poker room is cold, and people aren't dressed warmly enough, it will begin to affect their play. A warm player at a cold table will almost always make better judgement calls, or at least be more patient in terms of taking the time to think about a move. Keeping a light jacket AND a hoodie can make keeping warm even easier, and you can always remove layers if you're too hot.

Second, this one's optional, but whenever I hit a table I like to fold at least one round of the button, unless I get a prime hand (high pocket pair, high suited face cards, etc). Yeah, it wastes a round of blinds, but the purpose of my first few hands on any table is not to judge the hands, it's to watch the players I'm with. You can quickly get a feel for who's going to be a tight player, who's a fish (usually online players who are used to being able to randomly go all in since it's fake money), and who likes to bluff. If you're really lucky, you can spot a tell or two in the first few hands too, but I wouldn't count on it with the better players at your table.

Third, this one is what was taught to me under the term as a "squishy rule", meaning you really have to apply it to each situation as it comes. The general rule is that you call or raise a hand you like in relation to the number of people who are in the hand, with the end result being to get the others to fold. Here's the logic behind this:

The best possible starting hand in Hold 'Em is, naturally, pocket Aces. However, the more people are in the hand when the flop hits, the worse your percentage of winning gets. With as few as 5 total people in the hand, even AA drops below a 50% win chance statistically speaking. Naturally, any starting hand of AA, KK, or QQ you will almost always raise or reraise before the flop. It may mean you get a small pot as everyone folks, but ideally with one of those three hands you will have 1 or 2 players against you, granting you a higher percentage chance to win the hand. Just beware the allure of overextending your pocket pair - I've lost more big hands with AA in the pocket than I ever have with KK or QQ.

Now, position bets are a bit more tricky...for instance, it's easy to know what to do with one of those three hands, but what about suited AJ? Unsuited AK? There are a TON of charts (some with opposing opinions) about what to do with such hands, but the best ones have one thing in common: taking your place in relation to the button in account. I memorized the charts at http://www.internettexasholdem.com/t...ng-hand-chart/ when I started playing a lot, and they've really come through for me a lot of the time.

Next step, I'll let Jericho intro this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJbv8HNZK4E

I'm not being insulting here as this is probably the most important piece of advice I was ever given in poker. I have seen people bet away hundreds and thousands of dollars on hands they had no business playing. Why? Because they were chatting with their neighbor, lost focus on the cards, and called major bets that should've made them fold. I once watched a guy bet over $1,000 on a pair of 4's (9 kicker) with 2 kings and a queen on the board, then look shocked when his hand got rocked at the end. When you're out of the hand? Hey, go nuts, but when your cards are in play: Shut. Up.

Also, another good anecdote on shutting up, I saw a dealer fold a player's hand because he would not turn around and respond to a "call or fold" query multiple times. He had 5 chances to pay attention, didn't, and only turned back to the table after an entire round of betting to find he was out of the hand. He claimed he had quads on the board (possible, with the flop that was out), but naturally his cards were gone, so who knows. The moral is the same though: focus on your hand until you're out of it.

Last tip, and this one infuriates my friends: fidget. Fidget like it's the only thing keeping your heart beating. I'm serious, do whatever you can. Play with your zipper, dick around with your chips, tap a drum beat on your leg, tap your foot to a song no one else can hear, I don't care, just do it, and train yourself to do it constantly. One of the most common things I hear about myself when I play is "I thought that was one of your tells" because I simply can't stop moving. In my case, it's a bit of ADD and the fact that if I stop moving I feel weird, but I consciously try to keep it going nonstop to throw off other tells that I know I have. I also enjoy switching up my fidgets sometimes in the middle of a hand, going from the leg twitching to chip stacking, or whatever. It gets to people, and they think the wrong thing as a result; I've had people go from "about to fold" to "all in" when I suddenly switched my fidget, only to find that I was playing an unbeatable hand the whole time.

If you try that though, just remember the important caveat: you've just committed to doing it the whole time you play. If you suddenly stop mid-hand and it's not on purpose, you probably just announced something about your hand.

Edit: Forgot the obvious: go to a casino (if there's one near), a bar (there's usually some that do poker), or anywhere else to play against people who aren't your friends, and thus who you won't feel bad about ignoring. Practice before a tournament is always a good idea.

Edit edit: Forgot another big one: hope you can get comfortable sitting at a poker table for hour after hour after hour on end. Stretch early and often, don't wait for your muscles to seize up, or you'll regret it. Pain from being still for too long is a distraction, and distractions lose hands. Just add stretching in with your "fidget" routine if you try it ;p

[celticgrl]

Awesome KhirasHY TY so much for that. I am nervous and excited all at the same time all the money is going to charity so win or lose the money is going to a good cause.

Fidgeting wont be a problem at all since I already do that anyways and I just picked up an awesome pair of sunglasses at job number two last week.

[KhirasHY]

Oh, just make sure you don't show your cards too much, or they'll reflect in the shades



Kidding, kidding Good luck.

[Victory Sabre]

Here's my advice. I've played a lot of NLHE, and have played in the 2009 2k Bay 101 WPT event, placed 11th, and scored a nice chunk of change.

Sleep. Get enough the night before. I can't stress enough how important a good night sleep is for your mental focus, which is critical to being able to play at the top of your game.

Since it's a few weeks off - exercise. Walk, run, swim. That gets the blood flowing, and helps you with your mental focus, as well. Besides you'll feel better after you exercise.

Food - you need food to fuel your mind properly. The day of, eat healthy - fruits, vegetables, and meat are big. Smaller portions of grains. Skip any refined sugar. No soda pop. No syrup for pancakes/waffles. That will slow you down. Eat enough, but don't over eat.

During play, when you have breaks, get up and walk. I can't tell you how important the walks around the Bay 101 were every 2 hours. It helped keep my mind focused, and kept my blood moving. It was a good mental, and physical break.

Actual play. I don't know how much you've played in the past, but here's my advice.

First off, in general, the payout is for the top 10%. Thus 90% of the people are going home empty handed. Use that to your advantage. A lot of people try to push too hard too early. Let them. Fold a lot, unless you have a major hand. I can't say how many times I've seen someone build up a monster stack and blew it because they couldn't fold. Play tight, and let people knock each other out.

Keep an eye on the clock. It'll probably tell you, besides how much time is in the blind, how many are left. Keep a mental note of it. Think "Ok, I've got X people to get through for the money".

If you make it to the bubble for the money, get your play tighter than Fort Knox. I remember during the 101 the bubble lasted an hour. I didn't play a hand during that time. I folded EVERYTHING, even pocket Queens. I would have folded pocket Kings and even Aces. Why? Simple: it was better to earn $3700, than nothing for the bubble. Believe me the bubble boy's walk of shame was a sad sight to see, while everyone else was cheering and celebrating getting, at least, $3700. Yeah, I was cheering also, I'm evil that way .

If you're not sure of something - ask. Ex. If you're not sure of a bet, ask the dealer what the bet is. Better to ask, than make a fool out of yourself by placing an illegal bet.

Study the players. I remember one player to the right of me was raising almost EVERY hand. I soon understood that most of the time he was bluffing. So finally I had a hand to call him, and put a heavy and costly smackdown on him. Also later on I saw him on TV playing a final table of a WPT event. Seeing him play on TV confirmed my belief that he was bluffing a lot, and he did take 6th in the televised event.

Make sure you announce actions. Say fold when you want to fold. Say call when you want to call. Say raise, and the amount when you want to raise.

Play slow and methodical. When I do decide to raise, I say raise, then pause a second to count the raise out in my head, then say the amount. When I say call, or fold, I say it slowly every time.

Don't marry a hand. Yeah, a high pocket pair is a good starting hand, but after the flop, all bets are off. Aces can turn real ugly real fast if the flop is bad. Be willing to fold if things don't work out. Also with high pocket pairs, make the callers pay dearly. I like to raise 5-7x the blind in that situation.

Finally - get a card cover. Something heavy. I use a large coin - silver dollar, silver eagle, large Mexican silver coin, copper ounce. Even an Eisenhower dollar or a half dollar will work as a card cover. Get one and use it to keep your cards safe. Also don't turn in your cards when you win a pot till you're sure you've won.

Finally, treat staff with respect.

Have fun, and good luck.

[KhirasHY]

Make sure you announce actions. Say fold when you want to fold. Say call when you want to call. Say raise, and the amount when you want to raise.

That reminded me of something - not sure how much you play, but you know those scenes in all the movies where someone says "I'll call your 50, and raise you 300"?

Yeah, never do that. The first thing you say is binding. I saw some jackass try that a few weeks back at a table, wanting to raise a huge amount, but they were held to a call because of the statement. Don't try and be fancy, just say what you mean and nothing else.

Also, you can only bet one amount at a time; what I mean is that the chips you put over the line around the table are considered in play, and that's it. You can't put a stack over, then reach back and add a stack unless you've specifically said "I raise 100" and you didn't put the full amount out all at once. Seen plenty of that at a table too, where someone puts a small raise out, goes back for more, and finds out their bet is over.

[Victory Sabre]

That reminded me of something - not sure how much you play, but you know those scenes in all the movies where someone says "I'll call your 50, and raise you 300"?

Yeah, never do that. The first thing you say is binding. I saw some jackass try that a few weeks back at a table, wanting to raise a huge amount, but they were held to a call because of the statement. Don't try and be fancy, just say what you mean and nothing else.

Also, you can only bet one amount at a time; what I mean is that the chips you put over the line around the table are considered in play, and that's it. You can't put a stack over, then reach back and add a stack unless you've specifically said "I raise 100" and you didn't put the full amount out all at once. Seen plenty of that at a table too, where someone puts a small raise out, goes back for more, and finds out their bet is over.

This is so true. I've also seen it happen way too often. When I want to raise to 350, for example - I say "Raise. 350", and put out the bet. Make your actions clear. I can't stress that enough.

[celticgrl]

Thank you both for such great information now lets hope I find a lucky horseshoe that day

I have been informed by others that have played with him in pat years games he will do everything he can to make you screw up. So here is hoping I can ignore him.

[KhirasHY]

That one's easy: headphones. Hell, I take 2 iPods to any poker game I go to, just in case one runs out of batteries

[Chromatix]

I've never played a "live" game of poker. However, I do play "Poker Night at the Inventory", and that might be a good way to learn an intuitive feel for the odds of various hands. Recently, "Poker Night 2" was released, which includes a free copy of the older game. The two games have different characters as your opponents. It's pretty cheap on Steam.

Naturally, the rules might be subtly different on the computer than they are in real life. Caveat emptor. Also, the tells of the computer characters are either completely absent or hilariously obvious, whereas most real players will exhibit frequent but subtle tells. It's also likely that the pacing of the game - the time players take to make their move - will be different, not least because you don't need to handle the chips with the computer.

The earlier game has more flexible settings, so you can tell the players to stop chatting among themselves and just focus on the game. The later game has the chat turned on permanently. For learning how to handle the cards and bets, being able to silence them might be useful. On the other hand, learning to deal with the chatter without losing your concentration is probably a good idea as well.

The later game also calculates the odds of each player winning with their hand, and displays them under certain circumstances - when a showdown is in progress, or if you watch the conclusion of a game after being knocked out. Note that those odds are calculated with a posteriori knowledge of all players' cards, which is why they are only shown when all of the cards in play are visible to you. The a priori odds of a hand winning, without knowledge of the other players' hands, are what you will have to work with in a real game.

[Victory Sabre]

The last post made me remember something. Generally poker tournaments are governed by the poker TDA. Here's a link to their rules, that you can read in several formats.

http://www.pokertda.com/poker-tda-rules/

[celticgrl]

Thanks everybody for all the great tips they helped me concentrate I placed third so not to bad for the first time playing in a tournament setting.

[KhirasHY]

You're making a huge understatement...3rd place for your first tournament is fantastic! Very well done.

[Victory Sabre]

Congratulations on your 3rd place finish! You rock!

[celticgrl]

I just used all the tips you guys gave me so the credit for the place goes to you