Winning Texas Hold Em - Stealing Blinds
January 24, 2009 by admin
Filed under Texas Hold 'em
No-limit Hold ‘Em is the new giant of the poker world. Any day of the week I can flip through channels and find two or more poker shows going, and they’ll all be featuring no-limit Hold’ Em tournaments. Because tournaments are becoming so common and are so cheap to play, I see a lot of fresh faces at the tables, trying to bring their own slant to the books they’ve read on strategy.
Today I’d like to discuss the blind steal. Any young kid who’s heard a thing or two about poker knows that in order to stay alive in a tournament, you’ll have to rob both the rich and the poor. Liberating them from their blinds isn’t always easy, though; it’s a matter of finesse and timing.
Winning Texas Hold Em
Everyone knows that the button is the last line of defense for the positional blind steal. (The small-blind gets last stab at the pot if the button passes, but we’ll get to that.) The advantage of trying to steal on the button is two-pronged: a) the blinds have random hands that are likely not worth playing, and b) the button gets to see how they act, on the remaining betting rounds, before deciding how to proceed. Read the rest of the Fabulous Article
Winning Texas Hold Em - Pot Odds in Practice
January 15, 2009 by admin
Filed under Texas Hold 'em
No-limit Hold ‘Em theory is extremely complex. The fact that you can bet any amount you want to makes for unlimited variables, and few but the keenest math experts can grasp it all on the fly. While it’s tough to do advanced equations at the table, there are a few concepts and numbers that I feel are necessary to compete successfully.
Pot odds are the most important key to any poker problem. Pot odds are represented as a ratio between the size of your current risk vs. the size of your potential reward. For example, if it costs you $20 to see if you’ll win a pot of $100, then you are looking at a 5-1 payout. Your pot odds are then 5-1. Pot odds, by any name, are critical for any investment ideology.
Once computed, pot odds can and should be compared to any information you can successfully quantify. For a simple example: if you must have a 6 to win on the last card, with one card to come, then your chances of winning are about 11-1. (You have one chance to hit one of four cards, taken from 46 unseen cards; 42: 4 = approx. 11 - 1.) If you are being offered a payout of more than 11 - 1, you should attempt to hit your long shot. If you are being offered less than 11 - 1, you should not invest. Read the rest of the Fabulous Article
