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Hello,

Earlier this evening I tried my luck but unluckily didn’t get any good cards at all. In case it happens again, do you have any suggestion, tips, or the like? Do you think bluffing more will work? How about preflop raising?

Hope to hear from you soon.

Thanks and more power!

Regards,
Chen
Chen,

You might want to try and open you hand ranges up in later position. Without knowing more about your game I cannot recommend bluffing. Raising preflop just for the sake of raising usually just leads to lost money. If you are going to raise, do so for a reason, such as a big hand or a tight game.

Hello,

I’m just 14 years old, actually almost 15 now and I’ve been playing Poker for some time now. Well, I know the game itself is very addictive so I decided to only play $1, $2, or $5 games. Normally, I play with 3-5 players. At times for a dollar I go one on one. I remember one time I only have 200 chips therefore all of us at the table agreed to divide stuff evenly depending on how many players were there, we typically play with 20 chips a piece, and to keep it simple, each chip worth a quarter. To have pot every time, we then just played with antes.

If I were to base it in a certain basic holdem strategy article I’ve read, two of my opponents then were loose aggressive, were actually raising pre-flop and checking every time.

In your opinion, should I re-raise them with a good pre-flop hand next time around? Most of the time when I feel they have something good I’d fold and they’d have my antes. At times when I have an okay preflop hand, I’d call them however on the flop I’d face the odds, fold and then lose majority of my chips. However sometimes they don’t have anything good to show. Any thoughts? I badly need your expertise now, please help me.

I’ll be glad to hear from you soon.

Thanks and more power!

Warm regards,
Brax
Brax,

Yes, reraise them and push your strong hands. Also, when you have speculative hands, take a look at the flop and when you do connect, push your advantages. Overall, I would probably play a little tighter in this game. Now if this is a limit game, open up your hand ranges a bit depending on position and see a few more flops.

Hi,

The other night, I was in a weekly game with 8-10 players. Tables were very passive at the start, lots of players have called the big blind and have never raised before the flop, they were tight. Do you think such situation can justify playing rag hole cards?

Well, for me, you can expect players to have at least one face card as they’re tight. Though I have face cards then I wouldn’t be that confident in case I flop a pair. However if I play rags and then pair middle or top pair on the flop, someone with Ace King might call me to the river to win win. In addition, if I flop 2 pair or be in a great tension with a straight or full house at the turn or river, it’s impossible there’d be someone who won’t believe I’d stay to the river with those cards.

Once in a certain game, I was the chip leader and decided to play a 4 – 6 off suit. Flop back then was 5 Q 6 rainbow. Later I flopped middle pair and stayed as I had a big stack and bets were okay. Turn came and brought 7. River followed and was an 8. I had only 1 opponent, he had J Q, top pair. I then decided to raise and was actually called. He can’t believe I played my hand to the river.

Any thoughts?

Many thanks,
Tristram
Tristram,

If you have a table of tight players, you can consider playing your rag cards, especially if you can get in cheap. However if you miss and face resistance, get out of the hand.

If you are a chip leader, you can open up your hand ranges with the hopes of trying to bust shorter stacks or hit lucky and add chips to your stack.

Hello,

Just last year, I started to seriously play Holdem. Well, I’m not fond of reading so I haven’t read most of the Texas Holdem books. However, I regularly watched ESPN.

As of the moment, I’m into online poker. I actually started as an average player in “online standards” however just after few weeks I changed and became very tight. Tight in a way that I already fold pairs, 9s or less in a long to medium table. I believed then that there was nothing wrong as I typically end up being on the top 3 out of 10. And for several times, I finished first about just half the time.

I really believe in starting tight and getting more tight as the game progresses down to 6 – 5 players then gradually loosing up when down to 4 once down to 3. And when there’s a need to be aggressive, then be aggressive.

I played with the above approach for some time. However, things started to change when I tried playing in tables with terrible players. I started witnessing really bad beats more often than usual. I also then discovered the huge difference in the skill level of various tables $10, $20, $30, $50, $100, and $200. Later, I decided to go down from $200 to $100 and much later to $5. Sad to say, my luck wasn’t that significant, for once in 10 games, I ended up on the bottom.

Can you feel it, the lower I go the worst it gets? For a number of times, I lose with trip As for nothing with a flush draw in the river, with straights to flushes and even to Quads on the turn and river. I don’t know what went wrong.

Any thoughts?

Warm regards,
Bill
Bill,

The bad players are at the lower levels. Some of this is due to their play and some is due to the normal variance you will see in poker, especially online poker. It sounds like your approach is working, but realize that when you play solid poker, you will take some bad beats. Also, you should loosen your card holdings depending on position. Folding all pairs below 9’s sounds excessively tight just based on the information you have given. Work on opening your hand ranges up in position and as the tournament gets later.

Hello,

I believe I’m a weak tight player. Oftentimes, I’m easily scared by the cards of others. Well, as of now, I play2/4$ split limit online, oftentimes six seated table. Do you have any advice for me? I want to be tight aggressive, what should I do?

Thank you very much!

Regards,
Sam
Sam,

In a six handed game, tight aggressive takes a different meaning. You need to open up your hand ranges a bit and play a wider array of hands included big suited cards, suited aces, and most pair. Sometimes suited connectors in position will also work.

You also can attempt to play small ball poker, seeing a lot of flops with different types of hands cheaply in the hopes to hit well.

Hi,

You once said that you typically fight very aggressive players with tight conservative play waiting for extremely strong hand at a large table but when you are on a heads up play, you find such approach to be not practical at all. So what do you do when you are on a heads up play with an aggressive player? I hope it’s okay for me to ask this.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Rain
Rain,

With an aggressive player, you try and keep the pots small. Another thing to remember is that you can open up your hand ranges a lot in heads up play. Any two big cards, any ace, and any pair become strong hands. When you get such against an aggressive player, play back at them. Many times they will back down, but if they don’t, you will be ahead a majority of the time.

Hello,

For more than a year now, I’ve been playing NL Holdem on and off over the internet. Well, I’ve tried reading some books before and I believe because of my effort I became a great, reasonable player.

Earlier part of the year, I took a $40 dep. bonus to $2000 in just two months time being at .25/.50 NL, 2-tables. Well, I played fairly tight with only the top 25 hands or so however I believe my play was weak and I’ve been stuck at $1800. In late position, I was able to pull off some steals however only small pots. I remember I almost gave up on suited connectors as I failed to release in case I hit a pair. And the cards, well, they’ve been coming in spouts. And in cases when I had good cards, I was okay however if not so good ones, my weakness was very obvious. Any advice for a weak player?

By the way, one time I missed on the flop the last five times, it was then hard for me to raise to $4 with AK. I then figured out that once I saw some players played AK differently. Some raised small, large and some all in with it. Now, say someone raises strong in early position, what’s the best way to play AK?

Many thanks,
Calvin
Calvin,

If someone in early position raises with A-K, the best play usually is to fold the hand. A-K is a drawing hand and must hit in order to actually become a hand. Otherwise it is ace high.

As far as your play, you are playing a cash game. If you play solid and have spout of no cards, then your best option is to sit back and wait for cards. You can try and play some marginal hands for cheap flops, but if your normal style is working, then stick with it.

You will at some point want to expand playing hand ranges some, but don’t do it just because you are having a dry run of cards. Those happen. When you get suited connectors, let them go if you don’t his strongly. Strong with 9-7 suited does not mean flopping a 9. It means flopping an open ended straight draw or a flush draw.

If you are still up $1760 on your $40 deposit, that’s good. Keep up the good work.