Minimize Your Poker Losses or Maximize Your Poker Winnings

At least once in a pro poker player’s career, after analysing their game they will find they should be making much more profit. There are two ways to make more profit, minimize your losses or maximize your winnings. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, but you will only be able to focus on one of these factors, so which do you choose? You will only ever see people bragging about their winnings on poker forums, hear about how much professionals won on television and most profitable players plastered around poker sites. You will hardly ever see players talking about minimizing their losses, or strategy to do so. Winning a huge pot is much more exciting to talk about then making a superb fold which saved you a few big blinds.

Get 33% Cake Poker Rakeback Now!

When minimizing your losses, it will mean playing much fewer hands. Remember in no limit poker, any chips you save will be worth double that if you double up. For example, you are playing $1/2 no limit and sit down at the table with $200. You call a big blind on the first hand and then fold to a raise. Your chip stack now stands at $198. You are now in the small blind and it folds to you. You and the big blind exchange bets and end up all-in. You win the pot and your chip stack now stands at $396, when it would have been $400 had you not called that big blind of $2.

Of course that example is not accurate, as rake would have been taken etc. But it still puts into perspective the amount that is there to be lost at no limit if you constantly limp into pots with mediocre hands. If we continue from the last example, you limp into 20 hands and do now win one pot. If you now go all in you stand to lose $80 just from the hands you limped in with. That is 40 big blinds to a $1/2 player, which is a huge amount of money to be throwing away each session. This is why you will often see players constantly reloading after each hand.

In turn, minimizing your losses will eventually lead to your winnings becoming maximized, which cannot be said if you reverse the statement. If you maximize your winnings, it doesn’t affect how much money you lose, as you may still be limping into as many pots as you used to. Therefore you must start off by minimizing your losses, despite how attractive it is to win huge pots and brag about them, it will lead to you becoming a much more profitable poker player.

Facing a Maniac – How To Play Against Maniacs in Poker

During any lengthy poker session, especially at micro limit stakes, you will find a maniac at your table. To every player this is a big advantage, but few know how to play against these players and therefore, fail to make money from them.

A maniac is a player who is extremely aggressive. They may raise with any hand dealt to them, re-raise any bet they face and will generally fold very few, if any hands. A players dream would to be seated with a whole table of maniacs, or sat at a heads up table along with one, but do how do you play against them? Loose, Aggressive?

You’ll find plenty of maniacs at Full Tilt Poker
Sign up for 27% Full Tilt Rakeback Now

It will be a huge advantage if you are seated to the left of the maniac. Of course this is not an option if you are involved in a tournament, but if playing in a cash game try and ensure you are to the immediate left of the player. This is an advantage as you will have position on your opponent, meaning you will be able to view their actions before you make your decision on your play.

Most decent hands you are dealt will most probably be stronger then the cards your opponent will be raising with. Any A-X, pocket pair and Broadway cards are worthy of a re-raise as you will isolate the maniac meaning you can play heads up with the player.

The maniac may also change the style of the whole table, as players will loosen up to try and get into pots with the player. This can be an advantage for you, but stay away from pots involving too many players unless you have good implied odds. If a good player at the table raises the maniac whilst you are in the hand, you should only be willing to call with the top one or two hands, as any other hand will likely be behind already.

You have to be prepared to face big bets on the flop, turn and river. If your hand is not improved by the flop you simply cannot fold to a bet. If you have an A-x and are facing a large bet it will be worth a call as it is likely your opponents hand has not improved either, and your Ace high is leading. If you hit on the flop however, always fire out a re-raise. You do not want to play passively in case you allow the opponent to hit a winning hand, as you will lose a huge amount of chips calling and raising his bets.

So to sum up, when facing a overly aggressive player, you should try to sit to the immediate left of them and isolate them whenever possible with decent starting hands. When on the flop, don’t fold to any bet if your hand doesn’t improve and be prepared for the whole table’s style to change as a result of the maniac.

2-7 Triple Draw Strategy

2-7 triple draw is a very nice game that almost nobody knows. That’s both good and bad for you. The good thing is that a lot of novice players will try it when they are bored of hold’em or omaha. The bad thing is that there are not that many people that play 2-7 triple draw online. So it’s often hard to find a table where you can sharpen your skills and make some money. There are still some places where you can play and there are also a lot of players waiting to lose some money – a good reason to learn some 2-7 triple draw strategy.

Let’s start with some basics:

2-7 triple draw is mostly played with a limit bet structure. Every player is dealt five down cards. His aim is to build the worst five card hand while straights and flushs are valid and the ace counts as high card only. So the best hand is 2-3-4-5-7 – a seven low. You can draw three times as many cards as you want. After each draw there’s a betting round.

Enough rules, let’s take a look at some 2-7 triple draw strategy:

It’s very important to select good starting hands. If you don’t do that you’ll lose a lot of money in the long term. So if you get dealt a hand like 2-8-T-Q-A you should just fold. Even though you can draw three times you most likely still have a bad hand and end up calling with the worst hand all along.

Instead you should play hands like 2-3-6-7-7 or 2-3-5-T-A. Those are hands with potential even though 2-3-6-7-7 may look worse than our 2-8-T-Q-A hand above.

Another important point is aggression! Aggression is so important but most of the players seem to ignore the benefit of aggression. If you play aggressive you can win the hand in two ways. Either your opponents fold or you get called but get a better hand later on.

Let’s say you have 2-3-7-9-A. Instead of calling you should raise with such a hand. It’s ok when everybody folds and you win a tiny pot. And it’s also ok when you get called because it’s likely to make some sort of hand after a few draws.

Another great benefit is that your opponents can’t put you on a hand and will pay you off when you got the goods.

2-7 triple draw is a very nice game where you can show good profits if you’re playing the right style. But there are some points you can’t ignore. Be selective with your hands you play and if you play a hand – play it aggressively.

5 Tips to Beating Double or Nothing Sit and Go’s

Double or nothing sit and go’s are tournaments where half of the entrants double their money and half of the entrants lose.  For example if you play in a 10 player $10 buy-in double or nothing tournament, the top 5 finishers would win $20 and the bottom 5 would leave with nothing.  Needless to say this unique payout structure requires you to make some changes to your game in order to have the best chance of winning.

Tip #1 – Play very tight for the first few levels.

For the first few levels you want to play very tight and only play your premium hands.  Playing tight will allow you to preserve your stack for the later stages and will also give your opponents time to take each other out.  You should try not to risk chips in this stage and only play pots when you think you are ahead.

Tip #2 – Try not to call in the middle to late stages

It is important to try to maintain your stack through the middle and late stages when the blinds start to get bigger.  To do this you should raise your premium hands or even your moderate hands in good situations and hopefully take down some blinds.  One thing you should not do in these stages is call raises.  You should be pushing all-in or folding to most raises at this stage.  Once the blinds get bigger it’s not worth risking a tenth or so of your stack to see the flop because those chips may be the difference between doubling up and bubbling out.

Tip #3 – Try to get your chips in when you’re ahead

In double or nothing sit and go’s coin flips are not beneficial to your cause, especially in the early stages.  The amount of chips that you might win is not worth the amount of chips you could just as easily lose.  This is because you can only win a maximum of double your buy-in, so the added value of a double up doesn’t equal the 50% chance of losing your entire stack, because even if you double up you aren’t guaranteed to cash.

Sign up for Full Tilt Rakeback now and play Full Tilt’s Double or Nothing sit and go’s.

Tip #4 – Play tight at the bubble

In order to make the top half of the field you should stay tight at the bubble.  In double or nothing sit and go’s there are more players at the bubble than in normal tournaments, which decreases your chances of being the bubble boy.  For this reason it is smart to just play super tight and hope that another player busts.  Fifth place pays the same as first, so there is no reason to risk being eliminated in 6^th to take the chip lead.

Tip #5 – Survive with smart all-in moves late

If you are getting short stacked at the bubble you should try to move in from good positions to steal blinds and survive in the tournament.  You should go after the middle stacks who have enough chips that they feel they can survive until the cash, but have few enough that they are worried about you doubling through them.

The majority of the profit that can be made from double or nothing sit and go’s comes from the few wild players who do not understand the structure.  The players who will be the most profitable are those who are able to adjust their games through the various stages of the double or nothing sit and go.

4 Satellite Tournament Strategy Tips

Satellite tournaments are smaller buy-in tournaments where you compete to win a seat in a large poker even for a much smaller cost than you would pay to buy directly into the big event.  The amount of seats the satellite tournament awards is determined by the amount of players in the satellite and the difference in buy-in between the satellite tournament and the big event.  The ratio difference between the buy-in of the big event and the buy-in of the satellite will be the same ratio between the amount of players who bought into the satellite tournament and the amount of seats that are awarded.  For example if you are playing in a $10 satellite to a $500 event, 1 out of every 50 players wins a seat.  Satellites are great opportunities for players to try to take a shot at some big games that fall without their bankroll management range.

The huge difference between satellite tournaments and regular tournaments is that there is no difference in prize between every player who cashes.  All the winning players receive the same thing, that being a seat or a token to a larger tournament.  This difference can change your strategy in a few ways that we have outlined below.

See a lot of flops early on

As a rule of thumb, satellite tournaments have more fish than regular tournaments.  A lot of winning players don’t see satellites as a good use of their time, because you don’t actually win any money.  The fact there are a lot of fish means you should see a lot of flops early on and try to make a big hand to double up with.  That being said you should still only be making good calls from good positions and not wasting your chips.  Success in a satellite tournament is made a lot easier if you have chips early on.

Avoid coin flip situations early

You don’t want to risk your tournament on a coin flip early on.  IN most satellite tournaments your starting stack is of a greater value than half of a doubled up stack.  This is because the entire goal of a satellite tournament is survival.  Of course the degree of this changes depending on what percentage of the players in the tournament win a seat.

Late tournament big stack play

If you were able to accumulate a large stack through the early and middle stages of the tournament you should now be playing tight and holding onto the chips that you have.  Avoid confrontation with other tall stacks that can do harm to you.  If you have enough chips to wait out the tournament, then do so.  An example would be if you are in 5^th out of 22 players in a satellite tournament that awards 18 seats and you are dealt QQ.  The chip leader raised the pot from early position.  This is a time when you should probably fold this hand and just try to wait out 4 more busts.  Since the relative value of the extra chips you would earn by winning this hand is basically 0, there is no reason whatsoever for you to risk busting out of the tournament when you have enough chips to survive.

Late tournament short stack play

If you weren’t able to accumulate many chips through the early stages and are now one of the short stacks you need to try to win chips and avoid bubbling.  In satellite tournaments the best players to raise are the medium stack players who you can still do damage to and who are trying to wait out the last few busts.   You should be coming over top of their blinds from late position when you get the chance.  You should only go after the monster stacks and short stacks with quality hands.  The huge stacks aren’t really worried about winning a seat and will likely call just to try to finish the tournament faster.  Short stacks are in the same position as you and would be looking to double up with any good hand as well.

5 Tips To Help You Beat Full Tilt Tier 1 & 2 Sit and Go’s

Full Tilt’s $8 tier 1 and $24 tier 2 sit and go tournaments can be very good value for the players who are able to use the tournament structure to their advantage.  The fact that 1 out of every 3 players get paid is different than most 18 player tournaments in which only 4 players cash.  The extra two players cashing, along with 1^st through 5^th being the same prize allows you to play a much tighter game in order to hold on for a cash.  Another reason the tournaments can be good value is because the first half of the tournament is played at two tables.  If your table doesn’t play as many hands as the other this means that there is a greater chance of players from the other table busting before players from yours.  A lot of players will just be scheduled tournament players who are used to very large fields and are just looking for tokens to some bigger buy-in MTT’s.  You can take advantage of these players by using the tournaments structure to your advantage.  Here’s how:

Play tight and aggressive early on

Your objective early in the tournament is to stay close to your starting chip count and not play many hands.  If you do get a big hand early of course you should play it and try to gain some chips or double up.  Play big hands aggressively at this stage though.  You do not want to let people catch hands against you and bust you from the tournament at this stage.  Remember to stay tight.  It’s actually possible to cash in these tournaments without every playing a hand.  Extremely rare, but possible.

Slow down your table

You can slow down your table by taking the maximum amount of time allowed for you to make every decision.  The logic behind this is that if your table plays fewer hands than the second table, the second table players will have more hands to possibly bust on, as well as have more blinds being put into the middle.  Obviously once you reach the final table this is no longer beneficial.

All in or fold with 10 times the big blind or less

Once the blinds have increased to a point where you have 10 times the big blind or less you have to start either pushing or folding.  You can no longer afford to call or raise because you don’t have enough chips to make moves after the flop.  At this point the only call you should possibly be making is from the small blind, with no other callers in front of you.

Sign up for Full Tilt rakeback now and take advantage of these great value tournaments!

Watch the blind increases

Once it gets down near the bubble the blinds will be very large.  At this point it would be smart to start managing the blinds are trying to be in the button seat when the big blinds increase.  The 200 chip difference between levels could be the little difference between bubbling and cashing.

Do not be the bubble boy

This goes without saying.  You do not want to finish in 7^th position and have played the entire tourney with nothing to show for it.  If you are a shorter stack near the bubble you should be checking if you or other short stacks will be having their chips forced in first.  If other players will be forced in by the blinds before you, it may be smart to wait and hope that their cards don’t hold up when they are pushed all-in.  If it is you who will be the next person forced in you should be looking to push all-in sooner rather than later.  When choosing when to move in you should take into consideration your position, the other players chip stacks and tendencies and of course your hole cards.  A perfect situation would be pushing from the button with a good hand on players in about 4^th or 5^th who would not want to risk crippling their stacks and doubling you up.

On the other hand if you have managed to develop a large stack heading into the late stages of the tournament you should try to coast into the money and not risk your chips.  You should try not to play many pots with other large stacks.  Remember there is no difference in prize money between first and fifth so be stingy at this point and don’t risk your chips.

Sign up for Full Tilt rakeback now and build your poker bankroll by using these poker strategy tips to take advantage of these great value tournaments!

5 Tips to Improve Your Full Tilt Super Turbo Game

Full Tilt’s super turbo sit and go’s have a very unique structure which can make them very profitable if you know how to use this unique structure to your advantage.  In the super turbo’s players start with only 300 chips and the blinds at 15/30, with the blinds increasing every 3 minutes. Full Tilt’s super turbo tourneys can be a good value for the player because the fee is a little bit lower than usual and because a lot of the players who play them do it when they are on tilt because they feel the super turbo’s are just lotteries.  However, I’m here to tell you they are not lotteries and there are many ways to increase your advantage in these tournaments.  Here are 5 tips that will help you beat the Full Tilt super turbo sng games and hopefully increase your poker bankroll.

Ship it in or fold

You start with only 10 times the big blind and this means you should forget about calling and only be pushing all-in or folding.  If you get lucky and double up early to about 20 times the big blind you can start doing standard raises again, but be aware that most of the other players will still be either pushing or folding, which means your raise is still basically as good as putting all of their chips in.  Slow playing with this small amount of chips will not work because the other players will be just as likely to call an all in as they would a minimum raise.  The one exception for making a call might be in the small blind with a monster.  Calling in the small blind can often induce a big blind push because it implies weakness.

Play tight for the first couple levels

Since you start with only 10 big blinds you want to push with a good hand, at least early on.  There are 9 players in the tournament, which means you get to see a lot of hands in the early stages without putting in many blinds.  If players start going out and the blinds increase and start coming faster you will have to change the range of hands you will move in with.  A common mistake in these tournaments is feeling the need to push early and often.   Be patient for the first couple levels and only move your chips in with a quality hand.

Sign up for Full Tilt Poker rakeback now and receive 27% of each tournament fee back.

Use your position

Position is extremely important in this tournament structure.  You should be pushing hands from the button that you would have folded under the gun.  An example would be that (Ace, Nine) is an easy fold under the gun, but would likely be a push from the button with no previous callers.

Increase your range short-handed

As the amount of players remaining decreases your range of hands to push with should grow.  The fewer players remaining, the greater the chance that your hand is the best at the table.  For example, 9-handed (A,5) doesn’t look so great, but 4-handed it becomes much stronger.

Avoid the bubble

This is easier said than done, but a 4^th place finish is the worst position possible and they can mess with your head.  If the tournament is down to 5 or 6 players and you have a short stack, it’s time to start pushing from good positions with a wide range of hands and hope to double up or steal some blinds.  Don’t let yourself blind out.  6^th place prize money is the same as 4^th, $0.

You can find Full Tilt super turbo sit and go’s with buy-ins anywhere from $3.50 to $70 at Full Tilt Poker.

Sign up for Full Tilt Poker rakeback now and receive 27% of each tournament fee back.