Where you make your $$$$

As a dedicated part time poker player you may be wondering where the good players really make their money over the long run. Is there some complex trickery which you are unaware of? The simple answer to this is no, there is nothing complicated about poker whatever many authors may try to convince you of. It is unlikely that you are being outplayed as somebody's play is on a level above yours. Poker is in essence a very very simple game, if you can make everyone else in a pot fold - you win. If you have the best hand and stick with it - you win. Your job as a player is to work out where you are in a hand based upon simple cues - bet size, history with opponent and possibly bet speed.

It is that simple. Obviously there are going to be times where you make some horrible misjudgements but if you are taking heed of all the information given to you, tracking players, narrowing the range with which they may be doing certain things you are most of the way to becoming a winning player. For me poker is very much a simple game of mathematics and understanding basic and implied odds is essential to your development as as player.

Anyway the places you make your money are quite simple and number one above everything else is THE RIVER. This is the point in a hand where the pot is biggest and therefore the size of bet you make or call will be by far the largest for that individual hand. Being scared of being behind at this stage is understandable but if you think your opponent has a weaker pair or kicker you MUST bet for value AND be prepared to fold if they raise. If you have them on a flush which missed, check and let them try to buy the pot. It is your decisions after the last card which are the most important financially. Don't call if you think you are behind, and get value if you think you are ahead. Weak river play is the surest sign of a losing player - how can you win overall if you don't take advantage of the biggest opportunity for gain. Get into the habit of betting on the river when you think you are ahead but might be behind - you'll be surprised how often you get called down by poor hands and how rarely your instincts are wrong.

I had a comment on my blog the other day that it is easy to play a set and although this is a great situation on the flop you would be amazed how badly most people play these hands. Usually it is through trying to ensure you make something and playing it slow - not only do you often win the minimum you also get committed to big pots giving your opponents fantastic odds to draw to a well disguised hands. The main thing I would say about these is that it is fine to win nothing post flop on them, sometimes everyone will fold to your aggression BUT over all of these hands strong play is almost always the best way forward. The other thing I would say is that you want to be looking for implied odds of 10:1 to draw to a set pre flop - if one person bets 4X the BB and you are the only caller with 44 you are going to lose money unless you have a brilliant read on your opponent and are able to call down light against aggression.

The other main place you make your money is laying down BIG hands early and not getting over-committed. Being aware of what might happen later in a pot and the position you have is essential. Here is one I played yesterday where I swear most people get over-committed and stacked, almost nobody I know folds this and I genuinely think mine IS the best option (could be I'm a wuss).

I have KK UTG and bet to $40, 2 callers both with position on me and I have no read on them at all, all players have $1,000 in front of them. Flop of Q72 - lovely for my hand, I bet $80 and player A calls and B raises to $190 - what do you do? My brother when asked said call and then push on the turn if a low card comes (my brother loses at poker). I looked at this situation and hated it for me. I basically have 3 options (unlike usual) , fold, call or raise to define my hand. Lets analyse these

Raise - I currently have $120 in the $450ish pot, I am not over-committed and my initial reaction to the raise is 'balls' as I have no idea where I am, I may be ahead, I may be drawing virtually dead. Raising needs to be a big raise to define my hand as a small minimum raise will be called every time. A big raise will put over half my stack in the middle in a situation where I have no idea where I may be. I dislike this option as if they call I have to shove the turn almost without looking at what card comes.

Call - Just don't do this, it is horrible beyond reason, player A may reraise and if he flat calls what do you do on the turn?? I haven't defined my hand at this stage and a turn bet again commits me quite heavily. If I check, I really have to raise rather than call any bet and again I am committing my stack without having a clue where I am in the hand. The check call may even be the worst option going as you then pretty much have to call the river as otherwise you thought you were behind so why didn't you fold before.

Fold - You have a powerful hand, you also have pride and don't want to look like a wimp. Maybe 40% of the time you are ahead of the KQ and AQ and that's great, you look and feel like a prat when these hands are shown down. However sometimes you just have to wave goodbye to the money committed and accept that you are clueless and let it go for that reason alone. I folded after agonising over the decision but I do believe that in the long term that decision makes/saves me a small fortune. Committing your stack with little idea where you are and limited opportunity to define your hand is rarely a good plan and if the situation leaves you with little idea just let the hand go. I would also have folded AA here quite happily.

Just for the record and because it backs up my point making me look special (in a good way) my opponents had QQ and 77 respectively and I was dead to a K. Obviously I could have been ahead but I would still stand by my decision to fold. When dropping big hands you have to accept that sometimes you will be wrong and could have won a monster.

Think honestly about the hand and I doubt many of you would have been able to drop the KK that early, it's something which comes from experience above anything and I never used to be able to do this, my game and profits rocketed when I avoided rubbish situations like this.

That is all for now, may blog over christmas, may not but either way I will be playing as I do like that festive generosity which is often displayed at the tables

seasons greetings etc

Steve