Sarah Silverman

November 09, 2005

Some will put you on a hand, although their methodology often leaves much to be desired. Many Actionpoker players lock in on a single hand, never considering --even for a moment-- the range of possibilities one might infer from your betting action. This can work to your advantage. Just suppose you raised before the flop with A-Q suited and flop J-9-3 with two of your suit. If your opponent has locked in on you pairing a jack, he may never realize you've made the nut flush if a third suited card falls.

If you have the knowledge but just can't seem to hit the target when you pull the trigger, you've got a know-how problem, and preparation is often the key to unlocking this door. Knowledge, plus preparation, equals know-how, and that's frequently what it takes. Here are a few things you can do to change your behavior and bad Actionpoker habits.

Clonie Gowan

Which Actionpoker hands ought to be played from which position, given the composition and texture of the game you're in, is another requisite skill, and it's also easily learned. While there's a lot of "it depends" that goes into deciding whether to play your first two cards, starting standards provide the benefit of the many theoreticians who have proffered suggestions about which hands are playable from early, middle, and late position. That you might have to deviate from that "theoretical list" of hands is not important.

It's an interesting phenomenon, and one you won't run across in many other endeavors, particularly in competitions where the skills are visible and on display for all to see. Try this if you don't believe me. Pick a tough lineup of poker players. Tournament champs, cash game players, it doesn't matter. Then ask any local amateur player - perhaps he's a guy who plays small limit games at his golf club or once a week in the back room of the Elk's Lodge - how he'd fare against a tough lineup like that.

Each heart dealt to one of your opponents is one that will never find it's way into your hand. You don't need to know much about poker or probability to realize that you stand a much better chance of receiving a heart when ten of them remain in the deck instead of six - and you still need two of them. It's a bit easier to figure the odds in hold'em, because there are only so many situations to be accounted for, and far fewer exposed Actionpoker cards to consider.

Matthew Perry

If, for example, the odds are 2-to-1 against making your hand, but the pot will pay three dollars for each dollar you must invest in order to try and catch that winning card, it pays to call. In fact, if you figure to attract more than two dollars for each buck you wager on that particular betting round, it pays to bet your draw aggressively. Yes, that's right. If you have three opponents who are all wearing signs saying, "I call all bets," go ahead and bet your draw.

What could she possibly be holding that allowed her to cold call two and a half bets from the small blind and a bet and a raise when an ace flopped? I had no idea at this juncture. I had been at the Actionpoker table only a short time and had no clue as to how she played. She could have had a pair and an inside straight draw or a pair and a backdoor flush draw. Who knows; maybe she called two raises cold with 5-4 suited and had flopped two pair. I hadn't a clue.

Knowledge, plus preparation, equals know-how, and that's frequently what it takes. Here are a few things you can do to change your behavior and bad habits. Be responsible for yourself. If you are not in control of your own actions, how can you ever hope to win? So don't ask for a deck change just because the cards are not falling your way.