Darkened Poker

Here is the biggest and costliest difference between the .05/.10 & .10/.25 games on PokerStars.

At the .05/.10 levels you will often see a nice size pot built by the river and then suddenly there is an odd all in over bet on the river.  It was odd because the str8 or flush draw did not get there and a majority of the time just a desperate bluff.

A lot of inexperienced players either think they have to play aggressive poker and put a lot of money into the pot on a draw and/or if their draw does not get there they have to move all-in and try to save themselves.  It is very profitable over all to just pick off these bluffs, once it awhile you run into sets but at least 65% of the time it is a bluff.

VS

Now at the .10/.25 level those odds are completely reversed and I would say 75% of the time you will be shown the nuts and only 25% of the time you will be picking off a bluff.  There is a ton of people that noticed how many people were picking off big bluffs in the last level and are now taking advantage of it in this level.

Do not fall for it.  If the pot is small because there was not a lot of betting and they only bet around the size of the pot then go ahead and call as it will often still be a orphaned pot bluff.  But if you or someone was betting all the way and someone still moves in on the river they are hoping someone notices there is a missed drawn and are looking for the sucker that will make a BIG HERO call.

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Darkened Poker

Found this great forum post at “All Vegas Poker” that I have to share, so sad but true.

http://www.allvegaspoker.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=7710&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=210#p122774

Player Nicknames

1.  Norman Chad-Hole: Guy who cracks the corniest, most overplayed jokes at the table. ” Hey! You know why the call A-K The Anna Kournicova? Looks pretty but never wins! Wokka Wokka Wokka!” You should be allowed to slap this guy once a session.

2.  Phil Hell-Meth-head Guy who can’t shut up at the table, cant stay still. Jumps up after every fold to steal 2 quick drags from his cigarette/crack pipe, all the while yelling ” Deal me in dealer!!” because if he misses just one hand, the bugs and worms in his head will eat his brain.

3.  Daniel Negra-Nerd Spits out statiscal analysis of every hand, and is usually wrong. “Ohh, A-K vs pocket 7′s? Your a 114% favorite cause you got like 54 outs twice.”

4.  Phil Ivey-Watching You The tool at the table who tries to stare into your soul when you make a $10 raise. I Actually had a guy last week do this to me. He took his sunglasses off and turned to stare at me over a $40 pot. He said “Why do you look nervous?” So I said ” Cause I don’t know if you’re gonna call or try to kiss me” He folded.

5.  Eli Ez-She really going out with him? The 22 year old smoking hot model seated directly behind the guy who looks like Tom Petty mated with a Mastodon.

6.  Mike Matu-Suck Dude who spews his buy in all over the table for hours then finally gets a good hand and slow plays himself into oblivion- Begins yelling “F$#K this game! I cant belive my aces lost to 5-6 off suit!” We know buddy, we can’t belive you checked behind him on a board of 3-4-8 with three hearts.

7.  Tom Dw-hat In the Hell Are You Doing? Watched way too much Dwan on High Stakes Poker. Can’t understand why when he 3 bets out of the position with J7 he loses everytime. Thats cause he can read players post flop, and you suck donky sack. DURRRRR!!!!!!!!!!

8.  Phil Laak- of Brains Folds kings face up because he gets re raised. Folds his big blind in a tournement and leaves himself with only 1 BB left cause he “Had Crap” Open bets pocket aces for $200 cause he “Always Loses With them”. Makes you just want to go buy him a tin foil hat.

9.  Sammy Far-Crying Out Loud Guy who builds his $100 buy in to $2100 in an hour buy continually sucking out after calling large pre flop bets with crap. Only good news is he wil spew it all back before the night is over.

10.  David Bennyme-Another Drink This guy is blotto, but keeps drinking and babbling while playing. Usualy gives up too much information- Like he has a King, He only raises when he got top pair, He wears his wifes underwear, etc. TMI for sure.

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Darkened Poker

Some important stats from my poker simulator; 500,000 rounds of Texas Holdem ran 8 handed all the way to the river. This chart gives you a good idea of the frequency of each rank of hand coming up and its % chance to be winning at show down.

The above stats are very interesting and should be memorized but they can be a little misleading. For example only 12% of the hands are won by a flush, but that does not means if there is 3 flush cards on the board that only 12% of the time someone will have one. A poker player really also wants to know that given that the condition for a flush is meet what is the chance that someone at the table has that hand.

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Given the above example you can see that 8 handed if there is 3 suited cards on the board then it is not 12% chance that someone has a flush but a much higher 65%.

Hope these stats help you guys dominate the tables.

Click here for next stats on 9 Handed

Click here for previous stats on 7 Handed

Darkened Poker

Did some reading this weekend about one of my favorite poker players.  Every night I would just try to read an hour of this book before crashing out and every night I would end up reading until 3am.  Doyle Brunson’s life was just that amazing.  Your not going to learn anything about playing better poker but you will be very entertained.

First quarter of the book is about growing up in Texas and his run at being a pro basket ball player which ends sadly and he needs to find a new career.

Second part of the book is about being a rounder in Texas and trying to make a living playing poker with the salt of the earth.  I have played in a few places were I did not like my chances of making it to the door without a fight and even saw a dealer get knifed once.  This in nothing compared to what Doyle has lived through.  He has been robbed and beat up, seen people get knifed and gunned down at the table.  His stories about playing at places guarded by a .50 cal machine gun to keep away raiders just blows my mind.  Life was really different back then.

Third part of the book is about his life after moving to Vegas and playing with the big crime bosses.  These times are even crazier, less worried about being rob but more worried about getting cheated at the table or not pissing off a mob boss which would get you killed.  This by far my favorite part of the book.  It really blew my mind how much gamble this guy has and how honest he was about his mistakes.  He could make millions playing poker and then blow them the next day in bad investments.  Also amazed at how much money Doyle won but never got paid, I get pissed when someone defaults on 100$, people have not paid him single bets over 800k.

Last part of the book is a look at the growth of poker and how things changes really fast.  It was interesting to get the perspective of were things are going from someone that has lived through the past and all the changes that we take for granted.  I also like his story of a 2 year 100 pound weight loss bet Chip Reese and a bunch of other pro’s.  With over 1 million of prop bet motivation he finally managed to take the weight off.  I think everyone should read this book, it would as it would give them a lot more respect for the game.  Highly recommend clicking image below and getting yourself a copy of it.

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Darkened Poker

Some important stats from my poker simulator; 500,000 rounds of Texas Holdem ran 7 handed all the way to the river.  This chart gives you a good idea of the frequency of each rank of hand coming up and its % chance to be winning at show down.

The above stats are very interesting and should be memorized but they can be a little misleading. For example only 11% of the hands are won by a flush, but that does not means if there is 3 flush cards on the board that only 11% of the time someone will have one. A poker player really also wants to know that given that the condition for a flush is meet what is the chance that someone at the table has that hand.

Given the above example you can see that in a 7 handed Texas Holdem game if there is 3 suited cards on the board then it is not 11% chance that someone has a flush but a much higher 57%.

Hope these stats help you guys kill the poker tables.

Click here for next stats on 8 Handed

Click here for previous stats on 6 Handed

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Darkened Poker