Hi guys,

Today I want to talk about something that can’t be stressed enough: game selection. This is maybe the single most important skill for online poker players that want to become truly successful.
You can be one of the top players in the world, but if you only play against other top players that are equally good as you or even better, you will have a really hard time making any money. But you can also be a pretty average online player, but be very good at selecting the right tables and therefore make a lot of money. What games to chose is hard to say in general. Personally I like really loose and aggressive games with huge pots, but the backside of these kinds of games is that you will have huge swings. You should only play in games like this if you and your bankroll can handle the swings. In general it is good to look for games with a high percentage seeing the flop. What game that suits you depend on how you play. For aggressive players a tight, passive game can be perfect, you can steal a lot of small pots and easily back down when someone else shows strength. If you use the tips on this site and play a solid tight, aggressive game you will do fine in a bit looser games, preferably with players that are more on the passive side.

My best tip is to keep track of the players on your favorite poker site. Make notes about the ones that frequently play at you level and add the bad ones to your buddy list. To learn to choose which table you play at with care will improve your results more than you might imagine.

This article about betting patterns will help you improve your table selection skills.

I get a lot of questions about bankroll management. People wonder what level they should play on, how much they can risk, when to quit and change level etc. None of these questions are easy to answer.

First you have to determine why you play. Are you a recreational player or is poker your main (or only) source of income? If you want to make to make a living playing poker your margins need to be a lot larger than if you play only for fun. Your style of play and what kind of risks you are ready to take are also important factors. But if you, like me, want to make a living playing poker, you have to minimize your risks. I always quit if I have lost three buyins and I never like to risk more than 5 percent of my bankroll any given day. So if I want to play $10-20 limit holdem (regular buyin $500) I need to have a bankroll of at least $30,000, which means that if I loose $1,500 in a day, it is only 5% of my total bankroll. I am aware that the margins I speak about are pretty large. If you don’t play for a living or are ready to take larger risks you don’t need a bankroll that is as large. But to play professional I would still not recommend you to risk more than 10% of your bankroll in a day.

Steve Zolotow, one of my favorite poker writers, recently wrote a text about bankroll management in Card Player. (You can read it here.) Even though I like to risk less than what he talks about in general I think it is a very interesting article.

Good luck at the tables and Merry Christmas!
Mike G.

Hi Mike,

I play no limit holdem on a regular basis (usually $1-2). I feel confident in my game and usually come out ahead. One of the only hands I have problem playing is low pocket pairs. I know that when the flop comes I will usually be up against over cards and I don’t like guessing my opponent’s holdings. If you could give me some tips on how to play small pockets it would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Chris
Hi Chris,

Low pockets are one of my favorite types of hands to play in no-limit Texas holdem. Especially when the games are loose and aggressive. They can be played in several different ways, but your goal is always to flop a set. As long as I have a decent stack in relation to the blinds I will call even pretty large raises with them, especially when I put my opponent on a big hand. The goal here is to flop a set and get all my money in. If I do I usually bet out, if my opponent has a big hand he will re-raise most of the time and is pot committed when I re-raise again. If you check raise here instead there is a bigger risk that your opponent manages to get away from his hand.

I like to limp my small pockets, but occasionally raise with them. If you are up against more than one opponent and flop a set, the situation is a bit more complex. I like to bet out here too, but it depends on my position, the texture of the flop etc. If it is a non threatening flop I sometimes choose to slow play the hand. But with any scary draws out I make sure that my opponents have to pay greatly to chase them. When I miss the flop I generally check and fold to any bet. The times when I have raised pre-flop I might take one stab at the pot, but fold if I get any action.

Good luck at the table.
Regards,
Mike G

Read more about how to play specific hands at the flop here.

Ok I admit it. I have sometimes been rude to other players at the poker table, mostly online. There is no excuse for this behavior and I am glad to say that I have managed to quit. There are several reasons why you should avoid insulting your fellow poker players, apart from the fact that it is just not a very nice thing to do.
Your opponents draw out on you with a backdoor flush and you curse him out calling him a fish. But why? You want him to chase and call you against the odds. He will outdraw you sometimes, but you will prosper in the long run. If you are rude he might leave the table, and you don’t want that or otherwise change his behavior, and you don’t want that either. By being a bully you risk affecting your opponents’ game to the better, which is just plain stupid. By working yourself up and cursing other players I also find that you increase the risk of going on tilt and you tell your opponents that you are not a very stable player. Next time someone hit that two outer, just take a deep breath and remember that the fact that he did is good for you in the long run.

Roy Cooke wrote an excellent column on this subject in Card Player. If you recognize the behavior described above you should definitely check it out.

Hi Mike,

I am mostly playing shorthanded limit holdem (usually $5-10 and $10-20). There is one particular type of hands that always give me trouble. I don’t know how to play weak aces (or if I should play them at all). Hope you can give me some advice.

All the best,
Sid K
Thanks for your question Sid, this is indeed a tricky hand to play. I would definitely advice you to play weak aces with caution and most of the times throw them away. Or let me put it like this, only play weak aces if you are first in to the pot or have posted a blind. If anybody call or raise before you just throw them away, even the suited ones. You just don’t win with them often enough to justify playing them if you don’t have a chance to steal the blinds at the same time. I usually throw them away under the gun, except if I sit on an extremely weak table. But otherwise I bring them in with a raise, half of the point playing them is that you have a chance to steal the blinds uncontested. The problem with weak aces is that you usually don’t want anyone to call when you raise with them, especially if they have position.

But I raise them up if I am first in and if somebody re-raises I call (if they are suited I usually call even if it is capped). When the flop comes I raise almost every time (if it wasn’t re-raised preflop). It is important to keep the initiative here. And many opponents will fold here if they have missed the flop so you definitely should stay aggressive.

The hard part is when you get a re-raise. If you hit the flop you play your usual game, and probably re-raise or call. The problem is if you have missed. If you don’t have a good draw my general advice is to fold. To continue play the hand you need a good read on your opponent.

In summary, I re-raise with weak aces preflop if I am first in, bet the flop whatever comes if no one has re-raised, but usually fold if I get action.

Read more about limit holdem here.

Hi all,
Keep mailing me interesting questions. Here is one from Michel in Austria.

I sometimes find it hard to play overpairs in no limit holdem. Let’s say I have QQ and make a normal bet of about 4 times the big blind and get two callers. The flop is low and I bet about 2/3 of the pot. One player folds, but the other, sitting on the button calls. The turn is another low card, but there are no straights or flushes out. I bet between half and 2/3 of the pot and the button calls. The river is something like an ace. What should I do?
/Jeff
Playing over pairs can be tricky. I find my self in similar situations to the one you describe pretty often. You play your over pair aggressively and someone calls you down and a scare card hits on the river. I would want to have more details in this hand. Were there any busted draws etc? But let’s assume that we have at least a busted flush draw out there. In order to know how to act here we have to put our opponent on some kind of hand. If he is an ok player, there are two kinds of hands I would say are more likely than others. Either he might have a lower over pair or a flush draw with two over cards. If the later is correct the ace might be a very bad card. Most players tend to have the nut flush draw if they chase the flush in a situation like this, and in that case the ace is very bad news. But there are definitely other possible hands that you can beat; worse flush draws, lower over pairs, or even busted straight draws. What I would do here is to make a check-call. It is good for two reasons: you do not risk a re-raise if you are beat and you might induce a bluff. So just check and call any reasonable raise your opponent might make.

Good luck at the tables,
/Mike

I had a virus attack on my mail box recently and unfortunately lost a lot of e-mails. So I want to apologize to all of you that I haven’t been able to get back to. But now the mail is up and running again and I got this one from Tom, which I thought I should share with you all.

“Hi Mike,

I am mostly playing 1-2 and 2-4 No Limit Holdem, and there is one particular move that seem to have become a lot more common online recently – the over bet.  Players that bet considerably more than the pot. My question is, how should I handle over bets from others and when is a good time to use it?

Regards,
Tom”

This is an interesting question. I also see more and more players over bet when I play online. There is no patented way to handle this, and it is off course hard for me to say what you should do in a particular situation. But in general I would say that in order to call an over bet you either need a very strong hand or a really good read on your opponent. What you have to ask yourself when faced with an over bet is: what does my opponent want to achieve with this bet?

Poor players tend to over bet when they are bluffing, because they feel that their bluff is more powerful when they bet a lot.  They might also do it when they have the nuts. But I would say that it is more common that they bluff, because when they have strong hands they are usually scared that the opponents will fold if they bet too much and therefore bet less. So when faced with an over bet from a bad player you have to ask yourself do I believe he has it or not? In order to call an over bet you should be pretty sure that you have the best hand, because your pot odds will usually not be that good. You will risk a lot, but you also have the chance to win a big pot.

If you are up against strong, hyper aggressive players, playing a Doyle Brunson type of poker, I only have one advice to give you: wait until you have a very strong hand before you call. There is no point risking your whole stack with weak hands against players like this. Be patient and get your money in the middle when you have the goods.

The same goes when you are up against a maniac that over bets almost every hand. This is one of my favorite types of opponents. There is no reason to take unnecessary risks against players like this either. Just keep cool, play solid hands, and you will get their money in the end. (You could push more hands against players like this with the chance of winning a lot of money, but remember that your swings will be a lot bigger too.)

When is a good tome to make an over bet? I like to make over bets with strong hands against poor players. This move will lots of time induce a call, because they think your bet is fishy and won’t give you credit for a hand. I also like to over bet the nuts, when the board holds a very strong hand. If there is a full house or a straight on the table and I have a higher straight or a better full house I like to make a substantial bet, pretending I am trying to steal the pot, in the hope that someone will call. The nice thing is that you don’t need to get called nearly every time in order for this bet to be profitable, because when you do you will win a very large pot. I rarely use over bets to bluff, and when I do I usually do it against weak players that I am sure will fold to a substantial bet.

Over bets are hard to handle and it is not easy to say how you should act in a given situation. But as I said, when faced with over bets proceed carefully and usually avoid calling without a strong hand or a very good read of the situation.

I want to recommend a great article in the latest issue of CardPlayer. Almost anyone can become a winning player by playing tight and follow my advice here at Top Texas Hold’em, but to become truly great you need to be able to vary your game. Or as Steve Zolotow writes in his great article ‘Should You Be Loose or Tight?’:
“Why should you learn to play loose if you can be a consistent winner by playing tight? Being a successful loose player is much harder than being a successful tight player. You are playing a lot of marginal hands, and thus your poker skills must be a lot stronger. You must squeeze every drop of profit out of your winners, while holding the losses on your frequent losing hands to a minimum.”

Check out this article and start loosing up.

Are you one of those players who base all your decisions at the poker table on mathematical calculations? Well you shouldn’t. Math isn’t as important as one might believe when it comes to poker, or to use the words of “The Mad Genius” – Mike Caro: “In poker, math is meaningless and psychology is paramount. There, I finally said it … and I’m glad. Each time I got close to uttering those words, I lost courage and choked back the sounds. Out came silence, only silence. What made me afraid to speak the truth? Oh, I guess it was mainly a couple poker people to whom mathematics is sacred. If you dare define the real power of psychology in poker or point out the limited role of mathematics in the heat of poker combat, they lash out publicly, insanely, desperately. They hate to hear it.”

Off course you need to know the basic math to become a good poker player, but to become truly great takes a lot of practice and a deep understanding of your opponents.
Read the whole Mike Caro article here

I recently got a question from Jonathan in South Africa who was looking for books about no-limit cash games. And I am sure that he isn’t the only one.

Answer:
If you are interested in no-limit cash games a book well worth checking out is Stewart Reuben and Bob Ciaffone’s “Pot-Limit & No-Limit Poker”. This book is geared towards no-limit cash ring games, and deals with a lot of important aspects of no-limit poker. The first section addresses specific problems such as beating a bully, playing drawing hands, reading opponents, stack sizes etc. The second part deals with specific games. I can definitely recommend this book to any poker player seriously interested in improving their no-limit game.

Over and out,
Mike G