WHAT TO DO WHEN RUNNING CARD DEAD?

We All Get Those Card-Dead Stretches,
Here Are Some Great Ideas For How To Cope

 

There is little more frustrating than getting reasonably deep in a poker tournament only to see your cards dry up completely. After folding junk for a few orbits 'boom' those aces arrive, and of course everyone folds – after all they do not want to pay off a nit!

Card-dead patches happen to us all at some point. Fortunately there are a few different tactics which we can employ to overcome the frustration… even when players raising ahead of us when we get a mid-strength hand adds to our troubles.

Of course, a lot of the plays are affected by stack sizes, blind levels and the tendencies of opponents. I will break down some options in general terms first, then note important factors which might affect your decision on whether to make the play or not.

Card-Dead In Poker Tournaments – Stealing

Often your cards do not matter as much as you might think. When you steal the blinds with a button raise your opponents will fold so often that those times you get called and play a pot in position are just extra profit. Raising to steal from one of the last few places to act at the table is the easiest way of keeping your stack alive during a card dead period. You will be seen as active at the tables too, which might increase your chances of getting action when you do get dealt a big hand. Remember not to steal every time, it will cost you a lot of chips if your opponents get fed up with you and shove over the top of your raise!

Card-Dead In Poker Tournaments – Restealing

Restealing from a later position raise is one of the most effective methods of all when it comes to chipping up while card dead. This is particularly effective from the button (or 1 place before) when you have less players to act after you who might wake up with a real hand.

The idea is that you make a raise over a 'stealer' to around 2.5 times their initial raise. This looks super-strong and will often see you take down the pot immediately. Since you act last you are able to take the pot on the flop those times your opponent does call a large percentage of the time too. If you have folded a run of bad hands this can look even scarier than normal, and with some dead money in the pot can often get you 3x what an outright steal would bring.

Card-Dead In Poker Tournaments – Calling Bets In Position

An alternative line to the resteal might be to call a raise in position from an active or aggressive opponent. This can also look very strong, especially to someone who was stealing 'light'. You can re-evaluate on the flop, though the basic scenario is that you raise if checked to or call another bet on the flop and take the pot on the turn. If you are playing against very bad opponents this is less powerful (as they will call with just about anything). Against an experienced player you suspect of stealing this move can look very strong indeed.

Card-Dead In Poker Tournaments – Riding It Out

Of course, you could just ride out the card dead run and use the time to closely watch and take notes on the tendencies of your opponents. You will be surprised how much information you can gain on what different bets mean when you are closely following and back-tracking through hands at showdown.

The downside of this is that it will be more difficult to get paid off when you first hit those hands. This is less of a consideration at the lower buy-in tournaments, where players are often not looking much further than their own chip stacks and cards.

Card Dead In Poker Tournaments – Preventative Actions

While you can not prevent a run of weak cards, you can prevent it spoiling your chances of success in the tournament. The way you do this is to push harder to accumulate chips as you go through the different stages. Instead of waiting until you have 15 big blinds to get into 'desperate for a double-up' mode, do this when you have 25… you'll need to take charge at some point if you plan on winning, and doing it earlier can give you a stack of chips which can be used as a weapon – even those times when you are card dead!

Of course, you will have more success in poker tournaments when you chose games with bad opponents.

 

CRACKING POKER

            
                   ALL YOU NEED IS A STRATEGY AND LADY LUCK BY YOUR SIDE


As a pro, you're not constantly attacking the weak players hand after hand after hand. If you are, you're guaranteed to go broke. Instead, you sit and wait. And wait. And wait and wait and wait some more. And finally, when you get a decent hand, you strike and win your nicely sized pot.
Then you go back to waiting.

It's a long, grinding game of patience and attrition. And that's because it's all about tediously waiting for the percentages to line up in your favor -- successful poker players only play about 20 percent of the hands they're dealt.  That's right -- 80 percent of the time, they're spectators. And, they know exactly what percentage of hands they're playing, because this is the type of minutiae they keep track of. People think that poker is all about reading facial expressions, but it's actually all about math. In fact, many poker pros -- especially the online players -- are outright stats junkies, entering the details of every single session into analysis programs to calculate their overall win rate and help them fix any holes in their games.

If you're fascinated by high-stakes poker players, odds are it's from watching them on TV in those huge multimillion-dollar tournaments (or, you know, Casino Royale). That's what everyone daydreams himself doing, but the first thing to understand is that those guys on TV are the Kobe Bryants and Tom Bradys of the poker world. And Kobe has decades of slow, dedicated, boring practice behind him, as well as millions of sit-ups and bench presses and endless miles around the track.

It's a pretty terrible life.

 

It's easy to forget that aspect of poker, because the whole point of gambling is that supposedly anybody can hit a lucky streak at any time and win big. That's what draws crowds of tourists to Vegas every year. Hell, maybe you're secretly a genius at it, like Rain Man at the blackjack table. And in fact, rank amateurs have made it all the way to the final table of the World Series of Poker, cashing in a nice million-dollar paycheck (like the ridiculously-named Chris Moneymaker).

Chris Moneymaker, seconds before destroying his opponent, Will Pushhisluck.

 

Even the superstars don't make a living stroking their egos and taking on the other superstars. They make their living beating up on the wannabe pros dumb enough to take them on. Look at it this way: If Kobe's only source of income came from betting his own money in a game of HORSE, do you think he'd take on LeBron? Remember, this isn't about winning a trophy and a ring -- in poker, if you don't win, you don't get paid. Period.

Some would argue this would actually improve basketball.

 

So if you want to make money, you simply have to seek out players you know you can consistently beat. Otherwise, the Peter Principle will destroy you. That's the theory that everyone in a field gets promoted to his own level of incompetence. So in poker, let's say you're able to win at a certain betting limit. So, you move up to the next higher limit, where the players will be that much better. And you keep doing this until you get to a limit where you're now the sucker at the table. And then you go broke.

 

 

 

 

Is good to know your poker odds but when you are playing a live tournament, those odds don't mean shit. You always see those donkeys getting lucky while you are scratching your head and figuring out what went wrong. I've been through this road already three times and now I keep getting beat with pocket 5's when I raised with AK, 4X bet,(ante 1k/5k/10k), I made the right raised at the right time, got all players out but there was always one player that doesn't  want to fold his pocket 5's. I had left 120k in chips and he decides to push me all in. I do have AK unsuited, the only thing i can put him on is a pocket or AK. As I call his all in, I was shock to see someone again making an all in with a small pockets and gettting lucky with it. On tv you see a poker pro going all in with AK while another player call with his pocket QQ's and then the flop is A-9-8. That only happens on TV but they don't show you how this so call poker pro  had been grinding his ass for the past 9 hours. He got far because of his strategy, grinding power  and a lucky streak. I will be writing a book soon and i will teach and show you what it takes to get to any poker tournament final table as long as you follow by step by step strategy. My strategy is so simple to follow and you must stick to it until you get to the final table. My strategedy can be apply to any tournament or cash game and you will see results once you start using it. I had apply this strategy to poker pro wannabes and tight players. As soon as I come out of my strategy, I start bleeding precious chips and then I go back to it and suddenly I'm up again. Poker is all about using a strategy that works and 75% luck.



                                                           POKERMANTIS

 

IMPROVING YOUR POKER GAME

Improve Your Poker Game

I think the standard way to improve your poker skills preached by
most players is: watch training videos, read books and contribute to poker forums by asking questions. Those are all great methods of improving your poker skill. For newish players or players who have just started winning, this is a great strategy. You will pick up a lot from watching videos and talking on forums. However, once you go past that stage and you want to get to an elite level, you need to go outside the realm of popular knowledge.

1) View data-mined hand histories / purchased hand histories

At one point I purchased over a million hand histories and used a popular player look up tool to find the biggest players at that limit. I then looked over the hand histories that reached showdown from these players in my poker tracker. What I did was analyse the why. I looked at all the decisions they made. I then Isolated the decisions which were different to the ones I would make and then considered the “why.” This has helped me modify my play. I have to accept that the people winning the most at the limits above me, know what the hell they are doing, so I figure it out, and copy. I personally need to do this more and when I make a foray back into playing again this will be the first thing I do. This tip really is golden.

2) Sweat good poker players on Teamviewer

I urge you to make some poker friends and try to sweat some of them playing. By asking questions in real time it's a learning experience for both the person playing and the person sweating. Ideally you should try and sweat someone better than you and pick their mind. If you can't find someone better than you because you are new or are an unknown player, I would suggest paying for a coach If you have a few friends on AIM who are a similar skill level as you, you can both learn some stuff from each other and hopefully become better players.

3) You are only as good as the company you keep

If you are a nl50 regular (reg) and have nl50 reg friends, chances are you will be a nl50 reg for a while. If you are a nl1k reg and have nl5k reg friends, chances are you're on the path to improvement and will join your friends soon. It's ok having friends who play the same limit as you, I have tons of friends who play nl200. I don’t want to sound arrogant, but heck, I am… Most of these players are ok but definitely not better than me. By sharing hands with them I’m not going to learn anything new. I have maybe 10-20 players on AIM who play higher than me who I talk to often. I tend to respect the advice of these players more and some of them have the ability to think more comprehensively about all of the variables. What do I advise? Try and make friends with regulars on the forums both as good as you and better than you. The better company you keep, the better you will get.

4) Get a coach

I have never been coached per se. I had a tilt coach for a small period of time and that was, LOL stupid. I also have gone through a few mid stakes coaches but didn’t want any more lessons when I realised they weren’t much better than me. If you are starting out at say nl50, nl100, nl200 a coach may be beneficial. All I’m going to say is that it hasn’t worked for me. There are lots of good and bad coaches out there so make sure you do your research. Get references and make sure they will tell you their screen name so you can check for yourself how good they are. Also keep in mind that being good at poker does not necessarily relate to being a good poker coach. Finding a solid poker coach can be gold - but spending a ton just to find the right one is a huge waste of resources.

5) Make a video

Make a video of you playing, upload it and share it with your friends or post it on forums asking for a review of your play. Cumulatively, if you get hundreds of players viewing your video, they will likely spot some of your leaks. Take the criticism constructively. You may (or may not) be surprised at how many leaks other players will point out. Use these as fuel to improving your game.

6) Buy premium poker e-books

I have had a decent amount of success with this. I have purchased or have had a friends purchase a great deal of premium poker content. From Bobo’s Bible, The Memoirs of aejones, CTS’s book, Let There be Range, Improva’s book, BalugaWhale’s book - Easy Game, etc. Most of the ones I mentioned are fairly decent and worth the money. It's okay to invest some of the profits you have made back into education. I would go as far as saying it's mandatory for any professional player looking to get better faster than the games are getting tougher. As a professional player your mind is your biggest asset, so it remains critical to invest in it.

7) Training sites

Mentioned in my initial paragraph, training sites are probably the best value way to get better fast. I think once you get to a certain level, videos start becoming less effective. I have memberships to almost every training site out there and only wait on videos from the best players, most of the lower/mid roster of the sites players I cannot learn much from. Also, I only want to be open to listening to the concepts and theories of big winners. Not some 1 pt winning reg who thinks he can teach me how to play better.
One tip I would give you is to watch a training video on mute every now and then. I think I a lot of training instructors tend to gloss over the details, either on purpose or by mistake. If you look at a training video on mute and keep re-winding, fast forwarding over hands, you can do the analysis yourself and ask yourself, "Why?" before even hearing their reason.

8) Play Cheap Poker Tournament 

One way I have gotten better is by doing a poker tournament once a week. This is like any career, the more you do something, the better you get. Lucky me, I'm able to dedicate a few hours and put some of my poker theories to the test. I had tested several poker strategies such as, being a loose player, an aggressive player, a mixed player and a tight is right player. As you know, I went with the strategy that works and put me in control of my game. When I stick to this strategy, I'm able to control my poker game and get so deep into any tournament and make it to the money. All poker pro, doesn't matter their ranking levels or bankroll they have, they all come to the table with their hidden strategy. These players will study you, read you, bluff at you and bully you around. But when I apply my strategy to them and crack their mental state, all I get is a nasty stared at me. If looks kills, I would have been dead at that instants. When I come out of this strategy, I start losing precious chips and then I jump back to my wagon and built it up again. I would recommend playing cheap poker tournament and see which strategy works better for you. But always remember, think positive and be creative and don't let any bad beat put you down, we all learn from our mistakes, poker is a game that will put those mistakes to the test for you and this will be a learning experience for your next tournament.


                                                    


                                                     POKERMANTIS.COM

What it Takes to be a Professional Poker Player

What it Takes to be a Professional Poker Player

• Self-motivation - You will not always want to play poker. Especially if you are in a downswing or your friends are doing something that seems like more fun. Sometimes, though, when a game is really good, other things just have to be put on hold.
• Discipline - Sometimes you need to take a shot at a higher limit game when the table looks juicy. However, doing undisciplined things like chasing losses and play on tilt will make you go broke before you even realize what happened.
• Adaptability - There are a lot of things you may need to adapt to. You may need to adjust to a new schedule possibly, new stakes, new players, new styles and even new sites or new games. Change with the times or get left behind.
• Creativity - You can't always play ABC poker. Sometimes you need to mix things up, confuse your opponents and try some new strategies.

Why so Many Wannabe Pro Poker Players Fail

One major reason why many players don’t make it is because they do not practice smart bankroll management. Always leave yourself with outs! It's ok to use aggressive bankroll strategies, that is fine. But you have to be able to move down as well as up fast. If you can't do that you may go busto like hundreds of other players who have gone on a hot streak, climbed up the stakes too quickly then eventually lost it all playing in games they cannot beat.
Other players play great when they are winning and are running good. But when things start to go the other way, they compound their bad run by tilting, spewing and generally losing their mind like a donkey. Unless you have experienced a huge downswing/break-even stretch over 75k hands in your career, you can't truly know if your good enough to make it. The best players in the world don’t have “downswings.” They play well enough during these stretches so that they become “break-even stretches.” If you get a graph of any top online pro, you will notice that they will have sections of hands where they make tons of money, then sections where they break-even/lose a little for a while and then repeat the cycle.
Other players don’t succeed playing professionally because they have other issues in life which aren’t directly related to poker. Say you are trying to play professionally and are 6 tabling NL100. Over the past 6months, you have earned $3500 a month playing poker, You also have a monthly nut of $2500, i.e., how much you spend on rent, food, gas, electricity, etc. This leaves you with $1000 a month left to play poker with. Smart people will spend that money on learning to increase your income, e.g., poker training, poker coaching, adding money to your bankroll. Dumb people lose money playing blackjack, sports betting or purchasing a $30k car on finance. These people put themselves in unnecessarily tight financial spots and put themselves in situations where they start to eat into their bankroll to keep up their lifestyle and ultimately go broke.

Final Thoughts on Going Pro

Hopefully you are getting the idea by now. Becoming a poker pro isn’t as easy or as desirable as it seems. A lot of people can't deal with the stress of long break-even/losing stretches. If you go through some good times, put the money aside for the bad times that will most definitely follow. Please try and stay level headed. Take it from someone who has succeeded in playing professionally for the past 2 years. Maybe I am not as skilled as some of the best players on the planet and my income hasn’t really increased exponentially over the past 2 years. I’m not struggling by any means but I’m not a millionaire yet either. If you are young and contemplating not going to college to pursue a poker career, its most likely a bad idea. I would only do it if you are earning over $100k a year already playing poker. The games aren’t going to get any easier and you will continually have to get better as mid stakes are only going to get harder and harder as the fish lose their money, regulars get better, and there is not a constant influx of new players. I’m not going to say things look bleak since we have the possibility of regulated poker in the US (which of course may not affect players in the rest of the world anyway), but poker may never return to the days where there is an abundant supply of fish just giving away their money. Good luck at the tables. Play smart, play tight, play aggressive but controlled and don't go busto!

                                                     POKERMANTIS.COM

AGAINST ALL ODDS

One of the things that make poker exciting is that regardless of how experienced or inexperienced you are at it, you’ll never quite know whether you’re winning or losing during the course of a poker game. I now realize that being a tight poker player is not fun unless you become a spontaneous poker player. If position is right, I would sneak-in with 8-9 or 7-8 and once I hit a straight or two pairs, I tried to get as much value from it. Then, I go back to my tight moves. It all depends on what position are you in and how many aggressive players are on your table. Connectors or suited connectors are great if lady luck is by your side, but also having a poker image at your table will scare anyone trying to challenge you.  Poker is a card game that requires skill, concentration, patience, and tactfulness. Winning is not easy in poker, and yes it takes more than just luck to overcome opponents. Good poker players have a high success rate because they use their strengths to exploit their opponent's weakness. There's no such thing as playing by the book in poker. Every individual has a style of game play that is unknown to opponents.

There are several poker strategies that can be used in various poker variants. Remember, you don't have to be a poker player that needs to possess every skill in the game; all you need to do is play smart. Every poker player must see to it that they do not get habituated to a particular strategy or game style in poker. The moment opponents detect a pattern in game play, they can change the game in their favor. There's a lot of practice involved and that can only be accomplished practicing more and more.

Smart poker players win poker tournaments or poker games by getting vital clues from opponents. How is it possible get a perspective on cards held by your opponent. Poker players get an indication of the shape of things in a game by observing opponents. When you are seated at the poker table, you have to be observant at all times. Watch every move of your opponent. Opponent behavior at the table gives vital information. Although a dead expression on the face is what most poker player's showcase, if you are a hawk eyed individual you will be able to detect changes in facial expressions. For instance, watch out for movements near the jaw line of an individual. Several poker players grind their teeth when they have a look at their cards. When an individual grinds teeth there is expansion and contraction that is visible on the outline of the jawline. This is a spontaneous reaction that most poker players exhibit when they take a look at their cards or, make their move. Noticing breathing patters of opponents also gives vital clues on the cards held. Change in breathing pattern can occur when an opponent is trying to play a bluff or is taken aback with an opponent's move. Several men and women avoid wearing flimsy collared tee shirts, shirts or tops because opponents in the past have got vital information on cards held from the movement of collars during breathing.

So remember my mantis, constantly changing gears while playing poker it will be hard for other players to figure out which dynamite you are holding, they will pay you just to see what the heck you are playing with, and that's where you show those donkeys the nuts!.


                                                        POKERMANTIS.COM

A POKER GENIUS, PHILANTHROPIST, PLAYBOY, MONEY WILL FOLLOW

Each poker tournament or cash game I play, I gained more experience and I'm able to apply these experiences to my next poker event. I would also recommend my poker players to also participate in charity event such as pushtowalknj.org, their 4th annual event held March 16, was out of this world. There was 11 poker tables, $5000 visa gift card and other prices for top 10 poker players that made it to final  table. I was one of those player that made it and it was fun. Actually, I made it to 3rd place and I won a seat to play at poker4life.org main event in NYC held for April 18. Poker is not about winning big and showing off your skills, is also about giving back to your favorite charity or if you don't have any charity, there are so many out there that for just $150 or less, you get to give back to your community and help others in need. What is push to walk? A non-profit exercise gym for people with spinal cord injuries, paralysis, and other neurological conditions including, but not limited to Multiple Sclerosis, traumatic brain injuries, and stroke. They provide intensive one-on-one workouts so our clients can maintain their physical and mental health allowing them to regain their independence. Our approach is a cutting edge technique encompassing what the medical community terms Activity Based Training. Push to Walk is passionate about inspiring and motivating people with spinal cord injuries to realize their individual potential. You see my fellow mantis, by playing in any charity event, you are also helping others in need and it feels good making a difference at it. Next month, I will be playing at another bigger and better prices, actually, a seat to wsop main event for first price and many other prices for final table finalist. I will be representing pushtowalknj.org and now i have good reason to win this event.

WHY PLAYING TIGHT AND AGGRESSIVE IS RIGHT

But just what is tight, aggressive poker?

My name is donkey Marc, All-in 2-J  vs a tight player 4 bet raised

 I dedicate this blog to my friend Jun, a good poker player that keeps getting pushed around by super lucky donkeys.

A tight poker player is simply one that does not play many hands. Not only is he selective about the hands he does play, but also the position from which he plays them.
As a result of this careful approach, it can be assumed that this player has a reasonably good hand whenever he comes into the pot, as there is a limited set of opening hole cards that he will play.
Conversely, a loose poker player is one who never saw two cards he didn’t like and will jump into just about every pot ready to gamble. It is hard to tell what he is holding, because it could quite literally be anything.
Aggressive refers to the way in which a player plays his hands. An aggressive poker player will rarely limp into a pot, but will instead raise or even re-raise if the situation warrants it. After the flop an aggressive poker player generally continuation bets and pursues the pot with all guns blazing.
Passive players rarely raise and simply call or limp into pots. Because they are timid they can often be knocked off pots by aggressive play as they are nervous when the action gets hot and heavy.

So why is tight aggressive good, and loose or passive bad?

Tight players play premium hands, which have good expected value  and simplify decision making. Because you are avoiding marginal hands, your poker playing will result in fewer costly mistakes, earning you more profit.
In addition, the other players at the table will learn to avoid tangling with you because you are generally playing premium cards. This give you the opportunity to pick up pots as the other players fold to your raises and continuation bets – allowing you to make well timed and profitable bluffs.
Unskilled or unobservant opponents may not realize you are playing strong hands, and will therefore pay you off when they get into a pot with you.
Aggression is essential because no one is going to give you their money – you have to take it from them. Therefore, without aggression you are going to struggle to win pots. Once you decide to become involved in a hand, you should also be ready to fight for the pot. If you don’t, your opponents are going to notice your reluctance and they will begin to bully you like you are back in the schoolyard.
But realize that blind aggression is not the solution either. You need to adjust your aggression levels according to the type of table you are playing on and the way in which the board develops.
For example, if your table is filled with passive players who continually fold to a raise, then this is an excellent spot to show aggression. But if you are sat with several highly aggressive players, then too much aggression could start a war. Also, betting when the board probably has you beat is just like throwing money down the drain.
So make sure you have a good hand and a good table image before you draw your guns, as marginal situations will lead to you only firing blanks.

Starting hands and decisions

You will see a variety of starting hands suggested in charts and tables, some of which are extremely complex and some of which are extremely simple. If you ask experienced poker players to list their favorite top ten hands, the majority of answers will include the following:

1. 
2. 
3. 
4. 
5. 
6. 
7. 
8. 
9. 
10. 

The reason that these hands are popular is because they have good equity and are normally quite likely to win a pot. Another reason is that these cards are generally considered to be relatively easy to play after the flop and should not get you in to too much trouble.
That is the reason that small pocket and medium pocket pairs are not on this list. They are a lot more difficult to play post-flop and thus open you up to making costly mistakes.
To paraphrase Sklansky’s Theory of Poker, your opponent makes money when you make a mistake, and you make money when he makes one. A mistake is defined and as playing a hand differently from the way in which you would have played it if you could see your opponent’s hole cards.
For example, let's say that you're on sat on the big blind and the small blind completes. You are holding 4s-4c and decide to make a small raise since there are only two of you in the pot. The small blind calls and the flop is 9h-8d-Jh. The small blind then checks to you. Question number 1: Do you bet? If you could see your opponent’s cards and knew that he had missed the flop completely, the answer would obviously be yes. If you knew that he was holding a pair, you probably would not. Well one time in three, with random cards, your opponent will have made a pair on the flop. And this means that one time in three, you will probably make a mistake in this situation. And mistakes, as we have already mentioned, cost you money.
Still not convinced? OK, let’s continue the scenario and assume you bet in this position. Your opponent check-raises you!
Question number 2: Uh oh, now what? Your opponent could now be holding a wide range of hands. He could be saying "no way" to your flop bet, believing you to be making a continuation bet with a hand like A-K. Or, he could get tricky and be semi-bluffing with a hand containing a 10 or maybe two hearts. He could even be taking a stab at the pot with absolutely nothing like 52. Now do you see how hard it is not to make mistakes?
This is why is important to play tight. Your decisions become easier, and easy decisions result in fewer mistakes and therefore waste less money. Yes, you may fold hands which are winners, but it is better to make a small pre-flop mistake, than a big post-flop one.
The ability to play marginal hands well is the hallmark of an expert poker player, and even they are not immune to costly screw ups. Stick to premium hands and play tight aggressive. Your bankroll will thank you.

Changing gears

Your opponents are going to be watching you just as closely as you are watching them, and it won’t take them long to pick up on your tight aggressive style. Therefore, it is a good idea to keep changing your playing style to prevent them from spotting patterns that they can exploit. This will enable you to become a constant winner.
In addition, some players will take offence at your aggressive play, considering it a personal insult against them. They may play back at you constantly, or wait to trap you with a check-raise. Remember, most profit comes from tables where people are having fun, so don’t keep beating up the same player and don’t let it get personal.
If you keep changing gears, throwing in some loose play along with your standard tight aggressive style, you should be able to keep your opponents guessing and keep your profits at a maximum.

Timing is everything

Understanding when to get aggressive and when to let go is fundamental to this style of play. We are therefore going to wrap up with two examples that should serve to illustrate when you should bark and when you should bite.
Example 1 – To river bet, or not to river bet? That is the question.
You are playing against loose, but not stupid, players and your table image – for the ones that have been paying attention – is pretty good. You haven't pulled off any obscene bluffs and you don't think anyone has any particular reason to believe you're betting with air.
You are holding J-J and your pre-flop raise gets three callers, with the board falling A-9-6. You figure that there was a good chance no-one had an ace and bet again. Two players fold, leaving you and one opponent to continue.
The Turn brings a 7 and you bet again, hoping to charge your opponent for chasing a draw and to try and prevent a medium pair from spiking two pair.
Your opponent calls your Turn bet and a 5 comes on the River. This puts you in a tight spot. You have been playing aggressive, so do you fire a third barrel on the River?
If your answer is “no”, go and get a cookie and move to the front of the class.
Against a calling station you can bet away as they will call with all sorts of hands and you are likely to have them beat. But your opponent is a standard player and if he was on a straight draw, there's a very good chance he just filled up on the final card. If he has an ace, there is no way he’s going to fold. There is a slim chance that he’s holding T-9 and that you have missed a value bet on the River. However, as a rule of thumb, don't bet on the River unless you can:

1. get better hands to fold (no way on this board); or
2. get worse hands to call (not entirely likely, but possible)

If you now bet and he check-raises, you will almost certainly have to lay your hand down. Take the free showdown and see if you win. There is a good chance you do not have the best hand here, so caution is the key.
Example 2 – Go after the flop, or go floppy?
You are sat on the button and look down at A-K, raising a single limper pre-flop. The big blind and the limper both call, and the flop comes K-8-3.
The big blind checks, but the limper now bets into you. Neither player has shown any signs of being maniacs or calling stations. So what do you do? Do you raise him?
Once again, the answer is “no”.
Raising this flop is not necessarily good. While it is likely that you have the best hand at this stage, (barring your opponent holding a set or a hand like K-8, but both are pretty unlikely), you won’t earn much profit by raising.
Let’s look at it another way. If you raise his flop bet, there are only a few hands he can be holding which he will call with and not have you beat. He is more likely to check-raise the flop with something like K-T and would normally just call a bet if he was holding a 9-8. So if you raise and he folds you have let him get away without making a mistake.
Calling a single bet here is a worse mistake for him than folding to two bets. Give him the chance to make that mistake. If he has nothing then you don’t lose all that much by not raising this flop anyway.
Thus the correct play would be to just call, giving the big blind a chance to make a more expensive mistake. You can then trap him on the Turn for two big bets.
What you should recognize in this hand is that there are no profitable draws available on the board, and your hand is not very vulnerable which makes raising less profitable. However, when holding a hand like 9-9, on an 8-5-2 board, you should definitely raise because almost the entire deck consists of scare cards for you. Raising thus becomes imperative. You must learn to analyze the flop texture and see these differences to time your aggression correctly.

Conclusion

Tight aggressive poker is all about careful, solid play that is geared to minimize your mistakes, while pushing your opponent to make them. By following this style and understanding when to change gears and when to apply the brakes, you will continually rack up good wins against the majority of the opponents you will face in cash games.
But always remember that this playing style is no silver bullet. Tight aggressive poker play still has vulnerabilities that a good player will exploit. Nevertheless, it should definitely be part of your poker arsenal and you should wield this weapon mercilessly whether you play online or live. Also, playing solid tight at the beginning of any tournament is a good strategy to double up your chip stack. By being very conservative and not opening up to early, once you 4 or 5 bet with AK or any of your selective cards and hitting it on flop, your will start accumulating chips and getting deeper into the money. Not only will you get deeper but using this strategy, playing tight and then changing gear, you will see other donkeys and fishes eating each other out while you keep waiting for them to make mistakes. I had tested this strategy and it does work, you will get deeper and deeper. The good part is, you will be playing with real poker players that will bring their own strategy and you will learned from it. At the end, you are not playing with donkeys or calling stations, you are playing with the best and getting paid for your efforts.


 


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