Bluffing Fish
Are we bluffing fish? We were taught many moons ago to never bluff fishy players. Also known as calling stations, recreationals, casual players and the rather unaffectionate term ‘Donkey’.
Contrary to belief Fish can be bluffed. The old adage “bluffing fish is pointless” is a very generic and frankly out of date. Fish come in more varieties than regulars and just like those regulars, each one needs a slightly different approach. Some players of course can’t be bluffed, like maniacs, they just get valuetowned instead. But there some varieties that can be bluffed, you just have to be observant…
Poker Ethics, Table Selecting, and Bum Hunting
How Do Poker Players Win
What is the engine that feeds online poker? Poker is a zero sum game minus a cut that the house takes. So in an environment where all players are good and everybody plays game theory optimal poker EVERYBODY loses. The house takes money out of pots at an enormous rate especially at lower games. In fact, versus a bunch of skilled regulars (with zero recreational dollars in play) it may be impossible at a 6-max or full ring table for even some of the best in the world to win…. The bottom line is that if you are a professional poker player you need to be bum hunting / table selecting. Unless of course unless you are a loser. There are probably a couple of notable exceptions to this if you receive a massive prize each month or massive sponsorship dollars which mean you don’t need a BB/100 winrate to win.
Stealing Pots – Advanced Strategies
Stealing Pots – Advanced Strategies
Stealing a hand in poker needs to work a fair amount to be profitable. When bluffing, 3bets, 4bets, over pot bets etc. generally need to work (that is get your opponent to fold) more than half the time to be profitable. If these bets will work is down to your interpretation of your opponents range and how he will play it. Below I’ll show you some +++EV, low risk strategies that will have you stealing the blinds, stealing on the Flop and evaluating your stealing opportunities with ease! In my concept I call APS – Advanced Pot Stealing I am going to show some situations where you don’t even need to look at your cards. All that’s required is hawk-like attention from you. Let’s dig in…
Why Buying Bitcoin Makes Sense
As most of you know who follow my twitter feed know, I think buying bitcoin is a good idea. Most of the time I blog about poker and poker strategy, but today I thought I would mix it up a bit and share with you some of my thoughts on bitcoin. Initially, I was a bit skeptical about the technology, but a series of events in my life has inspired greater confidence.
Bluffing In Poker
When Should We Be Bluffing
Some players are obsessed with showdown value. You see this a lot with fish who give up on bluffing because they Rivered 5th pair type hands. Weaker regs are very similar; they have a pair so they check back, or they give up on semi-bluffs because they Turned or Rivered something ‘showdownable’. Turning their ‘made hand’ into a bluff is unnecessary they say. These players fail to realize: It doesn’t matter if you have showdown value if your hand cannot win at showdown! Let’s run through a few scenarios where these situations tend to crop up.
Talking Exploitive No Limit Holdem With OnTiltRadio
This past week OnTiltRadio was kind enough to host me and we had a great conversation about poker and my newly released book Exploitive No Limit Holdem. It was a fun chat that lasted about 30 minutes and you can listen to the podcast here. OnTiltRadio has a fun weekly poker show every Sunday night form 7-10pm. Generally, they interview people at the beginning of the show.
-ThePokerCapitalist
Poker Training – A Flawed Model
Does Poker Training Work?
The poker training website model is broken for players. Here is why….
1) Incentives are seriously misaligned and training websites do not get paid based on the performance of their clients. Also, Variance often confuses clients as to which website is “helping” their game.
2) Poker training isn’t very profitable and many of them make their “real” money from staking, affiliate income, or some other source. As a result quality dwindles
3) “Buffet” style poker content doesn’t allow coaches to distinguish themselves based on quality and be compensated accordingly. As a result much of the content produced is just churned out and not high quality. Some new websites are going with a more a la carte system which is probably better IMO
4) Accountability does not exist in the industry and it is very difficult to determine who to learn from. This is further complicated by the fact that there are several ways to make money at online poker, so coaching styles naturally differ.
5) Falling Revenues has reduced the incentive for poker training sites to invest in the “brand”. As a result the quality of content has been reduced. Until we see growth in worldwide poker volumes and the US back in the game it is difficult to see this changing.
Representing your range
A lot of players get wrapped up in their own hand strength; they can’t do this or that because of their own hand. I would say this applies to a lot of players who have a terrible redline, they don’t fight for nearly enough pots, they don’t over-represent their range. Your hand matters not if you can convince your opponent of your perceived holding; that is what they think you might have. You just have to tell a believable story. Let’s run through a few common spots that you may have been passing up.
Common Poker Leaks
Everyone has Poker leaks, some more so than others of course. We have betting mistakes, calling leaks, passive leaks, aggressive leaks and of course tilt leaks. Whichever leak you have, leaks are costly. After years of talking to others players, coaches and having several thorough database analysis’s done, I’ve come up with my top 3 poker leaks. They are big blind spew at its finest and could be the reason the money you are winning is being lost in these common but not so obvious spots, resulting in a break even type of winrate. Most everyone who struggles to win at poker will likely have these following attributes:
Donk Betting
Donk Betting
The much maligned donk bet has a somewhat bad reputation. This is likely because donk betting is commonly associated with fish. Fish do this because they don’t know any better, but a smart regular uses it as part of his arsenal. However, the donk betting bluff can be extremely effective, as is donking to induce a raise and donking to price your own draws. Dealing with these donk bets can be tricky too, so as always, we tailor our bets/raises to the individual for maximum +EV results.
The ‘Donk’ you shall no longer associate with stupidity, idiocy or numb-headedness. The Donk will now be your ally, another string in the bow… you get the idea : )