Should I Stay Or Should I Go

Jennifer Harman

Being a winning player isn’t only about playing good cards – it’s also about making good decisions. And there is one important decision you face every time you sit down in a cash game: Should I quit, or should I keep playing?

When should you keep playing?

I see so many players playing short hours when they’re winning, and long hours when they’re losing. It should be the other way around.

When you are winning in the game, at least a few of the other players must be losing. And when your opponents are losing, they often aren’t playing their best. But you are.

When you’re winning, other players fear you; you have a good table image. And when you have a good table image, you can get away with things that you can’t seem to when you’re losing. For one thing, you can bluff more. Usually a losing player is scared to get involved with a winning player, so it’s easier for you to pick up pots. You can represent more hands than you actually have because your opponents believe you’re hitting every flop.

The only time to quit when you’re winning is when you are tired, or when you start playing badly.

When should you call it a day?

Many players can’t seem to quit when they are losing. You have to remember that there will always be another poker game — if not tomorrow, then the day after, or the week after. I like to think of poker as one continuous game going on for my whole career. So, if I’m losing more than 30 big bets in the game, I usually quit.

There are a couple of reasons I do this: For one, if I lose a ton of money in one day, I don’t feel so hot the next day. That means if I go in to play the next day, I might not be able to play my best game. I might actually have to take a few days off to get my head straight. Another reason is that when I’m losing more than 30 bets, I might not be playing that well. I might think I’m playing my “A” game, but in reality, I’m probably not. You can’t be as objective about your play when you’re losing. After all, we are not robots; we’re just human beings.

Preflop Play in Pot-Limit Hold’em Tournaments

Rafe Furst

To succeed in Pot-Limit Hold ‘em tournaments, No-Limit Hold ‘em players need to make certain adjustments to their game. Perhaps the biggest modification you need to make is to recognize the importance of being the second raiser before the flop rather than the first, a change necessitated in large part by Pot-Limit’s unique betting structure.

If you’re the first player to move all-in before the flop in a No-Limit tournament, you will have a huge advantage over your opponents because, according to David Sklansky’s “Gap Concept,” you need a much better hand to call a raise than you do to make a raise. Taking advantage of this discrepancy, experienced No-Limit players are able to steal enough pots late in tournaments to keep themselves alive.

However, in Pot-Limit tournaments, you can’t make this play because you can bet no more than the size of the pot at any one time; unless you’re short-stacked, you won’t be able to get all your chips into the pot with an initial raise. In this situation the advantage goes to the second player to raise before the flop because such a raise will often be big enough to force all but the very best hands to fold.

Therefore, whenever you raise before the flop in a Pot-Limit Hold ‘em tournament, you need be prepared to get re-raised for all your chips. It’s very similar to boxing in that every time you make a punch you’re opening yourself up to a counterpunch. Every time you put in a raise, you need to be willing to go all the way with your hand. If you’re unwilling to do this, then you shouldn’t have made that opening raise in the first place.

Here’s an example of how difficult it is to be the first raiser in a Pot-Limit Hold ‘em tournament. Let’s say that you have 13,000 chips in your stack, the blinds are 500/1,000 and you pick up A-Q under the gun. In No-Limit you could just shove your entire chip stack into the pot and you’d probably win the blinds and antes, but in Pot-Limit the most you can bet in this situation is 3,500, leaving you vulnerable to a re-raise. If someone sitting behind you makes it 12,000 to go, you’re going to be faced with a very difficult decision, having to call with the last of your chips with a hand that could easily be dominated. Even though your opponent might have a hand as weak as K-Q, you’d be wise to muck your cards and wait for a better spot.

Here’s another example, which shows just how powerful being the second raiser is in Pot-Limit. With three players left in the 1,500 Pot-Limit Hold ‘em event at the 2006 World Series of Poker, Eric Lynch raised three times the big blind from the button, and I picked up A-Q in the small blind. Normally being in the small blind is considered very bad position; but because of the nature of Pot-Limit Hold ‘em, being in early position can actually give you an advantage over the players sitting behind you.

In this instance, Eric’s initial raise allowed me to make a very large re-raise and if he had come over the top of my bet, I was going to be right there with him. He just called, but I still really liked my situation. I knew the flop was going to miss him two-thirds of the time, so I figured I could lead out with a bet no matter what the flop was and two-thirds of the time he would be forced to fold. Add to that the possibility that I might actually hit an Ace or Queen on the flop and I felt really good about moving all in on the flop no matter what it brought, which is exactly what I did.

The advantage the second raiser has over the first has the biggest impact on players with short stacks. If you’re playing No-Limit and you’ve got a short stack, you should be looking to move all-in the first chance you get in an effort to steal the blinds and antes and keep yourself afloat, but making this move in Pot-Limit requires a much more specific scenario. You need to wait for an opponent to make an opening raise and that player needs to be capable of laying down a big hand in the face of an all-in re-raise. Once your stack dips below eight or nine big blinds, however, you can stop looking for opportunities to re-raise and instead start making the initial raise with hands you’re willing to go all the way with if someone comes over the top of your raise.

As you can see, the unique betting structure of Pot-Limit Hold ‘em tournaments makes putting in the first raise before the flop a tricky proposition. If you want to be successful in these tournaments, you need to be aware of this crucial difference from No-Limit Hold ‘em tournaments and make the necessary adjustments to your game.

Keep Your Toolbox Well Stocked
Chris Ferguson

I often get asked about my playing style. Rather than answer the question myself, I’m more interested in what my opponents say. And I’ve heard it all: “You’re too tight.” “You’re too loose.” “You’re tight aggressive.” “You’re too passive.”

Actually, I never hear that last one, but I’ve heard all the others, which makes me believe I must be doing something right. Loose, tight, aggressive – my style is that I’m all of the above, depending upon the circumstances.

One essential element of playing winning poker is forcing your opponents to make difficult decisions. That’s why raising is almost always better than calling – because it forces an extra decision on your opponents. To take this a step further – you’ll win more money by forcing your opponents to make decisions when they are out of their comfort zones.

Here are some examples:

Your opponent is on your left, playing too tight before the flop. You want to punish him for this. The best way to do that is to raise more often, and be more aggressive. Either you end up stealing a lot of blinds, or he adjusts his play.

If you get the blinds? Great! If he adjusts? Better! It’s the best outcome you can hope for. If he starts playing more hands pre-flop, you now have a real edge. Anytime your opponent changes his pre-flop playing style, he’s going to run into trouble later in the hand. A guy who usually plays nothing but very strong hands isn’t going to know what to do with weaker holdings on the turn and river.

If a tight opponent raises in front of you, wait for a stronger hand to call. By playing tight when you are acting behind your opponent, you avoid losing money to his stronger hands. Again, if your opponent catches on, you’re forcing him to play more hands up front, and you can outplay him after the flop.

What about the guy who plays too many hands? If you’re acting first, you want better starting hands than normal. Most of the value of a marginal hand comes from the chance that your opponent will fold immediately. If your opponent has never seen suited cards he doesn’t like, the value of your marginal hand decreases because it’s unlikely he’s going to lay his hand down. He may win more pots preflop, but this is more than offset by the extra money you’re going to make when you do see a flop with your stronger hands.

If a loose opponent raises you, you can call — or even raise — with weaker hands, and raise with hands you’d ordinarily just call with. By taking control of the hand, you can pick up more pots later. Again, you are daring him to change his style. If he doesn’t, you’re getting the best of it. If he does, he’s a fish out of water, prone to making mistakes later in the hand.

It’s important to have a lot of tools in your arsenal. First, it’s helpful in being able to adjust to your opponents and force them out of their comfort zones. Additionally, it will enable you to take advantage of your own table image when you have already been labeled as a tight or loose player, and to adjust accordingly.

For example, Gus Hansen and Phil Ivey are known as extremely aggressive players. The only way they have been able to survive with that image is by being able to adjust to different opponents and to slow down occasionally, when appropriate. I have seen this happen sometimes just before an opponent starts reacting to their aggression. They are somehow able to sense what is happening, and change their games accordingly. Other times, they won’t adjust much, and force their opponents to try and beat them at an unfamiliar game.

To best take advantage of this, pay attention! To everything. All the time. Not just when you’re in the hand, but especially when you’re not in the hand. Every hand your opponent plays gives you valuable information about how he thinks, and how he’s likely to play hands in the future.

If there’s an expert at your table, watch how he plays. See what hands he expects to work, think about how he plays them, then try incorporating it yourself. See how he pushes weaker players out of their comfort zone. Paying attention is one of the best ways to learn, and a great way to move up the poker food chain.