Copyright 2006 Full
Tilt Poker
October 30, 2006
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Poker Lessons)
Poker Lesson: Getting Beyond Your
Cards
Author: Perry Friedman
I spend a lot of time playing in the low-limit Stud
games on Full
Tilt Poker. In those games, I've encountered a number of players
who haven't come to understand one of poker's fundamental concepts.
These beginners focus only on their own cards; they don't stop
to think about the cards their opponents might hold.
To take a typical example from Stud. I've seen players
call with low and medium pairs after there has been a raise and
a re-raise in front of them. These players are so fixated on their
own cards that they don't stop to ask what hands they're likely
up against. And in these spots, the betting tells a pretty disturbing
tale. You can see how one player might raise with something like
three high cards, so a pair of 5s or 7s could be best. But a re-raise?
That's an indication of serious strength. At that point, a player
should look at his pair and figure that, in all likelihood, he's
up against a higher pair, making his smaller pair a big underdog.
Folding is the only proper action.
A winning poker
player won't just evaluate a situation at the start of the
hand. He will constantly reassess as more information becomes
available. Another example from Stud shows what I mean. Say a
player raises on Third Street with the 4d as his up-card and I
call with split 9s and a Jack kicker. We play heads-up and Fourth
Street gives me a blank, the 5c, while my opponent catches the
8d, giving him two suited cards. He bets and I call. Then on Fifth,
he catches another suited card, the Qd, and I make two pair with
Jh. He bets again, representing the flush. Could he have caught
the flush? It's possible. But in this case, when I try to determine
what my opponent might have, I have to move beyond the cards that
I'm currently seeing. I need to consider the actions throughout
the hand.
I remember that on Third Street, the player raised
with a 4 as his door card. Normally, players who are trying to
draw to a flush will try to get in cheap on Third Street; they
typically limp and then perhaps, call a raise. So while it's possible
that this player started with something like Ad-Kd-4d, it's far
more likely that he started with something like a middle or big
pair in the hole. When I put all this information together, I
see that despite the opponent's scary board, two pair is probably
ahead, and I can react accordingly by either calling bets or raising.
This sort of thinking applies to all poker
games. Moving beyond your own cards is a key step in coming
to think like a winning player. The most sophisticated players
in the game think a level deeper still - they consider not only
what their opponents hold, but what their opponents think they
hold. But that's the subject for another tip.
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