Learn how to play poker

What does the minimum raise mean?

Hello-

I didn’t play that much poker in February.  I was down from running good in tournaments in the beginning of the year.  I do my best not to play when I’m tired or have a headache or if I have too much on my mind.  Many people find this helps preserve the bankroll and I do too.

That being said, I did make some money playing in Feb.  I played more cash games than tournies and ended up a few buyins.  I am currently playing .25/.50, usually 4 tabling as I find playing more tables than that hurts my concentration.  I was playing 6 tables the other day, 4 cash games and 2 tournaments and was not able to make the best decisions on my tournies and it probably cost me a decent amount of chips.  I felt rushed and was not able to take the right amount of time to make the right play.

After that, I closed out a couple of the losing cash game tables to focus more on the tournaments.

I like the action and rush you get when you try to make a final table.  The money from the cash games is nice though.

I’ve read and witnessed that with cash games, you get less variance, as it won’t usually take you up to a year to make some money as when you play MTTs.  You can go a year without making any real money in MTTs but if you do win a big one, that will more than make up for all your losses.

One day I wish I could make it to the final table of the FTOPS and walk away with a freaking $488 thousand dollar cash prize for taking down the tournament.  Must be nice.

Back to the title of this post now…

In both cash games and MTTs, many people like to min raise, either to open the pot or to reraise after someone has opened preflop.  I haven’t sat down and counted the number of times it means a big hand like aces or kings but it seems like it’s more than likely to mean a big hand than a marginal hand.

I also see it a lot in the tournaments too.  Let’s say I’ll raise in middle position and get one late position caller.  I’ll continuation bet the flop and they’ll almost instantly minimum raise my bet.  What the hell does that mean?  Sometimes I just get frustrated and shove on them, depending on how many chips I have and sometimes I just call.

This play just confuses me.  If you flopped a set and you min raise, you’re not going to make them much more money off me because you’ve given away the strength of your hand.

I have some work to do with dealing with the min raisers.

All part of the learning process of the wonderful game of poker…

Good luck at the tables!

-Adam

I won a poker tournament

Hello

The beginning of the year started out pretty well, I made a few final tables and won a few hundred dollars. I didn’t win any of them so it made me mad. You hate to spend hours playing and then make the final table and then bust out in 5th or 6th and not make any real money. All the big money comes from finishing in the top 3.

So I was pretty happy when I played a $10 multi on Full Tilt with 176 other players and won the damn thing. Winning the $478 was not that big a deal, just the fact that I won with crappy cards made me feel good. My PUFF was a 36 which means I didn’t get very good starting hands. The average PUFF should be 50. (PUFF comes from the folks at Poker X Factor.)

There was a stretch where I folded 63 hands in a row because they were junk and the action didn’t allow for me a good situation to put my chips in. I got only one pair, no premium hands, a bunch of crappy hands. My best hands in that 63 hand stretch were 99 and A8o.  I didn’t even get to see a flop with the 99 either.

I did get very lucky on a few key hands to stay alive but who doesn’t? I had 88 and cracked TT, and another big pot where the limp utg trick with Aces backfired. I had Kings in the big blind and raised all the limpers, the utg limper reshoves and I called. I hit my king on the river. GG sir.

So like all the pros say, it doesn’t matter what your cards are, it matters about making the right decisions.

Anyone can win, even a sometimes donkey like me.

Good luck at the tables!

-Adam

How to play poker blog

How to fold QQ preflop, is this a good play?

Hello-

I played 700 hands of .25/.50 NL on Full Tilt the other day and played ok. I ended up down one buyin mainly because I made a tournament play at a cash game. I normally strictly play tournaments and not cash games but I am trying to even out my variance and make a more steady flow of cash by playing cash games. The concepts I’ve learned playing MTTs and SNGs are still with me though when I play cash games.

Here’s one hand that I thought was tough:

How would you play it?

Do they always have to have Kings or Aces there? I didn’t put him on AK or an underpair to me because if I thought he had that he probably would have shoved instead of raising my bet 3 times.

Or he could be making an elaborate 4 bet with total air…

I don’t think they do that at the .25/.50 NL tables yet.

-Adam

How to play poker blog

I want to make money playing poker

Hello-

Do you want to make money playing poker?

Seems like a silly question but with some of the play I sometimes see online, it amazes me that these players are playing with real money. Sometimes I check the lobby to see if I’m accidentally at one of the play money tables.

I play poker because I love the game. I love the challenge. I am constantly pushing myself to get better. Everyday I am either reading the latest issue of Bluff Magazine or CardPlayer Magazine or reading a poker book. Some of the recent ones being the new Full Tilt Strategy Guide for help with my tournament play.

I also started reading the pot limit omaha section in Super System 2. I hear the pot limit omaha games are where the big money is at in addition to no limit so I’m going to try and brush up my omaha skills.

I realize I am not a great player. I would like to think that I am above average. I have plenty to learn and am eager to do so.

I am setting a goal of making $4,000 a month playing poker by the end of 2008. $4,000 a month is only $48,000 a year. To some people that is not much. To me that would allow me to continue to do what I want without having to get a real job. I don’t need the extravagant things most people do. I am content with less. I am more about living and experiences than material things.

Spending a weekend horseback riding up a mountain to me is more exciting that bar hopping all weekend long.

Good luck at the tables.

-Adam

How to play poker blog