Kindle Notes & Highlights
It originated early in the nineteenth century as a game called poque, centered in New Orleans and on the Mississippi riverboats. Poque used only 20 cards and permitted only one round of betting.
No-limit hold 'em is actually a game of wagering based on imperfect information that uses cards to construct the situations for wagering.
In no-limit hold 'env, there are no trivial hands.
The goal of all forms of poker is to avoid making mistakes while inducing as many mistakes as possible from your opponents.
But in the very long run, your results at the poker table will approach the sum of all your opponents' mistakes, less the sum of your mistakes. This principle governs all games which are mixtures of skill and chance.
To the beginner, his hand was the cards he held, and what the players immediately before and after him did. To the pro, a "hand" was a lot more than that. It's an entire situation, full of different elements, which has to be seen as a whole before good plays can be made.
A good player considers all elements of the hand before making a play. Here are the basic elements:
I. What's the status of the tournament?
2. Flow many players are at your table'?
3. Who are the players at your table?
4. How does your stack compare to the blinds and antes?
5. How big are the other stacks at your table'?
6. Where do you sit in relation to the aggressive and passive players"
7. What bets have been made in front of you?
8. How many active players are left after you act?
9. What are the pot odds'?
10. What is your position at the table after the flop?
11. What are your cards?
As the number of players shrinks and gets close to the prize cutoff, play changes dramatically. Most players turn conservative and try to preserve their chips. Good players become more aggressive and see this period as the best chance to make some easy money by stealing chips.
A full table (9-10 players) requires generally tighter play.
The most profitable style to play at any moment is usually the opposite of the style of the other players at the table.
The character of the players at your table also determines how slow or fast you want to play.
Since action proceeds clockwise around the table, your ideal situation is to have the aggressive players on your right,' the conservative players on your left. That way, you act with knowledge of what the aggressive players have done, and your pot-stealing chances are enhanced when you have tight players reacting to you. With aggressive players sitting behind you, the right strategy is to play fewer hands, but play them more decisively.
The only absolutely strong hand before the flop is a pair of aces.
When making a bet, you are always comparing the odds offered by the pot to the odds of making your hand.
You will sometimes find yourself in situations where you'll make a play regardless of the cards in your hand.
I view the flop in the light of three questions:
1. Did the flop help me?
2. Given how I'm perceived at the table, will the other players think the flop helped me?
3. Given what I know about the other players, is the flop likely to have helped someone else?
poker is a game of misdirection.
Every pot you enter has the potential ofconsuming all your chips.
The aggressive style is not inferior to the conservative style in theory, but it requires much more skill to play well.
Remember that against a super-aggressive player, all your hands are stronger than they appear, because he is playing weaker hands than most other players.
