At any point during a poker game, whether it’s a tournament or a regular game, you’ll be presented with countless scenarios. Queens or Kings? Tens or Tiers? There’s no way to know which hand you should play, and even if you had the authority to act, would you really know?
That’s not the only problem with the question, however. The actual difficulty in deciding which hand to play is a direct result of two factors: your own personal betting habits, and the staring hand that your opponent is staring at you with.
Let’s take the latter first. Which hand would you most likely fold? If your friendSitmirePoker asked you that question, you could probably answer with a suited card you’d raise with, if you were holding great cards. That’s simple enough, but if your opponent PepsiPoker asked you that question, you’re going to have a problem deciding.
On second thought, even if you stare at your hands for hours on end, you’re not going to be able to answer with a simple “yes” or “no.” There’s just too much riding on the decision. That’s why you need to stop guessing and speaking truthfully. It’s also why you need to stop caring what your opponents may be holding. You have to actually take your poker game into consideration, and stop worrying about whether you are holding a winning hand or not.
Once you stop playing hand after hand, you’ll start to act like a real, professional poker player. You’ll make fewer mistakes and you’ll actually be able to put opponents on certain hands if you ever find yourself in a situation were you feel your competitor may have made a mistake. A situation where you feel the need to speak the truth in order to save face or to mislead, but ultimately one that you’re sure you can dominate.
The problem then becomes twofold. One, you no longer care what your opponents may have, because you’ll never know what they held. On the other hand, you can no longer afford to play certain hands you may have, simply because they are costly to play. By this I mean, you can no longer afford to protect your hands with weak hands. You can’t wait for the right hand, for the right opportunity.
Now, if you’re going to play poker, you need to learn how to play aggressively no matter what cards you have. And you need to learn how to do it quickly. Take aggressive plays to the bank, and you’ll not only make more money, you’ll start to see more money in your pocket.
So how do you do this? How can you play aggressively?
The answer is a re-raise. The vast majority of your profits making aggressive plays will come from forcing other players to call you. Once you have a good number of chips committed to the pot, you need to re-raise the bet. The chances of being called areicate, so in the long run you will win too.
Making aggressive plays from the small blind or early position is very profitable. Many players just constantly chase the low, or if you have a marginal hand will fold to the high. Once you have a good number of chips committed you need to raise the pot. The chances of being called areicate, so in the long run you will win too.
If you have a few small raises in a row, the good thing is that pretty much any pair or two pair is worth calling just to see the flop. You don’t have to have premium hands to re-raise. You don’t want to be called with middle suited cards or aces. You just want to pick up a pot. If you make a small re-raise you will get a call more often than not, but getting more money in the pot is what we want.
The goal is to pick up a hand on the flop and make a big re-raise to steal the pot. the odds of your opponent having the best hand are also in your favor. Since we want to maximize our chips we must make the re-raise large enough to discourage people from folding. The last thing you want to do is have people call you with very weak hands. that’s what you calling people with dewabet are hoping for.
Adding chips is just the tactic of choice. Once you get a good number of chips committed; you don’t want to have people limping into the pot with poor hands. You don’t want to have people sitting in the blinds and antes after you make a big raise. You want people to get committed and pile up chips in front of you. Once you make a big raise you have a strong hand.