A Recent Conversation at the Tables.
I sat down at the poker table recently and was greeted by a player who I'd played with in the past. I would categorize him, in the past, as an average player, a little too tight for a $5-$5 No limit Texas holdem table and a player that sometimes has a problem getting away from good pre flop cards. (Remember this point)
Anyway, there was an open seat next to him and one across the table. I was headed to the seat across the way and he asked me to sit next to him so we could shoot it a little bit, as we played. Consequently, we got into a conversation about playing Texas Holdem?
Now I hadn't seen this guy for about 6 months. He told me he's been playing somewhere else where the games are easier and his game has really come around. He told me that he's playing poker almost everyday and making a steady income from it.
He kept asking me questions like how much I'd been earning, if I could break it down to an hourly rate? I told him I was having a good February and averaged about $75-$100 per hour. He let me know that he had doubled my efficiency at the tables. I guess I should maybe have been impressed but, as the conversation went on and hands were being played, some of his opinions IMHO didn't jive, let's take a closer look at one thing in particular?
First, we watched a player misplay a hand with AQ. He said ?I love AQ, it's such a strong hand? I replied ? I actually don't like the hand very much at all, in fact it's probably one of the hands people lose the most money with? He couldn't believe this and said he makes so much money playing AQ. I wondered where he'd been playing, Disneyland?
They're easy enough to drop before the flop or after the flop, if over cards come on deck. If over cards don't come you know where you stand or if you flop trips and another over card comes on the flop at the same time, which hits your opponents hand, you stand to make a nice chunk of change.
These are the type of situations you want to put yourself into. When playing poker, inevitably, you're going to have to make some very tough decisions. Try and not put yourself into tough spots until you have to. OK, back to the conversation.
As we were debating how to play AQ, the dealer decided to chime in. Since we both knew the dealer and happened to be in the 1 and 2 seats, it was easy for him to talk to us and hear our conversation.
He backed up what I had said and said he'd cracked many a player that went to the mat with AQ and agreed it's a hand often misplayed. If a Q flops you bet and are re raised by a good player, what do you do? If an A flops and you bet and are re-raised by a good player that raised before the flop, what do you do?
The problem is many players with AQ will push hard in the above situations and will end up losing a lot of money that shouldn't have been in the pot to begin with. To reiterate, you can win with this hand, don't get me wrong, but it's a lot trickier then most players believe and players often find out the hard way.
Click Here to receive your 50% Bonus (Up to $250) Now!
Well, as the night drew on, I stayed pretty much where I started, not much of anything happening other than this entertaining little conversation with the 'teacher', as I call him. (Since months earlier, in a different game, he was doling out lessons on how he would have played a hand differently, to a very good player)
But then 'the teacher' got involved in the following hand, and no it wasn't AQ, although that would have been fitting for this story. He has pocket QQ's and was first to act in middle position. He brings it in (bets) for $50 and only the guy on the button calls. This player has been playing loose the whole night and often defends his position or calls a bet that he wouldn't call normally if he didn't have position on his opponent.
There was nothing wrong with this hand so far. I think, for the table we were playing at and this particular hand, the bet was fine. Anyway, flop comes 6d8d2s, 'the teacher' bets and is called by the player on the button. The turn card is the 9h, this time 'the teacher bets bigger and his opponent goes All In, which would put 'the teacher' All In.
'the teacher' quickly calls and the other player turns over the 5d7d making a straight with a straight flush draw to boot. 'the teacher' loses all his money and leaves the table fuming that this player called his pre flop raise with 5d7d.
Well, that's poker and it looks like its back to the drawing board for 'the teacher'. I would have dropped those QQ's after the All-In bet, although never an easy decision. Maybe this hand will help 'the teacher' to know when to drop high pairs going forward.
I also hope our conversation will help him to think differently about playing AQ going forward; otherwise he'll have to learn the hard way with that hand too?
[Next article will be about how to manage your poker money.
Click Here to receive your 50% Bonus (Up to $250) Now!
Good Luck!
Click here to see our full review of the best online poker rooms
Get started at FullTiltPoker.com today!
****Important Update: (for 2008)************
1 - The 2 most popular online poker rooms - FullTiltPoker.com and PokerStars.com - are STILL OPEN TO AMERICAN PLAYERS. In fact, (FT) FullTilt Poker has made it easier than ever to be playing real online poker in less than 5 minutes, no joke! Feel free to take advantage of our customized player bonuses by clicking on any FT links you see.
2 - Our site recently underwent a bit of a facelift, we added many new articles to blend in with our original content - much of which we decided to leave undisturbed. We felt it was important for our audience to have access to all the inside information on playing winning online Texas Holdem. Enjoy!
3 - DuplicatePoker.com is a strange but interesting version of Texas Holdem that I have been trying out. At first, I wasn't too crazy about it but the more I played, the more it started to grow on me.
It's Texas Holdem, with a splash of Chess strategy thrown in. As the banners on our site say, it's 100% legal to US players and they take credit cards! I tried it and it took me about 2 minutes to put money in from my AMEX card. DuplicatePoker.com gives you $FREE MONEY$ just to come and try it out, no strings attached. Be patient, it takes about an hour of play to get the feel for things. After that, I started to enjoy it more and more...
Get started today, click on any of the links you see throughout the site and take advantage of these very special offers! We have chosen our affiliated sites very carefully, and highly recommend them as places to play Texas Holdem Online. FullTiltPoker.com and PokerStars.com are class organizations and you can feel very comfortable joining their player ranks. Good Luck.
