K-REX
The Squeeze Play, Not For The Squeamish
The Squeeze Play, Not For The Squeamish
The squeeze play is becoming a popular play online and in brick and mortar casinos. But if you don’t know what you are doing, you will find yourself down to the felt in no time. First I will address the fundamental skills you need to have mastered before you should attempt this play and then I will show you how to carve up your opposition.
Table Image
You need to have created a tight table image – my specialty. If you have been active in a lot of pots, attacking the blinds with frequency or are new to the table, you will not get credit for a big hand.
Just as important is understanding how your opponents are playing. Without this it is impossible to play the player. Players new to the table may be willing to gamble with you to set up a loose image or they may just believe you are the table bully and decide to take a stand right away to send a message. You want the players remaining to act to be capable of folding decent hands.
You do not want a caller behind you. The extra chips in the pot make the LAG player more likely to call and the tight player will have correct odds to call as well. Now you are dead to a miracle flop. If you are not confident in your read of the players involved, don’t try this play.
Gap Concept
This is a relatively simple idea that is credited to poker theorist/author David Sklansky. Quite simply, you must have stronger hand to call a raise than you need to start the action with a raise yourself.
As an example, consider a hand like KQ suited. This is a hand that you might raise if you were first into the pot from middle to late position. If a player in early position opened the action with a raise, you would usually be folding the hand fearing domination.
Be observant of the players at your table and recognize who is applying this concept and who is not. Only consider the squeeze play if the players involved are applying the gap concept. Some do and many do not.
Squeeze Play
A LAG player will open with a decent raise, at least 3 or 4 times the big blind. If they are putting in a nuisance raise by just doubling the blind, there will not be enough money in the pot to create a risk/reward situation that makes the squeeze play profitable.
A tight, solid player calls. You need to have a good read on this player and be reasonably confident their call signals a good hand rather than a strong hand attempting to trap the TAG player.
When the action folds to you, you re-raise and take the pot down. Your re-raise should be at least 5 times the opening raise. If you raise less, you are likely to get called by one or both players who feel they have either real or implied pot odds if the money is deep.
Cash or Tournament
Because players have a finite amount of chips, the squeeze play is frequently used in tournaments. You want to be aware of the stack sizes relative to the blinds. If players to act behind you are feeling pressure due to the size of the blinds, avoid using this play as they may see the extra chips in the pot as incentive take a shot at getting lucky with a sub-par hand.
Cash games also present opportunities to squeeze tight players. The dynamics of the table are usually a bit more stable so you can be more patient. Be aware of tilting players yet to act. Sometimes they will chuck in their last chips in a desperate attempt to recoup losses quickly. If it doesn’t work out, they will just buy more chips.
Caveat Emptor
Buyer beware, the squeeze play is for the advanced player. If your reads are not accurate, you will take huge losses trying to use this tactic. If your reads are accurate, this is a play you need to have in your arsenal because the rewards are too big to ignore. Good Luck to you!
A Nitro Approach to Sit N Go Heads-Up Play – Also known as SAGE
A typical one table Sit N Go pays 1st place 50% of the prize pool. 2nd and 3rd receive 30% and 20 % respectively. This structure makes it pretty clear that 1st place is your only goal if you want to show a profit over the long run.
We are going to assume that you have played good poker and enjoyed your share of luck and now find yourself heads-up at the end of a Sit N Go. Now is the time to stop shifting gears and hit the nitro button.
If you have been in this spot before, you have probably seen people employing a seemingly simple and crazy strategy. They only have 2 moves; all in or fold. First you need to accept that this strategy is based purely on math. Psychology and betting patterns you may have been focusing on no longer apply. Who is the hammer (big stack) and who is the anvil (small stack) is also irrelevant.
Since this strategy is based on math, we will have to cover a couple equations. If math scares you, don’t worry. The equations are simple to learn and easy to apply. In fact, you could write everything down on an index card and use it as you play. Use this heads-up strategy in a few Sit N Go tournaments and you will find it is practically second nature.
Find R
First you want to calculate R. R is the ratio of the short stack (SS) to the big blind (BB). This is simply a matter of taking the short stack and dividing it by the big blind. Here is what the equation looks like:
SS ÷ BB = R
You do not need an exact number for R, just the nearest whole number. If the big blind is $1,000 and the short stack is $4,500 the ratio would be 4.5. I round it up to 5 but if you use 4 the difference in expectation is too small to have any significant impact over time. The other thing to note is that it does not matter whether you or your opponent is the short stack.
Find P
The next number you need to calculate is P. P is the power of your hand. P is based exclusively on the cards in your hand. Start with the base value (B). If your hand is suited, your base is 2. If you are holding a pair, your base is 22. All other starting hands have a base of 0.
Now find the value of your individual cards. The rank of the lower card (L) is equal to its rank. A jack is worth 11, queen 12, king 13 and an ace is 15. All other cards are equal to the number displayed. Calculate the value of the higher card (H) by multiplying its rank by 2.
Now add all three numbers together and you have your P. Base plus lower card plus the higher card times two equals the power. Here is what this equation looks like:
B + L + (H x 2) = P
So, the best hand in poker, pocket aces, would have a P of 67. 22 + 15 + (15 x 2) = 67. The worst hand according to poker experts, seven deuce off suit, would have a P of 16. 0 + 2 (7 x 2) = 16. In heads-up play, deuce trey suited is even worse with a P of 10. 2 + 2 + (3 x 2) = 10.
One reason this system only applies to heads-up play is because the value of being suited or connected is in your potential to win a big pot. Those big pots are created by several people contributing chips during post-flop play. There is no post-flop play with this strategy. Therefore, connectedness is completely irrelevant and being suited has only very marginal value.
Plug in the Numbers
Now simply take your two numbers and plug them into the table and your play is optimized. R tells you which row to use. If your P is smaller than the number listed, you fold. If it is equal to or bigger, you call the all in when you are the big blind and push all in when you are the small blind.
You obviously need a bigger P to call an all in bet than you would need to push all in yourself. Also note that this strategy only applies when R is 7 or lower. If R is higher than 7, you should continue to play the solid poker that got you to this point. This is why you may not be able to use this strategy in multi-table events. There are so many chips in play that the short stack in heads-up play will often have a double digit ratio to the big blind.
Now you are armed and ready. Next time you are heads-up at the end of a Sit N Go, don’t keep trying to shift gears, hit the nitro and take control of the heads-up play.
Good luck to you! and I hope after reading this I am not playing you heads up.
Short book review:Advanced Pot-Limit Omaha: Small-Ball and Short-Handed Play, by Jeff Hwang
Sure, I have more than held my own in PLO poker games. Yes I technically knew many of the concepts and strategies in this book, but until I had the chance to read “Advanced Pot-Limit Omaha: Small-Ball and Short-Handed Play,” by author Jeff Hwang I didn’t quite get all of it. As a matter of fact I had some of it all wrong.
This book put the skills required of a true PLO poker player into terms you can comprehend as well as remember when you are under fire in a game. Things I thought I knew about the odds of certain hands and the probability changes depending on the amount of players now fully make sense to me.
Jeff Hwang uses hundreds of actual examples and it is not hard to imagine different scenarios where you can face the situations he lays out. While this isn’t the first book by Hwang, it is definitely his best. His first, “Pot-Limit Omaha Poker: The Big Play Strategy,” which came out in 2008, taught the basics and changed the way I looked at PLO. If you already have that basic understanding, “Advanced Pot-Limit Omaha” will turn you into a player that no one will want to mess with.
There are many interesting tricks, from how to bluff better, to more strategic moves such as playing based on a stack to pot ratio. While the book may seem a little bit long to some of you (over five hundred pages!) you wont regret a second of the time you spent reading it. In fact, I can pretty much guarantee you will re-read at least parts of it multiple times.
I am a fan of Hwang’s so slightly biased when I say this is by far the best PLO book ever written. For those of you who are skeptical, take my word for it, you wont be disappointed. Hwang has a way of making even the most confusing of concepts easy to understand. By talking in relatable terms and using specific examples, there is no way you will come away from “Advanced PLO” without grasping the different twists and turns that could take place with the turn of any card. I like the fact that Hwang has no issue pointing out when he has made a mistake. Even the pros goof up and if you are ready to take some chances and give it your all, then I suggest giving this book a go. The best thing I can say is that if I play poker with you I hope you have not read Hwang’s latest book!
Why does The Great One like to play against good players?
Good question. I prefer profiting from bad players…
By K-REX
I like cash games because I get to pick and choose who I play against. You don’t often get that choice playing in tournaments. I want bad poker players at the table I play on. It just makes sense, the better player will win in the end. So, you ask, why am I writing this article? Because there are a lot of people out there who will swear that you are better off playing against stronger competition because they believe it is easier to read good players. The explanation they give to justify this is garbage. “You suffer fewer bad beats,” they always say.
Bad Beats
I will grant that it can be pretty frustrating when your aces are cracked by JT off with all the money going in preflop (Nice hand Jay!). Just keep in mind all the times your hand holds up and all the extra chips in the pot. Think about it. You can only suffer a bad beat if your opponent makes a mistake! You bet the best hand and they called with the worst of it. This is exactly what you wanted them to do. Statistically, your hand will hold up more often than it will get sucked out on based on pure math. You are playing the odds and this is how you make money. Your opponent is playing hope. They are hoping they will get exactly the card they need to win the pot and sometimes it happens. If it didn’t, all the bad players would stop playing. All the times your hand held up, you won a lot more than what you invested. The bad player is just keeping your money warm for you. They will give it back to you with interest the next time they are hoping for a miracle.
Big Pots
Winning a big pot always puts a smile on my face. The big pots just don’t happen very often when you play against strong players. Each of you needs to have a stronger than average hand. Good players just don’t build big pots with other good players unless they have the goods. When you sit at a table with bad players, your hand doesn’t need to be nearly as strong. You don’t even have to work at building a big pot. Bad players are willing to put their chips in on a large variety of hands. They want to play poker, not watch it. They push their money into the middle and hope. It is not uncommon to see a bad player push all their chips in on the flop like AKT. At the showdown I turn over QJ or AK and they show me A8. They had a piece of the flop and that is all they needed for hope to spring eternal. I once heard a player say “ What’s the next best thing to playing poker and winning? Playing poker and losing.” They just want the action.
Finding Bad Players
If you are playing online look at the table stats in the lobby. The average percentage of players who see the flop is a good indicator. In limit poker 40% or more seeing every flop in a full 10 handed table is a very good sign. In no limit look for an average of 30% or higher. The second thing to check for is the average pot size. Bigger is better. Tables that have both of these characteristics are tables you want to check out. You can observe the table and see how everyone is playing. Take player notes on the plays you observe. If you can sit right in, go for it. But in most cases, there will be a waiting list since there are many people looking for an opportunity to profit from bad players. Another way to locate these players is to use a poker tracking software like PokerTracker. This can save you a lot of time and can effectively track several tables at the same time. I also like to put my favorite bad players in my “friends list” and look for them using the search function in the lobby.
At the end of a poker session, I am not tallying up how many bad beats I took, I am counting up how much of a profit I made. Winning is all the reason I need to keep sitting at tables full of bad players. Sure the variance will be higher but so will your hourly win rate. Keep your emotions in check, give the bad players all the opportunities they want to make mistakes and your bankroll will be happy you chose to sit a table filled with bad players. Lastly never educate a bad player or the next time you play with them they may not be so easy. I always joke that lessons are on Tuesday or any other day than today.
What fraction of online poker players are winners?
Care to guess? According to SharkScope it is 26% of players. They certainly have the data to back it up. What I find interesting is that the 26% is constant regardless of the type of tournament. In other words if you filter the results for heads up, single table, etc it is still 26%.
Check out the full story..
http://www.sharkscopers.com/blog/thestatistician/what-fraction-online-poker-players-are-winners
Winning Sit n Go Tournament Strategy
Winning Sit n Go Tournament Strategy
By K-REX
Poker can be both fun and profitable. A surprisingly large number of people focus on having fun and let others enjoy the profits. Today I am going to share some tips and strategies that will help you become one of the players getting paid to have fun.
There are two basic strategies that work in Sit n Go tournaments. Tight aggressive (TAG) and loose aggressive (LAG) are strategies you must be familiar with and able to play if you want to be successful.
TAG
Your objective is to only enter pots with better than average starting hands. As a result, you will not be playing very many hands. Most of the time, when you do play, you will be raising and betting aggressively. When you do get played with, you are looking to bust your opponent. Understanding how they are playing and how they perceive you are playing will be critical if you are to make the correct decisions preflop, on the flop and beyond.
LAG
Your objective is to see many flops. You will raise any unraised pot you enter and will be willing to call raises. On the flop you continue to bet and raise aggressively. Understanding where you are in the hand is crucial! Your aggression will get you lots of little pots and your chip stack should grow. The downside is that people will get tired of your constant aggression and start playing back at you. They will frequently do this with lesser quality hands than they would normally play. To be successful, you will need to recognize when someone is just trying to shut you down and when they actually have a quality hand. This style is not easy but it is very effective when played correctly.
Game selection
I am focusing on single table Sit n Go tournaments here.
Who gets paid and how much will have a big impact on your strategy. Double or nothing tournaments pay five of the starting 10 players double their buy-in (less entry fees). The other five receive nothing. A typical online Sit n Go pays only the top 3 players. The winner usually gets 50% of the prize pool, second place receives 30% and the remaining 20% goes to the third place finisher.
Sit n Go tournaments also come in two different speeds, turbo and regular. This refers to how fast the blinds increase. Turbo tournaments will increase the blinds much more quickly than regular tournaments. I prefer turbo tournaments because they finish so much faster than regular tournaments. This means I can play more tournaments and make more money in a given period of time.
Double or Nothing Sit n Go Tournament
When 5 players double their buy in and 5 get nothing, your only goal is to outlast 5 other players. Surviving is the key to making money and you will make the money an above average amount of time playing TAG. There may even be times when you make the money without ever playing a hand. Sounds odd but I have done this many times. This is a simple way to play this kind of tournament and it works. I will go into this kind of Sit n Go tournament in more detail in a future article.
Standard 1 table Sit n Go Tournament with 3 players paid
Early Play
Your goal in the early stages of a Sit n Go tournament is to understand your opponents. Pay attention to how everyone is playing and make notes. The sooner you can identify their strategy, the sooner you can adjust correctly. One good tool to help identify good and bad players is SharkScope. You should play very TAG in the early stages. Do not risk your chips until the blinds escalate and have more value relative to your stack. Play only premium hands for the first 3 levels however, you should play any pair for the price of one big blind. Your goal here is to flop a set and win a big pot. By now you should have a good idea about how your opponents are playing. If the majority are playing LAG, you want to continue playing TAG. If the majority are playing TAG, you play LAG and steal from them. Playing the opposite style will give you a big advantage early in the tournament. Watch for people to shift gears or go on tilt. Tilting players are good targets to try and double through or bust if you find yourself in a hand with them.
Bubble Play
The bubble is the last person eliminated without winning money. In a stardard 1 table Sit n Go tournament, the person eliminated in 4th place is the bubble player.
Many people play TAG at the bubble. You should play LAG! People are more likely to fold hands they would otherwise play because they are afraid of being eliminated without getting paid. Picking up chips now will help you later. Once you are in the money, your objective will be to take first place and the more chips you have, the easier it will be. Understanding how your opponents are playing is still a critical part of your strategy. You need to be careful with Calling Stations and Big Stacks. They are likely to give you action when you may not want it. By now you should know who is trying to squeak into the money. Take advantage of them and steal everything you can.
In the Money Play
Now it is time to mix it up. Shifting gears is how you climb to the top. Your better opponents will be doing the same so, you need to be paying attention to them. When they know you are playing LAG, it is time to switch to TAG. If they think you are playing one style and you have switched, you will be able to capitalize on their mistakes. That, my friend, is what poker is all about.
In this 3 payed structure, the real money is in 1st place. Your focus must always be on winning. Your play throughout the tournament should be designed to give you the best shot at finishing in 1st. Playing correctly, you will find yourself eliminated on the bubble or often enough winning it all. Of course, you will finish in 2nd or 3rd but, not that often if you follow my advice.
One last bit of advice, if you ever find your chip stack is 5 times the big blind or less, you will have to gamble. Pick a hand and go with it before it is too late. If you get much lower you will have little chance of recovering.
Good luck to you 🙂
Poker Haiku or a limerick anyone?
I want to thank Norm for all this wasted time…..
Waiting for the action,
I-pod,
Listenin’ to Michael Jackson,
All in
Jay shows 2-7 off.can’t beat it, beat it,
that’s just human nature,
why? WHY?
What was in that chicken we just ate
At what time will we skate
Playing poker with the blues
Time and again we remove our shoes
I for one, would not like to donate
An effete poker snob named McManus
Deemed play unlike his truly heinous
When beat out of a pot
Which happened a lot
He’d cry, “Where’d those cards come from, your anus?”
Playing poker at the taj
I thought I was in control
But there was this guy raj
Driving home in my hardtop black Vette
I wished that I’d flopped a mere set.
I cursed Karamanis
And that smart-ass, McManus,
Then vowed to play even solider yet.
Entering a pot that cost me a few quarters
Trying not to get slaughtered
Looking for blinds to steal
Peering down at a steel wheel
It’s all over and I get quartered
There were poker players on Thursdays who played very late
Looking to profit from those who could not calculate
But luck entered in
And cost the players their buy in
And the fish could not help but be elate
There once was a poet named Art
Who liked to build fences and fart.
He recited his rhymes
Many dozens of times
Till his hearers smelled gas and departed.
There once was a nice guy named Duncan,
Of whos’ poker prowess everyone was a fan,
He stacked Eric twice,
WTF, Eric cried,
that wasn’t very nice,
and that was the day beautiful poker died.
I work hard all day to earn my keep
To play poker but once a week
But instead of elation
I’m now plagued with senseless oration
And its one more thing that puts me to sleep
Jimmy k had to put up crown moldings
lest his wife give him beatings and scoldings.
art’s poems made him bored,
fall asleep till he snored
losing money by mistakenly folding…
Jimmy K fancies himself a regular in the game,
Sleeping while awake is his claim to fame,
As everyone assumes he is about to play,
His wife holds sway,
these excuses are getting pretty lame.
There once was a poker boy named Jim,
Who would coyly say when you raised ‘im,
I know I got you beat,
But for now l will retreat,
and promptly fall asleeeeeeeeeeeeep.
Did Mexicans write Rocky’s limerick?
‘Twas so bad! So off-kilter! So sick!
He should stick to snowboardin’
And purple chip hoardin’.
(He has “paint” in his hair, but it’s thick.
I have a Northwestern engineering degree,
It did not come from a crackerjack box for free,
OK, I admit I practice law,
Perhaps some see that as a flaw,
BUT I AIN’T A FUCKIN’ ENGLISH MAJOR!
An NU degree Norm may have;
A white-shoe law practice, paid staff.
When it comes poeticizing
Or for that matter, criticizing,
I’m Da Bull and, well, Norm is Da Calf.
A poker player named Norm from the game.
He will never rhyme his way to world fame.
Your limericks do suck,
more often than your cards preflop hit the muck.
Chiro still luvs ya all the same.
An actuary named Jay, from Nantucket,
Told his hookers to “Kneel down and suck it.
Gussy up like a lez
And I’ll give you San-chez:
Smear some poo on your twat and I’ll f-ck it.”
Jim is a writer, that’s for sure,
composing limericks is his tour.
But all you players have other jobs
to occupy your brainy nobs.
Don’t any of you work any more?
