If all my money goes in the middle then I either have AA or KK pre-flop or the nuts or close to it post flop. I don’t get involved in silly coin flip type situations. I know full well just how many coin flips on the bounce that you can lose…..and it is a lot believe me. I have stood on the end of a Roulette table for hour after hour and seen just how many reds can come over black and high numbers versus low numbers etc.
Whenever I sit down in any online poker, I know that there is a fair amount of dead money that will be coming my way. If I let my opponents get me into marginal situations pre-flop then they have dragged me down to their level and it is this that is the essence of “Kill Phil”. The book teaches players how to drag the pro’s into situations they don’t like, namely getting them all in as early as possible.
No top poker pro will put his entire poker tournament on the line (if it is early and they have a healthy stack that is) with a hand like QQ or AK (suited or not). Why should they when countless opportunities will present themselves for them to take your chips. Even if they go in as favourite, when they are all in they are vulnerable to the poker gods and anything can and does happen. This same principle I apply to cash games, I won’t put my entire buy in on the line unless I have a substantial overlay unless it is a certain specific situation.
Moving away from book play
You already know my thoughts on this but it is worth repeating here in full. Deviating from book play does not mean getting aggressive with anything from anywhere or playing anything for that matter. It means that too many players are aware of just what a good or very good starting hand is in hold’em these days. Television, books, websites and magazines are responsible for increasing the average persons poker knowledge.
Because of this, you MUST respond by changing strategy somewhat to allow for that. When I raise in NL hold’em, most of the time I am likely to have anything and I mean that literally. Let me give you a brief example of a hand that I played. It was six handed and at £2-£5, the player under the gun limped in and I was in the cut-off with 7-5 offsuit.
I raised to £20 and it was folded around to the limper who thought for a while before calling. The flop came A-K-4 and my opponent checked. I fired £30 into a £47 pot and took it without a fight. A very unremarkable pot but then most of my pots are pretty unremarkable. It is surprising just how “unremarkable” can end up making you a lot of money in poker.
Let us look at the dynamics of what I have just done for a minute. The majority of poker players will not expect someone to raise with a 7-5 period. This gives my hand tremendous deception. It means that even if I am called, my raise can represent a lot of flops when aces, kings and queens flop. What you tend to find happens is that the limper is trying their luck with something speculative like a small/medium pocket pair or a suited connector and is attempting to flop something big on the cheap.
My raise has taken control of the pot and put me into a great position to take it down post flop. What they are thinking is that if they call and flop something big that they can end up taking my entire stack by sucking me in……never going to happen baby!
Carl “The Dean” Sampson
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