But take that same A-Q on a flop like A-7-2 rainbow and you could end up losing your entire stack if you are pinned underneath someone else’s A-K. The penalty for being dominated in no limit Texas Holdem play can be very severe and many novice players get themselves into all kinds of trouble when they flop a decent but second best hand.

Brunson discusses the trouble hands pretty well in Supersystem and I would advise anyone who is contemplating playing no limit hold’em either online or in a live card room to study them.

But despite the fact that much of the information that is in Supersystem is either very well known or past its sell by date, it is still beyond any shadow of a doubt…..a great book! It literally set the standard for which many other poker books followed. The old saying about “standing on the shoulders of giants” applies perfectly here.

I remember reading an interview from the 2001 World Series of Poker winner Carlos Mortensen some while ago who stated that the first time that the read the book, he could not believe that Doyle Brunson was literally giving away the secret of just how to play no limit hold’em.

Fine praise indeed from one of the most respected players in the world of tournament poker, an ex world champion and World Poker Tour winner to boot. In fact Supersystem was such a popular book that it led to a new updated version being published in 2005 called Supersystem 2.

The no limit section was left largely untouched but there was valuable input on a whole host of games from some of the greatest names in the modern game.

People like Johnny Chan, Daniel Negreanu and Doyle’s son Todd who is a world class player himself and regular plays in the big game in Las Vegas. The new version included the very popular Pot Limit Omaha as well as an updated section on limit hold’em written by Jennifer Harman.

Supersystem for me is the greatest of all poker books because it broke barriers and introduced to millions of people strategies that had previously been top secret and which were only in the possession of a handful of people world wide. There will never be another book like it that will have the same effect again in my opinion. For me this book will become the “bible” of poker books if it hasn’t already.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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But it takes an awful long time if you are studying the game on your own to eventually arrive at the truth. I went through long periods where I had no one to help me and no one to show me the way. Only when you fully start to realise just how complex and difficult poker is do you start to take on board how you need guidance.

It is really akin to studying for a degree but having no one to tell you what you need to learn and from what sources and who knew what they were talking about form those that don’t. Because I have an almost fetish like addiction to studying and analyzing all things gambling, my hard work and never say die attitude eventually paid off. I really do think that what did it for me was that I actually derided just as much pleasure from studying the game of poker as I did from playing but that kind of outlook is rare.

But studying poker on your own without guidance takes an awful long time and you are lucky if you even make it at all because it is unlikely that you will study the right things in the right order. Back in the beginning of my self imposed poker program, I had a very simplistic view of poker. In fact when I look back at the notes that I took ten years ago I find them laughable now.

But it is the way of all humans to look for more complex answers when sometimes the simple answer is staring you in the face. For many years I was over complicating the game and making it far more difficult to master than what it should have been. If you look at the mathematics that are inherent within the game then you could be forgiven for packing the entire thing in believing that it was too complicated.

I have poker books that are literally crammed with statistics and odds and probabilities…….99% of which are useless when it comes to making money.

I was once listening to two people talk about poker and they both readily agreed that mathematics was a vital part of the game and that this was really all there was to poker. There really is not that much mathematics in the game that ACTUALLY helps you to win money. The problem with studying poker is that it is difficult to avoid opinions and those opinions come from lots of different people.

Let us say that you are looking to get to a professional level and we can measure that process on a scale of 1 to 10 (keep with me here). You as a novice are at number 1 and a pro is at 9 or 10. Nearly everyone will have more knowledge than you but yet taking knowledge from people who are at 4 or 5 who are not properly understanding how to get to 9 or 10 could be a big mistake.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson
Come and see the bwin poker blog

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PRIMARY POKER SKILLS

But yet one of the primary skills in any form of hold’em poker is in how you handle post flop play. In no-limit hold’em, most of the time you will not go beyond the flop so post flop skills are not required as often. But in games where big bets cannot win the pot immediately like with pot limit and especially limit play then you have to be able to play very well after the flop.

While you cannot lose your buy-in in one foul swoop in limit play, your level of skill will be under constant bombardment by having to see flop after flop after flop. This will be even more pronounced in six handed play. Let us look at an example to show what I mean here.

It has been folded around to the button who raises, the small blind folds and you are in the big blind with the hand Qh-5c. Now if this was a no-limit situation then you can clearly fold and wait for a better opportunity as Qh-5c isn’t exactly one of the better poker hands. In fact even if your opponent on the button is a very loose and aggressive player then folding would still be correct here. Even though you would be looking to open your range, it wouldn’t be opened wide enough to incorporate a hand like Q-5.

LIMIT PLAY IS DIFFERENT

But in limit play then you really must play this hand. Your pot odds and implied odds coupled with your opponents likely range gives you a straight forward call here. In fact to balance your play somewhat then you can even consider throwing in a small percentage of re-raises although that percentage cannot be very high with a hand like Q-5.

Your opponent could have something like K-9 but yet pot odds of 3.5/1 dictate that you simply cannot fold this hand. Then you can decide how to proceed on certain types of flop. For example if the flop came J-7-2 rainbow then you may get the opportunity to take the lead here on a ragged rainbow board that has likely missed your opponent.

You could try leading out or maybe check-raising for balance. You have reached this situation purely because you were playing a form of poker where you were receiving good pot odds to get involved before the flop.

Poor post flop play at limit hold’em is like a slow bleeding of money and this is why having a rakeback deal is critical these days to your hourly rate. The overall level of skill in limit play has led to variance becoming more and more of an issue.

This is precisely why I stopped playing the game and switched to no-limit play via a brief fling with SNG’s. But do not let anyone tell you that limit hold’em is a far less skilful game than no-limit because anyone who says that simply does not understand limit hold’em.

This article was written by Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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As of the moment, I’m going through the Poker theory the second time around. Well, I can honestly say, I’m doing well in terms of absorbing some of the concepts at hand, and I’m hoping to get something more for I have to admit, I’m not yet that good.

I’ve started playing December of 2003. My first set of games were low limit Holdem game plays which were mostly 2-4 or 2-6 spread. Online, I’ve tried playing at PokerStars.com but I’m not using real money back then.

Any suggestion or advice? How about books or some practice software, do you have anything in particular to recommend? I still want to improve.

Thanks!
Keith
Keith,

For Limit Holdem, pick up a copy of Small Stakes Holdem by Ed Miller. For tournaments, pick up the series of books Harrington on Holdem. For practice software, Wilson Software’s Tournament Texas Holdem and Texas Holdem software is some of the best on the market.

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For about a month now, I’ve been playing No Limit Holdem in tournaments online. To get some tips and added strategies, I tried to looked for some books and websites that could help me out. Well, they can potentially help me, but I noticed that most of the sources I found talk about evaluating opponent’s style of play; which in a way is intriguing.

I tried to use some of the pointers I got like for example I caught somebody bluffing for a good pot, or the like.

On the other hand, when I’m playing online games, I noticed that most of the pots are won without any of the hole cards being turned, but I don’t exactly get the hang of it. Same case when keeping a written record during games of the number of flops that other players see, pre-flop raises, etc. I’m not sure if they’ve been a help.

Any advice on what kind of moves by an opponent should I be watching of? What kind of attitude, strategy of opponents, etc. should I really consider to eventually classify various playing style?

Thanks!
Donald G.
Donald,

You need to watch the betting patterns of your opponents and the cards that they show down to get an idea of how they play when you play online. Watch how much they raise, reraise, limp in, etc to try and get an idea of the hand ranges they play and how they play hands when they have strong hands and when they are bluffing. Pay attention to their moves depending on their position as well. These are the best ways to classify your opponent online.

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