Many successful live players have failed online and vice versa of course and wondered what the reasons were. Well you need to understand that if you play 20-40 limit hold’em in a live card room then it is not going to be the same online despite the fact that you are still playing 20-40 limit.

Your poker game should be workable in any environment and this was why I needed to add this because any player that can really only play in one or the other is quite handicapped, a bit like a car driver who can only drive automatics and not manuals. For instance many players who have only ever played live poker and especially the older ones can struggle with the vastly accelerated pace of online play.

Especially when those audio prompts start to kick in which I find really off putting when I am contemplating a big decision in a big NL Texas Holdem pot. When that starts to happen, it is very easy to just get swept along with the momentum in some kind of “brain freeze” where all you end up doing is staring at the screen blankly. Likewise if all you have ever played is online poker and you play in a real card room, you have been playing entirely in an environment where showing your emotions does not matter because no one can see you.

But behaving in a way that makes your hand strength an open book to savvy street wise players has turned many a good online player into a live game loser. Also the mentality of the players can change as well from site to site, do not make the mistake of thinking that all of the sites are the same. This was another mistake that I made early in my career. I used to assume that the players on any one site would be more or less the same mix….wrong.

I was a very good Limit Hold’em player early in my career and yet I was struggling to get ahead early in my semi-professional career (before I turned pro). Then the reason for me dragging my heels struck me. I was playing on a site that was populated very heavily by Americans and the players over there are far more skilled on average at Limit play than anywhere else, I mean that is the form of poker that they are brought up with. The Europeans just do not play limit poker in any quantity, it is pot limit over here and pot limit Omaha especially.

Then it hit me, my edge would be seriously diminished by playing against more skilled players, sure I was earning money but it wasn’t enough. I am a far better Limit player now than I was then and I have to confess that this may have attributed for part of the problem at that time but the fact remains that you want to be playing on a site where your edge is at its maximum.

So I shifted my action to European sites whenever I was playing Limit Hold’em and never looked back. Suddenly I was playing the same game but this time against Europeans who did not understand that game on average as well as the Americans. Now that I have switched to playing No Limit, the game is so widely played and so well known that I cannot see any discernable difference between the players in Europe from America on the whole.

Also even in No Limit Holdem poker games, there are subtle differences from players that come from different countries. Some are more aggressive than others, some like to limp in and see flops while others will only enter the pot raising. It is well worth being aware of the geographical location of the players on your table and what this could potentially mean.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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So they check and then I bet $130 and the pot is mine as they cannot call with no pair. Here I am using the leverage of our entire stacks to frighten my opponent away. I am using my opponent’s aggression as a weapon against him rather than let their aggression bully me into submission. Sure they will have big pairs sometime and sure they will flop monsters but that is poker. If you do not take risks then you do not win big.

Sometime ago I bought into a $5-$10 no-limit texas hold’ em cash game for $500 and had built it up to $4000 within two hours. I had taken advantage of aggressive players and built my stack up to $800. I re-raised all in with a powerful draw expecting my opponent to fold which he didn’t. I made my draw and doubled up, this made me the second biggest stack on the table and I busted the next biggest stack beneath me when I flopped a concealed straight. This made me the big stack and the rest was easy.

Top players just do not back off that easy

Whenever you see a top poker player in action you will notice that it sometimes takes an awful lot to get them out of a hand when they and their opponent have deep money. They know that their opponents know that they need to be aggressive and they counter this like a martial artist using his opponent’s weight and momentum against them.

Top poker players will call your flop bet with nothing just to see what you do on the turn. If you meekly submit every time an opponent shows aggression then you are going to miss out on an awful lot of opportunities. Obviously this also means that you need to be careful as well. I made the play with the 5-3 because I had a good read on my opponent and it was heads up play, a multi-way pot would have been a different story.

So here we have what is the beginnings of a poker food chain, at the bottom we have all of the passive players and the solid predictable players. The solid ones can make a bit of money because they understand good hands from bad ones etc. But both types tend to only be aggressive with good hands and to only call raises with good hands.

Then we move onto level two and come to the player who has figured out that he can win more pots by being aggressive and all of the pots that they have won playing this way reinforces that belief. They take money from the solid poker players and the passives through their aggression.

But they are like a young boy racer that has just been given the keys to their dad’s high powered Porsche 911. Going fast is easy, all you have to do is put your foot down but you need to know when to back off.

This is where I come in; I take the money from the aggressive boy racers. I hope that this lesson has been very instructive because it highlights something that is very important in poker. That responding to aggression and taking advantage of aggression is the hallmark of a solid poker player.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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Game selection and even opponent selection is getting critical in the higher stakes poker games, gone are the days when you can just sit down and play poker and win if you are a good player. If I set out to play high-stakes poker this time around at say the $25-$50 level like I did before then I would target specific opponents. These may even be world class players but I wouldn’t play these people unless I had spotted specific weaknesses that I could exploit.

Chances are of course that this level would be too high now in order to try and find real value unless you can immerse yourself in the game 24/7. I could do this in theory but the problem is that I would then be having to make a huge financial sacrifice and these kinds of things never sit easy with me and never have.

All players have weaknesses, some players tilt at certain points. If there was a six max game at $300-$600 and a certain player could be tilted by a certain other player on that table and had lost a few pots to him then there could be value in that game for anyone with the right game plan. If I had to play higher stakes now then I would definitely target individual players and not games as multi-tabling poker games at NL600 and NL1000 is very tough.

The problem with going back and playing the poker betting limits that I used to play last year which is $25-$50 is that these levels are populated by some of the best players in the world. These levels have the players who either do not have the bankroll or the desire to play at the really high nosebleed levels. You also have to remember that people like Brian Townsend dropped down to this level last year.

But if you can make a nice cool 10-20 buy-ins a month at this level then you are making $50,000-$100,000 a month. I am sure that the professionals at these levels mop up most of the shot takers as it is the shot takers who are the ones who are moving up and in all likelihood are under bankrolled. It would take a combination of extensive experience and a huge bankroll of at least $200,000 to survive at this level.

It also takes an awful lot of time as well as watching and learning about your opponents probably needs to be a constant and ongoing process. These are not levels to be messed around with these days or played in a half hearted way. They demand attention and intense motivational levels and if you are the least bit idle in your overall behaviour then there is probably nothing at these levels for you.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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In other areas like the stock market for instance then real time feeds and programs from companies like Indexia have provided traders with the vital tools needed in order to get that vital edge. But I do feel that too many players rely on poker software too much and this applies to the other fields as well.

The best software packages in the world will not turn someone into a Wall Street Wizard. In the same way that Shuffle Trak and Count Analyzers cannot turn anyone into a hugely successful blackjack player. I have used Poker Office and a whole host of other different types of software. Poker Office is fabulous and really expanded my game but I cannot forget others as well like Statking for example and Poker Edge which also helped me tremendously and also SNGWIZ for single table tournaments.

But these items must be married with expertise and a good sound and solid game. I even know people personally who get seduced by fancy gimmicks in the belief that these are the be all and end all of success. In fact I even knew someone who was seriously contemplating re-mortgaging their home to trade options. They had no prior experience of trading options whatsoever but yet felt that the use of a fancy software package would be the Holy Grail for them.

In my experience, there really is only one Holy Grail and that is to work very hard. If you can do that then the software will greatly assist that hard work and make a fantastic addition to your method of operation. There has been a tremendous increase in computer programs being using in the world of Chess over the past few years. But once again, the best players in the world use Chess programs as an aid to their own analysis and not as a substitute for it.

There are only so many things that a human player can do and playing multiple tables and keeping track of so many different players on so many different tables at the same time is very difficult without using poker tracker software.

However though, playing too many tables with tracker software also has an adverse effect for the simple reason being that your HUD readouts will be seriously minimised and to a point where reading the data may become difficult.

What you have to remember is that online poker is played electronically so this means that electronic aids to human play are not only useful….they are essential. This is an area where the new technologically aware young guns have the edge because they are coming straight into poker with the correct and proper grounding for poker when it is played electronically.

So they often are able to improve into being very sophisticated and successful online poker players in a mere fraction of the time.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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Even non-league footballers can play the game for a living. This may not give them the lifestyle of a top player in the Premier League but a living is a living. So what I am trying to say here is that you certainly do not need to play poker at the highest level in order to make a living. This then means that you do not have to be a world class poker player to earn money at the game.

You may have seen my articles on my bankroll challenge where I proved that a player could make $1000/week starting from as little as $500 multi-tabling NL50 games. At the time of writing that equates to £600/week and seeing as there is no tax paid on poker winnings in the UK then it is tax free.

That is a yearly income of £30,000 which would equate to around £45,000 if you were making that kind of money in a regular job. That kind of income is about double what the national average weekly wage is in the UK and constitutes a good living when comparing it to the average population.

But yet it wouldn’t bring the life of the jet set and it wouldn’t make you rich but then again, the vast majority of poker players have more mundane goals than that. There is nothing wrong in aiming high but the vast majority of people never reach those highs. So in my opinion, your goals should be grounded in reality and if they are then your chances of playing poker for a living would be greatly enhanced.

If you restrict yourself to only playing poker against novice or intermediate players then you will find that there will be far more poker games that you can extract value from. For example at a level like NL50, many players will either be weak or be playing for rakeback and multi-tabling. This will then make them weak but in other areas. Any player who is playing numerous tables but also playing too tightly is going to be weak simply because they are rocky enough to be folding too much.

So the bottom line is that you don’t have to be a great poker player in order to do well from playing poker. As long as you don’t expect to make millions from the game and set yourself more mundane goals then your chances of success will be very high. Working on your game and becoming a very good player is not worth much if you only sit in games with very good players like yourself. What types of players do I like…..give me the fish in the lower stakes poker games any day of the week!

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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Better poker players

At this level of play the players are substantially better than they are at NL50 and this comes across with an awful lot of things and thus online poker strategy differs sometimes. In this hand one of the early players had limped in as they had done quite often. It was folded around to me and I had the 10c-8c. Now with these types of hands in these types of situations I like to raise in online hold’em. My stack was around $240 and my opponent had about $190 on the table.

So I had 120BB while they had 95BB, I was in the cut-off but the big blind also called the raise as did the original limper. The big blind had around $180 (90BB) and my pot sized raise to $9 now made the pot around $28 before the flop. In this situation then it is instructive to see what my goals were in the hand.

Using position as a weapon

I was looking to pressure the limper and use my position coupled with the deceptive value of my hand to give me an advantage. In situations like these then another player calling the raise interferes somewhat with my plan. This means that bluffing has less value as the chances of me getting away with it are reduced. But this is offset by the fact that my chances of a big potential payoff are increased because there is more than one player to potentially pay me off.

But there is absolutely no way that I will be bullish after the flop and look to force a laydown here against two players. I have position and the betting lead and now is the time to make that work in my favour. The flop came Jh-7c-6d giving me a gutshot straight draw and both opponents checked to me.

Betting out here does have some value but so does checking. The big blind had shown some aggressive moves and I didn’t want to semi-bluff this and face a check-raise from one of the other players. I was confident now that the limper didn’t have a premium pair because they surely would have re-raised pre-flop after a raiser and a caller had entered the fray.

Other poker factors

There are other factors at work as well and this is that my raise (depending on my table image) could be with high cards and this is what it represents.

So I decide to check and take the free card and the turn card is a useless 2s and now the big blind leads out with a two thirds pot size bet. The limper folded and now the action is on me. There is no way that I am getting pot odds or implied odds to continue but I have a feeling that this player is smart enough to know that I have slowed down due to being up against two opponents.

He suspects that I didn’t connect with the flop and was reticent to bet against two players on a somewhat connected board. The turn card didn’t really change the situation and I felt that my opponent was smart enough to know that. So in this instance he either had a flopped monster, a mediocre hand or fresh air. I made the percentage play and knew that only a very tiny percentage of his range could stand a raise……I raised the pot…..he tanked and then folded.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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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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In this hand our hero had the 10c-9c and it was limped by three players in a full-ring $5-$10 texas hold’em game. In this instance then the call is pretty automatic given the hand type and the pot odds which are very good. Then when you consider the implied odds as well then we have a profitable situation. The big blind raps the table and there is $25 in the pot.

The flop comes Qc-4c-2d giving our hero a flush draw. He is now the first to speak and rightly checks. There is little point in semi-bluffing here into four opponents or pumping the pot. If one of his opponents has flopped top pair and they raise then he could find himself heads up with the worst hand trying to outdraw the only player left in the hand with reduced implied odds.

If you bet and it gets raised then that raise can prevent other players from calling. Here is a situation where you really don’t mind other players staying in the hand if you check and someone else bets. Everyone checks to the final limper who bets and now it is back on our hero.

Once again the correct play here is to call, folding is not an option simply because of the pot odds so the choice is between calling and raising. But raising presents our hero with a similar problem as before. If his opponent is betting a hand like top pair with something like Q-J then a raise will simply thin the field against the one hand that they have to outdraw to win the pot.

It is simply better to call and let other players come along for the ride so to speak. Our hero calls as does one other limper and there is now $40 in the pot and three players left in the hand. The turn card is the 8h which misses our hero so he checks and so does the first limper. The final limper bets $10 making a $50 pot and our hero rightly calls getting 5/1 immediate odds and some implied odds as well so he cannot fold even though the limit has doubled.

The other player folds so the hand is now heads up with $60 in the pot. The river card misses our heroes flush draw but pairs his ten. He checks and the final limper bets again.

This now puts $70 into the pot. Despite the fact that he is almost certainly beaten here, pot odds of 7/1 coupled with a hand that does have some potential to be the best hand then a fold is simply out of the question here.

Raising is a poor play as if our hero has the best hand then he will win the pot by calling as any weaker hand wouldn’t call the raise anyway. Our hero called and lost the pot to a K-Q but he can be commended for playing the hand well.

This article was written by Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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There is a lot of merit to this view as SNG’s and large MTT’s do have many similarities. They have a prize structure that favours the higher end of the ladder. The winner of an SNG traditionally gets 50% of the prize pool with the second and third place players getting the other 50% and the rest of the field gets nothing!

This top heavy prize pool is similar to tournament poker as well where the majority of the prize money goes to the top three seats. This leads to various players implementing various styles of play and the most common style is to start playing very tightly and try to allow the crazy players and the crazy action to fizzle out. This leaves you in a situation where you have outlasted a good percentage of the field and are now into the tournaments middle stages.

The idea is not to get involved unless you have a premium hand or a very strong hand. Then you slowly open up the aggression levels as the tournament gets deeper and the blinds get higher. Your blind to stack ratio will be such that your number of moves will be limited and you are now looking to make moves to accumulate chips.

However this style of play does have drawbacks, it will not allow you to get a big stack early in the competition. The early stages of the tournament are where the real dead money is and the novice tournament players who may be in their hundreds if the field is large enough will be passing their chips to someone and you will not be in enough pots to take advantage of that.

It is for this reason that many online tournament professionals play a far faster style of play. They don’t want to be on the curve or behind the curve but considerably ahead of it. They would rather be out of the competition than treading water until the inevitable knockout arrives.

In the tournaments that I played (which wasn’t all that many as I am essentially a cash game specialist) then I would say that my own style fell somewhere between the two styles. Whichever style you choose comes down to personal choice. For instance in his great book “Every Hand Revealed”, Gus Hansen even stated that there is little to choose between the two styles and much of it comes down to preference.

I have known some of the tightest poker players you could ever wish to meet, take down large MTT events. They didn’t open up until the final two tables but they survived by playing tightly and then a good run of cards came for them at just the right time. I have known numerous players who were very uncomfortable at the prospect of playing short handed but that still didn’t stop them from cashing very highly indeed.

In fact if you have won your way into a tournament by a satellite or by utilising your frequent player points then the return on investment could be very substantial indeed.

This article was written by Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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I live in California and recently have started playing Texas Holdem. But before Texas Holdem, I used to play blackjack online.

There were a lot of great sites I’ve encountered back then. Most of which regularly informed me of tournaments and actual locations of play as well as some stuff about denominations, rules, etc.

Now that I am into Texas Holdem, I am wondering if you know a particular site for holdem, something similar to those great sites for blackjack, a site that will kept me well-informed.

By the way, great site!

Thanks,
Michael
Michael,

I’m going to give you two sites. The first is Pokerpages.com. Pokerpages not only has news about poker but also has updates about various tournaments, card rooms, and other poker topics. PokerNews.com is considered the leader in poker news online. They focus mostly on news stories but also cover many major tournaments throughout the world.

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