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Of late I have been preoccupied with the importance of hand ranges in my game.  Everyone hollers about how important they are but I admit my mental laziness is akin to Obama’s bowling prowess.  I didn’t even make it to the Stump Olympics.  I have decided that now is the time for action.  I intend to better this part of my game to the fullest and I want to invite you on the hunt…So you’ve got bottom set on a three-flush board and your opponent just check-raised you all-in. What do you do? Well, you put your opponent on a hand.

Hand reading is simultaneously the most important and the most difficult thing that a poker player does. Some of the best poker players in the world who ignore many (or all!) of those other “rules” in poker, have deadly-accurate hand reading skills, and make mountains of cash for their troubles. Other players are exquisitely good at all the fundamentals but stink at hand reading and therefore struggle to consistently come out on top.

I began reading on the subject and the first wonderful thought came from Eric “Rizen” Lynch.  I like this approach.

“Have you ever wondered what exactly someone could possibly be thinking about when it’s taking him seemingly forever to make a decision during a hand? As much as some of us pros would like you to believe we’re simply “looking into your souls,” what we’re really doing is quite simple and basic, even if it is just a little counterintuitive to how we’re used to thinking away from poker.

Rather than a top-down approach, when you’re dealing with key decisions in a poker hand, it’s very beneficial to think in a back-to-front manner. What I mean by that is that if you are faced with a tough decision, you need to reconstruct the hand and the action in your head from the beginning to the current point, using each street’s action as a chance to narrow down your opponent’s hand range. With a little practice and some thought, it’s quite spooky how good a hand reader you can become if you can simply adopt this way of thinking.

Not only is this thought process important for trying to figure out what your opponent has, but if you’re playing against a thinking opponent, you can often use it on your own hand in determining if a bluff might work.”  Eric Lynch

This point of backwards analyses is used by many pros and makes sense to our brains as we must account for everyones moves.  Ted (Professor Backward) Forrest enjoys its use and credits it with recent positive results in both tournaments and cash game play.

Been playing .25/.50 6-max again and need to start testing some of my thoughts about the average player.

For example, have noticed an increase in the number of players who will cold call a raise behind and lead the flop, turn and river on low boards. My thought is that the average player will not fire with nothing in his hand into two players on the flop and turn but I think I’ve got this wrong. In looking at hands I’ve folded on the river, villain won much of the time without showing his cards. 

Over the next week, if I’m raised and get a cold-caller and a blind call, I’m going to go to the river regardless and see how it plays out. The math on a few scenarios indicates calling down with hands that are likely to be better than their range is +EV.

For example, you raise post flop and get two callers, the board is low and one opponent leads the flop, both call. Turn is another rag and the bettor leads again, one fold, you call. You miss the river and bettor leads again, you call.

Opponent will hit a pair on the flop 32.38% of the time, he’ll have air 67.62%. If neither of us have improved:

.6762(8.5BB) – .3238(2.5) = +4.94BB

If he checks the turn and then bets the river unimproved, a call is +3.58BB.

If the second opponent will call the turn because he improved, a river call is -0.78 but all you need is an 8% chance he is bluffing the river unimproved to break even.

It’s still read dependent but think I need to try the call down approach for at least a week and track what happens.

When to stay and play.
Being a winning player isn’t just about playing good cards…it’s really about making good decisions about when to play and when to call it a day…

And there is one important decision you face every time you sit down and play in a cash game:

When do I quit, or should I keep playing?

WHEN DO YOU KEEP ON PLAYING?

Many players are playing the short hours when they’re winning, and long sessions when they’re losing. It should be the other way around…

When you are winning, at least a few of the other players must be losing. So when the table has your opponents losing and you winning, they aren’t playing their best.

When you’re winning, other players fear you, and you have a great table image established that needs to be used fully. When you have a strong table image, you can get away with things that you can’t whenever you’re losing.

You can get away bluffing much more often, since you have a strong table image – one that’s to be feared.

Usually a losing player is scared to get involved with a winning player for fear of losing, so it’s much easier for you to pick up pots without the best hand. You have the ability to win without cards.

You can represent more hands than you actually have because your opponents believe you’re picking up strong hands.

The best time to quit is when you become tired, or when you begin to play poorly, or the table dynamics change against you (usually happens when new players arrive after a while).

WHEN SHOULD YOU LEAVE THE TABLE?

Many players just can’t seem to call it quits whenever they’re losing. You have to remember the poker game — continues live and online, that next game is just a few clicks away.

If you’ve lost more than 30 big blinds at a given table, it’s usually time to quit. If you’ve gone all-in in NL cash game and lost twice, it’s time to find another table that’s not looking at a losing player. Once you lose a few pots, the other players will be inspired to play against you.

When you’re losing, it’s much more difficult to be on your A game. Instead, you’re more likely to be on tilt (or at least fighting that tilt feeling inside), which has a tendency to cause players to loosen up and start gambling much more… which just worsens a losing streak. You start playing against the odds more.

When you’re satisfied with your winnings is another time to pocket those winnings and take a break while you’re ahead. This is one of the most difficult decisions to make, because it’s tough to leave the table when the situation favors you; however, if you stay long enough, you’ll either get tired or your image will go bad or both.

So, I’m a big believer that when you’ve won more than 4 to 5 times your starting stack size and you’re starting to see the tides turn or grow tired and start to lose focus – just stand up, stretch and stack up your chips and say “nice playing with ya’ll – good luck” and leave the table with their money!

Closing points:

So, in cash game play, the biggest decisions you’ll make are:

1. Recognizing the best table to play (online, look for tables with biggest average pot size, which often indicates a looser table)

2. Recognizing when you’re in a winning vs. losing position versus players at your table

3. Staying as long as possible when you’re winning (and protecting your winnings)

4. Leaving as soon as possible when you’re losing (to minimize the impacts to your bankroll).

5. Leaving when you’re winning after you’re up several times your buy-in and are beginning to tire or see the tides beginning to turn on you.

6. Recognizing when you’re at your best and you’re on your A game and avoiding the tables when you’re not.

What does a good player look like?
We see a good number of people that portray an image of being a good player.
Why do we see them as winners? What characteristics set them apart from other poker players?

1. They typically are watching the other players until it’s their turn to act. They are watching to see if the opponent gives off information about the quality of his hand.
2. They don’t make moves (tells) to give away information. Most seem to be stoic in their actions.
3. They have the ability to size up another player’s chip count without asking. When they talk to another player, they are not looking for the exact answer. They want to size up how confident the opponent is in his actions.
4. Their bets, normally, don’t gives away information on the hand strength. They will typically raise based on position, rather than card strength. They are not afraid to raise when an opponent appears weak.
5. They are confident in their game and are more willing to play post-flop than the typical amature player.
6. Most good players don’t put down a weak player. They don’t want the weak player to start paying attention and begin to play better.
7. Typically they will be very aggressive when taking action. They also know to change gears to keep the opponent off balance.
8. They will rarely school opponent to improve during the playing session. Don’t kill the goose that’s laying the gold on the table.

Very good players look for two things when they look at a hand:
(a) First, should I fold because I won’t get paid off (opponent is good player or doesn’t have any chips).
(b) Second, this hand has potential (1) I could make a big hand & (2) if I make something, I can take a big pot.