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Returning to Holdem
So, how do you apply the previous concepts to a very good holdem game ?
That is, in a loose, passive game where many people see the flop and then play poorly after that.
You should:
- Play more hands than you would if the players were better, especially if you can get in for a single bet.
- Frequently keep it to a single bet before the flop more than most people think because you gain a lot when bad players make incorrect calls on the flop and beyond, as long as the pot is kept small.
Lets discuss this in a little more detail.
Even if you have a good hand, you should be a little less apt to raise than if you were against better players.
This is not only because he hand doesn’t play well against many people, but for a second reason:
With a hand that is pretty good but not great, if you don’t raise and thereby cost yourself a little bit of money at that point, you gain it back plus some because had you made the pot bigger there would be less opportunity for your poker opponents to make significant mistakes later on.
Here is a general example.
Suppose you know that a raise with two particular cards gains you $7 in expectation. It could still be wrong.
The problem is that by putting extra money in early you to it.
This might cost you more than the small amount gained preflop.
Thus while you should play more hands than almost all pros do, a lot of the hands that seem like automatic raises should not be raised because you want your skill to mean more on further rounds.
There is a bit of a two-edged sword here.
If you’re playing against extremely terrible opponents, it’s hard not to raise with pretty good hands because even though you’re costing yourself money on the later poker streets, you’re gaining so much before the flop because your hand is usually so much better than theirs.
In other words, if people are coming in with absolutely everything, you have got to raise with an AQ simply because your hand is so much better on average than so many of the other players.
But if these players are just playing a little looser than what they normally should, and then they play meekly and badly, a reason not to raise with many of these hands is that when you make the pot larger, you are now making some of your opponent play correctly.
This is an addition to the fact that some of these hands, such as the AQ just mentioned, don’t play well in multiway pots.
Finally, there is also another reason why you want play online poker a few more hands in these loose, good games:
It is the fact that since you’re playing a lot of hands, even if these extra hands don’t show much long term profit, your opponents will see this, and when you do have a top quality poker hand they won’t throw their hands away as much because they are frequently seeing you in the pot.