Do your two down cards in Texas Holdem determine whether you enter the pot or fold? If you answered “yes” then you are still playing at a beginner’s level.
Before the hand begins, you should be thinking about no less than 5 other elements of the game before looking at your two down cards. In other words, your starting cards are at best sixth on the mental checklist that you should review before looking at your cards.
As the cards are dealt you should watch each player and their reaction to the cards they just received. This is the first key step, look for a tell. From this point on, whether in the hand or not, you should be looking for possible tells that you can use to your advantage in future hands.
As players enter the pot you should bring their playing style into the analysis. Is this player “tight” or “loose”? Does he/she play passively or aggressively? Your ability to “steal” a pot or bluff a player off of a hand will depend to a great extent on their playing style. Would you rate your opponent as a strong, average or weak player. Obviously, it is more difficult to bluff a “loose - aggressive” player off of his hand, especially if that player is not a very good player. Only a better player will have the skills to lay down good starting cards. A weak player will only be thinking about his cards. Thus, placing a value on a players skill level and playing style will affect how you play against him.
Your knowledge of your opponents betting pattern will come into play as the hand unfolds through the flop, turn and river. This building pool of knowledge should have been accumulated from watching all of the previous hands that the various players have played in. Whether playing or watching, you should be anticipating what type of bet you can expect from each player on the flop. For example, does player A always make a continuation bet at the flop if he makes a pre-flop raise? Does player B only bet if he catches a piece of the flop or does he only bet if he catches top pair? Is the player a bluffer or non-bluffer, limper or calling station? These are just a small number of the clues about that player’s betting pattern you gain every time he plays a hand.
The fourth aspect of the game that should be kept in mind before looking at your cards is the chip stack size of the players that enter the hand. If the pot is $100, for example, a half the pot size bet of $50 on a semi-bluff, say 4 cards to a flush, may backfire somewhat if one of the players only has $80 left. You may well find yourself facing an allin bet on just a draw. An $80-100 initial bet may have convinced him of the strength of your hand and he may have just folded rather than confront you. Or, by being aware of his chip stack of $80, you may choose to just check and hope to see a free card rather than force him into an allin decision. By being aware of your opponents chip stack size you can better control or manipulate the response you want to elicit from your opponent.
And last, but not least, you should know your position relative to the button. How you play against an aggressive player will be greatly affected by your position against this player. If you are in the big blind (bb) and pick up pocket jacks and 4 others have limped in, the recommended move is to raise, despite this poor position, in order to thin the field and thus, increase your chance of having pocket jacks hold up.
But if you are the big blind and a mid position tight player raises 3 times the big blind only to be re-raised twice his bet (six big blind bets) by a late position player then your poor position only acts to further weaken your jacks. If your stack is only 20 big blind bets then you will be betting 30% of your stack. You will have to act first after the flop and you have garnered no new information. If an A, K, or Q over card hits on the flop what do you do? The jacks were a decent starting hand but they may now end up costing you your entire stack because of your poor starting position.
So before you look at your beginning cards get in the habit of going through this six step mental checklist. Learn to look for and remember each players:
1. Tells
2. Playing style and skill level
3. Betting pattern
4. Chip stack size
5. Position at the table
Then and only then look at your:
6. Starting Cards
Armed with all of this information, which is gained in bits and pieces from each hand dealt, you’ll be able to better play your starting cards. In fact, you may find yourself picking up pots, much like the top pros , with cards that shouldn’t even have been played if it weren’t for the knowledge gained from doing the 6 step mental checklist.
Joe Miyamoto
copyright 2006
All rights reserved
contact me at poker@loveablerogues.com
site: Loveable Rogues
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