Bad beats as you will know if you play any form of poker be it free poker games or high stakes card room are the very deepest embodiment of "bad luck" known to poker humankind!
Physically, if there are just a few very unlikely cards that your opponent needs to catch in the river in order to win a very large pot and one of them falls, you cannot recover the hefty stack of chips that passed from your hands to an undeserving adversary. Unlucky you just got bad beat. This sort of bad beat can even see you knocked out of a tournament. You may not be able to recover your physical seat in the poker table (unless it's a rebuy tournament, and you rebuy).
Suppose, in the example above, your opponent has A-J and you have A-K, and the board is A-3-7-10. You've got the top Pair and top kicker. Your opponent has top Pair with the second best kicker that he thinks it's the best, and he moves all-in. At that point, moving all-in will cost you 90 percent of your stack.
You call with the hope that your opponent does not have A-10 or something, and he flashes A-J. Brilliant, the best of news! He has to catch a Six and you figure that there is only a 6.82% chance of that, it is literally the only way for him to win. A 6 comes.
Bam! Bad Beat!
You are left with one-tenth of what you have before the hand started. Or you might even be the one knocked out.
Psychologically, how do you redeem yourself from such a cataclysm? It is easy. Think, would you want your opponent to call with A-J in this situation if you had A-K? If that is a "yes" then you have nothing to complain about.
You played your hand in the best way you can (you might have even read him with, like, an A-5 or A-4, and you're close to your read) So you want him to call. He did. All your circumlocutory plays like acting weak, betting small for him to pounce, etc., are effective.
He did what you want to happen. Should he call you know you will be 93-7 favorite. Would you prefer to be on the 93 side or 7 side? Ask that question to yourself. You have not made a bad play after all. Your opponent made it.
You might be knocked out of the tournament after that hand, should you have lesser chips. But you need to be thankful that there is someone willing to put his chips in on even just a 90-10 proposition in which he has the 10. 90% of the time he does it, he will be knocked out. Your loss will fall only on the 10% side.
So you can redeem yourself by saying that you made an intelligent play, after all. Basically, that you play better poker than the one who messed you up. And this point made, in the future you can exploit many players who might be willing to make bad plays but who didn't realize that these plays are in fact bad.
Sometimes to feel the ease of victory in which you are a 90-10 favorite, you should be ready to take the 10% hit sometimes.
But if you have not been knocked out you can try to save yourself. Don't spend energy worrying and stressing over how unfair it was that the card fell. That card emerged, and nothing can change it, not even the wind. Now apply your mental focus and continue to play right next time, perhaps a calculated all-in will bring you right back up.
And when you're on the end of a stream of bad beats go play poker online for free and get your confidence back before returning to the cash tables.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Monday, December 6, 2010
Free Online Poker Guide To How To Beat Rock Poker Players
To be a successful winning poker player, even just in fun free online poker, it's critical that you know about the different types of players and habits you will find in the poker world online and offline. That's common sense when you think about it.
When you play poker online free, micro stake cash games and freerolls, tends to bunch players into one of four categories. The quicker you can identify which types you have at the table the quicker you'll be able to counter, neuter and beat them.
Just about all the players you will find fall into one of the 4 following categories. The Rock, the maniac, the calling station or ATM which is a nickname I use as these guys are a licence to print money, and lastly The Pro. This article will concentrate on the rock.
A rock is by definition reliable, dependable, steady, secure, and stable.
The Rock is a very tight player, very kuch so when out of position and will play no more than 12% of hands.
These hands must be AA, KK, QQ, JJ and as well include just about any combination of face/Broadway cards, low pocket pairs and sometimes suited connectors in position with a limp.
Rocks are honest and simple players, you will find that they hardly ever bluff. A big bet from a rock almost always equals a big hand, the kind of hand they will be willing to shove with if pushed to. A rock will also seldom fight back against a three bet.
Once you're identified a Rock which, when you get used to it won't take long, you now need to play them in the best way to beat them (obviously!). The main thing to always bear in mind when playing a rock is that you don't have to take long on your decisions; these guys will tell you what hand they have themselves.
Let's think about a rock away from the poker table.
If you needed to remove a big rock from your garden for instance what would be the better way? You would not try to pick the whole thing up all at once as you may hurt yourself, what you're more likely to do is break it up into small pieces and shovel it into a skip, and this is how we will remove the rock from the poker table, piece by piece. We will chip away at them with small raises, particularly in position.
We'll constantly be stealing their blinds with a massive range, almost any two cards. This works well in the later stages of a tournament once the blinds are bigger and you approach the bubble.
A rock isn't a great post flop player, they either hit or miss in their own mind set. We ought to also be seeking to take pot control lines, and flat calling in position with suited connectors provides us with great implied odds.
There are several things you ought not to be doing against rocks and these clearly include playing big pots with weak hands, like one pair. Playing hands which are easily dominated against a rock's range can also be a big problem.
If you remember back to the type of hands I referred to that are in a rock's range, then you'll realise hands like AJ, A9, KJ, and Q10 are all in bad shape. One more thing to consider is, firing double barrel bluffs don't work, these guys don't play cabbage.
To recap, when playing against a marked rock.
Firstly, don't immediately assume a player is a rock based on early actions, a few folds doesn't mean a player is a rock, observe them over several hands and see how they act on their own blinds and when they're in different positions. Keep in mind that you're playing free poker online or micro cash stakes poker. A raise means a decent hand, a check means I have something I will fold. Keep away from big pots when against a rocks, dig away small bits with your pick and spade.
When you are new to poker then I suggest you play poker online free first to get a no risk feel for the game and learn to recognize and play against the different player types (you will find many rocks in free poker games).
And what better place to play free poker than at http://www.NoPayPOKER.com where you don't have the fear of losing money like you do at on money sites or live tables yet you can still win real cash.
When you play poker online free, micro stake cash games and freerolls, tends to bunch players into one of four categories. The quicker you can identify which types you have at the table the quicker you'll be able to counter, neuter and beat them.
Just about all the players you will find fall into one of the 4 following categories. The Rock, the maniac, the calling station or ATM which is a nickname I use as these guys are a licence to print money, and lastly The Pro. This article will concentrate on the rock.
A rock is by definition reliable, dependable, steady, secure, and stable.
The Rock is a very tight player, very kuch so when out of position and will play no more than 12% of hands.
These hands must be AA, KK, QQ, JJ and as well include just about any combination of face/Broadway cards, low pocket pairs and sometimes suited connectors in position with a limp.
Rocks are honest and simple players, you will find that they hardly ever bluff. A big bet from a rock almost always equals a big hand, the kind of hand they will be willing to shove with if pushed to. A rock will also seldom fight back against a three bet.
Once you're identified a Rock which, when you get used to it won't take long, you now need to play them in the best way to beat them (obviously!). The main thing to always bear in mind when playing a rock is that you don't have to take long on your decisions; these guys will tell you what hand they have themselves.
Let's think about a rock away from the poker table.
If you needed to remove a big rock from your garden for instance what would be the better way? You would not try to pick the whole thing up all at once as you may hurt yourself, what you're more likely to do is break it up into small pieces and shovel it into a skip, and this is how we will remove the rock from the poker table, piece by piece. We will chip away at them with small raises, particularly in position.
We'll constantly be stealing their blinds with a massive range, almost any two cards. This works well in the later stages of a tournament once the blinds are bigger and you approach the bubble.
A rock isn't a great post flop player, they either hit or miss in their own mind set. We ought to also be seeking to take pot control lines, and flat calling in position with suited connectors provides us with great implied odds.
There are several things you ought not to be doing against rocks and these clearly include playing big pots with weak hands, like one pair. Playing hands which are easily dominated against a rock's range can also be a big problem.
If you remember back to the type of hands I referred to that are in a rock's range, then you'll realise hands like AJ, A9, KJ, and Q10 are all in bad shape. One more thing to consider is, firing double barrel bluffs don't work, these guys don't play cabbage.
To recap, when playing against a marked rock.
Firstly, don't immediately assume a player is a rock based on early actions, a few folds doesn't mean a player is a rock, observe them over several hands and see how they act on their own blinds and when they're in different positions. Keep in mind that you're playing free poker online or micro cash stakes poker. A raise means a decent hand, a check means I have something I will fold. Keep away from big pots when against a rocks, dig away small bits with your pick and spade.
When you are new to poker then I suggest you play poker online free first to get a no risk feel for the game and learn to recognize and play against the different player types (you will find many rocks in free poker games).
And what better place to play free poker than at http://www.NoPayPOKER.com where you don't have the fear of losing money like you do at on money sites or live tables yet you can still win real cash.
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