some questions ive listed

so i finally managed to register the site
ive been looking here for awhile for some tips and basic strategies
im really impressed by your patience and will to share your ideas
i want to be polite and publish all of my questions ive tackled in the past week, ill be happy if you could help me with them. you may find yourself puzzled by the noobness but i began playing only a week ago so keep that in mind. thank you in advance for any help:
*all of the following questions came from playing texas holdem no limit cash games no rebuy free internet play

1) you hold in your hand A/K/Q + low card unsuited. you enter the pot and 4 more people enter also. the flop is 3 suited cards: 2 low cards + A/K/Q. you now have a top pair. you think in mind somebody have a flush. everybody checks so you check too. turn is a low card not suited. everybody checks so do you. the river doesnt bring the flush, it brings another low card. no danger for straight/ no paired cards on the board.
you now have top pair. 4 people includes you are in the pot. the first to talk checks. you now have a decision. would u raise because you think youre top pair wins the pot (the continuous checks suggests your opponets didnt make their hands) ? if you do and somebody reraise aggresively would u suspect he has the flush? how would you know?

2) the situation is a live no limit texas holdem tourney. is it smart to bluff some all in before the flop just to steal some blinds. you know that most of the people will play tight. is it smart to have a few extra blinds in your hand or does the danger outcome the value of the low blinds?

3) VERY important question. if you dont want to answer anything answer this.
how do you put to use the odds in online poker and especially in live poker?
do you do it in your mind because you did it 1000 times or do you have some kind of a simple system. im talking about calculating the pot odds against the hand odds and determining if it would be odd wise to enter the pot. how do you do it fast enough for a live game without getting the other players angry?

4) situation. free play internet texas holdem no limit cash game 1000 cash each player. 6 players. start of the game. you dont know your opponets and they dont know you. the game is not tight and not loose. something in the middle. blinds are 2/4. you preflop Qs/Qc. you raise by 8 in early position. only the players after you calls. its you against him.
the flop is 6 clubs/ J spades / 9 diamonds
you raise by 20... he calls
turn is 5 diamons
you raise by 20... he calls
river is A diamonds
possible flush for him. what do you do...
do you raise aggresively and hope he folds or calls and most times youll win the showdown with Queen pair
or would u check because you afraid the has a flush and you dont wanna waste chips. if after you check he bets aggresively then youll fold. and if he bets moderately you calls.
what would you do?

5)when im in an online free poker game what do i do if all players
suck and enter each pot even with 2/3. cause they dont care about the money...
do i keep folding to their bluffs or should i enter even if i have kq suited and ive been raised
to the point where i have to go all in?
will that kind of practise will have use in reality poker (real money)?

6) you have in your hand A/J. your opponet has A/10. board is A 8 8 8 2. you made a full house. theoretically... your player had made the same full house. each one of you counts 5 cards.. 2 in your hand and 3 from the board. 2 aces full of 8's. does the kicker counts as to who wins the pot or is it that after you count 5 cards... there's no kicker involved cause he doesnt enter your hand?

7) im in a game with distinct loose players cause its not realy money
my preflop is K/K
10/20 blinds. I raise by 170
6 players call that raise
flop is K/Q/10 different suites
i have 3 kings i raise again by 15% of my chips
all 6 players call. the turn is 2. raise again 15% all players call
the river is an Ace. the board now shows K/Q/10/2/A
i raise again all calls
does that mean someone made a staright with the card J and im a sucker now
or do i have to defend my trips of kings?
i defended and lost to somebody holding A/J. he made the straight
but i must do say that those players were loose so i thought they must have high card/low card
but again i should have thought about so many players. so many players in that one of them got to have J in his hand.
so i was a sucker after the Ace came on the river right? i should have folded in a real game?
because it was a freeplay it doesnt matter but in a real game... do you think that after raising that much and all players stay.. you just fold
because the river came as a trap for you?

8) how do you take bad beats.. like really bad ones. that someplayer entered with 2/3 and made a straight with help from the Turn and the River.
how do you keep yourself from going on tilt?

that would be all for now.
i appericiate any help
Tal

Welcome to the forum... I'll try to pick a couple of these to answer...

1. I wouldn't wait until the river to bet. The turn is the spot to figure out where you are actually. If you bet the turn, if they flopped the flush, chances are they are going to raise as you could be semi-bluffing a one card flush draw with a higher flush card. Most players will let you know once you make your turn bet, and play accordingly. If he makes a big re-raise, decide based on other factors (hand recall, pot odds, etc.) Don't be afraid to fold here either, even if you are laying down the best hand. There's a hell of a lot of hands that could easily beat you.

2. Bluffing is a critical element, but I hardly ever recommend the all in preflop bluff. Also, keep in mind that early in the tourney, you need to bluff much less than later on. As the blinds increase to a larger percentage of your stack, bluffing to steal the blinds becomes vital, but early on, the risk/reward doesn't justify trying it. I highly recommend reading some Harrington on Hold'em to learn about M and effective M. This will help you in this area.

3. Pot odds and hand odds... the old favorite. Get good at math, and be familiar with the most common draws. The rule for hand odds when the number of outs in your hand=N is:
On the flop: (N*4)-2=percentage chance you will improve to the hand.
On the turn: (N*2)-1=percentage chance you will improve to the hand.

Example... naked flush draw on the flop. 9 outs is 9*4=36-2=34% chance you will complete the flush by the river.
Open ended straight (8 outs) 8*4=32-2=30% by the river.

You can now use this as compared to the pot to figure out if you should call or not. For example... $40 pot on the flop, you have the flush draw, and your opponent leads in for $10. Typically a clear call, as the pot is laying 4-1 on a 3-1 draw.

There are some other factors to take in... implied odds, discounted outs, etc. but those are typically a whole different story.

Hopefully these will help somewhat... I'll let some of the other guys get some of the rest.

__________________
Blackinks

Donkey Extraordinaire

"Never understimate the power of stupid people in large groups..." - Daryl "Razor" Reaugh

"I went in with the worst of it... and it held up!" - Alicia M

so i was wondering if anyone could finish the work he had done
it's really important to me since ive just started and i want to start on the right leg
thank you

The problem with this hand is that you're not raising enough on the turn and on the river. Betting the same amount all the way through is very bad poker, because you're allowing your opponent to see cheap cards. Bet more agressively on the turn and on the river to get him to lay down a marginal hand. If you're betting so small it is very possible that your opponent has hit the flush on the river, but only because you were practically begging him to stick around! So lesson A) bet more.

2nd of all, on the river (based on how you played this hand which is very badly), you should check and call any bet that's not bigger than the pot. If he caught the ace or the flush on the river, it all comes back to my original point, you shouldnt have allowed him to get to the river so cheaply.



I strongly reccomend that you get your hands on some books about poker strategy, (available in the games section of most book stores), and deposit a bit of money. Play money is extremely boring. Play some micro stakes poker to learn about the game, hell its what everyone else does these days, so you might as well just jump in. Dont be paranoid about losing or that the poker site is gonna steal all your money or something. Poker is the type of game you can only get good at through expierence and micro level is a great place to start because if you lose (and you probably will unless you catch onto the game very quickly), you're not gonna lose much.

In texas hold em you play your best five cards, i.e. you and your opponent have exactly the same hand, AA888. The kicker does not matter. The kicker only matters when you're talking about pairs e.g. I have AK and you have A3, the board is A 5 6 9 J. My best hand is AAKJ9 and your best hand is AAJ96. Therefore I win because i have a better kicker.

Once you put more than half of your stack into a pot, you're "pot committed" and cant fold because there's to much money in the pot. I find it amazing that you got 6 callers when you raised to 170, that doesnt happen very often. But that hand is just unlucky for you, you had your hand and played it, and lost. Nothing you can really do mate.

Take a break, do some pushups and forget about it. Dont continue playing untill you've calmed down.

Im not sure all my advice is right. Hopefully some other members can correct me if they think ive given you bad advice.

Anyway, hope that helps.

__________________
G.T.S
***...KidJoker666...***

And when you have done the math about hitting your outs, shade the odds to be more against you. If you come up with 2/1, make it 9/4 or 5/2, because hitting your cards may still not be enough to win.

As to pot committed, if you are convinced you are losing then fold. There is absolutely no point in going broke with absolute certainty. If you are less than certain then you use your judgement and that only comes with practice and making expensive mistakes. Automatically putting your chips in because "I'm pot committed" without thinking it through is just the quick way to the poor house. Most of the time you will still put your chips in and hope, but doing it all the time is dumb.

thnx a lot guys. just one more question on the way if you may:

how do you play against passive loose players? especially post-flop. you made a hand it looks a good one
sometimes you may even improve that hand, and youre up against a loose passive player. do you keep putting money
in the pot and see him calls everything. and than when the river comes and you dont suspect a better hand
he could possibly make.. put it all in... or... do you put it all in post flop - and hope the turn and river wont
make his hand better. also, if you consider that he probably made his hand in the turn/river - do you just check and than youre risking yourself to be looking weak and to be raised or is it just a passive loose player that doesnt care about you but only his cards...? or do you still bet?

against loose players let them do the betting for you, play passively against them and let them bury themeselves by bluffing all their chips away to you. Dont try bluff them, play straightfoward poker against them. No tricks.

__________________
G.T.S
***...KidJoker666...***

Against a loose-AGGRESSIVE player, I'd agree - but poker-talk is looking for advice against loose-PASSIVE players. Basically, here are my rules when I play against these types:

1) Your high pocket pairs go down in value in multi-way pots. Against 1 player, AA will be at least 80% to win, but against 9 (not that I think you'll ever hit this extremity), it's only 30%. This doesn't mean you shouldn't play it - just know that you'll lose a lot more often. However, if you get maximum chip value when you do win, and minimize your losses when you get cracked, you will win a LOT more chips.

2) Your drawing hands go way up there in value. Hands like 78s, you want to limp into the pot with these hands. Even hands such as 96s or 75s you'll want to play, as your pot odds will be high to begin with, but once you figure in implied odds...DAMN you can take in a big pot!

3) As GTS has stated, NO BLUFFING. EVER. PERIOD.

__________________
1st place, March/April 2008 Sunday League

Fault always lies in the same place, my fine babies: with him weak enough to lay blame.

My bad, thought he meant Aggressive not passive aggressive.

__________________
G.T.S
***...KidJoker666...***