No-Limit Hold'em Tips For Me

My previous column explained that after a poker session, I frequently write tips for myself to follow. I am passing these on to you. Last column I covered general tips on poker. This column will cover no-limit hold’em tips; my next column will discuss pot-limit Omaha tips.

You need to know what sort of player is giving these tips. There is no doubt that poker has changed a lot in the 21st century. I think the most meaningful change is the fact that the play is much more aggressive nowadays. Make no mistake in thinking that the most aggressive players of today play a lot more aggressively than those of yester-year; that is an incorrect gneralization. What has actually happened is there are far more aggressive players now. The change is not in intensity, but numbers. This is even more apparent in tournament play (as opposed to cash games). Most of my no-limit hold’em playing has been in cash games, and my notes are taken from cash game play. There are a lot of cash game players that fight hard for the blind money in many pots. I will not argue that they are erring by doing this in tournaments, but there is a big difference between a tournament and a cash game.

You are under no money pressure to play a lot of hands in a cash game. For example, if I am in a $2-$5 cash game, I and most of the other players will have $400 or more in front of them. If I wait for a good starting hand before entering a pot and have a streak of mediocre hands, and go seven rounds of the button without entering a pot, I am out only $35. And seven rounds is a really long cold streak to go without even seeing a flop. So my style is to not get involved with contesting a pot unless I think that I have the best of it. Simply put, I play good hands, most of them having good position. Once I enter a pot, I am willing to fight hard for the money, but I wait for good starting hands. If most of the pots are being raised an outlandish amount, it hurts my chances. If the play is fairly aggressive after the flop, that is okay. If multiple players are habitually calling my preflop raises (and everyone else’s), that should produce a lucrative game.

One of my no-limit hold’em tenets is to avoid playing big pots out of position by folding or limping in with hands that others––even a lot of top players––would prefer a stronger action. Let me turn this broad statement into concrete analysis.

(1) Do not play a suited ace with a smaller kicker than a ten in early position. I put this note in here for myself because when you are stuck, it is tempting to play a suited ace up front, as this hand type can win a big pot against a large field of opponents when you make a flush. It is easy to forget that flopping a flushdraw does not insure success. Among other things, the betting can get so expensive that you are going to be out big bucks if you miss the flush on the turncard, and may even need to fold when you were going to make the flush on the last card.

(2) Do not play suited connectors in early position. Most decent hold’em players realize this for run-of-the-mill hands with connectors, but they can still err by making exceptions for the best connecting cards like J-T suited and T-9 suited. I realize these hands are playable in a limp-fest type of game, but feel they must be folded when there is a lot of aggressive raising before the flop, as usually happens in a game with a double-digit size big blind. Another one of my tips says “Calling or raising up front with low connectors is not even to be considered a change-of-pace; it is a leak.”

(3) Don’t call with an offsuit A-J or K-Q if you will have poor position after the flop. This hand cannot call a raise, so when a lot of pots are getting popped preflop, you should fold. I do not mind open-raising them in late position, but believe calling (or raising) in early position is not a good play in most games.

The next two tips deal with how much to wager in a couple of big-pair situations:

(4) When holding pocket kings in the small blind, a massive overbet of the pot size is called for when a large field limps in. I used to simply tell players who are my clients that they should overbet the pot size when in the small blind, perhaps by a 20 percent margin. Now I feel that my poor results with two kings warrant a larger bet size in future situations. To put this into concrete terms, in a $2-$5 blinds game, you hold pocket kings in the small blind and five people have limped in when the betting gets back to you. There is now $35 in the pot after you “call.” I used to raise an amount that would make the total bet $40 to $50. Now I would raise to $75 or more.

Here are my reasons for the massive preflop overbet. You are in serious jeopardy if most of the field stays for the flop. If the field folds, this is no disaster. If you get one caller, this is fine. I sometimes use this massive raise on a hand like A-Q offsuit, so my opponents are not able to put me on kings with any certainty. Kings are a much more dangerous hand in this spot than aces, the pair that has no overcards. If you have kings and an ace comes on the flop, you will likely either fail to have the best hand or get muscled out of the pot even when no one has an ace. Lastly, such a massive overbet of the pot size creates suspicion as to whether the raiser really has a good hand. Another player might make a call on a hand like two tens that will do poorly against the kings.
So in a way, you are mimicking the way many players often like to handle A-K or A-Q.

When a number of players limp in for $2, pocket aces on the button should raise to $10 straight, not $10 more. Assuming you want to get played with when holding aces, there is a significant difference in how much action you get when you make the bet only $10 straight, as opposed to $10 more. Naturally, there are other hands you could raise with on the button, but the advantage of good position leads me to believe you should make the raise to $10 straight on all your button raises. There is much less need to end the pot when you have good position. ♠

Bob Ciaffone’s new poker book, No-limit Holdem Poker, is now available. This is Bob’s fifth book on poker strategy. It can be ordered from Bob for $25 by emailing him at [email protected]. Free shipping in the lower 48 states to Card Player readers. All books autographed. Bob Ciaffone is available for poker lessons.