Poker Copycats

The evolution of poker is a fascinating phenomenon. The game has gone through many sudden surges in evolution over the past 50 years. Back before Chris Moneymaker won the WSOP Main Event I’ve heard that the standard opening raise size was 4x the blind. This has gradually decreased smaller and smaller with many people now opening for the bare minimum. The reasons for this aren’t the purpose of this article, if you don’t know them do some research into it! The reasons for this article are to warn against being a copycat!

As professional online players started opening for smaller and smaller amounts, and started having major success by doing, so many players emulated their style as best they could. This is perfectly understandable behaviour, but it leaves a major gap in one’s game. Without knowing why a particular play leads to making more money, we are unable to adapt to changing circumstances that make the play less profitable than an alternative. In the case of bet sizing, if we are very deep and our opponent in the big blind calls frequently pre flop and check folds frequently post flop we should opt for a larger raise sizing to exploit this very profitable weakness.

There are many such instances of this. Continuation betting is another interesting example, years ago I saw professional’s giving the advice of always betting the flop 100% of the time if you raised pre flop, which at the time was solid profitable advice since so many people simply check folded far too often. As I highlighted in a previous article this is now a major leak in general and the trend is now to continuation bet less often. If you emulate this without knowing why you are doing so, you’ll end up checking back with the wrong sorts of hands. Typically a continuation bet is neglected in order to control the size of the pot with medium strength hands and to slow play some big hands (we would do well to work on balance in this spot by checking back draws and air on occasion too). Not knowing why people check back more often than they used to and simply copying the trend will lead to your ranges being unrefined which will cost you in the long run. Following a trend will lead to some success, as you will inevitably accidentally get the play right a decent % of the time, but ultimately understanding the fundamentals behind why a new play is occurring will allow you to not only apply a strategy more successfully but also to disregard the strategy at an appropriate time in order to exploit your opponent.

There are many more trends we can look at, donk betting, limping, check raising, 2 betting on the flop, 2 betting on the river etc. All of these areas are worth careful consideration about what hands you make the plays with and why rather than just being a copycat and making the plays without considering the deeper fundamentals of them.
That’s enough strategy from me and time for a brag! I’ve had some real success in the online arena lately. Most recently I won a package on partypoker.com worth $13,000. The package includes travel expenses, 4 nights in a luxury hotel and most importantly entry into the €10,000 Mazagan High Roller! I’ve played $10,000 events before, most notably the WSOP Main Event, but this buy in is a touch bigger than my biggest ever buy in and the field will be smaller and probably tougher too. I’m really excited for the challenge this will bring, not to mention the chance to rub shoulders and compete with some of the best players the world has to offer, I also get to see a part of the world I’ve never seen before. I was actually a touch naughty in terms of bankroll management for the satellite. I’d been using the satellite tree party poker have on offer, playing the $22 satellites and $109 satellites to qualify for the $1050 final they have for qualifying for this event on a Sunday night. I failed to qualify, but saw that the final phase was pretty short on runners and had potential to overlay. Quite fancying this trip I decided to buy in directly, justifying my decision with the potential overlay on offer. The tournament did indeed overlay and I managed to win the satellite. The lovely Emma is more than a little green that she cannot come with me to this event! It promises to be an amazing experience regardless of how I do in the tournament itself.