Jonathan Little's Tournament Poker Cheat Sheet

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Jonathan Little's Tournament Poker Cheat Sheet Jonathan Little’s Tournament Poker Cheat Sheet • Think about the action on every street of every • Value bet when you think you have the best • Against players who play too many hands too hand before you act. hand most of the time AND you think your aggressively: • Do NOT play robotically. opponent will call with most of his range. o Realize they often have marginal hands even when they apply pressure. • Don’t play the same style all the time. • Value bet relatively weak made hands on the turn against loose players who never fold any o They will usually fold if you apply • Adjust your playing style to your specific made hand or draw. aggression. opponents. • Do NOT value bet when you think you have the o If you induce them to bluff, do not fold • Exploit your opponents’ tendencies. best hand most of the time and you think your decently strong holdings. • Raise with a different range based on your stack opponent will fold most of his range that you o Bluff them on scary boards. size. beat. • Against players who play too few hands too • When calling a raise, you need to ensure you are • Do NOT value bet the turn and river against passively: getting at least 10:1 implied odds with your tight players who will fold all their worse hands small pocket pairs. and call with all their better hands. o Relentlessly steal their blinds. • When the effective stack is greater than 40 BBs, • Be less inclined to value bet when losing will o Fold to their aggression. try to play lots of pots in position, especially leave you with a significantly less profitable • Against players who play too few hands too when you think you can get heads-up against stack. aggressively: opponents who play poorly post-flop. • Pot control to avoid getting blown off your hand o They are usually not capable of folding • You MUST get well out of your comfort zone and to induce your opponent to bluff. hands they perceive as strong. o Play hands with huge implied odds. and blatantly exploit your opponents’ • Do NOT pot control when your opponents will weaknesses if you want to become a big winner. o Do not stack off with hands worse than pay you off poorly. top pair, top kicker. • If you only pay attention to your own two cards, • Do NOT pot control when your opponents will o Relentlessly steal their blinds. your position, and your chip stack, you are not bluff the river. • Against players who play well: certain to fail in the long run. • Against players who play too many hands too o If your opponent thinks you’re tight, • You MUST focus on your opponents. passively: bluff a lot. o If your opponent thinks you’re wild, • Pay attention to EVERY SINGLE HAND that takes o Value bet them relentlessly. place at the poker table. play tightly. o Fold to them when they apply o Apply aggression in intelligent spots. • Take mental notes about your opponents. significant pressure. o Fold when it is clear they want to put • If you have a bad memory, write notes in a o Bluff them on later streets when they money in the pot. notepad. have a marginal hand AND you think o It is usually smart to avoid them and • Take notes on what each specific player does they will fold. focus on the weak players. incorrectly. • Always put your opponent on a RANGE OF HANDS rather than a specific hand. Jonathan Little’s Tournament Poker Cheat Sheet Things to Focus on BEFORE Things to Focus on DURING Things to Focus on AFTER a Tournament: Each Hand of a Tournament: a Tournament: Bankroll and Mindset Effective Stack Size The Good Do I have the proper bankroll of at least 50 to How should I alter my play based on the What did I do well? 100 buy-in’s? effective stack size? The Bad If I don’t, am I in the mindset to play properly as Payout Structure What did I do poorly? if I was properly bankrolled? Should the payout structure alter my decisions? Get Specific Sleep Expectation Are there any specific hands I have problems Did I get a full night’s sleep? How do I maximize my expectation for THIS with? hand? Breakfast Discuss with Friends Did I eat a healthy breakfast? Notes Did I discuss my difficult hands with my friends Am I writing down my difficult hands so I can and post them on the FloatTheTurn.com Study review them later? forums? Did I study my previous games to find my errors? My Opponent Improve My Weaknesses What do I know about my opponent? What aspect of my game do I need to work on Mental Focus the most BEFORE my next tournament? Is my mind clear such that playing poker is the What are my opponent’s tendencies? ONLY thing that matters now? Take Action What can I do to take advantage of my What steps can I take IMMEDIATELY to ensure I opponent’s tendencies? play better next time? What does my opponent know or think he knows think about me? Take your poker game to the next level with PokerCoaching.com. Is my opponent doing anything to take advantage of me? PokerCoaching.com offers more than 400 To start your free 7-day trial, visit: What should I do to be sure my opponent is not interactive quizzes and more than 30 taking advantage of me? Coaching Webinars. PokerCoaching.com Should I play in an exploitable or balanced To start your free 7-day trial, visit: No Credit Card Required! manner against my opponent? PokerCoaching.com .
Recommended publications
  • Using Risk Dominance Strategy in Poker
    Journal of Information Hiding and Multimedia Signal Processing ©2014 ISSN 2073-4212 Ubiquitous International Volume 5, Number 3, July 2014 Using Risk Dominance Strategy in Poker J.J. Zhang Department of ShenZhen Graduate School Harbin Institute of Technology Shenzhen Applied Technology Engineering Laboratory for Internet Multimedia Application HIT Part of XiLi University Town, NanShan, 518055, ShenZhen, GuangDong [email protected] X. Wang Department of ShenZhen Graduate School Harbin Institute of Technology Public Service Platform of Mobile Internet Application Security Industry HIT Part of XiLi University Town, NanShan, 518055, ShenZhen, GuangDong [email protected] L. Yao, J.P. Li and X.D. Shen Department of ShenZhen Graduate School Harbin Institute of Technology HIT Part of XiLi University Town, NanShan, 518055, ShenZhen, GuangDong [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] Received March, 2014; revised April, 2014 Abstract. Risk dominance strategy is a complementary part of game theory decision strategy besides payoff dominance. It is widely used in decision of economic behavior and other game conditions with risk characters. In research of imperfect information games, the rationality of risk dominance strategy has been proved while it is also wildly adopted by human players. In this paper, a decision model guided by risk dominance is introduced. The novel model provides poker agents of rational strategies which is relative but not equals simply decision of “bluffing or no". Neural networks and specified probability tables are applied to improve its performance. In our experiments, agent with the novel model shows an improved performance when playing against our former version of poker agent named HITSZ CS 13 which participated Annual Computer Poker Competition of 2013.
    [Show full text]
  • Early Round Bluffing in Poker Author(S): California Jack Cassidy Source: the American Mathematical Monthly, Vol
    Early Round Bluffing in Poker Author(s): California Jack Cassidy Source: The American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 122, No. 8 (October 2015), pp. 726-744 Published by: Mathematical Association of America Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.4169/amer.math.monthly.122.8.726 Accessed: 23-12-2015 19:20 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Mathematical Association of America is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The American Mathematical Monthly. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 128.32.135.128 on Wed, 23 Dec 2015 19:20:53 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Early Round Bluffing in Poker California Jack Cassidy Abstract. Using a simplified form of the Von Neumann and Morgenstern poker calculations, the author explores the effect of hand volatility on bluffing strategy, and shows that one should never bluff in the first round of Texas Hold’Em. 1. INTRODUCTION. The phrase “the mathematics of bluffing” often brings a puzzled response from nonmathematicians. “Isn’t that an oxymoron? Bluffing is psy- chological,” they might say, or, “Bluffing doesn’t work in online poker.
    [Show full text]
  • Abiding Chance: Online Poker and the Software of Self-Discipline
    ESSAYS Abiding Chance: Online Poker and the Software of Self- Discipline Natasha Dow Schüll A man sits before a large desktop monitor station, the double screen divided into twenty- four rectangles of equal size, each containing the green oval of a poker table with positions for nine players. The man is virtu- ally “seated” at all twenty- four tables, along with other players from around the world. He quickly navigates his mouse across the screen, settling for moments at a time on flashing windows where his input is needed to advance play at a given table. His rapid- fire esponsesr are enabled by boxed panels of colored numbers and letters that float above opponents’ names; the letters are acronyms for behavioral tendencies relevant to poker play, and the numbers are statistical scores identifying where each player falls in a range for those tendencies. Taken together, the letters and numbers supply the man with enough information to act strategically at a rate of hundreds of hands per hour. Postsession, the man opens his play- tracking database to make sure the software has successfully imported the few thousand hands he has just played. After quickly scrolling through to ensure that they are all there, he recalls some particularly challenging hands he would like to review and checks a number Thanks to Paul Rabinow and Limor Samimian- Darash, for prompting me to gather this material for a different article, and to Richard Fadok, Paul Gardner, Lauren Kapsalakis, and the students in my 2013 Self as Data graduate seminar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for helping me to think through that material.
    [Show full text]
  • Poker 101 Poker Rules and Concepts for Our Annual Charity Tournament
    Poker 101 Poker Rules and Concepts for our Annual Charity Tournament Adapted from MIT 15.S50 Lecture Brainteasers Problem: • (1) In Poker, what is the best hand to go up against Pocket Aces? (other than the other two Aces?) • (2) The situation: heads up on the turn, but before the river comes out you already know you are guaranteed to lose, regardless of what your opponent has. What are your hole cards, and what is on the board? Brainteaser Solution: • (1) In Poker, what is the best hand to go up against Pocket Aces? (other than the other two Aces?) • AA 77.50% 65s 22.50% • (2) The situation: heads up on the turn, but before the river comes out you already know you are guaranteed to lose, regardless of what your opponent has. What are your hole cards, and what is on the board? • Your hole cards: 22 • Board: any quads (5555) Announcements • Annual Charity Poker Tournament – Saturday, 4/15 • Pitch Perfect: A QFS-USWIB Production • Pitch Workshops: 4/11 and 4/18 at 6:30pm • Deadline: 4/18 • Competition: 4/20 • Registration: http://tinyurl.com/qfsuswib • If you are interested but don’t have a team, email us! Poker Rules Texas Hold ‘Em Overview • Texas Hold'em is a community card poker game, with game play focused as much on the betting as on the cards being played • Texas Holdem is played on a single table with 2 to 9 players • You win a pot by having the best hand, or by having all other players fold before the showdown • The structure of Texas Hold'em can be broken up into three main divisions: 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Jan23-Lecture.Pdf
    Introduction to the Theory & Practice of Poker Lecture #8 January 23, 2020 Last night’s tourney • 178 players entered • Lasted 3.5 hours • I did not win a single hand (had one chop) • Final table, please stand up! • Winner: Shehrya Haris • Special note: Qualified in both satellites • Freda Zhou, Sam Lebowitz, Claudia Moncaliano Meta game • Should you ever show your hand? • Simple answer is no • You might be providing more information than you think • If you show a strong hand when someone folds • You eliminate some uncertainty they had about whether you were bluffing • They may more correctly label you as TAG • If you show that you folded a strong hand • Because you are trying to prove how good a player you are • First, you shouldn’t let them know if you are a good player • Second, now you will get bullied by the good players • You don’t want anyone to know that you can make good lay downs • you want them to be afraid to bluff you because they think you’re such a moron that you might always call them. • Advanced move: • The “accidental show your cards on purpose” • Some pros make a living with meta-play • Table talk • Selectively showing to advance a particular image There are 2 rules for success in poker 1. Never reveal everything you know Physical tells • I’m not a huge fan of using tells • Too many books • Too many players fake them • Tells are specific to individuals • Bet sizing tells • Bet strong when weak, and vice versa • Some commonly known tells • Stare hard at someone when weak • Hand shakes when strong • Be sure hand doesn’t
    [Show full text]
  • Article 3 Understanding Hand Strength After the Flop Pokerlist
    Article 3 Understanding Hand Strength After The Flop Pokerlist.org For the most part, post flop play is determined by the strength of your hand and the relative hand strength of your opponent’s hand range. It sounds really complicated but it really isn’t. On the flop when the three community cards are dealt, you will have a better understanding of the strength of your hand and whether or not you should bet. If you have some type of made hand you have to decide if you likely have the best hand. It will almost become second nature to ask yourself how the flop could have changed the strength of your hand? Let’s take a look at the strength of hands to consider after the Flop. Monster hands don’t occur very often and include quads, boats, flushes, and straights. These hands are almost certainly the best hand if it goes to showdown and should be played like the nuts. You want to create big pots when you have monster hands. The second category is very strong hands, which include sets and two pair hands. Whenever you have these hands you likely have the best hand. Sure, you will sometimes lose with set over set, but if you are not playing sets and two pairs like the nuts, quite often you will not be extracting maximum value. Overpairs and top pair hands are the next group of strong hands. Depending on your opponents, with these hands you can usually expect to extract three streets of value when you are doing the betting.
    [Show full text]
  • Kill Everyone
    Kill Everyone Advanced Strategies for No-Limit Hold ’Em Poker Tournaments and Sit-n-Go’s Lee Nelson Tysen Streib and Steven Heston Foreword by Joe Hachem Huntington Press Las Vegas, Nevada Contents Foreword.................................................................................. ix Author’s.Note.......................................................................... xi Introduction..............................................................................1 How.This.Book.Came.About...................................................5 Part One—Early-Stage Play . 1. New.School.Versus.Old.School.............................................9 . 2. Specific.Guidelines.for.Accumulating.Chips.......................53 Part Two—Endgame Strategy Introduction.........................................................................69 . 3. Basic.Endgame.Concepts....................................................71 . 4. Equilibrium.Plays................................................................89 . 5. Kill.Phil:.The.Next.Generation..........................................105 . 6. Prize.Pools.and.Equities....................................................115 . 7. Specific.Strategies.for.Different.Tournament.Types.........149 . 8. Short-Handed.and.Heads-Up.Play...................................179 . 9. Detailed.Analysis.of.a.Professional.SNG..........................205 Part Three—Other Topics .10. Adjustments.to.Recent.Changes.in.No-Limit Hold.’Em.Tournaments....................................................231 .11. Tournament.Luck..............................................................241
    [Show full text]
  • Pandánte Rulebook
    Pandánte Rulebook Gambling • Lying • Pandas Introduction Pandánte is a gambling game played by the Pandas of the Pandalands. In this game, lying is encouraged (humans use the softer term “bluffing”). You can lie about which abilities you have access to and you can lie about whether your cards are strong enough to win the pot! Be careful though, because other players can call you out on your lies for fun and profit. Object of the game # players Gold to Win Be the first player to accumulate enough 2 players 80 gold gold to win (see the chart to the right). At 3 players 90 gold the end of each gambit, check if anyone has that much or more. If multiple players do, 4 players 100 gold the one with the most gold wins. If you want 5 players 120 gold a longer game, you can choose a higher threshold. 6 players 150 gold You can also play Pandánte as an ongoing gambling game, allowing players to drop in and out without any end condition. Are you Panda enough to risk real money? Contents ✦ 6 boards 79 cards: ✦ 1 deck of 79 cards ✦ 60 cards numbered 1-10 in each of 6 colors ✦ 1 dealer button ✦ 1 Joker, counts as any color and any number ✦ 1 rulebook ✦ 6 Panda Lords, one of each color ✦ 6 “!” challenge cards Setup ✦ 6 rules cards Starting Gold Each player starts with 50 gold. If you don’t have any gold coins, use poker chips or common coins instead. Use a few different denominations to make it more manageable.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction to the Theory & Practice of Poker
    Introduction to the Theory & Practice of Poker Lecture #4 January 16, 2020 Some logistics • Reminder to register for Saturday, 8pm poker tournament • We are showing Rounders at 7:30 pm in this room • Second showing of All In the Poker Movie on Monday, 1/20, 1:30 pm • Feedback for last night’s poker play • Less open limping • But some of you still doing it • Raise sizes still seem a bit unusual • Unless you have a specific reason stick to 3 times the previous bet • Opening ranges a bit wide • Typically you shouldn’t play more than one or two hands per round, if that • If you do, you’re playing too loose • This might be fun with play money, but when you play for real money, tighten up • Lots of use of the word “dominated” in the banter in the chat Poker Riddle: Looking back on the hand afterwards, you had the absolute nuts on the flop and the absolute nuts on the turn. On the river, you could not win or even chop. To answer correctly: Describe your hand, the flop, the turn, and the river and prove that you solved the riddle. The conditions must be true for every possible set of opponents. Amber Hamelin How to describe a hand Describing a hand • Stack sizes • Effective stacks • Table image: yours and theirs • Recent activity: aggressive, passive • Position • Cards • Thought process • Opponents thought process, if any • Action Example: how not to do it I had a pair of aces. I bet big and got one caller. Flop came low cards.
    [Show full text]
  • Online Poker Statistics Guide a Comprehensive Guide for Online Poker Players
    Online Poker Statistics Guide A comprehensive guide for online poker players This guide was created by a winning poker player on behalf of Poker Copilot. ​ ​ Poker Copilot is a tool that automatically records your opponents' poker statistics, ​ and shows them onscreen in a HUD (head-up display) while you play. Version 2. Updated April, 2017 Table of Contents Online Poker Statistics Guide 5 Chapter 1: VPIP and PFR 5 Chapter 2: Unopened Preflop Raise (UOPFR) 5 Chapter 3: Blind Stealing 5 Chapter 4: 3-betting and 4-betting 6 Chapter 5: Donk Bets 6 Chapter 6: Continuation Bets (cbets) 6 Chapter 7: Check-Raising 7 Chapter 8: Squeeze Bet 7 Chapter 9: Big Blinds Remaining 7 Chapter 10: Float Bets 7 Chapter 1: VPIP and PFR 8 What are VPIP and PFR and how do they affect your game? 8 VPIP: Voluntarily Put In Pot 8 PFR: Preflop Raise 8 The relationship between VPIP and PFR 8 Identifying player types using VPIP/PFR 9 VPIP and PFR for Six-Max vs. Full Ring 10 Chapter 2: Unopened Preflop Raise (UOPFR) 12 What is the Unopened Preflop Raise poker statistic? 12 What is a hand range? 12 What is a good UOPFR for beginners from each position? 12 How to use Equilab hand charts 13 What about the small and big blinds? 16 When can you widen your UOPFR range? 16 Flat calling using UOPFR 16 Flat calling with implied odds 18 Active players to your left reduce your implied odds 19 Chapter 3: Blind Stealing 20 What is a blind steal? 20 Why is the blind-stealing poker statistic important? 20 Choosing a bet size for a blind steal 20 How to respond to a blind steal
    [Show full text]
  • Check/Raise Flush Draws in the Middle
    P G RULES FOR 20PLAYING FLUSH DRAWS IN 2018 You are about to read some of the secrets Ryan Fee and I (Doug Polk) have used to separate us from your average poker player. RYAN FEE DOUG POLK We, like many players, used to aimlessly bet the flop every time we had a flush draw without much of a plan for the turn and river and with little consideration for the impact it had on the rest of our range. (Sound familiar…?) After spending years refining and optimizing our games we have deduced a methodology to playing flush draws that is balanced, sneaky, and let’s us fight for pots where other players aren’t even looking. By following these rules you will make more money in two ways: 1 More often, you will make better hands fold when bluffing, worse hands call when value betting, and put in the minimum when we are behind. 2 Most players are still behind the curve and play most of, if not all of their flush draws the same on the flop. You will make chips by having bluffs and value bets in spots your opponents do not expectP and are not prepared for. G 20 RULES FOR PLAYING FLUSH DRAWS 1 RULE #1 Ask yourself “If my hand wasn’t a flush draw, how would I play it?” Chances are you should play the flush draw the same way. Example: j t 2 If you T 9 on would normally X check t 9 you should also check XX RULE #2 Check the nut flush draw most of the time, except in instances where it is a very strong hand and you are borderline value-betting.
    [Show full text]
  • Fish Or Shark – Data Mining Online Poker
    Fish or Shark – Data Mining Online Poker Ulf Johansson and Cecilia Sönströd Abstract — In this paper, data mining techniques are used to cards face down. These cards are referred to as hole cards . analyze data gathered from online poker. The study focuses on Now the initial betting round takes place. After that, three short-handed Texas Hold’em, and the data sets used contain public cards (the flop ), are placed face up in the middle of thousands of human players, each having played more than the table. The second betting round follows. When the 1000 hands. The study has two, complementary, goals. First, betting round has finished, another public card (the turn ), is building predictive models capable of categorizing players into placed alongside the flop. Next is the third betting round. good and bad players, i.e., winners and losers. Second, After that, the final, fifth, public card (the river ) is turned producing clear and accurate descriptions of what constitutes the difference between winning and losing in poker. In the up, followed by the final betting round. Each player still experimentation, neural network ensembles are shown to be remaining in the pot now combines the public cards with her very accurate when categorizing player profiles into winners hole cards to obtain a five card poker hand. When doing so, and losers. Furthermore, decision trees and decision lists used a player may use one, both or none of her hole cards. to acquire concept descriptions are shown to be quite Naturally, the player now (at the showdown ) having the best comprehensible, and still fairly accurate.
    [Show full text]