Poker Articles

One day last month I was able to have a conversation with two of the top online poker players as ranked by P5s. We spent a lot of time talking and, in between arguments over the best gelato in Rome and how long it takes to walk from Paradise Island to The Blue Parrot in Nassau, we talked a bit of nlhe. Although both guys were willing to share our discussion with p5s, neither one of them wanted to be quoted. So I am leaving all names out of it, and I apologize upfront for my poor memory.

On big pairs early: Two of us were in agreement that big pairs are only aces and kings, but the third argued that queens and jacks should be included with that group as well. All three of us agreed that in a rebuy we would usually just push from almost any position if the table was anything but ultra tight. Since many players will push or call with almost anything early in a rebuy, you may as well play the big ones the same way.

In a freezeout we were more divided in what plays we would try to make. Two of us felt that limping in very early position was a good gamble. If you have good post flop reading skills and are capable of folding even a pair of aces on a bad flop, this type of play can be very profitable. Sometimes you get a raise and can re-raise, or even flat call in the right situation, but even when the worst happens and it gets called around you may still hit the flop. If you are unable to get off your big pair post-flop, then allowing your opponents to get a cheap flop is a big mistake however, and you should almost always raise or push.

The third among us said that he is such an overaggressive player anyway that if he ever flat calls it would look too out of place. We all agreed that sometimes it is more important to be consistent with your character than it is to be deceptive. Also we all agreed that if we had a big pair on the button the standard raise, at least, is called for.

On small pairs: This topic brought up the earlier distinction about whether jacks or queens are small or big pairs, so we put the line at jacks for this topic. All three of us liked to set mine whenever the call was cheap and the potential rewards were great. Rather than win a few hundred chips by pushing players out with your pair, gambling a little to try to win at least ten or more times that is worthwhile. But again, if you cannot ever fold your jacks to a 679 flop no matter what the action is, then you should not give a free ride to the gamblers.

An exception to this general rule was made for times when your stack is not healthy enough to gamble with. If you are in push/fold mode, then all three of us would rather gamble with a pair than any other hand. The added benefit of (usually) forcing most of the players out and possibly winning the (small) pot right away helps the short stack too. And, if you have enough chips, even a short stack can make it expensive enough pre-flop to discourage many callers.

On AK: We all thought AK was harder to play well than almost any other hand in the game. We spent more time arguing back and forth over when the right time is to push with AK and when to fold to a push. We did all agree that the ability to fold AK in the right circumstances was a key skill to winning MTTs. We also agreed that pushing with AK very early on when the pot size is low is a huge leak in the average player’s game.

The most highly ranked player among us said that he will fold any ace, suited or not, to a big raise early in a tourney. Unless he had a good read on the aggressor, and was sure he was ahead, he had no problem letting AK hit the muck rather than committing a big portion of his stack to it. He did add that once the blinds got fairly big in relation to stack sizes, he values AK and even AQ more.

The other ranked player was much more aggressive with his aces, and especially AK. He was adamant about raising with your aces and staying aggressive after the flop even if you miss. He also said that he will play them even faster later on in the tourney. I mostly tried to keep my mouth shut and listen to them argue on this one, but personally I lean more towards the first approach than the second.

On end-game play: Initially both ranked players seemed to be on the same page. “Aggression is key at the ft,” they both said.

To play devil’s advocate I brought up a situation I was in recently where I thought I had made a mistake playing a big pot against the chip leader early on at the ft. If I had waited for a while I would have assured myself of at least making a lot more money than I got for going out 9th.

I hope I remember this next part correctly, because it sounded good to me at the time.

Both guys told me they would have made the same play I did, and if you get unlucky enough to run into aces there, that’s just bad luck. Both guys also said that the way to get aggressive at the end is to raise almost every time you enter a pot and fold to most reraises unless the pusher is very short stacked. They agreed that the best way to accumulate chips at the end is uncontested.

So what does all this mean? My goal in writing this was simply to present some information about different situations in the game. I think the fact that there was so much debate on almost all of the points also says something. If just three guys can’t agree on the correct play to make at any given time, then there is always more than one right way to play a hand. And one point I always make to my students seems like a good one to end this on – in poker you can play the hand perfectly and still lose.