Poker Blog - Noel

Originally published in WPT magazine:

I have touched on this topic in some previous articles and it is certainly important enough to warrant further inspection so for this article I am going to talk about continuation betting and pot control in PLO – these are not mutually exclusive topics in the realm of PLO – in fact they are highly interdependent.

I mentioned previously in the context of continuation betting that whatever you do, make sure you do it smartly. As a player, and particularly if you are one who errs on the side of aggression, you need to trade off the propensity to continuation bet with the requirement to control the size of the pot.

You also need to measure your continuation betting frequency – if you continuation bet too much you are leaving yourself open to being exploited by good thinking players and it will end up costing you dearly. If you don’t continuation bet enough then you are leaving value behind you on the table. You need to strive for the happy place that lies in between.

As a starting point you should arrive at your decision to continuation bet based on key factors, primarily the strength of your hand on the flop, the opportunity your hand presents for improvement and your relative position to your opponents in the hand with you.

Let us first consider the impact of the strength of your hand and particularly how you react to one of the likely subsequent plays by your opponent – a check raise or raise. For this I consider that there are 3 categories of hands.

A.    Strong hand, proceed with confidence and comfort – these are your top set, top 2 pair and flush draw, wrap and flush draw type hands. You are confident that you can put the rest of your stack into the middle with decent equity against your opponents range. In normal playing circumstances the decision to continuation bet is a simple one as you are generally willing your opponent to make a mistake and commit himself to the pot.

B.    Weak Hand – you have missed the flop completely. Having raised it up in position with a hand like 8877ds the flop has come down an annoying AJ10r, when checked to you the only opportunity you have to win the pot is to bet and represent the broadway cards. Irrespective of your opponents next action you generally have a very easy time of it.

He folds and you win the pot, he raises and you have an easy fold, he calls and you need a further read before you can fire the second barrel although it generally isn’t a fantastic idea.

C.    Mediocre Hand – semi decent holding with some strength but little nut potential. This is a small wrap on a flushing board or one pair, a gutshot and a couple of back door flush draws. The common theme here is that you begin to hate life when you bet and get raised as you generally have to ditch your hand and get angry with yourself for denying yourself the opportunity to take a free card.

Continuation betting too frequently with this type of holding will prove to be a major leak in your game and you should tread very carefully as not only will you destroy potential value by failing to see later streets which will lead to profit but you will also be leaking valuable portions of your stack in situations where you continuation bet and are forced to fold to the subsequent raise from your opponent.

Forgoing a potential future revenue stream and lending yourself to an immediate negative revenue stream magnifies your mistake greatly – for this reason the requirement to concentrate on your continuation betting decisions and to ultimately make smart ones is of significant importance.

Whilst the above is a fundamentally strong starting point upon which to base your decisions I have warned in the past against playing poker like matching symbols – with that in mind you also need to consider your opponent and his tendencies.

Is he weak tight and does he fold to continuation bets a lot? Is he a passive fool that check calls to infinity with silly draws and weak made hands? Does he check raise with frequency and what type of hands does he do this with? Is he a tricky player? Is he more aware of your play than you realize? Will he just call your continuation bet with top set in the hope of picking up further value from you on later streets? All of these are important things to consider, understand and add to your artillery.

I don’t mean to scare people into not continuation betting enough; rather I am hoping that people will consider their decision to continuation bet a little more carefully. After all it is one of the best tools to use and it assists in putting pressure on your opponents and makes them ditch certain hands out of position that they could continue with in position and indeed against certain weaker opponents we sometimes get them to fold hands in position that they probably shouldn’t.

As we can see the decision of whether or not to continuation bet lends itself to pot control. I’m tempted to chuck in some cheesy cliché about them being similar to a horse and carriage or a hand and glove but in the interest of preserving this column from such atrocities I would ask you to just accept that they are highly interdependent.

The importance of pot control increases significantly depending on your relative position. When you are in position you can play inflated pots more comfortably with marginal holdings – as we have demonstrated before you are the one applying pressure and making life difficult for your opponent.

The corollary holds that when you are out of position the importance of trying to control the size of the pot increases. Strong hands can be played quite easily from any position but when holding a marginal hand life starts getting tough.

In an earlier article I demonstrated at length the problems with continuation betting AhJhJd7s out of position on a Qc9c6d board against a tricky opponent and it would be a worthwhile exercise for you to revisit that article yet again as it takes a comprehensive look at situations like this.

Top Tips for Continuation Betting

1.    Do it smartly – pay particular attention to how you play post flop with the mediocre holdings as you may be destroying value.
2.    Get the balance right – make sure that your continuation bet frequency isn’t too high but also be sure that you are utilizing this strong weapon enough.
3.    Respect position – don’t go bloating those pots out of position when you are holding marginal hands.

This article was originally published in WPT Magazine, where Noel ‘BigCityBanker’ Hayes has a monthly strategy column:

One of the more regular questions I get asked about PLO is how to play Aces, my reply is always the same – sensibly!

Holdem players are used to reaping huge rewards with AA, their strength is unquestioned pre-flop and they also maintain their value very well post-flop so players making the transition from Holdem make the mistake of playing them similarly in PLO.

In Holdem you are often quite happy to put 10% of your stack in pre-flop with AA and proceed to put the other 90% in post-flop with an unimproved hand and a high expectation that you are still ahead. However, the reality in PLO is if you are putting 90% of your stack in post-flop with AA-xx combos that have either failed to improve of have limited potential for improvement on later streets your expectation of being ahead and of your play being profitable is quite small.

Of course not all AAxx hands are the same. AA72 rainbow, while still a desirable hand, is not in the same bracket as something like AAJ10 double-suited (ds). Your backhand or sidecards i.e. the other 2 cards in your hand with AA, should also bring a little something to the party. Preferably they should be suited to the aces and also offering straightening potential – for that reason AAJ10ds is considered as the very best PLO starting hand, while others consider AAKKds to be the powerhouse – if I am being totally honest either one would be just fine for me and would be enough to go on chockfull of confidence and swagger.

You may deduce from this that the general key to playing AAxx combos is to put as much of your stack in pre-flop as possible so as to limit the implied odds you are offering your opponent, thereby ensuring that post-flop you will in turn be offered huge odds on placing the rest of your money into the middle against your opponent irrespective of the flop texture.

Let’s thinks about this for a moment. If players at your table have effective stacks of 100 big blinds when you put in 33% or more of your stack pre-flop, it is very difficult to make a mistake in your post-flop play. You have put in 33bbs in pre-flop and so has your opponent, on the flop your stack is the same as the size of the pot so if you are first to act you can make a pot-sized bet and finish your decision making for the hand and force the decision on your opponent for the rest of his stack.

On the occasion that your opponent acts ahead of you and he makes a pot-sized bet you are now being laid 2/1 and it will only be a very occasional case where you have less than 33% equity in the pot so you will rarely be making a mistake by committing the rest of your money to the pot.

I will expand on the latter point a little more. All things being equal if you have put 33% of your stack in pre-flop you will have made the last raise and most people will polarize your range squarely towards AAxx combos as by now you will either have 4-bet or put in a strong 3-bet after an initial open raise and a number of callers. For that reason when a player pots into you on the flop he is often times doing so with 1 pair and a draw type hand that is technically behind and he is hoping to get a fold out of you, after all why would he lead top set when he expects you to commit yourself to the pot regardless? For that reason don’t be scared and fear the worst every time somebody leads into you in a situation like this. You got to have the big heart and stand firm!

Indulge me a little and allow me to stray momentarily. Think about this play and consider my previous articles where I stressed the need for one’s play to be unpredictable. If you only ever 4-bet pre-flop with AAxx combinations, a good player will play against your hand accordingly. For this reason you need to get comfortable being aggressive against other aggressive players. Don’t be afraid to take the initiative with 8910Jds or KQJ9ss type hands, remember your opponent doesn’t have to have AAxx combos and its not the end of the world if you do run into their AAxx hands as you have the strongest possible category of hands to tackle them with. There is also the added bonus of being able to represent the AAxx combo on suitable flops i.e. ones that include an A or low paired boards like 833r or similar.

Despite this general rule of putting as much of your stack in pre-flop as possible it shouldn’t diminish you from your responsibility to continue to think about your play. You have to consider what position putting in the next raise with AAxx will leave you in. If stacks are deeper than 100bbs you don’t want to be putting in a 3-bet with bad AAxx type hands from the SB where you are getting too small a percentage of your stack in the middle.

As with everything, this is situation dependent but consider effective stacks of 150bbs and after an UTG raise it is folded to you in the BB with AA72 rainbow and you make a pot-sized 3-bet. At this point you are out of position having defined your hand somewhat and you have inflated the pot by raising to 11bbs – the only thing you have achieved here is to make life difficult for yourself later in the hand.

If the UTG player is any way competent he should call your raise with the rules of Bridge and trip Jacks in his hand as with effective stacks as they are he can steal the pot from you a large portion of the time. Think about it, unless your hand improves, and let’s face it there are a very limited number of flops which improve your hand, you will likely fold to pressure from your opponent on a later street.

So that’s it folks, just like in Holdem Aces should be your most profitable hand over a large sample of hands. It is just that the journey to this result involves some cuter play and the application of a little more sense. If Aces aren’t your biggest winner then you are doing something wrong and should spend some time to examine your plays and consider if some of the losses could have been avoided by applying some of the logic outlined above.

Top tips for playing AAxx hands in PLO:

1.    You don’t have to play a big pot with AAxx hands, when you do play it make sure it is on your terms. There is nothing wrong with occasionally disguising the strength of your hand where other actions would lead to a difficult post flop spot.
2.    Continue to play sensibly – don’t be blinded by the pretty looking AAxx hand as Aces don’t retain their strength post-flop in PLO like they do in Holdem.

This article was originally published in WPT Magazine, where Noel ‘BigCityBanker’ Hayes has a monthly strategy column:

This month we are going to examine some post flop situations in 6-max PLO. More specifically I want to elaborate on the relative strength of hands and how important it is for you to spend some time learning and understanding just how strong your hand is postflop and how you should proceed with this knowledge. I will also touch on how going multiway to the flop and beyond can diminish your expected outcome.

I have mentioned in the past and I will do so again, PLO is a game of percentages – the differential in probability of winning a hand postflop in PLO tends to be closer to the mean. Against a competent opponent you will rarely be a commanding favorite when you put your stack into the middle. On that basis it really helps to know how your hand matches up against specific types of holdings that your opponent may have.

One of the offshoots of this is that every percent counts and that is why I stress the importance of understanding your post flop equity. You don’t have to turn into one of those nerds who can instantly rattle off the exact winning percentages once the flop is down but it will not harm you to keep a PLO odds calculator open on your desktop and get into the habit of plugging in hands throughout your session or in your post session review.

Weaktight.com provides an excellent online resource which allows you to load hand histories and it will display them with card images and each players relative equity street by street. This is one of the easiest to use at a glance tools on the internet and I would urge readers to familiarize themselves with it.

I am going to show a few examples of hand match ups and how strong they are against probable hands for your opponent to have. I would call these the classic examples of Pot Limit Omaha – If you have played more than a few hundred hands then you will have found your self in spots like these.

Hand Matchup 1 – Top Set Vs Full Wrap

Your Hand (equity in brackets) QhQc2h2d (44.8%) V KsJc8c9s (55.2%) – Flop Qd10d7s

Different board textures present different scenarios. There are 2 lessons here, firstly the holder of K high needs to realize that he is a favorite over a hand as strong as top set and secondly the holder of top set needs to realize how vulnerable his hand is on a flop like this.

Neither player is making a mistake by putting all their money in on the flop and both should do so for similar reasons – maximizing their expectation before a potential scare card comes. If the board pairs the wrap closes down and if a 6, 8, 9, J, K, A or diamond falls then the holder of the set will tread more carefully.

Also the player with the set needs to remove uncertainty from later streets. He can not know his opponents exact holding, a scare card may fall on the turn leading him to make a mistake on a later street. Also if he peels the turn for a safe card then if a 3, 4 or 5 falls unless the board pairs on the river he can no longer have the nuts and may be bluffed off his hand by a thinking player.

Hand Matchup 2 – Top Set Vs Full Wrap & Flush Draw

Your Hand (equity in brackets) QhQd2h2d (40.1%) V KsJc8c9s (59.9%) – Flop Qs10c7s

This hand is very similar to the above, this time however we include a flush draw and a back door flush draw with the wrap. There is no need to expand further on this scenario than I have already above; it is merely for illustration purposes.

Hand Matchup 3 – Top Set Vs Nut Straight

Your Hand (equity in brackets) AdAs2c2h (36.80%) V KdQh8s8c (63.27%) – Flop AcJh10s

Top set is a mighty powerful hand and event against the made nut it still holds a lot of power. In this unfortunate situation the holder of top set needs to consider the pot odds he is being offered.

Say a $1/$2 game with effective stacks of $200, there is a raise and a re-raise preflop and both players put in $80 each. On the flop the player with the nut straight pushes his remaining $120 into the pot of $160.

At this point the holder of top set must call $120 to win $280. Even if he can say with confidence that his opponent holds the nut straight then he should make the call as it has a positive expectation.

Hand Matchup 4 – Top Set + NFD Vs Nut Straight

Your Hand (equity in brackets) AcAs2c2h (62.9%) V KdQh8s8c (37.1%) – Flop AdJc10c

With top set and the nut flush draw you are now in the realm of throwing the keys of your car into the middle of the pot! The holder of the nut straight should really consider peeling for a safe turn card in a spot like this. Especially if more than one opponent is showing an interest in proceedings. His equity is diminished and he should also consider the possibility that he will end up splitting the pot.

Hand Matchup 5 – Nut Straight Vs Going Higher

Your Hand (equity in brackets) AsKd3c4h (49.51%) V 7d8s9c10h (50.49%) – Flop 2c5s6d

This is a very good hand example to help illustrate the vulnerability of the made nuts when the board offers a lot of draw potential to opponents.

Hand Matchup 6 – Nut Straight Vs Going Higher & FD

Your Hand (equity in brackets) AsKd3c4h (33.66%) V 7d8s9c10s (66.34%) – Flop 2c5s6s

Often times people fall into the habit of playing PLO like a game of matching symbols. They flop the nuts and proceed to put hundreds of blinds into the middle as a big dog. Take a look at just how vulnerable your hand is?

The corollary to this is that if you are going higher with a flush draw then your hand is very, very strong in a heads up situation. Matchup 8 below shows how it gets all fuzzy once you go multiway.

Hand Matchup 7 – The power of Back Door Flush Draws

Compare 7d8s9h10c (50.5%) Vs AcKh4h3h (49.5%) – Flop 2c5s6d to

7d8s9d10s (56.5%) Vs AcKh4h3h (43.5%) – Flop 2c5s6d

Never ever discount the power of back door flush draws. Each one will offer you up to 3% additional equity in a hand. Remember I keep telling you that it is a game of close percentages and 3% for one back door flush draw or indeed 6% for 2 back door flush draws is a quality weapon to bring to a pot with you.

Matchup 8 – Let the buyer beware – how going multiway affects your equity.

I played this hand recently, I remember it very well not just because I re-sucked out on the river but because my principal opponent was AJKHoosier1 – the number 1 ranked online player in 2008. The %;s say all there is to say about this hand.

The game is $2/$4 PLO and straight up I am going to tell you my opponents hands, stack sizes, position and street by street equity.

Me: Big Blind; $425; 6s6c3s3h; 44.7%

AJKHoosier1: UTG; $610; 7c8d9d10s; 20%

Player3: UTG+1; $235; Kd9c8c7d; 35.2%

This should really open peoples’ eyes. We all know just how strong a hand like AJKHoosier1’ can be but just look how vulnerable it is once we go multiway to the flop? His diamonds are dead and a lot of his straightening cards are covered by Player 3.

Pre flop AJKHoosier1 rasies to $8, Player 3 calls, the SB calls and I complete from the BB.

Flop 6d 7s 2d.

Me: 47.4%; AJKHoosier1: 18.2%; Player3: 34.4%

I check, AJKHoosier1 bets $28, Player3 raises to $116, the SB folds and I repot and all 3 of us end up with our stacks in the middle. AJKHoosier1 will have put his stack in the middle expecting to be in fantastic shape, I doubt he felt he was worse than 40% for all the money but what a goodly outside falsehood had! He has put his money in as a 4/1 dog.

Top Tips:

- Do the sums – get down and dirty with your percentages. Every one of them counts
- Familiarise yourself with an odds calculator
- Like the caring father telling his son to drive carefully I must do the same – so play smartly people.

This article was originally published in WPT Magazine, where Noel ‘BigCityBanker’ Hayes has a monthly strategy column:

I elaborated quite a bit in my last article about understanding how your opponent plays and stressing the importance of interpreting their playing patterns. I heard an interesting comment from a friend of mine recently who told me that some people play cards like a game of matching symbols, concerned only about what they were holding and displaying a clear lack of interest in their opponents’ holdings.

You won’t have to ponder that statement for too long before you realize the requirement to step away from this first level thinking if you want to be a winning player. I bet at this stage that you can see a theme here – in order to maximize profit you need to go beyond your own game and examine your opponents’.

This month I am going to examine what I feel to be a very interesting hand. Both me and my opponent are playing deeply relative to the blinds, we have a lot of history together, at the time this hand took place in November 2008 I had played maybe 5,000 hands with this particular opponent in the previous week or so. Finally I rated this opponent highly – he was a good thinking player who seemed to be a little on the tight side. He was certainly one of the top 3 regulars in the player pool at this time.

So let’s get onto the hand in question and then we will examine both how I played it and how my opponent played it and we can hopefully take some lessons from it.

Game Details
- 1/2 PLO and we are playing five-handed
- I am on the button with a stack of $555
- My opponent is the big blind with a stack of $435

Preflop
The under-the-gun player who is playing $310 makes a pot sized raise to $7, the cutoff playing $345 calls, I call with Kc Kh 5c 5d and my main opponent in this hand calls from the Big Blind.

Flop
Ks Qd 8s – everybody checks to me and I bet $26 into the pot of $29. My opponent calls from the Big Blind and everyone else folds.

Turn
Qs – my opponent times down a long way and bets $50 into the pot of $81. I call.

River
9s – my opponent times down a long way and bets $134 into the pot of $181. I call.

My opponent shows Qh Qc 9d 6h for quad queens to beat my top full house. Some questions are raised here, especially why I didn’t raise either the turn or river for value, so let’s examine the play on a street-by-street basis.

Preflop: Playing five-handed there is nothing unusual about any of my opponent’s play here. However, my own play should be called into question. I have a very strong hand and equally important I also have the benefit of position. Given the stack sizes in play I really should have put in a reraise from the button.

The smallest stack in play on the table was $310. I don’t need to put in a pot-sized reraise but there is considerable merit in raising to $20 - $22. This serves a couple of purposes. It is going to cause my opponents to play an inflated pot with me out of position. Given the stack sizes I am placing the big stacks of my opponents in jeopardy – in short I am taking them out of their comfort zone – this is a key ingredient to success.

Flop: I have flopped the nuts and bet accordingly when checked to me. My play here is just about as standard as you get. My opponent calls from the BB with middle set no redraw – this may seem somewhat strange to some people, he has flopped a big hand but has no redraw. There are many cards which can fall on the turn which can leave him drawing very thin for glory, especially in a multi way pot. Any A J 10 9 or spade is a bad card for him.

I can’t say with certainty but I guess my opponent’s plan was to wait for a safe turn card before building a pot and playing for stacks – if say a 2c falls on the turn my opponents hand is still the 2nd best but the relative strength of it increases greatly. If we were 100 big blinds deep then he could set the world alight on the flop and not feel bad about the outcome of the hand however when we are 220 big blinds deep there is a lot of merit in protecting your stack. At this point he also doesn’t know how the other 2 remaining players in the pot will react to the action before them. As it transpired they both folded.

Turn: Bingo! From my perspective that is the first thought that came to my mind. However, at this point I had considerable table time with my opponent and my heart sank as my second reaction was that of disappointment as I figured I get little value from my opponents flop check/calling range. My next reaction was shock, that’s exactly what I felt when my opponent timed down and bet small into the pot.

At this juncture let’s do two things – firstly let me expand on my opponent’s general playing style and game, secondly lets have a think about the hands he is likely to check / call a flop bet with.

I rated my opponent highly, definitely a very competent player. I also figured him to be tight and unlikely to pay off with worse made hands on dangerous boards (i.e. I would not expect him to pay me with a set on a flush board or pay me off with a flush on a paired board). I also had a note that he timed down on the river before betting 2/3rds pot with the nuts.

As for his flop check / calling range I figured it had to include 2 pair hands, smaller sets, nut flush draw hands and flush draw / straight draw combo hands – he was not the sort of player to call out of position with AJ10x with no spade in his hand – further enforcing my view that he was a solid player.

However his flop check / calling range can be further refined into a range of hands that he would proceed to bet this particular turn card with. This was a lot narrower. He certainly wasn’t leading the turn with any flush now that the board had paired so I immediately discounted flushes from his range.

From there the only hand he could have would be a flopped set or 2 pair that has now made a house. I accept that he is likely to play the strong portion of this range fast i.e. KQxx and QQxx, and err on the side of pot control, check / call turn and bet / call or bet / fold river, with the weaker portion i.e. Q8xx and 88xx, this especially true considering stack sizes.

By deduction I have narrowed his range to two holdings KQxx and QQxx. Given that I hold KKxx it reduces the possible combinations of KQxx type hands that he can have. As a note here I must add that it is important to understand that range distributions are not linear but this is should be the topic of another article.

Now let us return again to my understanding of the player and the notes which I have on him. In this instance he timed down and bet a little under 2/3rd pot – previously I had noted that he did this with the nuts. Furthermore this betting pattern was largely alarming, he normally defaults to near pot sized bets and he normally acts pretty quick when it is his turn to act – timing down without good reason certainly wasn’t in his playbook.

I had to ask myself should I raise either the turn or the river for value? Well, what value was their in raising? He folds all worse hands to a raise, furthermore on the turn if he happens to be on a flyer and is deciding to run a bluff, by raising I deny him the opportunity to bluff again on the river.

River: Again he times down and bets a curious amount. For the reasons stated above there is no value in raising, it should be noted that there is now a possible straight flush on the board but I discount this almost entirely as he finds it very difficult to get to the river as played with any xxJs10s combinations.

Top Tips and Lessons Learned:

Don’t let your playing style change according to your holding. Just because you have the nuts it doesn’t mean your opponent knows this. If you bet full pot with strong combo draws then be sure to bet full pot with the nuts.

As soon as you do something that is outside of your normal playing pattern then you are telegraphing some information to your opponents.

Perhaps after all I played this hand badly, maybe I should have raised but I reached my decisions based on a plethora of information and table time with my opponent. Overriding all this, the hand is a good example of why it pays to study and understand your opponents, their playing style and the general game flow.

This article was originally published in WPT Magazine, where BigCityBanker has a monthly strategy column:

Last time out I touched on the need to understand your opponents’ tendencies, so this time I am going to expand on this a little, by way of example I will use two hands to demonstrate how to play against specific opponent types. One hand I flopped the effective nuts and allowed my opponent the opportunity to bluff and in another I flopped the nuts and it changed on a later street.

I have said in the past that there is a need to take time to consider an opponent’s style, furthermore there is a need to get into the habit of taking player notes and using these for your benefit in later hands. In general players tend to play a very set style. Many times players fall into set habits without realizing that they are projecting their playing style upon others.

Some advanced aggressive player tend to play all made hands and strong draws in the same manner thus balancing their range much better than a player who plays their top sets fast and check calls or calls behind with draws. The benefit of this comes from how your opponent begins to perceive your play – in short it can make it easier for you to get your top set paid off and can also lead to you getting opponents to fold top two pair when you are holding a draw which is effectively Ace high as you are constantly keeping your opponent guessing.

Lets examine a few hands where noting and understanding your opponents can lead to profitable situations. For the purpose of this assume that your playing style is well balanced and see how we can exploit other players’ tendencies.

This is a hand I played earlier in the year at a 2/4 table where we were 150 big blinds deep ($600), at this stage I had played a few thousand hands with this particular villain and I had player notes which suggested that he played draws passively and like to bluff occasionally when the opponent had shown weakness.

Pre flop: I raised it up from early position to $14 with JcJh9s8s and got one caller on the button, bother of the blinds folded.

Flop: Ks Jd 7s (Pot $34) This is a particularly good flop for me; I have middle set with a number of redraws – none of which make me the nuts. I lead for $30 into the pot of $34, my opponent calls.

At this point I start to polarize my opponents holding towards draws and away from made hands as any set is likely to raise my flop lead.

Turn: 2h (Pot $94) This is about the best turn card I could have hoped for as it does not change the texture of the board in any way. I lead for $82 into a pot of $94. Again my opponent elects to call behind. This reinforces my view on his holding – I continue to weight it predominantly towards drawing hands.

River: 3d (Pot $256) Another fantastic card for me. I firmly believe that I have the best hand in this situation but given my interpretation of my opponents play to this point and also my prior knowledge about how he likes to play his hands I know that a river bet from me is most unlikely to extract any value.

Hence at this point the most prudent move from me is to check in order to induce a bluff from my opponent. He duly obliges with a river bet of $214 and I proceed to shove. Its fair to make a case for calling as he doesn’t have a hand that call my bet and you occasionally value stack yourself against a strangely played top set but the benefit from shoving here is huge as it will serve to frustrate your opponent and he may occasionally make a stupid call with a bad two pair.

Another situation that arises is where you flop the nuts but the nuts proceeds to change on a later street. Again this is also another example of where your knowledge of your opponents and their tendencies can stand you in good stead.

The hand is from a $1/$2 PLO game that I played in late 2008. The villain was known to me and I had noted that he played made hands strongly and also protected his marginal or vulnerable hands.

Pre Flop: In this spot we are 145 big blinds deep ($290), villain was UTG and I was in the Big Blind. Villain raised to $7 and it folded around to me in the BB and I called with QcQhTc9d.

Flop: Qs Jd 5h (Pot $15) In this instance I elected to check it to the preflop raiser to allow him to continuation bet, he obliged with a bet of $12 and I check raised him to $51 which he called.

At this point my opponent hasn’t defined his hand very well; he can have a wide range including AK109 combos, 8910J combos, smaller sets and other two pair hands. Pretty much as he has the benefit of position he could call my flop check raise with many hands.

Turn: As (Pot $117)  This is a particularly bad card for me as it completes one of the most obvious draws (K10xx) that my opponent could have called my flop check raise with.

I elected to check and my opponent did a puzzling thing – he checked behind. At this point I am seriously starting to doubt whether this card has completed his hand.

River: 4d (Pot $117) This card changes nothing, I check to my opponent and he bets $86 which I decide to call. The deciding factor for me calling here was my opponent’s decision to check behind on the turn and in general I felt I was ahead of his flop calling and turn checking range.

As the As brought with it a back door flush draw I expect the villain to bet in order to protect K10xx hands against rivered flushes and also protect his hand against the board pairing. My opponent tabled 6d8h9h10s for a busted low wrap

Top tips:

1.    Pay close attention to your opponents and their tendencies, this will help you to maximize your profit expectation.
2.    Don’t deprive your opponent of the opportunity to try and bluff you off the effective nuts.
3.    Don’t panic when the nuts changes, don’t always assume that your opponent was drawing to the nuts. Take the time to reassess the situation at hand and consider more deeply what hands your opponent would play that way.
4.    Take notes – this is vitally important, get into the habit of taking good player notes as they will translate into profit in later encounters.

Part II of Noel ‘BigCityBanker’ Hayes’ PLO ‘The Next Steps’ strategy article - see post below for Part 1

As I have mentioned countless times in my last article, the better your starting hand selection the easier it is to play your hand post flop. Many times your starting hand is so strong that your position on the tables is of less importance. Lets take a simple example to illustrate how good starting hand selection can make life easy postflop.

Again let us assume a flop like above of Qc 9c 6d and assume that we have this situation both in and out of position. Using the same dynamic as above, your hand is Jc 10d 9d 8c – this is a somewhat idealistic match but its worth for the purposes of illustration is strong.

The Flop; Qc 9c 6d

Under The Gun

Option - Bet

Outcome - With one pair, flush draw, back door flush draw and a wrap you should be comfortable betting as no mater what course of action our opponent takes none of them upset us greatly as we have a multitude of outs to improve our hand.

Our hand is very strong and thus we are less concerned about inflating a pot out of position or being raised by our opponent.

Option - Check

Outcome - Given a normal table dynamic there is no strong argument for checking in this spot. With the exception of flopping the nuts we have hit one of the best flops possible for our hand and checking seems counter intuitive.

On The Button

Option - Bet

Outcome - As a rule of thumb if you are happy to continuation bet and continue with a hand forcefully out of position then you are generally happy to do so in position also. On very rare occasion you may decide to check for deception but these situations are and should be very rare.

Should your opponent decide to fold, call or check raise you are not unduly concerned by his actions.

Option - Check

Outcome - As mentioned elsewhere there is no good reason for checking this hand on the button. Occasionally you may choose to do so but that decision is generally made with a different outcome in mind.

———–

The recurring themes of respect for the power of position and starting hand selection are of significant importance. The above scenarios serve as excellent food for thought regarding both facets of the game. If you can do enough to get the right mix of these two important factors then you have the building blocks for a successful transition to Pot Limit Omaha.

Top Tips on Postflop Play:

1. This one sounds obvious but it will always be my number 1 – Think – always pause for a moment to consider the texture of the board before embarking on your course of action.
2. Continuation bet smartly – depending on the number of opponents in the hand, your position and the texture of the flop, don’t fall into the habit of continuation betting with too high a frequency as you are leaving yourself open to the prospect of being bullied off your hand and folding draws that you should have peeled a free card with.
3. Consider your opponents tendencies – get into the habit of keeping player notes. Familiarise yourself with how they tend to play flopped sets, strong draws and what they do when there draws miss – information is power and this

Originally published in WPT Magazine:

So now that you have gone beyond the multitude of pre-flop options, it is time to face the next point of action; The Flop. At any point you will have 4 options; you can bet, call, check or fold and these options are presented to you with different dynamics depending on whether or not you are the pre-flop raiser and your position at the table.

Overriding all of this though is the need to do whatever you do smartly. Don’t get into the habit of continuation betting with 100% frequency, don’t always try to check raise a flopped set, don’t always check call the nut flush draw and certainly don’t feel the need to always try and steal the pot on the river when your draws have missed.

If you become predictable like this then opponents will begin to understand your tendencies and learn to play against you profitably post-flop. This is a bad situation to find yourself in, but think about it and flip it around for a minute – are you working hard to understand your opponents game? Many players will fail to understand that they get into the habit of playing certain hands in certain ways – that is why you need to get into the habit of taking notes and using them to exploit you opponents weaknesses.

Again your course of action is often dictated here by the old chestnut that is position. Let us take an example of two hands and see how playing them both in and out of position post-flop on different flop textures makes life easy or difficult for us.

We can start with the hand I used the last time, you are playing Ah Jh Jd 7s, and for ease of instruction lets say that you are playing from A) under the gun and B) on the button. The important thing to consider here is that to know why you are doing something and its likely effectiveness.

The Flop; Qc 9c 6d

Under The Gun

Option - Bet

Outcome - As the preflop raiser the natural tendancy is to want to continuation bet, you have raised preflop from early position and you want to continue to tell the story of strength from your hand.

However, you are about to bet into players and you are about to inflate a pot when you are out of position - we only want to do this when we have a strong hand.

On this occasion, our hand has not flopped very well and the correct course of action is to check. Why? Well this board hits a multitude of ranges with any number of 2 pair, flush draw and wrap type hands possible for your opponent to have.

It seems somewhat weak but the noble thing to do on this occasion is to check and fold to a bet from a late position player should they elect for that course of action. This may seem weak but as I keep harping on about - thats the power of position.

Option - Check

Outcome - You don’t have to win every pot you play, if you do try to win all the pots that you contest then you are on a hiding to nothing as you will hemorrhage money to your opponents. Continuation betting this hand on the flop will only serve to make life difficult for you on later streets.

On The Button

Option - Bet

Outcome - Position is Power - If having raised this hand preflop and if checked to on the flop then despite your hand not flopping very well the decision to continuation bet has less to do with your hand and has more to do with both you and your opponents tendancies.

As a default I would tend to continuation bet in position and when we do so three things can happen - the first two outcomes are easy to deal with as we will be left with simple outcomes he folds and we win or he check raises us and we fold.

The third course of action by him is where the waters start to muddy a little bit - he check calls our flop bet. By doing this he reveals alot about his hand, his range is strongly polarised towards draws - he should protect sets and even some two pair hands by raising and he should also be playing big combo draws (wrap and flush draw) more aggressively.

It is also not the type of board a villain should be check calling one bet with naked AQxx as play on later streets will prove to be extremely difficult.

Option - Check

Outcome - The option to check remains and doing so is good on a number of levels. You may currently have the best hand and you a depriving your opponent the opportunity to bluff raise you off the hand.

It will also serve to lower your flop continuation bet frequency and if checked to on the turn you can put in a delayed continuation bet as it is unreasonable to expect your opponent to check to you twice with a strong hand.

Part II of Noel ‘BigCityBanker’ Hayes’ PLO strategy article - see post below for Part 1

As the strength of our hand increases we become more comfortable with raising and calling preflop and playing a bigger pot out of position. Remember some of our hands we want to play a big pot with and some hands are deceptive, naked big pairs for example. Initially they look strong but they cant stand the heat of pressure when its applied, thats when it becomes acceptable to open raise the button and fold to a 3 bet.

Some of the hands are not that obvious but here is a quick snapshot of some hands that flip between raising and calling a 3bet; limping and calling a raise; and raising and folding to a 3bet. The stronger the hand the more raise calling you will be doing irrespective of position and as the strength of your hand decreases you more down the line towards raise folding – this also changes relative to your position.

Remember egos are bad for your profit in poker so don’t feel bad about either raising and folding, and open limping and calling. Also remember that you don’t have to always try and win big pots, if you can win enough of the small ones this will have a positive impact on your win rate also.

Depending on the strength of the hand you should picture them as being on a spectrum. The higher up the strength of your hand range you go the bigger the pot you wish to play, as you move down the more you don’t want to play the hand.

Hand AhJhJd7s
Raise & Call    Limp & Call    Raise & Fold
Button Yes                 No                 Maybe
UTG No                  Yes                Maybe

Hand KhQcJh10c
Raise & Call    Limp & Call    Raise & Fold
Button Yes                 No                 No
UTG Yes                 No                 No

Hand KcKs7h2d
Raise & Call    Limp & Call    Raise & Fold
Button No                  No                 Yes
UTG No                  No                 No

Overall this advice should make you think a little more about how certain hands play from certain positions. Of course, overiding all of these factors is how smart you play your hands postflop and this is something I will touch on next time.

Top Tips on Position

1.    From the Blinds – do not fall into the habit of repeatedly completing your small blind in limped pots or of calling single raises from late position openers from the blinds either. If you can break even from these positions over time then you are achieving far more than many poker players. Just count how often you will check fold unimproved once the flop has come down and you will soon realize how much this advice is worth to you.
2.    The Power of Position – In a 6 max cash game you play a higher percentage of hands from the button than you do from under the gun. An examination of your Poker Tracker Stats will show you that if you play 24% of your hands in total (VPIP = 24) then your positional stats will reveal that you play maybe 32% from the button and 18% from UTG. If you do not see a sliding scale of activity from UTG to the Button then you are playing too loose out of position.
3.    Hand Values Change - As the VPIP stats would indicate your hand values change according to your position. A hand like KK82os is a fold from under the gun but it is a raise from the button when it gets folded around to you.
4.    Its ok to open limp – don’t be too cool for school – leave your 6 max NLH tendencies behind you, it is ok to open limp from early position in 6 max plo so long as you do not intend to fold to a single raise. Read More

Originally published in WPT Magazine:

One of the most important aims you should make when you play poker is to play it on your terms. In so much as it is possible you need to be in your comfort zone, you need to take your opponents from theirs and you should attempt to dictate the pace of the game en route to your ultimate goal – profit.

As you know, you should focus on strong starting hand selection and have upmost respect for the power of position – add some good measured aggression into the mix and you are quickly brewing the ingredients with which to take your opponent from his comfort zone.

Simply distilled what you are doing by applying the above is controlling the size of the pot relative to A) your position and B) the strength of your hand. Some hands which are a fold or limp under the gun should be raised on the button and the simplest way to demonstrate this is by examining a couple of hands and dissecting the possible outcomes of your actions from various positions on the table.

You hold Ah Jh Jd 7s, this is a reasonably strong hand but lets take a look at how you play it from A) under the gun and from B) the button and how your actions dictate the action on later streets.

Under the gun
Option - Fold

Outcome - Folding here would be a mistake, you hold a pretty strong hand which has a positive expectation overall, you should continue to play the hand.

Option - Raise

Outcome - If you open this hand for a raise one thing is normally assured, you will proceed to play an inflated pot out of position from this point with a marginal hand (relative to your position) – this is bad. To progress from this point, if you get 3 bet from a late position player you will understand that under normal playing conditions the prudent move is to muck your hand.

This seems bad – you have deprived your self the opportunity to see a flop with this hand and often times you are folding the best hand preflop as an aggressive player may 3 bet hands like A10109ds from the button, irrespective of your knowledge that he may 3 bet with an inferior hand you will still struggle to get the better of a postflop battle.

What happens if the board comes A high? Well again you are going to struggle to win a big pot with a bare top pair and by you holding a pair in your hand you seriously decrease the chances of improving your hand to two pair or stronger and again you may be forced to fold the best hand by a more aggressive late position player.

Option - Call

Outcome - Don’t blush folks, there is certainly no shame in open limping in 6 max pot limit Omaha so long as you don’t intend to fold to a single raise. As with everything there are caveats to this but I will touch on these in later articles.

By open limping this hand you are more likely to play a smaller pot, on your terms and even if subject to a raise from late position you can profitably play your hand with greater implied odds that if you had raised and faced a 3bet.

On the Button
Option - Fold

Outcome - Under normal circumstances folding this hand on the button would be a mistake. Facing a raise and a reraise wouldn’t be normal circumstances and folding becomes more acceptable.

Option - Raise

Outcome - Whether you are facing a table full of limpers or if all your opponents have folded before it was your turn to act you should be entering the pot with a raise.

You have a strong hand in position and can proceed with the pleasure of having your opponent play the rest of the hand out of position against you – remember this is the preferred situation.

Unlike the first scenario above where folding to a 3 bet is optimal this is not so clear cut on the button. Depending on game dynamics and with the aid of a player specific read calling the reraise and proceeding with the benefit of position is far from a huge mistake.

Option - Call

Outcome - To a single raise calling is fine here, as we know by now our hand is strong and in position we give ourselves more than one opportunity to win the pot post flop – either through improving our hand or by applying pressure through betting and forcing your opponents to fold out.

Check back tomorrow for Part II

‘Go on young O’Leary, stick with him boy, lash them out of it’ – I could have been at a Junior B hurling match on a damp Saturday, instead I was a guest of Ladbrokes and our sponsored player Ciaran O’Leary at the Poker Million party.

So the PPP massive rolled out of Dublin and into London for one night only, I was accompanied by other members of the team in the shape of our minister for communication and manager of this here blog, Paul ‘P to the B’ Burke, Mike ‘MikeyP’ Phelan and the ‘Frizbinator’ Evan Frisby. London was never going to be the same – and rightly so I may add – this was going to be one hell of a night for Irish Poker.

Ciaran was joined at the final table by 5 others who were also rooting for the $1,000,000 first prize and in a sheer display of dominance for Irish poker 3 of the other 5 players were also Irish. Former Irish Open champion, WSOP PLO winner, Ferrero Rocher eating champion and noted Professional Marty Smyth lead the charge, accompanied by the Gentelman Liam Flood and a quieter man of Irish Poker Eoghan O’Dea whom we told you about last week when he scooped the ECOOP main event and with it a $315,000 payday! It must be nice!

The lobby of the Hilton Hotel was like a reunion of anybody involved in Irish Poker. In we walk and bump into The Boylepoker team who were there to cheer on their main man, Marty Smyth. We spotted Padraig Parkinson clutching a starbucks coffee and were initially concerned that the bars had been closed – luckily our initial fears were quickly quashed. Former Poker Million winner Donnacha O’Dea was there to cheer on his son Eoghan. Liam Flood a man you would spot from a distance in a crowd with his towering figure and trademark hat so easily distinguishable was also hanging around

Many of the Irish regulars were also there – Eoin Olin, Ken ‘KP Nuts’ Powell and Dave Callaghan. Parkinson made a good point that he wouldn’t like to be trying to collect a rake in Dublin that night as there was nobody left behind to play poker – who could be in a position to argue with him?

On to the event anyway and when they got to the business end we were left with the 4 Irishmen fighting it out as they had dispatched Svein Neilsen and Kevin Allen who had both produced very respectable performances. At this point I can only tell you that the antagonizing emotions we were experiencing – sure we wanted Ciaran to win it but when the other lads were in a pot we were torn over who we wanted to win – if a sporting gesture could have been made I am guessing they would have walked across the line together – they were all winners and champions in their own right.

When the dust settled Marty Smyth was the winner, Eoghan O’Dea was runner up and our top man Ciaran ‘BigC’ O’Leary and Liam Flood filling the 3rd and 4th place positions.

The team here in PPP are obviously very proud of Ciarans performance and delighted with how he represented himself and the brand on the TV. Likewise we are also delighted with such a great night for Irish Poker. Join me in congratulating them all – their performances were all from the top drawer! Irish Poker is alive and well.

Noel.