Royal Flush Club Newsletter August 2008      Issue 6   About Us   Poker Articles   Poker News   Coaches Corner   Poker Strategy   Tournaments   Rick's Bio Mar's Bio Amy's Bio Al's Bio Morgan Lederer Gordon Bloch   WPT Ladies The Buzz WSOP TV Schedule Heads Up SNGs Do I Really Need A Poker Coach     Poker Tester Odds Hand Chart Kill Phil Way RFC WPT WSOP WPT Ladies US Poker Prem. Ad Space 150 x 150 Pixels   RFC SPOTLIGHT  Playing Heads Up     Heads-up play is one of the most important aspects of poker, and many players could benefit from strengthening this part of their game. Position is crucial in heads-up play. So is aggression and reading your opponent. In fact, playing aggressively in position can often be the deciding factor in whether or not you win the pot. You can have a much worse hand, but if you trust your reads, you can often take the pot with the right board. Playing Position I don't recommend playing that many raised pots out of position - in other words, don't call a lot of raises from the big blind. Hands like two face cards, A-8 and up, and pairs are worth re-raising with. Hands like 8-7 suited are fairly worthless because suited connectors like these can be easily dominated by larger hands and lose a lot of their value heads up. In general, I'm looking for big cards like K-10. Even though these cards are easily dominated in ring games, they play much stronger heads up. If I hit a big pair with cards like these I can feel comfortable going with it, which is something that's hard to do with middle cards like 6-5. I'm usually going to do one of two things in the big blind when I'm heads up; fold or re-raise. My standard re-raise is between three and four times my opponent's bet, and by pumping up the pot pre-flop, I'm making it difficult for my opponent to call me with marginal hands. If he does call, I can always make a post-flop continuation bet or lay down my hand if I've missed and my opponent leads out at the pot. The only time I call out of position is when my opponent plays back at me by moving in a lot. My decision here comes back to paying attention to my opponent's tendencies and going with my reads. Reading is Fundamental Reading your opponent becomes even more important in heads-up play. Because your opponent is likely to raise with a much larger range of hands heads up, range. If I do raise, I must have a hand I'm willing to go with because my opponent Keep reading...   The Real Value of Tournament Chips By Bill Edler Whenever you're talking about poker strategies, you'll find people who make no distinction between tournament play and ring game play. In fact, I know some top players who believe that both should be played exactly the same. Even though some of them have been extremely successful with this approach, I couldn't disagree with them more. The basic problem is that in a tournament setting, all chips are not of equal value. In most cases, the chips you lose are going to be worth a lot more than the ones you win. While losing a hand to a marginal call in a ring game might cost you, the same marginal call in a tournament can send you to the rail. Given the nature of tournaments, it's extremely difficult to rebound from a loss that could have been avoided in the first place. Because of this, what might be an acceptable call in a ring game should probably be a fold in a tournament. Think about this in terms of playing the first hand in a tournament: you wouldn't take a coin-flip for your whole stack and risk busting for what is likely a 50% chance of doubling up. Why? Because doubling your stack -- especially early on in a tournament - doesn't double your equity. If you think of yourself as a winning player, your goal should be to win the entire tournament -- not just the first hand. Looking at it like this, the limited potential for this short-term gain doesn't justify the risk of getting knocked out immediately. The same concept also holds true later on in a tournament. Let's say I have 50K in chips in the middle stages... Keep reading...  TOURNEY RECAPS July 12, 17 and 19th  tournament reports   The final table consisted of: xxHABSxx, snibbler69, bob1974, Septo Man, buckrubber, i see green, kato59, Scie and bullish06. The order of finish is as follows: i see green, bullish06, Septo Man, bob1974, buckrubber, xxHABSxx, kato59, snibbler69 and Scie.  The final heads-up hand was... Keep reading... Watch Video....  July 24 and 26 tournament reports The final table consisted of: WexTex, r. smart, Rebslager, Clyde 911, synfully syn, B. Le Huray, ABSCAT, Munkey Brainz and Jedinyte. The order of finish is as follows: Jedinyte, Munkey Brainz, r. smart, B. Le Huray, Rebslager, synfully syn, ABSCAT, Clyde 911 and WexTex.  The final heads-up hand was AKo versus 77 to give Jedinyte the win... Keep Reading.... Watch Video....                 August 2, 10 and 18th tournament reports The final table consisted of: NJ08512, Ja-ach, rxmanAA, buckrubber, Jack Jones23, Buddy2U, ludicrous40, snibbler69 and synful 69. The order of finish is as follows: Ja-ach, Buddy2U, buckrubber, Jack Jones23, rxmanAA, ludicrous40, snibbler69, NJ08512 and synful 69.  The final heads-up hand was A8s versus K7s to give Ja-ach the win. Keep Reading.... Watch video...   Pot-Size Manipulation     One of the key skills that winning big-bet players bring to the table is the ability to manipulate the size of the pot. They manage to play big pots when they have big hands, and keep the pot smaller when their holdings are more modest. If you think carefully about your betting throughout a hand, you can set yourself up to play a pot that's appropriate for the strength of your hand. For starters... Keep reading...   The New Texas Hold'em Gold Standard By Rick Braddy   Some years back, whenever anyone started playing Texas Hold'em, there were a handful of must-read books, including the then standard Doyle Brunson's Super System, Mike Caro on Tells, and various Sklansky books.  While these all remain great, recommended reading (and continue to be worthwhile reading), in order to boost one's game to the higher levels required to play against today's more sophisticated and advanced players, a new "gold standard" has emerged that has become a must-read.   Harrington on Holdem, Volumes I and II are required reading for anyone who expects to compete in today's fiercely competitive Texas Hold'em world.  Dan Harrington is one of the world's most successful NLHE players.  These two books convey critical knowledge about the various poker styles and how to vary your style to keep your opponents off balance, betting patterns that will net you more profit and dozens of subtle, yet important post-flop tactics that will optimize your play.   Harrington provides some of the best advice available on how to analyze situations in order to determine opponent hand strength vs. your own, then making optimal decisions for how best to proceed.  Some of the best examples you'll find on reading opponents and situations properly can be learned from Harrington.  Once we master the basics of starting hands, odds, hand strength, position, betting and basic moves (steals, resteals, bluffs, etc.), it's time to put it all together.  Harrington provides us with a more "systematic" approach to our poker thinking and analysis - skills that must be developed and honed to take on the advanced players and prevail today.   For example, I used to think I understood player styles and could vary my own style effectively anytime I wanted. After gaining Harrington's perspective, I realized that I wasn't nearly as accomplished at varying my own style as I thought (something I still work on today).  Moreover, I realized how "shallow" my analysis of the complete situation often was much of the time, not taking into account nearly as many of the key factors that affect the outcome of a given hand as I should be (against more advanced players).  Even thought I knew how to do the full analysis, I had fallen into a lazier pattern of play, often rushing to decisions instead of taking my time to properly analyze the situation thoroughly, which takes more discipline (once you know how).    If you haven't picked up and read Harrington on Hold'em lately, you should stop what you're doing right now and go get it at Amazon.com or your favorite book store.  If you have it already and haven't read it in a while, do yourself a big favor. Pick it up and go back once a week and read a few chapters, then let it "soak in" for a few days as you play.  Like an athelete who trains every day, constant training and conditioning (in this case, of our mind) makes the difference between who wins the gold and silver medals, and who lags just a few seconds behind the winners.   Focus on completely analyzing each hand or situation more thoroughly, especially when playing post-flop, using the system that Harrington provides us. Take notes on a separate piece of paper while you're reading Harrington on Hold'em (or watching our training videos on Royal Flush Club Members site).  By taking notes, it forces us to absorb and process the information, improving retention of the information for later use at the tables (this one tip will improve your game).   There's an amazing amount of poker gold in those pages, just waiting for you to come along and mine it.  The question is, are you willing to grab your share of that gold?                    AD SPACE AVAILABLE HERE 150 X 150 PIXELS AD SPACE AVAILABLE HERE 150 X 150 PIXELS