Mountain of Chips

Poker Strategy: Betting on the river

Betting on the river is a unique round. Before this round, players had the opportunity to improve his hand. Once you reach the river, the bets here are just bluffs or value bets. You cannot knock a player out and you cannot semi-bluff. For this article we focus on how betting goes when you are on a heads up and when you are playing as the aggressor.

So what do you do if you have a top pair on a heads up and you form a scary hand on the river?

What you need to do will really depend on your position. In case you have a better position that your opponent like you are at the button and the other player is in mid-position. When your opponent checks and you are considering of making a value bet but you are worried of a check-raise. If the other player will always raise when you are beat and will call in case you get a better position then you will have a 2 of 3 chance of winning to make a bet. You have one chance of winning if you have a better hand and two chances of losing to bet if he has better cards.

The situation will be different if your opponent just calls and not raise even if he has a better hand. And there will be instances where you will be raised even when he has a better hand. These requires your judgment call since it differs in every situation.

If you have an early position and reach the river, you must be willing to bet since even if your opponent has a good hand, he will bet or will raise you. This way you will only lose one more bet by initiating the betting.

If your opponent has a semi strong cards, he will not raise you. Show some strength when you bet. He will hesitate to raise in fear of a re-raise. When you check, he will feel your weakness and grab the opportunity to make the bet. In this scenario your initial bet does not matter since you will be losing one bet whether you check or bet.

How to play middle pocket pairs before the flop

Mid pocket pairs or cards ranging from 7-7 through J-J are pretty much strong poker hands but they give a lot of trouble to a lot of poker players. These cards have a good potential to win the chips on the center but it is with how you play them that makes this possible. Better cards will be on the table and you are not sure if you can come out ahead of everyone else.

Playing this cards right even before seeing the flop is crucial if you want to win. You need to factor in your position, the aggression of the other players, and how deep your stack is. For this article, we will focus on playing the mid pocket pairs, pre flop in different positions.

Early position

When you play a mid pocket pair in early position, go for a raise if you have a TT or even better. For the lower mid pocket pairs, you need to think of several factors. There will be times that you need to fold these middle pairs but there will instances when you need to raise. Do not limp into the pot when you have a middle pair.

If you are playing on a tight table, go strong and raise to give them the impression that you have some strong cards. Most likely the other players will play tight and consider giving in after the flop. Against aggressive players, fold cards 7-7 through 9-9 unless you are sure that you can outmaneuver the competition.

Middle position

Playing middle cards in middle position needs more cautious steps. This will pretty much depend on what is happening during the pre-flop.  Again remember that to limp is weak with a middle pair. If you will are the first player in the pot, then raise. If you have several players limping in, then you can limp to follow them into the pot. If you are only against one person then raise to kick him out of the pot.

Fold 7-7 thru 9-9 if you encounter a raise. See if you can call or re-raise when you have T-T and J-J.

Late position

You can always go play your mid pocket pairs in the late position. Watchout for the actions during pre-flop though. Limp behind other players if you want and try to get a set. Try to outplay weaker limpers by raising and also try to limit the competition to one or two.

How do you measure your success in poker tournaments

There are poker players that think they are quite successful when it comes to their poker tournament performance but when in fact they suck. Well these players do not really know how to measure their success in poker tourneys so all along they think they are really good. When you don’t know if you are doing good or bad at something, you also miss the opportunity of improving what yourself. Let us try to see how you can get the accurate figure that reflects if you are a good tournament player.

Numbers game

If you want to measure your success in poker tournaments then you must have to play in a lot of poker tournaments. You need a bigger picture so your analysis will be reflective of what you are doing. So what is a good number? If you are talking about sit ‘n go’s then you might need around 1,000 tournaments. For the multi-table kind of tournament, 500 is a good size.

Knowing your ROI

When you know you already have enough tournaments then you can measure your ROI or return of investment.  You can compute for the ROI by dividing your tournament profits by the amount of money you spend for buy-ins.

For example, you have gained $2,000 in profits with buy-ins totaling around $11,000. Then you should do 2000/11000 to get .18. This means that you have an 18% ROI which is pretty good. This means that you bring home $1.18 for every dollar you spend for a tournament.