Nathans Guide to Good Poker Pt. II

[Nathan Butler]

Hey Everyone.

In Part two of my guide lets discuss understanding the way in which you player. In my exprience there are three types of players and three levels of players.

Type 1 - Aggressive. These players tend to use the ALL-IN regualerly. Gambling with your tournament life is risky but can be advantageous. By constantly putting the pressure on your opponents you can take many pots away from them when the more often miss the flop.

Type 2 - Tight - Tight players suffer from the limitations of there cards and image. If you fail to pick up many/any hands your stack will soon dwindle. However with a well preserved tight image you can in the long run more successfully bluff your opponents out of pots.

Type 3 - Calling Stations - Players in this catagory are sometimes difficalt to play becuase its is often hard to put them on a hand. It is to advantage if you have the nuts but it is almost impossible to bluff them. If you are a calling station you may find that it works for you being that you are difficult to read and often when an aggresive player misses the board you have it.

there are more types of players... Loose Aggresive, Tight Aggresive, Solid players and many many more. The three i have discussed however are the players i have more common styles o have seen used by players in the NPL.

Now onto Levels of players.

Level 1 Player - A L1 Player is your lowest level. These players tend to only think about the hole cards in their hand. The look at what that have and how strong there are based on the poker hand ranking system. If a level one player had a Full House they would consider that as having the third best hand in the game and on that infomation alone would consider there position good. Level one players find it diffult to bluff successful as they do not take into account what their opponents may have. The either bluff at the wrong time or bluff to frequently or even not at all.

Level 2 Player - A L2 Player is the next stage in evolution. I have found many NPL members to level 2 players. Level 2 players consider the hole cards they have plus try to read the hand/s their opponents have. Once you are at level 2 it become more easy to bluff as you can pick your spots more successfully. You can read your opponent as weak and push against them even with a weaker hand. The disadvantage of level two players is some who are over confident in their ability often end up going bust based on bad reads. But level two is the way to go, there more infomation you are aware of the better you game will be.

Level 3 Player - A L3 player is what we all should aspire to be. L3 players not alone think about their hole cards, their opponents hole cards, but also what they think their level 2 opponent may have put them on. Once at this level your reads become more accurate. Your bets more precise and you spots to bluff more difinitive. It becomes easier to make great calls and folds aswell as learning to represent a hand that don't have of even present the illusion of not having a hand you do have.


Now, all things considered. The best way to improve your game is work out what style of poker you play and what level you currently feel you are at. I know that with being a great poker player comes a small arrogant streak but knowing your game is more important than talking it up.

EVERYONE has room for improvement. So my advice to you is to learn your own game before you start trying to learn some one else's.

One of the most frequent things i have seen in NPL is when a player calls some one down with a weak hand and wins, then says, i thought you were weak but still couldn't explain why and or what they thought their opponent had prior to the show down. Mis-reads like that more then oftern leave you broke.

Remember poker is not a race, taking a few seconds to think about your disicion can make all the difference.

See you in part three

Regards

Nathan Butler

[bennymacca]

i have a question for all the poker fans out there

last night i had a situation that transpired like the following.

i had KQ of spades, a stack of about 5000 and the blinds were 200-400.

i was on the button, and the person two places around from me raised to 800 which i called.

flop comes J junk junk

person checks, and i bet another 800 trying to win the pot right there, but he flat calls.

turn A

once again person checks. at this point, there is 3800 in the pot, and my read puts him on a pocket pair, not an ace. so i quickly move all in for my remaining 4000.

this player says f*** you have an ace, to which i reply "maybe".

he thinks about it for a while, before deciding to call. he shows KK

alas no 10 on the river, and that left me with 200 and i was gone

although his pair was stronger than my read told me (i had him on 99 or 1010), i still feel that my move was the right one to make.

was i just unlucky, or should i have played that differently?

PS the person i was playing against was definitely not a donkey, he has a fairly solid game.

my read was (almost) right, i thought my play was right, was i just unlucky???

your thoughts are appreciated

[bennymacca]

secondly,

what if i had told the player, in reply to his "f*** u have an ace" comment

"if you dont have an ace or better fold"

if i am in the hand, this is allowed yes?

[Scotty]

What was his stack before the hand started?

[bennymacca]

he called my all in to leave me with 200, so he had around 5K also

[Scotty]

If it were me in his spot, your turn bet would have looked like you'd still missed the board, or at best hit the J. I call.

[Scotty]

alas no 10 on the river, and that left me with 200 and i was gone

Sorry mate, didn't see that part

[muzzington]

If it were 99's or 10's that he had, your bet may well have worked. Same as if the turn had bought a potential flush out there, since you put him on a pair, he may well have folded.

As it turns out his hand was too strong for him to throw away, or maybe he thought the all in move was suspect (or how you did it), or both of these things were factors.

I guess knowing where you are in a hand comes with experience. I could think about things like this and it all sounds well and good, but you'd still have to time it right and be sure of what your opponent has, and if they'd actually lay it down. I'm definitely far away from actually putting these sorts of things into practice.

[BigPete33]

Given that you said you were on the button - the person 2 places from you wasn't the BB was it? If yes, I'd have been instantly suspicious of the BB min raising. If not, a min raise in lateish position reeks of wanting a caller and I'd still have been instantly suspicious.

( Well, this is what I would have thought until the state final where the vast majority of any raise I saw all day in any position was only a min raise! We got Laura to stop doing that, only 19 odd thousand other players to go lol )

Given that the preflop raiser checked and then flat called you with only J rag rag on the flop - alarm bells should be screaming at you, particularly because you rate your opponent. AA KK QQ AK or even J with decent kicker leap to mind fairly quickly as a possible range.

At that point your evaluation of where you stand really needs assessing. KQ is still quite marginal, even pre-flop. Your only slightly incorrect read of mid-high pocket pair would have been enough for me to lay that down. A better read (easy to say in hindsight I know) of high pocket pair would have resulted in an instant check or fold to any bet after the turn unless you're feeling extremely brave and lucky.

Not being there at the time and everything, my opinion is that you could have played that a little better but you could also have played it much much worse.

[chopper 64]

Pete that`s awesome you make through to the joined final and now you given tip i hope there free