 |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Lessons, Tips
and Tutorials
Private Lesson by
Howard Lederer
In the middle and later stages
of poker tournaments, there
are often times when you're
forced to make a pretty big
commitment on a relatively
weak holding.
Get the best poker playing advice and strategy from the worlds
best poker professionals. Poker Strategy and Poker Tips
from the pros.
Howard Lederer
Tips From
the Pros
world have joined Team
Full Tilt Poker. The Full Tilt
Team includes Howard Lederer,
Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, John
Juanda, Jennifer Harman, Phil
Gordon, Erick Lindgren, Erik
Seidel, Clonie Gowan, Andy
Bloch, and Mike Matusow.
With 26 WSOP bracelets
between them, the Full Tilt Team
knows good poker when they
see it. See who you'd like to
match wits with, then join them at
the tables and see how you
stack up. You can Learn, Chat,
and Play with the Pros at
Full Tilt Poker,
Where the Pros Live!
Complete, in depth
Full Tilt Poker Review
is available.
Lesson: 55
Bad Position, Decent Cards
April 3, 2006
In the middle and later stages of tournaments, there are often
times when you're forced to make a pretty big commitment on a
relatively weak holding. These are uncomfortable spots because
you never want to risk a large percentage of your chips with a
mediocre hand. Things get even more difficult when you're playing
from the blinds and out of position.
For example, say you're playing late in a tournament. The blinds
are $500 and $1,000, and there's a $100 ante. You're in the small
blind with $18,000. It's folded around to the button, an aggressive
player who raises frequently in late position. He has $30,000 in his
stack and he raises to $3,500. You look at your cards and see
Ad-9s.
You know that A-9 isn't a great hand, but you can't ignore it in
this situation. First off, given your opponent's history, he may
very well be raising with a hand that is far worse than yours. In
fact, in this spot, he could very well have two rags. Another
consideration is that there are a lot of chips in play. Between the
blinds, antes, and your opponent's raise, you stand to pick up
over $5,000 in chips if you can take down this pot, which would be
a nice addition to your short stack.
So, you're probably going to want to play this hand. But what's
the best action?
At first, it might seem that calling is a reasonable course, as it
would keep you from getting overly committed on this marginal
hand. But calling has some pretty big downsides. With a hand like
A-9, you're usually not going to like the flop very much. In fact,
you'll fail to make as much as a pair about two-thirds of the time.
If you do flop a pair of 9s, how are you going to proceed if the flop
also has an over card? Even on an Ace-high flop, you'll have a
tough time knowing if your hand is good.
What's more, if you miss the flop completely, you leave yourself
vulnerable to being outplayed. It's going to be very hard to bet if
the flop contains three cards that don't help your hand. If you
check, your opponent will likely make a continuation bet, and you'll
be hard-pressed to continue, even though Ace-high might be
good.
In spots like this, your best move is to press an edge while you
have it - before the flop. Re-raise all-in pre-flop. Your opponent
probably won't have a hand that he can call with and, if he does,
you'll have plenty of outs. You still have about a 25% chance
against AK, for example. Not good, but not dead.
The important thing to keep in mind is that, in the later stages of a
tournament, you don't want to make many decisions after the flop
when you have a medium-strength hand like Ace-middle kicker or
middle pocket pair, and you're playing out of position. Put your
chips in while you think you have the best of it, and hope for the
best. If you let these marginal but good situations pass you by,
you might regret it later when your stack has been whittled down
even further.
In Depth Full Tilt Poker Review
Lessons & Tips
Learn Professional Tips &
Strategies from "The
Professor"
Howard Lederer
Full Tilt Poker Tips from
the Pros
Thorough
Full Tilt Poker Review
Overview, Promotions,
Unique Features
the Full Tilt Poker
software and enter
bonus code:
POKERPLAY
bonus code: POKERPLAY
100% Bonus Offer
You can play for fun at Full Tilt Poker and still enjoy all
of the features that they offer, including playing and
chatting with all of the professional poker players.
Where the Pros Live, Full Tilt Poker
is a Texas Holdem players
heads-up display. It
automatically, without
clicking or typing
anything, calculates full
odds while playing on
PartyPoker(TM) and
other on-line poker
games. It is a great way
to learn the game.
PartyPoker is a registered
trademark of
PartyPoker.Com
More Details on Poker HUD
