How to Adopt a Winning Strategy Short Stack in a Cash Game

In front of various factors which influence gains and losses in Texas Hold'em, considering well the value of your stakes in a tournament of cash game is important. In long term, the various losses and gains which you realize will indeed have consequences on your behaviour. According to observations made, to play "short stack”, that is to bet a lower buy-in than the authorized entails, make fewer decisions to take. Therefore, you stop often in preflop and flop, and much more rarely on turn or on river. On the other hand, for players who are used to bet high stacks, 100xBB (Big blinds) for example, as soon as they have fewer chips, even in front of other players who arrange fewer chips than themselves, they feel at once ill at ease.

The advantage of playing short stack (10xBB or 20xBB) is to have only a single decision to make, the "push / fold". Therefore, either you bet or you push, it does not change anything. But such strategy does not mean either pushing your stack in any hand. In the book "No Limit Hold'em" written by David Sklansky, a calculation of the number of the proportional stack in every hand is proposed by the author.

By opting for a short stack game, it is also necessary for you to adapt your play. On a table of six players, you have to play aggressive, entailing a "light" poker game on behalf of your opponents assuring you of this fact payment more numerous. Each time a player raises, you have to tighten even more your game. And in front of other players making small blinds, you can send or pay even if your hand is limited enough.

If you want to adapt yourself to short stacks, you have to learn a real habit. It is necessary for you to know how to raise at any situation. In front of a player who raises in 3x or 4xBB, you should give up it in most of cases. A big raise means a big pot at the end; on the other hand, you will not win often more than blinds. Therefore, it is essential to consider well all these factors in order to get a positive balance at the end.

Micro-Limit Sets: How to Begin Well in The Set With small stakes

The micro-limit sets, poker games up to $10 of buy-in, are mostly played by novice players who begin their entrance onto online poker. Some good players can be rarely observed there, in case if they had lost their bankroll. The behaviour of these novices players present in these sets are rather easy to get down: they like seeing flops, they often pay and rarely raises and they maintain the biggest part of their concentration on their cards but not in the rounds. But other players can also play in a very aggressive way and raise with all the hands.

Given that aiming at big pot and by losing only small ones are the main objective in poker, the flop is often decisive in a process of reflection. It is indeed necessary to decide at this precise moment if you will go to pay or not an opponent’s stake with a hand more or less doubtful. If you call, you will often have to pay twice furthermore, making decisions which cost too much in the turn and in the river. So, given that many of other situations can happen to you, it is not recommended to involve you in situations if small gains are concerned. In this way, folding, even though you consider that your opponent maybe bluffs, will be a more profitable decision in the long term during these micro-limit sets.

On the other hand, players in micro-limits also tend to enter the poker game by making "limps" preflop that is by making do with paying big blind to allow them seeing at once three cards. To avoid that many players can arrive with you at the flop, four or five players (called also "multi-way" pot), you always have to raise as soon as you do an action. More and more players will fold with this strategy. Indeed, with 3-4 opponents in the flop, there will be more chances than one of them finds a good game in the flop.

Doyle Brunson: A basketball champion turned into a legend of poker

If it is necessary to choose one of the biggest names of poker players in the world, Doyle Brunson nicknamed “Texas Dolly” is unquestionably a choice which would make unanimity. Born in Texas in 1933, Doyle plays poker for more than 50 years. Twice world champion in 1976 and 1977, 10 World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets, he continues to swipe tournaments and to win cash games. His route path which is rather particular made him a real legend and his style of game still continues to impress all biggest poker players.
When he was young, Doyle Brunson already launched into a career of professional basketball player before a wound to his knee definitively puts an end to it. He tried then to move into a "normal” jobs as salesmen of agricultural machines before realizing that poker could bring him much more money. The legend tells that during his working hours by waiting for customers, he played poker and won one month of salary in some hours only. He decided then to leave his job and participated in tournaments through all States of the country to support his family, with other legends of poker as Amarillo Slim who became his fellow traveller. Doyle Brunson also likes betting, the most famous is the one he had done with his friend that he would manage to lose 50 kilos. He won this bet of million dollars.
Doyle Brunson wrote a book entitled “System High-octane gasoline” dedicated to poker published in 1979. The work which unveils some secrets of his style of game is recognized as the Bible of poker. A new version entitled "Great system II" was published in 2004. But in spite of his numerous articles and the craftiness which they give in his book, Doyle’s style of game on table of still continues surprising his opponents.

Richard Marcus: The biggest cheater in poker

During a quarter of century, certain Richard Marcus used ruse to win a fortune in all casinos of the world. With his doubtful talents, Marcus became a legend and by it, he became famous all around the world - or maybe rather disreputable... Indeed, Richard Marcus was an excellent player before beginning a cheater. Convinced by a man named Classon, this last one made him an offer and became the professor, the leader, the mentor and almost as the father for Marcus. Classon taught Marcus all the possibilities on the cheating in casinos. So in a bar of striptease Marcus gave by bluffing the name of the stripper who sat on his knees. The bluff of Savannah was created. And that allowed him during his career to steal 5 millions dollars.

Savannah aims at putting three red 5-dollar chips in a grindstone on the table of roulette. The purpose of this cheating is obviously that the croupier does not see the brown chips under the red chips - and the croupier does not see them because of the small movement between chips. The cheating led Marcus far off. Several casinos in Atlantic City, Las Vegas, London and Monte Carlo paid their parts to the profits of Marcus. Casinos are aware of the fact that when there are poker games, there are also cheaters. Thus they spend big amounts in the installation of systems against cheating. There are two systems:

- Identifying the cheaters by a photo
- Installing a mechanism in the chips which gives signal to the croupier what is the number of chips bet by every player and the value of chips.

Playing in multi-tables: A strategy to be done step by step

One of the advantages of online poker, and which differentiates it of poker live is the possibility of being able to play on several tables simultaneously. Thanks to this option, adepts in online poker find sometimes tables a little boring. By playing in multi-tables, the possibility of increasing your gains with the same duration of attendance in front of your PC, because multiplied by the number of tables, is also a reality. Depending to the level of every player in online poker, playing up to 6 tables or more at the same time can be done without problem. However, to choose to play on a large number of tables at the same time requires a good self-control because you are hurt with regard to your opponents. Indeed, you won’t have enough time to analyze each hand and you will be less concentrated on the game than your opponents. Thus, it might be more profitable to play fewer tables, but you can control each hand. In this way you can improve your play at poker and you can win easily.

A well arranged environment, which may not be perturbed all the day long, is needed. Instantaneous messages like Skype or MSN must be deactivated in order to have a total concentration. Then, your computer has to have a rather wide screen (19 inch at least) with a high resolution of image to perceive well every table. The perfect control of the various features of the software of game on which you play is also essential to collect all the information on your opponents and their styles of game. Then, it is necessary to re-size tables on your screen, according to their number for you to be indeed able to discern cards, amounts of the stakes and stacks. Other options must be deactivated.

As regards the strategy of game, it is necessary to increase step by step the number of opened tables. It is also necessary to play on every table your best poker. A break after two or three hours of set is advised for you to be able to strengthen yourself and get back your concentration.

The origin of video poker

Video poker is a game of casino which is played on a mechanism similar to that of slot machine. The first Video poker was introduced on the market in 1970, when the ancestors of desktop computers having closer forms to those of the current models of the year 90s also made their apparition in the world of electronic. Video poker became more known when "Si Redd’s Coin Machines" which developed in International Game Technology, introduced Draw Poker in 1979. Throughout 1980s, video poker became more and more popular in casinos. Absence of direct opponents around a table encouraged more and more players to play with this machine. Today, video poker occupies a special place in casinos of the whole world, particularly in Las Vegas because a similar fun than playing in a poker table can be get.

Generally speaking, video poker is a mixture of poker and a gambling machine, the game is accessible to everybody. The game begins by placing a bet or money in the machine, and then by pressing on a button "Deal" to read cards. The player has then the opportunity to keep or discard one or some of his cards in exchange of a new card drawn from the same virtual deck machine. After the edition, the machine estimates the hand and offers a payment if the hand corresponds to one of the shown winning hands. On a usual machine of video poker, payments begin with a hand minimum of a pair of J. The machine calculates payments by basing itself partially on the frequency of hands and on the rate of payment which the operator chooses to offer. Some machines offer jackpot by which the amount can increase for the royal flush. It is the technique which incites the player to bet more.

Texas Hold’Em : Two private cards, flop, turn and river make its particular

Texas Hold' Em (either Hold' Em or Vegas) is the variant of poker the most played and the most famous. Whether it is in gaming rooms, in big tournaments as World Series of poker (WSOP), in World Poker Tour (WPT), online sit&go… it’s this variant which is played at most of time. As basic rule, two to ten players can play around a table. Texas Hold' Em is characterized by the distribution of cards: each player has 2 private cards (hidden up to the showdown) and 5 cards are revealed on the board. So, it is necessary to form the best possible game, to go further at each turn financing which is made in clockwise rotation to try to win the pot.

In Texas Hold' em, the dealer distributes at first private cards before "burning" a card, that is removing a card of the poker game, before displaying the flop. The flop is defined as the simultaneous reversal of the first three common cards, after the first betting round. Another betting round can continue after that. Then the dealer burns again another card before the “turn” or the “fourth street” which is the fourth card turned back after the flop. The third betting round continues if players are still in the game and have not abandoned the set yet. Then, the third card is burned by the dealer before showing the “river”, the fifth card of the board. Then, the last betting round is played.

All players who are still in the poker game will have to pass to the showdown after this last bid. Every player has to present his 5 best cards formed among his two private cards and three cards from the board. It is the player having the highest hand who wins the pot.