Poker Perfection

While it can be tempting to believe that you know all that there is to know about poker and strategies for winning at it, in fact there is always more that even the more experienced player can stand to learn.

If you look at those who have made a living out of playing poker professionally, one thing that will unite them all is an understanding that it is always possible to sharpen up your poker skills and strategy a little more. This piece will look at some Texas Hold’Em 10 basic tips [3] that can improve your chances the next time you are in a game.

Blocker bets

While it is commonly believed that aggressive bets are the best way to win when playing Texas Hold’em for no limits stakes, in fact there are times when this will pay off and times when it won’t. For example, if you have a pretty average hand, it is extremely risky to put down a large bet – and here a smaller ‘blocker’ bet will be more effective – as Matt Jarvis demonstrated at the World Series of Poker competition [4] two years ago. It will mean your opponent cannot push you into betting more than you want and get some extra value from players with bad hands who won’t place large bets. The best times to use a blocker bet are in one-on-one pot situations when you have led throughout the hand and have a marginal holding at the river point.

Small ball betting

This is a poker strategy recommended by professional Dan Harrington [5] and was subsequently popularised by Daniel Negreanu [6] in his videos and articles. It essentially means that you make aggressive plays using a broad starting hand range, but bet only small sums each time – ensuring that when a particular play does not prove to be successful, you avoid heavy losses. It can be a very effective way of seeing off poorer players in the early stages of tournaments, particularly those who will not stop raising your bets on a big pot and ones who call you every time they have a pair. It will give you a reputation as an aggressive, loose gambler that you can exploit when you get a good hand.

Pair plus betting

While it is definitely one of the easier types of poker to learn to play for new players, experienced ones will know that three-card poker is definitely not the easiest to win big at. If you are aiming to secure some big wins playing this, pairs plus betting is one of the more effective strategies for doing so. You can either make this bet on its own or alongside an ante/play bet and you do so by putting your chips on the place marked for it on the table. The downside of this kind of three-card poker bet is that it takes almost all of the control away from you, as you can’t determine the cards you will get, but the potential winnings are greater than with ante bets.

These are just a few of the ways in which the experienced poker player can tweak their game for better results, so why not give them a go.