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Unbalanced ForceIn particular, consider his First Law of Motion:
“An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.”
And this is where poker appears. Online poker players are creatures of inertia. Some of them tend to be in motion all the time: bet, raise, raise, bet. Others are at rest: call, call, call. And many of them even believe that the cards and their luck have similar physical properties.It’s as if there’s some gravitational force pulling their cards in one direction or another.
But wait, let’s review that last phrase of Mr. Newton’s First Law: “ ... unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.” And this is where good poker starts. You must be an unbalanced force. That is, you have to create acceleration to push the outcome of a hand in the desired direction (noting that acceleration can be negative — that is, slowing things down).
Most of you who read about (as opposed to just “play”) poker know about the idea of changing gears. Maybe you decide you’re going to raise two out of three hands for the next two orbits of the button. Or, maybe you’re going to fold everything except Group One hands for the next 30 minutes. |
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Poker TipsTake the Initiative or Don’t!
The poker art of taking or surrendering
Taking the initiative in a Play poker hand means you are controlling the action. This translates to making bets rather than calls, and in many cases, raising to conclude the action. In this way, you are communicating to your opponents that you have the best hand and they are to call or fold, accordingly. All winning players understand the power of taking the initiative. First of all, you can win by pressuring others to fold, since you are generally leading out. Second, your hand may be the winner, and your aggressive and consistent betting builds a juicy pot of chips for yourself Poker - A famous personality.
Let’s run through a sample hand and examine this idea:Your Hand: A. Q. Everyone folds to a player on your right who raises.The question is whether to fold, call, or three-bet; in other words, to take the initiative or not. Many middle-limit players don’t believe A-Q suited is a strong enough hand with which to three-bet, and prefer to encourage more Players to jump in by just calling to build a pot. I encourage you not to make the decision based on your sense of how strong the hand is, but on how you read the situation.
If you think the raiser is a tight player and his hand is likely to be queens, kings, aces, or A-K, you would fold. Why get involved? If you think the raiser may have less
than a premium hand or an underpair to your two high cards, and you think you have good control of the player, and you think your three-bet will shut out the field, take the initiative and reraise.
If you have been losing and are not feared, and have some aggressive, loose Poker players behind you who are sure to cold-call all raises, consider just calling. Save your firepower until you see the flop. You will be in a weak position to maintain the initiative if you get a marginal flop with a strong hand in front of you and loose players behind you.
Assuming You Online Bet and He Calls
River Card: J (Wow! That’s an intense card.)
That’s a classic scare card. It completes the flush and pairs the top card. He can’t likely call with any ace unless your image is very bad and loose. He’s gonna have a hard time calling with an underpair. The pot contains 15 bets (don’t forget the big blind, who
dropped out preflop). I’d risk two bets to win 17. The message has been consistent the entire hand. “I have the goods!” Bet out Poker - Draw Poker Game.
If he decides to raise (real hand or not), more power to him. Either the river totally helped him or he’s read you like a pro. I can’t see you calling the raise. But more than likely, he will think for a while and try to get a sense of whether or not his hand is good. That’s when you know you’ve played the hand well.
ConclusionsTry to avoid what many players do:
They take the initiative early and then lose heart when their hand fails to improve, backing off and practically giving the pot away. Or, they decide to try for the steal at the end of the hand and it comes off as too transparent. Remember, a bluff will have the best chance of working if it makes sense and is believable to your opponent from the beginning to the end of the hand.
There is some risk in taking and trying to sustain the initiative. You no longer
are just playing your hand with Rules, but are stepping up to the next level, that of playing your opponent(s). This requires greater awareness and good timing. But, it is a step up to greater profit expectation, since you are controlling situations to a much greater degree. The key word is situations.
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