Welcome to Poker Tips

Hand Nicknames

On top of knowing how to play poker, it's useful (and impressive) to know the poker lingo. Poker players have nicknames for a lot of hands, and it's good to know them. It's not a disaster to hear someone say “I have spare tire” and not know what it means, but you look cooler if you do.

Since we all know the purpose of poker is to look cool, here are some hand nicknames: - AA: probably has the most nicknames. “Bullets” and “pocket rockets” don't require a lot of explanation, and I've thought American Airlines intentionally planted their name as another AA nickname. - KK: the uncreative nickname is “cowboys.” Those in the know prefer “ace magnets” (as in, “Whenever I have KK, there's an A on the flop.”) - JJ: “Hooks.” - 99: “Phil Hellmuth.” Ordinarily, I wouldn't like to nickname a hand after someone who's so freakin' obnoxious, but 99 is the hand that Hellmuth had to win the 1989 World Series of Poker Main Event. We'll discuss more poker hand names in future tips. Learning poker strategy is nice and all, but what's it worth if you don't know that a spare tire is J4 (as in, “What's a jack for?”)

Big Draws in No Limit Hold ‘Em

Suppose you're playing no limit hold ‘em and you're dealt 45, both clubs. A player in middle position makes a moderate raise and you decide to call in the big blind. The flop is 3-6-J with two clubs. You've flopped a powerful drawing hand – a flush draw plus an open-ended straight draw. Your most likely course of action is to try to get all of the chips on the flop! If you don't have many more poker chips than the size of the pot, just go ahead and bet all-in. If you have too many chips for that to be a normal-looking play, consider check-raising all-in. If you have a lot of chips in front of you, you can bet and plan on reraising all-in when the villain raises.

These plays are great because it will force the opponent to fold a lot of hands. And if he does call with one pair, you're better than 50-50 to win the pot! Even if he has a huge hand like 3 of a kind, you're not in terrible shape. On the other hand, if you check and call a bet, you're going to be stuck with a lot of your money in the pot and having to act first – a very unenviable position.

Watch Your Own Image

Paying attention to your own image is probably the most important image to pay attention to in a tournament. For example, suppose you've just been moved to a new table in a Texas hold ‘em tournament ten hands ago. In that time, you've been dealt AA, KK, and AK twice, played them all aggressively, and never showed down a hand. Everyone is going to be just itching to play against you, because you look like a maniac, even though you know you've just gotten an amazing run of cards. This effect will be there at any level of game, from a freeroll to a major tournament.

*This means two things: don't try to steal blinds with a junk hand, because you will get played back at. Also, if someone plays back at you when you have a tough choice, tend to call rather than fold. The odds they're reraising with air goes up dramatically because you look like a maniac.

AK in a Tournament When Someone Raises

In no limit Texas hold ‘em poker tournaments, how you play AK against a raise can easily make you or break you. The size of your stack largely determines your play. If your stack is between two and five times the size of the pot, you generally want to raise all-in. You may take down the pot right away, which would be a nice pot for you, and if you get called, you're only in bad shape against KK or AA, two hands that are less likely because you hold an A and a K in your hand.

If the stacks are too deep to move in, you have a decision to make between calling and reraising. Against a player who will likely call a reraise with hands like AJ or KQ, reraising starts to look better. If you're going to be in bad position after the flop, you should be more willing to overbet and get all-in pre-flop to avoid having to play the hand out of position. Finally, AK is very different from AA. There are times you need to fold AK before the flop, sometimes before you even put a chip in. If you never fold AK before the flop, you're going to find yourself busted too often.

Tips on Tipping (Ha ha!)

There's nothing worse than seeing poker players in live poker rooms rake in a nice big pot and neglect the poor dealer who made it all happen. Dealers make a hefty chunk of their incomes from tips, so you should give them a tip after most of the pots you win. If you win a very small one, just hang on to your money, but anything significant deserves a tip, usually a dollar.

If the pot was extra big or if the dealer is doing an especially good job, it's a nice gesture to throw in a few extra dollars. The same goes for the cocktail waiters and waitresses. Yes, technically the drinks are free, but there is strong social pressure to give at least a dollar (again, usually exactly a dollar) for a drink.

*Cocktail servers at some casinos pay for each drink they put on their tray, so they're losing money if you don't tip. You wouldn't go to a restaurant and leave exact change on a $45.30 bill, would you? So tip those dealers and servers!

Other Casino Games

Playing poker live carries one more hazard than playing on an online poker site. For some people, the thrill of poker spills over into other casino games, or as poker players call them, “games for suckers.” There are always plenty of stories of well-known professionals who clean up at the poker tables, but squander it all away on craps or roulette.

If you want to be a serious poker player, do yourself a favor and stay away from the rest of the casino. If you must play, learn optimal blackjack strategy where you're only giving up a small edge to the house (or better yet, learn to count cards and reverse that edge).

Stealing and Restealing

If you watch high-level players in a no limit Texas hold ‘em tournament, whether it's a virtual poker game or a live one, you'll see that the action often looks like this: everyone folds to someone in late position, who raises and everyone folds. This is a very common occurrence, especially once the blinds are big enough that they are worth stealing.

If players are stealing blinds that often, it means that sometimes they're doing it with marginal hands. If you're in a blind and you suspect that the raiser has a poor hand, the best play is often to reraise. If you just call, even if your hand is better before the flop, you risk letting the raiser improve her hand. Also, it will be harder to extract money if you do have a good hand since you'll have to act first in each betting round. So you often want to reraise before the flop, and raise enough that you have a good chance of winning the pot right there.

Another Correct Fold of AA Before the Flop

We're going to talk about one more time it's correct to fold aces before the flop in a no limit Texas hold ‘em tournament. Remember that these situations are basically just little mental riddles and trivia factoids – I've played tens of thousands of hands of multiplayer poker online and never once dreamed of folding AA before the flop.

Suppose you're playing in a $10 one-table tournament with 10 players. First place pays $50, second is $30, and third is $20. On the first hand, you're in the big blind with AA, and amazingly, everyone goes all-in before you act. Should you call? At first it seems like you obviously should – you've got the best hand in poker. But look deeper. If you call, assume you win 40% of the time. In actuality, it will be significantly lower, but assume it's 40%. If you call, you'll win $50 40% of the time, and the 60% that you lose, you'll split the second and third place money nine ways, which is $50 / 9, or $5.56. Forty percent times $50 plus 60% times $5.56 is $23.33.

If you fold, you're guaranteed second (as long as there is not a tie for the pot), which is worth $30, plus you might get lucky and pull out an unlikely first. So, not that it will ever come up, but if you find yourself in this spot you should fold AA!

Bluffing into a Dry Side Pot

If you play online poker tournaments, or live tournaments, sometimes you'll have one player all-in while others in the pot still have money left to bet. Any additional betting goes into a side pot, and the all-in player is not eligible to win that pot. Suppose players A, B, and C are in a pot together. A and B start with 1,000 chips and C starts with 100. All of C's chips go into the middle before the flop, so C is all-in and there is no money in the side pot.

A and B are the only ones who can bet, and they check the flop and the turn. On the river, A has a dreadful hand – he can't even beat the five cards that are on the board. A bluffing here is a horrible play. At best, B will fold, but C can't fold because she already is all-in. Since A has a horrible hand, C will win and collect the pot. A is risking being called by B and losing, when there is no way to benefit by betting.

Where to Play Online

If you are looking to learn the rules of poker, a great way to learn is to play free poker online. Playing on online poker sites is an excellent way to get a feel for poker. There are a lot of sites that let you play for play money or for actual cash. The quality of play on the play money tables is generally terrible. Why would Joe Horrible fold to a huge bet drawing to an inside straight?

Unfortunately, without a method for encouraging discipline (cash does nicely), poker tends to turn into a call-fest. A nice solution is to play on the super low-stakes real-money tables. At the lowest stakes, you would need quite a downswing to lose more than two or three dollars in an evening.