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Playing jacks, when continuation bets will put you in tough spots

Many poker players will say that they think pocket jacks are the toughest hand to play in all of poker. While they can certainly be a challenge to play, you should always remember that pocket jacks are still one of the best possible starting hands in all of Texas Hold’em and are therefore very profitable. Pre flop play can be a bit of an issue with pocket jacks, and it is perhaps the toughest stage. Some players advocate 4 betting pre flop with pocket jacks, others think they aren’t even worth a 3 bet, and still others will fold to 3 bets. The value of pocket jacks pre flop will always come down to variables specific to your table, be it the limits you are at or the opponents you are facing. The post flop play should remain fairly easy as you will be able to simply adjust to what is on the board.

Playing a Short Table

Most cash game tables will not run at full capacity for very long. There will be inevitable periods where you are forced to play against just a few opponents. Playing at a short table will change the dynamics of the game greatly and will call for adjustments to your strategy. Many poker players disregard the fact that the game they were playing 5 minutes ago is now much different.

Poker Metagame

Metagame is a concept that has really grown in popularity over the past few years. Metagame has always been a vital part of poker, many players just didn’t realize they were using it. Any time you try to analyze your play or someone else’s play based on thought processes you are using what is called metagame. The game aspect of it stems from the fact that it truly is a battle, match, or game played between the minds. Poker is all about outwitting the other players and this is why metagame is so important.

Rush Poker at Full Tilt: Playing and Winning

Full Tilt Poker has changed the face of online poker by introducing a new breed of game: Rush Poker. As if the pace of 6-max games weren’t already blazingly fast, the team at Full Tilt has taken it upon themselves to turn up the speed.

Sitting at a Rush Poker table is kind of like hitting the highway at 150 miles per hour. Except when you’re driving a car, you don’t have a chance to win some cash. Rush Poker gives you both the thrill and the money; it’s a revolutionary new way to play.

Rush Poker: What Is It?

Inducing Spastic Bets

Some poker players try way harder than they need to when trying to take down a pot. Even though small bets will be just as effective as huge bets in certain spots, some players will throw caution to the wind and shove their stack all in anyway. Of course this is far from an optimal strategy, but it is great news when your opponent finds it to be the smart thing to do. The key to exploiting these types of players is letting them do what they want. The worst thing you can do would be to stop them from wasting their money.

Double and Triple Barreling

Double and triple barrels are extremely important skills that will help poker players achieve success without the need for good cards. A double barrel is the second attempt that a player will make to take away a pot. This second attempt to win a pot will come on the turn because the flop would be considered your first opportunity. The word barrel is representative of the fact that you are trying to fire into the pot with nothing. You want to barrel the other player(s) out of the hand because your hand has no showdown value.

Exploiting an overaggressive player

One of the easiest ways to make money, particularly in a cash game, is to get into a battle with an overaggressive player. Overaggressive players are ready and willing to donate all of their money to your bankroll, so why not accept it with open arms? In most cases you will do the best against these types of players by letting them dictate the action as much as possible. Even though these players are certainly a bit on the spastic side, even they will be prone to making folds from time to time. The overaggressive aspect varies from a player who might be considered a calling station.

Playing Suited Connectors

In Hold’em

One of the types of starting hands that players love to hate, but hate to love is suited connectors. The reason for this hate/love relationship is that when a player decides to enter a pot with these deviant little guys, either they are going to be way ahead or way behind in the hand with very little room in between.

How to use the Gap Concept effectively in Poker

Here is a common situation in poker that I am 99.9% sure that all of us have faced, if not witnessed.

You are in the cut-off in a 9-man sit n go, with a stack of around 2,000 with the blinds at 50/100. The player under the gun has about 1,800 in chips and raises it to 250. Everyone folds to you; you look down to see As-9s and decide to make the call. The button, small blind and big blind fold and you and the player under the gun go to see the flop with $650 in the pot.

How to Play Pocket Pairs in Holdem

Out of all the possible starting hands that players can enter the pot with, pocket pairs tend to be one of the most difficult for many players to play, both pre-flop and on the flop. From my experience, this is because players either tend to over play or over value their pocket pairs or depending on the strength of the pocket pair, do quite the opposite and play them too passively or not value them enough.

To better explain my thoughts, I have included some examples below as well a few thoughts on how to better approach pocket pairs so that you can be as profitable as possible when dealt them.