World Class Poker Tour

I have been pondering at this question for the longest of time since I’ve started playing Hold’em?  Should I raise if I am in the BB position?  Let’s say that I am holding AA, KK, or AKs and I am in the BB. If I raise, that would clearly send a signal to the other players that I have a strong hand.  So thinking this, I shouldn’t raise for deceptive play. After all, if the BB usually just checks after everyone calls then his hand is virtually unknown. But I was also thinking that I could raise with say J10s to get more value should a draw become available on the flop. That would have others guessing that my hand and in the odds are more to my favor. What does everyone think?

Answer 1:

There is something to be said for deception, but you just have to raise with AA and KK. There should be no question about those hands. QQ is certainly worth a raise. You will get a flop without an A or K about half the time. JJ is where you might think about just calling. With a large field, you almost have to play to hit a set. AKs plays well in a big pot, go ahead and raise it.  AQs and KQs too. AKo is still a premium hand. I’d raise with it from the BB most of the time.  Check maybe 30% of the time for deception.  And go for
a check-raise if I hit the flop. I like the idea of raising with JTs (or something like that) from the BB to keep people guessing.  IMHO, *that* is the best way to be deceptive. Not by checking with AA and KK.

Answer 2:

I think you’re on the right track. Although you can raise or re-raise from any position profitably with AA or KK, it’s a good idea to make deceptive plays such as you describe. Against a large field, you could also take your option to raise with a middle or small pair. That way, if you hit your set on the flop, many callers will pay you off to the river. The ideal would be that you hold, say, 55, and the flop comes 5 A 9 rainbows. Anyone with a baby ace will pay you off.

Answer 3:

My experience is that a raise from the blind is unlikely to oust anyone who has already called one bet. If there is a raiser in the back of the field, and you can force folks up front to choose between calling two bets cold by re-raising, then re-raising is probably mandatory. Otherwise, you’re raising just for value.

I was in a jackpot last night beating aces full with quad queens, so, got 25% of the pot. I keep very detailed records of my hourly rate and am curious how others account for jackpot winnings against their hourly rate. Should I add this to my session win?

Answer 1:

Your play is probably affected by the jackpot, so not including it would skew your hourly rate down (since you’re probably playing in a way that loses money if there’s no jackpot). On the other hand, if you include it, you’ll skew your results upward since you’ll be affecting your hourly rate for many hands by just one result. Probably an adjustment upwards to your hourly rate would be in order, but maybe not for the whole amount of the jackpot. One approach would be to figure out what is the least amount there could be in the jackpot which would cause you to play differently, and include that amount as your winnings for the jackpot, and then use that amount to calculate your hourly rate.

Answer 2:

That is a good problem to have! I would add it to your session win. You have been penalized a dollar per pot for the jackpot rake for years.

Answer 3:

I don’t play any differently if there’s a jackpot available in a game. I play my aces full or quads aggressively. I’ve stopped playing ring games, but when i was playing or if and when I start again, I’ll count jackpots as + for “all the money I spend on poker” but not in my “hourly win rate”.

Poker has become one of the most widely accepted online gambling card games, which involves betting in high stakes also. There are many variations of this game which are in existence. Some of the examples are Texas Hold’em, Seven Card Stud and the most thrilling Three Card Poker. The basic rules for every game though remain the same. In any basic game usually the one having the highest hand wins and the one having the lowest looses the most. However in poker there are games where the lowest hand wins or sometimes the winning bet is split half between the lowest winner and the highest winner.

So let’s understand the theory of hands. We will start from highest and move downwards as we proceed. The highest hand is known as the Royal Flush which beats all irrespective of what you have.

It is a pretty straight ranging from a ten to an ace and also all five cards from the same suit. The restriction is that all cards containing in the hand must be from one card suit. The four card suits are the Spades, Hearts, Diamonds and Clubs.

The next to it is the straight flush. This is the condition when you have any straight sequence with all five cards from the same suit. Now we know a Royal Flush is very hard to get and is extremely rare, a Straight Flush proves to be a very good hand when one wants to raise the bets.

Next is the 4 of a Kind where one needs to have four cards of the same type. Now in an ambiguity situation where two players get four of a kind, then a higher fifth card is considered which is in the hand, known as the kicker, which decides who wins.

After that we have the Full House. In this, one needs to have 3 cards of same rank and rest of the two also of the same rank. The highest condition would be three Aces and two Kings.

Next we have the Three of one Kind. All one need is the 3 cards of the same type. In this the best possible combination is the hand with three Aces, a King and 1 Queen.

Towards the last there is a Two Pair hand, where one must have one pair of the same rank and another pair again of the same rank.

One before the last is the One Pair hand, where one can hold any 2 cards but of the same rank. The best combination here can be two Aces, a King, a Queen and a Jack.

Lastly, if somehow you get unlucky and do not have any of the above written hands, then you play just can play on the top card or the highest card in your card stack.

This is just the priority of hands. One must always believe in his or luck and even sometimes the false strategy which can be followed by increasing the stakes very much so that the opponents know the card are very big and they pack up make you winning with nothing real cards in hands.