I just got an email from somebody subscribed to my 5 Free Hot Poker Tips email series wanting (specifically) PLO8 tips. Now it just so happens that I play a lot of this particular poker game online. So I took 5 minutes to scribble out some of my best tips for him, and thought I may as well share them with all of you as well. So here ya go:

1. Never raise from the early seats without aces - as it gives an aces hand too much ammunition to come back over the top.

2. When you flop nut low without much else take it easy for a betting round - check and call or bet small in late position only. Wait for the turn card to see if it will counterfeit you before committing a lot of chips. Try to measure your opponent’s hands by their actions and only get aggressive if it seems like another nut low is not out there.

3. On the other hand if you have any kind of decent high hand (like top pair) to go with your nut low against one opponent who is betting aggressively, try to get all-in as you have a good shot at quartering them.

4. Look for 12+ out straight draws on rainbow boards with no low yet and try to get all in on the flop if it seems possible, especially if you also have any low draw as well. Twelve outs twice is 24 - which is more than half the remaining deck - so you are a favorite to make the straight. However with two suited cards on the flop you just lost 25% of your outs so you would need a total wrap (16+ outs) in that case.

5. This one is very important and usually only pros know about it. Anytime you are against one opponent on the Turn or River and they would need to use all 4 cards to scoop you, raise max and try to get all-in if possible. (This works better in NLO8 because you can just go all-in.) For this scenario to exist there must be a possible low but no possible wheel and no possible flush, and it’s also better with no pair on board. If you have any straight or any set or any two pair plus any low (even 7-8) make this move. It’s very difficult for somebody to have a hand where they use all four cards to scoop so and you can really put the pressure on them and pick up a lot of fold equity this way.

6. Look for opponents who love to raise with pocket aces but not much else. When you spot one buddy-list them and always try to get into their game. You have a huge edge knowing what two of their cards are when they have no knowledge of your hand. When they have a large stack call liberally against them. What you want is for them to overplay their aces on an innocent looking flop where you flopped two pair or a set (of course if an ace flops abandon ship). Wait for them to Turn-bet then start raising max.

Technorati Tags: Poker, Poker strategy, Poker tips, Omaha poker, Plo8

How well your poker tournament results look in retrospect will in no small way depend on how you handle approaching bubbles, especially with a less than average-sized stack. This is a situation that requires more in the way of situational analysis and less in the way of poker skill. Often you will simply be deciding whether to play or not, and when you do it will often be a pre-flop shove. Whether to fold or shove in marginal spots depends on the nature of the bubble as well as the current mood of your opponents.

The shortest stack at the table is usually the one everyone is watching. Wait for the crippled stacks to double up or bust and do your part in trying to eliminate them if you can spare the chips. But when you get down to just a fairly short stack and then one or two slightly larger stacks, strategy plays a huge rule - especially if you are one of those two slightly larger stacks.

Consider this situation that I found myself in at the final table of the daily $20,000 Guarantee on Poker Stars ($20+2 no rebuys). There were five of us left and I was the second lowest stack at 481,343. The bubbler had 267,743 and there were two stacks at around a million with the largest being 1.2 mil. The blinds were at $10K/20K with $2K antes. The tournament prize structure went like this:

1st: $4798

2nd: $3554

3rd: $2734

4th: $2050

5th: $1435

Not bad for a twenty dollar buy-in, but I really wanted that fourth place finish (which I was appropriately in line for chip-wise). I didn’t really care about trying to win the tournament and just wanted to ease into fourth. So how do you play it? Do you get involved with the bubbler at all, risking changing places with him? Do you get involved in any hands at all with anybody?

I decided not to. I was just going to wait and let him play the big stacks. He did, and he doubled up. Then he got reraised off a hand and ended up on the bubble again, and then doubled up again! I finally got dealt jacks while on the bubble and ran into kings to go out 5th. Sometimes there is nothing you can do no matter how strong your intentions. So you might as well always be willing to risk going out next in pursuit of first!

Technorati Tags: Poker, Poker tournaments, Poker strategy

7-Stud 8 or Better, otherwise known as 7-Stud Hi-Lo, is a great game but can be difficult to get good at. This fact contributes to making it an even better game to specialize in. Good players have a tremendous edge over poor players at Stud Hi-Lo, and poor players are very easy to find. In fact it is extremely rare for any game going at any limit not to contain at least one or two poor players. Of course, those poor guys aren’t even aware that there are targets on their backs. If you aren’t spotting them regularly within a short time of joining a table, your game needs work.

The most common misnomer about proper strategy for Stud/8 is to "play for low." Blindly following that advice will assure you a pair of gills and a set of fins. While the better players do usually apparently have a low hand developing when they are in a pot, it’s nowhere near as simple as this.

The mantra of the more advanced players is "to play for the scoop." While a much more respectable slogan, that too is far from a complete strategy. There are plenty of times when you want to be jamming the pot while almost certain to only get half, usually when chopping up a fish for dinner with the player that is a big favorite for the other half.

The best advice I can give in this post is to think in three dimensional probabilities. This means that you always must be thinking about both the high and low, what you opponent’s likely holdings are, and how your chances add up in both directions - resulting in an overall percentage estimate. Anticipate what scare cards will do to the situation on both your and your opponent’s boards. When the percentages seem to be adding up nicely on your side and scare cards on your opponent’s board won’t be very scary but could be on yours, bet and raise aggressively.

Many hands will be played heads up. Always understand when a bare ace might be the current best hand for high, but bail out early against your opponent’s scariest boards. For example on fourth street if your opponent has 64 of the same suit and you have AA94 with one ace showing, there is nothing wrong with folding right there. You have very little invested and can get into a real bad spot in this situation. (With AA84 and three suits or AA73 rainbow you’d be inclined to play.)

High starting hands as low as JJx can profitably be played against a lone opponent with a low card, but be prepared to bail when they catch scary on fourth or fifth (either a suited low card or an ace). Stay away from low hands that do not include an ace or a straight or flush draw - for example 248 rainbow. Any 8 should be abandoned if there are better apparent low draws in the hand.

You want opponents who draw to weak lows, overplay high hands, and stay in the hand too long when opponent’s boards get scary. It is highly recommended to read Todd Brunsen’s chapter in Supersystem 2 a half dozen times or so if you want to become a top player.

Technorati Tags: Poker, Poker strategy, Seven card stud, 7-Stud Hi-Lo