Your best profits lie in games where people are being sociable and having a good time. Players tend to play a bit looser in that type of environment and are definitely less focused. If you are trying to make money, you are far better off playing with people who are just there to have fun. If they’re recreational players who only have a few hours to play after work or before a show, they will be far less likely to wait two hours for aces and will be mixing it up more to get some action. Meanwhile, the guy who is making a living out of it is going to wait for better hands.

If you find a table you like and expect to be playing there for a few hours, it is best to create a pleasant ambiance. You can play a little bit loose and go after small pots at first, and perhaps end up losing some money. But eventually, you can change gears and create a big edge. Just because you are being friendly and having fun doesn’t mean you can’t play to win.

Often, people prefer to be social rather than cautious and will play a lot of hands so they can be a part of the camaraderie you have helped create. It is similar to a group of people going for a coffee. You may rather have a nice glass of orange juice, but you actually have a coffee because that is what your friends are doing. The same will occur in a cash game if people are enjoying themselves; they will play hands that they shouldn’t. Being aware of that phenomenon is one of the best ways to make money in cash games. The big difference between you and the other players is that you are going to make sure that the percentages are in your favor when the big money goes in.

My interview with David Dixon about tonight’s WSOP final table and some other general poker topics and tips on 107 fm Victoria BC.

Today at 2:33pm PST (Tuesday Nov. 10)

C-FAX 1070 – http://bit.ly/4A64us (just click the link)

Regards, Warwick

See my previous article for tip # 1-8. (These are my notes and a summary only. For a full understanding of the information, you should read Jeff Hwang before risking any money. Pot Limit Omaha is a complex game and can be expensive to learn and hard to simplify.)

9. Flush- Avoid putting a lot of money in without the nut flush.
10. Pairs should have connectors or a suited Ace to be playable.
11. Focus on drawing to the nuts.
12. Do not draw to a straight with a 2 flush on the board (unless you have the flush draw as well.)
13. 3 straight cards with a suited A – Great potential.
14. 3 straight cards with a pair – Good potential.
15. Playing danglers is marginal at best.
16. Draw only to the nuts.
17. Primary goal is to win an opponents entire stack, not many small pots.
18. We are looking to flop a hand that will be best at the river, not just best on flop.
19. Focus on quality of outs not just the number of outs.

Warwick Dunnett: Author of  Poker Wizards

(They are abbreviated for my own reference and are not direct quotes from the book. Please forgive me Jeff!)

• Flopping the Nut Straight does not entitle you to the pot.
• Don’t play hands with a week structure.
• Proceed your straight with caution if there is a flush draw out.
• Sometimes it is correct to fold the nut straight on the flop.
• Only play hands with big play potential. (e.g. Possible nut straight with redraws)
• Bigger cards are a lot, lot better.
• The under-full is the most expensive hand. (Win small or lose big!)
• Avoid playing smaller pairs altogether to avoid bottom and middle set.

More on the next post.

Really great players make better decisions more regularly than players of more average ability. Of course, there are many reasons why successful players make better decisions, but in part, it is because they are able to connect more closely with those constructive subconscious feelings and signals we refer to as “gut feeling.”

Ironically, it was the master of non-verbal tells himself, Marc Salem, who gave me the most insightful piece of indirect information when I interviewed him for Poker Wizards. When I asked him about the significance of the inner voice, he pointed out that gut feeling has tremendous significance “if you are smart enough to recognize it.”  It wasn’t until later when I listened to the recording that I realized how rare he thinks it is for a person to actually connect with his true gut feeling. That begs the question:

Is that little voice that says “Call,” your gut feeling, or is it perhaps driven by other inner desires such as your need to win or your desire to prove your superiority? Or could it be a more complex, self-destructive urge that tells you to call when you know you shouldn’t?

The better players understand the differing internal signals they’re getting and know which ones to heed and which to ignore. That’s all you have to figure out!

Warwick Dunnett

]]> http://oneononepoker.net/?feed=rss2&p=232 http://oneononepoker.net/?p=225 http://oneononepoker.net/?p=225#comments Tue, 18 Aug 2009 05:57:21 +0000 admin http://oneononepoker.net/?p=225

Chris Ferguson does not think of himself as having a particular style because he adjusts his play to fit his opponents. He thinks of his style as trying to give his opponents as much trouble as he can and make their decisions as hard as possible.  The following are extracts from our interview for Poker Wizards.

I want to force my opponents to play a style they’re not used to - said Chris during our interview.

If they’re playing too many hands, I will make them pay to play. I am going to put pressure on them and make them shift to a style where they’re going to want to see a lot fewer hands. So, in effect, I am going to play around them. If they’re playing too few hands, once again I will put pressure on them and raise more often, but if they come into a pot, I’m more likely to let them take it. In essence, I’m saying, “Play more hands, steal the pot,” because that is a style they’re not used to.

If my opponent folds his blinds too often, I am going to raise him frequently. I am going to try to force him to play pots against me and defend his blinds more. Now, he is playing a game he is not comfortable with. If he defends his blinds all the time, I am going to tighten up slightly. I am going to tell him, “Well, you should throw those weak hands away because when I come in I have a good hand.” I am forcing him to change his style to play a little bit more conservatively.

If he is always raising me and trying to steal my blinds, I am going to start playing pots against him. I am going to punish him for raising me with those weaker cards by playing more hands.   If he does not want to play a lot of hands, and is not raising enough, I will let him steal my blinds. I’ll only play my best hands. So again, in one sense, I am trying to force him to play a style he is not used to; or I am punishing him if he does not change. To me, that is a win-win situation. If he does not change the way he plays, that is fantastic because I am really taking advantage of him. If he does change the way he plays, now he is playing a game he is not used to. He is playing a style that he does not want to play. It is not his natural style and the fact that he is going to be slightly out of his element is going to be an advantage for me. So I think you could say my playing style is really geared to my opponents. I try to adjust to them as much as possible.

Extract from Poker Wizards; a book of poker tips and strategies from a group of players including Daniel Negreanu, Chris Ferguson, T.J. Cloutier, Marcel Luske, Mike Sexton, Kathy Liebert and Mel Judah.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Warwick_Dunnett http://EzineArticles.com/?Poker-Strategy—The-Secret-of-Adaptation&id=2573079

The wrong way to bluff, and incorrect play on the turn.

Negreanu Poker Strategy from Poker Wizards