All of us are capable of making a profit with a pair of Aces or Kings, but it’s what we do with marginal hands, like pairs below 8-8, that can make a big difference in the overall profitability of our game. You may wonder why I specifically chose a pair of eights as my “line of demarcation”. I do so because eights are the median cards in a deck; median meaning half the cards are of lower value (2s through 7s) and half are higher (9s through Aces) – six of each with 8s making up the 13th card. So, it follows that half the time you hold a pair of 8s, any opponent that also holds a pair has you beat. However, the nice thing about pair versus pair matchups is that they are rare. The odds that one of your opponents at a full table has a pair when you have a pair is roughly 30 to 1, but if you have 2-2, you’re almost certainly beaten. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make the bet I’ll be describing here.
In my experience, in the early stages of a tournament, be it single- or multi-table, players will limp into a lot of pots when given the opportunity to do so. Of course, many players will limp with trash hands and a pair Aces alike, so if you’re in late position (Cutoff or Button) and you also limp, you’re never really sure where you stand. One of my favorite sayings is, “Expect anything in an unraised pot.” The way to handle that is to put in a nice healthy raise if, say, at least four players have limped in and you’re in late position with a hand that can win on its own. Obviously, that means any pocket pair, but it can also mean a hand with an Ace or a King, suited or otherwise. Yes, most likely you’ll have to hit something on the flop to win if all you have is A-x or K-x, but a pair of Aces or Kings will often be a winner, so that’s what I mean by “win on its own.” I would not include Q-x or lower in this category.
So let’s say you have one of these qualifying hands and the blinds are 5/10 in the early stages of a sit & go tourney. With four limpers and the blinds, the pot will be 55 when it gets to you and you should raise the bet to at least 70. That means it will cost the Small Blind 65 more to get in on a pot of 125, giving him nearly 2 to 1 pot odds, so don’t be surprised by his call, which will raise the pot to 190. The Big Blind will have to put in 60 more which will be 3 to 1 pot odds, so again, don’t be surprised if he calls. Of course, you don’t really want to see this hand to a showdown, but if the two blinds do call, you’ll have 70 chips invested in a pot that is now valued at 250, which is better than 3.5 to 1 pot odds. Should you hold a pocket pair, your probability of success with a pair of 2s against two random hands like the blinds is 31% (just under 2 to 1), but the pot is offering 3.5 to 1. If you hold 7-7, your probability of winning is 44%, which is just under even-money. Of course, other limpers may also call, but that will only raise your pot odds, although you’re very likely facing a “real” hand if they do. If someone re-raises, you should probably fold if your hand is lower than 8-8. I say “probably” because in an online sit & go tourney, you may not have much of a read on that player and he may have limped with a big pair like As or Ks, in which case you’re about a 4 to 1 underdog or he may have A-x or K-x, in which case you have the best of it. So, if the pots odds warrant a call, you’ll have to use your best judgment, but I lean toward folding. A re-raise is the worst-case scenario, but what you’ll generally find is that everyone will fold to your raise except one other player and that person will just call, which makes any other $$$ in the pot “dead money”, thus the name of this bet.
Of course, every hand is different, but if I raise preflop and the remaining player(s) check to me after the flop, ninety percent of the time I’m going to bet at least 75% of the pot at that point. Remember, your preflop raise basically said, “I have a pair or two big cards” so if an Ace or King comes on the flop, just about the only player who can call my post-flop bet is someone who either has an Ace or a King, a pair that made a set or a drawing hand. If the flop misses me completely, I’m still making that bet and hopefully my opponent will fold. I only start to worry if I’m called. If I’m re-raised, I just drop the hand and that’s that, but a caller is very likely slow-playing me. Now remember, I’ve got “position” in this example and get to act last. With a hand like 2-2, if my opponent who called then bets after the turn card is placed on the board, I’m going to fold unless it’s a third 2, in which case I’ll re-raise. If my opponent checks on the turn, most of the time I’m going to check too and I’ll get to see the river card for free. The river will take care of itself; I’ll either be able to call a bet or I won’t.
But the vast majority of the time when you make this bet, the others will fold and you’ll have made a nice profit at very little risk. The tighter your image, the better this works. Only relatively sophisticated players will see this bet as a “steal”, but even they’ll be surprised a lot of the time because very aggressive players will make a bet like this with any two cards and you’re doing it with a pretty good hand. Remember, even 2-2 has the best of it against two unpaired overcards.
You will often find yourself with a hand that may or may not be the best, so it’s not easy to decide if you should stay with it or let it go. As an example, let’s say you’re in the Big Blind of a single-table NLHE tournament with K-J suited and everyone has folded to the Button who makes a 3-times the Big Blind raise. The Small Blind calls and, because you’re getting odds of 3.5 to 1, you call. (If the BB is $100 and the SB is $50, a 3x raise is $300; the SB puts in $250, so the pot is now $700 and you must bet $200.) Let’s say the flop comes J,7,5 “rainbow” (all different suits) and the Button bets $500 into the what-is-now $900 pot. The Small Blind folds and it’s now up to you; you’ll need to make a $500 call into a $1400 pot, so you’re getting some decent pot odds. However, if you do call, what have you learned about you opponent’s hand? Basically nothing, which is not the way you want it to be when you’re putting your $$$ to risk, although it’s certainly not the worst call you’ll ever make.
But a better idea is to raise your opponent’s bet to $1000. My reasoning here is: (A) players often raise – quite properly – on the button with relatively weak hands, like 10-J, A-x or a low pair and (B) after such a raise, many will make a “continuation” bet, whether or not the flop helped them. If you do raise $1000, the pot is now $2400 and your opponent will have to bet $500 to stay in the hand, which is nearly 5 to 1 pot odds. That might induce a call if s/he has an open-ended Straight draw, but it’s not enough if s/he has an inside Straight draw (6 to 1 is the proper odds for that) or a Flush draw, which will require runner, runner suited cards (because the flop was of all different suits.) Of course, your opponent could have many other hands: Jack with a higher or lower kicker, two-pair, an overpair, such as Q-Q up to A-A, a pair of 7s or 5s or even a pair of Jacks. If he calls your raise, you have to at least suspect a hand like that, but if he re-raises you, the probability of a “set” (trips) is increased. As frightening as that is, your opponent has to also begin thinking that you may have a set or any other hand mentioned above, which is why a re-raise is giving you important information. Your raise is basically saying, “I have two-pair, a set or overpair” and your opponent’s re-raise is saying, “I know you have two-pair, a set or an overpair and it doesn’t scare me.”
It could also be saying, “I’m bluffing.”
Honestly, if I were able to detect every bluff thrown at me, I’d just play poker for a year and retire as a very rich person. So, while none of us can sniff out every bluff, we can probably spot a large percentage of them (how will we ever know for sure?), based upon the pattern of play by our opponent. If the player on the Button raises most of the time when in that position, he is either receiving good cards at an opportune time or, more likely, bluffing a lot. It’s no secret that picking up the blinds and antes with little risk is a very profitable venture; we all should do it whenever the math makes sense (see Lesson 13 for more on the topic). Bluffs are, at least for me, difficult to deal with when I have a hand such as top pair, second-best kicker like the K-J in the example above. It’s a decent hand, no doubt, but there are a lot of hands that beat it, so a re-raise back at me is usually going to convince me to fold. I say “usually” because if I were to fold every time, anyone who knew my style of play would simply come back at me whenever I raised.
But in a tournament situation, most of the players have never seen me before, so I’ll generally give them credit for the hand they’re representing with the re-raise. However, if my opponent has raised a lot on the Button and I then re-raise and he raises back, I will call if I have previously folded to him in a situation like that. Sure, this may be the time when he really has a hand, but I’ve got to send a message to not only my opponent, but the others at the table; you can’t move me off my hand just by coming back at me. This is a good point to talk about “gambling” as it relates to NLHE tournaments. You all have undoubtedly heard others say, “Sometimes you just have to gamble” and I agree. But there’s gambling and there’s gambling. Raising in early position with A-8s and calling a re-raise is gambling. I’d only do that if I were short-stacked and desperate.
What I do and recommend you do, is to gamble on whether or not my opponent is bluffing. What I hold isn’t all that important; it only has to be able to beat a bluff. As I gain experience, I’m constantly being surprised by how often players bluff. Missed Flush draws are somewhat predictable of course (if only two of a suit is on the board, nobody has a Flush) and missed Straight draws are fairly evident as well. More difficult to determine is the bluff where your opponent holds second pair, but is representing top pair and you hold top pair with a poor kicker. As an example, let’s say you have Kh-5h and the flop is Kc,Js,7d. Your opponent bets into it and you raise. If he calls your raise, you have got to at least suspect he also has a King and, if he does, his kicker may be better than yours. But don’t forget that he might be holding Q-J here and is hoping for either a J or Q to come on the turn, which is evidenced by the fact he didn’t re-raise. Let’s say the turn card is 10h. If he now bets into you, it could mean he has either made a Straight (from a hand of A-Q or Q-9), hit two-pair (from a hand like K-10 or J-10) or has a Straight draw (from a hand of J-Q). I would just call here, unless I had a lot of chips, in which case I’d raise in light of my Flush draw. Either move is a gamble, but I think it’s a reasonable gamble. I still have top pair and, unless the river card makes my hand totally untenable, I’m going to call his river bet, assuming he makes one. Of course, if the river makes my Flush, he’s getting it with both barrels, should he bet. Yes, he might have A-x of hearts, but that’s a chance I’m willing to take. After all, I’m gambling, right?
Back to information raises in general: They require a certain amount of discipline on your part to work effectively. When I first began using them, I would often call if my opponent re-raised me and I lost darn near every hand. A re-raise of your information bet is something that very experienced players will do in higher-level tournaments (like $50+ Sit and Go matches), but in lower level tourneys, you usually have to let the hand go if he re-raises. I’m sure you’ll run into many exceptions to that, but I approach it this way: My opponent’s re-raise has given me the information I wanted – basically that he has me beat – so I fold and go on to the next hand with no regret. When I’m against “sophisticated” opponents who will re-raise as a matter of course, I will go all in if I have top two-pair or better and that either makes them fold or I end up winning the hand because they’re betting an overpair. Sometimes they have a set and I’m toast, but that’s rare and my 16.5% shot at a Full House (the probabilty with two-pair made on the flop with 2 cards to come) makes the pain bearable.
In my continuing self-education as a no-limit Hold ‘em player, I think it’s fair to say that few players have been “short-stacked” in tournaments as often as me. Be it a one-table sit and go type of match or a multi-table tournament with hundreds of players, my conservative style of play will frequently find me as the low stack with four people remaining at a 9- or 10-player SnG or 11th of 11 players when the tournament pays the top 10 places. Lately I’ve been able to improve on that, but it took time to get beyond being eliminated “on the bubble”, which is – as you probably know – a frustrating experience. But take heart, fellow students; the day will come when you’re first among the final 4 at an SnG or in the top five of a multi-table tournament when everyone gets in the money. It has happened to me and, if you maintain the discipline I’m trying to teach here, it’ll happen to you, too.
Let’s face it; when you’re the smallest stack at the table, your opponents want only one thing: your financial demise. If three are paid and you’re in fourth place, knocking you out gets everyone else “in the money”, so the attacks on your stack are going to come from all directions. I know, I’ve been there plenty of times and, while I cannot take credit for inventing the betting technique I’m going to explain here, I will say that I have used it to great effect; most recently at a multi-table satellite tournament where I was 9th out of 9 players, but went on to win it.
Almost all of the advice you’ll read or hear about playing when short-stacked (which I define as having less than 7 Big Blind bets remaining) is to pick a spot and push all-in, hoping to get lucky. Well, I’m not one to depend upon luck – I welcome it, but never depend upon it. Unless you have a really great hand like pocket Aces or Kings, my advice is to avoid a pre-flop “all-in” bet, which looks like sheer desperation and attracts callers like blood in the water attracts sharks. To add to your problems, you’ll probably have to play a less-than-great hand like K-10s, A-x offsuit, etc., which is not the type of hand your opponents usually see you playing if you’re using my starting hands matrix.
So the trick here is to decide that you’re going to go all-in and (ideally) do it when you’ll be first to bet on the flop, which means you’re either in the blinds or in early position. Your 3 times the Big Blind raise from early position or from the blinds might induce everyone to fold, but more likely one or two players will call with “premium” hands, just as they might if you weren’t short. But here’s the difference: when the flop comes, you then go all-in regardless of what effect it had on your hand. There’s a possibility, especially if you have only one opponent, that the flop did not improve his or her hand, just as it may not have improved yours. But at least now your opponent has to think about what to do and we all know that forcing our opponents to make decisions may inspire them to make the wrong one. If your opponent does make a hand, the result is the same whether you pushed pre-flop or only raised the bet; you’re toast. But if the flop missed your opponent completely, s/he just might fold. Sure, it’s a long shot, but it doesn’t cost you anything to try – you’ve already decided to put in all your chips. The downside here is that everyone may fold if you bet 7 times the Big Blind bet (“folding equity”), but that might be offset by having more than one player call, thus giving you the chance to win more if this works.
The bad thing about being short-stacked is that your opponents know they likely won’t have to risk an amount above what you’ll be pushing out there, so they’ll often call with any kind of decent hand, especially if they have one of the bigger stacks. In a way, that’s good because you might well be a favorite in the hand, but the best you can do is double up if only one other player calls. By making a more modest raise, hopefully you’ll get multiple callers, which automatically reduces your winning probability, but it reduces theirs as well, yet you may still be the favorite to win the hand. It’s a fair trade to make in an effort to increase your stack by more than double.
Probably the ideal time and place for this bet is when you’re in the Small Blind and the player on the Button raises, but not enough to put you all in. Rather than re-raise, which may cause the Big Blind to fold, just call. If the BB also calls, that’s a bit worrisome, but it’s now a nice pot and you’ll be betting first. After the flop cards are shown, you push all in and cross your fingers for luck. If it’s a rag flop like 2, 5, 9 “rainbow”, your all-in bet might cause the others to fold, especially if they’re playing big cards that aren’t paired. Remember, the player on the Button is making an almost-obligatory raise and the Big Blind likely has a “random” hand, so you have a decent shot at winning. As I told you earlier, the last time I used this bet I was 9th of 9 players and in the Small Blind. The Button raised, I called and the Big Blind folded. The flop was nothing special and I went all in, which caused the Button to fold. I scooped the pot and it was enough to get me back in the game, which I went on to win. I remember that I had made a pair of 7s on the flop, but it didn’t really matter because the hand ended with my bet. Was I lucky? Perhaps, but it wasn’t my cards that won the hand – it was the way I bet them.
“Okay, GM” I hear you say, “it worked that time, but will it work against experienced players?” Fair question. Of course, nothing is going to work all of the time, but let me quote you a passage out of a great book, “Harrington on Hold ‘em” (Two Plus Two Publishing, 2004 – Vol. 1) that was co-authored by Dan Harrington who is the WSOP Champion for 1995 and who made it to the final table in both 2003 and 2004. In discussing a hand where the short-stack (Player A) opens the betting with a minimum raise, he says this on Page 94:
“A had only $6000 left, just 2.5 times the pot. He had only a couple of rounds left before he’s blinded away. With any kind of reasonable hand, Player A could easily have justified shoving all his chips in the pot and rolling the dice. But he didn’t. Instead he made the minimum raise. That’s what a player does when he wants other players in the pot against him. He wants to make sure he gets some action before he gets all his own chips in. Conclusion? Player A has a very strong hand.”
The poker game called Chicago is one of the most popular card games in Sweden today. Relying on the keeping of score instead of the placing of bets, it is suitable even for environments such as schools, where gambling is often prohibited. The game exists in countless versions, so here a (somewhat arbitrarily chosen) basic game will be followed by a number of possible variations.
Hand scores
The backbone of the game is that each poker hand has its own point value, as given in this table:
One pair – 1 point.
Two pair – 2 points.
Three of a kind – 3 points.
Straight – 4 points.
Flush – 5 points.
Full House – 6 points.
Four of a kind – 7 points (but see Variations below).
Straight flush – 8 points (but see Variations below).
Basic rules
Chicago is played with a standard 52-card deck. Each player is dealt five cards. The objective is to reach 52 points.
Exchanges and hand scoring
The players are allowed to exchange any number of their cards. If a player chooses to exchange one card only, he may choose “one up”, meaning that he is dealt one card faced up, which he can either accept, or instead take the next card unseen. After the exchanges, the player with the best hand (and only one player) gets points for his hand. Then follows another round of exchanges, but no hand scoring.
The game
Now, the first player begins by playing one card. Ordinary whist rules apply, but the players keep their cards collected by themselves. The player who wins the last trick gets 5 points. Also, the player with the best hand (whether it is the same player or not) gets points for his hand.
Chicago
After the second exchange, any player can choose to play Chicago. In this case, he pledges himself to win all the tricks of the game. If he does, he is awarded 15 points, but if he fails, the penalty is just as harsh: -15 points.
Variations
Sometimes, a player given five cards below ten (either inclusive or exclusive) is allowed to replace them before the exchanges begin.
Some play with 3 exchanges instead of 2. Then of course, scoring for hands will be made after both the first and the second exchange.
Some do not use the “one up” rule.
Often, one wants to give higher rewards than 7 or 8 points for Four of a kind and Straight flush respectively. There are several ways to achieve this, most notably by elevating the player immediately to 52 points, or lowering either all players or one player of the holder’s choice to 0 points, or a combination of these. Holding a Royal flush usually means immediate victory.
The confusion is great as to what scores are appointed in the case of Chicago. Some will argue that no player will get any points at all besides the +15 or -15, whilst others will allow almost any points. The +5 for the game, however, can never be stacked with the +15 for Chicago.
Some prescribe that any player with 45 points or more is not allowed to replace any cards.
Some require that after (and not in the same hand as) a player reaches 52 points, he must win the game once more before he actually wins. This handles the possibility that more than one player reach 52 points in the same hand.
The game of poker as played today requires that players agree before play on allowable amounts for betting (called limits), and the use and amount of forced bets. These are collectively called the betting structure of the game.
The betting structure of a poker game is a more significant factor in its balance of luck and skill than the game variant being played. Higher forced bets and smaller limits increase the influence of chance. Smaller forced bets and larger limits increase the element of skill. Good games are carefully balanced so that skillful players will win in the long run while recreational players can win often enough for the game to be exciting to them.
The reason that higher forced bets with smaller limits increases the luck factor is simple enough. With a lot of money in the pot due to the antes, the small forced bet is getting high odds – it is, therefore, worthwhile calling with any hand.
For example, in Texas Hold ‘em, suppose the antes are $10 per player, and the blinds are at $5 and $10. With nine players the pot is $105 before the first player to act has to decide whether or not to call the $10 big blind. That first player is getting odds of 10.5 to 1 on a call – this makes any hand worth playing.
Consequently, various skills such as hand selection and reading player’s hands are reduced in value and the game becomes a dice-shoot.
Betting, in tournaments, can take one of three forms:
In a structured (fixed limit) betting system, bets and raises are restricted to specific amounts, though these amounts typically increase throughout the tournament. For example, for a seven-card stud tournament with the stakes at 10/20, raises would be $10 in the first three rounds of betting, and $20 in the latter rounds.
Semi-structured betting provides ranges for allowed raises. Usually, in this format, one may not raise less than a previous player has raised. For example, if one player raises $20, it would be illegal for another player to raise an additional $5. Pot limit is a semi-structured format in which raises cannot exceed the current size of the pot.
Unstructured betting, usually called no limit. While blinds, antes, or bring-ins are fixed, players are free to bet as much as they wish, even early in a round of betting. To bet all of one’s chips (risking one’s tournament life, in the event of losing the hand) is to go all-in. In no-limit tournaments, players will sometimes take this risk even early in the betting; for example, in some no-limit Texas Hold ‘Em tournaments, it is not uncommon for players to bet “all-in” before the flop.
The betting structure is one of the most defining elements of the game; even if other aspects are equivalent, a fixed-limit version and its no-limit counterpart are considered to be very different games, because the strategies and play styles are very different. For instance, it is much easier to bluff in a no-limit game, which allows aggressive betting, than in a fixed-limit game. No-limit games also vary widely according to the proclivities of the players; an informal, emergent, betting structure is developed by the players’ personal strategies and personalities.
The stakes of each round, as well as blinds, bring-ins, and antes as appropriate per game, typically escalate according either to the time elapsed or the number of hands played. (Raising stake levels according to hands played is usually considered preferable, because it defeats strategic stalling.) This is done for two reasons. First of all, as players are eliminated from the tournament, the average chip counts of the players increase. Secondly, it prevents the game from getting into a rut where chips are exchanged among the players, but players do not run out.
A casino is a building that accommodates certain types of gambling games and activities. Customers may gamble by playing slot machines or other games of chance and some skill (e.g., craps, roulette—for more see casino games). Game rules usually have mathematically-determined odds that ensure the house retains an advantage over the players. This advantage is called the edge. Payout is the percentage given to players. In statistically-even games, such as poker, the house takes a commission (a “rake”) on bets customers make against each other. Casinos are often placed near or combined with hotels, restaurants and other vacation attractions to encourage long stays.
The term originally meant a small villa, summerhouse or pavilion built for pleasure, usually on the grounds of a larger Italian villa or palazzo. There are examples of such casinos at Villa Giulia and Villa Farnese. During the 19th century, the term casino came to include other more public buildings where pleasurable activities, including gambling and sports, took place. An example of this type of building is the Newport Casino. Eventually this term in Italian now designates a bordello (also called “casa chiusa” literally “closed house”), while the gambling house is spelled casinò with an accent.
