Poker players might find themselves in a bit of pickle if they don’t exercise caution while placing bets. In this vein, bankroll protection is all the rage. In order to achieve max value for your hands, you’ll want to work hard to get as much cash out of your opponents as possible. But you’ll also want to work in such a way as to maximize the protection/payoff ratio. Incorrect applied value and protection wagering can land you in hot water. The best way out of it is to apply a set of constructs that maximize your betting options.

How to Apply Value Betting to Terrific Poker Hands

We can define value betting as a betting strategy that seeks to extract the maximum possible value out of your opponent.  What this means in simple lingo is that if you’re holding a great hand of cards, you’ll be wanting to bleed the entire table of active players dry and cash up in the process. Let’s take a classic example of a big punter who’s holding a pair of ladies – queens – as hole cards. This punter would feel pretty content with a pair of queens even before the flop, turn and river cards. But it’s not over until the proverbial fat lady sings.

Things to Consider When Attempting Value Betting

Look at your position at the table. This is most important. If you’re sitting in first position then you will be unwise to act first – even though you’re compelled to. If you’re in middle or last position then you’re well set to have a greater chance of making good on value bets. This is because you’ve seen quite a bit of betting activity going on before you. Continuing from where we left off would see a QQ and the flop, turn and river yet to follow. The ladies would serve us well against most hands, but it’s not a guarantee of a winning hand.

A player who may be holding pocket Kings would certainly be able to outplay the player holding the Qs. If the player holding the ladies wasn’t milked to the final card – the river, then value betting didn’t take place. That is why it’s imperative that the player with the good hand extracts as much as possible from the player with the poor hand. Ideally it should go down to the wire – and then the reality should hit that value betting took place.

At the very least, the player holding the better cards would make sure that the turn and river bets were milked too.

Protection Betting is a Little Different but No Less Entertaining

The classic story of a Las Vegas player who was involved in a cash game is always going to resonate with poker players. There were 4 trodders and a seat 7 player in a game of poker. The player in question was holding a 6 and an 8 of spades. In total at this point there were some 16 bets in the pot. The flop was looking innocuous but potentially lucrative at 3c5h7c. Players would check and minimum bet until 24 big bets were in the kitty. The turn reflected a Qd.  All players checked until the seat 7 player made 2 big bets. A call brought the pot to 30 monster-sized bets. The river was a 9d. The player with the pocket Aces had gone all-in and lost to the player with the 6,8 (spades)5h, 7c and 9d – a rivered straight. Tips to take from this are the following:

• Take out protection bets
• Tone down the massive raises pre-flop
• Make pre-fop raises of 4 to 6 bets
• Get gears before you go full throttle

It has been said that ‘The art in Protection Betting keeps these thieves from stealing the smaller pots from under you…’  In this vein it’s imperative to think long-term, thin the playing field, milk it for what it’s worth and go for gold.

Much has been written on the subject of poker tells. You can find books by FBI agents, psychologists, and poker pros, all trying to explain how to read minds. These books are really useful if you’re looking for an in-depth analysis of poker play, but to get you started, here’s a few simple tips.

Start with the eyes. They’re called ‘the window to the soul’ for a reason. Your eyes give away a lot about what you’re thinking. That’s why a lot of players choose to wear sunglasses – to hide their eyes.

Facial expressions give away a lot too. Not just wide-eyed shock and gleeful smiles either. You might blush, furrow your brow a little, grit your teeth, or have a nervous tick that shows up when you’re bluffing.

The body language tells are the easiest to read for a lot of people. Open, relaxed poses are an indicator of confidence. Leaning in towards the pot could indicate a bluff and you’re likely to slump when you have a bad hand. You can use this knowledge to con and you can practice hiding this by adopting a neutral posture at the table. Sit up straight, but comfortably at all times – feign back injury and say the doc told you to adopt a good posture if you need to – and you have a nice, neutral posture.

Acting may seem like a good idea. Feigning disinterest, or confidence, will only work if you’re a GOOD actor, though. Most people, unfortunately, aren’t good actors, and instead of achieving your desired result and winning the hand, you’ll most likely be read like an open book. Don’t act unless you can make it believable.

While busting out in a game of free poker is just a blow to your pride, having to bow out early in a hold’em poker tournament can be both demoralizing and expensive. These poker survival tips will help you to last a little longer at the tables, and could be the difference between an early night, and poker table success.

If you’ve seen your opponents playing before, you may have an advantage – you have knowledge of their play style, and, if you’re lucky, they know very little about you. This means you can build an image that will suit you. Fold if you want to look like an underdog, play lose if that will suit your needs. The choice is yours. Looking like an underdog can be a very good thing – it will make you seem dismissible, until you need to bluff – in which case, you’re likely to get away with it.

Another important tip is to play poker a limited number of hands. Don’t fight battles you can’t win – fold when you need to, and pick up the occasional small pot here and there. Aim to survive in the long term, and the winning games will come.

I often lament the over-reliance of novice poker players on bluffs, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t think they have a place in poker play. A high level player understands much more than just the rules of poker – they know how to play not only the game itself, but their opponents as well.

Strangely enough, bluffing works best at a table of strong players. Sending subtle signals of strength is pointless if you’re up against people who are blundering from hand to hand, not really aware of the finer points of the game that they’re playing.

A good bluff is more than just raising or going all-in when you’re weak. You need to set the bluff up carefully. Make sure that the cards on the table set you up for a good hand, and make sure that the bluff you want to make actually makes sense. Also, make sure that the bluff you will make matches well with the style of the players at the table.

Don’t leave bluffing until you’re low on poker chips. When you’re weak, people assume you will bluff to claw back into the game. You have more chance of bluffing successfully if you’re in a decent position to begin with, and you’re hoping for a strong hand.

Watch your body language when you bluff. Many people give very strong body language tells, and you need to train yourself out of this, otherwise you may as well just reveal your cards to everyone sat at the table. Learn to read these tell in other people and train yourself not to give off strong tells yourself – it will serve you very well.

It doesn’t take long to learn the basics of texas hold’em poker, but progressing to the level of poker star takes a lot longer. Poker is somewhere between a science and an art, and getting the balance right can be very hard for novices.

Novice poker players typically make a number of mistakes that allow the experts at the table to clean up. Some of these mistakes are easy to prevent, others will take longer to get used to, but awareness is the first step.

The first mistake is playing emotionally. If you find yourself getting angry while sat at the poker table, walk away. Your anger will betray you, and experienced players will take advantage of that. Practice keeping a cool head and you’ll be able to keep a big stack.

The second mistake is bluffing for the sake of it. Bluffing should only be done when you have a decent chance of being believed, and when it’s important to win the hand. If you’re fresh off a loss, or there’s aces on the board and you have a weak hand, don’t push your luck, it’s not worth it now, and it will weaken your prospects later too.

Another common mistake is to copy other players without understanding the reasoning behind how they play. This usually leads to very predictable play styles, which are easily exploited. It can also lead to bad decisions – if you don’t understand why someone is doing something, how do you know if it’s actually a good move?

If you’re a novice poker player, the best way to improve your game is to practice keeping cool, practice keeping track of the pot and learn as much as you can about poker theory. Once you understand the odds of each poker hand, you will be in a much better position to formulate your own strategies.

Welcome to Poker-Go.com, the resource site for all online poker players who would like to improve their poker skills. Whether you’re a total novice, or a tournament player hoping to improve your poker games, you will find some tips on here that will help you examine your game and take your play to the next level. If you’re a professional player, and have something to add – why not get in touch? Any comments would be much appreciated!

Poker-Go is run by poker players, for poker players. Our bloggers will share tips, comments, poker anecdotes and anything else that could be of interest to players of all levels. We can’t claim to offer you the one winning strategy – because everyone has their own style of play in poker games, but we do hope you’ll learn a thing or two from the articles on this site.

In our posts you will find tips ranging from common beginner’s mistakes to advanced strategies, betting and bankroll management, tournament tips, and treatise on the art of bluffing.

Reading alone will not improve your game, but if you spend some time practicing the tips you pick up, then you should see progress. Even if you have to practice in very low stakes, or even free poker games, you should find that you will still learn a lot about bankroll management, analysing players, and keeping track of probabilities.

Becomiming a pro-level player takes a lot of practice – there’s a reason that the same handful of players manage to achieve cashes in almost every tournament, and it isn’t down to a lack of entrants. If you want to reach that level, it is possible, but don’t expect an overnight success. Good poker play requires several key elements – knowledge of the players, knowledge of the cards, and knowledge of yourself. A little luck helps too!

From one poker player to another, whether you’re in free poker game or high stakes texas hold’em – good luck. I hope you clean up! Well, as long as you’re not sat heads-up against me, of course.