Talk about and discuss poker strategies for all games at all levels. Whatever your theory on poker is, feel free to bring it to this forum. Talk about and discuss poker strategies for all games at all levels. Whatever your theory on poker is, feel free to bring it to this forum.

2007-11-28T23:53:38Z

In the recent Full Tilt strategy guide Howard Lederer looks into the subject the "Theory of Leverage". He describes it as the ability in no-limit hold'em to make a small bet in relation to the size of the pot, but threatens subsequent bets either in that round of betting or later rounds. A correctly made leveraged bet minimises the loss of chips on your part while maximising your opponent's potential to lose the most number of his or her's chips. A simple example which often arises in online and live tournaments is when say both opponents have 30BB. Lets say blinds are 500-1000, 100 ante, and both opponents have 30,000 in chips. Opponent 1 raises to 3300 in medium position. Opponent 2 looks down at a hand such as 10-10 in the big blind. He is faced with a difficult decision. If Opponent 2 decides to re-raise, he will figure out that a re-raise of 10k+ is in effect committing himself. If he does that and his opponent calls he will have a difficult decision after the flop, so the simplest and not necessarily incorrect decision is to in fact re-raise all in. As Howard Lederer describes this situation, opponent 2 has been negatively leveraged. After all most of the hands that opponent 1 will call opponent 2's all in with will have him either a coin flip or a 4 to 1 underdog. So opponent 1 has leveraged opponent 2 into risking all his chips when opponent 1 has only risked about 10% of his chips. Preflop Leveraging ? What quite a lot of people fall into the trap of, is working out how to vary your bet sizes just marginally so to avoid situations where you may be negatively leveraged or how best to negatively leverage your opponents. In the current poker climate, especially late on in the tournament, a lot of the play is raise - fold or raise - re-raise - fold. Simply put there is not much post-flop action. A lot of that is to do with the size of the bets. If people make big raises and big re-raises there is no way to avoid committing all your chips in situations where you certainly are negatively leveraged. Late on in a tournament, there is a general reluctance to call a raise, so if the table you are playing on is quite tight, and people are generally prone to either fold or re-raise then a good size leveraged bet is in fact smaller than perhaps the standard 3x the big blind raise. With antes people often feel that they should re-raise to 3 or more times the big blind. However if they are folding to quite a few re-raises then in fact they are not maximising their potential leverage. Simply you could raise on 4 occasions 2.5x the big blind versus less than 3 occasions to 4x the big blind. If the effect is going to be the same either way, why not keep the bet size as small as possible. Lederer points out that when you have a big stack, you can open a lot of pots up with small raises, but you have the threat of the mountain of chips behind you. But even with medium and small stacks, making small raises so not to commit yourself can be a good ploy. For one, the smallish raise looks like you want action, thus creating fear in your opponent whilst not risking chips, and when you do have a strong hand you may induce opponents to re-raise you all in with marginal hands that they wouldnt necessarily call your all in with. Good leveraged betting gives your opponent the toughest decision possible. In the first example the slightly larger raise of 3300, forced opponent 2 to risk all their chips with the re-raise. If opponent 1 raise to 2.5k , then perhaps opponent 2 could have re-raised to 7.5k and perhaps escaped the hand if opponent 1 re-pushed all in. This way opponent 2 has not risked all his chips, but can still try and win the pot with a decent re-raise. It is these subtle variations in bet size that can ultimately make the difference in how far you progress in a tournament. Always keep in mind how the size of your bet, dictates the size of your opponents next bet and how that impacts in relation to their stack. rk In the recent Full Tilt strategy guide Howard Lederer looks into the subject the “Theory of Leverage”. He describes it as the ability in no-limit hold’em to make a small bet in relation to the size of the pot, but threatens subsequent bets either in that round of betting or later rounds. A correctly made leveraged bet minimises the loss of chips on your part while maximising your opponent’s potential to lose the most number of his or her’s chips. A simple example which often arises in online and live tournaments is when say both opponents have 30BB. Lets say blinds are 500-1000, 100 ante, and both opponents have 30,000 in chips. Opponent 1 raises to 3300 in medium position. Opponent 2 looks down at a hand such as 10-10 in the big blind. He is faced with a difficult decision. If Opponent 2 decides to re-raise, he will figure out that a re-raise of 10k+ is in effect committing himself. If he does that and his opponent calls he will have a difficult decision after the flop, so the simplest and not necessarily incorrect decision is to in fact re-raise all in. As Howard Lederer describes this situation, opponent 2 has been negatively leveraged. After all most of the hands that opponent 1 will call opponent 2’s all in with will have him either a coin flip or a 4 to 1 underdog. So opponent 1 has leveraged opponent 2 into risking all his chips when opponent 1 has only risked about 10% of his chips. Preflop Leveraging ? What quite a lot of people fall into the trap of, is working out how to vary your bet sizes just marginally so to avoid situations where you may be negatively leveraged or how best to negatively leverage your opponents. In the current poker climate, especially late on in the tournament, a lot of the play is raise – fold or raise – re-raise – fold. Simply put there is not much post-flop action. A lot of that is to do with the size of the bets. If people make big raises and big re-raises there is no way to avoid committing all your chips in situations where you certainly are negatively leveraged. Late on in a tournament, there is a general reluctance to call a raise, so if the table you are playing on is quite tight, and people are generally prone to either fold or re-raise then a good size leveraged bet is in fact smaller than perhaps the standard 3x the big blind raise. With antes people often feel that they should re-raise to 3 or more times the big blind. However if they are folding to quite a few re-raises then in fact they are not maximising their potential leverage. Simply you could raise on 4 occasions 2.5x the big blind versus less than 3 occasions to 4x the big blind. If the effect is going to be the same either way, why not keep the bet size as small as possible. Lederer points out that when you have a big stack, you can open a lot of pots up with small raises, but you have the threat of the mountain of chips behind you. But even with medium and small stacks, making small raises so not to commit yourself can be a good ploy. For one, the smallish raise looks like you want action, thus creating fear in your opponent whilst not risking chips, and when you do have a strong hand you may induce opponents to re-raise you all in with marginal hands that they wouldnt necessarily call your all in with. Good leveraged betting gives your opponent the toughest decision possible. In the first example the slightly larger raise of 3300, forced opponent 2 to risk all their chips with the re-raise. If opponent 1 raise to 2.5k , then perhaps opponent 2 could have re-raised to 7.5k and perhaps escaped the hand if opponent 1 re-pushed all in. This way opponent 2 has not risked all his chips, but can still try and win the pot with a decent re-raise. It is these subtle variations in bet size that can ultimately make the difference in how far you progress in a tournament. Always keep in mind how the size of your bet, dictates the size of your opponents next bet and how that impacts in relation to their stack. rk

2007-11-29T01:19:14Z

2009-08-26T06:52:33Z

meng meng meng meng

2007-12-04T11:33:31Z

<javascript>alert('aasdfsdf');</javascript> <javascript>alert(‘aasdfsdf’);</javascript>

2007-12-04T11:36:52Z

2007-12-04T11:38:20Z

How did you go rkruok ? Any good hands ? How did you go rkruok ? Any good hands ?

2007-12-05T01:01:30Z

Went pretty badly, i was out early considering the excellent structure of the tournament. *Hand A* I even started off well flopping a set of 3s and value betting against an opponents top pair on all three streets. *Hand B* But from there on it went all wrong. A raise with KQ with 2 callers , on a J-10-7 board found me betting into 2 opponents and i got one caller. The turn was a blank and i bet 2/3 of the pot, and got called again. There was no flush draw. And the river came a K, so i bet a 1/3 of the pot partially defensive, we might have the same hand or perhaps he has QJ. Either way didnt want to check and let him make a massive bet. He pushed all in, and i had to fold, perhaps he had 8-9 tho q-9 made the most sense, or AQ if he wasn't on a big bluff. *Hand C* A few hands later I bet 9s into 3 opponents after a preflop raise and on an 8-7s-3s board, i was found to force to his over the top all in raise against me and 2 other potential opponents. Range of reasonable hands include 2 overs and a flush draw, or As8s, 10s, Js, and a set. All of which had me crushed or at best 50-50. Down to 2600 *Hand D* i found myself in a pot with 2 opponents on 8h-7c-3h holding 3s. A preflop caller bet out i called , the preflop raiser pushed and the other guy called. I had most of my chips in the pot so i called. Unfortunately the preflop raiser had a set of 8s the other guy JJ. My last few hundred chips suffered a similar fate. ECOOP events have not been kind so far, tho i feel its only a matter of time. Went pretty badly, i was out early considering the excellent structure of the tournament. Hand A I even started off well flopping a set of 3s and value betting against an opponents top pair on all three streets. Hand B But from there on it went all wrong. A raise with KQ with 2 callers , on a J-10-7 board found me betting into 2 opponents and i got one caller. The turn was a blank and i bet 2/3 of the pot, and got called again. There was no flush draw. And the river came a K, so i bet a 1/3 of the pot partially defensive, we might have the same hand or perhaps he has QJ. Either way didnt want to check and let him make a massive bet. He pushed all in, and i had to fold, perhaps he had 8-9 tho q-9 made the most sense, or AQ if he wasn’t on a big bluff. Hand C A few hands later I bet 9s into 3 opponents after a preflop raise and on an 8-7s-3s board, i was found to force to his over the top all in raise against me and 2 other potential opponents. Range of reasonable hands include 2 overs and a flush draw, or As8s, 10s, Js, and a set. All of which had me crushed or at best 50-50. Down to 2600 Hand D i found myself in a pot with 2 opponents on 8h-7c-3h holding 3s. A preflop caller bet out i called , the preflop raiser pushed and the other guy called. I had most of my chips in the pot so i called. Unfortunately the preflop raiser had a set of 8s the other guy JJ. My last few hundred chips suffered a similar fate. ECOOP events have not been kind so far, tho i feel its only a matter of time.

2007-12-05T01:27:29Z

2009-08-26T06:52:33Z

oh well... thanks for the comprehensive update. on to the pokerstars nightly !!!! oh well… thanks for the comprehensive update. on to the pokerstars nightly !!!!

2007-12-05T01:38:52Z

2009-08-26T06:52:33Z

Anyone using the eee pc for poker ? Seems like it would be pretty nice to play on. I think you might have to switch it over to XP though ? Anyone using the eee pc for poker ? Seems like it would be pretty nice to play on. I think you might have to switch it over to XP though ?

2007-12-05T01:40:54Z

what is it ? what is it ?

2007-12-05T03:36:19Z

its perfect for single table its perfect for single table

2007-12-05T04:46:44Z

anyone planning on playing the aussie millions in jan ? maybe we should have a chipmeup meetup ... anyone planning on playing the aussie millions in jan ? maybe we should have a chipmeup meetup …

2007-12-05T04:53:07Z

2009-08-26T06:52:33Z

its a small laptop.. cheap and portable.... "asus eee pc":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eee_pc its a small laptop.. cheap and portable…. <a rel=nofollow href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eee_pc">asus eee pc</a>

2007-12-05T05:10:50Z

2009-08-26T06:52:33Z

sweet sweet

2007-12-06T04:04:29Z

i heard some people using wine to run poker, looks pretty good. i heard some people using wine to run poker, looks pretty good.

2007-12-07T00:35:32Z

whats going on? whats going on?

2007-12-10T06:03:09Z

yer... any news ? heard you were still in ? yer… any news ? heard you were still in ?

2007-12-10T06:16:58Z

camoan we need updates camoan we need updates

2007-12-10T06:25:45Z

1st break, day 1, @ 21800 chips 1st break, day 1, @ 21800 chips

2007-12-14T02:01:52Z

<div class="list_sm_img"><img src="/files_en/reporting/blog/4761fced8ecf0.jpg" border="0" alt="Ryan Nathan" /><div style="width:216px">Ryan Nathan</div></div> <h3 id="no36925">Rayan Nathan Eliminated, Lae Leads</h3> A huge hand on table ten has seen Rayan Nathan clash with Quentin Lae. Lae raised from late position, and Nathan defended his big blind with a re-raise. Lae flat called and both players saw the flop of <img src="/i/cards_sign/3d.gif" border="0" alt="{3-Diamonds}" style="margin-bottom:-3px;" /><img src="/i/cards_sign/10s.gif" border="0" alt="{10-Spades}" style="margin-bottom:-3px;" /><img src="/i/cards_sign/4h.gif" border="0" alt="{4-Hearts}" style="margin-bottom:-3px;" />. Nathan lead out for 5,000 and Lae re-raised all in. Lae had Nathan covered, and he went into the tank. After several minutes of deep consideration, Nathan eventually made the call for his tournament life with <img src="/i/cards_sign/kh.gif" border="0" alt="{K-Hearts}" style="margin-bottom:-3px;" /><img src="/i/cards_sign/kc.gif" border="0" alt="{K-Clubs}" style="margin-bottom:-3px;" /> but was going to need some serious help against the <img src="/i/cards_sign/da.gif" border="0" alt="{A-Diamonds}" style="margin-bottom:-3px;" /><img src="/i/cards_sign/ac.gif" border="0" alt="{A-Clubs}" style="margin-bottom:-3px;" /> of Lae. The turn and river both bricked eliminiating Rayan Nathan while Quentin Lae is now our tournament chip leader with around 75,000 chips. </li> <div class="list_sm_img"><img src="/files_en/reporting/blog/4761fced8ecf0.jpg" alt="Ryan Nathan" /><div>Ryan Nathan</div></div> <h3>Rayan Nathan Eliminated, Lae Leads</h3> A huge hand on table ten has seen Rayan Nathan clash with Quentin Lae. Lae raised from late position, and Nathan defended his big blind with a re-raise. Lae flat called and both players saw the flop of <img src="/i/cards_sign/3d.gif" alt="{3-Diamonds}" /><img src="/i/cards_sign/10s.gif" alt="{10-Spades}" /><img src="/i/cards_sign/4h.gif" alt="{4-Hearts}" />. Nathan lead out for 5,000 and Lae re-raised all in. Lae had Nathan covered, and he went into the tank. After several minutes of deep consideration, Nathan eventually made the call for his tournament life with <img src="/i/cards_sign/kh.gif" alt="{K-Hearts}" /><img src="/i/cards_sign/kc.gif" alt="{K-Clubs}" /> but was going to need some serious help against the <img src="/i/cards_sign/da.gif" alt="{A-Diamonds}" /><img src="/i/cards_sign/ac.gif" alt="{A-Clubs}" /> of Lae. The turn and river both bricked eliminiating Rayan Nathan while Quentin Lae is now our tournament chip leader with around 75,000 chips. </li>

2007-12-14T05:23:35Z

2009-08-26T06:52:33Z

bad luck... bad luck…

2007-12-15T13:10:44Z

So i decided to write a brief report on some of the tournaments today. Obviously brief = bad ! Pokerstars warmup - despite getting 10k in chips, the pokerstars structure is deceptively average. I lose a hand where i raise with A-10ss, bet the flop and turn on a Ks-Xs-X-Q board and give up on the river. The guy has k10. Bit over 8k. Raise of 300 and 2 callers, I have AKcc in the big blind, make it 1400, everyone calls ! Flop AQ8. I bet first guy calls, he has AK, QQ (or a less likely AQ, AA, 88, AJ. The other 2 ppl fold. Unfortunately at this point i have only about 3k left, so the chips go in on the turn, and of course he has QQ. With the general standard of play, its pretty hard to avoid going bust in that spot. So i decided to write a brief report on some of the tournaments today. Obviously brief = bad ! Pokerstars warmup – despite getting 10k in chips, the pokerstars structure is deceptively average. I lose a hand where i raise with A-10ss, bet the flop and turn on a Ks-Xs-X-Q board and give up on the river. The guy has k10. Bit over 8k. Raise of 300 and 2 callers, I have AKcc in the big blind, make it 1400, everyone calls ! Flop AQ8. I bet first guy calls, he has AK, QQ (or a less likely AQ, AA, 88, AJ. The other 2 ppl fold. Unfortunately at this point i have only about 3k left, so the chips go in on the turn, and of course he has QQ. With the general standard of play, its pretty hard to avoid going bust in that spot.

2007-12-23T18:27:44Z

2009-08-26T06:52:33Z

chat about this event here .... :) chat about this event here …. :)

2008-01-12T07:39:07Z

any news how he is going ? any news how he is going ?

2008-01-12T07:40:17Z

any over in melb who can give updates ? any over in melb who can give updates ?

2008-01-12T07:45:44Z

chat about this event here .... :) chat about this event here …. :)

2008-01-15T02:08:56Z

go beta go ! go beta go !

2008-01-15T02:09:46Z

chat about this event here .... :) chat about this event here …. :)

2008-01-17T06:01:37Z

Rayan Nathan Doubles Up Rayan Nathan survived an all in and doubled up with A-Q against pocket fives. Nathan spiked an Ace and increased his stack to 36,000. Rayan Nathan Doubles Up Rayan Nathan survived an all in and doubled up with A-Q against pocket fives. Nathan spiked an Ace and increased his stack to 36,000.

2008-01-17T06:02:46Z

2009-08-26T06:52:33Z

go rk ! go rk !

2008-01-17T06:03:20Z