So, you’re on the button with AQ and your opponent raises from mid position.  You decide to call, and the blinds fold.  The flop comes J92 and your opponent bets 2/3 the pot.

Your opponent’s bet is a continuation bet.  He showed aggression before the flop and now he’s continuing that aggression on the flop.  He could have a hand … or total air.  What do you do?

Most players c-bet around 80% of the time and you have to know how to defend against c-bets when you call raises. Here’s how to defend against a continuation bet.

Know Your Opponent

What kind of opponent are you facing?  Is your opponent aggressive or passive, tight or loose?  You have to know your opponent so you can put him on a range of hands.

For example, a tight-aggressive opponent would raise 88+, AJs+, AQo+ in that position whereas a loose-aggressive player might raise 22+, 9Ts+, KT+, A5s+, AT+.  Knowing your opponent’s range will help you determine how likely it is that the flop helped him.

Read the Texture of the Flop

Now that you have a good idea what range your opponent is playing, you need to decide how likely it is that the flop hit him.

For example, let’s say your opponent is tight-aggressive and raised from mid position.  You called on the button and the flop comes J24.  There’s a good chance your opponent missed this flop.  The only hands that can continue are JJ+ and AJs and that’s a small portion of your opponent’s range.

On the other hand, a flop like AK5 is very likely to hit your opponent and you should probably fold to his c-bet.

Decide on Your Defense

There are two ways to defend against the c-bet.  The first way is floating.  When you float, you call the c-bet with the intention of stealing the pot if your opponent checks on the turn.  Floating is the cheapest way to defend against a c-bet and it’s a good defense to use against a tight opponent who gives up on the turn.  If your opponent double-barrels a lot, however, you’ll have to get more aggressive.

A more aggressive way to defend against the c-bet is to raise.  Raising is obviously more expense, but it can be much more effective than the float when you’re facing very aggressive players.  It’ll be hard for your opponent to continue the hand unless they have a solid piece of the flop.

Don’t start calling and raising c-bets like crazy.  You should still be folding the majority of the time.  Use your c-bet defense methods as a way to balance your line to disguise your hand when you’re floating or raising with a monster.  When you use proper c-bet defense strategies, your opponents will have a harder time reading your hand and will be more cautious when you play back at them.

There are literally hundreds of different moves you can make in poker, enough to overwhelm anyone, but there are a few moves that are so powerful that everyone should be familiar with them.  Here are the 3 moves every poker player should know (plus a bonus move).

Continuation Bet

The continuation bet (c-bet) is arguably the most powerful move in poker.  When a player raises pre-flop, they continue their aggression on the flop by betting ½ to 2/3 of the pot whether they hit the flop or not.

Most players c-bet around 80% of the time and it makes it very difficult to tell whether or not the flop helped them.  Most opponents will fold to a c-bet unless they caught a piece of the flop or a decent draw.

Overall, your opponents will only hit the flop 30% of the time and it will be hard for them to continue the hand when you’ve raised pre-flop and bet the flop if they have nothing.

If you’re not using the continuation bet, you’re leaving a lot of money on the table.

Rope-A-Dope

Aggressive poker is winning poker, but some players take that axiom too far.  The rope-a-dope line is perfect for exploiting players with super-aggressive tendencies.  Here’s how it works:

You raise pre-flop with AQ and get called by a super-aggressive player on the button.  The flop comes Q37 rainbow (three different suits).  You make a standard continuation bet and your opponent calls.

You know your opponent is super-aggressive and will call your continuation bet with anything and try to take the hand away from you on the turn (a move known as floating).  If you bet the turn, you know your opponent will fold unless they have a hand, so you decided to exploit his aggression with the rope-a-dope to get more money out of him.

When your opponent floated your c-bet, he did it hoping you’d check the turn and he could steal the pot.  Time to rope a dope.  The turn is a 2.  You check.

Your opponent interprets your check as weakness and bets the pot to take the hand away from you.  You, of course, aren’t going anywhere.  You check/raise and your opponent folds.

Stop-and-Go

The stop-and-go is a good move to use in a tournament situation.  Here’s how it works:

You and your opponent are about even in chips, but the blinds are high and you both have around 16 big blinds in your stack.  You raise from mid-position with 88 and your loose-aggressive opponent 3-bets from the button.  You could go all-in at this point, but you’re only a coin-flip against two over cards if you’re called.  Instead, you choose to flat call with the intention of shoving the flop no matter what cards hit.

This move works well because your opponent will miss around 70% of the time.  If your opponent 3-bet you with overcards or a small/medium pocket pair, it will be hard for him to call your all-in unless the flop helps him.

Fold

You don’t have to win every single pot.  Sometimes the best move is to fold.  When Phil Ivey was asked how he won 2 WSOP bracelets in 2009 he said, “I’ve added the fold to my arsenal.  They never see it coming.”  You’ve gotta know when to fold ‘em.  It’s trite, but true.

Scoping Out the Games

The biggest criterion for choosing a casino is, obviously, the available games. For a low limit poker player, this can involve some research and a very selective approach.

Before signing up for a casino, it is always worth reading the house rules, terms and conditions, and game rules. Sometimes house rules work in the player’s favor, but he player does need to be aware of them. This is especially true for games for which the appeal is based entirely on rules, such as low limit Hold’Em. Since the only thing separating no limit and low limit Hold’Em is the rule set, it is extremely important to ensure that the casino has not changed any of the standard rules.

Finally, be sure to check whether the casino has enough low limit tables. Some casinos offer low limit poker, but only have one or two tournaments every now and then or a limited number of table slots. If low limit is definitely the game of choice, be sure the casino will cater to that need, and has a large enough player population to support it.

Scoping Out the Players

One of the most important factors in a successful and enjoyable low limit Texas Hold’Em experience is the other players. If the players exhibit a range of skill levels, the game will remain diverse and challenging. However, if the players are either completely unskilled or borderline professional players, the game becomes frustrating. Especially in low limit Texas Hold’Em, unskilled players tend to play most hands with little regard for the value of their hand, making them difficult to predict. Playing against skilled players can be frustrating, but will at least allow the player to grow in skill by watching and predicting opponents’ moves.

To determine the relative skill levels of opponents, sit in on or play in a very low stakes game. If the casino has $0.25-$0.50 tables or $0.50-$1 tables, those are a good starting place. Watch the other players very carefully as they evaluate their hole cards. In no limit Texas Hold’Em, a good player will only play 25%-30% of the cards dealt. In low limit Texas Hold’Em, that percentage may be slightly higher due to the very low stakes.

However, if almost all of the players are playing almost every hand, start to finish, the casino is attracting low skill levels. This is good when playing no limit Hold’Em, as it makes it far easier to knock the unskilled players out and take their cash in relatively few hands, but extremely difficult in low limit Hold’Em. Due to the format of the game, it takes forever to grind down a player’s chip stack, meaning those same unskilled players will be in the game for quite a while. Even though the players may not be very good, their luck may win out at inconvenient times. Even the worst starting hands will win eventually. Losing to someone who only won through dumb luck can frustrate players who know that they should have won based on skill.

Scoping Out the Security

A good, reputable casino, such as 888 Poker or Poker770 (coincidentally, both of these poker sites offer a free no-deposit bonus to try out their software), will offer a variety of secure payment options. Avoid any casino that requires bank information or direct money wiring, as it is harder to prove financial fraud through those means. Look for casinos that work with major credit card companies and eWallets. Those methods of payment leave clear trails and records, allowing the gambler to work with dispute resolution teams in the event anything should go wrong.

By choosing a good casino, players can ensure that their low limit poker experience gets off to a good start. While there are a number of unpredictable factors in poker, it is important to eliminate as many variables as possible. Picking a casino that fits the gambler’s individual needs and playing styles is a key component.

Razz Starting Hands

The top Razz starting hands are easy to remember. If you have three cards between Ace and five, you have a great starting hand. A23 is the best starting hand, but any three cards between Ace and five (no pairs of course!) is a hand to bet and raise with on third street. Three card starting hands between Ace and six are good starting hands and should be played aggressively as well, but with a little more caution if several other players with lower door cards are ramping up the action. Three cards of seven or lower is a good starting hand that you’ll want to see 4th street with, even if you have to call a bet or two to do so. A three card eight is becoming marginal. If you can limp in or steal the antes with it, do so. Playing three card eights routinely will cost you chips in the long run.

The other players’ up cards

This is a very important aspect to razz strategy. Observant Razz players will view the upcards and tend to have a much better idea of their relative hand strength. Sometimes the up cards will tell you exactly what to do. If you have three cards to a nine low and there are no other up cards lower than a nine, you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you have the best hand on third street and can bet and raise, even though a “nine low” isn’t typically a hand that you would play. You should continue to keep an eye on the other players’ porches as the hand progresses. Even if you catch low cards that pair your hole cards, if the other players are catching bad high cards, you can still usually win the pot by betting aggressively.

Live and Dead Cards

This is an important aspect of 7 card stud. While in that game, you are wanting your cards to be “live”, in Razz you prefer them to be “dead.” For example, if you hold Ace, 3, 6 to start and you see two other threes, a six and an ace, you can feel even better about your hand because it means there is less of a chance that you will make pairs! Catching pairs can kill a great starting Razz hand, so the more dead cards you see the better.

Jamming vs. Slow Playing

Razz is not really a slow playing game. There are exceptions of course, but generally speaking if you have a good hand, you want to jam it. One reason is that by jamming it, you generally create a big enough pot on third street that it allows you to call on fourth street even if you catch a bad card, based on the size of the overall pot. You can get right back on track with another good low card on fifth street. By all means, do your best to use overly loose and aggressive players weaknesses against them, but you won’t go wrong by just betting and raising when you have the best of it.

Best Draw vs. Made 9 Low after five cards

A interesting feature of Razz is the little known fact that after five cards are dealt, the best drawing hand is a favorite over any made nine low. In most forms of poker the made hand usually leads the betting to make the draw hands pay, but in Razz, the opposite is true on fifth street. Things are back to normal on 6th street however. With one card to come, the made nine low is now a favorite over the best draw and should definitely lead the betting.

Knowing when to fold ‘em

If you make a habit of starting with sub par hands or drawing with weak hands vs. powerful boards and stronger draws, then you will just be leaking chips and blowing your bankroll. As with other poker variations, if it looks like you are beat, you probably are. Save your money for when you have the best hand and then play aggressively. Especially in low limit games, players tend to have the hands they represent, so don’t pay off three or four more bets to “keep them honest”! When good hands turn bad, release them. Patience!

Stealing the Antes

Ante stealing is important, especially the higher up you go in limits. Several situations are great for ante stealing attempts. First, if the bring in player is immediately to your left and it is folded up to you, you should always complete the bet to steal the bring and antes. You do not have to be successful every time for this to be a profitable play. Another good stealing shot to take is when you are the lowest up card. You’d prefer to have reasonable cards in the hole, but this steal attempt is not unlike completing with an Ace door card in 7 card stud, representing aces. You can also attempt to steal with second highest up card if it is folded up to you in late position. Don’t get carried away here. Stealing becomes less effective and less profitable the lower the limits you are playing. Always be willing to let go of a steal attempt if another player plays back at you!

Going pro isn’t a decision you should take lightly.  It’s a major step and you need to be prepared for it.  Here’s a checklist to see if you’re ready to turn pro.

Are You A Winning Player?

I’d bet that 70% of the people reading this article would say yes.  I’d also bet that 60% of those people would be wrong.

Have you been playing a few hours every day for the past few months and have shown a solid profit?  That’s good, but it’s not enough.

Cash players need around 1,000,000 hands before they can trust their win rate.  Sit N Go players need to log thousands of hours of game play to solidify their stats.  I’d say a Sit N Go player needs a bare minimum of 2,000 hours of play.  If you’re thinking of leaving your stable job to grind it out on the virtual felt, you should have around 10,000 SNGs under your belt and show a solid profit.

This is the hardest step to becoming a professional poker player because it’s the hardest question to answer honestly.  Are you really a winning poker player?

Do You Have A Plan?

Once you determine you’re a winning player, you need to set a plan.  When will you play?  Will you play Texas Hold’em, Omaha or Razz?  Will you play limit, pot-limit or no-limit?  Will you play cash, Sit ‘N Goes, multi-table tournaments or a combination of the three?

How much do you need to make in a week?  How much do you need to play to reach that goal?  When will you take breaks?  What happens if you start to lose?

There are a lot of questions that you need to answer.  Make sure you answer them before taking the plunge.

Do You Have A Massive Bankroll?

A recreational player might be able to get away with playing the $30+3 SNGs with a $1500 bankroll, but not you.  It’s not a minor inconvenience if you go broke, it’s a damn catastrophe!  You need to have a bankroll big enough to handle the swings and still allow you to withdraw your profits every week. Be sure to check out our article published last week on bankroll management for professional tournament players.

Joe Average can play with $1500, but you could need as much as $7500 to play the same game.

Do You Have Discipline?

You can’t go party with your friends on Saturday night if that’s when the fish log on to your favorite poker room.  You have to stick to your plan and play during the most profitable times of the day and week.  Don’t get me wrong, you can still take off and have fun occasionally, just don’t overdo it.

Do you tilt easily?  If so, you’ll need to get yourself under control before going pro.  When you play 30 to 40 hours a week, you’re going to see a lot more bad beats.  If you can’t handle it and you lose your cool, you’ll also lose a lot of money.

How Much Money Do You Have Saved?

You need a cushion of at least 6 month’s living expenses before you go pro.  It’s even better to have a year of living expenses.  This cushion will help you ride out the downswings and you can repay the money when you go on a good run.

Remember, you don’t have to go pro right away.  Start off by playing part-time (around 10 to 20 hours/week) and see how it goes.  When you have all of your ducks in a row and you’ve proven yourself to be a winning player, you can ditch the old 9-to5 and start living the dream.

The internet (and this site in particular) is full of advice on how to manage your bankroll. Perhaps the most popular method uses the rules Chris Ferguson outlined to turn $0 into $10,000 in about a year.  Ferguson recommended using 2% of your bankroll for tournaments and 5% for SNGs and cash. While Ferguson’s bankroll management system is great for prop bets, it’s terrible for a professional poker player.

For professional players, a bankroll should be determined by math rather than random rules and the anchor for your bankroll management plan should be your Risk of Ruin (ROR).

Risk of Ruin

Your Risk of Ruin is the probability that a bad run of cards will cause you to go broke.  Here’s the formula:

Risk of Ruin = (1/7)^comfort

This formula is useful for figuring out your comfort level.  We’ll use your comfort level later to determine the size of your bankroll. For now, let’s focus on the Risk of Ruin.

While players have different risk tolerances, 2% is usually an acceptable risk for most professional players.  Here’s how the formula plays out:

2% = (1/7)^comfort

Using algebra, we find that comfort is approximately equal to 2.  Now it’s time to figure out our bankroll.

ROI Calculations

Now that we have our comfort level, we need two more pieces of information.  We need to know our return on investment (ROI) and our standard deviation (SD).

The standard deviations for tournaments are as follows:

• 9-10 player SNGs = 1.6 buy-ins
• 45 player tourneys = 2.8 buy-ins
• 180 player tourneys = 4.8 buy-ins
• 1k+ player tourneys = 6 buy-ins

Your return on investment (ROI) is your winnings divided by the total you spent on the tournaments.  So let’s say you played 200 $30+3 SNGs in a week and made $660.  Here’s how to find your ROI:

• 200 x 33 = 6600
• 660/6600 = .10 or 10% ROI

Now we have to adjust your ROI since you’ll be taking money out of your bankroll every week for living expenses.  Let’s say you need $500 a week for living expense.  Here’s how to find your new ROI:

• 660-500 = 160
• 160/6600 = .024 or 2.4% ROI

Now that we have our comfort level (2) and our adjusted ROI (2.4%), it’s time to find out how big our bankroll has to be to go pro.

Bankroll Requirements

So how much of a bankroll do you need to go pro?  That depends on the kind of game you want to play.  If you want to play multi-table tournaments, you’re looking at needing a MASSIVE bankroll to weather the large variance inherent to big MTTs.  For our example, we’ll focus on SNGs since they’re a more consistent source of money.

Here’s what we know:

• Our Comfort = 2
• Our Adjusted ROI (after living expenses) = 2.4%

The formula for figuring out your bankroll is:

Bankroll = [comfort*(Standard Deviation)^2]/winrate

or…

Bankroll = [2*(1.6)^2]/ .024 = 213.33 buy-ins

So if you’re playing $30+3 SNGs to make your money, you need $7039.89 to play.

Remember that many things affect your required bankroll.  If you don’t mind reloading, you can increase your Risk of Ruin which will decrease your required bankroll.  Additionally, increasing your win rate or decreasing the amount of money you withdraw every week will also decrease your bankroll requirements.

It’s important not to strain your bankroll when you’re playing professionally.  Recreational players can afford to play more aggressively, but professional players have bills to pay.  Follow the formulas above and you’ll be playing poker for a living for a long time.

Play Freerolls

You can’t lose any money if you’re not spending any.  Experienced players usually avoid freerolls because they’re time consuming and the rewards are usually small.  But new players can use freerolls to practice their craft, gain experience and maybe pad their bankrolls a little.

Bonus Hunt

Almost all online poker rooms will offer you some sort of first-time deposit bonus, and many offer a small no deposit bonus.  Most of the first deposit bonuses will double your money and some will even give you more than that.  You’ll have to commit to playing poker on a consistent basis in order to clear the bonus, but you’ll end up with a solid bankroll when you’re done.

Use Proper Table Selection

You win more money when you play against bad players so it makes sense find these guys.  Online poker rooms give you all the information you need to choose loose tables.  Generally you just need to know the average percentage of players that see the flop and the average pot size.  These two statistics will let you know how loose the players are.

Stalk The Fish

What did you think your buddy list was for?  Friends?  Buddy lists are good for one thing only – stalking fish.  Any time you find a player that plays exceptionally poorly, add that person to your buddy list.  Soon you’ll be stalking dozens of players.  All you have to do is check your “Buddy List” when you log on to see where the fish are swimming.  Then you can sit down at their table and suck up all their chips.

Make Notes

Make notes on people you play against.  All online poker programs have some way to attach notes to the players you encounter.  Any time an opponent makes an unusual play, make a note of it.  Not only will this help you get a good read on other players at the site, it will also make you a more observant poker player.

Work On Your Game

You’re doing that right now.  You’re reading the articles on this site and improving your poker knowledge.  Take at least one day a week to read up on poker theory and strategy.  If you have software like PokerTracker, take a few hours and analyze your stats to find leaks in your game.

Don’t neglect your bankroll.  Even the best poker player can’t play their best when they’re worried about going broke.  Make sure you give yourself every advantage when you first start playing by making the most of your first-time deposit bonus (or free poker bankroll if you’re lucky) and hunting down the bad players at your site.

What’s The Difference?

Low limit Texas Hold’Em puts caps on the amounts players can bet or raise, meaning that players cannot blow their entire stacks in one round.  The game will have declared maximum bets for each of the four rounds, listed in a $ amount #1-$ amount#2 format.  Amount #1 is the maximum raise for the first two betting rounds, and amount #2 is the maximum amount for the last two rounds of betting.

Due to the low, fixed limits, it is virtually impossible to knock out an opponent in one round.  This leads to a slower game pace, more adventurous players, and fewer penalties for unskilled players.  In no limit holdem, unskilled players who consistently overbet on poor hands tend to leave the table quickly due to low funds.  However, in low limit poker, even unskilled players can make it through many rounds before being forced out.

This is helpful for the same reason defensive driving classes are helpful; on the road, the deciding factor in whether or not you get into an accident is usually based on your ability to predict the actions of the other morons driving around you.  Likewise, the majority of the time, the deciding factor in  winning a poker hand is not the cards you are dealt, but how well you can read the other players at the table.  Much as a defensive driving class teaches you to predict the actions of the diverse array of drivers you encounter, low limit Texas Hold’Em teaches you to read a wide variety of poker skill levels.  Since many skilled players use Texas Hold’Em as a method to hone strategies in cheap games, you can wind up playing a very good opponent.  However, low limit also attracts the very lowest skill levels, who are often the hardest to predict.  If you can learn to excel at low limit, you have learned to predict the actions of most skill levels.

How Do Low Limit Skills Help?

In addition to the extremely helpful skill bonus provided by the ability to predict other players’ actions, low limit teaches patience.  It sounds silly, but patience is one of the key elements in winning poker.  While there are occasional bonanza hands which win big, most of poker is about odds and playing a long term strategy.  Without patience, a frustrated player will quickly overbet, trying to recoup losses quickly.  This strategy tends to lead to bigger and bigger losses.

By successfully playing low limit poker, players can train themselves to think tong term.  With relatively small pots, the urge to throw everything in on one hand and earn enough to retire young is virtually nil.  This allows players to calm down and look at their own style of play over a long time.  If a strategy works overall, they will stick with it long enough to see progress.

When the player goes back to or tries no limit Hold’Em, they take the knowledge gained through low limit with them.  Players who make this switch will want to pick an initial casino that facilitates both no and low limit Hold’Em in order to make the transition as seamless as possible, such as TitanPoker.com or PartyPoker.com.  Skills gained at one casino with one set of house rules will transfer, but the player  may need to reevaluate strategies based on new house rules, which changes the game.

But if you solely play Texas Holdem, you are missing out on a wide variety of other poker games that you might find just as exciting, if not more. Many alternative poker games are either growing in popularity or are already very popular in different parts of the world. In addition, fundamental poker skills are often perfected by branching out and trying a game with slightly different rules. Most of the key concepts apply to most varieties of poker, and sticking to just one game can stifle your growth by narrowing your understanding. This means that by playing a different game, it’s likely you’ll actually get better at Holdem! But which ones to try?

(For detailed summaries and bankroll management guides for all of these, click on the name of the game.)

Limit Holdem

A natural first step if you don’t want to radically change your poker atmosphere is to take a stab at Limit Holdem. While some No Limit players yawn at the fact that you can’t be your whole stack at once, limit is an incredibly complex game and can teach you a lot about pot odds and variance and can help you learn to focus on long-term results, not short-term variance.

Pot Limit Omaha

Pot Limit Omaha has been an incredibly popular game in Europe for some time and has been steadily growing in the United States as well. Although it’s technically Omaha “Holdem” the gameplay is quite different from Texas Holdem and hand values are typically much stronger. Playing PLO can really improve your short-handed skills and teach you vital concepts like stack-to-pot ratios and commitment threshold. Even the simple fact that it is played pot limit instead of no limit will open your mind and generally make you more aware.

Omaha Hi/Lo

Omaha Hi/Lo, sometimes called Omaha 8, is almost always played limit and is a good example of a low variance game. Playing it for a while can be a wonderful exercise in the value of patience, as you will likely encounter players who, enamored with the idea that a low hand takes half the pot,  repeatedly come in with trash preflop. Waiting for dominant hands that can “scoop” an Omaha Hi/Lo pot is a lesson in discipline that is applicable to any form of poker.

These are just a few ideas for some popular games you might want to try. In my next post, I’ll go over a few more.

The biggest thing to understand is that baseball scores are much closer than in other sports such as football, and this makes money line (“straight up”) betting the most common wager. One major advantage of baseball betting, especially for recreational bettors, is the fact that the games are much longer than other sports, typically about three hours, which guarantees more entertainment.

In addition to these more standard wagers, there is a staggering variety of proposition bets offered by the major sportsbooks. Baseball is extremely popular for these prop bets due to the sport’s individualistic nature and statistical complexity. For fantasy baseball buffs, you might not be aware of all of the possibilities.

On Bodog.com, for example, you can bet on a particular player to record a hit, blast a home run, or choose between two players for total hits, runs and RBIs. The bet will be yes or no, player 1 or player 2, or over or under depending on the particular bet. As an example, say you saw the following line:

Most Hits, Runs and RBIs

Albert Pujols (Stl)                                             -110

Prince Fielder (Mil)                                          +115

In this bet, you pick which player, Albert Pujols or Prince Fielder, will have a higher total of hits, runs and RBIs during the game. In this example, Pujols is the favorite, paying off at +115, while Fielder is the underdog. (If you need a refresher on what these plus and minus numbers mean, read our baseball bankroll management guide.)

With pitchers, you can bet on the number of total strikeouts for one pitcher, or which of the two starters will record a win or the highest number of strikeouts.

While these proposition bets are more unpredictable, they typically have a higher house edge than the team moneyline wagers. However, if you specialize in a couple of teams, study their players in-depth, and avoid loyalty to your local teams or favorite players, you can still have a huge advantage over the majority of the betting public.

Finally, for those of you who sometimes forget to place your bet and miss the start of the game, Bodog has the perfect solution with its new 5^th inning lines, which allow you jump in on in-progress baseball games as long as the scheduled starters are pitching.

With 162 games, it’s a long baseball season, and with all of these different types of bets available, you should certainly be able to keep busy.