Author: T

Most sites now offer the facility to take notes on other players, which are then stored on your computer and can be retrieved the next time you run into them at the tables. You can write whatever you like in these private notes – what kinds of hands the player is showing down, what their pre-flop raising (and calling) standards are like, whether they are aggressive or passive, tight or loose, whether or not they always defend their blinds, whether or not they always launch an attack on other people’s blinds when they are first in from late position, whether or not they are prone to going on tilt after a bad beat, whether or not they are capable of running big bluffs etc.

When an unfamiliar new player enters a hold’ em game it is often worth noting whether they wait for the big blind (or let it pass and then post next to the button) or post at the first available opportunity, even if they are shortly due for the big blind anyhow. In the latter instance, it may be that they are an ‘action’ player, impatient to start gambling.

If you do not wish to take detailed notes, it is still worth recording who the big winners and losers were at the table, so that over time you can develop a feel for who the best and worst players are at the limit you play, and can subsequently select your opponents accordingly.

For Paradise Poker, PokerStars and PartyPoker, you can actually edit your notes when you are not actually online – simply open up the ‘Notes’ text file in the local directory in which your online site is stored and all your data should be there. It may be as well to take a backup copy of this file before you make any changes, so that you don’t lose it if something goes wrong. Of course, if you change computers this text file can be copied across to your new machine to save you having to start from scratch all over again. (N.B. At Paradise Poker the file is called ‘Player Notes’ rather than ‘Notes’.)

Online note-taking facilities are not available at every site (and are not portable from site to site), so some players prefer to store their notes either handwritten in a notebook, or on their PC in a wordprocessing document or spreadsheet. Of course, the latter approach has the important advantage that it is easier to store and sort your notes. If you wish to keep notes in this format then you may choose to layout your notes in the following columns:
•    The player’s name.
•    The player’s location (most sites provide this information nowadays).
•    The date.
•    The type of game and limit at which you encountered the player.
•    An approximate rating for that player (on a scale of 1-5 or 1-10).
•    An indication of their general starting hand requirements and pre-flop style – Loose? Tight? Passive? Aggressive? (You could even add specific examples to help jog your memory.) What kinds of hands did they steal and defend blinds with?
•    An indication of their post-flop style of play. What kinds of hands did they bet or raise? Top pair with good kicker? Top pair with bad kicker? Bottom pair? Flush/straight draws? Outright bluffs?
•    Any other points of interest. For example: Did they vary their play? Did they go on tilt after a bad beat? Did they trap with very big hands? Did they reveal anything about their playing style in any chat messages? Were they playing at more than one table? Do they regularly play at a different limit to today’s game? etc.

It is sometimes argued that unless you are playing at limits of, say, $10/$20 or above, note-taking can hardly be worthwhile, since below that limit there are so many players that you will not run into them often enough to justify the time invested. However, others believe that note-taking is an important skill which you should constantly try to develop as you progress through the limits. Furthermore, it will encourage you to focus properly on your opponents’ play, whereas otherwise your attention might be diverted away from the game. Even at lower limits, you will find that from time to time your notes on another player will help steer you towards the right path in a tricky situation. If nothing else you may wish to keep a notepad by your PC listing the best players whom you have faced; and the ones whom you figure might form part of your ‘dream-team’ of potential opponents!
At the end of each session you should also strongly consider taking notes on yourself! Typically this might take the form of a wordprocessing or spreadsheet document and include the following information:
– The date
– The length of the playing session (measured either in minutes, hands played or both).
– The site at which you played (assuming that you have accounts at two or more sites).
– The form in which the game was played (assuming that you play more than one form of poker).
– The limit at which the game was played (or the buy-in level in the case of a tournament).
– The amount won or lost.

You may also like to keep a note of how many flops you saw, the percentage of games you won and other such statistics, if this information is provided by the site at which you play. Once you have built up a series of such records, you should be able to develop a good feel for the type of games in which you fare best, which will greatly assist your game selection in future.

In a recent edition of Online Poker News, Andrew Glazer even recommended taking notes on specific plays you make that save or lose you money, and adding these up at the end of the session to see what these plays have earned or cost you. That way, if you keep making the same mistakes from one session to the next, the cost of these should be plain to see!

Another important means whereby you can analyse your own play is through hand histories.

Having selected a game and found a seat, there is one further question that needs to be addressed before starting play – how many chips should you purchase at the start of a session? Typically, when you take a seat you will be prompted to buy-in for a certain amount, e.g. $80 for $2/$4 hold’ em, $200 for $5/$10, $800 for $20/$40 etc. These figures are perfectly reasonable for a single session at the respective limits. However, there is certainly an argument for buying-in for a little more than these amounts, since if you experience a bad run at the start of a session, you are less likely to be marked down as a target by the other players – bigger stacks do receive more respect. A buy-in of 20 or 30 big bets is certainly a perfectly acceptable figure when you first sit down. Players who sit down with 10 big bets or fewer immediately draw attention to themselves as perhaps either being inadequately bankrolled or taking a shot at a bigger game than they are used to, perhaps playing with ‘scared’ money. On rare occasions a player will manage to convert a $50 buy-in at a $5/$10 game into several hundred dollars, but far more often they will quickly run out of funds and be forced to re-buy or leave the table.

The issue of ‘money management’ is a somewhat controversial one in poker literature. Some players advocate the adoption of a single-session ‘stop-loss’ policy, whereby if you lose a certain predetermined amount you should immediately quit playing, whereas others argue that you should stay in the game until you are no longer favoured to be making money, regardless of whether you are winning or losing at that particular point.

Until you become an experienced online player, it is certainly worth considering adopting Annie Duke’s ’30-bet rule’, limiting single-session losses to 30 big bets. In an article published at UltimateBet.com, she argues that ‘unless you are able to accurately judge how you play compared to others, loss-limiting with the 30-bet rule effectively stops you from dumping off large sums of money in games you may not be able to beat.’ Furthermore, it prevents additional losses that may be incurred by being identified as a target by the other players in the game, or possibly either playing too softly or going on tilt: ‘By limiting your losses to 30 big bets, you are effectively minimising the time you spend playing with a poor table image, playing passively, or steaming at the table, and maximising the amount of time you spend playing your A-game,’ she adds.

Although $800 may be a sufficient sum for a single session of $20/$40, it is just that – a bankroll for a single session. To allow for the vagaries of chance, a minimum online poker bankroll of $4,000 would probably be required to compete in this game on a regular basis. Indeed, many experts recommend that your total bankroll should ideally be of the order of 300 big bets (i.e. $12,000 or more in this instance), although naturally the higher your hourly earnings rate, the fewer big bets you will require in your bankroll.

If you play only for fun, risking small amounts in micro- or low-limit games with no real aspirations of developing into a higher stakes player, then your bankroll requirement is simply what spare cash you have available and are prepared to put at risk. After all, many people spend thousands of dollars each year on other recreational pursuits such as golf, tennis and skiing, and they do not expect to make a profit from these activities. By the same token, there is of course nothing wrong with playing online poker purely as a hobby rather than as a means of earning money, just so long as you enjoy it and have the spare discretionary income to finance any losses.

Having said that, many people do naturally aspire to be winning players at the higher levels, perhaps one day competing in the big $40/$80 hold’em game at Paradise Poker or the $30/$60 game at PartyPoker. You should aim to maintain a bankroll of around 300 big bets at the limit at which you play, gradually moving up in limit as your bankroll increases and you become a proven long-term winner (averaging at least one big bet per hour over the course of at least 100 hours’ play) at each succeeding limit.

If you are unable to win at least one big bet an hour in the long run then 300 big bets is insufficient to guard against the going broke, and you would be well advised to play at a lower limit. Furthermore, as Mike Caro has pointed out, the larger your bankroll, the more you should seek to protect it. There is therefore a strong argument for maintaining a larger proportional bankroll as you move up through the limits and your risk-exposure increases.

These figures could perhaps be doubled if you are playing exclusively heads-up, where the swings can be up to twice as great (that is, unless you are a truly exceptional heads-up player). However, if you are an Omaha hi/lo rather than hold’em player, a bankroll of 100 rather than 300 big bets might be sufficient for a winning player, since the variance in split games such as Omaha hi/lo is so much lower. (Incidentally, the ante and bring-in structure of online seven-card stud is so variable that it does not lend itself to this kind of linear analysis. For example, the $3/$6 game at PartyPoker and $6/$12 game at PokerStars both have the same $0.50 ante structure.)

One problem which many players run into eventually is that, having worked their way up through the limits, gradually building up their bankroll, they then experience a really bad run. At this point it would probably be most prudent for them to drop down in limit in order to replenish their bankroll (and perhaps restore some lost confidence). However, this kind of decision is problematic for many players, since their ego won’t let them take what they perceive as a backwards step. It is also important to remember that losing players actually require a bankroll that is sufficient to finance their losses over a lifetime – the only useful recommendation for such players is to work at their game and become a winning player; bankroll requirements are clearly redundant in this instance.

Whatever the size of your bankroll, it is inadvisable to not keep large sums of cash with a single online poker site, unless that amount is required to finance your regular play. There have been instances in the past where sites have gone out of business, leaving a trail of unhappy depositors in their wake, and there is always the possibility that it could happen again. When in doubt – cash out!

If you are used to playing in live-action games, it is worth remembering that in an online game at the same limit your hourly swings will inevitably be much greater, due to the many more hands that you will be dealt every hour – you may therefore find yourself effectively playing ‘higher’ than you would ordinarily be comfortable with. Whether you are playing in high stakes games or at micro-limits, there is one golden rule to bear in mind – never gamble with money that you cannot afford to lose. Please gamble responsibly.

At brick and mortar cardrooms short-handed (i.e. six players or fewer) games are generally quite unpopular. The nature of poker is such that each game requires a table and a dealer whether there are four players or ten, so from the cardroom’s point of view, full games are a far more economically viable option. Furthermore, many players are uncomfortable playing in short-handed games, which require that they make adjustments to their play, since the standard full 10-player ring game tactics are usually unprofitable in this instance. Indeed, some players try to avoid playing short-handed at all, if possible, either taking a break or leaving the game altogether when numbers run short, whereas those players who do prefer short-handed games are often able to play for only a brief while before the game either fills up or breaks up altogether.

However, as a result of online poker a new breed of player has emerged – the short-handed specialist. These players focus on the special five- and six-player (and even heads-up) tables that most sites offer as an alternative to normal ring games. Unlike brick and mortar cardrooms, online sites are generally more than happy to accommodate these short-handed tables, since of course they do not have to pay a dealer or take up valuable floor space with such games. Furthermore, the fast-paced nature of these games is ideal for the cardroom from a rake standpoint.

The main attraction of online short-handed games from the player’s point of view is obvious: such games are dealt at a much quicker rate than a normal ring game (typically well over 100 hands per hour for hold’em), so if you are the best player at the table, your advantage will be greatly enhanced. In addition, the quite different nature of the short-handed game (in particular, the increased importance of attacking and defending the blinds since, with the blinds coming around so quickly, you cannot afford simply to wait for premium hands) lends itself more to a looser, more aggressive ‘action’ style of play, which is particularly suited to those players who don’t enjoy having to wait patiently for a good hand. Furthermore, if you are able to identify a desirable opponent, you are that much more likely to be able to benefit from their bad play, whereas in a full game other players may reap the rewards rather than you.

Typically the maximum rake for a typical six-handed game is capped at $2 compared to the usual $3 for a full 10-player ring game, despite the fact that the average pot size is often not that much smaller, since short-handed play generally has more raising and re-raising than full ring play. Set against this, of course, each individual player will be winning a greater percentage of pots than they would in a full game, and will therefore be obliged to pay the rake far more often (although in short-handed games more hands are decided pre-flop, without a rake being charged). Certainly, if you prefer heads-up play, it is important to choose your site carefully, since heads-up rakes can vary tremendously, but in general if you have good control over your opponents you should be able to beat the rake in a normal short-handed game.

Rather than focusing on five- or six-player tables per se, one strategy that short-handed experts sometimes use is to search out full 10-player ring games that are either just breaking up or just getting underway. This way they are able to compete advantageously against full ring game specialists in a short-handed game, rather than merely against other short-handed specialists.

Whether you are someone who heads straight to the short-handed games, or immediately leaves a game when it is reduced to six players or fewer, is largely a matter of taste. If your playing style leans towards waiting patiently for good opportunities (using better hand selection strategy than most of your opponents), then you will probably be best suited to normal ring games, but if you enjoy the cut-and-thrust of a poker game, in which bluff meets counter-bluff and bet meets check-raise bluff, then online short-handed games may prove to be your forte.