Author: T

Most casinos have a bar that’s central to the main action. A large casino may offer numerous bars interspersed throughout the floor, each with a unique theme. Some feature live music, and some are simply service bars where you can take a quick pit stop away from the flow of traffic. But if you’re picturing a quiet setting of soft music, hushed whispers, and clinking glasses, you’re going to be disappointed. There’s no escaping the games: Casino bars are in the midst of the lively pits.
Casinos profit from the fact that alcohol lubricates the ATM card. But no casino wants drunk patrons, so the line they walk is a delicate one, and the policy on pushing alcohol consumption may vary from place to place. In addition, every state has different laws governing alcohol consumption inside its casinos, so there is no single unifying rule about how alcohol is handled inside betting areas. Some tribal casinos don’t serve it at all, so if sipping on a stiff one as you play is important, make sure you do you homework before you leave home. The bottom line: The drinking environment varies widely, so the smartest play is to find a scene that suits your tastes, and always strive to stay in complete control.

Poker tournaments provide an opportunity to win big prizes for small outlays, thus many players now prefer them to cash poker. However, the strategy required for tournament play is significantly different from that required in cash games. Tournaments work by eliminating players who lose all their chips. Your twin aims in tournament play are thus to amass chips but at the same time to do everything in your power to avoid being eliminated. In freeze-out tournaments, the latter aim is even more important because there is no opportunity for re-buys.

Mason Malmuth states that in re-buy tournaments it is always mathematically correct to re-buy and that this rule holds even if all the other players at the table have many more chips than you will have after your re-buy. However, some other authorities advise against taking this policy too far.

One aspect of tournament play which differs from cash-game play is that competitors need to be very patient. This does not necessarily mean waiting patiently for a good hand but rather It means waiting for good opportunities. By opportunity here I mean a combination of good position, good read on your opponent and possibly a good hand as well. In cash games you might. be prepared to take a risk with, for instance, a drawing hand giving you a 33 per cent chance of winning the pot because you are getting good pot odds. This would be correct in cash games because you know that if you make the play in similar situations over a series of hands you will show a profit. The same reasoning does not apply in freeze-out tournaments or tournaments where the buy-in phase has ended. In a tournament, if you play a hand with 33 per cent chance of winning, no matter how good the pot odds, you are putting yourself in the position where you have a 66 per cent chance of being eliminated. If you lose in cash games, you can just take more money out of your pocket, but in a tournament, after the buy-ins are over, you do not have this option. So patience and caution are valuable assets in tournament play.

However, in the early stages of a re-buy tournament many players will take more risks than they would in a cash game, in the hope of building up a large stack of chips. This is not a bad policy during the re-buy stage, where you could play the 33 per cent draw, because the worst that can happen is that it will cost you another re-buy. Also, in the early stages of a tournament, the cost of the blinds will be low compared to the average number of chips held by the players, which allows looser play. This is not a bad policy provided you can afford to re-buy. If you cannot afford the re-buy you will have to play a lot more cautiously.
In the middle and later stages of a tournament, the structure of the game gradually changes. The blinds increase until eventually they become very large in comparison to the size of the average stack. Adopting tactics which allow you to win the blinds, therefore, becomes increasingly important and you will find that players bluff and semi-bluff much more. This is usually correct tactics. However, it now becomes less correct to just call bets speculatively mainly because it costs too much compared to the size of the stacks.
In the later stages of a tournament, stack size is all-important. A large stack is much to be feared because that player can eliminate you from the tournament. But you can more readily play against small stacks as they can do you no terminal damage, even if they win a few pots from you. If you are one of the lucky ones and have a big stack, you can take more risks and perhaps call a bit more than you would otherwise, particularly against the small stacks.
In the later stages of the tournament, players begin to be eliminated more quickly and often you will have to play at a table with between five and eight players (as opposed to the optimum nine to eleven). This means that you will have to put in a blind bet more often, for each round of the table, therefore costing you more to play than at a full table. You now need to win hands more frequently just to maintain the size of your stack. In these situations, it becomes correct to play more loosely, that is, to play more hands. The trick though is not just to play more hands, but to play them aggressively, hoping that your bets will win the pot for you uncontested.

 

Final Table Play

At the final table in small to medium-sized tournaments, there is usually a prize for the first three or four players, so you will have a 30-40 per cent chance of getting in the money. The temptation is to be very cautious. However, because the blinds are extremely high at this stage compared to the average stack and, also, because, as players are eliminated, the cost per round to play increases, it is seldom correct to play too cautiously. You will get anted away if you don’t win at least one hand for every round of the table.
It has become common practice in tournaments throughout the world for the last few players in a tournament to do a deal sharing the prize money between them. A rough estimate is that this happens at least 50 per cent of the time. For instance, if the four remaining players all have roughly the same number of chips, it is not unusual for the players to split the prize money equally, with each getting 25 per cent. Another type of common deal is where the remaining players agree to take a fixed sum each and play for the rest of the prize money. So, if there was £5000 in prize money, the four players might agree to take £1000 each and play for the remaining £1000.

 

Perhaps surprisingly, there is not a lot to say here. If you have taken on board everything I have said about play on the flop, then you shouldn’t be in with a marginal hand. If you were betting with top pair, did not get raised and fourth street looks favourable, go ahead and bet again.
Be more worried about flush cards than overcards. For example, if you had A-10, the flop was 10H, 6S, 3S, you bet and were then called by one opponent, you would feel reasonably comfortable with top pair and top kicker. If fourth street brings a KD you need not be too worried about this overcard, as the only hand you would have to fear your opponent holding is K-10, which is not too likely. You might be more inclined to fear an overpair such as J-J. Nevertheless, if you are checked to, you should consider betting as your opponent is showing weakness by the check.
If, however, fourth street brings a spade then you have to be extremely careful as a flush is a likely holding for your opponent. If your opponent checks, be cautious and check yourself – he might be slow-playing the flush. If you are first to act then again take the cautious approach and check. Your opponent must also be fearful of a flush if he does not hold one himself. So give him some credit if he bets because now all you can beat is a bluff. If he is a tricky player you might suspect a bluff, but it is going to cost you to find out. So in this type of situation it is often best just to give your hand up. Remember it is only good players who can be bluffed, so if your opponent does show down a bluff after you have passed the winner, just mark it down to experience. Believe me you will feel more of a fool if you call one or more bets and he shows you a flush. You’ll be asking yourself for the next half dozen hands why you called when you knew there was a flush out there.

 

Drawing Hands
If the position is reversed and it is you that has the drawing hand which has come good on fourth street, you have the choice of whether to bet out or to check and try to trap your opponent. In a tournament, if I was short stacked, I would probably bet as I wouldn’t want to risk being outdrawn. But in a cash game, particularly if I hit the nut flush, I would be inclined to check hoping to elicit a bluff or trap my opponent into thinking I do not have the flush. Straights are more vulnerable so I would be much less inclined to slow play a straight. It is appropriate here to give a word of caution about straights. If you have the ignorant end of the straight you need to exercise circumspection. For example, if you have 7D, 6S and the flop and fourth street bring 9D, 8S, 4C, 10C, you have the lowest possible straight (ignorant end). It is probably a winner but your opponent could have the Q-J. Much less likely is the J-7 as not too many players will be in with this sort of hand. In Hold ‘Em it is still OK to bet the bottom end of the straight, but it is a recipe for disaster in Omaha.

Fifth Street
If you get as far as fifth street (‘the river’), remember there is now much less cause to bet. You no longer need to bet to protect your hand as all of the cards are out. Most large bets on the river are therefore from big hands or are bluffs. Most players, for example, will not bet top pair top kicker on the river, because it is too likely to be beaten if called. A player who has been betting all of the way, but then checks on the river, probably has a medium-strength hand which he wants to show down for nothing. Nevertheless, I would not recommend a bluff here. If you have got nothing, just accept your fate as a bluff is too likely to be called.
 

By a draw, I mean a hand that could turn into something big on the last two cards but at the moment doesn’t amount to much. These hands are very tricky to play. A lot of players get busted out of tournaments on a draw when, probably, they shouldn’t be playing them. As T J Cloutier, the prolific US tournament winner, says, ‘Draws are death’.

Let’s look at a typical layout where you might consider playing
a draw.

Your Hand                   Flop

JH, 10H                       KD, 7H, 3H

If a solid player bets the pot and everyone passes to you, should you call? We’ve all done it, but the answer is no, definitely not.Your opponent is a solid player, so give him credit for a pair of kings (any pair is in front of you at this point anyway). You must hit one of nine hearts to make your flush. In other words, you are about a 4/1 underdog to make it on the next card. If a heart does come, your opponent may well stop betting, since he must fear the possibility of a flush. If it doesn’t, he will likely bet the pot again. Do you want to call again with one card to come?
What if another player called in between you and the bettor? Some players now get it into their heads that they have ‘value’ but do they? Remember that your flush draw is only jack high. If somebody is playing a higher flush draw you may end up making your hand only to find out it is second best. The same applies if there is a pair on the flop. You can make your hand and lose to a full house. There’s little sense, in my view, in committing money with a draw that you can’t be sure will win.
There are some exceptions when you might want to play your draw in a tournament.

1.    You’re short stacked. In this case, you’ve just got to put your money in and hope. If you are all in on the flop, at least you will get two cards for your money.

2.    Your opponent is short stacked. In this case, gambling with a draw isn’t so bad because you know, once your opponent is all in, it can’t cost you any more.

3.    The initial bet is very small. In a low ante game, if all the players have plenty of money, you can even call on the flop with something like this layout:

Your Hand                   Flop

10S, 8S                       9D, 6C, 4H

If a 7 comes on fourth street, you have the nuts and hopefully someone who turned another good hand such as trips on the flop will not be able to get away from the hand.
I must admit I do loosen up when it comes to the nut-flush draw. You know you’ll win if it hits (providing a pair doesn’t come) and it also has the added value that pairing the ace might win on its own.
That’s all I’ve got to say about draws. It’s boring not playing them but that’s how the top players take down the money in the big tournaments (so I’m told!). But if you want to play them, play them aggressively. Raise all-in on the flop. A draw has a lot more value with two cards to come than with one, and there’s a fair chance your opponent will be too terrified to call, but pick your spot. There’s no point in putting all your chips in with a draw against a player who only worries about what he has and pays no attention to what his opponent might have. Against these types, you’ll be called and you’ll have to hit your hand.

In standard Omaha the rules are identical to those of Texas Hold ‘Em except that each player receives four hole cards instead of two and each player must use exactly three board cards and two hole cards to make the hand. This second difference can be confusing for beginners and players who are used to Hold ‘Em.

These examples show how it works:

Hole Cards         Flop              4th Street     5th Street

AC, KC, JS, JH     KD, KH, QD    9H               9C

Best Hand 

The hole card KC makes trip kings but note that this player does not have a full house. This would require the use of only one hole card and four board cards, or three hole cards and two board cards, which are prohibited combinations.

 

Hole Cards         Flop              4th Street     5th Street

AC, 2H, QS, JS    AD, KC, 3C    9C               10C

Best Hand

This player’s best hand is the ace-high straight using the QS, JS hole cards and AD, KC, 10C from the board. Note that he does not have a flush as this would require the use of only one hole card and four from the board.

 

Hole Cards         Flop              4th Street     5th Street

AC, KH, QH, JH   4S, 4H, 4D     4C               QC

Best Hand

Here a beginner might think that he has four of a kind with an ace as the kicker. Alternatively, he might think that he has a full house of three 4s and two queens. But neither of these hands is allowed because in each case he is using only one hole card. The highest hand this player can have is three 4s with an ace and a king as kickers. The nuts in this example would be where a player holds two queens in hand, making a full house of three queens and two 4s.