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Beating Live
Poker
At the lower to mid stakes,
live poker can be an extremely profitable way to make a good living
compared to that of the same stakes online. The games that run are
often much softer and if they are exploited correctly, can be an
absolute gold mine. Throughout this article we will be looking at;
your average live opponent, strategies, playable hands and position
before looking at some key points.
Average
Opponent
Your average live opponent will
often not have the same skill set to that of an online player of
the equivalent stakes. Many more recreational players and gamblers
will be playing live due to the fact of the casino environment they
will be playing in.
Obviously not all players will
be of a lesser standard. There are players who are strong both live
and online and will look to maybe play higher stakes to increase
their win rate compared to the levels they may regularly
play.
The idea is to target the
players you think look like the weaker players at the table. These
are often in the form of tourists or just recreational players who
will posses many leaks in their game and become extremely
exploitable at the tables.
Late night poker will bring in
players who have maybe been out drinking or are still drinking at
the table. These types of players should also be
targeted.
Strategy
As a rule of thumb when playing
live you want to remain relatively tight. It does depend on your
table, but it’s likely that there will be plenty of poorer
players who will more often than not neglect to notice your playing
tendencies. This means that opening up our starting hand range in
an attempt to balance our overall range, is pointless.
It’s for this reason that we
need to seldom bluff when playing live. We don’t need to create
much of an image to beat most live players so value betting our big
hands will be more than suffice to turn our live sessions into
winning ones.
The amount of times we will get
a poorer player to fold will be massively reduced, so bluffing
becomes something to use sparingly and only against opponents who
have shown some previous form of having the ability to lay a hand
down.
Value betting becomes a much
more important attribute to adopt in the live poker scene. Players
will be happy to call down very light so we want to bet our big
hands hard to increase pot sizes which will then give us maximum
value from our hands.
Playable
Hands
As we look to tighten up our
image whilst playing live, we need to look at what hands we should
be playing and how to go about playing them
Premium Pocket
Pairs (AA-TT)
As with all forms of poker,
over a large sample premium pocket pairs will be our most
profitable hands with live poker being no different. We want to be
building big pots with these hands so don’t look to slow play or
get too creative and be confident that the majority of live players
will pay you off.
Broadway’s (AK,
AQ, AJ, KQ, KJ)
Our Broadway hands will become
very profitable with hands like top pair to the board. Due to the
diverse range our opponent likely will be holding, a lot of the
time when we hold a pair with a strong kicker we will have their
range crushed.
Hand values like top pair, top
kicker increase so much more when playing live and have fantastic
showdown value. Compared to that of playing online where such hands
are relatively good versus stronger opponents, if we were to be
faced with a fish, it’s likely that we will be trying to get as
much money in the pot as possible. This is the approach we need to
adopt live.
Pocket Pairs
(22-99)
Similarly to online, we often
need these hands to improve somewhat, especially as they decrease
in value to the lower pocket pairs. However, whilst we shouldn’t
really be looking to invest too much money with these hands pre
flop, post flop they can play well. Even with an over card to the
flop, our pocket pair may still be valuable.
With these mid to low pocket
pairs, ideally we want to be set mining in most scenarios. There
may be times where some of the higher valued pocket pairs will be
profitable to get all in pre flop, but this is very opponent
dependent.
Suited Connectors
and One Gapers
A suited connector or one gaper
are hands that we need to improve but likely will flop pretty well.
With these hands we want to be getting in the pot as cheaply as
possible to see if we can make a hand or at least a good
draw.
It’s important to not get too
passive with these hands however. Limping is a definite no, so if
the situation arises where you can use these hands as semi bluffs
to maybe pick up some dead money then do so.
Position
As with all forms of poker
position is king! Just because you are playing live it does not
mean that you should disregard this important factor in the game as
it becomes just as, if not more, important live than
online.
Having the advantage of acting
last in the hand can give you so many more options to take down the
pot, build the pot or get to see the next card for the price you
want or need.
Look to open your range in
position and tighten up when out of position.
Key
Points
- Look to take advantage of the
weaker opponents in the game
- Often live players will not be
as strong compared to the same players of the corresponding buy in
level online
- Invest time into making player
notes at the table and keep track of any tendencies they
have
- Always look to target the
table where people are drinking alcohol
- Live poker mean less hands per
hour, so you need to remain patient.
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