Why it's so important to know your opponent

Part 3:  Positional play

I SAID this would not be a thesis on how to play certain hands in certain situations. How could it be?

Identical situations - hands, seating position, chip stacks, blind size - occur as rarely as a snow flake in a Vegas summer. I'm surmising you know how to play Texas Hold'em and want some new ideas.

Poker guru: Roy Brindley

If you have read books on poker, you will have learnt plenty about ‘positional play', which amounts to your position at the table for a certain hand in relation to the button (or the dealer) and the players who have posted forced bets, the blinds.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that when a person, who is first to act, makes a raise with the intention of making everyone pass in order towin the blinds, he has to avoid eight or nine yet-to-act players who could have easily picked up a very big hand. But doing so when you are the player on

the button, you only have to overcome or avoid two players in order to collect their chips. This is what position is all about for me and not the nonsense that is bounded around regarding the advantage of being second to act in any further betting.

Just imagine, a pot is raised and you call because your supposed position when the flop comes down.

What use is this position to you when your opponent immediately moves ‘all-in'? Now what are you going to do with your middle pair or an ace-king that has not become a pair?

Here is a tip that everyone should try when playing on the internet in order to improve their positional play: place something on your screen to cover your hole cards and play the tournament completely blind of the cards you have been dealt.

Raise when in a late position (one of the last players to act before the players who have posted a blind bet) when appropriate and occasionally re-raise someone who you think is attempting a blind steel themselves.

Once you have made a few final tables in 300+ -runner tournaments this way, I think you can say you have educated yourself enough to know and understand the value of positional play.

You are now playing tournament hold'em. You can do it without looking at your cards. You are taking every little piece of information in and, when it comes to your opponents, you have a memory like an elephant with the ability to quickly culture a feel for the game.

What about how other players perceive you? As I mentioned in a previous week, old-school players never vary their game and so their image never changes.

It's real praise when you eliminate someone from a game and they say something like, "He's impossible to read, he could have anything, he's that kind of player".

So how do you manufacture a table image that confuses and also induces your opponents to either fold when you want them to and pay you off when you need them to?

Too many people get a buzz out of showing a bluff and do so because of it. Yet opponents cannot help but take what they see at face value. Do this more than once and you are likely to be manoeuvreless because any chip you put into a pot is probably going to be challenged by opponents who don't believe you.

This is good when you pick up big hands because you are likely to get paid off. But when you don't find good cards and yourbluffs are called, you are dead in the water. It's my belief that showing big hands when you have the opportunity to do so, especially in the early stages of a competition, is a far better way to go.

The odds of being dealt a pocket pair are 16-1, a good pocket pair like kings or aces are 220-1 and an ace-king suited are 331-1.

 Positional play: Racing Post Poker

  PICTURE: Racing Post Poker  

PREMIER hands are not that common and the ability to successfully represent one of them is as important as picking them up. It's very hard re-raising someone who only plays a pot once an hour and has shown only pocket aces, kings and a three-of-a-kind.

As well as showing a big hand and a big bluff there is also showing a big pass. I never do this, regardless of how right I think I am.

What is the point of showing your opponent pocket queens when you have raised and been re-raised?

Or, similarly showing top-set on a board where a third diamond has landed on the river and you sense your opponent has found his flush?

Showing big passes is collateral for future damage. By announcing to the table that you are capable of mucking a powerful hand in the face of a big bet you are simply putting a signpost around your neck saying ‘come make moves on me, I'm waiting to pass'.

Behind so many big passes is a poor call, and hold'em needs to be played with courage and conviction.

If an opponent raises and you call with ace-king, what grounds are there for passing to a whopping big bet when the flop comes down 2-8-king (all different suits)?

If you do pass you have surely made a poor pre-flop call. What did you want to hit when you decided to call the first bet? People often pass up at this point. I've never understood it.

Even if you do have the courage to call a big bet, possibly an all-in, what were the grounds for just calling preflop?

The probability of you flopping an ace or king in this situation - or any other situation where you don't hold a pocket pair - is more than 2-1.

So, against a raiser with a pocket pair of any description, you are odds against making or having the best hand after the flop.

You are also odds against about being paid off any more chips if an ace or king flops,especially against an opponent who is not prone to making bluffs or calling when he thinks it is likely he is behind.

Consider playing these ‘big aces' (an ace with a high-kicker) aggressively pre-flop, as you could well have the worst starting cards but you also possess a hand powerful enough to make most opponents pass something like 75 per cent of the pocket pairs.

Once more, perception and understanding of your opponent(s), is all-important.