riyanaI just had an interesting conversation with someone who has been playing poker a long time. He thinks that the biggest mistake he has made in his poker career has been betting too small against the maniac. When I asked him what he had done wrong, he said, “Nothing, I guess, you know, you just get beat every time you bet pocket Aces.”
There are a million reasons why someone would bet the way he did. Some are good and some are bad. Now, I’ll get into what may be the worst of reasons. Why, if you have pocket Aces, would you bet one chip when you are the favorite and the board has a Patient Lottery Seed, Ad-7c-2c?
First, let me tell you that Aces will beat most hands. Unless, of course, you flop a set, in which case you will be able to bank that big hand for a lot of chips. Freerolls and regular games will get you into situations where you need a big stack to win, whether you win or lose depends on your ability to get chips.
Online, the maniac seems to be all the time. If you check a maniac and flop a set, take all their blinds. If you check and they trap you, well, you just lose a lot of chips besides the cost of what they were going to bet in the first place. So, when they bet the hand, most people give them credit for a big hand. How stupid. If you havent played by the book, those pocket Aces will get beat every time, unless you manage to steal the blinds.
You can steal the blinds by the same means as if you were playing middle position. Just target the players to the right of you, and even target players to your left of them, but once you get a hand, you play it slow and take them to the cleaners. This is the fastest way to win a tournament. If your making any bets at all, ensure they are value bets. Do this, and you will win quite often enough to make it worth your while to play a tournament from beginning to end.
Freerolls
For those of you who don’t know what freerolls are, they are online poker tournaments that aren’t usually considered money games. Some people play them for fun and some people play them to win chips, all of which can net you quite a bit of cash.
The big advantage of freerolls is that you can win quite a bit of cash for your bankroll without spending a lot of money. This means that if you can play your cards right, you can get yourself in a position where you are looking at free money. This is real poker, people. You can win a lot of cash for your deposit, you canust ever get in a position where you are looking at free money for your bankroll and you will have an advantage over the competition.
How do you win at freerolls?
Freeroll poker tournaments are no buy-in tournaments where you can just show up and win a prize. Often there are multiple ways to win a prize, so don’t be afraid to play some lame hands if you think you are on a draw. When you play in poker rooms with known poker players, they will notice your play and be more willing to give you freerolls throughout the night if you are spending as much time at the table as the others. Before you know it, you may be heading to the final table for the next big poker tournament. To win at freerolls, you need to study the techniques of the established players, but even more importantly, you need to study the habits of the players as to who will be most likely to be on the final table and who will be likely to move all in and who won’t.
Obviously, the best way to win at freerolls is to succeed at the cash tables. Don’t be fooled into thinking that the freeroll poker tournaments are any kind of test of your poker skills, but if you are unfamiliar with online poker games, then these tournaments can give you a chance to test them out. It’s like taking a test. If you get a passing grade, that’s the grade – you pass – you study for a while, you get the final grade. That’s the way you want to win at freerolls; not by getting a high score, but by studying and playing as many hours as possible. Part of the reason that some players win the Bolagila tournaments is because they practice the techniques that they are going to use at the paid tournaments. They know the odds are against them, so they know if they play a long enough time, they’re going to be a winner.
