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Pocker vs. Blackjack

September 14, 2006

The main gambling floors of casinos have gone through a facelift. Pocker vs. Blackjack is the new topic of debate in the world of gambling.

I want to advise that special care needs to be taken in playing poker games like AJ, AT, KQ, KJ, QJ, etc. Finally, my opponent liked to chase weak hands like one overcard and I felt I'd gain a bigger edge on this hand to see what comes on the flop. These two texts are currently the best foundation material for anyone unfamiliar with a lot of the concepts that come into play in tournaments that are absent from cash games.

• Sure, I probably had the best pocker hand, but I decided to wait and see what flopped before putting in a lot of pocker chips. I decided to check the flop to the raiser and see what happened. Then they end up getting mad that I checkraised them and either take off a card with a weak draw or they pay off with a hand that they would otherwise know is beat simply because they are angry about my checkraise and think I am making a move on them.
• The times you don't are what makes this call terrible since there aren't many flops that you will like that don't contain a 6. Now, an unexpected thing happens and he immediately makes it three bets. This hand is hoping to flop a draw and the fact of the matter is that most shorthanded pots end up heads up or three-handed after the flop and draws just aren't very profitable in that situation. But the other player's bets have just told you that this isn't the right thing to do.

Some of you may be wondering why I am no longer playing the shorthanded pocker games on Stars with any regularity, and the reason is simply that the games have become too aggressive for my liking. While my last couple of columns dealt with some hands from tournament situations, this month I want to revert back to Limit since I've been playing a lot of it again. All four players checked to me and it was time for another decision. David Sklansky wrote a bit about this concept in his Texas Holdem for Advanced Players book, but I'm pretty sure anyone who isn't constantly trying to improve their game has long forgotten about it.

When you do defend though, you should be aggressive. Based on this, I decided to fire a bet out and hope to get called by A or K high. They expect you to be stealing there and will happily defend their blinds. If there is one thing I can stress about the early portion of a tournament it is that you really should not be raising that many hands before the flop.