Crush The Game.com

Plan Your Poker “Streets Ahead”

It’s actually a great phrase for poker.

Many poker authors and coaches tell you to plan ahead or have a plan with poker. But the mechanics of how this is done is elusive. Chamber philosophy is a “big picture” plan for the hand – how many bets before all-in, how a strong player can manipulate the pot size. But I want to talk here about the practicality of hand planning in poker. Specifically, always think of how the action will go down on the next street. › Continue reading

Tags: Chamber Philosophy, Effective Stack, Exploitation Play, hold 'em, no limit, opponent modeling, Poker, statistics

Poker Video Series: Live Sessions

Exploiting Opponents Based on Reads

This is my latest live session video at 100NL 6max and I think it offers some insight into a Loose-Aggressive/Tight-Aggressive playing style. Some of the moves are noticeably inspired by Dusty “leatherass” Schmidt and I talk about punishing limpers and double-barreling timid opponents. I found out how to correct out-of-sync audio using free software, and for anyone who records a poker video, this is a big help. (Instructions on how to do this can be found in this post.) So this latest live session installment is a 1/2 hour video 2-tabling captured with as high of quality as possible in as small of a file size as possible. › Continue reading

Tags: Effective Stack, Exploitation Play, hold 'em, no limit, opponent modeling, Poker, Poker Tracker, PT3, statistics, steal, video

Chamber Philosophy: Multiple Chambers

Chambers are constructed preflop with the effective stack and your preflop action working together.  Remember, it is on the flop that we determine how many chambers a pot will hold.  So our actions preflop must always be thinking what the constructed pot will most likely look like on the flop.  This includes thinking about how many players we expect to follow our preflop action and see the flop.

So, on the flop, assuming one player will reach showdown with you and…

› Continue reading

Tags: Chamber Philosophy, Effective Stack, Exploitation Play, no limit

Chamber Philosophy: An Introduction

In poker, bets are sometimes referred to as “bullets.”  No limit and limit players are often described as “firing” bets into the pot.  Betting on turn after betting on the flop is often called “firing the second barrel,” or “barreling the turn;” betting the river after betting the flop and the turn is often called “firing the third barrel.”  Gun imagery is rampant in the poker world (look at the covers of some of Sklansky’s books for a chuckle) and this can probably be attributed to the machismo culture of the game.  In no limit hold ‘em, because effective stack sizes are so important, we are very concerned with the size of the pot – how the pot is constructed; and Chamber Philosophy is a way of understanding how a no limit pot is constructed preflop and played postflop on the three streets to follow.

› Continue reading

Tags: Chamber Philosophy, Effective Stack, hold 'em, no limit, Playing Unexploitably

What is Important in No Limit Hold ‘Em?

Ask your average no limit player what things are important to think about while playing the game and you might hear some things like:  your cards, what cards you think your opponent has, the texture of the flop, the amount of money in the pot, what size a bet should be, whether or not you should bluff, etc.  But the truth is, there is a quantifiable list of priorities in this game.  In fact every game (poker or otherwise) has a different list of priorities you should be mentally assessing at each opportunity of action.  A no limit hold ‘em cash game’s first list of priorities – the things you are thinking about as the cards are “in the air” being dealt – is this:

1.The effective stack
2.Your relative position
3.Your absolute position
4.Your opponents’ ranges
5.Your table image
6.The intention of the players yet to act
7.Your cards

› Continue reading

Tags: Effective Stack, General