The Two And A Half Second Bluffing Rule

Mike Caro touched on this in his lectures but he is not the first nor the only person to have talked about this rule, also sometimes called the 2 second or the 3 second rule.

Basically, if you want to bluff then you should wait 2.5 seconds before doing so. Why is this? Think about it:

Playing Immediately

If you play immediately then people almost always guess that you are bluffing. Those with a big bankroll especially love to call on these types of “quick draw” players and snuff them out. They never believe that they have a good hand and will risk a little just to find out more about this type of player.

Waiting Too Long Before Playing

It’s pretty well known that if someone is taking a while to decide what to do then they probably have a pretty good hand. After all, if the hand is poor then you will quickly check or fold.

However, if the hand is good and worth playing, then there are many different ways to decide what to do next. When a person becomes really indecisive and doesn’t want to make the wrong decision, then they normally take a while to decide and give away their bluff. If you do this then you can expect to be called by others who won’t want to risk raising.

So remember, 2.5 seconds or near enough is the best strategy to use if you want to bluff.

Emotions At The River

It is so easy to lose a huge chunk of your bankroll at the river. I used to do it myself many a time when I first started to play poker.

What happens is that you get a couple of pretty good hole cards and you start betting. The flop comes and it’s looking really good. The river comes and it’s still looking really good. So good, that you’re ignoring the possibility that the community cards look pretty good for the others too (possibilities of a flush, maybe some connectors).

The river comes and you realise that whilst the going is still really good for yourself, it could also be good for the other guy left playing. Everyone else has folded and you and him are locked in a war of raises.

Could he be bluffing or could he really have “the nuts”. You figure that you are so heavily invested already that you call his raise and go to the showdown where you promptly lose.

How Can You Avoid This Happening In Future?

Almost always, people underestimate the probabilities involved in the game of poker. To play poker without understanding probabilities is like going to sea without a life jacket. You can learn more about basic probabilities here – poker probabilities.

The other thing to note is that at the river, your emotions take over and despite doubting the strength of your cards versus your opponent, you decide to go ahead anyway and risk a huge amount of your bankroll when you are most in doubt. In fact, you should risk more bankroll when you have less doubt about your position or that of your opponent’s instead.

If you learn from your game, understand basic poker probabilities and think about your bankroll, then in future you not take such emotional risks against good opponents and you will risk an appropriate amount of your bankroll depending on the reward versus the risk for the situation.

Using Poker Room Stats To Your Advantage

Any good (almost certainly all) poker rooms will always give you some basic stats when you are in the main lobby.

Some rooms have more stats than you could ever digest but all of them will feature 2 key stats:

Flop Seen Percentage

This will give you an idea of how often the flop is seen by the players. The higher this stat then the more loose the players are, on average.

This will mean that there are a lot of players who don’t mind throwing their chips in to see if their hand will improve on the flop. As you and I know, this is a dumb strategy employed by many fish who just don’t like to fold if their hand is not any good (or lack confidence to force others to fold).

Take advantage of this but also be prepared to find a lot of “calling stations” too – see The Different Types Of Poker Players And Why You Need To Know Them.

Average Pot Size

The average pot size stat is very good for a number of reasons. You should generally aim to find a table that has at least a medium average pot size.

If the pot size is small then it means that you have a lot of tight players who aren’t willing to play aggressive and go in with the chips. Actually, these types of tables are good for “stealing the blinds” (see Stealing The Blinds – Effective Blind Stealing In Texas Holdem) but in general, don’t expect to walk away rich.

Far better are the tables where the average pot size is pretty high. This means that you have a lot of loose players. Watch out though because it can also mean that there are some very good players here too. I have been at tables where the average pot size was very big and you basically had one half of the table who were sharks and the other half were a rotating line of fish ready to part with all their cash. Beware the sharks and don’t become a fish yourself!

Poker – Discipline, Discipline and Discipline

I use the term 3 times because it is so important in poker.

Over time, you will learn that your mindset is so important in poker.

Poker is ultimately a game of logic over emotions. A game of self discipline, if you like.

So how do you consistently apply logic and not your emotions?

First, you can decide what to do in the most common and basic situations. There are a lot of books out there that will tell you what to do with various starting hands – whether to fold or how much to bet etc.

But then in poker there are so many different situations, many of them unique and not occuring often. Experience will teach you how to detect these situations and how best to play them. But without discipline, you will ignore your experience and play with your emotions and inevitable lose money.

If you are not yet playing your best poker on a regular basis, then it’s best to start playing very cautiously at first. Let other people go gung ho and lose their money quickly.

Some of the best winners at poker are the more patient ones and if it takes you 20 minutes to find your game then so be it, at least you will not have thrown away your entire bankroll inside the first 5 minutes of playing.

But remember, the best poker players are not just tight, they are also aggressive. So when the time comes and you have found your natural disciplined rhythm, then start to get more aggressive in your play.

Online Poker Tells

In online poker you can’t rely on spotting if someone is sweating on a good hand, nor can you work out what kind of hand someone has by looking at their eyes.

The flip side to this is of course that you don’t need to wear sunglasses anymore or worry that you can’t stop your shaking or a flushed face revealing that you have the nuts!

In online poker, there are a whole new set of tells that you can use to your advantage:

Betting Different Amounts Depending On Strength Of Hand

Always bet according to how early or late your position is. If you vary it when you have a bad hand e.g. risking less, and bet more on a good hand then others will work you out easily.

Auto-Check

Most poker rooms provide a facility to auto-check. In fact, this option is usually set to check/fold. This is used by a lot of people, fish especially, when they have a poor hand but can’t be bothered to have to keep hitting a button until the hand is finished and the next one starts.

So they click this check box instead.

Usually, this means they have a poor hand and you can take advantage when you see a player quickly check – this means that this is often switched on.

Beware though, because some rooms have different switches.

Long Delay Implies Indecision

When it is someone’s turn to act and you see a long delay then it usually means one of two things. With fish, it tends to mean that they are unsure of what to do. This means that they probably have a marginal or good hand. If their hand was poor then they would dump it.

On the other hand, because a long delay is perceived as being indecisive on a not-bad hand, then sometimes people will try to fool you and act in this way deliberately.

3 Ways To Pour Your Poker Money Down The Drain

Poker is a game of decisions and discipline. If you are not focussed, it is easy to pour it all down the drain! There are 3 key areas that you need to get right before you start thinking about advanced strategies.

Play At Too High A Level

Why go to the high limit tables and lose your entire bankroll within the space of a few minutes.

There is no shame in playing at the lower limit tables. What’s more, the competition will be lower.

Never take a huge leap in limits, always make small and simple steps upwards and only when you are ready.

Remember that poker is a game of sometimes winning and sometimes losing. If your bankroll is too small then you can be playing a good game but an unlucky run can mean that you lose your entire bankroll.

Playing Too Many Of Your Starting Hands

Too many people, especially beginners, will play too many of their starting hands. Over time you will gain an appreciation for what is a good hand and what is a bad hand but there are still some simple rules that you can obey.

For instance, if you are early in position then do not play low ranked cards that are not the same suit, not pairs and not consecutive. Don’t even think about it – just fold!

Play more conservative than you might be used to and look at the effect on your bankroll in the long term.

Don’t Let Your Emotions Get The Better Of You

The best poker players use zero emotion, only logic.

A bad run of luck is part of the game, do not change your style or get more aggressive because you have had a bad run of luck. Emotions or “getting back” should have no part in your game.

Do this and you can expect to be spotted as a “fish” by better players who will string you around and take all your money from you.

Building Your Bankroll

Building your bankroll is an important skill to learn in poker.

There is no reason why even a beginner cannot do this successfully.

Immerse yourself into the game and learn poker strategy from sites such as this one.

Start with a bankroll of about 300 times the big blind. So if you’re starting out on the limit tables with big blinds of 10 cents that equates to you needing around $30 in the bank.

You are not planning to lose all of that 30 bucks. As you learn quickly and focus on not making stupid mistakes then that 30 bucks will surely grow. You just need this type of bankroll so that you can survive an unlucky string of bad beats. The other reason for having this size of bankroll is that it should never get so low that you start to change the way that you play.

Remember to take advantage of the deposit bonuses available. Take a look on the top right hand side of this page for the best bonuses. As you win more money, you should withdraw your cash and take it to another poker room and take advantage of the bonus there.

If you keep playing this “bonus whore” game then you will be able to increase your bankroll to a substantial amount within several weeks to months so that you can start playing the high limit games.

I recommend that you start with the bigger bonuses as you may need this safety factor when starting out as you will be making more mistakes. Later on, you will have learned from your mistakes and not need the bonuses as much – most of your increases will come from your big wins anyway.

Remember that as long as you keep educating yourself and play with discipline that you will see your bankroll experience a steady large increase over time.

Sit & Go Strategy – How To Win At SNGs

Sit & Go’s (SNGs) are a type of tournament that you buy yourself into. They can have as many as 10 players and the aim of the game is to finish in the top 3. As long as you are one of these 3 then you will leave with more money.

The prize money is typically split as follows: 50% of the buy-in for 1st, 30% for 2nd and 20% for 3rd. You can try gunning for 1st place every time but if your name isn’t Mike Caro then you might end up losing. Better to aim for survival rather than outright 1st place, at least in the early stages.

Typically you get quite a mixed crowd at SNG tourneys. Most of them are not very good, in fact I would say that you will find perhaps 3 good players maximum and sometimes zero! Frankly the top players would rather be elsewhere and might just play SNGs for fun.

In the early stages, just play really tight and let the loose players play themselves out of the tournament. Only play the premium hands and don’t bother with the marginal hands. This strategy will see you through to the last 5 when you should return to trying to play a normal tight-aggressive game.

Now you need to just hold steady and don’t do anything reckless. Seize your opportunities and use your logic and not your emotions.

Do all this and you should regularly rank in the top 3 of SNG tournaments and get to take home some nice prize money, at worst you’ll get a 200% return on your entry fee!

The Psychology Of Bad Beats

Coming back from bad beats and knowing how to handle them is so important in your poker career.

Bad beats are when you go all in on a sure thing and, against the odds, you lose to your opponent.

Many people will first of all blame the poker room or claim a bot or logging software is at work. This is very rarely the case.

Others will become focussed on winning their money back from the person who “stole” their chips. Never let emotions get the better of you. It is in many ways best to just leave the table and come back later to another table. Best to retreat and fight again another day than be fatally wounded or suffer an even larger setback in your emotional lust for revenge.

The fact is, bad beats are just part of the game in poker. Poker is a game of probabilities and your chances of winning are very rarely equal to 1. Someone can nearly always beat you, no matter how favourable the odds.

Don’t modify the way that you play. You must look to the long term. If you have been playing profitably so far then in the long run you will continue to do so. If you suddenly change your play and become more tight then you will probably miss too many opportunities and begin a long term losing streak.

Get back into the game and do not change your style because of a few bad beats. Check your history. If you made mistakes based on the information available then learn from them. If you made the best decision based on the available information then you have nothing to regret. Keep playing this way and you will profit in the long term.

Especially in poker, we have a game where you must use your logic over your emotions. Even worse than your opponents beating you is for you to beat yourself.

The Different Types Of Poker Players And Why You Need To Know Them

To win at poker you have to understand who you are playing. Some newbies make the mistake of thinking that as long as they concentrate on their own game then they can be profitable in the long term. WRONG! Don’t make this mistake.

Generally speaking, there are 4 types of poker player who each have a particular combination of the following attributes:

First of all, they are either loose or tight. To be loose means that you play nearly every hand with little regard for the odds. To be tight means that you play very few hands and are betting only when it is nearly a sure thing.

Secondly, players tend to be either aggressive or passive. To be aggressive means that you often raise or bluff and are not afraid to do so. To be passive means that you generally call quite a lot.

Loose-Aggressive

This is the worst kind of player. He will play caution to the wind and have scant regard for the odds. By being aggressive, he will win many small pots. But it is obvious that his cards are not always so good to justify him raising say 3 times in a row. You can teach these guys a lesson by re-raising them when you have a good hand to test them.

Loose-Passive

This type of player is sometimes called a “calling station” because they call at every opportunity. They feel that they need to stay in the game to “see the cards” but don’t realise that the price of these calls adds up and is never outweighed enough by wins because they are not aggressive enough. They will gradually over time lose their money.

Tight-Passive

This type of player is sometimes called a “rock”. They will often fold before the flop and only play their good cards. They lack the courage to try bluffing so this makes them extremely predictable. If a rock decides to raise then make sure you have some damn good cards to beat him with, otherwise you should fold.

Tight-Aggressive

This is the best type of poker player that everyone tries to aspire to be. You should not be so cavalier so as to chase a situation where the odds are stacked against you. At the same time, you should chase your winners and try to increase the pot. These players will also surprise others by concealing great hands and will also play weaker hands when they can build the pot up to justify taking a chance.

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