Blog - February 2007
New strategy articles on PTP
Sunday, February 25th, 2007
Two new additions to the PP strategy lineup this week - a play for your NL cash game and some thoughts about using people’s idle chatter against them at the poker table.
First up, Bunky offers his thoughts on playing against aggressive players in Representing the ace against the habitual continuation bettor …
This article is going to help explain a concept that you wont find in any No Limit Hold’em book that’s been printed to my knowledge. However, it’s an advanced play that if you use it occasionally will increase your hourly earnings. It’s a play that you don’t want to overuse, but works like a charm when used sparingly. The play is what I call “Representing the Ace”. I will explain the concept in the following paragraphs.
This play works well against a thinking player that is a bit over aggressive. It involves a cute little play with the flop checkraise when out of position and the feeler raise in position. Lets break down each situation individually. We are going to assume for these exercises that you have a tight , solid image and your opponent has an image of being solid, but aggressive and makes the obligatory continuation bet a bit too often.
Lets take the play in position first as it’s a bit easier to play. I like to play most hands with position on my opponent. I can control the action a bit better and control the pot size to a manageable level. Lets say for example were in a 2-4 blinds NL game and we have a stack of $400. Our opponents have the same stack sizes as us…
Read it all
And then we’ve got a brief bit on picking up information from what people let slip from their lips at the poker table - What your opponents mean when they say what they say …
People give away a lot more with their chatter than they realize when they’re playing live poker - especially in tournaments, where people tend to loosen up with those around them (since they’re expecting to be there for a decent amount of time). While it’s impossible to ever be 100% sure of what a person means when they engage in table talk, there are a few general principles and generic situations that can help you properly interpret the words of your opponents.
– When people make a point of how willing they are to defend their blinds, especially if they have more than 10 BB’s in a tournament, they are generally tight and willing to fold their blinds without a very strong hand. By announcing their intention to defend, they’re tipping you off to how important the chips are to them. Raise it up if you have the chance.
Whole thing here
Have a good week.
New resource reviews on PartTimePoker
Sunday, February 11th, 2007
Two new players added to the resource review team this week - PokerWire.com and Ed Miller’s blog Noted Poker Authority.
Here’s a bit from the Poker Wire review:
Overview
Poker Wire provides live tournament coverage for a select group of big-buyin tournament events (think WPT, WSOP Circuit, etc). The coverage is extensive, often hand-by-hand accounts for critical stages and final table play.
Look
Nice and clean. White with thin lines to break up the columns. There are a couple ads, but they’re not anything to get upset about - they’re calm and well placed. The navigation of the site works well, and there are a lot of obvious entry points to a variety of content right off the bat. Well-done here.
Content Quality / Quality
The details are great. All sorts of coverage here - video clips, blog entries, interviews - this seems about as close to you can get to being at these tournaments without actually being there. The regularity of the coverage is close to obsessive, with blow-by-blow updates coming at the speed of every hand dealt.
>>>READ
… and an excerpt from our review of Noted Poker Authority
Overview
Many players are probably familiar with Ed from his work with 2+2 publishing - especially his excellent title Small Stakes Hold’em. Noted Poker Authority is Ed’s blog where he posts shorter-form articles, answers questions from users, and serves up other resources to help improve your poker game.
Look
Done in WordPress with a simple three column layout, so a nice and clean interface. If anything, it might be a little too drab - but it’s still a step up from 2+2. There are some text ads, which I don’t mind, but they take up a whole column, meaning the content of the site is a little squeezed. Some short articles require a little more scrolling that they should.
Content Quality / Quality
Top-notch. Ed’s throwaway articles beat 90% of the crap written about poker on the internet, and most of the articles aren’t throwaways. This is clearly the work of someone who really enjoys thinking about poker and who is also articulate enough to communicate those thoughts effectively to others.
>>>MORE
Have a good week.
New poker reviews on part time poker
February 4th, 2007
This week, a couple of new reviews for you to check out:
First, check out our review of the online poker resource Top Poker.org.
Next up, a review of the classic Championship Pot and No Limit Hold’em. Here’s an excerpt:
The name T.J. Cloutier is a familiar one, and should be so to any poker fan. He is one of the world’s best tournament players. He has more major tournament wins under his belt than any other Poker Star. He has six WSOP bracelets and has been on the WSOP main event final table no less than four times, including runner up twice, which of he lost the last one in 2000 to no other than Chris “Jesus” Ferguson with AQ against Chris A9.
Tom McEvoy is also a formidable force in the poker world and has won his fair shear of tournaments and is the 1983 world champion. He has won four WSOP bracelets to his credit and ha written numerous books. Nowadays McEvoy is part of the poker stars team and can be frequently seen playing online poker. As a Mac user, I wish “Stars” had Mac poker software but they have unfortunately so far not listen to my prayers. Luckily, a lot of other sites have Mac software.
Read it all.
Happy super bowl sunday from PTP, see you next week.
