Ethical Poker
This week, we’re going to take a step back from poker strategy and go over another topic that touches our poker lives. Let’s talk about playing ethical poker. Figuring out what’s right and what’s wrong is never universal, rarely easy, and, in a game like poker, full of grey areas. What’s wrong for one player may be totally fine for another. For any of these ethical questions, either in poker or in life, you should carefully consider where you stand and do your best to do good
When to Fold Top Pair
Pairs are the most common made hand in poker, and top pair is often good enough to win the pot. However, there are still plenty of hands that even beat a pair of aces, so we need to fold top pair sometimes if we want to play an optimal strategy. It can be difficult to let go of these hands. We’re often afraid that our opponent is bluffing against us, and we don’t want to lay down a good hand against air. Here are a few quick tips for when to fold top pair. When Passivity Turn
Bankroll Management
Making good decisions is what sets winning poker players apart from the losers. If you can consistently find the right line and then execute it, then you’ll have no problem raking in the chips. However, there’s more than just figuring out whether to raise, check, call, or bet. One decision that you need to keep in mind is bankroll management. This means that you need to be careful about how many chips you’re bringing to the table and how many you have left overall. Simply put
How to Limp Re-Raise
Even though we have some default ‘rules’ for playing good poker, like not limping and not slow-playing big hands, there are always exceptions to rules. Let’s talk about when it may be a good idea to limp re-raise and how to pull it off. First off, remember that limping refers to calling pre-flop in an unopened pot. If the big blind is 50 chips, for instance, then simply calling that 50 chips is a limp. Here’s the play. You have a pocket pair, something even as strong as aces
Ace-King Pre-Flop
Once the cards are dealt, you take a peek and see ace-king looking back at you. You know that you’re going to play this pot, but did you know that many players don’t know how to properly play big slick pre-flop? Ace-king is certainly a strong hand, but it takes a bit of finesse to extract the most value from it. This is mostly because our hand will only hit the flop about 1/3 of the time. We want to get the most out of our made hands, but we also need a plan for what to do wh
