RE: Poker Tip Man Armen-"Under The Gun" with Pocket Rockets
I wouldn't necessarily say it's bad advice. I play at Potawatomi in Milwaukee, I'm pretty well known there. I wouldn't say I'm a pro, but I consistently win. I wouldn't necessarily use this strategy, but it would be useful for a noob to reduce losses while learning to read the table and recognize how other players bet hands. @armen seems like a mid-level player that likes to slowly build his stack for small gains without taking risks. I personally spend more time in the weeds than a gardener, and I'm usually content to go for the check raise with aces, and fold them later if no one bites and the flop is ugly. Depends how tight the table is, but I don't sit down with less than 10x the max buy in on cash games, so I have no problem shoving and taking a chance on bad beat, under the gun or otherwise. I'll get it back later.
youll have to explain to me how that works.. oh nm I see what you're saying like for rebuys.
But You're right. It isnt necessarily bad advice. It isnt specific enough to be necessarily anything.
What is a really terrible way to play aces, short of open folding? How you play aces UTG, as daut explained (he slow ponied me) is dependent on a wide variety of factors., none of which OP discusses. In almost all cases, a utg minraise is pretty bad, but nothing is really really terrible. I could make an OK justification for an openshove. or a l/rr. It depends on stack, your image, how aggro the table is, etc etc.
Generally, you will find that there is no good strategic advice in poker that posits "You should play XXX hand in YYY position by doing ZZZ" because every poker game is different. There are a ton of different variables that come in to play,
NOw if you sit down and you write something like "I play in XXX game and i am usually 200bb deep and in this game, i find that the optimal UTG open with aces is XXX because YYY ZZZ" then thats great. Even if i dont necessarily agree with you that it is the optimal strategy, im all for the value of the post.
And if i do disagree, I can list a bunch of reasons, with a math analysis and actually have an intelligent dialough. Rather than you say "i minraise utg" and i give a bunch of reasons why thats non optimal and you say "But a famous scammer said to do it in 2006 and it works for me so i must be right"
Especially if youre coming from a live lowstakes NL cashgame perspective (and a quick check on bravo seems to indicate that powotami is a low stakes cardroom), that might very well be an OK strategy. Daut (who plays online HSNL i think) would get his ass handed to him in his particular game with that strategy.
Which is the problem. The problem isnt with the specific course of action itself (though there is almost no situation where I give a utg minraise better than a c+), its with the complete generality and vagueness of the analysis. Take any X where X is some theoretical way to play aces, throw in a few platitudes about playing position and not losing big pots, and you have a really terrible analysis that tells you nothing.
As to a flop checkraise, unless the competition is LOLbad, thats a pretty terrible strategy. The problem is you're almost never going to get action when you're good (at least not against decent players... if youre playing against a bunch of metal defectives crai all day). When you combine the early position open with the flop crai, you pretty much turn your hand face up. In a weak game, this is non optimal but you still might make a little money.
Like I said in my other comment, there is no right or wrong answer. It's all situational. These guys that sell online poker guides saying you can quit you job and become a pro overnight following their "foolproof poker method" are scammers. If the table is playing tight, a check raise wont work, sometimes a min raise gets everyone to fold unless they have big slick or KK, QQ, JJ, etc. Then again, if I'm at a table like that I ask for a move right away and fold most hands until I move. No point leaving money at a table I'm about to walk away from. If I'm playing with noobs I check raise them out of their rent money. Then again with noobs they might call with a 7-4 offsuit and hit the inside straight or quads or god knows what else. It's a chance you take. If I'm playing pros (and I've played against a few of them), I might pull the check raise once, but I know better than to run with it. A seasoned player will throw some money in the pot just to see how you play, especially at Potawotomi, the limits are too low to scare off a fishing expedition. The moral is, there are too many variables to say a specific play is right in any situation. The only SOLID advice for noobs is, play some hands with yourself, until you are good enough to calculate your outs on the fly. Watch the table, and instead of focusing on your hand, determine how many hands can beat you, do you have 1st nuts, second nuts, or are you chasing? A lot of pros will throw away 5s to a min raise pre-flop, I wont. If I think I can get heads up against an AJ offsuit from someone who is short stacked, I will shove knowing the odds are in my favor. My way isn't the right way, but I make good money, 50-60,000/yr playing a few nights a week
exactly.
also, you said "play with yourself"
Like I said in my other comment, there is no right or wrong answer. It's all situational. These guys that sell online poker guides saying you can quit you job and become a pro overnight following their "foolproof poker method" are scammers. If the table is playing tight, a check raise wont work, sometimes a min raise gets everyone to fold unless they have big slick or KK, QQ, JJ, etc. Then again, if I'm at a table like that I ask for a move right away and fold most hands until I move. No point leaving money at a table I'm about to walk away from. If I'm playing with noobs I check raise them out of their rent money. Then again with noobs they might call with a 7-4 offsuit and hit the inside straight or quads or god knows what else. It's a chance you take. If I'm playing pros (and I've played against a few of them), I might pull the check raise once, but I know better than to run with it. A seasoned player will throw some money in the pot just to see how you play, especially at Potawotomi, the limits are too low to scare off a fishing expedition. The moral is, there are too many variables to say a specific play is right in any situation. The only SOLID advice for noobs is, play some hands with yourself, until you are good enough to calculate your outs on the fly. Watch the table, and instead of focusing on your hand, determine how many hands can beat you, do you have 1st nuts, second nuts, or are you chasing? A lot of pros will throw away 5s to a min raise pre-flop, I wont. If I think I can get heads up against an AJ offsuit from someone who is short stacked, I will shove knowing the odds are in my favor. My way isn't the right way, but I make good money, 50-60,000/yr playing a few nights a week
Edit: There is ONE foolproof way to make money, but I can't do it anymore as I am a US player. Back when I could play online, (legally), I played speed poker. I would play four tables at a time, buying in for max. I would fold anything worse than QQ, except JJ which I would play out and fold if I dint like the flop. Otherwise I waited for QQ or better. Playing 450-500 hands an hour, I would get those hands about 10 times, and I did the same thing every time, check raise to any bet. If no one bet, I folded preflop and moved on. I would win about 3 out of 4 hands. When I won, I would cash out of that table, wait a few min, and buy back in for the original amount. I once bought in for a total of $40 and had about 2,300 two hours later.