The purpose of this article is to open of the novice and beginners eyes to a more intermediate understanding of the game of poker, and specifically Texas Hold 'em. I'm not going to go into to much detail explaining the game, yet I think even complete beginners might find something interesting or valuable in the analysis/explanation. Typically when I work with students, although I do try to highlight 1 or 2 specific concepts for them to work on and improve at, however, I always find the most pleasure and satisfaction (and my students seem to as well!) when I hear them say “Wow, I didn't realize there was so much to poker! So the goal here is really to expand our understanding of what poker is.

Introducing the Hand History Format

Firstly we will post a text representation of an actual hand I recently played. Don't feel too overwhelmed if it looks like technical jargon. I will explain what each line means and we will analyze the play semi-in-depth. For some, even just learning to read the “hand history” might be valuable. Here is the entire history up until our Hero's (me!) last decision:

PokerStars Hand #156715509721: Tournament #1630386869, $1.00+$0.10 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XIV (300/600)
Table '1630386869 36' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: KAAS69 (26321 in chips)
Seat 2: Struppi29 (5064 in chips)
Seat 3: Senseba (8288 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 4: Hero (19300 in chips)
Seat 5: VitWSher (7820 in chips)
Seat 6: yourtune (6370 in chips)
Seat 7: nblaw01 (9546 in chips)
Seat 8: VitaliyGON (16968 in chips)
Seat 9: arbuuzik (27346 in chips)
KAAS69: posts the ante 70
Struppi29: posts the ante 70
Senseba: posts the ante 70
Hero: posts the ante 70
VitWSher: posts the ante 70
yourtune: posts the ante 70
nblaw01: posts the ante 70
VitaliyGON: posts the ante 70
arbuuzik: posts the ante 70
Hero: posts small blind 300
VitWSher: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [5h 5d]
yourtune: folds
nblaw01: raises 800 to 1400
VitaliyGON: folds
arbuuzik: folds
KAAS69: calls 1400
Struppi29: folds
Senseba: folds
Hero: calls 1100
VitWSher: folds
*** FLOP *** [3s Tc 3d]
Hero: bets 1888
nblaw01: calls 1888
KAAS69: calls 1888
*** TURN *** [3s Tc 3d] [5c]
Hero: bets 1899
nblaw01: folds
KAAS69: calls 1899
*** RIVER *** [3s Tc 3d 5c] [8s]
Hero: ???

First we can look at the header, which tells us IMPORTANT information about the tournament we are playing:

PokerStars Hand #156715509721: Tournament #1630386869, $1.00+$0.10 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XIV (300/600)

Yes we are playing on the infamous “Joker Stars” (Poker Stars), and we are in a multi-table tournament which means that play continues until, one by one, each player loses all their chips and is knocked out of the tournament. This tournament probably has nearly 1000 player entries and somewhere around the top couple hundred get paid. The play that is left at the end makes the most and the payouts are spread out among those that “busted” before the last player.

The tournament costs $1 to enter and lastly the “blinds” are at 300/600 which we will explain later.

The Significance of Mastering Low Entry Tournaments

I just have a hard time doing that..with not playing these levels anymore (not because I am better than that, simply because they hold zero interest to me) ~Student

I myself feel most comfortable playing mid-level entry tournaments but from time to time I troll the micro stakes with great purpose. You will often hear the myth that playing versus bad players is more difficult because they are unpredictable. This is not sound advice! You want your understanding of poker to be such that playing versus the bad players is the most profitable endeavor you can have.

I'll explain...

Many mediocre regular (regs) poker players player higher stakes poker and spend their time trying to defend there chips against each other. They feel if they can out play the better players they will have a good chance of succeeding. But this is not the important distinction between playing low stakes or high stakes. Both stakes have bad players, its just that the high stakes games have LESS bad players. This makes exploiting bad players all the more important.

This is a crucial difference, we need to spend MORE time learning to beat the BAD players, and learning to get into profitable spots with them, while AVOIDING the good players.

This is a key to moving from being a recreational player to a pro. In this article, with the help of the hand history above, I am going to highlight one such way that we do that.

The Table

Here we have more information from the hand history. We see the blind level (again we will explain this briefly below). We see there are nine players seated, and I have labeled my account name as “Hero” to give myself a little bit of anonymity :) We can see each players chip count and mine is at 19,300.

Seat #3 Senseba has the button. This is significant and gives us our orientation for what is happening in the hand. The button represents the dealer (for example in a home game where dealing is being shared), and it also tells us who will pay the “blinds”:

Hold'em No Limit - Level XIV (300/600)
Table '1630386869 36' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: KAAS69 (26321 in chips)
Seat 2: Struppi29 (5064 in chips)
Seat 3: Senseba (8288 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 4: Hero (19300 in chips)
Seat 5: VitWSher (7820 in chips)
Seat 6: yourtune (6370 in chips)
Seat 7: nblaw01 (9546 in chips)
Seat 8: VitaliyGON (16968 in chips)
Seat 9: arbuuzik (27346 in chips)
KAAS69: posts the ante 70
Struppi29: posts the ante 70
Senseba: posts the ante 70
Hero: posts the ante 70
VitWSher: posts the ante 70
yourtune: posts the ante 70
nblaw01: posts the ante 70
VitaliyGON: posts the ante 70
arbuuzik: posts the ante 70
Hero: posts small blind 300
VitWSher: posts big blind 600

The blinds create incentive and action for players to not just wait for a perfect hand-it makes the game more exciting. For every hand that is played, two players (specifically the two that are seated to the left of the button) are FORCED to put chips in the pot without getting to see their hands first. The first player to the left of the dealer puts in a “small blind” which is half of the big blind, and the player beside the small blind, called the “big blind” puts in the full amount. It is “blind” because they don't get to see their cards first.

So in this hand Hero is the small blind and puts in 300, then VitWSher posts the big blind which is the full 600. This action counts as their turn, and so then everyone is dealt their cards and the NEXT player to act can look at their cards before they decide to match the big blind, raise, or fold.

Each subsequent player makes the same decision. Usually the dealer is last to act (an important and most beneficial position!) but in the “pre-flop” round the players in the blinds also get to make their last moves after they finally get to see their cards and every other player has made their initial decision.

Lastly each player, at this stage of the tournament, is also forced to put a small “ante” in to the pot. Antes are also blind and they create an added pressure near the middle or end of most tournament. Antes also create more action because there is naturally more money in the pot from the beginning of the hand, thus there is more to fight for.

A little side note, if one was to continue to fold until a really good hand came around (everyone loves AA!) then eventually their chips stack would get “blinded out” to zero and they would have little to no chips before a good hand came along. So there is sometimes incentive to play a mediocre hand depending on all the factors.

Back to our analysis!

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [5h 5d]

Now we get to see our “hole”cards. Every player is dealt two cards face down, and here the Hero is dealt a “pocket pair” which is two cards with the same name/number (but with different suits) 5h 5d. Here for the hand history h = hearts, d = diamonds, s = spades, c = clubs. So we have the 5 of hearts and 5 of diamonds, a pretty decent hand usually and we are usually hoping for a 5 to come on the flop!

So we know that Hero posted the small blind before seeing our cards, and that VitWSher did the same with a full big blind. The next player to act (yourtune) looks at their cards and apparently folds:

yourtune: folds

nblaw01 then must feel they have a decent hand so they raise to 2.2 big blinds, which means anyone that wants to enter the pot subsequently must at least match that amount (since the blinds already put SOME chips in they only have to pay the difference to continue):

nblaw01: raises 800 to 1400

Two more players fold:

VitaliyGON: folds
arbuuzik: folds

KAAS69 likes their hand and matches the bet or “calls”:

KAAS69: calls 1400

Two more folds:

Struppi29: folds
Senseba: folds

We like our pocket 5's and so we pay the remaining chips to match the initial raise:

Hero: calls 1100

And the big blind folds, even though they already have 600 chips invested in the pot (often this would be a mistake since they are so invested already but since they don't have many chips left it might be a good idea from them to pick a better spot):

VitWSher: folds

We can note that our call here, that is the extra money we paid to play in this hand, is usually not the best idea. In poker the best place to be is the button or dealer position, because you are last to act. You get to see what everyone does before you commit your chips. Often the worst place is the small blind, where we are, because we are forced to act first, and so we always have less information than the other players. But there are a few reason I chose to play this hand, namely because I think I can outplay these players post flop, I have an easy hand to play, and because of previous play I think the big blind is going to fold often which makes the hand a little easier going forward. It's questionable but not so relevant for this analysis.

Nonetheless we have 3 players left in the hand, whereas all the other players have folded and no longer have cards. We can also note that Hero will be first to act for the remain betting rounds and KAAS69 will be last to act (remember last to act > first to act):

Hero
nblaw01
KAAS69

Onto the Flop!

Poker has essentially four betting rounds: Pre-flop, Flop, Turn, and the River. We just saw how pre-flop works, the rest of the rounds work essentially the same, except there are no blinds, and there are cards revealed from the deck. Three cards for the Flop, and 1 each for the Turn and the River. Each player gets to choose to Bet, Call (match a previous bet), Check (if there is no previous bet), Raise a previous bet, or Fold. Starting with Hero, and then moving around to the rest of the players.

Here are the cards that came out on the flop:

*** FLOP *** [3s Tc 3d]

A 3 of spades, Ten of clubs, and a 3 of diamonds.

Hmmm...not too ideal, perhaps not all that bad. We would sure like to see a another 5 on the board, which would give us three of a kind, or more specifically a “set” (which specifically signals we have 3 of kind but with two of the cards in our actual hand rather than having two 5's on the board and one 5 in our hand). But unless one of the two other players has a Ten in their hand or a bigger pocket pair in their hand we are usually alright here. It's true they could have 3, but since there are only two 3's left in the deck and since usually people throw hands with 3's away pre-flop its pretty unlikely (but not impossible!).

Here our hero decides to “lead” which is a term used because usually the first to act players' standard line is to “check” or to pass the betting to the next player:

Hero: bets 1888

There are a few reason I lead here. Firstly there is a good chance we have the best hand, but if we check, and the other two players check, the betting round will be over, and the three of us will see the next card dealt-the Turn card. The problem with this is that the Turn card is not likely to help us (remember there are only two 5's left in the deck) and in fact it will probably be a higher card than the ten, and since everyone likes high cards, our opponents probably have those cards in their hands often.

So for this reason we are basically protecting the value of our hand, and making our opponents pay to see another card. We bet fairly small for this reason too, because if our opponents don't really have a hand they will probably fold to a small bet just like a big bet, but if they DO have a better hand than ours then a big bet probably won't scare them anyways.

Always Have a Plan

We always want a have a plan, or an idea of how we will play depending on different outcomes. We can't plan for ALL scenarios perhaps but we can generalize a little. If both players call our bet or one or both raise and call each other, then the action comes back to us and we will either fold or stop putting more chips in the pot. We will safely know we are beat and gladly lay down our hand.

Of course if both players call and a 5 comes on the turn we might fell rejuvenated and we can reevaluate our situation!

If one player calls however, there are certain scenarios where we might turn our hand into a bluff, for example, if the Turn is an ace-a really scary card for some players! It would seem likely, that if we bet like we did here, and one player called (and the other opponent folded), that the remaining player probably has a mediocre hand like a Ten with another insignificant card. So that leaves the possibility that if the turn is a Queen, King, or an Ace, then we can sometimes make a small bluff and get them to give up.

It's also POSSIBLE here that one or both players have a better hand then us like 66, 77, 88, or 99, but they think we have a Ten, and so they will fold on the flop, or fold to a Turn bet when we show strength. They might do the same with 22, 33, or 44, but that wouldn't be such a mistake because their hand is worse than ours (55) anyways.

Moving on and “Turning” Things Around

Here both players continue the hand by calling our bet, and so basically we are giving up our efforts unless a miracle happens:

nblaw01: calls 1888
KAAS69: calls 1888

And since everyone has acted the turn card is dealt:

*** TURN *** [3s Tc 3d] [5c]

Bingo, there is our miracle! From time to time you get lucky like this and hit one of two cards that were left in the deck. If you are playing live and not online, try not to jump out of your chair! Also in your excitement always remember, you still might not have the best hand. Usually its best to just suck it up and go broke getting your chips in anyway and let the gods sort it out, but you always have to consider the board and your opponents' possible hands, not just your own.

Nonetheless we almost always have the best hand here (a full house to be precise which is 3 of a kind PLUS two of a kind), and so we will make another bet for value. The trick here is to think about how we can get the most chips in the pot. Nblaw had about half our stack in chips at the beginning of the hand, and KAAS69 had us covered (they have MORE chips than us actually, although the most we can win from them is an equal portion to our stack aka doubling up).

So I think Hero can bet small here, and the key is rather what we can do on the river. We basically feel safe letting one more card come out on the board because making a stronger hand than ours is difficult to do. Since no one else has been betting or raising, its probably safe to assume that no player has a very strong hand, and we might let them catch up a little by seeing another card. Therefore we should probably put in a small bet PROVIDED, the rest of the chips we have in relation to the chips in the pot will be such that we can go all-in on the river, and that the bet will look reasonable and have a reasonable chance of being called. Here a small bet of almost 2,000 chips will leave us 14,000 and a river pot of about about 15,000 and 17,000 depending if one or both players call. This seems like a good balance between getting all the chips in eventually and not scaring too many mediocre hands from continuing:

Hero: bets 1899
nblaw01: folds

The smaller stack folds but that's ok, they usually will go all-in if they have a hand regardless of the betting, and we are really hoping KAAS69 has at least a Ten or something the can call a strong river bet with. Notice something about the board:

[3s Tc 3d] [5c]

Depending on what KAAS69 called our flop bet with, its conceivable, perhaps, that they have a hand like King of clubs or Queen of clubs, since the flop bet was so small. It's possible if they call now they could be drawing to, or in other words hoping for, a flush made of 5 cards of the same suit (clubs). We should note this possibility in case another club hits on the river, or doesn't.

Our big stack opponent calls and this makes us happy, remember, even if they hit a Flush on the river we still beat them with our Full House. The only hands that really beat us are 33 or TT:

KAAS69: calls 1899

The Final Card Revealed!

Finally we get to see the last card and we are left with the question of the day. The last card, the River card is an innocuous 8 of spades:

*** RIVER *** [3s Tc 3d 5c] [8s]

It's innocuous because it doesn't really help the possible holding our opponent “likely” has. We say likely because our “villain” COULD have many weird or random hands, but they usually and probably have hands that make sense. Yet we always attribute SOME of their "range" (more on this word later) to have some weird holdings or air (we call hands that are completely valueless “air”).

Our opponent MIGHT have 88 and then they beat us with a bigger full house, this happens sometimes and it feels TERRIBLE but luckily (there is that word again) it doesn't happen too often that our villain magically hits 1 of 2 cards left in the deck to help them. So provided we were making bets all the way, in the long run the chips we make will outmatch the chips we lose for the odd time that happens.

Notice the River card ISN'T a club and so IF villain was drawing to a flush they certainly didn't hit it and so they would basically be left with a dead hand.

Villain might still have a pair in their hand, and it's possible they have a Ten matched with another insignificant card in their hand as well.

What Should Hero Do?

Hero: ???

Here we have a decision. We almost always have the best hand, but if we have been following the play we can see that the villain probably doesn't have a very strong hand at all. They probably have anywhere from a mediocre to a junk hand. We often want to value bet weak players in the lower limits whenever possible, but when it comes to gaining in poker and making value bets, there isn't much point if our opponents won't put chips in the pot to match our bets, and simply fold instead!

An Introduction To Range

If you are a novice player or a beginner or completely new to poker, congrats if you made it this far. The previous analysis and explanation is all basically a set-up for this section. When I was first introduced the concept of range, I really didn't understand it at all. If successful, this article will paint a basic understanding of the concept that will open the doors for a player to move from a recreational poker experience to at least understanding how the intermediate and pro players view the game.

In essence we never want to put our opponent on a single hand, such as holding a Ten here (plus an insignificant card etc.). Since we don't have complete information, its simply true that we cannot reasonably deduce the truth of such a “guess” and so to make this assumption would be to act on information we don't actually have (it's actually a good metaphor for life also!).

Instead what we want to do is take all the reasonable possibilities that our opponent might have given the previous action, and make a balanced or weighted line of action in respect to all such possibilities. This is the crux or foundation of becoming a good poker player.

Here we have analyzed our opponents' play thus far, and decided they might likely have hands like Tx (a Ten and another card), a pocket pair (such as 22, 44, 66, 77, 88, 99), and perhaps some missed flush draws with over cards like KcJc or KcQc. Those are the likely holdings, since often any stronger hands would have raised our bets on the turn when the flush draw came. In low limit poker not as many players “slow play”, that is to say when they have a good hand they usually get scared of the cards that might be dealt on the board and they try to get all the chips in right away. They aren't usually very patient.

Most of the time hands like AA or KK will raise pre-flop and on the flop, certainly by the turn. Although we never rule them out, we will gave them a little less weight than the above possibilities.

33 is a possibility but notice there is only one combination of 33 they might have because there are only the two 3's left in the deck. Again this makes such a hand less likely (but certainly still possible trust me!).

Lastly nearly ALL players have SOME air in their range, especially at these limits. We should never discount the fact that a random recreational player could have absolute garbage in their hand even though they are calling bets. But be careful not to over estimate this possibility. Never discount it fully, just remember if a decision is really really close, that there is always the possibility in most spots your villain has nothing (unless you KNOW they are a good or reasonable player and if then its probably a good idea to consider they have some air in their ranges). This happens especially online because clicking buttons is just so fun and feels good, and you never have to face the embarrassment of having called bets with your stack without actually having a hand!

All of these possibilities and the weight of them is what we refer to as “range”. We should never really care what villain actually has. Its a Schrodinger's box thing. If we can't know then we don't beat ourselves up over it. And don't worry, even the best players don't put their opponents on single hands, even though TV likes to pretend otherwise. Watch closer and you will see the pro's thinking and talking about the possibilities of hands in their opponents' ranges.

This is the art of poker!

Finally Our Decision

So we feel our villain usually has a mediocre hand, and in fact they often have simply a missed flush draw with no pair. Sometimes they have nothing at all but usually they have some sort of a pair.

Generally we are going to value bet when we have the best hand and more importantly when we think our villain is capable of calling with worse, which is definitely a possibility here.

Since we have a super strong hand, a Full House we should go all-in right?

Not so fast.

Think about our opponents range first! Sure a Ten might call but there are a lot of hands like missed Flush draws our villain might have that won't call. Furthermore our opponent might lay down a Ten with a weak “kicker” (a kicker refers to the other card in our opponents hand that isn't paired to anything but counts in case of a tie) or they might fold a medium pair to a jam. They will certainly fold their air.

I think then we have made a case rather for a smaller value bet. The interesting part here, is although pretty much all medium strength hands will call, villain COULD conceivable spaz out and go all-in with some of the hands that can't actually call even a weak bet. That is to say, perhaps we should make a small value bet, that villain's mediocre hands will pay us off with, but that villain might also use as rope to hang themselves with by bluffing at a terrible time.

Always Give Your Opponents a Chance to Hang Themselves

That is the lesson here. If we go all-in our villain's decision gets pretty easy and we give them no room to get silly. A bet of about “3888” makes us look like we have a weak Ten and villain might get a little freaky with all of their junk holdings and THINK that they could represent, for example, a 3, or perhaps an over pair like KK or AA.

Conclusion Results

The fun thing about poker is the results don't matter. If we do our analysis correctly, and account for the entirety of the possibilities in our opponents range, in spots like this sometimes the villain is going to go all-in with air and we will win a nice pot. Sometimes they will call with a Ten, and sometimes, although rarely they WILL actually have 33 or 88 and we might fell a little sick to our stomach when they go all in and we call.

But provided we make an objective and therefore accurate analysis, if we respond to all possibilities in a properly balanced fashion, then more often than not we will come out of the battles ahead rather than behind.

And that is the real key to learning the art of poker, learning how to analyze spots and decision in terms of entire ranges rather than specific hands.

JokerPravis is available for coaching via skype and now accepts Steemit's currencies for compensation. A typical lesson lasts 1-2 hours and costs the equivalent of $50USD. He specializes in multi-table tournaments and sit n goes especially turbo formats. Please contact in the comment section for further details