|
I
played in a small home game
tournament last night for the
first time in a long while (I
have a small child so I hardly
get out anymore!). It was only 8
people and the players were
slightly above the average
novice. My friend who runs
tournaments at his house on a
regular basis is a fairly decent
player, although he doesn't have
much imagination. He's real
serious about his poker though
and he has a room he built with
two custom poker tables, and he
runs a monitor with tournament
director for the blind structure
and time. All of the players
have played against each other,
except for me; I've only played
against my friend before.
Anyways,
this game isn't much different
from most home game tournaments.
It was a bunch of friends
getting together, having a beer,
bullsh*tting, having a good
time. Even though the buy-in is
only $40 it does start to get
serious when you're down to the
bubble position.
While
I was playing this game I
noticed countless tells that I
don't get to see against more
advanced players and pros. So I
thought I'd share some of my
general thoughts that seem to
run fairly true for most home
game tournaments.
1)
Its nearly pointless bluffing.
This should be pretty obvious.
Most home game players will go
too fair with very weak hands,
and make some goofy plays. You
have to wait for a hand and get
maximum value out of it.
2)
Look to see cheap flops. There's
no point in raising big when you
have position with marginal
hands against the limping crowd,
just limp behind and see the
flop. Use your post flop skill
in betting and knowing when
you're beat to win some pots.
Basically, try and get into as
many pots as you can, especially
when you have position, but play
solid after the flop and realize
that your opponent will
typically overplay really weak
cards.
3)
Always scan the players left to
act before you take action on
your hand. Amateur players will
give off all sorts of tells, and
you're missing a lot of
information if you don't pay
attention to this. For example,
a guy two places to my left
would always cap his cards if he
was going to play, and
occasionally he would put a few
chips on his cards when he was
planning on raising. If I wasn't
in position and saw this, and
didn't have a great hand, I'd
dump it. Another guy immediately
to his left would always look
down quickly at his chips when
the flop came down if he hit it
and was planning on betting. All
of these little tells add up and
by the end of the night I had
something on everyone.
4)
Always look at your opponents
when the flop comes. This
doesn't just apply to home
tournaments; it applies every
time you play live. This also of
course ties into #3. It's really
important to pay attention to
this at home games because
you'll begin to notice all sorts
of reactions, eye movement,
posturing, etc... that can help
you make decisions about your
hand as play progresses. So stay
alert and watch your opponents.
You can look at the flop later.
5)
Recognize the calling stations
early. Try and pinpoint the
players that are going to call
every bet, and bet your good
hands for value against them.
Don't get overly concerned about
going too far with a marginal
hand (unless the board gets
really scary) because they'll go
too far with even worse hands.
6)
Gamble less. This should be
obvious as well. If you're the
best player at the table you
want to use your skill as much
as possible. That means avoid
big confrontations with hands
before the flop unless you have
the goods. Even when it gets
short handed, fold the A8o if
all the chips have to be put in
the middle, even if you suspect
you have the best hand. If
you're short stacked, then it's
a different story, but the point
here is wait until you can see a
flop and then make your big
decisions from there.
7)
Heads-up, don't go into an
overly aggressive mode (unless
your opponent is somewhat
skilled and can fold). Do your
best again to see as many flops
as possible if the blind
structure allows. Same basic
principle applies here that you
want to outplay your opponents
from the flop on and gamble less
before.
Other
than that, make sure you tell a
few good jokes, make fun of your
best friend a couple of times,
and suck down a few cold ones
while you walk away with the
cash. Hey...
what are friends for?
John
Anhalt is a poker
coach and owner of training
site www.pokerzion.com
|
Personalized
Attention
- Why
even consider other training sites
or material, when you can have a
proven professional poker player
assigned to you as your personal
poker mentor? We are dedicated to
our students' success, and that
will be apparent from the moment
you join our fast growing
community.