Fun Facts About Poker

So you play poker... Whether you are good or bad, win or lose, I am sure you do not know all of the following fun facts. These facts are pretty interesting to know, even for any type of player.

• Playing cards were invented in China.
• A fifth suit was added in 1937 but never caught on because people had to buy all new decks.
• At least 65,000,000 Americans regularly play poker, and more are playing every day.
• Dead mans hand is Ace's and Eights
• Getting dealt 10, 2 is referred to as Doyle Brunson because he won back to back World Series with the hand.
• In the 1800's, 2,000 to 2,500 riverboat gamblers played poker on American Waterways, By contemporary accounts, no more than four of these poker players were honest all the time. A straight beat a flush at this time.
• Las Vegas Casinos are not legally obligated to pay off there gambling debts.
• Due to French Influence, Spades represent Royalty, Diamonds represent Merchants, Clubs represent the peasants, and hearts represent the clergy.
• Edmond Hoyle lived to be 97, but died 150 years before Poker was invented.
• Playing cards were introduced in Europe in the 1300's.
• When Columbus landed in 1492 in North America, his men plucked wide leaves from trees, drew pictures on them and played cards.
• Historians generally agree that Bill Hickock was a lousy poker player.
• Groucho Marx got his name from carrying his poker money in a "grouch bag."
• Former President Richard Nixon won $6,000 playing poker in his first two months in the U.S. Navy during WWll. That's equal to roughly $42,640 in 2004 dollars. He used that money as well as more poker winnings to finance his run for the U.S. Congress in 1946, for which he won.
  

Life Lessons From Poker

Whereas in blackjack most of my observations came from watching other players play their hands, in poker I've learned the most by observing myself, partly due to the nature of the game (I can't see every decision other people make as I can in blackjack).

Here are some observations I've make from playing poker over the years:

1. You can learn a lot about other people by studying yourself.

Simply by observing myself and watching my own tells, like seeing my hands shake when I looked down and saw pocket aces on the button, I learned to look for those same tells in other players. In low-limit games, virtually anytime you see a players hands shaking as they try to place their bet, it means they have a monster hand. I've thrown away many solid hands after reading this tell, and so far every single time it was the right decision. By observing my own behavior, I could watch for it in other people.

How does this apply to life itself? If you know how you behave when experiencing certain emotional states, you can watch for that behavior in others to gain information (hich can be extremely helpful in certain situations).

For example, if I'm watching someone give a speech, I can observe how I behave when I'm really bored or really interested. Then when I'm the one giving the speech, I can watch for those reactions in the audience. If I see people leaning forward, smiling, and nodding, I know I have a captive audience because that's what I do when I'm captivated.

If you're a salesperson, how do you behave when you watch someone else give a good/bad presentation? If you're a manager, how do you behave when someone tries to delegate something to you and you don't intend to do it? If you're married, how do you behave when you aren't really listening to your spouse?

Observe how your own behaviors reflect various internal states, and then watch for those behaviors in others to gain information. You may be surprised to find that emotional states produce a physiological response that is extremely similar from person to person.

2. You can learn a lot about yourself by studying other people.

This is the reverse of #1. By observing how others behave in poker, and then seeing what kind of hand they have, I can connect their behaviors to information. Then when I see these physiological tells again, I can more easily put that player on a hand.

Many poker players do this. No big whoop.

But how many poker players take what they learn about other players and then apply it to themselves? This means watching for the tells you pick up from other players in yourself, especially when you're heads-up against the player you saw express those tells. So if you see someone looking away from the table when they have a monster hand, make sure you don't look away when you've got a monster.

You can also take this concept a step further and use it even more proactively. If you see other people behave a certain way when they have a great hand, you may find it beneficial to exert that same behavior on purpose when you're heads-up against that player and want to bluff him/her out. It's a sneaky way of using that personas own physiological response to feed them false information. Just make sure you aren't too obvious about it, or the other player will catch you. I find it works best as a subconscious signal that alters their intuitive feeling about the hand.

So what's the life lesson here? The lesson is that this kind of manipulation also works outside the game of poker. By learning someones tells, you can consciously exhibit a certain behavior to activate the response you want. Certainly this sounds manipulative, and it is. But by being aware of this tactic, you can reduce your susceptibility to it.

TV commercials use this kind of manipulation all the time. They know all the tells for various emotional states, and they use them to attempt to manipulate your emotional response. This is one reason so many commercials appear logically stupid, but they can still be effective if they include the proper signals that bypass your mind and drive their message into your subconscious.

Think of those drug commercials where they read the side effects (which often sound worse than the symptoms the drug is supposed to treat), but the visual imagery suggests the exact opposite. The characters exhibit the tells of the emotional states the advertiser wants you to associate to their product or service. But those signals often have nothing to do with the product itself. In other words, you aren't being shown the real emotional states the product will induce in you, but far more pleasurable states that probably won't occur by using the product at all.

How many beer commercials show drunk people behaving stupidly?

3. Both intellect and intuition can provide input for making correct decisions.
In poker sometimes logic is correct, and other times intuition is correct. Sometimes they agree; sometimes they don't.

In life, however, you generally have more options than check, bet, call, raise, or fold. Life is more open-ended, and when logic and intuition disagree, sometimes it's best not to choose sides but to listen to both and seek out a third alternative.

When my logic and intuition seem to disagree, I try to step back and see the situation from other perspectives. In the past I'd usually favor my logic, only to find that my intuition was right. Then I'd slide too far the other way, and pay the price of ignoring my intellect. Now I know that both inputs provide information, but they do so by acting upon imperfect data.

In poker you're limited in how much data you can gather. But life offers other extra opportunities for peaking at the cards. You can ask for expert advice while you play. You can take in new information to augment the data your logic and intuition are processing. You can wait for clarity before acting. You can even dive in with your best decision, see what the next card looks like, and adjust course afterwards.

4. Don't be a fish.

Fish are bad poker players who are essentially there to give away their money. They don't bother to develop much skill at the game, so they just play badly. And the longer they play, the more they lose.

Isn't life the same? If you play badly long enough, eventually you lose. Abuse your health, your relationships, or your finances, and you can kiss them goodbye.

Good players learn the rules of the game and build their skills. They eliminate negative habits that would otherwise bring them down.

5. You can make no mistakes and still lose.

In poker you can expect to take bad beats again and again. Eventually you'll take one in a heartbreaking situation when someone draws highly improbable runner-runner cards to beat your made hand.

Life is the same. You can play perfectly and still lose.

There's no security in the cards. The only true security lies in knowing you did your best. Focus on making correct decisions, and let the cards fall as they may.

6. No single hand will kick you out of the game for life.
When you take a bad beat, just take a deep breath and brush it off. It's in the past, and there's nothing you can do about it now.

Stay focused on the present. There's another hand to be played.

7. Do not play J8s UTG no matter how seductive it looks and how certain you are of achieving a multiway pot.
The life lesson here is left as an exercise for the reader. :)

If you're a poker player yourself, I invite you to share your own life lessons from the game by posting a comment

From Monsters to Mice

After the flop, much of the strength of your hand depends on the character of the flop. Obviously, if you start with a pair, and make trips, a full house or four of a kind, you have a big hand, these are the Monsters. What is not so obvious is how the strength of your hand changes when you hit a fair hand, but get a flop that may have helped one, or more, of your opponents.

In the rare situation where you have a monster, hope that someone either bets, or catches a card on the turn so they can call your bet. You have an almost unbeatable hand, and the other players are going to be scared off by the flop. Your goal in this situation should be to keep as many players around as possible, and to get as much money in the pot as possible.

With your biggest hands, you may want to slow play and entice someone else into betting. But, in those rare cases when you have the best hand and other players are betting and raising, join in and help to build the pot. After all, it is almost certainly going to be yours. If the board later pairs, and there us any betting, you may be facing a full house.

Two Pair
Flopping top 2 pair when you have 2 different cards in your hand, is a very strong hand. Top and bottom pair is also a very strong hand. Since you will usually be playing premium cards, top 2 pair will often give someone else a straight draw, and/or a flush draw.

As a result, you should not slow play these hands. Your goal is to force players out of the hand, and charge those that stay. While this hand warrants raises and re-raises, lots of action could mean they have a set. If so, or a straight or flush is possible, you could be drawing to only 4 outs.

If the pot has already gotten large, you should call it down. If the pot is not large, or you are positive that the other player has you beaten, with 4 outs you need pot odds of 11:1 to make the call profitable.

When you have 2 pair, and 1 is on the board, your hand is not as strong as the split 2 pair. Another player may already have trips, or a higher 2 pair. If a card higher than your pair hits the board, it could make someone a higher 2 pair. There could also be other draws out that may beat your 2 pair.

This is another situation to play aggressively, to chase players out, win the pot immediately, or at least make it expensive for players to draw. If you are raised, or check raised, on the turn, you may be up against trips. But, by now, the pot has gotten big. You may want to back off and call, but you shouldn't fold unless you are sure you are beaten, or you are facing 3 bets cold.

Top Pair
Top pair, good kicker is a very strong hand. This is 1 reason to treat Big Slick, Ace and King, as a strong hand. With a flop of King, Eight, Three, and 3 different suits you have an excellent hand. The only card higher than the flop pairs your Ace, giving you top 2 pair. There are no flush or straight draws, so you are only worried about Ace, Ace, King, King, or a pair of Eights or Threes in the hole.

You have a strong hand with top pair in the hole when the flop is 3 cards lower than yours and is un-coordinated. If you are the only one who raised with your pair of Kings before the flop, and the flop is Queen, Eight, Three, 3 different suits, you have a very strong hand. There are no straight or flush draws, it is unlikely that someone has a pair of Queens, so you are worried only about an Ace, or another Queen falling, a pair of Eights or Threes.

With hands, and flops like this, you want to get as much money in the pot as possible, since you are a favorite to win.

If you have Jacks, Queens, Kings or Aces in the hole, and get a flop such as Eight, Nine, Ten, or 2 of 1 suit, or the board is paired, your hand is not as strong. Your hand is vulnerable to many cards that can come on the turn or river. Now, instead of a limited number of hands that may beat you, you may be facing a flush draw, a straight draw, or both. With a pair on board, you may be facing trips a full house, or a draw to a full house.

In these situations, you want to eliminate players, and try to win the hand immediately. If you think that someone after you will bet, you should check and raise, to face several players with calling 2 bets. If you are not sure that someone else will bet, you bet. You can not afford to give players a free draw.

When you start with Ace, Queen, Ace, Jack or Ace, Ten, and pair your Queen, Jack or Ten, you have a hand that is mediocre to somewhat strong, depending on the flop. If your pair is the top pair on board, and the flop has no draws, you have a fairly strong hand. But, it is vulnerable to over cards on the turn or river. Ace, Queen, with a flop of Queen , Six, two, or Ace, Jack, with a flop of Jack, Six, Two, the further down you go with this, the more hands that can beat you. With an Ace, Queen, and an Ace on the flop, you are beaten by someone with Ace, King. With an Ace, Queen, and a Queen on the flop, you are beaten by anybody holding a King if a King falls. With Ace, Jack, and a Jack on the flop, you are beaten by any King, or queen, that pairs someone.

Once again, you want to eliminate players, or win the hand immediately. If you think that someone after you will bet, check and raise. If you are not sure that someone will bet, bet out. You can not afford to give players a free, or cheap, draw in this situation.

If you make top pair, such as a pair of Eights, or Sixes, with your second card when you have an Ace, you have one of the mice. There are many cards that can fall on the turn and river that will give one of your opponents a higher pair. In addition, if all 3 cards on the flop are lower than a Ten you are often facing straight and/or flush draws.

Another mistake made by low limit players is to treat a pair of Aces, with a bad kicker, as a strong hand. It is one of the mice. You have an Ace and Five of hearts in the blinds and get in the pot cheaply hoping for a flush draw on the flop. Instead, you pair the Ace, and there are no hearts. You have top pair, but the more opponents you have, the more likely it is that someone has an Ace with a higher kicker.

With these hands, if someone bets, fold and save some money. You have 5 outs that will improve your hand, the 3 Aces, and 2 of your pair, or the 3 remaining of your kicker, and the 2 remaining Aces. In order to call a bet in this situation, you need to be getting pot odds of at least 8.5:1. Since you could improve your hand and still lose, you probably want odds of at least 10:1. If there are players to act after you, you need higher odds, to make up for the times that a player to your left raises.

With a pair of Tens or lower, you will usually only have a strong hand after the flop if you hit the third card for your set. Occasionally, the flop will all be lower than your pair, and be un-coordinated. Also, occasionally, you will hit a straight draw with your pair. Most often however, you will hit a card higher than your pair, face some betting, and should fold.

If you do hit your set, you have a very strong hand. You should bet out, or raise if someone else bets. In low limit games, players will often not believe you have a set if you bet, or raise, on the flop. They will expect you to slow play such a strong hand, and not raise until the turn. They will therefore often call all the way with as little as one small pair.

Second or Bottom Pair
These are more mice. In low limit games, someone who bets, normally has at least top pair. If you have 2 different cards in the hole and paired 1 of them, you have 5 outs to improve, 2 more cards of the rank you paired, and 3 of your second card. With a small pair in the hole, you only have 2 outs to improve. Even if you include implied odds, it is unlikely that you will have the odds you need. To make matters worse, you really need better odds to make up for the times you hit 1 of your outs and still lose. You also need higher odds from the pot if there are players still to act after you.

The only time you should call a bet with second or bottom pair is when the pot is big, your second card is higher than any of the cards on board, and you also have a backdoor draw, 3 to a straight or flush.

Reasons to Raise in Poker

There are 5 major reasons to raise:

• To get more money from your hand.


• To eliminate players.


• To get a 'Free' card.


• To gain information.


• To bluff or semi-bluff

1. To get more money from your hand.
This is the simplest reason to raise a pot. Basically when you feel that you have the best hand you are going to raise to try to get more money in the pot. If you have the 'Nuts', the best hand possible at the time this is the only reason you should raise. Sometimes you may not want to raise in this case. You may want to slow play the hand.

2. To eliminate players.
This is a pretty simple concept as well. This is the reason you raise with AA or KK. You want to get people out before they can see the flop. AA and KK do very well against a few people but against a lot of people there's a good chance you will loose after all 5 cards come out. Another time when you might raise to eliminate players is when you flop top pair, example: You hold AK and the flop comes 9 10 K, You now have top pair with the best kicker. Here you would want to get people out of the hand so they don't make 2 pair, a straight, or a flush.

3. To get a 'Free' card.
Well you don't get it for free but it costs you less. You would raise to get a free card if you flop and open ended straight draw or flush draw and were in a later position. See if you were playing 3-6 and you raised on the flop you would put an extra 3 dollars but in most cases the other player or players will check to you assuming you have a better hand. This saves you from calling a 6 dollar bet on the turn, instead you get it for free. You might also want to raise the flop in late position when you have top pair and a weak kicker or mid pair with a good kicker.

4. To gain information.
This is a more complex reason to raise. This move works best on or before the flop. Before the flop you don't know anything about a players hand other than it could be anything but if you raise and a player re-raises then you know he has a good hand. Most likely a hand in Group #1 or maybe #2. If he just calls you know that he probably doesn't have a 'monster' hand. Now lets say after the flop you have a pair of aces with a 7 kicker, and your opponent bets into you. Now if you call you couldn't really tell how big of a hand he has but if you raise him and he re-raises you are probably beat at least with a better kicker. This is a way to actually save money. If you called all the way down to see his AK then you have lost a lot more than you have to.

5. To bluff or semi-bluff.
We wont get into bluffing right now. You really wont need to do much bluffing in lower limit games. Most bluffing goes on in higher limit games, No-limit games, and no-limit tournaments. Semi-bluffing however is something you need to know about. Semi-bluffing is betting a hand that probably isn't the best one at the time but can improve with more cards. The real goal to semi-bluffing is to win the pot right then and there. So you only want to semi- bluff when there are only a few player in the pot, you think you everyone might fold after you bet or raise, and you are very sure that no one will check raise you. There are many opportunities to semi-bluff in every game, most of the time they are not the right move though. Remember to semi-bluff accordingly.

If you look back at all the reasons to raise you will see that a lot of the times when you raise you might accomplish more than one goal. You might raise to get a free card but also gain information and get more money in the pot. Its good to have a specific reason or two in your mind before every raise, this way you wont be raising just for the sake of raising.

Final Thoughts on Raising
Next few times you play poker online have a notebook right in front of you. Every time you make a raise write down what the main reason for raising was. Then write down if it was successful or not. After you have about 25 entry's for each of the 5 reasons look through your records and find out what reasons for raising had the most positive results. This will help you decide when you should raise or not.

It is a good idea to do this activity every so often. It will help you keep on your game and raise at the right times.

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