In Stud High you have to pay attention to having a decent starting hand, calculating pot odds thoroughly, reading your opponents and finding the right spot for stealing the bring in and the blind. The following example was played against one of the most known female poker players: Cyndy Violette.
I was recently introduced to a new theory on how to play poker: box play. I had been playing many live tournaments, so I thought I would be good at it, I was wrong. After playing for hours on end I think that box play is the best way to increase your profits.
Playing bring in for instance: you are first to act and you have 67 and the S distribution is 5.25:6.25. The small blind is $10 and the big blind pushes with a $40 bet. You have to call with the hand you are dealt. Is your hand better or worse than the opponents?
The following question comes to mind. If you had to call $60 to win $50, would you call? If you know the answer, you probably would as you are a slight favourite. The odds tell us the following: at the 0:5 ratio, you are a 60% favourite. In other words, you are a 2.8 to 1 favourite. The ratio tells us that if we call $60, we will lose $50, or 5% of the pot. This means we are getting 2.8 to 1 on the call. When we act wager on the flop, the same thing happens. We are now only 2.4 to 1 in favour. Now all we have to do is to keep the hand going. That 2.4 to 1 is odds. So, given the odds and the opportunity of taking the pot, we should call.
But what if there was more? Let’s imagine that there is another player in our midst that also has a flush draw. It might be a big chip stack (over $300k at this point). They are likely to be aggressive in calling along with a short stack. Then the big hands come. Our chances of winning the hand are nowample of taking the pot. Our opponent has to get lucky a few times and we take down a big pot.
Before you act to take down a big pot there are some other things to think about. First, is it worth the risk to call? We now have a very good hand. It already pays to call. Second, is our hand the best hand? Using this analogy of drawing a card to complete our hand we can make a few observations. It is certainly worth the risk to call in these circumstances because you have a better chance of getting the cards you need for a strong hand. To conclude, if we are correct about the flop we are holding, we are in a good position to call and if we are wrong we have already invested money in the pot.
Suppose we hold Jh-9h and the flop is Jc-4h-6h. Against three opponents this is a very strong hand. Suppose we invested $60 into the pot. The likelihood of making a strong hand is about 10%. It is therefore not a bad idea to call $60 to $100 to see if we can take the pot. It is not a bad decision if we call $60, the percent of return is $50 (returning $60 from our $60 investment) and our risk is only $10. We do not have to call all the time, but when we do make a call there is a greater probability we will lose the hand than we will win it.
In summary, after($60) and($100)$, we have invested $120 to win $100. We are playing in a $0.50/$1 game. If we call, we are Absolutely certain we will lose the hand $20 (10% of our invested money) and win the $100 remaining $50, therefore winning $120. In the same manner, we call in this case, we are certain we will lose the hand.
Recall the Cash Out Curse?
Many experienced players have heard a lot of complaints about someone going all-in with AK in a NL$10/$20 game, and eventually someone jumps all-in with $200. You know what I mean, these idiots suck-out with anything. It never works, they suck-out everything, they go all-in, and either someone sucks-out or the next one doesn’t suck-out. It never works. Read this article to find out why it only works for Vegas88 games.
NL Holdem Poker is a brutal game. Sometimes you can get lucky, but not often.