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Questionaire
5 Simple Rules To Stop Losing Money,
And Start Playing Winning Poker
And Start Playing Winning Poker
Rule #4
Control How Many Players Are In The Hand
Control How Many Players Are In The Hand
We already talked a little bit about this in rule #1, but we'll expand on the idea more here.
Obviously the more players there are in a hand, the less likely you are to win, unless you already have the nuts, a top hand that can't be beaten. It's far to easy for someone to hit something, a straight, a flush, 3 of a kind, even a full house, if you have 4 or 5 players in a hand.
Lets say you have JJ before the flop. That's the fourth best starting hand. You're in pretty good shape. But four other players stay in the hand and the flop comes Ah, Qd, 5h. There are now a lot of starting hands that could have you beaten. There is a potential heart flush draw, a potential straight draw, plus two over cards to your jacks. That's not a great place to be. With four others in the hand, there is probably at least one who is in with big cards, maybe two or three, and your jacks are not looking to good now, they may well be toast. Plus with that many players someone is probably on some kind of a draw. This is not a great place for a pair of jacks.
As a matter of fact there is about a 70% chance that a card higher than a jack will turn up on the flop. So you really don't want a lot of other players around to see the flop, and have a chance to hit a better pair. What we really want is just one other player seeing the flop. If we were ahead before the flop, this puts the odds in our favor that we will still have the best hand after the flop. As long as the caller doesn't have AA, KK, QQ we are still 55% to be ahead even if the other player has two cards higher than our jacks. And how the other player bets from here will tell us whether we're beaten or not.
But with four other players the odds that we still have the best hand are way smaller, and the odds that we'll win the hand are tiny. But since we may still have the best hand we are prone to pouring money in a pot that we have little chance of winning.
It's not so scary to have more than one other player in a hand if we have AA, AK, AQ or other top hands. There are fewer cards that can top ours, though there are always possibilities of straights, or flushes, trips, or even the occasional full house running down our hand.
So when we are betting before the flop, we want to be thinking "How many players do I want in this hand?" And we must bet appropriately to try to get the desired amount of players in the hand.
With some hands we may not care how many are in the hand. Let's say we have A8 suited. We're just to the right of the button, and three players have already limped in to the pot with a call. This is not a real strong hand if an ace comes on the flop, because the kicker is weak. It may hold up, but maybe not. The strength of a hand like this is finding an occasional spot that the ace with a smaller kicker will hold up. But more so hitting a flush and knowing you've got the nut flush.
So in this situation we may be happy to try to see a flop with just a call. Maybe both blinds call also. Now there are 5 others in the pot, and the pot is 6 times the blind. Not to bad a place to be. We've risked little to see the flop, there is already quite a bit of a pot, now all we need is to see two or three hearts com on the flop. If they do or if they don't, we are the last to act, so we're in a pretty good spot here.
If 2 or 3 hearts come on the flop, it's really to our advantage to have quite a few players in the hand. If there is only one player in the pot, they may not have hit anything and be hesitant to raise or call. But with 5 players, like our example here, someone is likely to get frisky and want to play, maybe several players, and we may take down a large pot.
There are other hands that we don't really care how many are in the hand, we just want to see a cheap flop. Small or middle suited connectors would be an example. These are cards that are excellent for calling in the blinds if the pot hasn't been raised, and we don't really care how many are in the pot. If we hit something, that's great. If not, pack it in quickly and wait for the next hand.
If however, we have strong cards, say the top 16 - 24 hands or so, we don't want too many players in the hand. There's just to big a chance someone will get lucky and beat us.
Lets say you've got As Qd, and four others are in the hand to see the flop. One has Kc Jd, another has Jh Th, the third has Ad 9s, and the last player has suited connectors like 7s 6s, and the flop comes Qh 6d 6c. Well your AQ isn't looking to good right now. And if an A comes on the turn, you're absolutely fried.
Let's take that same scenario, the same five starting hands, yours and the four others, with no flop yet. And let's look at some odds. There are 8 different denominations represented in these hands. There is a least one A, K, Q, J, T, 9, 7, 6. You've got the best hand for sure right now. But will you after the flop? There is about a 160% chance that someone will hit at least a pair on the flop, but only about a 36% chance that it will be you! So there is about one chance in four that you'll be ahead after the flop!!! That's not good!
If you're behind after the flop, you only have about a 20% chance of improving your hand. And even if you do it may not be good enough to win.
So you've probably gone from having a strong hand, to a bad situation, and likely losing money simply because you've let to many players stay in the pot.
But if instead of all that, you raised with your As, Qd strong enough to get only one caller, the odds are well in your favor to win the hand. No matter which of those hands calls you, your at least 60% to win the hand, maybe as high as 70%. Let's see, 20 - 25% to win, or 60 - 70% to win, hmm, which do you like better? Take your pick, I've already picked mine.
Of course remember, if someone in that hand started with a pair, the numbers are different. But you get the idea. Strong starting hands are great to have, and will win a lot, if you play them against one or two other hands. But play them against more hands than that and their strength starts to dissipate.
The more hands there are the greater chance that you'll run into straights, or flushes, or small trips.
So as a rule, hands like pairs J's or smaller, I only want to be against one other player. Even with a pair of 2's, if there is only one other player, and they don't have a bigger pair, you're about 55% to win.
With hands that I'm looking for a straight or a flush, I don't care how many are in the hand. I either like the flop and stay in the hand, or if the flop misses me, I get out.
With the top 16 - 24 hands, I want 1 to 2 other players in the hand, and no more.
So when you're betting pre flop, always be thinking about how many players you want in the hand, and bet accordingly. How much you'll have to bet to get the number of players you want will depend on the table your at. At a very conservative table, you may only be able to bet 2 - 3 times the big blind to get one caller. At a very aggressive table, you may find that betting 5 times the blind is not always enough. You'll just have to get the feel of the table.
So rule #4 is, learn to control how many players are in the hand.
Obviously the more players there are in a hand, the less likely you are to win, unless you already have the nuts, a top hand that can't be beaten. It's far to easy for someone to hit something, a straight, a flush, 3 of a kind, even a full house, if you have 4 or 5 players in a hand.
Lets say you have JJ before the flop. That's the fourth best starting hand. You're in pretty good shape. But four other players stay in the hand and the flop comes Ah, Qd, 5h. There are now a lot of starting hands that could have you beaten. There is a potential heart flush draw, a potential straight draw, plus two over cards to your jacks. That's not a great place to be. With four others in the hand, there is probably at least one who is in with big cards, maybe two or three, and your jacks are not looking to good now, they may well be toast. Plus with that many players someone is probably on some kind of a draw. This is not a great place for a pair of jacks.
As a matter of fact there is about a 70% chance that a card higher than a jack will turn up on the flop. So you really don't want a lot of other players around to see the flop, and have a chance to hit a better pair. What we really want is just one other player seeing the flop. If we were ahead before the flop, this puts the odds in our favor that we will still have the best hand after the flop. As long as the caller doesn't have AA, KK, QQ we are still 55% to be ahead even if the other player has two cards higher than our jacks. And how the other player bets from here will tell us whether we're beaten or not.
But with four other players the odds that we still have the best hand are way smaller, and the odds that we'll win the hand are tiny. But since we may still have the best hand we are prone to pouring money in a pot that we have little chance of winning.
It's not so scary to have more than one other player in a hand if we have AA, AK, AQ or other top hands. There are fewer cards that can top ours, though there are always possibilities of straights, or flushes, trips, or even the occasional full house running down our hand.
So when we are betting before the flop, we want to be thinking "How many players do I want in this hand?" And we must bet appropriately to try to get the desired amount of players in the hand.
With some hands we may not care how many are in the hand. Let's say we have A8 suited. We're just to the right of the button, and three players have already limped in to the pot with a call. This is not a real strong hand if an ace comes on the flop, because the kicker is weak. It may hold up, but maybe not. The strength of a hand like this is finding an occasional spot that the ace with a smaller kicker will hold up. But more so hitting a flush and knowing you've got the nut flush.
So in this situation we may be happy to try to see a flop with just a call. Maybe both blinds call also. Now there are 5 others in the pot, and the pot is 6 times the blind. Not to bad a place to be. We've risked little to see the flop, there is already quite a bit of a pot, now all we need is to see two or three hearts com on the flop. If they do or if they don't, we are the last to act, so we're in a pretty good spot here.
If 2 or 3 hearts come on the flop, it's really to our advantage to have quite a few players in the hand. If there is only one player in the pot, they may not have hit anything and be hesitant to raise or call. But with 5 players, like our example here, someone is likely to get frisky and want to play, maybe several players, and we may take down a large pot.
There are other hands that we don't really care how many are in the hand, we just want to see a cheap flop. Small or middle suited connectors would be an example. These are cards that are excellent for calling in the blinds if the pot hasn't been raised, and we don't really care how many are in the pot. If we hit something, that's great. If not, pack it in quickly and wait for the next hand.
If however, we have strong cards, say the top 16 - 24 hands or so, we don't want too many players in the hand. There's just to big a chance someone will get lucky and beat us.
Lets say you've got As Qd, and four others are in the hand to see the flop. One has Kc Jd, another has Jh Th, the third has Ad 9s, and the last player has suited connectors like 7s 6s, and the flop comes Qh 6d 6c. Well your AQ isn't looking to good right now. And if an A comes on the turn, you're absolutely fried.
Let's take that same scenario, the same five starting hands, yours and the four others, with no flop yet. And let's look at some odds. There are 8 different denominations represented in these hands. There is a least one A, K, Q, J, T, 9, 7, 6. You've got the best hand for sure right now. But will you after the flop? There is about a 160% chance that someone will hit at least a pair on the flop, but only about a 36% chance that it will be you! So there is about one chance in four that you'll be ahead after the flop!!! That's not good!
If you're behind after the flop, you only have about a 20% chance of improving your hand. And even if you do it may not be good enough to win.
So you've probably gone from having a strong hand, to a bad situation, and likely losing money simply because you've let to many players stay in the pot.
But if instead of all that, you raised with your As, Qd strong enough to get only one caller, the odds are well in your favor to win the hand. No matter which of those hands calls you, your at least 60% to win the hand, maybe as high as 70%. Let's see, 20 - 25% to win, or 60 - 70% to win, hmm, which do you like better? Take your pick, I've already picked mine.
Of course remember, if someone in that hand started with a pair, the numbers are different. But you get the idea. Strong starting hands are great to have, and will win a lot, if you play them against one or two other hands. But play them against more hands than that and their strength starts to dissipate.
The more hands there are the greater chance that you'll run into straights, or flushes, or small trips.
So as a rule, hands like pairs J's or smaller, I only want to be against one other player. Even with a pair of 2's, if there is only one other player, and they don't have a bigger pair, you're about 55% to win.
With hands that I'm looking for a straight or a flush, I don't care how many are in the hand. I either like the flop and stay in the hand, or if the flop misses me, I get out.
With the top 16 - 24 hands, I want 1 to 2 other players in the hand, and no more.
So when you're betting pre flop, always be thinking about how many players you want in the hand, and bet accordingly. How much you'll have to bet to get the number of players you want will depend on the table your at. At a very conservative table, you may only be able to bet 2 - 3 times the big blind to get one caller. At a very aggressive table, you may find that betting 5 times the blind is not always enough. You'll just have to get the feel of the table.
So rule #4 is, learn to control how many players are in the hand.
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