Aces Up by John Reeves (jenna bush book club TXT) 📖

straight draw, straight flush draw)

* Instead of calling, always consider putting pressure on your opponent by betting, raising or check-raising. An aggressive move is preferred against only one or two opponents who can fold decent hands. With 12 outs (such as a flush draw with an Ace kicker, giving you 9 nut outs and 3 top-pair outs), you will have an almost 50% chance to hit on turn and river combined. By putting an opponent all-in on the flop, you will often make money as you are almost even-money if called and you have a good chance of winning the pot on the flop. But remember to set your opponent all-in and do not call all-in.
* Late position gives extra advantage with this type of hand, as you can decide whether to re-raise, bet, check, call or fold depending on the action in front of you.
* If you are short-stacked and the pot is decent sized consider moving all-in, even if you are the first to act.
* Note: to call a 75% pot bet heads-up, pot odds of over 30% (14-15 outs) are required. Even counting "implicit pot odds" with potential extra winnings on the river, you still do not like a heads-up bet of more than 80%.
* Remember to draw for the nuts. Be certain not to "draw dead" against the nuts.

Non-nut draw with 9 outs or more

* Be prepared to fold your non-nut draw, particularly in raised multi-way pots. You do not want to chase and end up loosing your entire stack if you hit.
* For the most part you should avoid betting or chasing on a second or third-best draw, especially on flush draws where you may frequently find yourself up against a suited Ace.
* With a second-best draw you can make a decent bet in an un-raised pot by trying to win it right away.

Non-nut draws with 8 outs or less

* Do not chase as you have low pot odds and might be "drawing dead". You want to see the turn as cheaply as possible and find out if you make your hand.
* Raise, bet or fold depending on the board, players, actions and number of opponents. Do not call off your money.

Overcards - AK, AQ, KQs, AJs

* These hands should be played with caution against both strong and weak opposition. Strong players know that you, as a tight player, will often be holding overcards when the flop comes with low cards. This makes you susceptible to steal raises from the good players and the weak players will call/chase down with mediocre holdings.
* If the board comes with no face cards (Ace, King, Q ueen or Jack), you can bet about 70-80% of the pot as a bluff/semi-bluff, representing an over-pair. In particular, you should follow through as the pre-flop raiser against no more than two opponents.
* Avoid making it a (expensive!) habit to bet this hand against suited/connected flops with no face cards and several opponents. You will loose money and "bluff equity", to be used when better served.
* Remember that your overcards might still be the best hand against one or two opponents with a flop of rags.

The Turn - No Limit Hold'em

* As a general rule you still want to have the lead and build the pot.
* If you were betting a draw on the flop, you must use your best judgment and decide whether to fire again. Remember to always re-evaluate your hand as the play progresses.
* Do not call down big bets with a medium holding, unless you play with a habitual bluffer or a player who is quite obviously on tilt.
* You can make a steal-raise/steal-bet against tight players if you smell a semi-bluff and you have some kind of draw, but you have to wait for the moment when you have a good read on your opponent. For example, you hold KQs and the flop came 10-9-3. You called a small bet from a lone opponent and now a 6 hits, which also gives you a flush draw. If you sense weakness in your opponent, who bets again, it is appropriate to raise as a semi-bluff. You are likely to have at least 12 outs (any J or flush card) to a better hand than your opponent and possibly as many as 18 outs (if a K or Q will win the pot for you).

The River - No Limit Hold'em

* Avoid betting unless you are quite sure to win a showdown, especially when facing tough opponents. You have little to win and a lot to loose (as you 90% of the time will only get calls from players who believe they have your made hand beat)
* Try to figure out your opponent/s most likely holding/s and bet the amount you suspect they might call.
* Sometimes check a good hand in order to induce a bluff from someone who you think missed a draw, since they will not call your bet anyways.
* Often you should bet small when having the best hand (and no scare card hits on the river). This amount will entice players to call with a weaker hand.
* When you have hit your (nut) draw, often bet 80-120% of the pot to make it clear that either you made the draw or you are bluffing. This kind of bet generates almost as many calls as a small bet.


Making the Move - No Limit Hold'em

Check-raising

When you have really strong cards, you can check instead of making a bet. You do this hoping that another player will make a bet and give you the chance to raise when the turn comes back to you. For example, you are sitting in early position with Ac-Js. The flop is Ah-Jd-6c. You check your two pair, and two players in middle position check as well. An opponent in late position bets and you then make your move and raise. The thinking behind check-raising is to make it too expensive for the drawing hands, like a flush draw or a straight draw, to stay in the hand. Check-raising from an early position will also give you command of the hand. If the other players still call, you have at least gained valuable information about what they are holding, and forced them to pay a lot for trying to outdraw you.

Semi-bluffs

Semi-bluffing is when you make a bet or a raise with a drawing hand. You might win the hand right away, but even if you don’t you might hit your draw and take home the pot that way. For example, you are in late position holding Qs-Js and the flop comes Qc-7s-3s. This gives you a flush draw with 9 outs. There are four opponents still in the hand and they all check to. Since they all checked, you bet even though your hand probably isn’t the best at the moment. Players with a pair of 7’s or 3’s, or a low pocket pair might fold in this situation. Even if some calls your bet, you have 9 outs to the flush and maybe an additional 6 outs to win if you hit a Q or a J (15 outs in total).

Free cards

When you are sitting in late position or are last to act, you can raise with a drawing hand on the flop. This will probably make the other players check to you on the turn, and you will have the opportunity to check (if you do not hit your draw) or bet (if you hit your hand). This strategy will save you money if you do not improve and make you money if you hit your draw. However, this kind of play will backfire if you are re-raised on the flop. In these cases, it will be expensive, but it is still a solid play since you have gained information about the other players and have a draw to a stronger hand.


Betting Patterns and Strategy

Winning at poker is as much about skill as it is about luck. Some will argue that luck plays more of a role than it actually does, and others will argue that skill is the greater factor. At the core of this argument is betting strategy, a quality of the game that is entirely within your control. Betting is at the heart of the game, and is often overlooked as an area to which skillful play is applied. Your bets, your raises, good calls and bad calls, all of these moves are equally as important as the cards you're holding (or vastly more important, if you happen to be holding nothing at all).

Players often focus too much on their cards, looking at probabilities and calculating odds, putting the emphasis on whether or not to stay in the hand. Consider the case of AA. The big pocket rockets hand is a hard one to fold. Some would argue that you should never fold it. In that case, should you call the AA, or bet on it? Should you dramatically raise, or limp in?

Typically you want to raise a strong hand like AA preflop... which will do a number of things. Firstly, it won't arouse quite as much suspicion later on when you're betting or raising hard, because you've convinced the table that you believe you're holding something worthwhile. Secondly, it will often give the impression to the table that you're holding a mid pair - or perhaps suited connectors like QsJs. You're obviously holding something strong, but if you bet hard enough - you're forcing the other players to question exactly how strong - to the point where they may feel you're bluffing. In this scenario, opponents will often come in hard with lesser hands. How hard you bet, or not betting hard enough, is key to playing a strong hand.

Weak hands are equally succeptable to betting patterns. With a strong enough bet, you can force a player holding cowboys to back down holding only a low pair like 44. Often times these mid pairs or mid level suited connectors like 7h8h can pay off large, if you hit on the flop or the turn. Players will often scan the flop for high cards or flushes, and ignore the 4 of clubs that give you your trip. You need to be careful playing these types of hands with hope, however... since you can easily find yourself pot committed, anxious to catch that flush or straight on the river. These types of players, sometimes known as "calling stations", often walk away busted. Many new players are calling stations. They want to play often, and they'll play extremely loose-aggressive. The first few takes from a calling station will reveal them for what they are... after that it's simply a question of discerning their betting pattern.

Check-raising is another important tactic. If you hold a strong hand, it's a good way to improve the pot and commit your opponent. The premise is this: You check, your opponent bets, and you raise. At this point, your opponent needs to call, otherwise they run the risk of revealing a weak hand. If they come back and