Marcus Bateman : HID Poker

The Floating Explosion

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 10:53:38 +0000

One of the key changes that has affected all games in the last twelve months or so has been the massive increase in the number of players refusing to believe flop bets. It used to be the case that weak players generally folded too much on flops when they missed, but in the modern era this trend has nearly fully reversed, with players now frequently calling continuation bets with all manner of weak hands and even total air.

Flatting with aces in PLO

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 18:14:52 +0000

This is one of the hardest things to drill into good Hold'em players when they start playing Pot Limit Omaha - learning to flat with aces in many situations. Although there is certainly a time and a place to flat with aces in Hold'em, for the most part you are raising, re-raising and trying to get your stack in as soon as possible. In PLO this is frequently not the case, and often with aces (particularly weak ones), flatting should be your default setting.

How to play a good or bad card on the turn or river

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 09:44:23 +0000

Most players are aware of how 'good' or 'bad' a card can be on the turn or river in Hold'em or Omaha. Good cards can throw up great bluffing opportunities, make your hand much safer to proceed with, or make you the stone cold nuts. Bad cards can turn an all-in hand into something to fold, or leave you in impossible situations against an opponent's range. In-between these two opposites though, we have a wide range of cards that can appear good, but are actually very bad and vice versa.

The Three Poker Sites Who May Have Messed It Up For Everyone

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 18:54:45 +0000

For anyone who talked about how softened the internet generation were to gambling compared to the old Texan road players, the events of the last few weeks in poker have certainly hardened everyone who may have not seen the darker side of gambling and business. Money seems to have been stolen in some cases, missing in others, formerly hyper respectable companies seemingly imploding, the list goes on and on.

Letting go of hands

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 09:28:23 +0000

Most players see poker as a game of action - a world of big calls, well timed bluffs and constant aggression. However, arguably the biggest part of poker revolves around the simple fold button, and understanding just how important it is is crucial to getting your game up to scratch.

Button bashing

Mon, 30 May 2011 08:55:06 +0000

After a long and uneventful five thousand hand break even stretch online, I recently took a break and started to wade through Poker Tracker to see if I was just running bad, or if something much worse had been creeping into my game. One of the genuinely strange things about poker is even when you have been playing and winning for years perennial self doubt can still hit you at any time, and as I started looking over my hand histories I started to see a grim pattern emerging.

Forcing the action

Wed, 25 May 2011 15:21:24 +0000

Most poker players will know the feeling well. A big chip stack, deep in a tournament, the big prizes looming, a need to try and take control of the table. Good, aggressive and dynamic play is essential late on in big tournaments - particularly when playing a big stack - but it is a tightrope on occasion, and avoiding forcing the action and throwing your stack away is crucial to long term success.

The Best Hand Fallacy

Tue, 24 May 2011 09:17:15 +0000

Many people approach poker with one single aim in mind - get it in with the best hand. They reason that as you can compare the direct odds of hands, that the overall aim of poker is simply to make sure you have the best hand in each pot. However, ultimately in poker the aim is not actually to get the money in good, but to make choices that win blinds.

Raising the ante

Mon, 23 May 2011 16:46:38 +0000

The ante and/or blinds is effectively what makes poker work. Without forced bets, every player would simply wait for aces, and it is the simple fact that you have to pay before you even get dealt a hand that makes all the complexity of poker happen. Because it is so fundamental to the game, it can often be taken for granted, but understanding the forced bets is crucial to success at the tables - particularly when confronted by high antes or ones on top of the regular blinds.

Resolution and creative play making

Thu, 19 May 2011 11:36:14 +0000

If we were to imagine poker players as pictures, then each piece of information given out by them would be akin to a pixel in the picture. Each pixel would be improving our resolution and understanding of what their play looks like as the dots builds up. This can be very limited, such as just a few vague signs from a new player to the table, all the way to an incredibly complex masterpiece, as in a situation where we are having a heads up battle against an established regular who we could have over ten thousand hands of history with.

Dealing with loose aggressive heads up players

Wed, 18 May 2011 08:47:23 +0000

As anyone who has had the misfortune of playing a very high grade loose-aggressive player (LAG) heads-up will testify, at points in battles with these players it can feel like you are simply being engulfed in an endless hail of bets and re-raises. Poker is a game where fearlessness and aggression are often substantially rewarded, and players who are masters of constantly putting you to the test thrive on the confusion and hardship that such a style throws an opponent into.

Making adjustments when playing live

Sun, 15 May 2011 10:19:00 +0000

With the huge changes in the online poker landscape in recent weeks, many players will be turning their attention to live games, and with numerous events like Betfair Live and the WSOP coming up, the live arena looks to be something all online players should be thinking closely about. Live poker - although similar to online games in many ways - has some crucial differences, and ones which time and again I see solid online players make large mistakes in. Below are two of the most important, and ones it is critical to understand if you want to maximise your EV on the live felt.

PLO - Staying in the game

Thu, 12 May 2011 12:51:29 +0000

One of the interesting things about Pot Limit Omaha, and arguably the thing that makes it by far the most profitable game out there for the astute player at the moment, is how few people are actually rolled to stay in the game. This is a key point in poker, and one which can turn you into a losing player even if you have an obvious edge over an opponent.

Poker community to blame for UB/AP fiasco

Thu, 12 May 2011 08:57:49 +0000

Obviously I work for Betfair Poker, so am a little bit biased when it comes to discussing other companies, but I am also a poker player and gambler at heart, and have learnt a great deal in terms of cheats from gambling both online and live with numerous people and companies across a very wide range of sports and games over the years. I took all of my money off of UB/AP pretty much as soon as the cheating became uncovered by 2+2 and the cover up began many moons ago, and watched with abject horror as they managed to not only survive, but seemingly to prosper and manoeuvre themselves into the third 'go to' site for US customers.

Control

Wed, 11 May 2011 18:25:31 +0000

Control is a central part of the human experience. We see wild forests and create ordered fields, we see fast cars and make speed limits, we see large groups of people and call the riot squad. The human brain generally struggles with all behaviour that is outside of our control - order and pattern creation is simply too inbuilt into our minds.