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Target Practice
by John Vorhaus

In today's capped buy-in no-limit hold'em games, the name of the game is taking your opponent off his whole stack. Tiny pots come and go... they don't matter so much. But get yourself consistently on the right side of big confrontations and you can rack up some serious coin. Fortunately, today's exploding population of not-so-experienced and not-so-skilled poker players affords you a host of tasty targets to shoot at. The practice off picking off these targets -- knowing that they're there, and knowing how to set them up and take them down -- is what separates the wheat from the chaff (and the chaff from their coin) in hold'em.

Target practice as we're speaking of it here requires three things: awareness, planning, and execution. Let's look at each in turn.

AWARENESS: By now it should be your second nature to watch what's going on around you at the poker table, and to be highly sensitive to such fundamental matters as which players are strong, which are weak, who bets without the best hand, who gives off reliable tells and so on. If you find you yet lack a riveted understanding of who's doing what at the table, the problem lies within... within your own awareness.

Heightening awareness is not really a matter of concentrating harder, though concentration doesn't hurt. Rather, it's a matter of being open and receptive to what's happening at the poker table. In the best of circumstances, you're acquiring meaningful information without conscious thought. There just comes a time when you know (because you have acquired understanding through awareness) that seat one will make early raises with bad aces, for example, and will then get hooked on the hand.

PLANNING: Once you've acquired key information, like the fact that seat one bets bad aces, you enter the planning phase of your target practice. You ask yourself, What conditions am I looking for? What specific circumstances will allow me to take this guy off his whole stack? You already know what he needs: a bad ace in early position. What, then, do you need? Yep... a good ace in a better position. You also need to know what you intend to do with that good ace when you get it.

Most of the time, of course, you'd be in there raising, but in this situation you're hoping not to have to. You're looking for the specific harmonic convergence of a targetable foe with a weak ace, you with a strong ace, and no one else in the pot. This last part is hard to contrive, especially without raising, but the circumstances will arise from time to time, and you want to be ready when they do.

Why not, you may wonder, go ahead and raise with your good ace here? Is it not the best hand, and won't it serve to shut out the rest of the field? Yes and yes, but it may also scare off your prey, before he's had a chance to trap himself fully with his bad ace. Stick to the path of your planning, even at the risk of having the plan go awry through the unwanted involvement of others. (Though you're still in there with an undisclosed good ace so you're not in terrible shape.) You flat-call his raise with your good ace and hope that you get him heads up. If everything breaks your way, you're ready to take a flop against a single foe with all this going for you: cards, position, awareness, and planning.

EXECUTION: Here comes the flop. Ideally, it's something like A-4-4, the sort of flop that will embolden your foe's bad ace while also reducing the risk that he hit his kicker. If you have your foe measured correctly, it won't surprise you when he bets out. You also know such crucial things as how deep his money is, how you’re your money is, how willing he is to cling to a bad ace, how wary he is of you, etc. All these factors taken together will tell you how to execute your plan. Will you flat-call now and raise on the turn? Should you make a modest raise here and hope he raises back? Go all-in and tempt him to do likewise? Your specific actions will depend on the specific circumstances. Just make sure they don't depend on fear.

Fear, you see, will cause a lot of players who feel they have the best hand to raise all in, hoping to drive their foe off his hand and take what the pot has to offer. I am not of that mind. I'm out to win his whole stack, and I'm willing to accept a little risk (the risk that he'll hit his kicker on the turn) in the name of grabbing that stack.

Of course, if your foe is truly glued to his bad ace, you can go ahead and put his feet to the fire right now. Part of your awareness and planning, after all, was to contrive a confrontation against just such a foe who will make just such a mistake. So you may be able to make a huge reraise here and be confident of getting the call you want. Contrarily, if the flop offers some sort of secondary threat, like suited or straighted cards, you might want to protect your investment with a big bet here.

In all events, the key to execution is, well, executing. There's no point in planning for a situation like this if you fail to follow through. In other words, why pick a target if you can't pull the trigger? There will be times when you'll back off because some sixth sense (actually your simple awareness) alerts you that your foe is stronger than he seems. That's okay -- so long as your decision is informed by a clear perception of the situation and not colored by fear of negative outcomes.

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There's a secondary benefit to this triptych of awareness, planning and execution: It puts your poker game into a global frame of mind. Instead of just lurching from hand to hand, betting with the best of it and hoping your cards hold up, you find yourself strategically engaged in the game from the moment you sit down till the moment you cash out. Instead of reacting to situations, you're creating them, and since they're creatures of your own creation, you'll be much better equipped to handle them -- and profit from them -- than anybody else.

Phil Hellmuth Tells All
by Phil Hellmuth

Phil Hellmuth was kind enough to fill out our "Team UB" questionnaire. Study his answers carefully: The wisdom of the ages they contain.
 

CAN YOU TELL AT A GLANCE WHETHER A GAME IS “GOOD?” HOW?

Not at a glance unless you know some of the players. At my level I can tell at a glance because I know all of the great players, and if none are in the game, then it is a good game. But in general, you have to watch for at least five or ten minutes to judge a game. If the players are playing too many hands, then I LOVE this.  

WHAT SPECIFIC METHODS DO YOU USE TO EVALUATE THE STRENGTH OF YOUR COMPETITION?  

Are they aggressive, and how many hands do they play? Do they call too much or fold too much?  

HOW DO YOUR LIMIT AND NO-LIMIT TOURNAMENT STRATEGIES DIFFER?  

I play both very tight for the first few levels, in limit I can keep on playing tight, in NL, I can go either way...  

HOW DO YOU APPROACH THE PLAY OF THOSE PROBLEMATIC POCKET JACKS?  

I LOVE jacks...I play small pots in NL, and big ones in limit...    

IS TILT A FACTOR IN YOUR PLAY? WHAT SPECIFIC STEPS DO YOU TAKE TO TAKE YOURSELF OFF TILT?

I used to tilt way too much, but I've grown up a lot just from being a father and husband, and having financial swings in life...  

WHAT SORT OF IMAGE DO YOU LIKE TO PROJECT AND WHAT DO YOU SEEK TO ACCOMPLISH WITH IT?  

Sometimes tight, then I play loose; sometimes loose, then I play tight.  

DO YOU HAVE A SPECIFIC APPROACH TO DEFENSE OF BLINDS?  

Not really. Whatever feels right...  

WHAT LEAKS DO YOU MOST FREQUENTLY SEE IN OTHER PLAYERS?  

Gambling at craps, blackjack, slots, horse races, or sports betting... alcohol or drug use, bad investments...  

IF YOU COULD IMPROVE ONE ASPECT OF YOUR GAME, WHAT WOULD IT BE?  

Consistency...  

HOW DOES YOUR APPROACH TO ONLINE PLAY DIFFER FROM YOUR APPROACH TO LIVE ACTION?  

Online play is all about playing really tight, live is about the same, but you need to be able to adjust in both situations...  

DO YOU HAVE A SPECIFIC STRATEGY FOR SHORT-HANDED PLAY?  

Yes, I play hands like A-rag hard, whereas I might fold them otherwise...  

DURING YOUR “LEARNING PHASE,” WHAT EDUCATIONAL EFFORTS HELPED YOU THE MOST?  

Studying the greatest players of the era, like the late Jack Keller....  

CONVENTIIONAL WISDOM SAYS THAT A TOP PLAYER CAN WIN “1.5 BIG BETS PER HOUR.” IN YOUR OPINION, IS THAT ASSESSMENT ACCURATE OR JUST A LOAD OF HOOEY DISGUISED AS CONVENTIONAL WISDOM?  

You'll do better than that in tourneys, and online if your good... But remember that only 15% of the people consistently win in poker...  

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY ARE THE TERRIFIC STRENGTHS OF YOUR GAME?  

Reading people, understanding the flow of the game...

Learn Omaha: Overestimating The Value of AA
by Annie Duke

Perhaps because the best hand in Omaha 8/b is AA23 double suited most players greatly overestimate the value of having AA in their hand. AA can make top set but Aces also play for low meaning that you are guaranteeing one piece to a low board when you flop a set. Because of this the aces have some of the same drawbacks as deuces through eights. Of course, being able to flop top set mitigates these drawbacks, but this still needs to be taken into account. Because of this, when you play AA you need to have some other feature to your hand-suited cards, other connecting low cards (AA34) or connecting high cards (AAKQ). AsAd7c8h is actually a hand that you can throw away from early position and you should never call a raise with unless you are in the big blind. With this hand you have no good low features and no suits. The only feature is AA so really you are either hoping that your one pair will stand up, which rarely happens in Omaha 8/b, or that you will flop a set, which is a) less likely to stand up in Omaha 8/b than hold'em and b) increasing the likelihood that you are only gunning for half the pot by putting an Ace out there. Unless you are raising out of steal position, limping in in the small blind or playing out of the big blind you should never play this hand.

Learn Omaha: Overestimating The Value of Low Connecting Cards
by Annie Duke

Another big mistake players make is overestimating the strength of connecting low cards that contain no ace. A hand like 2s3h4c5c might look very strong because of all the wheel possibilities but in reality it is not at all strong. Your flush feature is only 5-high. In order to flop the nut low or the wheel wrap you need an Ace to fall. And as I've said above it is never a good idea to wholly rely on exactly one card to fall when the flop hits. When your hand contains an A2 it is very easy to flop the nut low draw. Without that all-important ace you are most likely to flop the third best low draw when the low draw hits. For example, when any two low cards 3 and higher hit (34, 35, 36, 37or 38) A2 and A4 or A5 will be drawing better than you. You can only have the third best draw by definition and it is never a good idea to chase a draw when you can only make third best.

When you make a straight with this hand, your best high feature, unless it is exactly a wheel, it will generally not be the nut straight. So if the board is 456KQ you have the bottom straight and the third nut low. You will have to pay it off because your hand could win both ways will but you will often be scooped, particularly if the pot is multi-way. So the negative implied odds of this hand are substantial. It is important in Omaha 8/b to always consider the probability that your hand can make the nuts. Unlike in hold'em where one pair is the most likely hand to win a pot in Omaha 8/b the nuts is the most likely hand to win. So it is important to try to always put yourself in the position where that is what you are drawing for.