Tag Archives: big blind
Poker Tips for Beginners (Part 2): Blind Stealing
If it folds to you in late position and you decide to open for a raise, then a large portion of your profits will usually come from the times the blinds fold. Being able to accurately assess the conditions for stealing blinds will allow you to add a lot of money to your win-rate without much effort. The idea behind poker tips for beginners should be to make the most money with the least amount of complicated poker theory, and a basic understanding of stealing blinds achieves just that.
On the most basic level, everyone left to act will fold some percentage of the time on average. If everyone folds often enough, then you can be raising with any two cards. For example, if you open raise to three times the big blind, and everyone folds a total of 70%, then that means 70% of the time you win 1.5 big blinds, and 30% of the time you lose 3 big blinds. If we plug that into an EV equation, we get the following:
EV = 0.70(1.5) + 0.30(-3)
EV = 1.05 – 0.90
EV = 0.15
So on average, your blind steal by itself is worth 0.15 big blinds. That might not seem like much, but remember that if the blinds were $1/2, that’s $0.30 made from one action. If you had this chance every hand, you’d be making $30 per 100 hands just from blind stealing.
There are a few general factors we can think about that contribute to the EV of a blind steal. First is how the people left to act tend to play. In general, people who fold a lot are gold to our left, and people who 3-bet a lot aren’t much fun to have on our left. People who call a lot can be good or bad depending on how they play after the flop, and whether or not we have position.
Another important factor for consideration is the size of our raise. If we raise to four times the big blind, we need our opponents to fold a lot more than if we raise to three times the big blind. Against the right opponents, it can even be correct to minraise pre-flop, as long as we’re in position. Open minraising from the small blind is pretty terrible since the big blind is getting 3:1 to see a flop, meaning he will call a huge percentage of the time, and he will have position for the rest of the hand, which puts us at a huge disadvantage post-flop.
Poker Tips: Texas HoldEm Basic Rules, (Page 1 of 2)
Texas Holdem is undoubtedly the most universally popular variation of poker, both in the live and online poker format, in the world. If you’ve ever watched poker on TV, chances are it was Texas hold em.
Its a very easy game to pick up a few quick pointers and you should be able to follow the course of play, including betting and understanding what makes up a winning hand.
Most poker players enter the game of poker via Hold’em, which is why we suggest you learn these basic rules first before progressing to all the other variations on offer. These are the basic rules for Texas Hold ‘Em Poker: Texas Hold’em can be played by between 2 and 11 players. The game is won by the player that has assembled the best possible 5-card hand The Blinds A blind is a bet that is made before the pocket cards are dealt to each poker player. The first two poker players to the left of the dealer pay the blinds. The Small Blind is posted by the first player and the Big Blind by the second. The size of the big and small blinds are predetermined, as well as the regular bets. The size of the small blind is half the size of the big blind. Blinds and regular bets are displayed in this format: $2/$4 or $50/$100 The Deal When the dealer is not playing, such as in Casinos and some online poker tournaments, a round disc — known as a “dealer button” — moves clockwise from player to player with each hand. The button marks which player would be the dealer so the blinds to move around the table and players are aware of position. To start, youll be dealt two cards pocket cards which youll keep to yourself. The remaining five cards are community cards which are dealt in stages and are placed face-up in the middle to be used by every player to make hands.
Pre-Flop After the pocket cards are dealt a round of betting takes place, beginning with the poker player to the immediate left of the big blind. Players can then fold, call, or bet depending on how good a hand they have. At this stage you have to at least call this bet to stay in the hand or fold if you dont fancy your luck. Checking isn’t an option here because the players who posted the blinds have effectively opened the betting The action moves around the table in a clockwise direction until each player has called, folded, or raised. If nobody has raised by the time the betting gets to the big blind, they can either check their own blind or raise. If everyone bets both blinds still have the option of raising if they want or folding if someone previously has raised. These are universal Texas Hold’em poker rules. The FlopThe dealer then flips the next three cards face up on the table. These cards are called the “flop.” This time the betting starts with the player to the immediate left of the dealer, regardless of whether the dealer is still active in the hand or not. The player to the left of the dealer will keep the initial action for the rest of the hand. During this and all future rounds of betting, players can check, call, raise, or fold when it’s their turn to bet. The turn card In this phase the dealer burns a card and then deals a 4th community card face up, otherwise referred to as the turn card. Again this is used by all players to construct their hands and is followed by a round of betting starting with the first remaining player left of the dealer just like after the flop.