Molly's Online Poker and Sportsbook Guide

In Limit Hold 'em, the big blind is one of the toughest position to play. You're out of position, and that's never a good thing, but usually, you'll be getting excellent odds to continue with the hand. Against a single opponent who has raised, you'll be getting better than 3 to 1 and, in most hands, you're no more than a 2 to 1 dog. The problem is, you'll often find yourself going into the flop with shaky cards and, at that point, you're sure to face some tough decisions.

Before I talk about some tricky situations that develop in the big blind, I want to note that you can make your life a little easier by folding some hands pre-flop. If you're holding a medium Ace and you're facing an early position raise from a player who you know plays only good cards up front, then fold. It may seem like you're getting a nice price to continue, but in this spot, you're only going to get into trouble. When you miss the flop completely, it's going to be tough to continue and, if you hit an Ace, you may lose a lot to a hand that has you dominated. I'd rather play 6-7 against an early position raise from a tight player than A-7. more...

In an earlier article, Perry Friedman gave some guidelines as to what you should be looking for at the start of a Seven-Card Stud hand. Perry concentrated on third street, when you make your initial decision to proceed with the hand or not. For this tip, I'd like to go further down the road and talk about fourth street.

When playing Stud, fourth street is the last of the smaller betting rounds. On fifth street, the bets double, so if you decide to play beyond fourth street, your investment in the hand is going to be hefty.

On fourth street, I look to see if an opponent has picked up a card that has a relation to the door card (the first up card). If fourth street builds straight or flush possibilities for my opponent, I'm likely to muck a lot of hands; if it appears to be a complete blank, I'll usually continue. more...

You've probably heard the standard reason to avoid slow playing: It's dangerous, because when you slow play, you give an opponent a chance to make a bigger hand at a minimal cost. This is absolutely true. But there's another reason to play your big hands fast, and this one isn't talked about as frequently. A slow play can give an opponent a chance to get away from a hand more cheaply than he would have had you played it fast from the start. Consider the following example.

You're in late position in a No-Limit Hold 'em ring game. A player raises in early position. You look at your cards, see pocket 8s, and decide to call. The flop is absolutely perfect: Qh 8h 2d. You've hit your set and, with the Queen out there, chances are your opponent has something – maybe A-Q, maybe pocket Kings or Aces. He bets the flop. more...

I play in some of the biggest cash games in the world. Usually, these games are loaded with pros - folks who know the intricacies and advanced strategies of pretty much every poker game. We normally play a mix of games that can include Hold ‘em, 7-Stud, Omaha, and one or more of the Hi/Lo variations. Most of the time, we play with a fixed-limit betting structure.

In a recent session, I had a stretch where I was pretty card dead, so I spent most of my time folding. To my knowledgeable opponents, it must have appeared that I was playing especially tight. Then in a game of 7-Stud, I was dealt an Ace as my up-card. The bring-in bet had been raised and I re-raised.

Then, two top-rate pros with no more than their antes in the pot called my re-raise. There are only a couple of hands that might justify their calls. However, as the hand proceeded with me as the aggressor, it became clear that the callers of my third-street re-raise didn't have much at all. One held three unconnected hearts, the other had a middle pair with no kicker. more...

Stud-8 or Better is a great game. The rules are nearly identical to regular 7-Card Stud, but there's one key difference. At showdown, the pot is split; half is given to the player with the best high, and half to the player with the best low. In order to take a portion of the pot, a low hand must have no card higher than an 8. If there is no qualifying low, the high hand takes the entire pot.

With players aiming for both high and low hands, Stud-8 invites a lot of action. But beginning players, even those with some 7-Card Stud experience, often come to a Stud-8 table with a poor understanding of what hands do well in this split-pot game.

To understand what types of hands you should play in Stud-8, you must grasp this key concept: In Stud-8, you're looking to scoop pots. By scoop, I mean that you want to take both the high and the low halves of the pot. That's where you're going to make your real profit. more...

I get asked a lot of poker strategy questions, from beginner to advanced. Some are easy, but some involve the kind of math I can't always do off the top of my head. When that happens, I rely on one of a number of free tools to calculate the probability of winning the hand.

Here's an example based on a hand posted on a website I run:

Our hero was playing at a small stakes No-Limit table online, with $.25-$.50 blinds. At the start of the hand, he had $44. He was dealt Ad-Td and raised to $2. Both blinds called. The flop was Kd-Jd-2c, giving our hero a royal flush draw. The big blind bet $2, hero raised $2 more, the next player called, and the big blind (with more chips than our hero) re-raised all-in. more...