Sometimes, even when you win, you might have played wrong. Background: I'm a limit player, almost totally; I'm good at the math of limit, and not so good at the psychology and "touchy-feely" nature of NL. However, with the new poker laws in Florida, no-limit is the game (the law says that the maximum bet in limit can be $5, but no-limit with a max $100 buyin is fine, so $1-$2 NL is becoming common, and is supposedly fishy).

So, I sat down to get some cheap NL practice, playing 5¢-10¢ NL, with the basic strategy of "any 21 in blackjack, any connectors totaling 17 to 20 in blackjack, any pair, and suited connectors as low as 56 for a limp. Tighten up a lot to preflop raises -- AA, KK, QQ, AK and that's about it, unless it's a small raise and there's calling action already" (is this a viable basic strategy? I know it ignores position, but is it a workable baseline to start from?) when I was dealt the following hand (immediately after trapping the best player -- who I call Tight Winner -- with top 2 pair against his overpair for $5; 87s holds up to crack JJ!):

DeadMoney is at seat 1 with $5.34.
TylerDurden is at seat 2 with $14.98.
NewPlayer is at seat 4 with $6.
Loose-aggressive is at seat 5 with $10.92.
Tight winner is at seat 6 with $11.06.

(There are actually 10 players, but since only 4 took the flop, those are the ones I worred about)

The button is at seat 3.

NewPlayer posts the small blind of $.05.
Loose-aggressive posts the big blind of $.10.
DeadMoney posts out of turn for $.15($.05 dead blind).

Dealt to TylerDurden: 2 2

Pre-flop:

5 players fold, including Tight Winner. DeadMoney checks. TylerDurden calls. 1 fold. NewPlayer calls. Loose-aggressive checks.

Flop (board: 2 T 4):

NewPlayer checks. Loose-aggressive bets $.40. DeadMoney folds. TylerDurden raises to $1.65. NewPlayer folds. Loose-aggressive calls.

Turn (board: 2 T 4 K):

Loose-aggressive checks. TylerDurden bets $3.75. Loose-aggressive goes all-in for $9.17. TylerDurden calls.

River (board: 2 T 4 K 7):

(no action in this round)

Showdown:

Loose-aggressive shows A T.
Loose-aggressive has a pair of tens.
TylerDurden shows 2 2.
TylerDurden has three deuces.
$1.10 is raked from a pot of $22.09.
TylerDurden wins $20.99 with three deuces.

I mainly wonder:

1: Should I have raised on the flop, with 85¢ in the pot?
2: Should I have raised the value of the pot? Or more/less? If so, why?
3: Should the check-raise on the turn indicated a TT or KK, or even 44? Was it worth calling $9.17 in a total pot of $16.67 (less rake)?
4: Should I have overbet the pot to try and take the hand down on the turn? At that point, there's $3.75 in the pot, and my only opponent has enough in chips to hurt me, so I should try and win right then and there, right?

Author's note: This short article is inspired by one I read in either Poker Digest or Card Player about 6 years ago. The content is all mine, but the idea of there being 8 fundamental errors is not.

Limit poker, at it's heart, is about making decision. You have basically 5 choices: check/bet if no-one has bet yet, and call/raise/fold if there is a bet (yes, you can fold to a check, but that's an obvious error, and won't be covered here). Now, anyone who's read The Theory of Poker is familiar with the Fundamental Theorem of Poker, "Any time you act differently than you would if the cards were dealt face-up, you've lost money." Given that, and the limited number of decisions allowed, there are eight fundamental errors that are possible in any given hand of poker (yes, there are more errors possible, such as game and limit selection problems, and where to sit, but here we'll concern ourselves with play of the hand only).

Bet instead of check: This is the classic loose-aggressive mistake; you have 8 9 in an unraised big blind with 2 other players, and the flop comes out T 7 A. Betting here would be a bet instead of check mistake -- there's a strong possibility that one of your opponents holds Ax or Tx, or even a middle pair, and you're holding nothing more than 6 straight outs (3 of which allow for a higher straight), 7 flush outs (one of which pairs the board), and 2 straight flush outs. Yes, your hand is strong, and yes, you should take the turn (and, indeed, probably the river), but no, you probably shouldn't bet. This mistake is a middle-of-the-road one, as it costs you a bet or two (two when you're raised and then call through).

Check instead of bet: This is the classic passive mistake; it not only costs you bets, but it also allows hands to stay in to draw out against you. As an example, you've got A A, and the board is J 8 2. You've got an overpair, and if you raised preflop, a number of players will put you on an overpair. A check here would let any 9T or any two spades draw for free, not to mention allowing players with an underpair to you try and spike their kicker. Bet, make them pay! This mistake is probably more costly than betting when you should check

Call instead of raise: Again, another passive mistake. A wonderful example of this would be sitting with K K on a board of A K 9 T A and calling a bet from an early-position player. Yes, you've got only 5th nut, but the possiblity exists that any number of other hands would be betting into you (Ax, any two diamonds, and JQ come to mind). This is a minor mistake most of the time, as it only costs you one or two big bets.

Call instead of fold: Do you like being called a calling station? Do this! Every time you put a bet into the pot saying "I know I'm beat, but I'll pay you off," you're doing this! If you know you're beat, why call? Because this mistake only costs you one bet, usually (it's a common river mistake), and it does make sure you'll hardly ever be bluffed out.

Raise instead of call: This is an error of aggression. Again, not as bad as some, but it's costly (usually to the tune of about 2 bets). Think of something like raising with Q J into a bet from the BB with a board like Q T 9 7 6. Top pair, weak kicker, facing a straight and flush board, not to mention the possibility of two pair due to the two pairs of middle connectors. Call, sure, but don't raise here!

Raise instead of fold: This is a hyper-aggressive mistake. Usually it's an error made on the river, trying to over-extend something like second pair, or top pair bad kicker. You know you're beat, but you think (or convince yourself) that your opponent is weak, and you raise their bet -- usually to only get reraised. It'll cost you at least 1, and usually 2, big bets (if the reraise comes, most players then call instead of folding, due to the size of the pot).

Fold instead of raise: This mistake is rare; ususally only the fishiest of fishes doesn't realize that they have a raising hand and folds instead. The most often cause of it is misreading your hand (missing a straight or flush), or getting bluffed out with a weak-ish middle hand (ie, 5 6 and a board of 7 8 A K 9. It'd be rare for JT to stay with that flop). However, it's a mistake that will cost you dearly; you lose the whole pot!

Fold instead of call: Again, another rare-yet-expensive error, similar to folding instead of raising. It happens a bit more when the pot is large and you've got a medium-strong hand (especially with a ragged board).that can beat "big card only" hands (ie, you're holding A 9 on a board of 9 7 4 2 2 -- you can beat a lot of hands that will be in the pot). Still, it costs you the pot to make this error!

So next time you sit at the table, after each hand (win or lose), ask yourself, "how many mistakes did I make? What kind?" Recognizing your errors is the first step towards fixing them, tightening your game up, and winning more.

So you're playing, and it doesn't matter what you get. KQ suited with 2 pair flopped, and someone draws to the river to make a straight. Flop a set, lose to a turned higher set.

Everyone who's played poker for any reasonable length of time has seen it. You've been hit with a cold deck. What to do?

Well, first of all, don't bitch and moan to your neighbor. All it does is kill your table image -- you begin to look like a loser, and your opponents will adjust accordingly. You'll get tons of calling action... but that means that you'll have to beat 4 or 5 other hands, instead of only 1 or 2. (as an aside, whenever my neighbor wants to tell me a bad-beat story, I tell them that it's a $1 listening fee for them to tell me. Quite honestly, half the time, they toss me a white chip and begin the story. Hey, it pays for cocktail tips....)

So, step one to beating a cold deck: Shut up. No whining. There's no crying in baseball, and there's no whining in winning poker.

Step two: Tighten up. Most players (myself included) play too many hands. Think raise or fold, preflop, unless there's a ton of players already in -- that might allow you to play your J T, but remember that you've got a drawing hand, you need to hit either a straight or flush draw, or at least 2 pair, to make it past the flop.

Step three: Value-bet more. If your table image is shot since you've shown a string of losers, you're going to get more calls. Start betting your hand more -- don't get tricky, just play straightforward aggressive poker.

Step four: Begin taking a long-term view. It's hard, believe me, for most players to see beyond the current session, but remember that your poker career is just one long game. What matters is not how you do this hand, this hour, this session, but that you make the correct decisions. You'll always be right to fold 7 2 under the gun, even though the flop could come out 7 7 2. Folding saves you money, long-term, and money saved spends the same as money won. Short-term, any two can win, but long-term, the best two will win out more, so do not get frustrated and play crap to win a pot.

Here's hoping your cold deck periods are as short as possible!

The check is an often-overlooked tactical maneuver, and one that can be profitable for you if used in the correct manner. Most players look at a check as "that thing you do when you can't bet." Au contraire!

Consider the following hand. It's a low-limit game, and you've limped in with 5 other players, you're on the BB with 77, the flop comes K72 rainbow. You're holding the second nut, a likely winner with your set, and it's reasonable to think that someone's limped in with a K; you can count on a bet from someone behind you. In this position, many players would simply bet out the whole way though the hand, flop turn and river.

Wrong.

Check-call the flop (again, it's a low-limit game, someone's stayed with a king, even with a rag kicker, and they'll bet), check-raise the turn, then bet the river. Doing the math, assuming everyone calls all the way through, you'll have 15 big bets in the pot (10 small bets preflop and on the flop, or 5 big bets total, and 10 big bets from the turn and river) if you bet all the way through, but the checkraise will win you as much as an extra 5 big bets. Who wouldn't object to an extra $30 in a $3-$6 game?

But, what if your checkraise drives out players? Figure that most players will fold if facing 2 big bets cold, so it depends on where the betting action is coming from; if the better is just to your left, checkraise at will (you check, they bet, 3 calls, you raise, and then there's calls aplenty). If they're the button or cutoff, that means your checkraise will run out some players (check check check, bet, call, you raise, then 2 players face a double bet and fold). In that case, you can check call the turn, and checkraise the river (drawing hands will fold to any bet anyhow).

Checks aren't just for saying "I've got nothing in my hand," sometimes they're perfect for saying "I want you to bet so I can raise." Remember, when you've got the best of it, put the most money you can into the pot!

I went to the Naples-Ft Myers Greyhound Track poker room for the first time in 4 years last Saturday. My, how things have changed! The room was jumping, with easily 10 tables of live action going on one side and 6-8 tourneys running on the other. I made the 6th player on the $2-$4 hold'em list, so they called for the game to start; I bought chips from the cashier, as there appeared to be no chip runners to sell chips at the table (although the dealers obviously could, I prefer to not slow the game like that). Players did continually come into the game, eventually filling our table within roughly a half hour.

My table was comparatively weak, with one maniac, 2 calling stations, and the rest being what I would consider "average players." Most players bought into the game for between $50 and $100, so there wasn't a surfeit of short stacks playing (in fact, the only all-in bet I saw in several hours was mine, and that was because I'd managed to maximize a pot with the nut straight!). The players were often distracted from the game, as they were watching either the live greyhound racing, or the simulcast dog and horse races, to see how their pari-mutual bets worked out. The dealer often had to bring the player's attention back to the poker game; good from a poker playing perspective (hey, they weren't watching the game!) but kind of annoying since it slowed the game.

The dealing was professional for the most part, although as in any room there can be exceptions. The game's pace was a little slow, but that's mainly due to the players, not the dealers.

The house rake seemed a bit high, at 10% of the pot (rounded to thenearest $10) taken in $1 increments. Yes, that's right, they round off the pot -- if the pot is $46, they'll rake $5! Ouch! Still, because of the quality of play, even this stiff rake is probably beatable, as I walked out with twice my buy-in after pulling only two or three decent-sized pots (the players seemed to want to call too much, even when check-raised on the river).

The good: Weak players. Good dealers. Reasonable game selection. Low limits, if you like "social" poker.

The bad: Distracted players. High rake. Game limits are set by state law (NL games can't have more than a $100 buy-in, and limit games have a $5 max bet).

The verdict: I'll be back, and not only because it's close to where I live and work.

Tyler