Short Handed Cash Game Statistics

Tweet

**This is a Sponsored Post**

One way to improve your game is to purchase some tracking software such as Holdem Manager or Poker Tracker and use it to thoroughly analyse your game. Each piece of software is different but they basically share the same statistics, some of them which more importance than others, with the three major preflop statistics shown below.

Although you will need to look much deeper into your database of hands in order to fully plug any leaks you have, using VPIP, PFR, and 3bet% as a starting point is a good idea. VPIP stands for Voluntarily Put money Into Pot and shows, as a percentage, how often you are putting money into the pot when it is your turn to act. Paying the blinds does not count towards your VPIP but completing the small blind would. PFR is the acronym for PreFlop Raise and like VPIP is shown as a percentage shows how many hands you are entering the pot with a preflop raise. Finally, 3bet% shows how often you have put in a three-bet or re-raise before the flop, again as a percentage.

Using these three statistics, whether using the betfair poker signup bonus or not, you can use build up a decent picture of your preflop game, an area where you should look for problems in the first instance. For short handed games a major weakness is continually limping into pots and only raising with the most premium of hands. An example of this would be someone playing a 33/8 style, meaning they play almost a third of all hands dealt to them but only raise 8% of them.

Those looking ahead to Betfair Poker Live note that a solid tight aggressive style would see the player have statistics that read something along the lines of 20/18 where a good loose-aggressive player would look something like 30/27. Notice how in both case each of the players preflop raise percentage is in close correlation to the number of hands they play, almost every hand they are willing to play they do so with a raise, as aggression and taking the initiative are vital in short-handed cash games

The final statistic, the percentage of hands you make a three-bet preflop, is becoming increasingly important in online cash games as the aggression has risen to almost ridiculous proportions. As players are more aware of blind stealing and isolating limpers, the need to re-isolate and protect your blinds is greater so you should be looking to ramp up the aggression yourself and have a 3bet% of around 8-10%. This may seem alien if you are not used to three-betting preflop, especially doing it light, but after a few thousand hands you should feel right at home.

Value Betting and Pot Control

Tweet

**This is a Sponsored Post**

Whilst many the decisions you will have to make when playing no limit Texas Hold'em will be pretty straightforward there will be occasions where the correct choice is not easy to make. It is in these spots that the better players amongst us excel, often winning money where other would lose it.

In the long run, whether using the betfair offer code or not, we all get our fair share of big hands, marginal hands, monsters and coolers so the biggest difference between winners and losers cannot be in the cards they are dealt but in how they use them. One of the areas where good players constantly outperform their weaker opponents is value betting and pot control, the former being extremely important in short-handed cash games.

At micro, low and medium stakes games then you should only really worry about taking the most optimal line available and not give too much credit to balancing your play. For example, if you raise preflop with AsKs and you and one other opponent see a Kh-Jh-6c flop. The obvious, and correct play in this spot should be to continuation bet both for value as you probably have the bets hand but also for protection against the possible draws your opponent could have. Against an opponent who is pretty aggressive and would likely bet if you checked, allowing you to then check-raise, you could check but this should not be your default line because your opponent likely has a draw or a weaker hand than yours and will mostly check behind but would call a continuation bet. You lose value, something you cannot afford to do regularly.

Those looking ahead to Betfair Poker Live London note that having position changes how you approach the game as it allows you to dictate the flow of the game and the pot size. Say you raise a limper whilst holding black queens, he calls and you see a nice looking 2h-6h-Tc flop. He check-calls your continuation bet and the 9h comes on the turn. Again your opponent checks, now is the perfect time to check behind to control the size of the pot. If you bet and he raises you are going to be hard pressed to call and he could be making such a play with a hand like ace-ten, much worse than your queens. By checking the turn you have made the pot size much less so if they do fire a bet out on a relatively blank looking river you can call and if they do have the flush you will not lose as much money as you could have.

Top Leonardo DiCaprio Films

Tweet

I saw this interesting article on the best DiCaprio movies and thought I would pass it along. I am a big DiCaprio fan and really like some of his earlier movies such as What's Eating Gilbert Grape and Basketball Diaries. Both of which made the list along with his blockbusters and more recent films like Inception.

Around the Poker Blogosphere

Tweet

I thought I would highlight some of the interesting articles I have read on other poker blogs during the past couple of weeks.

Over at Bill's Poker Blog, he has a very interesting article about the battles going on between the sites to sign-up different pros. One of his key questions is a good one, what are the sites getting out of these relationships? Are players really signing up because of some of the second and third tier pros on their roster? And how is the poker community affected by all these sponsorships?

Pokerbloggs had a recent piece on Pokerstars announcement about the identity of Isildur1, which has been one of online poker's best kept secret for the past couple of years.