Ok.  I'm coming up with a quiz that's designed to get you to start thinking like a power player... Try not to look ahead!

1) With an average stack in mid position with tight players in the blinds you get J8
Do you…
A raise
B call
C fold
D raise all in and rip your shirt off and slam it on the table and jump up and down like a monkey

2) You’ve raised the last 5 out of 6 hands and taken down the blinds every time.  You have 25 times the big blind, you get pocket JJs in mid-early position so you raise 4X the big blind from early position.  An opponent with 30 times the big blinds makes a reraise to 14 times the big blind. Everyone else folds to you.  You remember that the opponent said something to you about raising all the time, and you took the same players blinds the past 2 rounds.  What is your move?
A Call
B All in
C Fold
D Read your opponent

3) You make a small raise in mid position with J8, the big blind (traditionally a tight player who you've been robbing blind all day) calls
The flop is AT7 your opponent checks.  Do you A) Bet B) Check behind C) Fold... just for fun D) Put on Greg Raymer's Holographic Glasses; Scream "DAAAAAA!!" at the top of your lungs, then when everyone looks at you tell them the kiddie game is "down the street" and point at Mike "the mouth" Matusow's ear.

4) You've bet from the button with KQ and after Frank the Tank reraises you suspect he is playing back at you. Do you
A) Slap him for being known as Frank the Tank
B) Slap his momma for naming him Frank
C) Reraise over the top
D) Call
E) Fold
F) Fart in your opponents face and tell him he's not the only one full of hot air... THEN fold.

5) You’ve been picking on a tight players blind from the cutoff and you think he might be catching on.  You pick up T7 of diamonds
Do you A) Bet anyways B) Fold C)phone a friend D)Ask the audience E)Call

6) In a major holdem event someone from another table gave Mike "the Mouth" Matusow who was all in and standing up at the time a downer in a sidebet/dare. Mike pulled up his pants saying "are you crazy?! You think anyone wants to see my ass?"  But for a brief moment his pants were in fact down.  He was wearing what type of underwear?
A)"Tightie Whitie" underwear
B)"I heart Daniel Negreanu" underwear
C)Goin commando which he later said was his "good luck charm" -- aka "nothing there but hair" underwear
D) The "Nothing, the guy removed his pants and" underwear.
E)"Don't know, but Daniel Negreanu's Power Holdem Strategy notes were scribbled on his" underwear
F)Who the F cares? And yes, I just answered a question with another question... underwear
G)"The kind that's Under There... but wait, what?" Under where?
H)"Official WSOP underwear equipped with the official 'pocket... wait that's not a pocket it's a fly' cam on the" underwear
I)Boxers

7) You've been playing heads up for hours and you think you know your opponent pretty well. The tendencies that you’ve caught are he seems to raise preflop with any face cards and any pair.  He also bets out on the flop when he has extreme strength.  He limps and you raise with QJ and he calls.  You flop T96 with an open-ended straight flush draw.  He knows that you represent every flop for the most part but you check behind.  After a 2 on the turn he bets and looks to the left and scratches his nose.  You think he's trying to take it down and with 15 outs, you still have a good chance of catching, plus your Queen and Jack could easily both be live giving you potentially 19 outs so you raise and he calls.  The river is another 2, you notice your opponent wipe his palms and swallow hard.  Your opponent bets the pot which is just less than 1/10th of your chips, but you got caught earlier on his "fake tell".  What do you do?



Answers

OK so don’t look at the answers unless you’ve taken the quiz or if you don’t plan on taking it. Stay tuned for the next post, where I’ll explain the answers. That way you can see the reasoning behind the answers.

But they are in this order

1)A, 2)D and then C, 3)A unless you know more info then it may be B 4)E 5)A 6)F 7)5 page essay, use 3 resources to support your answer…

1) Raise.  This is the essance of Daniel Negreanu's Power Holdem Strategy.  This is a great hand to raise because the only thing you're in trouble with is AJ or JJ or higher.  KJ or QJ is a possibility but even if they did call with one of those hands we still have a good chance to represent the flop.  A reraise represents JJ or higher and we can safely get away from it without stressing. If calling sounds like a good move to you, you really need to rethink your strategy and start learning about power poker.  And if ripping your shirt off and calling all in does sound tempting, you should probably be playing wrestling machoman... and girls... stripping is always an option if you're hot... so send me pics and I'll let you know if you have potential :)

. A fold is not a terrible play, but you're really missing out on A the ability to win now B the ability to win on the flop C the ability to establish an image that will win you more later, and D the ability to get away from the hand easily if reraised.
2) Read your opponent!  Not reading your opponent is what seperates the internet donks from the pros.  Even if your move is the same regardless of your read, your opponent might just show, or you might pick up on something later.  It could mean the difference between calling off a bluff later, or giving up a big pot to a bluff.  Just make sure you just take a quick second, maybe even say something to see how your opponent responds then make your decision.  Hesitation might give away that you have a good hand and if you make a big deal about it before you fold, people might suddenly start playing back at you like crazy, and you won't pick up on it to later.  Just don't talk yourself into or out of it based on the read. Ok, so that was kind of a trick question.  But after taking a quick moment, you should have your decision.
After you're read you already know this is clearly a fold or all in situation.  The only time a call is acceptable either if you are 100% sure he has total crap and you think he'll go all in if you check to him after the flop.  OR if you call with the intention of moving all in on the flop  (This move is known as a "Stop and Go") , either case you'll be calling with the intention of going all in.
If you're up against AK you don't have to see all 5 cards and you might live to see another day. If you're up against QQ and the flop comes AK2 you should get them to fold.
However the best move is to just fold.  The rule of thumb is if you're not folding away some hands that you think are the best, you're generally not folding enough, and if you're not getting played back, you're generally not raising enough.

If you're playing power poker, and you're chopping up the table 5/6 times, you simply can wait for MUCH better situations.  Folding Queens is also acceptable in this situation.
Sure he might be "playing back" at you, but what if he's not?  Heck even if he is, if he has KQ or AK or AQ it's still only a coinflip, and if he has QQ KK or AA you're done for.  If you fold you have plenty of chips to work with and can go from there.  Poker is not a race, it's a decathlon. Be willing to give up the lead or surrender a few "races" to leave you with enough endurance(aka chips) so you can build up your energy and stamina(chip stack) to finish strong.

3) This is a fairly tough one. The fact that a traditionally tight player called worries me a little bit here. I’m starting to wonder if maybe he has a high pair. And because I’ve got an inside straight draw I’m hesitant to bet when I might be getting reraised. But then again my opponent could have high face cards or a small pair and was hoping to catch. I think that you should bet here unless you know something here… If you know him to be a complete rock and aggressive, or if you know him to be a tight player that occasionally makes a play on someone, and/or is a player that defends his blinds then I would check behind. Maybe I hit and then he bets into me… However if all I know is the player is a tight player, then he still has to have a very good hand to be able to do anything here unless he’s making a play on you. He’s out of position and he just showed/represented weakness. Take advantage and make the bet here… If you get played back at let it go. If you see the guy continue to defend his blinds go after someone else for a while. I like to make my opponent make a play on me 2 or 3 times until I change my mind. That way you’ve done it enough after he’s played back at you to indicate that you just like to raise a lot and you think he’s weak. Well the next time he takes it personal, it’s payday for you. That’s why I always recommend trying to pick on the same players over and over again. If they plays back at you once, assume that person just got a hand. If they play back at you again, assume that they just wanted to make a stand once to show that they won’t be bullied, but assume they don’t have it in them to make the move again. And even say something to them like, you can’t play back at me every time, one of these times I’m gonna have a hand. Now if that player does it a third time, you know that they switched gears completely and that they’re probably not going back to the tight player. Don’t get frusterated, give yourself a pat on the back because you’ve made that player play a style different then what he/she is used to.

4)A and B might be tempting, but are bad etiquette. E might be funny, but it’s not worth getting banned from the casino. C is bad poker because you’ve just committed wayyy too much of your stack with a hand that could be dominated on a premonition that they "might" be making a move (hint, lighten up and don’t take things so personal… let go of your ego). D is Dangerous because you’re calling a reraise with a hand that not only has to hit for it to be good, but even if you hit top pair, you don’t know if it’s good or not. With poker being a game of information, KQ is not a hand that’s going to give you enough strength to play a reraise, and even if you do hit, you’re not going to have the information to continue.
5)A Bet anyways-  Thinking that he "might" be catching on is no reason not to raise especially if he's a tight player.  You already have a decent hand by a power player's standards, and you have position on him.  Further more, you have a chance to enhance your image.  Even if he DOES play back at you and you fold, other players are going to take note, and will be much more likely to play back at you.  The thing is, if you have someone who you can rob blind all day, you can afford to enter a few less pots  against aggressive players looking to make a move... Then when you pick up aces, people are just going to think "well he folded everytime he was reraised..."  Then they reraise you and you hit them right back and they say "well this guy's been in every hand, I'm already involved, I'll just see a flop with my AJ.  Now when you hit your set of aces it's payday.  You owe it to yourself to at least pick up some chips, and if that payday doesn't come you won't get blinded to death like the other halfwits out there.

6) The ONLY right answer form this question is who the F cares, if you are a guy and your answer is different… seek mental help. If you are a girl and your answer is different … seek mental help as well. If that still doesn’t work get your eyes checked, and if you’re answer is still different then F repeat. Norman Chad said "I took Mike for more of a Tightie Whitie guy", but that was right before not only my gaydar went off, but then my "SHEIT SHIET THEYRE SHOOTING and Austrails like WTF? alarm" went off as well.

7) It’s definitely a steep price to pay, and no one would argue with a fold here, but I think it’s worth the call. At the very least take your time and draw it out and make him sweat while you look for tells. Personally I would put him on a pocket pair and think that he hit his set, but you thought that he raised with every pocket pair. He played his hand like a monster or nothing at all. Either way you know your Q high can’t be good, but on this hand it could be very valuable to find out that he limps with lower pocket pair out of position then he slow plays a set and mixes it up more than you gave him credit for, or maybe he had aces and then you know that he might slow play his monsters preflop, but isn’t willing to give it up to a reraise. Or maybe he had nothing, he saw that you checked and took it as weakness, so he tried to take advantage. When you raised maybe he correctly guessed you were on a draw

Regardless the call will probably not only give you a lot of information, but it should make your opponent make more "value bets", and shy away from betting unless he thinks he has the best hand. Which means he’ll be easier to read.

It’s a steep price heads up, but if it’s been going back and forth for hours and you don’t think you have an edge, you should try to get an edge somehow, whether that’s to fold now and watch for that kind of thing later at a cheaper price, or to just grind away and wait for him to guess wrong or call for information, or to change up your style, or to call him for information here, at some point you have to do something that you think is going to give you an edge in the long run. It’s your call…

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