Define “Range”

The first step in being able to put your opponents on a range is to clarify the whole meaning of range to yourself.  When you put an opponent within a specific range of cards, you’re merely identifying certain card values that they could have.  For instance, if your opponent is betting heavily pre-flop, you can probably assume that their range is A-A to J-J, A-K.  With this being the case, you’ll need to have cards in this range to even consider calling.

Range Example

Let’s assume that you’re holding pocket jacks on a board of A-2-J-7-5 with no flush possibilities on the board.  In this case, you’d be sitting pretty good since you are holding pocket jacks.  However, an opponent is betting heavily which indicates that they either have top pair or A-A.  Your trips jacks will no doubt hold up against top pair, but they will most certainly lose to trips aces. 

In either case, you should definitely make the call.  There are 3 possible combinations which could make A-A left in the deck while there are 12 possible combinations that could make A-K in the deck.  With 15 possible combinations and 12 combos that will leave you a winner, simply divide 12 by 15 to find your answer.  You are an 80% favorite in this instance after doing the math.

Advantages of being Aggressive

When you limp in with a draw, the only way you’re going to win is by hitting your hand.  You’re unlikely to bluff an opponent if you merely call everything that comes your way.  However, if you raise with a drawing hand on the flop, you can either win by making your opponent fold to the raise, or by hitting your hand if the opponent calls.  In either case, you have one more chance to win the pot by playing your draw aggressively.

An Example

Just knowing the advantages of playing a draw isn’t enough so here’s an example of how to properly handle one.  Assume you are in a $3/$6 game of No-Limit Hold’em and you’ve got a $200 stack while holding 7c-8c in late position.  The flop is 2c-Qd-4c and your opponent bets $14 into a $9 pot.  Everyone else folds leaving you with the decision of whether or not to call. 

In this situation, you’ve got to consider that your opponent has a set of queens at best which will be a winner if your draw doesn’t hit.  If your opponent doesn’t have a set of queens, and you raise, then they may think you have a set of queens.  Even if you don’t, you could still force them to fold.

For those who are unfamiliar with the gap concept, it involves someone making a raise and somebody else re-raising in pre-flop play.  The gap concept also takes into account that a much stronger hand is needed before the flop to re-raise rather than just call.  So if you’re facing a raise and a re-raise before your turn to act, it’s likely that you’re up against one or two tough hands.  In fact, you could be facing pocket aces or kings, which are better pre-flop hands than what you’re holding.

Assuming you are in this situation, it would be risky to make the call with both raises out in front of you.  It’s likely that you’re up against at least one of the aforementioned hands so you won’t want to risk too many chips in this situation. 

You could make the call and assume that the 3-bettor is being overly aggressive while trying to steal the pot.  However, the person who made the initial raise could have a stronger hand than you as well, which makes a call even tougher in this situation. The best move in this instance might be to muck your cards since there are likely one or two hands that have you beat pre-flop.

After all, casual players have the same dreams as professional players in that they want to hit it big one day…..they just don’t have the money and/or aren’t in the right situation to play professionally yet.  This alludes to the first tip of bankroll management for casual players in that they should never use their everyday money on poker.  Professional players already know this, but many casual players use money that should be set aside for bills in order to try to play like a pro.  This is a huge mistake as average players need to worry about bills first and poker second.

In order to avoid over spending on poker, casual players also need to stick to limits they’re comfortable with.  In fact, it’s a good idea to play at a limit below what you normally would as a casual player until you’ve developed the skills to move up; this ensures that you’ll never be playing above your head.

One more tip to keep in mind when managing a non-professional player bankroll is that you should learn all the strategy you can.  By constantly learning, you will be sure to improve and help your game grow.  In turn, this will help you make money instead of lose it which always helps in the bankroll department.

Open-Ended Straight Draw

As mentioned before, open-ended straight draws definitely give you the better shot at hitting your hand by the river.  So you should almost always be drawing for a straight when you have this kind of hand since your pot odds will be correct.  However, you should watch out for a couple of things before you fully commit to your open-ended draw.

One of these things is when there is a pair on the board and other players are betting heavily; this means there is the potential for a full house on the board.  Another thing to beware of is when you’re only using one of your hole cards to make the straight because it’s likely someone else will be drawing for a higher straight.

Inside Straight Draw  

With an inside straight, your odds are cut in half so you will rarely call just based on this hand.  However, it makes sense to draw for the inside straight if you’ve got additional value in your hand such as overcards, a flush, etc.  You can also draw in this instance if there were several limpers before you since your pot odds will increase significantly.

However, Omaha outs are a little tougher to speculate on since everyone has four hole cards instead of two.  Here is a look at different Omaha outs and how to calculate them.

Normal Outs

As explained before, outs are simply the cards that will give you a hand which is highly likely to win.  So if you have two suited card and there are two suited cards on the board, then you would have 9 outs left since there are 13 cards of every suit.

Anti-Outs

Unfortunately, there are some outs in poker which will help your opponents more than they will help you.  These are called anti-outs since they only appear to be an out for you.  A good example of this is if you had two jacks and needed one more for a set, it could actually help an opponent make a flush (if it’s of a certain suit).  So this is really an anti-out.

True Outs

After you’ve tallied up your regular outs and anti-outs, it is time to figure out your true outs.  The good news is that figuring out true outs is really easy since you only need to subtract anti-outs from your regular outs.  So, in the previous example, if you subtracted one jack of a certain suit then you would be left with one true out.

Squeeze Play

One of the best ways to take down a multi-way pot is by capitalizing on the over-aggressiveness of another player.  For instance if a very aggressive player raises in early position and the player before you calls the raise, you can then re-raise to get both of them to fold.  Of course for the squeeze play to be successful you need to be very sure that the initial raiser is holding a weak hand and hoping to steal the hand with a raise.  You’ve also got to know that the player in the middle is only calling with a mediocre hand as well.

Calling

Another great thing you can do in multi-way pots is simply call on earlier streets, then fire out a big raise later on.  What’s great about this move is that it allows you to fool your opponents into thinking you’re only calling everything they do.  Then, when all cards have been laid out, you fire out a big raise which makes your opponents question their own hands.  If you’re only holding a decent hand, this can be a great way to get others to fold even better hands.

Bluffing

One of the biggest adjustments you need to make from Omaha to Omaha Hi-Lo is totally giving up the tendency to bluff on the river.  If you bluff on the river in Omaha Hi-Lo, there’s a very good chance you will get called because other players will at least think they have a chance at the low hand.  In short, avoid bluffing on the river in Hi-Lo.

Starting Hands

Omaha players often get very excited when they see a hand like A-A-K-K.  It gives them the best shot to hit a nut hand and take down the pot.  But in Omaha Hi-Lo, you want to get hands that will allow you to get both the high and low hand and scoop the entire pot.  This means you’ll want cards that are both high and low like A-A-2-3.  If you manage to get a hand like this, you’ll have a chance at getting a high and low nut draw.

Getting Quartered

Another thing to watch out for in Omaha Hi-Lo is getting quartered.  That’s because there will be times when two people will tie for the low hand and must split the bottom part of the pot.  This becomes a lot worse when a person makes a lot of raises and bets in an attempt to win the low pot.  If you’re only going for the low part of the pot, be careful because you could end up spending a lot more money than it’s worth trying to get half of the pot.

The only way to avoid this is to switch up your style of play to keep others guessing.  If you’ve been playing aggressive and getting away with semi-bluffs while not being taken to the showdown a lot then you might want to play a little tighter.  The reason you’ll want to play tighter is because the players who still think you’re being overly aggressive will be willing to call all of your supposed semi-bluffs and second-rate hands.  When this starts to happen, you’ll be able to reap the rewards of more chips as the other players fall into your trap. 

However, you don’t want to get stuck here though since others will adjust to this too eventually.  When they do adjust to your tighter playing style, you should switch back to playing more aggressive to keep them off balance.  The key when switching styles is to read how the table perceives you at any given moment.  If the table thinks that you’re playing one way, you need to change gears and start playing the opposite way to throw them off.

The first thing you really need to do more of in shorthanded games is be aggressive.  The reason for this is that the blinds will come around much quicker than in full games and you need to raise and re-raise more often to take down hands.  The key is to force action with most hands that are playable.  If you don’t play aggressively in shorthanded games then you will lose money due to the blinds.

Another tip for Limit Hold’em is to open up your hand selection more.  For instance, if you only think A-10 is playable from middle position then you might need to start playing A-8 in middle position too.  Remember, there are less people at the table which also means that less premium hands will be in play too.  With this being the case, you need to be able to play a wider range of hands.

One more thing to keep in mind when playing shorthanded Limit games is that you should limp in from earlier position more often too.  Positioning on the table shortens up in shorthanded play so you’ll have more freedom to attempt to see hands with cards like K-j, J-10, etc.  Make sure to utilize these tips next time you step onto a shorthanded table.