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Synopsis
of Harrington on Hold'em, Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments; Volume I :
Strategic Play
Poker has taken America by storm. But it's not just any form of poker
that has people across the country so excited, it's No-Limit Hold'em, the main event
game. And now, thanks to televised tournaments, tens of thousands of new players are
eager to claim their share of poker glory. Harrington on Hold'em takes you to the part
of the game the cameras ignore, the tactics required to get through the hundreds and
sometimes thousands of hands you must win to make it to the final table. Harrington's
sophisticated and time-tested winning strategies, focusing on what it takes to survive
the early and middle stages of a No-Limit Hold'em tournament, are appearing here for
the first time in print. These are techniques that top players use again and again to
get to make it to final tables around the globe. Now, learn from one of the world's
most successful No-Limit Hold'em players how to vary your style, optimize your betting
patterns, analyze hands, respond to a re-raise, play to win the most money possible,
react when a bad card hits and much, much more.
Dan Harrington won the gold bracelet
and the World Champion title at theR$10,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em Championship at the
1995 World Series of Poker. And he was the only player to make it to the final table in
2003 (field of 839) and 2004 (field of 2576) considered by cognoscenti to be the
greatest accomplishment in WSOP history. In Harrington on Hold 'Em, Harrington and
2-time World Backgammon Champion Bill Robertie have written the definitive book on
No-Limit Hold'em for players who want to win, and win big.
Excerpt from the Book Expert
Strategy for No Limit Tournaments: Responding to a Raise Behind You
What happens when
you enter the pot with a nice call or raise, and a player sitting behind you reraises?
There is no easy answer to this question, but there are a number of issues you have to
weigh in deciding on your next move. In some cases, all (or most) of the issues will
point in the same direction, and your decision gets pretty easy. In other cases, the
issues will point in different directions, and you’ll have a tough decision.
Let’s look
at the issues first. What should you take into consideration when you’re reraised?
Your
hand. Did you come into the pot with solid values, or were you making a call or raise
with a marginal hand for your position? How many players were in the pot? A raise from
a player facing only one opponent in the pot is usually less significant than one from
a player who has already seen two or more players enter the pot. There are at least
four different situations, which must be judged differently. (1) You call the blind. A
raise behind you indicates some strength. (2) You raise. A reraise behind you indicates
more strength. (3) There is a call in front of you, and then you raise. A reraise
behind you indicates even more strength. (4) There is a raise in front of you, and you
reraise. Now a reraise behind you represents a real powerhouse. How many players are
yet to act? A reraise from the button or one of the blinds may just be an attempt to
defend the blind or foil a steal. A reraise from a player in early or middle position,
who faces the possibility of several players yet to act behind him, indicates more
strength. Will you have position on the reraiser after the flop? If the reraiser is one
of the blinds, you will act behind him after the flop. You can call with weaker hands
than if the reraiser will act after you. What are the pot odds? Be sure to calculate
the pot odds before making your move. You should be much more willing to enter a pot
with good odds rather than bad odds. How aggressive is the reraiser? A reraise from a
conservative player has to be given somewhat more respect than a reraise from a player
who plays many pots. But don’t press this analysis too far. Many aggressive and
super-aggressive players like to steal unopened pots, but their reraises may be quite
sound and normal. Until you have evidence that a player will try to reraise with
minimal or weak hands, don’t be quick to assume that’s the case. What’s the situation
in the tournament? If it’s early in the tournament, and both you and the reraiser have
plenty of chips in relation to the blinds and antes, you want to play more
conservatively. You should be much less inclined to get involved in a situation that
could knock you out of the tournament quickly. As your stack shrinks and the blinds
pressure you more, your willingness to make a big move increases.
Those are a lot of
issues to weigh. Let’s look at a few examples and see how these decisions work out in
practice.
Example No. 1. It’s a nine-handed table, with blinds ofR$100/$200 and antes
ofR$25. The pot isR$525 to start. You’re in fifth position withR$14,000. The stacks
range betweenR$6,000 andR$17,000. The first four players fold to you. You have held
good cards and have played several recent pots. You hold
Th Td
and raise toR$600,
making the potR$1,125. The rest of the players fold to the big blind, who hasR$12,000
and who has played somewhat aggressively. He puts inR$1,000, making itR$600 to you. The
pot is nowR$2,125. Should you fold, call, or raise?
Answer: Let’s walk through our
criteria and see where we stand with this hand.
Your holding itself is very good. A
pair of tens is an underdog only to the top four pairs. Favorable. The reraise came
from the last player to act, and there were no other players in the pot. Favorable. You
will have position on the reraiser after the flop. Favorable. It costs youR$600 to
call, and there isR$2,125 in the pot. You’re being offered almost 3.5-to-1 odds to
call. Very favorable. The reraiser is known to be aggressive, and your recent activity
creates the appearance that you may be on a steal. Favorable. Both you and the reraiser
have plenty of chips in relation to the hand. Neutral to favorable.
Your first decision
here is pretty easy; nearly all factors are favorable, and you’re going to play the
hand. Your real decision is a tougher one. Are you going to just call, or are you going
to reraise?
You might think at first that with nearly all factors favorable, this must
be an easy reraise. But that’s not the case. A pair of tens is not really a great hand
for putting in a third raise, and how you want to handle the hand depends a lot on the
flop. If a couple of overcards appear on the flop, you’re in bad shape. If low cards
appear, you’re in great shape. I like to base my decision on my position and my chip
strength. If I’m out of position, I like to wrap the hand up quickly. If I have
position, I like to let the hand play out more slowly, so that my positional advantage
has time to operate.
My chip strength also affects my decision. It’s early in the
tournament, and I have plenty of time. The value of hands like jacks and tens drops in
this situation, since those hands often end in coin-flip situations against hands with
two higher cards. That also argues for playing the hand more slowly. Considering both
position and chip strength, I’d recommend a call.
Example No.2. Same table as before,
with the same structure of blinds and antes. Once again, you haveR$14,000. A couple of
players have a little more; most have less. The pot is againR$525 to start. You’re in
third position with
Ac Tc
The first and second players fold. You elect to call. The
fourth player folds, but the player in fifth position, withR$10,000, raisesR$1,000.
Since he is a new player who just joined the table, you know nothing about him. You
have been playing aggressively and have won several recent small pots. The players
behind him and the blinds all fold. The action is to you. The pot is nowR$1,725, and it
costs youR$800 to call. What should you do?
Answer: Let’s walk through our criteria
once more and see where we stand.
Your hand, Ac Tc, is a relatively weak holding for
third position. Your call here was a little frisky. Unfavorable. When your opponent
raised, there were still four active players behind him. That indicates some strength.
Unfavorable. You will be out of position after the flop. Unfavorable. It costs youR$800
to call, and there isR$1,725 in the pot, slightly better than 2-to-1 odds. Not as good
as last time, but not bad either. Slightly favorable. You know nothing about the
raiser. Therefore he knows nothing about you. The fact that you have been aggressive
lately is irrelevant, because he can’t know that, having just arrived at the table.
(Did you notice this?) He’s probably giving you credit for being conservative, since
that’s what most players do by default. Therefore he’ll imagine that your hand is
better than it actually is. Unfavorable.
Not much doubt here. All factors except for
the pot odds are unfavorable. Fold.
From Harrington on Hold'em Expert Strategy for No
Limit Tournaments: Endgame Volume 2 , by Dan Harrington and Bill Robertie.
