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Ace Speaks:
A Few Misconceptions in Poker (Part 1)
By Rolf Slotboom

When you're new to poker, you might like the game because it's so simple. You get two cards in the hole, there are five cards in the middle, best hand wins. Easy game, right? Wrong! If you want to become a top player, you'll find this isn't easy.

You might find that the strategies you've used when moving up the ranks (playing tighter than all other players, raising before the flop with pairs and big cards and folding everything else, either betting or folding after the flop, hardly ever calling and almost never chasing) are by itself not good enough in the higher-limit or pot-limit games. You'll find you'll have to mix up your game since the opposition is tougher; you'll find there is hardly ever a "right" or "wrong" way to play a hand and that situational factors become very important: who are you up against, what is your position, do people respect your play, have you been playing tight or loose, is anybody on tilt, etc. When at the table, you'll hear people make statements like: "You should have raised before the flop with those wired kings", "I had an open-ended straight draw on the flop, I had to play", or "Rocks don't make any money from me. When they're in a hand I simply fold every time".

In this article, I'll take a look at a few of those statements, more specifically those who are considered to be "true" by a large group of players, opinions that are conceived common wisdom, and statements made by poker authors which in my opinion are not completely accurate or may in some cases even be flat out wrong. Today I'll deal with the following statements: "If in limit hold'em you've got AK in the hole, you should raise", "In Omaha, only play after the flop if you have the nuts or a draw to it" and "Whenever a rock is in a hand, don't give any action: fold all marginal hands."

"If in limit hold'em you've got AK in the hole, you should raise." Contrary to most players, I often limp before the flop with AK (suited or not), rather than raise. I often limp when I'm under the gun (first to act after the blinds), since a raise might get the hands out that you actually want in (AT, KJ) and you'll often end up playing a three- or four-handed pot where you'll have to hit your A or K to win (people will call you down all the way with any pair, figuring you for AK or they may even bluff- or semi-bluff raise you out when the board comes with low cards). If you receive any help from the board after you've limped in from early position, you may be in perfect position for a check-raise on the flop or turn. When you do decide to raise before the flop, someone may three-bet you and you will be playing heads up, out of position against someone who might have two big cards also, but may as well have a big pair in the hole.

Another time when I quite often just call with AK, is when I'm on the button and there are three or four limpers in the pot already; because there are so many players in the pot you'll have to hit your hand to win: big slick hardly ever wins a multiway pot unimproved. When you flop something good you'll often get a lot of action (people won't figure you for such a big hand on the button since there was no raise) and if you don't receive any help from the board, you can simply throw away your hand for a single bet (also, the fact that so many players are in the pot already, may make the flop less likely to come with high cards, another reason to just call). However, if I've got AK in middle or late position with not many people in, of course I raise (I want to play the hand heads up in position, so I might win the pot unimproved, or I might even be able to win the blinds right away).

Another hand I sometimes limp with under the gun is KK (I want to see if an ace flops before I commit any further), however I never limp with AA (in order to reraise a possible raiser, an advice given by some poker authors). You want to play aces against just one or two opponents or against the blinds only, and since people will figure you for AK anyway (and thus call you down with a single pair), you might be able to win a big pot even when your aces don't improve.

"In Omaha, only play after the flop if you have the nuts or a draw to it." While this may be solid advice for most limit Omaha games (especially the low-limit games where most players like to call instead of fold or raise), at the higher limits (where the opposition gets tougher) and especially at pot-limit Omaha, this is simply not true. In limit Omaha, it is often good strategy to raise a bettor on the flop with a hand like top pair + kickers, a weak flush draw and a gutshot straight draw, when you figure your opponent for something like top two pair. (Steve Cappelletti advocates sometimes raising on the flop with rather weak hands or calling with "combination hands", see Cappelletti on Omaha or his columns in Card Player magazine). In pot-limit Omaha, you might try to break someone who is marked with aces with a lot less than the nuts (or a draw to it). Let's say you've made a small raise with 9876 and a rather predictable opponent makes a pot-sized reraise. You call, making the pot a heads up contest. When the flop shows Q72 rainbow and your opponent comes out firing, folding here would be a huge mistake when the money is deep (and especially when in position), even though all you have is middle pair. Another situation in pot-limit Omaha where you might want to continue with you hand after the flop (or even become aggressive with it) is when you have a hand that might be second best in two or three ways (that is, you have no nut outs). The combination of, let's say, top / bottom pair, weak flush draw + gutshot straight might make your hand a favorite however against almost any other hand heads up. Therefore, the advice given above may be correct for rather inexperienced players playing low-limit poker, when playing for the big bucks this strategy won't (by itself) get the money.

"Whenever a rock is in a hand, don't give any action: fold all marginal hands." While this statement is definitely true before the flop (when you see a rock limping in under the gun, folding that AJ or KQ in middle position shouldn't be hard to do if you're a serious player) and most of the time also on the flop or turn (if in pot-limit Omaha a rock has limped before the flop, there have been no raises and he starts betting the pot on a A72 rainbow flop, your wired deuces or sevens have nowhere to go except for the muck), it is most definitely untrue on the river. Rocks don't like to value bet marginal hands on the river, they just want to show down their hands; if they bet on the river their most likely hand is the nuts (or close to it) or a bust. Since it's hard to come up with the nuts every time, a pretty large percentage of the time a river bet by a rock will be a bluff. Even rocks decide to semi-bluff once in a while with their QJ suited when the flop comes with two of their suit. When they haven't improved on the river, they might (just like everybody else) feel forced to bluff for the pot one more time, plus they'll get away with this more often since people don't expect the rock to bet with nothing. Conclusion: do tighten up early in the hand whenever a rock is in, but don't fold marginal hands on the river all the time, expecting the rock to have you beat.

Some final words. In the second part of this article I'll take a look at a few other misconceptions in poker: "Big pots mean good games", "If there's a maniac/bully/highly-aggressive player in your game, sit on his immediate left" and "Professional players don't like to play shorthanded".

Take care, you guys, and good luck.