Roy Rounder Tips

[KManDeuce]

Winny, you gave an indication along the way here that you're just passing some things along that someone you don't know wrote. And that you don't know a thing about his qualifications. Could you please give some indication, for my own peace of mind, that you also realize how much of it is utter and total crap?

[KManDeuce]

These are pretty good strategies because they really highlight the challenges of online poker:

1. Reading hands. I don't care what anybody says... reading hands online is MUCH harder than reading hands live. The strategy of making the same initial raise no matter what takes full advantage of this.

2. Ease of hit and running. It's pretty immoral, but also pretty effective.

I think what you meant is that it's nowhere near immoral and not the least bit effective.

[WinJStar]

Winny, you gave an indication along the way here that you're just passing some things along that someone you don't know wrote. And that you don't know a thing about his qualifications. Could you please give some indication, for my own peace of mind, that you also realize how much of it is utter and total crap?

I think his "expertise" on the subject is as valuable as any of ours. I always learn from all my opponents and from reading. Some of his stuff is worth the read.

Actually a lot of his last article made some sense to me.

[KManDeuce]

Question from reader:



Reply from Roy:


First of all, I noticed that you said, "My basic strategy is
to raise the same with every hand as to not giveaway my
hand."

This is brilliant. I often employ this technique myself,
because it keeps your opponents COMPLETELY off-balance...
guessing at what you're holding.

That's why I like to limp-in with suited connectors...

Wait a minute...which is it? Are we playing them all the same or are we raising sometimes and limping others?

[KManDeuce]

Reply from Roy:

You also brought up a great point about the value of hitting
trips when you wrote, "When I do hit my set I am taking his
whole stack."

This concept can be taken FURTHER...

In online poker, IMPLIED ODDS are a more important
consideration than in offline poker. The reason is because
of the common LOOSE-AGGRESSIVE style of play...

The key is to NOT "chase" your outs. Don't stay in a hand
and call all way down to the river with your draws... it's
not worth it. Bet the draw upfront, and if you get raised
just muck it.

Hold on...we need to focus on implied odds, but we're folding to any raise on our draw? We don't care how big the raise is? We don't care how deep our stacks are? We don't care if we have such a good draw that we're actually more likely to win than lose? Or that we may have fewer outs, but the amount already in the pot is laying us enough to continue? Really?

[KManDeuce]

And in your average Sit and Go, you'll probably only get a
pocket pair once or twice (or maybe a few times if you're
lucky) before the field gets down to three players.

Based on...???? Math? Or just a guess? Turbo? Regular? 6-player? 9-player? Etc. And why does it matter how often you'll get a pair in a sit-n-go to figure out the best way to play them when you do?

[KManDeuce]

So what I've found is that it's often better for me to
LIMP-IN with my pocket pair and hope for trips. If someone
makes a decent raise, I'll usually muck it unless I'm the
chip leader.

Being chip leader doesn't take nearly nearly nearly enough into account, does it? Other player's stack, how many left, how big of a chip lead, etc, etc.

[spaceboy761]

Based on...???? Math? Or just a guess? Turbo? Regular? 6-player? 9-player? Etc. And why does it matter how often you'll get a pair in a sit-n-go to figure out the best way to play them when you do?

I'm guessing that he's just throwing out anecdotal evidence. Doing the math would be easy for a high school student, but once or twice just seems really low unless we're talking about an uberturbo tournament.

[spaceboy761]

I think what you meant is that it's nowhere near immoral and not the least bit effective.

OK, how exactly is staying at a table for so long that everybody knows your betting patterns more profitable than constantly working on a fresh table? Even if you answer, "That's not a problem for me because I constantly switch up my style of play since I'm the greatest player ever.", the chances of giving a tell on a new table are zero by default.

As for the morality of hit-and-running, it's debatable. I've seen some pretty nasty fights break out over this in casinos and it's probably the issue that causes the most heat at the table. I always thought it was scummy but legitimate.

[spaceboy761]

Hold on...we need to focus on implied odds, but we're folding to any raise on our draw? We don't care how big the raise is? We don't care how deep our stacks are? We don't care if we have such a good draw that we're actually more likely to win than lose? Or that we may have fewer outs, but the amount already in the pot is laying us enough to continue? Really?

I think he's just saying that it's important to understand implied odds. Like any other EV play, there's still a point where you have to give it up if the raise is high enough. Of course, we care about raise size and position and a dozen other things... that's not what he's trying to get across.