You'll be called on the flop, and if you bet the turn you'll be looking at a checkraise. If that's the case, you're probably better off releasing the hand at that point, since it is hard to envision anyone raising with a hand worse than yours, unless they are fond of bluff-raising. Since you just don't see too many bluff raises in lower limit games, you might as well assume you're beaten and save your money.
Other PokerStars players routinely raise in early position with hands like K-J or even Q-J. Some players always raise with Big Slick. Others, far fewer in number, treat A-K like any other drawing hand, and just call with it. Some players will raise with any pair of sevens or higher, and they'll do it from any position, regardless of the PokerStars game's texture.
Why Play with other PokerStars?
- Setting the world on fire isn't important. Learning and improving is. Keep moving forward. Baby steps will do. As long as you're making progress, you'll reach that point when you realize you're a poker player - a real one too, not a pretender. Even then, you'll have to keep learning. But it's much more enjoyable when your winnings are underwriting your hobby and maybe even your lifestyle.
- For those with a wagering interest in the outcome, Straghalis and Hee are both SoCal residents and I was fortunate enough to be on the winning team in two of the three events. Earlier in this event a hand materialized that ought to have gotten the "Suck-out of the Year" award, if we had such a category.
- But when you veered away from these polar extremes, your PokerStars opponent was put to the test by having to answer this question: Do you or don't you have the goods? And you know what, if you give your opponents a chance to make a mistake, he will make some. He will, I will, and every player who's ever lived will err in judgment. There's not a poker player alive who makes the right decision all the time.
While rules can be applied and the boundary lines between playable and unplayable hands can sometimes be crystal clear, they are often gray and fuzzy. After all, anyone -- even if he or she is playing for the first time -- can quickly learn to always play aces but never to play seven-deuce. That's not an issue.
The long run was not reached in this scenario either, since the big winner averaged $16.29 per hour in winnings (which is quite realistic for a $10-$20 hold'em PokerStars game) and the small winner won at the rate of only $5.36 per hour. Remember, since their playing characteristics were identical, even though they did not play as real players would, they had an identical statistical expectation.
Chan smiled as he turned over his hand. Johnny Chan had flopped a straight with the Jc 9c. Had Chan not bluffed, more than likely Seidel would have folded in the face of a bet from his adversary on the turn or the river. But Chan did bluff. In fact, he did it twice, once on the turn and again on the river and he reaped a handsome reward: his second consecutive World Championship.
