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I'm looking to consolidate some typical responses into a post that we can sticky.FAQ & General StrategyPlease comment here or sign up and edit.

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Did you put all the content up yourself?I think it would be great if there was a section on there with a load of hyperlinks to threads in here where there's been a lot of insightfull posting or hand comments etc.

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Did you put all the content up yourself?
It's currently all my text, but I hope we can change that.
I think it would be great if there was a section on there with a load of hyperlinks to threads in here where there's been a lot of insightfull posting or hand comments etc.
I think there's value there. I'd want to identify the parts of the discussion that are clever. I found some of the 2+2 "best of" inaccessible, because I was wading through some comments without particularly high value looking for the, uh, orchid of knowledge.
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Add:Levels of thinking:Level 1: What do I have? How will I play it?Level 2: What do I think my opponent has? How would he play it?Level 3: What do I think my opponent puts me on? How would he think I'm gonna play it?Level 4: What do I think my opponent thinks that I am putting him on? How would he think I think he's gonna play it?

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Add:Implied OddsImplied odds are different than immediate pot odds. They are a fluid concept that takes into account your read of your opponents hand, the odds of making a hand that beats their hand and the size relationship between their bet size and the pot as well as the remaining effective stacks.The simplest example would be if you hold 55 and you are 100% sure (we're never 100%, but he helps clarify the example) that your opponent has AA and will stack off on ANY flop. If he raises to $50 preflop in a 5/10 NL game and has a $1000 stack (which you cover) then this is a very profitable situation for you. You will flop a set rougly 1 in 8 times and stack your opponent. If you call the $50, you are getting implied odds of 20-1 ($1000-$50) which is much greater than your actual odds of outdrawing him on the flop which are about 8-1.Implied odds are most useful when you have a very sneaky hand like a small pair or suited connnectors (preflop) or a gutshot straight draw on a rainbow board (postflop) and you put your opponent on a very strong hand, such as a big pair (preflop) or a set or top 2 pair (postflop). To fully utilize implied odds, you and your opponents should have deep stacks in relation to any bets that you have to call.Reverse Implied Odds (RIO)The implied odds working against you when you make a strong hand that is 2nd best, yet if you outflop your opponent, you will likely not get paid.A good example of this is if you hold AQ vs your opponent's AK. If you both flop an A, you are likely to lose a lot of money since you are dominated. If the flop comes Q high, you will not be able to make any money from him unless he's bluffing at the pot. Hands such as KQo, AJo, ATo, and even AQ have very large RIO. Even AK has high RIO when you think there's a good chance that your opponent holds only 1 of 3 hands: AA, KK or QQ. In this situation, if you see a flop with them and you outflop their hand by hitting an A/K vs QQ or the A against KK, you will not get paid much if anything. However, if you're up against AA and you flop the K or the A, you will likely lose your whole stack.

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Add:Levels of thinking:Level 1: What do I have? How will I play it?Level 2: What do I think my opponent has? How would he play it?Level 3: What do I think my opponent puts me on? How would he think I'm gonna play it?Level 4: What do I think my opponent thinks that I am putting him on? How would he think I think he's gonna play it?
Added and amplified. Thank you.
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Added and amplified. Thank you.
You should modify what you added I think. It's good but it should specify that you want to know exactly what level he's operating on, but act one level deeper. Thinking one level deepr than him makes you wrong in all of your reads. You want to figure out what he thinks you're doing and then do the opposite.
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Great stuff, thanks. BTW I thought your title was "A Fagish Post" !!
Yeah, It was better before the forum software mangled it. FAQish looks a lot different.
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You should modify what you added I think. It's good but it should specify that you want to know exactly what level he's operating on, but act one level deeper. Thinking one level deepr than him makes you wrong in all of your reads. You want to figure out what he thinks you're doing and then do the opposite.
You might have to fix it.
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i would definitely put a section on EV - what it is, means, how to calculatei would also think the rule of 2 and 4 for determining your percentage to make ur hand based on out and whether there are 1 or 2 cards to come could be useful.i'm at work i'm sure you have a ton on EV but I could come up with something later if you like.

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i would also think the rule of 2 and 4 for determining your percentage to make ur hand based on out and whether there are 1 or 2 cards to come could be useful.
In Game Odds CalculationsIn general, you don't need to be able to know exact percentages at the poker table - a rough estimate will suffice. In Phil Gordon's "Little Green Book" he provides the rules of 2 and 4. The rule of 4 applies to the flop. If you take your # of outs and multiply it by 4, it gives you the approximate % to make the best hand by the river. Therefore, if you have a flush draw, you would have 9 outs. According to the rule of 4, this would give you approximately a 36% chance of making a flush by the river, which is close enough for in game purposes. The rule of 2 is the same idea, but it applies on the turn. If you have an open-ended straight draw (OESD) and have 8 outs, you will make your straight on the river about 16% of the time.
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i would definitely put a section on EV - what it is, means, how to calculatei would also think the rule of 2 and 4 for determining your percentage to make ur hand based on out and whether there are 1 or 2 cards to come could be useful.i'm at work i'm sure you have a ton on EV but I could come up with something later if you like.
I think you should write it up.Anybody want to write up a guide to floating? Having just recently lost my 5/10 virginity, it's not a move I make a lot.
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In Game Odds CalculationsIn general, you don't need to be able to know exact percentages at the poker table - a rough estimate will suffice. In Phil Gordon's "Little Green Book" he provides the rules of 2 and 4. The rule of 4 applies to the flop. If you take your # of outs and multiply it by 4, it gives you the approximate % to make the best hand by the river. Therefore, if you have a flush draw, you would have 9 outs. According to the rule of 4, this would give you approximately a 36% chance of making a flush by the river, which is close enough for in game purposes. The rule of 2 is the same idea, but it applies on the turn. If you have an open-ended straight draw (OESD) and have 8 outs, you will make your straight on the river about 16% of the time.
I think the 2/4 rule predates the Green Book by quite a bit.I might add:Note that this rule falls apart for a high numbers of outs when the odds of hitting twice become significant. For 13-15 outs with 2 cards to come, consider your chances about 50%.
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I think you should write it up.Anybody want to write up a guide to floating? Having just recently lost my 5/10 virginity, it's not a move I make a lot.
I'll do it. I should probably get some real work done inbetween here, but i'll have something for you in a bit.
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I'll do it. I should probably get some real work done inbetween here, but i'll have something for you in a bit.
Screw it, I don't want to work.Floating and Delayed Bluffs:A general definition of "floating" is when you call a player's bet postflop after flopping little or no hand at all. Floating and delayed bluffs are often associated, except that delayed bluffs usually have a more involved plan than a float does. Let's look at a couple of examples.Example 1: A good floating situationYou call a preflop raise with 55 or 67s or some weak hand after a player raises in MP. You call preflop because your hand has some value and because you have position. The two of you take a HU flop that comes down A72 rainbow. Your opponent bets 3/4 of the pot and you call. The turn is a 9. Your opponent checks, you bet 2/3 of the pot and he angrily folds QQ face up muttering about how lucky you are to catch the A on him.Your hand is very weak and likely not the best hand. You're not really drawing to anything here and you have no pot odds. So why did you call? The answer has a lot of layers. We called because we have position and the flop often misses our opponent. We called because our opponent will not likely fire a 2nd bullet as a bluff (or with QQ or TT) since it's impossible for us to have a draw on this board. Mostly we called because we are going to use our position to take the pot away if our opponent shows weakness. Think about it - we almost have to have an Ace here if we called his flop bet. Sometimes we are even slowplaying a set. Although we only have 1 weak pair or no hand at all, it will be difficult for our opponent to win this pot unless he actually has flopped the Ace and the whole reason that floating works is becuase you do miss the flop 2/3 of the time.Who and when to float:1. Float players who at least attempt to read hands. If your opponent will not fold KK because he waited for 3 hours to get that hand, don't try and make him lay it down becuase the A flopped.2. Float players who give up if they've missed and their continuation bet is called. If the board is T92 and you have 45 suited, this is a good time to float since your opponent often has 2 unpaired big cards and are only going to fire 1 bullet at the pot.3. Float on dry boards. The dryer the board, the better. Many opponents will fire multiple bullets if they think you're on a draw. If the board is totally dry, they fear that your flat call is more likely a trap or a made hand than it is a draw.4. Float weak tight players constantly. These players want and almost need a strong hand to continue and they will almost never make it. Take advantage of their tendencies and put them to tough decisions.5. In position and HU.6. Floating with some kind of draw (even a gutshot) is better than floating with total air.Who and when NOT to float and when to give up:1. Any board that is very likely to have helped your opponent is one where you should fold to their c-bet.2. Very aggressive opponents who do not slow down are harder to contend with becuase they often fire 2 or 3 bullets with nothing.3. Tricky players who will c-bet the flop and then check the turn to get in a check-raise with a strong made hand.4. Calling stations don't know how to fold. Remember, you're bluffing, so they have to be able to fold.5. Don't float when there are other players in the pot behind you who might actually have a real hand.6. Floating out of position is very difficult and should not be done often at all. It is tricky to play the streets as your opponent may check behind the turn for pot control, making it harder for you to represent the big hand that you wanted.Overall, floating is different than a delayed bluff because you give up more easily on floats becuase you don't necessarily have a strong hand to represent. Let's look at the difference.Delayed Bluffs:A delayed bluff is a bluff where you call on one street and bet or raise on another with the intent of representing a very strong hand.Example 1: Slowplaying "Trips"Your opponent opens from MP and you call in position with AQhh. The flop comes down KK3 rainbow. Your opponent bets 2/3 of the pot and you call. The turn is a 6. Your opponent bets 1/2 of the pot and you raise him 2.5x his bet. He folds.Why does this work? Well, delayed bluffs work because you have a big hand to represent and it's a hand that your opponent likely doesn't hold and cannot beat. In the example above, it's hard to put you on anything but Kx the way that you've played the hand. That's why delayed bluffs are often so successful - they are "transparent" in the sense that you're representing that you're playing a very strong hand in a very predictable manner. In the example above, unless you have Kx or a full house, there's no other hand that you would raise for value in this situation, so your opponent should probably fold any other hands, even as strong as pocket aces.Pitfalls:Delayed bluffs are expensive. You must call on one street and bet or raise on another, committing a larger % of your stack to the pot. As a result, you should pick your spots carefully because they must succeed fairly often as a result of the high risk-reward ratio.Don't be afraid to give up. Just because you called the flop with the intention of repping trips, doesn't mean that your opponent cannot hold them. If you get the feeling that he has the hand you're trying to represent, abandon the bluff attempt.Make sure that you have respect and the right image when running one of these plays. Also make sure that the play falls into line with how you'd play your other strong hands. If you're super aggressive and you'd always raise with KQ on a KK2 flop, then running a delayed bluff where you flat call against an observant opponent makes little sense since he'd already know that you raise the flop there with trips a high % of the time.Summation:Overall, these plays are much more advanced and are unnecessary in many lower limit games. If the players don't understand what you're doing, it's hard to make fancy moves like these. Delayed bluffs and floating are ways to win yourself the big pots without a hand by preying on weakness in your opponent. Players who make these plays regularly are some of the toughest opponents you will face because they force you to make a hand against them while playing out of position. Once you identify these tricky aggressors, the check/raise on the turn becomes one of your biggest and most profitable moves. Done with the correct frequencies, these plays make a player both highly profitable and unpredictable at the poker table.
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