Success in poker depends to a large extent on how you manage to win pots without showing your winning hand. In the long run, all players will also receive good starting cards, respectively worthless. The differences are created exactly by judging by this aspect: some manage to win many pots without having to show the books. To achieve this you need the experience, aggressiveness and perfect reading of opponents and situations at the table.
Many experts believe that assembling chips without a showdown is the real secret to poker profit. Thus, some get to impose themselves on major tournaments, while others – who are too passive and wait too long for the river to reveal the power of their hand – struggle with mediocrity. Winning pots without showing your hand is not at all as complicated as most would think. Today we will stop at two basic strategies to help you in this endeavor.
Steal blinds more often
When people are thinking about how to win pots without a showdown, few consider that the easiest method is to achieve this goal before the flop. Each time such a move succeeds you will earn 1.5XBB. It seems like they will think enough, but in the long run such a play will give you a lot of chips without a fight.
The strategy gives you the opportunity to win with medium or marginal hands. You don’t usually want to play postflop. Let us imagine that you are resorting to such a tactic once during a mass tour. What happens? You have guaranteed that at that time you will not lose your stack due to blinds. More important is this approach at the end of tournaments; then, the files get a completely different value, and the strategy discussed is extremely valuable. At such times, you do not allow too many plays, each hand you enter can end with an all-in shove. In such conditions, being able to steal blinds from others is vital.
In parallel, if you start stealing blinds more often, you will build an aggressive player image. And the others will label you as a loose opponent and will at some point want to get in the starting card game below their normal range. The latter fact helps you enormously when you have a “monster”. The others know that you are used to “stealing” and they will be much more open to paying you. Which would happen far less often if you had a tight player image.
I said above that you have to use marginal hands when you want to steal the blinds, but these should give you perspective after the appearance of the common books. Do not use start hands like the J-4 offsuited or K-3. Such books do not give you perspective. Try to use suitable books or connectors to get an extra chance when you’re paid.
Why you should consider:
– which players are in the blinds: it is preferable to try to steal when the opponents in the blinds are tight and play only a limited palette of cards. They will drop the hand much easier than loose opponents.
– your position: the ideal place to use the strategy is the button, after those in front of you will be folded. Do not try this tactic from early position, because it will not yield.
Semi-bluff on the flop
The semi-bluff is an indispensable weapon in the arsenal of any poker player. When you bet with a hand that is probably not the best at the moment but has a good chance of improving later, it means that you are using a semi-bluff. This contributes to the creation of an aggressive image and mixes your game so that the opponents can not read easily.
The semi-bluff is another way to start earning more pots without a showdown. The strategy is simple: instead of going on the call, on the flop, try to increase it more frequently. Obviously, in situations where your hand offers perspective. Drawings – straight, but especially in color – give you excellent equity for this play.
Besides the fact that you will be able to win chips without a fight, with a weaker hand at that time, you will have the opportunity to control the pot. Let’s imagine an example: you have A cup – J cup on a flop 3 cup – 6 spades – 10 rhombus. This is a hand with great hidden equity: you can hope for the straight, the color, plus you have the option to complete the largest pair, by the appearance of any ace or valet, on the tower. In such a situation, an increase on the flop can often give you more ways to win the pot.
Sometimes, if you raise it here, your opponent will throw a better hand, such as a pair of sixes or an average pair in his hand. But even if the opponent
give call, you can place a new bet on the tower. Any cup or big card will be a stair card for the opponent, and you can open up new possibilities.
Obviously, the main purpose is to finish the action on the flop, but even if you are paid you have enough options to still win the hand.
In conclusion, poker is not a very difficult game to understand at first glance. Anyone realizes that he must raise with a pair of aces or he must fold when nothing has been completed. True art, which makes the difference between a good player and a mediocre player, is how you manage to win chips without a showdown. To succeed in convincing the other to give up a better hand, here is an objective that can be achieved with the two strategies discussed above.
