Your Main Poker Strategy
Your main strategy at High-Low will depend to a large degree on your ability to put your opponent(s) on a particular hand. That is, you'll have to make an educated guess about the quality of hand your opponent is likely to have. What will help you determine that factor (with a reasonable degree of accuracy) is your line on his play — which you'll adjust based on the position he's in.
For example, if you know that he's a solid player (by having carefully observed his play) and he gets in the pot in an early position, then you can safely assume he's in there
„ith a pretty decent starting hand. But, if that same player cornes in the pot raising from the steal position, you'll then make a different assessment of the kind of hand he's likely to have. In the first case, you wouldn't get in the pot with anything but a very strong hand because you'd know he's probably got a very strong hand also. In the second case, you'd probably loosen up your standards because you'd know he's a good enough player to be taking advantage of his (steal) position. But, even though you "know" what he's doing (ante-stealing), there'll be times when you'll just have to let him grab the antes simply because your hand at the time is just not playable (under any circumstances). However, there'll be other times when you'll "know" he's on the steal and you might try to re-steal the pot from him. Of course, re-stealing is a higher level of art than simply taking advantage of the steal position. So, whenever you play at that level of sophistication, you'll really have to "know your man" and your hand will have to have some Ouis.
On the other hand, if you're in the pot with someone who you know is a bad (weak) player, then you make the appropriate strategy adjustment. In this case, you can relax your standards somewhat and still be in there with a starting hand that's probably better than his. Or, even if you think this particular (bad) player started with a decent hand, but you know that he'll routinely call on Fourth St. if he catches a "Paint" (picture card) and you catch a good card. . .then, you can give him a play on Third St. even if you suspect your hand is marginal (let's say a 6-7-9) and is probably worse than his.
The reason you can give him a play ("gamble" with him) is because you wouldn't be giving up that much. In faet, if he's the type of player I've defined — one who'll routinely call on Fourth St. when he catches a Paint and you catch good. . .then you actually have the best of him — even though he may have started with a better hand than yours. Here's why:
A player who does that as a matter of course is violating a rule of High-Low Split that you must observe automa-tically (in almost all cases). In faet, it's a rule you must be a slave to. The rule is:
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General Poker Strategy Early In The Hand
You can consider that $15 ante normal. If the ante was jt you could also consider it normal. . .that is, not really low' So with a $10 ante, your game plan (strategy) would be basically unchanged.
However, if the ante was $25 in the $100 and $200 game.. .then you'd have to make some strategy adjustments. You'd have to start coming in more and play more aggressively (looser). You'd also have to try to steal more antes.. .a strategy you wouldn't be as much concerned about in a low ante game. Of course, you shouldn't interpret this to mean that you'd »indiscriminately take a shot at the antes. Never do that. Only go after the antes when you're in the steal position or when you've got a legitimaiely playable hand (both to be defined later). You've got to have some Outs when you're on the steal and get caught. Don't try to steal with a garbage hand when you're out of position.
What's more. . .once you get picked off, you must be able to put on the brakes. That's another big weakness in most High-Low Split players (and Poker players in general) —they don't know when to quit. It's a lot of people's downfall. Especially in High-Low Split. Don't get tied-on to a hand in the early stages. If you're going to get off a hand (get out of the pot). . .do it early.
You should also realize that as the ante gets higher, your ability to steal antes and the psychological aspects of the game become more and more important. Correspond-ingly, your technical knowledge of the game — that is, what to do against fairly well-known hånds — becomes less and less important as the ante increases.
As you can see, ante-stealing is more of an art than it is a science. But, there are guidelines you can use until you've perfected your personal art of ante-stealing. For example, let's say you have a Baby (a Five or lower) as your first up-card and it's the next-to-last Baby-card in-sight. You're in an excellent position to steal (actually called the steal position) because there's only one Baby-card behind you that you have to worry about. But, any time there's more than one Baby-card behind you, you must have a legitimate hand to play. It's usually not worth going after the antes then because the chance that you'll get called is too great.
Most of your ante-stealing situations will require a lot of judgment and a certain "feel" — both of which you acquire mainly through experience. That's why there's so much "art" to it. But, as you gain experience, you'll be able to search your memory-bank and you'll recall that a certain play worked in a similar situation. So you'll use that play again. And you'll wind up with the antes again. As in all judgment situations, your own experience will be a far superior guideline than any hard-and-fast rule.
Ante-stealing and other bluffing situations will be discussed again later when I'll give you additional guidelines you can use. I'll also show you (with specific examples) how to use the guidelines and how to get a "feel" for a particular situation so you can exercise good judgment even with limited experience. But, you should realize that any type of bluffing (or semi-bluffing) you'll do will only be a minor part of your overall strategy. As is true with any form of Limit Poker, whatever bluffing you do must be done with discretion. . .and cautiously. So now, I'll get on with what will be your main strategy and primary goal.
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