Poker Exercise #2 Pressure

Again with play money. Maybe 36 seat sng's. This is more fun than;

Poker Exercise #1 Table Awareness

If you do #1 first, this will be a welcome relief.

In this exercise You will raise or fold. The call button does not exist! Do not use it at any time! One caveat is when you get shortstacked and to call a bigger bet is all you can do.

Here you will notice what constant unrelenting pressure on your opponents can accomplish. Should you choose to raise every hand, and for a few of these runs you probably should, you will find what, and maybe how to put your opponents on tilt. It doesn't take long for those opponents, especially newer players, to get fed up with your BS, and fight back. Thing is, many times you will have the better hand as they often fight back with much less.

If you just play it conservatively, and play better hands, but RAISE instead of calling, you will probably find who is timid, and who is adventurous, and you should make note of that. You will also find yourself winning a lot of pots uncontested!

Avoid any all in bets, especially in the early goings. While this is play money, and there are many new players, also experimenting, a standard raise (in a money game) of 3x the big blind will seldom get the respect it deserves, so for this exercise in play money, use 5x the bb as your standard raise. If you are playing higher buy in play money you can probably drop to the 3x standard. Folks at higher levels can sometimes provide a very good game, and tend to respect standard (real money) play more than the low level buy ins.

If you get re-raised, and it is not all-in, consider a 3bet (re-raising the raise), but if possible, still do not go all-in. Here you find out if one of your tilted opponents is just fighting back or if they really have a hand.

If you get re-raised and have nothing but hot air, take a moment (dramatic effect) and fold.

Play around with raising. You might want to adjust your 'standard raise' in this case according to the table.

NEVER MIN RAISE! There are many caveats to this advice, but early in any game you leave yourself so wide open, that it is a negative thing to do. At a play money game it will have no effect. NONE!

Learn what effect your standard raises do have.

In general you want to explore these things;
- you raise to an amount where everyone folds - you win.
- you raise and get re-raised, and you re-raise and they fold -you win.
-You raise and they call, then when the cards come you raise and they fold -you win
-you raise and get re-raised and you fold- you lose
-you raise and they call, then post flop they raise and you fold - you lose.
-you raise and they call, then post flop they raise and then you raise - you win.

Don't worry much about the end of the game results. You are learning what raising does.

Try this using whatever the standard raise (that amount that will get most of your opponents to fold the most often) is, and note that as a percentage of the bb. (example, big blind is 30, your raise will be 3x (or 5x or whatever) times that 30. FWIW, the standard formula for a raise in a previously unraised hand is 3x (bb) + 1bb for every limper. So if you are 4th to act, and the first 2 players have called (limped) and the 3rd folded, you would, (using the 30 chip example) raise it 3x(bb) + 2x(1 for each limper) making your bet 5x, or in this case 150 chips.

Again, for this exercise, never call! Never relent! You are learning the power of pressure.

And don't forget to make notes of who called you, and with what, and who would be active in a hand if you aren't, and anything else u think noteworthy.

You don't need to play every hand, I would suggest you do stretch your own opening hand boundaries a little, to see what happens.

Have fun with this.

Fun stuff, txs.

great insight i realized this myself recently and it helps much in labeling your opponents