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I am going to tell you about a interesting game called Blind Stud. Sometimes called Mike and Racehorse, this is a form of speel poker in which all the cards are dealt down, but there is no draw. It can be played with five, six, or seven cards. The average winning hands are about the same as for Five-, Six-, or Seven-Card Stud.
In the seven-card form, each player receives three down cards before the first betting interval occurs. Down card, bet. Down card, bet. Down card, bet. Final down card, final bet. The staying requirements are the same as for Seven-Card Stud.
In the six-card form, each player receives two down cards before the first betting interval. Down card, bet. And so on until six cards are down. The staying requirements are the same as for Six-Card Stud. In this game, never call on low two-card straights and flushes.
In the five-card form, each player receives two down cards before the first betting interval, and the game proceeds as in the six-card form until each active player has five down cards. The staying requirements include any pair, two high cards, or an ace with a middling card.
Generally, Blind Stud buds good pots, but it is of course more of gamble than the regular stud forms. Also, it doesn't give the expert as much opportunity for card analysis and strategy.
As I know, if you draws to an 8-high hand, that's another sign of poor poker play. Study the strategy for draw poker, lowball before entering any game at the California clubs.
In the lower-limit games you'll find more bad players than in the games with a higher limit. The more money at stake, the better will be the competition.
The California games are good places to get your feet wet in competition speel poker online. The rentals aren't much of a cut, and the stakes are pretty low. As you improve, get into bigger and bigger games, and when you've mastered all the limit games in California, go for the high-stakes games in the Nevada casinos.
One final word. In the poker clubs, though it's perfectly legitimate and patrolled, you’ll be playing against strangers, strangers who will be handling the cards during the deal. Be alert and cautious. I'm always careful when playing among strangers, no matter where or under what circumstances.
Getting a fix on an opponent's patterns at poker is an ongoing 4ynamic search. It continues as long as we play the game. We are looking for two things: Pattern of play and pattern of deception. (I play with a man who raises with a pair of tens. The player does the same for 10-jack suited). We also need to get a fix on those players who will raise on less than premium hands, and it's especially important to discover what position means to them. For instance, will they raise on K-Q off suit in middle position? How about A-J off suit?
I remember a hand I played with Ralph. Ralph is a position-conscious poker player who would not think of raising in an early position without a premium pair. I put a reliability factor of 95 percent on my judgment of his position play. I was next to last and called on a five-six suited. Ralph raised in the big blind. When the play got back to me it was six-handed, so it made sense for me to call the raise, especially since I felt I knew exactly what Ralph had. For him to raise two places to the left of the button (big blind), he either had a pair of aces or kings. It was even unlikely that he had a pair of queens. The flop came 3-4-7 in three different suits.
Naturally Ralph bet and I as well as two others called.
On fourth street, he bet again and I raised him and other man who had turned two pair re-raised. Ralph still called, and I, of course, re-raised. Ralph also called the final bet. My point is that because of his previous play, a fellow player and I knew exactly what Ralph had in his hand. That is the kind of pattern information we need to win the most money. It's also the kind of information we need to keep our play from being too readable.
Whatever games we play in, we need to pick up the clues at are given to us. Some players will have a high reliability factor and others will vary their play enough so that you won't get much of a fix on them.
Tells are great to discover, but careful observations of the patterns is even more profitable. Watch carefully for the pattern of play and the pattern of deception.
Suppose, in a $10-maximum game of poker, you've won $400. All right. You're a big winner and have reached the outer limits of your expected win. However, the cards are still going your way. You now invest 20 percent of that $400, $80, and if you lose that $80, you're out of the game, no ifs, ands, or buts.
In other words, you're allowing a retreat of no more than 20 percent of your winnings, with the expectation that you will be able to win even more money. If your good fortune continues, stay in the game. If you win another $100, then again use the same principle of continuing to gamble with 20 percent of your total winnings. Now you have a $100 leeway. Keep going until you lose that 20 percent, and then get out.
You may find yourself ahead $800. In that case, you play on till you lose $160 of that money. What happens if you never lose that 20 percent but keep winning? Then keep playing as long as you can keep your eyes open. You're heading for a magnificent win, a beautiful session of poker-take full advantage of it.
This is a "stop-loss" system, the same method used by in¬vestors in the stock market, who, after having a stock rise, set loss limits against their profits by automatically selling out at certain prices. This method allows us to let our winnings ride and limits our losses from those winnings.
