Learning No-limit hold 'em poker

No-limit hold 'em Poker is not what most people initially expect it to be. They would like to see a more predictable game where the best starting hands win. It is more true with people who have been playing other games like chess. But no-limit is a very different game. Due to Poker on TV and multi-million dollar prizes, no limit is the most popular variant of poker played (online and offline). Its not easy to find a $1-$2 limit hold 'em game.


No-limit hold 'em is a totally different game compared to limit hold 'em. Most books will have to start somewhere and hence would start with an over-simplified version. Some even simplify it to a single table to remember! New players who follow all the "good advice" will soon realize that things are not going as they expected. At the same time you can see that some players who do not know any theory (but have a "feel" for the game) make more money.


I like to think of poker as the combination of 3 things. Cards (hole cards & board), Chip stack (money on table, bankroll, etc) and Opponents' tendencies.
Among these, probably cards are the easiest to explain. There are a set of card combinations, winning percentages, odds, outs and so on that keeps repeating. It is a lot easier to explain these concepts (that are already complex enough for a beginner), if you ignore the effect of stack sizes and opponent dispositions. Thats what most books do.

Even by following these "rules", the winnings keep fluctuating, mostly leaving the player, more or less even. Most players blame that on luck and continue.
Some experienced players advise beginners to play according to these "rules" because thats what they expect everyone to do. Things go terribly wrong when someone disrupts this "understanding". But the "good theoretical players" would console each other and blame it on a foolish player who does not know how he is supposed to play, and got lucky.

This game is about winning more money, not winning more hands. Winning more hands may not win you more money. In No-limit you are playing to take all the chips of the opponent(s). This changes the list of things a player has to consider to be a long term winner. Chips stacks and opponents' tendencies become all the more important. It does not matter if you lose (small) with pocket Aces, if you win big with 56 suited! So you can see pros playing all kind of hands in different ways and still winning. They don't seem to follow any rules!

Most books just explain about "short stacks" and "big stacks" briefly, because stack sizes add another order of complexity to the game. It will take some time for a player to get a feel of how others' stacks affect his winnings. Then, to top it all, the human factor adds yet another order of complexity to the whole game!!!

Phil Helmuth (11 WSOP poker bracelet winner) says that, "No-limit hold 'em is 30% about cards and 70% about players".


Most people play poker for fun and would not want to put in all the mental effort to make good decisions. The basic math and observation required itself is too much for most recreational players, let alone fine tuning their calculations for human factors. So they either just rely on luck and learn to live with the losses by playing low limits OR learn it, by feel & experience or from books & experience.


No matter how you get there, if you want to be a long term winner in no limit hold 'em, you will have to understand pot building, effect of chip stacks and understand players. Eventually everybody will get good and bad cards. If you consistently make more money, than what others would with winning hands, and lose less money than what others would when you are beaten, you will make a profit.

More on how to do these in a later post...

$1000 weekend

Another small step in Poker. I played for about 10 hours during the weekend to win more than $1000.

I played 3 sessions (Fri, Sat & Sun) of about 3 hours each. 1-2 No limit Texas Hold 'em with at least 7 players and an average stack of $200. After the first session when I cashed out for $500 I thought that I was just being lucky and it would even out soon. So I went back the next day and was able to repeat the same. On the 3rd day I got a little unlucky and I lost my initial buy-in in the first hand (Pockets Aces) when somebody hit his set on the flop. But the rest of the night was better and I cashed out for $500 third time.

Most people play loose on these small stake tables. 4-6 players see the flop every hand. I play very tight but get called anyway. So even though I play only a couple of hands in an hour, I can pretty much double up every time I hit.
Now since people have started noticing me, I have to mix up my game a bit to confuse them. Its fun when you keep winning :)

Another small step in my Poker journey

Yesterday I won 2 Poker tournaments back to back. I was placed first in the first tournament and second place in the following one. This felt very good because many senior players play in this tournament. This time I felt like I was playing well and kept on playing "by the book".

This No-limit Hold 'em tournament is conducted by the National Poker league. Now I am ready to go the Regional tournament and make some money :)
All the investment in reading books is finally paying off. Now I have taken up the books like "Mathematics of Poker", "Theory and Practice of Poker", "Small Stakes Hold em", etc. Lets see how it goes ;)

Won my first Poker tournament

Today I came first in a local poker league game. I had been looking forward to this day for more than a month.

I started playing poker after I bought the XBOX 360 and the World Series of Poker game. Then I found the National League of Poker. They conduct poker tournaments at the local pubs. About 30-60 players show up for each of these tournaments. I have come second and third many times. In fact I came third on my first day. But I could never make it to the first place.

I watched others play and read articles on the internet. Then I read the 3 volume series by Dan Harrington and the Poker tells book by Mike Caro. The books were a good start but I had to adapt to the style of the local players. The books are typically written for professional high stakes tournaments. I have to read the books at least a couple more times to grasp all that content. I also have to practice more to calculate pot odds and card outs faster so that I can observe the other players better.

But today, even with my basic level skills and some luck, I made it all the way to the first place!

Trailer of CET 96 Reunion 2006, Las Vegas

My first home video using iMovie and iDVD... 10th year reunion of the 1996 batch from The College of Engineering, Trivandrum, Kerala, India. Held at Las Vegas. Attended by Abey Mullassery, Bijoy P, Ganeshram, Girish P, Gopal Ashok, Mahesh C, Musthafa, Rajesh H, Rajkumar R, Sangeeth C, Sandeep, Shebeen Usman, Vinod Mohan, Vinod N, etc.

Indian genes would take care of their population explosion problem soon.

The Indian Killer Belly!

www.littleindia.com/news/139/ARTICLE/1390/2006-11-12.html

Indian men, no matter where they live, have one of the highest rates of heart disease in the world, even if they have low levels of traditional risk factors such as cholesterol. In fact, even non-smoking vegetarians under 40 who exercise regularly may be at high risk.

Under mainstream standards, a BMI of 25 is considered normal, 25-30 is considered overweight and more than 30 is considered obese. Says Enas: "Indians have a tendency to collect fat collectively in their abdomen. Women have a tendency before menopause to collect the fat in their thighs and buttocks, not in their bellies. But after menopause the fat distribution is different, and they have a tendency for abdominal obesity at earlier and lower weight. So the cut point for Indians is different. A BMI of 23-25, which is normal for Americans, is considered overweight for Indians and 25 becomes obese."

With population explosion taken care of, will the real estate prices drop?!?

Will it affect outsourcing to India?!! :D

A series of unfortunate events!

Ram, a colleague of mine, whose real name shall remain secret, made a 4 month trip to India. Before he left, his friend advised him to move his things to a storage place and save rent for 4 months. Ram thought that it is a good idea and told the apartment staff that he wanted to move out. But according to the lease, he had to give a 60 day notice or pay the equivalent rent. So he paid $1300 and an additional $600 for leaving the place in a mess. He did not have enough time to clean it up or move the furniture since this was a last minute plan.

After Ram left, as promised, his friend moved his things (single bedroom furniture) with the help of some movers ($700) to a storage place that charges $200. But he could not move Ram's car on the same day. So he left the car keys with the apartment staff and told them that another friend of his would come and take the car. Now the apartment staff knew that the car did not belong there. His friend did not show up for the next couple of days and they towed his car away to a far away yard. When his friend came to know about it, he tried to get it back but they would not let anyone other than the owner to retrieve it.



So Ram had to get it himself when he returned. He went multiple times to his old apartment office but after such a long time they had lost the keys. So he had to go to the car dealer to make a new set of keys for $50. He took the new key to the towing yard but the key did not work. So he went back to the dealer again. This time the dealer realized her mistake and made the correct one.The towing place charged $1100 for keeping the car for so long. After getting his car, he went to get his furniture. His friend had put his things in a far away storage even though there were many cheaper places within a mile. He negotiated with some movers to move his stuff for $200. Later, the movers called him from the storage place because his friend had not paid for the storage and the staff over there was furious! So he had to go to the storage place, settle his bill and get the stuff.

Rent for 2 months instead of the notice period - $1300

Cleaning and carpet replacement charges - $600

Movers and storage far away - $900

Towing yard charges - $1100

Duplicate car keys - $100

Hotel for 10 days while you find a new place - $800

Movers to move back your stuff - $200

Friends that help you with free advice and shoddy work - PRICELESS!