I am a beginner and I am wandering if Mike Caro’s ‘Master Poker Player Strategy’ package is a good deal for $96. It contains the following:
1. Caro’s Fundamental Secrets of Poker (book)
2. Pro Poker Secrets (cassette)
3. Pro Hold’em Secrets (cassette)
4. Positive Poker (cassette)
5. Real-Life Strategy (cassette)
And 3 professional poker reports on Seven-Stud, and Hold’em. I am really interested in #5 (Real-Life Strategy) which is not about Poker but about how to apply poker strategies to your life. I would by the package if it also would teach me how to play better poker.
Answer 1:
I heard someone say that it was worth TWICE its weight in gold (unlike the competition which is only worth their weight in gold). A simple calculation should enable you to determine if its worth $96.
Answer 2:
Those are all very old products. The audio cassette tapes are not my
top work, because three of them were done in a single airing without a script. The one audio cassette that I believe has the most value for
many people is “Positive Poker.” But that doesn’t teach you anything
about strategy. It merely urges you to play your best game all the time. The “Real Life Strategy” tape is not up to the standards of my other lectures and writings on the subject — again, because it is unrehearsed. The other two cassettes have interesting tips, but you
can get this elsewhere in my writings. I don’t know which professional reports are included. If one is the Pro Hold ‘em Report, then that’s something that I believe in, despite its experimental nature, but others think the calling standards are too liberal on many hands. It deliberately varies from my most usual advice in an effort to provide built-in deception. It’s definitely a terrible starting point for beginners such as yourself. The two reports called “12 Days to Hold ‘em Success” and “11 days to 7-Stud Success” provide what I believe to be excellent exercises for beginners. The reports are all short, sometimes less than 30 pages, and they’re relatively expensive, at $19.95 each. The cassette tapes are probably priced fairly, I think, at $9.95 each, but — again — they aren’t my proudest work. The book is a good one, in my mind, and sells for $12.95. (Maybe $9.95). I’m not sure where this offer was advertised, but I vote “no” for a beginner — despite the moderate reduction in price.
Answer 3:
I have everything on the list and I can’t believe that my opinion is different then Mike Caro’s. The tape Mike cares the least for, I think is his best work. I think every person should have a copy, even if they’re not poker players. The tape Mike likes best is the only one of the four I don’t like, although I can see its value for some. The book is good, but I’ll tell you what I believe to be Mike’s best work
Book of Tells
Caro on Gambling
Real Life Strategy (tape)
Poker Plan 3 (report)
11 Days to Stud Success (report)
12 Days to Hold’Em Success (report)
Professional Seven Stud-Report
The game is 7card stud. All the cards are out. One player is all in. There is no side pot. The all in player shows a pair of queens. You have two small pair. The third player bets on the side. You fold. The bettor cannot beat queens. The all in player wins the pot and the bettor gets his last bet back. Did the bettor do something unethical?
Answer 1:
It took me a third reading before I understood the question. Basically, the bettor bet while knowing that he could not win the main pot. This induced you to fold, and you /would/ have won the pot. And there was no side pot before the final bet. (This is an important clarification.) No, it’s not per se unethical. If the bettor believed he could beat you, and that there was some chance you’d call, he stood to win a bet. On the other hand, if the bettor bet with the intent to force you out, guaranteeing the pot to the all-in player, that’s not unethical, either …
it’s flat out cheating.
Answer 2:
I’m puzzled. How is the bettor cheating if he does not stand to win anything? Assuming that his intent is indeed to force you out, if he fails to do so he loses his bet. If he succeeds in forcing you out, he gets his bet back but wins nothing. It would seem to me that he is cheating if and only if he is in collusion with the holder of the pair of Queens and is protecting that hand against a possible better hand that he is trying to force out. If he fails, the Queens lose and he also loses his one bet. If he succeeds he gets his bet back but the Queens win, and he gets his cut from the colluding holder of the Queens. So, he is cheating if and only if he is colluding with another player. But that, most of us would agree, is in itself enough to constitute cheating.
Answer 3:
As jeff wilder has pointed out, if the bettor thought that the third player (you) would call his bet with a hand worse than his, he made a legitimate play. The person who acted unethically was the all-in player, who exposed his hand before the action was complete.
I hope this is an appropriate forum but I need help clarifying a common rule in Hi-Lo type of games in home games. We play where players declare using the usual 1, 2, or 3 chips in hand. The three chips in hand means the player is going for both hi and lo. If a player goes both hi and lo, then he must win both to take the pot. My question is what happens to the pot if the player going hi and lo wins the hi hand but loses the lo hand or vice versa. For example, if player A goes both Hi and Lo and wins the Hi hand from Player B and loses the lo hand to Player C, does player C get the entire pot or is it split between B and C (even though B lost the lo hand.)
Answer 1:
I’ve played these two different ways. If the hi lo player declares both ways and loses one way then, in both versions, he doesn’t win any part of the hand. In one version his hand does not exist. The person with the next highest high hand wins high and the best low hand wins low. In another version, if he loses high then there is no high hand winner. Low wins it all. There is another variation. In some games, a player must win outright both ways to win with a high low declaration. If he ties either way or both ways he loses everything. Frnakly, I prefer to allow high low declarers to win even if they tie. So if they win high and tie low they win 3/4 of the pot, not zero.
Others disagree. Either is fine as long as the group understands it. Oh, and there is one other way to play this great home game. One group I play in doesn’t allow ties at all. In the Stud or Hold Em games we must go to the sixth or seventh card to decide the winner. In high games, if there is a tie, then you look at who has a higher sixth card. They win. I think it is a terrible rule but some swear by it.
Answer 2:
One clarification that we used to make is that if the declarer lost either hand, then he has no claim to the pot. The pot would then be dealt as follows: Half automatically goes to the end that he lost on.. (If he pigged and lost the lo, frinstance, the lo would get their share.) The other half (in this case, the hi), would go to the next best DECLARED hi hand would get the hi end. If no one else had declared Hi, or it was heads up…it all goes to the winner of the Lo..Case closed.
Answer 3:
Each local group generally decides on its own ‘house rules’. As you can probably tell from the different answers other have already posted, there is no one ‘correct’ way to clarify this situation. For what it’s worth, my group rules that if you declare hi-lo you must win or tie in each direction. If you lose in either direction, you are out of contention for the pot and your hand is treated as if it had been folded (there are exceptions). The pot is then split in the usual way between the other players left who have declared hi or lo. Here is one example of an exception: two players left, both declare hi-lo, player A has a better hi, player B has a better lo; they would split the pot.
In the big blind would you call a raise from a solid aggressive player (up front) with 9-9 if all others folded? What hand would it take to call? How bad could it be? My own approach here is to fold or reraise.
Answer 1:
There are 1326 possible two card combinations (including suits). The opponent you’re describing could be raising with pocket AA-TT’s (30 of the 1326 possible starting hands), additionally he may be raising with 88 AK AKs. AQ AQs. AJs. KQs.(46 of the 1326 possible hands).The pot is laying you 3.5-1 and it is more likely than not you presently have the best hand!! Easy call.
Answer 2:
I would not fold here and I don’t think the hand is good enough to re-raise which could invite still another raise. There are 3.5 bets in the pot and it costs you 1 bet to take a flop. While you are a huge underdog to a larger pocket pair, you are a favorite over two big cards. If your opponent has two big cards, there are many favorable flops for your hand where your pocket Nines are an over pair to the board. In addition, even if the flop comes Jack high or ten high you can still have the best hand. The point is that you can occasionally get aggressive when you catch a good flop or you can sometimes play it like a little girl by checking and calling with your opponent betting your hand for you.
Answer 3:
While I would call, it is a lot closer than others seem to think. Yes you would call if you knew that he had aces. The implied odds make it worth it. However if you only knew he had a very good hand your implied odds go down since you won’t make as much on average when you flop a set. Though less important you also won’t know when he has flopped a set. Said differently, if you are only calling with the intention of flopping a set or getting out, your call has a small negative EV. It is only because you will sometimes win without flopping a set that swings the play to one that is very slightly positive (against tough tight raisers.)
Are flukes, trash pairs, collection, and rake insurmountable in lowest limit poker?
Answer 1:
That depends, but many of the lowest limit games are still beatable, although I’d hate to depend on that for my livelihood. At least this is the case in California. Even though the rakes can be high as a percentage of the action, usually the quality of play at least partially
compensates.
Answer 2:
Collection and rake are big relative to the stakes. Without stating exactly what game you are talking about its impossible to know how hard it is to beat. 1-2 HE raked 10% to $4 with a $1 jackpot drop is significantly harder to beat then 3-6 raked 5% to $3 and no jackpot. Insurmountable in lowest limit poker depends on the game. There are many cases of low limit games (up to 10-20) that are beatable.
Answer 3:
It depends on what you mean. Can you regularly show a profit in these games? Absolutely, but with a rake of 2 big bets or so per pot, even with a poor lineup you can’t reasonably expect to make more than a couple of big bets per hour on average (this assumes your level of play is much higher than your opponents). Let’s see…exceptional play…three big bets per hour after rake…$6. No it’s not something you can live on, but you can probably make lunch money. Of course this assumes you’re much better than your opponents and if that is the case, you could probably move up to higher limits. Depending on where you play, your opponents may actually be worse, especially if the 1-2 game is full of retired rocks. The rake to bet ration is lower and players are likely to be just as bad or worse, so the only negative would the size of your bankroll.
I plan to take a trip to Vienna in the near future. I would be interested in playing in a tournament or two (I prefer no limit HE events) while I am there. Can anyone provide me with information on where to play, types of tournaments available, etc.? I would also be interested in information on ring games that are available.
Answer 1:
There are two card rooms in Vienna.
Answer 2:
In Vienna there are two main poker clubs – The Concord and Poker World. They both are open 24 hours, have lots of cash game tables, and run regular tournaments with buy-ins ranging from ATS100($8) to ATS500 ($40). The $40 tournaments usually have a prize pool guarantee of ATS100, 000 ($8,000) and are run on Tuesdays & Saturdays at 7:00 pm at the Concord and Fridays at 8:00 pm at Poker world. The concord is known for regularly having ATS100-200 Stud and HE tables running, while Poker world has lower limits usually 20-40, 30-60 and 50- 100. Both offer Pot Limit Omaha, typically with 2 blinds of ATS 50 and a buy-in of ATS 2000. The Omaha games come and go, depending on the mood of the players at the time. Best times are tournament nights as well as Monday nights, don’t ask me why. There are also government-run casinos in Vienna, Velden, Baden, Seefeld, Bregenz, Innsbruck, and maybe other places as well, but these have limited hours, limited number of tables, the rakes are high, the toke expectation is ridiculous and the personnel treat you like you are there to serve them and not the other way around. I personally avoid these like the plague. I think another poster gave the websites of the above casinos. In addition there is http://eppa.bigfoot.com which is the site of the European Poker Players Association (EPPA) – worth checking out.
Answer 3:
For a list of upcoming major tournaments in Austria and the rest of Europe, go to <http://www.yeayou.com/pokertour> This is a travel website I operate for major poker tournaments in Europe (primarily) with descriptions of the events. I haven’t updated in several weeks, but will add the busy fall schedule descriptions soon.
Can anyone explain to me why you cannot play AQ unsuited from the middle position with 4 or more callers when it is ok to play hands such as 98 and T8s? Is it because if you hit two pair, somebody is bound to have made straight?
Answer 1:
From your title I’m guessing that you’re thinking the Jones book recommends folding AQo from middle position with 4 or more callers. But, the book doesn’t say that. On page 38 there is a small summary end-of-chapter table where AQo is omitted in the 4 or more callers category. The same table says raise if 3 or fewer callers and call if someone has already raised. The text of the short, two page chapter says that you should play that hand and usually should at least think about raising. I’m guessing that there was an error in that summary table. Don’t pay so much attention to the details of tables of hands — think about what the book says instead. I really mean that — most readers pay way to much attention to lists of hands and just don’t think about what the book is saying.
Answer 2:
Basically because 98s and such hands play well multiway, whereas with AQoff you want to narrow the field as much as possible to give your hand a better chance of holding up if you make a decent, but not great, hand.
Answer 3:
I’m not sure if Lee Jones in fact recommends folding AQ in this situation, will look it up. If yes, he’s nuts and I didn’t notice. Anyway: For a single bet, AQo can be played from ANY position, regardless of number of players 1in the pot. If QQ, KK, AA or AK is not in there, AQ will make good EV (even against JJ). If there was a raise which strongly indicates a possible dominating hand (one of the above), it becomes a must dump. If the raise is loose, AQ should three-bet (regardless of the number of players!). There are players though who open-limp early with their strongest hands, but don’t play AJ and friends utg at all. Against these rocks AQ is dumpable for a single bet. Whether to play AQ or not is not really an issue. HOW to play it is much more interesting subject.
What are the stats you should keep to track a bad run of cards. A bad run of cards can shake you off of a potential winning strategy. Let’s say you are using HPFAP, Lee Jones or Lou Krieger starting requirements How many hands BASELINE (I realize you are sliding up and down the scale based on circumstances) Would this be a valid stat: Number of flops seen per hundred? What are other indicators? I am just interested in preflop play
Answer 1:
Well, if you see zero flops in a hundred hands, you have certainly gotten unlucky for starting cards, but you’ve lost relatively little, only about 4.5 small bets. It’s when you’re getting a bunch of good starting hands and they’re not holding up that you lose a lot of money. You could keep an informal track of how many AA’s and KK’s you get and whether they hold up. However, it’s a waste of mental energy.
Answer 2:
Since we only use, what, 3 or 4 percent of our brains for thinking, how can anyone possibly waste mental energy? I tracked a session once when I went 1 for 14 with my premium hands. It’s just something I store in my tiny but under-utilized brain for occasional amusement, and reminders that “it could always be worse.”
Answer 3:
It makes no difference at all what percent of your brain you do or don’t use. Thinking is tireing. Thinking about things that don’t matter is a waste of mental energy because it tires your out and gives you no return. If you’d spend less time at the table thinking about things that don’t matter and more time thinking about things that do matter then your game would improve.
