Your position at the poker table is an important determinant in strategy decisions. Always consider how many players will act after your calls, bets, or raises, and how they might respond to your plays.
Players acting under the gun, that is, first, are in the weakest position. They not only have the least amount of information about how the opposing players are playing their hands, but they are also most vulnerable to raises and reraises. The result is that early position players must play a more conservative and cautious game. On the other hand, the player who acts last is in the best position. He gets a read of the entire table before acting on his hand, knows the action he is facing, and can adjust his strategy accordingly.

Players in the last position have leverage and flexibility. They can play a more aggressive game than early and middle position players. With the appropriate hands, last position players are in an excellent position to raise or bluff opponents out of the pot. Using their favorable positions, they can steal more antes than any other spot at the table. If the action is light, they have the luxury of watching all the preceding action and coming in cheaply without fear of a reraise, since their wagers will cap the betting for that round. If a bet and raise precedes the turn and they are facing a double bet with a marginal hand, it is easy to fold without cost.

The deeper the player's position is, the more playable a marginal hand is.
On the other hand, a player holding a marginal hand in an early or middle position has no such choice. Perhaps he feels his hand is worth a bet, but certainly not two bets or more. The problem is that he cannot wait to see what happens. If a blind or bet precedes his position, forcing him to call or fold, and several or more opponents follow his position, he's in a vulnerable spot with a marginal hand. This position is susceptible to any of the succeeding players raising that bet, and even reraising.

If a marginal hand is worth just one bet, a player cannot take the chance of getting raised behind his position, and being whipsawed between several forces betting and raising each other. Thus, due to this vulnerable position, the correct play is to fold the marginal hand. Marginal hands are worth a play only at a marginal cost. The deeper the player's position is, the more playable a marginal hand is. As a general rule in borderline situations, go out with bad positioning and stay in with good positioning.

HELPFUL HINT
In dealer's choice games, the most advantageous games for the dealer to play are hold 'em, Omaha, and draw poker because of the special positional advantages the dealer holds in these games.

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There is a misconception among many players that winning more pots equates to being a bigger winner at the tables. In fact, the opposite is true! Weaker players tend to win more pots than stronger players because they're playing too many hands. Naturally, the more hands you play to the end, the more hands you will win, but that doesn't make for more profits. Every pot contested comes at a cost. When you contest many and lose many, it leads to a mighty bad day.

As the pros say, life is one long poker game. The goal is to win money, not pots. There is a significant difference between the two. After all, at the end of a poker session, you're not going to measure your results by how many pots you won. You probably won't even know the number. Neither will anyone else in the game. Nobody ever asks you how many pots you won, just simply, "Did you win?" Winning money is what counts in poker—the final result. And winning money should be your goal.

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Sometimes you're dealt playable starting cards; sometimes you're not. Obviously, in the first case, you'll play the playable hands and see where they take you as the deal goes on. But in the second instance, where your cards are not promising and you're a big underdog, the proper strategy is to fold.

Too many players start out a hand with weak cards that have little hope of improvement. They will initiate bets, call other player's bets, and even put themselves in situations where they can be raised and have to cough up yet another bet—all this in situations where their hand doesn't warrant a single bet in the first place!

The object in poker is to have the best hand at the showdown, which means that to win you must enter into the betting with hands that have a reasonable chance of winning. You won't win every hand you enter. If you did, there would rarely be any opponents contesting those pots. You must however, win enough money in the pots you do win to cover the losses from other pots you fall short in. To make this a mathematically sound pursuit, you need to bet, to some degree, in proportion to your winning chances. On a simplistic level, that means betting whenever you have a reasonable chance of winning, and folding when you don't.

The biggest mistake weak players make is to play too many hands. They're hypnotized by the action and don't want to miss any opportunities of catching a card that can make their hand a winner. Weak players will call bets and raises with inferior hands, endlessly waiting for a golden card that will take them down the yellow brick road. Now and again, underdog hands will draw out to win pots, but the wizard won't always be there, and that type of play will ultimately result in heavy losses. You have to avoid the temptation to play poor starting hands just for the sake of getting action. If you're playing to win, you must be selective in the cards you play.

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Winning money in poker is not just about winning pots. In fact, being an overall winning player probably has more to do with losing less when your cards don't come in the running than it has to do with the pots you win when you have the best hand! Many players don't appreciate this concept. Despite winning enough pots, they can't understand why they keep leaving the table with losses.

Folding when you're beaten at the table is one of the most important concepts in poker. More money is lost by players who consistently make bet after bet in clearly losing situations than in possibly any other aspect of poker. Every extra bet you contribute to an opponent's pot is a bet out of your stack.

It's as important to make good folds in poker as it is to make good bets.
To be a winner at poker, you must hold your money dear and value it like gold. There are good bets in poker, and there are bad bets. If you can cut the number of your bad bets in half, right there, you will probably have turned the tide. You'll be turning losing sessions into winning sessions, and small winning sessions into larger winning sessions.
Never lose sight of this concept when you're playing. Do not play with cards that cannot win. This principle holds true at all points of the game in poker. When you lose, you should lose on hands you thought would be winners or which gave you good odds to play out as an underdog. Never lose on hands on which your odds of winning aren't worth the bets you're making, because you shouldn't even be playing them.

Folding when you're out of the running is precept number one if you're going to be a winning player. Folding bad hands will make you more money in the long run than any other type of strategy you can pursue. This thinking should not be interpreted as advice to play like a rock, or to exit pots just because your hand is a dog, or to bet only when you're in the lead. Far from it. Smart poker play is balancing bets with chances of winning, and that includes playing for pots when you're strong, when you're trailing, and sometimes when you're weak.

When you do play second best or worse hands, it should be because they give you good value—your long term expectation is to win money in that particular situation. You may be an underdog in a hand, but if, overall, playing this type of hand gives you more profits than losses, you should play it. Playing only good hands will mark you as predictable, and playing too many bad hands will bury you in losses. For the best result, you must strike a balance in between the two extremes.

How do you know when staying in a hand is a correct play? It's not always easy to figure out just what the right move is in a game, even with hindsight, but that's what makes poker so fascinating. Experience and study will get you in the right direction.
Your goal in poker must be to win money.

Having 96 constant action and being part of every pot is a losing strategy. By definition, it means you're playing in too many pots, with too many inferior hands, for too long. This is not a winning strategy. At the least, you need to start with cards that can win. Let's look at that concept now.

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As with everything, being "good" at poker is relative. You may be a winning player at $5-$ 10, but if you moved your chips to a $50-$ 100 game, you might get eaten alive. Similarly, while you may be a good basketball player at your local park, or a good chess player in your local club, if you started playing against the pros, you'd be lucky to be thought a scrub. Even the pros you might encounter wouldn't be good enough to be on the court with Michael Jordan or across the board from Garry Kasparov.

The point is, you can't win at poker unless you're playing against competition at or below your level. If you play over your head, well, you'll be over your head. The game will be a one-sided affair, and you'll be on the losing end. So, rule number one, play with players you can beat. Don't be a patsy for players who are just too good for you. Don't play at a higher stakes game unless you're able to beat the level of game you currently play.

The converse of that statement holds true as well: if you're unable to beat the level of game at which you currently play, don't move up a level thinking your "luck" will change. The only thing that will happen is that even better players will take your money at a faster clip. You'll be over your head. Move down instead. Get to a level where you can swim. You want to be the shark making money, not the fish being eaten.

For example, if you're at a $15-$30 game, and you're constantly taking a beating, you're not ready for the game yet. Why take the punishment? Get to the $5-$ 10 game, where your skills may be more equal to the competition. Improve your game there.

Take each level of poker game in stride. You can make more money at a higher stakes game, but only if you're good enough to beat that game. A busy cardroom may offer games for $1-3, $5-$10, $15-$30, $30-$60, $50-$ 100, $150-$300, or even higher. Just because higher stakes games are there doesn't mean you have to play them. Go slow, and work your way up as your skills improve.

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The knowledgeable player can consistently make money playing poker, but only if he approaches the game from the proper perspective. As in any game of skill, there are important concepts that you must follow to be a winner. In this chapter, we'll discuss these concepts. I'll show you how to recognize and implement the general winning concepts of poker to get an edge on your opponents and be a winner.

I've divided this chapter into fifteen winning concepts to isolate the factors that will improve your play and increase your winnings at the table. You'll learn how to analyze situations and determine whether the relative strength of your hand is strong enough to call a bet or even raise. Sometimes, because of the bet size, the amount of money in the pot, your position at the table, or your knowledge of your opponents' playing styles, you're better off folding the hand and conceding the pot.

A poker session is an accumulation of hands won and lost. To come out an overall winner, you must maximize your gains when you win and minimize losses when you lose so that the winnings overshadow the losses and you have a profit to show. Of course, you never really know until the showdown whether you're holding the winning hand, but you can approximate your relative standing in the game and adjust your play accordingly. Thus, when you're the favorite to win you'll get as much mileage out of the hand as you can. Let's now get down to the winning concepts of play.

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Omaha High-Low 8 or Better is a free-wheeling game, and chips come in from all directions. With both a high pot and low pot to go after, many players stay interested in the pot, especially since the river card on fifth street can so dramatically change a player's possibilities of winning.

The first four cards dealt in Omaha—your down cards—are the only cards you alone use, and thus are very important in determining your chances of winning. As in all poker variations, you must start out with solid cards to give yourself the best chances of winning.

There are great starting cards, good starting cards, and poor starting cards, as in other poker games, but what appears to be good or bad pre-f lop may change in a flash when the flop throws three more cards into the mix. Then there are two more community cards that will fall, opening up even more possibilities and making and breaking other hands.
With such a wide range of possibilities, hopes stay high for players, and betting can be fierce. Thus, one of the key strategies to follow in this version of Omaha is to play on the tight side. Don't get sucked into the rampant betting that sometimes occurs, not unless your possibilities are good enough. Speculation can lose you a bunch of money in a hurry in this game.

Another major consideration in Omaha High-Low 8 or Better is your position at the table. Since it stays constant throughout a round, and leverage is everything in Omaha, all plays must be made with position being foremost on your mind.

Starting hands with two very low cards give you a strong starting position in Omaha. An ace and a 2 are good, since if three low cards fall on the flop, you have the nut low with two more betting rounds to go. Or if two low cards fall on the flop (say it is 3 7 J), you just need one more non-pairing low card for the nut low. Other starters such as 2 3, 3 4, A 3, or A 4 are also good cards to have. They put you in good position to go for low.

Since low hands can be quartered, the best starters in Omaha 8 high-low would be ones that gave you both high and low possibilities. Consecutive suited low cards, such as A 2, 2 3, 3 4, give you excellent chances of going low and wheeling or flushing to a high hand. Combine these low cards with A A or A K, and these two way hands hold out many possibilities. The hand A K 2 3 with suited cards is very powerful, with nut high and nut low straight possibilities. A 2 3 4 suited gives nut low and wheel possibilities. High starting hands of A A K Q and A A K K can hold strong if the flop is all high cards, preventing low hands from taking half the pot.

The relative value of high hands relates to the flop not only for the cards and possibilities it gives both you and your opponents, but also for the chances it gives players to form low hands, which immediately devalue the pot by one half. This is a key concept that players going for the high end of the pot must consider in Omaha. For example, for any player to qualify for a low total, there would have to be three low cards on board. If three low cards (8 or below) appear, it is likely that one player has a valid low. But if two low cards or fewer are on board, there will be no low hand, and the high hand will take the whole pot.

Thus, when making your decision on how to play a high hand, you must consider its strength on a different relative merit than straight high games if there will be a low hand grabbing half that pot. The pot is now worth half of what you might normally expect Thus greatly affects the pot odds and how you need to view your high position.

When low cards will cut into your pot and take half of your action, you need a higher winning expectation and assurance of taking the high half to make the betting profitable. The great danger in high-low games that regular high or low players don't consider is this dilution of the pot, which makes betting and playing strategy considerations fundamentally different. That is why hands with the strength to go both ways are so valuable in high-low games.

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