20-40 Limit Poker Strategy

1. 20-40 Limit Poker Strategy Blackjack
2. 20-40 Limit Poker Strategy Rules
3. 20-40 Limit Poker Strategy Games

Many players complain bitterly that they can’t beat $2-$4, $3-$6, and $4-$8 fixed limit games. They insist that they play well, but lose because:

“There are too many idiots.”
“They don’t respect my raises.”
“They chase with weak draws.”
“My good hands don’t hold up.”
“I can’t push anybody off a hand.”

Some frustrated players have switched to no-limit. One joined our low-limit game and grumbled constantly about “this stupid game.” His silliest complaint was, “When I played here, I flopped top set and couldn’t push an idiot off a backdoor-flush draw. In no-limit I’d shove all in.”

Because I don’t teach while playing, I said nothing, but would tell a coaching client, “You don’t want him to fold. You’re a huge favorite. Why settle for a small pot?”
Most clients would agree, but a few would say (or think), “You may be right, but bad beats are so frustrating.” Of course they are, but poker isn’t about avoiding frustration; it’s about winning money. You should risk frustration to increase your profits.

How to Play Limit Texas Hold'em Poker. In Texas hold ’em, a small flat disk, called a “button,” is used to indicate the dealer position. Prior to the cards being dealt, the first player to the left of the dealer position posts a small blind, and the second player to the dealer’s left puts up a big blind, which usually is equal to the first-round bet. The following hand actually occurred in a 20/40 cash game at a live casino that a student of mine played in. Isn’t limit poker fun? Poker Strategy Nov 22. It is generally only as you reach games as big as $5/$10 no-limit or $30/$60 limit that the house may charge time. Sadly, it seems that poker rooms — i.e., live 'brick-and-mortar' rooms — tend.

With top set against almost any hand you have — by far — the best of it, and you should make the most of it. When someone with only a backdoor-flush draw calls, he’s giving you most of his bet. You want him to make stupid calls, even though you’ll occasionally lose.

A few clients might say, “That’s OK if you’re heads up, but in my games four, five, or more people often chase me. Somebody usually draws out.”

That argument sounds reasonable, but it’s wrong. With bigger fields there’s a higher probability that someone will draw out, but you still want them to call with negative expected value (EV) draws. With top set and no obvious flush or straight draws, virtually every hand is a huge underdog.

A friend objected, “But if the pot is large, it’s often plus EV to call.”

Of course, it is, but you want them to make negative EV calls. Unless the pot is so large that they’re getting profitable odds, you want them to call.

Total Equity Is Always Exactly 100 Percent

If your equity is 60 percent with five opponents, their average equity is only 8 percent each. If and only if their chances of winning are worse than the price they’re getting, their calls increase your EV.

Your equity percentage goes down as the number of chasers goes up, but the pot often increases faster than your percentage goes down. Therefore, if more people chase and your hand is strong enough, your EV often increases. You win fewer pots, but they’re much bigger, which more than offsets the lost pots.

The Fundamental Theorem of Poker

Let’s consider one part of it: “Every time opponents play their hands differently from the way they would have played if they could see all your cards, you gain.” (The Theory of Poker). After seeing your top set, any sane opponent would fold because the odds against him are so bad.

A wise guy might reply, “But some opponents are crazy. They’d call anyway.” I’d laugh and say, “Good. If they want to give you their money, take it.”

Opponents’ Mistakes Increase Your Profits

Players complain bitterly about opponents’ stupidity because they don’t understand that – if everyone played properly – the rake and other costs would defeat everybody. Only the house would win.

They also don’t realize that “every cent of your long term profit playing poker comes from exploiting your opponents’ errors and predictable tendencies.” (Miller, Sklansky, and Malmuth (Small Stakes Hold’em) They emphasized this point by saying, “If you do not win in the long term, it is not because your opponents are making too many mistakes; it is because you are.” (p. 18)

When I say that, some people go ballistic. “My mistakes? I played my hand perfectly, but this idiot…” If I reply that one, two or ten bad beat stories don’t prove they don’t make serious mistakes, they insist that they play just the way the books recommend, then angrily demand, “What mistakes do I make?”

The answer is simple: Virtually all low-limit players don’t give enough weight to costs. In fact, most of them don’t seriously think about costs, even though the rake, jackpot drop, and tokes cost so much that it’s extremely difficult to beat many low-limit games.
Let’s digress briefly. Someone once told me, “My friend is a terrible craps player. He makes stupid bets.”

I asked, “Didn’t you say you’ve lost heavily at craps?”

“Yes, but I’ve had some great nights. My friend loses much more than me because I know how to play.”

I could hardly keep from laughing. He insisted he’s good even though he loses. He must lose because craps is unbeatable. The same principle applies whenever skill can’t overcome costs. Since costs have such dramatic effects upon their results, why don’t most serious low-limit players carefully analyze them?

Three reasons: First, some play for fun and don’t care about costs. Second, they don’t understand how important costs are. They think, “What’s another dollar or two?” They’re making a huge mistake. That dollar or two comes out of every pot they win, which dramatically affects their edge, and edge “is the most important concept in poker… small differences in edge add up dramatically over time… you must emphasize edge, including the small edges, in all your poker decisions.” (Roy Cooke, “Understanding Edge In Poker, Part II,” Card Player, 1/22/14)

Third, analyzing and adjusting to costs is very hard work. The books don’t help because costs vary too much between rooms.

Factoring costs into your decisions fits right into the experts’ standard rule: The correct decision depends upon the situation, but we should add: including your costs. Since low-limit games’ costs are so high, many decisions which are correct without considering the costs are really serious mistakes. Therefore, you should carefully analyze your costs’ effects when you:

• Choose a game. You must be much better than your opponents to cover the huge costs.
• Choose a seat. Choose seats with the biggest edge.
• Decide whether to quit or stay. Frequently reevaluate your edge: If the game or your play has changed, do you have a large enough edge to beat this game with these players and costs now?
• Decide whether to fold, check, call, bet, or raise. Factor your costs into every decision. A decision that’s plus EV in low cost games is often minus EV in high cost games.

In other words, constantly ask, “Do I have a large enough edge to cover my costs?” Unless you’re playing just for fun, if the answer is, “No,” don’t do it.

Future articles will describe my crude, but fairly effective, methods. If you don’t properly evaluate and adjust to all your costs, you probably can’t beat most low-limit games. ♠

“Dr. Al” (alan_schoonmaker@yahoo.com) coaches only on psychology issues. For information about seminars and webinars, go to propokerseminars.com. He is David Sklansky’s co-author of DUCY? and the sole author of four poker psychology books.

Stud poker is any of a number of pokervariants in which each player receives a mix of face-down and face-up cards dealt in multiple betting rounds. Stud games are also typically non-positional games, meaning that the player who bets first on each round may change from round to round (it is usually the player whose face-up cards make the best hand for the game being played). The cards dealt face down to each individual player are called hole cards, which gave rise to the common English expression ace in the hole for any hidden advantage.

History[edit]

Stud poker variants using four cards were popular as of the American Revolutionary War. Five-card stud first appeared during the American Civil War when the game was much played among soldiers on both sides, and became very popular. Later, seven-card stud became more common, both in casinos and in home games.^[1] These two games form the basis of most modern stud poker variations.

Play[edit]

The number of betting rounds in a game influences how well the game plays with different betting structures. Games with four or fewer betting rounds, such as five-card stud and Mississippi stud, play well with any structure, and are especially well suited to no limit and pot limit play. Games with more betting rounds are more suited to fixed limit or spread limit. It is common (and recommended) for later betting rounds to have higher limits than earlier ones. For example, a '$5/$10 Seven-card Stud' game in a Nevada casino allows $5 bets for the first two rounds and $10 bets for subsequent rounds. Also common is to make the final round even higher: a '$5/$10/$20' game would allow $20 bets on the last round only. Another common rule is to allow the larger bet on the second round if there is an 'open pair' (that is, at least one player's upcards make a pair). Some casinos (typically in California) use the smaller limit on the first three rounds rather than just the first two.

It is a common convention in stud poker to name the betting rounds after the number of cards each player holds when that betting round begins. So the bet that occurs when each player has three cards is called 'third card' or 'third street', while the bet that occurs when each player has five cards is 'fifth street'. The final round, regardless of the number of betting rounds, is commonly called the 'river' or simply the 'end'.

Specific variants[edit]

As mentioned above, seven-card stud is probably the most common form of the game, with most other games being variants of that, although five-card stud is also a basic pattern upon which many variations are built.

Six-card stud[edit]

20-40 Limit Poker Strategy Blackjack

Six-card stud is usually played as identical to seven-card stud, except that the last face-up round is removed (thus it is two down, three up, one down). With Flip, the last card is dealt face-down, but one of the face-down cards must be flipped face-up. Six-card stud can also be played as 1-4-1, where the first betting round occurs after only two cards are dealt (one down and one up). This latter form more closely resembles five-card stud with an extra downcard.

20-40 Limit Poker Strategy Rules

Razz[edit]

Razz is a variant where the lowest hand wins the pot instead of the highest. Versions differ in the rules for treating straights and flushes as high or low. London Lowball is a popular version that counts straights against the player.

High-low stud[edit]

High-low stud is played using high-low split betting, where the pot is split between the player with the highest hand and the player with the lowest hand. In the most common form, known as 'eight-or-better' or 'stud eight', an 8-high hand or lower is required to win low. If there is no qualifying low hand, high hand takes the entire pot.

Another form of high-low split stud is played under the same rules as stud eight, but there is no qualifier required for the low half of the pot. Often referred to as Q, it is much less common than stud eight, and is generally played at higher limits.

Mexican stud[edit]

Various forms of roll your ownfive-card stud, often with a stripped deck and wild cards, are called Mexican stud, Mexican poker, or stud loco. One such variant played by the Casino San Pablo in northern California has these rules: 8s, 9s, and 10s are stripped from the deck, and a single joker is added (the deck therefore contains 41 cards). The 7-spot and the J become consecutive, so that 5-6-7-J-Q is a straight. A flush beats a full house (with fewer cards of each suit, they are harder to get). The joker plays as a bug if it is face up, and fully wild if it is face down. The game is played as five-card stud choose-before roll your own. It is usually played with a very high ante, and the high card on the first round pays the bring-in.

The game of Shifting sands is Mexican stud in which each player's hole card (and all others of that rank) are wild for that player only.

Caribbean stud[edit]

Caribbean Stud Poker is a casino game that has been developed using the poker hands and general rules of 5 card stud poker. The game combines poker elements and standard table game elements in that each player dealt into the hand is playing against the dealer. Originally invented by gambling author David Sklansky using the name Casino Holdem with some slight rule variations,^{[citation needed]} the game was first introduced at the Grand Holiday Casino and eventually all the remaining hotels in Aruba in the 1980s.

20-40 Limit Poker Strategy Games

Miscellaneous[edit]

• Five-card stud played high-low split with an added twist round is called Option alley or five-card option.
• The game Scandinavian stud or Sökö is five-card stud with two new hand values added: Four-card flush and four-card straight. Hand ranking is therefore: High card, one pair, four-card straight, four-card flush, two pair and then on as usual. A four-card straightflush is not a hand in itself, it's merely counts as a four-card flush.
• The term English stud is used ambiguously to refer to several games, including six-card stud played 1-4-1 with a twist (also called six-card option), London lowball, and a seven-card stud game where both sixth street and seventh street are twist rounds.
• In the game of seven-card flip, each player is dealt four cards face down, and chooses two of them to turn up. All cards are turned up simultaneously after everyone has chosen. As this point, the game proceeds as if it were standard seven-card stud starting on fourth street.
• Kentrel, or '48', is a seven-card stud variation which starts with each player being dealt four downcards. Each player must then discard one, choose one of the remaining three to turn face up (leaving two down and one up as normal), and then proceed as with eight-or-better high-low stud.
• The game of Show Hand, which is not commonly played but made famous by Hong Kong gambling films, is a twist in 5 card stud. Players with the highest face up cards decide whether to check the round or raise; or, if the player with the highest face up card or hand checks, it will proceed to the next street. However, the last round of betting after the river is dealt is unlimited. In Show hand poker the last card is dealt face down. Players now choose from 1 of the 2 face down cards to reveal to other players. This variant is usually played with a set time-limit and bet limit to prevent players from taking advantage of checks and not betting to prolong the game.
• The game of Chicago is seven-card stud in which the high hand splits the pot with the player who has the highest-ranking spade 'in the hole' (among his downcards). There is also Little Chicago (also called Southside), in which the lowest ranking spade in the hole splits the pot; players who play Little Chicago call the high spade variant Big Chicago. This also known as Chicago high by night and Chicago low by night. In Chicago by night the Deuces and One-eyed jacks are usually called as wild cards.
• The Bitch is a variant on Chicago above, played with a combination of up and down cards, usually two down, four up, and one down. The twist is that the Queen of Spades is designated as the highest ranking Spade, followed by the Ace, King, Jack, and so on. Also, if the Queen of Spades is ever dealt as an upcard to any player, all players turn in their cards, re-ante, and replay the game. This can lead to quickly increasing pots, especially if the re-ante amount is increased on each iteration. The high hand splits the pot with the high spade.
• Several different games played only in low-stakes home games are called Baseball, and generally involve many wild cards (often 3s and 9s), paying the pot for wild cards, being dealt an extra upcard upon receiving a 4, and many other ad hoc rules (for example, the appearance of the queen of spades is called a 'rainout' and ends the hand, or that either red 7 dealt face-up is a rainout, but if one player has both red 7s in the hole, that outranks everything, even a 5 of a kind). These same rules can be applied to no peek, in which case the game is called 'night baseball'. See main article: Baseball Poker.
• Cowpie poker is played as seven-card stud until after the seventh-street bet. All remaining players then split their hands into a five-card hand and a two-card hand. The five-card hand must outrank the two-card hand, and the latter must contain at least one downcard. After the split there is one more betting round and showdown. Upon showdown, the highest five-card hand and the highest two-card hand split the pot. The name of the game is a pun on Pai Gow.
• Number Nine is a variant of seven-card stud in which 9s are wild, and any two number cards that add up to 9 may make one wild card, at the player's option. Aces count as 1 for wild card purposes. The player is not obliged to make any wild cards, and can play cards that could make 9s at face value or as wild cards, at his option. Cards used to make wild cards may not figure in the resulting hand twice. The player cannot add three or more cards. Sometimes, 9s themselves are not wild, and wild cards can be made only by addition.
• Dr Pepper is a stud variant where 10's, 2's, and 4's are wild (the name comes from one of the original Dr Pepper advertisements of the 1920s: 'Drink a Bite to Eat at 10, 2, and 4 o'clock').
• Draft (or 'socialist poker') is usually a variant of seven-card stud in which the second and subsequent upcard rounds are dealt this way: for each player remaining, one upcard is dealt to the center of the table (not to any specific player). The player with the worst showing hand gets to choose which of them he will take for his next upcard, then the player with the second-worst showing hand chooses his upcard from those left, and so on, until the player who previously had the best showing hand takes the remaining card. Then betting occurs as normal. In seven-card stud, this makes for three 'draft' rounds (the first three cards are dealt normally, as is the final downcard).
• Auction is a similar variation in which each upcard round (or possibly just those after the first) begins with an 'auction' phase. Instead of dealing each player one upcard, the first card is dealt to the center and all players bid on it; the player who bids the highest amount places that amount into the pot, and then has the right to either keep the auction card as his own upcard, or designate another player who is required to take it as his. After the first card is auctioned off and placed, the remaining players are dealt a random upcard as usual, and betting proceeds as usual. This variation is commonly played as high-low split, so it is common for a player to 'purchase' a high card to force it upon an opponent seeking low, for example.
• Telesina is a stud variant which is played with a stripped 'French' deck. The play follows most five card stud games except that after the fourth betting round a 6th community card called the vela card is placed in the center of the table. The vela card may be used by all players to improve their hand after which another round of betting occurs. The standard hand ranking applies with the slight difference in that a flush beats a full house because it is easier to get a full house than a flush. This is because instead of 13 cards per suit there are only 8 having the cards from 2-6 removed.

Notes and references[edit]