Test Your Poker
Progress With Today's
Poker Tutorial

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TEST YOUR POKER PROGRESS
For those of you who have been playing online Texas Hold’em for a while it’s interesting to test your progress every so often. See how you get on with today’s tutorial question. Figure out your own honest answer before you check with our opinion on what to do.

YOUR POKER TUTORIAL QUESTION
There are seven players in total in the game. All of them fold to you in the small blind. You’ve got ten and jack of spades in the hole. And you raise three times the big blind. The big blind calls right away and the flop produces ace of spades-eight of spades and nine of hearts. Your power bet is nine times the big blind and your opponent goes all-in. You would need to put in twelve times the big blind to make the call. Is the call the right decision on your part?

POKER TUTORIAL ANSWER
You have an inside-out straight draw and are four cards into a spade flush. You have fifteen outs and a one in three chance of landing a premium hand. With the pot totalling thirty six times the big blind it’ll cost you twelve times the big blind to call. The cash odds are good. In our opinion you should definitely make the call.

POKER TIP OF THE DAY
Let’s call this a pre-tilt warning. What usually happens is that after a long run of rather sad hole cards, a situation arises which is seen as an opportunity not to be missed, largely because you’ve been deprived of action for so long. The scene usually unwinds something like this: Your hole cards are another miserable twosome, let’s say ten of hearts-two of spades. You’re in a late position and watch as three players fold in front of you. None of the remaining players bother to raise. Under these happy circumstances you decide to take a risk convinced that the flop will deliver for you against a background of apparent limpers. You hit the call button and the flop
demonstrates your error of judgement by providing no support whatever for your pathetic ten and two. You have enough discipline left to recognise your mistake and fold. It was a wasted bet and a lesson learned. What would have been worse is that you might have paired your two on the flop, assumed the fates were with you and ploughed onto the turn or even the river, hoping to convert your low pair into trips.

THE WAY OF THE LOSER
If the Samurai had a phrase for the kind of action described above it would be “The Way of the Loser”. Keep your discipline, even following a long run of negative hole cards. Good poker is as much about not losing unnecessarily as it is about winning big.

Test your poker ability at: DailyStarPoker.com

ALL THE ACES poker column:
Friday November 18, 2005: 
Test Your Poker Progress With Today's Poker Tutorial