I've been practicing online and I'm proud to say that my bluff-gun now has TWO fully functional barrels, but a friend of mine who's gone pro (albeit small-time) informed me that I have to keep the gun up on the shelf and use it much more rarely.

Here's what I'm talking about. I am in the big blind and I'm dealt

A♥K♥

That's what my friend nicknames "Anna Kournikova." Reeeeal pretty to look at, but doesn't win a lot. Nevertheless, after a few limpers I come out swinging with 4 x the big blind. I get two customers. The flop comes:

Q♥ 10♣ 7♣

It's good, and yet it's bad. I have two over cards, and a backdoor flush draw, and a gutshot straight draw. I'm probably the best at the table, but it's very possible that one of my callers has a queen and is in fact the favorite.

Here's how NOT to play this hand: timidly check, wait for a bet (which will come WHETHER OR NOT THEY HAVE THE QUEEN!) and then timidly fold.

Here's how I play the hand. BLAMM!! Pot sized bet!!! Bluff-gun barrel one released.

One limper gets out. The other one thinks about it then calls. Uh-oh. Has he got the queen or just clubs?

The turn comes an utter brick:

3♦

Now, here's what I'm talking about when I say "my bluff gun has two barrels." I used to feel sort of busted in these positions and be likely to check. That's not the American way, that's self-defeatism. This is exactly the point in the game where you must REACH DOWN INTO YOUR BELLY AND FIND YOUR GUTS as Patton would say (well I can't quote Patton verbatim or the admins will delete this post.)

BLAMM!!! POT SIZED BET NUMBER TWO!! Barrel two has been fired.

No need to explain this hand further, the river's not important. I'm not saying that this pot is clearly mine--I can lose it very easily to a crap hand like Q-4. But in my opinion this is indeed the way to play the hand. Just like in chess, once you have the iniative, you don't want to give it up for all the world. It's the most powerful weapon in the game.

Just recently a poker scociety was formed at my University (creatively called PokerSoc).

It was our first game - $20 buyin, the game being NL Holdem of course.

17 people showed up which was good considering that there was barely any advertisement for it.

Two of the people who showed up had absolutely no idea how to play! At first we were all suspicious of them because they were friends and one of them asked us, "If I need to leave early, is it alright if I give my remaining chips to my friend?".

Of course the answer was hell no! (It's a form of collusion which is cheating).

One of those two didn't even know the hand rankings!
We heard the most stupid things coming out of his mouth, things like...

"Does a straight beat a flush?"
"Whats a fullhouse again"
"Is two-pair better than three of a kind?"

Anyway, we picked numbers out of a hat to randomize the setting patterns. Luckily I got placed at the table with those two dimwits. (There was only one other table).

Blinds started off at 5-10 and were raised every 45 minutes or so. With antes added at about the third or fourth level.

I built up my stack early on (most of the chips coming from Dumb and Dumber). But then in a cruel hand I lost about three quarters of my stack (My all-in on the turn was called by some guy chasing a baby flush draw, which he got! I was about a 4-1 favorite I think).

But I crawled my way back up to a very healthy stack size when the following hand happened.

I was in the big blind with J-10s in diamonds. It was folded around to the button who raised it up about 5xBB. SB folded and I called (I was going to raise, thinking his raise was a position raise, but decided against it because he was a very big stack and aggressive).

Flop was 10-10-3. Two of those cards were diamonds, so I had trips with a decent enough flush draw. I was jumping up and down inside, but cool and calm on the outside. I fire out a small bet - about a third of the pot size. The button calls.

Turn was a rag, but it was a diamond rag! Considering he might have the Queen, King or the Ace of diamonds, I bet out just over the size of the pot. He thought for a few seconds and called. At this point I was thinking he has a high diamond with maybe a pair. I was thinking something like 9s-9d. (He was a relatively loose player).

The river was an Ace - cant remember what suit, but it wasn't the Ace of diamonds. I bet out big again, and he min-raises me. I reraised him back and he goes allin. At which point I was thinking WTF!? I replayed the hand over in my head, trying to think what he could have. I decided he must have flopped a fullhouse with 3-3 or maybe the turn gave him the fullhouse.

Either way I was thinking I was probably beaten, but I had put most of my stack in the pot, and I only had to call like another 500 into a 7-8k pot, so I was getting good enough odds to call with my flush.

So I called hoping for the best, but sadly he had A-10! Damn.

After I lost the hand I was thinking it was SO stupid of me to reraise him on the River. With a higher flush possible and also a fullhouse possible, there is no way I should have reraised him. I should have just called.

Of course, some people are habitual blind stealers, they just ALWAYS seem to have a great hand in the button or on the blinds, right? Given that you had your reasons to call him down on his raise, the rest is just pure heartbreak. You played it fine but were dominated by a better kicker.

Another point about hand-rankings is that when you are playing with wild cards (not my cup of tea, but lots of home games do this) then you should specify before you even play if there is such a hand as "five of a kind" and if there is, where does it stand in the hand rankings? I advocate that wild card players view 5-of-a-kind as beating quads but still not as good as the straight flush. Why? Because it's an easier hand to make!! Even with deuces wild, a straight flush is a tall order, but I've seen 5-of-a-kind tons of times. In any case it's good to clear up these matters before you start playing rather than getting into huge fights after the fact. Or better yet, grow up and stop playing kiddie games.

<TN> Something about your account doesn't add up--if you had the 10 of diamonds in your hand and the flop came 10-10-3 then there could not be two diamonds on the table. I was thinking you must have meant that the 2nd diamond showed up on 4th street.

First of all, it's a top-notch move, but like all variations in this line it can be tricky to play.

Black to move:

click for larger view

The line goes 8...Nge7 9.Nc3 Nb4 10.Bd3 d5

click for larger view

and now:

11.exd5 doesn't serve any purpose that I can see. White is just opening up the game before he's developed and Black will gain a tempo after 11...Nbxd5 12.Nxd5 Nxd5

11.a3 just spends a tempo to force Black to do what he wants to do anyhow, taking on d3 with check.

11.O-O is probably best (example games, see here: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches...)

Just like Chessgames has chess puzzles I'm going to post some poker puzzles. My first one is from Doyle Brunson's "Super System 2."

< poker puzzle 1 >

Let's say there's an A-K-Q-J out there and your opponent bets. You've got a 10 in the hole, and since there's no flush possible, you've got the nuts. Your opponent bets, you raise, and he plays back. Now there's no question he's also go a straight.

An unsophisticated player would move in on him right there because he knows he can't lose. But what good is that? He's only going to get a split.

However, adding some drama and a little acting to your play gives you a chance to win it all.

< question >

Yea I must have got the fourth diamond on the turn and got the flush on the river. Strange, I could have sworn that I got the flush on the turn. Ah well.

<What on earth is Doyle talking about? How can you possibly take down this pot?>

On that last raise you hem and haw and grunt and snort, and finally decide to call the bet. He pins you down for trips or at least two pair.

Then, if you're lucky enough to pair the board on the river, you can triumphantly push all in and put him to a very difficult decision. Imagine if you were in the WSOP and some guy did that to you, for many times the size of the entire pot. A wrong decision here means you're taking the next bus home. What would YOU do? A lot of people would muck their straight at that point, and logically so.

The player on the button makes a very large bet against a very large pot. You notice, as he puts his chips forward, that his hand holding his chips has a slight tremor to it. (You do not believe that he's acting--it's a genuine muscular spasm.)

This tell has been well documented and poker pros almost universally agree upon its meaning.

<all> Yes you all know the truth, hand tremors is an indication of a monster hand. There aren't many tells that I place much faith in, as most of them are very easy to fake one way or the other, but the hand tremor is one that's so hard to fake that you have to take notice.

You are in a NL Hold'em, Cash Game. You are in early position with four other players at the table. The type of game is tight. Blinds are at $5-$10

You hold the Ac-Kc

You raise pre-flop making it $30 and two players flat call.

Flop comes Ks Qh 9c.

You bet $70. The next guy calls and the second guy re-raises making it $200 to go. You then re-raise to $500 and are met by an all-in raise for $1,500 in total from the player in the middle. The other player folds.

What do you do?

<Problem 2>

NL cash game. Your in the Big Blind. THe type of game is regular. Blinds are $5-$10

You hold 4s-5s

All players at the table have at least $600 in front of them. Four players call in front of you, and you raise to $50 in an attempt to mix up your play and/or steal the pot. A player in early position re-raises making it $100 to go and a player in middle position calls the raise. You call.

Flop is Ah 5c 4h. You check, the early player bets $100, and the second player folds. You have $600 left in front of you and your opponent has $700. You decide to only call.

The turn is the Kh and again you check. Your opponent bets you all-in.

This comes from Howard Lederer's "More Secrets of No Limit Hold'em" DVD.

Blinds are 50/100.

Play comes to a guy in middle position and he opened the pot for 300. You've been watching him play for some time, and you regard him as a pretty loose player, so you don't put much weight on him having a great hand.

The action comes to you, on the button. You look down to see:

A♦ Q♥

You are almost certain that you have the best hand. (Of course, even a loose player can get dealt a monster like AA or AK, but your instinct tells you that your hand beats his.) You decide to raise the bet to 1000.

You were fully expecting to win the pot at this point, but even if he does decide to call your raise you are willing to play the flop, in position, with your AQ.

But... there's a fly in the ointment. A young player who seems to be a fairly good player thinks about it for a moment, then calls your bet from the blind. You consider him a very good player who would not just jump into a raise-reraise situation without a very strong hand. On the other hand, it's hard to believe he has AA or KK, because then he would likely have reraised another few thousand. (You base this assumptions on observing the player over the last few hours, but of course, you can always be wrong.) Your best read is that he would have AK, or maybe a high pair like QQ, JJ, etc. It seems unlkely he would get into this pot with AQ, but that is possible too.

As predicted, the original bettor did not have a strong hand and he mucks his cards.

Now the flop comes:

5♣ 9♥ Q♦

Both you and your opponent have a little over 10,000 more chips. There is a little under 2300 in the pot now. Your opponent bets first, and pushes 1200 into the pot.

While he doesn't bluff much as far as you can tell, it would simply be good poker to take a stab at the pot if he held, for example, JJ or maybe even AK. He would be hoping you didn't hit and would therefore rightfully fold.

You consider for a moment that he might hold J-10, and his bet is a half-bluff designed to get a cheap 4th street, but due to preflop betting you decide it's almost impossible that he would have called you with such an easily dominated hand.

You also consider that he might have KQ or QJ, but again, he's too good of a player to call a raise+reraise situation with such an easily dominated hand.

If he held a monster (AA, KK, QQ) then this would also be a good bet. There he would be hoping you DID hit, and would be ready to take you to the cleaners.

If he held exactly your cards, AQ, then this would also be a good bet. He knows he's very likely the best hand and is making a "feeler bet" to see where he stands.

The fact is, you don't know what he has, and that's what makes poker such a difficult game. Now the bet's to you.

Do you

(a) Fold, and if so, why?

(b) Call, and if so, why? What is the battle-plan for the turn and river?

(c) Raise, and if so, how much, and why?