Hi all, I was asked to write a blog about my experience in the PokerStars 8 game.

Currently im a breakeven player at that game, however I know I can get better.

Just a run down on all the games available:

Limit 2-7 Triple Draw
Limit Holdem
Limit Omaha 8 or Better
Razz
Stud
Stud 8 or Better
No Limit Holdem
Pot Limit Omaha

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Today, in the first part of my series, I will talk about Limit 2-7 Triple Draw and my strategy around this.

Limit 2-7 Triple Draw is a "draw game".

In Limit 2-7 Triple Draw, the goal is to make the lowest hand possible. As the name of the game suggests a 2-7 low is the best hand.

Here are the hand rankings from the strongest hands with a 2-7 low:

Please note: the hands are ranked from highest card to lowest card.

The best way to think about these card rankings is to think of it like a number! The lowest number wins!

75432 (best possible hand) (eg. 75,432)
76432(2nd best possible hand) (eg. 76,432)
76532 (3rd best possible hand) (eg. 76,532)
76542 (4th best possible hand) (eg. 76,542)

So you get the idea of the hand rankings. Straights don't count!

Most of the time you will not get a 2-7 low tho. So you need to plan for a 2-8 low. These are the hand rankings for a 2-8 low:

85432 (5th best possible hand) (eg. 85,432)
86432 (6th best possible hand) (eg. 86,432)
86532 (7th best possible hand) (eg. 86,532)
86542 (8th best possible hand) (eg. 86,542)
86543 (9th best possible hand) (eg. 86,543)
87432 (10th best possible hand) (eg. 87,432)
87532 (11th best possible hand) (eg. 87,532)

So there you go. That's the top 11 strongest hands in Limit 2-7 Triple Draw.

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The basic rule of thumb is the 2 is the most powerful card in the game, because you can not make a 7 low without it. Ideally you want to start with either a 2-7 in your hand or a 2-8 in your hand, to ensure you cannot accidentally get a straight (which doesn't count).

Also credit to VorpalF2F! He pointed out about the 6: This is a poison card -- it is in all straights 7-high through T-high, so if you're drawing to a hand with a six in it, your top-card minus your bottom card must be greater than 4.

VorpalF2F also mentioned the following:

EXAMPLES OF HANDS DRAWING TO 1 CARD:

Example:
Drawing to 7,6,4,3 can draw a straight if you get a 5
Drawing to 7,6,4,2 can't
If you are drawing to a hand where a straight is possible, you can -- you just have 4 fewer outs.

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Also an Ace is a high card in this game - ie. it is useless. However a Ace low will beat any pair.

Just like straights, a pair is useless in Limit 2-7 Triple Draw. ie. 23456 or 23477.

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So as you can see, you get dealt 5 cards face down in this game. You have 3 chances to make the best hand possible (triple draw).

Now to illustrate the betting rounds. Generally you want to stay in the hand when you have 3 good cards lower than 8. You can discard as many cards as you want, or you can "stand pat" if you have a 2-7 or 2-8 low and don't want to discard any cards. Generally, you will stand a good chance of winning the pot with a 2-7 low or 2-8 low hand, thus you generally don't want to fold 2-7 low or 2-8 low hands because most of the time they will be the winner.

Another strategy to using "stand pat" when you don't want to discard any cards - is to stand pat on the final betting round with any low. If your in position and your opponent discards 2 or more cards on the final draw, you may want to stand pat as a bluff to act strong, even if you do not have a strong hand. This way if your opponent checks to you on the final betting round, you can bet out and take down the pot when your opponent thinks you are strong after you stand pat.

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So Limit 2-7 Triple draw, as the name suggests is a Limit betting game. There are 4 betting rounds total. You can make 1 bet in the first 2 betting rounds and double the bet in the last 2 betting rounds, making it 4 betting rounds total. Of course you can raise in this game, just like any other poker game. The noteable difference here is though, since this is a Limit game, the bets are not as big as say No Limit Holdem, so your opponents are getting good odds to stay in the hand to try to outdraw you. The lowest hand wins.

A couple more tips from nsavov from another poker forum!

If we start with the nuts, we should NOT 3bet it! Letting more people in is as good if not better than playing a 3bet Heads Up pot.

Pairs are really useful for standing pat - bluffing, also known as "snowing" because they block the good hands your opponent may have/chase.

Even though this is a limit game, position is just as important as in NL or PLO. It is true, that there are 4 betting rounds but the draws themselves can be seen as "bets" too. Like "I bet my 9 is ahead here, I'm standing pat" or "I bet my 8 cant win vs his raise, I should draw".

So, in poker, the more actions you can make in a hand, the more important your positional advantage gets. In this game there are up to 7 actions!

Which leads to the next tip - Some times it's not that good to raise your good but vulnerable hand. Lets look at this scenario:

Hero is BU, raises [72]. BB calls
BB draws 2, Hero draws 3
BB bets, Hero calls. (Its a completely standard practice to auto bet after your opponent drew more cards than you)
both draw 2
Hero gets [86]742
BB bets, Hero??

Its really unlikely that Villain hit a strong hand after drawing 2 and after we having an 876 low.

That being said, its likely that Villain has a strong draw to a 7 and possibly made some kind of a 9 or T.

If we just call his bet he may stand pat with [9]7532 or [T]7532 because he has 67% or more against our strong draws.

And if he chooses to stand pat with a 9 or T, he is drawing dead against our 8.
But if we raise, he knows he's probably no good but he has the odds to chase to his strong 7 draw, and he will have 21% against our vulnerable 8.

Getting the extra bet in after the second draw is not worth the equity we can win if we make our opponent pat a weaker hand, because we have position and can get that extra bet in anyway.

Hi all, I was asked to write a blog about my experience in the PokerStars 8 game.

Currently im a breakeven player at that game, however I know I can get better.

Just a run down on all the games available:

Limit 2-7 Triple Draw
Limit Holdem
Limit Omaha 8 or Better
Razz
Stud
Stud 8 or Better
No Limit Holdem
Pot Limit Omaha

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Today, in the third part of my series, I will talk about Limit Omaha 8 or Better and my strategy around this.

Limit Omaha 8 or Better is a "community card" game.

The goal is to make the best 5 card hand, with 2 of your cards matching 3 of the cards on the board for both the high and low hand. Your ultimate goal is to "scoop" the pot, winning both the high and low hand.

A2345 is the nuts in this game. You win both the low hand and you have a very good chance at winning the high hand with the straight.

I am not completely clued up to the best hands, however I will make my best effort possible to illustrate to you what I know in regards to what I believe the best hands to have are:

The Ace is the most powerful card in Omaha.

A2sA3s - double suited (the best possible starting hand you can have. AA for high and A2 for the nut low and the nut flush draw. Also if a 2 or 3 hits, you will not be counterfeited.

What does being counterfeited mean? It means for example when you have A2 for a low draw, if the 2 hits, then anyone with a A3 now has the best possible draw to the low. Thus why having A2sA3s is the best starting hand as the likelihood that you will be counterfeited goes down.

What are other good hands you might ask? A2sA4s and A2sA5s are excellent hands, as these hands will scoop the pot a lot of the time too when low cards hit, as you will have the straight draw and an excellent low draw at least. Also A3sA4s and A3sA5s doubled suited are also very good starting hands.

Other good starting hands are:

LOW HANDS:

A2s34, A2s35, A2s45, A3s45. If the board has 2 low cards, you will likely have the best low draw vs any opponent and have the best straight draw / flush draw for the absolute nuts if the flop is a rainbow one (3 different suits), or if the flop gives you the nut flush draw.

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Middle cards between 6 and 9 are no good in Omaha. Why is this? They will make 2nd best hands alot of the time, especially 2nd best straights, flushes and full houses.

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Straights, flushes and full houses is what Omaha is all about. You will hardly win a big pot with 1 pair, 2 pair or trips. There are just too many cards your opponents can catch to hit their draw. Although with top set on a paired board, you may be able to win the pot if there is not too many players to act in the hand and you can draw to the full house too.

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Other good hands are as follows

HIGH HANDS:

AKsAKs AQsAQs AJsAJs and ATsATs

Why are these good hands?

Well with AKsAKs if the flop comes QJT rainbow, or with all the same suit matched to your hand, you have just flopped the nuts for the straight or flush OR straight flush!

Well with AQsAQs if the flop comes KJT rainbow, or with all the same suit matched to your hand, you have just flopped the nuts for the straight or flush OR straight flush!

Well with AJsAJs if the flop comes KQT rainbow, or with all the same suit matched to your hand, you have just flopped the nuts for the straight or flush OR straight flush!

Well with ATsATs if the flop comes KQJ rainbow, or with all the same suit matched to your hand, you have just flopped the nuts for the straight or flush OR straight flush!

Also something to note: If you hit these hands hard like I illustrated above, there will be NO low hand awarded (and you will likely scoop the entire pot), since there is no 2 cards 8 or lower.

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The only thing stopping you from scooping the pot with the nut flush or nut straight on the flop is of course the board pairing on the turn or river as there is a possibility one of your opponents may have hit a full house. Good hand reading will be required here to figure out what to do on the turn or river if you are raised.

What to do if you are raised on the turn or river on a paired board vs your nut flush / straight? Well if you are in a tournament, consider folding - especially if you are low on chips and the blinds are high and you are up against a TAG (Tight Aggressive Opponent).

If you are up against a LAG (Loose Aggressive Opponent), consider staying in the hand and risking your tournament life.

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Remember this, you need 3 low cards between an Ace and 8 on the flop, turn or river to hit to make a 5 card low hand. IF there are only 2 cards lower then 8 by the river, then there is NO low hand and the high hand will SCOOP the entire pot!

Remember the Ace is the most powerful card in Limit Omaha 8 or better. Because it acts as a low card AND a high card.

Other high hands to consider playing when you are a newbie to Limit Omaha 8 or Better?

AKQJ, AKJT AQJT. Why? If 3 high cards hit the flop and it is a rainbow flop, you likely have flopped the nut straight!

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In terms of betting, the 1st 2 streets (preflop and the flop cost 1 bet and the turn and river cost 2 bets. Of course you can raise with a strong hand at any time, however the raise is only very small as this is Limit Omaha 8 or Better (and not Pot Limit Omaha), so your opponents are getting very good odds to try to outdraw you.

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One final thing to consider is that if you are only going for the low hand and you split the low pot with another player, YOU will lose money. Ie. it costs you 25c between 3 players to enter the pot down to river showdown. If the pot at river showdown is 75c, 1/2 goes to the high hand winner which is 37.50c and you and the other low hand winner splits the remaining 37.50c with you, meaning you are only getting back 18.75c back from the 25c invested by you in the hand. Of course the potsize does not take into account the small and big blind, but you get my point right?

You will LOSE money by splitting the low 1/2 of the pot with another player. This is called Quartering or winning only 1/4 of the pot.

This is another thing to consider when playing a cash game or any tournament in Limit Omaha 8 or Better.

Posted from nsavov from another poker forum:

Contrary to 2-7, the 6 is a really good card in this game when its combined with baby cards. It makes it so you can get the nuts for half the pot and still draw to the nuts for the other half.

A hand like A246 is a complete monster on 345 - we have the wheel for low and we can expect our oponents to have the wheel a lot of the time also.

So we can get max bets out of them. The thing is we have a 6 high straight so we almost always quarter the field.

Although the A is the best card, there are plenty of playable non-ace baby cards.
For example, 2356 is a reasonable playable hand that can win big chunks of the pot often. The thing about that hand is that we should play it carefully and not draw to second best hands for half the pot.

You have to have a decent price to play those hands, though... you shouldnt just cold-call 3bets or 4bets only to not know what to do when you get 13:1 odds on the flop 4KQ...

3456 is worse but still can be playable with the right odds.

4567 is garbage. It's playable only from the BB against a single raise. I wouldnt even steal from the BU with that hand, unless we are heads up.

While the line in this hand is correct, it is not standard to auto-bet, particularly OOP, in 3:2. When you're unimproved, you're actually a dog. You will find yourself getting raised quite often if you're known to dark-bet in this spot, particularly since your opponent's resulting D1s will tend to be smoother than yours (because he started very smooth).

Axxx broadway hands and 23xx hands tend to both overvalued and poorly played by the majority of o8 players, especially newbies.

yep best to play them cautiously. depends on what the flop is.

Sorry this should say 2:3

when you say he started very smooth:

does this mean because a D3 will tend to have something like 23, 24, 25, 26, 27?

https://scontent.fakl2-1.fna.fbcdn.n...b4&oe=5CDEA2CD

I know that image is pretty hard to read but you get the drift!

Trying to master every game of poker is a challenge itself and you can only do this on PokerStars.

If I can be profitable in ALL of these mentioned games - that would be an achievement in itself.

My weakest game is badugi. I will try and read some guides online to improve my game in Badugi though. I know Barry Greenstein released a guide on the game.

So let's see how I go in this challenge. I could easily go broke - however I probably won't play the $55 Sunday Marathon on Stars in the meantime - UNTIL I am profitable in all the other games FIRST.

Have any of you tried to be profitable in all the games on PokerStars and thus be a all rounded poker player?

Looking forward to your feedback!

Yes.

Golden rules for goal setting: SMART. Specific. Measurable. ATTAINABLE. Relevant. Time Bound.

A 50,000% ROI isn't attainable. If you want to make $100K, you need a bigger roll, for one. Also, I suggest you become a master in one or two games instead of being mediocre in 15 games.

Often better to fold preflop

I'd only play 23 if I had the Ace to boot, to lower the chances of being counterfeited for the low.

This seems awfully contradictory.

Tournament #2 - 10.43am start - 14/2/19 NZT

$3.30 HORSE $300 GTD

tournament highlights:
=====================

became a big stack early on

lost a big pot with a straight flush draw in Stud

got lucky and won a massive pot being all in in razz

became a big stack again later on

won a big pot with trips in Stud - now 4th in chips with 26 remaining

made the money - now let's go for the win! $70.28 up top

now a short stack after having split Aces in Stud 8 and LAG opponent betting out without hesitation and having 3 to a flush and a 3 card low by 5th street so i

decided to fold.

got very lucky being all in with the nut low draw heading to the river and hit it in Omaha 8. now 6th with 13 remaining

nice bluff x2 in Razz, repping the board even though I paired up - my opponents had high cards or pairs. now 4th with 13 remaining.

folded an overpair JJ in Limit Holdem on a 4 card straight on the turn. now 6th with 9 remaining

now at the final table! 4th with 8 remaining

now the short stack with 6 remaining. waiting for a hand to push all in with

just got very lucky with JJ to stay alive in Omaha 8. must be my lucky day..

and just like that, i'm out in 6th place. lost with QQxx vs AAxx in Omaha 8.

i earnt $20.19 for my 6th place finish. i think i played very well, just got unlucky at the final table to run into bigger hands.

https://scontent.fakl2-1.fna.fbcdn.n...bd&oe=5CE211FA

https://scontent.fakl2-1.fna.fbcdn.n...71&oe=5CE42852

Originally Posted by richierichnz View Post
Posted from nsavov from another poker forum:

Although the A is the best card, there are plenty of playable non-ace baby cards.
For example, 2356 is a reasonable playable hand that can win big chunks of the pot often. The thing about that hand is that we should play it carefully and not draw to second best hands for half the pot.
Quote:

Originally Posted by richierichnz View Post
I'd only play 23 if I had the Ace to boot, to lower the chances of being counterfeited for the low.


the stuff in bold was posted from someone else in another poker forum dude. I was just copying and pasting his opinions

Good point. Read my posts on the forums. I've been talking about making $50 a week in the micros in mixed games and then play the $55 Sunday Marathon to make the big money, so I at least break even for the week. I was the chip leader last weekend, so I think I have what it takes to not only make the final table, but to take it down

And if I thought I was mediocre in 15 games, I wouldn't play them. I play 8 game and HORSE all the time and the game I want to tackle and learn next is Badugi. If I was to say a game that I was "mediocre" at as you are trying to say - it would be Badugi.

And once I WIN the $55 Sunday Marathon, THEN I will adhere to bankroll management, as by then I will be playing much larger 10,000+ fields in the Sunday Million, which definately require a big bankroll, not that i'm saying a 3,000 field for the Sunday Marathon doesn't require it.

Anyway, hope you now realise what im getting myself into now

Cheers for listening.

Below is my 7 day schedule for playing online poker tournaments.

Only played 1 tournament today, because the 2nd one I was planning to play had already started, BEFORE I made the final table in the HORSE

https://scontent.fakl2-1.fna.fbcdn.n...f0&oe=5CF5B000

Hey OP, I'm not sure who asked you to "write a blog about my experience in the PokerStars 8 game", but I doubt they had 10 blog threads in mind (the 2 you had here in PG&C, the 2 in strat forums, and the 6 more I assume you had planned).

Strat forums aren't the place for your blogs, and with your FB (broken) links and Poker Stars Home Game invitations, they really read more like some kind of spam. I'm going to assume that you're just new to the forums and weren't intending to spam, but any future self-promotion won't be looked on too kindly.

If you want to "blog" about poker, this is the forum to do it in. I've merged your 4 threads over here. You can choose to continue, or you can start fresh (feel free to cut-and-paste content from here) and I can lock this one.

Also, you might find this thread handy for learning how to post images here:

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/5...e-more-285800/

Alright, so do you want me to only post my guides in the poker goals and challenges forum? Also do you want me to post my poker progress in here too?

Looking forward to your reply.

If they're meant to be nothing more or less than guides, I don't know how much sense they'd make in a PG&C thread, so I suppose you could check in with strat forum mods and see how receptive they are to such posts in their forums. But TBH, with no disrespect intended, how much sense does it make that someone who is self-admittedly simply breakeven at the game be the one to write guides to the games, and do those forums really need guides written with basics like how the game is played and what hands are good? Really, I'd suggest you do a bit more reading of existing resources in those forums and get a feeling for the community before you start writing guides for them.

I'll do what i want. I always have. However, I will follow the rules from now on, cheers.

- James Dean (Rebel Without a Cause)

That’s me in a nutshell

Update?