| Eric Froehlich |
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| Poker Pro's Corner - Poker Pro's Corner | |||
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25-year-old Philadelphia-born Eric “EFro” Froehlich won his first World Series bracelet in 2005 when he was just 21 (limit hold’em), making him the youngest bracelet winner in history at that time. He won another one a year later in the pot-limit Omaha rebuy event. Froehlich has 13 cashes in just four years at the WSOP and has live tournament cashes of more than $1 million. He answers readers’ questions this month. I was playing a PLO game and blinds were 200-400. I had about 12k in chips and the villain had around 5500. I limped with 4-9-J-10 double suited; it folded to the small blind, who made it 2000. I immediately put him on A-A-x-x. The flop comes A-Q-8 rainbow and he bets out for 3000, leaving himself 500 behind. Assuming that he did indeed have A-A, what is the correct action here with my no pair, second-best open-ended straight draw? – S, California Well, you really have no reason to be playing this hand in the first place. J-10-9-4 isn’t a very strong hand. Once you’ve hit that flop, you have the right price to be putting him all-in. I’m playing on a poker website that I feel isn’t improving my game because I suspect the hands are scripted. Are the hands scripted on all sites? Of all of the poker websites, which one do you think is best to really improve your game? – Not Paranoid, New Jersey I really have no idea what this question even means. What poker websites have scripted hands? I am playing in a low-blind NLH cash game. There is only $3 in blinds in the pot before I open. Does this affect what hands I open with? – Mag Smuggled In, Waupun Women’s Prison, Wisconsin Yes, there really is no money to steal, so opening up light to try to steal the blinds has far less value. Also playing drawing hands, such as small suited connectors, will typically be harder to make as much money because the pots start so small and your continuation bets will correlate to the size of the pot. I have $100 in my stack in an NLH cash game with $1-$2 blinds. I have pocket sixes and raise to $8, get a limper and then a late position player raises to $22. What do I do and why? – Kim, Delray Beach, Florida There’s $41 in there, with a pretty good chance of the limper calling $14 more, so likely $55 in there and you have to call $14 with a pocket pair? And then you have the implied odds of being able to bust someone if you hit? Yeah, you should definitely call. In a tournament, how much importance should I give to implied odds? JJ, Henderson, Nevada As much importance as anything else? Implied odds are still odds, and you need them to be able to figure out what the correct course of action is on any hand. It’s critical. Is it better to play ace-king aggressively or passively in a short-stacked tournament? When should I just call with it preflop? – Marc the Mark, Miami Aggressively – only two hands have you dominated so when the stacks are short, you’re looking to get it all-in with a top four hand. One of my favorite hands is pocket deuces. What kind of implied odds do I need to call bets with this hand preflop? – Love my 22, Omaha You need to calculate the odds of being able to hit a set vs. the odds that the set will be the best hand, and the implied odds on whether the other people at your table will get all the money in and how deep the stacks are. In deep-stack poker, small pocket pairs are typically gold because you can get away cheap when you miss and really punish someone when you hit. Every time I finally call a crazy, loose-aggressive player, he ends up having a hand. How do I avoid this? What is the best way to beat this kind of player? – Befuddled in Brooklyn Sounds likely it’s attributed to bad luck and/or bad reading abilities. Even a crazy aggressive player will have a hand as often as the tight player, but he will clearly have air far more often. Try to pick your spots better. Only play hands capable of flopping the nuts, so then even if he has a hand, you will still have him beat. I am usually the tightest player at my table. Yet, when I finally raise preflop, people rush to raise me. What am I doing wrong? – Aaron P., Los Angeles Doing wrong? That’s great! If you’re playing really tight and when you raise preflop, people reraise you, then you can four-bet them huge and you have the best hand, right? Tight players want to get reraised, they just often have to open their game up so they get paid off on some of their big hands. How do I keep from going broke with pocket aces when someone flops a set against me? – Penniless in Peoria You can try to play small ball, but you have to use your reading abilities. On an uncoordinated board, such as 10-6-2 rainbow, you’re looking at a higher likelihood that someone who plays back at you strong has a set, since they can’t really have a flush or straight draw. You just have to figure out if they have a hand like pocket queens or if they actually have the set, and that can usually be figured out with preflop action. On a connected board with a lot of draws, you usually have to play your overpair aggressively and risk being stacked by a set. How many streets should you be bluffing on? When do you know to give up? – Worst Player You Never Heard Of, Montana Somewhere between 0 and 3. If your opponents are going to fold, you should be betting. If someone calls you on the flop and a scare card that doesn’t change the situation comes on the turn, and you bet and get called, you better have the scariest of scare cards come on the river, or you can expect a third call. Each month readers have the opportunity to question the world’s leading poker authorities about strategies and tactics to improve their game. Have a question? Send it by email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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| Last Updated on Sunday, 31 May 2009 22:34 |
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