| Nenad Medic |
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| Poker Pro's Corner - Poker Pro's Corner | |||
 25-year-old Nenad “Serb” Medic from Ontario, Canada, has burst on the scene in the last few years with a World Poker Tour win, several WPT final tables and a 2008 World Series of Poker bracelet victory in the prestigious $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em World Championship. To date, his live tournament winnings exceed $3.6 million, and he has been described by no less an authority than Mike Sexton as “one of the best no-limit hold’em players I’ve ever seen.” Born in Serbia, he now lives in Vegas and took time out to answer readers’ questions this month. How do you chip away at an opponent’s stack? – Average Stack, St. Paul, Minnesota It depends on the opponent and the tournament. I like to play a lot of small pots and take stabs on the flop and turn. If you are playing heads-up, it’s pretty hard to make a hand, so if you are stabbing at the pot a lot, you usually are going to win a lot of pots just because it is hard to make a hand heads-up. Take stabs at the flop and on the turn. You will see a lot of players making big bluffs or even firing three bullets, but you have to be able to sense when it’s time to give up. If he calls the flop and turn or if you sense that he has a strong hand, you have to be able to sense it and just give up the hand because frequently enough he’s not going to have anything and you are going to pick up enough small pots to chip away. But all of that won’t matter if you just bluff it all off in a big hand where he makes a hand. You have to be able to know when to stop the bluffing. When is the correct time to use the min-raise? – Gung-ho in Gary, Indiana A good spot to use it is when you are heads-up with an opponent. It shows a lot of strength. Another situation is if you have a mediocre hand and you are playing against a really aggressive player and you have position on him. If he bets frequently on the flop you can just put in a little min-raise and it puts him to the decision. Usually if he has nothing he is just going to get rid of it, and if he has a big hand he probably is going to raise you and you can just get rid of it. If he has a mediocre hand he is going to call and he is usually going to check the turn and you are in position so you can either bet at it again or you can take a free river. Playing heads-up in position is a good time to use the min-raise. What is the best way to learn to put opponents on hands? Should you start with watching one person at the table and follow his play? – Learning to Read, Hartford, Connecticut When you are at the table, you just pretty much watch every player. On the tour you get to know a lot of the players, so the more experience you have, the more players you are going to get to know. There are always new players, especially at the World Series; there are a lot of young players, a lot of Internet players. It doesn’t come to you right away; it takes probably an hour or a couple hours to get an idea of how they are playing. That is the tough part: You never really know how someone is playing and they usually don’t show a lot of hands. It’s just something that develops over time. When is an overbet (a bet much larger than the pot size) the correct bet? – Tom S., Scottsdale, Arizona You don’t really see it that often, especially in tournaments, except preflop. On the flop or turn you just usually see small stabs at the pot just because you don’t really have that many chips to overbet. If you overbet you are usually betting a big percentage of your chips. If you are playing against a player who likes to call very light, usually against those types of players you want to value bet. If you are value betting, maybe put in a little overbet there. An overbet would be a good bet to make against players who like to call light (with marginal hands). Is there any advice to keep from playing too many hands? – Just Splashing Around, Ocean City, New Jersey Bring an iPod or something! The live tournaments, especially if you are an online player, it can get a little boring, I guess. You might be tempted to play a lot more hands because you are sitting there for 14-hour days and you can get bored. I hear a lot of online players complaining they are bored playing live tournaments because you don’t see a lot of hands, and a lot of hands take awhile. You have to stay mentally in it; you have to realize what you are there for. You are there to win, to play your game, so you don’t want to do something careless and play some hand just because you are bored or for any other reason besides your poker strategy. I don’t understand why people say if you are first into a pot you should raise. If you have a hand that you are just looking to play after the flop for cheap, why would you want to build the pot? – Limping Larry, Billings, Montana I agree with that, it’s not really necessary if you are first in the pot to always have to raise. Let’s say preflop you raise and you get four callers, or if you limp in then you get even more callers. Then if you flop absolutely nothing, the chances are somebody else has a hand. Is it standard to raise late with any hand if there are a couple limpers into the pot in front of you? – Jeremy, Black Hawk, Colorado I don’t usually like to do that just because. It depends on the table, you can do it depending on some tables but especially in the World Series there are a lot of stubborn players who like to see flops. You are playing against people who aren’t the greatest players. They like to see flops so that usually doesn’t work there and you aren’t going to take the pot away just doing that. It can work, depending on your table. You don’t want to do that too often as people will catch on and they will either reraise you or they will look you up. Once in awhile you can take it away if there are a lot of limpers. It doesn’t really matter what your hand is, you have position, so raise it up and even if they call you, you still have position and you can outplay them. It’s not a bad strategy, but I personally don’t like to do it too often. What is the best way to play rebuy events? Should you play like you normally would with your chips or should you be willing to gamble more preflop in the early stages? – Repressed Maniac, Reno, Nevada In the rebuy period, it depends. I personally like to gamble it up early. I like to have a big stack because I think I play well with a big stack, but it depends on how you play. For my type of style or for someone who is good with a lot of chips, it is probably good to gamble it up during the rebuy period. Not really gamble it up – you don’t want to be doing ridiculous gambling – but I like to play a lot more hands in the rebuy period. Also, it gives you a good image. A lot of players don’t realize that after the rebuy period, I change my game a lot. Some players don’t realize that and they will give you action when you have a hand. During the rebuy period I personally like to go in for the maximum to get all the chips I can. I have heard you should just fold in the small blind if you have a horrible hand – is this still true if like six people limp and there are good odds for you to call? Even with a hand like 7-2? — It’s Only Half a Bet, Hawaiian Gardens, California Yeah, I fold a lot there. I don’t really like playing out of position. Position is very big. Even if there were six limpers, I would fold 7-2 there. I would fold a lot of hands there because what are you trying to flop? You are just going to get yourself into trouble. I usually stay out of it unless you have something – anything connected, suited cards – if there are six limpers you might as well put it out there, but if you have a horrible hand like 7-2, you are just going to get yourself in trouble, so you might as well fold it.
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