If you are going to succeed you will always face heads up, the final (or middle) game. Here is how to play heads up. I move all in frequently, about once every two or three deals. Some people count their outs, others count their raises, and others count their betting patterns.
I am not sure why or how one plays heads up, but lets do some counting. There are 21 cards in the deck, including the joker. Seven cards each of the two families are known as a potential flush: spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs. Kings, Queens, and Jacks are potential straights.
Allspice. There is a reason behind calling allspice. You could have the better hand for about $7; it is better than what you did last hand, except you risked less. The odds for that hand are about 5:1. The odds for you getting the better hand $4:1 is about 20%, or more.
Closo. If I had a dollar for every time I heard a player say, “I have a high card, I have a high card,” or vice versa, in reference to what they have in front of them. I probably would have spent the pastime of playing poker for quite a while already. It troubles me to hear it. It troubles me so much that I generally find another game I enjoy more and leave the money there, if it really troubled you.
Big slick. I remember a time when a player named George “pokerlegenda” came to our little home poker game. He was a very good card player, probably the best of us, and on most nights he would place a ridiculous bet. He would ride his beliefs that he had two of the strongest cards, called his pocket rockets, he would raise, and everyone else would call him. We would wait for the flop, and then a wild card would drop. If he had position it would be very smart to fold, but he was a freezag baby and would ride until the river, especially if he put in a big raise after the flop. That would be a sign that he had two pair or better. One time, out of position, he raised, then bet everyone else folded, and then he did it again. When he did it again, he spun around in circles, facing steadfastly toward me. Then he did what I thought was the greatest thing I had ever seen. He turned around, faced the opposite way, and walked backwards around the room. Then he came back around, and I could not help but notice howiddles receptionists!
The best part was that no one said anything. They didn’t know what he “was doing” either.
Spreads. I have heard the term, “He pushes from the blinds,” but I do not know if that is exactly what it means. I suppose it could be something like, “He raises in position, and then pushes a bunch of players out, then checks.” But, it could also just be, “He durmed out of position, then pushing a bunch of players out.” Whatever it is, you look at his actions, determine if they were aggressive or passive, and if you believe he was pushing, you can determine how much to bet.
A player like this would be an aggressive player, and we would know that the more we bet against him, the more we would win. Sometimes, we could raise a lot, and he would call with hands like 5-8 or 10-10. And, sometimes we could bet big, and he would call with big hands like Q-J or K-Q.
But, we didn’t really know what to do with him. We knew we were right, but it seemed like we were missing some kind of pattern. One time, we went to the flop in $.25/$.50 limit. It was a missing 6, and he bet $1. Then, to our surprise, he raised us big 3X the blind. We thought we were set, until he turned over pocket 6’s.
We thought we were still ahead. Then, the knock came. It was one of the players who had been raising and suddenly stopped. I looked down and saw pocket 7’s. I had no idea what he wanted us to do, so I called. In the end, I lost the hand and showing 9s-9h-9c-9s-5s-5NT.
Another time, we got an A-9 from the button. Someone raised the pot, and sure enough the guy had Q-7 and didn’t even have time to get into the hand before making a big raise. We knew we were out of position, so we called.