Here is a list of the cast:

Jay “Krantz” Rosenkrantz – Age 25 – From New York

- Boston College Grad with Screen Writing degree
- Started playing poker at the age of 12
- Played at Atlantic City at the age of 17 in the 5/10 limit games
- Wants to be a writer someday.

Brian “Flawless_Victory” Roberts – Age 26 – From Texas

- Dropped out of school at the age of 16
- Has a very simple math formulated strategy
- First poker win was $100 at his local casino
- Professional poker player for about 7 years now

Emil “WhiteLime” Patel – Age 25 – From New York

- Went to school at NYU
- Math was his favorite subject
- Started playing poker as a sophomore in college
- Is a vegetarian and a very picky eater

Dani “Ansky” Stern – Age 22 – From New York

- Youngest of group
- Hates mostly all card games or games of strategy other than poker.
- First win of $100,000 and loss of $100,000 came in same session
- Never went to college

The first few hands were playable, but I would either have to call $100 preflop to play, or 4-bet with my mediocre hand.  In any other game, I would have 3-bet and maybe 4-bet most of these hands to take complete control of the hand, but in no way shape or form would these guys lay down to a 4-bet.  Then the hand came where I knew if I connected i could snap off one of the big stacks.

I was dealt 6h 6d on the button.
Aggressive player in seat 4 raised to $25
Ultra Aggressive raised to $100.  Now keep in mind, this player has been doing this all night so his range is huge and cannot be put on a real hand.
Action folds around to me, I flat call the $100.
Blinds fold, and seat 4 calls.

The flop, 6c Ad Qs.

I tank for a few seconds, then check.
Seat 4 checks.
Seat 5 looks at me and asks, “how much do you have behind?”.  I responded “about $600.”  Now keep in mind, I didn’t want to sit in with the same stacks they were for two reasons.  1) I wanted to implement a strategy of snapping of a large stack and 2) I am giving great pot odds when I have made hands in pots I am in.
Seat 5 bets $400.
I go all in with my $630.
Seat 4 folds.
Seat 5 calls $230.

As of now, there is about $1500 in the pot.  I flip over my sixes, only to my dismay, to see the ultra aggressive seat 5 flip over pocket queens.

Turn 7s, River 5s.

I couldn’t believe the set-over-set.  I watched him scoop the pot, and I re bought immediately.  The night went on to run like this.  A few other significant pots I had played in were, set vs river flush, top two vs river straight, and set of jacks to river straight.  My image at the table was perfect as well.  I drank with all the players, talked, interacted, and had the image of being a loose aggressive player among them.  Even though I was showing down the nuts almost every hand, nobody put me on those hands.

Now most players would be disgusted, filled with rage, and would almost want to give up the game.  I accepted the hands, moved on, and started to look for the next game.  You must remember, when you get an opportunity to sit in a godsend game, to get it in with the best of it, regardless of how you are running.  What makes a great poker player is to lose monster pots over and over again, but still have enough swagger and poise to keep playing in these games knowing it is only a matter of time until you are the one raking in the pots.

While sitting back and hoping for a great hand will give you a good chance if you do double up, it is also a more unlikely situation. You’ll be folding many more hands, and it will become obvious to the other players at the table what you are trying to do. Then, when you do pick up a good hand, you will receive very little for it, and the frustration will mount as the blinds continue to rise and your chip stack starts to disappear.

Instead, playing aggressively could be the solution. You have enough chips left that the blinds aren’t seriously crippling you at the moment, and this means that you also have some chips to spare. If you have developed a tight table image, you could take advantage of your less than ideal chip stack to win some easy pots. As your chip stack goes down, if you’ve been maintaining a tight table image, your opponents will tend to think that you will become even tighter, playing better hands while trying to squeeze as many chips out them as possible. Therefore, even though you have a smaller stack, they will be more afraid of what you could be holding when you raise. Of course, you should still be wary of the players who are loose and aggressive, as they are very good at creating headaches.

For instance, say that you’re in the small blind and have a hand of A-5 suited. Action has been folded around to you, and the chip leader is in the big blind. While not normally a good hand, this is a spot where you should raise, as you have only one opponent to force out. Many players become timid when facing the chip leader, even with a good sized stack. The chip leader is not going to want to risk giving you more chips, so they will usually raise enough to force you all-in if they picked up a good hand, or they will fold. This is a small risk, small reward situation. You can easily extricate yourself from the hand if the big blind pushes back, while you have the potential to win a small pot, giving you momentum and confidence as you try to fight your way back to respectability. If you would have been timid and folded here, you would have gained nothing, while losing a small amount of chips from the small blind.

In another example, say you are on the button, and two limpers have entered the pot before action comes around to you. You are holding A-10 offsuit, a hand that can be easily beaten by another ace with a better kicker, but still a good hand for someone running low on chips. Do you fold and hope for a monster, or do you make a move? In this situation, with two limpers who probably are not very confident in their hands, and the blinds, who could have anything, still left to act, this is a good time to be aggressive. GO all-in here and pick up the blinds along with two additional bets from the limpers. Winning the pot right here will give you a nice bit of spare change for your chip stack, and if someone does call, you should have a good chance against any hand that does not have you dominated. Being timid is not an option here. You have to make a move for the pot in this situation.

If you wait for a big hand, and do manage to pick up a monster, you have gotten enough luck to make a stand, but you still need to get the other players to put their chips into the pot. Oftentimes you will end up with a cheap pot as your payoff. Instead, by being aggressive, waiting for good position and decent cards, you can pick up pots that will allow you to boost your chip stack. Never be afraid to go all-in when there are chips to be won. Courage is a big part of poker, and you can’t abandon it when things are going bad.

Say you are holding pocket nines, and you raise preflop from middle position. Two players call behind you and both of the blinds fold. The flop comes 9d 8s 4d. This gives you the best hand with a set of nines, but there are also straight draws and flush draws on the board. You are first to act and make a sizable bet, hoping to force any draws out of the pot. One player calls, while the other folds. The turn is 8d, completing a possible flush draw, but giving you the full house for a better hand. You check the turn, and your opponent bets. You simply call the bet and the river card is 2c, a totally irrelevant card. You bet out on the river, and receive an immediate call from your opponent, who reveals a losing hand of pocket queens for two pair, queens and eights.

The play that makes this entire hand so profitable is the check on the turn. You raised before the flop, indicating you have a strong hand, then make a strong bet on the flop, indicating that you want to get others out of the pot, meaning it could be a bluff or you are afraid your hand won’t hold up. By checking the turn, you give an even stronger impression to your opponent that you are bluffing or possibly holding A-9 for top pair top kicker. Either way, he is convinced that he has the best hand and will press his advantage, certain that you weren’t on a flush draw. You didn’t want to rely on your opponent to bet for you on the river, so you made the bet yourself. The impression this action gives is that you think you’re a-9 may be the best hand, or that you are taking one last and ill-advised bluff to try and steal the pot. Your opponent is sure their high pocket pair is good and calls your bet, only to see the horror that is your full house, and you win a huge pot.

Deceiving your opponent is a key part of poker and checking a turn that makes you a huge favorite to win the hand is a good way to extract more chips from a deceived opponent, especially if you made a strong bet on the flop. In the example above, the opponent had a strong hand that he was convinced to be the best. If he had had a weaker hand, he would have folded on the flop along with the other pre-flop caller, and you would have a much smaller pot, which couldn’t have been helped, as keeping the other players in the hand would have been a risky play. However in the outlined situation, the perfect card came on the turn to give you the confidence to keep the one remaining player in the hand. A wide variety of different circumstances combine to form each hand and make it what it is, so you must be aware of the possibilities and evaluate the risk and reward of each play you make.

Many of the most successful no limit players are very conservative, especially in what hands they will start with. This is a good strategy for no limit hold ‘em, because when you do have a very strong hand, you have the ability to get a huge number of chips—even two to four times your entire chip stack. In limit hold ‘em this isn’t the case. Because of the betting structure it is harder to bluff in limit hold ‘em, and there won’t be a lot of doubling up unless you are very much the short stack.

A good no limit hold ‘em player is selective about hands because every hand can be for all of the chips. A good limit player limps in with lesser hands more often because they know with the betting limited catching the big hands will pay off for the extra blinds. This doesn’t mean you play trash like 2-7 off suit, but hands that aren’t strong for a call in no limit (J-9 off suit) are playable for the blinds in limit. For this reason, the shift from no limit to limit hold ‘em is much easier for aggressive players who like to see a lot of flops.

Because of the limited betting, position becomes more important. You can’t try to steal out of position, bluffing by raising heavy because your raises are limited. You want to play all the even moderately good hands you can near the button, in strong position, but shy away from the weak position unless you have an overwhelming hand. It’s also much harder to force chasers to fold since they can always just call your bet and continue.

This makes it correct to play aggressive whenever you are playing. “Ram and jam” is the strategy to follow, and there are several reasons for this. For one, by making a habit of raising, other players will be more likely to call on iffy hands later on because you’ll have a reputation of raising the pot. This is the only way to cut down on chasers in limit, since you can’t go all in to knock them out. The other reason is that you want to build the pot as large as possible for when you get a strong hand, since you have to work to cash in. For example, if you have A-J pre-flop, not only should you raise that as often as possible, but if you hit a jack on the flop, keep raising and re-raising.

Since limit hold ‘em limits the bets, the other thing you’ll find is that often times weak players will take a 2nd pair or A-K high to the river, or even the most unlikely of chases, not realizing how much that will cost them in the long run. You want as many chips in the pot as possible when you’re ahead, and the best way to do that in limit is to raise and re-raise.

Here are some tips on how to play loose. The best way to begin loosening up your game is to incorporate these tips gradually, so you can pinpoint which ones are working best for you.

If nobody calls then your hand is irrelevant

The majority of hands don’t reach a showdown, so does it matter what your cards were? Usually everyone has a good idea of where their hand stands by the river, so a showdown isn’t necessary. If you haven’t made a hand and you know your opponent isn’t strong, then you can represent a much better hand by simply betting like you would with a strong hand.

Know your opponents

It takes a lot more effort to play loose then tight. You need to keep a close watch on all of your opponents so you know who’s capable of playing back at you or calling you down and who’s waiting to hit a good flop.

Pump up the pot

Rather then calling, try raising and 3-betting more often. It’s a lot easier to put your opponents on a hand when they’re scared to play against you without a premium hand. The more decisions you force your opponents to make, the more information you gain about their hands.

Drawing and semi bluffing

Those suited connecters are a great way to open up your hand selection. The best part about them is that you usually know where your hand stands. When you’re on a draw, you know which cards you need to hit to make the best hand and if you’re not getting the odds, just lay it down.

You can get your opponents to lay down much better hands then yours by semi bluffing your draws. For example, You hold JT on a KQ5 flop. Your opponent bets 4bb’s with an unknown hand to see where they’re at. Maybe he has QJ and wants to see if it’s good.

You know you don’t have the best hand, but if a A or an 9 comes you’ll have the nuts. Simply calling here would make your draw a lot more obvious if it hits. Raising on the other hand will put your opponent to the test and give you a good chance at a free card if he calls and you miss the draw.

When you’re beat, you’re beat

When you open up your starting hand selection, you’re going to be hitting more marginal hands. T9 is great when you flop a great draw, but what about when the flop is T75? Sure you have top pair, but you’re dominated by hands like AT through JT. You can lose a lot if you’re always going to the river with marginal hands like this.

Bankroll

Be sure to keep an above average bankroll size for your aggressive play. The swings are much larger, so you’ll need the extra padding to save you financially and emotionally.

Sometimes loose is wrong

Loose isn’t always the right way to play. Make sure you mix up your style depending on the table and players. If you get stuck playing only one style, you’ll become easily exploitable.