Part Six Playing in Other Non-Standard Games

Play Texas Hold’em The First Two Cards: Early Position Part Five Playing Short-Handed What You Must Realize The Hands to Call With Another Problem Calling or Reraising Before the Flop What If It Is Three-Handed ? When the Blinds are Very Loose Leading on the Flop Calling on Fourth Street Slowplaying on the Flop Fifth Street A Note on Tells Playing Short-Handed Afterthought Part Six Playing in Other Non-Standard Games Wild Games Playing in Extremely Tight Games Playing Against a Live Straddle Strategy of poker of News of poker And is much another about poker



Playing in Other Non-Standard Games Introduction

In the last two sections we have covered what can be termed as two non-standard games — loose games and short-handed games. There are also other non-standard forms that we wish to address. This needs to be done because if you play a fair amount of hold’em it is inevitable that you will occasionally find yourself in one of these games.

First however, let's take a moment to quantify what may be called a "standard game." Defining this more clearly, a standard game is one of standard structure (blinds and bet sizes), which is played moderately tight, and includes perhaps two or three fairly good players. Obviously, this is not always the case. Sometimes the game may be wild; sometimes it may be extremely tight. In addition, someone may voluntarily put up an extra large blind — known as a straddle — so that he can "gamble." Finally, the structure may be "spread limit," where bets can be any amount between (and including) two specified limits.

All of these non-standard games require strategy changes for your play to remain optimal. This doesn't mean that you should disregard everything we have already covered. In fact, the material we have presented so far should be your foundation to winning play, no matter what game you may be playing. Nevertheless there are several additional situations that still must be discussed, and in the chapters that follow, we provide some guidelines to help you in some of these other "non-standard" situations.