There are many many moves. Personally I like to take a stand. I love it when someone loves to bluff all the way down, but is tight enough to fold. I know that he'll hit a pair or better with 2 unpaired cards over 50% of the time. However, so will I, and he can't just call with a pair. So I let him bluff himself down until the river. I will check raise him all in if I can get away with it on the river, otherwize I'll be the first one in and I'll move in, or I'll move in over the top if I'm in position. It should never be for more than double the pot,. I will most definately do this same sequence with a hand, and will rarely make this move. It's especially useful against a blind stealer.
There's tons of big moves, but I love making moves from the big or small blind against an aggressive opponent.
Of course there's still the standard moves that are not big which you want to do first. Before deciding to do the big moves, make sure you can't accompluish the following first:
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Blind steal - After it folds to you in late position, you bet with the intention of stealing the blinds. Typically you want to only have to risk 3 times the big blind, to win the pot, but you sometimes need to do more like 4 for it to work. This works best when the antes are involved, as you only need to win close to 1/2 regardless of what happens after the flop for it to be a good bet. Even if it doesn't work, if your opponents just call, you will have position after the flop.
"limp steal"- When the blind steal doesn't work because players in late position limp in hoping to see a flop, you can make a larger raise. Standard amount
"small ball"- This requires more skill. I'm sure there's other words for this, but basically instead of trying to steal with a 3 times raise, you are enticing your opponent to call with a 2.5 times the big blind, or even 2 times. On the button you may even limp in. You do this because you will get your opponent in unconfortable situations where he doesn't know what to do. If your opponent has any 2 cards in the big blind, he technically should call with any 2 to a raise as small as a minimum bet. But if he has 48 and he hits an 8 on a KJ8 board and all you have is 45 of hearts, is he going to bet? is he going to call? If he check calls and you pick up a flush draw on the turn, you simply give up and check, and if you hit maybe an 8 of hearts on the river and your opponent pays you off. Ideally you want to intice them to call, and simply make a half pot sized bet on the flop and take it down more often than not.
Position play -One of the good things about the blind steal or limp steal or the "small ball" is that if it doesn't work, you have position on your opponents and can win more after the flop. So if you hit your hand, and they hit there hand, they will give off the information, and you can lose less. If they hit and you miss, you can fold without risking a bet to see where you're at. If you hit and they miss, you can either check or bet small to keep them in, or just be content with taking the pot down so they don't draw out. If you both miss, they will often check and you can still take it down. Not all players play like this, but you can note the ones that don't and outplay them after the flop.
"continuation bet" - If you make a bet with a hand like AK, or maybe even a pair of 8s or higher and you miss the flop, you should occasionally bet anyways, since it's likely your opponent also missed the flop. You should not always do this, or your opponents can start check raising you, or reraising you but do it every now and then. You have taken control of the betting before the flop, so act as if you have aces, or as if the flop hit and improved your hand. Now you might get your opponent to fold a pair of 99s when you have 88 or AK on a QT2 flop. You also will be more likely to get action later on a flop where you do hit your ace or king when your opponent maybe has jacks.
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Here are some Bigger moves:
"resteal" - when the table is full of raises, and steals, and you don't have the opportunty to steal, you need to identify the loose players that are raising a lot and taking down the small pots and using the strategies above. Now is where you multiply there raise by about 3, and try to take it down before the flop. The thing about the resteal is you can let someone do all the stealing for you, and meanwhile develop a tight image, and then simply collect on one steal. This can be done from the big blind, the small blind, the button, or sometimes on the cutoff.
"squeeze play" - So you can't even resteal because there are people calling the raiser? GO for the squeeze play. If it goes raise call, or raise call call, you make a large reraise and take down a big pot. The reason it's effective is beause the original raiser probably isn't that strong since he's raising with a lot of hands, and the people calling probably aren't either because they know he's raising a lot. But even better, if the raiser or first caller does have a fairly strong hand, he still has to be worried about the other caller behind him.
"reresteal" this play is pretty rediculous, If you ever saw the TV final table with Scott Fischman and David "devilfish" Ulliot you saw Scott Fischman raise from under the gun, and Devilfish reraised him with 95 offsuit. It got back around to Scott Fischman, and he says "all in" with his 95 offsuit. Devilfish folds and shows, and Fischman shows his hand. A rediculous play, that is actually profitable with just about any two if your opponents will fold to the all in half the time, and the chips are right, but the risk is too great to make unless it's late in the tournament and you're gunning for the win, or you have a very good physical read on your opponents, and the chips are just right. If you think your opponents are "restealing" very often, and will fold when you move in, you can go for the "reresteal". This move should be very very rare, and usually done with a hand that you think might be the best hand, even if you're called. at 30 times the big blind, you make it 3 times the big blind, your opponent makes it 9, and you move all in.
Defending the blinds: Many moves are available from the blinds that aren't available elsewhere, the reason is after the flop you get to act first which allows check raises, and opportunities to be the first to bluff. Several moves are available here and will take advantage of someone that's always trying to pick on your big blind. this will give you more respect and allow you to see more cheap flops by checking, and occasionally people will all fold when it's in your big blind, because they're afraid to mess. All of these moves should be made with big hands, mediocre hands, and if you really need to small hands. The resteal we already covered above.
Stop and go all in. I do this with my monster hands as people expect everyone to be weak when they stop and go it seems. When I have a big hand, I will do it by calling anywhere from 1/4th to 1/5th or even 1/6th or 1/7th my stack. If I have AK, it has to be about 1/4th of my stack or less a little more still works if I can get value out of my ace or king when I hit, and a little more if I think my opponents are capable of folding maybe mid pair top kicker. When I don't have a hand, I have to believe that I will probably have 2 overcards and drawing live, and then I can do it between 1/3rd to 1/4th of my stack. Generally T9, JT or QJ and maybe 98 are decent hands to try this with as I am less likely to be dominated, but still fairly likely that I'll have overcards to the board, and overcards to small pairs, so if I get called I'm still in good shape. An interesting situation is when an opponent minraises my stack as I have the odds to call, but I think my opponents just doing it because I'm shorter stacked. I will often call the bet and if I hit just about any peice of the flop, or as much as a gutshot, I'm shipping it all in. I will generally still want to commit about 1/5th of my chips here to make this move, if I have slightly more chips, I have to hit 2 overcards, or a gutshot with an overcard, and believe this is the best chance to win chips.
Raise and go. This one I much prefer. You either minraise an opponent to appear very strong, and then you shove in on the flop like you got aces and were just trying to get a little more out of it. It especially works in a situation like the one above where your opponent is minraising you but a standard all in regardless of the flop won't work. By reminraising and then shoving, you represent a lot more strength and put the odds in the favor to make the move, so you get enough chips out of it when you win for it to work. You can also do this while making a standard raise as well, and it basically depends on your chips. It's dangerous as your opponent can move in and you usally have very good pot odds. The player must be right. The chips must also be right. I prefer it to be a standard 3 times raise, that my opponent can fold to preflop. The move on the flop will be such that it's similar to the stop and go and my move in is for about whatever the pot size is. I'm most likely to be carrying AK, AQ, or AA, but I might make this against an aggressive opponent if I feel like taking a stand.
"Uppercut" aka The stop and check raise. - I didn't know what else to call this, but this move reminds me of a boxer who lets the punches come to him, and then he dodges and then BAM one uppercut and the tides have turned.
This is for an opponent who will always bet. You have to determine how much he is going to bet in order to decide if you can pull this one off. He should be an opponent who checks a good hand bets a bad hand. It can also be made with the intention of only doing it if your opponent throws out a certain size bet, and he makes predictable betting patterns. This way, if he makes the weak bet, you can raise him, if he makes the bet that he makes when he's strong, you can fold.
This move is where you call the raise like your opponent has you on the ropes, you check and leave open what he thinks is a free shot, then he takes it, and you block his punch and you reraise and hit him with the metaphorical uppercut, and he's out of there. Like the stop and go, this has an all in version, but would be more likely to happen when you're in the situation with maybe blinds 150/300, and you have maybe 4500 in chips, and your opponent makes the standard 3 times big blind for 900 assuming you expect him to bet maybe 2/3rds or the full pot a large percentage of the time. If you expect him to bet half the pot or one third, you don't have to have as much, and can have more like 3500 or so in the above situation. Now AQ is still an excellent example of a hand you don' want to reraise with here, because if your opponent has AK, you will be pot committed if he goes over the top, and if you use the "uppercut" you have a chance to bluff him off if you both miss, and he won't have the odds to call with 2, and potentially only 1 overcard, and potentially those outs may not be live. If your opponent has a small pair high cards will scare him, especially when you check raise, and you certainly don't want to have to move in and race for all your chips by reraising. But most importantly, if he has a hand like A7, you don't want to reraise him because he'll probably fold, and you can get a lot more out of it. By just calling, you can make him think you're weak and induce him to bluff on the flop, then turn it around on him, and he says "whoa, I guess he's not weak.
The stop, and stop, and go (also called the stop checkcall and go, or stop and wait and go). - I need a nickname for this one as well, I guess for now I'll call it the "delayed uppercut" to keep with the same reference. This move is for when you have too many chips for the stop and go, but maybe enough for the "uppercut", and you expect your aopponent to continue, when he's weak, however, he's loose enough to defensively call you with a pair of 2's or AK or AQ or AJ, and maybe you have AT. You also expect him to call a check raise, but if the turn card comes you expect him to fold. This actually happens in a lot of cases. The reason is, because people automatically call a checkraise, because they don't want to admit they're wrong, and sometimes they think you're making a move. In their mind they say "he's got nothing, so they bet, and because they already took that position, they don't stop to think what the bet represents, and they instacall soo they can whine about how unlucky they are, or so they can say what a great play they made if they win the hand. But if another card peels off, the player then has to think about it, and it isn't a defensive call to protect theirego any more. This move also works if you plan the stop and go check raise, but your opponent ends up betting more than you anticipate, or if you don't have quite enough chips for the "uppercut" but a raise and go will put you in a coinflip at best. So if you have 15X the big blind preflop, you might be able to pull this move off. Call preflop, call on the flop, and push all in on the turn. Then show the bluff and say "dont mess with my big blind" in order to gain respect, and get action when you do have a hand and make this same move. Then if you hit a big hand on your big blind, you can type in "don't mess with my big blind" AGAIN and move in.
Stop, check, turn, and go - If your opponent makes a minbet from late position and you think he's weak, you can call, and check the flop and determine based on what he does if you want to push the turn. Against another opponent who will try to buy the pot preflop but will usually only bet when he has it, afterwards, you can check the flop and shove in on the turn if you have just barely too many chips for stop and go, but too good of pot odds not to call preflop, and your opponent is bet for value check to preserve stack. Where as the stop and call and go is the opposite as they are the bet to bluff check for value type of player. So you call the blind attack, with the intent of checking for information on the flop, and then moving in on the turn. especially usefull if it's maybe not quite right for a stop and go, but oipponent makes minraise, and you don't want to raise and go because he'll probably push with any two, and you don't want to check raise and go, or because your opponent only bets when he has it.
Reraise to the checkraise. -Stop and check raise only with more chips. You make sure to represent strength then they think, maybe you were on the resteal (and maybe you were) so they fire a bet. Now you move all in over the top. This you need to have too many chips for the stop and check raise and go. Maybe blinds are 150/300 and you have 11000. Now they bet 900, you make it 2700 and they call. There's maybe 5500 in the pot. They bet a weak 2000 bet which you think they will make. Now you move in for the 8300 you have in front of you. If your opponents bet the pot weak, then you need more like 13500 to really make your opponent fold some good hands. However, the advantage of this move is, if you have more like 8000, your opponent will still have to consider, that if he folds, and he goes down to 3300 in chips, he still will have plenty of play left. Now A great situation for this is when your opponents are the type to slowplay a good hand by checking, and bet when they're on a bluff or think you are weak. ESPECIALLY IF YOU KNOW WHAT THERE BETS MEAN, AND CAN PUT THEM ON A SMALL RANGE OF HANDS. If you want to do this to get a read, you can essentailly do it when you have a lot of chips and no cards, or not as many chips and good cards, but perhaps second best cards, like AQ, or AK on a flop that missed. This is a move that is great if you want to raelly go for the win later on in a tournament, or put yourself in a position to coast to the final table.
reraise check call and go - This is similar to the one above, except that you instead just call because again, the player might have an ego, and you also give him the chance to think you hit on the turn. Often you migth make this
Reraise check and go - This again is when the opponent is the opposite of the two above. Where you would want to check raise an opponent who bets weak and checks strong, you would want to fold to a bet against an opponent who bets strong checks weak. However, if he checks the flop, you can push the turn, as if you wanted to check raise the flop because you had a real hand, and as if you're afraid your opponent will draw out.
Call down to the river and then push - This play works best in a physical live game where you can spot a players tells. Mike Matusow has used this move before. He sees an opponent put his chips in a certain way, and knows that the player is weak, on the turn, the player continues and makes the same weak play. On the river he does as well, and now Mike rakes in a much larger pot. Moves like this allow Mike to be very patient and really wait for the opportunity to do very well in monstrous fields without having to have all his chips on the line called all in. Online, you would have to really have a player who is predictable who makes predictable betting patterns. Perhaps he bets real small when he's not sure if his hand is good and/or he's on a draw and wants to prevent you from raising. Even then I think you don't want to just call all the way, because the bets aren't large enough. If the player only bets the pot when he's weak it would make more sense.
So if you have 50,000 and your opponent raises 900 and you call in position now he raises 2000, then 6000 then 18000. Now you move in for 33,100, which still is not a lot considering the size of the pot.
Obviously, you need a huge stack. Online tournaments aren't usually deep enough stacked for this, except maybe early against a player who you've played against a lot before. Of course this move can be wehere you shove in on the turn, or out of position on the river, so the pot is less. If you were in the big blind, you call all the bets and move in on the river, you can then have maybe 35000 or so. At the 150/300 level, this just won't really happen often Now if opponent bets 900, then 1000, then 2000 then 4000, and bets half of the pot down, you are not going to need as many chips for these moves. If he bets 1/3rd the pot it'll be 900 then 650, then 1100, then 1800, and you can have much fewer chips, but you'll still need about 11,000 to 12,000 in chips.
minraise your opponent down with the intention of moving in- This can be done all the way down o the river, but usually only will be done on one street like you'll call the flop, minraise the turn move in on the river, or minraise the flop move in on the turn. Sometimes the minraise can gain information. If your opponent checks to you after you minraise, he probably wont call and probably is surrendering. However if he bets again, and it isn't a block bet that's small and trying to prevent you from raising, then you probably can give it up, unles it's an opponent who tends to bet a lot and you have a read on his betting pattern. If someone always minbets a draw down, or makes a 4th the pot sized bet, you can minraise him down to get more out of it when he misses, especially if you are on the same draw, but perhaps a lower flush draw, like you have 45 of hears and you know he probably has a higher draw. You want to charge him for the draw, since he will miss more often than not, but you want to build the pot up, so you can win if his flush doesn't come. Also if the flush does come and you've been doing this, he might check to you on the river, or lead out with another really small bet, and you can call if you think he might act that way with a marginal hand as well.and know he is less likely to hit.
As you get deeper stacked you can do even more advanced plays where you call, check call, check raise the turn, or check call and move on the river, or where you move on a check raise on the river. Then there's the same moves with a preflop raise if you are deeper stacked.
These are all very big moves, that require the opponent, the situation, and the chips to be right. However, pulling off one of these can often put you in excellent position that will allow you to accumulate chips.
You need to create a pot significant to your stack, and your opponents stack, and the move can't be too big of push, but it has to be large enough to matter to your opponents. When players make plays at you, they fully understand they might get played back at, but usually they expect the other person to have a hand. You're not going to wait that long. The best situation is when someone is preventing you from dominating and chopping up the table. Although you could wat and let him do most of the work for you, depending on structure and how many chips this player has, you might not be able to wait that long. Flat calling him down and moving in on the river, flat calling him to bluff turn, minraising him to move on turn, and various moves like that can all work. Always be trying to guess your opponents likelihood to call with a pair, and how often he'll hit a pair, and how big the pot is. If you know your opponent and the odds, there are situations where it's OBVIOUSLY profitable, even if it seems crazy, based on your opponent and the chips. Other situations, you can do the math and find it's actually profitable, when you didn't think it would be. However, you are looking for an obvious edge, just in case your opponent won't fold as often as you think, or has a stronger hand range than you think. Otherwize you can wait until later.
Small blind moves - You can move in with any 2 from the small blind if you or your opponent has an M of 10 or less, provided your opponents calling range is any pair, any broadway, and ace, or tighter..
With 2.5-4.5 big blinds, your best move at the small blind when folded to is to complete the limp and shove the flop regardless. against an aggressive opponent when the shorter stack between the two of you has 22 times the big blind when antes are in, you can raise 2-2.5 times the big blind, get reraised to 7.5, and move all in on the reresteal. with an 30 times the big blind, you can raise to 3, get reraised to 9 and move all in on the reresteal. Your opponent should fold a third of the time or more, and you should be 35% to win or more for it to work. If you have nearly 40 times the big blind raise to 4 times get reraised to 12, and move in.
You can do min raise and go with 10 times big blind or so, but if you're reraised all in, you can maybe dump it and wait until later and move all in.
You can limp then call a raise and do a stop and go, or you can raise and stop and go to a reraise if you are in early position. You can also limpraise and go all in if your'e just called, or limp raise all in.
Also, you can move in from the button with any hand with an M of 5 (or both opponents having M of 5) or less if your opponents calling range is the same (any pair, any broadway, any ace) (ignording siotuations when they both call). You can also reresteal from the button, middle, or early position, or even the small blind.
If you bet 1/5th your stack, or your opponents (whoevers' short, and your opponent checks, you can make a judgement call, but usually you can move all in here. Your opponent checking top pair isn't likely, especially if the flop comes 9 high. And calling an overbet isn't likely either. This move is exploitable, but should be profitable. And if they try to exploit it, you simply check behind get a freecard, hit, and they trap themselves. I like to shove all in big, and then show it, and I find it makes my small bets more effective, and my checking to induce a bluff more profitable as well.
Even though I give situations where YOU have a certain amount of big blinds, and assume that your opponents have the same or more, it also works if your opponents have that many times the big blind, and you have a lot more. I hardly ever like to have less chips if I'm making a move, and you probably shouldn't either... although sometimes I may occasionally have to. It's simple reasoning really. Even if I'm expected to gain more chips on one given move, it's not a cashgame where I can rebuy. If I consistantly go up against bigger stacks making these moves I'm going to win a lot, and then get caught once and all the chip accumulation will mean nothing. Which is why I love to let people bluff me if I have a lot more chips. I often tell them I folded a better hand than I did, to encourage them to do it again. They'll probably pull it off vs someone else too. Now I just catch them once, and it's all over and I get all my chips back that they bluffed me out of, and THEN some. Why does it matter if I fold to an all in if I was a 75% favorite, if I get my money in later, and get more out of it the next time, and this time I'm a 92% favorite?
But if I have more chips, I pull off one move, and they aren't going to have the chips to do much, and I'll be able to attack them from then on. Even if they win, again, I can pick up a hand, they can think I'm bluffing again, and I get all of my chips back and then some... I consider it like a loan where I get all of my chips back, plus interest, directly or indirectly. I'll make loose calls, raises and moves from the big blind when I don't have the pot odds, but when I have a lot of chip leverage, simply because I don't want people messing with my big blind, or coming over the top of me on a bluff. If they think I'm a gambler, they'll be afraid of me. And plus, if I keep a bad player in the game for longer, and he manages to get more chips, odds are he won't survive multiple all ins against me, and odds are, I'll be a big favorite the next time..
Usually when I make a move, I like to have enough chips where I still have the chips where I'd be able to make that move again, should the move fail. Should I get called and my opponent wins, I should still have enough chips to do that move without risking my entire stack. I should still ahve enough chips to have the flexibility to play big pot, small pot, medium pot poker, and to make al the moves I need to.
Every single move, you can potentially make blind if you know what your opponent will call with, what his range of hands is, and about how much he'll bet, and you know that it's profitable. And if the move is extremely profitable, you do not have to be very accurate in your estimations, and there is a lot more room for error. Of course, if you're using your chipstack to make players have a decision for all of there chips, with nothing they're going to give you walks in the big blind more, they're going to give you action when you have big hands more, and they're also going to give you free flops and cheap flops as they'll be less likely to want to raise you for fear you might put them in a difficult decision. Then you get a player who has jacks just call, especially if you've been playing tight with the occasional move, and then a king comes on the flop and he's scared. Meanwhile, you are on a draw and you manage to hit because your opponent is waiting to check-raise you.
Use big moves to your advantage, especially when you have a commanding chip lead in the middle stages, or you want to acquire the chip lead in the later stages to go for the win and you have most of your table outchipped. Also, when you are incapable of winning small pots, and the blinds are too big and structure too fast to catch a hand and get paid off with a monster hand, by making a big move when the timing is right, you will find you have a much greater possibility of having enough chips to be around long enough to catch a monster hand.
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