Protection Poker
4/5/2022by admin
Stud poker is any of a number of poker variants in which each player receives a mix of face-down and face-up cards dealt in multiple betting rounds. Stud games are also typically non-positional games, meaning that the player who bets first on each round may change from round to round (it is usually the player whose face-up cards make the best hand for the game being played). A reduction in the number of people remaining in a hand. EXAMPLE: 'I had a decent hand but was afraid of being outdrawn, so I raised for protection.' APPLIES TO: Online and Land-based Venues. RELATED TERMS: Outdraw, Protect, Protection Bet.
Balance and Range Protection
Balance. It's a concept we hear discussed frequently by coaches and good players, but how important is it really? We've probably heard from other good players and coaches that balance is a complete waste of time, and all we really care about is exploiting our opponents. So which viewpoint is correct?
Balance in Poker and Partial Balance
One issue is that players sometimes mean different things when they talk about balance. Players are not always referring to true theoretical optimal balance. Sometimes they may be referring to more partial type of balance.
For example, imagine every single time we fire 3 barrels we show up with a strong value hand. That's something that our opponents might pick up on very frequently. We could be exploited for this. So is the solution to revert to a GTO strategy where we bluff the river 33% of the time or so? Not necessarily. In fact, even if we just bluff very occasionally in this spot we make ourself significantly tougher to play against.
It's easy to identify when someone shows up with a value-hand with 100% frequency. Add one or two bluffs and it's much harder for our opponent to get a read. They might mistakenly assume that we are changing our strategy and are now actually bluff-heavy. Imagine every single time we fire 3 barrels we show up with a strong value hand. That's something that our opponents might pick up on very frequently.
Even if they don't make this assumption they now need a considerably bigger sample to work out our exact frequencies. That small measure of balance is enough to throw a spanner into the works of what would otherwise be an easy decision for our opponent.Range Protection in Poker
Range protection really involves the even distribution of different holdings across our overall strategy and the various lines we take. If some of the lines we take do not contain enough value hands, then we are exposing a hole in our game which our opponents can exploit.
For example, imagine a spot where we open-raise in the SB and the BB decides to call. Many players may show a strong tendency to cbet all of their nutted hands, especially if the board texture is drawy. This means our cbetting range is well protected. However what about our checking range?
Naturally if we've used all of our strong hands in our c-betting range, we have none left over to use for our checking range. We need to distribute our monsters across the different lines we take. If we ever take a line which doesn't contain any value hands (simply checking as PFR in this case), then we become vulnerable to exploits. Our opponent can simply bet any 2 cards vs our unprotected range.
The same might happen IP to an extent. Perhaps we have a tendency to cbet all of our strong hands in position and never check back. An astute opponent can lead the turn recklessly against us, knowing that our range is essentially unprotected. It's slightly less problematic IP since that turn card may improve some of our range even if we check back the flop with primarily weak holdings. OOP if we have an unprotected checking range we won't even get to see a turn card most of the time.Naturally if we've used all of our strong hands in our c-betting range, we have none left over to use for our checking range. We need to distribute our monsters across the different lines we take. If we ever take a line which doesn't contain any value hands (simply checking as PFR in this case), then we become vulnerable to exploits. Our opponent can simply bet any 2 cards vs our unprotected range.
An astute opponent can lead the turn recklessly against us, knowing that our range is essentially unprotected.
Air is important for balance in poker, too!
This is a commonly misunderstood concept. Many players simply believe range-protection is about having enough strong hands in our range so that our opponents cannot bluff recklessly. Having a range which is too strong can also be considered and unprotected range however. Pretty much all ranges need some nutted hands and some air type hands.
The only hands which are not a vital necessity to a balanced range are the mid-strength hands. But naturally we want to play these, and assuming we do play them we need to protect them with some nuts and some air.
The only hands which are not a vital necessity to a balanced range are the mid-strength hands. But naturally we want to play these, and assuming we do play them we need to protect them with some nuts and some air.
So how exactly do we protect our range with air? Wouldn't we prefer to not have any air?
Let's imagine we 3-bet SB vs BTN and the flop comes
K72.
Which type of hands should we be protecting our x/c range with. We mentioned earlier that it is not correct to cbet all of our strong holdings.
K72.
Which type of hands should we be protecting our x/c range with. We mentioned earlier that it is not correct to cbet all of our strong holdings.
Most of us probably realise it is a good idea to x/c hands like TT-QQ or weak Kx. Maybe some of us would even protect these mid-strength hands with some monsters like KK/AK/AA.
Unfortunately for the majority of us, this is as far as it goes. But why is this a problem? True, we have some medium hands but they are well protected by our slowplays, so what's the big deal?
So imagine, we x/c the flop with some Kx and TT-QQ. Turn is a blank 2 and goes check/check. River is a blank 5. How should we play on the river in this situation?
Doubtless we should lead our nutted hands for value. In fact, we should even potentially value-bet QQ-TT on this runout. Assuming we felt value-betting was not profitable then we would put QQ-TT in either our check/call bluffcatch range or our check/fold range. Returning to our earlier concept of balance however – we are aware that we can't always be value-betting in a certain situation.
We need to balance out this river line with some bluffs. So which bluffs should we choose? Hold on....do we even have any bluffs? We've put ourself in that situation were every single time we bet the river it is for value. This is super easy to exploit. Our opponent can pretty much safely fold anything that is not a premium, and we are getting exploited hard.
We need to balance out this river line with some bluffs. So which bluffs should we choose? Hold on....do we even have any bluffs? We've put ourself in that situation were every single time we bet the river it is for value. This is super easy to exploit. Our opponent can pretty much safely fold anything that is not a premium, and we are getting exploited hard.
Returning to our earlier concept of balance however – we are aware that we can't always be value-betting in a certain situation.
This is clearly not a mistake with our river strategy. It's not our fault that we don't have any good hands to use as bluffs. Or is it? Let's think back to the flop situation. How can we redesign our flop strategy so that we have some decent hands to use as river bluffs?
It means we are going to need to start check/calling some air hands on the flop. Ideally those with some good backdoor potential. We should obviously use these in our cbetting range also – in fact decent back-door hands are primarily cbets. But if we don't check/call them with some frequency our river leading range becomes super unbalanced.
And not just our river lead frequency – pretty much any other line in the hand we might take – whether it be check-raising the turn or even donk-betting is going to be unbalanced towards value.
This is something that is still common misunderstood by the vast majority of players. If we ask them what the necessary criteria to check/call a hand as the PFR is, they'll generally tell us that we should have some type of showdown value. They would likely dismiss the idea of check/calling some type of speculative hand as horrible – the showdown value is too low. But we saw the huge issue with the hand in the river situation was that we had too much showdown value!And not just our river lead frequency – pretty much any other line in the hand we might take – whether it be check-raising the turn or even donk-betting is going to be unbalanced towards value.
Protection Gambling Book
Let's think back to the flop situation. How can we redesign our flop strategy so that we have some decent hands to use as river bluffs?
Balance in Poker: Equal Distribution of Air
Seeing as we have relatively few strong made hands, and large amount of air hands in general (most times we miss the flop), our goal should be to distribute our air hands evenly across the different lines we take.
If we use too much of our air in one particular line we create a vulnerability in our game, where that particular line simply does not have enough strong hands to protect the large amount of air hands.
Imagine a situation where we call a 3-bet preflop and then call a cbet on a J107board. The turn card is a blank3 and our opponent checks to us. Stats analysis would generally indicate that we can profitably bet any 2 cards vs most opponents after he misses his turn cbet. It's theoretically correct however to check back some of our air hands until the river. Firing all of our air hands on the turn would create an uneven distribution.
This is a problem for 2 reasons.
- it makes us vulnerable to turn check/raises since we have so many air hands
- if we fire all of our air on the turn and check back mid-showdown holdings we have no decent hands to use as bluffs on the river.
Disconnect Protection Pokerstars
In other words our turn betting range is air heavy, while our turn check back range is mid-showdown heavy. Ideally we check back a decent chunk of our air to balance our river betting range and also to ensure our turning betting range is not vulnerable to turn check-raises.
It's important to understand that we are not necessarily saying a strategy where we bet 100% of our air hands on the turn shouldn't be used in practice. It's a great exploitative strategy in some instances. But we can say for certain that it's an unbalanced strategy and can be exploited by a good opponent.
Balance and range protection in poker can be a complex topic, but remember our goal is not necessarily perfect game theory optimal balance. No-one even fully understands what that looks like at this stage. However, even bringing a partial amount of balance to our game can make us significantly tougher to play against.
Protection Poker
My buddy Steve's at it again. Without a doubt Steve Forte is the world's leading expert at any type of cheating. His book 'Casino Game Protection' has become the industry standard at all of the major casino's to train their employee's. Now Steve's tipping the work on what is simply the hottest game in the world...Poker.
Poker Protection Cheating and the World of Poker, is a significantly, expanded follow-up study to the acclaimed “Casino Game Protection - A Comprehensive Guide” that exclusively explores the game of poker. It presents the topic of cheating with scope and objectivity, covers a wide range of scams employed by both amateurs and professional cheaters, provides important perspective and historical background, and makes the clear distinction between the casino/card room game and the home/private game providing players, dealers, and industry executives with the first, modern treatment of cheating and its impact on the game.
Poker Protection was written for gamers and players, for all capacities and levels of experience, but primarily, it was written for anyone hungry for knowledge.
If you perform card magic you know that every time you pull out the old pasteboards the first question is either 'do you play poker' or 'can you tell me how to cheat at cards' or if you want to become my partner and move to Vegas.' I think this is a must read for magicians. You definitely need to educate yourself so that at least in conversation you are 'an expert.' I guarantee you've never heard about the techniques, strategies and methods Steve tips that are used to take home everybody else's money.
Table of Contents
The following extended table of contents has been provided for you to browse the full range of information presented.
Poker Protection - Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1 – POKER, A SHORT HISTORY
Games and Rules
Draw Poker
Stud Poker
Texas Hold’em and Variations
Cheating in the Cardrooms
Early Nevada Cardrooms
Gardena, California - Poker Capital of the World
The Industry Evolves
CHAPTER 2 - THE CHEATERS’ WORLD
Casino Cheaters and Private Game Cheaters
Specialists, Modern Cheaters, Reformed Cheaters, Road Hustlers, The Elite
Professionals and Amateurs
Knowledge, Experience, Judgement, Planning, Innovation, Technique, and Social Skills
Crews (Organization)
Captain, Takeoff Man, Mechanic, Support Players, The Inside Man
Motivation
The Elements of a Scam
Inside Collusion / Employee Theft
The Turn
Psychology
Signals
Gambling Moves - Purists, Technical Perception
Crooked Gambling Equipment - Electronic Cheating
Suckers
CHAPTER 3 - COLLUSION
Financial Independence
Strategic Independence
Local Courtesy
Playing Top Hand
Crossfire / Whipsaw / Middling
Prearranged Strategies
Sharing Cards
Other Partnership Scams
Playing Cousins
Perception
Collusion in Different Games
CHAPTER 4 - FALSE SHUFFLE SCAMS
Automatic Shufflers
Casino False Shuffles
Culling
Scramble / Wash
Slug Controls - The Short Shuffle, False Boxing/Stripping
Full Deck Controls - Push-Through / Pull-Outs (Strip Outs), Zarrow Shuffle
Nullifying the Cut
Shuffle Scams
The Kill
The Slug Scam - Seven-Card Stud, Hold’em, Bad Beat Jackpots
Stacking the Deck - Lay Stack, Pickup Stack, Riffle Stack
Dealing Known Holecards
The Perfect Shuffle
Peek Stack
Deal’em Back
Double Duke
Laying the Flop/Board Cards
The Delayed Stack, Slug, or Cooler
Chip Rack Cooler
Private Game False Shuffles
Overhand Shuffle
Off-The-Table Riffle Shuffle
Culling
False Overhand Shuffles - Slug Controls, Center Slug Controls
False Off-The-Table Riffle Shuffles - Slug Controls, False Cuts, Full Deck Controls
Nullifying The Cut
Shifts
Hops
Holding Out for the Cut
Laying Briefs - Without a Partner, With a Partner
Partner False Cuts
Private Game Shuffle Scams
Overhand Shuffle Stacking - The Haymow (Milk Shuffle), Injog / Outjog, Formula Stacking
Bottom Slug Stacking
Riffle Stacking - Bottom to Top Stacking, Top to Bottom Stacking, Slip Cut Stacking
Advanced Riffle Stacking
Laying the Set/Slug
Double Duking
Other Methods
Locators
CHAPTER 5 - HOLDING OUT
Methods and Considerations
Casino Game Scenarios
Seven-Card Stud, Hold’em
Private Game Scenarios
Five-card Draw
Mechanical Holdout Devices
Kepplinger Knee-Spread
Beanshooter
Slick Sleeve
Short Sleeve
Playing the Shirt
Bugs
Table Holdouts
Holding Out & Inside Collusion
Countermeasures
The Deck is Short!
CHAPTER 6 - PEEKS, FALSE DEALS, COOLERS and MORE
Peeks
Top Card Peeks - Back Peek (Heel Peek), Bubble Peek, Little Finger Peek, The Two-Down Peek
Bottom Card Peeks
Shuffle Peeks
Flashing
False Deals
The Second Deal
The Bottom Deal
The Greek deal
The Center Deal
Other False Deals
Tells for False Deals
Shiners
Coolers
Casino Coolers
Private Game Coolers - Dealer Cooler, Cutter Cooler
Partnership Switching and Capping Scams
Private Game Techniques
The Spread
The Brush
The Snatch
Discard Switching
Capping the Deck
Other Scams
Double Discarding
Playing Heavy
Switching the Dealer’s Hand
Casino Variations
Check Copping
Sending the Hand Over
Cheap Shots
Theft
CHAPTER 7 - MARKED CARDS
Short History & Background
The Plastic Card
Poker and Marked Cards - Combinations, Reading the Work, Card Control
Marking Systems: How Many are There?
The Work - Inside Systems
Blockout, Enlarged Diamond, White Diamond, Scroll / Line Work, White Ink
Cutout
Shade - Line Shade, Juice, White Flash, Partial White-On-White, Natural White-On-White
Sorts
Trims
Sand / Scratch
The Shine
Luminous Readers
Rounders
Touch Work - Punch, Rough and Smooth, Blackline, The Flex
Strippers
Outside Systems
The Bend
Daub & Daub Substitutes
Nail Marking
Knockoff Sticks
Unusual Systems, Defects, and Counterfeits
Tests for Detection
Box/Wrapper
Order/Pip Configuration
Manufacturer’s Code on the Ace of Spades
Ribbon Spread
Riffle Test
Size Test
Angled Light
Bevel Test
Shade Tests
Gun/Squeeze Test
Comparison Test
Touch Test
Filters
Black Lights
The Eyes
Evaluate the Play
Other Methods
CHAPTER 8 - OTHER FORMS OF POKER
Tournaments
Trading Pieces
Final Table deals
Chip Dumping and Related Scams
Other Tournament Scams
Tournament Rules
Rebuy Tournaments
On-Line Poker
Game Protection Concerns
Lack of Regulatory Oversight and Legislative Protection
Random Number Generators (RNGs)
Programmers and the Number #1 Myth
Collusion
One-Person Collusion
Multiple Accounts in Tournaments
They Can See My Holecards!
Computer Players (Bots)
Computer Analysis
Poker Cheat Products
Other Problems
CHAPTER 9 - PROTECTION / DETECTION
Casino Game’s Line of Defense
Cardroom Manager
Shift Managers and Floor Supervisors
Dealers
Surveillance
Law Enforcement / Gaming Control Boards / Outside Investigative Agencies
Players
Poker Procedures
Which Procedures are Best?
Dealing the Game
The Scramble / Wash
The Riffle Shuffle
Stripping the Deck
Boxing the Deck
The Best Shuffling Procedures
The Cut
The Deal
The Discards
Game Management
Detection Skills
Game Protection Philosophy
Awareness
Working game Protection Knowledge
Avoiding the Myths and Misconceptions
Identifying the Crooked Game
Suspicions
Detection Tips
The Player’s Checklist - Casino Game
The Cardroom and Management
Dealers and Players
Basic Rules and Procedures
Scramble / Wash, Shuffle, Cut, Deal
Protecting Your Hand
The Deck Hand
Discards
Your Opponents’ Hands
Playing Cards
The Games
Taking a Closer Look at Yourself
If You Detect Cheating in the Casino Game
Private Games
General Rules
Other Considerations
Equipment
Cheating in Private Games
Protecting Yourself
The Player’s Checklist - Private Game
Location and Game Environment
Who’s Running the Game
The Game’s History
House Dealers & Players
Professional versus Private Game Procedures
Dealing the Game
Protecting Your Hand
The Playing Cards
If You Detect Cheating in a Private Game
CHAPTER 10 - FINAL THOUGHTS
Perspective
Paranoia
The Game’s Reputation
The Incidence of Cheating
Game Protection Training & Further Research
The Future of Poker
The Games
Players
Cheaters
Poker Technology
Online Poker
Final Words
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