You should strive for a flop percentage of 10-15% in the early to mid stages and 15-20% in the medium to late stages. In tournaments, you should consider your position, the peculiarities of your table, and your cards while calling the flop. If you have nothing better to do than worry about how much the other players are betting, then you're in the wrong game.
The primary goal is to get things over to the turn and back again. You can only call so many times with bad hands before people will think you're trying to steal their money. The more often you flop strong pairs or straights, the more likely it is that at least one of those players will check behind. When the turn comes, go ahead and bet again if you've got good cards. And once the river arrives, put more money into the pot if you need to continue improving your hand.
This is not a game where you want to be tight with your chips. It's very important to keep tabs on your stack throughout the hand so you don't find yourself with no choice but to put all your chips in the middle of the table. And even if you do have enough money left after the last bet to stay in the hand until the end, it's still a good idea to avoid putting all your chips in front of you. That's called blading and it's not recommended for new players.
The question is, what are the chances of a set flopping? When you hold a pocket pair, your chances of flipping a set are 7.5-1, or around 12%. It's critical to understand the odds since many individuals will try to "set their own" when playing Texas Hold'em. If you do so, you may be risking more money than you should since there's no way to calculate what someone else might have in their hand.
There are four possible hands that can be played on the flop: a set, a three of a kind, a two pair, and a single card. Since there are five cards in the deck, these make up 50% of all possible hands. A set is the easiest hand to hit since it requires only one card from the board to be a 9 or better. A three of a kind is next most likely with three cards having to be same value for it to happen. A two pair consists of two different values needing to come down on the board together. This is usually not very likely since there are only two cards left in the deck and they would need to match exactly. The single card remaining is the worst - it could be any value. There is only one way to find out!
When playing against a set-limit betting structure, you want to keep enough pressure on the pot such that your opponent needs to call you with a set before getting too excited about other possibilities on the table.
How frequently do you flip a set? Every serious poker player should memorize this number: around 12% of the time, or once every 9 times you see a flop with your pair. Many poker players are terrified of the infamous set over set scenario: you flip a set, but one of your opponents flops a stronger set. However, since all four cards in the hand are equally likely to be diamonds, hearts, spades, or clubs, about half the time this will result in a loss for both players.
There are two ways to handle this situation: either check back on the other player's hand, which may change your strategy; or switch gears and try to make the best hand you can even though you know it won't be a winning one.
Going all-in with a weak hand is called "bluffing". Some people think bluffing is wrong, but that's not true. Bluffing is part of poker, just like raising money off of bad cards and hiding good ones is part of chess. Unless you have something better to do with your time, such as going to work or taking care of business, then you should probably keep playing even if you think you're being bluffed out of a pot.
As for checking back on another player's hand... that's only done as a reaction to something else they did!
Following the flop, the typical initial bet is two-thirds of the pot size (the total that has already been bet). So, if the pot is $9, you should stake about $6. You should aim for two and a half times the previous player's wager if you wish to re-raise. So, if they wager $6, you should increase the bet to $15. If they call, there is no point in raising further; if they don't want to play that hand, that is their decision.
The general rule with re-raises is this: if you have nothing better to do than to torture other people who are playing fair poker, then by all means, keep on re-raising. However, unless you have a very strong hand, it is not recommended because it gives the opponent(s) more of an opportunity to put you under pressure by calling your raises. In most cases, it is better to make another good hand instead.
The most common way for novices to lose money at poker is by making bad decisions after they get involved in big pots. For example, if the blinds are $10/$20 and there is a $60 pot, most people will simply call the $100 bet and hope for the best. This is a bad idea because if someone has a flush, they will almost certainly want to push all-in before the flop so they have the best chance of winning the hand.
It would be incorrect to claim that flopping is unique to this era of the NBA. However, it is becoming increasingly widespread, particularly among some athletes. Some of the league's current top floppers may one day have their own Hall of Fame wing. It's an art form. They call it "flopping" because its practitioners fall down quite dramatically at times.
The beginning of the end for Dan Dakich came in 2007 when he argued with a referee during a game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Chicago Bulls. The incident was so bad that it led to Dakich being ejected from the arena. After that, his career was over. He was let go by the Cavaliers the next day.
Dakich's issues with referees were well known throughout the league, but they finally caught up with him during the 2007-08 season. On November 15, 2007, just before a game against the New Jersey Nets, Dakich was given a technical foul for arguing a non-call with two minutes left in the first quarter. The following day, it was announced that he had been suspended for one game without pay. Once again, his career was over.
After spending nine seasons as a part-time player, Dakich found a new team in 2008-09. But instead of joining a regular season schedule, he went straight into the playoffs, playing four games for the Chicago Bulls who were undefeated at the time. Although he averaged 4.
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