A Helpful Memory Aid

My poker pal Chuck called me the other day and told me about an experience of a friend of his. He said his friend had gotten to the last two tables of a large no-limit hold'em tournament and had a lot of chips, but lost three big pots in a row, failing to make the final table. His friend was angry with himself for blowing his dough, which might well not have happened with sufficient thought before committing his chips in the heat of combat. Chuck suggested that poker players ought to have a little routine they go through before committing to an action, and that perhaps an acronym might help a poker player remember what he must consider when facing a bet. (An acronym is a word formed by using the initial letters of a series of related words.) This sounded like a good suggestion to me, so I decided to see if I could think of such an acronym.

I tried using the word "action" first, then seeing if I could make an idea from each letter. It quickly became obvious that this approach was backward, that I should write down all of the ideas I thought were important, then see what letters I came up with. So, I wrote down five ideas. The letters from each idea, fortunately, can be arranged to form a word, one that I think most people will remember. So, before you put your chips into the pot, think of the acronym "WHORE." The poker terms the acronym WHORE comes from are who, hand, odds, raise, and equity.

The stands for Who, as in, "Who is your opponent?" I think the terms of tight and loose should apply only to how often the person enters a pot. Your knowledge of the opponent's specific betting habits are more useful. Conservative and aggressive are the general descriptions that will help you decide how likely the opponent is to have the hand he is supposed to have for his betting. A conservative player is one who seldom bets without a quality hand, whereas an aggressive player is likely to bet whenever he thinks he has a decent chance to win a pot by doing so.

One betting habit that a hold'em player always needs to track is the usual meaning for a particular opponent when that person bets the flop. When a snug, conservative player raises preflop and then bets the flop into multiple opponents, it makes the statement, "I hit." When an aggressive player bets the flop, it asks the question, "Did any of you hit?" Naturally, you should be more likely to make a stand and play with the guy who might not have anything.

Another thing you want to look at is whether an opponent will respect your call or just keep coming as if nothing threatening occurred. With a high-quality made hand, I often just call when I have position on my opponent, so these guys who keep firing until raised can lose a lot of chips to me by being mechanical. Of course, if they give me too much respect, I have the tool available of calling with a low-quality hand and stealing on the turn if they blink.

The stands for Hand, meaning the objective value of the cards you hold. This value is the innate value of the hand, and is mainly dependent on the hand's ranking and the number of the opponents you have. For example, middle pair is a hand worth a call on the flop when you are heads up, but not when facing three opponents. Naturally, a hand that figured to be the best probably is not when Tightwad Tommy raises you.

The stands for Odds, meaning the chance of improving to the hand you are hoping to make, the odds offered by the pot, and the implied odds of what extra money you might make (or lose) if you hit. A lot of people make mental errors when trying to approximate the odds. Look at this example: Your heads-up opponent bets the size of the pot on the flop, meaning you will be getting 2-to-1 odds. You have a flush draw, and about one chance out of three to wind up with a flush. A lot of people will call here, figuring the pot odds are not unfavorable and they will make some money if they hit (this is factoring in the implied odds). Yet, a call here is terrible poker, because you are paying for only one card, which makes you more than a 4-to-1 underdog to hit on the one card you purchased.

The stands for Raise, an action that needs to be considered when facing a bet. If you go to one of the online poker forums and are new to poker, and a limit hold'em poker hand is being discussed, you will be amazed at the number of times when you are deciding whether to call or fold, the majority vote is for raising (particularly when having position on the opponent). The majority is not right on every hand, of course, but the aggressive approach in general is winning poker.

In no-limit, you should be a bit more conservative than in limit poker, where a raise on the flop often puts you in position to recoup the investment by getting a free card on the turn. Still, there are many situations in which it is right to raise when you are debating what to do, especially when holding a good drawing hand with position on the opponent. But be careful about raising when you are drawing to a straight when there is a two-flush on the board, because you may be able to steal the pot if the flush comes by going slowly. Also, beware of raising with a non-nut draw if you are in what looks like a multihanded pot, as you could be sandwiched.

The stands for Equity, meaning the amount you would expect to make or lose each time if you put your dough in a large number of times in this situation. Mental errors are often made when trying to figure your equity in the pot. A common one comes from failing to ask the question, "Do I win if I have my opponent beat?" If the bet is on the river, the answer is yes, I win. If the bet is on the flop or turn, you may well get run off the winning hand by additional betting. Another important question is, "How often will I win if I hit my draw?" The two most common traps are a non-nut flush draw and counting an overcard as a sure win if you pair it.

So, before you commit your money to the pot, think