Your Main Poker Strategy
Your main strategy at High-Low will depend to a large degree on your ability to put your opponent(s) on a particular hand. That is, you'll have to make an educated guess about the quality of hand your opponent is likely to have. What will help you determine that factor (with a reasonable degree of accuracy) is your line on his play — which you'll adjust based on the position he's in.
For example, if you know that he's a solid player (by having carefully observed his play) and he gets in the pot in an early position, then you can safely assume he's in there
„ith a pretty decent starting hand. But, if that same player cornes in the pot raising from the steal position, you'll then make a different assessment of the kind of hand he's likely to have. In the first case, you wouldn't get in the pot with anything but a very strong hand because you'd know he's probably got a very strong hand also. In the second case, you'd probably loosen up your standards because you'd know he's a good enough player to be taking advantage of his (steal) position. But, even though you "know" what he's doing (ante-stealing), there'll be times when you'll just have to let him grab the antes simply because your hand at the time is just not playable (under any circumstances). However, there'll be other times when you'll "know" he's on the steal and you might try to re-steal the pot from him. Of course, re-stealing is a higher level of art than simply taking advantage of the steal position. So, whenever you play at that level of sophistication, you'll really have to "know your man" and your hand will have to have some Ouis.
On the other hand, if you're in the pot with someone who you know is a bad (weak) player, then you make the appropriate strategy adjustment. In this case, you can relax your standards somewhat and still be in there with a starting hand that's probably better than his. Or, even if you think this particular (bad) player started with a decent hand, but you know that he'll routinely call on Fourth St. if he catches a "Paint" (picture card) and you catch a good card. . .then, you can give him a play on Third St. even if you suspect your hand is marginal (let's say a 6-7-9) and is probably worse than his.
The reason you can give him a play ("gamble" with him) is because you wouldn't be giving up that much. In faet, if he's the type of player I've defined — one who'll routinely call on Fourth St. when he catches a Paint and you catch good. . .then you actually have the best of him — even though he may have started with a better hand than yours. Here's why:
A player who does that as a matter of course is violating a rule of High-Low Split that you must observe automa-tically (in almost all cases). In faet, it's a rule you must be a slave to. The rule is: