Poker Thoughts

A telling situation

2012-01-09T14:56:00.000-08:00

A recent trip to the casino and I entered a simple $60 buy-in tournament, which usually draws about 150 or so entrants.
My opening table was a relatively conservative group. The kid two seats to my right looked like he just turned 18 But he showed to be a decent player. He showed a nice amount of aggression early without playing wild and he built up a nice chip stack.
I'm moderately ahead of the table average, but behind this kid when this early stage hand comes along with me in the small blind.
I'm dealt AQ off suit. Action gets to him and he raises to 300 (blinds are 50/100). I call and one other player stays.
Flop is 8K5. I am curious as to where I am and bet moderately 300 and stare straight ahead. But because I am in a corner type seat, I can see the kid out of the corner of my eye. Other guy folds and the kid sits there staring at the board. After a few moments pass and me staring straight ahead he calls.
Turn card was another low card. I check and continue to glaze forward. Again, he stares at the board, looks down at his chips and bets $500. I call.
River is empty 8, pairing the board but not helping my hand. I check again and get the same reaction from the kid. Looking at the board, nothing more. I look at him. He stares at the board, then looks directly down at his chips, grabbing about $1600 which he throws in the pot.
I'm dead. I have nothing and he's been betting the whole time. A call makes no sense for me because if I do it and lose, I'm down to about 600 chips.
I still question his hands: Does he have quad eights? Does he have trip eights? Does he have a king?
To answer I replay the hand in my head, and quickly eliminate an 8, mainly because a flop with a king probably would have slowed him down a bit. The couple hands I've seen him show down his style has been limp with small to medium pairs and raise with Ace/anything, and I haven't seen him show down high pairs.
I don't get into all the reasoning here, but eventually I figure his likely hands are AK or pocket kings. But as I replay the hand, the most important factor stares at me: he never looked at me, or my stack...and this has not been in his style except very early when we were all even.
His actions were look at the board and look at his own stack, moves some very inexperienced players will make when they are simply asking themselves, how much can I lose if my bluff fails here. If he had trips or even a king, he'd be more curious to find out how much more he can win from me. And so his bet seemed more random than I really want you to bet.
And as I try to decide my move, I look at him, look at the board, look ahead and pick up my cards, shuffling them in my hands. He can't take his eyes off the board.
I call. He turns over A 10 off, and I take down the pot. From that point forward, I pretty much own him the rest of the tournament, and the table also sits shocked I made the call. But it made it a lot easier to build up my stack from then on out and leave the table many rounds later as the large stack.

As a side note: the kid outlasted me. He got a few nice wins on races and kept playing an overall solid game. He and I ended up at the same table together when I got eliminated outside about 6 spots outside the money. My losing hand was AK, which fell to pocket jacks.

Bet your hand

2011-05-22T15:58:00.000-07:00

The youth movement in poker has tended to make the game a bit more aggressive. A lot of players like to shove with a variety of cards. KJ offsuit, a hand many pros of old would likely toss seems to be a hand a young gun is more than willing to shove on. The philosophy seems to be to make your opponent make the decisions and more times than not you get the pot.
On the other hand, you have guys who won't bet premiums. First hand of a multi-table tournament I get the big blind, and am dealt 98 off suit. Five players before me all limp, and I check. Flop come 8 5 2. I bet $50 (blinds were simple 5/10 so pot had $60) to see if my pair of eights are good. Two folds and two calls followed by a fold. Next card is an 8 giving me trips. Pot hold $210 so I bet $130. Both call. Last card is a 9, giving me a boat. $600 in the pot, and I want action so I bet $130 again. Second player raises to $400, next player thinks then folds.
The board is 85289, with no flush draw. Unless he has nines, I have the hand won, so I shove. He calls and he turns over kings and his slow play costs him the first exit in the tournament.
Had he simply raised preflop, or even raised on the flop most of the time I am folding my hand. The bottom line is if you have a premium hand preflop you are looking to go heads up, you don't want five or six players in the pot and this is a classic example of why. And that also explains why a lot of the young players today feel a shove is a good play...it quickly eliminates the competition and even if you just pick up the blinds, you win the hand.

More pocket aces go down

2011-05-11T14:37:00.000-07:00

Unless you are in a pretty high stakes game, pocket aces never seem all that great in a limit hold em game.
That's one reason I do like to play places with aces cracked bonuses. This week I had mine cracked by trip jacks. It's still a tough spot.
On this particular hand I had the aces, and about 4-5 players are in the hand. Flop comes JJ7. One guy leads out, I call and the others all fold. Turn is a dead card (3 or 4 I think, off suit). He leads out again. I call. Then the river was a 10. He checks, and it's at this point that you have to think about the hand. a bit more. Did he check because he doesn't have anything? Does he have a boat and hope that I bet and he can reraise. In either case, is it worth betting? There's always a small chance he throws away the hand that would crack your aces if you do. In this case, he might have. I check he sheepishly turned over J8 for trip jacks. I turn over the aces and we're all happy.
The reason he might have thrown it is I called the whole way, the flop call was easy if I flopped a full house, since there was action behind me I'd want most of it in. After it's me and him on the turn, if I had a full house and raised on his bet, he'd know it and likely fold. So odds are better I let him play to the river and try to extract the extra chips then. And my action would also be consistent if I had a hand of like J8 myself. Decent flop, weak kicker, and it would be easy for him to put me on a jack.So if he put me on one of those hands, it's not out of the realm of possibility that he folds. If you have him beat, so you don't get the extra chips, but the risk/reward ration for the bonus would justify not betting on the river.

But then playing later after aces crack hours were done, I get them again and am short stacked. Action comes to me and I do what I have to do by raising. I go all in on the flop which is 34J. Couple callers and then on the turn, one lady bets out everyone folds, she turns over a 3-4 and her two pair end my poker day. No limit and she's not even in the hand since I'm raising likely 4-5x the blind at that point.

Medium pairs

2011-04-29T18:20:00.000-07:00

One of the hands I have a love/hate relationship with is medium pairs (7-8). Very few times will you ever fold them preflop, and in a limit game, deciding rather to just call or raise isn't that hard.

But no-limit can be troublesome. Raise bigger from early position? Limp? I tend to mix up my early play, limping most of the time and raising big probably 20-30 percent of the time.
I just don't know if it's ideal. My play is based on the lose less money when your hand doesn't hit philosophy, which will happen more times than not. But it also doesn't get rid of any weak Aces or kings, making it more likely my medium pair will be out flopped.

But the limp play sometimes makes it easier to win bigger pots when your hand does hit. Let's say I have 8-8, 2nd to act, and I limp, as do 5 others. Six players total, and the flop comes A-8-3 rainbow. It's fairly obvious no one has a real strong ace, by the lack of action, but an A-8, or A-3 is possible. And any player with a decent ace will still stay. If I lead out here, I'd go about 3/4 pot-pot sized bet or more depending on the flop (rainbow, all suited, 2 suits, etc...). Bet stronger if there's two of the same suit, less if rainbowed or all the same suit. Anyone who made the nut flush will stay in, but isn't likely to be too aggressive, wanting to extract as much as he can from the board. And you want to give anyone on a flush draw the improper odds to call. (It's amazing how many people ignore the odds and chase on the flop).

And I'm often lost on late to act preflop. If there's a 3x-5x raise in front of me, it's okay to assume my 8s are the low hand right now, but is it worth it to call the raise?. All limpers and my 8s may be good. Do I raise and how much? Ideally, I want a heads up situation, rather I create it or the initial raiser does. And if you know your opponent, and can put him on the proper hand, even if you miss your pair, can you pull off a bluff?

The perils of pocket Aces

2011-04-24T12:32:00.000-07:00

Recently I ended up in a hand I've always worried about. Instincts always tell me to raise on pocket aces, but here's an example of a 4-8 limit game where it's not as easy a raise as it seems.

I'm on the button, and look down to see the two black beauties. Seems obvious when the action gets to me, I'm raising those aces. Except, at this nine player table, all six players in front of me call, meaning in theory there is $30 in the pot already (i say in theory because I'm not subtracting any rakes). If I raise that ups it to $38. And the purpose of a raise like this is to get rid of players and hopefully develop a potential heads up. But if I make it 38, the small blind is looking at $6 to a $38 pot. Unless he's holding 7-2, 8-3 or the like, logic says you put in the six, since it's better than 6 to 1 pot odds. Either way, the big blind then just has $4 to put into a pot of either $38 or possibly $44. 9 to 1 or 11 to 1 pot odds is an another easy move.
And as the action moves around a second time, there's no reason for anyone who called initially to now fold as the pot builds.
By the end of the first round betting, the pot can be at $72. That's real nice if your pocket aces hold up. But odds are really going against you now. Six initial caller indicate that no one feels real strong about their hands to raise, so you have a wide variety of hands, likely a couple of suited connectors, a K-J, and more importantly, very likely at least one, if not two, players with A-medium, low, a typical 4-8 starting hand that is worth sticking around cheap for, but not raising. What does this mean? It means with nine players, pocket Aces is least likely to improve. And it's very likely someone flops trips, a flush or connects the straight.

But is just a call any better? You wouldn't think so, but in a hand like this, I think it can be the proper play. No one is going to leave the hand, and it's unlikely you improve, but who is going to throw away Aces at any point on a hand? The pot will be nice enough by the end in the unlikely case the aces hold, but your bankroll takes less of a hit in the more likely case you lose.

At best, if everyone is in the hand, Aces hold about a 47 percent chance of winning. And that is based only on completely random hands held by others (in other words, no real legitimate starting hand, such as pocket pair, connectors, suited, etc...). But few players just play two random cards. Most have a reason to play, thus the realistic odds give the aces just a 15-25% chance of holding up.

The best scneario would be if you raised on the button and then either the small or big blind reraised. $4 into a $40 pot may be no issue, but when you raise and the big blind reraises, now everyone before you has to decide if $8 into the pot is worth it. The lead position is looking at $8 into a $52 pot.
Even though at this point pot odds suggest everyone would stick around, a few may fold just because psychologically 3-bets preflop is a lot tougher than 2, especially knowing that I can still reraise. So the big blind helps you out here.
Let's suppose it got back to me and everyone stayed. The pot has now grown to $92 and I can cap the betting with another raise if I want. It hard to say if capping makes sense then or not. If everyone stayed, a cap builds the pot, won't get rid of anybody and really makes the aces vulnerable. But if the aces hold, then that $144 preflop pot is nice.

In the real hand I just called. And the SB and BB just called. The flop came 7-2-Q rainbow. Three players check before a player bets. Two stay, two fold. I call. SB, BB fold, final guy calls.
Turn Q. Now I know I'm dead. Same lead better leads out again. One caller, one folder. I call and one exits, leaving three of us. River is a 5, and I know I have no business staying after the leader leads out again. He gets called, and at this point even though I know I'm beat, pot odds say it makes no sense to lay down.
Indeed, first player had Q-7 suited for two pair and the other guy mucks, as do I.
It left me wondering if a raise might have chased him out, but still I think I made the right play.

Online gambling

2011-04-22T21:32:00.000-07:00

I'm not as upset to see online gambling be done in the United States as a lot of other people are.

Don't get me wrong, I don't like the government over regulating our lives and having the states turn into a true big brother type society. And the ease of a game almost anytime is great. As is the fact that you don't need a lot of money to play, and can in fact play for free some spots.

But if the Absolute Poker scandal from a few years back taught us anything, it's that these sites should be monitored and have some accountability to its players. I do eventually see the US starting online poker again, after all demand is too high for the government to just keep sites, but when they come back they will have policies in place to make sure everything is on the up and up.

But for me the internet also takes away a big element of the game in sitting around a poker table and chatting with your buddies, or complete strangers, not to mention learning how to read players and understand thoughts and strategy. Yes there are internet stars who have made millions just online, but not a lot translate to the real game. Tom Dwan comes to mind. But it is also well known Dwan was playing underage on poker sites as he learned the game and started raising his bankroll. The underage gambling is one of the big concerns of the government, and I completely understand that.
Dwan made the transition because he didn't change his style much but also doesn't change expressions much. Internet players often have a hard time realizing that although their style may be the same in a real game, their body language is different.That all-in bluff you make at a crucial point of an online tournament may go well because that player on his computer doesn't see your small grin, etc.

But back to the point, poker is a game to be experienced,not just played. In a way it's kind of like the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles deciding to play a football game on an XBOX instead of the field.
To play it at the casino is the way to experience that. The problem of course is that not all casinos have real low limit games or small buy in tournaments you find online, and you don't find a tournament starting every minute. But that's not always a bad thing. That by itself forces gamblers to follow a rule every pro from Doyle Brunson to Dwan reiterate...follow a schedule or plan. "I will play for two hours before taking off 8, etc." and never gamble more than you can afford to lose. Going to a casino pulling out a $100 and losing it makes that seem a lot bigger reality than sitting online and losing it, and pressing rebuy.

Internet poker will be back, and a few people who finally decide to step into a real casino in the meantime, may be better off in the long run when it does.

Sometimes you're the windshield

2011-04-22T18:15:00.000-07:00

Playing 4-8 limit, I quickly went through my small $100 buy-in and was down to $16. I looked down to A-J of clubs on the button. There's moderate action in front of me, and I raise. I know the table pretty well and know one guy is going to call no matter what, that's fine. He calls, but so do some others.
Flop comes J K 5. After some checks, one guy bets, I of course raise to all in. In my head I know he either has the King or a straight draw, and I'm hoping for the straight draw.
Nope. He turns AK, and I know my time is short as the turn reveals an off card. Then BAAM, the jack hits for the trips and I survive another hand.
Still I never quite get caught up, surviving a couple other all-ins, but that's okay. Sometimes even in a losing session, you remember the hands you won.
After I left poker, I got neither up nor down in two hours of Blackjack and Pai Gow, then decided to kill time at a few penny slot machines.
Down about another 40, I finally decide it's time to head out, only to see a machine I hadn't seen before. Sit down and put in $10. Down to $3 and I hit. Small hit at first, just $16. But then another, and another. I walk away from the machine $80 ahead.

Sometimes a bad day at poker just isn't all bad afterall.

Crazy hand

2010-10-20T09:53:00.000-07:00

Everyone has the story about the craziest play they ever had that turned out good. Here's mine.
A single table tournament with what seemed to be full of normal players (no crazy raisers, raises usually represented what the player had) and the blinds were still low.

I should have never even been in this hand after being dealt 3/5 hearts and was second to act. After the first player folds, I thought maybe I can limp and try to steal after the flop, So I call the 20 blind. Next guy calls, then third guy raises to 110. A few folds and a call back to me. So the pot is 260 and it costs 90. Terrible odds for my holdings, but still I decided to call. Then the guy next to me who had limped shoves all in.
I prepare to muck but then noticed the initial raiser calls as does the other caller. The first all in guy is the only one who has me covered and he initially limped.

My thoughts are simply two players have AK or AQ and the third might also but likely has a medium pair. At this point though, the pot is near to 4000 and I only have about 1000 left. If indeed both players have a high ace and the third has a high pair (10s or higher) he cuts into their outs. It's still early and if I'm going to make a random play, this is it. So I call.
Mind you, had it been later in the tournament and nearer the money, no way do I call. But this is a play I might make once out of every 10 hands or so.
Here's what the others show:
AJ clubs
AK diamonds
pocket 8s

And the board comes:

9c 5s 4s 6d 4d

And my trips take down the pot eliminating two players and giving me a huge chip advantage.

Taking him down

2010-10-18T22:57:00.000-07:00

A lot of times with wild or aggressive players, if you are tight, you want to give them the opportunity to burn themselves.

Usually they are going to notice a tight player and try to attack them, a perfectly solid strategy, especially if the tight player is in the blind.

So letting the aggressive player trap themselves becomes a solid defense for the tight player. And again, you have to pay attention to betting patterns.

From the same tournament as the previous post, the table is down to five players, and I have 1,658 chips in the big blind, putting me in for $40.

I'm dealt 3 of diamond, 6 of spades. Ugh. Wild Man calls and everyone else folds.

Flop: 6d Qs 6c

He bets 100. This tells me he hit a queen. Most of his bets have been about 3x size of the pot when he's trying to steal with nothing, about 2x pot when he hit a medium pair but there's an over card (say the flop was 6, Q, A and he had a Q) to his hand, and pot sized when he hits top pair and slightly less when he hits the nuts (not that that's happened a lot).

So I call my trips encouraging him to bet again.

Turn: 8h

That eliminates any flush draw he might have had, and likely didn't help him any more. But since he saw me call, he has to figure I too have a Q and that didn't help me either.

He bets 340. At this point I could have just called, but it seems obvious he's convinced his queen so he'll play whatever I bet. What I don't want is to call and then see a A or K on the river which might discourage him from a final bet, so I go all-in.

He calls and turns over a Q and 8 for 2 pair.

The river is As and I take down the pot.

But four hands later Wild Man has rebuilt his stack and is over 5,000 chips again because the rest of the table hasn't been paying attention to his patterns. (For example, after almost every time he loses a decent pot on the showdown, he bets strong preflop the next hand....this time was no exception as he raised to 100 and everyone folded to him)

Wild Man's downfall was that he got arrogant. He started raising and showing when people folded. His ultimate plan was to set someone up.

He raised his stack to over 6,000 but chased an all-in with a j/10 off suit and fell to pocket queens. When he battled me on this hand I had 4,112 chips and he had 1,516 and there were still three other players.

I was dealt A 10 off suit in the small blind. He was under the gun and moved all in. Most of the time I would respect an early all in. But his reputation said he simply was trying to steal. And if he had a legit hand I would still be ahead of him chip wise and would still be in second place. So I had no problem calling with my hand. He showed J 10 off, and after two pair on the board, my ace took the hand and the lead in the tournament.

Showing down wild players

2010-10-18T10:11:00.000-07:00

I tend to pay a lot of attention to betting styles in no-limit.
There is a difference between being aggressive and wild.

Aggressive players tend to bet out strong when they have a playable hand, or at least know that their opponent probably doesn't.
Wild players tend to let loose on any two cards.
Knowing the fine line that separates the two can win money.
In this single table tournament that I recently won, one player had a wild betting style.
Up to this hand, I had sat back quietly folding most hands and just winning twice, mainly on uncalled raises. The players I check down here had a history of wild bets, but was also very sporadic. He had raised earlier with 10/3 off, 7/4 off and J/2 off. He had yet to showdown with any pocket pair or ace. And we were at least 30 hands into the tournament at this point.

On the hand, there were eight players left, I was on the button with 1,405 chips, 4th place. The wild man was under the gun (first to act) with 3,358 chips.

I'm dealt 6s, 4c, a hand I normally trash.
Wild man leads calls ($20 at this point). Seat 2 (1,722 chips, and a little loose) calls. All fold to me, so I call. Small blind posts and big blind checks for a $100 pot so far.

The flop: 5s, 6h, 5c.
That gave me two pairs, a nice situation, and since there was no pre-flop raising I have to assume that unless a blind hit a 5 or 6, I'm good.
Check. Check. Wild man bets 125. Fold to me.
At this point I know if I call I may be committed to play this hand out to the bitter end. But I also know that more than likely I'm ahead. His betting pattern suggests that. More than likely he actually started with two decent cards (K/Q or J, 10 suited maybe). Plus he hasn't seen me show any cards to this point, so he has no info on me.
Two pairs makes a 125 bet into a 225 pot fairly simple. Call. And everyone else folds making us heads up. Had anyone else stayed, it's likely I would have had to consider giving up the hand. Still, I don't want to play this too aggressively yet, just in case I am right about his hand and he hits and also it will keep me with a tight image.

Ace of clubs. Not a great card for me, but again, I don't figure him for an ace, and I'm pretty much confirmed that when he checks. I opt to check too, just to keep a tight image.
Last card is a 4 of diamonds. It hit my other hole card, but is irrelevant since my two pair are 6s and 5s.

He checks again. If he did have the ace before, he would have definitely bet out by now. But I opt to check again just in the small chance he was slow playing something strong to set me up, and more importantly if he wasn't, to be sure I show the two pair to everyone to somewhat confuse them: Am I really tight? If so, why would I play 6,4 off to begin with, and why would I call a raise with it and not bet late?

Wild man shows j,10 off and I show the winning hand for the 350 pot.

If nothing else, if everyone else at the table was paying attention it showed them not to fear Wild Man's betting. If they notice that it can become a real table assault on one player.

Starting a poker blog

2010-10-17T14:33:00.000-07:00

It was a trip to Shreveport, La. that got this blog started. After playing a few rounds of poker I decided that, even if no one ever reads it, I would start a journal on interesting hands, and the thoughts on the play.

This day I was just intending to pass through and maybe play poker for an hour or two before heading out of town. I walked up to the Horseshoe poker room and looked at the screen. The no limit games all had waiting lists, but the 4-8 limit had an open seat, so I took it.
Mine was the last seat open at the table, and was two to the left of the dealer. As I sat for my first hand, the little old frail man to my right had the big blind, so I was first to act. My first card was a deuce, so I never even payed much attention to the second card and tossed em. Guy two to my left raised to 8 and took down the pot uncontested.

So at this point I knew nothing about the table, except that I was now the big blind. The cards come and as I am still adjusting my chip stack for my $100 standard buy-in I look down to find the King of clubs and 7 of diamonds. Not great, but a typical big blind hand.

After the player to my left folds, the raiser from the last hand calls. A couple of folds then four callers and the small blind completes his bet. I check to the $28 pot.

Then comes the flop. 7 7 7. I flop the nuts, no one knows anything about me and the pot is nice. Without much thought I check as betting here would likely reveal I had the 7.
The same guy who started the action preflop bets. This time three players follow and I can't believe how lucky this is. But all the action made sense. I figure the first guy probably had ace with low kicker or a small pair. If he had anything stronger he would have raised preflop. I figure after that the next couple of players probably had similar hands and even if someone had a stronger hand, the way the pot was being built there was no need to raise yet.

But I still can't believe how lucky I am when I call making the pot $48.

On the turn, the only card I don't want to see is an Ace. In the small chance someone was slow playing pocket aces, and they got A A on the turn/river, then I would be screwed and not even bad beat eligible as my 7 would be the only hole card I was playing (both of your dealt cards have to play to be eligible for bad beat).
No worries, the next card was a J.
Again the first guy bets $8. Two callers and a fold and a $72 pot to me. Now I ask myself do I make it 80 or 88?

I go for the raise, hoping maybe they will think the J hit me. And if they don't maybe someone else hit the J, both likely scenarios. The first guy gets a disgusted look, but calls. the other two realize they are beat and fold and the pot in $96.

The last card was inconsequential as I lead out again and get a disgusted call, taking down the $112 pre-rake pot.

I still wonder what would have happened had I just made it 80.
Id still be first to act, if i check, I figure the initial guy would have still likely led out to make it 88. I'd have to assume that the other two guys would very likely know they are beat, but the pot odds would be overwhelming. Assuming just one called, it would have been 96 when i raised to make it 112. if just one called i earn an extra 8.

But if he checks too? the action gets checked around, and I collect an $80 pot instead of $112.
And if I lead out? The other two still likely know I slowed played the 7, the one guy calls, but I still get two folds. for a 96 pot.

In either case, I sat there wondering, how wrong is it to get up and leave the table after just one hand?
I stayed and cashed in over $300 for a little over an hour worth of poker.

But its also likely that