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Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Don’t play smart against `not so smart` people
Check out my latest post on Poker Banroll Blog Don’t play smart against `not so smart` people
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Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Friday, August 29, 2008
PokerBRB.com
Starting on Tuesday, September 2 I will be a weekly contributor at poker bankroll blog. I ecnourage you to check out this up and coming site, to read my weekly posts there of course and become a member of this growing poker community.
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Grinding then throwing it away
I saw what I thought was a really bizarre play last night that got me thinking about what motivates players to do what they do. I was playing at two 10/20 cent no limit cash tables at the same time and was ahead a few bucks and would describe the play at both tables as being relatively donkey free zones.
In order to set up the play that really caught my attention you have to know that the maximum amount you can bring to the tables I was playing at is $20. There were 2 players who both had around $50 when I sat down and they generally stayed around that level for the 15 minutes or so that preceded the hand I am about to describe. I would describe both of them as being relatively good players who seemed to be grinders. At the time of “the hand” I had doubled my buy-in of $7 to 14. Don’t ask why I only bought in for $7 at a table that had so much money at it quite yet, I’ll explain a theory I have been working on in a future post. Now back to the hand …
I was in the BB for all of 20 cents, 1 limper before the action got to the player on the button (one of the $50 stacks) he went ALL IN, and the next player to act (SB) was the other big stack. He tanked for a bit then CALLED, WOW, these 2 guys that have been grinding through a profitable session at a conservative table are suddenly both all in with 40 cents in the pot! What cards did I have? 8 4 off suit ;-( But, I thought to myself. Can I call this? Of course I knew the answer was no but suddenly I am thinking, call and lose (the most likely scenario BY FAR) or fold and continue to play smart poker. Of course, I folded but it reminded me that even against good players (I think I can at least describe myself as a decent player) you don’t know what they are thinking or what motivates them which adds an interesting level of complexity to the game. My thought process was I’ve got $7 invested here, I’m ahead about $4 on the other table, if I call and hit something crazy my $7 investment will have turned into $42, if I lose I go to the other table and continue to grind to try and make back my losses. I folded!
The initial raiser turned over AQ diamonds, the caller turned over AK offsuit and the flop came 883, the set I didn’t pay for. Blank, blank on the turn and river and AK took down a big one. Look, the point of this blog is not to justify that I might have called with 84 because that’s a call in a situation that I can’t make. The interesting (to me anyway) observations on that hand are 1) Why would you grind your way to a profit just to throw it away like that? And 2) You never know what someone else is thinking or what motivates them to make a particular play.
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In order to set up the play that really caught my attention you have to know that the maximum amount you can bring to the tables I was playing at is $20. There were 2 players who both had around $50 when I sat down and they generally stayed around that level for the 15 minutes or so that preceded the hand I am about to describe. I would describe both of them as being relatively good players who seemed to be grinders. At the time of “the hand” I had doubled my buy-in of $7 to 14. Don’t ask why I only bought in for $7 at a table that had so much money at it quite yet, I’ll explain a theory I have been working on in a future post. Now back to the hand …
I was in the BB for all of 20 cents, 1 limper before the action got to the player on the button (one of the $50 stacks) he went ALL IN, and the next player to act (SB) was the other big stack. He tanked for a bit then CALLED, WOW, these 2 guys that have been grinding through a profitable session at a conservative table are suddenly both all in with 40 cents in the pot! What cards did I have? 8 4 off suit ;-( But, I thought to myself. Can I call this? Of course I knew the answer was no but suddenly I am thinking, call and lose (the most likely scenario BY FAR) or fold and continue to play smart poker. Of course, I folded but it reminded me that even against good players (I think I can at least describe myself as a decent player) you don’t know what they are thinking or what motivates them which adds an interesting level of complexity to the game. My thought process was I’ve got $7 invested here, I’m ahead about $4 on the other table, if I call and hit something crazy my $7 investment will have turned into $42, if I lose I go to the other table and continue to grind to try and make back my losses. I folded!
The initial raiser turned over AQ diamonds, the caller turned over AK offsuit and the flop came 883, the set I didn’t pay for. Blank, blank on the turn and river and AK took down a big one. Look, the point of this blog is not to justify that I might have called with 84 because that’s a call in a situation that I can’t make. The interesting (to me anyway) observations on that hand are 1) Why would you grind your way to a profit just to throw it away like that? And 2) You never know what someone else is thinking or what motivates them to make a particular play.
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Monday, August 25, 2008
Control or "slow down" bet
Most players know about the different types of bets you can make in poker, whether they know what they are called or just what their purpose is. Every time you place a bet you should be doing it with a particular purpose in mind, the timing of the game, your position and chip stack as well as the purpose of your bet all combine to give you a sense of the amount to bet.
Sometimes the purpose is to sweeten a pot you are very confident you are going to win, in this case you probably bet low, intentionally giving your opponents the odds they need to put more money in “your” pot.
There’s the “information” or “feeler” bet where you think your hand might be good so you bet to get some information from your opponent. A smallish bet is often enough to get the information you are looking for.
There’s the continuation bet, where you raised before the flop and bet after the flop regardless of whether or not the flop helped you. This bet is similar in a lot of ways to the information or feeler bet and is a standard play. If you don’t overuse it, the continuation bet can be very effective. Remember that the continuation bet is a standard play. Good players often know it's coming before you have a chance to toss your chips in the pot, so it’s not uncommon for someone to check raise a great hand when they are anticipating a continuation bet, so proceed with caution.
There are numerous other types of bets which all have their place including the trap, hammer and flat out bluff among others. The purpose of this blog however is not to describe all of them so much as one particular bet I like to use and think is underutilized, I call it the “control” or “slow down” bet. Fairly self explanatory but I’ll illustrate it with an example.
You’re in a 6 person tournament with 4 players remaining, blinds are 50/100 and you pick up 10D JD in the big blind. The player under the gun has 1,500 chips and folds. The player on the button (who you have classified as loose and mildly aggressive but not a bad player) min raises to 200, the small blind (who you have classified as tight and has folded to raises when he was a blind) calls and you call as well. All 3 of the players in the hand have roughly the same number of chips, 2,500. You definitely want to see a flop with this hand but don’t want to put in a big raise because the small blind who has been super tight showed strength when he called the first raise, and of course a re-raise can be an invitation for the player who started the action to shove them all in.
The flop reveals 2C 8D 9D giving you an open ended straight flush draw. Remember that “people who chase straights and flushes arrive on planes and go home on buses”. The small blind checks. What you REALLY want in this situation is to see a free or at least a cheap card but you are confident that if you check the player who started the action will put in a big bet and possibly go all in. The way I recommend playing this is to put in a bet of the amount you are comfortable paying to see the next card in an attempt to control the size of the pot and slow down your opponent. Sometimes (though rarely) this bet will take down the pot right then and there which you definitely don’t mind, but that is not the purpose of this bet, all you want to do is slow down your opponent so that you can see the next card at a price you don’t mind paying. This tactic will NOT always succeed in slowing down your opponent but I think it’s a useful tactic worth employing when you really want to see the next card and have reason to believe your opponent might shove if you check.
PS If he goes all in here, I recommend folding and waiting for a hand you are willing and able to take control of from the beginning.
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Sometimes the purpose is to sweeten a pot you are very confident you are going to win, in this case you probably bet low, intentionally giving your opponents the odds they need to put more money in “your” pot.
There’s the “information” or “feeler” bet where you think your hand might be good so you bet to get some information from your opponent. A smallish bet is often enough to get the information you are looking for.
There’s the continuation bet, where you raised before the flop and bet after the flop regardless of whether or not the flop helped you. This bet is similar in a lot of ways to the information or feeler bet and is a standard play. If you don’t overuse it, the continuation bet can be very effective. Remember that the continuation bet is a standard play. Good players often know it's coming before you have a chance to toss your chips in the pot, so it’s not uncommon for someone to check raise a great hand when they are anticipating a continuation bet, so proceed with caution.
There are numerous other types of bets which all have their place including the trap, hammer and flat out bluff among others. The purpose of this blog however is not to describe all of them so much as one particular bet I like to use and think is underutilized, I call it the “control” or “slow down” bet. Fairly self explanatory but I’ll illustrate it with an example.
You’re in a 6 person tournament with 4 players remaining, blinds are 50/100 and you pick up 10D JD in the big blind. The player under the gun has 1,500 chips and folds. The player on the button (who you have classified as loose and mildly aggressive but not a bad player) min raises to 200, the small blind (who you have classified as tight and has folded to raises when he was a blind) calls and you call as well. All 3 of the players in the hand have roughly the same number of chips, 2,500. You definitely want to see a flop with this hand but don’t want to put in a big raise because the small blind who has been super tight showed strength when he called the first raise, and of course a re-raise can be an invitation for the player who started the action to shove them all in.
The flop reveals 2C 8D 9D giving you an open ended straight flush draw. Remember that “people who chase straights and flushes arrive on planes and go home on buses”. The small blind checks. What you REALLY want in this situation is to see a free or at least a cheap card but you are confident that if you check the player who started the action will put in a big bet and possibly go all in. The way I recommend playing this is to put in a bet of the amount you are comfortable paying to see the next card in an attempt to control the size of the pot and slow down your opponent. Sometimes (though rarely) this bet will take down the pot right then and there which you definitely don’t mind, but that is not the purpose of this bet, all you want to do is slow down your opponent so that you can see the next card at a price you don’t mind paying. This tactic will NOT always succeed in slowing down your opponent but I think it’s a useful tactic worth employing when you really want to see the next card and have reason to believe your opponent might shove if you check.
PS If he goes all in here, I recommend folding and waiting for a hand you are willing and able to take control of from the beginning.
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Thursday, August 14, 2008
Funny what you can rationalize
Last night I played two $5 6 player tourneys again, finished second in one and third in the other. This made my run over the past three nights 5 second place finishes and 2 thirds.
As always, I continue to look for lessons and things to improve upon and today’s message is to start being more aware and more honest with myself about my game. Don’t get me wrong, I think my game has been pretty good and getting better but here is how I came to the conclusion.
I had been telling myself that 5 second place finishes and 2 third place finishes in my last 7 games was pretty good, managed to be in the money 71% of the time and all that. When I told my buddy about my recent streak he immediately said “better work on your heads up play”. How did I react to that statement? Hmmm. Pause. Think about it. A bit deflating but …. good point.
In the seventh game of this streak we were down to three, blinds are 100/200 I’ve got about 2,000, SB about the same and BB 5,000 and I raised on the button pre flop with AC JD (check my blog from yesterday, even though this situation sounds like a replay of yesterday’s blog, I assure you it is a different hand in a different tournament with entirely different circumstances but sadly the same result). Flop brings 8C 7C 2C and I am not thinking this hit my opponent’s range but he shoves and has me covered. Maybe he’s on a draw, could this be trips, an over pair, a high club and he is bullying? Obviously I have the draw to the nut flush but I am not liking the way this is playing out. I am a big risk/reward guy in all aspects of my life, and can sometimes talk myself into taking a large risk if the potential reward is great. I “rationalize” that every now and again you go in behind but it’s okay to do it if you are aware of the risk you’re taking, hit a club on either of the next 2 cards and I win this hand, maybe even an Ace or Jack will take down the pot (although I admit I thought this was unlikely). So, I chuck them in and he turns over 3C 6C for the made flush. Why did he call my raise? He was the big dog, my raise was only 3 times the BB, he was taking a stand to slow down future raises, who knows? Neither the turn nor the river reveals a club and I am out in third.
We’re in a new tournament within minutes, this time I am a coach not a player and I am not feeling like I am in a position to help anyone out given the burden of wearing my new donkey collar, but there I was watching and discussing. Some unknown player makes a very similar call to the one that ended my tournament moments earlier and the second his cards are revealed I think two things almost simultaneously and say both of them out loud. “What a moron” followed by “that’s what I just did”. Funny how every now and again we can rationalize bad decisions even when we know better.
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As always, I continue to look for lessons and things to improve upon and today’s message is to start being more aware and more honest with myself about my game. Don’t get me wrong, I think my game has been pretty good and getting better but here is how I came to the conclusion.
I had been telling myself that 5 second place finishes and 2 third place finishes in my last 7 games was pretty good, managed to be in the money 71% of the time and all that. When I told my buddy about my recent streak he immediately said “better work on your heads up play”. How did I react to that statement? Hmmm. Pause. Think about it. A bit deflating but …. good point.
In the seventh game of this streak we were down to three, blinds are 100/200 I’ve got about 2,000, SB about the same and BB 5,000 and I raised on the button pre flop with AC JD (check my blog from yesterday, even though this situation sounds like a replay of yesterday’s blog, I assure you it is a different hand in a different tournament with entirely different circumstances but sadly the same result). Flop brings 8C 7C 2C and I am not thinking this hit my opponent’s range but he shoves and has me covered. Maybe he’s on a draw, could this be trips, an over pair, a high club and he is bullying? Obviously I have the draw to the nut flush but I am not liking the way this is playing out. I am a big risk/reward guy in all aspects of my life, and can sometimes talk myself into taking a large risk if the potential reward is great. I “rationalize” that every now and again you go in behind but it’s okay to do it if you are aware of the risk you’re taking, hit a club on either of the next 2 cards and I win this hand, maybe even an Ace or Jack will take down the pot (although I admit I thought this was unlikely). So, I chuck them in and he turns over 3C 6C for the made flush. Why did he call my raise? He was the big dog, my raise was only 3 times the BB, he was taking a stand to slow down future raises, who knows? Neither the turn nor the river reveals a club and I am out in third.
We’re in a new tournament within minutes, this time I am a coach not a player and I am not feeling like I am in a position to help anyone out given the burden of wearing my new donkey collar, but there I was watching and discussing. Some unknown player makes a very similar call to the one that ended my tournament moments earlier and the second his cards are revealed I think two things almost simultaneously and say both of them out loud. “What a moron” followed by “that’s what I just did”. Funny how every now and again we can rationalize bad decisions even when we know better.
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