Sunday, November 19, 2006

Your Table Image Matters In Low Limit

As you may know if you read the blog, I play live often at a $1/2 card room in Florida. The people there are about 80% retirees, married couples, or guys coming in after a hard day at work. The huge minority are players that are there to make money and play seriously.

I always find it funny when I see players sitting at these micro-limit tables wearing Ipods, hoody's, and worst of all, Sunglasses. Are you kidding me?!? This is low *limit*. Guys are watching their favorite player at the WSOP and without thinking, just imitating what they see and bringing it to the card room. Are they really afraid that the 70 year old retiree squinting at the flop is gonna catch a read on him and call down his stone cold $1 bluff. This just seems so ridiculous to me. If anyone sits down at my table like that, I pin him as a *sucker*. He obviously has not played much limit. This isn't High Stakes No Limit son, this is Bingo at the local VFW.

If anything, this image actually hurts them. The vast majority of people are there to have a good time, not to be the next World Poker Tour champion. They are paying money to gamble, socialize, and have fun on the weekends. Do you think they are having fun with you if your not saying a word, covering your face, trying to imitate a statue everytime you bet? Well, they aren't. That's too serious and it either makes them not want to play at your table or play better whenever you're in a hand. On top of that, if you're quiet, whenever you suddenly wake up and start betting, it's a huge red flag to everyone there. You don't want to be Chris Ferguson at these tables, you want to be more like Daniel Negreanu; happy, friendly, chatty, always smiling etc.



That was a great example of playing well while being very entertaining to the rest of the table. Even though your tight play is pretty well known to most, when you're very friendly and talkative, people will still want to come into pots and play with you. I'm sure the "serious" players are afraid that talking too much will give something away, but anyone with any real sense will realize that the old lady waiting to call will not pin you on your KK because of how you were joking with your neighbor at the time.

If your a statue, your soft seat will usually dry up after you run off all the players you earn from. However, if you're fun, people will sit there with you all night and just keep rebuying. They are paying to have a good time remember, make sure they get their money's worth.

Another side effect is that conversations start up that will continue through hands. Many times players involved won't even be paying attention to whats going on or paying any attention to the hand that they are still in. When you raise or re-raise, it's not nearly as big of a flag because most people don't even realize it and you've been involved with the table all night so it's not as big of shock that you're suddenly alive. You'll find people not even realizing the action is to them to call or fold to your raise, they get reminded mid-sentence, and make a quick call to keep the action moving. You can make a lot off your value bets in this way.

I'm naturally quiet when I play. I like to concentrate and get absorbed in my own world at the table. However, I knew this wasn't the best way to play at these low limit tables and last weekend I decided I was going to have a good time. I would be chatty, strike up converstations, and be as friendly to everyone as I could be. I ended up having the most successful night I've ever had. I played as well as usual, but the pots I won were usually bigger because more people wanted to play. Often one or two conversations were going on while I was in the hand (with the best hand) and I got way more action than I normally do. Even when I would raise with KK or something pre-flop, someone across the table would say "He must have a great hand, if he's raising he's got it"......AND THEN CALL. I would literally raise with QQ pre-flop, look across to someone I had been chatting it up with all night, see them looking at me deciding to call or fold to my raise and say "C'mon, you know I've got it" and they would STILL call. These are the same players that would previously fold without a strong hand whenever I raised. Here they were calling with rags.

My table stayed soft all night. People kept rebuying over and over and my stack kept growing and growing to the point I started feeling like I needed to hide part of my stack before their good demeaner changed and I got mobbed to get their chips back. It never happened though, the seat was soft all night, the pots were big, I got lots of action, and probably best of all, I actually had a lot of fun.

I almost felt sorry for the guys that would occasionally sit at the table with the serious, No Limit demeaner you see professional players have. They played well enough but they didn't win nearly as much as me and were often made fun of and disliked by the players at the table. At one point, a guy sat down that takes 1 dollar bets far too seriously, wearing an Ipod and a hat that almost covered his eyes, and some of the most desired people to sit with almost got up and left. Everytime he was in a hand, he would lower his hat to the point you couldn't see his eyes. Guess what? The married couple and retirees never got a read on him, but he also never got any real action.

The next time you're sitting down with a table full of people playing for fun, leave the headphones at home. You're there to make money and they are there to have a good time. Make sure that happens and they will keep the money coming. Oh, and save the sunglasses for Foxwoods.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

What's the play?

I went to Jasper the other night and played the best limit I've played since I began. I'm confident in saying that. Even so, I left stuck one big bet. In the first 2 hours I sat down, I'd never seen so many people making or flopping the nuts. Every other hand someone had the nut flush, nut straight, or full house. It was unreal. I heard "I flopped the nuts" about 8 times in that 2 hours. I won 1 hand with AJ suited on a flop of AA7 rainbow against only a couple of people and really didn't get much action on it. I still managed to not get in trouble against any of the monsters and stayed even, thankfully. No complaints though, the pots were huge and I couldn't wait to make a hand.

Long story short, I only won 1 big pot all night, compared to the usual 3 or 4...and a couple small pots. I had a hand come up that I wanted to share and see if there was another other move I could make to have won the hand. I had AA on the button. It's checked around and I raise. I get 5 callers. The flop comes Q82 with two diamonds. It's raised by a player sitting across from me, everyone folds to a girl who calls. It's then folded around to me. I had been watching how the girl played all night because she was a pretty decent player. She folded garbage hands, only came in with solid hands, and usually only smooth called on draws. I'm pretty sure she also respected my raises because she never called them unless she had a big draw. I felt he was betting Queens and she was calling with a diamond draw. I thought my choice came to:

(12 Small Bets in the pot)

A) Raise for value. I had the best hand against two players. Just hope the diamond doesn't get there and hope the overpair holds up. I couldn't have gotten either player to fold.

B) Smooth call hoping to keep the pot smaller and raise or even better -Reraise- on the Turn and try to force out 1 player or give he/she bad odds to call, primarily the guy who would need to improve to two pair or trips to win. This was awkward though because the flop raiser was to my left. I wouldn't been been able to make a move that gave the girl the wrong odds to call so the only person I could try to force out by this would be the guy betting his Queens. If I got to make it 2 to go, it would only be because she had raised or re-raised which meant she probably hit something big. She only raised with good hands and only re-raised with huge hands.

C) Smooth call to see if the diamond hits on the turn, if it doesn't I can raise or re-raise then since her chances of making the flush were now cut in half.

I couldn't figure out any good way to protect the hand because of the position I was in and the size of the pot so I raised for value. It was called around and a diamond hit on the turn. He raised and she re-raised. The pot was now about 11.5 Big Bets with 2 to go. I folded the AA but I would have been sick if I'd laid down the best hand in that pot. At the showdown, he had a pair of Queens and she had a diamond flush.

I feel strange about laying it down because the pot was large and if I laid down the best hand it would have cost me almost 14 big bets by the end vs the 2 or 4 it would cost me to call and be wrong. If she had two pair I would have had a decent redraw to two pair or trips. I just knew she had the diamond flush though, so I'm not sure what the correct play was there.

This hand bothers me because I'm not sure what the correct play was on the flop. I think it's between betting for value or calling to see what the turn brings and betting then if it was safe since protecting the hand would have been almost impossible (unless I missed something). The last option would have lost the minimum if the flush hit but the first option would have built a bigger pot to win unless the flop raiser decided to check the turn because of my re-raise.

I also wonder what the correct play would have been if the diamond hit but it was only 1 Big Bet to go. I'm pretty sure folding would not have been right, and calling or raising to push him out would have. Any thoughts on this?

Friday, November 10, 2006

High Stakes Poker

There's a few things I want to mention before heading out for another night in the card room. Have you guys seen the show High Stakes Poker on Game Show Network? If not, you should check it out. Episodes can be found on YouTube of course.

This is the sickest pot you and I've ever seen. Keep in mind they are playing with their own money.



Other interesting High Stakes Poker moments include Esfandiari threatening to quit poker (and looking sincere) after losing over 100K in a big pot. He mentions selling furniture several times through the episode.

Mike Matusow is always fun to watch. In his best episode, he decides to get up and leave until players at the table offer him 4,000 just to stay. He does so saying they'll all regret that after he breaks them. A short time later Mike busts out, leaving 100k at the table.

In other news, I really hate playing online. There's just something about it I don't like. When I actively played another card game, I always hated playing that online. It's unfortunate, but that's just how it is. I love playing live poker and dislike the online stuff. However, after a hiatus from the online game, I've had to get back on. I have to get in practice during the week and it's about the only way. I signed up to Full Tilt (which is ok, but not great) and on the first day back watched Phil Ivey win 40k in a limit heads up game. 40k in 15 minutes. Over the last 30, it was something like 90k total. That's great for Phil, 90,000 for 30 minutes of work and unfortunate for the millionaire he was playing who started with 150K and was left with 40K. Odd and yet not so odd thing was, Phil didn't even seem interested. He kept taking breaks every 5 or so minutes. I could imagine him getting up to talk to someone, taking a break, checking out what was on tv, going to the fridge for some food, answering the phone etc. This wouldn't be strange for the average person killing time, but he was playing for over 100K....and it's nothing special.

The truth is, it isn't anything special. If you haven't heard about it, check out the story of Andy Beal, the billionaire that almost broke the Vegas pros. They played as high as 100,000/200,000 limit. What Ivey was playing with total was just the blinds in that game.

Monday, November 06, 2006

Protect Your Hand or Muck It

It's Friday and as I plan to continue doing for a while, I went down to Jasper to play some 1-2 Limit. I think I played "ok" tonight but nothing great. I had a few new "tricks" to add to the bag and I wanted to get some field time with them. That's almost always a little bumpy until I get it down.

When I say "tricks," what I really mean is a correct play that is not always intuitive and it helps maximize your profit of the long run. I want to discuss a couple interesting hands that I played tonight; one that I misplayed and one that I think I played correctly.

It was the end of the night and I had just sat down at a new table filling it up. I recognized a couple of people there, but most of the table was new to me. I was sitting to the left of a loose, aggressive player and in low limit 9 handed game, that's usually the best seat in the house.

I have to take an aside here because it will help to explain why I misplayed the first hand and played the second very well. In a low limit game where 6-8 people are regularly seeing the flop, it's very hard to protect your hand profitably. This is because the pot is so large on the flop and later betting rounds that many people are getting very good odds to draw out on you if you're holding the best hand. Most of the time, people are extremely loose and calling just to see another card, but they are often unknowingly making the correct play. I'm not even talking about open straight draws and flush draws that only require about 5-1 and 4-1, but even draws to two pair or trips when they currently only hold middle or bottom pair. Gutshots are also possible since they only need about 10.5-1 and the pot is often that big. When a player flops top pair, they will usually bet out. That's the intuitive move and they are betting for value. However, they are not protecting their hand which is extremely vulnerable. Their bet will just be called as it should by many players with even small draws. You don't profit when that happens. Then on the turn, the flop raiser could raise again, but because of his bet on the flop and the number of callers, the pot is even bigger and many will even have the odds to draw to the river. Again, they don't know that most of the time, but their call is still correct. You see a lot of people play like this and then someone catchs a 2nd pair on the river or some other hand to win. Then the losing player tries to ridicule the player: "How could you call that raise with bottom pair on the flop??? With no pair??? With just overcards??? With a gutshot???" It wasn't the player that called with a pair of 3's on the flop that made the mistake, but the other player who failed to effectively protect his vulnerable hand.

The way you have to try to protect a vulnerable hand in a low limit game is to pay close attention to the pot odds. There is often no way to protect the top pair on the flop in a big multiway pot and raising only makes it much harder to protect on the turn. The player should either hope a raise comes from his/her right in order to re-raise and cut the pot odds in half. Then the player with the 4 or 5 outer cannot call profitably, and if they do call without odds, they are contributing dead money. You profit in limit this way. If there is no raise to then re-raise, then a raise on the turn will at least be more effective since the pot is much smaller than it would have been had the top pair player just led out. That's not even mentioning if you can get in a re-raise on the turn forcing players to cold call 2 raises. That just shatters their odds.

Many times it's just impossible to protect a top pair hand and that's why they are so vulnerable and should be played very carefully. It's also why pocket pairs and suited connectors play so well in these big muliway pots. If they make their hand, a set/straight/flush, the hand is not nearly as vulnerable and doesn't require the protection that weaker hands need. Protecting a weak hand in a game like this is difficult, but extremely important in maximizing your hourly rate.

So I sat down with some new faces and folded a few hands until I was dealt AQ offsuit from late position. There hadn't been a raise when the action got to me so I raised it. It was called all the way around. The flop comes Q104 with 2 clubs. It was checked around and I raised with my top pair. The pot was re-raised ahead of me and most of the table called. I wasn't sure about how the player who re-raised played and didn't give him much respect. The pot was quite large at this point. I considered re-raising, but decided against it since it wouldn't really accomplish anything (Another mistake. In situations like this, raising or folding is usually right and calling is the worst play you can make. This is like mistaked 3 of 5 this hand. Ow!). The turn brings a club, the flop raiser raises again, it's called around, I call the 2, and it's re-raised again. Several people leave at this point, and I realize I'm probably behind, but I'm getting something like 20-1 (the pot was massive). There are 3 of us left on the river when the board pairs. It's raised, I call hoping to showdown. Well, there's a betting and raising war at this point, where I get in 1 call before making the definite laydown giving away my chance to win a $50 pot. They both cap it and one flips over the flush and the other flips the full house. He caught a set on the flop and the board paired on the river. He raked in the biggest pot I've seen in 1-2 limit (25-30 BB's in 1/2 Limit is just unreal) It was nearly a $60 pot in the end.

To make a long story short, I made several mistakes and one was going too far with a hand I couldn't protect (not considering that the guy already had a set). The pot was so big that even if there was a raise to my right and I re-raised, everyone would still be getting enough pot odds to cold call two bets and draw to their 4 outer and up. The size of the pot definitely had a big impact on why I stayed so long, but with 9 people to the flop, my hand was far too vulnerable to hope to stand up without being able to protect it. I wasn't just up against a couple guys with better hands at the time, but the rest of the table and had no way of narrowing it down. I should have gotten out much sooner. I ended up losing about $10-15 on that pot alone with just top pair. Top pair is a good hand in a small pot since you can easily protect it by betting but you're at the mercy of the deck when you can't protect it in big pots like this. There were several huge mistakes and I hope to learn from them. I certainly paid for it.

The 2nd hand was one I was fairly proud of even though no one at the table understood what was going on. I had KQ offsuit on the button. It was checked around to me and I raised. 6 people called and the loose aggressive guy to my right raised (check-raised that is). I called as did everyone else correctly at that point. The flop had J94 all clubs. I had the King of clubs in my hand. This board gave me two overcards, a flush draw to the 2nd nuts, and a gutshot straight draw. Added together that's a great hand with a lot of outs and 13 of which are to the nuts. It's checked around on the flop. I thought about raising here since I certainly had pot equity to profit from a raise but I decided to try to keep the pot small since any raise would still have allowed any player to draw to any 4 outer and I planned to try to protect my hand on the turn. I didn't want the pot to be too large that a bet there had no effect. The turn brings a blank. It's checked around the table and the guy to my right (who check raised me preflop) raises. I'm definitely not folding here. It's either call or raise. The pot is about 7 big bets, give or take. Calling would give the next guy 8-1 (8 BB's with 1 to call) and so on. Everyone could draw with any low pair and try to two pair or trip up profitably. Part of the strength of my hand was having overcards to the board and winning with a pair of Kings or Queens if I missed the flush or gutshot. At that point, I just wanted to push people out of the pot to raise my chance of winning with just a pair even though I felt I was beat at that point. I re-raised making it 4 to go and cutting the pot odds down to about 4-1. The table folds around to the raiser to my right and he calls. A blank hits on the river and he checks. I check figuring him almost certainly for some pair. He flips up Q high and my K high takes down the pot to the gasp of the rest of the table. It even takes the dealer longer than normal to realize that just K high was taking down the pot. Turns out my bet was effective at protecting my hand as I hoped. A couple of people had folded low pairs because of the 2 big bets they would have had to call. Had I not raised, they would have stayed cheap for just a call (a correct call) and gotten a cheap showdown short of me deciding to bluff the river which almost always fails in this type of game (and I wouldn't have done it here). The re-raise effectively pushed people with better hands out of the pot increasing my chances of winning. Even if I picked up a few callers, the pot equity I had was very good for the strong draw I had as well. This is a good example of how you need to play some hands in order to max. your chances of winning. I could have played it differently in many ways, but most would have led to losing a pot that could have been won.

In limit, sometimes you have to check the best hand to protect it. Sometimes you have to raise even though you know you currently hold the worst hand. The only way to get an idea of what to do is to pay attention to the pot odds and equity and figure out what's going on with your odds and well as how a play you make will affect those left to act after you.

Anyways, that's all for now. There's so many things that go on in that card room that I could rant about, but I'll save that for another day. It's a great place to go to get free or cheap experience in low limit. I fully expect a bad day to come up where I leave the place a big loser, but hopefully it won't be anytime soon. Most of the time I'm not satisfied by the money I leave with, but rather how I played. I could leave way up and feeling terrible or down and feeling very good. Odd how that is.

Till next time,
Peace