Starting 2008

My first time playing for the year...just 7 people. Let's take a look at each one as they .



Christine: Tight-passive. Seldom raises, she likes to limp, check, and call. However, she does so with better cards than most of the locals so if she is calling you, be careful, if she is RAISING you...get out. On the bright side, this is an EXCELLENT formula for going deep into tournaments and she regularly makes the final table. Unfortunately, unless she is hitting a lot of hands it is a terrible formula for actually WINNING tournaments because she will get blinded down to where she is basically all-in every time the blinds come around.



John: Tight-passive aggressive. Likes to limp, slow-plays a lot, occasional raises. Like Christine he limps but does so with better cards than the average player there. However, because he then raises for value and consistently raises the correct amount to price people in he consistently amasses enough chips to be a factor and with patience and skill is a threat to win every tournament.



Barbara: Tight-loose. Limps with literally any 2 cards...and will chase long-shot draws all the way to the river. When she is hitting the flop, very, very dangerous. When her long-shot draws hit she takes down huge pots because they are well disguised. They are also mathematically improbable. Even if she acquires a pile of chips you can always get them back. Get a medium to strong hand, raise every step, and raise again on the river if no draws hit. Boom, instant rebate.



Gary: Getting better. Actually bluffs on occasion now, though he lies about it. Has not been caught yet. Also getting better at getting out of the way when he is beat. Has perhaps even more tells than I do. He is a cautious-aggressive player. One of his biggest tells is when he has bottom or middle pair and thinks it is the best: if he is last to act, it is checked to him and he has middle or bottom pair he will say, "Oh, no. No checking here" and bet either the minimum or about double the minimum. On occasion he will make a desperation raise of more if he thinks he is beat but can make someone lay it down. Always trying to build an image of playing only the best hands by saying, "Good lay down" when he wins a hand this way.



Marykae: She got better when she was gone. The other day I actually saw her complete a straight without counting. She is also pretty easy to read. When she has a big hand she will grab her chips so she can bet as soon as it is her turn. If she has a monster she will just go ahead and bet out of turn. But she is more patient and plays better cards, too.



Danny: Very nice guy. He is a strange player. He will take any two over cards to the river even with flush and straight draws on the board. He will make bizarre calls on the river with hands like queen high. He gives away lots of chips but somehow seems to make them back. I have not yet figured out how he gets them back. His game has very little deception to it so pretty much everyone should know when he has something. He and Marykae both pretty much always let you know where their hand is.



Me: A virtual chameleon. If I want to win I am tight-aggressive...no, that is not true. Once I build a chip stack I remain aggressive but I become loose-aggressive, raising with some speculative hands. When the situation is right I will raise with any two cards...3/9 off, k/9, queens...it doesn't matter, I know I can win the hand whether I have anything or not. But that is only on nights where I set out to win. I establish the right image early, then go to work on people. If I just want to hang around for a while I will limp with good cards, then raise when I hit stuff. If I don't care I will limp with about any 2 cards and may or may not play them to the river.



So last night I was planning on the tight-aggressive, I would either raise or fold. If I raised it would be 3 times the blind + 1 blind per person who entered before me. I would put on pressure after the flop and make plays at a lot of pots.



While everyone was getting settled in there was quite a bit of talk. There is a lot of dissatisfaction with both the new people from the new league and also how some incidents were handled in my absence. The collective psyche is very delicate. Interestingly enough, at this point this post delves a bit into an arena that perhaps belongs on my main blog rather than here.



I used to be a hyper-competitive individual. I wanted to win. Badly. I played hard but fair. Anything legal I could do to win I would. I have been known to play basketball for hours on a sprained ankle because I was not willing to forfeit a game. That would be a game of 2 on 3 with my closest friends, not a game that meant anything. But it illustrates the depths of the competitive fire I have within. I hated to lose. When it came to chess I studied the game relentlessly. I acquired books detailing the games played by the masters, investigated their strategies, adapted them, and became one of the very best players ever to come through St. Helens...for the record, I lost not one local tournament game and only lost one game in State tournaments. There were more talented players naturally, but none who had the drive to study the game and become good at it.



That is true of any strategy game. Even pseudo-strategy. I have never lost a game of Diplomacy, perhaps the only game I have ever seen where luck plays no part whatsoever in the outcome. I have seldom lost Axis & Allies and can count on one hand the number of games of Risk I lost. These things all feed back into my competitiveness.



In other words, for many years the idea of letting people win was not a concept I ever considered. Nor would I play less than my best. If they could beat my best, nice work. If they couldn't...well, that is how it was. I was really too competitive.



As I have grown older I have mellowed quite a bit. I have learned to control that side of me. I have been known to let people beat me. I have even been known to play less than my best at various endeavors as I have developed into a person who takes into account other people's feelings "even" in games. How does all this apply?



Well, I took inventory of their mood. This group just wanted a relaxed game where the cards...not how they were played...just the cards themselves determined the outcome. They needed for poker to be fun for them. And if I came out firing, raising at will, making moves...well, since it is me they would not mind but they would not enjoy themselves as much as they would otherwise. So I made a decision. I was still going to try to win or at least do well...but I was going to do it their way.



That means I was going to limp into pots, raise very little, just let the cards determine things. Now, I know good and well this is not my best game. But it is the game that was needed. I would be tested early.



About the second hand I picked up A/K. That is a raising hand. And a strong raising hand. I was relatively late to act. I started to reach for 300 chips to raise out some of the limpers. I stopped...and limped. Score one for the nice guy side of my personality. I lost the pot to some low pair.



Right there I was sort of on tilt but sort of not. I knew I should have won the hand. Because I limped I lost it to a hand that would not have been there had I raised properly. On the other hand, I also knew it was good for the group as a whole to be able to play their style...so it was still the correct play as a person even if it was the wrong play as a poker player.



So a couple hands later I picked up K/10. Normally from early position that would find the muck. I might play it if I could enter with a raise from middle position and would definitely play it with the right image. But in this game I would never build an image so it becomes a trash hand. If a King hits I am afraid of their kicker and if a 10 hits there are lost of times they will hit a higher pair. Be that as it may I flopped 2 pair, though there were 2 spades on it as well. I decided to see if anyone was on a draw and made a pot-sized bet. Everyone folded so I showed. At least by showing I had bet a strong hand I could build a little image as someone they would need a hand to call. Then I killed that image with one hand.

I limped with pocket 3s from the button. Flop of course was ugly...a King, a 9, some other over card, I think a queen. Everyone checked to me. I raised it up pretty strong. Christine just could not let her hand go and called. John quietly folded. Gary whined for a while about the size of the raise, John pointed out it was just 3 times the blinds. Well, I had Chris on either middle pair or a couple overs. I bet again on the turn after she checked and she stayed with me. The river was I think a 9 or 6. She checked but I thought it might have hit her. With a King and Queen out there, a pair of 9s and a 6 on the board as well and a hand she would not let go I decided I had put enough chips in the pot and meekly checked behind her. She turned up an Ace/ten and my 3s dragged the pot.

That just about put Gary on tilt that I would bet 3s. He would have hit some nice hand, John claimed to have folded 9/6 (a full house by the river), and Gary just wouldn't let it go until finally I said, "What I am hearing is I made a great bet since without it I would have lost the hand."

That changed his tack to "Well why did you just check on the river?" Great question. And the answer was I think great as well. "Because there was no hand I could beat she would call with. I made as much off the hand as I could. If I bet and she-re-raised I would have to fold. If I bet and she didn't have me beat she would fold. So a bet could only hurt me."

Sadly, I think he learned from the experience because I saw some subtle adjustments to his play where he was going to bet the river and then didn't. Interesting.

I checked from the big blind with K/6. Flop came 6/9/10, 2 clubs. Checked to Gary who did his, "Oh, no, no checking" routine. I initially put him on the 10 but the bet was small and the more I thought about it the more I thought he had a vulnerable hand. I revised my estimate to him having maybe the 9 or 10 but more likely the 6 with a worse kicker. I thought about re-raising but decided to do it on the turn instead. Turn was a blank, according to plan I checked, and then...well, he checked. My plan was blown. River was an Ace putting a spade flush, an over card, and his reaction to it in favor of a fold. I checked, he raised 500...and inexplicably I called. I could justify folding or re-raising here...not so much calling. I thought he would fold to a big re-raise as I knew he had at best a marginal hand. By now I had put him firmly on something like J/6, so I would have him beat even if he called. His raise smelled like someone disgusted they had led all the way to the river only to be busted by an Ace. I am positive he would have laid it down. But I called...and I was wrong about the 6. He had a pair of 9s. Still, with a couple overs out there...I was pretty surprised by his play. very aggressive for Gary. And knowing what he had I am even more positive that a river raise or a check-raise would have won the hand, particularly after my exposition after the 3s hand.

Well, that took me down about 1/3rd of my stack. I went back into passive mode. Hit a couple hands to get up to about 3700. Then came a hand that really, really shocked me. I picked up pocket 10s, blinds were 1/200. Folded to Danny...who raised. What? So I instantly put him on Kings or Aces. There is no other hand I have EVER seen him raise with. I almost folded right there. But I thought I would try to take a cheap flop, see if I could luck into a set. I called. Christine, behind me, re-raised. WHAT? Danny called and I made the crying call. Flop had an Ace on it. Danny bet, I folded, Christine called. At the showdown Danny had A/J and Christine had A/Q.

Now, I do not feel bad about either of my calls nor my lay down. If I hit my set my implied odds are through the roof. I could easily have taken one or both out.

I DO, however, feel bad about my reads. Both of them acted out of character and I over-estimated the strength of their hands. I still was correct about the strength of their hands as compared to mine post-flop but they were weaker than I thought pre-flop. I was correct to call all the way around looking at it mathematically speaking when I retroactively apply the odds...but I was unable to put them on the hands they held because I was so shocked they would raise with those hands.

Well, after that I was thinking about raising but instead limped a couple times...hands like A/J. Took down a couple pots, lost a couple, was staying between 2 & 3K until the blinds hit 2/400. Took a couple losses where I limped with good hands and got beat by bad hands. Hit about 1400 in chips.

One reason playing a sub-optimal style is a bad idea is because poor play begets poor play. From early position I picked up A/4 clubs. That hand should hit the muck as fast as I see the cards in that position. First off, that is at best a speculative hand. If I hit my Ace I have kicker issues...I will end up playing the board for my kicker. If I hit my 4 I am afraid of the over cards that will be on the board by the river. So really I am playing for the nut flush (1 in 16 hands I will get a flush DRAW...and about 1/3rd of the time that will turn into a flush, so basically I want the 1 in 48 tries hand to hit) or a miracle flop...A/A/4, 4/4/anything, something like that. I am an idiot. If I were not limping with my good hands I would not limp with this one.

Well, sure enough the flop comes out with 2 clubs and 4 high. I was not a big fan of the 2/3/4 flop...but I liked the top pair/top kicker/straight flush draw. I went all in. Nobody called so I got away with it. Bad, bad play though...who wants to go out on a pair of 4s?

Well, the other problem with bad play begetting bad play is sometimes it works. So a few hands later I pick up A/10 off. I limp in. Flop comes pretty good for me, 10/6/2 rainbow. No straight draws, no flush draws. I pretty much ignored everyone else at the table. I was first to act, I decided to put pressure on. I was going to raise. However, any reasonable raise would be more than half my chips so I just went all-in. And Marykae got out her calling chips. Oops. She had pocket 6s...she flopped her set and I was basically drawing dead.


For the night I played horribly and finished poorly, 5th out of 7 people. Hardly an auspicious beginning. Yet the evening was a success. I think by choosing to allow them to play their preferred style I allowed them a long, relaxed evening where they could just enjoy poker again. Sure, my results are not so good...but that is a byproduct of choosing to play that way.

It also through poor John way off. He spent about 1-1/2 blind levels trying to figure out what I was doing. So I added deception to my game...it may look like (and have the results of) incompetence...but hey, whatchya gonna do?