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Lavatory Humour
Apr. 2nd, 2007 07:31 amSome interesting posers today, of a mainly theoretical bent. Here's the first:
You pick up 8c 8d in the cut-off in a typical afternoon Flamingo game. There are four limpers to you and, because you have decided to relentlessly bet everything for value against what seem to be random callers, you decide to raise. The button calls, as does the big blind, as do the four limpers. $25 in pot.
Flop brings 8h 6h 4c. It's checked round to you and you bet. Button raises. This guy seems your fairly typical player in the Flamingo, perhaps a fraction better than average, but still very loose-passive by any modern terminology. You three-bet and he caps it. You call. $56 in pot.
Turn brings 5s. You check. He bets. You call. $64 in pot.
River brings 4h, completing your full house. You bet. Button raises. You three-bet, and button four-bets. Because you started the betting round head-to-head, there is no cap on the number of raises. What do you do here?
If you five-bet, how many raises are you prepared to go before you flat-call?
I decided to five-bet. Opponent six-bets it. What is his range?
I decide to flat-call. Am I favourite or a dog?
++++++
O'Shea's is running a $1-$5 spread-limit game with a single dollar ante. Anyone who has read the early stuff by Sklansky and Malmuth will know that the theory here is to play very tight. However, is this the case in practice? I know that Sklansky also touched upon this point in later writings. His observation was that, although theory dictated tight play and would guarantee a profit, it would not necessarily maximize your profit. The O'Shea's game is meant to be wild'n'wooly, with $30 pots and five players common pre-flop.
This touches on the point made by Matt and seconded by Michael, that it is necessary to loosen your starting-hand criteria in these loose-passive low-limit games. The question is, in what way do you loosen your criteria, and how far? Clearly if players are calling with a much wider range of hands, then hands like K9s in late position become playable, because you are quite likely to be up against Kx a lot of the time. Similarly, if you know that all the players will come in with any Ace, but will not even raise with AK, then you have to reassess hands like AT-off in late.
A third factor here is the high-hand bonus in some poker rooms, which affects your EV on certain hands such as small pocket pairs and suited connectors and can affect your decision whether or not to bet on the flop or turn if you have a set, there is a small pot, a large bonus for your particular set if it becomes quads, and it looks like a bet will push out the remaining players.
One habit which has caught me out a couple of times is the pre-flop limp with KK. I've seen four players do this, and, much though they deny it, the reason that they do it is because they are frightened of an Ace appearing on the flop. I think there are a larger number of players than I suspected who quite simply raise with nothing except Aces.
+++++++
Well, we are 10 days in, and I've finally crawled into the black. The collection of idiots that I'm required to face continues to put a strain on the brain, but you do get the occasional opponent with whom you can hold a half-way intelligent conversation.
However, my deepest joy of the night was perhaps a childish one. It was coming up to 11pm at the MGM and there were two tight female players to my left, a good player to their left, then a weak woman player, a weak middle-aged foreign guy, and then three competent youngsters, and finally a young Asian woman who was not very good.
About half an hour earlier, said Asian woman had put $5 all-in into a $40 pot after I had raised pre-flop with Ac Tc. Board was Kd Jd 5s 3s. I figured her for a moderate King or perhaps a flush draw and, after quite a long pause for thought (for me) I decided to call, thinking that I just about had value.
River brought a nine and Asian woman tabled QT-off, hitting a four-outer for a straight. Irritating to make the right call with just Ace-high and to be sucked out on.
It didn't take long for me to win it back, when my AA beat her KK. After a minimum rebuy, she asked for a set-up, bemoaning her bad luck. Set-up requests are a pain in the bum. They waste about five minutes to no purpose except to make a bad player think that their luck might change.
I could see that the middle-aged guy was preparing to leave, so there wasn't much value left in the game. One of the youngsters had also said earlier that he was leaving for an 11pm tournament. So I just picked up a couple of racks, stacked my chips (or, as far as Asian woman was concerned, her chips) and joined two other players in leaving the table, making Asian woman look rather foolish, I thought.
Like I said, a childish pleasure.
As I returned from cashing in, not five minutes later, Asian woman had left the table to play in a $65 sit'n'go. I hope she busted.
++++++
I've also started spending my comp points. Even at a buck an hour, these can build up, and I seem to have a small fortune in my Harrah's Total reqrds package. So I've been taking out $20 a time for food at the Tropical Breeze Cafe. I guess I have quite a bit on the MGM account as well. Am I turning into Grubby?
I'm getting less scared of difficult social situations. I noticed that my $20 comp had Paradise Buffet ticked rather than Tropical Breeze, but only after I had eaten my meal at the Tropical Breeze! In the past I would have been too scared to say anything here and I would have just paid the cash. But, I gritted my teeth and, with heart pounding, I pointed out to one of the staff how both I and the poker room guy had made a mistake, but that the poker room guy had now finished his shift.
Manageress then telephoned the poker room and spoke to Charlie (the swing-shift poker room manager), who said that he would change it, no problem.
Why do I find these situations so astronomically difficult? I have no idea, but while I was trying to explain things to the manageress, I was getting tongue-tied and heading towards a panic attack, or, well, so it felt. The feeling is so unpleasant that I can see why I sometimes just don't go through with it.
++++++
English groups making a living from being played in lavatories, part two:
Pet Shop Boys (Bellagio)
Bananarama (Flamingo, still punting that 1980s soundtrack)
++++++
A couple more Vegas pictures.
( Perhaps There Is A Plan B )
You pick up 8c 8d in the cut-off in a typical afternoon Flamingo game. There are four limpers to you and, because you have decided to relentlessly bet everything for value against what seem to be random callers, you decide to raise. The button calls, as does the big blind, as do the four limpers. $25 in pot.
Flop brings 8h 6h 4c. It's checked round to you and you bet. Button raises. This guy seems your fairly typical player in the Flamingo, perhaps a fraction better than average, but still very loose-passive by any modern terminology. You three-bet and he caps it. You call. $56 in pot.
Turn brings 5s. You check. He bets. You call. $64 in pot.
River brings 4h, completing your full house. You bet. Button raises. You three-bet, and button four-bets. Because you started the betting round head-to-head, there is no cap on the number of raises. What do you do here?
If you five-bet, how many raises are you prepared to go before you flat-call?
I decided to five-bet. Opponent six-bets it. What is his range?
I decide to flat-call. Am I favourite or a dog?
++++++
O'Shea's is running a $1-$5 spread-limit game with a single dollar ante. Anyone who has read the early stuff by Sklansky and Malmuth will know that the theory here is to play very tight. However, is this the case in practice? I know that Sklansky also touched upon this point in later writings. His observation was that, although theory dictated tight play and would guarantee a profit, it would not necessarily maximize your profit. The O'Shea's game is meant to be wild'n'wooly, with $30 pots and five players common pre-flop.
This touches on the point made by Matt and seconded by Michael, that it is necessary to loosen your starting-hand criteria in these loose-passive low-limit games. The question is, in what way do you loosen your criteria, and how far? Clearly if players are calling with a much wider range of hands, then hands like K9s in late position become playable, because you are quite likely to be up against Kx a lot of the time. Similarly, if you know that all the players will come in with any Ace, but will not even raise with AK, then you have to reassess hands like AT-off in late.
A third factor here is the high-hand bonus in some poker rooms, which affects your EV on certain hands such as small pocket pairs and suited connectors and can affect your decision whether or not to bet on the flop or turn if you have a set, there is a small pot, a large bonus for your particular set if it becomes quads, and it looks like a bet will push out the remaining players.
One habit which has caught me out a couple of times is the pre-flop limp with KK. I've seen four players do this, and, much though they deny it, the reason that they do it is because they are frightened of an Ace appearing on the flop. I think there are a larger number of players than I suspected who quite simply raise with nothing except Aces.
+++++++
Well, we are 10 days in, and I've finally crawled into the black. The collection of idiots that I'm required to face continues to put a strain on the brain, but you do get the occasional opponent with whom you can hold a half-way intelligent conversation.
However, my deepest joy of the night was perhaps a childish one. It was coming up to 11pm at the MGM and there were two tight female players to my left, a good player to their left, then a weak woman player, a weak middle-aged foreign guy, and then three competent youngsters, and finally a young Asian woman who was not very good.
About half an hour earlier, said Asian woman had put $5 all-in into a $40 pot after I had raised pre-flop with Ac Tc. Board was Kd Jd 5s 3s. I figured her for a moderate King or perhaps a flush draw and, after quite a long pause for thought (for me) I decided to call, thinking that I just about had value.
River brought a nine and Asian woman tabled QT-off, hitting a four-outer for a straight. Irritating to make the right call with just Ace-high and to be sucked out on.
It didn't take long for me to win it back, when my AA beat her KK. After a minimum rebuy, she asked for a set-up, bemoaning her bad luck. Set-up requests are a pain in the bum. They waste about five minutes to no purpose except to make a bad player think that their luck might change.
I could see that the middle-aged guy was preparing to leave, so there wasn't much value left in the game. One of the youngsters had also said earlier that he was leaving for an 11pm tournament. So I just picked up a couple of racks, stacked my chips (or, as far as Asian woman was concerned, her chips) and joined two other players in leaving the table, making Asian woman look rather foolish, I thought.
Like I said, a childish pleasure.
As I returned from cashing in, not five minutes later, Asian woman had left the table to play in a $65 sit'n'go. I hope she busted.
++++++
I've also started spending my comp points. Even at a buck an hour, these can build up, and I seem to have a small fortune in my Harrah's Total reqrds package. So I've been taking out $20 a time for food at the Tropical Breeze Cafe. I guess I have quite a bit on the MGM account as well. Am I turning into Grubby?
I'm getting less scared of difficult social situations. I noticed that my $20 comp had Paradise Buffet ticked rather than Tropical Breeze, but only after I had eaten my meal at the Tropical Breeze! In the past I would have been too scared to say anything here and I would have just paid the cash. But, I gritted my teeth and, with heart pounding, I pointed out to one of the staff how both I and the poker room guy had made a mistake, but that the poker room guy had now finished his shift.
Manageress then telephoned the poker room and spoke to Charlie (the swing-shift poker room manager), who said that he would change it, no problem.
Why do I find these situations so astronomically difficult? I have no idea, but while I was trying to explain things to the manageress, I was getting tongue-tied and heading towards a panic attack, or, well, so it felt. The feeling is so unpleasant that I can see why I sometimes just don't go through with it.
++++++
English groups making a living from being played in lavatories, part two:
Pet Shop Boys (Bellagio)
Bananarama (Flamingo, still punting that 1980s soundtrack)
++++++
A couple more Vegas pictures.
( Perhaps There Is A Plan B )
