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peterbirksI played badly late yesterday evening. This was a standard fault -- assuming that other players are cleverer than they are. It's a habit you can get into if you play too often, because you feel instinctively that opponents should by now be "learning", so you try to zag in anticipation. But this isn't high-level poker. You have lots of opponents, not one table's worth. Any change in their skill level will be a slow alteration, not a sudden shitft.
One example of poor play was when, in the small blind, I raised three limpers (50c-$1) to $5.50 with KK. One very loose passive player (53%/4%, something like that) called from MP1 and the two guys behind him folded. He was also quite short-stacked, down to $20, so that left him with $14.
Flop came A73, two of a suit, something like that. Anyhow, I contrived to double him through with his A5o when I know that these guys will check it down if they have a lower pair. But, well, I thought to myself, "perhaps he's trying a desperation steal here". I'm check-calling with AK here, so I chose to check-call his $5 flop bet with KK, on the grounds that this would lead a bad Ace to check it down on turn and river. He didn't.
In a couple of other cases I called guys down because they were in an ideal situation to "make a play". Needless to say, they weren't making a play. Their hands were perfectly represented by the size of their bets (check = poor; small-to-medium = not sure; big = good). Bringing $200 buy-in thinking to $100 buy-in tables late in the evening is moronic.
Here's a situation based on a hand that cropped up last night.
BB: Tight-not-very-ag (8%/4%) player whom I've played a fair bit (abut 500 hands together): $104
Button: Me, $78 Hand: 3d 3h
Blinds 50c - $1
All passed round to me. I raise to $4.50
BB reraises to $11.
Hero: ?
If you choose to fold, end of story.
If you reraise another $11, he calls and will check any flop. Given that you now have $56 behind and the pot is $44, how do you act on the flops below?
If you call, opponent will bet $14 on each of these three flops. How do you react in each case?
A 7 2 two of suit
T 8 6 two of a suit
Q Q 5 rainbow.
A lot of potential scenarios there, I know, so I expect a deafening silence. Posts are only generated as a rule when the respondent has the benefit of knowing what happened.
However, these are far more important than the previous AK "angels on the head of a pin" scenario, because situations such as the above happen very often, and they happen far more often in $200 buy-ins than $100 buy-ins and far more often short-handed than in ring games. Coming to the right EV decisions in these situations matters many times more than in the previously mentioned hand. And yet these hands generate little interest.
What does this imply? Probably that most poker players are looking in the wrong places to improve their game.
Which is fine by me.
++++++++++++++
MR PICKLE UPDATE
Ohh, it never rains but it pours. Not only does a minority shareholder threaten to kybosh the recommended Northern Rock deal, but it looks as if the NTL e-mail system has completely collapsed this morning. All e-mails to virgin.net people this morning are bouncing back and NTL broadband customers have been reporting zero access. Oh dear, oh dear.
One example of poor play was when, in the small blind, I raised three limpers (50c-$1) to $5.50 with KK. One very loose passive player (53%/4%, something like that) called from MP1 and the two guys behind him folded. He was also quite short-stacked, down to $20, so that left him with $14.
Flop came A73, two of a suit, something like that. Anyhow, I contrived to double him through with his A5o when I know that these guys will check it down if they have a lower pair. But, well, I thought to myself, "perhaps he's trying a desperation steal here". I'm check-calling with AK here, so I chose to check-call his $5 flop bet with KK, on the grounds that this would lead a bad Ace to check it down on turn and river. He didn't.
In a couple of other cases I called guys down because they were in an ideal situation to "make a play". Needless to say, they weren't making a play. Their hands were perfectly represented by the size of their bets (check = poor; small-to-medium = not sure; big = good). Bringing $200 buy-in thinking to $100 buy-in tables late in the evening is moronic.
Here's a situation based on a hand that cropped up last night.
BB: Tight-not-very-ag (8%/4%) player whom I've played a fair bit (abut 500 hands together): $104
Button: Me, $78 Hand: 3d 3h
Blinds 50c - $1
All passed round to me. I raise to $4.50
BB reraises to $11.
Hero: ?
If you choose to fold, end of story.
If you reraise another $11, he calls and will check any flop. Given that you now have $56 behind and the pot is $44, how do you act on the flops below?
If you call, opponent will bet $14 on each of these three flops. How do you react in each case?
A 7 2 two of suit
T 8 6 two of a suit
Q Q 5 rainbow.
A lot of potential scenarios there, I know, so I expect a deafening silence. Posts are only generated as a rule when the respondent has the benefit of knowing what happened.
However, these are far more important than the previous AK "angels on the head of a pin" scenario, because situations such as the above happen very often, and they happen far more often in $200 buy-ins than $100 buy-ins and far more often short-handed than in ring games. Coming to the right EV decisions in these situations matters many times more than in the previously mentioned hand. And yet these hands generate little interest.
What does this imply? Probably that most poker players are looking in the wrong places to improve their game.
Which is fine by me.
++++++++++++++
MR PICKLE UPDATE
Ohh, it never rains but it pours. Not only does a minority shareholder threaten to kybosh the recommended Northern Rock deal, but it looks as if the NTL e-mail system has completely collapsed this morning. All e-mails to virgin.net people this morning are bouncing back and NTL broadband customers have been reporting zero access. Oh dear, oh dear.
