On Coolers & Scare Cards

Live games are always very different from online games. Online games takes advantage of the fact that you can manage multiple tables at the same time, increasing your win rate through data-mining and pushing your edges. With live games, you rarely have that luxury, seeing much lesser hands than when online, and thus making it necessary for you to loosen up and play more hands than you would generally play.

It’s in live cash games that you get caught in more cooler hands than you would care to be in,  simply because hitting the flop strongly isn’t a common occurrence, and thus, you would tend to over-play hands that would be considered “moderate strength” hands in online play. Take for example this hand I played in a live cash game yesterday. I held AcTc pre-flop in middle position, with a very healthy chip stack, over-stacking all the players at the table. Action was folded to me, and I made the usual opening raise of 4xBB. I got three callers, including the blinds, and we went 4 way to the flop, which was Ad8s3d. Small blind  (a slightly loose player) went all in with a pretty deep stack, over-betting the pot 3x. Big blind folded and action was on me. AcTc on this board beats many hands that my opponent would have shoved with, so I made the call, and he showed me AJo, which held up to take the pot.

Admittedly,  his play was extremely unconventional, as he would only get value from a hand like the one I held, while forcing many other hands to fold, and reducing value, but this is the kind of play you can expect at live games. Hands like these increase the variance of playing lives games, so you will need to maximize value in pots that you win in order to overcome the losses you incur through coolers, bad beats and the inevitable mistakes.

As mentioned in an earlier article, bluffing is an integral part of maximizing value for your made hands. On that very same night, I was caught up in a three way pot with pocket queens on the cutoff. Action was folded over to the hi-jack, who raised 5xBB. I decided to slow-play my pair, and flatted, which resulted in the button also making a call. The flop was all under Q, with a flush draw and no cards above 9. Hi-jack makes a continuation bet, and I decide the flush draw was too dangerous to allow for further slow-play. I raised 3.5x his raise, and to my surprise, button flatted. Hi-jack folded after much hemming and hawing. Turn throws a T on to the board, which would also have completed any flush draw. I had already invested about one third of my stack, and decided to bet another one third of my stack to see if he had the flush (he would raise me if he had, since my bet was so strong). He flat called, and the turn put yet another card of the same suit on the table (none of my Qs were of the same suit). I decided to go for it and went all in with the remainder of my stack, which was about 3/4ths of the pot. He folded.

I later discovered that he actually made a straight on the turn, but didn’t raise due to the possible flush. The last card was enough of a scare card to weaken his resolve and allow me to bluff him off the best hand. This illustrates the fact that huge bluffs are often successful if you make them when situations are favorable to your bluffs. Some players attempt to “bluff” by making random big bets, and hoping their opponent folds, when the board isn’t conducive to a bluff. These are the times when you stand to lose your entire stack on a badly timed bluff, something I’ve been guilty of a lot in the past. That very night, I saw a player who had quadrupled his stack lose it all in a badly timed bluff that got called by his opponent who only had second pair!

Considering how tough online games are getting, it’s a nice change to play in softer live games for a change of scene. Try it some time, though take care to always play aggressively and in position! Check out the shot of this hand, the very first straight-flush to showdown in the live game I played in (Poker Empire!), and that was directly after the very same player flopped quad kings!

 

Bluffing for Value

Bluffing is an integral part of poker, and something a lot of players either over-do, or do too little. What exactly constitutes as “bluffing”? Simply put, bluffing in poker is to try and make your opponent believe that you have a better hand than he does. This is usually done in the form of bets, or the not-so-usual verbal connotations.

Let’s face it, the number of times you actually make a hand in poker is far and few between. A large number of hands you enter pots with usually end up missing the flop, and if you don’t “bluff”, you will usually end up folding when your opponent bets, simply because you believe he has a better hand than you do. This means that, most of the time, you will lose money by entering a pot, if you don’t bluff. A player that doesn’t bluff is also very vulnerable, as his hands are practically transparent to any semi-decent poker player, simply because he never puts money into the pot without a made hand. Thus, the easy way of countering these kind of players is to avoid paying them off, and fold most hands to them. How do these players lose money then? Usually by bad beats, mistakes, cooler hands and such, which all poker players face, but they can’t offset due to their meager wins.

Another reason to bluff is to disguise or rather, balance your play. If you occasionally raise with your worst hands, your hand strength will be hidden when you raise with your premium hands. Your opponents can’t simply fold to your bets anymore, or they risk getting run over. The key here though, is to keep a consistent betting amount for your bluffs and your premium hands. Some players bet overly large or overly small when they bluff, and do the exact opposite when they actually have a hand.

Bluffing adds value to your play, by forcing your opponents to pay you off when you have a hand. Make sure though, that you don’t keep bluffing at pots, so much so that you are called down by almost any player. Instead, limit your bluffs to times when you have an edge, like position, a board that’s friendly to bluff at, e.g. you raise with junk on the button and a rainbow disconnected flop with an Ace hits the board, you raise again to bluff opponents off their hand. Bluffing also adds value to your play, by giving you additional information about your opponents while keeping the strength of your own hand hidden.

An example of how bluffing can give you an edge happened a couple of nights before in a live game I was playing. Blinds were $2/$5, and I was on the button with Q9 suited. A few players limped into the pot, and I made a raise of about 6xBB. All players folded except one, a tight, and extremely passive player. His stack was relatively short compared to the pot, roughly 3 times the amount. The flop came 3s2c2h, he bet into me, and I re-raised him all-in. He calls with A3s, a Queen comes on the turn to put me in the lead and I take his stack. This was observed by all players at the table. After one orbit of play, I get J8s on the button, while there was a player who straddled. After the usual few players limped in, I again made a 6xBB raise. The blinds folded, and the player who straddled, went all in. His stack was again about 2.5 times the pot after I made the raise, which gave me the odds to call if he was making a move or even if he was holding two over cards. I chose to call to advertise my strategy. I lost that pot. Payback came when I got pocket Qs the very next orbit, once again on the button. I made a raise and a player shoved into me, I call, and my queens held up to take the pot.

Note that most of my “bluffs” were done from the button (the canonical position to bluff), which generally gave me a significant edge over my opponents simply because they would have to act before I did. Also note that you have to display your “bluffs” to let your opponent know you’re actually bluffing. Sometimes, if it doesn’t cost too much, it’s worth it to play to outdraw on your opponents, simply to do a bit of advertising, and get some implied odds on all future hands, e.g., you value bet the river as a bluff and get called, but your next value bet is for a monster made hand and you make the maximum amount.

This was a pretty unstructured article, but I hope I managed to convey the necessity and value of bluffing in poker. Till the next time, may all your bluffs succeed!

Comfort Zones

Winning a major pot in poker is the ultimate high of the game, especially when you’ve outplayed your opponent to do it. I’m not talking about cooler hands, where you have set over sets, or *gasp* straight flush over quads! This actually happened in a live game played in the poker room I frequent. Check out a shot of it I managed to capture…

Have you ever noticed how some players manage to win huge pots on hands that contain a single pair, or some mediocre holdings like AT versus A4, when both hit the ace on the flop? Often times, players put wins like these down to loose cannon players and luck, but I believe there’s more to it. Many players, especially tight players, play weakly because they’re afraid of getting stacked by bad beats and cooler hands. They make puny raises, take down small pots, and wonder why the other player at the table makes 5 times his buy-in in the same amount of time he makes half a buy-in in profit at the end of the session. What’s worse is when they have a bad session and get sucked out multiple times, losing several buy-ins in the process. Imagine the amount of patience required to sit for hours at the table, making minimum profit and losing it all in a run of bad luck.

There are two ways to lose money in poker. Bad beats and bad plays. Whenever you lose, it’s either one or the other, and it’s important to identify which. But knowing why you lost is not enough. You have to know how to compensate for it. If you lost due to bad plays, you have no one and nothing to blame but yourself, and the remedy is simple. Don’t repeat your mistake. Bad beats on the other hand is a different story altogether. Beats are part of poker and instead of whining about how your bottom set got cracked by a two pair hitting a four-outer, think about how you can recover from it. Tight weak players will find this hard to do, simply because it’s rare for them to get a huge win (unless of course there are donkeys that pay them off regularly), and it will take many, many sessions of no beats before they recover from a downswing.

Which brings us to the topic at hand. Comfort zones. Every player has a comfort zone, and it is important thing to note of your opponents when you play a game, especially during live games, when there are no stats to help you make decisions.  The famous quote from David Slansky, which states that, whenever your opponent plays differently from when he can see your hole cards, you gain, and whenever you play differently from when you can see his hole cards, he gains. A simple example of this would be, if the player holding the quads in the picture above could see his opponent’s hole cards, he would fold his quads, and he would gain. This is pretty much the goal of poker, to make your opponent play differently from what he would if he could see your hole cards, that is, to make a mistake. The only way your opponent will make a mistake, is when he is pushed out of his comfort zone.

A regular player that plays at the room I frequent (who incidentally is also the person who held the straight flush over quads) is a very good example of such a player. He has a loose cannon image, one that’s well deserved, and initially lost a lot of money learning that players can’t be bullied out of pots by money and two rags for a hand. He is however, a quick learner, and all keen observers in the room would note that his play has improved tremendously. He’s quick to spot and prey on weak tight players, pushing up the stakes with a massive re-raise on their raise, forcing them to fold weak to mediocre hands pre-flop. Some of them try to counter this by flat calling, hoping to hit a monster on the flop, but more often than not, end up folding when his flop play pressures them to fold hands like Ace high. If they could see his hole cards, they would play differently, but having been forced out of their comfort zones, they naturally make mistakes they wouldn’t under normal circumstances.

It’s enough to observe from this that players can be pulled out of their comfort zones by hyper aggressive play, but there’s also a technique to it, and one can’t place a random huge bet into a pot and hope to take it down. I will write more about this in future articles, on bet sizing and value bets, that extract the maximum out of opponents, while maintaining a decent ratio on your “return on investment”. It’s also important to know that when you play within your bankroll, it is difficult to pull you out of your comfort zone, simply because your zone is so much… wider! Once again, more emphasis on bankroll management. So, till the next article, may you play successfully for bigger pots, and force opponents out of their comfort zone!

Fit or Fold: Pt II - Profit

In our previous article, we discussed Fit or fold (FoF) players, their characteristics and tendencies. This sequel will show how best to play against these players, so if you've read the previous installment, you will know that FoF players are statistically vulnerable, seeing as most flops miss most hands. This means that the money that they put in the pot are usually dead money, and up for grabs for any takers. How do you profit from this? There are a few key points in your game that you need to adjust when you play against these players.

First, your hand range. Fit or fold players have a high hand range, and play more than 60% of their hands from any position. This makes them easy to identify. Note the hands they show down, e.g. 67s, T8o, and simply only play hands that are superior preflop, like KQo. This gives you a significant advantage since you're almost always going into a pot with them with a mathematical edge. Do not fall for the trap of playing a wider hand range from any position as you would need the edge to make your plays profitable. The optimal scenario would be for them to hold something like 98s, and you holding A9o and both hitting the 9 on the flop. Since they are generally passive calling stations, you can easily profit by value betting on all streets.

Second, isolate the FoF player with aggression. You can do this with calculated raises and light 3-bets. Note the general amount that the FoF player would call preflop, and also the other players to the left. When you make your isolation raises, be careful of the non-FoF players who call. They generally have a strong hand, which make them a good target if you have premium hands like AA, KK, QQ or AK. When you have the FoF player isolated, you can make profitable bets against them whether or not you hit the flop, because these players are easy to read and you can easily calculate your odds and outs against them and bet appropriately.

Continuation bets are your key weapon against FoF players. Since you should hardly ever go into a pot without a raise (avoid the FoF tendencies) unless you're trapping, you should play very aggressively against the FoF player after isolating them. Always, always, make a c-bet when they check to you on the flop even if you missed. The c-bet will give you sufficient information on whether the player has hit or missed the flop, and allow you to hit your outs if you missed and are behind, or sweeten the pot if you're ahead. E.g. the FoF player holds 45s, you hold KQo, and the flop comes 256 rainbow. FoF checks and calls your c-bet, and the turn puts a Q on the board. This puts you massively ahead as the FoF player has only 9 outs to beat you on the river. You will win this scenario 80% of the time, so bet accordingly.

Position against the FoF player is very important. FoF players are generally passive, and will call you down with any two cards that have hit the flop sufficiently well. This means that you should always tighten up when you're acting before the FoF player, and loosen up (but still keep your range above that of the FoF player) when you're acting after. If the FoF player bets into you out of position, he would generally have hit the flop and is rarely on a draw. If the FoF player calls your bets in or out of position, they may have hit the flop either by pairing up or having a draw. Note these tendencies and calculate your odds and outs so each of your subsequent bets will be profitable in the long run.

Pot control is crucial when playing against FoF calling stations. Do not get greedy and push the pot up to the point where you're committed to call a raise should the FoF player make his hand. Keep the pot as small as possible until you're sure that you have the best hand, which should only be on the river. This would generally mean that you give a free card on the turn to see where you stand when you get to the river. Once you're certain of your hand, get as much value as you can by making the FoF player pay you off on the final street. Take note of bets that they would call down on the river and make similar value bets.

Last but certainly not least, learn to fold. It's all too easy to get caught up in your aggression and try to push the FoF player off the pot with brute force. This hardly ever works as they are simply calling stations by nature. Since its all too easy to read the FoF player, you should always know when you're behind and fold. All your bets should gain you information, and be mathematically profitable depending on your reads. There's always a luck factor in poker, and any player who's behind can still catch a miracle card and come out in front. Avoid paying the FoF player off any more than you have to.

The final installment of this series will be on how to avoid playing, and thinking like a FoF player. Hope you enjoyed this article. Comments, constructive or otherwise are always welcome.

Minimizing Losses Pt:2

First off, I'd like to apologize for not updating the blog the past three days. I have been involved in a crazy live poker schedule, and barely slept. To top it all off, I had to compensate for being away from work for a week; Yes, I do have a job!

Thanks for all the comments on the previous article. It definitely helps to know that my articles are being read! Please use the reaction checkboxes to help me gauge the article quality, and improve on site content, and if you really like the article, Digg it.

Now all that's out of the way, back to business at hand. The answer to the last hand posted was this. The CO had the flush on the turn, K high, and was trapping. He was probably also applying pot control, as there could possibly be an Ac out there, which might make a higher flush on the river. This was a great scenario to illustrate minimizing losses as it happens on both sides. To minimize losses on my end, I had to raise the turn, and fold the river. For the CO, he minimized (potential) losses by making a small bet on the turn, in case another clubs or paired card came on the river. Of course, in this particular scenario, I did not minimize my losses, and called the bet.

Pot control plays a huge role in minimizing losses. We have been talking about pot control so often, but what exactly is it? Pot control is when you know you're possibly ahead, but could be behind when the cards on the other streets come. Here's an example to illustrate this. This happened in a live game $2/$5, 8 handed table. I was on the button with 57o, and everyone from UTG folded to the CO who called. I had fantastic position here, and wanted to isolate the CO who has demonstrated that he was a loose passive player in previous hands, only getting aggressive when the opponent shows weakness. I raised to 4xBB, and SB folds, but BB surprisingly calls.

I have played with BB a lot, and consider him to be a solid player, which immediately made me wary for what he might have called me with out of position. BB had also been calling a lot of raises, so I put him on a wider range than I usually would. The flop comes 3d4d6d, which gave me the nut straight but placed a possible flush on board. I have a very aggressive reputation, and would usually place a c-bet, so action was checked to me. This would have been a very good opportunity to cash in on my reputation, as most players in a hand with me in that particular live game would generally call my c-bet regardless of what they had. However, this was also a drawback as they might outdraw me on the turn or river. This fact, coupled with the dangerous board called for pot control, so I checked.

The turn was a Qh, which may have helped either the BB or CO. BB checks, and CO bets half the pot, making it $35 to call. I call and BB calls, which makes the pot slightly less than $200. River puts a Kc on the board, which by now has me convinced that I have the best hand. BB checks once again, and CO folds without bothering to wait for me to bet or check (a strange move but a money saving one). I put a value bet of $125 into the pot, same as what I had been doing in previous hands with bluffs which was called down. BB called and mucked his hand once I showed my straight, and I took down the pot.

Would you readers have played this hand any differently? Let me know your views in the comments section.