Mad Man Poker

I would like to talk about some poker mishaps and mantras that frustrate or intrigue a lot of people. Some loose bits and pieces, that fit in nowhere else, and can never hurt to read and take in once more.

The donkey: fishes have more luck than I do! Why?

The answer is actually extremely simple. This one bugged me for months before it all fell into place.

The bad player (fish) is known to play more hands, when you play more hands, you catch more miracles. Since those hands are more likely to stay in your memory, fishes are more likely to look lucky, while all they do is catch more cards, because they play more. Fortunately there is an easy cure for this and it is called math. When you make bad players pay for every draw and pick up your odds when they wrongfully bet into you, in the end you’re mathematically supposed to come out on top in the long run. Add to the mix that most fishes can be read like a book if you only make a small effort to watch them and this “mantra” will bug you no longer. In the end, these are the players that will also pay you off when you’re nut flush beats their top pair top kicker when a decent player would have folded when the third card of your suit hit.

Draws and me are no friends, I play them, but usually miss out anyway! What am I doing wrong?

You’re counting wrong. A standard open ended straight draw nowadays is played like the stone cold nuts in Hold’em. But let’s count together, shall we? An open ender gives you 8 outs with 2 streets to come. That roughly comes down to 32 to 33 procent chance of hitting your open ender. Newsflash kid, your draws usually do miss. About 2 out of every 3 times! The ultimate solution is realising that if you play big on a draw you do NOT want your opponent to call. It’s a bluff. A semi-bluff, but still, a bluff. Don’t play your hands hoping the other guy calls. 2 out of every 3 times you’ll loose! And bluffing is an art, it should be handled with care. The only time you can start wondering if your draws are the best hand here is when you combine an open ended straight draw with a very strong flush draw. Also, your outs are always taken out of the best possible scenario. Chances are in a full ring game that a lot of your outs are gone already or in the hands of one of your opponents.

The guy next to me must have found a way to see my cards! He lays down when I’m strong, he raises when I’m bluffing. How does this guy do it?

This one is funny, because it happens almost everywhere and mostly online. When coming across this one in a live game it’s usually a concern for the internet kids. The reason why this is happening has nothing to do with magic or cheating. You’re simply not varying your play enough. I wish I could say that the guy next to you is probably an amazing player and just picks up a lot of tells on you, which, of course, is also always a possibility, but the truth is mostly a lot more plain than that. You become predictable and need to change gears more often. Any decent player heeding betting patterns, usually looks right through obvious bluffs and value betting monsters.

This one is extremely important to keep in mind, since apart from having a predictable style most players end up in a group of players that is pretty much fixed and a lot of the time you run head first into this problem because your tablemates start to know you a little bit too well.

When I raise, people tend to call me more easily than they do the rest of the table.

Actually they don’t! It just seems this way, since it is easier to end up with “I always get called” than it is to figure out “this guy always calls”. When playing a full ring game, pots nowadays are rarely won preflop in a cashgame. Of your 8 opponents, somebody is bound to have a hand. The only way of being sure that someone is being put on a decision is letting him face a reraise. In all other cases we probably get to a flop. It could of course be that you have a loose image, in which case you should adapt your style, not your expectations, but this one is too widely spread to just be limited to us aggressors. Everyone sometimes feels like he’s not able to simply make a steal. Truth is, this is not a stealing environment anymore when you’re not prepared to make a big steal.

Heads up play is such a lottery. You just push hyper aggressive bets and then see who has the best cards. Why would I want to play it?

First of all, because heads up play is the new ring game. About 70% of all action out there nowadays is at least short handed and a lot of it heads up.

Let me assure you, by the way that it is hardly a lottery. Even more, if you play too aggressive in a one-on-one match you will be amazed to all of a sudden notice that all small pots go to you for about 95% of the total amount played, but when a big pot is building up it’s your foe taking it down. I see a lot of people relying on constant pressure but not backing it up by putting higher standards into the pots where they do get opposed. Newsflash: if you have top pair and the other guy starts pushing for the first time in 20 hands: FOLD! You are up against at least two pair! When you are able to pick up a lot of pots, give me one good reason to get tangled in a big one if you’re not holding a monster! Even more, if you can put out the signal that you do not overpush on every hand, maybe the other guy can be found prepared to come out of his shell, giving you action. When you get action in heads up, the only thing you have to do now is back it up with a big game.

Limit games are so boring! They give no thrill!

Well, in essence you’re right. The thrill factor is a lot less in limit games, but is highly compensated by the fact that now you have to play far more strategically. No limit let’s you save a hand you misplayed by pushing everyone out with strong bets. Limit games require a strict and disciplined game plan from the start of the hand up until the very end. It’s far more mathematical and far more strategically challenging. A lot of players nowadays seem to be video gamers as well, and I’m going to use it to clarify my point here. No limit games are the Shoot’em ups. You walk into a room and start popping at everything that moves! Limit games are the strategic shooters. If you blindly put out round after round, soon enough your gun will be empty, your head full of bullet holes and the game lost.

Also, this may look extremely logical reading it here, and still I see a lot of mistakes against this principle: Your limits are too low! If you play 5c/10c no limit, then off course 5c/10c limit is going to bore the hell out of you! When you cut out the unlimited betting part, you should bear in mind that you should up your limits for the same “thrill” in betting. Playing 5c/10c no limit easily puts you at the level of a standard 25c/50c limit game or even higher.

Well, that should give you enough to think about for now.