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The best way to deal with bad beats is to experience a lot of them

Saturday, January 31st, 2009 | Poker Articles, Poker and Life | 4 Comments

Submitted by Rakewell, this article belongs to the Poker and Life series.

I recently read another long post on Rakewell’s PokerGrump blog and liked the way it touched on the subject of why we tend to remember our bad beats better when we are on the receiving end and how it becomes easier to deal with bad beats the more of them you have experienced. In addition Rakewell again draws parallels to situations that on the surface have nothing to do with poker, which I really enjoy and therefore also want to share with the readers of this blog.

In the original Star Trek series episode “Mirror, Mirror” several members of the crew get switched, via one of those frighteningly frequent transporter malfunctions, into one of the many parallel universes which is almost but not quite like our own. In this one, doppelgangers of our heros are on a ship identical to the Enterprise, except that they are all selfish, power-hungry, violent, and cruel. Oh, and they tend to wear goatees and/or have facial scars, sure signs of all that is wicked.

In this mirror universe, each crew member is required to carry a small device called an “agonizer.” In case of infraction of the rules of military conduct, a superior officer will take the offender’s agonizer, activate it, and apply it to his body for whatever length of time is deemed appropriate to the occasion, resulting in unspeakable pain being inflicted. For the most serious offenses, such as mutiny or assassination, the guilty party was put into the “agony booth,” which we must assume was unfathomably worse than the little agonizer device. As Mirror Spock coolly notes, “The agony booth is a most effective means of discipline.”

Yes, there is a poker connection here. I’ve had more than my fair share of cold-deck situations over the past week, and it has brought back to mind a bunch of painful memories. I remember keenly:

–the first time I drew to the low end of a straight, got there, and only then realized what a bad spot I had gotten myself into.

–the first time I flopped trips and lost it all to a guy who had flopped a full house.

–the first time I had a full house and lost it all to a guy who had quads.

–the first time I had an ace-high flush and lost it all to a guy who had a straight flush.

–the first time I misread my hand, thinking I had the nut straight, when I actually had nothing, and called off all my chips, only to be thoroughly embarrassed when I turned over my cards and saw what I had done.

There is something about the pain of these moments that sears them into our souls. Mike McDermott observes in a rueful voiceover in “Rounders”:

In “Confessions of a Winning Poker Player,” Jack King said, “Few players recall
big pots they have won, strange as it seems, but every player can remember with
remarkable accuracy the outstanding tough beats of his career.” It seems true to
me, cause walking in here, I can hardly remember how I built my bankroll, but I
can’t stop thinking of how I lost it.

I recall that once when I was a small child my mother was preparing to do some ironing. The iron was standing idle on the ironing board. She was out of the room. I wondered whether the iron was on or off, so I did what seemed like the logical thing at the time: I reached out and touched its surface with my index finger. It was on. I cried, of course. When mom came to see what the fuss was about, and I told her that I had burned my hand on the iron, she asked, “Why did you touch it?” I thought that was the dumbest question possible. “I wanted to see if it was on.” Of course.

It must have been somebody with a similar childhood experience who coined the expression, “Once burned, twice careful.”

Some things do get better with time and experience–and some build-up of scar tissue. These days I am never as shocked at the kind of situations I listed above as I was the first time they happened. (Fortunately, I still haven’t experienced the really horrendous beats–things like quads being beaten by a straight flush, or the low end of a straight flush being squashed by the high end.) Just the other day at the Rio I had 6-7 offsuit in the big blind, so I took the flop for free. I loved seeing it come 8-9-10, two-suited. I bet, got raised by the button. It was early in the session, so I was relatively short-stacked, and moving all in was a no-brainer. Of course I knew that it was possible he had one of the two hands that had me drawing nearly dead (7-J or J-Q). But on the other hand, he would raise me and be willing to call my reraise, probably, with any two pair or trips, and maybe something like a pair and flush draw, or a combined straight draw/flush draw, or even just the nut flush draw with no pair. It was not one of those situations where my all-in raise would get called only if I was beat. But this time he did, in fact, have the J-Q. The only way I could win was with a runner-runner flush or split the pot with a runner-runner J-Q, neither of which happened. Sigh.

The point, though, is that I have become considerably more callused to this sort of thing, and because I anticipated the possibility of being shown the nuts, it didn’t stun me and send me reeling the way that those earlier stories did when they occurred. It’s not that it doesn’t hurt. It does. But my skin is thicker than it used to be, and I have learned to expect the unexpected. With anything short of the nuts, I’m braced to take whatever hit may come, and even with the nuts I’m mentally prepared to see my opponent turn over the same hand for a chop, when that is a possibility.

Before I started playing in real-money games online, I spent quite a bit of time with Wilson Software’s simulator. It was, I suppose, useful in getting me used to the mechanics of play, and giving me some feel for what starting hands were likely to end up winners and losers, but I honestly can’t remember a single hand I ever played on it. I think it’s because none of them actually cost me anything. If I got knocked out of a tournament, I could say, “Oh well,” and be in another one ten seconds later, with nothing lost–and nothing learned, I’m afraid, whether it was a bad beat or a bad play.

Simply put, if it doesn’t hurt, it’s a lot harder for the lesson to sink in. I’m sure there’s some biochemical reason for that, related to neurotransmitters powerfully stimulating certain loci in the nucleus-of-whatever deep in the brain. But you don’t need to know the physiology to recognize the truth of it.

Of course, the magnitude of loss it takes to inflict the kind of pain necessary for a long-term memory of the event to form will vary according to your means and past experiences. I remember reading a poker magazine story about Phil Ivey. His wife was just learning to play poker and was doing microstakes online. Phil came home on edge because he had had an unusually deep loss–a few hundred grand, as I recall. His wife was upset at her day, too; she told him that she had lost something like 70 cents, which is a lot when you’re playing $0.01/$0.02 games. Talk about different pain thresholds!

Mike Sexton said it well during an episode of the World Poker Tour a couple of years ago, when somebody got knocked out of the final table on a one-outer: “If you don’t like a little pain once in a while, poker is probably not your game, because as you can see, you’re gonna get it.”

Who needs an agony booth when you have poker?

You could be posting your articles on the Poker Bankroll Blog. Read all about it here.

Tags: Poker and Life, Poker Articles

Embracing the risk in the game

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 | Poker Articles, Poker Tournament | 2 Comments

Submitted by Mitchell this article belongs to the Poker Tournament series.

Mitchell Cogert is the author of “Tournament Poker: 101 Winning Moves.” It is the only reference book to reveal the plays the Pros use to win a poker tournament. These plays are based on reviewing 20 years worth of tournament poker strategies and by actual play against Daniel Negreanu, Erick Lindgren, David Pham and other top pros. The book is available on amazon and rated 5 out of 5 stars by customers. Find out more about Mitchell Cogert by visiting Tournament Poker or his website APokerExpert.

The third skill to winning a poker tournament is embracing the risk in the game.

I would guess most Americans believe that hard work gets rewarded. So, it follows, that if you study the game of poker, work hard at getting better, you will win in the long term. In fact, you’ve read that poker is a game of skill and in the long run the better players win. So why not you?

Unfortunately, a poker tournament is a short moment in time. It is not a long term event. If it was, Phil Hellmuth tells us he would win every tournament.

Once you realize a poker tournament is a short-term event in your poker life, you can still have an edge against your opponents if you have better skills.

But, with all due respect, you are not that much better than the level of your opposition. My guess is that 80% of the poker players, think they are in the top 10-20% of the players at any given event. Of course, that is impossible. And even if you are in the top 20% of the players at a poker tournament, you still need to get lucky to win.

A poker tournament is a short term event, where luck plays a significant role on who wins and loses.

Think about the times when a player gets premium pocket pairs way too often, or a player who hits a set on the flop against his opponent’s pocket Aces. And, if you play online poker, I know you’ve seen (and experienced) more than your fair share of bad beats. Did these players have better skills?

Luck plays a role in each poker tournament. Instead of hoping to get good luck, embrace the luck in the game. And learn to be the player who is feared at the table.

In his book Making the Final Table Erick Lindgren wrote:

“You want to be a great poker player? Stop thinking you’re better than the randomness of the game. Embrace the randomness. Let people think you’re a wild risk taker. And start taking advantage of those afraid to risk their own chips.”

How do you become feared at a poker table?

Winning a WSOP or WPT title is one way. Another way is to be the player who is looking to get involved in lots of hands, and pressing the action with raises and re-raises.

Daniel Negreanu puts pressure on his opponents by playing small ball. In general, it means that he is raising pre-flop with a wide range of hands (usually small raises), and from the flop on he plays your hand. It takes a lot of skill to do what Daniel does at poker. Since poker is his life, he is going to be great at reading his opponents and using his strategy to win.

Gus Hansen is another player who gets involved in a lot of pots with a range of hands. A lot of people who watch Gus play thinks he is an aggressive, wild player who gets involved with way too many hands. Maybe so. But he wins as well.

Let me tell you a story. A few years ago, I played in as many no limit poker tournaments I could find in the Bay Area for 3 months. This was before online poker. I did this to prepare for the WSOP.

I entered a $1,500 no limit event. I was aggressive. I won lots of pots. I accumulated chips. I had more than twice the number of chips as anyone at my table.

We were about three quarters of the way through the event, when the Tournament Director broke up some other tables. We had two empty seats to my left. Two players with huge chip stacks filled those chairs. I mean they had at least 4 times what I had–it was very depressing.

I looked up to see who were carrying those huge trays of chips.

One of them was Phil Ivey. The other player was Erick Lindgren.

They sat down and destroyed our table. They were aggressive, intimidating and when someone moved all-in pre-flop, it seemed like one of them would have a premium hand. Did they lose some hands? Yes, of course. But, they only lost small pots. They picked up a lot of hands uncontested, and won the big pots.

I was impressed. I knew I was not in the same league with these guys.

Erick knocked me out. I believe it was on a pure bluff.

What was their secret to accumulating chips?

They were aggressive. They were willing to enter a lot of pots. Their goal was to accumulate chips. They played to win the event not finish on the bubble.

If they were going to enter a pot. They would raise pre-flop a lot more often than call. They picked up blinds and antes over and over again. And if someone called their raise, they knew how to play their opponents from the flop on.

They put pressure on their opponents with bets, raises and re-raises. They pressed the action because they knew that they had two ways to win–their opponent would fold, or they would have the better hand.

Once or twice they pressed the action too much, and wound up losing a coin flip. But, it didn’t really matter, because they had accumulated so many chips they could absorb a lost coin flip.

Their mentality was to play to win, and be the aggressor.

Embrace the Risk

When you see a player winning a poker tournament, the reality is that he/she had the skills to win but also got some luck. The better your skills, the better your results will be long term. But short term, you will need to accept that luck plays a role in winning and losing.

Embrace the risk. For example, don’t think these thoughts:

“I might get knocked out with A-K, so I only call with A-K.”

“I avoid suited connectors because I don’t want to chase.”

“I never re-raise pre-flop unless I have a big pocket pair.”

Learn to come out swinging. Get involved in more pots than you have ever done before, and learn how to play your opponent’s hand from the flop on. You don’t need a hand to win a pot. If you know what your opponent holds, you’ll never lose.

You could be posting your articles on the Poker Bankroll Blog. Read all about it here.

Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Tournament

Why the cards matter least – Poker Strategy Part 5

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009 | Poker Articles, Poker Strategy, Poker Tournament | 2 Comments

This article belongs to the Poker Tournament series

In this article I will discuss the stage of the tournament. If you have not read the previous articles in this series, please read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4, at your convenience.

Now you might be wondering why I consider the stage at which the tournament is at to be more important than the cards you may be holding. The reason for this is because your opponents, and possibly yourself, will be playing differently depending on which point you are at. Keep in mind that these stages vary in length/time depending on if it is a SNG or a MTT.

Early Stage of tournament
No matter if you are playing a SNG or a MTT, the early stage is a great time to pick up information on your opponents. At this point you can either play tight or loose in order to see how your opponents will play against you. By understanding how your opponents are playing should allow you to play the opposite of them and rake in their chips.

No matter what stage the tournament is at, one of you main goals is to always be chipping up. This becomes more apparent in MTT, rather than SNG, as making the money in a MTT will require far more chips than a standard 10 person SNG. That does not mean you should be going all in to steal every blind early on, as this stage many people are willing to gamble with less than monster hands in hopes of hitting and doubling up where they can look to cruise to the money. Because the blinds at this level are relatively small compared to the stack sizes, it is always better to try and keep your pots small. Slowly eating away at your opponents stacks

Here are some of the things to consider early on:
- low blinds allow you to see cheap flops, be willing to invest up to 20% of your stack on drawing hands
- call from the BB when getting better than 2:1 odds with drawing hands
- respect early position pre-flop raises until you can get a solid read on your opponent
- if folded to you, try to steal the blinds from the BTN, CO and CO+1
- try to keep the pots sizes fairly small to avoid taking a big hit to your chip stack
- try to mix up your play so that your opponents can’t get a read on your style
- if you raise pre-flop and get more than 1 caller, a c-bet is not necessary if the flop doesn’t hit your hand, especially if it is a coordinated board. (2 or more face cards, 2 or more suited cards, connected cards, or a combination of all of them, as these hands get overplayed early on and could easily hit your opponent(s) hand)

Another thing to consider early on is limping with AA or KK if you have position and a good read on your opponents. This move is very tricky as it allows multi-players into the pot which could then destroy your hand on the flop, especially if the flop is coordinated in nature. You should be willing to fold if you don’t hit your hand on the flop and players raise your c-bet or if there is action before you with a coordinated flop. Although it is nice to try and build pots with these monster hands, you don’t want to join the millions on the rail that complain how they tried to trap with AA/KK and someone with 62o (from the blinds) cracked them.

Remember, the key at this stage is to slowly chip away at your opponents stacks so that you may fly under their radar until you can get a solid read on them.

Mid Stage of tournament
At this point of the tournament, players style start to change. Those who had full intention on being aggressive to the end may have found themselves SS and/or are now tightening up. Those that started out tight, have now gathered some information about their opponents and are playing aggressively against them. This is the part of the tournament that if you don’t survive and chip up, you will have little chance to make it to the money.

Because players tend to tighten up the later the tournament goes, this is where starting to steal blinds and betting your big hands aggressively can pay off. If you just wait for the monster hands, you will find yourself SS and pushing with any 2 cards, possibly against multiple callers, as players are looking to increase their chip stack. At this point you need to pick your opponents more than your hands. If you have been paying close attention to the players at your table, you should have picked up some patterns, which could allow you to exploit them when the right situation comes up.

With the mantra “risk is good,” don’t be afraid to push all-in against your opponents if you feel they are weak, you have a great drawing hand, and obviously with the nuts. This then puts the pressure on them, allowing you to possibly make it through to the next stage of the tournament with a good stack of chips.

Bubble
When it gets close to making the money, also known as playing on the bubble, many players tend tighten up their game in hopes of not being knocked out before the bubble ‘pops.’ This makes it a great time to steal pots with a wider range of hands, especially if it is against players with mid size stacks in the blind positions, as they will be waiting for the SS to go out. By putting pressure on your opponents, for most or all of their chips, many players will be willing to lay down top pair so they can make it into the money. On the other hand, the correct way to play is to not be pushed around when it gets close to the money, as you will need all your chips if you plan on winning the tournament. Don’t be afraid to be knocked out if you think your opponent may be stealing, or that your hand is good enough to win at a showdown. The key to playing on the bubble is really your position at the table and not your cards, so use it wisely.

In the Money (ITM)
Once the bubble has burst, the real game begins. You shouldn’t feel happy about just making the money, you should look to win the tournament. It really doesn’t matter how many chips you have, as everybody has an opportunity to finish first, it will all depend on how you play according to the rest of the table. At this point, you need to really be aware of who the short stacks are, who the Chip Leader is and where you fit in accordingly, as hand ranges will open up since everybody is guaranteed to make some money. You also need to be aware of the size of the blinds, as stealing them could represent a good percentage of your stack, and at the same time could make you SS if you let them go by too many times. If you can manage to steal the blinds once per round, then you should be able to maintain your stack size as players get eliminated.

If, when you reach the money, you are the Short Stack, then you need to find situations where you can get your money in good. Now this doesn’t mean you have to have a monster hand to play, only that you need to assess the situation to see if playing your cards at this moment is to your advantage. In order to win this tournament, you will need to double up several times but that doesn’t mean you play any 2 cards from any position. You have to take into account what position you are sitting at and which players are left to act after you, before pushing all you chips into the pot. Pick the wrong time and you could be out of the tournament, or wait too long and you get blinded to the point where everybody can call your all-in to make sure you get knocked out. The same thing goes when you are planning to play against a SS. Pick the wrong time to push, and they double up through you, wait too long and you could end up as the SS. Even though I’ve been preaching that your cards matter least, if you are going to be putting pressure on a SS in one the blinds, you should consider the strength of your hand and how much it will cost you if the SS doubles up, through you, before betting.

When it comes to the Chip Leader, something similar could happen. If you are not the CL and he/she has been aggressive to this point, there really is no reason to think they will stop playing this way, so considering your hand strength before pushing against them. On the other hand, if the CL has been a solid tight player on their way to the chip lead, then position plays a huge part when trying to take some of those chips away from them. Now if you happen to be the CL when the money is reached, you now have a distinct advantage over your opponents. By taking advantage of your position and your stack size, most of your opponents will not want to play back at you, as you may knock them out of the tournament.

If you happen to be 1 of the mid-size stack players, then your play here can be tricky. You ideally want to go after the SS, while trying to avoid playing weaker hands against the CL. Playing tight here is not always ideal, even though it could allow you to move up the money ladder as other players get eliminated. The problem with playing tight is that the blinds will eat away at your stack to the point where you become a SS and are forced to push, with probably weaker cards, than you want to. If you have a favorable position at the table, don’t be afraid to push in hopes of taking down the blinds, or isolating yourself against 1 opponent. If you are not one of the mid-size stack players, then attacking them when they are in the blinds should allow you to finish ahead of them, as they will most likely be trying to avoid confrontation so they can move up the money ladder.

If you play smart, taking into consideration your opponents situations and your position at the table, you should be able to survive having your blinds stolen, and possibly a bad beat by the SS in hopes of finishing first.

Heads-up (HU)
When it comes to Heads up play, position is the key to winning. If you are the Button, you act first pre-flop but get to act last after the flop and beyond. Because of this opportunity, you should always take the lead by raising pre-flop from the button, no matter what your hand is. After the flop, you have the opportunity to take into consideration all your opponent’s action and how they relate to what is on the board, which should allow you to narrow his/her range of hands. Keep in mind that a flop will miss yours or your opponent’s hand somewhere around 60% of the time, meaning bluffing plays a huge part in winning heads up.

Because hands move quickly at this stage, you must be willing to open up your hand range so that you can enter many more pots than in a standard 10 or 6 player table. By playing tight and/or passive you allow your opponent to steal the blinds from you. Don’t be afraid to play, as waiting for monster hands will only bleed your chips away. And when you do finally get a hand, your opponent will have a pretty good idea he/she is up against a monster because you have played tight to this point.

With a big difference between 1st and 2nd place money, it is worth taking chances in order to win 1st place. You’ve made the money, now play to win it all, no matter what your cards are.

Good luck at the tables.

Blind vs Blind

Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Strategy, Poker Tournament

Loco Poker

Monday, January 26th, 2009 | Poker Articles, Poker and Life | No Comments

This article belongs to the Poker and Life series

This is the story of a Texas Hold’em variant known among my friends and I as Loco Poker.

Loco Poker was developed in Newcastle a few years ago when Artur and I took two weeks off to visit my brother and a friend of his who had set op base in Newcastle to live the gambler’s dream. Now I’m not sure who actually invented it. If you ask Artur and my brother they will claim to their death that it’s their child, but I  like to think that the idea was developed by all of us.

To better understand the essence of Loco Poker you need some understanding of the grave situation we faced every night  in Newcastle: How to get drunk fast, when all you want to do is go to bed after a hard days work at the virtual tables. Regular beer drinking games were getting boring, so we needed something new.

We first tried playing SNG’s where the first guy who got knocked out had to drink a shot/glass of beer and the winner decided who should drink another shot/glass of beer. However after the first couple of rounds we always ended up all in preflop on the first hand played so we thought we might as well adjust the game. No point in using chips when you are always all in-)

So here it is with no further ado,  the Loco Poker game:

Loco Poker Rules and Point System:

• Hand rankings are the usual known from Texas Hold’em.
• Player positions follow the dealer as usual.
• There are three possible actions in Loco Poker: check, fold and all in.
• If you go all in and everyone else folds, you receive one small Loco Poker Point.
• If you go all in,  someone calls and you win after the showdown your opponent is knocked out. You do not receive any small Loco Poker points in this situation.
• If you go all in, someone calls and you lose after the showdown you are knocked out regardless of the number of small Loco Poker points you have. Your opponent does not receive any Loco Poker points in this situation.
• If the hand is checked to the river nobody wins any points.
• The Loco Poker winner is the player who either knocks all the other players out, or wins 3 small Loco Poker Points. The winner decides who drinks.
• The Loco Poker loser is the player who gets knocked out first. The loser automatically gets a penalty drink.
• Most importantly, whenever a player receives a bad beat you have to remember to shout in unison: “THAT’S LOCO POKER!!!!!”

Loco Poker Hints:

• If you are dealt any Ace, treat your hand as the nuts: push, push, push!
• Trap with any pair.
• Cheat your opponents if they don’t know Texas Hold’em hand ranks.
• Make secret alliances; remember the goal of the game is to get your opponents as drunk as possible so you can take incriminating pictures of them.
• Make up your own prizes and penalties for first and last place; play the game with your girlfriend and see where it takes you.

Enjoy!

Check out details about Freeroll Slot Tournaments.

Tags: Poker and Life, Poker Articles

Finding a way out of a poker tournament slump

Sunday, January 25th, 2009 | Poker Articles, Poker Tournament | 3 Comments

Submitted by Dungbeetle, this article belongs to the Poker Tournament series.

 Dungbeetle has had a rocky start to 2009 mostly due to losses in live cash games. Unfortunately good tournament results have yet to come in  2009 so the struggle continues. Perhaps our readers will be able to give some advice…..

I played the online Sunday majors yesterday with fairly dire results, resulting in another heavy loss. Something isn’t working at the moment for me in all forms of the game, and I need to figure out what it is. I still continue to build 2/3/4 times starting stacks early on in tournaments (rarely being all in), but somehow just can’t convert these promising starts into deep cashes. In the previous two years, I had a decent conversion rate of final tabling once in the money spots, but that doesn’t seem to be happening at the moment.

I can’t put my finger on what has happened, but I am extremely stressed about job security at the moment, and I wonder whether I am a little too desperate to get that big score which would secure my poker bankroll, at least in the short term, and thus making bad decisions. I’m almost certainly playing too aggressively at the moment as well, again possibly due to my desperation to get right up the pay scale. Clearly this over-aggression costs me dearly after making strong starts. Perhaps I just don’t flip well at the moment – I dunno.

Anyhow – I made some tournament notes before I got hacked off, so I’ll just stick them down as I wrote them. I played a further four tournaments after the ones below with zero success, although I remember losing 4 races in a row. One thing I would say, is that the late Sunday tournament structures aren’t a patch on the early ones, so in future I’ll play a trimmed schedule:

PokerStars Sunday WarmUp
“10k starting stack, down to 5k, up to 15k after an hour. I shove with 5d7d from BB when a frequent cutoff raiser makes it 20% of my stack to call. This is the first time I made this move. He snap calls for 80% of his stack with KQ (very questionable – how often is he against AK/AQ there?). I lose.”

PartyPoker – 300k guaranteed
“Play really well – quickly up to 19k from 5k start. Continue to be amongst leaders for the first 2/3 hours before easing up a little. Bust in 82nd spot when sitting about 50th. The serial table raiser makes it a 2.5 raise as usual, and I shove for 7 times that amount with 10s6s from the SB. However, he has JJ this time and I am toast. Cash for $480″

PaddyPower – 250k guaranteed
“Play well – build big above average stack in the first two hours. However, tournament gets trappy with many people on 15 big blinds or less with 125 remaining. I have been shove stealing frequently, as players are playing tighter than they should be. I steal with J2 from the button and the BB wakes up with 99 to bust me 25 out of the money”

Full Tilt Sunday Brawl
“On fire for most of the early tournament, winning a huge amount of small pots, often with bluffs when I can see that players aren’t quite committed enough to play for their stacks. I am on a stack of 25k, and sitting 40th with 400 remaining and 200 get paid. I then make a HUGE blunder. This is a bounty tournament, and I’ve already picked up $160 in bounties ($40 a pop) when I notice that the BB is so short stacked that he is all in. UTG limps for 500, UTG+1 makes it 2000, I find AK in the cutoff and shove for 25k with AK to secure the bounty, but UTG+1 has KK and I am down to 8k. Idiotic trying to chase the $40 bounty, when the raises are from such an early position. I get back up to 10k, squeeze with AT for my stack and get called by 88 and K9 (?). I lose the multi-flip to get back to 30k and bust 317th.”

Pokerstars 125k guaranteed
“Double up early when a donkey gets it all in preflop with 22 against my AA but get distracted by the other tournaments. Dribble down to 10 big blinds and get caught stealing mid way through the tournament”

Crypto 35k
“Get lucky with AJ v AK to get back to average after 2 hours play. Bust shoving 66 into AQ who flops a house”

FT 50k guaranteed
“I’m below average, but lose a large pot to go above average mid tournament. Button raises I shove TT from big blind and lose to AJ”

Pokerstars Sunday Million
“I hardly play a hand in the first hour as I’m too entrenched in the later stages of the Party and Paddy Power tournaments. By the time I give it it’s due attention, I have 8k and blinds are 300/600. The blinds rise again, I shove A6 from the button and get called by A8 in the BB. I spike a 6, but he rivers a flush. Didn’t give this tournament enough attention”

So another hit to the P&L. There is a long way to go, but if I don’t turn things around soon this will have to be considered a “Fluke” style 2008 downswing, when looked at in conjunction with the last two months of 2008.

This week will see me take a few days off, before playing live somewhere on Thurdsay (probably the Cannon), before Saturday sees a trip to Castle Conway for Mike’s home game.

As Stuart Pearce once memorably said in an interview.

“It’s going badly, but I can see the carrot at the end of the tunnel”

Amen to that.
P&L GBP 2009
Live Tournaments 30
Live Cash (600)
Online Tournaments (1,367)
Online Cash (164)
Poker Festivals 0
Rake (173)

Total (2,274)

Check out Dungbeetle’s Magical Mystery Poker Tour blog

You could be posting your articles on the Poker Bankroll Blog. Read all about it here.

Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Tournament

Free Poker Bankroll at PokerRoomSchool

Saturday, January 24th, 2009 | Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building | No Comments

This article belongs to the Poker Bankroll Building series.

There are a lot of free poker bankroll offers available online these days, so I thought I would sign up to a few of them and write some reviews. Hopefully this will make it easier for you to decide whether you want to spend time signing up or not. My first review will deal with PokerRoomSchool.com.

The PokerRoomSchool concept

The aim of PokerRoomSchool is  to teach online poker beginners how to build and maintain a poker bankroll. PokerRoomSchool provides a free poker bankroll of 50$ at CD Poker, an additional 100$ released in 10$ increments for every 1200 CD Poker points you earn and a number of articles and tutorial videos that will improve your game. When you sign up, the first thing you have to do is take a multiple choice test that will determine whether you have the necessary skills to receive the 50$. You can take the test as many times you want and there is a whole section of articles that will help you pass.

One word of advice about the quiz: keep your mindset at poker level 1 and you will be fine. There are a couple of questions where higher level thinking could make you choose the wrong answer. Here’s an example:

You should check-raise if you believe:

1. Your opponent has a better hand than you
2. You will have the best hand most of the time you are called
3. You can out-bluff your opponent
4. Someone if trying to bluff you

Depending on your level of thinking, your read on your opponent and the texture of the game 3 of these possibilities could be the right choice. I would like to think that my higher level of thinking is what cost me 4 out of 20 correct answers:-).

Is there a catch? Not really. It’s no secret that PokerRoomSchool is an affiliate site for CD Poker which mean that they earn a commission when you sign up and start playing at CD Poker. However this does not mean you are getting a worse deal. Sure you could sign up directly to CD Poker and get a 100% bonus up to 300$ which is released at the same rate as the PokerRoomSchool extra 100$, but if you had 300$ you wouldn’t be reading this review of a free bankroll offer right?:-)

Signup procedure

• Register your details at PokerRoomSchool
• PokerRoomSchool will send you an activation email
• Activate your account and take the quiz straight away.
• If you pass the quiz you will be directed to a page with a link to the CD poker software download.
• Download the software  and you will receive an email with your log-on details for CD Poker.
• If you don’t pass the test (you need more than 70% correct answers to pass, I got 80% or 16 out of 20) read the getting started section on the PokerRoomSchool website, and try again.
• You need to complete a verification call from a member of the PokerRoomSchool support team before you receive the 50$. You will automatically recieve the call within 72 hours, but you can speed up the process by logging in to the CD Poker client and requesting a verification call through the online support.
• During the verification call you will be asked to verify the address and email you registered at PokerRoomSchool when signing up as well as your date of birth.
• Once verified you again contact the online CD Poker support to request free 50$ poker bankroll.
• I signed up following the procedure above and received my 50$ bonus within 2 days of signing up. I also won my first 2$ DoN SNG, so  I’m very positive about the whole experience:-)

Motivational factors for continued play

• 1000$ weekly freeroll for those players who earn 300 CD poker points during the week
• PokerRoomSchool leaderboard (rake race in disguise). You earn 1 PokerRoomSchool point for every 1$ you produce in rake at CD Poker. There are guaranteed cash prizes for accumulating specific amounts of PokerRoomSchool points. In addition the top 200 on the PokerRoomSchool leaderboard share 10000$ each week.
• Access to more advanced poker lessons. This is a fun feature of the PokerRoomSchool website. You start at the beginners level and can advance to intermediate and advanced levels by accumulating CD Poker points. Higher levels grant you access to poker articles that are otherwise locked. Good thing all the articles you will ever need will be collected on the PokerBankroll blog. Still it gives an incentive to keep playing.

Additional features of the PokerRoomSchool website

• Tutorial videos
• Forum
• Coaching section
• Poker Articles…the “50$ journey” article is especially good

Annoyances

• You have to make two deposits in order to withdraw any winnings made from your free bankroll.
• At times very slow online support at CD poker, but this has nothing to do with PokerRoomSchool.
• The fact that your account has to be verified by phone before you receive your free bonus.
• Slow email response from PokerRoomSchool’s support team (took 3 days to get an answer to a question)

Conclusion

If you are an online poker beginner, PokerRoomSchool is a great place to start. If you have been playing for some time, sign up and use the free money to start a bankroll building project which you can write about on The Poker Bankroll Blog:-)

If you think the information above was useful and are considering signing up to PokerRoomSchool, support the Poker Bankroll Blog by signing up through us below:

Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building

Have A Plan Before You Enter A Poker Tournament

Monday, January 19th, 2009 | Poker Articles, Poker Strategy, Poker Tournament | 3 Comments

Submitted by Mitchell this article belongs to the Poker Tournament series.

Mitchell Cogert is the author of “Tournament Poker: 101 Winning Moves.” It is the only reference book to reveal the plays the Pros use to win a poker tournament. These plays are based on reviewing 20 years worth of tournament poker strategies and by actual play against Daniel Negreanu, Erick Lindgren, David Pham and other top pros. The book is available on amazon and rated 5 out of 5 stars by customers. Find out more about Mitchell Cogert by visiting Tournament Poker or his website APokerExpert.

Here is the second skill you need to win a poker tournament and have a shot at a WSOP bracelet:

Entering a tournament poker event with a plan–when will you play tight, loose, aggressive, solid, etc

You always need to plan ahead in a poker event.

Before the event begins, you need a plan based on the following:

a. How fast is the tournament given the buy-ins, the chips, the time for each round, the number of players?

As a general rule, if the event is one time rebuy event I like to play tighter during the rebuy period. I’d rather be seen as a tight player by my opponents so I can steal later on after the rebuy period ends. I won’t even enter tournaments where the structure makes an event a total luck-fest. A few years ago, I went to a low buy-in event at Harrahs and it was silly. By the third round, you are forced to move all-in.

I think The Venetian has a great tournament in Vegas with their deep stack events. Most poker players love deep stack events since it allows for more play and a better opportunity to outplay your opponent with skill.

Even the WSOP events don’t have a structure that is as favorable as The Venetian. Of course, they have a good reason for that decision–they have to weed out thousands of players!

b. Do you have the time needed to commit 100% of your concentration to the event?

Have you ever entered a tournament and realized that it is taking longer than you thought? It has happened to me online more than once. One time I just started playing stupid, moving all-in in every hand. I wanted out, and finally, a player took me out.

Another time, I entered a Full Tilt tournament around 9pm and I ended up playing till 3am….and I didn’t even win! I shouldn’t have entered the event because at the end I was exhausted and the next day I was not at my best.

c. Are you rested so you can make the right decisions?

When I’m tired, I don’t play as well as when I am rested. In the Bay Area I have had to skip a lot of tournaments because they take place too early in the am. I don’t believe any tournament should begin before noon. This is poker, for heavens sake.

d. Are there other things on your mind that will distract your attention and affect your play?

This is another reason not to enter an event. Focus. Thirty minutes before I entered a WSOP event, I got a call from my family with stressful news. Needless to say, I didn’t last the first hour. One time at the WSOP, there was a player at the table when he got a call, and found out his wife went into labor. The funny thing is that he stayed and played the next few hands until someone called his repeated all-in bets, and knocked him out.

e. Are you going to go into the event limping with a lot of hands, trying to see flops cheap or are you only going to play ultra-conservative, only entering the pots with premium cards?

In Every Hand Revealed, Gus Hansen writes that he prefers to limp with a lot of hands in a major tournament with a slow progression of blinds. But he doesn’t think there is one universal approach.

My suggestion is that you should try both styles of play and see which one not only makes you feel more comfortable but which one gives you better results.

Next: Embracing the risk in the game and realizing that you can’t beat the luck inherent in poker

You could be posting your articles on the Poker Bankroll Blog. Read all about it here.

Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Strategy, Poker Tournament

Learning poker from things that don’t necessesarily have anything to do with poker

Sunday, January 18th, 2009 | Poker Articles, Poker Strategy | 3 Comments

Submitted by Rakewell, this article belongs to the Poker Strategy series.

I recently read this post on Rakewell’s PokerGrump blog and although it is very long I think it touches on some important issues regarding poker. If you are patient and read it through you might come to realize some things about poker you haven’t given any thought before.

Being as deeply immersed in poker culture as I am, perhaps it’s impossible not to see the game everywhere. I have frequently noticed potential poker lessons or parallels in non-poker movies. To date, I don’t think I’ve blogged about any of them. And for all I know, maybe I never will again after today, though I’m tentatively envisioning this as an occasional ongoing series of posts.

When Paul Newman died late last year, I embarked upon my own little Newman movie festival through Netflix. I decided to try to review his career in chronological order–not everything he ever made, but the highlights. So far I’ve seen “Somebody Up There Likes Me” (1956), “The Long, Hot Summer” (1958), “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (1958), “Rally ‘Round the Flag, Boys,” (1958), “The Young Philadelphians” (1959), “Exodus” (1960), and, last night, “The Hustler” (1961).

If you can’t see important poker lessons to be learned from “The Hustler,” well, you’re just not trying very hard.

1. Take the money and run.

“Fast” Eddie Felson is loaded with talent at pool–of that there is no doubt. But early on in the movie he tries to take on the man who is, by reputation, the best in the world: “Minnesota Fats.” (Note: There was a real pool player known by that name, but he took on the moniker after the film became a hit in order to capitalize on it. There is no evidence that the movie character was based on him.) Eddie sets a goal for himself: to make $10,000 from Fats in one night.

He does it. Soon after reaching that mark, his partner tries to get him to quit. Eddie won’t hear of it. They keep playing, and after a while, Eddie is up by an astonishing $18,000. Again his partner pleads with him to walk away a winner. But for Eddie, it’s no longer about the money. He wants Fats to cry uncle, to quit, to concede that Eddie is better.

Fats is too smart for that. He sees that Eddie’s ego is crowding out his sense, and, further, that Eddie is getting drunk. Fats, being older and wiser, possesses greater self-knowledge than young Eddie (and can hold his liquor better, too). He knows that even if Eddie is a superior player, he (Fats) has the edge in endurance and a cool head. So he doesn’t quit. On the contrary, he takes a break, washes up, shaves, changes clothes, and comes back both looking and feeling like a new man. Meanwhile, Eddie is getting drunker and more fatigued, fighting just to stay awake.

Predictably, the tide turns, and when all is said and done, Fats has won back all of the money. Eddie leaves broke again.

How many times have you had a great poker session, feeling on top of the world, then gave it all back, either little by little or in one fell swoop, and ended up leaving with nothing to show for your efforts? I can’t count them myself. It’s horrible. Of course, there have also been times when I stayed past when I thought I should and ended up winning a lot more than I would have if I had left, so it’s not always a mistake. But that has never happened when my reasons for telling myself I should leave are things like recognizing that I’m too tired to play well, or that I’m at a table at which I have no significant edge in skill. The only times I’ve been glad I stayed past the point of thinking I should leave are when my reason for wanting to leave is simply to lock up a win. That wasn’t Eddie’s situation.

No, for Eddie, the pride became more important than the money, and Fats exploited that weakness magnificently, and it cost Eddie everything.

2. Know your opponent.

We might as well throw in here a conclusion that also follows directly from that first big confrontation between Eddie and Fats. Pool, like poker, isn’t always about the best player winning. It’s about knowing your opponent, his style, and his weaknesses, and how to take advantage of them. Whoever does that better will emerge the victor.

3. It’s all about character.

A witness to the big match, Bert Gordon–played to smarmy perfection by George C. Scott–sees that the kid has talent and could be worth working with. He becomes Eddie’s mentor/manager/advisor/backer. He tries to wise Eddie up about what’s lacking in his game:

Bert Gordon: I don’t think there’s a pool player alive shoots better pool
than I saw you shoot the other night at Ames. You got talent.

Fast Eddie: So I got talent. So what beat me?

Bert Gordon: Character.

(Transcripts cribbed from this imdb.com page.)

Sure, you might have fine skill, but if you can’t control your mood, your temper, your drinking, your steaming, the distractions from outside the game (onlookers, what’s happening in your personal life and relationships, etc.), you can turn from the hustler to the sucker.

I learned last night from the “special features” documentary on the DVD that the self-named Minnesota Fats–not a great player–could beat Willie Mosconi, then considered possibly the best in the world (and, incidentally, the technical advisor on the set) by getting under his skin. Fats knew how to needle Mosconi and get him angry, taking him off of his game. We see the same thing in many poker players: Tony G comes to mind as a world-class needler. It takes character to resist and overcome such forces. Fast Eddie couldn’t do it until he gained character, through some painful experiences we see him put through as the movie progresses.

4. Don’t be a born loser.

Bert Gordon: Eddie, is it alright if I get personal?

Fast Eddie: Whaddaya been so far?

Bert Gordon: Eddie, you’re a born loser.

Fast Eddie: What’s that supposed to mean?

Bert Gordon: First time in ten years I ever saw Minnesota Fats hooked… really
hooked. But you let him off.

Fast Eddie: I told you I got drunk.

Bert Gordon: Sure you got drunk. You have the best excuse in the
world for losing; no trouble losing when you got a good excuse. Winning… that
can be heavy on your back, too, like a monkey. You’ll drop that load too when
you got an excuse. All you gotta do is learn to feel sorry for yourself. One of
the best indoor sports, feeling sorry for yourself. A sport enjoyed by all,
especially the born losers.

Psychologists at least as far back as Freud have hypothesized that gamblers, or at least the pathologic gamblers, are actually playing out a subconscious desire to lose. Freud, rather unconvincingly, tied this in, to childhood stuff about Oedipal fears and masturbation shame. But others have subsequently made more plausible arguments about the “born loser” gambler being one who secretly longs to lose because losing confirms his view of the world being fixed against him. If he won, that would be inconsistent with what he had previously concluded about the entire universe being out to get him, and he cannot bear that level of cognitive dissonance. So he loses. In the event that he gets ahead in a session, he inevitably keeps playing until the winnings are all gone.

If you enter a poker game believing that you will lose, you will. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, because the game cannot be played successfully without confidence (though, of course, stopping short of the arrogance/cockiness/hubris that lead to downfall). Perhaps if you recognize in yourself that your mind isn’t right and you’re feeling like you’re going to lose, you can overcome that disadvantage through self-talking. (I’ve managed that once in a while.) But if you enter the game not even being aware that you possess, somewhere deep down, a belief that you are destined to lose, you’re doomed from the start. You are a born loser.

Fortunately, this is not necessarily a lifelong affliction. Fast Eddie showed that born losers can turn it around, though the road to enlightenment is a hard one. The film gives us a painful but, I think, ultimately affirming message on this point.

5. Don’t tap on the aquarium.

Gordon warns Eddie that he needs to be careful who and where and how he hustles, or he could get hurt. Eddie doesn’t listen. He goes to a pool room where he isn’t known and takes a bunch of the locals for small stakes. But then he tangles with the local shark, and the stakes quickly go up. After they agree to play ten games for a total of $100, the guy says something that ticks Eddie off, and he says, “I don’t rattle, kid. But just for that I’m gonna beat you flat.”

He proceeds to run the table ten times in a row, never even giving the other guy a chance to play.

Both his opponent and the other locals who have stuck around to watch realize that they’ve been hustled, and they don’t like it. They take Eddie into a back room and break both of his thumbs, putting him out of commission for months.

I think we’ve all heard stories from the likes of Doyle Brunson and T.J. Cloutier about how playing poker for a living in Texas in the old days was a risky way of life. Sometimes winning wasn’t the hard part–getting out of town with the money was. Of more relevance to modern games, Mike Caro constantly talks about opponents being “customers,” and one has to treat them nicely, make them enjoy losing to you, so that they will keep doing it.

Eddie hadn’t learned that lesson. He didn’t cheat, but he pissed off the wrong people, rather than being friendly and casual and charming. He could have taken their money without them ever having a clue as to how far outclassed they all were, but his ego, again, got in the way. He had to show off. As he himself puts it upon later reflection, “Cause, ya see, twice, Sarah… once at Ames with Minnesota Fats and then again at Arthur’s, in that cheap, crummy pool room, now why’d I do it, Sarah? Why’d I do it? I coulda beat that guy, coulda beat ‘im cold, he never woulda known. But I just hadda show ‘im. Just hadda show those creeps and those punks what the game is like when it’s great, when it’s REALLY great.”

This is, frankly, one of the weakest areas of my game. Sure, I’m a substantially better player than the average tourist I play with, but I am pretty terrible at the schmoozing. I’m naturally kind of anti-social–even misanthropic, I’d have to admit–so the kind of salesmanship that Caro advocates is positively the hardest thing for me to do. At least I don’t go the other way and irritate other players with arrogance and rubbing it in when I win and/or they play badly. Once in a while, when I pull off an excellent move, I can manage to say something like, “I just got lucky on you there.” But that’s about the best I have in me. I know that I need to learn to do more encouraging of the bad players to keep them playing badly. It’s something I really need to work on. Fortunately, nobody has broken my thumbs because of how I acted at the poker table.

6. It’s not a question of whether you can, but whether you will.

A rich man named Findley invites Eddie over to his home for a private game, but Eddie is surprised to see that the table has no pockets; the game will be straight billiards, not pool. (For an explanation of the difference, see here.) Eddie has never played it before. But, rather like a good poker player can pick up any version of the game and learn to prevail in it rather quickly (the best example of this is Jennifer Harman winning a WSOP bracelet in deuce-to-seven no-limit in 2000, having never played the game before, after a single ten-minute lesson in basic strategy from Howard Lederer), a superior pool player can adapt his skills to other variants and beat lesser players who trump him in experience in a particular form of the game.

So after a few games, they’re about even in money. The host wants to raise the stakes, and Eddie does, too. He tells Gordon (his backer), “If that’s his best game, I can beat him.” Here’s the dialogue as they’re negotiating new stakes (my transcription this time):

Gordon: You really think you can beat him?

Findley: Of course he thinks he can beat me, Bert. He wouldn’t be playing
me if he didn’t–right, Felson?

Gordon: I didn’t ask him can he beat you. I already know he can
beat you. I asked him will he. With Eddie, that’s two different things.

Setting aside the technical point that Gordon’s question was, in fact, “can” rather than “will,” he makes a crucial observation. Perhaps it’s not too different from what I’ve discussed already in this post, but having the technical ability to win just isn’t enough. Do you possess the will to win? Do you possess the temperament to win? Do you possess the character to win? Those are not questions that can be asked and answered once, but must be re-asked and re-answered before every poker session, and even repeatedly over the course of a session. Whenever the answer is no, you need to either leave the game or somehow find a way to get the answer to change back to yes.

So there you have it: At least six worthwhile poker lessons from a non-poker movie. If you’re never seen “The Hustler,” it’s time you rented it. If you’ve seen it long ago but never considered its poker implications, it’s time to watch it again.

It’s a movie about pool, but it’s one of the best poker movies I’ve ever seen.

Check out Rakewell’s Poker Grump blog

You could be posting your articles on the Poker Bankroll Blog. Read all about it here.

Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Strategy

Live poker cash games mixed with drinking is a cocktail doomed for disaster:-)

Saturday, January 17th, 2009 | Poker Articles, Poker and Life | 1 Comment

Submitted by Dungbeetle, this article belongs to the Poker and Life series.

 Dungbeetle has had a rocky start to 2009 mostly due to losses in live cash games. Hopefully he will turn things around now that he’s focusing only on tournaments for the time being.   

In 5 of my last 6 cash sessions the format has been the same – make steady profit for the first few hours when sober, before drinking compulsively and ending up a few hundred down.

For some reason my brain has inextricably linked heavy live cash sessions, with even heavier drinking sessions. This has become such an issue now that I am going to have to forego live cash play, at least in the medium term until I can get to the bottom of it. For some reason I don’t have the same issue with live tournaments, nor online cash. I am going to try and explore the reasons for this, but it seems the changing dynamic of tournaments and the multi tabling aspect of online, seem to peak my interest enough to stop me getting wasted.

The plan for Saturday had been to play a dealer’s choice game at the Loose Cannon before heading to the International for the £100 tournament. This never happened – myself and a couple of other players were tired, so we just holed up at the Cannon until we were kicked out at 10pm, before heading to Tom’s apartment for a marathon cash game.

The Dealer’s Choice game was great fun – Razz, Omaha8, 2-7 triple draw, Iron Cross, Stud, River of Blood, Reverse Iron Cross and 6 card Omaha all got a run out. By the close I was £250 to the good, but then 6 of us moved to Tom’s and the wheels fell off.

A steady stream of wine and vodka later I was £300 down, and heading home. Apparently I played a large Omaha pot, but I don’t even remember the hand so I can’t fill you in on the details and I’d suggest I didn’t play it particularly well.

So, just tournaments for me from now on, at least in the medium term. Hopefully I can figure out what is going on in my head, as I’d be a pretty tidy cash player if there wasn’t a loony at the controls.

- UPDATE -
News in of the big Omaha hand I played (of which I still have no memory). I held A9xx on a Q99 flop. Opponent holds QQ9x lol. Money went in on the flop, but turn was an Ace so I guess all the money goes in on the turn anyway. I didn’t even have the case 9 as an out – needed running Aces At least I didn’t bluff my stack away, which is something I guess.

P&L GBP 2009
Live Tournaments 30
Live Cash (600)
Online Tournaments 0
Online Cash 202
Poker Festivals 0
Rake (10)

Total (378)

Check out Dungbeetle’s Magical Mystery Poker Tour blog

You could be posting your articles on the Poker Bankroll Blog. Read all about it here.

Tags: Poker and Life, Poker Articles

Putting the concept of poker levels into practise

Friday, January 16th, 2009 | Poker Articles, Poker Strategy, Poker Tournament | 4 Comments

Submitted by McTap, this article belongs to the Poker Tournament series.

McTap is a poker player who is working hard to continously improve every aspect of his game. I found this article about poker levels on his blog Blind vs. Blind and really enjoyed the way he used a specific tournament situation to reflect over his own game and discover new aspects of poker.

There is something about playing live that helps you analyze your game a little more. Maybe it has to do with the amount of time you have after playing before starting another game, where you can sit and think about your play. Case in point, after getting busted out of the tournament I played at Turning Stone Casino over the weekend, I had several hours to think about my play. If I had been playing online, I would have just dismissed my lose and started another game, but here, while I was waiting to start the next tournament, I had plenty of time to reflect on the few hands that I had played before getting knocked out. Through this analysis and further thinking about it over the next couple of days, I discovered what I’m calling my “Second Major Leak” in my game. For those of you interested, here’s what my first major leak was. I say was, because I feel I’ve adjusted my game to the point where this issue does not come up as often as it use to, so I don’t consider it a major leak, only a minor leak in my game.

So here is what it is: playing predictable level 1 poker and not venturing off to level 2 or 3 poker.

For those who don’t know the poker thinking levels, here’s a breakdown taken from Phil Gordon’s article on thinking and playing.

Level 1: “What hand do I have?”

Level 2: “What hand does my opponent have?”

Level 3: “What hand does my opponent think I have?”

Level 4: “What does my opponent think that I think they have?”

Keep in mind that if you play low buy-in games online, you will mostly find level 1 players, with a few level 2 players mixed in. When I say low buy-in, I’m referring to games that require less than $20 to get into, whether it be a cash game or a tournament. For live games, I would consider anything under $50 for tournaments, and cash games that run $1-$2 blind levels. After these levels, you will see more level 2 players and start to see some level 3 players, all the while still seeing plenty of level 1 players. The reason I say this is because at these lower live games, most players are still considered recreational or just cutting their teeth before become better players, and are willing to gamble (making them level 1 thinkers). Don’t get me wrong, you will occasionally find some level 3 players coming down to the lower buy-in games, as they feel they can dominate and win plenty, but they run the risk of playing against a level 1 player who won’t lay down 2nd or 3rd pair to their bluff and lose the pot.

Now that I have revealed my Second Major Leak in my game, let me tell you how I came about discovering it.

After being knocked out of the tournament at Turning Stone over the past weekend, I really started thinking about a hand that really hurt my chip stack. With the blinds at 100-200 and I’m sitting in CO+1 with about 5500 chips, I pick up ATs. After MP1 limped into the pot and the next 3 players folded, I decided to try and steal the pot with a 4x BB raise (800). Everybody after me folds, but the MP1 limper calls and then says “I check in the dark.” The flop comes 7 5 4 rainbow and I decide to test the strength of my hand with a 1k bet into a 1900 pot. MP1 thinks for a second and then re-raise me to 4k. I immediately put him on a pair higher than 7 and folded.

This hand kinda bugged me after I played it (wondering if I made the right move laying down) but I let it go until after I was knocked out of the tournament. A few days later, I came across Short Stack Shamus‘ blog about thinking levels in poker, which then lead me to Phil Gordon’s article. Using this new found logic, I started wondering about the hand I just described above. Did he really have a made hand, or was he just playing my cards against me? Was I solely playing my cards (level 1), or was I thinking about his cards as well (level 2). Had I thought 1 level farther (level 3), would I still have made the same decision? What about level 4? This all led me to discovering that since I don’t think like this while playing, it should be considered a major leak in my game that definitely needs to be fixed.

Now thinking back about this hand I came to realize that my play had become predictable. If I raised pre-flop I had always continuation bet the flop no matter what hit. Another thing was that I had not gone to showdown with less than premium hands, so laying down hands was not that difficult for me. So knowing this now, and applying the 4 thinking levels to the action, here are some thoughts that should have come up during the play.

1. (pre-flop)MP1 hadn’t shown any hands down, and had been playing a fairly tight game, so what hands would he be limping with?
2. (pre-flop)looking down at ATs from a late position, I feel my raise here was justified. (level 1 thinking) I had been playing pretty tight and had not shown down any weak hands.
3. (pre-flop)what new range of hands does MP1 have to limp and then call a raise with? (level 2 thinking) I would have to think a small to mid pocket pair. Although many people tend to play the small to mid pocket pairs strong to take down the pot pre-fop, I tend to just limp in hopes of hitting a set and then getting paid off. (level 3 thinking)Since I was a tight player (or so I thought) he had to put me on a strong hand like AK/Q/J/T or a pair of 9s or higher.
4. (flop)since he checked in the dark, he then handed control of the pot to me. (level 1 thinking) I have 2 overs to a low board that probably didn’t hit a hand that would call a PFR. (level 2 thinking)why would he check in the dark knowing that I would c-bet. was his hand better than what was on the flop, possibly 1 of the following 99->33 as 88 and 33 would give him a gut shot and 66 would give him an OESD. If he made his set then betting to not allow someone to make their straight would be advised. (level 3 thinking)If he put me on a big Ace, or pair higher than the board, he knew I would put the pressure on him with a c-bet as I had done in all my previous hands.
5. (flop)I c-bet 1k figuring he didn’t hit the board and my hand is probably stronger than his (level 1 & level 2 thinking).
6. (flop)MP1 then re-raises me to 4k, which essentially puts me all in. (level 1 thinking) my hand is no good so fold. (level 2 thinking) he has made his hand so fold. (level 3 thinking) if he thinks I had an A and I didn’t hit the flop with my other card, then maybe he can steal this pot from me. If he thinks I have a bigger pair than what is on the board, he has to feel confident that I will lay it down or that his hand can win going to a showdown as I would be all-in if I called. (level 4 thinking) if he thinks that I think he made his hand, then a bet here will surely get me to fold anything other than AA, KK, or QQ and odds are in his favor that I’m not holding 1 of those hands.

All of this is enough to give you a headache, but it is something the great players do each and every hand. Now I’m not expecting to be able to think like this each hand I play, but the more I can do it, the easier it will become.

Getting back to my hand, here is what I should have done. Since I had been predictably c-betting the flops that I raised, changing my tactics and checking the flop would have made him wonder a little, plus I would have seen a free turn card. I then could have re-evaluated the situation and played according to what came next (which I will never know) and possibly saving me 1k in chips. I think no matter how many levels I try to think about the flop action, I think I still fold there as there isn’t too much that I beat after he has shown strength. Had he bet instead of checking the flop, I may have been able to get to level 3 or 4 thinking and put the pressure on him with a re-raise.

Hopefully I’ve learned my lesson and I can put my new found knowledge to good use.

Good luck at the tables.

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