Posted by Johnnymac 6:56 PM
Friendship Social Club. 3 Hours of 3-6-(12) holdem and $142 of profit.

[WARNING: purposely bad infusion of multiple mixed metaphors ahead! Alert! Alert! Why? Because it’s fun!]

Sneaked away for about an hour last night because I wanted to get back on the poker horse that bucked me off over the weekend – nothing better for that than sitting in the henhouse for a while and stealing lollipops from the babies.

As always, some observations to share:

1.) Quality, not quantity

I’ve ceased being amazed at the poor quality of play that is inherent in these types of games, and instead I just take it for granted. Many of the regular players in these games are there because they want to gamble and sitting and folding is just no fun to them – they want to win every pot and view every deal of the cards as an equal opportunity to win. It’s amazing, really, because the chips go to the same few good players every time, and I continually hear lamentations about how much has been lost recently in any one particular night/week/month, yet these guys keep coming back and doing it all over again without ever improving. Mason Malmuth and Mike Caro always emphasize that it’s the live ones who make the game worth playing, because if every player always improved, then eventually everyone’s expected value approaches zero, right? I guess I should be happy about this because these guys are the ones who make me a winner.

Anyway.

I played for barely an hour last night. I saw maybe 10 flops, including my big blinds, and I saw the turn just 3 times. Of those three, I showed my cards to the table TWICE and both times I won a big pot. The third was a drawing hand (JTs open ended) that likely would have received a lot action had I hit the river. Instead I missed and I quickly mucked when fired upon.

So what’s my point?

Sure, it’s more fun to call a lot of bets and to try and win every single pot, but it’s also more expensive and when the game is over it’s NOT fun to be a loser. Patience is the key to happiness in poker, yet for all of the hours that the typical FSC player put in, he never seems to shift from wanting to win multiple pots to trying to just win big pots.

2.) Speaking of big pots – I love the live straddle

In his Holdem for Advanced Players book, David Sklansky advises that the live straddle is one of the worst plays that can be made in a holdem game, because it’s nothing more than an extra bet made with absolutely no edge at all (i.e. it’s voluntarily taking on the disadvantages of being in the big blind for twice the cost). It’s nothing more than gambling play and is somewhat analogous to throwing money at a craps game.

Conversely, while it’s a bad play for the player who voluntarily posts the live straddle, it’s a very lucrative play for all of the other players because it creates an added return and a bigger pot should they be dealt good cards. Furthermore, the player who posts the straddle usually feels (however wrongly) obligated to chase a little bit in an attempt to recoup his bet, so Sklansky advises that a raise back at a live straddle with any decent two cards is the proper strategy because it usually isolates you heads up against a typically bad hand. Presto! A large pot against a very small number of opponents has been created against a stuck underdog. It can’t be any better than that in poker – pot odds and a hand that is a likely favorite.

Why do I mention this? Because my biggest hand last night came in this exact situation.

A weak player under the gun posted the straddle against my small blind. I looked down and saw 55. Not a great hand, but definitely worth a lot of money if I were to make my set. Furthermore, at least 5 other players called for 2 bets, and based on what I had seen all night, I figured another raise would be called all the way around so I made it three bets to play. The big blind called both raises, all of the other players called, and we had an 8-way pot for 3 bets apiece.

I didn’t flop my set, but the board was A-3-4 and I had a lot of outs that justified a bet with the implied odds I was getting. My $3 bet wasn’t raised, but was called by 4 others. The turn was 6. Still a lot of outs and great implied odds. I bet another $6 and get called twice, no raisers. Then I got that Doyle Brunson “jelly roll” feeling on the river and lo and behold I got my 5. I figured I was up against nothing better than A-x so I bet the maximum $12 bet and got called by both guys. Immediately, the gentleman to my left looks at me and smiles and says, “Shit, I knew you had something all along” as he turned over his AQ.

“Not until the end,” I replied, as he slammed the table after seeing my cards.

I got a lot of laughs and a lot of head shaking and a good bit of astonished looks at my “bad” play (this from the crowd that loves to play single Aces and any two suited cards). But I doubt a majority of them even went to college or ever sat through a even freshman lecture on probability and expected value. What do I care if they don’t understand?

3.) Let me sit and watch for a while and I’ve got you figured out

I wrote yesterday about evaluating the play of strangers and the immense amount of information that’s available as soon one shows his cards to the rest of the table for the first time and that raises and shows of strength are much more effective so long as the mystery is perpetuated. This was reinforced to me last night.

When I arrived there was a new player at the end of the table whom I had never seen before but with a very large stack of chips. He was neatly dressed and had the appearance of someone who is well-off and educated, so I immediately gave him the benefit of the doubt and assumed him to be a relatively stronger player than the rest of the table. Early on, before I had seen many hands, I was dealt TT from early position. This player called my pre-flop raise, then when I check-raised the K-9-6 flop in attempt to represent, he reraised. I called his raise, then we both checked the J that came on the turn. The river was blank and when I checked he immediately bet the $12 minimum and I mucked right away against what I thought clearly had to be at least a pair of kings with a decent kicker.

After this hand, I watched this player and saw him regularly call nearly every blind and then go to the river on almost every hand. I quickly realized that his aggressive play against me wasn’t necessarily because he had me beat (though I admit that TT was weak and likely beat, anyway) – but rather it was because he apparently had a habit of always reraising and then always calling any bet on the river or firing his own $12 whenever he was first to act at the end, regardless of the cards. Usually, this behavior scared a lot of players into folding, but quite often he was called by a member the crowd-who-knows-no-fear and it became pretty obvious that he would play any hand this way, no matter how weak, like Ace no kicker, little flushes, or even middle pocket pairs. He was loose and aggressive and was playing a strategy that might be marginally successful at higher limits but was pure lunacy against the idiots of the FSC in the long-run.

Once I saw him play for a while and got to see the cards that were behind some of his actions, I didn’t quite respect the aggression in the same way. I only had one more chance to go against him again and didn’t have to discount his aggressive play that time because then I did indeed have the nuts and I wouldn’t have been scared by his big bets anyway.

But next time I see him there, I’ll know…

4.) Something else annoying

Just a pet peave, but is it so hard to say, “raise”? Last night there were 2 or 3 players among the every-hand crowd who were mute except to mutter profanities whenever they lost. Most annoying here was their habit to either signal their raises with hand signals like the thumbs-up Aggie gig-em or to simply fire extra chips at the pot and assume the dealer will announce the implied raise when he saw it. This bothers me because it makes the game harder to follow for the people who are further away from the action. If players are just firing chips at the pot without announcing their intention, I sometimes can’t tell who’s actually making the play and who’s just following along. I don’t like this and I wish the dealers would do something about it.

I think there’s a tell in there somewhere, but I haven’t figured it out yet – perhaps it’s a signal of preoccupation with the quality of the cards, whether strong or weak, or maybe it’s indicative of the same single mindedness that defines the common “stare at the flop and hope it changes because I have shit” tell that’s everyone already knows about. I’m not sure.

5.) Patience, Grasshopper… watch football

Finally, allow me to go back to my first point about hand selection and having the patience to wait for premium situations.

It’s hard being patient. It’s even harder being patient while having to stay quiet and listen to assorted dumbasses make stupid comments and play bad cards while you’re bled dry by the blinds and cheap attempts to draw. The right cards in the right situation makes for a lot of opportunity against these guys, but the wrong cards in the right situation makes for frustration from having to watch the idiots scoop pots and make bad plays while you sit and watch. I’ve learned to deal with this frustration, but it’s hard. That’s why the good players always like to sit and face the TV, or at least I do.


More later. (as there always is)

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