Posted by Dr Fro 9:42 PM

A no-brainer play and a brain-dead play

The third night of Poker League Season III was last night. I won the most money ($120) and consequently scored the most league points. I am one point shy of the maximum possible points so far on the season (a 2nd, 1st and 1st place finish), so things are looking good. I just hope I don't get a stinger on 4th and 1 against Kansas State...

There was one hand that I played that warrants a little bit of discussion. I flopped a pair, a gutshot straight draw and a flush draw. Player A bets big, Player B (both A and B have me covered) goes all-in. I call and Player A calls. When I called, I was getting 3:1. With the call from A, I got 4:1. I figured that I had appr. 14 outs (9 to the the flush + 3 to the straight + 2 to get a set.) I figured these outs were right because their bets seemed to be protecting something, the most likely somethings being an overpair or a set. I was half right: Player B had an overpair but Player A flopped the ass end of the straight. So I only had 12 outs. Last time I checked, 12 outs with two cards to come wins 45% of the time. I hit the flush and won, only to get a lecture from Player A that I was lucky (implying, of course, that it was a stupid call.) Huh? Getting 4:1 justifies calling with as few as 5 outs. I knew I would get at least 3:1, so getting 7 outs would make a good call. I was getting 9 on the nut flush draw alone. It was a stupid comment and a no-brainer call.

Then came the brain-dead moment. I very much take the strategy of playing as many cheap hands as possible so as to maximize the possibility of capitalizing on another's mistake (a common occurrence in PL III). Well, this time, I made the mistake!

I rivered the boat, and my opponent rivered the nut flush. He bet $25 and I looked at his chips. One green chip was kinda in front of him and another green and a 50c piece were near him. I thought that the green chip that was in front of him was the chip he bet, so I said, "What do you have? $25.50? I'll bet $25.50 to put you all in." I put in $25.50 as did he. I win the pot and, to my surprise, after scooping the chips, he still had a green chip. Evidently, both green chips were part of his stack, and his bet had been thrown into the pot. So, had I simply said "all-in", he would have called (he confirmed to me he would have), and I would have won $25 more off of him. This is very out of character for me. I usually know exactly what is in the pot (an old habit from PL Holdem in the UK) and have a pretty good idea of exactly how many chips each player has at any time. I just zoned out (after having many beers) and wasn't paying attention. Lesson learned, if you want to go all-in, just say "all-in" and don't say anything else. I probably could have made an argument that I deserved the green chip based on the clear intention in what I said that I wanted to put him all in (on that note, if a verbal declaration is binding, but a verbal statement is contradictory, which part of it is binding???), but I think that would have been dickish. I clearly made a mistake, and I should have paid for it. I did.

And boy did I, as that chip enabled the player to suck a little more money out of me on the last hand of the night!

You live and learn.

1 Comment(s):

Posted by  Anonymous, at 4:23 PM, August 23, 2007  

Wish I was there to participate in the fun that is PLIII. Haven't seen a flying card since I moved.

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