Tony Plays Too

A new blog starting up in place of another I had been reading:

http://tonyplayspoker.blogspot.com/

Check it out.

Our Cash Game

I arrived back in Sitka to find my old cash game in what I considered to be disarray. When I left three years ago we had two standard formats. Mostly we played .05/.10 blinds, with a $5 minimum and a $20 to $25 maximum. When we really wanted to throw money around, we would play a .10/.25 game with a $10/$50 min/max. The result of our 200+ big blind maximum was obvious to an experienced player. Differences in starting hand values were reduced because of the implied odds that a deep stack no-limit game presents. Playing solid poker, it would be very difficult for a player to get felted in one hand. Players who excelled at decision making post-flop were rewarded consistently.

Currently the games that are run use much shorter stacks. The .25/.50 game allows a buy-in of only $20, or 40 big blinds. The results are obvious. One of the first games I played in saw a very high percentage of all-ins (with calls) in the first 20-30 hands. On the first hand a player raised with pocket eights and had a couple callers. The flop came out something not so coordinated like Jx-7x-4x. It was checked to the better and he made a standard continuation bet. The player in the big blind check-raised, and the original better considered his options. He re-raised all-in and was called and beat by something like a J9o.

How do you lose your whole stack when an overcard falls on the flop in a cash game? With 40 BB, you might not have a choice. There are 75 cents in the pot to start. The raise made it $2 to go and was called by two players; let's say they were in the blinds, making the pot $6. Both blinds check and the original better makes it $5. He gets check-raised to $12. There is $23 in the pot and it only costs $7 to call. In a deep stack game, he might call to see if the turn is an 8, 9 or 10 - he's getting over 3:1 odds for the call. However, now he only has $13 behind if he folds. With $23 bucks in the pot, he's getting the same odds to move all-in and attempt to win $36 with his $13 as he would get with a flat call here. Given a loose-aggressive player on the big blind, he might have something like A7 with three of one suit, or 74 for a beatable two-pair. Given an overly conservative (not to be confused with tight) player, he might lay down 99 or TT here to a re-raise. So it's easy to see why a player would move in with merely pocket eights in this small stack situation.

There is another factor that may have influenced the move. House rules stated that a player can't chip up a short stack unless it falls below the $2 mark. Now a player with $13 behind is forced to try a tournament-style pre-flop move with strong hands. Otherwise his $2 raise commits too much of his stack.

The other game played is a $1/$2 game with a $50 max - only 25 big blinds!!! I refuse to try it because I can't afford to have my aces cracked and end up tabling $100 in a single night.

And Then There Was One

After three long, wonderful years in Maine I will be hosting my final poker game of this tour on Memorial Day, May 25th starting at 12pm. I am excited about this game. The first event will be a heads-up tournament. We'll follow that up with a standard format NL Hold'em game and finish up with a cash game.

I am also a little upset about this game. I've made some great, life-long friends here. It will be sad to see them [me] go. But I've learned from the Coast Guard that there's no telling when I'll be playing poker with these friends again in the future. If you're reading this, I hope you are close enough to make it.

Adventures in Pot Limit

I have been playing PL Hold'em cash games recently - doing very well at them I might add. I am in no way an expert at pot-limit Hold'em, and I make many small mistakes along the way. I've never read a book specific to the game, nor have I seen many articles related to it.

However, I am learning a lot as I play. PL seems to give me better control over the size of the pot on a given hand. For example, if I end up out of position with QQ in a heads-up pot, I can check call and (presumably) save some money to a single overcard on the board. This is great for me, as in No-Limit games I have lost a lot of money due to stubbornness on hands.

I've noticed that my play at these tables tends to resemble the style that I play in NL Hold'em real-life cash games. I see a lot more flops waiting to get paid off for others' large mistakes. I let go of big pre-flop hands to silly little small bets when there's virtually no way for me to pull the pot. I raise less from the blinds and from late position when there's no chance of me chasing limpers out anyway. The following hand illustrates the powerful disguise that these situations when I actually hit my hand. All credit to my opponent, as they appeared to lose the minimum with this hand.

Full Tilt Poker Game #12083621865: Table Galva (6 max, deep) - $0.02/$0.05 - Pot Limit Hold'em - 15:24:14 ET - 2009/05/07
Seat 1: Steve345 ($5.53)
Seat 2: WiseRabbit ($10)
Seat 3: ricoquad ($5.16)
Seat 4: weguewegue ($9.80)
Seat 5: CgCook38 ($17.89)
Seat 6: bentlyb ($8.98)
CgCook38 posts the small blind of $0.02
bentlyb posts the big blind of $0.05
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to CgCook38 [As Kd]
Steve345 folds
WiseRabbit folds
ricoquad has 15 seconds left to act
ricoquad calls $0.05
weguewegue calls $0.05
CgCook38 calls $0.03
bentlyb checks
*** FLOP *** [Jh 6h Qs]
CgCook38 checks
bentlyb checks
ricoquad bets $0.05
weguewegue folds
CgCook38 calls $0.05
bentlyb calls $0.05
*** TURN *** [Jh 6h Qs] [Tc]
CgCook38 checks
bentlyb bets $0.35
ricoquad calls $0.35
CgCook38 raises to $1.75
bentlyb calls $1.40
ricoquad folds
*** RIVER *** [Jh 6h Qs Tc] [4s]
CgCook38 bets $4.20
bentlyb calls $4.20
*** SHOW DOWN ***
CgCook38 shows [As Kd] a straight, Ace high
bentlyb shows [9c Kh] a straight, King high
CgCook38 wins the pot ($11.76) with a straight, Ace high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $12.60 | Rake $0.84
Board: [Jh 6h Qs Tc 4s]
Seat 1: Steve345 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: WiseRabbit didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: ricoquad folded on the Turn
Seat 4: weguewegue (button) folded on the Flop
Seat 5: CgCook38 (small blind) showed [As Kd] and won ($11.76) with a straight, Ace high
Seat 6: bentlyb (big blind) showed [9c Kh] and lost with a straight, King high