Cut Throat

I saw a great example of when Implicit Collusion should not apply. I was observing a hand that I folded in which one player was all-in pre-flop. Five people were remaining in a tournament that only paid four. The big blind made a modest (strange) re-raise to against the small blind's call. There was 900 chips in the main pot and 800 chips in the side pot with blinds at 60/120. The flop came JK9 rainbow and both remaining players checked.

The turn was a 6, putting two hearts on the board. The BB had 1,600 chips behind, and the SB had 2,600. If you were the small blind I would encourage you to bet out about 400 chips here. The big blind would likely fold if he had anything less than a pair of Jacks, and would be crazy even to do that. That would risk 400 to win 800, and possibly 1,700 if you win both pots. Knocking the fifth place player out would be beneficial to both players, but betting out would leave him with only 900 chips if he beat you anyway. Meanwhile the big blind would be left with only 1,600 chips after folding and you would have at least 3,400.

Players tend to get angry when you do this to them (especially if they would have KO'd the other player). The big blind probably feels entitled to a check down to try and guarantee money. However, mathematically getting 2:1 odds on a bet here is simply too good to pass up. Only the most stubborn player would continue with the hand once you bet.

"Bluffing" With the Best Hand

Bluffing is great! I love to bluff, and there’s no better feeling in life than to take someone off of a huge hand when you’re bluffing. A lot of people get confused when they are bluffing though. Here’s one definition:

Bluff
To make other players believe that one has a better hand than he/she might otherwise have by betting or raising when they do not have the best hand.

So bluffing can only take place when a player does not have the best hand. However I have seen countless times where someone bets out and, once I’ve folded, shows me some crap hand that is actually better than mine!

It must be embarrassing when you “bluff” with the best hand and then show. When I see it online, I picture a big guy in a cowboy hat chewing on a toothpick across the table from who he thinks is some girl. He winks as he flips over his cards and shovels the (usually) small pot towards himself.

The most recent example of this came when I attempted a steal attempt from the cut-off seat with pocket threes. The small blind called and the flop came AK6 with two diamonds. As I didn’t even have a diamond, this was absolutely worst case scenario for me. I didn’t plan on investing a single chip further. The small blind bet out, and as I folded he showed me 9T of diamonds. He led out with nothing, and must have thought it was a great result. What a bluff! Only, he had a 56% chance to win the hand, and therefore had the best hand. Whoops.

Positional Poker Play

I recently won Event # 4 of The Poker Trivia Tour through Railbirds. The event was Fixed Limit Hold’em with 29 players. The money was at four people, and the points for Player of the Season started in sixth place. The following hand took place with 15 players left – still a ways from the final table of 9. I was around 8th place in chips at the time. My game up to this point may have been considered over-aggressive in position by others at the table. I also had a great feel for the other players at the table, and I had lost very few chips without a distinct thought process going through my head. In the following hand, my check on the turn was in order to avoid a check-raise bluff that would force me off of the hand. The call on the river was with the distinct impression that my opponent was betting a missed draw. Decisions like these won me this tournament. It was very gratifying.


Full Tilt Poker Game #9854486311: PTT Event #4 (72078327), Table 3 - 200/400 - Limit Hold'em - 15:27:40 ET - 2009/01/04
Seat 1: Mr Shug (5,070)
Seat 2: crazee55 (690)
Seat 3: FRENCH RAP (2,910)
Seat 4: houndawg37 (3,710)
Seat 5: seaurchin1 (2,635)
Seat 6: edwin232 (3,210)
Seat 7: edly68 (4,195)
Seat 8: CgCook38 (2,900)
FRENCH RAP posts the small blind of 100
houndawg37 posts the big blind of 200
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to CgCook38 [Td Ts]
seaurchin1 folds
edwin232 folds
edly68 folds
CgCook38 raises to 400
Mr Shug folds
crazee55 folds
FRENCH RAP calls 300
houndawg37 folds
*** FLOP *** [9c 3h Qh]
FRENCH RAP checks
CgCook38 bets 200
FRENCH RAP calls 200
*** TURN *** [9c 3h Qh] [Kd]
FRENCH RAP checks
CgCook38 checks
*** RIVER *** [9c 3h Qh Kd] [4h]
FRENCH RAP bets 400
CgCook38 has 15 seconds left to act
CgCook38 calls 400
*** SHOW DOWN ***
FRENCH RAP shows [Ad Tc] Ace King high
CgCook38 shows [Td Ts] a pair of Tens
CgCook38 wins the pot (2,200) with a pair of Tens
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2,200 Rake 0
Board: [9c 3h Qh Kd 4h]
Seat 1: Mr Shug didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: crazee55 (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: FRENCH RAP (small blind) showed [Ad Tc] and lost with Ace King high
Seat 4: houndawg37 (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: seaurchin1 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: edwin232 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: edly68 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 8: CgCook38 showed [Td Ts] and won (2,200) with a pair of Tens

Can You?

Occasionally a player will say something that surprises me at the table. I was in a sit and go observing the player on my right as a fairly smart player. On a particular hand he limped in pre-flop. I had position and I wanted to steal the dead money in the pot. I raised and, after quite some thought, he folded . I assumed that he was just posturing, and didn’t actually have a hand. Then he asked me the strangest question: Could you beat A9?

How can I answer that? Both of us had over 2,000 chips and the blinds were 75/150. I thought about the most dominated hand I could be in with against A9 suited. I thought at the time it would be A8 off-suit with the 8 of his suit. I was apparently wrong. After checking with Cardplayer.com’s Odds Calculator I found that A2 off-suit of the suit NOT his was actually the worst hand I could be in there with. I would imagine that if I had the 2 of hearts, and he had A9 of hearts and the board showed 3 4 5 6 of hearts, then he would be out of luck, and that is where the small percentage gets lost when we don’t share a suit. I’m rambling now.

With A2 off-suit I have about a 37.5% chance of winning or tying the hand against an A9 suited. If we represented all four suits my percentage hops up to over 40%. So I have a one in three chance of beating his A9 if we both went all-in before the flop.

I don’t even remember what I had as far as cards are concerned. It didn’t really matter. Let’s say for argument’s sake that I had the 5-7 of hearts and he had the A-9 of hearts. For some reason he decides to call pre-flop out of position. I have about a 35% chance of winning without betting at this point. What types of flops can he bet into/call with? With any two hearts, any Ace, or a nine high flop, I would expect him to fire off. He might get a flop like T-7-6 or 6-7-8 with or without a heart that he would call with because of the over card and straight possibilities. With any other type of flop he would have to bluff in order to win the hand. As I said at the beginning of the post, I observed him as a good player, and realizing what he needed to flop, he made a good lay-down out of position.

What really confused me is why he would ask that question. There’s no doubt that I could beat an A9 with any two cards in the deck given the right flop and my position. That is why I raised to begin with – the high likelihood that I could take down chips pre-flop, or using my position after the flop. I answered the only way I knew how.

Of Course =)

A Questionable QQ Decision

I was playing in a PokerStars 180-player tournament with 61 players remaining. This hand came up and I was screaming at c24 to fold. What do you think? (For those that don’t know, I learned the ‘M’ factor from Harrington on Hold’em. Check it out here.

PokerStars Game #23268345079: Tournament #129596577, $4.00+$0.40 Hold'em No Limit - Level V (75/150) - 2008/12/26 11:27:07 ET
Table '129596577 3' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: Vsteak (2620 in chips) M of 11.6
Seat 2: Czar (5488 in chips) M of 24.4
Seat 3: c24 (2640 in chips) M of 11.7
Seat 4: G81 (1277 in chips) M of 5.7
Seat 5: CgCook38 (3495 in chips) M of 11.1
Seat 6: wolf (1625 in chips) M of 7.2
Seat 7: lax (1050 in chips) M of 4.6
Seat 8: ge44 (5140 in chips) M of 22.9
Seat 9: jd68 (4505 in chips) M of 20
jd68: posts small blind 75
Vsteak: posts big blind 150
As you can see, no player is particularly hurting right now. The blinds are fairly low and we are still 43 people from the money. Less experienced players may panic here, but there’s no reason to. Every player at this table needs to accumulate chips before making the money, so no one is a strong favorite.
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to CgCook38 [Js 4s]
Czar: folds
c24: raises 300 to 450 A standard raise from early position may indicate strength, even online. A good reason to fold most holdings.
G81: folds
CgCook38: folds Easy fold for me.
wolf: raises 1175 to 1625 and is all-in This is a bad player if others have been paying attention. He could have any two cards that most people would raise from position.
lax: calls 1050 and is all-in A fairly new player to the table, I have no idea what he has.
ge44: raises 3515 to 5140 and is all-in Okay. What the hell? This guy might have a monster. I wouldn’t do this without QQ or above, even with chips. But this particular guy might do it with anything.
jd68: folds
Vsteak: folds
c24: calls 2190 and is all-in What would you call with? It would take AA or KK for me to call here. It’s my tourney life and if I fold I still have enough for more than 9 trips around the table. If I call, I am guaranteed to get in against three other opponents. If I beat all but the shortest stack I am looking at a maximum gain of 3,755 while risking everything. If I beat all of my opponents I will only get 8,180 chips, an M of 36.4. That’s a great result, but how can I be certain that I am the favorite? If I know what the other guys have, is it still worth the call? We’ll find out I guess…
Uncalled bet (2500) returned to ge44
jd68 said, "gl all"
*** FLOP *** [7s 2c 6d]
*** TURN *** [7s 2c 6d] [5h]
*** RIVER *** [7s 2c 6d 5h] [8c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
c24: shows [Qh Qs] (a pair of Queens)
ge44: shows [9d 9h] (a straight, Five to Nine)
ge44 collected 2030 from side pot-2
wolf: shows [Ah 6c] (a pair of Sixes)
ge44 collected 1725 from side pot-1
lax: shows [As 8s] (a pair of Eights)
ge44 collected 4425 from main pot
So if I were c24 and decided to call with only pocket Queens, I would have lost this hand with only a 55% chance to win pre-flop. A coin-flip to lose. Interestingly enough, I said only call with AA or KK. If he called with KK here, he would have only had a 54.8% chance to win (63% with the other two Aces), but I am not good enough to fold those here. c24 was correct that he was ahead, but I believe incorrect to call.. What do you think? Incidentally, ge44 finished 24th just before the second break. I guess having all those chips isn’t always enough. (My percentages were obtained using Cardplayer's Odds Calculator)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 8180 Main pot 4425. Side pot-1 1725. Side pot-2 2030. Rake 0
Board [7s 2c 6d 5h 8c]
Seat 1: Vsteak (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: Czar folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: c24 showed [Qh Qs] and lost with a pair of Queens
Seat 4: G81 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: CgCook38 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: wolf showed [Ah 6c] and lost with a pair of Sixes
Seat 7: lax showed [As 8s] and lost with a pair of Eights
Seat 8: ge44 (button) showed [9d 9h] and won (8180) with a straight, Five to Nine
Seat 9: jd68 (small blind) folded before Flop