New Poker Line

When you talk about hands in limit texas hold 'em you refer to the actions you took through the hand as your "line". You can spell out a complete line in many ways using short-hand that probably is pretty confusing to a beginner, but really it's not that complicated. For example, someone might say:

"check raise the flop, then call down"

This is the same as saying:

"c/r, b/c, c/c"

Which just means to check/raise the flop, lead the turn, and call down if you get raised. It's a little unclear here what to do if the guy 3 bets the flop, but you get the basic idea. If your hand was a little better you could use the following pieces instead:

"c/r/4, b/3, b/c"

Which would mean to check/raise the flop and cap it if you are 3 bet, then bet the turn and 3-bet if you get raised, and finally just call a river raise. As you can see, there are lots of abbreviations and stuff here, but it all becomes second nature pretty quickly. Well I've developed a new line piece, which I employ on the river quite frequently with mixed results. It works like this.

I've raised preflop with something, and half the table has come along for the ride. I bet the flop with an over pair or top pair or some other good sort of hand, and most of my opponents have continued flinging chips into the pot because it's Commerce and hands don't actually start until the turn (the flop is just a practice round really....I'll write more on this at a later time). So on the turn the board is kind of scary but not horrific (because in situations like this it takes a truly horrific board for me to stop betting something that even resembles top pair) and I bet and get raised and find myself in the classic limit hold 'em dilemma. There are many chips in the middle of the table, and only one other player holds cards. In theory he should be bluffing some percentage of the time (however in practice at a live 20 game there are players who simply never, ever bluff), and I have a hand that looks pretty. In truth there is not much difference between my hand and bottom pair against most opponents, other than the fact that if they are bluffing they'd have more outs to defeat a pair of 3s than my pair of kings, but it's just not fun to fold because damn it I haven't flopped a pair in an hour this one is supposed to win! So I count down the pot and get something like 8 or 10 big bets and it crosses my mind that no matter how scary the board is he might have only 2 pair. Egads! If he only has two pair I have all kinds of outs. If he has bottom two my top top has 9 outs! NINE! That's like a flush draw, and we always call with flush draws right? I'm getting a way better price than that, so I can definitely call. But remember now, all this is predicated on the fact that the overwhelming majority of the time my opponent currently has me smoked like a fine cheese. And good players plan out their actions on the next street (or 2) well in advance and I want to be a good player, so I justify my call by using my new line piece. I will c/ttf the river. What is c/ttf you ask?

check/try to fold

It's really that simple. On the river if I don't improve (meaning I get to at least two pair myself) I will simply check to him and after he bets I will try to fold. There are so many ways I can win here. Sometimes he won't even bet and I won't have to try to fold at all. Sometimes there will be 2 people left and someone will raise and folding will be extremely easy. And sometimes if all those options fail he will bet and I will actually manage to fold. Here is a concrete example from today:

I opened JTs somewhere in the middle and ended up in a standard Commerce 4 or 5 way pot. I flop a disguised double gutter on a rainbow board:

K97r

And bet the flop. 3 people call, and we see a blank roll off on the turn, some sort of 3 or 4 that put up a flush draw. Now at the time I don't even know it yet, but there's a very real chance the ttf river line is going to be employed. Two players check to me and this is the decision point in the hand. Is there any possible way I can win this thing without turning over my cards? It's commerce, I have jack-high, and three of my opponents still have little rectangles of paper in front of them. Quickly my brain decides "nuh-uh" and I check hoping to take a free card. The one active player behind me plays nice and checks and I suddenly realize I'm going to have to use the ttf line on the river now. If I'd just bet the turn the hand would be pretty easy to play almost regardless of what fell on the river. If I got it HU I'd probably barrel UI, trying to win a by then large pile of chips. If it was still 3 or 4 ways the white flag would be raised. And if I rivered a pair of jacks or tens, well they'd probably both check to me since I'd bet the last street and if they did bet folding would be pretty straight forward. But what now? I've checked, and sure enough the river:

K97r-4-T

And the big blind bets. The other player quickly folds and I suddenly realize I've put myself in a spot where ttf is definitely the correct play. Dude is almost certainly not bluffing into 3 people on the river. That's just not how 20/40 players at Commerce roll. But I have second pair and I checked the turn! As a rule of thumb after a street checks through the functional nuts moves down one notch on the totem pole. Top pair was the nuts last street, but it checked through. Therefore, I have the nuts. QED. I call.

The guy behind me folds and the big blind turns over TT for the rivered set. I did ttf, and that's what really matters.

Promising Stats

Just a short little update here, but I took a moment this morning to see how I've been doing since the great Hawaiian Gardens Debacle (tm) ended on March 6th. What I found was very encouraging:

Online:

16,037 Hands, 92 big bet win.

This may not sound like much, but after hand 3600 I was 180 bets underwater, so since then it's been quite a run. I've been playing mostly 2/4 and mostly 6-max, but have spent a fair bit of time playing 3/6 and full ring. Also on top of this the rakeback is a nice plus.

Live:

I've played 213 hours, almost entirely in the Commerce 20 (I have some hours at CAZ obviously, and a little bit of 8/16, 20 Stud, and that 200 NL I played with Quantum Hoops) and have won basically a main event entry fee. This is a good hourly number, but the problem is that I've had trouble getting in my play. This is mostly intentional, as I've made the decision to play less and focus on improvement with the goal of becoming a viable online player and eventually taking another stab at the 40.

So things are back on track. It's about damn time.

To Cap or not to Cap; That is the Question

Whether tis nobler....oh, sorry....

There is a major strategic divide amongst limit holdem players, born out of the neccessity to keep their hand ranges wide (balanced) in an effort to give away too much information to skilled (or even semi-skilled) hand readers. Two situations come up frequently and are at the heart of the issue. You open raise preflop, get 3 bet, and the action folds around to you, or you are left alone against a preflop raiser to defend your big blind. In both cases the question is "with what range of hands do you put in another raise?" I'm going to focus on the big blind scenario, but most of what I'm about to say applies to the headsup 3 bet case as well.

The basic problem is that most of the players I deal with would only 3-bet their own big blind heads up with a truly monstrous holding (possibly just aces or kings), and this happens to not be terribly far from incorrect against their own raising ranges (not against my raising range, but against theres). If a tight old man raises up front and it folds to me in the big blind, what range of hands do I really have an equity advantage with here? The list is pretty darn small in a lot of cases, and if I raise with those hands even the dullest opponent is going to be able to read my hand pretty accurately. So what should I do? Well, one thing I could try is to open up my range and 3-bet more hands, adding in stuff that rates to be behind the opener's range. Obviously there's a huge drawback here. You're putting in a raise when you rate be at an equity disadvantage, and are out of position to boot! Now against some opponents who are truly opening a ton of hands (like if say WTK were on the button), this method works just fine because you can 3-bet all kinds of stuff and probably be OK equity-wise. But against weak tight old men, you just can't add enough hands to make your range wide enough to cause problems.

So what's the other solution? Don't 3-bet. Just call with 100% of the hands with which you wish to continue, keeping your range extremely wide. The basic idea here is that if 3-bet, most of the time your opponent is just going to call and then you're going to lead the flop. But what if you just called? Most of the time you'd check the flop and your opponent would bet, and with your good holdings you could check/raise. The situation is exactly the same bet wise in both cases (you put in the same number of bets with the 3-bet/lead line as the call c/r one), and not 3-betting gives you more options. For example, if you just call with JJ and the flop comes AQ7, you don't HAVE to check raise. You could just call (or even fold against some of the people I run into at Commerce).

So what's the right answer? I'm not exactly sure, but I have a theory that there exists a point where the raiser's range becomes wide enough that you should shift from "always call" to "3-bet light" mode. Where this line is probably also depends on how good a hand reader the opponent is, but in general once somebody's range is wide enough that you can 3-bet a reasonable wide range without taking the worst of it hot 'n cold equity wise, it's probably better to go ahead and error on the side of raising more. Against extremely tight players it's probably better to just call all the time, because you rate to be behind with all but your biggest hands and raising only them is going to set off (accurate) alarm bells in your opponent's head because you'll basically be doing exactly what he'd do in your shoes (albeit with a little more thought behind your actions). In practice live I seldom 3 bet my BB or cap heads up out of position. Online, it varies by how loose the player doing the other end of the raising is.

Dealer Trapped by Rake Box; Hilarity Ensues

In all my hours of live texas poker I had never until today seen anything, let alone the dealer's bracelet, get stuck in the drop box. But sure enough it's Commerce so anything is possible. Today I sat in the must move for about 10 minutes before the following happened:

"Floor, open seat here"

Floor calls 4 names....nobody responds except one guy who looks at the game that is currently 8 handed with 2 walkers and opts to simply walk away. Now there are 8 of us and two guys are already walking. By definition someone has to be first up to move, and someone else has to be second, and both those individuals decide to sit out because who would ever want to play in a short game when you could not play and just sit around and eventually move to the main game. So all of a sudden we're like 5 handed and I of course take both my blinds but accidentally bust the big blind as the small blind and so now there are like 2.8 of us looking at each other and the game grinds to a complete halt with the button in front of the guy on my left with a small blind on top of it. We sit there for 10 minutes and eventually cajole enough people to sit with us, at which point the dealer suggests we redraw for the button and make it a new game. Me and the guy on my left are like "no" and so eventually the game does get a hand off first 4 handed, then 5, then 6, etc with only 15 minutes having been lost.

So we carry on and eventually I am in the main game and not once, not twice, but thrice is my button mis-managed by the dealer within the course of 45 minutes. The first time I actually pay the small blind twice because I am unobservant and do say something but only after there has been action. I end up winning half the pot which is nice so I guess it's ok. This put me on high alert and I noticed the next two times it was messed up. All this shenaniganning was well and good, and I even played a silly hand in which my JT flopped two pair against the cutoff openers JT but through pure will power and determination I managed to runner runner a flush and drag the whole pot, but the main event was yet to transpire.

There are two limps and the button folds and the action is on me when it becomes clear that the dealer is distressed. Greatly distressed. Her bracelet, which is basically a chain with some gold charms on it, has become stuck in the drop box. Somehow one of the not so round charms has managed to get in there and now is below the table cavorting with our lost chips and refusing to come back into the light. The dealer tries to free herself, but can't really because she's not allowed to put down the deck which currently resides in her left hand. The customer in seat 9 attempts to help, but he's completely useless. The woman from seat 1 makes an attempt, but also fails epicly. All the while I'm just patiently waiting to toss in 2 chips with my 96o, laughing at the preposterousness of it all. IMR, her bracelet is stuck in the drop box. W. T. F.

Eventually we call over a floor man who manages to not only get the bracelet off her wrist, but also to wrest it out of the hole. There is much rejoicing, I call, and the flop comes down:

966

I bet because that is the way of things. The BB folds but UTG calls, and the other limper folds.

7r

I bet. He raises. I 3 bet. He 4 bets. I 5 bet, he 6 bets, I 7 bet, he goes all in for 3 more chips, I call.

9 (!)

He shows T8o for a beautifully received asshole card on the turn. Good things come to those who wait.

Running Good is More Fun

As you all know I've tried out the whole "running bad" thing for a long time now, and I can say with great confidence that it is not the way to go. You get irritable, you start to play bad because you're running into skewed hand ranges, you lose your confidence, you don't want to put in your hours, all kinds of bad things happen to you. On top of all that, you don't have any money, which is never a good feeling. So what's the solution? Just run better. I know I've talked a lot on here about variance and how possible it is to run bad and for how long, but the flip side of that is that it's possible to win money hand over fist for a long time. without really doing anything special. When this happens you're happy, you play well because you have more patience, and getting in your hours is easy.

In my past 3 days at Commerce I have won 12 racks in the 20/40 game. My buddy Quantum Hoops has been present for a good portion of my shock and awe campaign, in which I have mercilessly bludgeoned everyone in my path. Twice on Wednesday I flopped the nut flush after opening a "not quite good enough" suited ace after a limper or three. Not only did I have the nut flush, in both cases I had the straight flush cock-blocker (on a flop of 986ddd I held A7 of diamonds). I 3-bet a guy with KT on a KT9-7 board. He had J8, didn't 4 bet the turn, and lost the hand when I filled up on the river. My aces held up like very single time. On Friday and Saturday alone I think I held AA or KK 7 times, and I can only remember losing once. I didn't play a hand for 45 minutes and picked up AA UTG. I get 5 callers and flop an ace obviously. Two of them make a flush, but it doesn't matter because I have a full house before the river even comes off the deck. 3 players limp and I raise JTs in the sb for multiway value/fun. I flop a gut shot and fire a bet why not. Two of them call. I turn a flush draw so I bet again. They both call again. River? Flush.....the guy is beside himself. A passive player has QQ and elects to just call the BB preflop and check/call a JT4 flop. I check the turn because I have pocket 8s and their are still 4 people in the pot, but the the two people behind me also check and the what comes off on the river? 8. All of this come on top of simply flopping a pair almost every single hand. AQo? There are days when it feels like you play that hand 10 times and never even flop a gut shot. This past week there is at least one queen coming out on the flop, sometimes more. To be honest I'm almost surprised I haven't hit a jackpot.

On top of actually running well, when you have an image at the table of "cannot possibly lose a hand" people play very straight-forwardly against you AND you have the confidence to accurately assess that this is happening. In short, when you do somehow manage not to claim the chips in the middle, the damage is minimal. It's easy to fold the turn, you don't need to make ace high call downs. You haven't been caught bluffing because you've had the stone nuts like 15 times in the last two hours. They aren't messing with you when they check/raise you on the big street. Folding is even easier. So I'm headed back today hoping to extend the 3+rack winning streak to 4 days.

As an aside, I should feel extremely happy about all this, but actually my main emotion has been simply relief. Every time I think about the fact that I've won $6000 in three days right behind it is the thought that "yeah that takes care of this month but what about the other 9 you didn't win any money during". I'm going to need to eventually just forget about this horrible streak I went on and focus on the present and future. Hopefully I can continue to win for a while and get back on my feet confidence and bankroll wise; it sure would be nice for a change of pace.