Breaking Bad Habits

(20/40 limit Hold Em, Diamond Lil's, Renton, WA)

Smith limps in early, and I raise from the middle with AcTs. That's the bad habit I'm talking about, right there.

If the blinds were tiny, say just one small blind, then you should only come in with the biggest hands, right? And if the blinds were huge, for whatever reason, then you should be much looser about what you come in with. Right?

So when a loose player limps in early, and he's the kind who plays a lot of hands but raises with his big ones, I kind of see that as the blinds getting bigger.

Then, if I can isolate him, get the blinds in there as dead money, and hope I hit something, or he hits nothing, or maybe puts money in drawing, but never hits, and my Ace wins. Lots of ways to win, hopefully right on the flop. Seems like a reasonable plan, doesn't it?

Trouble is, doing this too often, against the wrong guys, can be a dumb play, and cost a lot of chips. Smith isn't the kind to flop nothing and meekly fold. Well, maybe sometimes, but sometimes he will play back at you with nothing. What I'm saying is that making this play against him may have been a poor decision. :-(

And those two guys in the blinds aren't the kind to give up easily, and I didn't think enough about that, either. I just saw that open-limp go in the pot, looked down at AT, got excited, and raised.

So this "isolation play" may be a good one at times, in the right situation, but doing it too often, indescriminantly, is probably a chip burner. This was one of those times that it probably was not a great idea, but I did it anyway, and, again, that's the bad habit I'm taking about. In this case I got lucky, and it turned out well.

Small Blind, Big Blind, and Smith all call, 8 bets in the pot, and the flop comes Q86, all Clubs. Checked to me, I bet, small blind checkraises, call, call, and I three bet. Wouldn't you? Everyone calls. Twenty small bets in the pot.

Turn is pretty much a blank, 4d, unless 5-7 is out there against me. With these guys, anything is possible. They all check to me. I have the Ace of Clubs, nut draw, but not much else. What should I do? What would you do?

There's 20 small bets in the middle, so a bet would get 10-to-1 pot odds that they all fold, and I don't even have to get there. Is there better than a ten percent chance they'd all muck? I don't think so. Probably closer to zero percent. :-)

And if I bet and get raised, then I have to call, and will wish I hadn't bet. Wouldn't you? Then if an Ace or Ten comes on the river I may have to make a crying call again. Screw that. So I tell the dealer: "Free Card!"

Ka-ching. King of Clubs. Check, check, then Smith agonizes a long time, kinda mumbling to himself, reviewing the action, analyzing the situation, then, finally, he bets. No Hollywood, I just raise right away. He's the kind of guy who can know he's beat, but has to pay off and see it anyway. So he pays, then I show, and stack the chips.

Afterwards Smith tells me, a couple times, that my check on the turn confused him. "I never saw you check like that!" Huh? I don't get it. Before the flop my play, perhaps foolishly, tried to run over the game a little. But once that flop came, everything I did was based on the math, not psychology, and wasn't trying to be deceptive. Seems like his thought process, trying to put me on a hand there, failed completely, but, hey, don't blame me! :-) And what the hell did he have, anyway? I dunno.

I liked telling about this hand, and maybe this story makes me look good, but only because I got lucky on the end. It's was better than three times more likely that no club would come, and then I wouldn't even be telling this.

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More Fun Things to Say

Back in the day, before Blogs, I used to post "Trip Reports" to usenet:rec.gambling.poker. In a 2002 WSOP Report, I wrote about a handful of Fun Things to Say (FTTS) in a Hold 'Em Game; things like:

-- "You're Not Gonna Check-Raise Me, Are Ya?"

-- "Sorry, I Got Excited..."

-- "All That Practice Really Paid Off"

-- "I Can't Call You..." (then raise)

-- "Six Titties!"

-- "I Didn't Know What To Put Me On"

-- "Keep Looking, Maybe You'll Find Something"

You can read those old posts here, or just that '02 TR describing those original FTTS in parts, here: Part I, Part II and Part III.


Here are some more of my favorite newer FTTS.

1. Say the pot is raised from early position preflop, and I'm behind the raiser, middle position, with something like, for example, A4 suited. Especially Spades. :-) Impulse says call, but of course I cannot. So while mucking, I might say:

"Damn, I wish I was on tilt, so I could call you with this!"

2. When betting or calling (or especially when raising) a completely rainbow turn:

"Flush Draw!"

3. I could have, maybe should have, bet the river, but didn't. I win, and now that the showdown is over, we see that I would have been called. Missed a bet. BFD. But while the dealer pushes the pot I might say:

"Is it too late to bet?" -- and then maybe --
"Just gimme twenty, and we'll call it even..."

4. These are rather cruel ones, for use only on someone you don't much like.

-- When they end a long session and declare that "I finally got even!" you can ask them:

"For Life?"

-- When he says that "I just want to win back 'my' chips..." that he lost earlier, you can politely point out how they really aren't his chips any more.

5. No bet on river, then a player ahead of you just mucks. Or maybe he bets, you call, and then he mucks rather than turn over:

"I can beat that!"

6. A scarecard hits the river, I'm last, the other guy(s) check to me, but I'm not betting either, so just shake my head and tell them...

"I wouldn't bet now with YOUR money!"

7. Ran bad, and have to rebuy. So hand over the cash, but also tell the cashier or floorman:

"That last rack I you sold me was defective. Please have 'them' credit my account."

8. You win a couple pots and are busy stacking chips, then you get another hand, there's a raise, you have garbage, and are folding.

"I'd call you if I wasn't running so bad."

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Doc, Can I Get a Prescription? Please?

I wasn't really paying attention, wasn't looking, and just heard part of the audio on this TV commercial. It was for a drug called Mirapex, to treat "Restless Leg Syndrome," or RLS. You know, like that guy in your game who nervously jacks his leg up and down 300 times a minute. No, wait, I guess that's not really what it is. Thing is, the voiceover ended with "...side effects may include increased gambling or sexual urges." No kidding, that's what they said! Now I don't really know what the hell RLS is, but, seriously, I WANT THOSE MEDS! Who wouldn't ??

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Who's The Dummy?

A weak and way too loose player open-limps in early position, could have just about anything, and I raise in middle, well, *almost* late position, with 66, trying to isolate him. But Jesse calls out of the small blind.

Flop comes something like J53, two clubs, and they both check and call my bet.

Third club on the turn, and they both check again. I hold the 6c, but, gee, I hate to chase a flush with anything much smaller than a King. :-) I do bet, tho--- not so much because I have that tiny club, but because I hope they both have no club, and might even fold a Jack or a seven, or not be there to hit some overcard on the river. Limper mucks, but Jesse is still calling.

Then the river puts a fourth club on board, and he bets out. Well, shit, he must have a bigger club than me, and I need to fold, right? Well, yeah, if I'm wearing that hat that says "weak-tight." But wait a minute. What if he's betting with the hope that I AM THE ONE with no club? You know, just like I did against him a moment ago, on the turn.

I don't try to count dollars in the pot to figure odds. Instead, I count "small bets," in $20 increments, even on the turn and river. Makes pot odds mental math way easier.

In this hand, preflop, then on the flop and turn respectively, 7+3+4 small bets went into the pot. Plus 2 more he just put in makes 16, and it would cost me 2 small bets to call this showdown. So I'm getting 16-to-2, or 8-to-1 odds.

Is there better than 8:1 odds, aka "one chance in nine" that, for whatever reason, Jesse has bet with no club all? Just one chance out of nine? Put differently, better than an 11% chance? I think about this for a couple seconds, decide HELL YES, probably two or three chances out of nine! So I call.

Jesse turns over 5s4c, and my 6c wins. Funny thing was how the other players watching all this, his buddies, reacted like they thought his was a bold river bet, and my call was weak and wimpy. I still like my call, and don't like his bet at all. If he had bet a big club for value, or no club at all as a bluff, that might make sense. But with that tiny club, well, seems to me that either check-fold, or maybe check-call, are his only plays. YMMV.

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Feedback Appreciated

Turns out I never really configured this blog, and it was set to only allow comment postings only by registered members, or something. Sorry! I just didn't know better. Now it's set wide open, anyone can comment, and I'd love to hear from you, so please do comment. After all, why write a blog unless you can see that somebody is reading?