Darkened Poker

This weekend I was in my favorite 2-5 NL game when this pretty old guy sat down and start squinting really hard to see the cards on the board.  Applied my normal poker stereo type and named him Mr. Magoo, figured he will most likely play tight and over value good starting hands.  I was a little off on this guy as he turned out to be a straight up nut job.

Mr Magoo, is in danger or is a danger?

He starts raising 4/5 hands and stacks 2 people after calling 30$ pre-flop raises with 74 and J 7 only to hit trips and check raise these guys all in.  This should have been my first clue that things were not as they seemed with him.

Now he has the entire table on tilt and I think this game is going to get really good.  He raises in late position to 15$ and I smooth call with 10 10 to see if I can trap this guy.  I get over called in 2 places and 4 of us see the flop.

Flop: A Q 10

Possible Str8 already and flush draw is sitting there, since I am out of position I have a much tougher decision than I would have liked too.

• If I lead and one of draw calls then the others will to and he is then unlikely to bet big at it so I will miss out on his bluffing money.
• If I check I could end up giving everyone a free card if he checks behind.
• If I check and he does bet I then have to re-raise to blow out the str8 & flush draws as there will now be a big pot worth drawing to.

Really wish I had position in this hand as I could make a lot more money by him betting and then trapping all the drawers before a big re-raise.  Usually like to lead into and Ace flop when I have a set, but in this case I was trying to catch a whale.  I look out of the corner of my eye and I see him starting to grab at a bunch of chips so I just check and wait for him to bet.  Everyone including him checks!!!

Turn:  3

Not a scare card so I got lucky, and now I slightly look left to see another guy lining up chips to bet, I check thinking if he bets I will have last position and can make even more money.  If he does not bet then Mr. Magoo will surely bluff this time as it will have been checked around twice.  Imagine the screams in my head as it gets checked around a second time….

River: 8

I am now fully convinced no one has anything at all and check it one last time to see if Mr. Magoo will do one of his pot size bluffs on the river to try and take it down.  It is checked around again and I almost want to muck my hand I am so disgusted, given that there was 60$ out there I decide to turn over my hand and collect the pot even though it lets them know I was trapping.  Mr. Magoo smiles and flashes me A Q before mucking.  He checked down Top Two pair, WTF is going on here.

My 2 theories as to why I did not have all his money…

1. I have a big tell and he knew I had a monster, knew I was looking to trap him and might have even noticed that that I look left after flop and so he was giving me tells that he was going to bet just so I did not bet.
2. He likes to check raise people all in with his monster hands and was doing the same trapping I was.

I have to go with theory #1 as top 2 pair on that board is not nearly strong enough to give free cards to with 4 people in the hand.  He had position so there is no one left to trap after it is checked around to him and the only reason to show me the hand is to rub it in that he avoided my trap.   The more I think about it now believe I must have noticed him squinting all the time at the cards and while thinking he is 1/2 blind I let myself get sloppy when watching him for tells.

Well done sir, the old guy that can barely see routine and then snapping us all off when we drop our guard.  That is good poker…

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Darkened Poker

First let me set up why I played this hand in such a non standard manner that it got me into a really confusing spot where I started second guessing myself and did not know what to do.

1. I was playing against the big stack at the table, big stacks almost always bluff more than they normally would.  If you take a fairly tight player like this guy was and give them a big stack they will start throwing in a some bluffs.
2. He was paying perfect attention to the table and I knew he had seen me make 2 laydowns recently.
3. He had seen me pick off the a sick river bluff recently.

2-5 NL game at Snoqualmie Casino, I have 300$ and BB has 1000$.

I am UTG +1 position and pick up KQ, I min raise to 10$ and get 1 caller in late position and the BB.  KQ suited kind of plays well against many or few so I mix it up and play it for different raise amounts.

Flop:  Q 9 7

BB checks, I bet 20$, late position folds and BB calls.

Turn: 7

BB checks, I bet 20$ trying to make it look weak so he will put in a bluff.  BB re-raises to 80$, this is perfect so I think for awhile and then make what looks like a crying call.

River: T

BB bets 100$.  This is not what I was expecting at all, given the pot was $230 I was expecting him to bet between 200 – 140$.  His small bet of only $100 suddenly looks like a value bet that he wants to be sure I will called.  This starts me thinking.

What can I beat at this point:

• QJ
• Some 9 hands like A9, J 9, 98 suited
• A total bluff or small under pair

None of these hands seem likely except the 98 suited, I had seen him fold from the BB before so he started with a hand that had some potential.

What am I now behind:

• AQ, Q T
• Any 7 hand like 78, 67 suited
• 9 T, 99
• 6 8 or J 8 suited

Give that I had just called $80 I can not put him on making a $100 bluff at the pot as that would not be enough to get me off it.  Plus given that the river was such a bad card there is now even more hands I can not beat.  Since it seemed about a 40-60 situation I decided to fold.  If nothing else I can use my now even weaker table image to pick off some bluffs later in the game.

Given I really wanted to know were I was in that hand I started talking to a friend at the table about how bad I had just played that and hope he would join the conversation.  It takes awhile but the BB finally chimes in that he only had a 9 and was bluffing me.  This makes me feel a little better as I am think he is good enough to lie to me and try to mess with my self confidence.

To me the line seems very consistent with someone that had a set or made their flush.   If you have any other idea’s on what it could have been leave me a comment.

♣♥♦

Darkened Poker

Was playing in a very friendly 2-5 NL limit game at Snoqualmie when I got myself into a very marginal situation with top pair (TP) and a very weak kicker (WK).  Normally I will only use TP WK for catching bluffs against really aggressive players or sometimes value betting into people that I know will call people down with second or third pair.  If a normal player calls my first bet I will stop betting and usually fold if they decide to bet out on the turn or river. This was about to be such a situation except the guy started talking and his verbal tells convinced me that I was good and should keep on value betting into him.

4 people had limped into see the flop and I had A 5 in late position so I called.

Flop: AQ7

It is checked around to me so I bet 15$ into the 20$ pot.  It is then folded around to the 5 seat who thinks for a second and then starts talking.

“I have hit some of that…  How good is your kicker…”  He then calls.

Turn:  8

I bet 20 and he calls.

River: 2

I bet 25 and he calls.  I turn over my hand and he mucks.

The Tells:

1. “I have hit some of that”, this usually means they do not have have TP, but second or third pair at best.  If they say that and then just call it means they are trying to slow you down from betting all the way to the river.
2. “How  good is your kicker”, that usually means they do not have a kicker at all and again they want to slow you down from betting so much.  I have found with really good players that if they ask you that and then bet into you or re-raise you it means that your kicker does not really matter and they have 2 pair or trips already.

Since I got two verbal tells that both usually mean the same thing that he was really weak I changed my normal plan and continued to value bet into him all the way to the end.  The bet sizes were smaller than normal as I did not want to convince him to fold and wanted to keep him making crying calls all the way to show down.

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Darkened Poker

I was recently in New Orleans for a conference and got a chance to check out Harrah’s Casino.  The casino is only a few blocks from both the Convention Center and the French Quarter so you really can not beat it for location and convenience.   Plus the look and theme of the whole casino is very nice, the lighting is good and it feels a little local with its decor.

Harrah's Poker Room

Sadly that is the only two good things it has going for it and the list of things going against it was huge.

• It only has about 12 tables so you can wait awhile for a seat even on a week day.
• As you can see the room is not enclosed in glass so you get all the direct noise from the slot machines right next to you.  After hearing the happy days theme 100 times in a row you will slowly go on tilt.
• The lack of glass also means that the smoker on the rail right next to you will be giving you their cancer goodness.
• You can not get food service to your table and have to get up and wander over to the hot dog stand which is close or the restaurants which are a bit of a hike.
• You can get your alcohol drinks for free but red bulls are 5$.  WTF…
• They do not take you Harrah’s players card there at the poker tables, no points or free food for you…
• The tables were mostly full of regulars, even though their play was not as good what you would see in CA there was not as many fish as you would expect in a casino.
• Read the house rules, they allow all kinds of odd things like buying in bigger than the max if it is for equal or less than the biggest stack at the table.
• The dealers were mostly friendly but way to laid back and did not enforce many of the rules.

The last point is the one that ruined my time there the most as the locals would discuss their hand between themselves while you were still in the hand with them and the dealer would not stop it.  I had one situation were I held the nuts and I had called an all in raise and was hoping the third person would over call.  He thought for a little while and the person that was already all in told him that he should fold and what his hand really was.  I could not believe the dealer not say a thing about it.  I do not know if it was a locals vs outsiders thing or they in general just pushed the rules.  I kind of felt like they were playing a big home game which is nice but this kind of table talk did end up costing me a lot of missing profits which really got on my nerves.

Harrah's Decor

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Darkened Poker

Recently I was playing with this very aggressive kid that was trying to control the action but it was not working to well and he was down several buy-ins.  We were in a hand on the turn when a scare card came and he leaned forward to look at the board.  This was a pointless movement at he had been playing all evening from where he was could see the board just fine.  The only reason to do this is ensure that I notice the scare card.

Seems like he wants me to fold so I can either disappoint him by calling or re-raising.  Both would be fine but since he is so aggressive and down so much I bet he will fire again on the river if I make it look like I am not really happy with my hand.   I take my time and call it.  River comes and I check it over to him and be bets around 2/3 the pot.

At this point I am still 99% sure I am good, all I want to do is not give it away that I have picked up on him so he will keep trying to doing it in the future.  I make it look like I am struggling a bit then say “I know you have me beat I just want to see what you called on the flop with so I call“.  He mucked his hand before I even started reaching for the chips.

So Sweet…  I believe picking off bluffs is even more fun than bluffing yourself.

One mistake I see people doing when picking off bluffs is instant calling.  It shows to much strength and tips them off that they either have a tell or they took the wrong betting line in the bluff.  Never give them free information so take your time before calling and make it look like you had a hard decision.  This will keep them trying even harder and make you way more money in the future.

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Darkened Poker