Darkened Poker

I was playing down int New Orleans and had just sat down at a table for a few min when it became apparent that the older guy in the 7 seat was just there to have fun and really gamble.  It was a 1-2 NL game and he was opening every pot for 21-36$ most of the time blind.  This is great, the game is now playing like a 3-5 game and there is going to be a lot of money on the table very soon, mostly his.  These kinds of guys make the game very volatile which can be hard on your bankroll some nights, if you can handle the swings they will make you a lot of money in the long run as most of the time they are taking the worst of it.  It is a dream situation, most poker players look forward to finding a table like this that is ready to go off like a powder keg.

But one kid in the 8 seat at our table was not smart enough to be happy about the situation. He liked dominating the action which he could no longer do with this old guy in there and he did not know how to adjust and take advantage of the situation.   Instead of waiting for better hands and isolating this guy heads up to stack him he went into pre-flop raising wars with him.  After an hour or so of this kid not getting anywhere and losing a bit of money he starts getting verbally abusive to this old guy and declares that he will be busting him soon.

I never like to see verbal abuse at the poker tables and after it became apparent that the dealer was no going to step in I told the kid to “stop being a cry baby and learn to play poker soon so you don’t loose all your money”…  In a effort to keep the old guy at the table I start trying to joke around with him about how these young kids take everything to serious and do not know how to just have fun at the poker tables.

Mission accomplished, old guy is laughing again and the kids now completely hates me and is on revenge tilt.  Every second he is not in a hand he is just sitting there staring at me till the point were I start to wonder if I should request security on the way out tonight .  A little while later I get KK and double up again from the old guy.  Sitting with 900 of the old guys chips the kid gets even more pissed off he just got stacked by the old guy and has had to buy in again for the third time.  Finally the kid gets a run of good luck and manages to get even by winning a really big hand against 2 people and then stacking the old guy.

Sadly the kid was not cool about it and started laughing at the old guy until he decided to take his money and go play a the craps table.  Way to go kid now your just left playing with the smart people that are not exactly happy with you for driving away the easy money.  We both had about 900 when he turned his attention to me and started re-raising every bet I made and in general just coming after me.

After a few hands of this I pick up JJ and raise to 12 which is called before the kid re-raises to 50.  I smooth call and so does one new guy behind me in the 7 seat.

Flop J 9 5

Kid bets 100 which I call and is over called by the 7 seat.

Turn J

Kid bets 200 which I call and is again overcalled by the 7 seat.

River 8

Kid for some reason slows down and only bets 125, which I raise to 270 as I think he was finally figuring out he was beat and I wanted to make a small raise that he and the 7 seat who had just made his str8 would call.  The 7 seat does make the call but then to my complete surprise the kid re-raise all in for 425 more.  I call and the 7 seat thinks for a long time and finally folds his str8 face up.  I was wrong, the kid thought that if he bet smaller I would re-raise with my str8 on the river and then he could trap me with his full house 99′s.

So bent in his revenge plan that he totally ignored that he by no means had a lock on this hand and would I really call that kind of re-raise with a hand that could not beat him or would I even re-raise in the first place on a paired board with just a str8 and three people in the hand.  While waiting for the other guy to fold he figured out what I had and called out my hand before I even flip it over.

That sir is my friend called Karma.

>2.2k My Biggest win at 1-2 NL game ever

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Darkened Poker

2 -5  NL Texas Holdem at Snoqualmie.  I had about 220 behind and open for 15$ with my AQ when suddenly this pretty aggressive kid that had just sat down with at least 500$ stands up at the table to get a better look at my chips stack and then raises to 90$.

First the physical tells:

• Since I only have two stacks of 100$ in bright red chips the kid would have to be retarded to not already know how much I had.
• He is not retarded so clearly doing it to ensure I know he knows how much I have am make sure I am aware that I will be pot committed to the hand after the flop.

Second the betting tells:

• re-raising 6x my raise is very excessive it is usually a “go away” type of bet.  Rarely it is a extra tricky pot committing bet.  A good bet that would leave me just as pot committed and all in by the river would be around 45$.
• 90$ is about 1/2 my stack so he wants me to think we are going to play for all my chips in this hand.

Extra Info:

• I had not been playing a very aggressive game up to this point as I had been completely card dead so it is unlikely he was trying to get into an aggressive raising war with me as a trap.
• He was a very aggressive player that liked to raise to 50$ when he came into a pot.  So 90$ could be considered a min raise for him…

In general he is acting very strong which likely means he is rather weak.   The only thing that does not make any sense is the 90$ re-raise, he is committing way to many chips for just a pure bluff when 45-50$ would do the same thing.  So although normally I would then just moved all in right there and try to end it, this time I just let it go.  Given that I had not played with him much and I only had just 15$ invested I folded to get a better read on his game before I took a stand against him.

Well within 2 rounds it became clear, this kid is all pre-flop and does not know how to play past the flop.  He was a brutal pay off machine and would get stacked 1 in 6 times he went any further than the turn.  All he knows how to do is 2-3 bet it pre-flop and try to do one last c-bet on the flop.  If that fails he is completely lost in the hand unless he is holding close to the nuts.

So yes his tell was an indicator of weakness as he fears post flop play and he is trying to do anything possible to get you to fold pre-flop.  It does not mean that he had a really weak hand or was completely bluffing though.  Most likely he had a big ace or small pair that is a little harder to play after the flop and just wants to avoid it if at all possible.

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Darkened Poker

It is so rare you flop a really great hand with the nuts redraw to go along with it.  When you do as it takes all the worry of sweating the turn and river out of the hand so you can just focus on making the most money.  If the re-draw does get there is you can usually make tons of money as they will raise or lead ( depending on position ) into you thinking they just outdrew you and will call some pretty big re-raises themselves thinking you are just getting stubborn with the hand.

This is one such hand were I expected someone to stack off against me when the re-draw did get there and I was kind of surprised that no one did.  I had just sat down at the table and did not have any stats on anyone yet.

One problem is I was slightly out of position and the BB kept on putting in small bets which I had to raise all the way through the hand.  Having to re-raise him again on the river kind of says I am not scared of the flush which might have given my hand away and may explain why the CO just called.

Poker Stars $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold’em – 8 players

CO: $3.88
Hero (UTG+1): $4.23

Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero is UTG+1 with 4 A

UTG calls $0.02, Hero calls $0.02, 1 fold, MP2 calls $0.02, CO calls $0.02, BTN calls $0.02, 1 fold, BB checks

Flop: ($0.13) 5 3 2 (6 players)

BB bets $0.04, UTG calls $0.04, Hero raises to $0.08, MP2 folds, CO calls $0.08, BTN calls $0.08, BB calls $0.04, UTG calls $0.04

Turn: ($0.53) T (5 players)

BB bets $0.10, UTG folds, Hero raises to $0.30, CO calls $0.30, BTN calls $0.30, BB calls $0.20

River: ($1.73) K (4 players)

BB bets $0.12, Hero raises to $1, CO calls $1, BTN folds, BB folds

I am still not sure if I should have just called the .12 cents and prayed that the CO puts in a big raise that I could have then re-raised; or did I do the right thing and make sure I at least got 1$ out of it by raising myself?

Leave me comments if you think there is a better line to take in this hand.

♣♥♦

Darkened Poker

Before I really knew how to play poker I use to despise all the set miners I would run into playing online.  It seemed like every time I picked up a big pair and put in a raise I would get 3 callers to the flop.  Sure enough I would bet out on a safe looking flop and get at least one caller that would then re-raise me all in on the turn.  Usually since I was getting 5-1 on my money I would have to make a crying call and their set of 4′s or some other junk hand that had out flopped me.

Times change and now that I am not as much of an idiot when it comes to playing past the flop I love these guys and manage to make a bit of money off them.  The problem with set miners is they are not the sharks of poker as they do not really think, attack or do anything that tricky.  They are more like the jellyfish as they just drop their tentacles and hope that something swims into their trap.  Luckily this mindless style of play also allows them to be exploited.

Signs of a set miner:

• They are only playing 1 hand every other round as you only get a pair every 17 hands.  The percentage of starting hands played is around 5 which if if is in a live game is about 1 hands per 1/2 hour or per dealer change.
• They only hit a set on the flop 1 in 7.5 times.  That means they only play about 13% of the flops they see.  Combined that stat with the first one and it means about 1 in 127 hands or 0.8% they will connect and finally play past the flop.  In a live game that would be about once every 4 hours or 8 dealer changes, these guys literally wait all night for 1 chance to stack someone.
• Most of the time they wait till the turn to check raise or re-raise you all in as they want to make sure your pot committed and will get your entire stack.
• They just limping with their hand and then quickly call any raises pre-flop.
• Check calling on the flop when the does not have any draws.
• Check raising on the flop when the board does have draws.

Weaknesses of the set miner:

• You can instantly fold if they check raise you as you know they never bluff.
• Since they play so few hands past the flop alarms should be going off in your head if they call your flop bet and you can shut down on the turn.
• A set miner needs to make over 10 times the amount of money they put in pre-flop to be long term profitable.  If you do not pay them off enough they will get frustrated with you and stop playing against you.
• Since they are only playing a few hands they do not like to fold pre-flop and will often call way to much just praying that others over call so they get the right odds.

So one way to combat these guys is to raise enough pre-flop that even if they do stack you they are still not getting over 10-1 on their money and it is not profitable for them to play against you.  I do not suggest this as a good solution as it gives you a very big betting pattern tell which even the special needs poker players can pick up on and stay out of your way.  I will still do this if I am in late position and I have a set miner behind me, it is my little tax on them really wanting to play every pair.  The will call off >20% of their stack hoping that the small and big blind over call and give them the right odds.

A better way take these guys down is just to not give them anywere near 10-1 on their money after the flop.  If I have a set miner in the hand with me and the board is not draw heavy I bet < 1/2 the pot on the flop since I know they are not drawing and I do not have to protect my hand.  If they call my flop bet I am done with the hand and not putting any more money in no matter what.  This ensures they are never getting more than 1-1 on their money, maybe you give up on a winning hand once in awhile, it is still 100 times better than losing your entire stack when your wrong.

If there are draws on the board and I am not heads up with the set miner I go ahead and bet the 3/4 the pot to charge the draws and protect my hand.  If the set miner calls this flop bet I am again done with the hand and do not put any more money in the pot.  He has still only got about 2.5 to 1 on his pre-flop money and is losing a lot of money playing against me in the long run.

Every once in awhile you get to stack the set miners with set over set, it is to easy as they are almost always playing on autopilot and do not realize you have suddenly deviated from your normal pattern of not paying them off.   Since their only move is to go for your entire stack they have no chance of not getting stacked themselves when they are beat.

What I like about this example hand is the known set miner did one thing right and re-raise on the flop so I would be pot committed by the turn.  Sadly it seems like he was on auto pilot so he missed all the clues he was beat and everything else he did in the hand was completely wrong.

Poker Stars $0.02/$0.05 No Limit Hold’em

Hero (CO): $6.00
BTN: $8.49

Hero posts a big blind ($0.05)

Pre Flop: ($0.12) Hero is CO with K K

UTG calls $0.05, 3 folds, Hero raises to $0.25, BTN calls $0.25, 2 folds, UTG calls $0.20

Flop: ($0.82) K 3 J (3 players)

UTG checks, Hero bets $0.10, BTN raises to $0.85, UTG folds, Hero raises to $2, BTN raises to $8.24 all in, Hero calls $3.75 all in

Turn: ($12.32) 8 (2 players – 2 are all in)

River: ($12.32) Q (2 players – 2 are all in)

BTN mucks 33

Big clues he missed:

• Why would someone that had raised pre-flop only bet .10 on the flop.  I am either hoping no one hit anything and has set autofold or I am trapping.  No one with AK is going to bet .10 on the flop with two people in the hand and a draw on the flop like that.  In this case I was tring to bet just enough that anyone holding a Jack would call and maybe hit two pair so I could stack them later.
• His raise to .85 was way to agressive, if I was bluffing I am folding and if was probe betting with a Jack he just blew me off the hand.  As mentioned above he is not going to get called by top pair or an over pair as no one with those hands would lead out for .10 on the flop.
• Who in their right mind would min re-raise to 2$ again on a flop like that?  Only a jerk like me that likes to let set miners hang themselves by being the ones that push themselves all in   The bet made no sense except it allowed for 1 more re-raise before both parties were both all in.  Given that I had re-raising to 2$ and over 1/3 my stack was already in the pot I was clearly committed to the hand all ready.

Set over set does not happen very often but if you add that to the money you make every time you over charge them to see a flop it adds up to a good chunk of money that can be made off the set miners.

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Darkened Poker

Recently while doing one last looking around to see if there was any poker tracking software that did what I wanted before I went off and wrote a new one when I ran into this fun little poker test.  Now it is ran by a poker trainer site so after you take the test they will try to get you to sign up.  I bypassed all that and just gave them a email and fake name so they could send me the free results of the test.

Doing so will get you an email like this:

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Thank you for taking the Free No Limit Hold’em Cash Game Test.  Your PokerIQScore is 121.4245.

Our analysis engine reports the following overall details about your game:

The greatest overall strength in your game is Flop Play.  You are better than 92.66% of all people in this area.  You have the ability to profit significantly from this skill.  Continue to take advantage of it!

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Now this test is hardly complete enough to give you a valid poker ranking.  You can not represent a complete poker player personality in a cute little name like “All in Ed” and “Bluffing Bob”.  And you do not get nearly enough hands with them to really get a line on the way they play.  So all there really testing is to you raise with good hands, re-raise the bluffer once in awhile, fold to the rock, get away from good hands on scary boards, and value bet on the river.

What I like about it is this is along the right lines for how to train poker players, watching videos and reading books is somewhat useful but being exposed to the situation over and over again is what really drives it home.  The problem in normal poker games is you often do not see the situation your working on very often and it can take forever to practice it enough that it becomes second nature.  How many times have you made a mistake in the heat of the moment even though you knew the right thing to do the instant after you messed up?  Even though you learned the lesson months ago you will still sometimes make mistakes until it becomes second nature.  With training software and made up hands you could get repetitive exposure to something you just learned and train in it a lot quicker.

Will start working on the training software right after I get done the this poker tracker.  If you take the test leave a comment with your score.  If you beat my score leave your online pokerstars name in the comment so I can avoid you at the tables

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Darkened Poker