Darkened Poker

For all the poker players that play the games all night till the sun comes up.

Vampire Jack

Do not know were this image came from so I can not link it back and give credit, if anyone knows leave me a comment.

Long time ago a friend sent me 20$ on PokerStars and I started playing 1$ buy in cash games.   Using good bankroll management I managed to not go broke and work it up to 200$ so I was playing 10$ NL cash games and 2$ tournaments.  By a good amount of luck I managed to win a tournament and got an extra 575$ dropped in my bankroll.   Normally this is a good thing but in this case it gave me a chance to make a really stupid mistake.

Since I was playing 1-2$ NL live games and had worked my way through the micro limit levels online so quickly with only my bankroll management requirements holding me back I assumed I could jump to the bigger games.  Given my bankroll was not big enough to match my live game limits I just jumped up to the 40$  NL cash games.  Well I quickly learned that at the higher levels online games are about 10X harder than live games.  I quickly lost the bankroll to play at that level and stepped down to the 20$ NL games.  After a week or so at that level I no longer had the bankroll to play and had to move back to the 10$ level.

Even though I was back at the same level before all this started I was on super tilt for having lost all my tournament gains.   So before long I am all the way back down to 5$ games and I finally realize I need to take some time off from the game to get my head reset.

What I should have done is taken that tournament win money and cashed it out.  There was no reason to keep it on there as I was steadily working my way through the levels and everything was going as planned.  A second best plan would have been to separate my cash game & tournament money and just used that 575$ to only play 5$ tournaments.

Painful lesson to have to learned but I am glad I learned it with a small tournament win rather than big one.

♣♥♦

Darkened Poker

Was reviewing hand histories with a student who is playing .01 – .02 $ stakes, he called a raise with AK, got a flop of A 5 3 which he checked behind on.  Turn was a Q, he bet it and got 3X check raised which he called.  When asked why he would call such a raise from the villain who most certainly had a set he responded

“since I slow played my TPTK’er on the flop, the guy could be just re-raising my bluff with a good Q”

I think he gives his fellow .01 – .02 $ players a little more hand reading credit than they deserve.  They are only playing absolute hand values at best, save your 3 rd level thinking till you get to the .5 – 1 $ games.

But this does bring up a good topic, how much credit should you give the micro stakes players?

Poker concepts they are thinking about:

• Trapping, ( if I bet on ace high flop people fold so forever more I will check and let them bet )
• Understanding of absolute hand values ( two pair and above is a friggin monster )
• Power of the draw ( straights and flushes are the absolute nuts )

Thus the Laws for fishing in micro stakes games:

• 90% of the people are trying to trap with any top pair top kicker hand.  Do not assume they would not check such a weak hand on a dangerous board, they would.
• 90% of re-raises are with two pair or better hand regardless of the board texture.  Do not fold your set on the river when the straight and flush get there, surprisingly often they just somehow made two pair and feel the need to bump up the pot.  But if you can not beat 2 pair, fold instantly as you are so rarely getting bluffed.
• If there is a draw out there value bet the hell out of your two pair or better hands, try to get all in by the turn if possible.
• They do not understand 3 betting, they call pre-flop to often and will most often fold to any c-bet on the flop in a 3-bet pot.
• They think every 4-bet is with AA or KK and fold way to often, pick up the dead money often.
• Do not waste EV by balancing your betting ranges or anything like that, they are not paying enough attention so just value bet the hell out of every good hand and c-bet or bluff the uncoordinated flops.
• Semi-bluffing is less effective as they do not understand concepts like the power of further bets and would never fold a draw anyway so save your money.

♣♥♦

Darkened Poker

Just read a great article at Live Science on how a gambers’ brain will release the same amount of dopamine for a near miss as it will for a win.

I had wondered about this for a long time:

• how is it good poker players can get their money in good so many times only to get sucked out on not give up.  They almost stacked the fish.
• how is it bad poker players can get their money in on a draw so many times, not get there and still keep doing it again and again.  They almost got there.
• how is it people can watch wheels spin around, rarely lining up yet continue to put money in.  They got 2 in a row and almost got 3 in a row.

Which leads me to my biggest frustration in the game.  Do not tell the fish that their crappy draw was not close.  Always let them think they had a chance to win because their brain will continue to reward them for it as long as they believe.  Someone tells them enough time that they were almost drawing dead even if they never learn the math their brain will stop rewarding them and the money source will be gone.

♣♥♦

Darkened Poker