Poker After Dark, Season 6 Episode 3
Posted by: Travis Johnston / Category: Cash Game, Poker After Dark, StrategyEpisode 2 was mostly uneventful but #3 is worth checking out as Howard Lederer continues his tradition of betting bitch slapped, this time by Phil Ivey. I know Howard Lederer is a force in limit poker, but I am getting the idea that he does not spend nearly as much time at the no limit tables. I am just not sure that on TV, for these limits and against this line up is where I would be learning even if I could afford to.
In this episode Howard teaches us how important it is to have a plan for your hand before you commit way to much money to the pot. The hand starts at time 5:30 in the video when Eli puts on the $1200 straddle, Sahamies puts on the $2400 double straddle and Ivey continues it with a $4800. It gets to Lederer and he has pocket 88’s which is a pretty good hand against 3 blind straddles but can play pretty bad after the flop unless you flop a set.
Like an amateur he raises to 19,800 or about 2x the pot which declares to the table that although he has a decent hand he is playing scared and wants to take it down right now. Seems like Phil Ivey picks up on the problem with Howard’s bet size and moves all in for another 100k. He correctly deducts that Howard will not call his all in with anything less than AA or KK and if he had either of those hands we would have only made a pot size bet to begin with. Although in this case Ivey had 99 and really had the best hand, I believe his cards did not matter and he would have done it with any 2 cards. Howard is now in a bad situation as he has about 1/6th his stack in the pot pre-flop and is being put to the test for the rest of it.
Howard then confirms his amateur status in NL by going into the tank for over 2 1/2 min before finally folding. His table was very understanding by not calling a clock on him, I wonder if they were thinking they did not want to do it and risk upsetting the fish. One of the most important things in NL is having a plan for what you will do at any point if you get raised all in.
If he has thought about about how his bet would be interpreted ( looking desperate ) and that he might face a re-steal which he was not willing to call. He most likely would have taken a more conservative line that would be easier for him to play, like just call pre-flop and play that pair for set odds on the flop. Since everyone had 20x over the blind straddle bet behind in their stacks he would be getting more than enough odds. Even a min raise would have likely ensured he was most likely heads up were pocket pairs are easier to play.
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Tags: Cash Game, Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, Poker, Poker After Dark, Texas Holdem