Darkened Poker

Recently I have started sorting tables only by pot size and getting in line for the tables with the biggest pots even if there is already 15 people ahead of you.  It just does not matter, I would rather wait 1/2 an hour to play with the fish or a bunch of players coming off a feeding frenzy than grind it out with a bunch of nits.

Following this theory I ended up at a table with this guy, his name was 19KgFish and there was a lot of truth in it.  His stats were:  57 VP, 43 PFR, 27  3-Bet, 67 CB

With stats like that I am going to be inclined to let this guy bluff off his money rather than value betting into him.  For some reason everyone else flops monster hands against these guys and takes the money down risk free.  I never flop sets against guys like this but am always forced to make some crazy call to take money off these guys.

Poker Stars $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold’em – 8 players

Hero (SB): $12.00

BB: $26.10

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is SB with K A

6 folds, Hero raises to $1, BB raises to $2.75, Hero calls $1.75

Flop: ($5.50) 9 T T (2 players)

Hero checks, BB checks

Turn: ($5.50) 8 (2 players)

Hero checks, BB bets $3, Hero calls $3

River: ($11.50) T (2 players)

Hero checks, BB bets $4, Hero calls $4

Final Pot: $19.50

Hero shows K A (three of a kind, Tens – Ace kicker)

BB shows 2 5 (three of a kind, Tens)

Hero wins $18.60

(Rake: $0.90)   <- what? dam I gave them 1,200 last month, I really need a rake back deal!!!

His 3-bet range at 27% is bigger than my entire range of playing hands so calling in re-raise was a given.  Him checking on the flop was the real tell, if his c-bet range is 67% then the only way he is checking that is if he has a T or really had nothing at all and no draws.

His bet on the turn was kind of weak, he might have picked up a draw, still figure to be ahead of about 95% of his hands.

His bet on the river was even weaker, I figure at worst I might be up against 22 or some other small pair but I am still ahead of 90% of his hands.  Given that it is about 4.5 – 1 to call I need to go with the read.  Plus fish like that are not good at thin value betting so it is even more likely that he is just weak bluffing.

One of these days I will get a good hand against these guys so I can push some serious money into the pot instead of being the kid guessing all the time.

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Darkened Poker

I have noticed a trend, with less and less super fish online people are now way to aggressive at trying to attack them when they think they have found one.  Recently I was playing at the micro levels when I flopped Top 2 Pair ( 3 handed ) on a 3 flush board and I bet the pot, got flat called and then raised all in for 4$.  At these stakes I will see a pair and a flush draw or Str8 and flush draw enough times to make calling worth while so I do.  In this case Dose_Chips got lucky and flopped a flush and I did not fill up.

<30 seconds later Dose_Chips is sitting at every table I am and directly either to my left or right!!! I understand the need to maximize your chance to get paid off by the fish but do it in such a way that they are not tipped off that you are targeting them.   Most people would either shut down against Dose_Chips at this point or quit for awhile as even fish do not want to feel like they are being taken advantage of.

What was even more funny is Dose_Chips should have checked the hand history before he tied himself to my tables.  He probably also should have checked out his targets stats on Sharkscope or other such sites to verify their fish status before putting 4 tables of money up for grabs.

After calling every raise I make for the next hour he has given me back about 3 time what he initially won from me.  He finally does get the best of me on one hand but does not even manage to take full advantage of it by value betting his hand on the river.

Poker Stars $0.02/$0.05 No Limit Hold’em – 9 players

Hero (UTG): $7.05
UTG+1: $7.75

Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero is UTG with Q K

Hero raises to $0.15, UTG+1 calls $0.15, 4 folds, BTN calls $0.15, 1 fold, BB calls $0.10

Flop: ($0.62) 7 T K (4 players)

BB checks, Hero bets $0.35, UTG+1 calls $0.35, BTN folds, BB folds

Turn: ($1.32) 2 (2 players)

Hero bets $0.45, UTG+1 calls $0.45

River: ($2.22) J (2 players)

Hero checks, UTG+1 checks

Final Pot: $2.22

Hero shows Q K (a pair of Kings)

UTG+1 shows A K (a pair of Kings – Ace kicker)

If your going to take the worst of it by trying to get heads up with a fish with any holdings then you sure as hell need to value bet your good hands to compensate for all the lost money pre-flop.  About the only other thing this kid could have done worse is challenge me to play heads up.

This does re-enforce a article ( Table Image ) I wrote a long time ago about trying to create the fish table image as the only way to make money at tough tables.  I did not think it was worth doing online as most people do not stay at a table long enough for the advertising to pay off.  But if you have one of these guys that will join you at ever table then it seems it would be worth it.

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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

Newb players tend to vastly overplay any big Ace hand and will often go all in pre-flop with it or call big value bets all the way to the river hoping to hit an Ace at some point.  So when you are holding really big hands and get the impression that you are up against some big Ace hands you have 2 choices on how to play to give them the greatest chance of stacking off.

Here is some numbers I use based off my experience:

• Roughly 50% of the time newbs will go all in pre-flop with AK-AJ if there is a good size pot built up
• Roughly 30% of newbs will call 1/3 pot size bets on flop and turn with air hoping to hit Ace later on

I played this hand and afterward I was not sure if I played it right…

Poker Stars $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold’em – 8 players
BB: $0.97
Hero (UTG+1): $3.06
MP2: $5.10

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

1 fold, Hero raises to $0.08, 1 fold, MP2 calls $0.08, 1 fold, BTN calls $0.08, 1 fold,

BB raises to $0.20, Hero calls $0.12, MP2 raises to $0.90, 1 fold,

BB raises to $0.97 all in, Hero raises to $3, MP2 folds

Flop: ($2.93) 9 2 6 (2 players – 1 is all in)

Turn: ($2.93) 4 (2 players – 1 is all in)

River: ($2.93) 2 (2 players – 1 is all in)

What was interesting about the hand was after MP2 decides to switch from just calling bets pre-flop to raising it up to .90 I put him on AK / AQ and thought he would go all in with me.  In this case there was 5$ in the pot and it cost him 2$ more to call so I thought I was giving him good odds even a newb could understand but he folded.  After the hand was over he claimed he folded AT which would have been the last Ace in the deck as BB hand A J.

Should I have just called the BB’s all in and then tried to bet on flop and turn to make more money???

All in pre-flop:

To simplify it lets assume that I have read the hand right and he does have a big Ace hand!

50% of the time he folds and I am left heads up for 94% win of 3$ pot EV = 2.82

50% of the time he calls and I am 3 way against dominated hands 88% win of 7$ pot EV = 2

Combined EV = 2.41

Bleed to river:

To simplify I assume that if he does beat you he does not re-raise you of it he does you fold!

15% of the time he will hit other card on flop and call all the way down.  EV = 2.156

85% of the time he will not hit

• 30% of the time he will call both flop and turn anyways
  • 12% of the time he will hit something between flop and river and call a final bet  EV = 2.156
  • 88% of the time he will fold on the river  EV = 2.27
• 70% of the time he will fold   EV = 2.82

Combined EV = 2.57

Well the numbers have spoken, I should have played it the other way, but the difference is very slight and not really worth worrying about.  Now if the newb in question has tendencies like being willing to call more than 1/3 pot size bets with nothing or is willing to go “all in” on the river with only top pair then “bleeding to the river” becomes the clear winner.

I can not even begin to count how many times this has happened to me.  I show up at a casino, walk around a bit looking for a great table and seemingly find it.  Everyone is laughing and having a good time, every raise is getting no respect and 4-5 people are calling it and seeing the flop.  People are bluffing each other and big pots are being won with second pair or less.  So I put in a table transfer and 1/2 hour later I get transferred over to it, sweet it is time to make some money.

But about 5 hands into the new table I pick up a good hand, I raise and everyone stops laughing and folds. Shit what happened?  So a few hands later I just call a raise and get over called by one other guy.  Flop comes and they silently all check around to me so I bet my middle pair and the first guy check raises me all in.  Holy hostile!

Opps, I have just interrupted these guys paying the rake to have a home game at the casino.  They are there to play with their friends and maybe a fish or two if they happen to drop in.  But they do not want to play with anyone that might take advantage of the loose game they have created and they are sure not going to give any money away to strangers.

So at this point you have three options:

1. You can cut your losses and and put in for another table transfer right away.  I have learned over time that this is often the best option as it is a long and hard road before this table might become profitable and there are most likely other better tables you can jump on.
2. You can try to appeal to their greed and appear to be the biggest fish or crazy mad man gambler that everyone wants to take money off of.  Be warned that it is short lived.  If you start gambling with them and lose a lot in the beginning they will most not likely give you a chance to win it back.  The second you win a big pot they will shut you out again.  If you start winning right of the bat, they will also cut you off really quickly as they just do not want lose outside the circle.
3. You can try to get into the circle, if you have the most charming personality ever you might make friends with the table and get them to open up.  This is the hardest way to go by far, I have seen combo’s of this and #2 work before but it is kind of rare.

What are the warning signs so that you do not waste your time at an illusion table.

• Watch for things like matching school / work clothing.
• Watch for hands on shoulders and other gestures that are more personal
• If you can hear them, listen for how far back in time their talk goes, further back, more tight the group is
• If they are really ragging on each other and still smiling then they are often really good friends

Some groups like this are still really friendly and welcome in new players like old friends, but I have found the ratio to those that do vs those that do not to be pretty bad.  It is worth the time to investigate a little farther, ask dealers or floor managers about their friendliness factor before just sitting down and wasting your time.

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