Archive for July 25th, 2008

I was reading an autobiography of a guy whom I’d never known to be a poker player when I came across this rather detailed account of a big 5-card stud pot he once won. I’d be very surprised if anyone who hasn’t read this book himself were to guess the author. I’ll give one hint in addition to those embedded in the quote: this hand took place in the late 1940′s.

John, one night, was playing in a game I was in. After the first two cards were dealt around the table, I had an ace showing. I looked beneath it at my hole card; another ace – a pair, back-to-back. My ace showing made it my turn to bet.

But I didn’t rush. I sat there and studied.

Finally, I knocked my knuckles on the table, passing, leaving the betting to the next man. My action implied that beneath my ace was some “nothing” card that I didn’t care to risk my money on.

The player sitting next to me took the bait. He bet pretty heavily. And the next man raised him. Possibly each of them had small pairs. Maybe they just wanted to scare me out before I drew another ace. Finally, the bet reached John, who had a queen showing; he raised everybody.  Read the complete post...

Sorry all, I know I’ve been a little light lately on posts and especially on strategy stuff. Truthfully I haven’t played much poker since the WSOP. This is due to some combination of having a lot of non-poker stuff to catch up on and also not feeling any pressure to put in hours now that I’m way ahead of pace to hit my monetary goal for the year. But if you’re looking for some great strategy reading, may I suggest Cole South’s (CTS) old blog?

His new blog, hosted at Cardrunners, is still decent, but there’s actually more strategy content in the old one. Of particular interest is an article he posted about 4-betting versus aggressive 3-betters. This is something that at least in the higher stakes games people have improved upon by now, but it’s a great example of how to identify and exploit a particular leak that you notice in your opponents’ play.

Thanks to Korako for bringing the old CTS blog to my attention.