Archive for July 28th, 2009

Given the difficulty I’ve had recently getting heads up action, I’ve put some thought into how the risk of provoking a quit ought to factor into my decisions. It seems there are certain situations, usually winning or losing a big pot, that greatly increase the chances of an opponent quitting. If I have a solid edge on the guy and no immediate prospects for finding another opponent, this translates into a definite loss of equity. Thus, I’ll sometimes pass on a marginal shove or call if I think my opponent is the sort to quit after a big win or loss. Similarly, I think I ought to pass sometimes on a very thin call or value bet to avoid making clear to an opponent that he is getting outplayed. I’m not talking about passing on hundreds of dollars of equity, but rather spots that are probably slight +EV. For example, I can’t find the HH, but here’s a call that got me quit yesterday:

We were playing 5/10 NLHE. Villain min-raised the button to $20, and I called with K7o.

The flop came Js 9s 5h. I had no spade. I checked, he bet $20, I raised to $55, and he called. The turn was the Ks. I checked, and he checked behind. The river was the 3s. I checked, and he bet $90. After some thought, I called, and he showed 87 with no spade. Then he quit.  Read the complete post...