Posts Tagged ‘poker’

We slowplayed the flop, we raised an arguably scary turn card, and now it’s time to talk about what to do on the river in this third and final installment of “What’s Your Play? Street-by-Street at the WSOP Main Event”.

It’s early on Day 5 of the WSOP main event. We’re in the shallow money, with 574 players remaining out of 7319, and Hero’s table draw is a great one for such a late day in the tournament, featuring several pretty weak amateurs. Hero (me, in my late twenties with dark sunglasses and no logos on my clothing) begins the hand with a slightly below average stack of 500K. Blinds are at 4K/8K/1K.

One of the weak players, a guy about my age sitting on a stack of about 450K, raises to 20K in first position. I call with 2c 2h in middle position, and a middle-aged player new to the table and sitting on 600K calls in the big blind. The three of us see a 7s 4s 2d flop, and both of my opponents check relatively quickly. I check behind.

The turn is the 3s. BB checks, and UTG bets 25K into the 72K pot. I raise to 90K, the BB folds, and UTG calls. I realize it’s potentially important information, but I’m afraid I don’t remember how quickly he called or in what manner. The river is the 3d. UTG bets 100K into the 250K pot, leaving about 250K behind. Hero has him slightly covered. What’s your play and why?  Read the complete post...

Thanks to everyone who commented on Part Two of this special street-by-street “What’s Your Play?” Like it or not, Hero checked the flop, and now we’re faced with a small bet on a turn card that makes a lot of straights and flushes possible. Because of that, JeanNoel asks, “I am wondering if hero’s big hand on the flop turns into a bluff catcher on the turn?”

It does not. Although quite a few hands are theoretically ahead of Hero’s, this set is very strong nonetheless. No one in the hand, including our Hero, has taken any action to suggest he has much of anything. Consequently, all players can value all holdings more highly than they ordinarily would on a board of this texture. Bottom set may not seem like much with so many straights and flushes possible, but here it is damn near the nuts. Hero should play it as such unless and until an opponent takes some action that drastically contradicts that assumption.

UTG’s flop check and small turn bet strongly discount anything better in his range. Much the same is true with BB’s turn check. He may have checked a strong hand to the pre-flop raiser on the flop, but once the flop checks through, I’d expect him to start building a pot rather than hope that someone else would bet. If he cold 3-bets the turn, my opinion would change and I’d either fold or call planning to fold the river unimproved, but I don’t see that happening very often at all.  Read the complete post...

Q: I have seen a french poker video in which 2 players discuss about a hand played by one of these player on a french online tournament (6max, buy in 100€).

This is the hand :
Blinds 250/500 ante 60.
Hero is the CO with AcTs.
utg folds.
utg +1 : folds.
CO (21 000):raises to 1000.
btn : folds.
SB: (53 000) : calls.
BB (34 000): calls.

pot: 3 180.

flop : QsJh4s

SB: bets 1400
BB: calls
CO : ?

All the debate is here. All we know about the SB and the BB is that they are categorized as fishs.
One commentator think the call can be EV+ and the other is not agree with that.
The two arguments for the call are :
1. SB shows some strength with his donk bet, the board hit his hand very often, so if the turn is a king (but not the spade one) the implied odds are huge and hero think he can stack off SB.
2. hero thinks that an ace on the turn can be a good out for him, because on a multiway pot, players play more tight and with the position hero can know very quickly if his ace is good.  Read the complete post...

I just published a review of Bennett Onika’s “Unleash Your Hidden Poker Memory”. Here’s the short version:

This is why Onika’s lack of poker expertise is such a problem: it’s the only thing he’s really bringing to the table. You’d probably be better off learning memorization tricks from one of the original experts and then using your own judgment about how to apply them at the poker table. At least you wouldn’t have someone consistently pointing you in the wrong direction. I could go on and on about Unleash Your Hidden Poker Memory‘s misguided poker advice, but frankly it got exhausting keeping track of the book’s many errors, and I gave up trying. Guess I need to improve my memory.

Have you read it? What did you think? I’m particularly curious to hear from anyone who’s actually done all the work the author recommends to train your memory, and how that worked for you.

Edit: Inserted link to the full review. Sorry for the oversight. It’s at http://www.thinkingpoker.net/poker-book-reviews/book-review-unleash-your-hidden-poker-memory/

This week’s “What’s Your Play?” is a little different, in that it’s the second in a series of three posts about the same hand. Rather than asking you to discuss a plan for the entire hand, I’m going to give you the action through the turn and then ask for your thoughts. Of course you may still choose to speak broadly about how possible future action influences your turn decision, but you won’t need to consider every possible river scenario, because next week we’ll find out what exactly happens and discuss that particular situation in-depth. Make sense? Here we go!

It’s early on Day 5 of the WSOP main event. We’re in the shallow money, with 574 players remaining out of 7319, and Hero’s table draw is a great one for such a late day in the tournament, featuring several pretty weak amateurs. Hero (me, in my late twenties with dark sunglasses and no logos on my clothing) begins the hand with a slightly below average stack of 500K. Blinds are at 4K/8K/1K.

One of the weak players, a guy about my age sitting on a stack of about 450K, raises to 20K in first position. I call with 2c 2h in middle position, and a middle-aged player new to the table and sitting on 600K calls in the big blind. The three of us see a 7s 4s 2d flop, and both of my opponents check relatively quickly.  Read the complete post...

Thanks to everyone who commented on Part One of this street-by-street “What’s Your Play?” series. Even if you didn’t, please check out the results of the flop action and feel free to chime in with your opinion on how to play the turn.

To my surprise, responses to this week’s hand were more unanimous than they’ve ever been, and you all wanted to do something other than what I did. I must say, though, that I’m not convinced. I chose to check, and I still believe that’s the best play.

What’s the Value Target?

JeanNoel asks the right question when he says, “What kind of hands will lose a big pot against a set ? I think that if hero doesn’t improve on the river, he will be happy to be called by an overpair, 2 pairs or top pair top kicker. It doesn’t reprent a lot of hands since the board is 7s 4s 2d.”

This is the crux of the problem: both the board and the action so far make it unlikely that anyone has the sort of hand we’d really like him to have, which is two-pair or one strong pair. UTG’s check almost certainly represents weakness – you just don’t see such players randomly checking vulnerable made hands after raising pre-flop, especially not in multi-way pots. In all likelihood he has unpaired overcards, and probably not a good draw, which I’d also expect him to bet. If we were heads up with UTG, I hope that a lot more people would advocate checking.  Read the complete post...

Q: I recently read Andrew Seidman’s response to a question about the key to become a winning poker player. His statement was simple and direct: “Don’t pay off.”

This advice hit me right in the face, given how frequently I look up a big river bet even when I’m pretty sure I’m beat. (What can I say? I’m naturally a curious person, and I’ve always been willing to pay to satisfy my curiosity. But it does get expensive in poker.) I still call on the river when I think there’s a reasonable chance my opponent is bluffing, but I’m very much trying to incorporate BalugaWhale’s advice into my game.

I’m wondering how important you think his advice is to becoming a winning player and how pervasive the instinct is for people to call. In addition to calculating the odds that villain is bluffing, do you use any techniques to discipline yourself against paying off?

A: You should always be suspicious of anything purporting to be “the key to become a winning poker player”. Virtually anyone’s play could be improved in many different places, any of which will help to make her more profitable (or less unprofitable).  Read the complete post...

This week’s What’s Your Play? is a little different, in that it’s the first in a series of three posts about the same hand. Rather than asking you to discuss a plan for the entire hand, I’m going to start the discussion with a flop decision. Of course you may still choose to speak broadly about how possible future action influences your flop decision, but you won’t need to consider every possible turn scenario, because next week we’ll find out what exactly happens on the turn and discuss that particular situation in-depth. Make sense? Here we go!

It’s early on Day 5 of the WSOP main event. We’re in the shallow money, with 574 players remaining out of 7319, and Hero’s table draw is a great one for such a late day in the tournament, featuring several pretty weak amateurs. Hero (me, in my late twenties with dark sunglasses and no logos on my clothing) begins the hand with a slightly below average stack of 500K. Blinds are at 4K/8K/1K.

One of the weak players, a guy about my age sitting on a stack of about 450K, raises to 20K in first position. I call with 2c 2h in middle position, and a middle-aged player new to the table and sitting on 600K calls in the big blind. The three of us see a 7s 4s 2d flop, and both of my opponents check relatively quickly. What’s your play and why?  Read the complete post...