"Gsquadstyle" is my hero!

....and "SantaLovesMe" is a helluva a feller too! Either one of these guys could have made a dumb move that would have cost them (and me!) a lot of money. But they didn't. They played it cool, God love 'em.

I was playing on PartyPoker this morning, at one of their "Bad Beat Jackpot" tables, when these two players were involved in the most amazing bad beat I've ever witnessed. And because I was sitting at the table when it happened, I got a cool $12, 426.

If you are unfamiliar with bad beat jackpots, let me explain how the one at PartyPoker works: Fifty cents from each hand that sees a flop goes into the jackpot. There are dozens and dozens of these bad-beat tables, so the Jackpot builds fairly quickly - I'd say by about $25,ooo every day. The jackpot builds until it is won by a qualifying bad beat - a hand of Quad eights or better that loses! To make it even tougher, to qualify for the Jackpot both winning and losing hands must use both their hole cards. How unlikely is this? I haven't figured out the odds, but I'd say it is about as likely as hitting two hole-in-one's in a single round of golf. Astronomically unlikely. When this particular jackpot is hit, 30,000 is taken out as "seed money" for the next jackpot. Of what remains 50% goes to the bad beat loser, 25% to the hand winner, and the remaining 25% is split between anyone else who was dealt cards in the hand.

Here's how this mornings bad beat went down:

I was playing at a six-player table with .50/$1 blinds. I was dealt a suited queen under-the-gun, and folded it. The next guy (Pumuking, who has a very amusing picture of a monkey as his avatar) also folds. Next is hero #1, Gsquadstyle, who has 10s 10h. He could have killed this whole thing right here with some kind of stupid over-bet, but instead he raised what was the standard $3. Lovely! The button (Slevin K) folds. SantaLovesMe is in the small blind and he has a very good hand - Ac Kc, but one that is vulnerable if he doesn't hit the flop. So he raises to $9.50. The big blind (VictoryCica) folds. It would have been pretty gutless of Gsquadstyle to fold here, and thankfully he doesn't. He calls.

The flop comes: 6c Qc Jc. SantaLovesMe flopped an ace high flush while Gsquadstyle is holding only a pair of tens. If SantaLovesMe makes any bet here, it is almost certain that Gsquadstyle would have folded...but SantaLovesMe is thankfully not that stupid - he knows enough to check the nuts. Besides there is a possibility his opponent has a set, so the the bad beat might come into play. I could kiss SantaLovesMe for that check. Gsquadstyle also checks, of course.

The turn is the 10c. This gives SantaLovesMe an unbeatable royal flush, but it also gives Gsquadstyle a set of 10's. I like to believe that at this point both players were only thinking about the possibility of a bad beat and making sure they didn't fuck it up. SantaLovesMe checks his royal flush (good boy!) and Gsquad bets about 2/3 the pot. This is NOT a mistake on his part - remember, since the flop there has been no betting, so Santa might have pocket 7's for all Quadstyle knows. This bet is a way for Quadstyle to sense if there is a possibility of a bad beat, and if not then he might as well scoop up the pot right here. Santa, you will not be surprised to hear, calls.

Now comes the river. There is only one ten left in the deck; the ten of diamonds, but if by some miracle it comes then ladies and gents we got ourselves a bad beat jackpot!

The river is the 10 of diamonds. A royal flush over quad 10's.

The players who folded pre-flop like myself get $12,426 each just for being there. SantaLovesMe (Yes he does!) gets $49,704 and the appropriately named Gsquadstyle gets $99,408 for hitting runner-runner quads and losing.

And I doubt I will ever see a hand like that as long as I live.

Poker Software

If you play poker online, you can use software like PokerTraker to gather statistics on your play as well as the play of your opponents. According to PokerTracker, the program "imports the hand histories that poker sites write to your computer. It then parses the hands and stores poker statistics about the hands into a local database so that you can look at every possible angle of both your and your opponents' poker game."

A friend of mine got a trial version and, while he was amazed at the amount of information available to him, is still unsure if it is worth the investment. I suspect all serious on-line players use some kind of software of this nature. Why wouldn't they? Still I have my reservations.

On a purely emotional level, I think it takes some of the fun out of the game. Win or lose, I know I don't have anyone (or anything) else to credit or blame. Poker is an individual vs individual game, and the introduction of computer analysis just spoils it somehow. I know this is kind of petulant of me. And maybe it's dumb to "bring a knife to a gun fight". I suspect that poker software is really now just part of the game - if all players are using it, then it is still an individual vs individual game, just a much more complex one where your success is not only based on poker skills, but the ability to quickly interpret and apply raw data to a specific situation. A more complex game - but still a game. My dislike for the software might just be laziness on my part - I don't want to do the work of having to analyse statistics!

But I also worry about statistics misleading me. If I have a good read on a situation, the statistics might lead me to make a wrong decision. Of course this could easily, and more likely, go the other way - that the statistics would likely keep me from making bad decisions.

I just don't know.

I'm hoping those of you reading this post will leave comments offering advice.

When to call without the best hand

Being a nit, I have always believed it is never wrong to fold a hand when I believe my opponent is holding a stronger hand. This is common sense, right? Only donkeys make calls like that, right? Well it's not so simple. The instances are not very common, but sometimes you should make the call even when you are certain your opponent is holding better cards than yours.

I was two hours into a live $50 buy-in tournament. We had started with 5,000 in chips and blinds of 25/25, but the blinds were now 800/1600 and many smaller stacks were in danger of being blinded off. I had a stack of about 25,000, which was the most at my table, (there were two other tables going as well) and so when it folded to me in middle position I thought it was worthwhile to take a stab at stealing the blinds. I had a tight image and my monster stack made it unlikely that anyone would wish to tangle with me. Holding KQ off seemed good enough, so I raised it to an even 4,000. Everyone folded except the big blind, who pushed all-in for a total of 4,500. Now I knew that this guy would not be making this move with anything weaker that what I had, but it would have been wrong to fold. The pot was now 9,300 and it would only cost me another 500 to call, giving me 18-1 pot odds. I knew the odds of winning the pot were slim, but the cost was so relatively cheap and the reward so relatively great that calling was the right thing to do. My decision was even more clear-cut because my opponent, being all-in, could not force me to put any more chips into the pot and the fact that everyone else had folded meant that no third person could muddy the waters. My big stack also meant that the loss of an additional 500 was not going to cripple me. So I called. As I expected, he had a better hand than mine; AK. His hand held up and he won.

Did the fact that I lost mean that I made a bad decision? No. I don't think I made a bad decision to call and I don't think I made a bad decision to attempt the steal in the first place- I think in a majority of cases my steal attempt would have worked, I just was unlucky that one of the four players after me had Big Slick. And I think that against the range of hands a short-stack will bet his tournament life on, KQ will suck-out enough times to be profitable at 18-1 pot odds.

Better players than me are very good at knowing when it is okay to call when behind. The example I gave here is pretty clear-cut, but knowing when such calls make sense is one of the things I need to understand better if I am going to be a better player.

How to play 3 4 off

When an ace hits the flop, players tend to focus on the immediate danger it poses and forget that the ace can play as a low card as well. For example if you see a flop like: Ah 9c 2s you immediately wonder if someone is holding an ace. You don't see a straight draw or a flush draw. If you have an ace yourself you wonder if you kicker is good. If you are lucky enough to have pocket 9's, you are praying someone else has AK and will pay you off. If the turn brings a 5, many players, particularly if they are holding a set or two pair, may not realize that anyone holding 3 4 has just made a straight. They bet pocket aces as if it is the nuts - and if the board doesn't pair on the river you will get ALL of their chips.

The ace-to-five straight, commonly known as "the wheel" is one of the sneakiest hands to hold. people just don't always see it coming, and they are less likely to see it coming when they are excited about their own hand.

Play the wheel draw aggressively - particularly if you have a tight table image. People will not put you on this hand. The element of surprise will be on your side.

I like playing 2 3 and 3 4 and 2 5. If I am first to act, I will often enter with a raise. My tight image has won me several uncontested pots this way - everyone thinks I'm holding a big hand and folds to me. When I do get a caller, I can be pretty sure they have either a "strong" ace (that is an ace with a big kicker) or a pocket pair- the exact hands that can fall victim to the wheel.

If I am in late position, I might also call with 3 4 pre-flop, particularly if their are many players in the hand. The more people that see the flop, the more likely someone will catch a piece of it and, hopefully, pay me off if I get there.

2 3 is an easy hand to fold to flops like K Q 10. I like playing hands that are easy to fold. Remember: in no-limit the plan is to lose small pots and win big ones.

Muddleheaded

I lost $200 at the poker room yesterday, but even worse than the financial hit is the fact that I can't figure out what happened. If you are playing within proper bankroll limits, then losing a stake to single session is not the end of the world. But it is troubling when make drunk-guy mistakes when stone-cold sober.

The red flag that I should have been paying attention to was that I was simply confused as to what cards were making the best hands. Several times it seemed to me that the dealer was pushing the pot to the wrong player. One guy might "win" with two pair, but wait! Doesn't that other guy have a straight!? No I guess he must not or someone else would have said something and the board is mucked before I can confirm what I think.

This keeps happening all session long. One time, when I was sure the dealer was making a mistake and pushing the pot to the wrong guy, I cried out "No, wait!" and everyone looked at me while I tried to make sense of the board. No, that straight I thought was there wasn't there. How could I be so stupid? I apologized to the table and never questioned the dealer again, even when he gave the pot to someone else when I thought I won it.

What was wrong with me? I tried to force myself to focus, but it wasn't any good. It was like I was playing in a parallel universe to the rest of the table - one where the rules of poker were slightly different. One where an ace that comes on the flop can turn into a four if you look twice.

Is it surprising that I lost all my money?

Is it surprising that I'm worried about my mental state?

An Embarassing Win

About two months ago I did something really dumb and somehow didn't lose a large amount of money. I've told my friends about it, but I never got around to writing about until now. I don't know if it serves any educational purpose to relate it, but it was very weird. Maybe there is a lesson to be learned about paying attention.

I had been playing $1/$2 no limit for about two hours and had grown my stack from $200 to around $320 - playing my usual tight game. Buddy on my left was pretty loose, and I'd taken a few pots when he called when he should have folded.

Then this happened:


I was in late position when Lucky-Short-Stack (middle position) raised $15 pre-flop with only around $80 in chips in front of him. I looked down at J9o and made what can only be described as a very bad call. Why I did this I can't say - against a short stack it seems a very bad play because even if I hit, I'm not going to get a huge pay-off. It was dumb and inexplicable as up to that point I'd been playing smart poker. Anyway Buddy-On-my-Left also calls so three of us see the flop: Ks Qd 5h

Okay, I've got an open-ended straight draw. That's a 1-in-3 shot to complete if I can stick around to the river right? There's about $40 in the pot. Lucky is the first to act and he fires half of his stack - $40 - into the middle. I'm getting pot odds to call, so I do. Buddy calls too. With a $160 pot the three of us see the turn. The board now looks like this: Ks Qd 5h 2s.

Lucky puts his last $40 in. Praying I hit my straight, I call. Now the pot is $280, with Lucky all in. Buddy calls as well.

The river brings an 8h! I hit my straight! Whoopee! Now I'm gonna clean out Buddy here for all his chips! There is no way he can escape! I just check, not wanting to scare him away. Just as I expected he put in a bet - but only $100, much to my disappointment. I hemmed and hawed a bit to sell it, then pushed all-in - a $200 re-raise.

And then it hit me: I don't have a straight. In fact, I don't have anything at all. I just put all my chips into a pot without so much as a pair. Even though I suddenly felt like puking, I somehow managed to keep my face from betraying me. After about two minutes (It felt like twenty) Buddy folds - showing that he had A K. I guess he was convinced by my tight play that top-pair top-kicker wasn't good enough to beat me. The side pot was mine.

I would have mucked my hand, except I was also in the main pot with Lucky-Short-Stack, so I had to show. "I got nothing." I said as I flip my cards over. Buddy, as you might expect, is a little put out. Lucky-Short-Stack, can't believe it - all he has is a pair of queens, but since I pushed out Buddy (who says he folded kings) he goes from getting busted to tripling up.

For all my incredible risk taking, I only made about $20 in total because I lost the main pot. Still it could have been - should have been- a disaster for me.

I ended up $140 up on the day when I left about an hour later. What can you learn from this? Nothing except that sometimes lady luck smiles even on idiots.

The Fun Factor

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about the detrimental effect fear will have on your game. Yesterday, while playing in a live tournament, it suddenly struck me that having fun at the poker table actually helps you win.

My epiphany came as I sat with a hot Asian chick on my left who obviously was enjoying herself, kibbitzing and teasing, not taking the game like it was life and death. On my right sat Bad Luck Schleprock, a miserable grumbler who had his own personal rain-cloud hovering over him. There was another happy-go-lucky fellow at the table too, and this guy seemed to be unbeatable. He was playing every second or third pot and winning more than his fair share of them. Sure enough Schleprock's stack soon dwindled to nothing while Mr.Fun and Glamour Girl ran over the rest of us.

Does winning at poker make you happy? It seems like the answer should be an obvious yes, but I'm not so sure. What I am more confident in saying is that being happy makes you more likely to win at poker. Poker is, after all, a game. The playful mind sees possibilities where the grumpy mind sees foolishness. Furthermore a happy-go-lucky demeanour can put the grouches on tilt, the grouch is convinced Mr. Happy is not good but lucky, and they let this perception influence their decisions.

I once heard someone say you should play poker with a loose body and a tight mind. Maybe "happy" is too general a word for this "loose body" state I am referring to. It is a concept that I am still trying to understand. Any insights you would care to share would be appreciated.