Lesson I
1.a: Bet your good hands.
1.b: When you fuck up, just check.
I am not a good enough poker player to indulge in too much trickery or deceit, i.e. slowplaying. Last week, I had a pair of queens in the hole and flopped a set. Beautiful. The flop was Qh, Xh, X. I bet two dollars, which was not bad; it was early, and there had been no big pots yet, and $2 was 4X the big blind, so was a perfectly reasonable strength bet. Perhaps an overbet would have smelled like a steal and gotten a call, but that made no sense; two people had checked behind me, but there were at least four left to act (a lot of people had seen the flop). I was willing to muck if a heart came on the turn and I was faced with a significant bet.
Everyone dumps except the two checkers behind me, who both just call. This should literally scream FLUSH DRAW. The turn comes Xc. Now, look at the situation. I have enough information to put both of my opponents onto either flush draws, or at best, high pairs that they are hoping to improve. Aces or kings would have raised my flop bet, and I don't care about them anyway, as no aces or kings have come on the board, and I already have made top set, so I don't care about any other hole pairs.
Thus, two factors are strongly in favor of a large bet here: 1) FLUSH DRAWS. DUH. I didn't have the chance to bet them out after the flop (they just called my bet, ending the action), and now they are doubly susceptible as the turn didn't help them; and (2) high pairs, as this is a game where people will take a pair of kings or aces to the river even in the face of strong betting. So, I bet....$2.
What the fuck? What? The pot is already $10. My bet makes it $12. First caller is getting 6-1 odds, and odds of hitting a flush on the river are just under 5-1. Obvious call. The second caller has it even better, getting 7-1. Even more obvious. Of course they both call. Of course the river is a 4h.
So what do I do? Do I hang my head in shame and check? No! I bet $5, the amount I should have bet on the turn, which is immediately called by an ace-high flush by the first caller (second caller mucks, but the damage was done. Good money after bad, and just a shittily played hand by me. I fell in love with my set, and "set a trap" by "suckering in" the two callers. I skilfully and cleverly dicked away $11, or about 1/2 my stack.
Or did this callow love affair begin sooner? Should I have bet my queens hard before the flop, and driven out the Ah-2h that won the hand? Well, maybe not. In the end, my raise to $2 before the flop was probably OK; and in fact I was surprised that it got so many callers early. After the flop, I was first to act and bet $2, which was not really enough, but a bit more forgiveable, as the set cried out for action, and I was still setting 3-1 odds for the remaining players, not really good enough to chase the flush, and still early enough that I could dump the set if a heart came on the turn, and I faced a significant raise. But the sick thing here is that I knew the second she called my turn bet that I had fucked up, and that I was beat. That $5 at the end was just pure tilt. Why make that bet. I knew what had happened, and the only hand that would bother to call it was the flush that would beat me.
Bet your good hands, and when you fuck up, just check. If you fuck up and you know it, just check. Don't try to save the thing with a big move. Sure, stronger, better players than I may scoff, but I am not those players, and if I can't avoid mistakes in the first instance, at least I can recognize when they happen (which I did), and try to minimize the damage (which I did not).
1.b: When you fuck up, just check.
I am not a good enough poker player to indulge in too much trickery or deceit, i.e. slowplaying. Last week, I had a pair of queens in the hole and flopped a set. Beautiful. The flop was Qh, Xh, X. I bet two dollars, which was not bad; it was early, and there had been no big pots yet, and $2 was 4X the big blind, so was a perfectly reasonable strength bet. Perhaps an overbet would have smelled like a steal and gotten a call, but that made no sense; two people had checked behind me, but there were at least four left to act (a lot of people had seen the flop). I was willing to muck if a heart came on the turn and I was faced with a significant bet.
Everyone dumps except the two checkers behind me, who both just call. This should literally scream FLUSH DRAW. The turn comes Xc. Now, look at the situation. I have enough information to put both of my opponents onto either flush draws, or at best, high pairs that they are hoping to improve. Aces or kings would have raised my flop bet, and I don't care about them anyway, as no aces or kings have come on the board, and I already have made top set, so I don't care about any other hole pairs.
Thus, two factors are strongly in favor of a large bet here: 1) FLUSH DRAWS. DUH. I didn't have the chance to bet them out after the flop (they just called my bet, ending the action), and now they are doubly susceptible as the turn didn't help them; and (2) high pairs, as this is a game where people will take a pair of kings or aces to the river even in the face of strong betting. So, I bet....$2.
What the fuck? What? The pot is already $10. My bet makes it $12. First caller is getting 6-1 odds, and odds of hitting a flush on the river are just under 5-1. Obvious call. The second caller has it even better, getting 7-1. Even more obvious. Of course they both call. Of course the river is a 4h.
So what do I do? Do I hang my head in shame and check? No! I bet $5, the amount I should have bet on the turn, which is immediately called by an ace-high flush by the first caller (second caller mucks, but the damage was done. Good money after bad, and just a shittily played hand by me. I fell in love with my set, and "set a trap" by "suckering in" the two callers. I skilfully and cleverly dicked away $11, or about 1/2 my stack.
Or did this callow love affair begin sooner? Should I have bet my queens hard before the flop, and driven out the Ah-2h that won the hand? Well, maybe not. In the end, my raise to $2 before the flop was probably OK; and in fact I was surprised that it got so many callers early. After the flop, I was first to act and bet $2, which was not really enough, but a bit more forgiveable, as the set cried out for action, and I was still setting 3-1 odds for the remaining players, not really good enough to chase the flush, and still early enough that I could dump the set if a heart came on the turn, and I faced a significant raise. But the sick thing here is that I knew the second she called my turn bet that I had fucked up, and that I was beat. That $5 at the end was just pure tilt. Why make that bet. I knew what had happened, and the only hand that would bother to call it was the flush that would beat me.
Bet your good hands, and when you fuck up, just check. If you fuck up and you know it, just check. Don't try to save the thing with a big move. Sure, stronger, better players than I may scoff, but I am not those players, and if I can't avoid mistakes in the first instance, at least I can recognize when they happen (which I did), and try to minimize the damage (which I did not).
posted by st at 11:32 AM
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