Life and Times of a Poker Addict

Or, A Strategy Introduction for the Ultra Competitive Individual.

One of the hardest things for me to develop through this first year of seriously playing poker was the ability to tone down the competitive side of my personality. As much as poker is a game of controlled aggression, it is equally about finesse. And every time I attempted to impose my will on a game through brute force, it usually failed. There are several reasons it wouldn't work, whether it being the general axiom that you can't bluff bad players to the hard truth that you can't will mediocre hands into great hands.

There are two worlds of poker, the tournament game and the cash game, and though both require the same general set of skills they also each require something different be brought to the table. As a lot of writers and strategists have documented previously, the aggressive player in a tournament setting can quickly accumulate a lot of chips and will generally either shoot to the top or bomb out quickly. The aggressive nature is aided in a tournament by the finite number of chips a player is provided as well as the added pressure of ever increasing blind structures. In the cash games though, more care is required by an aggressive player because there is not necessarily the pressure of losing all one's chips and being out of the game, you can always rebuy. So players that might in a tournament setting be less likely to make a stand in the face of your constant aggression may do exactly that in the cash games.

In a very general sense this is the dichotomy of poker. So how then do you tone your aggression to the game you're playing in? When I first started playing, I was obsessed with the bluff. I didn't only want to win the pots that my cards were allowing me to win, I wanted to win all the pots. And I bluffed... and bluffed... and bluffed some more. What's more, I showed my bluffs at every opportunity. Good bluffs, bad bluffs, it really didn't matter to me so long as the player knew that I had beat them. Pretty soon however, people didn't lay mediocre hands down to me. And generally that would be a good thing, except that I still hadn't toned down the bluffing. I got caught a lot and it cost me a lot of money that I didn't need to lose.

The other problem with being a beginner and bluffing is that I didn't know how to bluff correctly. Had I been playing with better players instead of more beginners like myself, I can only imagine how much money I would have lost. The thing I enjoy most about poker is the mental exercise. In poker you are attempting to weave a story for your opponent(s). This is true much more so in no limit poker than in limit poker. After a lot of experience you begin to understand more advanced concepts such as how to represent hands and when to bluff. I had a few hands on my most recent Atlantic City trip that I will recount to demonstrate.

Playing $2-5 No Limit Hold'em, Hero is in middle position with 9 10 of spades and the pot is four ways to the flop with no preflop raise. Pot size is $22.

Flop is J 10 5 rainbow. The flop is checked to late position who makes a bet of $10. Hero and one other call.

Turn is a Q, making a board of Q J 10 5 rainbow. It's checked to the late position bettor and he bets $15 into $52 pot, only Hero calls.

River is a J, making a final board of Q J 10 5 J. Hero checks and Player bets $75 into an $82 pot.

Hero calls and Player mucks, the pair of 10's was good enough to win.

If the Player had only bet about $35-40 on the River, I really don't think I would have called. It would have represented a hand much better than mine that was looking to get a call. But by betting weak on the flop, weak on the turn and then overly strong on the river, his story made no sense. His big bet on the river looks like he's trying to force any good hands out of the pot, instead of looking like a strong hand trying to induce a crying call. Alternately, had he made a stronger bet on the turn, a strong bet on the river doesn't look as suspicious. A stronger bet on the turn makes it look like he hit the Queen and is trying to price out drawing hands to the straight like mine was. Then a strong bet around $50-60 on the river makes sense given pot size and the hand he is trying to represent.

Likewise here is a bluff that I made earlier at the same table. I had developed a tight table image which is a very important factor in making a bluff. People have to believe that you play strong hands in order to lay down medium strength hands to you.

Hero is in middle position with QJ of diamonds and makes a standard raise to $20 with two limpers in front of him. He takes the flop three ways with a pot size of $72.

Flop comes down 10 8 2 rainbow. First player checks, I bet $40, and I get called by one late position player and the original checker. Pot size is now $192.

Turn is a 5, putting a flush draw on the board of 10 8 2 5. First player checks, I bet $125, and both players fold. The first player mucked J10 and the last player mucked KQ.

So why is my bluff successful, even with a player holding top pair? Because I've represented a very strong hand by making successive strong bets that make sense. Your opponent should be reading your actions and thinking, "What hand would I be holding if I were making bets like that?"

If I raised preflop and bet strong on the flop and then stronger on the turn, I'd most likely be holding an overpair. The other important factor for my success was that the player holding J10 was a good player and I knew it. A weaker player may not fold a hand that includes top pair which is something to keep in mind when surveying your opponents at a table. Try and decide what hands someone isn't capable of getting away from. Not only will that net you more money by knowing when and when not to bluff, but also can net you more money when holding a very strong hand. You may be able to bet stronger than you normally would trying to keep a player in the hand when you know you have them beat.

This is the first part in a general poker strategy discussion I'll be doing. I welcome any and all comments as usual, and will be happy to answer any questions or address anything from my perspective about poker.