Information Denial - check in the dark

One way to deny any information about your hand is to check before you see the next card.

Usually, players bet when a card improves their hand and check when it doesn't.  In most cases that makes sense since you want to invest more when it suits you and lose less when it doesn't.  But acting on the card either way gives away more information than not acting on the card.

Therefore, when you have to go first and you don't want to give free information then checking in the dark will accomplish that for you. Maybe that flush card made your hand.  Maybe you made the straight.  But for your opponents it's harder to guess that when you give them no information first to act.

I talk about information in my upcoming poker book, due out this summer. 

Vegas Poker - $130 NLHE at Caesar's Palace

Last tournament I played, I started at noon on Sunday for the $130 NLHE at Caesar's Palace.

I started out at a table of fish, so I fished with the rest of them.  I chipped up with a few lucky hands from the starting 15,000 to about 23,000 in the first hour.  That set the tone for me, I chipped up slowly except for a couple of setbacks. I wiped out a loose aggressive player with a flopped straight versus top pair. I bluffed a weak player with a well timed reraise.   I was above the average for most of the afternoon.  I kept up pressure and then lost a big hand to the table chip leader. Ugh he would not fold anything. That cost me my comfortable standing so I went into survival mode. I wasn't beat but I didn't make any mistakes.

 After 4PM, I was above chip average again until I got called by a desperate player and my pocket Aces made the full house.  I folded KQs and could have taken out 2 players and I regret not calling it would have cost me only 25% of my stack.

From 4PM till 5PM, I was absolutely card dead as the blinds rose and rose. Suddenly my superior chip stack was now somewhere in the middle of the pack. I didn't give up.  At dinner break I was maybe 7 blinds deep.  I went to see my wife and said I wouldn't be long.
Back from break I decided to go all in with A-rag, six deuce, and pocket jacks in the first 3 hands. Now I was back in the race.  I changed tables and looked down at pocket Queens. I raised under the gun and got reraised all-in by a loose player that was a chip leader at my original table and now was short stacked.  He turned over pocket nines and I sent him packing.  Now I was the table chip leader.  I made some moves to gain some chips and then survived to the money bubble. I made the money and then had to fold an ace to kings and Aces.  I survived that hand in the big blind, but that left me short stacked and shoved with K9s in the small blind.  I lost to a lucky QJ and was out in 34 place. 

Not bad for a field of 271 players.

Vegas Poker $340 Deep Stack NLHE at Aria

Ok, after playing in a donkfest at the Caesar's Palace, I headed back to the room for a break and then onto the Aria Hotel for the afternoon.  I played in the special $340 NLHE tournament in the afternoon. Starting stacks were 15,000 but I was in the game after an hour so many players were way ahead of me.

One point, don't play on a table full of fish and then play the same way at the table full of sharks.  I didn't hit any flop in the first ten hands and short stacked myself.  But also nothing hit, my best hand of two pair was a gabage 9-5 offsuit.  Not a good start.  I made it two hours but it's hard to catch up to 35,000 stacks with tight players that will only put chips in the middle when they are ahead.

I was in a three way pot in the BB with AK off and decided to shove for 5,000 remaining.  I got snap called by the large stack holding pocket sevens and was out.  As it turned out the small blind and the under the gun raiser had a big decision so I'm guessing either one or both had an ace.  I should have factored it in to my decision. But really at this point I was a short stack.

I know reraising with big slick is an obvious tell. I know for a few chips more a big stack is not going to fold to the overbet.  It's not really an option.  You need chips badly and this is one of the premium hands.  You may not know your opponent but the worst case scenarion is general is a lower pocket pair.  Yes sometimes it's aces and that will happen. But in general you are in a race to double up and stay in it or finish.  A tournament needs races to go your way at some point in the tournament.  If you don't hit your hand that's the reality.
It seems like a bad play with a draw but a large stack can just keep firing on all streets and make you give up without seeing the river. That's just as likely. So if he does just have a pair you are still in it to the end. Sure sometimes it's a set but that's so rare you can't really consider it when you are short stacked.  You also have to consider that reraising all in will make some hands fold to let you get some chips some of the time and also they are calling not seeing the flop.  You are denying them information - maybe this flop they hit a set or two pair and you have no expected value from your hand.

Plus you can't play scared. Scared money doesn't make money.

Vegas Poker $70 NLHE at Caesar's Palace

I went to Vegas to play some live tournaments and test my skills against the various casino regulars and tourists.

Las Vegas is always fun because you can see all kinds players.  And you can play all kinds of games. The table make-up changes a lot based on the casino and the buy-in amount.  It makes for a very different experience depending on what type you choose to play.

My first tournament was the 9am $70 NLHE tourney at Caesar's Palace on the Las Vegas Strip.

This tourney is sort of a donk-fest. I mean the blind structure is so fast with 15 minute levels that even the chip leader gets short stacked very quickly. This makes for an exciting game if you don't know what you are doing and you are happy to throw your chips in with little or no hope of winning

I sat down and doubled up twice in three hands with a flopped full house and top pair hands.  It was a good start.  Of course, since this was full of people that didn't know how to play, I had to expect extra donkiness.  I raised a short stack with pocket sixes, and he comes over the top all in with 2-3 hearts...  OMG.
Of course, he makes the river flush and doubles up.  Then he doubles up again through me and now I'm an average stack at the table.  So I play tighter and make it from  the original 32 down to the final 9 players. 

Short on chips, under 5 BB and 3 away from the money, I shoved with pocket 77 and, of course, the good player beside me wakes up with KK and knocks me out. 

Oh, and that donkey? Yeah, he called a huge reraise  he hit an ace on the flop against a tight player to knock out pocket JJ and become a chip leader.  Here's hoping he comes back to play me again.

Always Take Your Time!

Sometimes poker players feel rushed to make a decision, but if you look at the most successful grinders they take as much time as they need.  Sure, online they give you scant seconds to make a hard call and this can cost you because you may be ahead and how do you know if you don't take the time to run through the hand.

Never feel like you can't take the time to act.  It is costly otherwise.  IF you are online and you need more time then don't play so many tables at once.  Play as many as you can handle if two or so had really important decisions at the same time. You need to be able to make the right call and that will mean replaying the hand over and over.  Take the time!

Guinness World Record Pokerstars.com

I entered the Pokerstars Guinness World Record NL Hold'em tournament.  It had 225,000 entrants. I made it to the final 11,000 players. Made it to the top 4%.

I was running good, I didn't get too lucky and my big pairs weren't cracked.  Then I made a mistake with pocket Tens, calling an all in and then folding to a bigger pair. That caused me to lost half my stack.  So I waited, got Aces under the gun and went all in with my remaining 11,000 chips.  Of course, some Russian donkey with 110,000 calls with King Jack and makes a straight.  It was as good a chance to double up as you can get: one opponent, 80% favorite, and forced out all other speculative hands.

Never be upset if you get your money in that good and lose.

Min reraises

Of all the ways you can be raised, the min reraise is the most fearsome.  It is just double the bet you just made, so it is giving you just the right pot odds to call almost any hand. Even a gut-shot straight draw.

But that's why you shouldn't unless you are also holding a good hand.

Of course the min reraise is now a favoured bluff technique because it's more of an information reraise.  But you shouldn't attempt those too often.  Not many people have the intestinal fortitude to double barrel bluff so you should take all min reraises by most normal players as a serious show of strength and the perfect reliable information with which to decide.

Thinking of Aces

When I was starting out, I used to assume my opponent had Aces. It seemed like a conservative way to play.

Big mistake.  If someone gets aces about once every 220 hands, then assuming someone has Aces is going to be wrong more times that not. 

Does this mean someone won't get Aces twice in three hands? No, I've been wiped out by loose players that just happened to get that lucky;  what went through my head was - " Hell, he can't have Aces twice in a row."  Well, he did.

But in general, 219 hands out of 220 on average, it's better to assume your opponent never has Aces. Only when you eliminate all the other reasonable hands should you consider he has that overpair.

Bluff Barrels

Ok I watched this video by a poker player that details what he thinks

Poker Barrel Bluffs

about bluffing and his poker player types. He's referring to how many streets a player will bluff at you based on how they play.  He thinks:

A NIT fires one bluff ( e.g. a one-barrel bluff)
A TAG fires 2 bluffs (2 barrel bluff)
A LAG fires 3 bluffs (3 barrels - all the way to river)
A DONKEY fires Infinite (bet bet bet bet)

Now on the face of it, this seems well reasoned. But here's the problem.  If you start thinking in terms of limits and constraints this may seem like a rationale idea.  But here's the problem.  If your opponent looks back at the history and sees you only call 2 streets then no matter what you do they are going to fire three.  You have become predictable.  Your predictability has become a weakness.

This is the kind of fixed frame thinking that will lead to people beating you.

Sometimes I bluff once.  Sometimes I keep bluffing.  If I think people are calling on the flop hoping I shut down on the river, then I will reraise them on the turn after I check.
 By announcing how you play, no matter what your tendencies, you give your opponent more information.

Wild Bill Hickok

Will Bill epitomizes the greatest poker players.  He was fearless, determined to see a showdown to the end, and died doing what he was good at.

Wild Bill Hickok

The Dead Man's hand, the famous Aces and Eights, is a personal favourite of mine because you can stack off some foolish Big Slick with hidden two pair.