POKER IN ATLANTIC CITY
last night i sit down at 1-2 table and am in big blind. pot is raised to 17 dollars and 3 people call and i look down and lo and behold, ACES. i reraise to 67 dollars (a fifty dollar raise) and the original raiser goes all in and the others fold. i, of course, call; he turns over kings and i double up in my first hand at table. this goes back to the previous post about how dangerous kings and queens can be. since it was my first hand and no one on this table had ever played with me, i guess the guy didn't believe the obvious.
so far, i am up a little over 500 for the week which ain't half bad since i started the week 200 in the hole.
i am what is called, a grinder. i sit and wait for good hands in good position and count on fools to pay me off. today, i doubled up on my first blind. there are 7 callers and i look down and there is ace king of hearts but i do not raise because on this table i have seen already people call big raises with shit cards so i decide to see the flop and go from there. flop is Ad, 4h, 8h. nice. i bet 20 dollars and am called by the man on my left and a guy in late position, next card is the 6c, no help and i bet 35 dollars and am called by the guy on my left and the late position folds. last card is 8c. i bet 40 dollars and the guy on my left goes all in. i call. he had ace 4 so while he had me beat until the river, he now had aces and 8's with a 4 kicker! double up!
another thing i try to do is if i catch myself making mistakes such as bad calls or bad bets i leave and take a nap or a walk and then go back later. after i go ahead big today, i lose about 75 dollars back by playing poorly so i get up and leave. always remember, THE GAME GOES ON FOREVER. you don't have to win this session, what you have to do is play well. playing well leads to winning sessions because so many people do not play well. (see above)
anyway, now it is nap time.
so far, i am up a little over 500 for the week which ain't half bad since i started the week 200 in the hole.
i am what is called, a grinder. i sit and wait for good hands in good position and count on fools to pay me off. today, i doubled up on my first blind. there are 7 callers and i look down and there is ace king of hearts but i do not raise because on this table i have seen already people call big raises with shit cards so i decide to see the flop and go from there. flop is Ad, 4h, 8h. nice. i bet 20 dollars and am called by the man on my left and a guy in late position, next card is the 6c, no help and i bet 35 dollars and am called by the guy on my left and the late position folds. last card is 8c. i bet 40 dollars and the guy on my left goes all in. i call. he had ace 4 so while he had me beat until the river, he now had aces and 8's with a 4 kicker! double up!
another thing i try to do is if i catch myself making mistakes such as bad calls or bad bets i leave and take a nap or a walk and then go back later. after i go ahead big today, i lose about 75 dollars back by playing poorly so i get up and leave. always remember, THE GAME GOES ON FOREVER. you don't have to win this session, what you have to do is play well. playing well leads to winning sessions because so many people do not play well. (see above)
anyway, now it is nap time.
posted by Ron Shock | 10:25 AM
7 Comments:
You say the guy with the kings "didn't believe the obvious" when he went all in against you. Actually, it is far from obvious. A player who makes a strong pre-flop raise or re-raise is statistically more likely to have AK or a pair weaker than pocket aces. He was correct to play his kings aggressively here and try to get you in a heads-up situation.
I also question your decision not to raise pre-flop with your AK suited merely because some of the players had been "calling big raises with shit cards". You want to narrow the field here, especially if the ones with the shitty cards will be the only ones calling. You want to drive out hands like small-to-medium pairs, which will hurt you if you miss the flop. If the only remaining callers are the ones who play the shitty cards, and they miss the flop, too, your AK is still good.
i agree with you on the ak but disagree on the kings. i think he should have seen the flop but then again, he would still be in the same situation. had he played with me before he would have known (that is assuming he had been paying attention) that i had to have aces, i would not have reraised that much with anything less.
If he had known from previous experience playing with you that you very probably had aces in that situation, then yes, he should have backed off. But then there would be no reason for him to see the flop, either, knowing he was a big underdog.
On the other hand, do you really want to play a style that telegraphs your aces every time you have them?
well yes, in a way i do. that way anyone with any sense gets out of my way and only fools call. especially when there has been a previous raise with callers, i have to thin the field (in my opinion) and am more than happy to take the 60 or so dollars already in pot. one up, just me and the first raiser, i will probably not reraise, looking to get even more. i watch people play aces too soft and that leads to them losing.
I agree that you shouldn't make a habit of soft-playing aces just to disguise the fact that you have them. But every once in a while you probably want to lay back a little with your aces in NL, to trap players who have hands like KK, QQ, or JJ.
More importantly, I think, is to play certain hands like AK, AQ, or even AJ just as aggressively as if you had the pocket aces. This makes you harder to read, and also allows you to win pots when players assume you must have had the aces.
For example, suppose you have AJ and you make a large raise or re-raise and get heads up with a player who has pocket tens. If a king or queen comes on the flop, and you now attack the flop aggressively (just as you would if you actually had the aces), the player is very likely to fold.
I like this back-and-forth here. It's a pretty good discussion.
But I also think there's a large "know your opponents" factor that has to go into these no-limit discussions.
Personally, if I don't know anything about you and you sit down at my table and make that kind of raise on your first hand, even from the big blind, I'm not going to have a choice other than to put you on aces if I'm holding kings.
If you've been playing for two hours, or if I've played with you before, maybe it's different. But on that first hand, I'm going to get away from it and assume I'll make up for that hit within the hour.
I had kings last night and called an all-in by a kid who sees about 50 percent of flops and he kad K-6 offsuit and he flopped a set of sixes.
...
Anyway, point is, the statistics drive me insane when we're talking about playing in Atlantic City or on the Strip because of the number of people at the tables who don't get it. They're tourists and they've seen too much TV and you just have to sit at a table with them for a long time and get a read on them first. Then apply the statistics.
I'm nowhere near good enough to play tournaments, or even a table with more than 2-3 good players. But being incredibly cautious early on has worked so far for me. Hence, I lay down the kings against Ron in that particular situation.
Dear Josh,
The thing is, there are a lot of players who raise big on the first hand or two knowing that the other players will probably fold. They pick up some easy money this way. Unless you already know the player very well, I wouldn't just assume that the new player has aces or even a good hand in this situation. I certainly wouldn't fold my kings!
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