The following exchange happened last night at Foxwoods between myself and the player to my left. Believe me when I say that this is a conversation you never want to have with me… or anyone for that matter.
Me: “Dude, you have a straight flush!”
Dude: “I know!”
Me: “So why didn’t you raise???”
The board on the river was 7h 8h 9h Th X (I don’t remember the last card, but it wasn’t a heart). Dude checked, the other guy in the hand bet $50, and Dude called. Then he turned up the jack of hearts. As soon as I spoke, the guy looked up and realized that his Victim had more chips. He simply couldn’t see them because of the way Victim’s hands were positioned. Furthermore, Victim didn’t have any hearts in his hand at all, and wouldn’t have called another cent, so honest mistake and no opportunity cost.
Sadly, that’s not the first time I’ve seen that happen. The other time was much worse. There was a one gap four card straight flush on board. The hapless fool on my left checked, the next player to act bet, and the hapless fool, after thinking about it for a while, decided to call. All he had was a medium-high card of the suit, and he only called given the chance that his opponent was bluffing. As you’ve no doubt deduced, that medium-high card gave the hapless fool a straight-flush. His opponent had the ace of the suit. And they were both deep stacked. the error cost him well over three hundred dollars.
So please, folks, please. Don’t ever make that mistake. Really. Every time the last player to act on the last street merely checks or calls while holding the nuts and more cash behind, a puppy dog gets drop-kicked.
You wouldn’t want to be responsible for drop-kicking a puppy dog would you?
Posted by Beck as Poker at 4:53 PM PDT
5 Comments »
I’m going to be in Vegas over the weekend of July 11 for my bachelor party. Any and all readers of the site are encouraged to let me know if you’re going to be there at the same time. Donkey poker shall be played in excess.
I’ll toss up another post on the subject when it gets closer to the actual date, but I wanted to mention something now while the airfare is still cheap enough to buy without taking out a second mortgage.
Posted by Beck as Poker at 4:23 PM PDT
2 Comments »
Probably because I’m not Howard Lederer. In an extract from a recent strategy page written for fulltiltpoker.com, Lederer makes an observation about the payout structure for SNGs which I’d never thought of, but which makes complete sense. It’s changed the way I think about SNGs, that’s for sure.
But there’s another not-so-obvious reason to play tighter earlier and looser later: The payout structure rewards tight play. Most SNG’s pay 50% to first, 30% to second, and 20% to third. This payout structure dictates that you play for third. Why? Looking at the payout structure another way might help. Basically, the payout means that 60% gets awarded once you’re down to three players, 20% gets awarded when you get down to two players, and the final 20% gets awarded to the winner. If you can just get to third, you get at least one-third of 60% of the prize pool, or 20%. You’ve locked up a profit, and you have a chance to win up to 30% more. It’s only now that you’re in the top three that your strategy should take an abrupt turn. Now it pays to gamble for the win. Let’s look at the numbers again: 60% of the prize pool is off the table, and moving up one spot is worth only another 10%. But move up just one more spot and it’s worth a whopping 30% extra — that’s three times more for first than it is for second. And with the blinds going up, gambling for the win is even more clearly the correct play.
Posted by Beck as Poker at 4:22 PM PDT
3 Comments »
