Stupid Plays

Late last night I played some more Internet Poker at Absolute Poker. Wow, what a great session. I landed on a $3-$6 LHE table. And it was juicy.

Most of my time has been split recently between the $1-$2 through $3-$6 at Absolute Poker and I’m really enjoying the $3-$6 tables. Overall the players are better there, but much more predictable. And many of them still have significant leaks in their games that are very exploitable. It makes for a good earning session, with less of the roller coaster riding of the lower tables.

The $1-$2 are fairly loose, with four to six players in every hand. Many players are playing trash holdings from almost any position and have only the fuzziest ideas about the importance of position. While this is a very profitable game, it is hard to ever put a player on a hand, or to be able to define your hand. Bluffing is also a loosing proposition, because almost any dodo with second pair/bad kicker will call you to the river. So you just have to play technical poker. The good news is when you have the best hand, they will pay you off. But with so many trash hands playing top pair and two pair are not so strong. This is a game of straights and flushes and if you make your draws.

At the $3-$6 the difference is remarkable. Here the tables are pretty tight… everybody playing with a fair understanding of the values of starting hands, and are more sophisticated in using position before and after the flop. Most hands are heads up or three-handed, only rarely going four-handed or higher. Their weaknesses are overvaluing premium cards post flop. But the nice thing is this style of play makes it much easier to isolate yourself when you want to play heads-up against a particularly bad player in a hand.

Two hands came up last night that are perfect examples of these points. I’m in the small blind. A middle position player raised and the Button and SB called. I had T8 offsuit so I called. The flop came KQJ. Wow, scary. It gives me a low-end, open-ended straight draw but against that board I could already be beat. SB and I check. The original bettor leads out. The button calls and SB folds. I’m getting tremendous pot odds so I call. The Turn is a 9, giving me the second nut straight. I bet to test the waters. I’m called by both remaining players.

I’m praying for no Ten and for the board not to pair. If any of that happens I know I’m dead. If an Ace hits I figure I’ll split the pot with somebody. The river comes a harmless 6. I bet and both players call. The Middle Position Player had AK and the SB had A7.

The AK had top pair/top kicker, but how good was that with that board, and the BB leading into him after the turn? He’s probably up against two pair or a straight, maybe a set. He probably shouldn’t have called the turn and definitely never should have called the river, in my opinion, yeah, he had massive pot odds to call, but really, could he expect to have ANY chance to win that pot?

And the SB just fell into the Top-and-bottom fallacy. They have four to an Ace High Straight and they think one card will give them the nuts. They don’t stop to think that they are really drawing to a gutshot straight… four outs. Half of those times they are only drawing for a chance to split the pot. If a 7 hits it is nothing. An Ace would give him a top pair but most of the time it would lose to two pair or a straight. This is a true money losing hand. But it comes from playing your hand, without giving consideration for what might be playing against you.

The second hand was a true pleasure. I was in the cutoff when an early position player raised pre-flop. Now this is one of those obnoxious players… the ones who think they are better than they are and love to berate others for their “Donkey” play. Normally these idiots are the worse donkeys at the table and I love to wait in the grass for them.

This guy really liked big cards. I’d seen him bet out-of-position and play very strongly hands like AK/AJ/77. So while he could have a premium pair, he was more apt to bet strong like that with something weaker. Well I had JJ and this was my chance. I smooth called and we went to the flop three handed.

BINGO! J43.

He bet. Normally I would just call here so I wouldn’t scare him off. But I know he would ferociously defend his big cards. So I raised. He re-raised as I expected, so I capped the betting. A 9 was on the flop. He checked, I bet and he merely called. If he had a big pair he would have raised again too. I expect he has something Like AK, AQ or maybe a medium pair. Now I’m praying for an Ace or a smaller card that gives him a smaller set than mine.

The last card is fantastic, yet a great disappointment. It is a J, giving me Quads.

He checks and folds. I check hand history and he was playing AQ.

I played the hand well, I thought.

He didn’t. AQ is fairly strong, but is an underdog to any pair or premium hand. Against QQ, KK, AA or AK it is a big dog. When nothing hits on the flop, and I’m raising and re-raising, he should fold. His best chance is if he’s up against something like KJ/JT or something similar. He’s almost drawing dead to AA/JJ/AJ/44/33/A4/A3 and is a huge dog to QQ/KK and any hand holding a Jack. In fact, the only hand he would feel good about going against right now is something like AT/A9 or similar, but would I be capping the flop with hands like that?

When I re-raised him on the flop it was time for him to go. He didn’t, so he gave me two big bets he shouldn’t have.