Entries from November 2007 ↓

The First 18 Years

This will be a recount of my personal history in a similar fashion to Henri’s “My Life Story” segment. Enjoy!

The Early Years

The first few years of my life were a blur of eating, sleeping, and discovering all the new and wondrous things in the world. My family moved often, from Florida, to New Jersey, eventually settling in New York.

I was an energetic child, always asking questions, wanting to know how things worked, and why. My parents were patient with me, helping me to learn the workings of the world around me.
I was fearless as well – I always wanted to climb up the tallest slide, play in every game, climb every tree, swim across the biggest pool. My parents worked very hard to keep me healthy and intact, and miraculously I made it through most of early childhood with no broken bones!

Everything changed a few weeks after I turned four years old. My mom brought home a new baby, my brother Evan. This was great, I had someone new to play with! As he grew we became good friends, and though we would quarrel over competitive things occasionally, we got along great most times.

My schooling was pretty standard for most Americans. I went to pre-school, half-day kindergarten, and eventually 1^st grade, where things got serious. I came home from my first day of 1^st grade quite unhappy, I had just learned that this 7am-to-3pm chore was to be my fate for the next twelve years! There was nothing to do but make the best of it, so I made friends and put an effort into enjoying the learning process.

My elementary school was one class, made up of twenty children who all moved up together, so it was rare to meet a new face. As such, each grade was essentially the same experience but with different learning material.

High school was an extraordinary change – my high school had 850 kids in the Freshman class! There were new faces to meet in every class, and tons of activities to participate in. I dove in, and had the best year of my short life at age fourteen.

Heartbreak!

Unfortunately, the summer after freshman year my father’s job got relocated, so my family moved to South Florida. My brother and I were both heartbroken, we were leaving our friends and extended family and people we loved. Now we had no friends, and strange new schools to adjust to in this sweaty, sunny new city.

I pretty much spent the entirety of Sophomore year sulking and in denial that I was not in New York. This was certainly not a healthy or mature reaction, but what can you expect from a 15-year old?

Maybe It’s Not So Bad?

By Junior year I had finally admitted to myself that I was here to stay. I started putting a real effort into making friends, I joined the soccer team, and generally set about making my high school experience better.

Fortunately for me, I could get my driver’s license at 16 – this was a blast! My parents bought me a red Firebird, an awesome two-door sports-car, as a reward for being the top of my class.

Both parents stressed to me at an early age that as a student my responsibility was to learn as much as possible and excel to the best of my abilities. If I did that, they said, I would be rewarded – both by them and by the opportunities available to me in life.

Aside from the conspicuous lack of a girlfriend, high school ended up being about as good as I could possibly have hoped – and it turned out that being in Florida was probably the best thing for me. The experience taught me so much about meeting new people and adapting to situations, so that when I went away to college I was completely excited and optimistic about the experience.

College!

I was fortunate to be accepted to Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and eagerly headed there in the fall of 2001. My family drove me there, helped me unpack, then wished me well and headed home – I was thrilled to be on my own. I became good friends with a bunch of people on the floor of my dorm, guys that I still am good friends with to this day.

College was exciting, I majored in Computer Science from day one and was stoked to be able to choose my classes based on what I wanted to learn.

There was so much free time too, I played ultimate frisbee and basketball with my friends, and had my first encounter with poker. It started as a fun way to pass a thursday night, playing a $5 buy-in mixed game with the guys from the dorm. It was loads of fun, I particularly liked the crazy wild-card games like “Kings and Littles” or “Baseball.”

At that point I had no idea that the things I learned playing poker at school would benefit me almost as much as what I learned in class.

Some brain food for you guys who do not really like making “loose” call downs.

I sat down at the table because of one player who plays about 65% of his hands pre-flop and raises 7% of these. He was the reason I was at this 6-max online game.

A few orbits go by and I have time to observe a few of his habits, although my reads are not rock-solid. He is often betting with nothing when checked to on multiple streets.

Then I receive a playable hand, Q J one off the cut-off (a.k.a MP or UTG+1) and decide to raise because I want to play pots against this guy.

Sure enough he calls on the button and everyone else folds.

The flop comes down KQ 8 and I decide to check it right away. Normally I would bet here because he calls with a wide range but I had seen him bluff when checked to. That meant he would bet almost all of his range here when I check to him and represent weakness.

He bets about 2/3rds of the pot and I call.

The turn comes K. A harmless card, no draws got there and it makes it less likely that he has a King. I check again, he bets 1/2 pot after thinking for 3 seconds and I call.

River brings 9 which completes a straight draw for a hand like JT but I am pretty sure about calling unless he does something crazy like shoves all-in. I check and he thinks until his timer has run down and bets a weird amount which amounts to about 1/2 pot.

Right here I am thinking about his range and how often I have to be good. When someone bets full pot and you have to call, you have to be good about 33% of the time.

The math goes something like this: If the pot is $100 and your opponent bets $100. The pot is $200 now (pot $100 and his bet $100 = $200) and you have to call $100, so add that in there and you have $300. Now take the amount you have to call ($100) and divide it by the pot + his bet + your call.

You get $100 / $100+$100+$100 = 0.33333 which means that you have to be good 33% of the time.

And when when someone bets 1/2 pot the same formula applies. For example someone bets $50 into $100, you have to call $50. This means $50 / $100+$50+$50 = 0.25 which means that you have to be good 25% of the time.

So my opponent bet a bit under 1/2 pot and I had to be good about 23-24% of the time. Considering that he could very well have a random hand, a missed flush draw or even a worse queen. I concluded that I would easily be good around 25% of the time and I called.

He flips up 65 for 6 high and I take the pot.

In spots like this versus opponents like this I like to call because my hand is easily good 23-24% of the time. You can make equity and hand range calculation yourself with PokerStove.

Welcome back, have you been thinking about how to play a hand like Ace King on different flops versus our opponents? Any conclusions or thoughts?

Feel free to ask questions or share your own thoughts.

Let’s cut the unnecessary word play and get started.

Playing The Flop With AK

What do you do when you re-raise a great hand like Ace King, get called and miss? You have to weigh a few factors when you make a decision like this, a few examples:

• How likely is your opponent to fold if you bet?
• What reactions does he have to different flops?
• What reactions does he have to different bet sizes?
• Will you opponent bluff a lot if you check to him?

Things like those are good to keep in mind to begin with. Most players can be manipulated in one way or another. Some are harder than others. Don’t blame me if you use what you read here as an excuse to make bad plays though!

Vs. Mike Isaballah

You put in chips for the re-raise and the clock starts ticking. Mike thinks for about 5 seconds and calls.

Flop #1

The flop comes down Q 5 3 missing you completely

What now? Since Mike is super-aggressive he will most likely put you on a hand he can beat. It is pretty unlikely Mike will fold a hand like pocket jacks or even pocket sixes.

If he called with a hand that now has a draw he will most likely just shove all-in if you bet. My play would be to just check-fold if you do not think there is a fair chance he will fold. And by fair I mean over 40-50%.

You will get better chances to stack Mike in the future. One thing to keep in mind if you play AK like this and just check-fold after re-raising, is to do it with a good hand next time.

An example would be the same scenario where you re-raise pocket aces. The flop comes without an Ace or King and you check. You can let Mike bet and check-raise him all-in or just check-call feigning weakness if the board is harmless (meaning without any flush draws or big straight draws).

Flop #2

The flop comes down A 6 8 and you hit the Ace, very nice!

You should just go ahead and bet, UNLESS you’ve played a hand weakly before this. Like we talked about in the above scenario where I wanted you to remember how you played hands in the past vs. a particular opponent.

So if you check-folded after re-raising before this hand, you should check here too! If you have the K you could check-call his bet after thinking a while, making him think you have a hand like kings or queens.

There are a lot of variables that go into a decision like this. It can be complicated from time to time, just keep reading and sooner or later it will click, promise!

Now if this is your first big hand vs. Mike I would just fire out a standard 2/3rds or 3/4ths of the pot, hoping Mike raises or calls. If he calls I’ll be happy to stick my stack in on pretty much any turn card.

Vs. Steve Hateswife

Same thing here, last time you re-raised Steve pre-flop and now he calls!

Flop #1

The flop brings Q J 2 kind of missing you, but you have some outs!

This is a flop I’d like to take a stab on, you will most likely get called by many hands, but Steve is unlikely to raise you unless he has a huge hand like twopair or better.

So if you bet you will accomplish a few things:

• You will fold out nothing which he might bet if you check
• You might fold out pairs Tens and down
• If you’re really lucky Steve might fold a hand like AK or AT if he plays that
• Even if you get called you often have 7-10 outs (gut shot + pair outs)

The reason I say 7 outs is that often he will have a hand like AQ, AJ, KQ, KJ and have you reverse dominated, meaning that if you hit one of your pair outs he will improve his hand to two pair or better.

The good thing about a bet here basically is that even if he calls you have outs and since Steve is a passive player he might give you a free peak at the river too!

I would say go ahead and bet, if you get called and you hit nothing on the turn just give it up.

Flop #2

The cards are dealt and show T 9 5 giving you nothing!

This is one of those flops you can just give up on with your Ace King off suit. I mean, you can take different lines if you have good reads but on a flop like this I would just check-fold most of the time vs. a player like Steve, because often he’ll call your flop bet putting you in a awkward situation on the turn and I doubt he folds a pair on this flop, or a any draw for that matter.

Vs. Grandma Jones

Ah, old Grandma Jones, she keeps talking about her teeth falling out, I don’t know what’s going on there. After a long time she calls and I have no way of knowing if this is a timing tell since she can just be dozing off.

Flop #1

The flop comes 2 6 T

I would just check-fold here so fast vs. Grandma Jones. She will call you so often on this flop it’s not even funny. I’ll wait for a hand where I flop something and can then value-bet her to death (pun intended).

Flop #2

Flop brings K T 8

A semi-scary flop but I would fire out as big of a bet that I think she calls with any pair or any draw. This flop being especially draw heavy I am going to gravitate to betting as close to the pot as possible.

Why? Because players like this don’t pay attention to bet sizes, so she won’t care if you bet 1/2 pot or full pot. You want to charge her the maximum for calling with any kind of hand and put in money while you are very likely ahead.

I bet pot and if she calls I will fire again on any turn card until she raises me.

Why? Because it is just too likely that I have her beat no matter what card comes on the turn, and she will likely call me down with any piece of the board. A dream come true!

Vs. Mikael Pengabank

Time for Mikael, when he calls your bet you should be worried. If you have been playing tight he will likely know it. He will have adjusted his calling range and will have you beat or tied quite often.

Flop #1

A 5 9

This flop is so harmless that I would wait about 5 seconds and then check to him, trying to make him think I have a hand that is scared (KK, QQ).

This is the best way to extract value because a player like Mikael will not be calling you pre-flop with AQ in this spot. So what hands does he have? I would say most likely AK, AA, KK, QQ and maybe JJ and TT.

That means that if you bet he will have you beat or tied. The best option would then be to check and give him the opportunity to bluff. This is exactly the scenario I left you hanging with in my last post, now you know the answer!

Flop #2

2 T 9

Let’s give Mikael a bit of a loose range with AK+, TT+. Let’s assume that he will fold all his non-pair hands (AKo and AKs). This means that you will win the pot about 23% of the time when he folds, those odds are a bit slim.

There are of course other variables to take into account. For example if you bet he will likely call with most of his hand looking to see what you do on the turn giving you a “free” ~12% chance to hit a pair.

The bad thing is that if you hit an Ace or King you will likely not get any action from anything you beat. My line would be to check-fold here. I will sometimes bet but very rarely.

The End

I hope you learned something. Do you have any requests for my next post? Feel free to e-mail me or leave a comment.

Dan and I will soon be starting a weekly Q&A post where we will answer questions about anything ranging from our favorite fruit to specific hand analysis.

Just found out that Barry Greenstein has an audio blog at PokerRoad.com. And his latest post was about when he went to Washington D.C on official poker business.

It is slightly entertaining and good news. He talks about being interviewed in a dark room, talking to politicians and getting poker legislated.

I was pretty happy to see this news article. I kind of trust Barry when he says that he feels strongly to online poker being legislated or whatever changes that will occur.

But I still feel a bit skeptical, we’ll see what happens. I’m hoping for the best. It would be great to have more Americans playing again. The online poker rooms would grow and more games would be available.

I am kind of getting the Limit Hold’em bug again, feeling the urge to play. It has been a bit over 1½ years since I played Limit Hold’em.

We’ll see what happens with my Limit Hold’em endeavours and Barry’s struggle vs. the law.