A few other things...

Recently, I got to play with Yarddog, the frequent online poker commentator on Monkey's poker blog, or should I say the frequent humorous commentator on Monkey's blog. I just had to give him a shout out, because he sat down at my table and promptly scooped two 150 to 200 pots with outrageous bluffs showing hole cards lower than the board. He tells me he's had some success playing online poker and I can see why, guy is fearless.

There are times when I've played that style usually with a lot of passive nits that I try to exploit, but it's just so so hard on some of these tables. Some of the players can only see the card in their hand matching the top card on the board and call no matter what, some will do so with second pair, and some with just ace high. I got to give the guy credit, without a read on the table, or perhaps with a preexisting one, he quickly put everybody to shame and stole some pots.

We both had an incredibly profitable down, and it came after one of those moments where I had thought about going home. We chatted in between dealers and I decided to throw in another time rake, though he had just won a ton, he sat down and bought in for 200. That quickly double and quadrupled in no time.

Odd thing was, on his first ostentatious bluff, I was thinking I'd probably call him if I were in the hand. Maybe that was because he just got finished telling me how he smoked another table but got bit back a little because he showed his bluffs. I believe the board was three to a flush. Nobody had the nerve and he took it down flashing 6-4 offsuit. I laughed

Shortly thereafter, I forget the particulars of the hand, he did it again. This time it was bet, bet, and then a big hundo bet on the river. I thought to myself, am I the only one thinking he's at it again. Apparently I was, because his multi-opponents all laid down and were stunned when he flashed air again. I couldn't stop myself from laughing. Just like I was at home playing online poker on a mac.

Later one of those guys clearly frustrated got into a hand with me. I c-bet the flop on a draw, hit my open ended straight (maybe even a gutterball straight) on the turn, bet again, and on the river he just shoved into me. I was contemplating the correct bet size, anticipating his check and I was kind of stunned. I double-checked my cards and said, "Yeah, I call... I got a straight."

Felt like I unintentionally slow rolled him a little bit. I apologized but I don't know if he thought I as being genuine, I did so because a recent hand was weighing on my mind. I had the nuts on the flop, guy hit the new nuts on the turn, a straight comprising two baby hole cards. He bet, I shoved and he didn't instacall. Wow, I'm glad he didn't catch that bullshit straight, I wrongly thought to myself. Now, I'm hoping for the call.

After a moment or two he called. The river was a Queen (which could have given him a set of queens) and though there was a part of me hoping for the board to pair--I still thought I was good. I turned over my second set. He looked at it, as though there was a hand that could beat him, again making me think I'd won, and then turned over the nuts, almost with a shrug like 'of course I got the straight.' I left the game, insult added to injury. Let's not forget some people would argue I played the flop poorly and I was certainly considering that on the way back to the car.

Now in his defense, I can kind of put myself in his shoes. Perhaps, he was also taken aback by somebody shoving into his best possible hand, and questioning if maybe he had missed something. So now, I'll give a little wider latitude to slow rollers.

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Coaching part ii

Cont.

How do I teach that?

Turns out, there is a lot of information that I've read that I've also digested and processed. It's on display at the poker table everyday and I utilize it even if I don't think about it. Kind of like typing on a keyboard after you've learned to type. You push the "I" button without thinking about which finger goes where, however, if you slow down and think about you know it's your right thumb (just kidding).

The guy I'm working with, I'm hesistant to call him a student because I think he's a great poker player who regularly wins online and goes deep in tournaments in live play, is open and receptive to all those little kernels I've picked up. I don't profess to be a better poker player than my peers, in fact, I can name a ton of players locally that I think have an edge on me, and there are probably countless others playing in stakes I don't play at.

I do have some modicum of success in live play relying on the explosion of information that is available to any player, and I believe in that area I'm probably better than most.

It's good that the guy I'm working with is interested in fine-tuning his reads. I spoke to Big Ray, Goondingy, Big Smoove about how he's taught some players in the past and he gave me a good suggestion for how to go about it. So, we decide that I'll sweat my guy for a couple of downs, take some notes and chat with him over the term of another dealer and go over what I've seen. There could be no better way to do it. I've seen things he's done and things other players have done that I probably wouldn't have seen had I been playing and focusing on my own hands.

I really enjoyed breaking down hands where he made correct calls and I ask him why he did it and he got to the conclusion for completely different reasons than me. The antagonist in the hand was spewing weakness verbally and nonverbally (in my mind I was screaming call) but the guy I'm working with had noticed this dude checked the turn and if checked behind bluffed the river three or four times that night, so made the right call.

(Sidenote: I really think I'd get a lot of out of watching some of the other bloggers play hands and breaking it down with them and vice versa. Just a lot of differences in play and nuance that would help us all. Anybody wants to exchange their knowledge in Omaha strategy I'd love to sweat them.)

So far, the coaching has gone great, he's already implemented a lot of my little tricks and things I've picked up on, and been open to other pieces of information motivating opponents decisions that he hasn't been noticing, and winning because of these tips. He's told me about pots he's taken down because of a suggestion I've made, and solid folds because of expaning his outlook. Like I said, the guy is a really good poker player and is absorbing my knowledge quickly and steadily. I teased him to stay away from me in cash games after I gave him all my secrets (though I've read competitive teachers know not to teach their students all their tricks).

I'm really happy that he's gotten a lot out of this process and I've really enjoyed talking through hands with him, and discussing poker in general. I found in high school the easiest test to study for was when I was helping one of my friends who had to get a certain grade to stay eligible for the lacrosse team. The material stuck as soon as I explained it, and indeed, I had one of the better cash sessions of my own after doing a sit down of coaching.


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Coaching part i

Perhaps inspired by the guys over at Poker Immersion or Jonathan Little coaching Steve Begleiter at the Main Event, I agreed to do some coaching the last couple of weeks. I have to say it's been a great experience. Maybe one day I'll open a poker school. The person I'm working with is already one of the top players, in my opinion, locally and I think I am able to learn quite a bit from him. Teacher is the student?

Well, he approached me because he recognized a skill set that I possess and one that he wants to add to his game. He's a voracious reader and he's already burned through a book I thought could help him out. It's interesting because I had some trepidation in starting this process. This wasn't anything like hand selection, aggression, or any of a myriad of poker skills that he already possessed, though we do discuss those things, no this was about reads.

He's played with me and seen me make some tough calls and has been very flattering about my ability to read other players. And that's true, I put a lot of stock in my ability to decipher if my opponent has a hand or not. When I'm wrong I can lose a big pot, when I'm right I win big ones. I've laid down some huge cash hands I shouldn't have because of misreads, but I've also dragged some huge pots with A or K high.

I still regret a decision not to call an opponent down post-flop when I figured my opponent to be on a draw and the only one out there was a low straight draw. My gut said call with Jack high no pair. I told him as much and he looked frightened. This was heads up at a tournament. I didn't pull the trigger and he later confided I had him dead to rights.

In fact, it's those kinds of hands where I don't listen to my gut that I suffer. I'll figure out a moderate river call should be made because I just have to be wrong one time out of five and I'll make money over the long run, this despite knowing I'm beat and when I make the call my opponent will flip over exactly what I thought she or he had.

Why the fear? A couple of reasons, I don't think any poker player wants to be an open book about why they make the decisions they do. Some of the things I rely on as being accurate 90% of the time could easily be flipped and used against me. So there is a trust factor. 60% to 80% of what I've learned is from a book or from experience but the rest is kind of innate. How do I teach that?

I read people who are good at detecting lies are people that pick up on tiny pieces of body language sub-consciously, so they might not be able to identify why they don't trust the speaker consciously but they know. The same is true in poker. That's why when your gut or a "feeling" suggests you call and you are good at sniffing out bullshit you should call. But, again how do I teach that?

To be continued...
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Lessons Learned

In the previous post I discussed two hands I got to play with Captain Tom and Mark Wilds. I was fortunate enough to eliminate them and also granted an opportunity to learn another poker lesson from them both.

This kind of ties into a pet peeve of mine. I hate it when players bitch about the stakes of the tournament they are in. You might hear, "I can't take it seriously this is only a $300 or $500 buy-in," and while I understand where they are coming from I think it's bad form and hurts their game. They are basically assuring themselves of pissing away $500.

The same is true in cash, I notice a lot of 2-5 players will sit down at a 1-2 table and play like the stakes are beneath them. They raise like mad, as though they can turn the table into a higher limit game. Same thing at a 2-5 table when players sit down waiting for a bigger game, or sit down pissed there isn't a bigger game.

I love it when they do. Essentially, their mindset starts them off on tilt. They don't respect the stakes or their opponents and try to push, push, push. Even though I know I could be playing for a stack I've grinded for a couple of hours to earn I'm looking to play against these guys and I will happily call them down light. Lots of money to be won in those situations.

The same is true in a tournament. I think any tournament you buy to whether it's $5 sit 'n go online or $100 tournament or a 10k tournament you satellite into you should try and play your best. You should try and adjust for your opponents and your stakes, but play it hard. I still play hard when I am playing family or friends for basically nothing with quickly escalating blinds knowing it's going to be a luck-fest, because I want to win.

For now, I'm a low stakes player, course there are micro stakes players but that doesn't mean they are any worse than me. Nor does it mean medium or high stakes players are any better. Nor should I enter a tournament that doesn't mean much to my bottom line and treat it as such. I bought in so I should play it as hard as I can.

What I learned from those hands with Captain Tom and Mark Wilds was two fold. One, despite a players accomplishments or resume or experience in live play they still exude information. You can still get a read on them. To solidify this even more watching the WSOP final table I felt like I had pretty good reads on a number of players. Which defies conventional wisdom which will beat into you, once you get to a certain level of play tells and reads go out the window a bit as those guys are so masterful.

And perhaps, more importantly the only reason I was able to get a read on those guys because even though the stakes might not have meant much to them, they were playing it as hard as any other tournament they bought into. They were invested in it from a competitive standpoint, they didn't want to get knocked-out, and while it wasn't the World Series or a WPT final table it was still a tournament.

Granted you could say Captain Tom and Mark probably looked uneasy because they knew I was going to call before I did--so they weren't really giving any thing away, but I still feel the fact they took it seriously only affirms my opinion. This is an important lesson, because hopefully next time when I'm distracted and I play poker online in a micro stakes tournament on bwin or somewhere I'll not take some hands off or allow myself to not my play my best.

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A couple other combatants

Wanted to wrap up my thoughts on some of the folks I played with. Got to mix it up with two of the bigger names on the coast and was lucky enough to knock them out. These are a pair of guys who made their poker names playing live poker vs. online poker, and that only made them more dangerous considering the venue. These guys have forgotten more poker strategy than I've learned. This will be a two part post, in this one I'll discuss those hands and in the next post, I'll give you the lessons I learned from playing them.

Captain Tom Franklin who has almost 30 cashes at the WSOP, 2.6 million in earnings and a bracelet also had a pretty decent stack when we were down to about four or five tables. He joined our table and played an orbit or so.

In late position I looked down at KQ o/s. There was a raise from early position from a player that didn't really apply hand ranges to position. I decided to call. Captain Tom from one of the blinds re-raises. The original raiser folds.

I hadn't played any hands with him and normally KQ is kind of like bringing a pocket knife to the jungle. The raise was hefty. I said, "You running a squeeze play Captain Tom?" probably 60/40 on folding despite having the chips to call.

To my surprise, perhaps in response to me assuming familiarity when he had never played with me before, he said somewhat combatively, "Squeeze? I've already looked at my cards, I'm done squeezing." I found that funny. It's a bit of a dated lexicon. I also found it weakish. I ruled out most of the hands that had me dominated and just started thinking Jacks.

The flop came queen high. He opened shoved. Now, at this point given the stack and bet sizes I was pretty much pot committed especially hitting the Queen. However, I stewed a bit, trying to absorb everything about the hand, in case he won and we'd lock horns again, or for some other time we might play, and you know what the bracelet winner looked uncomfortable. Sometimes in these situations I give myself a tiny window if I get a huge read to get away from the hand, but I wasn't going anywhere. Jacks made even more sense.

I called, and he said "I guess you outflopped me."

Jacks.

My KQ held.

Later at the final table, I had a much easier call. I was on Mark Wilds left. Mark is just shy of a million in earnings and has 68 cashes, including a cash in this years main event. To say he was probably the best player at the final table is probably an understatement.

The day before we merged 10 handed to play down to the final table's nine. He open shoved on me from the small blind when I was in the big. I smiled at him and said, "I'll call you pretty light." At that point, I was a little tired of Ricky and Slim on my left taking chunks out of my stack and I wasn't going to let the new guys think I was open for looting, much less the guy on my right.

He said "How light?" with a smile, "Guy earlier told me his minimum was 10-7."

I laughed, "Not that light, but pretty light."

He looked solid, and I stored that interaction away. My hand I think was dog poop and I mucked it.

Anyway at the final table, from pretty early position he shoved as the short stack. I looked down at 1010. It was for 60% of my chips. I thought about how to handle it. There were a lot of players to come. Do I shove over the top or do I flat? I was basically pot committed.

I (probably wrongly) decided to just call, if somebody woke up to AK behind me called me and the flop came out all bigs... I guess I could get off the hand. If the put me in preflop, I'm stuck to hand. I didn't think raising could get any trouble hands out of the pot and a bigger pair is just going to shove on me and I got to call there.

Anyway, as I was coming up with that conclusion, my eyes were on Mark and he looked uncomfortable too. Weird. In this little tournament, I saw both these guys sweating my decision. I called, flopped a set. He turned a gut shot and a flush draw, and rivered a six (thankfully).

He was very graceful on his exit and wished us luck.



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WSOP November Niner Poker Player, Begleiter "It's okay I'm wealthy."

Saw this thread on 2+2 apparently after November Niner Steve Begleiter got knocked out he said the above. Begleiter is notable for being a former Bears Stern executive, who had some involvement in the the toxic assets that precipitated the recent economic collapse. He's not some self made internet online poker millionaire (though he did hire one upon making the final table--never too late to go to poker school I guess, and of course that coach is fellow Gulf Coaster Jonathan Little).

The sentiment, per se, of simply stating that he's wealthy really doesn't bother me that much, but there was some controversy and hate forcused at him. I started to join the fray and stopped myself deciding to post it here. Why? I'm not going to remember to get on there to follow up to any responses this might have gotten.

This post provoked me...

[QUOTE=tcash777;14409289]Does that me he is NOT wealthy.

Okay, you are right, he should have said, "this sucks, life is so unfair, I only have a few million in the bank, Im so poor."

[B]He is wealthy, it's a fact, not a brag[/B]. He was saying despite being sucked out on, he is still has a lot to be happy and thankful about. I didn't like the way he acted in the WSOP episodes either, but some people are just hating on him cuz he worked hard, got a good job and made money. Anyone hating on him for saying he is wealthy is just a pathetic, lazy, jealous *******, probably.[/QUOTE]

MY RESPONSE:

I disagree with you in two ways...

1. Brags are usually facts, those that aren't facts are usually called lies, and the other type of brags are simply unrevealed/undiscovered lies. To say it's a fact not a brag--is a bit of a headscratcher.

Brad Pitt is good looking. Women probably prefer that he doesn't have to say he is.

If you are rich, you don't need to say you are. Indeed, a humble man doesn't say it.

Even worse to say it in a context like "Yeah, it's horrible what happened to me, but hey at least I'm wealthy"--not so humble. I get the gist was to say, you know what I have too much to be thankful for, to complain about a poker tournament. And that's fine to an extent, but kind of like a back-handed compliment it's in a way suggesting he's better than those that don't have what he has. Doesn't faze me, but I can understand why it fazes others (if you enjoy irony, I'm kind of doing it too with that last sentence).

So, no I wouldn't call the guy humble. Humble is being loaded and people never finding that out about you from you. Or not showing the picture of your gorgeous girlfriend to any and everybody that will tolerate talking to you. If they see her they see her. When you jet-set off to Tahoe for a little skiing, you answer the where ya been question with "trip to the mountains."

2. The second way I disagree with you (though you could argue I'm not hating on Begleiter but just stating the fact he isn't wholly humble so maybe I don't fit into your category) I'm not jealous, pathetic, or lazy... but nor probably are the others that don't stoop to dropping their net worth as though it's self worth. I could care less if he is wealthy or if he feels the need to validate himself in the face of adversity by advertising it.

There are a many types of people in this world. Some are very similar but at the same times very different. Lets look at the ones that volunteer, say at a food bank or a soup kitchen and laugh and try to treat the people they are helping with dignity, and then there are the other guys that volunteer at a food bank and regale anybody that will listen how they wouldn't eat this slop and what a great steak they chowed down on at last night's dinner--all within earshot of the "pathetics" they are serving.

They also get irate when it's suggested their behavior is boorish "Hey, I'm volunteering here." Not realizing Begleiter's "I'm wealthy" statement invalidates his veener of humility means you'd probably fall into the latter category rather rather than the first. It's okay, both you and Begs are mostly good. I know a few wealthy people and most don't get or understand this difference, even the good ones.

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The kid...

You know who he is. He plays with a scowl, he's fearless and not afraid to mix it up with anybody. He's relentless, aggressively betting into any and everybody on the table no matter their position but never getting his head in too deep. I bet he kills the tables when he plays online poker.

For much of the tournament he was at my table with a stack size comparable to mine. I also watched him with the resilency to rebuild his stack after a couple of bad beats back to a chip leading stack in no time. Man what an attribute. Get beaten down, and not only dust yourself off, but just not stop being controlled aggressive. He pounced on weakness from the first hand and didn't stop.

Some people when you slap their hand, that's it. Lesson learned, this kid realizes just the opposite should be true. With him you play back at him and scoop a pot, he's coming right back next rotation. Most people know him as Ricky, I'm most people so I know him as that too, and I have to say playing with him was fun and challenging.

I had to check raise him dry a couple of times because he just kept coming at me. If gave him an inch he'd take a yard. He probably won more off me than I him, but he made me up my game. When he was on my left, if I didn't come in for a raise he had liscense to steal from the table and did so. When he was on my right, the few times it remained unopened to me, I had to raise with any two cards, because he was betting all my marginal ones out.

I constantly watched him get his toes in, and then escape when real hands showed up.

Granted every multi-table tournament is a flawed prism. With limited knowledge at your disposal unless some guy is a complete luckbox and sucking out on everybody, you have no idea how well a guy is playing based on one deep run
with him. That being said, the kid can play. He always has you on your heels.

We both remember a big hand when I knocked him out at the last IP event, ending his string of consective final tables. I felt like I got a read on him and made a call. I knew it involved AJ, but he remembers me sucking out on him, and getting it in bad. He also remembers AJ being involved and maybe 10s.

Probably it's back there in one of these posts, I need to catalogue. It's funny, because I remember that hand and a read I got off him, and I was waiting all day to get the same read, but I never did. However, if I misremembered the hand and indeed got it in bad and won, then that read would have been useless anyway.

Anyway, it was fun to follow his lead and just attack people. I talked about trying to scoop three pots every two rotations, even if it was just blinds and antes, and the speed with which he did so, kept me attacking too.

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