A $100 lesson: the idiot at the table

When I asked my friends for advice on finding the hole in my poker game, they suggested I take notes at the table (or to play no-limit instead of limit). I did neither: I played $3/$6 limit at Palace on Saturday night, and lost $100 over the next two hours. I think, however, that I've clearly identified one big leak in my game, the same one I mentioned last week.

Most poker books advise,* as rule number 1, to start by picking a good table. The 10th best player in the world will suck at a table against the best 9. The 10th worst player in the room will bake big money against the worst 9. Pick a table with bad players. Avoid tables with thoughtful, smart players.

You can identify a good table easily: there's a lot of banter back and forth, a couple of friendly drunks, and frequent overly-dramatic congenial outbursts. The last two times I played at tables like this (against a drunk who told us that money didn't matter and against The Walrus), I did really well. The three games after that, the table was almost silent, contemplative, and I did poorly.

Problem is, with a small poker room (Washington state law limits to 15 tables total, including blackjack, etc.), you don't get much choice of which table to sit at.

The problem, therefore, isn't that I'm not following the books' advice -- that's tough to do in this state -- but rather that I'm not adjusting properly to the tighter, smarter tables. This is the exact same problem that I've faced this year in online play. When I have a decent hand (top pair top kicker), I take the perspective that unless someone else is raising, I've got a monster, and the other players in the pot are idiots. The problem with this? Most of the other players aren't idiots any more.

Two illustrative hands which cost me $27 each. I'm in late position raise pre-flop, and get heads up on the flop. Early position checks and calls my bets through the river. I lose:

Example 1: I've got AJ, and the board is AT3/T/8. I lose to TT which hit quads; he was check-calling so not to lose me and hit the $133 quads bonus.

Example 2: I've got A9o, and the board is 945/2/K. I lose to 54.

When my bet gets check-called on the turn, should I be checking the turn? I think so. I've got to stop and ask myself "why are they calling?" And "because they're an idiot" isn't a good answer any more.

A third example with different circumstances: I'm in early position with 33, heads up on the flop, and the board is 449/K/K. I bet the flop, get called, bet the turn, get called, and then without realizing that my hand's been forfeited by the two pair on the board, bet the river, and get beaten by A7o. I'm showing agression, and getting called on the flop, which means he either has a 9 (I'm dead), overcards (I'm about a 70% favorite), or a flush draw (I'm a 60% favorite). It's pretty close to even odds that I'm going down here, so I should slow down. I didn't.

(He won't have a 4 or an overpair, or else he'd have raised.)

Against better-than-mediocre players, I need to play smarter post-flop. If they're raising, they've got a reason. If they're calling, they've often got the right odds to do so.

It cost me $100 over two hours, which is twice as good as I did the last two times (where it cost me $200+ in the same time period). I did win a few hands, and won a partial pot with my ace-high flush against an all-in full house and a two pair). Although I didn't like my play in the examples above, it reinforced my learnings from the home game at OS17: if you play like everyone else at the table is an idiot, you'll learn that there's only one idiot at the table.

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* Sklansky's and Carson's Low Limit Hold Em titles, for example.

It's just $5

Bodog offers a $4 + $0.40 tournament, 10 players, top five positions pay $4-$6-$8-$10-$12. Yes, half the field gets paid. I'm pretty sure if you sign up and fold every hand, you'll end up ahead enough to make it profitable.

Yesterday, I got knocked out of three of these in a row, out of the money, losing all three going with the best hand. JJ lost to A9 on a 9-high flop when the river brought another 9. AK lost to AQ preflop when a Q hit. And AJ lost to QT on a board of AJK-J-x. At the 5¢/10¢ limit tables, I got schooled for another 80¢ losing to hands like a calling station's pocket threes when they rivered a set.

Fine. I can play that game. I mentally wrote off another $5, and decided I'd sign up to a 5¢/10¢ limit tables and see the flop at any price, then fold if I didn't hit the flop hard.

I dropped down to about $3.80, then brought down a monster pot when my 52s (calling a capped pre-flop pot) rivered a flush against pocket aces and TPTK. Take that!

Why aren't pocket fours on Hellmuth's list?

At a 50¢/$1 limit hold 'em table, I'm in fifth position out of ten players, and I'm dealt 4♦ 4♥. UTG and UTG+1 fold, I call, and everyone between me and the button call. The button raises to $1. Small blind calls, and FartKing, the loose passive big blind, raises to $1.50. I think for quite a while, look at the $6 in the pot, remember when I folded pocket fours on Friday night (missing quad fours on the flop), and go to click the fold button. I can't bring myself to do it, and call. The next three players fold, then the cutoff position, who had just called the 50¢, caps it to $2. The button, the blinds, and I call, and the five of us see the flop with an $11.50 pot.

3♥ 9♥ 3♦

The blinds check, and although I consider betting (they say that the first person to bet on a paired flop usually takes it down), I check as well. The cutoff position bets, and everyone else calls, including myself. The pot odds are something like 27:1 here. With a $14 pot, five of us see the turn.

2♥

It checks around to cutoff again, who bets $1. The button folds, the small blind, who PokerTracker has given a "fish" icon to, calls, as does FartKing, who only has 25¢ left in his stack. I don't know what I'm hoping to hit here, but whatever it is, I've got 17:1 pot odds for it. I call.

8♠ comes on the river.

The blinds check, and it's to me. There's no way my fours are going to win this, and I'm going to have to call any bet, so I might as well put in a dollar and see if I can knock a scare better hand out. How? No idea. It was a dumb move.

The cutoff position folds. He must've been on a flush draw and missed.

The fish in the small blind folds. He must've been on a couple of overcards and couldn't let them go.

FartKing and his 25¢ think a long time. I'd already nailed him earlier -- and taunted him -- after taking down a $9 pot from him with 43s when the pot odds wouldn't let me leave and I hit a set on the river. There's no way he folds here. 25¢ to win an $18.50 pot? Easy, easy call.

He does call. He shows K♥ T♦, having missed his flush and merely holding two overcards. I take down the $19.25 pot.