I seem to have missed a week. I’m sorry. Been quite busy with books and personal issues.

An incident happened at the table last night in which several players decided I was not a “gentleman.” Here is what happened.

The facts are not in dispute. I raised the turn and bet the river. The player two to my right called. The board was Kc-Jd-6c-Ah-4d. He bet the flop and I called. He bet the turn and I raised. He checked the river, I bet and he called. I turned over my hand, which was Qc-9c. It was a bluff.

He showed his hand to me and the guys to my right and left, saying, in a sing-song way, “You were in trouble.” He then tossed his hand face down toward the muck (He held the Ac-4c). The dealer, who had not seen his hand (not that it mattered), mucked his hand and started to push me the pot. He now protested that he had the best hand and had shown it to several people. The dealer told him she had not seen it, the camera had not seen it, and that she had to push the pot to the live hand.

The floor was called and ruled that I get the pot. So the dealer pushed it to me.

Needless to say, discussion ensued. I said no words during this entire incident, and I took no part in the discussion, though I had my opinion. The opponent thought I should stack the pot separately (in escrow as it were). I did not do this. Two other players (both tourists) felt if I were any kind of gentleman, I would give him the pot. The guy between us opined that it was a terrible ruling because, in his view, if any other player at the table was able to confirm that he held the best hand, he should get the pot.

I stacked the pot and play went on, a bit tense. About a half hour later, I racked up and left because it was time to go.

So was I a mean guy to keep the money? Here is my view, but I realize many will disagree.

First, have lost pots that way before. I have mucked hands that others have seen only to realize I had misread the other guys hand. In fact, a couple of years ago, I called bluff and he showed two red cards at the other side of the table. I assumed it was a flush and mucked. It was ten high. Other people had seen my hand, but I said nothing and watched the pot go away.

I beleive he expected to see a straight based on my raise, and when I turned over my Q-9, it looked to him like Q-10. So he told me I was in trouble as on the flop he had the best hand and the best flush draw. Then he mucked because he thouht he was beat. After mucking, he looked at my face-up hand again and realized that I did not have anything. Understandably, he then beganto protest.

Reading hands, protecting hands, and showing the winning hand face up on the table are part of the game. I do not enjoy winning pots like this, but it was his error and not my action that caused him to lose it. I kept the pot because that was the ruling and it was the right one.

But I can see where people would think a fair minded person would give him the pot (or half or it, or something). You can decide.

A few quick notes on playing A-K in limit hold’em…I will expand this into a column. Speaking of which, CardPlayer, where my columns appear, has requested that its authors restrict columns to 1,200 words. Virtually all of my columns in the past have been 1,500 words, So you will be seeing shorter columns in the future.

You raise preflop with A-K and miss. How do you play?

1 - Against one opponent, bet. Chances are you both missed and you have the best hand. Generally bet the turn as well.

2 - Against two opponents, bet unless you really hate the flop. Bet the turn around 1/3 of the time vs one opponent, check if both stay in.

3 - Against three or more, tend to check unless the flop brings you a good draw. The chances that all of your opponents missed the flop are typically poor (unless the flop is paired, such as 7-7-3). The reason to bet your draws is that you cannot simply bet every time you have an overpair or set, and check the rest of the time. You become too predictable. To avoid this predictability, you need to bet a few A-K’s (and check a few overpairs).

Clearly there simply guidelines do not cover all opponents, all flops, and all situations. You do not want to put money in the pot if you have little chance of making a profit regardless of how it affects your image or your macho self-image. Anytime you think you can’t win, don’t bet. I have seen far too much money lost on A-K because the holder simply did not want to check and fold.

We have developed a spam problem on the forum. Our ISP informs me this is a sign of success, as we have enough hits and members to attract spammers.

I have been deleting and banning users as an admin as fast as I can but it taking my time and it is not going away. (Most of the spam is from Russia, and not all new members are evil-doers.

I have few choices:

1 - Appoint one or more admins who will do the job of clearing the bad guys as they pop up (or screen new members)
2 - Close the forum to new members.
3- Close the forum.

The admin job is thankless, but if we want to keep keep the forum, I will need a couple of volunteers. This is a daily chore (actually more often), so here is a solicitation. If you want the job, let me know. I will post in a couple of days what the outcome is.

I will also post this on the forum for those who do not read the main page.

I’m sitting in the Ft. Lauderdale Airport writing this. A few brief words regarding heads-up limit hold’em.

First, one of my favorite words; balance. This is critical in short-handed and especially heads up play. You must play in such a way as to be very unpredictable, showing your opponent many possible betting patterns for strong hands and weak hands. You must call on the button with powerhouses and weakies. You must check raise with great hands, good ones, draws and sometimes nothing. But you must also bet out with these same hands. You must check-call, check–raise. Call twice on the button and raise the river with very good hands and buffs. never let your opponent detect a real pattern in your play.

Similarly, watch your opponent for patterns. There is only one of him, so you can watch every play and review every hand you see. Almost all players will fall into patterns once in a while.

Sometimes I deliberately create a pattern (like check on the button on the flop and fold when he bets the turn) just so I can raise shortly thereafter when he feels safe betting out on the turn with nothing.

The button is more valuable in this game than any other (even though several pros and others think I am wrong). Exploit it. It is almost never correct to fold on the button in a cash game. Really, the only time I fold is to help convince the opponent it is a good idea so he will fold too.

It is very had to lay down a pair. It can happen, but they are good often enough to justify playing (unless you opponent has not work out that bluffs and semi-bluffs are critical and frequent in this game.

Don’t always semi-bluff though. It is often right, but again, avoiding doing the same thing the same way is critical. The more confused you can make it for your opponent, the more predictable he becomes, which is the goal.