I was playing in a $30-$60 game.  A very personable young man was a couple of seats to my right.  He, and a couple of other people, were keeping the table light, which I appreciate and join in on.   Poker is a game, and it helps to have fun.

I had gone so long after sitting down without playing any hands at all that people were starting to comment.  I got nothing to play, but I joked about it with them.  then I got a hand to play:  Ah Qd under the gun.  Not great, but playable.  I open-raised, and the nice guy on the button called.

Flop was A-K-9 with two diamonds.  I bet and he called.  The turn was a king, which did not thrill me, but as I was getting ready to be, the opponent ostentatiously checked on the button.  This had no effect on me, as i was always planning to bet, so his “check” did not influence me.  I bet, and he raised.

Can I have the best hand?  If he had not shot the checking out of turn angle,  might conjure up some fancy hands for him, but his desperation to have me bet convinced me I was drawing very thin.  i mucked.

Yes, I know I could be the victim of some deep psychological triple cross, but the overwhelming chance was the he hit a king and was afraid I would check and fold, so he did the check thing.

When I started playing hold’em in the Dark Ages, I played In Garden City, a cardroom in San Jose, CA which had a house rule, “Checking out of turn bars aggressive action.”  This means if you check out of turn and everyone checks to you, you must check, and if you check out of turn and someone bets into you, you can fold or call but you cannot raise.  I always liked the rule, but soon found out is not very common in other cardrooms.  Oh, well.

I do not mind losing, but I really despise angle-shooters.  Seeking “revenge” by trying to target a specific player is a foolish game, and I did not do this.  I was delighted however to see that karma took over and this fellow lost and lost after that, becoming increasingly annoyed.  Eventually he lost his last all-in (my K-Q suited beating is A-9), and he stomped away. 

This is not a cautionary tale, unfortunately.  He was just as likely to win as lose.  But there really is no place in out game for angle-shooters.  Just play.  If you are good enough, you will win anyway. 

I am back from the cruise.  That was a wonderful trip, in which we visited Shaghai, Xaimen, Hong Kong and Sanya (all China), Da Nang, Nha Trang and Saigon, Bangkok, and Singapore.  Educational, interesting, and very tiring.

More or less recovered, I have started playing again.   I had one weak session in which I got both emotional and instinctive, neither of which is very good for my long term prospects.  I rededicated myself to focus, patience, and aggression, which are my primary edges against many of the other players at my table.  Since then, things have gone quite well.  Sometimes, you have to go back to basics.

When I get tired, which I do fairly easily, I get more patient, but lose a bit of focus and a great deal of aggression.  I get passive, which costs me bets and pots.  Here is an example of my weak play late (for me) in a session:

On the button, I open-raise with 9d 8d.  The small blind, an experience regular who plays well but thinks he plays a lot better than that three-bets.  This is a standard raise for an experienced player in reacting to a steal raise .   Almost any hand he decides to play he will three-bet.

 The big blind folds and I call, which I do most of the time, though I occasionally reraise for variation.  We see a flop of 7-6-2, which gives me an open end straight draw and two overcards to the board. 

Opponent naturally bets.  I call.  Turn is a king.  he bets, I call.  River is a king.  He checks, I check.  He shows down A-8, which of course wins.  I rack up and head for home.

Why? I try to play at some level of efficiency, and when I sense it slipping in an area that I cannot readily fix, I leave.

There is a lesson here.  Monitor your game constantly.  Understand if you are making mistakes what category they fall in.  Some “errors” are pretty much unavoidable.  Others can be fixed during the session by paying more attention, or reminding yourslef about specific things (this guy is dangerous.  I will not play any sort of marginal hand against him.)  Some, like my passive play when tired, cannot be fixed.  I cannot will myself to be less tired, and trying to be more aggressive without recognizing specific situations would be equally dangerous.  There is always another game tomorrow…at least for me.

These days it seems everyone and his sister is auto-betting the turn in limit.  This means that if a player, typically in position, bets the flop and is called, they bet the turn.  This has become nearly universal regardless of whether they have a hand, a draw, or nothing, or the texture of the flop, or who is calling them.

Auto-betting the turn has been happening for some time, and so far I seen few players adjusting to it.  Like all things poker, when they start doing something, you need to react.

Herewith some suggestions for adjustments:

• Stop check-raising the flop.
• Check-raise the turn a lot more, even light.
• Donk bet the river.

Stop check-raising the flop.  The primary reason to check-raise the flop (heads up) is to get your bets in with the best hand and avoid giving free cards.  The fear is that if you call the flop, the opponent will check the turn behind you.  Well, he won’t.  Not anymore.  He will bet.  He always does (some specific tough players excepted).  So why check-raise the flop?  Just wait, he will bet even if he is on a draw and needs a free card.  You may as well collect the extra big bet or two.

Check-raise the turn a lot more, even light.  We have seen that if you get a good flop, you should wait for the turn to check-raise more often.  But how about a mediocre flop?  Generally this was check and call territory, because the bettor normally had a good hand for his continued betting.  Even with a good hand, opponents will have to respect your check-raise.  This appears to cost money when you are beat, but not if you plan to check the river with your medium hands (and occasional powerful ones).  If you have check-raised and been called and you check the river,  most opponents will only bet with very good hands, fearing the strength you have shown.  Thus, if they bet and you only have a marginal hand, you can generally safely fold.  Of course, this is also opponent dependent, but it is fairly reliable.  To keep from being exploited, you must also be ready to check some excellent holdings and check-raise again on the river.

Donk bet the river.   Many opponents figure if they bet the turn and you call, they can always check the river behind you.  If you do call the turn, consider betting the river from out of position (donk bet).  Perhaps you do not like doing this for fear you will raised, and of course sometimes you will be,  but often you will pick up a crying call you could not get any other way.  And sometimes, he will fold, allowing you to not expose your hand.

OK, that’s it for now.  An upcoming column will explore this concept a bit more thoroughly, but I wanted to give you loyal website viewers a sneak preview.

You nice folks deserve a hand…so here is one I played a few weeks ago.  I will make this a column some day, but right now I am in the middle of a lengthy series on how/when to bluff at limit hold’em.

I post in in the cutoff to start my session.  I prefer to take the big blind, and I never post between the blind and the button.  I am dealt 10-7 offsuit.  Everyone folds to me.  Now that is unusual these days (it used to be common before the boom), but it does happen.  Hold’em for Advanced Players says to always raise here.   I agree.  It is a raise-or-fold situation and you can’t fold (the book says that too) so it is almost always right to raise.

 When not to:

• Button is hyper aggressive, or
• Both blinds will never fold, and
• Your hand is terrible.

None of those things are true as far as I know (I would have waited for the blind instead of posting if all of these players were strangers), so I raise. 

Button and small blind fold.  Big blind reraises!  Superficially, this a very bad, as he should have very good hand.  I had played with this guy all week, however, and there was an excellent chance he was reacting to his knowledge that I would raise here with almost any hand and he was taking this opportunity to wrest control of the pot.  I had seen him make a similar three-bet with nothing earlier in the week against a player who made suspicious raises, so I knew he had it in him.

 I called, and we saw a flop of K-4-4.  Not exactly what I had hoped.  However, I had no reason to believe he had any of this (or even a hand as good as ace-high) and I decided to make a play for this pot myself.  I did not think raising here would have much credibility, as he would expect me to represent something on this sort of board, so my plan was to call here, and raise the turn or river depending on what came off the deck.

 Floating the flop is not a well known (or widely used)  limit play, and eventually I shall do a column on that concept as well.  But that s what I decided to do.  I called.

As it happened, the turn was a 10.  That changed things.  I no longer needed to bluff raise, as I had something to show down.  But should I raise for value?  I was likely ahead, but there was no certainty.  After all, he could be doing all of this raising and betting because he actually had something.  I surely did not want to solve a reraise.  i called again.

River deuce did not seem to change much.   He bet again.  I called.  He turned over Q-7, so I won.

This hand caused an interesting reaction at the table. When the betting went raise-reraise preflop, then all of that betting and calling afterwards, most people at the table expected, ummm, that we had something.  The guy in the ten-seat said, “I thought you both had a king.” 

Sometimes things are not what they seem at the table.  I hope you enjoyed this hand.

Happy holidays to all, and a wonderful and winning 2010.