Leave it to Fro to have a card game on a night that I wasn’t available, but then again, he needed to end “the streak” so I don’t blame him for avoiding me. I never said he wasn’t a smart guy.

Someone asked what the most # of outs could be to have. Heads up, there are 8 known cards on the turn, so there are 44 possible river cards. Since people only count outs for underdogs, it would seem that you can’t have 23 “outs”. Rather, your opponent would have 21 outs. So is there a hand with 22 outs?

If you have JcTc against 2s8d and a turn of 2d8c9cTs, you have a pair vs 2 pair. But you have a lot of draws:

7c,Qc give you a straight flush. Yummy.

A,3,4,5,6,K of clubs give you a flush. (of course the 2 does too, but it boats your opponent.)

3 other 7’s and 3 other Q’s give you a straight

2 Tens give you a set

3 Jacks give you a better 2 pair

3 Nines give you a better2 pair

So you have 22 outs out of 44 rivers. A perfectly even bet.

Last night I won $330. Some thoughts:

1. Anytime I invite you to play at my house, assume it is ok to invite a friend. This is not an exclusive group. Unless your friend is Ted.

2. We played 8.5 hours over two tables and the range of wins/losses was app -180 to +400. That’s it. Conisdering the gargantuan pot sizes and the inherent risk associated with No Limit, you might expect a greater range. After all, I see people plow through $500 in $3-$6-$12 in a couple hours all the time. What gives? Two things: First, since I limit the amount you can buy in, it keeps the losers from losing too much. At the same time, the guys that have the most to lose are the very guys who are currently up. However, a bigger factor is that in NL, there are very few people that are in at the showdown. Hands end up heads-up (or at least once there are big bets.) Contrast that to limit poker where 6 people may call every single bet. In that limit game, the pot winner wins 6 times what the losers lost each. In NL, the winner often gets between even money and 2:1. Thus the distribution curve is quite differently shaped, with people more closely grouped toward the mean.

I am sure that if we played with Johnny Chan and his friends, the distribution would look differently, but at my house, you actually tend to get a-raped less at NL than at limit.

3. I didnt drink and I lost. I started drinking and then won. Hmmm, hard to figure. Luck, I guess.

4. I concentrated on a couple new things based on Doyle Brunson’s advice. First, I tried to regularly “switch gears”. I would go an hour constantly ramming and jamming and then go super tight for thirty minutes and then switch back. I think it worked. I don’t feel as if people had a good read on me – they called my big hands and folded to my bluffs. Contrast that with the River Chief. Yes, he’ll call with some bad cards, but if he rasies all-in, you know he has the goodies. It is an easy read.

5. The other bit of Dolly’s advice I followed related to being the aggressor: raising or folding w/o calling & coming over the top at anyone that dares to be a bigger aggressor. It worked. The only downside is that people will check-raise me, but when that happens, I fold. Take Nicky – he checked (or maybe bet a token amount) and I bet $100 with pocket Jacks. He raised me another hunskie and I folded. Yup, he had Kings. While I sure would like to have that hundred back, I knew that he had me beat when he re-raised. So the lesson is: raise the raiser, but fold to the re-raiser.

6. Anybody that has ever played Tecmo Bowl or pool with me knows that I love to talk trash. I tend to hold it in at the poker table, bc it is considered bad etiquette. However, I would enjoy poker more if trash talking was encouraged. Javy slow-rolled his boat, which some would consider rude. I don’t. But I know that others do, so I don’t slow roll personally.

7. One of my favorite plays is to have overcards (say 9-K) to a ragged flop (say 2-4-8) and betting it. First of all, there is a good chance that everyone will fold. After all, I can only think of a few hands that are worth playing pre-flop that would call here: A3 and A5 for instance. What do think, someone might have 4-8? C’mon. So you either take the pot right there or narrow the field dramatically to a drawer who is no longer getting very long pot odds. You make a massive bet on the turn to which he way has the worst of it and either calls (which is a loser in the long run) or folds (which is a loser in the short run). The only hand that scares you is like 78s or A8s, but remember, you still have 6 outs to make a higher pair, and that is about a 24% chance.

8. I am tired. My old body can’t handle this. I still havent had my Saturday jog. I better go squeeze it in b4 the Horns come on TV.

fro

Fantastic new site all about Houston Poker

Just to emphasize it one more time before I go to bed:

CALLING IS USUALLY A BAD THING!!!

What it takes

The Girlfriend is out of town taking the bar exam this week so I took the rare opportunity of playing in the Tuesday 5-10 at the FSC. It was a good night. During the game I got to thinking tonight about what I’ve learned in the four years since I started playing “real poker”. I don’t think this list is inclusive, but I think it’s a pretty good start on listing some of the intangible skills that are necessary to become a better player.

1.) Knowing when you’re beat.

This is fairly simple, but it’s very important. Tonight I flopped a set of Jacks and folded quickly once I realized that another player had flopped the broadway straight. Two other players called her to the end – one with bottom pair and another with 2 pair. This is a very important concept and can be taken to its logical conclusion: ranking starting hands and learning when to even get involved at all.

2.) Folding a winner and not caring.

You’ll often see guys fold and then curse or slam their hands on the table when the next card brings that gut shot straight or little flush that would have won the pot. Once the decision is made – and you know it was the right decision – you have to dissociate yourself from everything else than comes afterward or you will end up talking yourself into making a the wrong decision the next time.

3.) Evaluating every decision on its own merit.

The best example of this is folding against a raise that comes after you’ve already called a bet. If you’re getting the right odds for your hand, then call the incremental raise, but if you’re not getting the right odds the money you’ve already put in doesn’t matter anymore. This lesson leads to the next lesson:

4.) Simply calling is the fastest way to lose money.

Sometimes calling is the right decision, but more often the proper decision is to either raise, reraise, or give up and fold. Many players automatically call – or “limp” before the flop – simply out of habit and not because it’s the right decision to make at the time. Losing money is not something that just automatically happens when you sit down at the poker table – after the blinds and antes are paid, the only way anyone ever loses money at poker is to voluntarily give it up. Don’t put money in the pot unless you know it’s likely to come back!

5.) Keeping track of the players you know and observing the players you don’t know.

Playing “by the book” is never a bad idea, but sometimes the “book” is too black and white. Keeping track of who’s in the pot can sometimes be the determining factor in making a decision and taking action.

6.) It’s not about winning a lot of pots.

Winning players, true winning players, don’t win a lot of pots – they maximize their earnings from a few pots and minimize their losses on all the others, including, again, not getting involved in circumstances where they are likely to lose, especially before the flop.

I’m sure there are more specific points, but perhaps the best way to sum this stuff up is just to say that it really all boils discipline and patience.