MediaBLITZ
Legend
Silver Level
My friend and poker buddy (we'll call him Don) plays 2 or 3 live tournaments a week and will keep me posted on his progress via text messages. Invariably I will finally get a phone call from him as he exits the building in the "walk of shame". Don will tell me all about how terrible the other players are and how stupidly they played as he begins the "details" of his latest bad luck suck out.
His last story went something like this:
DON: "So I have ATo and the flop comes A45. So I bet and everyone folds except for one guy. I bet the turn and he calls again. A 6 comes on the river and he shoves. I can't figure out what he has but I'm really curious and have to know so I call. HE HAD MOTHERF*!$&+: 23! TWO - THREE!!! WHAT THE F@#$?!?! I CANNOT CATCH A BREAK!"
ME: "What was the opening bet? How much did he come into the hand for?"
DON: "There were a couple limpers ahead of me so I called. A couple more guys called after me and he was one of them - WITH F@#$:+* TWO THREE!!!"
ME: "Well a primary objective when playing poker is to isolate - get it down to you and one other guy. Why didn't you raise?"
DON: "Because I only had AT and there were several to act after me."
ME: "Okay, why didn't you fold?"
DON: "Because I had AT!"
And it just goes back and forth like that, weekly, literally for years now.
ISOLATE! ISOLATE! ISOLATE! YOU CANNOT ISOLATE BY LIMPING!
So despite Don's lack of real information about the hand, let's look a little deeper. Don gets into the hand, feeling like AT is worthy of a limp. He becomes the 3rd person to limp. At this point he is 44% to win the hand. Not bad, but clearly an underdog to the field. But, as Don points out, there are several players still to act. If someone makes a standard raise (about 6x at this point) then Don will fold. This is what prevented him from raising in the first place - someone after him might have a hand. So if that happens on his limp he only loses one BB. If the limp holds up (as Don hopes it will) then certainly the BB, at minimum joins the field, now making Don's AT 34% to win - 2-1 UNDERDOG. But you have to at least consider the certainty of the BTN or the SB to also join in in that kind of situation. We'll just count on only one of them though - now 5 players are in to see a flop and the AT has dropped to 28% to win. You know what? Go to the roulette table and bet on black - MUCH BETTER odds at 46% In fact better odds than when DON came into the hand.
Not to mention the fact that with 4 other players in the field the chance that someone else has an Ace is 40%. This means a potential nightmare should an A come out on the flop (it did). This is why AT is considered a "trouble hand". It will get you in trouble.
The initial key to playing winning poker is to isolate. This is the reason you hear from professionals there are only two choices preflop - fold or raise. Does it take courage? Absolutely! Otherwise you're just playing roulette. Everything is left to a spin of the wheel and you really don't have to concern yourself with strategy or odds or tells or any of that poker playing bullshit getting in the way of your good time.
DON! PULL YOUR HEAD OUT BOY!
His last story went something like this:
DON: "So I have ATo and the flop comes A45. So I bet and everyone folds except for one guy. I bet the turn and he calls again. A 6 comes on the river and he shoves. I can't figure out what he has but I'm really curious and have to know so I call. HE HAD MOTHERF*!$&+: 23! TWO - THREE!!! WHAT THE F@#$?!?! I CANNOT CATCH A BREAK!"
ME: "What was the opening bet? How much did he come into the hand for?"
DON: "There were a couple limpers ahead of me so I called. A couple more guys called after me and he was one of them - WITH F@#$:+* TWO THREE!!!"
ME: "Well a primary objective when playing poker is to isolate - get it down to you and one other guy. Why didn't you raise?"
DON: "Because I only had AT and there were several to act after me."
ME: "Okay, why didn't you fold?"
DON: "Because I had AT!"
And it just goes back and forth like that, weekly, literally for years now.
ISOLATE! ISOLATE! ISOLATE! YOU CANNOT ISOLATE BY LIMPING!
So despite Don's lack of real information about the hand, let's look a little deeper. Don gets into the hand, feeling like AT is worthy of a limp. He becomes the 3rd person to limp. At this point he is 44% to win the hand. Not bad, but clearly an underdog to the field. But, as Don points out, there are several players still to act. If someone makes a standard raise (about 6x at this point) then Don will fold. This is what prevented him from raising in the first place - someone after him might have a hand. So if that happens on his limp he only loses one BB. If the limp holds up (as Don hopes it will) then certainly the BB, at minimum joins the field, now making Don's AT 34% to win - 2-1 UNDERDOG. But you have to at least consider the certainty of the BTN or the SB to also join in in that kind of situation. We'll just count on only one of them though - now 5 players are in to see a flop and the AT has dropped to 28% to win. You know what? Go to the roulette table and bet on black - MUCH BETTER odds at 46% In fact better odds than when DON came into the hand.
Not to mention the fact that with 4 other players in the field the chance that someone else has an Ace is 40%. This means a potential nightmare should an A come out on the flop (it did). This is why AT is considered a "trouble hand". It will get you in trouble.
The initial key to playing winning poker is to isolate. This is the reason you hear from professionals there are only two choices preflop - fold or raise. Does it take courage? Absolutely! Otherwise you're just playing roulette. Everything is left to a spin of the wheel and you really don't have to concern yourself with strategy or odds or tells or any of that poker playing bullshit getting in the way of your good time.
DON! PULL YOUR HEAD OUT BOY!