Why I Play Like A Donkey...

Hello Puerto Rico. You have a casino in the hotel? Well... Don't Mind If I Do.


So I sit down to play poker. 2-5 no limit. I buy in for $200, and the dealer looks at me funny, like I bought in for too much. Wow... This should be fun.


So there's 7 players including myself. I fold 10+ hands straight, even when I was in the blinds and a raise was presented.

Ya know... tight? Right?

But it does give me time to read the table a bit. Anytime there are high cards, people in the hand call all the way down and b et big. Best hand I've seen is two pair, hit on the river.

So I'm in middle position and get delt rockets. Pockets aces. Wow wee!!

So, I raise to 25. It's been the standard blind that everyone has raised, and everyone has been calling on.

call, fold, fold fold, fold, call. WTF? Every other time everyone is calling, now they fold to me.

Fucking tight playing.

So... Flop comes out 3 9 King rainbow. Perfect. I know one of these guys has to have a king. Likely A-K, K-J, yada yada.

Check, Check, To Me.

I raise to 50. 2/3 the pot. I want them in but don't want to scare them too much. Normally I'd go half the pot because I know I'm in the pot and want to lure them in. But, I know I can get more.

Blind folds. Last guy calls.

Next card is garbage. Check to me. All in for the lasst of my $200.

And Call.

He shows A-K. FANTASTIC!!! Called it, knew it, and got the most out of my chip stack by bringing all of his chips in.

Oh, but wait. There's still the river. Eh... 8% odds at this point. 2 cards make his hand (the 2 last kings that could be in the deck).

Here comes the river.

King.

Fuck you Poker Gods.

$20 in chips - .25/.50 blinds - turned into $63 in the 6 hands i played. found a table of agressive betters - re-raised hard on their bets when i had good cards/hands.

You should write that down

Bad Play (by me!) Oh Noez!

Today I found myself sitting around the house on a really nice, sunny almost 70 degree fall day with no plans! I thought about doing something productive outside, but I chose poker instead. I decided to play in a 180 player sit-n-go tournament on pokerstars. I don't remember if it was a $5 or $10 buy-in though...sorry!

So, the cards are in the air and the fourth hand I get Ace-Ace on the button. Two limpers and I pop it to 5x the big blind. The big blind reraises me and one limper calls. I reraise all-in since I knew I was gonna get action with 3 people in the pot. I got 3 callers and found myself against A-3 off suit in the big blind and 8-9 of hearts was the limper. Good news, the flop, turn and river missed everyone and I tripled up on the 4th hand. From this point on it was basically in cruise control for me. I raised with the goods and either won uncontested or showed down the best hand. After the 2nd break I had K-J of spades in the cut-off and made a standard table raise and got called by the someone with about 1/3 of my stack on the button and by the big blind who was an overly agressive blind defender with about 1/2 my stack size. The flop came 8-K-J with 2 diamonds. The big blind lead out all in, without a hesitation I moved all in over top and the button made the call. Needless to say I didn't like my hand so much after all that action! The bb turned over 3-J off suit (I was happy and wanted to chastise him!) and the dealer showed A-5 of diamonds. Unfortunately I could just feel the diamond coming, the turn was a 2 of hearts and all I had to do was dodge a red card. The river was the 7 of diamonds. I was drawn out on! Had I won that pot I would have had a MONSTER chip lead and could have cruised to the final table. Instead I lost half my chips and needed to push my hands!

I managed to bob and weave my way back to around 4,000 chips which was good for about 18th place with 30ish players left. The blinds were at 200/400 w/ 50 ante when I was dealt Ace-Ace in the small blind. The table folded to the button who made a raise, I reraised for my whole stack and the big blind and button both call. The button turned over K-Qoff suit and the Big Blind showed pocket 4's. The flop brought an Ace and I was on my way to another big win!

Now I had about 10,000 in chips and a new player, the chip leader moved in on my left. I mainly folded until I was SB again when I got K-2 off suit, normally I'd throw it away but I had been quiet so I raised. BB called. Flop came 7-10-2. I bet at it thinking I had the best hand, the BB reraised me? I hit the tank and after thought realized I had the best hand. I called. the turn brough an 8 and I still thought I had the best hand. I check, BB bets and I called. The river is another 2. This time I bet about 1/4 of the pot hoping I get reraised. Unfortunately my trap failed and the BB showed 1J-2 for trip 2's Jack high, I showed trip 2's King high and won a nice pot. Here is my first mistake, I should have moved in instead of value betting the end! I would have had a lot more chips instead of what I did win.

With about 15 players left I was sitting on 13,000ish ships and the blinds were at 600/800 with a $75 ante. I had 3 larger stacks at my table. The 2nd smallest short stack had about 5,000 chips. I was dealt 7-7 in the cut off. I bet $2400 and the $5,000 stack called from BB. The flop was 2-5-4, a good flop for me. The BB checked and I bet enough to put the stack all in expecting a fold. BB calls and shows Q-Q. Nothing to help and I was down to $8,000.

Here comes my BIG mistake. The cheap leader at my table was going nuts raising everything! We had 13 players left and I was sure to make the money with my $8,000ish chips. I was SB with A-K off suit. The Chip leader opens from middle position with a grotesque over bet of $5,000 chips. I KNOW this is a bluff! I decided to reraise all in. Unfortunately, I lose all my courage (and my manhood evidently) and only call. The flop comes rags and the CL goes all in! I know this is a bluff. Unfortunately, I have $3,000 left. If I go all in I'm gone on the bubble with two hands all in as blinds next hand. So, i much the A-K and crawl into the money and the weekly tournament points with no manhood left. I think I made a mistake! I should have just moved all in before the flop! I just hate playing A-K for all my chips on the bubble! I don't usually agree in raise-fold only situations but I think that surely was one. I either had to get it in, face bubbling out and go for the win as opposed to sneaking in. I'd like your thoughts!

Anyway, I managed to have the deck hit me a few times after the bubble and built back a decent stack. I ended up going out in 7th when the Chip leader on the button raised my SB (CL= $52,000ish chips to my $8,000ish) and I moved all in with 9-8 of hearts. CL showed a 3-5 off suit. Talk about pushing a big stack! Unfortunatley the turn brough a 5 and the river brought another 5 and I was out in 7th. I was fine because I was pushing with what I thought was a good live draw (which I was right) in order to try to get some chips to try and win.

Oh well, my tournament was good over all. Two bad mistakes, I think and I still got in the money and points. I'm playing real well still and the more I play, the more I practice and the more I think about poker the better I keep getting!

-Cadillac

Aggressive Poker Betting Against Rutt, and the infamous big blind bet.

I tried. I honestly did. I tried to find enjoyment from limit poker.

but at small limits... it drives me bonkers.

maybe I'll try again with a larger limit and see if I gain satisfaction from playing it.... and not more grey hairs.

So back to no-limit I go!

100 hands down this morning, and it was very profitable for me. I started with an $67 bankroll... and turned it into $240. Fantastic!

So let's review the scenerio...

• I'm the smallest chipstack by an average of about $60, or basically double my stack.
• I wanted to sit down in this situation and truly realize the extra pressure this puts on your betting.folding styles.
• I wanted to make some damn money.

This morning, I actually sat and watched about 20 hands before playing to get a feel for the type of people I was playing with. One pattern I picked up on was a consistent 2X big blind raise pre-flop. This tells me two things:

• Someone always raises, most everytime all players call
• Most players fold on the flop bet, unless they've hit a piece of it.

Interesting. This would be an excellent situation for me to have a bigger stack where the blinds were a small percentage of my bank roll, and I could raise and re-raise on the flop to steal bets.

That unfortunately is not my scenerio though... but I do it anyway.

I start by actually folding bad cards... letting the flop hit, and raising every time after the flop. I steal a couple hands, and win a couple. My stack has grown to $96 in the matter of 20 minutes.

OBviously, a few smarter players start to catch on to my play, and begin calling my raises and even re-raising me (to whcih I fold when necessary).

So now let's talk about where I double up, and explain a terrible play against me.

I'm UTG and call the $1 big blind with Kc 2c. Next player raises to $4, which everyone calls.

*** FLOP *** [6s 9c 2d]

Previously, I've made bets of $1 (the big blind) when I've flopped the nuts - just to show a pattern. I decide to do the same on this hand, expecting everyone to fold over-cards.

All players fold except for the dealer... who raises to $6. So I call.

*** TURN *** [6s 9c 2d] [2s]

Once again, I make my $1 bet - feeling confident that my set is the best hand.

My opponent makes a HORRRIBLE bet (in my opinion) and raises to $18 - which I insta-call. I'll explain why at the end.

*** RIVER *** [6s 9c 2d 2s] [2h]

I've hit quad's - the made hand. Following my pattern, I make another $1 bet.

My opponent makes his second horrible bet and goes all in. I again insta-call - and take down a $202 pot.

What did my opponent have? pocket 9's.

Why do I feel his $17 bet was horrible?

Given the pattern I had been displaying, if I had the nuts I would always bet $1 into the pot. Seeing this pattern, knowing that he truly did have the nuts on the turn, the best possible bet would have been to go all-in at that point, which I likely would have folded to.

Instead, he let me see another card which lead to his demise.

So remember, trapping works best when you're playing against loose players who call any bet, and play with less-than-valuable cards, when you've made the nuts.

That's my opinion at least. What's yours?

Lets Talk Mixed Games

Thanks to poker on Television, the line of amatuer WSOP Champions and numerous books devoted solely to the game of Texas Hold'em the words "hold'em" and "poker" have become almost the same word! I'm not complaining about this fact because if not for the popularity of Texas Hold'em the poker boom would have never begun in the first place! I'd still be making my treks to Atlantic City, Foxwoods and Las Vegas to get into the good games. Instead, I can pull up a good game on my laptop for any stakes I feel like playing 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year! For this fact I can play good poker on-line, in my underwear on my terms I am completely grateful to Texas Hold'em! However, this is wear my admiration to Texas Hold'em ends! Obviously many players have gotten really good at playing limit and no-limit variations of Texas Hold'em and some are making a great living simply specializing in these games. Unfortunately, I have a hard time calling these players who only play Texas Hold'em great poker players! I think it is much more important for Great Poker players to be well versed in all forms of poker and like Doyle Brunson says in Super System, it is sometimes necessary to give up some advantage in one form in order to be able to have the edge in another variation of poker!

Based on this premise I have been devoting a lot of my time and a lot of my play to the mixed games with the goal of becoming a better, more complete poker player! The game I have chosen to play the most is the 8-game mix on PokerStars, the game consists of a 6 player table and the games rotate every 6 hands between: 2-7 triple draw, limit hold'em, limit omaha h/l, limit razz, limit stud, limit stud h/l, no-limit hold'em and pot limit omaha. I'm really enjoying the pace, excitement and skill envolved with playing the mixed game format. Obviously, I am giving up the edge in the High/Low split games but I make up for that in the high games and I don't really think anyone enjoys playing razz!

Now that I have spent considerable time learning and playing this mix I can make a few generalizations and adjust my play to be profitable.

• First, at the low limits players are not selective enough with their starting hand requirements
• Second, players tend to over value big cards in the high/low split games
• Finally, people will chase more draws to the 2nd best hands in high/low split games

In order to take advantage of these weaknesses in the games of your opponents, it becomes very important to follow a few simple rules.

• Be very selective with startig hands! Especially the high/low split games. The only playable hands in these game shave to have an Ace and or two/three to be profitable.
• Remember, you want to start with a good low draw and draw into your high hand!
• Watch and learn how your opponents play, at the low limits the hand they are representing is usually the hand they will have!
• Finally, exploit their lack of knowledge about odds, pot-odds and how they bet!

Now that you are introduced to these concepts, lets look at a hand that illustrates just what I'm talking about.

Playing $.20/$.40 8-game mix with $.04 ante on draw games and $.05/$.10 blinds for flop games. Obviously this is a low limit table as I am still learning these games myself! The hand we will discuss was Pot-limit Omaha and the table had 5 players at the time. All the players were very liberal with their starting hand requirements and I was able to out-play them late in hands exploiting there compound mistakes. Thus, I was feeling good and players were beginning to feel I was both lucky and dangerous! Just where I like to have my image!

The hand began and I was small blind and dealt the 4c 6h 10s 6s, not a monster by any means. UTG calls $.10, Cut-off pops to $.30, the dealer folds and me being an overly aggresive defender of my blinds I called and the Big Blind who was wild and aggressive pops it again to $.50 straight. Everyone calls the $.50 and there is $2.00 in the pot preflop

The flop brings the 10h 9c Ad. I hit middle pair with a straighty board and no flush draws. I'm not happy with this hand but I think I could be in worse shape, plus, my pair of 6's may be good! I check to see what happens and the big blind bets $.10 into a $2.00 pot! The dealer calls $.10 making the pot $2.20 and I go into thinking mode, here is my thought process:

Obviously the first think I realize is my call gives me 22-1 pot-odds and I would be hard pressed to not call unless I knew I was absolutely up against the mortal nuts! I've seen the big blind play reckless for several rounds and he/she doesn't really understand the concepts of poker! This is an advantage to me! I start putting him on a hand, based on play I'm thinking a straight draw is a possibility but I'm almost certain they hit the Ace but based on the small bet obviously they didn't hit the flop hard or they would have raised. The last time I saw this opponent bet large preflop and then small bets post-flop was when they raised with AK-suited and semi-bluffed their flush draw, thus, I think if I can hit any 10, 6 or 4 I have them beat! The dealer I put on a draw since they didn't raise, thus I should have the same live outs against them if my pair of 10's isn't already good. Thus, I have 8 live outs to draw to which will make me the winner which means I am a little less than a 6-1 dog and the pot is giving me 22-1, I call the $.10.

The flop brings us the Ks. Not a real bad card for me as I don't think it helped either of my opponents since I have the BB on a pair of aces or a straight draw and I have the dealer on a draw also. The BB bets $.10, the dealer calls making the pot $2.40 and I call getting 24-1 on my call with live outs!

The river brings the 4d, what a sweet card! I'm about 60% sure I have the best hand! The BB bets out $.10 again and the dealer folds signaling to me he was on the straight draw. Now, I go to the tank to see if I should call or raise here with my 2-pair? I'm getting 25-1 on my call and I really don't want to get reraised with my 10-4 2-pair so I simply call. Quickly I see my opponent was on the straight draw and had the pair of aces! I now wish I would have value bet and trusted my read! Unfortunately, I'm sure I lost at least $1.00 I could have gotten out of my opponent!

However, I used this hand to illustrate the compound errors I was able to exploit to hit the winner! First, the BB had no business raising pre-flop with what I eventually learned was 3s Ah 7d 8c, instead he should have called to see what happened. The second error was under betting the flop! With a $2.00 pot, 2 opponents and top pair the BB should have bet at least 1/2 the pot and more like the size of the pot to simply give bad odds to draw! I only stayed in this hand because I was constantly priced into my draws and honestly, any time a pot is giving me 23-1 or more on my calls I'm not sure I can look myself in the mirror if I fold anything!

I did make a mistake on the end when I didn't value bet my 2-pair, but I really was afraid I'd have to lay down my hand I thought was good if I got re-raised. That is why I eliminated having to make that decision with my call.

Now your ready to tackle the mixed games! Use this knowledge and go become a well rounded poker player like Doyle, Danial, Phil and the Cadillac :-)

Poker Bettings Tips - How Much To Buy In For?

Here's a common topic I'd like to chat about - the amount of your buy in for a cash game.

Many times, people confuse the term "buy in" with "bankroll". The "buy in" is the amount of money you put down at a table during a game. Your "bankroll" is the total amount of money you have.

So, for example, if I have $1,000 and I put $200 down at a table to play, my "buy in" is $200, and my "bankroll" is $1,000 (and hopefully growing).

So enough of the basic poker tips...

How much should buy-in for when you sit down at a table.

The simple answer is 200 time the big blind. So if the blinds are $1-$2, you shoudl sit down with $400.

So why 200 times the big blind? Your comfort level. If you sit down with $10 in a 1-2 game, you're not going to see many hands, and will be forced to play when it's not necessarily in your best interest. With a sizable buy in, you are able to make the best decisions when you enter a hand, not be forced because of the size of your chip stack.

Poker, as we all know, is a game of ups and downs. We all have that hot streak... along with the cooler. You want to make sure that you're able to fight through te cool periods.

Some recommend 300 times the big blind. This may be for you, but I've never felt the need for this amount. Plus, it helps protect me against myself, betting poorly because the game isn't exciting enough for me.

So what if 200X the big blind is more than you want to wager, based on the size of your bank roll?

The answer is simple - play at a lower cost game. You're not ready to play at that level.

Happy betting!

- DJ Rutt

betting vs. calling

To some this is obvious. To others, this is shear genius.

I want to make sure people understand the biggest difference between placing a bet and calling a bet.

... and it's very simple.

When you place a bet - you have two chances to win. You can win by having the better hand, or you can win by having your opponent fold.

When you call a bet, the only way for you to win is to have the better hand.

So, in my opinion, you automatically double your odds and percentages by simply betting.

This can get much more complicated than it needs to be (the size of the bet, the size of the pot, the actual hand you have, your opponents aggressiveness, etc.) - but why make it more complicated than it has to be.

Increase your wins by simply betting more and calling less. LIke Phil Laak once said "I'm playing good poker. Bet or fold, bet or fold. No calling".

Hmmm... if it works for him...