Moving up the food chain
My first exposure to no limit hold 'em came back in 2003 when a bunch of grad students would meet every Wednesday night and play a couple of $10 buy in tables with 10 and 20 cent blinds. I had little clue of what I was doing and played a very weak tight game, rarely bluffing even when heads up with an opponent who showed weakness. Actually, playing weak tight was enough to beat that game at first, since most of the competition was loose and passive and would often call 1/2 pot sized bets with middle or bottom pair at a 9-handed ring game. There were a few guys who had read some books on poker and they just cleaned up, occasionally winning 5x the buy in over a few hours. That inspired me to improve my game, and I took out a few books on poker from the public library. Most notable was "Hold 'em Poker" by Sklansky, from which I learned some key concepts like starting hand value, position, pot odds, and semi-bluffing. I also got "The Theory of Poker" but that was a little too much for me and I couldn't extract much of its wisdom. Those books don't really address no limit poker, but they still provided me with a good foundation for thinking about general poker concepts. Over time, reading those books and getting more experience at the tables certainly boosted my income, yet a funny thing started to happen. People who hadn't done any reading and who had been huge loosers earlier on started getting better - a lot better. They were learning a ton simply by watching the better players work their magic. These people may have been poor poker players to begin with but they were all pretty intelligent people on their way to getting Ph.D.s and could quickly identify what the winners were doing differently. Plus any table talk about stuff like position and semibluffing, concepts that few people intuitively understand, was rapidly assimilated. So basically it was impossible to dominate that game for long. Occasionally some of the people from that era still get together and play for the same stakes, but it is for fun and not for money, since nobody (least not me) seems to have that big an edge.
So it was with some surprise that I entered a $10 buy in no limit hold 'em tournament in at the University of Michigan a few weeks ago with a bunch of people I had never met. I was up there to collaborate on an experiment with a former post doc from my lab and a bunch of students from the department asked if I wanted to play in their game. There were 14 people in all (and about 12 of them were Germans) and I figured I would be quite a dog since I didn't know how any of them played and only the winner got paid. But then some funky things started to happen. First of all, even at the very beginning of the tournament their was an ante. That didn't bother me too much but I prefer that the antes kick in later if at all so you have a better chance to build up a stack. Second and more telling, the dealer had to start by burning the first card before dealing the hole cards!!! Wow, that I had never heard of, let alone seen in person. If you forgot to burn the first card (which I did about half the time) you were fined 10 cents. Of course that annoyed the crap out of me so I tried to explain the real purpose of burning cards but whether or not anyone understood me, the rules were not going to change. Whatever. I settled in to the game and played tight at first while assessing the texture of the table. It didn't take long to realize that I was playing with a bunch of tighties who had had little if any formal poker education. I don't think they had watched any poker on TV either, as the result of that type of "training" is to become a complete maniac. One poor guy limped in from early with AA only to get busted by a late position player who hit two pair with JT. I really like limping from early with AA at NL, but only when I know there's a good chance that some thief is going to raise, giving me a chance to come over the top of him. At this table nobody was raising. So I changed gears from tight passive to loose aggressive, blind stealing from the cutoff or button with rags and raising from early with AK-AT, KQ-KJ, and pretty much any pocket pair. People kept asking me why I raised so much. I guess they were confused as to how I could value my cards so highly without even seeing the flop!! Their thought process was that if you have a marginal hand you need to get help from the board, and if you have a big hand you don't want to raise cause you might scare everyone out. Clearly a lot of confusion about the benefits of an aggressive style. I was also shocked by the number of times I saw someone open limp from the button. The power of position was just not grasped at this table.
Anyway, I finally got called down by a late position player after making one of my typical raises with questionable holdings. I had 44 and the flop came all high cards. I knew I was probably screwed but had to go for it, so I bet half the pot. The dude called me instantly. I was prepared to check fold the turn, but luck struck hard and I hit my set, allowing me to milk the guy for a few nice bets. I think that was the first time the table got to see the crap I was raising with and I knew they were not going to keep letting me get away with it. No prob, I just tightened up a bit. A few rounds later I got JJ and raised. One guy called and the flop came T high. I bet out and the guy raised all in. He had definitely noticed my flagrant raising from earlier and I knew he didn't give me credit for a hand, meaning he could make that play with any piece of the board, so I immediately called him. He showed 87s, giving him an inside straight draw. I dodged the turn and the river and KOed my first opp of the night.
The next few hours were pretty uneventful but I guess you could say that I got lucky in never getting unlucky and built up a nice stack. Apparently I was in for a huge treat when it came time to consolidate down to one table, since a guy at the first table said all of the "good" players were at our table while the "newbies" were at the other one. Lol. Well it turned out he was right. The level of tightness of some of these people was just unreal. There was one hand when I had AdTd and made a 4x bb open raise from middle position. The super tight German girl behind me went into the tank, meaning she must have a MUCH better hand than I. Lol. She ended up calling, and we saw a flop of As Jd 2d. I thought that was a pretty sweet flop and immediately pushed all in, which of course would put her all in since she only had about 5 bbs in front of her. Again she thought for a while and said "OK, I'll try it," flipping over AhJs. DOH!!! "Gimme a diamond!!" The dealer was not so kind as to produce such a card on either the turn or the river, but that was OK. He did produce running queens which, after some explanation of how to make a 5 card poker hand, were enough to give me half of the pot back. Yeah so I got lucky. What's poker without a good semibluff here and there? A few hands later I got QQ, made another standard raise, and tight girl again thought for a while before calling.
The flop came down T high and I immediately went all in again, knowing that it would look like a huge bluff based on my previous play. She reluctantly called and showed AJ again. My two ladies held up nicely, KOing the one to my left.
A brief degression here. There were a number of weak tight players, and one in particular, who felt that I was getting insanely lucky. If that meant that I was raising with my big hands preflop and thereby not trapping myself and getting sucked out by T2o, then yes I was getting lucky. And if that meant semibluffing my draws (a totally alien concept), getting called, and occasionally hitting, then for sure I was lucky. But I thought it pretty interesting that some of these people, who were clearly taking the game far too seriously given how badly they played, could not even entertain the notion that they could lose without undeserving players such as myself getting so lucky. Oh well. People like that are always fun to bust.
By the time it got down to four handed there were two German guys who were both cool and were also among the better players of the group, and one girl who had little experience but was having a darn good time. Money was just bouncing back and forth for a while, and I took a few bad beats that had me worried I would get myself eliminated if luck didn't come back to my side. At one point I picked up AsKs in the cutoff and made a big raise. This guy Florian called me down and the flop came T high. He check called me on the flop and turn, which was passive but he played it just right given my overly aggressive style. He had AT and I managed to bluff off a nice chunk of my stack there. Retribution came later when I preflop raised again with AKs and flopped the nut flush, which in a 4 handed game was just so ridiculous I could barely contain myself. Not only that, but I slow played it to the river, allowing Flo to hit his set, and milked him for a nice chunk of change.
But the real kicker came when I peaked down at KK in the hole. That was my best starting hand of the night and there was a good chance I would get action since everyone thought I was such a maniac. I raised it up and the guy in the big blind reraised me!!!! "Fuck yeah," I thought and went all in. I had him covered substantially but he had a significant proportion of the chips and was definitely still a contender at that point. When he instantly called I thought maybe I was behind because he had played pretty tightly at first. "You got aces?" He said no and flipped over AQ. Oh yeah baby!! The flop brought rags. The turn was a rag. The girl then burned the last card and before she had lifted the river an inch from the deck I could see it for all its uglyness. The ace hit the table and everyone exploded. My opp couldn't believe it. Had this been a year ago I think I would have been pretty upset. Winning that hand would have given me a huge chip lead with only two inexperienced players left to bully out of the rest of their stacks, making me $140 richer. But since the guy was nice and played it right I was almost happy for him. At that point it was around 3:30 am and everyone was getting tired. We decided to play until 4 and break up the prize pool with proportion to chip stack size. It wasn't looking too good for me and I don't remember having any more big hands but things couldn't have gone all that badly because by 4 am I was heads up with Flo with $80 in chips. He had the other $60 and we called it a night.
Thinking back on this tournament and the ones I played years ago makes me realize how far I have come as a player. That may sound arrogant, so I will say that I am fully aware that compared to people who have really studied poker for a long time I still suck ass and have yet to emerge from the kitty pool. But I used to play just like those folks in Ann Arbor, and now I know why I had no chance in hell of ever winning a tournament. I would always get down to the final 5 with about 6 bb and was so afraid of getting eliminated I would never put any chips on the line without a big hand. And when I did go out I got all pissed off and blamed bad cards and lucky opponents. I'm fairly sure that my learning curve has flattened out substantially by now, but it is still exciting to imagine that in a few years I might look back on my current level of skill and think that I was a complete fish. If the poker ecosystem continues to be populated by people who have never read any Sklansky then getting rich shouldn't be much of a challenge.
So it was with some surprise that I entered a $10 buy in no limit hold 'em tournament in at the University of Michigan a few weeks ago with a bunch of people I had never met. I was up there to collaborate on an experiment with a former post doc from my lab and a bunch of students from the department asked if I wanted to play in their game. There were 14 people in all (and about 12 of them were Germans) and I figured I would be quite a dog since I didn't know how any of them played and only the winner got paid. But then some funky things started to happen. First of all, even at the very beginning of the tournament their was an ante. That didn't bother me too much but I prefer that the antes kick in later if at all so you have a better chance to build up a stack. Second and more telling, the dealer had to start by burning the first card before dealing the hole cards!!! Wow, that I had never heard of, let alone seen in person. If you forgot to burn the first card (which I did about half the time) you were fined 10 cents. Of course that annoyed the crap out of me so I tried to explain the real purpose of burning cards but whether or not anyone understood me, the rules were not going to change. Whatever. I settled in to the game and played tight at first while assessing the texture of the table. It didn't take long to realize that I was playing with a bunch of tighties who had had little if any formal poker education. I don't think they had watched any poker on TV either, as the result of that type of "training" is to become a complete maniac. One poor guy limped in from early with AA only to get busted by a late position player who hit two pair with JT. I really like limping from early with AA at NL, but only when I know there's a good chance that some thief is going to raise, giving me a chance to come over the top of him. At this table nobody was raising. So I changed gears from tight passive to loose aggressive, blind stealing from the cutoff or button with rags and raising from early with AK-AT, KQ-KJ, and pretty much any pocket pair. People kept asking me why I raised so much. I guess they were confused as to how I could value my cards so highly without even seeing the flop!! Their thought process was that if you have a marginal hand you need to get help from the board, and if you have a big hand you don't want to raise cause you might scare everyone out. Clearly a lot of confusion about the benefits of an aggressive style. I was also shocked by the number of times I saw someone open limp from the button. The power of position was just not grasped at this table.
Anyway, I finally got called down by a late position player after making one of my typical raises with questionable holdings. I had 44 and the flop came all high cards. I knew I was probably screwed but had to go for it, so I bet half the pot. The dude called me instantly. I was prepared to check fold the turn, but luck struck hard and I hit my set, allowing me to milk the guy for a few nice bets. I think that was the first time the table got to see the crap I was raising with and I knew they were not going to keep letting me get away with it. No prob, I just tightened up a bit. A few rounds later I got JJ and raised. One guy called and the flop came T high. I bet out and the guy raised all in. He had definitely noticed my flagrant raising from earlier and I knew he didn't give me credit for a hand, meaning he could make that play with any piece of the board, so I immediately called him. He showed 87s, giving him an inside straight draw. I dodged the turn and the river and KOed my first opp of the night.
The next few hours were pretty uneventful but I guess you could say that I got lucky in never getting unlucky and built up a nice stack. Apparently I was in for a huge treat when it came time to consolidate down to one table, since a guy at the first table said all of the "good" players were at our table while the "newbies" were at the other one. Lol. Well it turned out he was right. The level of tightness of some of these people was just unreal. There was one hand when I had AdTd and made a 4x bb open raise from middle position. The super tight German girl behind me went into the tank, meaning she must have a MUCH better hand than I. Lol. She ended up calling, and we saw a flop of As Jd 2d. I thought that was a pretty sweet flop and immediately pushed all in, which of course would put her all in since she only had about 5 bbs in front of her. Again she thought for a while and said "OK, I'll try it," flipping over AhJs. DOH!!! "Gimme a diamond!!" The dealer was not so kind as to produce such a card on either the turn or the river, but that was OK. He did produce running queens which, after some explanation of how to make a 5 card poker hand, were enough to give me half of the pot back. Yeah so I got lucky. What's poker without a good semibluff here and there? A few hands later I got QQ, made another standard raise, and tight girl again thought for a while before calling.
The flop came down T high and I immediately went all in again, knowing that it would look like a huge bluff based on my previous play. She reluctantly called and showed AJ again. My two ladies held up nicely, KOing the one to my left.
A brief degression here. There were a number of weak tight players, and one in particular, who felt that I was getting insanely lucky. If that meant that I was raising with my big hands preflop and thereby not trapping myself and getting sucked out by T2o, then yes I was getting lucky. And if that meant semibluffing my draws (a totally alien concept), getting called, and occasionally hitting, then for sure I was lucky. But I thought it pretty interesting that some of these people, who were clearly taking the game far too seriously given how badly they played, could not even entertain the notion that they could lose without undeserving players such as myself getting so lucky. Oh well. People like that are always fun to bust.
By the time it got down to four handed there were two German guys who were both cool and were also among the better players of the group, and one girl who had little experience but was having a darn good time. Money was just bouncing back and forth for a while, and I took a few bad beats that had me worried I would get myself eliminated if luck didn't come back to my side. At one point I picked up AsKs in the cutoff and made a big raise. This guy Florian called me down and the flop came T high. He check called me on the flop and turn, which was passive but he played it just right given my overly aggressive style. He had AT and I managed to bluff off a nice chunk of my stack there. Retribution came later when I preflop raised again with AKs and flopped the nut flush, which in a 4 handed game was just so ridiculous I could barely contain myself. Not only that, but I slow played it to the river, allowing Flo to hit his set, and milked him for a nice chunk of change.
But the real kicker came when I peaked down at KK in the hole. That was my best starting hand of the night and there was a good chance I would get action since everyone thought I was such a maniac. I raised it up and the guy in the big blind reraised me!!!! "Fuck yeah," I thought and went all in. I had him covered substantially but he had a significant proportion of the chips and was definitely still a contender at that point. When he instantly called I thought maybe I was behind because he had played pretty tightly at first. "You got aces?" He said no and flipped over AQ. Oh yeah baby!! The flop brought rags. The turn was a rag. The girl then burned the last card and before she had lifted the river an inch from the deck I could see it for all its uglyness. The ace hit the table and everyone exploded. My opp couldn't believe it. Had this been a year ago I think I would have been pretty upset. Winning that hand would have given me a huge chip lead with only two inexperienced players left to bully out of the rest of their stacks, making me $140 richer. But since the guy was nice and played it right I was almost happy for him. At that point it was around 3:30 am and everyone was getting tired. We decided to play until 4 and break up the prize pool with proportion to chip stack size. It wasn't looking too good for me and I don't remember having any more big hands but things couldn't have gone all that badly because by 4 am I was heads up with Flo with $80 in chips. He had the other $60 and we called it a night.
Thinking back on this tournament and the ones I played years ago makes me realize how far I have come as a player. That may sound arrogant, so I will say that I am fully aware that compared to people who have really studied poker for a long time I still suck ass and have yet to emerge from the kitty pool. But I used to play just like those folks in Ann Arbor, and now I know why I had no chance in hell of ever winning a tournament. I would always get down to the final 5 with about 6 bb and was so afraid of getting eliminated I would never put any chips on the line without a big hand. And when I did go out I got all pissed off and blamed bad cards and lucky opponents. I'm fairly sure that my learning curve has flattened out substantially by now, but it is still exciting to imagine that in a few years I might look back on my current level of skill and think that I was a complete fish. If the poker ecosystem continues to be populated by people who have never read any Sklansky then getting rich shouldn't be much of a challenge.
posted by Fishboy77 | 1:12 PM
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