Well, Sandy and I just completed the drive from Florida to Texas, which started on Thursday and ended today – Saturday!
That’s because in addition to driving, we stopped in Biloxi and Lake Charles and stayed overnight at the Isle of Capri both nights. I have to say, you can get a really nice suite, complete with Jacuzzi hottub in the room, for around $99 a night (seems like a real value after being in Vegas recently).
Played in a $65 NL Shootout tournament last night – got whacked about 2/3 through my table… just card dead the whole way and finally had to go for it with Ace-8 diamonds – lost to AJ… them’s the breaks!
Went over to the $2/$4 NL cash game table and had a blast. I’m beginning to like NL cash games a whole lot more than tournaments – less competitive, more fish and much easier to win, at least for me.
I walked up to the table, plunked down my $200 in chips. First hand I was dealt was pocket 9’s. I raised the pot to $15 and everyone folded except the guy to my right (across from the dealer in seat 10, I was in seat 2, seat 1 was empty). He called my $15 bet and we saw the flop, which came 10-5-2 rainbow.
He was first to act and bet $25. I called him. Not really sure why, but I just felt that he didn’t have the 10 at that point. He looked like Grizzly Adams, and then I noticed that he was glaring right at me. And I mean GLARING!
He wanted me out of this pot, and was trying to intimidate me! Oh boy, was I ever going to disappoint him!
You see, I had just re-read several sections from one of my favorite poker books in preparation for playing the shootout event. Know what book that is?
Phil Gordon’s “Little Green Book”, of course. If you’re on my mailing lists, then you know that you should already have that book and have read it, like me – right? (hint – hint)
Anyway, I had briefly re-read the sections on Tells. This guy was glaring at me like he wanted to kill me and eat me! (maybe it’s a Cajun gumbo thing – not really sure 🙂
Anyway, since it was clear he wanted me out of this pot, I decided to stick around, as I thought I had a read on him now. Phil reminds us that Caro teaches when an opponent is “acting” and trying to get you to take a certain action, do exactly the opposite – which is what I did.
The turn card came low again, like a 4. Still no flush draw or straight draws and the board hadn’t doubled (no boat). My friend bets out $40 and spews it across the table with a powerful flick of the wrist. This turned out to be his 2nd tell.
His aggressive chip maneuver confirmed my original suspicions – he was definitely trying to show extra strength and drive me out of this pot (he was compensating for his weak hand.) Of course, then came the ice cold glare right at me again…
I counted my chips out to 50, all eyes on the table now on me and my hands. It’s an interesting feeling, when everyone at the table’s watching you… I decided not to raise him, pushed the two red chips from my $50 stack aside and just called his bet.
The river card comes and it’s an Ace of hearts. He bets $50, again spewing the chips across the table even more powerfully than before. I instantly said “I’m all-in!” and just smiled at him.
He took his remaining stack of chips (he had $300 when we started this hand) and slammed them down in front of himself, pounding the table hard enough for it to be clearly heard by all. He said, “I knew you had that Ace – damned river” and tossed his cards away.
I looked at him kinda odd and just smiled smugly, struggling a little to rake in all those chips the dealer was shoveling my way.
Now I could sense he was glaring at me for real! A few moments later, I overheard him tell the player next to him he had thrown away pocket 4’s and he was sure I had that Ace.
This player made several BIG mistakes that cost him almost half his chip stack:
1) Never try to push a player who has just sat down at your table around, unless you have a real monster hand. Instead, observe your prey long enough to size them up a little and find out who you’re up against (as an aside, I learned this the hard way in a tournament several years ago… was the table chip leader and then got too cocky against a new guy who just came to my table with a big stack… and lost mine to a full house by being too ascertive against the new guy too quickly).
2) Be very careful of tells when you’re playing in person. Glaring in an intimidating manner at another player in an attempt to get them to fold might work against weak or inexperienced players, but it has the opposite effect on more experienced players who realize what’s happening. Throwing your chips around ascertively is another tell, and the two of these combined reinforced his position of actual weakness. (it helped that I had just re-read the Tells section in Phil Gordon’s Little Green Book, so this was all fresh in my mind at the time)
3) Being a bully can get you into deep trouble in No Limit poker. Instead, reading your opponent’s hand strength based on their betting patterns, range of likely starting hands and then “thinking” things through is likely a better plan, especially against more experienced players. Whenever a player becomes overtly aggressive, my bluff radar immediately comes on now – big time!
4) I wasn’t totally sure what this guy was holding, but I was very sure that I had him beaten. When you’ve been logging a lot of time in the poker rooms, it’s amazing how much sharper your senses actually become (I was in Vegas playing for a week just a few weeks back)
Could I have been wrong about this guy and his hand – absolutely! I had just sat down at HIS table, and had never seen any of these players before. But based on this guy’s overt behavior, I felt certain that he was “acting” and trying to “exert additional pressure, beyond just that of his bet size in order to get me to fold“. THAT’s why I did NOT do what I could Tell that he wanted me to do. Instead, I did the opposite and just called his increasing bets.
My decision to call him had far less to do with my pocket 9’s, which could have easily been beaten by two pair, a set or just about anything (like a higher pair)… but a player with a strong hand doesn’t need to push that hard… in fact, a player with a strong hand would have preferred I do exactly what I did – stay in the pot and put all my chips in there!
Now I don’t consider myself to be an expert on Tells – quite the contrary. I feel I’m still learning a lot, especially in live casino play (since most of my play has been online for the past several years). However, I can tell you this for sure. It feels GOOD to READ another player!! (now I know for certain what poker players have always loved so much about live poker play)
After that hand, I realized that I had earned some respect from the other players, having taken on their ascertive table leader and suddenly becoming the new chip leader in a single hand!
I’m telling you, it was solely due to the Tells this guy was practically screaming with his actions and antics that made this possible.
Afterwards, I figured this dude would be laying in wait for me now… and I was actually looking forward to our next encounter – now that I had a good read on this guy…
After that, I sat around for a while, pretty much card dead. I spent that time observing the other players at my table, learning who was who – tight, aggressive, solid, loose, etc. About 45 minutes later, a couple of ladies sat down – one with $200 and the other bringing $300 to the table. A few other players also joined us, making me wonder if a tournament had just wrapped up or something… the table was now full – 10 players.
A few hands after the new players sat down, I look down to find Pocket Rockets, American Airlines (AA)! I made a standard initial raise bet of $15. I got 5 callers! I have to say, this table was really loose. Boy was I excited. The flop comes K – 8 – 7 rainbow – couldn’t have been better!
I bet $25 and got 2 callers. The turn comes and it’s another brick (meaningless card). I bet $40 and now everyone folds. I tossed over the pocket Aces, showing them that I had the goods (reinforcing that I might have had the Aces last time, which is what my old glaring friend wanted to believe).
Now I knew one thing for certain – I had a Tight, Ace-Playing image! (something that’d come in handy later on)
Three hands later I look down to find what? Pocket Aces again!
This time, I decided to play them differently. I slow played them… (a little dangerous if you don’t know exactly what you’re doing post-flop). I was last to act, putting me in the perfect position to just call the bets in front of me.
The player two to my left was leading the action. He bet $25 on the flop. Everyone folds, except for me. I just call him. Now he looks at me curiously, then his attention shift to the dealer – he had absolutely no clue what was going on, but he was perplexed by my call and what it meant…
The turn card comes and still no straight or flush possible. He bets $50 this time. I call him again, trying not to smile or send any signals at all. He studies me again, as if I have some secret writing on my forehead or something 🙂
The river card comes, and it’s a 2 of clubs. At this point, he stops and thinks for a moment, then just checks it to me – obviously suspiscious that he’d been trapped, since I called all his bets. So now I proceed with a bet of $50, hoping to draw another bet out of him. He shakes his head and tosses his cards away, knowing for sure he was beaten.
Now I do something I normally don’t do at all – for the 2nd time, I toss the Aces over again! There’s a low murmur at the table, a guy halfway across the table says “what did he bet pre-flop?”, and I answered “nothing”. Somebody says, “he slow-played the Aces that time”. The lady to my immediate right says “How many times you been getting those Aces tonight?”. I smiled and said “oh, I’ve had more than my fair share” 🙂
At this point, they definitely think every time I play a hand I must have Aces!
I go back to being card dead, and start using my “Ace Man” table image to steal from the Dealer button and cutoff position every time there’s an Ace on the board and there’s not a raised pot. It works like a charm!! I steal them blind, so to speak.
Then I end up in a hand with AK against the lady sitting across from me, who had joined us about 30 minutes earlier. Her $200 stack had dwindled to less than $100 – she was bleeding chips badly, playing lots of crap starting hands.
The flop comes 4 4 2, and she bets $10. I just call her. The turn shows a Queen. She leads with another bet, this one $15. I just call it again. The river card is another Queen! So now there’s two pair on the board – 4’s and Queen’s. She seems very perplexed and she takes a very long time thinking about this board texture and glancing over at me and my chip stack occassionally.
After what seemed like an eternity, she finally checks. I also check, having no hand and just wanting this one to be over…
She flips over J 8 unsuited and I toss my AK over. My Ace ends up being the high kicker. Now I have to say, I’m totally confused at this point! What the heck was she betting on… I just don’t know. All I know is, it didn’t feel right and I could sense weakness, so I stayed in the hand (longer than normal with a big slick that didn’t connect with the flop).
If she had bet *anything* on the river, I would’ve folded instantly. I told her that, hoping she’d learn that much from her mistake of not continuing to bet.
I’m pretty sure she was practically terrified of me. After all, in the 30 minutes she’d been at the table, I was the table chip leader who played only a few hands, but whenever I did play a hand I always seemed to win it, and several times I’d had Aces! I’m fairly convinced she was worried I might be slow-playing those pocket Aces again, which in the end caused her to abandon her ill-fated bluff attempt!!
Anyway, I look down at my watch and it’s around 11 p.m. and I realize I’ve been playing for about 90 minutes. I look at my stack, close to $550 now, and decided right then to obey one of my own cash game rules – when you’re up, take your profit and LEAVE THE TABLE WITH IT!!
I decided to call it a night and take my profits home with me. I stood up, stretched a little (everyone looks) and walked over to another table and picked up a chip carrier, brought it back and filled it up with the booty, having to hold the excess chips in my other hand. I never did get into another big pot against my original nemesis with the big glare, but I sure do remember it well.
Instead, I just smiled and wished everyone “good luck” with a kind gesture and then walked away from the table. As I walked away I realized, they didn’t seem pleased that I was leaving the table… with their money!
Posted by royalflu 
Royal Flush Club Blog 