It another day, and I have an opportunity to discuss a few hands in yesterday's tourney between hands in my Pot Limit Omaha h/l tourney. Play Pot Limit Omaha if you want to practice controlling the betting while drawing....
Here's two examples of how to play KK early.
Its 20 minutes in. Early Man (yes the same guy) is in early position. We have 10000 in chips each and blinds of 25/50. EM is first to act, and comes firing out 450 (he will later tell us he has KK).
This seems like an awfully big bet to generate no action, usually consistent with a small pp trying to steal blinds. The blinds aren't worth stealing. EM is protecting his hand with a 9x the blinds from weak drawing hands which can really mess up KK 78 suited can hit a low flop big time, and KK needs to rely on low cards on the flop to determine where it stands. The bet should push out some of the weaker pps. Its so early, however, its impossible to get a read on the style of play of his opponents. I for one, would see a flop with 10 10, 99, 88, even 77 for that percentage of my stack, generally with the concept of hitting a set against an obvious overpair for big action.
Early Man got one call, and a 9 high flop. His opening bet of 800 is raised to 1600. He simply minraises back to 2400, and his opponent goes all in.
Early Man goes in the tank. He tells his opponent he has KK. His opponent is stone faced. EM can't read his opponent. The could have QQ AA, AK (bluffing) or a set. EM isn;t prepared to gamble his KK in a $500+50 game this early, and mucks it, having lost 3000 chips already.
We will never know whether his opponent had KK beat.
Did Early Man play his KK wrong? Possibly. It will come to pass that Early Man has a consistent tell. If he has a big hand, his voice sounds like he has a big hand when he announces his bet, and he looks a little angry. There was no draw on the board, and the basic ABC player will protect JJ and QQ against an A catching. Either his opponent had EM on a big KK and had hit 2 pr or a set (more likely a set) and hoped, by a series of fast re-raises, to catch early man in love with his KK. Or early tourney jitters over excited his opponent with QQ into a premature all-in ejaculation.
So what did EM do wrong? He should have slowed down when he was raised off the flop, say nothing, stare down his opponent while sorting out his raise with his chips. EM needs sunglasses too. His eyes are very expressive.
(I have a buddy who flutters his eyelashes like a flirtatious girl when he has a hand. Since he bluffs a lot I always look for this).
EM let his opponent dictate the speed of the action, gave off all the information, and lost momentum.
I have bluffed someone off KK in a bigger money tourney with a J high flop. I had AJ, and the board had draw options. A potential draw was made on the river, and I had quickly and aggressively controlled the betting on every turn before going all in on the river. This was on-line, so the only tells were may fast and furious raises in position on each street.
Back to this tourney.
30 minutes later, enough time to get a feel for the table, a reasonably respectable player, a 40 something woman, who has earned a few small pots and demonstrated some skills, raises the 50/75 blinds to 200 from UTG. She gets one call, and I, on the button, look down to see KK. I raise to 700, the blinds fold, and she and her caller both call.
Flop is 7 high., 2 diamonds. She bets 800 (pretty weak, given the size of the pot), caller now folds, and I announce raise, and splash in a minraise to 1600. She makes the call.
This lady is not acting like she has AA. There is no stiffness, no acting, no suggestion of a trap. I have her on a pp from her post flop bet. I have her on JJ likely, possibly QQ.
Turn card is terrible, a 5 . She bets 1600. I min-raise to 3200, and she makes the call. It is clear by her body language that she has lost the initiative in this hand. But I have, by min raising, done three things:
- continually given her "GOOD ODDS ON HER MONEY" (Phil Gordon, this is all your fault!)
- sucked 5500 of this player's 11000 chips into a huge pot of 12000.
- created uncertainty which will pay off on the river.
My mark checks. She looks confused.
I gather my remaining chips, about 4000, and splash them in a tidy, foot-long line over the yellow line.
My mark is in the tank.
She thinks I caught a low pp for set. She correctly doesn't consider a flush, although I suppose I could have raised preflop with AK diamonds. She talks out her hand out loud
"I can't lay this down", she says. Of course she can't. Unlike EM and his opponent, and for different reasons, I didn't bet to protect a hand. I had my lady on her hand, and I bet to manipulate the pot size. There is now 15k in the pot, Pot odds says call if you think your hand is 25% likely to be good here. Its a compounding of mistake upon mistake, but her investment is huge. If all this was was a great series of bluffs, she has been put to her tournament life testing that theory.
Because she didn't want to be outplayed on a bluff, she got outplayed into the call that I wanted and expected.
She calls and I ask if she has AA. She shows what I expected. JJ. KK doubled me up early, and I chirped at Early Man for being afraid to gamble with KK early.
Of course, I wasn't gambling. I was in my opponent's head. Now I'm chip leader and I've served notice.
Not all hands are about betting big or betting, as in this case, for value.
Sklansky and Miller's book on hold'em theory explains the math behind drawing hands. Depending on where you stand in the hand and what you think of your opponent, small bets or checking on draws can offer far better money in the long run than a post flop semi-bluff, like NEW SHERRIFF's monster draw (which as I've discussed in detail, is more like a made hand)
Doyle Brunson's simple analysis of the bet on a draw is simple: there are two chances to win the pot: once post flop with the bet, and then, if called, by catching. And if your opponent picks up on the semi-bluff and raises big? I do that all the time, because semi-bluffs are so common. So BY THE BOOK. It is often better to control the size of the pot by checking or calling when drawing, particularly if your draw is disguised or unlikely, but can lead to a big pot later.
Soon after my double up, blinds 50-100, I come in with AJ offsuit for 400 early. AJ is pretty marginal to raise with, but I'm the scary table captain, so I can do what I want.
I get one caller from the BB The flop is Q-K-x two spades. He checks and I check back.
The turn is the 10 of spades. I have made my straight, but he could have made his flush. He checks.
I know my opponent is a bit of a sneak. I peek back into my hole and see that I hold the A of spades. I bet 400 to see where I stand and get the call.
Why 400? This is sometimes known as a blocking bet, an attempt to control the size of the betting, but that is not really my purpose. It is a bet for information. This guy likes to play low suited connectors and off connectors like 6-8. He either has the flush or has the J of spades.
The turn is the 7 of spades. I have sucked out the nut flush, but it is he who bets out 1200.
There is no way my nut flush is beaten and there is no point just calling. I don't want to minraise, so I make it an interesting 3000. He has to fold.
Had I bet on the flop with my gut shot semi-bluff, I either take down a small pot or get check raised. By keeping the pot small, I coerced a trapping call on the turn. He was hoping to sneak more chips his way on the river with his baby flush, but he had trapped himself into being beaten.
By playing with caution I turned a 400 chip potential bluff profit with nothing to a 2000 chip profit with the nuts, while risking almost nothing.
I am reasonably sure he had a small flush. I've have seen so many players stay in the pot with the A which suits 3 on the board looking for the 4th, it is basically a good rule of thumb to protect a small flush with a card to go with the right bet. Had he check-raised me on the turn, I may have had to fold.
My odds of making a hand started with a 3 outer. A flop bluff was worthless. This hand may have been a suckout, but this is one of many smallish, grind-em-out pots you need to play in the early rounds to be able to afford to play in the late rounds. If your opponent is going to let you suckout and then offer you chips, keep playing that opponent!
A GOOD READ
One last hand to discuss from this tourney, another grinder. I had briefly mentioned it in my story about busting Rita Raiser
I am UTG with 66 and just limp in (75 to play). The table folds around to the blinds, who call.
Flop is 5-4-3 no flush draw. I have an overpair and a straight draw. Better yet, my overpair is holding 2 of the sixes which make the straight. Its pretty damn unlikely 67 is playing in the blinds with me.
SB checks, BB bets 200 and I call. SB calls. river is the 2 and I've made my straight.
SB and BB check to me, and I bet 800, as there are now two diamonds on the board. SB calls but Rita Raiser folds from the BB.
The river is a 5, so I just call the 600 bet from the SB. He shows down 68! and we laugh about the fun we would have had if a 7 had shown up.
Rita tells us she mucked A4. This was before I had played my KK and established any table image. Rita had turned a straight, but smelled a rat.
Because the blinds contain 2 random cards, putting a blind on a hand is tricky to say the least.
I had played my 66 in a very predictable fashion, however. She must have sensed the draw from my call and SB's call. It would not be that hard to put me on either A6 sooted or 66, more likely 66.
She wasn't prepared to pay 800 to see if her STRAIGHT was beat, and she was dead right to fold.
Now, Rita has her flaws, and will soon misplay KK against now-desperate Early Man, gambling with A5, being unable to put him on an A...while desperate....in a raised pot.... That's ABC poker folks: if you have the big PP and you have one caller to your raise, put him on an Ace and let him have the pot if it hits the flop, UNLESS your opponent limped in, you raised, and he just called (more likely a small pp, but could be a flush drawing Ace). If this is the case, you may be able to bluff a bigger ace or an ace yourself, nut don't go broke trying, especially un multiple streets....
This is an example of excellent play from the blinds, and will serve as my segue into discussions of 2nd level play.
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