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3/1/05
- A Recent Conversation at the Tables.
I sat down at the
poker table recently and was greeted by a player who I’d
played with in the past. I would categorize him, in the past,
as an average player, a little too tight for a $5-$5 No limit
Texas holdem table and a player that sometimes has a problem
getting away from good pre flop cards. (Remember this point)
Anyway, there was
an open seat next to him and one across the table. I was headed
to the seat across the way and he asked me to sit next to him
so we could shoot it a little bit, as we played. Consequently,
we got into a conversation about playing Texas Holdem…
Now I hadn’t
seen this guy for about 6 months. He told me he’s been
playing somewhere else where the games are easier and his game
has really come around. He told me that he’s playing poker
almost everyday and making a steady income from it.
He kept asking me
questions like how much I’d been earning, if I could break
it down to an hourly rate? I told him I was having a good February
and averaged about $75-$100 per hour. He let me know that he
had doubled my efficiency at the tables. I guess I should maybe
have been impressed but, as the conversation went on and hands
were being played, some of his opinions IMHO didn’t jive,
let’s take a closer look at one thing in particular…
 
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First, we watched
a player misplay a hand with AQ. He said ‘I love AQ, it’s
such a strong hand’ I replied ‘ I actually don’t
like the hand very much at all, in fact it’s probably one
of the hands people lose the most money with’ He couldn’t
believe this and said he makes so much money playing AQ. I wondered
where he’d been playing, Disneyland?
They‘re easy
enough to drop before the flop or after the flop, if over cards
come on deck. If over cards don’t come you know where you
stand or if you flop trips and another over card comes on the
flop at the same time, which hits your opponents hand, you stand
to make a nice chunk of change.
These are the type
of situations you want to put yourself into. When playing poker,
inevitably, you’re going to have to make some very tough
decisions. Try and not put yourself into tough spots until you
have to. OK, back to the conversation.
As we were debating
how to play AQ, the dealer decided to chime in. Since we both
knew the dealer and happened to be in the 1 and 2 seats, it was
easy for him to talk to us and hear our conversation.
He backed up what
I had said and said he’d cracked many a player that went
to the mat with AQ and agreed it’s a hand often misplayed.
If a Q flops you bet and are re raised by a good player, what
do you do? If an A flops and you bet and are re-raised by a good
player that raised before the flop, what do you do?
The problem is many
players with AQ will push hard in the above situations and will
end up losing a lot of money that shouldn’t have been in
the pot to begin with. To reiterate, you can win with this hand,
don’t get me wrong, but it’s a lot trickier then
most players believe and players often find out the hard way.
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Well, as the night
drew on, I stayed pretty much where I started, not much of anything
happening other than this entertaining little conversation with
the ‘teacher’, as I call him. (Since months earlier,
in a different game, he was doling out lessons on how he would
have played a hand differently, to a very good player)
But then ‘the
teacher’ got involved in the following hand, and no it
wasn’t AQ, although that would have been fitting for this
story. He has pocket QQ’s and was first to act in middle
position. He brings it in (bets) for $50 and only the guy on
the button calls. This player has been playing loose the whole
night and often defends his position or calls a bet that he wouldn’t
call normally if he didn’t have position on his opponent.
There was nothing
wrong with this hand so far. I think, for the table we were playing
at and this particular hand, the bet was fine. Anyway, flop comes
6d8d2s, ‘the teacher’ bets and is called by the player
on the button. The turn card is the 9h, this time ‘the
teacher bets bigger and his opponent goes All In, which would
put ‘the teacher’ All In.
‘The teacher’
quickly calls and the other player turns over the 5d7d making
a straight with a straight flush draw to boot. ‘The teacher’
loses all his money and leaves the table fuming that this player
called his pre flop raise with 5d7d.
Well, that’s
poker and it looks like its back to the drawing board for ‘the
teacher’. I would have dropped those QQ’s after the
All-In bet, although never an easy decision. Maybe this hand
will help ‘the teacher’ to know when to drop high
pairs going forward.
I also hope our
conversation will help him to think differently about playing
AQ going forward; otherwise he’ll have to learn the hard
way with that hand too…
[Next article will
be about how to manage your poker money.
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