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JOHN VORHAUS PRESENTS ASK DR. DECK Okay, Doc: A local card room I frequent hosts $1500 guaranteed tournaments twice a week where the buy-in is only $10 but there are numerous rebuys. Around 40 people enter, and everyone makes several rebuys. Every time I've entered, the casino has never had to put up any of the $1500 guarantee. I realize that proper tournament strategy dictates that a player take advantage of all rebuy options, since the further into a tournament you advance, the more each of your chips is worth. I wonder if this analysis breaks down when there is a card room guarantee. It seems like every rebuy in this type of tournament brings down the chip values, since the pot doesn't increase. Should I rebuy. Tourneyman Dear Tourneyman, You raise an interesting question - and one that I didn't feel entirely qualified to answer, so I passed it on to Shane Smith, author of Pro Tournament Tips from the Pros. First, Shane reinforces your thinking that it's correct to rebuy (and/or add on, if that option is offered.) Says Shane, "It takes chips to make chips," and recommends rebuying as necessary, so long as you still feel like you're bringing your best game to the table. Shane also reminds us that it's human nature to play looser in a tournament where rebuys are available. Loose play, of course, leads to greater fluctuation. And greater fluctuation leads to... more rebuys! But suppose there were only 40 players putting up $10 each and no one took any rebuys at all? Then there would only be $400 in the prize pool, and the card room would have to chip in the $1100 to meet the guarantee. In that circumstance, wouldn't the players be getting a big overlay at the card room's expense? Dr. Deck can imagine a perverse parallel universe where all the players colluded to take no rebuys whatsoever in an attempt to enjoy this free ride. But, as such action is unethical and also highly unlikely (try getting 40 poker players to agree on anything!) we'll leave it in the parallel universe where it belongs. In practice, the house almost never posts a guarantee it doesn't figure to make. If they do, they lose money and, so, inevitably, adjust the guarantee downward (which is what would happen pretty quickly in the collusion scenario above.) And once the guarantee gets met, the fact of it becomes irrelevant to your thinking. What difference does a $1500 guarantee make if the prize pool is up around $2000? In that case, standard tournament strategy takes over: Rebuy if it's correct to rebuy; add on if it's correct to do that. The experts mostly agree that it's correct to rebuy and add on in tournaments that you've entered, but I'd like to offer this caveat, also from Shane Smith. "When poker experts talk about tournament theory, they're really talking about tournament philosophy." Even though it may be correct to rebuy or add on, you might not feel like you can afford all that spurious spending, and so adopt a strategy of trying to play through as cheaply as possible. This is your philosophy or style. If it works for you, stick with it. In other words, listen to the experts, sure, but don't follow their advice blindly. Make decisions that are comfortable for you. After all, you're the one who has to live with them.
Dear Dr. Deck, I've often heard you advise to raise on the river, but what do you do in a situation like this? It's 7-stud, and it's me and one caller. He pairs his door suit on 4th street and bets out. I call with a big pair. Fifth and six streets are blanks for us both. We both check on fifth street, but I bet and he calls on sixth street. My seventh card gives me two pair. I normally check here because if he didn't make his flush he won't call, but if he did it costs me two bets. You want to revise your advice? Pokerman Dear Pokerman, No, but you might want to revise your thinking. If you put your opponent on a flush draw at fifth street, you should be betting any blank he gets. Here's why: He's better than 3 to 1 against completing his flush, but the pot is only offering him a one-for-one return. It's a mistake for him to call in this circumstance, but you can't encourage him to make that mistake unless you bet. So get your bets in there on fifth and sixth streets, and then see how you like the river. A couple of other points to consider: First, are you sure you put your opponent on the correct hand? Just because he matched his door suit on fourth street doesn't necessarily mean he's flushing. Second, do you look at your opponent when he looks at his last card? In low limit games especially, many opponents' faces will tell you precisely whether they hit their hand or not, allowing you to check or bet accordingly. Third, are you positive he won't call with a hand worse than yours? Again in low limit games a lot of players will catch a pair, say, and then call to keep you honest, or just call because they feel bad about missing a flush they thought they deserved to hit. The doctor stands by his advice: In most cases it's better to be the bettor.
Dear Dr. Deck, Always bet the river? ALWAYS? In poker strategy, never use the word always, and always distrust statements that include the word never. It might be better to say: Bet the river whenever you have any doubts about the situation. If you have to think about it, stop thinking and bet. Always use your best judgment given the cards, players, and previous action. There are situations where a bet on the river is obviously stupid. But I agree with you that many players are too timid, on the river and in their overall strategy. Don Dear Don, You make a good point. If you know you shouldn't bet, then by all means don't. But if you're on the fence, by all means jump off on the frisky side. "When in doubt, bet out." You also make a good point about rejecting absolutes absolutely. You're right (absolutely right!) that "always" and "never" have no place in a poker player's lexicon. We have to remain flexible in our thinking and always make room for the new idea. Thank you for sharing yours.
Dear Dr. Deck, I am currently in a dispute with a co-worker in reference to playing in the World Series of Poker. Here's the situation: You're in Vegas w/ $5 grand in your pocket. You're down to your last couple hundred, and you win a seat to the World Series of Poker, $10,000 buy-in main event. You draw the big blind and the tournament begins. On the first hand, everyone at the table folds except the small blind, who goes all-in. You look at your cards -- pocket aces. Do you call or fold ? I say call all-in. My co-worker says fold. Do you take a chance at losing the very first hand, and elimination, or do you play the odds. Jorg Dear Jorg, From the way you describe the situation, it's clear that you're afraid of "wasting" your investment by busting out on the very first hand. But you need to remember that that investment is already gone. It disappeared the minute the tournament director said, "Shuffle up and deal." Now it's your job to win it back - and then some! Seeing those aces on the first hand of a no-limit tournament seems to magnify your risk, but does it really? Suppose you caught them an hour later? Wouldn't you be glad to get your money in the middle then? I sure would. So why not take that shot at the start? Here's what happens if you double through on the first hand. You're immediately 2 to 1 chip leader against the rest of the table. For the time being at least, you're bulletproof: No one can bust you out on one hand. If you know how to manage this advantage, you can be much more aggressive at this point and use your big stack to go on the offensive. Or, if you prefer to play a waiting game, think how much longer $20,000 will last. When all the other waiters start to go broke because they never built their stack past ten grand, you'll be glad you got those aces to start. And if you bust out on the first hand, so what? It's no different from busting out on the 10th hand or the 100th hand or any place that's not a money finish. If you're in it to win it, you have to play smart from the first hand to the final table, and if you get pocket aces on the first hand, play 'em the way aces should be played. The doctor says: Trying to make the tournament last doesn't get the tournament won.
Dear Dr. Deck, I've been looking for a copy of the Pro Poker Playbook and it seems to be either out of print or all the stores that I've checked haven't had it in their warehouses. Any thoughts on where I could get a copy? Practicing Dear Practicing, All your poker book needs can be met by calling the Gambler's Book Store at 1 (800) 522-1777 and asking for a free catalog, or visiting their web site at www.gamblersbook.com. Another great online resource for (discount) poker books is www.conjelco.com. By the way, the Pro Poker Playbook is still in print, and is available through all those sources. (And dear readers, I assure you that this is a real letter, not just something I made up to shill for my book.)
Dear Dr. Deck, I heard someone talking about "program betting." What the heck is that? All Ears Dear All, Some players, in planning their attack on a hand, map out in advance the sequence of bets that they'll make throughout the hand. If you get heads up against a weak player, and plan in advance to batter him with raises until he submits, that's an example of program betting. Here's another: Suppose you have noticed an opponent's tendency to raise your big blind. You plan in advance to flat-call a raise from this player. Then if the flop comes ragged, you bet, but if the flop comes big scare cards, you don't bet. Since you're more likely to have random cards in the big blind, your raisy opponent is more likely to figure you for a hand that hits a ragged flop than a hand that hits a good one. By just calling his raise and then betting any flop that a blind hand could love, you fulfill your opponent's expectations for your hand, and he folds. Notice that it doesn't matter what cards you actually hold. Your program bet is meant to define your hand in your opponent's mind and get him to throw his hand away. Also keep in mind that the success of program betting requires both an opponent who will make certain guesses about your hand and a flop that fits those guesses. Yet another example of a program bet is the foreclosure raise, one you use when you're drawing to a straight or a flush. Some players have programmed themselves always to check-raise from early position with this draw. Their goal is to "foreclose" the action and earn a free card on the turn. But if you become too predictable with this move - if your program is exposed - savvy opponents will always know you're on a draw and punish you accordingly. The doctor recommends: Run your programs, but vary them too.
Dear Dr. Deck, What's the secret to successfully bluffing? Split Infinitive Dear Split, I think a big part of it is plausibility. Poker situations create assumptions in players' minds. If you can make your hand look like the one that fits their assumptions, your bluff has a much greater chance of success. Example, doctor? Of course. A player to your right comes in for a raise. You know this player to be loose and unimaginative. You believe that if you reraise in this situation, she'll put you on a big pair or big tickets. If the flop comes high cards, she'll assume that you hit your hand, and she'll fold when you bet. But if the flop comes with low cards, your opponent will assume that you missed your hand, and a bet from you now will only be read for the bluff that it is. By keeping your bets in harmony with your opponent's assumptions, based on the cards she sees, you make your bluff more plausible. Do remember, though, that some opponents always call. If you try to get bluffy on opponents you know to be bluff-proof, you have only yourself to blame. On the other hand, if they're calling too much you can probably win their money without bluffing to begin with.
Dear Dr. Deck, My friend says he plays better when he's tired. He says he gets into a "zone," where all his poker decisions are made by his deepest intuition and not by his (often confused) conscious mind. Not to put too fine a point on it, I say he's full of crap. We'll let the doctor settle the case. Friend of Sleepy Dear Sleepy's Friend, One symptom of playing tired is not knowing that you're playing tired. The very forces that rob you of your best game also rob you of your ability to recognize that fact. To put it another way, "The trouble with too far is you never know you're going till you've gone." What your friend thinks of as a zone of perfect decisions is really what scientists have identified as "oxygen-debt stupidity." Tell Sleepy to wake up.
Dear Dr. Deck, I have this other friend who swears by - get this - marijuana as a performance enhancing drug for poker. He says it focuses his attention on the game and, in particular, improves his tell-reading ability. Is this conceivable? The one time I tried it, it did make me think I could shoot pool. Friend of Sleepy and Stinkweed Dear Friend, I've heard the effect of marijuana described this way: "If you're smart, it slows you down a little. If you're dumb it slows you down a lot." I don't think any of us play smart enough poker that we can afford to slow down even a little. Why give your opponent a cranial head start?
Dear Dr. Deck, I've got this other other friend... no, let's be honest, this is me. I can't keep my eyes off the television screen. If it's sports up there (and where I play it's always sports up there) it has my attention - to the detriment of my poker I'm sure. What can I do to break this habit? Now Call Me Fan Dear Fan, Are you sure you're not tired or stoned? Also, are you sure you're not betting on the outcomes? One of the biggest drains on some players' bankrolls is the money they spend on other gambles. But if it's just a case of attention deficit, try viewing the poker game on the table in front of you as if it were a sports event. Who's on offense? Who's on defense? Who are the star players? What are their strategies and tactics? Alternatively, give yourself challenges. Challenge yourself to focus on one player exclusively throughout the entire hand, or calculate odds as the pot grows (or even just keep count), or really, really try to predict what the raising player has. Challenge yourself to excel at these missions. If you engage your own spirit of competition and struggle to be better than you are, you can bring the action from the TV set down to the table where it belongs.
Dear Dr. Deck, It happened again last night. I was playing strong, solid poker in the tournament until I got into a raising war with the wrong foe at the wrong time. I was thoroughly convinced he was bluffing, though of course he had a monster hand. What happened? How can I make sure it doesn't happen again? Gasping Dear Gasping, It's no sin to admit that some foes can outplay you. When you've identified those who can, simply steer clear. Above all, don't challenge them with marginal holdings. That's just asking for trouble. Also, how good is your read on all your opponents? If you've been paying close attention, then the incendiary bets which trigger raising wars will not, at minimum, take you by surprise. Good players have a knack for making big hands look like bluffs. They set this up in advance with what I call "taunt raises." They'll come at you with nothing, just to see if you'll blink. After a while they've got you convinced that they always come at you with nothing. Then you answer back, and they fire again, and you fire again, and now we've got a raising war. Trouble is, you're in there with K-J, he's in there with a bad ace, and the flop just came A-x-x. Now you bet to drive him off the hand, but he raises back. He's conditioned you to believe he has garbage, so you start to think that your K-J is better than his Q-6 or whatever. But you're not completely out of control, so you just call his raise on the flop. The turn is another brick, and you bet out, figuring the only way to win is to drive this bluff home. But - bam! - you run into another reraise. Now you're stuck on the hand. You call the raise, then call again on the river, paying out a total of (let's count them) 13 small bets to an opponent who used a bad ace and a good read on you to cripple your tournament stack. How to prevent this from happening? Again, study your opponents, avoid the tough ones if you can, and tangle very carefully with them when you must. Also aspire to be the sort of player who can tear through others like that guy tore through you.
Dear Dr. Deck, Why do they call K-Q of clubs "Big Maxx?" Wondering Dear Wondering, The hand was named by legendary card mechanic Kansas City Maxx Webber, who introduced Texas hold 'em to the upper Midwest and always bet the max when he held Big Maxx. The other hand he loved was Q-J of clubs, which he called Baby Maxx. One night he was dealing in Detroit when both Big Maxx and Baby Maxx turned up in the same hand, and Kansas City Maxx Webber's career came to a sudden and preemptive end. So the next time you hold K-Q of clubs, say "Big Maxx" as you bet. But just be sure to keep your cards on the table at all times.
Dear Dr. Deck, You can't believe the trouble I got into with my wife for calling a pair of queens mop squeezers. She doesn't seem to have a problem with a pair of eights being dog balls, but she thinks mop squeezers is sexist and terrible. God forbid she should find out that they call trip queens six tits. I don't really have a question, doc. I just think people should lighten up. In the Doghouse Dear Doghouse Tell her that mop squeezer is a British term of endearment for their queen, as in "Gor bless the ol' mop squeezer." It's not true, of course, but it might take the heat off. To the larger issue of people lightening up, let me just remind the reader: play happy or don't play at all.
Dear Dr. Deck, I was sitting in the nine seat, next to the dealer, and he swept my pair of kings into the muck. This was at a critical stage in a tournament. I screamed bloody murder but I didn't get my kings back. What could I have done? Lightning Dear Lightning, You could have protected your hand. Always cover your cards with a chip or some chips, or some kind of marker or token. An unprotected hand swept into the muck his history and all the whining in the world won't bring it back. Also remember that "each of us is responsible for our own good time." If you get so enraged over those lost kings that it puts you on tilt, you've taken one bad beat and turned it into two. Some things you can't control: Dealers will sweep hands into the muck. But you can control protecting your hand, and you can control protecting your mind.
Dear Dr. Deck, My friends play at higher stakes than I do. Last night they pressured me into joining them and I lost $800 that I can't afford to lose. But I'm going back tonight because I really think I can play higher. Besides, I have to get even. My question is this: How can I make it look to my opponents like I have more experience than I do? Moving Up Dear Moving Up, Well you can't. You're so far out of line I don't even know where to begin. Never gamble more than you can stand to lose, that's obvious, but also be aware of how people are pushing you around. If your friends are pressuring you to play higher, they're not exactly friends, are they? Also, you can't get well by playing over your head. You're playing with scared money, and that never works. But I would hazard the guess that getting even isn't even your real agenda anymore. The fact that you got pummeled and you're immediately going back for more should set off warning bells in your brain. What are you trying to prove? You don't need the action that badly. You'll move up eventually, when your skill set and bankroll are ready. For now, concentrate on bringing your best game to the table - the right table - every time.
Dear Dr. Deck, I keep reading the poker books and I keep studying the game, but I don't seem to be getting any better. It's all the same old stuff: chasing draws with bad odds; not being aggressive enough; long list. What can I do to take my game to the next level? Striver Dear Striver, It's not like you go to bed one night a novice and wake up an expert, or even a journeyman. You don't have a flying-up ceremony, like from Brownies to Girl Scouts. You just keep doing your best to plug the leaks in your game. Plug enough leaks and guess what? Your game starts to float. Plug more leaks and it floats higher. Now you've repaired your broken game, and you can use the fact of that to build your confidence and then turn that confidence into measured aggression. You're in control. You haven't moved up a level, per se. You're just playing better than you were. And how do you get there? By thinking hard about your game. Trouble is, thinking hard is hard. It requires concentration and determination, time, dedication, all that. But it also requires a great deal of honesty, and many players have trouble with honesty. Maybe they're losing more than they care to admit. Maybe they're aware of a certain bad habit, but unwilling to confront the problem and fix it. All of this adds up to denial, and denial builds up like plaque on the brain. How do you break down denial and get to the point where you can speak honestly, and converse meaningfully, with yourself about your poker game? For starters, try giving yourself a clean slate. Forgive yourself for past mistakes and get back to the business of playing correctly from this point forward. Guilt over past mistakes is a common trigger for denial. Next, listen to yourself. Do you ever say things like, "I haven't held a hand all night," or "The river kills me every time," or "I guess I'm just running bad?" This brand of denial blames bad luck for bad play, and it's a serious block to effective poker thinking. Take responsibility for your play! Though sometimes you play well, sometimes you just stink. When that happens, simply admit that you played badly, and then study where and how and why you went wrong. It's not enough just to admit mistakes, of course. You need to correct them. To achieve this goal, try planning and executing new strategies. If you know you don't bluff enough, schedule your bluffs by the clock. If you tend to call too much, try folding without ever looking at your hand. You can fix any flaw in your play if you simply attend to it, and then tend it. So: Think hard, forgive yourself, be honest, and fix mistakes. That's the path to poker glory. So says the doctor, and the doctor never lies.
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