Starting Over...

Well, sometimes you start things, and you never fully get to the realization of what you had envisioned... I really do want to put down on paper an excellent introduction to poker for the beginner player. Recently, a couple of folks have been working with me to do informal lessons, but I would like to do even more than this.

Anyways, geez, it's been almost three years since I've posted here, and I'm still chuggin' along with poker. A little over a year ago, I got back into playing online again. Using a Visa gift card I received as a rebate from Verizon, I deposited $30 onto Full Tilt. Over the next several months, I built my bankroll into over $270 playing mainly $0.01/$0.02, $0.02/$0.05, and $0.05/$0.10 NL Hold 'Em ring/cash games. That's like $240 in winnings in games with max buy-ins of $1, $5, and $10 respectively!

I ended up having some money hung up by the events on April 15th, 2011, when the U.S. Department of Justice filed suit against Full Tilt Poker and Pokerstars, suspending deposits, withdraws, and real money play for U.S. players. I actually had requested a withdraw from Stars on like 4/5/11 and received a paper check in the mail from a payee in Singapore... oh, the shady things Stars and Tilt did to get money in and out! Anyway, I deposited on 4/9/11 and all seemed good until I noticed the deposit was removed and a returned check fee of $25 charged to my account. Stars bounced my check! I sent them a few nastygrams and they did get me my money back towards the end of April. Full Tilt is still sitting on $50 of my money and they are still trying to find away to allow U.S. players to withdraw their balances. So, we'll see how that works out. But, I've read stories about online professionals and semi-pros losing five figure bankrolls in all of this, so my $50 is chump change.

Since about the end of last year, I've been making a concerted effort to keep my live game fresh and apply some of the new techniques which I developed in the microstakes online games to live. I have four separate groups of players at work which have semi-regular games, the remnants of what was formerly a weekly tournament group in NJ and a corresponding group in PA which still is running weekly games, some co-workers of a friend who are having semi-regular games, and of course, we now have close poker rooms at Parx in Bensalem and Harrah's in Chester. So, I've been keeping my chips in the air pretty well. Here's a run down of the games I've played since about November of 2010:

Co-Workers of a Friend Group

I've sat in with this group three times since November of last year. The first game was a $0.25/$0.50 NL Hold 'Em cash game with $20 max buy-in, which I do not like because of the short-stacked buy-in. I prefer to sit 100-150 big blinds deep in a NL cash game; 40BB stacks are not conducive to my style of play. The second two games were adjusted to $0.10/$0.20 NL Hold 'Em cash games with $20 max buy-ins, which is more like it for me.

In the first game, I was +$60 in 4 hours.

In the second game, I was +$8 in 4 hours.

In the third game, I was +$23 in 4 hours.

So, in 12 hours worth of play against these guys, I've profited $91, running at a 22.91BB/Hr clip. That's damn good poker. But, they are very new to the game and do not know how to counter my style of play, so I am insanely profitable in this game.

Work Tournament Group #1

A group from work hosts quarterly NL Hold 'Em tournaments. Buy-ins are $25 and they typically get 3 tables, 20-25 total players.

First time I played these guys, we started 6-handed at a table I ran over for the first several levels. I played a very aggressive game and took many pots uncontested, building an above average stack. I did not knock anyone out, so I didn't have a dominant position however. Anyway, I picked up AA on the button. After bullying and pushing in so many pots, I now finally had a hand to get paid off on my loose image. All folds to me, and I 3x it off the button, trying to look like a normal steal move. I get called by the BB and we set a flop of K-x-x, no real draws to speak of. Great flop, making so many hands in his calling range a pair of Ks, like KQ, KJ. He checks, I make a continuation bet, he calls. Turn 9. He checks, I bet 1/2 pot, he shoves.

I go into the tank. I have him covered but not by much. He was the only other player at this table picking up chips. The only hands I can really put him on here are AK, KQ, and K9. I think he would have 3bet me pre-flop with virtually any pocket pair because of how aggressive I had been playing. And I actually thought AK would be a 3bet too. At one point, I actually pointed to the 9 on the turn and said something like, "This card right here made your hand", trying to get any sort of read. Nada. Reluctantly, I call with my overpair, and he flips K9, no help on the river and I'm crippled that fast. Left with 4BBs and I shoved not too long later, finishing maybe 10th out of 20 something.

Second outing with these guys went off 3 tables, 21 players total, paying top 4. My initial table draw feature 3 donks, 2 decent trappy players, and a very smart guy whom I had no idea if he actually knew how to play poker. Again, I start off in a very aggressive style, taking down many pots. The trappy players adjusted to me quickly, so I started to put adjust back against them.

No major hands until I pick up AKo in the cutoff. Smart guy, under the gun, 3x's it. I 3bet it to 12BBs total. All folds to him and he now shoves for around 50BBs. We are in the second level of the tournament. I have him covered, but not by much. I really can't see him making this move without a pair, so I think AT BEST, I might be 50/50 here. A coinflip for all my chips at this point in the tournament didn't seem like a good call. Plus, I had a significant feeling that this pair was JJ+, with a good chance it was KK or AA. So, it's either 50/50 or domination. I put all this together and decided it was a fold, but folded face up to actually show that I had a hand in this spot, wanting the guy to realize that my entire game is not just aggression.

He flips up ATs. Wow, I did not see that coming. I was about a 2:1 favorite there. As it turns out, they ran out the board and he would have spiked a T on the river to win. But, I still like how I played the hand all the way through. His 4bet all-in shove is terrible, as my 3bet range there is going to have a lot of pairs in which I would snap call him. So, his raise is only going to get called by hands that are beating him.

Anyway, I then switched gears over to a tighter style. Along the way, I picked up a good read on one of the trappy players to my right.

Later, we get into a hand. All folds to him in the SB, and he limps. I look down at QTo and 4x it. He calls. I only about 20-25BB stack at this point due to the level ups, and I'm probably a little below average stack. Flop comes T95ss. He checks and I make a 3/4 pot continuation bet. He calls. Turn 8x. He's now called a 4x raise and my continuation bet out of the blinds. He's decent and trappy. My thinking here is I'm way ahead / way behind. I will be in pot commitment land if I bet this turn and he calls and now checks the turn to me. I'm losing to AT, KT, T9, 98, T8, sets, and a made straight with 76. That's a ton of possible hands. So, I think a check in this spot looks good, even though I'll be giving the free card to the flush draw. So, I check behind, and a non-flush J falls on the river, making the board T-9-5-8-J, and I have now backdoored a Q-high straight.

As I'm starting to think about if I can get paid off here and how to do it, I start picking up tells from my opponent. He is feigning weakness in the same manner he had pre-flop in an earlier hand... when he later showed down AA. Picking up these same feigned weakness tells again, I immediately know he's strong here. He hasn't even put a chip in his hand, but I already know at this point that all the chips are going into the pot already. He comes out firing, overbetting the pot. I only have about 2.5BB more than his bet.

I gave some thought for a second on the possibilities on KQ, but he would have played that extremely weird to get to this point. Plus, at this point, I have to be willing to go broke with the 2nd nuts. So, I shove, and he instacalls and tables 76. He had made his gutshot draw on the turn and checked there as a trap. My unwillingness to get into a committed pot allowed me not to fall into the trap.

So, I took these chips and was able to break through the bubble and into the money. Going into four handed action, the top two stacks had probably better than 70% of the total chips between them. My fellow short stack went out fast. I shoved with around 3-4BBs with an Ax hand, got called by one of the big guys, and my Ax did not hold up. All in all, I thought I played decently, considering those hands were the only major hands I dipped into the entire night and I was able to make 3rd place out of it, profiting $50.

Third time I played, man, I was awful. The entire night. My head wasn't in the game and I made some extremely bad moves. On top of that, I had a 1.5 hour drive home from this game to stew on my awfulness. I finished out $25 on the tourney, and, $27 in a cash game. Terrible night.

Work Tournament Group #2

I dug up another group of guys at work who are running weekly tournaments in a private home game club on Pokerstars. They are buying into the tourney for play money and handling the payouts offline or via Paypal. So, I played my first game with them on 5/11/11. Tournament is a $10 buy in. 11 players this week, paying out $55 for first, $33 for second, and $22 for third.

Tourney starts with a table of 6 and one of 5. I'm at the larger table and I can immediately tell this is going to be a donkish tourney. Minraises all over the place. At one point, I actually had to go back to the tourney lobby to make sure they weren't running a Limit Hold 'Em tourney. I saw multiple pots of... bet, minraise, minraise, minraise, call. So, seeing this, I decided to put the brakes on any aggressive moves and just play very ABC poker, knowing this crowd would more than likely pay off.

At the initial table, I picked up KK in the BB. Two early position limpers and then the action comes to me. I take it to 6BB to go (4BB raise + 1BB for each limper). One caller. Pot is 13.5BB and the flop comes K-Q-4, rainbow. I check the flop here, hoping to set a trap. Opponent checks behind and the turn comes 9. Board still rainbow, so no flush. I bet now, 4BB into a 13.5BB pot. Opponent calls. Pot now 21.5BB and the river is the case K. Now, I'm really hoping he has QQ, 99, 44, or JT here! I put in an 18BB bet on the river which puts my opponent all-in if he calls. I want to get his whole stack here, I didn't want to put out some underbet on the river and just get called. The pot is already a nice win, and, if I don't show this hand down, it looks very aggressive and might lead to later action for me. So either he calls for his whole stack or folds, whatever, either way is good for me. He anti-climatically folds and we don't have a showdown. Maybe AQ, QJ, 55-88?

So, I took these chips and broke through several levels, through the bubble. Ultimately, I finished 3rd after all was said and done, for +$12 profit. The chip leader and second place going 3-handed had both won huge pots and had built up close to 90% of the chips between them. One got all-in preflop with 88 vs. KK and 77 and flopped an 8. Double KO. The other got AI on the turn, after a shortstack had gone AI on the flop of JT9ss, and rivered his flush. Double KO. There was not much room for me here, and I finally had to shove my 2-3BB stack with J4o in the BB after the SB limped. He snap called with AKo and the rest was history.

Parx

I've actually also found the time to have two short sessions over at Parx since they opened a poker room last year. Actually, it's quite a nice place and it's a shame it wasn't there when I was at the height of my brick-and-mortar playing in AC.

At any rate, first session was a methodical, card-dead run in which I was +$25 in 4 hours. I guess 6.25 BB/Hr is still profit, but it was slooooow.

Second session, +$50 in 2 hours, so 12.5 BB/Hr. Some notable hands:

KQo in the SB, like 5-6 limpers, and I just come along. Flop J-T-9, no flush draw. I just start pumping money at this on the flop. 5BB bet, 3 callers. Turn A. I come out for 12.5BBs, but no callers.

Next interesting hand, KQo in the cutoff. Two limpers prior. I raise to 5BB. 2 callers to a flop of Q33. Caller in the SB bets 2.5BB into a a 30BB+ pot. Guy on a shortstack (~25BB) calls it. Now me. Calling this would be dumb in my opinion. It looks like a blocking bet to me. I opt to go ahead and raise it to where my continuation bet size would be and see what I get. So I raise to 12.5BBs. SB calls, shortstack now shoves for 18BB total. Now, I guess this depends on where you are, but usually in home games, that would not be a "complete bet", since he did not make a raise of my raise. That amount would be 25BBs. But, I guess Parx works on the half bet rule, because I ensured with the dealer, that if I called, the action would still be live, and the SB player would still be open to raising the bet and not be restricted to just calling it.

So, I know one of these two has a 3. Maybe the SB does and I'm still on the hook to call his 25BB behind to get to showdown. Or maybe he has AQ. Either option didn't look attractive to me, and I fold this spot. SB calls the raise. Shortstack tables J3s and the SB had a pocket pair, 99ish. J3s... on a short stack... and I still didn't really pay you off when you hit that hand, the SB did, so is it worth it to call 5x raises there with that trash? The SB played this terribly.

Another hand of note, I thought was entertaining. KQs, late position again. I raise it to 5BBs again. Two callers, one off the button, and one early. Flop ATx, rainbow. Early checks, and I mix it up, no c-bet, and check. Button bets 5BBs, pot ~15BBs. Fold from early position. The bettor had a sizable stack... ~150BBs or so deep. Maybe he puts me on a pocket pair like <99 or something here, I don't like the two overcards, and he has something like T9, JT, QT, KT, or maybe the same <99 he has me on, but with position. Briefly I thought on this, didn't really give too much thought on his range, but the stack size enticed me. I'm thinking I could get his whole stack if a J falls. So, I call. Turn, brick. I check, he checks. Hmm, either he's controlling pot size, which I don't think he's advanced enough to do, or he's now putting me on an Ax hand. River A. No flush. Final board is A-T-x-x-A.

This is my final spot to make a move at this pot. His check behind on the turn has to indicate he does not have an A, and that river definitely made those odds far more likely. If I bet here, I don't think I can be called by any of those Tx hands I put out there earlier. I decided to bet, then I thought on sizing. What would trip As bet on this river? Well, they would know they can't get called by a pair of tens or whatever at a high amount, so they would suck bet the river. We have a 25BB pot. I decide to bet just 7.5BBs. I'm giving him almost 4:1 on a call. That's gotta look fishy. Opponent thinks on this, and then says, "I can't call" and mucks.

That hand right there, I love that hand. I'm giving myself a Barry Horowitz pat-on-the-back for that play!

And then a finally, I took a flop probably 6-7 handed (I know) with AJo in late position. I didn't think after all these limpers that AJo was a good hand to make a play here. At any rate, the flop comes J63, flush draw. All checks to me and I bet 5BBs. Pot is like 6-7BBs. I get one caller to my right. Turn is a 3, no flush, and he checks. Again, I think this is a way ahead / way behind spot. If he's on the flush draw, he's calling any bet pretty much, as I'm over 150BBs deep. If he's looking at implied odds, and thinks I'll pay off, he can call me on a 10-15BB bet here. So, I like a check here, even against the flush draw. So, I check. River is a blank.

Now, I know when I check behind the turn in that spot, I'm going to induce some bluffs. That's by design. And now, since I've kept the pot size small, I can call the bluffs and get to showdown where my top pair / top kicker hand should have some showdown value. Opponent leads out 12.5BBs. This could be virtually anything now from a broken flush draw on up to a set or something, but I will call it since I've now kept my potential loss low.

He flips 73 for the turned trip treys and was trapping on the turn. He didn't get paid off. A lot of people are going to bet the turn with AJo in this spot and he will raise and they will have a pretty tough go of it.

Some Questions to Consider Before Getting Started

Before I really begin going down the path of introducing my thoughts on poker, I wanted to briefly go through what I feel are some fundamental questions to consider. The answers to these questions will define your outlook on the game.

"Who Are You?... Who, who... who, who?"

So the heading did Roger Daltry no justice, but still his poignant question stands... "Who are you?"

Your background and makeup as a person will tend to flow naturally into your style as a poker player. If you are a quiet, calculating person in everyday life, your natural tendency when sitting at the poker table will be to default to a style that's in line with your personality. On the contrary, if you're a fun-loving, free-wheeling, outgoing type, you will be that type of player. In the end, it's very hard to reverse who your natural tendencies as a human being. In fact, what makes the best poker players good is they are capable of transforming their play at will to keep their opponents off their trail.

You can also expect that your opponents will also have a difficult time betraying their natural tendencies as well. One of the finest examples I can give is the Old Lady. While it may sound like an over-exaggeration, every older woman I have ever played with will only put money in play when they hold the strongest hands. Hence, most times you have much to lose when going up against them, but not much to gain. It's advisable to avoid Old Ladies like the plague!

So, for a moment, if you're just starting into the world of poker or if your a veteran player, I urge you to think a little bit about who you are. These are not questions to be answered just based on poker. Think about how you are in your everyday life and come up with your answer.

Are you patient? Are you impulsive?
Are you quiet and introspective? Are you jovial and outgoing?
Are you reserved with your image? Are you flashy and extravagant?
Do you budget your money and know where every penny goes? Do you spend your paycheck and not know where it went?
Can you take a loss with restraint? Does a big loss send you over the edge (pissed off, throw things, etc.)?
When you lose, do you quickly forget about it? Do you steam on it for hours?
Do you treat opponents with respect and dignity (after you beat them down, you lend them a hand to get back up)? Are you absolutely ruthless... when you're done stabbing them in the back, you twist the knife around?

You will probably find yourself falling somewhere in the middle of the "bookends" presented by these questions. Think about which side you favor more. If you were to think of it as a scale from 0 to 10 where 0 would be the first of each question and 10 would be the second, where do you score? Total up your numbers. If your score is less than 20, I would say you have a good makeup to be an excellent poker player. If you are over 40, you can still be a winning poker player but I think you will have a more difficult time holding yourself back and keeping from flying off the rails.

Why Play Poker?

I don't mean to go all philosophical on you, but it definitely is a question that needs to be asked. We all have things in our lives that demand our time and attention. Relationships, kids, work, school, that list of things your wife wants you to do around the house, ... or whatever else is important to you. If you take up poker, its going to pull time from those other things in your life and, if those other things are indeed important to you, there has to be some reason why you want to devote time to playing poker and not to those other things. After all, our time is finite; your poker time has to come at the expense of something else, right?

So, look over the list below. Give yourself 20 points. Assign points to the items on the list which represent your reasons for playing poker. Give more points to items which you agree with more than others. Use all 20 points.

- I play to meet new people.
- I play to pass the time.
- I play because the casino gives me free drinks.
- I play to win money.
- I play because my friends play and I like hanging out with them.
- I play to enjoy myself and have a good time.
- I play to understand the game deeper and improve.
- I play to beat my opponents.
- I play to get away from life and relax.
- I play to [insert your own reason here].

Where did you place your points? I'm going to tell you straight out that if a significant amount of your points are not in "I play to win money", you're going to have issues becoming a good poker player. I'm not the only one who says this...

"When we play, we must realize, before anything else, that we are out to make money."
- David Sklansky

This shouldn't be the only reason why you play by any means, but it should be the biggest. After all, there's other things you could be doing that won't have a risk at your bottom line. Go play a video game if you need to unwind. Play a sport if you need competition that bad. But, if you want to take a buck and make it more, this might be a good place for you.

In the end...

All the strategy and mathematical knowledge in the world will not help you if you can't help yourself from getting distracted by a horrendous loss or if you're sitting at the table sucking down free drinks and throwing away money. If you're like that, hey, go play roulette or craps. At least it will separate you from your money faster and you can go on abouts your life! You have to be able to look at yourself and know precisely what you are and what you want to be as a poker player. If you can't do that, you just might be the sucker that the rest of the table is waiting to prey on...

The Start of Something New

To think of all the positive things one could do with time in life, I have decided to join the ranks of those incessantly plugging away at a keyboard throughout the Internet blogging on poker. It's just that most of those guys don't talk to the non-poker player or someone who wants to get started in the game. In fact, most of the material on the game is in pretty bad shape or in books you need to visit bookstores to acquire. The aim of this blog is to put together a series of instructional material on the game of poker... introducing the beginner to the game and putting you in a position to think the game, choose the right places to plop your money down, and in the end, make a little coin.

Where "It" Started and Why I Can Help You
I was a junior in college when I put my hands on the book Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich. I was immediately enthralled with the subject matter: the ability of a few select students at MIT to design a blackjack system so strong as to literally rip money from the casinos coffers at will. As a computer science major with a keen interest in probability and statistics, the concept that blackjack could be broken and instant money be made was mindblowing to me. I had previously read books on blackjack strategy and card counting, liked Edward Thorp's Beat the Dealer, and I had tried my hand at playing blackjack using the basic strategy. But, the concepts laid out in Bringing Down the House I would say were the principle reason why I became interested in gambling and gaming.

When my four-man senior design team was tasked with coming up with a software development idea to design and implement, we threw around several ideas. Websites? No, what fun is that. A game? Who cares anyway. I pitched the idea to the group of writing some software that would simulate millions of hands of blackjack using user-defined playing strategies and game rules, allowing users to statistically analyze the results and refine strategies. I had already designed a blackjack game for a previous class; much of that code could be reused for this project.

My team had a vote. We decided to work on the Blackjack Simulation System. In a real world sense, the project did nothing. We did not win the Nobel Prize on Degenerate Gambling. The bells, whistles, blood, and sweat that went into it won us an Honorable Mention in the senior design competition. But, the program itself limped over the finish line. While there were bugs (a plenty!), the results were enough to show you that you needed to be an absolute robot to gain an edge in blackjack. No mistakes. Make one in an hour and your whole advantage built by tediously counting cards and memorizing strategy was lost.

On a trip to Atlantic City where I completed playing blackjack, I went to watch a few friends play poker. It seemed like poker was small in 2002. I was playing blackjack at the Claridge, which had recently been bought out by Bally's. The two casinos were connected and the poker room was a small cave above the main floor at Bally's. You had to go upstairs away from the pits to get to it. For a Saturday night, there was not very many people there. I watched for an hour or so as my friends played. On the way home, we talked about the rudiments of the game (I had never played it before).

Before long, we started playing a weekly home game on Thursday nights. And that was the hook: I simply wanted to beat my friends on Thursday nights. On lunch breaks at work, I stopped by a local Borders and read the "good" books on poker that I could find in their racks:

• Hold 'Em Poker
• Hold 'Em Poker for Advanced Players
• The Psychology of Poker

I would say these books were enough, along with several others as I moved along, to make me quite a formidable player in my homegames. In 2003, the World Series of Poker (WSoP) Finals between Chris Moneymaker and Sam Farha aired on ESPN and it was like the world was set ablaze. Our home games drew more interest, we had poker tournaments springing up everywhere we went, and we drove to Atlantic City weekend after weekend. We attended poker tournaments at random peoples' homes. Games were found through the internet at dorms on campus. The Thursday Night Poker Club chugged along for almost two years of not missing a week.

In time, I began playing on the internet, studying statistical data generated from my play over thousands and thousands of hands. I tracked opponents play using a database and repeatedly stalked the weakest ones. I jumped into the world of no-limit poker. I found out what worked for me and why I should always put myself in a position to exploit my strengths. I peeled back the onion of the world of poker layer by layer... a process that still continues and will for the foreseeable future!

My foundation in poker is built in a strong mathematical background. I play because I can make decisions where, if given that decision with its associated odds of winning over and over again, I will be a winner over time. I don't play because I need a thrill, although you will certainly get more than your share when you play. I don't really even play for entertainment. I want to win. In the end, if you come to the game of poker with any other motivation than winning, in my opinion, there are better outlets for your time and money.

In this blog, my hope is to put together enough material to where an absolute beginner in poker can take my blog address and, after reading and practice, become a decent player at the game and also take pieces of my experiences to advance their knowledge of the game past their time invested in learning it. I, by no means, consider myself an authority of the game. I have no shiny bracelets or million dollar wins. But, I have logged my fair share of time and if there's one thing the 2003 WSoP Main Event results should tell you (and the 2006 results for that matter also), you don't have to be an expert to win!