Poker gems, #147

Date: Sun, Jul 20, 2008

Poker gems, #146

Date: Sun, Jul 20, 2008

Phil Hellmuth, the self-proclaimed greatest reader of poker opponents, on last night's "Poker After Dark," commenting on what he thought Guy LaLiberte had just reraised him with:


Feels like deuce-seven.

[LaLiberte actually had pocket kings.]

Melted Felt

Date: Sun, Jul 20, 2008

Quick recommendation here to check out "Melted Felt," an attempt an Onion-style humor in the poker world. They launched in May, and I first heard about the site a couple of weeks ago (through a link at Pokerati, I think), but today is the first that I've really looked around at its content. Here are some posts that I liked:

Calling Station Sets New "Levels of Thinking" Record

Iran Introduces Hanging for Slowrollers

Disappointment for Internet 1st Timer As Username TeddyKGB In Use

Absolute Poker Announce New Head of Security

David Sklansky to Save US Economy?

UB Press Release, Security To Be Enhanced With A "Computer"

UltimateBet Cheating Scandal--Exclusive

How to turn a king into a wheel

Date: Sat, Jul 19, 2008

When playing my PokerStars razz game, I usually don't make even a token effort to defend my bring-ins. But once in a while, circumstances are just right. Specifically, if my two down cards are both parts of a wheel, I'm up against only one opponent, that opponent looks, by position, like he might be stealing with a sub-premium starting hand, I figure it's worth peeling off one card and see if I'm making progress towards something good.

That's what happened here. As it turned out, my opponent was not just stealing, but actually had a decent hand. That ended up working to my benefit, because on the river he believed his very respectable 7-6-4-3-2 was best. He couldn't know that I had caught the perfect card on the river to make the nuts. (I was ahead on 6th street, too.) After all, I was showing K-5-2-8, which doesn't look too promising.

Hee hee hee!

My opponent was--how shall we put this?--not happy.




PokerStars Game #18942850919: Razz Limit ($1/$2) - 2008/07/19 - 16:56:51 (ET)
Table 'Urania' 8-max
Seat 1: slipperyroad ($19.45 in chips)
Seat 2: lobasa ($68.85 in chips)
Seat 3: ragmuppet ($27.65 in chips)
Seat 4: nutOmatic ($90.40 in chips)
Seat 5: jrddoc ($28.50 in chips)
Seat 6: M@lici@ ($44.55 in chips)
Seat 8: Rakewell1 ($17.10 in chips)
slipperyroad: posts the ante $0.10
lobasa: posts the ante $0.10
ragmuppet: posts the ante $0.10
nutOmatic: posts the ante $0.10
jrddoc: posts the ante $0.10
M@lici@: posts the ante $0.10
Rakewell1: posts the ante $0.10
*** 3rd STREET ***
Dealt to slipperyroad [Kh]
Dealt to lobasa [Jc]
Dealt to ragmuppet [6d]
Dealt to nutOmatic [Js]
Dealt to jrddoc [Jh]
Dealt to M@lici@ [5c]
Dealt to Rakewell1 [4c 3d Ks]
Rakewell1: brings in for $0.50
slipperyroad: folds
lobasa: folds
ragmuppet: raises $0.50 to $1
nutOmatic: folds
jrddoc: folds
M@lici@: folds
Rakewell1: calls $0.50
*** 4th STREET ***
Dealt to ragmuppet [6d] [2d]
Dealt to Rakewell1 [4c 3d Ks] [5s]
ragmuppet: bets $1
Rakewell1: calls $1
*** 5th STREET ***
Dealt to ragmuppet [6d 2d] [Td]
Dealt to Rakewell1 [4c 3d Ks 5s] [2c]
jdot joins the table at seat #7
ragmuppet: bets $2
Rakewell1: raises $2 to $4
ragmuppet: calls $2
*** 6th STREET ***
Dealt to ragmuppet [6d 2d Td] [3s]
Dealt to Rakewell1 [4c 3d Ks 5s 2c] [8c]
ragmuppet: checks
Rakewell1: bets $2
ragmuppet: calls $2
*** RIVER ***
Dealt to Rakewell1 [4c 3d Ks 5s 2c 8c] [As]
M@lici@ is sitting out
ragmuppet: checks
Rakewell1: bets $2
ragmuppet: raises $2 to $4
Rakewell1: raises $2 to $6
ragmuppet: calls $2
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Rakewell1: shows [4c 3d Ks 5s 2c 8c As] (Lo: 5,4,3,2,A)
ragmuppet: mucks hand
Rakewell1 collected $27.70 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $28.70 Rake $1
Seat 1: slipperyroad folded on the 3rd Street (didn't bet)
Seat 2: lobasa folded on the 3rd Street (didn't bet)
Seat 3: ragmuppet mucked [2h 7s 6d 2d Td 3s 4s]
Seat 4: nutOmatic folded on the 3rd Street (didn't bet)
Seat 5: jrddoc folded on the 3rd Street (didn't bet)
Seat 6: M@lici@ folded on the 3rd Street (didn't bet)
Seat 8: Rakewell1 showed [4c 3d Ks 5s 2c 8c As] and won ($27.70) with Lo: 5,4,3,2,A

Checking out early

Date: Sat, Jul 19, 2008

Nearly every time I play poker, I run into at least one person who checks out (i.e., folds unnecessarily, when not facing a bet) on the flop if he misses it. I don't get this.

First, let me tell you what I'm not talking about. I'm not talking about breaking a rule or point of etiquette. Some people consider folding when not facing a bet to be against the rules, the equivalent of acting out of turn. I first ran across this idea last year in a Card Player magazine column by Michael Wiesenberg, available here. This surprised me, because I've never heard a player in a casino scolded for checking out, as long as it is done in turn. Here's Wiesenberg's argument:

Online cardrooms offer an unfortunate option. You can fold at any time when
the action is on you, even when there has been no bet in the current round.
Presumably, this is to speed up the action, but the downside of this is that it
is not protecting the other players.

For example, in a no-limit hold'em game, the player on the button flops a
straight-flush draw and bets on the flop (which contains an ace) and turn.
Unfortunately, the river misses him completely. He is reasonably certain that
the player under the gun has middle pair. To his right you sit, a new player not
up on cardroom etiquette. The first player checks. You, drawing to a straight or
flush, missed your hand and disgustedly throw your cards into the muck. The
button had planned on making a final bet to try to steal this pot. Had you held
on to your cards, the first player might well not have called, fearing that an
overcall from you would beat him, but with you now gone, he's much more likely
to call, so the button dares not make a bluff that otherwise might have had a
reasonable chance of succeeding. But your not holding on to your cards stopped
him. You did not protect him. When you are in this situation and the first
player checks, you also should check and hold on to your cards, even if you're
that sure you can't possibly win. Then, if the button bets, hold on to your
cards until the first player acts. Only when he has completed his action should
you throw your cards away.

I usually agree with Wiesenberg, but here I think he's wrong. Of course folding rather than checking changes things. But that's the nature of the game--every action or lack of action by every player changes the situation. In the specific example cited, one could just as easily argue that the player checking out makes it easier for the guy on the button to bet with nothing, because now he knows that he only has one person to try to bluff, which is always easier than trying to bluff two people. Yes, the unnecessary fold changes things, but it doesn't change things in a way that is either obviously or consistently favorable or unfavorable to any other player. It is therefore not unfair or unethical in the slightest, in my opinion. The player checking out has no way of knowing whether his action helps or hurts the plans of any remaining player; he cannot intentionally be helping or hurting anybody else by his decision. As far as I know, it is not against the rules in any Vegas card room.

But that's not my point here. There are rare situations in which I have checked out on the river, because it is inconceivable that I could win or even split the pot. I stress rare, though, because usually I'll just check along with everybody else, there always being a very small chance that I'll have the shock of collecting the pot, or part of it. (For one such story, see the second part of this post.)

Checking out on the flop, though, is just nuts, as far as I'm concerned. There are two more cards to come, and you just might get to see them both for free. That doesn't happen often, but it costs you nothing to check and hope. If somebody bets, you can fold at that point, without anything lost. It's not like you're in a hurry to be doing something else, since you have to wait for the hand to play out anyway. Once in a great while, even if your hand is a complete dog on the flop, the turn and river will come as the miracles to make you two pair or trips or a straight or a flush. What is the point of throwing your hand away when instead you could just check and watch to see what develops? I cannot discern any up-side, any benefit to folding in this situation--yet every session I play I see at least one player who has adopted this as a habit when the flop misses him.

Like I said at the beginning, I just don't get this. Poker players do all sorts of goofy things, but this strikes me as one of the most inexplicable.

What ever happened to...?

Date: Sat, Jul 19, 2008

I was just going through some old papers that have accumulated on my desk, trying to see what can be tossed, what still needs action, and what has sat too long to be of any use now. I pulled out the ad (from Bluff Magazine, I believe) shown above. It ran maybe a year ago. At the time, I went to the web site specified and signed up. Among other reasons, I did so because they promised to send a free web cam to everybody who signed up, and, if I recall correctly, said that they would send it right away, even before they had their site ready for playing poker.

That sounded fine to me. I don't have a web cam. Of course, I don't really need one, or I'd plop down a few bucks of my own and buy one, since they're pretty cheap these days. But it might be fun for chatting with friends and family, maybe even recording a few video rants/clips for this blog. And I was intrigued by the idea of an online poker site with players all sitting in front of live cameras. Watching other people is both more informative and more interesting than staring at a bunch of cartoon avatars, or empty chairs (UB), or blank circles (about half the Stars players).

But after entering my contact information, the site told me that they weren't quite ready to get started yet. They would, of course, let me know as soon as they launched. I quickly forgot all about it, until running across this ad in my stack of junk tonight.

What had been vegasbulldog.com now redirects you here, a site called "Gray's Poker." Other than the name change, everything looks pretty much like I remember it. The "news" section's last update is September, 2007, and includes the Bluff Magazine ad campaign, almost surely referring to the Bulldog ad pictured above. There is no explanation of the name change that I can find.

If you try to download the software, you get roughly the same message I recall from last year: We're not quite ready yet, but leave your email address and we'll notify you soon. Don't call us, we'll call you. The site still promises a free web cam as soon as you sign up. Best money is that that's not really true, either.

So, does anybody know what happened to this outfit? What happened, in business terms, that caused them to buy the ads, then do nothing more (apparently) after that? Why the name change? Why keep the site up if they've gone bust and nothing will ever come of it?

Oh, and where's my free web cam?

In cyberspace, everyone can hear you scream out advice

Date: Fri, Jul 18, 2008

I admit that that may be the lamest post title I've ever come up with, but I'm in a bit of a hurry and didn't have time to wait around for something better to occur to me.

Yesterday I was playing my usual PokerStars $1-$2 razz game. I wasn't in the hand in question. One player was taking quite a while to decide how to respond to an opponent's bet. Another guy who was out of the hand typed in the chat box, "Fold."

When the hand was over, I pointed out that that was against the rules and a quick way to get his chat privileges revoked. He disagreed, and a couple of others at the table piped up on his behalf. In the ensuing discussion, they pointed out that the guy who had written "Fold" didn't disclose what cards he had had, and had no special knowledge of the situation. He just had an opinion as to what the player facing the bet should do.

I didn't know offhand what PS's rules were, but I pointed out that giving such advice would definitely not be allowed in a brick-and-mortar casino. On the other hand, there is certainly no rule against getting advice from just about any source other than the chat box when playing online. I can have a friend standing over my shoulder as I play and telling me what I should do. I can have somebody in contact with me by telephone or online instant messaging. A friend can even fire up his own PS client and be watching my table, shooting me advice by IM. So, logically, why shouldn't he be allowed to do the same using the chat bax (with observer chat on)? And then if that's allowed, why not somebody who is actually seated at the table? In fact, taken to the extreme, if I have a friend at the same table with me, he can be on the phone with me or send me an IM with exactly the same content as he would write in the chat box. As long as he's not telling me privileged information not available to everybody else (like what cards he folded), and as long as our communication is not collusion (e.g., raising and reraising, one of us having the nuts, in order to trap an unsuspecting third player into calling dead), it is no different than what could be accomplished via the chat box.

In other words, since "one player to a hand" is neither enforceable nor an actual rule for online poker, why make a specific exclusion for receiving advice via the chat box? It's an interesting question, and one that I hadn't thought much about previously.

So I emailed PokerStars support about the situation. As usual, they responded very promptly:

It's a direct violation of rule 7.

"In cash games only, players still in
a hand may chat about what cards they claim to hold. This is coffee-housing,
which is common in poker. However, players (in the hand or not) may not coach or
otherwise suggest how another player should play his hand. For example, it is
okay to say You should call; I'm bluffing. It is not okay to say, You should
call; he's bluffing."

The full set of cardroom rules is available at:
http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/room/policies/

So Stars is very clear that this one word of advice in the chat box, "Fold," was a violation of its rules. But should it be?

I guess I'm glad that Stars takes this position, even if it's not entirely logical. I would hate to see the chat box become a free-for-all of talking about the hand in progress and giving advice.

Perhaps the best way to think about it is that Stars is not trying to make or enforce a blanket rule against a player receiving advice on how to play his hand. Rather, they're making a rule about ways in which the chat box may and may not be used. In terms of trying to duplicate the live casinos' rule about one person to a hand, it's not terribly effective (though arguably at least marginally more effective than doing nothing), but at least it accomplishes the goal of not having the chat box dominated by such chat, which I think would happen on some tables if not for the rule.

It's a thorny problem without perfect solutions, I think.

Opinions, observations, etc., always welcome in my chat box, i.e., the comments section.