11-16-04, LearnTexasHoldem:
People Making Comments During Hand
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So he says laughing, "awe man I don't have the King, I don't have it" and he checks (you can probobly see where this is going) so I bet another five and he calls. The river is 6 so now I'm preaty confident but still wary.
He says," I don't have the King man (laughing)," then his face goes straight, no smile, no nothing; he calls me all in and says, " I've got the King man, I'm telling you." Anyways, I really didn't want to give up my hand so I called even though I could kind of sensed the truth in his voice but I'm so confused at this point I feel I should take the chance on my wonderful hand to find out. I show him the boat and he shows the King. Wow. That was the most confusing hand I have ever played for sure."
I've got the King, I don't have the King, I've got the King, I don't....". I think I would have liked it better if he hadn't said anything; it would have felt like a justified bad beat. Instead he told me the truth and (in a very confusing way) and now I'm left with having the chance to get out but having such a good hand that it also felt impossible to fold. Can you tell me if I made the right call?
Jeffrey Aris
Answer: This is a good question and I have a few points to make.
1. No limit holdem has situations where the cards come out in such a way that it puts you in a bad spot. I'm not aware of a term for this but basically even if the guy doesn't have the hand it gives him a prime spot to bluff. This doesn't happen in limit holdem because you can just call and make him show you the hand. What I recommend in these scary spots is to bet something, not a lot but put some chips out.
If you check it makes it much easier for someone to bet you off your hand. If you do make the bet and someone comes over the top of you with a large raise you need to reevaluate you chances of winning. This isn't the time to get stubborn and lose half your stack. If it is a little raise, pay it off. If it is anything else then I would muck.
It sucks to fold but certain situations are impossible to defend with any accuracy. Position in poker is huge and much of the time you can't do anything but bow to it; on the other hand though notice that we made it harder for him to bluff by putting some money out on the table.
If he wanted to raise us he would have to at least double our bet just to bluff (which may look scary to him too with a flop like the above if he didn't have a King). The sign he gives us after we bet something is much more likely to be the truth.
2. You have to have thick skin to play poker. Cardrooms aren't the place to visit if you are looking for cheery happy people. Poker has grown quite a bit in the last couple years and new faces are flooding the tables and that is helping. Most of the time though you'll just find a bunch of people who are grumpy, bitter and pissed off if they lose a hand and if they win a hand they feel like they deserved to win it. The danger is when some loud mouth starts to do things that change your play.
At that point he has gotten to you and you will make bad decisions. The best strategy for thinking clearly about the hand is to look at his actions and not what he is saying. Notice how this hand developed and how you would expect it to develop if he did have the King. You would assume he would raise on the turn or latest river and make it a large raise.
Regardless of what came out of his pie hole, he made the moves you would have anticipated him making. So pay attention to what the players do and not say and don't get stubborn. We have a tendency when people piss us off to consider it a challenge like we will "show them!" if we call them down; it turns out this is the exact opposite of what you would want to do to your enemy.
3. Last but not least, you should learn from what he did to you and try to add parts of it to your game. I don't advocate being an asshole to other players (unless they deserve it), but you can use body language and how you are betting to intentionally throw them a curve ball.
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