So, winning at poker is about playing the same cards better than other players. How important in deception? Well, let's take an extreme example. Let's say you just play with your cards face up. How well will you play versus other players? If you are only slightly more deceptive, hiding your cards but always playing them the same, is it much better? What if you play your hand so fast and consistent that it's obvious what you have?
Here's my pet example. The FULL bring-in, Stud or Stud 8. I concede there MAY be a few useful times to use it, but they constitute at MOST 1% of the occurrences I see. If you have an example of a good time to do this, please share it with me.
Here is the standard example when I see a full bring in. Notice I limp-reraise and get crappy hands involved. Also, now they have no idea whether I'm rolled up, with a big draw, or a big pair. Or, maybe just even the best low draw. All warrant building a big pot.
Now imagine if I had hit the full-bring in. I would scare out any weak limpers, isolating only players who will probably reraise. And at the same time advertising that you have a specific subset of hands, wired AA, rolled up, 3 suited babies. A limp reraise has many more possibilities, assuming you do it other times other than 3 premium starters. For example, based on the number of limpers, who's going high and low, etc. Once the pot odds are established by several limpers or overcalls, I'll do this with any 3 cards up to 1-gap, such as 457 or 245.
Now, you may have seen the following type of action:
Ask yourself, this is better?? Chased by every flavor of hand. And they all know what you probably have. Don't reward bad players (who called this full bring in) by playing bad at them.
This is just one example. If you are an experienced poker player, you know that the scariest guy to play against is the guy who plays EVERY two cards as if they are AA. Phil Ivey, Gus Hansen, just to name a couple. If pure deception is the goal, then attaining it is in the details.
4 comments:
Another Great Post (AGP).
Thanks hoy!
And thanks for the comment -- even 3 letters can really make my day. I should really comment more often, myself. A little validation goes a long way.
Assuming a reasonable structure and ante, if you're in a short-handed straight stud game (this doesn't work in razz or stud 8/b) against two or three nits, you can virtually guarantee a small profit by bringing in for the full amount with literally any three card, because they fold too much. For example, in a 4-handed 20/40 game with a $3 ante and $5 bring-in, you're effectively laying $15 to win $17, so if all of them fold at least 15/32 = 48% of the time, you do no worse than break even on the steal value alone, and that's not counting when you get called and win the pot by other means. Nor is it counting the losses from the times you open with the small bring-in and have to fold to a completion.
The opportunity to play this way was pretty rare even back when straight stud was still widely played, but I ran into it several times, most recently in a short-handed 20/40 game at Bellagio about three years ago, where I ran over a four-, then five-handed table this way for about 45 minutes before the arrival of additional, more gambling-minded players compelled a change of strategy.
Fantastic, thanks for sharing this.
It illustrates a couple of things. One, that no "system" of poker is always correct -- tight aggressive at this table is -EV, where usually it's +EV. Two, even when playing every hand, it's important to maintain deception, in this case by completing EVERYTHING. If you just completed some hands, such as A high or better, you would not get the same results.
The best strategy will always be the one that exploits your opponent's weaknesses maximally.
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