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Why |
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December 2007
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Of all the questions you can ask yourself at a poker table - "How much money does he have behind?" "Who is this guy who keeps reraising me?" "When are the blinds gonna go up?" "What did she bet?" "Does this hat make me look cool?" - the most important question you can ask yourself will almost always begin with why.
I’ve discussed why in previous articles, but why is too important not to give it its own article. Pot odds, hand strength, number of outs, tournament equity calculations, pre-flop hand selection, and stack sizes all have one thing in common: Anyone capable of graduating high school can master them by reading and memorizing a half-decent poker book. Thinking for yourself, at all times and on a high level, is what will separate you from everyone else.
Don’t get me wrong. All of those parts of the game are important, as are the questions. I understand and use all of the concepts listed above, and ask myself those questions all the time. But those are just your training wheels. They’re multiplication to a physicist or The Surreal Life to Flavor Flav’s reality TV career.
Understanding the decisions made during a poker hand and why people make them, is an important step in reaching the highest levels of play.
There are two big whys in poker:
Why am I doing what I'm doing?
Why is he doing what he’s doing?
Let’s start with the self-questioning version. Everything you do at the poker table should be for a reason. (Actually, anything you do in life should be for a reason, but I dropped out before I got my degree in philosophy, so we’ll just talk about poker.)
Whether you have a good reason, or even know the reason you do something, one exists. When you value bet the river, why did you bet so fast? Why did you bet the turn with your fl ush draw? Why did you bet $550 rather than $500? Why did you raise with A-K suited in the cut-off?
Let’s take a specific hand example and look at it in depth:
You are playing 25/50 No Limit in your favorite poker room. The game is sevenhanded, and you just bought in for $15k and sat down in the six seat.
You wait three hands to post the $50 big blind. Your cards are dealt, and you look down at red jacks. The under-the-gun player limps, and everyone folds to the button who smiles and raises to $250. The small blind folds. You think for just a moment and call the $200 on top. The UTG player calls instantly.
You’ve never seen the UTG player before. He’s a slightly overweight middleaged white guy, grayish-brown hair and mustache, wearing a pink polo shirt and a Nike watch. He looks happy, but a little bit bored.
You've played with the before. He’s pretty much a very tight, somewhat aggressive player. He doesn’t play that many hands, but when he does, he’s usually the aggressor. He views you as a fairly straightforward player, who is a little bit loose and aggressive.
The flop is Q♠T♠6♥. You think for about ten seconds and check. UTG checks along quickly and you watch the button think, eyes up and to the right, for about five seconds. He slowly grabs a $500 chip and, after making the slightest of motions towards the pot, goes back, picks up a $100 chip, and casually tosses the $600 in the pot.
You quickly throw in the $600 and at the same time eye the button’s stack, which looks like about $8000. UTG quickly throws his hand away.
The turn is the J♠.
You think for a tiny bit before checking. The button counts out $1200 in chips, thinks a few seconds, makes eye contact with you, and checks.
The river is the 6♦.
| Decision |
Conscious? |
Why? |
Good/Bad? |
Playing 25/50
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Kind of
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Its the game you always play
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Good today. But yesterday there was a 10/20 game that was much
better; you should have looked at it and then played that one. |
Sitting with 15K
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Kind of
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You always sit with 15K, so part habit. The reason you started was to make the table respect you.
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Neither. You had most of the table well covered, and your stack
didn’t change your EV that much. |
Sitting in the six seat
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Yes
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You like to sit towards the middle of the table. It's easier to see the cards that way.
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Bad. There were tight players to your right, and some looser,
more aggressive ones to your left. |
Waiting to post the BB
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No |
You always do
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Good |
Looking at your hand when it was dealt
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No |
You were excited to start playing
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Bad. You missed the opportunity to get a read on the UTG limper,
whose limp was the main reason you didn’t reraise pre-flop. |
Calling with J-J
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Yes |
You feared UTG showing up with a big hand. You didn't want to get involved in a big pot early.
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Okay. Your reasons aren’t great, though. You could’ve gotten a
better read on UTG had you been looking; and you shouldn’t
care about getting involved in a big pot early unless there’s some
particular reason why it’s negative EV. |
Thinking ten seconds and checking
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No |
You didn't want to be bluffed off of this hand. You wanted to look like you were considering betting - which you never were -to scare people from bluffing you.
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Bad, but not terrible. Astute players might read you well, but in
some cases, you really will need to think before checking. So it’s
okay to balance that by pretending to think when you have no
decision. |
Calling quickly
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No |
You don's want anyone to bet again, so you call fast, trying to look strong.
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Bad. This actually makes you look weaker. |
Eyeing the button's stack
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Yes |
You want the button to think you might play for stacks, and you want to know how many chips he has.
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Okay. You would do the same with most hands. You should have
known both stacks before the hand started, though. |
Thinking a bit before checking the turn
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Yes |
You were genuinely thinking about what to do. You checked before thinking it all the way through because you didn't want the button to realize that the turn helped your hand.
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Bad, but understandable. The turn card is the most diffi cult to
play, with the situation changing the most. It’s hard to decide
what to do that quickly. You should take your time and think
it through. Balance that by fake-thinking with other hands. I
would’ve led the turn, because there are a lot of hands he can call
with that are behind you, most of which would check behind. |
Insta-check river
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Not really
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You want to look weak, so you check
quickly. |
Depends. If you use this timing with all types of hands, it’s okay.
Against this particular opponent, checking fast is better. He gets
scared off of value-betting thin if you think for a while. |
Debate for a while before raising
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Yes |
You thought a little about the
decision, but you decided to shove
quickly. You fake-thought for a little
longer to make is seem like a tougher
decision. |
Pretty good. You shouldn’t instantly shove in this spot, as it looks
too strong. You should take the time to pretend to go through a
thought process like “Hmm. I don’t think I can call with a hand
this weak. He probably has an overpair. Ooooh. He can’t call a
raise with an overpair. I could represent a fl ush or a boat. All in!” |
Raising all in
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Yes |
You have a full house. All in. |
Bad. First, your hand itself doesn’t matter; you need to think
about how many better or worse hands call. He almost never has
a fl ush, because he checked turn here, so the only hands that you
beat are trips, straights, and top pair type hands. Since the fl op
fl ush draw hit, he will have a tough time calling with any of those
hands, since he doesn’t view you as super aggressive. I would
expect you to get called by better hands more often than by good
hands, especially raising this big. A call or small raise is best. |
So, those are the decisions you made during that hand. You probably made more, but I can only go into so much depth.
And you don’t have to be playing live poker to have this many decisions. Online, you can’t pick up on physical tells like where people are looking or how their hands move, but you can read other things - like timing, players’ actions on other tables, and their bet sizes.
You should take away two things from this article:
• Don’t make decisions without thinking.
Now that you have a better idea of how many decisions you really make during a hand, you can consciously consider them. Carefully think about every decision you make and your results will improve.
• Analyzing your decisions will help you understand your opponents’ decisions and why they make them. This article will be continued. We’ll talk about why your opponents make the decisions they do, and how you can narrow their hand range by examining their decisions. Good luck.
(Last month’s article ended with a cliffhanger. The hands from last month’s article were: I called Brad Booth, who had K♠Q♠ for a flush. I called Patrik Antonius, who had 2♠2♥. I called David Benyamine with Q♠2♠.)
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