Playing Lowball Against a Maniac - Part I

How do you play lowball against a maniac? In a word, carefully.

Playing lowball against a maniac differs from hold'em. A hold'em maniac raises whenever it is his turn, and it is hard to isolate him. So, the best way to play him is only with premium cards. This removes some of the subtlety that a good player can use as part of his poker arsenal. Lowball, with its far lower percentage of playable first-round hands, presents different opportunities.

The game I describe here is Northern California-style single-limit lowball, in which all bets before and after the draw are at the same limit; the concepts translate easily, though, to Southern California-style double-limit lowball, in which all bets before the draw are at one limit and those after the draw are at twice that limit. For example, in a Northern California-style $20-limit game, all bets before and after the draw proceed in increments of $20. In a Southern California-style $10-$20 game, bets before the draw proceed in increments of $10, and those after the draw proceed in increments of $20. In both games, the pot can be killed, which doubles the limit. In some Northern California games, after two cards have been dealt, a player who likes those first two cards can, for example, in a $20 game, put $20 into the pot, changing the limit for that one hand from $20-limit to $40-limit. Also, if a player either is new or has missed the blinds and does not come in on the blind but still wants to be dealt in, he can receive a hand by killing the pot. (The blind put in by a player who has missed the blinds and wants to be dealt in before the big blind has come around to him is called a re-entry blind. This is not the same as a post in a hold'em game.) Similarly, in some Southern California games, after two cards – and in some clubs, three cards – have been dealt, a player who likes those cards can, for example, in a $10-$20 game, put $20 into the pot, changing the limit for that one hand from $10-$20 to $20-$40. Also, if a player either is new or has missed the blinds and does not come in on the blind but still wants to be dealt in, he can receive a hand by killing the pot.

Charleston played for about a week in the $20-limit lowball game I frequent. His name isn't really Charleston; it's Charleton. Americans, particularly card players, like familiarity; someone who heard his name confused it with the city, and Charleston stuck. Charleston had been going through a tough divorce, and needed to get out of the home situation. Many in similar situations end up either in a bar or a cardroom; sometimes they combine both activities. Charleston had several thousand dollars that he seemed not to want to end up in the hands of his soon-to-be ex, so he decided to gamble them away at poker. Gambling was literally what he did. His play was not what you'd call a winning strategy, but, by the same token, he was not going to make it easy to get his money. He was going to make you work for it. He killed almost every pot. Sometimes he would look at the first two cards, and then probably any two cards 8 or less would be sufficient for him to kill, or one good card 5 or less together with any card. Sometimes he just took it into his head to kill the next pot before any cards were dealt. This meant that he killed most pots. Killing the pot gives the player last action before the draw, and he raised almost every pot that he had killed. His raising standards were considerably more liberal than those of anyone else at the table. He needed only any one-card draw to a 9 or better, any pat jack or better, or almost any two-card draw to raise. This meant that you could expect to have to put in at least $80 for any hand you wanted to play, and often $160 – because if someone raised him, he nearly always reraised. This assured high variation in anyone's game, and also meant that the rocks didn't get to play many hands. They didn't want to have to possibly put in $160 to draw to a 7 in early position, so they routinely threw away those hands. I was quite willing to play with Charleston, but knew I had to pick my spots. Charleston needed to get lucky in only a few hands and suddenly he had a lot of chips and was a great threat to anyone's bankroll.

The first time I played with Charleston, he bought a rack of chips, $500, when he sat down. He killed the first pot to get a hand, because he had come in directly behind the button. The tightest player at the table opened from early position. No one else called. Charleston raised. The tight player reraised. Charleston raised again, and the tight player called. The tight player stood pat. Charleston didn't even pause to think; he threw a 10 and a king from his hand. That is, he was drawing two cards all along and was just trying to create action. The tight player bet. Charleston raised. The tight player called. Charleston first showed the two cards he had caught, a 3 and an ace, and then the whole hand, 7-6-5-3-A. The tight player ruefully showed his cards, 7-6-5-3-2. His pat 7, which had been close to a 25-to-1 favorite, had cost him $240, and now he was down to $60 of his original $100 buy-in, erasing the $200 profit he had ground out in the previous four hours. A few hands later, Charleston got the rest of the guy's $60 when the tight player drew to a wheel with the joker and Charleston raised to draw two to an 8. The tight player caught a 9 and Charleston made his 8. Charleston won a few more hands, and soon his initial buy-in had become more than $1,200.

Another seat opened up, and Wally sat down. Wally was another action player. He was no dummy when sober; he just tended to push his pat nines and good one-card draws a little harder than anyone else. This would build his chips up fast when he was running well, and deplete them just as quickly when he was not. Today, though, he had been drinking. When Wally drank, his already abrasive personality became abusive, and he would taunt and needle everyone at the table. He also played even wilder than normal. Wally kept on drinking, and started going from stupid and obnoxious to stupid, obnoxious, and slow. This particularly annoyed Charleston, who didn't mind losing his money as long as the players played quickly. But Wally not only directed his vituperation against anyone who dared chide him, he moved even more slowly when Charleston sharply told him to hurry it up. Wally would not even look at his cards until it was his turn. Then, he'd slowly squeeze the cards, and as likely as not, wouldn't even play. When he did play, it would take him even longer to determine whether he was going to draw, and if so, how many cards.

Finally, the confrontational pot came up. It had to.

Charleston had killed this pot from the middle blind. Samantha, two positions to his left, opened. It got to Wally. Wally slowly lifted one card at a time from the table, arranged them without looking at them, and then slowly pried the cards apart. You could see Charleston getting visibly annoyed. Finally, Wally raised. I didn't have anything worth playing, and folded. Crying Jake, on my left, and on the button, came in cold for the two bets. (That is, he called $80 without yet having invested anything in the pot.) Everyone at the table knew that Jake had a big hand, either a one-card draw to the nuts or a pat hand. Charleston of course reraised. Samantha looked unhappy, but called two more bets. It was clear that she would be drawing, and to a good hand. Wally again went through the ritual of squeezing his cards slowly, presumably to make sure that he still had the same cards he had seen before, and reraised. The action went to Crying Jake, who grimly called another two bets. And Charleston quickly put in still another bet. This brought the total number of bets to five, a total investment of $200 per player. Samantha, looking even less happy, again called. She had to put in another $80 to do so. Again, Wally took forever to reassess his cards. This time he just called. Jake called one more bet, and it was time to draw. The pot thus far contained $807. (The big blind, who had not played, had contributed $10, and $3 had been taken from the button blind as the house drop.)

Charleston was first to act, and he hit the table, to indicate a pat hand. Given his play thus far, he could have anything from a pat 10 on down. Samantha asked for a card. Wally again went through the song-and-dance of excruciatingly slowly re-examining his cards and even more slowly deciding what to do. Finally, when everyone at the table, not just Charleston, was ready to scream at him to get on with it, Wally, too, hit the table. Not surprisingly, Jake asked for a card.

Now came the betting after the draw. Charleston checked. Samantha bet. Everyone at the table – except possibly Charleston – knew she had made a hand. I think even Charleston was pretty sure about it. Wally took even longer to make up his mind. He slowly squeezed and peeked at his cards three times before finally throwing $40 into the pot. Crying Jake had missed his hand. It was not in his nature to quietly fold like a gentleman, though. He pulled the queen he had caught out of his hand and threw it at the dealer, showing at the same time what he had been drawing to, A-2-3-joker, and screaming, "I don't know why I even play on your deal. You've dealt me out of over $600." (In actuality, the $200 he had lost on this hand had put Jake back to where he was ahead only about $100; the other hand he had played on this dealer's down had cost him $20.) Charleston called the bet.

Samantha showed that she had caught a 7, drawing to 2-3-4-5, to win the $927 pot, one of the biggest I had seen in this $20-limit game. Wally dumped his cards, now in no hurry to admire them and further hold up the action. Charleston quickly asked the dealer to show the hand – after all, it was a called hand – so that he could compare it with his own. Charleston showed that he had been playing 9-8-4-2-A; Wally's hand was 9-8-6-5-3. Charleston had the small satisfaction of knowing that he had had the best hand going, and the larger satisfaction that his hand was better than Wally's. Charleston added, "I didn't think I had much chance of beating her hand, but the pot was too big not to call."

That was typical. It shows that the best hand to play against a maniac in lowball is either a draw to a monster or an excellent pat hand. Pat nines are not worth a lot.

Next time, I'll describe two hands I played against Charleston.