Plugging Some Leaks - Part VII

by Rolf Slotboom | Published: Feb 25, 2005

In this 10-part series, I have discussed some common mistakes that especially average or below-average players tend to make. Here, I will analyze four more of these leaks, and will do my best to try to plug them.

Leak No. 14: Quitting a game for the wrong reasons

I often see people leave a game because they have been winning a lot, because they have been losing a lot, because they have suffered a beat or two, because an unlucky dealer has come into the box, because they never play for more than four hours, and so on. Things like this are almost always the wrong reasons to quit a game. You should leave for three reasons, and for three reasons only:

• The game is not as good as it used to be: Your long-term expectation is probably negative, or not as positive as you would like it to be.

• For whatever reason, you are not playing your "A" game, and you don't think you will be able to lift your game to your usual level in the remainder of your session.

• You must quit the game because you have agreed to see family or friends, and as important as poker is, being good to the people you love and who are close to you is almost always more important. (Having said that, if you go to the casino to play poker, it is usually better to have no obligations whatsoever for the rest of the night. Thus, if you are in a great game, you will not have to leave early just because you have agreed to do so.)

Leak No. 15: Not thinking correctly in tournaments

In tournament play, quite a few players don't correctly assess the stage that the event is in. They don't analyze correctly the factors that dictate if they can (or should) still play a tight waiting game, or if the tim e has come to become more aggressive, and to start putting the pressure on in order to steal some pots and to gain some valuable ammunition. In addition to the somewhat obvious situation of playing more aggressively because a table has become shorthanded (and especially at the end of a tournament when the table will stay shorthanded), any good tournament player should always take into account the following things:

• The average stack size at the moment

• The amount in chips you will need to get into the money in average chip position

• The amount in chips you will need to reach the final table, and then the final three, in average chip position

• The blinds plus ante pressure in relation to the size of your stack; that is, knowing how many rounds you can survive at the current level without playing a hand, and how many rounds you can stay alive without playing at the next level.

By staying ahead of the curve and knowing the amount in chips that you will need to accumulate in order to be in good position at the three most important stages of the event (in the money/final table/final three), you will automatically have adapted to the number of entrants. You should at all tim es, and especially from the middle stages on, try to have a slightly better than average stack, and for the large part, base your strategy and decisions not just on the quality of your cards, but on the size of your stack and that of your opponents.

Leak No. 16: Not changing your hand selection in limit hold'em when there's a loose raiser in your game

Most starting-hand tables analyze correctly the way you should adjust your hand selection when a very tight player raises; that is, you should tighten up considerably, and fold lots of hands with which you would otherwise have called or even raised. But how does having one or two loose raisers in your game change things for you? Well, they change things considerably. Late-position calls with hands like 10- 8 suited often cannot be made anymore, now that the pot has been raised, and with small pocket pairs, you would also prefer a multiway, unraised pot – which is not the case now. So, you will need to adjust, meaning that you will often have to fold hands that would have been playable without the raise, and in some cases – especially if no one has entered the pot other than the raiser – reraise to isolate the light raiser, even while holding a relatively marginal hand. (Hands as weak as A-J or 8-8 may qualify for a three-bet if the conditions are right.)

What you definitely should not do is something that quite a few people tend to do: They play exactly the same hands as they would have without the raise, "because this person's raise doesn't mean a thing, anyway." People who claim things like this tend to forget that there are other things to consider with regard to hand selection than just the quality of the cards. Things like the number of players, the price you are getting on a call, and your position relative to the raiser will be seriously affected by the aggressive actions of this player, regardless of whether or not he is in there with a good hand . Also, just the fact that someone is a light raiser doesn't mean he cannot hold a good hand right now . After all, if this person is not a total maniac, he will probably be raising with all of his slightly above-average starting hands, all of his good hands, and possibly all of his great hands. This means that if you routinely call him with marginally playable hands like K-J offsuit or Q-10 offsuit, you may be behind more often than you might think, especially if there are also other players in the hand besides just you and the raiser.

Leak No. 17: Thinking that playing tight equals never bluffing

Quite a few people tend to classify their opponents at a certain point on the tight/loose scale – and correctly so. But just because someone has tight starting-hand requirements doesn't mean that they never bluff or semibluff. In fact, quite a few "good" players who play very few hands come awfully close to being habitual bluffers! Knowing that their opponents fear them whenever they get involved, they will often try to represent a good hand, like top pair, an overpair, or even a completed hand like a straight or a flush, if the board provides them with that opportunity – especially if the other players are not very interested, and do not seem to hold very much. You should be able to recognize these types of players, who don't seem to get many good starting hands, but do seem to get an awful lot of favorable flops. If you are giving players like this too much credit just because they are not involved very often, you are simply giving up too much.