Borgata and Stud Tips

Since the demise of online poker in the United States, which will hopefully be temporary, I have started to play more live poker. Since I was back East, I traveled to the Borgata on several recent weekends. I can certainly recommend it. The poker room is large and comfortable. They try to accommodate the players. Mabel Louie, a poker host, is very responsive to requests for room or other reservations. Higher limit players are often comped, especially on weeknights. They have recently started spreading mixed games. The exact mix and the stakes are left to the players: both a $75-$150 and $300-$600 game were usually running when I was there. The dealers are new to some of these games, but are learning quickly. For those of you who like stud, they spread regular seven card stud games, usually $75-$150. In recent years, regular stud games have become increasingly difficult to find. There are also a lot of no limit hold’em games at all stakes.

A friend of mine has recently started to play a lot of stud. I really have no idea how well she plays, but she since she is a competent person, I assume she is or will become a competent stud player. I wanted to give her a few simple words of advice, and decided to share the following tips, and since they may be of interest to others, I decided to mention them in this column.

Tip 1: If you are a hold’em player, you have probably learned never to look at your hand until it is your turn to act. This has two advantages. First, if you don’t know what you have, you can’t give anything away. Second, it forces you to focus completely on your opponents; what they are doing and how they are doing it. For stud games, I advise a different strategy. Look at your hand as soon as possible. Why? Knowing what you have will make it much easier to know what to focus on. For example, if you know you have two fours with a queen, you will pay close attention to fours and queens. If you start with three hearts, you will be aware of how many hearts are out. Knowing what you have allows you to key in on the most important factors affecting your hand.

Tip 2: This is a more complicated situation. You have (K 5) K, and raise (complete) the bring-in. Someone with the A re-raises. (I am omitting any discussion of the other door cards, since I really want to describe a generic situation that is frequently encountered.) If you were absolutely sure he had aces, you could fold, but since he might have a three flush or a smaller pair with an ace kicker you must call. On fourth street he catches the 2 and you snag the 5. You have made two pair against your opponent’s probable pair of aces. He bets out, do you raise? It is clear to wait till at least fifth street when the bet size doubles. On fifth you now have (K 5) K 5 4, while he shows (? ?) A 2 8. He bets again. Should you raise now? Once more it is correct to wait.

If nothing interesting happens on the sixth card, he’ll bet again and now you can raise. Why was it right to wait? Take the cases where something interesting does happen. If he pairs one of his low cards, you have saved a bet by not raising. If you pair your 5, making fives full of kings, it might seem like you have lost your opportunity to raise, since he’ll check. That is true, but an early raise might alert him to the fact that you already have two pair or even trips. Now when you pair, he might fold. By waiting, he will almost certainly call with aces, hoping to make aces up. Thus he calls your sixth street bet drawing dead, when he might have folded. If he gets unlucky enough to make aces up on the river, he’ll probably raise, and then you really hit the jackpot. Thus, by waiting, you will usually win the same amount you would have won by raising earlier. Sometimes, however, you will lose a little less. Sometimes you will win a little more and sometimes you will win a lot more. Very seldom does waiting cost you. And stud is all about gaining and saving these extra bets. ♠

Steve “Zee” Zolotow, aka The Bald Eagle, is a successful games player. He currently devotes most of his time to poker. He can be found at many major tournaments and playing on Full Tilt, as one of its pros. When escaping from poker, he hangs out in his bars on Avenue A — Nice Guy Eddie’s at Houston and Doc Holliday’s at 9th Street — in New York City.