Don’t Be Afraid of the Big, Bad Hellmuth Part II – Four Tools to Add to Your Repertoire

In last month’s article, we examined the phenomenon leading players to navigate sub-optimally when they confront the poker famous. Fear or admiration causes rounders to make poor adjustments. In contrast, here are four modifications they should be make instead.

1. Do Your Research

People become famous in the poker world through television time and high-level success — once they get some, it snowballs into more coverage. As such, figuring out how someone famous plays, can be as easy as glancing at the television or official reporting of a tournament. In one sense, there are more tools available at your disposal to deal with professional poker players than anyone else. Additionally, successful poker entities often write books or make training videos. Ever wanted a handbook on exactly how someone plays? Seek these resources out. Searching tournament resumes should also tell you glean a bit about a professional’s background and experience.

If you are moved a notable person’s table in the middle of a day, there isn’t time to pull up TV clips on your phone. However, a lot can be garnered by doing a brief web search or texting your friends for their experiences in playing with said person.

Some argue that this isn’t what poker should be about — it is definitely less enchanting than soul-reading someone you’ve never met, but our battlegrounds on the felt have evolved into an information war, and doing background checks is a good way to keep up in the arms race.

2. Count the Stacks at the Table

If I feel overwhelmed or unfocused at the poker table, I calculate how many big blinds everyone has, beginning with myself. This is more than poker’s version of counting to ten when upset. While surveying the table’s stack depth is a simple activity, it is engaging enough to the brain that being preoccupied with it should dispel unproductive thoughts. Additionally, it helps prepare for the battles ahead. If you just calculated that someone has 25 big blinds and are preemptively considering what hands it is suitable to get all-in against them, it is less likely you will be psyched out by the starstruck thoughts that would culminate in a bad fold.

Counting big blinds is merely one way to channel focus, but it’s the way I’ve found easiest to force myself to do when on the brink of tilt. A more challenging option is to follow the next hand you are not involved in with exact precision. Pretend as if there was a exam at the end of the hand, where there’s a test on every piece of information — each player’s position, sizing, and physical tells. Play along and guess every player’s range as new pieces of information are revealed.

These techniques are a sound strategy to avoid all forms of tilt, not just preoccupy the brain from intimidation. It is especially important to do so after losing or even winning a big hand. Then, it doesn’t just eliminate distracting feelings, but rather, serves a practical need. Stacks change after every big pot is pushed, so a chip count in mind enables a head start on preparation for future battles.

3. Be Balanced

There are volumes that can be written on the merits of game-theory optimal versus exploitative strategies, but relatively, balanced strategies work better against capable adversaries. The poker famous have a great deal of background against wild play targeting them and their successes give them the bankroll and confidence to snap off big hero calls or folds against unbalanced ranges. Players who have garnered more success become more willing to follow through on their hunches where they may have once been gun shy earlier in their careers.

Critics often confuse balanced play for “solid, tight play,” a style that has gotten less respect over the years, but they aren’t particularly alike. The defining characteristic about balanced play is that it is difficult for your opponents to read. No matter what flops run out, a balanced range has a good distribution of hands, all without sacrificing the intent of getting the chips in with positive expectation. No matter what action you take, you should construct your ranges so that all your options have different kinds of holdings — strong hands, medium strength hands, and draws.

4. Don’t Try to Be a Hero

This is a logical extension of the previous idea. Now that the hard work is done and we have a balanced assortment of hands, it would be a mistake to fold the top of that range or hero-call the bottom part of it. This is critical given that our acclaimed opponents are capable of the most creative plays and have a large amount of experience in manipulating amateurs.

Counter-intuitively, playing in tougher events laden with professionals is actually mundane in the sense that it is often correct to default to balanced, safe strategies. Save the unorthodox play for weaker opponents who are more likely to fall prey to it.

The Beginning, The End, The World Series

As a mixed-games player, my first World Series of Poker events had me thrust into fields with a high percentage of people I watched on television as a teenager. I remember the poor adjustments I made then, and am reminded of it every summer, when I witness the exploitable, weak-tight play that is prevalent.

The 2013 WSOP, where I played a full schedule, was no exception. I ended up with four cashes, including a final table in the $5,000 limit hold’em and another day 3 appearance in the $5,000 no-limit hold’em that kicked off the series. Hope to have you join me next month as I critique the most interesting hand I played all summer. ♠

Ben Yu attended Stanford University but knew even before finishing that he wanted to embark on a journey to become a one of the finest professional mixed-game players. He made his debut onto the tournament scene in 2010 with a second-place finish in the World Series of Poker $1,500 limit hold’em shootout and followed it up in 2011 by leading the WSOP with seven cashes across six different games. In 2012, he moved to Rosarito, Mexico in order to continue playing online and was enthralled to perform well at the World Championship of Online Poker, including a final table appearance at the $10,300 poker 8-Game High Roller, and a cash in the main event.