Dealing With the Bet-Bot

Just remember that the goal is to capture all we want.

One of the most frustrating things for me in college was attending the first science and math classes. It's where I learned that we'd been lied to for much of our high school careers. "But in high school chemistry, they said … " And the answer was always the same: "Yes, that's what they told you. But it was really a simplification so they could get you through the subject material." Yuck. I hate unlearning things.

So, here's the good news: No, we haven't been lying to you. Tight-aggressive play is how you win in poker. Don't play lots of pots. But when you decide to play one, generally, you want to be the one doing the betting and raising, not the calling.

But this column is going to talk about one of the exceptions to the "generally" part. The incredible growth of poker on TV seems to have made lots of people think that complete mindless aggression is the key to winning poker.

And they're all playing online.

Against me.

Fortunately, the computer geek poker-playing crowd, those folks who were playing on IRC and reading rec.gambling.poker 10 years ago, already have a very useful name for these hyperaggressive players: "Bet-bots." The term comes from the idea that these players seem to be little more than automatons – "bots" – who merely want to know how much more money can they put in the pot. So, if it's checked to them, they bet, and if it's a bet to them, they raise.

Of course, these players will eventually go quite broke – you can't do anything mindlessly in poker and expect to take good care of your bankroll. But until they do run out of money, they can make your life difficult – it's always much easier to have a player check and call (or even more so, fold) than bet and raise. We are taught to interpret a bet or raise as an indication of real hand strength, and generally it is. So, whenever somebody wants to put more money in the pot, we tend to get confused. "Hmm – I thought I had the best hand, so I bet. Seemed like a reasonable idea. But now he's raising; he says he has a better hand. Now what?"

The answer, of course, is that it depends on the particular subspecies of bet-bot with which you're dealing. I ran into one interesting form of this critter recently; he seemed to have three modes of operation if you were heads up with him and he was last to act:

• If you bet, he would raise about half the time.

• The other half of the time he called.

• If you checked, he bet.

Now, I do believe I saw him fold once or twice, and maybe he checked behind somebody once, but otherwise, he behaved as I described in the outline above. So, the following hand developed: I was in the big blind with the Q 10. He raised before the flop, as he was wont to do, a couple of people called (as they were wont to do), and I called. The flop hit me pretty hard: 9 8 7. So, I'd flopped an open-end straight draw and a flush draw – probably 15 outs. I figured that if I bet out, he'd raise, and chase out the field, so I checked. My plan was to check-raise him if at least one player between us called. Well, he bet (as expected), but both other players bailed out. Well, at least I knew how we were going to play the hand from there (see the above list). I didn't want to check-raise him now because there was a good chance he'd three-bet, and I'd be calling a third bet, out of position with a draw. No, thank you. I just called. Now, my plan was to bet out immediately if I hit my draw. If I made the straight and he raised, I'd reraise. I wasn't sure if I'd three-bet if I made a flush. I hate three-betting the third-nut flush against somebody who's that unpredictable and has position on me.

Of course, I turned the flush with the J. I decided that two bets was exactly the right number to put in on the turn. So, I bet out, hoping he'd raise and I could call the raise. Unfortunately, he just called, which meant that I definitely had the best hand. But that completely changed my strategy for the river. Normally in that situation, I'd just bet on the river again (assuming no terrifying fourth club fell). There were lots of pretty good hands a raiser could have in that situation, and I'd expect him to call.

But against Mr. Bet-Bot, I got into an argument with myself:

"Hmm – nice blank river (it was something like the 3 of stars – not even from the same deck). Let us bet again."

"Wait – he'll bet if we check."

"You can't do that – nobody will bet here if you check. It would look like a sucker play, for sure."

"He is a sucker."

"Oh, yeah."

So, I checked. And he went into the tank. You could see the same forces at work on him, but eventually he couldn't control himself; he bet.

I raised him, he called, and I won an extra big bet.

Not too long after that, another player actually check-raised him on all three post-flop streets, and got called on the river – the hat trick!

Unfortunately, very few players are this predictable and reliable in their betting. Remember, many of the folks who have learned their poker on the Travel Channel have difficulty finding the "Check" button with their mouse. Recognize and adjust for these players.