High On Poker

Last night, after getting out of a work obligation late, I made my way over to the new underground poker club located a brisk 5 min. walk from my apartment. The game officially started probably about a week ago and spreads 1/2 NLHE two times a week. The location is ideal, so you’ll probably be reading about it a lot here. So let’s go with the Pizza Game, since I seem to have a food theme with poker room names and the place is located near what a pizza place which apparently has the best pizza in the neighborhood.

Before the game started, it was just me, one of the dealers, the guy who lives in the apartment, and two players. The two players were large black guys. Sorry, Dawn. I always feel somewhat ‘guilty’ referring to someone as a “black guy”, but I don’t play that “African American” bullshit.

So, we are all hanging out and since there was time to kill and it was a friendly crowd, I may’ve gotten a little less than sober. I joked about how it would kill my game, but that it wasn’t really a joke, as became apparent when the poker actually started.

I couldn’t pay attention for shit and I was hyper aware of my tells, to the point that I was probably causing even more tells to come out. Fortunately, that was the perfect time to go card dead, and I stayed that way for most of the game. Overall, I didn’t get a single pocket pair except KK at the very end of the game, AKo once and AJo once. That was it. Ironically, I lost all three of those hands.

With the KK, I tried to drag money from Edgie in small drips and drabs. I thought I was being clever, and I was, until he rivered a four-card straight with his K6o. Sonuvabitch!

In the AKo hand, I was a straddler who faced a re-straddle, so I was more than happy to raise it up pre-flop, only to be raised by the re-straddler. I had to give it up when I missed the flop. He held KK. Hmm.

With the AJo hand, well, I missed the flop.

All that said, I ended up winning $35, after rake and tips, which isn’t bad. The key to winning was first, avoiding the spewage that can come with card deadedness, and second, picking my target. About an hour or more into the game, a broad guy with an olive complexion (anywhere from Middle Eastern to Indian to Italian) joined us. We were playing shorthanded most of the game and Matty Ebs was playing as well, so this wasn’t exactly a packed game. I think the players that had arrived (me, the two black guys, Edgie, one of the guys who lived int he apartment and didn’t know poker, and Matty Ebs) all were playing a very passive style game. This was as much necessity as strategy, since no one was putting money into the pot willy-nilly, so even with a good hand, you had to be small or only win the $3 in blinds.

The new guy, however, was clearly there to play a much more aggressive game. The first sign was when Matty explained to him that the stakes raise later in the night when the action players arrive. If this guy wanted higher stakes, that meant he would be pushing the action at the 1/2 game. So, when I noticed him raising fairly liberally, I started to call him down with crap cards preflop. On two occasions I took significant pots from him by hitting top pair, shitty kicker and letting him bet into me the whole way. Simply put, you have to know your players and pick your spots.

I should add this about our new compadre: even though he was looking for action, I wouldn’t call him a good player. I was giving him the most trouble and when a seat opened up, he moved from my left to my right. That’s just plain dumb. Now, maybe he realized he was having no luck on my right, but that’s his fault. Position is key to NLHE, and he had position on me. By moving, he gave up what little advantage he had.

Second side note: considering that I was card dead last night, maybe his move wasn’t terrible. Even though I caught him with crap cards twice, I wasn’t playing many hands.

Of course, when he busted, the new guy left. Go figure. I guess he couldn’t handle the 1/2 stakes after all. To be fair, though, if I was losing the way he was, I would’ve left too. It just wasn’t his night.

Edgie was the entertainer of the table, at least to me. He was hitting major hands and playing very well to stack off several players. Whereas everyone else had middling stacks, his was impressive after a couple of hours.

I got a new line from Edgie that I plan on using in the future. I missed most of the action in the subject hand, but Edgie had K9 and his opponent had KJ on a KK9XX board. When it got to the river, Edgie started to play with his stack, looked his opponent in the eye, and said with a wry smile, “The question is how much can I value bet here?” It was hysterical! And naturally, once he value bet, he got the call. Because after all, when some dipshit at the table is stupid enough to announce that they are going to value bet, how do you not pay off the punk?! Well, I do have answers for that, but I do see the psychological edge this ploy sets up. It’s almost a challenge to the other player’s manhood and it wreaks of a “strong means weak” tell even though it is actually a “strong means strong” tell.

Good stuff. I used it later in the evening against Edgie, and it worked. Of course, that was the KK v. K6o hand, so I lost it anyway. Hmm…mental note; only value bet when ahead.

The other thing I found comical was Edgie’s stare. There were more than one hand when I’d be scanning the table behind my brown sunglasses and caught Edgie staring at me intently. Now, my sunglasses don’t entirely block out my eyes, but they do a decent job, and I figured Edgie didn’t know that I was watching him watching me. I swear, if you removed my sunglasses and put a candle on the poker table, we would’ve looked like a couple of lovebirds. I honestly couldn’t resist a laugh (inebriation helped me here) because it was so absurd.

When I mentioned it to Edgie later, he said that he say where I was looking. “Good,” I replied. “I thought it was unrequited.”

I will add this, though. Edgie’s stare is a huge image tell. Basically, it lets me know generally speaking that he is paying close attention to the game. That means he is here for the money and is playing for the kill. That’s an important piece of information, because some players are just gambling or don’t even realize the importance of gathering reads and tells on their opponents.

This is the #1 reason that I advocate sunglasses. Most of the time, my head is tilted one way and my eyes are looking in another direction. I don’t want people to know that I am analyzing everything. I just want to look like the douche-bag in the sunglasses who thinks he’s a hotshot.

When the new guy busted, it just left me, Edgie, Matty and his brother. It was a shame that the game did not fill up, but this is still a work in progress. The location is great, though, and the table, chips and chairs are all top notch, so I expect to be eating a lot of Pizza in the near future.

Until next time, make mine poker!