Play the Player

Posted by wynn on Jan 20, 2010 in Donkeys, Great Reads, Table Talk | 1 comment

I hear talk all the time about playing the player.

Where many fall short is they think they can take a marginal hand and outplay weaker players that are calling stations.

It won’t work.

You need to have the stone cold nuts against these types of players.

That said, it is HOW you play the nuts against the players that makes the difference.

I was in two hands with two different players yesterday where I flopped the nuts.

The first hand, I just sat down in the big blind with J-10 hearts.

A player in middle position had the look of a cocky “let me give you poker lessons” type guy.

He raises pre-flop and gets several callers, including me.

The flop comes 9-8-7 rainbow.

I could tell from his tells that he flopped either two pair or a set.

He starts stacking up chips.

I decide that check raising him may lose him as a customer.

So, I bet half the pot.

He plays back at me with a min raise.

Everyone folds around to me.

I also know that if I jaw at him, he will go on insta-tilt and give me all his money.

“I am not used to people playing back at me Sir,” I say. “Frankly, it pisses me off. I re-raise $100.”

He glares at me for a brief moment and shoves $200 in the pot.

I push the rest of my stack into the pot and he insta-calls.

“You have Jack Ten?” he asks after he is all-in.

“The stone cold nuts, Sir.”

“Pair the board,” he says to the dealer sheepishly.

I knew before he turned over his hand that he had flopped top set.

The board never paired and I doubled up.

Second hand: My big game broke and I was sent to another table at a smaller game.

My first hand under the gun was A-A.

I raise to $25 and get two callers: One to my left and one to my right.

The player to my left gives me the impression that he could care less what I am holding. He is playing his hand against the board.

The player to my right gives me the impression that he will go away if he does not hit a flop.

The flop comes A-4-4.

Just what I was hoping for. My A-A is easy to play now. But how to play it?

If it was the player in the first example, I would bet it hard knowing he will come over the top if he had an Ace, a 4, a straight draw, a flush draw, or any pocket pair.

But, I am dealing with a different animal now.

I check the nuts.

The player to my left bets the pot.

The player to my right folds.

I need to tell a story of weakness and uncertainty to my opponent.

This is kind of hard because there is roughly $2000 on the table and I have $800 of it in front of me.

But, I give a performance that could earn an Oscar.

I finally call.

I never looked at the board again so I have no clue what came on the turn and river.

I studied my opponent.

My opponent never looked at me. His eyes were focused on the board the entire hand.

I check both streets.

He bet off all his chips to me.

All I had to do is hesitate and call.

Boy, was he pissed when I showed him Aces full.

I spared him the Teddy KGB “Aces foolah” showdown re-enactment from the opening scene of Rounders.

He never showed. I suspect he had either a 4 or an Ace, or maybe A-4. It is hard to say if he had the case Ace or not, but I knew I was good all the way the moment the flop hit the felt.

After the session, he told me he had A-K. It is nearly impossible to put someone on A-A when you have an Ace and the case Ace is on the board. This is one of the reasons why I rarely play A-K.

Play the player. But have the nuts to back it up.