The challenge for players like me is to the amount that the price is right to get them to fold the better hand. By accident, I stumbled upon a tactic that seems to work, regardless of position.

Let’s assume you are heads up with a notorious calling station and you have not found the price to get them to fold when you are looking for a fold.

The flop is something like K-Q-7 and you have middle pair.

Your opponent has top pair and he checks to you. You check back.

The turn brings a blank or even a scare card like an Ace or Jack or 10. Your opponent checks back. It is not in his or her arsenal to bet. The only moves they have is call or fold.

Regardless if there is a betting line on the felt or not, I always push my capped cards way forward. I do this so the cards are in plain view of everyone. Plus, it gives me room to count out chips.

Word to the wise: If you are at a table without a betting line and you count out chips in the space between your cards and the pot, those counting chips, by rule, become part of the pot. So, if you count out $100 and bet $50, the bet is really $100.

Ok … I grab a stack of $100 and carefully drop a stack of 5 reds behind my cards while I watch my opponent out of the corner of my eye.

He does not flinch.

I drop another $25.

No flinch.

I drop another $25.

He folds.

The important part is still pushing out the $75 into the pot as if you did not see the fold. This takes the “Hollywood” element out of the play and shows you were serious about making a bet here.

Bottom line: I was getting frisky to put a play on and steal a small pot.

Seat 7 was a young kid dressed in red hip hop swag from head to toe. He raised pre-flop to $20.

Seat 8 was an older gentleman who is a loose aggressive type player. He calls.

I called in Seat 9 with rags. I had jack squat. But, I felt I could outplay these players after the flop.

Seat 10 was a businessman from New York. He was playing fairly tight. And he called.

The rest of the table folded and we see a flop of Q-9-4 rainbow.

Check.

Check.

I bet half the pot to represent the Queen.

Fold.

Please fold. Please.

Call.

Shit.

Fold.

I am now heads up with the original bettor.

The turn is a deuce.

Check.

It feels like my opponent has pocket Jacks or 10s. Some kind of middle pair. It also does not feel like he is trying to trap me, or he would have check-raised me on the flop and not just check-call. He simply looked like he did not know where he was in the hand.

I knew exactly where I was: beat with jack squat. I really just wanted to take the pot down right here. I bet half the pot again.

Please fold. Please. Please.

He calls.

Fuck. There goes my profit for the past 2 hours.

The river is a 3.

Check.

My opponent started the hand with about $300 and is now down to about $67. The whole way, I wanted him to fold. Now, I am looking for a call. If he thought I was trying to buy it, I want him to still think I am trying to buy it on the river. I bet $50.

It is enough to make you stop and think value without the psychology of an “all-in”.

He tanks.

Please call. Please.

The whole way he almost insta-calls me when I have nothing. Now, he is pondering a fold.

The only word I spoke for the past two hours was “Raise.” Time to talk him into a call by talking him into a fold.

“I simply wanted to buy this pot. Let me have this one,” I tell him.

“I know.”

“I think you have a hand like A-K or A-10 and missed. Ace high is no good here.”

Nothing.

Really? The call the wrong hand trick did not work? Nothing is working.

“I was trying to represent the Queen. He thought I had a Queen [pointing to Seat 8] and he [pointing to Seat 10] thought I had a Queen. I am pretty sure everyone down there [pointing to the other end of the table] thought I had a Queen.”

“Do you have a Queen?” he asks.

“No. I don’t have a Queen. And you don’t have Ace high.”

Still nothing.

“The truth is I have been lying to you the whole way and now I am telling you the truth. And the truth is I am too embarrassed to showdown this hand. I went runner-runner 989-to-1 longshot to beat your pocket pair.”

“You did not call me with 2-3,” he says.

“Nope. I would let you look at one card, but I don’t want them to kill my hand when I have the stone cold nuts.”

“I call.”

He shows Jacks. I flip over 5-6 off for the nut straight.

Apparently, he missed the ESPN episode where Lon McEron said there are two ways to play pocket Jacks: fold them in turn and fold them out of turn.

The table claps, hoots, and hollers. And the entire room thinks we hit the bad beat.

All the drama was centered on me just playing another hand.

Lately, I have not been calling players hands out loud because it has cost me action.

This time, I was trying to avoid the “how could you call that” speech by telling the player what he had before he turned his cards over to show the losing hand.

Instead of a speech, I got a speech, poker lessons, and sarcastic ridicule from both the players and the dealer.

Here is what happened: A 50-something guy – nice guy – bets out $17 and I call from the big blind. I was simply defending my blind and I knew I could outplay the player if I did not outflop him.

Based on his body language and bet size, only one hand popped in my head: A-K. A shit hand like K-J did not seem likely. Ace King was what his hand felt like.

The flop comes 9-6-4 rainbow.

I check.

My opponent bets$30. I know I am in the lead here with bottom pair. I also get the feeling from his flop actions that he is going to the river with this hand. I want to keep it cheap, so I call.

The turn is a Queen.

I check. My opponent bets another $25. I re-raise to $75 all day to represent the Queen. He calls.

The river is a Deuce.

I figure he will try to win it by betting it, so I check. Sure enough, my opponent goes all-in.

“You have Ace King,” I say to him. “I call.”

“Wow. Good call. I have King Jack,” is his reply.

I showdown 10-4 off.

“How could you call that?”, one player, who was not in the hand, declares.

“I called his fucking hand. I gave him respect for A-K and he has K-J. I knew my pair was good, bro,” I say.

Another player jumps on the bandwagon with, “That was a bad play, man.”

“Hey, I flopped a pair. I knew exactly where I was at the whole way. The whole fucking way. I did not learn this game by watching it on TV, you know.”

Then another says, “I can’t believe you played that hand and played it so bad.”

“I called his fucking hand. I could have called his hand before I called the bet. It was $15 to see a flop. I felt like defending my blind. Don’t you ever see that on TV?”

Then another player jumps on, “I need to take you hunting in Africa. You have the heart of a lion. I bet you could kill one with your bare hands.”

About this time, the dealer piles on. For a brief moment, it felt like an ounce of respect from Charles for a great read and playing it right. But in retrospect, it felt more like ridicule. He simply piled on.

I don’t know much. But I know this: my reads on what my opponents hold are usually accurate. Scary accurate. Like I said before, you have to know where you are at in the hand. I knew where I was at. Even though I was not far off the mark, I knew I held the winner on the river.

So to recap:

1. I defend my blind with a weak hand to see a flop.

2. I generally know what my opponent holds.

3. I have the best hand and I am willing to risk my entire stack on the best hand.

5. I call my opponent’s hand blind. Out loud even. And I win the pot.

Yet, the only player that seemed to respect the play was the guy who lost. I got a speech from nearly every other player at the table. Fuck. They are not even casual card players. They play cards casually.

There is a big difference.

Then, I get bullshit from a dealer who earns part of his living from the tips I provide when he deals.

Instead of respect, I got chips. It sure would be nice to have both. I am quite certain I have earned it.

“Nope. He is not that strong. And neither am I,” I say to this guy.

I am heads up with a player that insists on playing back at me. My read on him is he must think we are using play chips and not real ones with how aggressive he is in this hand.

My opponent value bet $25 on the river into a $350 pot. I made it $75 to go. He came over the top to $125.

At that point, I re-raised him to $375. My opponent then went all-in for about $500.

Now, I am contemplating the call with a board of 8s-7-s-5d-6s-5h.

This is a fairly complex board because of the 3 possible straight flushes, quads, 6 full houses, any flush, and 4 straights that can beat me.

The way my opponent is playing, he is trying to represent any one of those hands. Hell, any one of those hands beats me.

In fact, a pocket pair 9s or better beats me.

Any 9 or any 4 beats me.

“Big Ace,” I tell the on-looker.

“You got a big Ace?”

“No. He has a big Ace,” I whisper before I call the all-in shove on the river by my opponent.

My read on this guy is he has a hand like A-K, A-Q, A-J.

In other words, think I am up against Ace high.

Knowing where you are at in the hand is the difference between getting chips from a player and getting chips from the cashier.

I call the all-in.

My opponent shows A-J.

I turn over 10-8c and take down a monster pot with top pair.

My opponent is a 50-something woman that plays like a new dog. She started the hand with about $250. Her preflop raise was $25, and she bet another $25 on the flop of 9-4-4 rainbow. On the turn, she bet $50 and I raised her another $100 when the deuce hit the felt.

“I think you have some bullshit hand like K-9,” I tell her.

“What is your other card,” she fires back.

“You are a player. You know what my other card is. I pulled the 7 right off the top. Raise or fold. Let’s get on with it.”

I am not looking for a call here. I am looking for a re-raise all-in from my opponent.

At this point in the hand, I have used two of my old tricks. First, I showed a card. It was the “pull one off the top” variety instead of the “you can pick one”.

She tanked deeper on that move.

I then pull the “call their hand wrong” trick out of the bag. I know she has an overpair to the board like J-J or 10-10, so I tell her I think she has a weaker hand.

In my mind, the only moves she has is raise or fold. And, I want her to raise.

Bad.

A scare card on the river, like a 7, Queen, King, or Ace, kills her action. A Jack or 10 kills mine.

A good five minutes goes by. I never call time on any player. Although I have the right to, I put calling time in the same category as slowrolling and hit and runs: bad etiqutte.

She ends up just calling.

At this point, she has $200 invested in the hand and is playing $50 behind.

One would think she would be pot-committed here.

A good player would have either raised or folded on the turn and not let me see the river for free.

The river is a 7.

She checks, of course, and I put her all-in.

This player folds and shows J-J.

I show a hand I truly have never played before: 7-4.

My table had, for the most part, solid players. Not grinders, but not donkeys either. This was my kind of table. The difference for me is I usually double up with bad players, but go 6 – 10X with solid players. My style of play is geared toward the intermediates, if you will.

Midway through my session, a player raises to $10 preflop. I always preach to anyone who will listen, that you should look at your cards and the board no sooner than the precise moment that it is your turn to act. And if you need more time to study a player, take it.

By watching this guy, I felt he had either A-A or K-K. For a measily 10 bucks.

The action folds to me. I had 7-5c on the button. Rarely do I ever play a hand like this, but it just felt right.

I call.

Hell. If I can catch a flop, pocket Aces deserve to be cracked if they are played slow.

The flop comes 7s-6s-5s. Two possible straight flushes. I love it.

I am first to act and I bet my two pair.

As sure as the sun will rise in the East, he comes over the top. The young gun next to me whispers, “he’s got a flush”.

“No way. He has a big pocket pair,” I whisper back.

Even though this hand is the first I got into with this particular player, I am convinced my read is right on this guy.

Then I think to myself, shit, if he is in a betting mood, we better get all the chips in the middle right now.

I go all-in.

My opponent tanks for a minute or two. Then calls.

I show two pair. He turns over two red Aces.

The dealer delivers me blanks on Fourth Street and Fifth Street.

No speech. Only a rebuy.

A few hours later, I tell the dealer my next hand, which was under the gun +1, was my last hand.

Just then, a young gun sits down on my immediate right.

He raises.

I call.

My A-A opponent also calls the preflop raise.

Three way action sees a flop of Q-10-8 rainbow.

Check.

Check.

Check.

The turn is a 9.

The young gun bets the pot.

I mouth out math as if I am pondering the odds and price to call before calling the bet.

Mr. Aces then min raises.

The young gun goes all-in. The pot ballooned from $50 preflop to $400 when it is my turn to act.

I go through a 10 second tank and call the all-in bet.

Mr. Aces then shoves all-in for another $400.

I call.

The young gun flopped top pair top kicker.

Mr. Aces shows 7-6 for a straight.

This was my last hand of the night. A perfect nightcap to a good session. I turned the nut straight with K-J.

The young gun got felted on his first hand. No speech.

“Sorry bro,” I tell him.

He shakes my hand with a big smile on his face. “What a great hand to end on,” he says. “It was a pleasure playing with you, Sir. I thought you might of had the stone cold nuts there. King Jack. Sweet.”

This guy was proud to be beat by the nuts. He was happy to pay me off.

Shit. Usually I get a speech or a free lesson. This guy was genuine and sincere.

A nice way to cap off a 6X night.

Thursdays are generally quiet, but they had this Jive ballroom dancing lessons party thing going on in the Ignite nightclub that shares the 3rd floor with the poker room.

As if that was not irritating enough, my table was 8 parts donkey, 2 parts rounder. Here is what the table looked like:

Seat 1: Bad. One of the worst players in Detroit that I have some history with. This is the heavy drinking, any two cards playing, go broke once an hour type donkey.

Seat 2: A solid donkey. Only plays big pocket pairs and any Ace. This is the gutshot chasing, fifth diamond hoping, must see most flops and every river type donkey.

Seat 3: Calling station. This is the see every flop at any price calling station type donkey. This is the why raise when you can call, why fold ‘em when you hold ‘em type player.

Seat 4: Broke-ass high roller. You know the type. They think that just because they are in a casino that everything is a gamble. Any two cards at any price kind of fool who’s job at the table is not done until all the money is gone.

Seat 5: Another calling station. Just clone Seat 3.

Seat 6: This is a rabbit-type of donk. Plays every hand. Scared.

Seat 7: A true grinder posing as a internet playing, A-K playing young gun. Except he does not play like an internet player and does not overplay A-K. I would stake this guy.

Seat 8: Inexperienced player. This guy can’t play after the flop. He shoves all-in for about 100X the big blind pre-flop with any big pair and pretty much folds the rest of the hands he is dealt.

Seat 9: What can I say. Had there been a waiting list, I would have paid someone to take my place. This is not the kind of table I like to be at. The only player I can outplay is one that I want to help felt the donkeys. Pirana don’t eat other pirana.

Seat 10: My favorite donkey. This is the heavy drinking, chatty, rebuying ATM type player.

Now that you have an idea of the level of play, you can appreciate that the night is going to be a long one. You will be forced to see every river and showdown every hand. No play the player tonite … ok … maybe a little bit.

A couple memorable hands that got alot of talk at the table. They all involved me having a pair of 5s.

I am heads up with Seat 3. The flop is Qd, 8d, 4d. I am last to act with 5-3 hearts.

My opponent bets the flop and I call with the plan to bluff the turn and take it down. I figure he has Ad … but only four cards to the flush.

The turn is my money card: 5c.

I know my pair is good and am willing to risk my stack knowing I am a 7:3 favorite to win the hand. I shove and get called. The river is a blank and my 5s hold up.

All I could do is grin when the guys that thought I only play Aces were surprised to see that not only did I have a garbage hand, but that I had the stones to make a play.

Now, I would have thought I earned some respect on that hand.

Fuck no.

Enter Seat 4.

Somehow, we keep getting heads up together. He starts the trash talk about me not having a hand. Yet pot after pot, he is behind the whole way and hits the miracle on the river to win.

Flash forward to the hand where he straddles. Seat 7 calls. Seat 8 calls. I call. And, seat 10 calls.

I knew before the action got to me that Seat 4 was going to raise. My plan was go re-raise him all-in for another $200 or so.

Sure as hell, he raises another $45. I put him on pure garbage.

Seat 7 calls. I put him on a big King. He claims to of had Q-Q … maybe he did. Either way he calls.

Seat 8 calls.

I go all-in.

Seat 10 calls and is all-in.

Seat 4 calls and is all-in.

Seat 7 thinks a bit and folds. If he had Q-Q, I got lucky that he folded. But, as he said after the hand played out, folding Q-Q was the right move. I agree.

Seat 8 calls.

Seat 4 proudly shows Q-5s.

For me, that was some bad fucking news.

Seat 8 shows 9c only.

The flop is even more bad news: Js-10s-8c.

I now have to miss the flush and gutshot with Seat 4.

My read was right on each player before the flop. I knew my 5-5 was good. For how long, well, that is another story.

Fourth street was 6c and fifth street was 2h.

The pocket 5s held up.

And for the next five minutes, the table talked about the play of that hand.

I guess I played bad. That is all I can come up with when I replay the hand in my head. Here is what happened.

I figure the player on my immediate right has a hand like A-Q or A-J when he raised to $75 pre-flop. I called with A-10d knowing I could outplay him on the flop.

The player on my immediate left also calls. I felt that this player is solid and that I could also outplay him after the flop. By solid, I mean the type that does not overplay hands or chase straights or flushes.

The flop comes Ah-9h-2c.

Mr. A-Q fires out another $75.

“I am all-in,” is my statement, which makes it another $500 or so to go and consequently, puts both of my opponents all-in.

I knew I was in second place. But I also knew that the pot was big enough for me to make a play. Afterall, I was card dead for a few hours and was getting impatient to stack some chips.

Would these guys really risk their entire stack on that flop, especially when I have a tight-aggressive table image?

The player on my left that I thought was solid took about 2 minutes or more to make a decision. A decision that surprised me. I put him on a heart draw, based on his reaction to the flop, when I decided to push.

He called.

The action is now on the bettor, and he thinks I have a set.

After pondering a fold, he announces a call with a disclaimer: “If he would have folded, I would have folded, too.” Then, he shows A-Q.

The turn is a blank and a third heart comes on the river.

The player on my left shows 7-3. Both hearts.

How he could call that bet with nothing but a 7 high flush draw is beyond me. I really thought he was a better player than that.

Had he folded, Mr. A-Q probably would have folded as well.

I thought it was a good play gone bad.

The flop is Jc-9c-7h.

There is $60 in the pot and you have to call a $50 bet with one player behind you.

You are not sure what the bettor before you is holding, but you are pretty sure the player that acts after you will call off anything on a flush draw.

What do you do?

I have seen this scenario countless times. Right or wrong, in this situation I fold the set and flush draw if I am certain my opponent flopped the straight. For me, it is a coin toss based on the feel of the hand if I think my opponent has both a straight draw and flush draw, making them a 60% favorite to win the hand.

Back to the hand above. I bet out the $50 hoping to take it down right there.

The player to my immediate left takes about 20 seconds to act. He decides to shove his stack of $300 into the middle to win $110.

I am sure of two things at this point: the player left to act is on a flush draw, and he will likely fold if he knows I am calling. Gaining this information came from the long time it took the other player to make a decision.

And that is what this game comes down to. It is not about chasing cards, or calling a certain size bet with a certain hand. It is all about making the right decisions. Profitable decisions.

As the three stacks of red hit the felt, I announce “call”.

Yeah. I acted out of turn. But, with the next player to act watching me for 10 or 15 seconds for an indication of what I am going to do, I figured he needed the extra help.

Besides, I really did not want the flush draw in the hand in case I get unlucky. I would rather go up against any set over a flush draw. For whatever reason, I seem to beat sets after flopping a straight nearly 100% of the time but lose to flush draws almost just as often.

Flush draw folds.

“Jack no good,” my opponent says as he turns over 9-9.

“Straight.”

“Ah fuck,” he says as he sees 10-8 for the nuts.

The board does not pair and I take it down.

I pay attention to what is on the board to see if maybe I am playing too tight. But, for the first 100 or so hands, not a single hand would have held up even if the hand ended on the flop.

My first playable hand was a 1000-to-1 disaster. Got away fairly cheap when my 8-8 turned into a set on the flop. I had position, but a player was betting hard into me all the way. My initial read was he had a hand like A-K, so I am smooth calling him when he paired his Ace on the flop.

The turn was a 7 and the river was a 7. It is hard to put someone on quads, but I felt that my boat was no good. Fortunately, the player chose to check the river hoping I would bet it for him and come over the top. I checked behind. My opponent was holding 7-7. Ouch.

The next playable hand came an hour later: suited connectors. A few players limped in and I saw a free flop that brought a straight draw. I call all-in to an overpair – mainly out of frustration – and got lucky with a river straight.

It would take a couple more hours of patience to weather the poker brutality of a cold deck before I started hitting playable hands and catching cards on the flop to triple my buy-in for the session.

Here was a key hand of the night: I have 2-2 in the big blind. The player two off the big blind raises to $17 and gets three callers before it gets back to me. I call.

The flop comes Q-7-2 off. I check.

The raiser bets out $25. I put him on a hand like A-Q or K-Q. I really don’t think he flopped a set. Even though I got stung with a 1000-to-1 longshot earlier, the odds of two players flopping a set is about 99-to-1 against.

I check raise, making it $75.

He plays back at me and shoves.

I insta-call and double up.

Somehow, I avoided a speech. The next couple hours were good. But, fuck, slow starts are brutal.