Izmet Fekali

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The Furcoat Dilemma

An interesting dilemma from 2+2 fora…

-Izmet

To skp: re. flat call w/2nd nuts
Posted By: J-D
Date: Sunday, 26 November 2000, at 2:47 a.m.
In Response To: Re: Top Players: How Many Re-Raises? (Louie Landale)

In a recent session I was on the wrong end of set-over-set when the
flop came. I flopped a set of queens, to a board of:

King, Queen, Seven - with two clubs.

Five of us capped it on the flop; I was absolutely certain I had the
best hand since I had put in the second (and last) raise pre-flop and
the holder of "KK" was a very aggressive player whom I was sure would
have capped it with "AA", "KK", - probably even with "AKs".

When a blank fell on the turn and he NOW decided to cap it, I was 99%
sure of what he had. I called on the basis of the 1% I was wrong, and
the fact that the fourth Queen would put the flush out giving me
excellent implied odds. (Looking back, I may have even been getting
45-1 without future bets; it was a BIG pot.)

Of course the Queen landed on the river.

I checked, the Ace high flush bet, "KK" raised, sevens full and another
flush just called. When it got back to me, I three-bet it;

I got paid off by everyone EXCEPT "KK", who flashed me his hand before
he mucked it.

There were well over 50 big bets in the pot and he wouldn't pay one
more bet to see it to the end - and his call would have almost
certainly closed the action; this was no group of rocket scientists,
but even they knew they were beaten - none of them were about to cap
the betting.

In order for this to be a good laydown on his part, he would have to be
more than 98% sure that he was beaten.

Looking at it from his perspective, he figured to win this hand
approximately one time in a thousand.

IMO, and I am not a fan of laying down big hands on the river for one
more bet in huge pots, I don't think he could win it that often.

P.S. Having said all that, I would have probably paid off; perhaps the
day will come when I will be able to make such a laydowny, but it
hasn't come yet. It doesn't really matter how good your hand is, or the
size of the pot.

Sometimes even second nut isn't worth one more bet.

Just my opinion,

J-D

Re: To skp: re. flat call w/2nd nuts
Posted By: Izmet Fekali
Date: Sunday, 26 November 2000, at 7:02 a.m.
In Response To: To skp: re. flat call w/2nd nuts (J-D)

J-D writes: 
> perhaps the day will come when I will be able to make such a laydowny

Aaaarghh!!!

Someday you will make such a fold, it will be a good one and you will
be happy. You will be able to afford a shrimp cocktail at Binions with
the saved bet and maybe even treat a friend.

Feeling like a champ, you will do it again someday. But, this time a
guy with Q2s will drag your pot, buy the cocktail waitress a fur coat
and fuck her blue for a week. Now which guy do you want to be? The
smart one with the shrimp cocktail or the stupid one with the sore
dick?

From an old Albanian song:

"I was told by David Duchowny
ya' won't get rich by good laydowny!"

--
Izmet Fekali (I have a filthy mouth, Mason, please bear with me...)
Burek Experts Ltd.
Catering the World Since 1389!
Albania, Slovenia, Europe

Re: To skp: re. flat call w/2nd nuts
Posted By: David Sklansky
Date: Sunday, 26 November 2000, at 1:01 p.m.
In Response To: Re: To skp: re. flat call w/2nd nuts (Izmet Fekali)

Unfortunately, when I wrote my Eight Mistakes In Poker and contrasted
the mistake of folding when you should call with its opposite number, I
did not have Izmet's explanation available to me. It will be included
in my next edition.

David Sklansky

Technorati Tags: Izmet Fekali, poker, texas holdem

November 27, 2000 Posted to General Poker, Poker, Texas Hold 'em

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I've said that you should raise preflop when you will win more than your fair share of pots. For example, if there are 5 limpers in the pot, you're on the button, and you expect the blinds to call with any two cards, then if you will win more than 1/8 of the time, you should generally raise.

To get a better idea for the threshold for raising versus loose limpers, here are the hands that win 1/3, 1/4, 1/5, 1/6, 1/7, and 1/8 of the time against 7 opponents with random hands in a no fold'em game:

No Fold'em Hand Rankings for 7 Opponents with Random Hands

Wins AA AKs KQs QJs JTs T9s 98s 87s 76s 65s 54s AK KQ QJ JT T9 98 87
= == === == == == == == == ==
1/3+ AA ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .. .. .. .. .. .. ..
1/4+ JJ AQs ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .. .. .. .. .. .. ..
1/5+ 99 ATs KTs QTs JTs ... ... ... ... ... ... AQ KQ .. .. .. .. ..
1/6+ 66 A2s K5s Q8s J8s T7s 98s 87s ... ... ... AT KT QT JT .. .. ..
1/7+ 55 K2s Q4s J6s T6s 96s 86s 75s 64s 54s A3 K8 Q9 J9 T9 .. ..
1/8+ 22 Q2s J2s T2s 93s 83s 73s 63s 53s A2 K5 Q7 J8 T8 97 87

Each hand listed also includes all the hands between it and the column heading. For example, K5s means K5s through KQs. K5s is on the 1/6+ line, so that means it wins 1/6 of the time or better (but less than 1/5 of the time.) Now, it's not true that you could profitably raise with the hands on the 1/8 win rate line, even though they include hands with win rates close to 1/7. Nor could you profitably raise with most of the hands on the 1/7 win rate line. Your raise requirements must be tighter for the following reasons:

Your opponents are not playing any two random cards, only close, though this is mostly offset by the fact that they would have raised with their best hands rather than limping.
There is a risk of a reraise behind from a superior hand left to act.
The game is not actually no fold'em, and so hands that will often be folding before the river will win less often in reality than in no fold'em (e.g., 22.) So where should the line be drawn? Full blown Turbo simulations(not no fold'em) of raising on the button after 5 loose limpers (and loose players in the blinds) suggest…

… minimums of:

66 A2s K5s Q5s JTs T9s 98s 87s 76s 65s ... A9 KT QJ .. .. .. ..

This is very similar to the 1/6+ line…

1/6+ 66 A2s K5s Q8s J8s T7s 98s 87s ... ... ... AT KT QT JT .. .. ..

…but with more emphasis on suited connectors. A gapped hand like T7s has less chance of flopping a draw than a hand like T9s, and so should be more inclined to see the flop cheaply upon which it will often fold. Suited connectors are very likely to flop something that causes them to stay in for the turn, and once on the turn they are likely to see the river, and once on the river they may have won. So, you actually can raise with very weak suited connectors like 76s and sometimes even 65s. Raising with them has the additional benefit of building the pot and tying others in for your draw.

After limpers, common wisdom is to not raise after limpers with AQ, never mind KJ or KT. This thinking is generally wrong. Big offsuit hands like AQ and KJ should not be afraid to raise preflop after loose limpers, as such hands are indeed very likely to be best at the moment and to win, even if they are likely to get tortured late in the hand and not win very much on average. AQ wins 1/5 of the time in 8-way no fold'em, probably considerably more than that in real games since AQ is extremely likely to take a card off with overcards on the flop, whereas your opponents with J7 are likely to fold on the flop. So you are getting the difference in equity of 1/8 and at least 1/5 from each player when you raise. It amounts to at least 60% of a small bet, probably closer to a full small bet, which is a big chunk of your hourly win rate.

However, if your raise would cause all 7 opponents to see the turn, whereas only 3 would see the turn otherwise, this is one case where you might not wish to raise with AQ. The reason is that you can't usually call on the flop with overcards versus 7+ opponents. (For one thing, you can't count on making a pair on the turn and then having the board pair low on the river and winning with aces up or queens up, because your opponents might already have paired every card on the board.) So, this is one strange case where by raising AQ might so harm its chances of winning that it would turn itself into an implied odds hand that would prefer to have not raised. Few games would fall into this category, however, and normally you should raise preflop after limpers if you feel you have the biggest cards.

IMO. Comments and criticisms are welcome.

Abdul

Technorati Tags: Abdul Jalib, poker, texas holdem

November 1, 2000 Posted to Poker, Texas Hold 'em

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The Blind Fox Hand

I'm sitting at a poker table, trying not to lose my mind after twelve hours of play, I'm looking around the table and I only see familiar faces, even the fresh ones aren't new to me, same loser faces I see at this table every time,… there's a guy that drives a cab at night, but that cab of his seems parked for weeks in front of the cardclub, and his ass seems glued permanently to that seat over there… his young wife came ringing at the door once and the security guy came to our table looking very embarrassed not knowing what to do with the crying lady and the cabbie ran to the toilet to hide and she came in not saying a word and I felt pained and ashamed while she browsed our table with her silent contempt… A young asian player, dressed as sharp as possible is playing standing up, showing off his hold'em prowess, flashing his holecards to the dealer to impress her with his awesome folds, I catch a glimpse of JTo that he throws into the muck utg, and he is staring at the dealer milking her for some admiration, but he gets none, that Viennese chick is not putting it out for no slanteye kid… she smiles broadly to an older local guy though, he's been throwing enormous tips at her when dragging a big pot, and I realized then, this guy is going to get laid tonight, he's gonna shag her blue and he's gonna get off cheap… It's a frenzy in my head, I feel discomfort and I feel guilt sitting there with the scum in the early hours of the morning pretending I have nothing else to do, watching the faces for tells, but only seeing the diseased minds in pursuit of money, where else can a guy make so much with no effort… and it saddens me to find myself silently enjoying their bad beats or stupid moves, enjoying their misery and their misconceptions about themselves, we are all losers, can't you see it, dumbsuckers???…

I wander away in my thoughts… I see images from the distant past, wondering if I really lived that life or is was it just a nice, cozy, fluffy illusion… was it real?, could I really be that happy at some point?… I see myself running home and I open the door and there she is, sitting on the bed crying her eyes out and I feel a miserable pain in my chest seeing her like that and my mind is overrevving frantically searching the database of the past days, what the fuck did I do wrong?, what made her hurt so bad?, I'm a lying bastard and she finally realized it, I was sure, I was scared…

"I was watching Discovery,…" she utters.

"So?"

"So there was this wildlife documentary… and a cute little fox had four cute little fox kitties…", I felt the pain in my guts, looking at her sobbing like that…

There has to be more. I wait for her to continue..

"And one little fox baby was blind!…"

And as she was crying in my arms I held her tight and felt the hot streaks going thru me, the streaks of love I felt for that little girl, sobbing away over a little blind fox…

"It's on you, sir. It's been raised." I see the dealer with a funny look on his face waiting for me to act. I'm still in half a daze desperately trying to appear tough and in control. My eyes shoot around wishing to hang on to something familiar. Focus returns and I snap my fingers desperately trying to appear casual…

I'm in the blind and I look down and squeeze the edge of my cards just a notch over the green surface… I see:

There was an early very loose limper, everybody else folded and a quiet guy in the small blind raises. This guy has a hand, I know. But the limping fish doesn't, I know that as well. I call.

The flop comes: