Sunday, February 1, 2009

For a taste of your whiskey, I'll give you some advice...

Anyone who plays poker knows about tells. Some are very obvious, others not so much. You also might think that when, or if, you play online that you can't possibly have a tell because no one can see you while you're playing poker. That simply isn't true. Betting patterns also produce tells, and there are many of those that you can pick up if you pay close enough attention online. I was playing online this past week when I ran into a player at a table that displayed a "tell" and I was able to take advantage of that tell in a couple of hands.



Before I go in to too much detail about the two hands I just want you to know that there are lots of tells you can pick up from online players' betting patterns. I'm not going to produce a list of all the ones I've come across, but a couple of my favorites are:


  1. Betting the "odd' chips off of your stack. In online play, there is never a need to round chips up during a tournament or at a cash game, and ties will happen or people will bet unusual amounts causing players to have unusual amounts in their stacks (e.g. 13782 chips insted of 13700 or 13800, or $143.75 instead of $140 or $145). Sometimes I'll see a player bet the "odd" amount. Using the numbers in my example, a player bets 782 (or 1782 or 2782...you get the idea) of his 13782. When a player does this they are almost always willing to throw their hand away if they face significant resistance. They're telling you that "I'll bet these odd chips, and if I win, great, but if you play back at me I don't really need these odd chips". I've taken several pots away from players when I was holding absolutely nothing because they've bet the "odd" chips at me.

  2. The long pause. In online play you have a set amount of time to make a decision, and after part of that time has elapsed a timer usual counts down your remaining time. Sometimes players will let their timer run down and then raise near the end of the time. This almost always means that they have a strong hand. The player is trying to give the illusion as though they are thinking about it because they're unsure of their hand, but they usually have a very strong hand. Think about it...you're unsure what you're going to do so you think about it, and then you decide to raise? If you were really, truly unsure of the strength of your hand most people aren't coming out raising. If I'm that unsure, I'm usually folding, or maybe calling. Now, this tell isn't 100% foolproof, as the delay can because of other factors such as a bad internet connection or playing multiple tables, but I've seen this "tell" produce accurate results for the most part.

To set up the scenario for these two hands, I had observed this Villain while playing against him online. He had a large stack at the table, and was using his stack to bully players (which is something you should do). His "tell" was when he would bet exactly what his opponent had in their stack. The first time he did this his opponent called him, and he was on a complete bluff. He then did it a second time and his opponent didn't call, but in that hand I had folded what would have been the nut hand, so although it wasn't aboslutely certain he was bluffing I was somewhat confident that he was bluffing the second time, too. Part of the reason I noticed this was because it is direct contradiction with what I've run into with some of the "regulars" that do this exact thing at the stakes I play. Normally what I've observed is that when a player bets to "set you all in" it is usually a sign of confidence. Not with this guy! That's why I noticed it so quickly I think. That brings me to the hands where I got involved with him. Something else to note about this player was that he was getting involved in about 40-45% of the hands. At these stakes, most "loose" players might get involved in about 27-35% of hands, so this player was also very loose in his starting hand selection. OK...got all that? Here we go:


Full Tilt Poker Table Padre Field - $2/$4 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:30:10 ET - 2009/01/30
Seat 1: Hero / Button ($141)
Seat 2: Player Seat 2 ($74)
Seat 3: Player Seat 3 ($400), is sitting out
Seat 4: Small Blind / Player Seat 4 ($557)
Seat 5: Big Blind / Player Seat 5 ($556.10)
Seat 6: Player Seat 6 ($70)
Seat 7: Player Seat 7 ($400)
Seat 8: Player Seat 8 ($406)
Seat 9: Villain ($997.10)
Player Seat 4 posts the small blind of $2
Player Seat 5 posts the big blind of $4
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [5d 4d] [A "not so bad" hand. At least I'm on the button. Let's see the action.]
Player Seat 6 folds
Player Seat 7 folds
Player Seat 8 folds
Villain raises to $9
Hero calls $9 [Well, I've got position, and it's only the really loose guy in the hand right now. I decided to call.]
Small Blind / Player Seat 4 folds
Player Seat 5 folds
*** FLOP *** [8d 6c Js]
Villain bets $33
Hero has 15 seconds left to act
Hero calls $33 [This may appear like a loose call, but because this guy is so loose I have a decent chance of getting paid if I hit the straight. I was 99% certain I was behind at this point.]
*** TURN *** [8d 6c Js] [5s] [interesting turn card! It's only bottom pair, but I've picked up a couple more outs to improve my hand!]
Villain bets $99
Hero has 15 seconds left to act [He bet exactly what I had left. Based on what he did earlier I thought he might be bluffing. I don't like calling almost $100 with bottom pair but even if I'm wrong, I have the remaining 5's and 4's to improve my hand along with a 7 to make a straight, so I decided to call.]
Hero calls $99, and is all in
Villain shows [Kc Th] [Yee Haw!! Gotcha! The tell is dead on! Now I just have to fade the three Kings and three Tens]
Hero shows [5d 4d]
*** RIVER *** [8d 6c Js 5s] [5c]
Villain shows a pair of Fives
Hero shows three of a kind, Fives
Hero wins the pot ($285) with three of a kind, Fives
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $288 Rake $3
Board: [8d 6c Js 5s 5c]
Seat 1: Hero (button) showed [5d 4d] and won ($285) with three of a kind, Fives
Seat 2: Player Seat 2 is sitting out
Seat 3: Player Seat 3 is sitting out
Seat 4: Small Blind / Player Seat 4 (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: Player Seat 5 (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: Player Seat 6 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: Player Seat 7 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 8: Player Seat 8 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: Villain showed [Kc Th] and lost with a pair of Fives

So I did very well that hand. Unfortunately, before my next big hand with this guy I got involved with pocket Kings against someone else's pocket Queens in a hand where the flop put out a Queen, so I lost a significant amount of my stack. Then, about 30 minutes after the above hand occurred:


Full Tilt Poker Table Padre Field - $2/$4 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:03:44 ET - 2009/01/31
Seat 1: Hero ($167)
Seat 2: Small Blind / Player Seat 2 ($76)
Seat 3: Big Blind / Player Seat 3 ($406.70)
Seat 4: Player Seat 4 ($515)
Seat 5: Player Seat 5 ($1,053.20), is sitting out
Seat 6: Player Seat 6 ($644)
Seat 7: Player Seat 7 ($143)
Seat 8: Player Seat 8 ($94)
Seat 9: Villain ($506)
Small Blind / Player Seat 2 posts the small blind of $2
Big Blind / Player Seat 3 posts the big blind of $4
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [Qs Qd] [Nice! A big starting hand!]
Player Seat 4 folds
Player Seat 6 folds
Player Seat 7 folds
Player Seat 8 folds
Villain has 15 seconds left to act
Villain raises to $15
Hero calls $15 [The Villain had been just calling a lot of reraises. I didn't want to shove my whole stack because he probably wouldn't call unless he had a monster himself. If I had reraised I knew he would call anyway so I didn't think I would be learning anything by reraising since I'd still have to deal with him after the flop.]
Small Blind / Player Seat 2 folds
Big Blind / Player Seat 3 folds
*** FLOP *** [8h Ad 7d] [Ugh! That lousy Ace had to hit the board, didn't it?!?]
Villain has 15 seconds left to act
Villain bets $152
Hero has 15 seconds left to act
Hero has requested TIME [Well, I was going to consider folding if he had made a pot-sized bet, but since the pot was only $34, this is a huge overbet. Also, the $152 he has bet just happens to be exactly what I have left. This is tough...I mean, even a bad player is going to hit a hand every now and then. I thought a little bit about it more than I usually do (I usually don't request TIME when playing online), and after some thought, I decided to call going with the line of thinking that his bet (the "tell") could be a bluff...again. Even if I'm wrong, I got the backdoor flush draw with my Queen of diamonds...right? (that's a joke...well...sort of...really...)]
Hero calls $152, and is all in
Villain shows [Kc Tc] [Wow. I can't believe this guy keeps bluffing in the same style and as often as he does. WOW...WOW!]
Hero shows [Qs Qd]
*** TURN *** [8h Ad 7d] [8c]
*** RIVER *** [8h Ad 7d 8c] [Jd]
Villain shows a pair of Eights
Hero shows two pair, Queens and Eights [Woo Hoo! I fade the Kings and pick up a nice pot...again!]
Hero wins the pot ($337) with two pair, Queens and Eights
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $340 Rake $3
Board: [8h Ad 7d 8c Jd]
Seat 1: Hero (button) showed [Qs Qd] and won ($337) with two pair, Queens and Eights
Seat 2: Small Blind / Player Seat 2 (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: Big Blind / Player Seat 3 (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: Player Seat 4 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: Player Seat 5 is sitting out
Seat 6: Player Seat 6 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: Player Seat 7 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 8: Player Seat 8 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: Villain showed [Kc Tc] and lost with a pair of Eights

The Villain ended up going near broke about 15 minutes later when he tried the EXACT same play against the player in Seat 4, who happens to be an excellent player that I play with quite often at these stakes. In that hand on the turn the Villain bet $524 into the player in Seat 4. It was exactly what that player had, but this time the player in Seat 4 had an easy decision as the turn card had given him the 2nd nut flush. There was no reason to sit at that table after that since the money had be redistributed to either myself or players that I didn't really think I'd be able to get it out of so I called it a night shortly after that.

So, just because you're playing online, don't think that you don't have tells. Your betting patterns produce tells. Mix it up a little...unless you're at my table, then just keep the bets consistent and decipherable.

Also, for those that have their speakers on and are picking up the music I'm now adding to the blog, I'm trying to keep the music appropriate for the post, but as I did a search for "poker" in the music library online I came across something by "Foamy the Squirrel", and as you know, since the Squirrel is one of the readers of the blog I had to put it in the playlist. That one's for you, Squirrel. It doesn't sound like her in the playlist, but I'll bet it's what she's thinking sometimes...