Shortly after my last post, my wife and I went up to
Norman, OK, to visit our son Ben who has been taking a few summer school
courses to complete his bachelor’s degree. While we were there, we made a stop
at the Riverwind Casino, where I have played a few times before. I offered to
stake Ben to some low-limit Hold ‘Em, so I bought both of us into their $3/$6
Limit game for $100 each. The poker room was having a special promotion that
day, in lieu of their usual Saturday tournament which I had been thinking of
playing. They were having a $200 splash pot once per hour all day long; they
would randomly pull a table number at the top of each hour, and that table
would have $200 added to the next pot. The table where Ben and I were seated
was picked in the second hour of the promotional period. The starting cards I
was dealt for that hand were 4s 5s. Suited connectors: just the kind of hand I
wanted for a pot that a lot of people were likely to be limping into. As
expected, everyone called the big blind. The flop included a 5 and two random
cards higher than that; I think they were all unsuited. I called the first bet,
hoping to catch another 5, a 4, or straight cards. Almost everyone called. The
turn was a blank for me and didn’t look too threatening, as I recall. I might
have had a straight draw but don’t remember now. A couple of people folded, and
no one of those left in the hand got aggressive, so I kept calling due to the
enormous pot odds. The river was another 5, and I thought my trips might have
the hand locked up. I called the last
bet, and it turned out that the case 5 was in another player’s hand. Neither of
our kickers played, so we chopped the pot. I also won a couple of other decent
pots during that session, and walked away with a profit of over twice my
buy-in. (Ben didn’t do as well but didn’t get felted.) I still would have had a
profitable day without the splash pot, but that one certainly helped my
bankroll.
Since that trip, I have been up to the Winstar Casino
twice. On July 4, I played $4/$8 Limit HE for about 1.5 hours. The most
memorable thing about that session is that it was among the most card-dead runs
that I have ever had. The only pocket
pair I got the whole time was QQ, and I had to give them back because it was a
misdeal. Near the end of the session, by which time I had played maybe two
hands when I wasn’t in the big blind, I started getting some cards to play, but
I missed the flop every time. I donated the last few chips of my buy-in when my
AT caught an A on the flop and a T on the turn, but someone else caught the
Broadway straight on the turn. Oh well, at least I feel like I made good
decisions, mostly because folding crappy cards is pretty easy.
I went back to Winstar yesterday and played $1/$2 NLHE
this time. Another bonus promotion came into play on this trip: they had an “Aces
Cracked” payout where if you play your pocket Aces to showdown and lose, you
get paid $100. This causes a lot of limping with AA instead of playing them
fast. However, you have to be careful that you don’t put too much in the pot to
the point where the $100 bonus doesn’t make up for the pot that you lose. As
the dealer explained to one of the players at my table, in the $1/$2 game you
can usually make a profit when you lose with AA, but in the $2/$5 NL game you
would typically lose money because the pot would be larger than the bonus. This
time around, I got good hands right away and they kept coming. Among those good
hands, I got AA twice. The first time I slow-played them, my opponent had QQ
and I won the pot instead of the bonus. The second time, though, the villain
caught trips and cracked my Aces. The pot wasn’t very big, so the $100 bonus
stacked me up a fair amount. I went up and down the rest of the way, and finished
with a decent profit.
What I am happiest about regarding the sessions mentioned
above is not just the profits, when I got them, but that I felt like I was
playing better and making good decisions the majority of the time. Knowing how
to adjust my play based on the conditions of the game, including the bonuses
and how they affected me and my opponents, felt good. I still think that I
could step up my aggression a notch or two and not play as timidly as I
sometimes do. But my reads of other players and general game conditions are
improving, and that should give me the confidence to play a little more boldly
in the future.
I have had some success in the bar league too. I finished
first in a tourney on July 1, which got me a $50 cash prize. I also qualified
for the monthly championship tourney at my local venue, and took first in that
tourney on July 9. No cash prize for that one, but the top four finishers qualify
for the WPT-APL (World Poker Tour Amateur Poker League) National Championship
tournament which will be held in Las Vegas next April. The field for that
national championship tournament will undoubtedly be big; this year’s
tournament had nearly 700 players show up. But, it’s an excuse to go to Vegas,
and possibly win some prizes, so I expect that I will go if I can.
Now for my comment on the poker etiquette matter. It
seems to me that the majority of players, at least that I play with, do not verbally
announce their betting intention before or during their action. They put their
chips out and expect everyone to know what the action means. Naturally, there
are many instances where the action is obvious, especially in limit poker where
the bet size is fixed. You put chips out, and if they are equal to the current
bet amount, then they represent a bet or call. I can understand a player
thinking that it is unnecessary to say something in this situation. But, it
seems to me that there is no reason NOT to say “bet” or “X” [where X is the bet
size] or “call” or “raise” just to confirm that everyone not only sees but hears
what the action is. Verbally announcing your action can also speed up the game
and allow the next player to act while you are putting together the chips for
your bet, since your verbal declaration is binding.
It is in non-fixed bet games like no-limit or pot-limit
that I wish everyone, or at least more players, would state their intentions out
loud. It would avoid mistakes and confusion, and it could speed up play in many
cases. Just placing, or (too often) throwing, chips towards the pot when you
bet, call, or raise forces the other players and the dealer to stop and count
what you put out, which isn’t always easy from the other end of the table, in
poor lighting conditions, etc. Also, if you intend to bet a particular amount
but don’t announce that amount, and accidentally put more than that out for
your bet, then all of those chips you put out become your bet; whereas if you
announced the bet amount, you would get back the extra chips you mistakenly
moved over the line. If the last of your chips are going in, it helps everyone
else if you say “all in” so there is no question about whether some or all of
your stack is in play.
I feel like there are three kinds of players who don’t
announce their action:
*Those who for some reason are afraid to speak up;
*Those who think that since they aren’t required to
announce their bet, they won’t;
*Those who are deliberately staying quiet to force the
other players, and the dealer, to figure out what they are up to.
The first two types probably just need to be informed or reminded
that stating their action is in the best interest of themselves and of the
game. The third type probably needs a swift kick in the hindquarters, but a
friendly reminder may have to suffice.
[There are, of course, physically challenged players who
may have difficulty making verbal declarations, but I am not concerned about
them. In my limited experience, those players seem to do their best to make
sure their intentions are clear in one manner or another.]
I would like to see more encouragement of verbal
declaration of action in all poker games. The best person to provide such
encouragement is the dealer, but floor persons and even other players can and,
IMO, should do so too. I realize that verbal declaration is not likely to
become a requirement in most poker rooms, but it seems to me that it would be a
ridiculously easy way to reduce confusion and disagreements, and facilitate
play. I try to state my action out loud on every play other than folding,
whether the other players are doing it or not. I will even announce when I have
folded if it looks like the next player to act did not see that I mucked my
cards and is waiting for me. I tend to hope that others will pick up on my
example and maybe even follow it. I’m sure all of us want to improve the poker
playing experience; could anything be easier than just speaking up?
