Victim of Cheating?

The question came up recently as to whether I’d ever been cheated while playing cards, and the answer is yes, twice that I know of (and who knows how many times that I don’t).

The first time was on my very first visit to Vegas, back in ’91 or so.  It was while playing blackjack at the Pioneer Casino downtown.  The Pioneer is closed today (gee, wonder why), but it’s the site of the iconic giant neon cowboy that points to himself.  This was back before they made Fremont Street a pedestrian mall; at the time it was a street you could drive down just like any other.

It was around two or three in the morning, and at the blackjack table we were all running really good.  The floorman suddenly swapped out the dealer, and the new dealer came in and hand-shuffled the cards.  This was a short shoe, with only four decks if I recall correctly.  Anyhow, after shuffling the cards, she put them into the shoe.  From where I was sitting (nobody else could have seen this), I saw that when she put the cards back into the shoe, there were a whole bunch of cards already in it!  I thought that was extremely troubling.

Suddenly, we all started losing.  Some of the players were betting big stacks, playing their rush.  They lost a bundle!  Nowadays, I’d probably raise hell with the floorman.  But this was my first time to Vegas; I didn’t know what to do, so I just cashed out and left.  Probably the best solution anyhow.

The second time was at Foxwoods.  I was playing a limit hold ‘em table, probably $8/$16 or in that neighborhood.  I was sitting between these two guys who (it was clear to me) knew each other, and I figured were probably friends who’d decided to come out to the casino together.

Well it wasn’t too long after I sat down at the table (maybe 4 or 5 button orbits) that they both got up and left together.  After they left, the dealer said that he was convinced that they had been colluding.  He said that he had just signaled for security to come to the table (how he did this I have no idea) so when they got up and left, it was in the nick of time.

They may have been colluding, but lucky for me I didn’t happen to have lost any money to them.  I guess whenever they had me bracketed I didn’t have any hand worth playing.  And if the dealer hadn’t told me about it, I’m sure I would never have known!

Las Vegas Hotel/Casinos

Just for fun, I tried to remember all of the hotel/casinos that I've stayed in at Las Vegas . . . and I'm not sure that I can remember them all!  So I thought I would just try to list them all out, roughly in the order in which I've stayed there:

• Bally's
• Golden Nugget
• Rio
• Imperial Palace (twice)
• Excalibur
• Caesar's Palace
• Venetian
• Luxor
• Tropicana

The Venetian and the Rio were "suite" rooms; otherwise they're all pretty much indistinguishable.

A Well-Played Hand

I just have to post this hand, because I am so pleased at how well I played it!

It was a $1/$3 no-limit table.  I was in the cutoff.  A new player had just come to the table and posted, so even before the cards were dealt, there was $7 in the pot.

The player under the gun cold-called the big blind.  I had been watching his game for a long time, and I really wasn’t very impressed at all.  He was one of these young guys I wrote about earlier, basically a tell machine, playing way too many hands and unable to figure out why he was slowing going bust.

The next player also limped.  I had been watching his game too, and he was a good player.  However, he’d just suffered a couple of really bad beats and had just re-bought, and was on serious tilt.  I wondered whether I would be able to take advantage of that observation.

The next player was the new one who just posted, and he checked his option.

It folded to me, and I looked down at Ace of Spades, Ten of Diamonds.  As I recently wrote, I’m not terribly fond of playing this kind of hand with a lot of other players already in.  But the pot was laying me 13-to-3 so if my hand held even a 23.1% chance of winning, it was worth a call.  Add the implied odds if the flop hit me, my position, and the fact that I really believed I could outplay at least two of the players in the pot, and the decision to call wasn’t too tough to make.

The button folded, so next up was the small blind.  She was a very tight and tentative player, and although she was getting 8-to-1 on her call she inexplicably folded!  The big blind checked, so it was five players to the flop; the pot held $16; and I had position.

The flop came Ten of Clubs, Six of Clubs, Eight of Clubs.  Ugh.  I had top-pair with top-kicker, which was pretty good, but all those damn clubs!  With my luck, somebody had already flopped the flush.  Well, at least I had position.

The big blind checked.  The young gun also checked.  Mr. Tilt thought for awhile, and put out a $7 bet.  The new guy folded, and it was to me.

That kind of bet made me think that he didn’t have the flush, or at least not yet.  I frankly thought that it was a tilt bet.  I considered a raise here, but with two players yet to go (one of whom could be slowplaying) and a hand which really wasn’t all that spectacular, I decided to play it a little timid and so I just called the bet.

Much to my surprise and interest, the small blind and young guy both folded, so it was just me and Mr. Tilt and the $30 pot.

The turn brought the Four of Diamonds; a rather inconsequential rag.  Mr. Tilt again took his time, and then put out a $20 bet.

I was more sure now than before that he wasn’t on the flush, based on my read and the amount of the bet.  It didn’t take me too much thought to call him.

The river was the Jack of Diamonds.  At this point, Mr. Tilt just checked!

Yahtzee!  I was convinced that I had him now.  What would make a good value bet?  I put $25 into the $70 pot.  After some more thought, Mr. Tilt called.

I showed my Ace/Ten, and he showed Queen/Ten.  The $120 pot was mine!

(Not that it mattered much.  A few hands later, I gave it all away when I picked up a pair of Jacks in the big blind.  The flop came Queen-Jack-Four; the button bet big, I raised, he went all-in, I called, and he turned over his pocket Queens and took the big, big pot with set-over-set.  That’s poker, folks.)

Some Odds And Ends

I've found a couple of settings for "blogger" that may make things easier for you, the reader.

One is, I found a way to allow comments that don't require you to have a Google ID first.  Some of my friends were complaining about this; they wanted to post a comment but didn't want to have to set up an ID.  Now that I have found (and changed) that setting, it should be easier to post your reactions to my posts.

Second, there is a way to have new posts emailed to you (sort of like RSS I suppose).  If you would like to have new blog entries emailed to you as they are posted, send me your email address and I will add you to a master list that I found.

Ace/Jack = Ace/Rag

One of the ways that I am really tight is in how I play an Ace/Jack or Ace/Ten (or worse) from middle to late position.

If I am first into the pot, I will raise.  But if the pot has already been raised, I’ll let it go.  And if there is even one limper, unless I have an excellent read on him, I’ll fold as well.

What?  Fold Ace-Jack from late position?  Why would I ever do that?

Well, let’s do the math.  The chance that the flop will hit my hand in any way is roughly 1 in 3.  The chance that my opponent, playing with (let’s say) a middle pair will flop a set is maybe 1 in 7.  So, that suggests I should call from late position with my Ace.

But let’s say I have Ace-Nine in late position and call two limpers.  Add the blinds, and we have five players to the flop.

Now, let’s assume one of two possibilities: (1) The flop is King-Nine-Two.  Is my hand any good?  (2) The flop is Nine-Eight-Seven with two clubs.  Is my hand any good?  (3) The flop is Ace-Seven-Four.  Is my hand any good?  Add to this the fact that a lot of players will play any Ace like it’s solid gold, and I may even be up against two pair.

So if I’m going to play Ace-rag against more than two players, or in a raised pot, I’m probably going to have to make some difficult decisions.  And being naturally lazy, I’d rather avoid having to do that.

I have an interesting little anecdote that illustrates this tendency about how I play Aces in late position.

I once played a lengthy no-limit hold-em session at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.  I’d been at the table so long that I actually made friends with one of the other players, a young guy from Vancouver B.C. named Suresh.  He was a terrible player but a really friendly guy and I enjoyed hanging out with him.

The next morning, I decided to play at the MGM Grand for a change of scenery.  Their poker room was rather new at the time and looked pretty nice.  I sat down at a no-limit table and started to grind it out.

After maybe 15 minutes, who should happen to walk into the room but my buddy Suresh from Caesar’s!  (These kinds of coincidences always seem to happen to me in Vegas – running into co-workers, old friends, new friends, family members, etc. but it still takes me by surprise.)  The tables were full, so he put his name on the wait list and in the meantime I let him sit behind me and “sweat” my play.  We chatted a bit when I wasn’t in a hand.

One hand I was in the cutoff – one position to the right of the button – and I picked up an Ace-Six offsuit.  A middle-position player limped, and when it came to me I folded.  As I did, I heard an audible gasp behind me.  (I don’t remember any more about that hand, other than that the Board failed to connect with either of my two cards.)

After the hand was over, I turned back to Suresh, who had this shocked look on his face.  I said, “What’s wrong, why did you react when I folded?”  He said, “You folded an Ace!!”  I said, “No I didn’t.  I folded a Six with a halfway decent kicker.”  I could tell from his reaction that he couldn’t see what I was pointing out, but before I had the chance to discuss it any further a seat opened up at another table and his name was called.

T Minus Six Days (And Counting . . .)

Next Wednesday, in the afternoon, I head out to Vegas and the Main Event!

There are four Day Ones (1A, 1B, 1C, 1D) and I want to try to get into either Day 1C or 1D, which is Saturday and Sunday.  There are also two Day Twos (2A and 2B), so playing on a weekend will put me in the 2B cohort, which plays on Wednesday the 9th.  From that point, it's nonstop poker until the 14th.

I've been paying attention to the timings of the other WSOP events that have already taken place this year, and it seems as though they run through until around 2 in the morning or so (!)  I am a little worried about fatigue.  I can stay up until 2am no problem; but five or six days in a row of that might be a bit of a challenge.  So to start preparing for that, I've been staying up until around midnight each night this week, and sleeping in until about 8am or so.  I'm hoping that getting used to this new sleep schedule will make it easier for me.

For the first five nights of my stay, I'm going to be staying at the Plaza Hotel downtown.  It's cheesy and cheap -- sorta like me.  But I do like downtown Vegas for a change of pace, so I'll enjoy that time.  I might play a tournament at Binion's on Thursday afternoon -- they call it the 2nd Annual Binion's Poker Classic, although how anything can be a "classic" after only two years they don't explain.  The other games in that series have pulled in around 200-250 players and paid the top 30 or so; it will be a nice tuneup for the big dance.

On Monday (after Day 1 and before Day 2) I'm going to move from the Plaza to the Rio, where the WSOP tournament is being held.  I think it will be helpful to be able to just head upstairs and crash after the game is done each night rather than try to drive to some other hotel downtown or on the strip at 2am after an exhausting marathon poker session.

I'm really excited about this although I don't have any illusions about winning it or anything silly like that.  It would be nice to finish in the top half; actually finishing in the money is almost too much to hope for.  But basically I'm doing it just for the experience; I guess you could say that playing the WSOP Main Event on my "things you should do before you die" list.

Cinderella's Ball comes to a crashing end on Monday the 14th, when I fly back home and return to my real life.  That day is actually Day 7 of the tournament; the last day before the final table is determined.  If lightning strikes and I'm actually still in it by then, I'll change my flight and stay a day longer, but I can't imagine that happening.

As far as blog updates while I'm out there; well, I should be able to get some reports in up until Day 2 starts.  But after that, let's just say it won't be a priority.  There are, however, live updates on the WSOP website and the CardPlayer magazine website and probably a few others, so if my fans want to see if I even make it into one of the reports they can always check those I suppose.

The Best and Worst Players

Okay, you’ve just walked into your favorite cardroom, bought a rack of chips from the cage, and are being shepherded to a table to begin your session.  Maybe this is the first time you’ve been to this room, or maybe it’s your regular game but there’s a bunch of new players you haven’t seen before.  Regardless, as you sit down and look around the table, you realize there’s not one face that you recognize.  (This isn’t at all unusual, of course.)

Quick:  How do you identify which of these players are really good, and which ones are really bad players?  I’ll give you two button-orbits to reach your conclusion.

Here’s how I do it:

First of all, the answer (as I see it) has nothing to do with any of the following :

·         Size of chip stack.  Especially at a no-limit table, maybe a really bad player just won a big hand on a bad beat.  (I’ve done this more than once myself.)  So amount of chips isn’t it.

·         Age, gender, beauty, nationality, race, language, etc. – completely irrelevant.

·         Talkativeness.  Maybe a Matusow or Jamie Gold clone is at the table.  Or maybe the mime convention is in town.  It doesn’t matter.

·         Cardroom regular or first-time visitor, doesn’t make any difference.

·         Drunk or sober – believe it or not, I don’t think this makes much of a difference either.

Nope.  Here’s how I figure it out, and it really does take me about two button orbits to determine:

Who’s playing the most hands?  Who’s playing the fewest?  If somebody is playing in every pot, expecting themselves to be the next Sammy Farha, then they are playing a lot of garbage.  And unless they are Sammy Farha, they probably can’t get away from that garbage very easily.  So, in my book, that makes them donkey candidates.

It’s the tight ones you have to watch out for.  They won’t enter a pot without a decent hand.  I’ve folded pocket queens preflop when one of these folks raises from early position.  Seriously!  And more than once.  (Maybe I’m the donkey?)