Iowa

I traveled to Iowa this last weekend to attend to family-related business. My home state. I took the opportunity to squeeze in some poker at a few locations around the state.

Meskwaki Bingo Casino Hotel

First, there was Meskwaki near Tama, Iowa on Friday night. Smallish poker room. Biggest game was a $1/2 NLHE game with a max $200 buy-in. Painful. I sat with several reloads, and needed one reload after my stack dwindled.

I used this as an exercise to see how quickly I could get a read on the players at the table. I’ve decided that if I am paying close attention, I should be able to get a decent read on everyone in about four orbits. This is necessary when you only have time for short sessions.

Initial conclusion: Iowa players are easy to read. Their problem is that, to a man, they play cash games like they would play a tournament. They give away their PF hand strength, and are completely unable to lay down a big pocket pair. Strategy: see a lot of flops with any playable NL hand, wait to flop something that can beat one pair, and then blast away. This basic strategy proved successful. No stack pics because I could not get cell phone coverage at this casino, so I didn’t take my phone to the table.

One astounding fact about the Meskwaki Bingo Casino Hotel (besides a name that is too long) – they don’t serve alcohol! A casino that does not serve alcohol – what the hell is up with that?! It made for some tame poker, and I bet it seriously huts the casino’s bottom line, too.

Final tally: +$200.

Riverside Casino

Next up was $2/5 NLHE at the Riverside Casino on Saturday afternoon. Nice casino, and they do serve alcohol. I did not partake, but I did take one player’s money in about a 2 hour session.

I played two odd hands against a dude to my right. Odd because of the betting that occurred. He was 40-ish, from Cedar Rapids, and was talking up a storm about an upcoming trip to the Bellagio to play $30-60 limit HE. Claimed to like limit better than NL. Not much of a tournament player. Seemed to know what he was doing and willing to mix it up with a wide range of hands.

First significant hand. I sat down about 20 minutes earlier and I have just over $300. Villain has me covered –

Limped to me on the button, I call with 99. Pot is $25.
Flop is 9h-8s-7s. Checked to Villain who bets $25. I raise to $75. Folded to Villain who calls.

Turn is (9h-8s-7s)-3s. Villain bets $100. I am concerned about the flush and just call. Pot is $375.

River is (9h-8s-7s-3s)-Tc. Villain check, and I happily check behind on a very scary board. He shows A8-hearts (??) and I win with a set of 999. My stack looked like this:
Afterwards, he says: “I put you on an overpair.” I presume this means that he thought he could have bet me off the hand on the turn. But how would I have an overpair to this flop on the button without raising PF? Whatever.

Second significant hand. I have maybe $675 and Villain has around $600. Several limpers to me on the button and I have JJ. I raise to $25, and everyone folds except Villain. We are heads up to a flop of –

Js-Tc-8c. Villain checks and I bet $35. This is intentionally a smallish bet to disguise my hand. Villain now min-raises to $70. Odd. I raise to $170 total. Villain quickly calls, so he has something here. Pot is about $210.

Turn is (Js-Tc-8c)-6c. Villain bets $150. Again I am concerned about the flush, but something felt like he did not have the flush. I call. Pot is about $510.

River is (Js-Tc-8c-6c)-Ts. Excellent. Villain checks. I have around $375 left and bet $200. I wanted to bet the max that he would call, while making sure that he did not fold. He quickly called. I win a $900+ pot and he mucks. My stack then looked like this:

Villain later claimed that he also had a boat – 999TT. He really sounded like he was telling the truth. But if so, I have no idea why he did not bet the river and instead check-called.

Poker is alive and well in Iowa, and from my limited experience there, the players are not very good.

Any Given Session

Every poker session falls into one of four categories:

1. You played like shit and you lost. You feel bad.

2. You played like shit but got lucky and won. You might feel bad about how you played, if you care about your skill in the game, but you'll keep the winnings anyway.

3. You played good but got unlucky and lost. You might feel satisfied about your play, but losing still sucks.

4. You played well and won. This is one of the main reasons I keep playing poker. Playing well and winning is extremely satisfying, if you're a real poker player.

Discovery

Remember back in the hey-day of on-line poker when you could sit at the low-limit NLHE games on PartyPoker and just rake in the money? Double your buy-in after about 10-15 minutes per table because your victims routinely paid off with weak hands?

No one does this any more because everyone had read Harrington on Hold 'Em and watched High Stakes Poker and plays NLHE 12 hours per day at all levels.

Well, I've discovered the modern-day Party-Poker NLHE circa 2004: low-limit Omaha high.

I've finally figured out Omaha to play straight-forward ABC strategy. And its like minting money. Its slow, but its a sure thing. Weak players routinely pay off with second best hands, just like the old NLHE PartyPoker days.

Epiphany

I have a new favorite local casino poker game. For about a year, the only casino poker cash game I have played is the Ameristar $1/$2 NLHE game, which is the biggest NL game they have (sad). I play this mainly because they have the 75% rule – you can sit down with 75% of the biggest stack at the table. This sort of compensates for the antiquated Missouri “loss limit” rule, where you can only purchase $500 in chips every two hours. To my knowledge, no other state in the nation follows this silly rule.

But I played in the Harrahs $2/$5 NL game last Saturday, which does not have the 75% rule. This is a better game in terms of player mix and structure. Although the stacks are nearly the same size as the Ameristar game, the slightly bigger blinds make the game play bigger. This I like. I sat down with $500 and cashed out for over $1600:

I was in seat 10. I had to go extra tall with the stacks rather than wide, because the dealers had trouble keeping their elbows off my stack. Shift to the right, go high. Being a chip snob, stack configuration is important to me.

I went into the game extremely focused, and had a read on nearly every player for the entire session. I was focused enough to plan ahead in each hand – figure out what I would do on future streets in a hand based on player styles, stack sizes and my read at the very start of the hand.

By the end of the session, something occurred to me. This seems to be a fundamental truth about my live cash games:

My best cash game sessions happen when I lose the fewest number of showdowns.

At first, this may seem like a fairly unremarkable statement. Of course you do better when you win more showdowns. But that’s not it. My very best sessions are when I lose the fewest showdowns, not necessarily win the most showdowns.

This can be the result of several factors that mark a good cash game session:
--Winning only a few pots early on, but big pots.
--Folding before the river when you are behind.
--Playing tight early and building up a solid image.
--Later in the session, winning lots of smallish pots before the showdown based on your image.

Something else I was very happy about – I maintained the discipline to fold a lot, despite having the big stack at the table. Even though I more than tripled up in this session, overall my cards were terrible. I went for extended stretches where I was forced to fold crap like K3, Q4, 92, endless junk. When I have a big stack in a cash game, I’m willing to play nearly any playable hand for a standard raise, down to small suited connectors. But I wasn’t even getting those type of hands. I’m sure I looked like the biggest nit at the table, but as the session wore on I really didn’t care, because I could pick up the occasional modest pot based on my tight image.

I lost one showdown all night, which was a small and inconsequential pot. Every other hand at showdown was a winner, including 2 hands where I held the nuts and managed to get paid for maximum value.

Trouble Tourney Hand

I finished in 4th place in the CT Thursday night tournament for two consecutives weeks. I had average to above average luck -- some key suckouts suffered, and a few dealt to others. I've had good patience when my stack has been short, which can make all the difference in this tournment since there are many players that play close to optimal pre-flop strategy.

Here's a hand that was aggravating. Its a relatively inconsequential hand overall, but I kept thinking about it later and had to go back and review. This type of hand comes up a lot in cash games and can be troubling.

Villian: Very solid player overall. Calls too much PF with a medium to average sized stack. Calls too much OOP. Plays a large stack very well -- one of the best big stack players among the CT regulars. Not afraid to run a bluff. Often plays distracted -- surfing and doing other computer stuff. He's been calling raises a lot in this tourney. I believe that he thinks I bluff more often than most CTers.

The Hand:
PokerStars Level II (15/30)
Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Villain (1215 in chips)
Seat 9: Darvcus (2065 in chips)
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Darvcus [8d Ac]
Seat 8: calls 30
Darvcus: calls 30
Villain: calls 30
SB: calls 15
BB: checks
*** FLOP *** [8h 6c 3c]
SB: checks
BB: checks
Seat 8, : checks
Darvcus: bets 90
[I have TPTK and very likely the best hand since everyone limped PF. The board is uncoordinated but for the spades.]
Villain: calls 90
SB: folds
BB: folds
Seat 8: folds
[I put Villain on spades, some sort of straight draw such as T9 or 75, or less likely a slow-played set.]

*** TURN *** [8h 6c 3c] [Kh]
Darvcus: bets 180
[This card would not complete any of his draws. If I was ahead on the flop, I'm likely still ahead now. I also assume that if I am behind now he will raise and I'll know where I am at. This bet should chase him away if he is on a draw. Finally, if I check and he bets, I may be forced to fold the best hand. So I have to bet here.]
Villain: calls 180
[Still on a draw? Its seems very unlikely that he has a king. He could have called on the flop with KcXc, but if so I think he would raise here especially if he thinks I am double-barrel-semi-bluffing with a draw, which he knows I will do. The only thing I can settle on is that he's still drawing.]

*** RIVER *** [8h 6c 3c Kh] [Ts]
Darvcus: bets 210
[Based on my turn evaluation, this is a value bet. The ten on the river is unlikely to have hit any of his drawing hands. It occurs to me that he might have an 8 with a worse kicker.]
Villain: calls 210

*** SHOW DOWN ***
Darvcus: shows [8d Ac] (a pair of Eights)
Villain: shows [Ks Qh] (a pair of Kings)
Villain collected 1110 from pot

Analysis:
My immediate reaction was -- what the hell was he calling for on the flop?! Floating to take it away later? No, because he hit his best card on the turn and just called. So I have no explanation for the call.

I could give him credit for two spades that had a king, but there is no reason to call my flop bet with KQo. Upon further reflection, I do not like my river bet because there is no hand that would call that I beat, except maybe an 8 with a worse kicker. And the ten might have hit some draws, and might still call on the river.

When my opponent calls on the flop with a hand that really should be folded on the flop, I have trouble connecting the dots on the turn and river. I need to work on that -- but how do you re-evaluate on the turn so drastically that you nearly throw out his original hand range and devise a completely new hand range?

My PLO Education Begins

On-line, its my contention that most hobby players do not have a significant edge over the majority of on-line hold ‘em players, either limit or NL. The market is saturated with books and on-line instruction which serves to educate and create a more equalized playing field, as far as pre-flop play is concerned. Since most on-line tournaments and SNGs are short-stacked play, most of the action is PF where there is not much edge for a hobby player. Yes, lots of players still make lots of mistakes, but from my observations the hold ‘em games are no where near as good as they were 3 years ago.

So, I am learning PLO on-line. Based on what little I have read about PLO, most significantly the Chris Ferguson PLO Chapter in the Full Tilt Tournament Strategy book, I see lots of players playing PLO like hold ‘em. Aside from the Full Tilt book, I am essentially educating myself. So, here is my first Top 10 strategy observations about on-line PLO:

1. Pre-flop you should devalue pairs. A hand like Q-Q-8-6 is almost nothing but trouble if played like a hold ‘em hand. This hand has the same value as something like 8-8-Q-6 – you need to hit a set on the flop to go anywhere. If an overcard hits on the flop, the pocket pair is worthless. If the board is connected at all, the pocket pair is worthless or will become worthless very shortly. You cannot go to showdown without improving a single pocket pair.

2. Mid-range and low connecting cards are great. A hand like Q-J-T-9 is very strong. A hand with three connecting cards like Q-J-9-3 is also worth seeing the flop for a raise. Low connecting cards are also strong, like 6-5-4-2. These hands allow for significant decision-making on the flop, and become very easy hands to play if you miss the flop – you just fold. Higher connecting hands like A-K-J-9 are strong, but are not as strong as the mid-range and low connecting cards because you cannot hit wrap straight-draws. Example: the hand Q-J-T-7 on a board of K-T-8 is better than holding A-K-J-9 on a board of K-Q-T.

3. Bluffing – don’t do it except in very rare circumstances. All players call with all manner of draws. If the board is two suited or is connected in any way, do not bluff. The only situation that I have encountered where bluffing can work is in late position, everyone has checked to you, and the board is completely uncoordinated like K-7-2 rainbow. But even then, the pot will be small and relatively worthless compared to the pots that you will win in Omaha with good hands.

4. In any pot with 3 or more players (including you), if a flush is showing on board and you cannot beat the nut flush or another high flush, just fold. Do not play your straight, set or 2-pair hand against a flush board – it’s a loser 19 out of 20 times. I may be off on the frequency here, but with players betting into a flush board in a multi-way pot, someone has the flush.

5. Do not slow-play except in rare circumstances. If you hit your hand on the flop, just bet it. If someone else has a hand or a draw, you will get action. If no one else has a hand or a draw, you will take the pot with the bet. From my limited experience, check-raising in a multi-way pot, and usually even in a heads-up pot, will just result in getting all the chips in the middle before the river because everyone quickly becomes pot committed to the hand and is probably correct, or close to correct, to call all raises after the betting starts.

6. You cannot be scared of playing to your good draws because that is how everyone else is betting (but you should still apply the math and fold when not getting correct odds). In hold ‘em, draws lead to semi-bluffing opportunities. In Omaha, draws lead to everyone getting their entire stack in the middle on a regular basis.

7. I hit a lot more sets in this game than I would have guessed. Maybe I’m just getting lucky with hitting sets – I need to read up on this. But I seem to hit sets with startling frequency, and top set can lead to big winning pots against all the drawing hands that are willing to get their stack in the middle.

8. When you have middle or bottom set, do not be surprised when you are beat by a better set. It happens much more frequently in Omaha than in hold ‘em.

9. A-A-x-x hands must be played as fast as possible pre-flop. You absolutely have to jam for the max raise with this hand pre-flop, because its value decreases greatly when you get action on the flop. If your table has lots of pre-flop raises, this may be one of the slow-play exceptions – just call or make a modest raise in EP with A-A hands, with the intention of re-raising the max pre-flop if there is a raise behind you.

All opinions expressed herein are subject to revision as I continue to learn this game. I have a lot to learn.