Table Courtesy

Table Courtesy

Round 1 - Do You Chop?

If you understand what chopping the blinds is, skip to the 2nd paragraph.

In Hold 'Em and Omaha, the flop games of poker, there's a standard small and big blind bet placed out by the two players just to the left of the player currently marked as the dealer with the dealer button. People get that. Cool. In every single casino in the San Francisco Bay Area, there's at least one game where there's also a blind bet put out by the player with the dealer button. For example, at Garlic City, you have a $1, $2, $2 blind structure. $1 on the button, $2 in the small blind, and $2 in the big blind. At M8trix, there's a $1,$2,$3 game. $1 on the button, $2 SB (small blind), $3 BB (big blind). OK. Now chopping... so in a normal game with 2 blinds - Lucky Chances' $3,$5 game for example - if everyone folds to the players in the blind, those two player can "Chop it". Chopping means that they take most or all of their money back and chose not to the play that hand against each other. With Lucky Chances specifically, they rake $2 a hand no matter what ($1 + $1 for bad beat jackpot), so each player hands the dealer a dollar and we all move on to the next hand. Why would people do that? Well, normally in that same game, the house takes $6 per hand that goes post-flop. So out of the $8 out there, which will likely turn into $10 once the player in the small blind player calls, $6 is immediately taken away. So the two players have invested $5 each to play for a pot of $4. So most people instead chose to chop it. Makes sense, right?

It's a little different when you've got a blind bet out on the dealer button. Let's take M8trix and Bay 101's $2,$3,$5 games for example. If the action folds around to the player on the button with $2 out there, and everyone chops, the player with the dealer button sacrifices $1 out of the $2 they have out, then the small and big blind take all of their money back. Well that's not particularly fair, now is it? You take the best position at the table and make it so of that guy is super nice and decides not to use it to his advantage by raising, he is the one also giving up money in the chop. In my opinion, that's stupid. So when the situation comes up and players ask me, "Do you chop?", the answer is "I don't chop my button, but I chop my blinds every single time." People that haven't thought it through like I have sometimes take issue with my policy. They think I might be a shady character by changing my blind chopping policy dependent on my positional advantage. But if they ask or say stuff out loud about it, I typically explain and they typically say "Oh that makes sense.", and we move on and play cards.

Yesterday at Bay 101, this exact scenario went down. I told the table my chopping policy when asked, I told them, someone asked why, then I explained it. Almost the entire table made a Eureka-moment "Ohhhhhhh!" after my explanation. Then later on, a new player sat to my right, the situation came up, and he asked if myself and the player to my left chopped. I told him, "I don't chop my button, but I chop my blinds every single time." Then the player to my left started mouthing off about how stupid the policy was. I attempted to explain the thought process to him, but he just kept mouthing off, cutting me off, and telling me what I should do. I asked him politely at first not to tell me what to do and not to tell another person what I do, what I should do, or what I shouldn't do. He then went off and spouted out several poor defenses, to which I got a bit more agitated and said something like "Look, just don't talk for me and don't tell me what to do." This cycle happened a couple times until the guy shut up.

Round 2 - Talking When You Don't Have a Hand

Probably 10-20 minutes later, I got involved in a pretty sizable pot. There was 3 way action and currently around $700 in the middle with $200 for me to call, but likely more money would go in if I continued in the pot. The board was 7,J,J,K. The guy to my left started talking to the guy to his left. I couldn't understand him perfectly because his English wasn't great, but it was clear to me that he was talking about the hand that was taking place and what types of hands the bettor was likely to hold. THIS IS NOT OK. Talking about a hand you're not in while those who are in it can hear can change the actual action and win or lose people money.

Example: let's say in precisely this pot, I was holding Q,Q or A,A & I'm a complete idiot. Maybe I hadn't strongly considered the possibility that the guy betting into me had a jack or I had written it off in my mind for whatever reason. This guy saying "...jack.." could restart the thinking process in my brain of what types of holdings my opponent might have. Literally one word out of that guy's mouth could lose my opponent $200 or even more, considering we both would have had more money left over had I called the $200.

So I asked politely again for the guy to not speak about a hand that he's not in. Again, he went off and spouted out poor defenses, such as "I wasn't talking to you." and "I wasn't talking about the hand.", which were both complete lies. I called over the floor man and requested that he ask the guy to my left not to speak about hands he's not in. The floor man then asked the dealer what happened. To my surprise and dismay, the dealer basically shrugged and said he didn't know. I explained precisely what happened and asked probably 2 or 3 more times for the floor man to just remind the guy not to speak about hands he's not in, to which he eventually mumbled out "yeah don't do that." Guy to my left wouldn't let the incident go and kept on me while I was still trying to think through this hand I was in, the floor man had to come back twice and say "hey just calm down guys move on", to which my reply was "sounds great, I'd love to." I wasn't paying super close attention and I'm not sure if someone asked him to move, but soon afterward, the guy to my left picked up and either moved to another table or left.

Super frustrating 20-ish minutes. I was super heated and very glad that he left.

Bottom Line

Don't be disrespectful to others at the poker table. It's OK to have differing opinions on things like blind chopping policy, but that doesn't mean you should express them in a disrespectful manner. And don't talk about hands you're no longer in while they're still happening. Even wincing when a card that would have been good for you comes is rude and disrespectful to the players that are still in the hand. Players in the hand don't want your words or facial expressions to change the action that you're no longer involved with

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Another One

Another One

I had another hand that I wrote down as well, but this one was way more hype. Maybe I'll post the next one tomorrow. Anyway, Lucky Chances has a much more standard structure, so I'm not even going to talk about it unless asked. Here goes:

$3,5 No Limit Hold 'Em at Lucky Chances in Colma ($100-$500 buy-in)

I was just moved from my original table to this one. I see one player I remember as decent across the table with huge stack of chips, and the players to either side of me have big stacks as well. This certainly doesn't always mean they're good players, but it's a good indicator. They're both very well composed, so I'm assuming a higher-than-average skill level for both of them.

9♠, 8♠ UTG+1 ~$1,100 effective stack

On my second hand, I'm 2nd to act with an effective stack of about $1,100. The player to my right, UTG, calls for $5. I look down at 9♠,8♠ and raise it to $30. The player to my left, the Villain in this hand, calls $30. It's folded around to the guy who limped in UTG, who also calls.

$90 Flop (3-Way) - 5♠5♦3♦

We have basically nothing. We surprisingly have 2 over-cards, so depending on the action we could be ahead if a 9 or 8 come. We do also have a back-door flush draw with our ♠s, but unless something happens otherwise, I definitely think we've got the worst hand here.

The player UTG checks to me, I make a fairly standard continuation bet of $60. Villain thinks for a bit and calls, and the player UTG folds.

$210 turn (Heads-Up) - 2♥

Board: 5♠5♦3♦2♥

I figure the villain behind us likely called us with some sort of A high or small-to-medium pair. He could also be chasing a flush-draw at a fairly high frequency here. He could also clearly have a 5, though I assumed he would raise the flop to both make it worse for a flush draw to call and get money in, in case I had a big pair. If he had an A,4 or 4,6 suited, then he would have a straight here as well.

I figured most of the hands he has here are weak and I'm representing at least some sort of over-pair if I bet again, so I do - $110. He calls. At this point I feel like shutting down my bluff.

$430 River - K♦

Board: 5♠5♦3♦2♥K♦

Now this is an interesting card. Thinking from my opponent's perspective: If I was betting 2 streets with A,K, then I've hit a K. If I was betting with some sort of suited connector, like J♦,10♦, then I've hit my flush. If I had K,K I've filled up for a Full House. Probably the absolute worst hand I'd bet here would be A,K or maybe even a straight with A,4 or 4,6. So I think for a little while again and bet $175, sized to look like a value bet - Representing that I have a strong hand and want him to call with worse. He thinks for a good minute or so and folds.

The player later tells me that he had 4,4 and assumed I hit a pair of Kings on the river. He said he wouldn't fold the river if it wasn't a King. I tell him I bluffed him and probably wouldn't bet if a King didn't come. Right before I left an hour or two later, he tells me he doesn't believe me and is basically asking me to tell him what I really had. I told him "9♠,8♠ I swear". He didn't believe me because I played near 0 hands after that and shut down after C-betting on hands that I was in there and raised.

So I should bluff all the time then, huh?

Please don't learn the wrong thing from these first two hands - bluffing is not something that I do, nor should you, at a high frequency at these low stakes games. I would recommend a beginning player literally never bluff except for continuation bets on flops when they were the pre-flop raiser.

Once you start to recognize situations like the following: What you normally have when you bet in this situation looks very scary versus what your opponent normally has...OK start to throw a bluff or two into your game and get a feel for them.

I used to literally NEVER bluff other than C-bets and was still very profitable at the low stakes I played - typically 1/2/3 at Garden City, 1/2 at Indian Casinos and the old Garlic City. Some might ask the following: "If you don't bluff, how can you have a balanced range? If you don't ever bluff, then your opponents can take advantage and make easy folds against you and be correct to do so."

OK, yeah. You're right in theory. But most of the players at this level don't fold when they should. Unless the situation is just right for it, and you have the right type of opponent, it's just not likely to work. I saw a guy call later this same night with a single pair on a board with a flush and several straights out there, with action on every street. 2 nights ago I saw a guy calling down with bottom pair several times when it made no sense.

So unless you have a solid indication that you're against a thinking player, you have a good idea of what he has, AND the way you played the hand aligns with what better hand you're representing, please, don't bluff at low stakes poker.

But it sure feels good that I'm finally comfortable doing so when the right opportunity presents itself.

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I received some feedback that some of the terms were a bit hard to follow, so I tried to make sure I explained everything that I said the first time I said it. Definitely let me know if I'm still not handling that well.

Feel free to comment below or send any questions, comments, ideas, or w/e in to dj8bitavenger@gmail.com, and I'll make sure to incorporate the feedback into future posts.