And sometimes, you just back into it…

This post is a little out of order; this session happened about 3 weeks ago, prior to the last post (What would you do – A blatant violation of the rules).

I had a mostly uninteresting session last week; kinda standard stuff: AA, KKx2, QQ, JJ – all cracked.  AA on my very first hand of the session and I paid off a flopped set for $180 on top of my preflop raise of $20.  Not a good start.  I didn’t show, so I suppose I could have an image of loose aggressive with my immediate stacking.

Anyway, a few hands later, I limp K6hh alongside 6 others.  We see a 2 heart, 9 high flop; I think it was something like 9 3 7 hh.  Facing an early position $10 bet, I call along with a host of others – 3 or 4.  Seat 9, a youngish hoodie wearing kid in the BB (going off a week-old memory here, so details are a bit fuzzy) opts to check / raise to $45.  Given the money in the pot, I call again; not sure whether anyone else called the check / raise, but now we’re heads up.  Turn is a 6 and hoodie guy opens for his remaining $120 or so.  I look at him; he looks very uncomfortable.  Clearly, the 6 helps me, but my read is my 6’s are good – at least on the turn – so I make the call.  Now I wish I could remember whether the 9 was the 9h, because it makes a difference to the hand, but I definitely don’t.  He is definitely not happy that I called, confirming to me that my 6’s are good.  The river peels a blank – no clue what it was, but it wasn’t a heart.  I wait for him to flip, and he motions for me to flip first.  I wait motionless, doing nothing but stare at him.  He starts to flip, then decides to muck, conceding a $300+ pot to me without showing.  I immediately muck my cards as the pot is being shipped, and he storms off.  Wow.  The table is puzzled, as am I.  To summarize: ye went broke on a limped pot, with a semi-bluff (or maybe full bluff) into a handful of people, and capped it off with not wanting to show at showdown even though he’s leaving the table.

Now, I have no doubt my 6’s were good there, but I can’t envision any time where I will concede a pot without showdown, especially when I’m leaving the table if I lose.  I’m not keeping my opponents from future information because they won’t see me again after this hand if I lose it.  If I win it (with Ace high, for example), I can opt to leave the table regardless the result.  I’m still scratching my head about this one; JThh?  He can’t have 56hh because I had the 6h.  24hh?  What hands are c/r’ing the flop and shoving a heads up turn?  Moving on…

The one interesting hand of the session involved a complete noob.  Although she claimed the last time she played poker was in grade school, this young chick was somewhat aware of hand strengths and aggression.  I believe that this was her first time playing poker in a casino (she almost folded 6’s full on the river to a big bet, not realizing that she had a full house), but had an extreme case of beginner’s luck.  She proceeded to get quad Aces (she had pocket Aces twice during our session together), hit 2 or 3 boats, and always had a strong hand to go to showdown.  She simply amassed chips.

I find myself in mid position with KK in a $6 straddled and 3 limpers to my right.  Action rolls to me and I decide to raise to $40 to narrow ranges down to more predictable cards.  Well, that was a huge fail to say the least; I get 5 callers including the noob.  The pot has around $240 and we see a flop of Q Q 7 ss.  Action checks to the noob who gets real quiet.  It should be noted that prior to that moment, she’s been completely sociable – we’re all having a good time at the table.  Now, she’s dead silent.  She puts out a $100 bet.  Action is immediately to me.  What do you do?  $100 is a sizable bet for her, I have 2-3 players yet to act, and my KK is looking pretty marginal at the moment.

I thought for a bit and eventually came to the conclusion that she’s not bluffing here; her physical tells of silence combined with the sizing of the bet leads me to believe she hit a Q; I let the over pair go.  I just can't imagine she's thinking to bluff in that spot.  Everyone else folds and we’re on to the next hand.

In retrospect, I feel like the silence is such a huge huge tell.  Between Zachary Elwood's books and Mike Caro's older stuff, I feel like the silence, especially from a new player, is the instinct of not wanting to scare the prey.  A basic instinct of a non-thinking / irregular / noob player is to get very quiet when they're going for value.  It's the hunter instinct in all of us; we silently tiptoe through the forest in order to catch whatever it is we're after.

At the poker tables, situation dependent (i.e. playing against a more experienced player, trying to use a reverse tell, etc.), I've found consistency to be the best line of defense to counter any tells I may throw off.  In other words, instead of acting silent when I have a big hand, I try to continue the same conversation I was having prior, or try to continue acting as I was acting.  I'll occasionally stare down a more experienced player as a reverse tell of a strong means weak, but I find that rarely works; the more experienced players are able to make decisions in isolation, valuing their relative hand strengths regardless the tells they're receiving from another experienced player.  Anyway, I hope this little diatribe helps you with your game.