dealing with a big gambler

Last time I was out at the casino, about two hours before close. A new player joins our $1/$2 table. Sits down smiling, buys in full and says he's here to gamble.

Friendly guy, chatty and likeable. I would have guessed he was a businessman. First hand he's UTG and blind raises to $20. Then every time after that when UTG same thing. Blind raise $20. Blind bet $30 on the flop. Yep he's put $50 in and hasn't looked at his cards yet.

He was getting lots of action. Most flops with him were 4 or 5 way. Alas I was direct to his left and had nothing to work with so I was just a spectator to all this action. I've been thinking about how to deal with this type of opponent.

I realized that the place to be is not to his left but to his right. You want to be in the big blind when a big gambler is UTG. That way when it comes around you'll be closing the action with the most information.

This is much better than being to his left. What are you going to do in UTG+1 with TT or AQ? Call 10% of effective stacks hoping to not get squeezed and then hit a miracle flop? 3 bet to $65 and end up in any type of squeeze or gross spot on the flop? The options all pretty much suck. Whatever you have, to his left you will end up both winning the least on your winning hands, while losing the max on your losers, and folding the winning hand most often.

Now in the BB it's much better. By the time it comes around there will be around $60-$100 in the pot. Opponents tend to have medium-weakish hands hoping to hit the flop, leaving dead money in the pot. Effective stacks are 10bb. This means you can just profitably shove preflop a moderately strong range. With the dead money you will have pretty good equity even if called by a slightly stronger range on average. But you can end up benefiting on both sides. Some hands that should call against your range like JJ or AK may fold instead of play for 100bb. At the same time some will also see the dead money and convince themselves to call with hands your range crushes like 66 or ATs.

Another benefit to being in the BB is that you can actually set mine your small to mid pairs.  Let's say there are 4 callers of the $20 raise. Discounting the blinds and including the $30 flop blind bet you are getting 6.5:1 odds. The thing is anyone with any piece will call the flop bet since the gambler hasn't looked at his cards and most likely has nothing. So again with relative position on UTG you can crai or slow play if you flop a set and it will be profitable overall.

Playing heads up

I'm trying out a new form of poker. Heads up sit n go (husng). It's something different, a change of pace from the tedious folding and set mining at full ring games.

I'm starting out at the bottom. $1.10 on UB. So far I'm off to an ok start with a few wins. With the reg fee the break even point is 55% so that should be attainable. Plus on UltimateBet I get 30% rakeback so that's a bonus. With the max rake at low stakes I figured if you want to play HU then husng is the best way to.

It's different. You have to think more about things like bluffing, bluff catching, thin value, floating, hand ranges, blind stealing, blind defence, balancing, strategy in general, opponent specific strategy, and making in game adjustments.

It's an interesting level. Believe it or not some opponents I at least would describe as tough and tricky. Some not so tough just having fun playing wild putting their stack in they don't care about a dollar. Or play properly for a few minutes and then start shoving every hand. More than once I've benefited from someone leaving after the match started then just blinding out.

That said I shouldn't overthink the $1 level. But it is good to create a base to move up with. I'll see how the $1 level goes and maybe have more to report.

Egypt

As you would expect not much to say about Egypt here on a poker site. Just this one little story.

Around a month ago I was playing $1/$2 at the local casino. Late at night and down to 6 handed. Table was pretty friendly a couple of regulars there I'd played with a few times in the past. I was totally card dead and facing raises pretty much every hand.

At this point pretty much every hand was straddled. ok except I was down on the evening and not feeling like straddling. I would have done a token straddle if I'd been up at least $100 but I was down. So I'm UTG and one of the others is telling me to straddle. I kind of shrug I don't want to. Then 2 spots to my right this regular Vincent chimes up in a deadpan voice "that guy would go to Egypt before he straddled." It was funny at the time and still funny now thinking about it.

So now once or twice a day with Egypt always on the news I think of Vincent and have a little smile.

2011 poker goals

Well its about time for the annual poker goals. I did ok on my 2010 goals.

This year was really held up by lack of playing time. Even more than other years. So the main goal for 2011 will just be to sort out the distractions and get focused and play more.

Live I did ok. I'm pretty well established at $1/$2 live. Hopefully I can play more live. It would be great to be able to take a shot at $2/$5.

Online I hardly played at all after May. So try to get reestablished online. I ran well when I did play. Online was just a casualty of everything that was going on. I would like to play some heads up online and I may have more to say about that in the near future.

I'd like to get some reading in. Reread no limit hold 'em theory and practice; and at least one new poker book. I have a few in mind I'd like to read.

customer service in government run poker

I wanted to sign up for PlayNow to score the easy 100% sign up bonus at the time. Alas it is BC residents only, I'm in Nova Scotia. Oh well, I did notice on their site though they said they would be launching poker and could play against people from coast to coast.

So from the web site I asked about poker and when it would be ready from coast to coast. I might be interested in getting in on this. So check out the exchange.

From: Consumer Services
Date: Tue, Nov 2, 2010 at 2:33 PM
Subject: RE: can I play in Nova Scotia? [ ref:00D8bj6y.5008Ck5Gz:ref ]
To: "Rob"


Hello Rob:

Thank you for contacting BCLC with your inquiry regarding ePoker. We regret the delay in responding.

We are mandated to ensure that players who register for PlayNow.com are 19 years of age and residents of British Columbia.

Information surrounding ePoker will be released to the public as it becomes available. Please refer to www.bclc.com for more details regarding the lottery jurisdictions that will be participating in ePoker.

We appreciate the time you have taken to contact us, and thank you for your interest in PlayNow.com.

Consumer Services, BCLC
74 West Seymour Street
Kamloops, BC V2C 1E2
T 1 866 815 0222 F 250 828 5646
consumerservices@bclc.com
bclc.com



--------------- Original Message ---------------
From: Rob
Sent: 30/09/2010 6:31 PM
To: consumerservices@bclc.com
Subject: can I play in Nova Scotia?

It looked like the poker link said from coast to coast could play on playnow. I'm in Nova Scotia, can I sign up?

Thanks


Consumer Services, BCLC
74 West Seymour Street,
Kamloops, B.C. V2C 1E2
T 1-866-815-0222 F 250.828.5646
consumerservices@bclc.com
bclc.com


ref:00D8bj6y.5008Ck5Gz:ref

Did you see that!? 33 days to reply with a canned response to a completely standard question. Welcome to government monopoly online poker. DMV, take a number.

home poker

I played in a home game for the first time this weekend. A guy at work had a game with some of his friends and he was light a couple of players. Somehow he heard that I play so he invited me.

It turned out pretty well. It was a tournament a $10 SNG with rebuys. There were 7 of us. I managed to take it down without having to rebuy. I made $70 profit woo hoo! The play was about what I expected at a home game, less tough than $1/$2 NL at the local casino.

I tried to be friendly my first time out [well except winning it of course lol] and I let a lot of stuff go i.e. string bets, people talking about the hand in progress, people checking cell phones for messages while in a hand, people talking and inattentive that it was their turn. I'm not sure if I'll be invited back oh well, maybe as a spare player if the host doesn't have enough regs.

I had a good time. If I play again in this home game I will insist we play with my Kem cards. The host had common cards and after I've been using the nice casino quality Kem cards you'll never want go back to ordinary playing cards.