Poker Perambulation

This was written a while back and depicts my struggling with Stud and some of my Donk moves. I was a bit too vanilla for JB’s tastes as you can tell from his comments about my last stud article. Stud hands are often big. Some, like flushes, can give themselves away and you don’t get as many raises. Two pair will often chase 4 outs because of the late pot odds. You see a lot of cards. I mostly try to track my draw more than others. In time, I should get better at tracking more. But, there is a large amount of info out there.

The nice situation is where you have a lot of concealment. That’s why hidden pairs play better than split pairs. Those I play with see way too many hands. Yes, some time they hit 6^th and 7^th streets right and take you out. In fact it has happened with regularity.

Here’s a hand I played. Marginal until you consider almost everyone at the table was playing everything. In that situation, I played a non-premium hand. But one that might hit with concealed power – which fortunately was the case. (I was also damn lucky!)

(Sorry the pic is now missing in the transition to a new URL here. I got a boat against guys willing to cap betting. Nice pot over at FullTilt)

The cards as displayed are not in the order dealt. You need to remember that if you play stud. I’ve had a made hand on 5^th street and been accused of rivering it. I had the set on 4^th street. I think I bet the door but it might have been another. But, that did get us down to three. I believe the 10 was actually my river card with the 3 on 6^th street. I hit a great hand and it included a one outer. That is unexpected. It could have made a hand other ways. Here it did it with the odds against me. You take what is given to you. The moral I am putting forth is not that I played a hand well because I didn’t; rather, it is don’t cap pots with pairs showing against your flush – it really matters little how I got there.

Like Limit Hold’em people are reluctant to accept you’ve made a hand. Those that have a decent starting hand and brick on 4^th street also have a hard time laying it down. There are also aggressive tables where early rounds will cap. It is funny to watch them do that and then all check down the rest of the trip. It is not so funny to see you fold the best hand to that kind of betting.

It seems a lot easier to put some people on a hand. Others seem to have difficulty seeing or accepting that. They almost always have a problem accepting that their two pair isn’t a winner. Remember, I said in an earlier blog that the average winner in Stud is a set of 9’s. So, it may be the best hand but if you made it chasing that isn’t very +EV.

In Stud8, people will invariably chase with 4 to the low and nothing else working. It is a bad habit that gets you half a pot, if you get lucky. But, there are often too many others doing the same thing and that makes it more a wash. Too many also chase with limited outs. Chasing only works against hands that have a lot of potential. In stud8 a lot of people push hands with only high side potential. It wins small pots and often ruins your day when the low also fills his straight.

Many people will always bet scare cards. You can’t count on their action. Many will also bet 3^rd street regardless of holding or with weak cards. The same mostly holds for the next round that carries a small bet. I play more draws here than I did in the past but don’t get carried away calling with just anything.

I don’t get too carried away with it but I do raise with solid drawing hands to try to isolate. It works better at higher stakes. It also helps if you don’t have big up cards when you do it. That means that it isn’t likely you’ll lead the next round of betting and that it might get checked to you and let you see a free card on 5^th street for a bit of a profit.

At lower limits you see really odd happening like 3 Jacks up and all three playing the hand. They can’t all have flush or straight draws. And they’ll often do it with larger cards yet to act. On FullTilt the antes are lower than on Ultimate bet. At the .25-50 table that is a .05 vs .15. That changes play a lot. You need to be a bit more speculative on UB than on FT to cover the cost of the round. But, you don’t want to climb aboard with just anything and many do.

People constantly overbet or overcall with fairly mediocre holding. The fellow with the 9-3 probably had 4 to the flush when we ended up capping the betting on 6^th street. How he figured I only had 8’s and 4’s when we capped, is a very optimistic view if he held 9’s and 3’s. And he certainly had to suspect that the straight was made already. I know it was 2 bets to him and then another 2 on that round. People let themselves get sucked in in late rounds while still drawing. And, the guy who went along with capping on with his straight, should have been more concerned with my pair showing. You need to stay alert and have some respect for how the hand is playing. I may have been a small donkey playing 884 at the start, but the others proved themselves willing donkeys later.

Look at the other hands. Give them some benefit of the doubt. If you still think you’ve got the best hand, try to play small pot to find out. Crying calls work because of pot odds. Capped pots don’t make for that.

I have gotten to love stud and stud8. I’ve even played a bit of stud as a ring game. I still have a long ways to go but so do most of the players you’ll run across. If I don’t see a HORSE game playing I now take a look at the Stud or Stud8 rings. And, truth be told, it is probably more EV for me to play there. But, I do enjoy the variety. On Stars the cheap HORSE is .50-1 and my roll there won’t support it. So, I occasionally play some cheaper stud there where they have a nice range of limits under their horse blind structure It is a good spot to learn stud as it starts at .02-.04 which makes for a low cost learning environment.

ADDENDUM:

Have you read Pauly’s blog about Hellmuth? The man has become a caricature. His antic are old, predictable, and boorish. I and others have seen him play cash games atrociously on Ultimate Bet at various limits. He is a decent tournament player without any other kind of game. And, at tournament tables he can act like he has no ideas of pot odd or flop texture as the rant Pauly notes went down in flames of his own making. And THEN he flamed the guy who’d he kept in the pot to do it to him. As the tournament Jopke, he needs to put a sock in it and grow into manhood. I understand he’s a nice guy away from the tables. Until he can bring that to the tables, he should stay away from them.

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The Antigua-Barbuda dispute continues.  There is a nice article here.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 24th, 2007 at 5:45 am and is filed under Journal, Other poker. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.