Unspoken "code" (taboo subject)?

lastcoyote · #1 01-21-2005, 04:55 PM

OK, I'm at a juicy table with 1 "Donater" (52/2), 1 TAG (19/9) and a couple of other moderately loose players. I get a "perfect storm" hand. I very possibly played this less than perfectly.

Party Poker 5/10 Hold'em (6 max, 6 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is SB with Q[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img].
UTG folds, MP (TAG) raises, CO ("Donater") calls, Button folds, Hero 3-bets, BB calls, MP (TAG) calls, CO ("Donater") calls.

Flop: (12 SB) J[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], T[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], K[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] (4 players)
Hero bets, BB folds, TAG raises, "Donater" calls, Hero calls.

Turn: (9 BB) 2[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] (3 players)
Hero checks, TAG bets, "Donater" calls, Hero raises, TAG 3-bets, "Donater" folds, Hero caps, TAG calls.

River: (18 BB) 5[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] (2 players)
Hero bets, TAG raises, Hero 3-bets, TAG caps, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 26 BB Split between Hero and TAG (AQo)

After the hand was over, TAG told me that I played it poorly. He said I should have pushed the flop harder to extract more from "Donater". He may be correct.

After that he said that the way I played it would have hurt him eventully if the diamond had come on the river.

This brings me to the subject of my post. Do the good players have an unspoken code to try to extract the most from the poor players while doing as little damage to the other good players or is everyone just trying to extract the most $$ from each hand.

Maybe I'm not understanding TAG's comments. Thoughts about his comments and criticism of my play are welcome.

Rubeskies · #2 01-21-2005, 05:03 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Do the good players have an unspoken code to try to extract the most from the poor players while doing as little damage to the other good players.

[/ QUOTE ]

No

Grisgra · #3 01-21-2005, 05:14 PM

It doesn't sound like TAG was suggesting there was a code -- just that you could have made more money on the hand by raising there, which meant he would have made more money as well.

I think he's right -- against fishies that like calling flop bets I tend to push hard on the flop if I can trap them. But who knows, maybe you 3-bet the flop, he doesn't bother calling on the turn after TAG caps (which he might have).

So: no code, and there's no guarantee that you cost yourself any $$ by slowplaying there either.

Schneids · #4 01-21-2005, 05:16 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Do the good players have an unspoken code to try to extract the most from the poor players while doing as little damage to the other good players or is everyone just trying to extract the most $$ from each hand.

[/ QUOTE ]

One night at Canterbury I got to play 3-handed 30/60 for about 6-hours. The guy to my left was very good. In fact, I'd say on that given night he was playing substantially better 3-handed poker than me. The guy on my right was horrible.

In the course of the 6 hours me and the solid player took 3 flops HU. We weren't colluding to take the idiot's money -- it just naturally worked out that if a flop was seen it was usually between the idiot and one of us two (or 3-way).

I think in general it is natural for us all to try to avoid encounters with people who we don't stand to gain much from. I'm sure the other solid player understood he had little to gain by frequently battling me, but I wouldn't really call it an "unspoken agreement," since if we both had something decent, we weren't going to take it easy on eachother.

Paragon · #5 01-21-2005, 05:17 PM

Nice hand - I would have played it like you since I'm addicted to fat turn check raises. If you magically knew your opponent had AQ as well it might be better to continue betting flop, but that's impossible with any real certainty.

There's no "code" I'm aware of, nor would voluntarily follow, like this. Unless it's just plain that it's to your strategical advantage to avoid some tricky players.

lastcoyote · #6 01-21-2005, 05:30 PM

Thanks for the replies all. I am glad to hear there is no code. I guess I just misinterpreted his comments. I really didn't even fathom splitting the pot. I was sure I had the pot locked up and thought waiting for the double bets on the turn was the way to pump it up.

I was serioulsly considering turning off my chat in the future just to be sure I didn't start letting my emotions get in the way of my play. I start to feel bad about trapping someone after they've said "nh" or something earlier in the session. God that is silly.

RunDownHouse · #7 01-21-2005, 05:33 PM

W: [ QUOTE ]
Unless it's just plain that it's to your strategical advantage to avoid some tricky players.

[/ QUOTE ]

Gore: "Lock-box."