Sometimes it really pays to talk to people

[Mr. Curious]

I am in a live NL game last night and I consider the guy to my left to be a decent player with whom I have been chatting with. I am involved in a heads up hand against a LAG who will call a bet if he thinks he can draw out on you:

LAG is the button.
Hero is the big blind.

It is folded to the LAG who raises and Hero is the only caller. I have twice his stack which is roughly $500. I flop an open ended straight draw (though there is a flush draw on the board), check the flop, and call his 1/2 pot bet. On the turn, I hit my straight, but it is the flush card too. I decide to try for a check raise (in hind sight, that decision was my biggest mistake), but he checks it through. On the river, the board pairs and I make what I think is a value bet of 1/4 the pot. LAG raises 3x my bet and after thinking about it for a while, I call. The LAG flips over quads.

The following conversation then occurrs between me and the guy to my left:

Me: Guess I should have bet the turn.

Guy to left: No, you should not have bet because that guy would have called no matter what.

Me: Yeah, but I gave him infinite odds to catch up.

Guy to left: You saved yourself money by not betting the turn. He's going to call you.

Me: That's exactly why I should have bet the turn.

Guy on left: No, you saved a lot more by not betting.

Me: Yeah, you're right.


I let it go at that (obviously I do not want to change his mind), but I was really surprised by his comments. He had seemed like a decent player and had talked about other concepts before. Well, chatting with him has payed off for me because I now have more information about him and the way he plays which I can use against him some other time.

[Deamon2]

You almost made him a better player.

bad times.

[reddred]

And keep in mind, conversely, he has an equal insight into how you play the game (if, indeed, he's actually paying attention to that and making mental notes)

[bernie]

It's one thing to have him yap about how he'd play it. Fine.

In these cases, don't justify your play with any reasoning. Don't mention odds or anything as to 'why' you should've bet. Be careful when throwing out concepts like that for people to comment on. As far as they know, you know minimal.

Again, you can ellicit a response without going into technicalities of the hand. Get them talking. Don't counterpoint them when talking to them.

b

[Mr. Curious]

You guys are all right. It is ok for me to talk and get information from them, but making them better players is definitely not a good idea.