Trying for the Other Kind of Sklansky Bucks...

...the kind you can spend. The kind he talks about on pp.140-45 of ToP. The idea is to get callers between you and the probable bettor.

Anyway, the naked aggression usually advocated here has, no offense, convinced me that there is a time and a place to look weak. An excellent opportunity arose tonight, so I went for it.

Flame away, if you must, but I'm really posting this as a way to argue in favor of the occasional playing possum, as you will see from my comments on my thinking.


Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $ BB (8 handed) converter

Button ($89.85)
SB ($120.51)
BB ($95)
UTG ($98.50)
Hero ($144.82)
MP1 ($238.52)
MP2 ($103.65)
CO ($120)

Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with 6[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], 6[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]. SB posts a blind of $0.50.
UTG calls $1, Hero calls $1, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, MP2 calls $1, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, Button calls $1, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, <font color="#CC3333">BB raises to $1</font>, UTG calls $1, Hero calls $1, MP2 calls $1, Button calls $1.

Flop: ($10.50) 6[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], Q[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], 7[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(5 players)</font>

I am third of five to act, so a check raise is not going to be possible if someone bets before me.

<font color="#CC3333">BB bets $1</font>,

This is one of those ridiculous "I'm drawing" or "I wanna stay around cheap bets that just invites top pair to raise.

UTG folds, Hero calls $1, ("Don't mind me, I'm just a harmless little limper." I'm hoping for everybody to stay in, but, realistically, someone has a queen and is going to raise; in the meantime, maybe I'll collect some cheap calls, and maybe someone will call the raise before it gets back to me).


<font color="#CC3333">MP2 raises to $10</font>,

Here's the queen; now I'm just hoping for a caller or two.

Button folds, BB folds, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises to $30</font>,
I actually considered just calling, but decided to play it safe and go ahead and pull the trigger on the raise.

MP2 calls $20.

The rest is straightforward

Turn: ($71.50) 4[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">Hero bets $50</font>, MP2 raises to $71.65 (All-In) Hero calls $21.65.

River: ($143.15) 8[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>

Final Pot: $143.15

Ideally, some folks get trapped between me and the bettor, but it didn't work out that way. Still, I believe this is the sort of situation where this play is more +EV than simply re-raising the original $1 bet. I do that, and MP2 here, I think, slows down and I don't wind up with his stack. But seeing people limping and folding was telling him this was his pot, and so he thought, I think, my raise was a bluff at a pot that had gotten big enough to stab at.

So I think that call/reraise netted me more money than my usual betting out of a set, and also had the (unrealized) potential of trapping some additional callers.

Comments?