Hand to Talk About

[Mason Malmuth]

Hi Danielih:

No. I did not play. My wife and I had to meet an out of town friend for dinner.

Best wishes,
Mason

[Vince Lepore]

I discussed this hand with Mason a few nights ago. Whenever I take issue with something Sklansky and/or Malmuth tell me or if I find what they tell me valuable I challenge them to give me the "concept" behind their play. I don't take the results of a single hand with me to the table. I take the concept behind the play.

Sorry Mason, but David usually gives me a better response in the concept arena. He goes into a trance for a few moments and almost always gives me the strategic concept for his reason for a certain play in a gvien situation. I asked Mason what was his reason and what the concept was that he based his play on the river. He said that it dealt with his read of the player. But he then went on to say that he did not know how this player played so he was in fact basing his play on his knowledge of how play normally goes in an 80-160 Bellagio game. He said that players in this game check raise the flop nearly %100 of the time when they flop an Ace. My comment was that I would not have put this guy on a weak Ace because any good poker player would not call an UTG raise by Mason Malmuth with a weak Ace. He said that he didn't believe the player knew who he was. O.K. but a good player wouldn't call an UTG raise with a weak Ace against almost anyone except maybe me.

What I got from the discussion was that Mason played the river the way that he did because of his read of the situation. That the result of the hand proved Mason wrong in his read does not make Mason's play wrong. We 2 + 2'ers have learned, if nothing else, to evaluate and analyse and not be results oriented. We know that a single result is but one data point. We are the "look at the long run" type of players. Mason has been playing poker successfully for a long time. Over the some 25 years that he's been a player he has developed a keen sense of where he is in a hand. He has developed a good understanding of how to play the game givin his read of the situation. And his read of the situation is the reason that his play on the river was correct.

Mason, like all good to great poker players have learned to "tust" themselves. The concept is "trust your instincts". There was no way for Mason to know for sure what the other guy had. He was faced with a situation that his experience told him to proceed with caution. He was right. His instincts have served him well for 25 years and he was correct in following them in this situation. I told Mason that since I would not raise the turn I would not raise the river either.

Vince