Hand to Talk About

[Ed Hill]

I spoke to Terri about this hand after she told me that Mason posted this on 2 + 2.



As she elaborated in her post, the button is a real loose raiser that has been raising with garbage. Therefore, it is safe to assume that she would bluff when a field of 5 players checked to her with an A55 flop.



There are 7 bets in the pot when the action got to Terri, this is a pretty good price if you think the bettor could easily be bluffing, which would be a pretty safe assumption in this situation.



The follow up bet on the turn is of course correct because you know that the button is going to call you automatically after you check-raise her.



As Terri said in her post, her mistake was betting on the river, there was no need to bet; she now made something that she could show down.



What I don’t understand is Mason’s lead in to this hand discussion. Terri plays too loose and too aggressive, has run lucky for a year and a half and it looks like her luck is running out.



Mason is a professional statistician who wrote a book on the fluctuations of poker games. Then he should know better than anybody else that as time goes on it gets less and less likely that Terri is running lucky and more likely that she is beating the game because she is a very good player. I am not going to put the figure in here, but Terri has won significant money for significant hours at $60-$120 and higher. She is a real good player, this is no lucky run.



Terri mentioned “it” in her post; she has “it.” “It” is the intangible thing that makes the difference between winning and losing in the higher limit games. In the lower limit games you just about have to show down the best hand to win the pot. The value of reading opponents goes down and the value of playing tight goes way up. Just sit there, use very little imagination and show them the iron. This is a good strategy when you are playing people that are stupid enough to pay you off, which is often the case in the lower limit games.



When you move up in limits, although you are still going to run into bad players, the average player is going to be much more knowledgeable, the pots are going to be less multi-way and the value of reading opponents goes way up in value. Actually, there are a lot of high limit players that couldn’t beat a low limit game even though they do well in the high limits. Their conception of the game fits into a winning strategy that wouldn’t work in a “show them the iron” type game.



So, if some of the high limit players actually don’t know how to beat a loose stupid game. Doesn’t it stand to reason that there is a different set of skills necessitated when playing in the higher limit games? One example comes to mind right off the top of my head; in the higher limit games it is always correct to come in raising with a hand like AK offsuit in early position. You want to thin out the pot because this hand plays better against a short field. Now you don’t necessarily have to hit the flop to win the pot. If you found yourself in one of the low limit games in L.A where almost everybody is in the pot even if it is raised, you can make a pretty good case for limping in and seeing the flop cheaply.



There is more to poker than, I have this hand in this position and this is how I play it. You have to able to adjust your strategy dependent on how the other players at the table are playing. That is what “it” is, knowing the right concept to apply at the right time. If you have “it” you can play a lot looser, because you will be able to get the maximum out of hands that are good and get away cheaply from hands when they are no good.



Just recently Terri came to L.A to visit me and whip her no limit game into shape because the $10-$20 No limit in Bellagio has been a real good game. She catches on to what I tell her right away, she has a natural ability when it comes to poker. So now she is starting to get “lucky” in the no limit game just like she has been getting “lucky” in the limit game for the past year and a half.



Mason, Sklansky thinks she is one of the best female poker players and you think that she has been running lucky. Hmmmmm, wonder which end of this I like? Well, time will tell.



Ed Hill

[Michael Davis]

And thus, you think a decent percentage of your profits comes from mistakes made by 2+2ers? Or is it that 2+2ers aren't capitalizing enough on the other players and leaving too much money in their hands for you to scoop up?

-Michael

[Glenn]

"Hello fellow floater"

You dyed your hair red?

[Clarkmeister]

This thread just got real fun.

[mike l.]

"how many people after going on a prolonged winning streak will be able to reason out that their game really isn't that good?"

anyone who has been on one before and then lost too much of it back, maybe 2 or 3 times, like a cycle, should begin to get the picture.

also, leaks are easy to recognize and hard to fix.

[mike l.]

"Since when calling a raise with J4s is not too loose? And thats coming from one of the tightest..."

playing with him the past couple days he's NOT particularly tight, he just comes off that way here. he's just a position fiend.

[mike l.]

"a real weak cookie jar bandit on the button"

lmao what a great phrase

"she has pushed the aggression envelope way too far"

nah no such thing

[mike l.]

hey terri if that's your name, i mistook who you were and my guess is a couple other people did as well, it was someone else i was thinking of who seemed to be on drugs (very dilated pupils and weird demeanor) at bellagio the other night. sorry about that. i think the player i may have been thinking of was the button, but id better stop speculating at this point.

anyway thanks for your post as it was very enlightening and i hope youll find the time to post here a little more as i think youll see we really appreciate what you have to say.

[JimRivett]

Hello Ed and Terri,

There is a lot of information in the posts you both made, and I believe that what you have to say will want to be heard. I can only encourage you both to post more, because I believe your contibution(s) will be appreciated.

You should notice that some of the responses in this thread did in fact compliement your play in the hand.

FWIW I agree with your concept of "it".

Regards, Jim

[Diplomat]

No, duh, he got breast implants and wears a ton of bronzer now.

-Diplomat