Dan Harrington on Volatility

[Rob-L]

Hey All,

I just starting reading Dan Harrington's new book. Early in the book he describes a hand he played in the 2003 WSOP.

Briefly, he has A [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] K [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]. He is looking at a 3x BB raise from Farha who is UTG, and two folders in front of him. Moneymaker is behind him. Vahedi is in the SB and Tomer B is in the BB.

He comments "I thought I was one of the better players remaining at the table, so I wanted to reduce, rather than increase, my volatility on the hand. (Volatility is a mathematician's word for the size of the money swing on the hand.) A weaker player in the same situation should be looking to increase volatility; hence he would definitely want to throw in a bet."

Can anyone expound on this concept? I looked ahead in the book and it does not appear as if he goes into this concept in any further detail, which is unfortunate. (I could just not be seeing it.)

Thanks,
Rob-L

[schwza]

check out the thread "step 5 hand vs gigabet," where gigabet talks about taking on some variance because he considered himself to be better than the field. (he thought getting a big stack would allow him to steal a lot later).

i'll let somebody else try to reconcile those two points of view.

[Sam T.]

I think what he's saying is that weaker players should gamble more than strong ones. Since they will have trouble building their stack through good consistent play agaisnt a powerful field, they need to take a shot when they think they have a slight edge or even a coinflip.

To take an extreme example, say you're heads up against Harrington in a winner-take-all tournament. You have the option of playing cards or flipping a coin. I'll take the coin.

[SossMan]

In practice, it means keeping the pot small so there is more room to maneuver on the flop and beyond.

-sossman

[DonkeyKong]

does he mention the stack sizes?

[Boris]

I think what he is saying is that if you have Moneymaker, Vahedi and Tomer at your table, why would you want to gamble with Farha? Farha I'm pretty sure is by far the strongest player at the table outside of Harrington.

[zaxx19]

He just means he wants to limit how much he could either win or lose on this given hand. Yes sossman is correct it also allows some post flop play without getting yourself pot commited with TPTK which alot of people feel fine doing with this MONSTER(lol) hand.

In responding to partygirlsuk's post I sort of went into an odd explanation of how I would perhapos not even reraise with AK after an EP raise as a tight player. The point is AK, if you are doing ok in a tourney, is not a hand that NEEDS to be played to the "end" like AA or KK. Im not really keen with trapping myself with TPTK in a huge pot IF I think I can gather chips with less risk at a table.

[DonkeyKong]

Harrington had position on Farha and a premium hand...
Farha will play a lot of hands, even from early position. What is he saying? smooth call 3x or raise? Moneymaker etc aren't so bad that they will call a raise and a re-raise by a known-tight player.

I am very curious what Harrington is saying here... muck your premium hands?? I doubt that.

If you aren't going to play AK with position vs a known loose player, wtf???

guess I better get the book

[zaxx19]

Uhh, thats correct to alot of tight players AK is not a premium until super crunchtime. Thats how I feel at times on easy tables. AK can flop TPTK period (ok q j 10 happens but...) If you do flop an A or a K are you gonna get action in a reraised pot if the guy doesnt have an A or a K?? No. If you are raising bc you have postion and can just bet out when Farha checks (a bluff with AK when a ragged flop falls) then it really doesnt matter what you hold it could be 66 and it would be proper to reraise. Im not really saying you shouldnt reraise with AK here. Im just letting you in on some thinking that goes on in tight players heads.

[esbesb]

I haven't read the book yet (expecting it any day) but my guess is that Sossman is right -- it's a matter of keeping the pot small so as not to get too wrapped up in the hand. I doubt he'd consider folding AK preflop (especially in position against Farha), the question is how much he wants to commit himself to the pot preflop.

Through the course of a tournament, there are always ups and downs in one's stack. I think of it like the stock market -- a zig-zag up-and-down line that you hope goes up over time rather than down over time. That line -- from 1,000 chips to 1,000,000 chips is never going to be a straight one. I suspect Harrington's talking about trying to keep those zigs and zags small over the course of a tournament.