History of Poker

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I play “tournament Texas holdem” against “tough” competition and play the largest tournament. I’ve played 21 times. My record is 4 final tables, 5 times in the money and won the tournament 2 times. I thought I was doing pretty well. But, I then went to pokerpages.com and took Tom McEvoy’s test and only got 7 questions right out of 20. Pretty much the same with his tournament test also. I was disappointed. It seems to me that I am playing tighter than he says I should. I’m confused. I guess I should enter one of the weekly tournaments at the Trop in A.C. and see how I do. Can anyone comment on how well the TTM software represents real tournament action? I’ve never played in a tournament before, so I am clueless.

Answer 1:
I got 15, but I don’t consider myself an especially good player. It does seem as if I share this McEvoy guy’s “strategy”, considering the comments received once the test is finished.

Answer 2:

I’ve never played Turbo Texas Hold ‘Em, but I’ve played the World Series of Poker game and other computer poker games that are supposed to represent reasonably tough competition. It’s been my experience that computer poker games are very easy to master, and I would guess that even the best computer game (whether it’s TTH or anything else) would not be nearly as difficult to beat as your average 10-20 game. McEvoy’s quiz is only a quiz. I could probably form a much better judgment about your game watching you play for 15 minutes than from a score on a quiz. That said, I do think that 7 out of 20 is somewhat low. You worry that you’re playing too tight. Possible, but highly unlikely. Very few poker players play too tight. Many of the situations in McEvoy’s quiz call for a raise or re-raise–perhaps you’re playing too passive? Just a thought.

Answer 3:

The Wilson tournament game is very easy, especially on no limit. The computer players play too tight late in the tourney and you can rob them blind. The Masque game is quite a bit tougher but I agree that no computer game is very strong.

To the rec.gambling.poker crew-
A couple of questions.
1) Why does everybody here hate Phil Hellmuth so much?
2) What does runner, runner mean?
Answer 1:

>1) Why does everybody here hate Phil Hellmuth so much?
I don’t think anybody here hates Phil, he just receives a lot of criticism and abuse for his sometimes immature behavior during and after poker tournaments. He gets a lot of press, and doesn’t present the kind of image of the poker world that most of us would like to see.
>2) What does runner, runner mean?
Two running (consecutive) cards. In other words, having 3 spades to a flush on the flop, and hitting a spade on the turn and another on the river to make the flush.

Answer 2:

First and they are called the community cards. The next card the dealer turns over is now called the “turn” card or the 4th card. The next card the dealer turns over is now called the “river” card, or the 5th card. Runners, Runner are the 4th and 5th cards.
Answer 3:

Actually the flop and the turn are licensed because I looked it up on the website. Is the river licensed? Can anybody tell me if the river is licensed you defensive pieces of shit? All I am doing is asking a simple question. You all suck, I can’t believe how hostile this newsgroup is. I am taking my lame question and going home.

A question from the poker pages quiz: Two players limped in, you have a 7-5 off-suit in the small blind, and you decide to call. The big blind then raises. What is your play? Calling the half bet was marginally acceptable, but calling a full raise with a 7-5 does not give you the pot odds to justify a call. There’s a lot of assumptions in this question that don’t get clearly stated. First is that the other two players call the raise. Sometimes they don’t. A raise from the big lind from a competent player has to be respected. Second, there’s no information about the blind structure. If the blinds are 5 and 10, the pot odds should be equal (7:1.) If they’re 10 and 15, the pot odds for calling a raise (7:1) are *much* worse than finishing up the blind (10:1.) OTOH, if they’re 5 and 15, the odds for calling a raise (still 7:1) are actually better than those for calling in the SB (5:1.) Of course, if I did play 57o in the small blind, I would generally muck to a raise in the big blind unless I know I’m dealing with a total maniac. A good player will often check in the big blind with hands as good as QQ. In this case, two of your three competitors are almost certainly going to stay in. By checking, you get to see the flop cheaply and, if you still have an over pair or better after the flop (a 77% probability, about 3:1,) you can disguise the strength of your hand. So, I fold, but not because of pot odds.

Answer 1:

The first assumption about the other two limpers calling the raise from the big blind is normally valid. It would be rare for someone to limp in for a full bet and then not call a raise from behind. It is true that the big blind is marked with a good hand but it is not that much different than if you limped in under the gun with say pocket Eights and then the next guy raises and everyone folds to you. Of course you will call the early position raise and take a flop for one more bet. There is information about the blind structure but not in the question rather in the answer. McEvoy is apparently assuming that the small blind is one-half a bet, like a $10-$20 game rather than 2/3 of a bet as in a $15-$30 game or 1/3 of a bet as in a $3-$6 game. Your observation about the pot odds are of course valid since they are exactly the same when the small blind is 1/2 a bet. In a $15-$30 game it is common to see a player limp in for another $5 from his small blind and then fold when the big blind raises. Pot odds can come into play here. Frankly, I would fold 7-5 off-suit from my small blind and not even call for 1/2 of a bet. Make it suited and I would call and then call a big blind raise if I had to.

Answer 2:

I’ve been playing limit hold’em for about 9 years now, and I can honestly say I’ve NEVER folded 7-5 off-suit in the small blind for 1/2 a bet. Also, I’ve never called with it, and then folded to a raise from the big blind. I find it impossible to resist 7-1 odds pre-flop with a 7-5. Try using Mike Caro’s poker probe, and you may be surprised how often that hand will win against two limpers and a big blind. 7-1 is certainly an overlay. I ran 7-5 against some possible limipng hands and a random big blind 50,000 times. I used 9s-10d, Js-Kh, 5c-7d and a random hand. Now, you would be getting 7-1 so 14.3% would be break even without considering your disadvantage of being first to act. How often do you think the 7- 5 won?
The K-J won %36.66
The 9-10won %24.50
The 5-7 won %20.25
The ?? won %18.59
Now try running it with the big blind holding two aces, you’ll be
surprised what you may find.
The A-A won %57.34
The 5-7 won %17.10
the 9-10won %14.47
the K-J won %11.09
Next time you get 7-5 in the SB, think twice about how tight you may be playing, and gamble a little!!
Answer 3:

That is certainly good information and I guess I have been playing a little too tight here. I suppose even if you made the hands a little stronger like giving one limper pocket Eights, another limper King-Queen off-suit, and maybe the big blind AA,KK,QQ, or AK you might still get the same results since the cards needed to improve 7-5 are not impacted that much by the other hands. I am not familiar with poker probe and what the underlying assumptions are. Does it reflect how the hand is likely to get played or does it just assume that 7-5 gets to see all the board cards at no cost? In actual play it is easy to get away from the hand when the flop misses you completely and of course if you flop a good draw, two pair, trips, a straight, etc. it is also easy to play. But I have found that what frequently happens is that you catch a piece of flop like bottom pair or middle pair so the pot is large but your outs are few and you tend to not get full value from the hand when you have the best of it and you frequently lose a lot when you get lured into staying and taking cards off.

I’ll be in Paris for a few days in June. What games and stakes do they play in the card club there?

Answer 1:

Go to www.pokerpages.com and search the worldwide directory. Search by country France and then click on the link to the cash games. You will find what you are looking for. Incidentally, The Aviation Club in Paris is exceptional. If you have chances do not miss it.

Answer 2:

The Aviation club is running a good tournament in mid-June and I expect to run over for it since I’ll be in London during that time. Want to take the Chunnel for a while.

Answer 3:

They play pretty much all games — with the size of the game governed by the buy-in — it’s pretty much all PL and NL over there. I actually found a small club in the Marais district with a lively 1200FF buy in PL hold’em game last year.

Can anyone explain to me why you cannot play AQ unsuited from the middle position with 4 or more callers when it is ok to play hands such as 98 and T8s.  Is it because if you hit two pair, somebody is bound to have made straight?

From your title I’m guessing that you’re thinking the Jones book recommends folding AQo from middle position with 4 or more callers. But, the book doesn’t say that.  On page 38 there is a small summary end-of-chapter table where AQo is omitted in the 4 or more caller’s category.  The same table says raise if 3 or fewer callers and call if someone has already raised.  The text of the short, two page chapter says that you should play that hand and usually should at least think about raising. I’m guessing that there was an error in that summary table. Don’t pay so much attention to the details of tables of hands — think about what the book says instead.  I really mean that — most readers pay way to much attention to lists of hands and just don’t think about what the book is saying.

Answer 2:

Basically because 98s and such hands play well multiway, whereas with AQoff you want to narrow the field as much as possible to give your hand a better chance of holding up if you make a decent, but not great, hand.

Answer 3:

For a single bet, AQo can be played from ANY position, regardless of number of players in the pot. If QQ, KK, AA or AK is not in there, AQ will make good EV (even against JJ). If there was a raise which strongly indicates a possible dominating hand (one of the above), it becomes a must dump. If the raise is loose, AQ should three-bet (regardless of the number of players!). There are players though who open-limp early with their strongest hands, but don’t play AJ and friends utg at all. Against these rocks AQ is dumpable for a single bet. Whether to play AQ or not is not really an issue. HOW to play it is a much more interesting subject (see my homepage).