Jim Geary on Saturday, 19 April 1998:
Here's a hand I had last night (early this morn) where I tested this out:
Initial conditions:
Apr 18, 1998. 3am
20-40 Holdem with full kill. This hand not kill.
Everybody has lots of chips.
Table make up:
3 (A) Players Long-term winners,
2 (B) Players Long-term evenish,
5 (C) Players Long-term losers
Players mostly like to play loose, but respect a raise from tight player.
I pick up red AA utg and am deciding what to do as the rest of the cards are being dealt when out of the corner of my brain I see tight player who folds most everything (one of the group A above) reaching for 8 chips. I limp, a couple folds, tight player raises, two cold callers and the big blind calls. I decide to run the draw play and just call. BTW, I think the fact that I had already limped in induces loose types to call the double bet.
Flop comes AJ5, two spades (the Ace being one of them).
Now (given my perception of his "raising range,") I think the odds of preflop aggressor betting have dropped as he's 12:7 to have a hand that missed. However, if he checks, I fully expect one of the other two players behind him to take the intiative, and I can still check raise. Big Blind checks. I check. Preflop raiser bets (mmm maybe he has AK, or better yet JJ) call, call, call (wow), I raise. Original bettor dumps (he had KK, and was taking one shot), late position limper reraises (!), fold, fold to me. I have played with all these players hundreds of hours and I just know he isn't on say KQ spades. I cap, and he says, "What do you have?" "Trip Aces," without missing a beat. We've been joking around all night, putting the table on tilt by two-part harmonizing (from the 3 and 8 seat) Hall and Oates songs with improv lyrics as the hands go down (e.g. "You can rely on the river honey,you can check raise all Ed's money") -- (sim that.). He says OK and throws in four more chips. Everybody laughs.
Turn comes a red deuce.
I bet, he raises, I reraise and he actually slows down for a sec before putting in eight more chips. While the river burn is coming off, I check the board once again just to make sure I haven't missed something (wife woke me up early and I was going on 23 hours awake). I quickly calculate the odds of him showing me 34 suited, and decided that I was still in the lead.
River comes 9 of spades.
Hmm possible uh-oh. I actually take a second to figure that the odds of me being paid off versus him showing me spades are greater than 2:1, so I bet. He raises. Well, given that he's raised me, the odds might not be better than 2:1 anymore. I just call.
As he turns his hand over, things move in slow motion. Uh-oh, one little black card. What's that? A red card! He has a set of 5s! Presto no goot! I turn over the aces and start stacking like an octopus. He get mad and go home now.
$822 pot. $502 profit.
Now replay the hand without limping:
I raise utg. Other tight player reraises. Everybody sees two tight players going to war, and the field is flushed. I cap and bet the flop. (Limp and check raise the flop is same amount of action, so I might as well put the $ in when I'm sure I'm ahead.)
Either way, a $92 profit.
The Yes-I-Knows:
And one perhaps:
Having played with the same players hundreds of hours gives advantages that will manifest themselves more in the kind of pots where you limp the aces as opposed to popping them. If you're playing with players you've never seen before, it's probably best to close your eyes and jam. This difference may be difficult to quantify. (Tho it was probably worth at least $40 in this case.)
Last Modified 2/9/00