Poker Glossary

Since my one follower of this blog complained about too much jargon here is some more gloaasry terms to help decipher the game commentaries:

Poker Glossary in no particular order

Structure-The timing and blind amounts determine the structure of the game. If it is too slow the game will be tight, too short and it feels like bingo. Extra forced bets for every player called antes are added to induce more action also.

Table draw-The card draw for seating positions determines who sits where. It is an advantage to sit to the left of any opponent and a big disadvantage to have a skilled player to your left. The money in the game flows clockwise so a player splashing his chips around will usually donate them to the player on their left or two seats to their left. This is all related to table position.

Position-Being in position means acting after a player post-flop. For example if they check then you are then in a good position to bet and take the initiative in the hand. If you are out of position you must act first, losing more chips if you bet when behind, and leaving yourself vulnerable to being bluffed when you are ahead. The small blind is the worst position on the table as you always act first after the flop.

Steal-Raising in position pre-flop with the intention of winning the blinds (and antes.) The closer your seating position to the button the more likely this is to be a garbage hand.

Soft-play-Not betting or raising when you are clearly ahead and your opponent is likely to call with a worse hand. Eg you hold 99 on a A924K board and your opponent calls flop, turn and you check the river even though their most likely hand is Ax.

Ax-Shorthand for Ace+any second card below a 10. This is the most badly played hand in microstakes /small stakes poker according to authors such as Dan Harrington. Vicky Coren also devotes several pages of her book ‘For Richer For Poorer’ to describing how she learned to stop automatically playing Ax hands on her journey to becoming a poker professional. In short, the hand is often dominated by a better ace, or makes a weak pair that is beaten by a disguised stronger hand.

Domination-A situation where a hand is ahead in numerical and maybe suit value. In a heads up pot AcQs dominates AdJh in numerical value and Kc10d dominates Qc7d in both value and suits.

Value-bet-A  bet that is designed to be called by enough hands in your opponent’s likely range of hands to make it a profitable bet in the long run. Eg you hold 99 on a A924K board and your opponent calls flop and turn. You should value bet the river because they will likely call with any Ace, 222, 444 etc. It is also possible they have AAA or perhaps, KKK or maybe even A2345 but there are more hands that you beat than not, so you bet for value.

The long run/the law of large numbers-Poker is a game of chance that is arguably beaten in the long run by more skilled players who play in an appropriately sized/skilled game for them. When considering any decision one must ask oneself ‘What will happen if I repeat this action 100, 1000, 10000+ times?’ If the bet or call or fold looks to be a profitable decision in the long run, then go ahead and make it. Poker decisions should not be made in isolation, nor played on whims unless you have a cast iron tell on a player that may tip a close decision one way or the other. In theory the law of large numbers should ensure that a 54% advantage for example results in profit in the long run, even if your opponent sucks out in the short term. Folding a hand can be the correct decision in the long term, since you profit if you lose less than you would have lost by calling if you were behind. This concept is linked to the variance of results since you can do the right thing and lose out 10-20 times in a row easily in poker. Some players go out of their way to avoid high variance situations with weaker players, preferring to profit more when they are clearly ahead, and not risk an ‘all in’ situation with a slight advantage in their favour. 

Tell-Players may betray the strength of their hand though their body language or actions. Mike Caro explained in his seminal ‘Book Of Tells’ and video seminars that if someone acts weak they are strong and vice versa. This is because they are consciously trying to deceive you but lack the acting skill to do anything other than the opposite of how they feel about their hand. If you think this is nonsense then ask yourself: have you ever picked up pocket aces or kings, slapped them down quickly and nonchalantly looked around the room, or perhaps quickly struck up a conversation with the player next to you?! Tells can be so transparent it is hilarious, even from professional players, so take Caro’s advice “Don’t look at the flop, look at the player looking at the flop”!

Three-bet-To raise someone who has already raised pre-flop. So-called because the first bet raises the big blind (two-bet) and the reraise ups the stakes further still to a three-bet. To three-bet you traditionally needed QQ, KK or AA in the pocket, but in the modern game it could be virtually any two cards depending on the dynamic of the game.

Home Game Report. Season 2 episode 1.

Players in attendance: Hitmanhead,Jeenoi,Top_Jimmy, The_Conge, Pokerhontasz.

With 5 players around the table, a well paced blind structure and a hot night I predicted explosive action from the first in a new season of our home games.  Jennoi arrived early to bone up on the basics as she had not played much before.  Jennoi was focussed and a quick study:  she had already memorized hand rankings and was asking questions about more abstract concepts such as how the value of hands goes up as the number of players decreases.  I told her that if she could raise her good hands, call her medium strength and fold her worst, then she would be playing better than most recreational players. Pokerhontasz also schooled Jennoi in betting procedures and some of the subtleties of the game and she listened and nodded with the intensity of someone who had come to play poker the strategy game, not poker the fun gambling game.  Hitmanhead is a new player to our games as well, although not new to poker as he plays limit holdem online.  As the only player around the table not quenching their thirst with bargain booze, Hitmanhead would likely gain more of an edge as the night went on.  The table draw put The_Conge to my left which meant I had to raise any unopened small blind, lest I be slapped in the face with one of his trademark pot sized raises. I realised after a while though, that Conge had brought his uber tight-aggressive ‘A’ game as he was giving up these blinds, but punishing the rest of the table in easier spots to quickly amass an early chip lead.

In the early levels Pokerhontasz quickly combatted Conge’s stealing antics and in a classic battle of the blinds set her stall out with a call; call; turn lead (to Conge fold) on a K853 board.  Pokerhontasz also bizarrely soft played Jennoi on a 79J94 board, checking the river out of position after a bet-call on the turn, and then tabling trip nines holding A9 to beat Jennoi’s checked-down 66.  I am not sure if this was a message of gender solidarity or if Pokerhontasz was taking pity on her new poker student, but I am confident the best way to teach the game in that situation would be a big fat value bet on the river!   Our first decent sized pot was between The-Conge and Hitmanhead:  Pre flop, Hitman raised; Jennoi called; and Conge called the small blind with a speech (”sigh…lets see a flop then!”) On a board of K,10,2 (rainbow) Conge led, Hitman called and Jennoi called. The turn card was Qc and after another bet –call, time stood still whilst Jennoi wanted to ask me an important question about hand rankings! This was no Phil Gordon style needle though, as she was genuinely confused and so passed me a note with a question on it.  After two back and forth note passes between us Jennoi was still none the wiser and as the table could be quite confident she was not strong, a fold was inevitable! On a meaningless river card of 6h The_Conge led for 400 into 600 and Hitmanhead made an anguished fold. Later on Conge claimed he held top two pair and I think I heard Hitman claiming A10.

In the next blind level Pokerhontasz accidentally spilled beer on our Subbuteo felt table top and wrecked my new WSOP branded Bicycle cards in one fell swoop! The Subbuteo set was given to me on long loan from my Uncle and he is going to be super tilted now the felt is mucky (not to mention all the players I’ve knelt on over the years!)  My own tilt over the precious Bicycle cards passed as a new deck gifted me some incredible luck, prompting cries of ‘cold deck’ from the rest of the table later on.  Beer intake was probably also responsible for Pokerhontasz missing a blind raise and performing an accidental (and disgusting) min-raise preflop, to which Jennoi called and a board of 4c8d5c came down. The flop and turn card of 3s were both checked and Jennoi bet half pot on a Qh river goading Pokerhontasz with a “See me” speech! In response, she revealed her tight (and honest) steak by folding 99 face up on the table. Jennoi, a quick learner did not of course show her hand.  Jennoi was demonstrating that she had come to play and would not be easily bullied out of pots.  She limp called my raise preflop and called a C-bet on a board of KK5 holding AQ . I of course checked the hand down as I only held A10 and she took it down with a better ace high hand. I was very surprised to see her not paired up, but upon reflection it was a good board to have checked the flop on.  I had showdown value against weak aces, and really only bloated the pot for the times when I was behind by a little or a lot.  Hitmanhead had a brief period of action, click raising me on a paired board and three-betting The_Conge preflop, both times picking up the pot with a combination of squeaky-tight  table image and measured aggression.

At the 100/200 level everyone was still left in the game and Hitmanhead continued to use his water tight status to pick up pots, in one hand click raising The_Conge preflop, but leaving 2.5 big blinds behind in his stack. For those who do not play poker online a ‘click-raise’ is one button click that raises any bet by the same amount again. In this instance The_Conge read the raise as pure strength and folded , putting himself in short stack mode, along with myself and Pokerhontasz who also trailed behind. By this point in the night I had consumed too much beer to accurately relate  hand details, but I managed to double through Pokerhontasz holding pocket tens, and (almost) triple-through her and The_Conge holding JQ which made top pair on the flop and held to beat both The_Conge’s K9 and Pokerhontasz’ last ditch napkins. This chip up was handy, but fell short of The_Conge’s mythological ‘octuple-through’ which I needed to realistically challenge Jennoi’s leading stack. I did not realize it at the time but I was winding the table up continually asking for chip counts at the shove/fold stage, but the problem I was having is that I was too drunk to store any information in my head for longer than about 10 secs.  I was also terrified of making a dumb power play with Jennnoi in the big blind and so I nitted up for a while until Hitmanhead was knocked out , even folding 22 at one point to his all-in. Heads up against Jennoi I had some unspeakable luck in all in pots.  I forget the hand that turned the tide, but once I had the chip lead I cheerfully put Jennoi all in holding 67s and she turbo called with pocket queens! The board ran out 45362 and my flopped nut straight sealed the deal.

In the post game analysis everyone was very impressed with Jennoi’s debut, she played a tight but aggressive game when it mattered the most, especially in the later blind levels when she raised frequently.  She received a small profit on her stake and a thrown in VHS tape of ‘An American Werewolf in Paris’ courtesy of Pokerhontasz!  Hitmanhead was very unlucky to miss out on the 2 money spots as he played disciplined poker and eventually got it all in good with A9 only to see Jennoi table a better AQ, which is pretty much a cooler three handed. Even a flopped 9 could not stop Jennoi rivering a straight to knock out the Hitman.  Pokerhontasz has also been very unlucky in the shove/fold stage of our home games and an early shove with a marginal King hand did not pay off on this occasion.  Given Pokerhontasz’ tight table image, it is this sort of high-blind aggressive play that should, in theory lead to good long term results.  The_Conge proved he is probably the strongest tournament player of our circle, and was incredibly unlucky to get knocked out early. He stole pots frequently, avoided getting stranded out of position and value bet big when he held the best hand. I myself played o.k but I had to dance between the raindrops with regards to lucky cards and at one stage I blinded down to down to 6.5 bb.  I also disgraced myself by getting drunk and being annoying later on in the game so once again I am sorry everyone.

Maniac mining

I have been facing quite a lot of maniac players online and just accidentally beat one heads up. Looking back at some of the hands I know I made crucial mistakes because of the constant pressure from bets and reraises. Once you realise that a player is maniacally aggressive you have to work out if they are doing it in response to your play or not. If your opponent is responding to you then they will change if you change. If you begin to fight fire with fire, then they should, in theory tighten up a little. I just faced a player who ramped up the aggression even more when I fought back.

I knew that I had the post flop skills to outmanouver this guy but I was getting crushed preflop. Every time I picked a playable hand I was faced with the options of: limp call a raise; raise call a three bet; or raise with the intention of 4 betting/jamming or just open jamming. I settled upon mostly limp calling to keep pots smaller but then this left me without the initative on the flop, which is basically handing your money to maniacs.  I therefore decided to pepper in a few small raises for initiative, which he quickly stole with 100% 3bets anyway. I also four bet a few hands for value and increased my range to do this, whilst trying to avoid getting pot committed with a raggy ace. I was basically all at sea and having reflected on the match I think a 100% limp strategy may well have been the way forward because we ended up in some pretty big pots without a great deal.

I said at the start of this article that I won accidentally, because the turning point was an ill timed 4bet jam I pulled, when I should have seen the insta-call coming. I sadly tabled 57s only to see my maniac friend holding 45o. My hand held up, as it often will, but I felt like the naughty micro donkey that I am for pushing so hard with a mediocre holding. It was a case of 'right read, wrong action' since I want to keep the likes of 45o in bloated pots, not try and push them out preflop. Or if you are results orientated it was the right action for the wrong reasons, since I ended up getting it all in ahead. I shall try not to make a habit of stubbornly 4bet jamming and if I am going to do it against maniacs, at least expect a call and put ace-rag and suited Kings  into this mostly value range. The game turned around after this point and I spotted a couple of steal spots when I noticed he played more cautiously to my limps, if I had folded a couple of hands previously. I also pulled a hero call in a spot where I was content to check down AQ high for good showdown, but the board ran out double paired so my kicker became the golden bluff catching card, and he obligingly shoved his airball on the river.

Should I be playing a more trappy game against such players? A lot of players might think so, but since this guy had such a willingness to put his money in the middle and gamble I should be looking to still value raise and valuebet good hands (with a wider range than normal), fold my worst and limp the rest. I know this sounds exploitable but this is probably the only way to see pots with position and the likely best hand most of the time. I do not want to bloat pots to the point where we are suddenly playing for stacks at the earlier stages of a heads up sit and go.  At around 20bb I should be willing to stack off with maniacs with all of my raising range since at this stage they will likely overadjust and shove with a range that includes trashy hands they would have three bet previously. I have come across a lot of erratic play so far at heads up, and survival seems to be a big factor since sooner or later they will blow up and make a daft play. I was just lucky that this time I made the daft play but got away with it.  I also think I just advocated a calling station approach to playing maniacs!! Hmm...maybe this needs more research...