I call him Colonel Tseng.
Monthly Archives: May 2005
Beijing Rice Racing
Not sure what kind of Toyota it is; it looks like a cross between an early nineties Celica and a mid-nineties Camry, so I’d say it’s probably something from that era that we never got stateside.
Big Blind Defense, Implied Odds, and Maximizing Future Expectation
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Two hands I won last night on Empire’s 3/6 tables with stuff I remembered from Hank:
Party Poker 3/6 Hold’em (10 handed) converter
Preflop: Hero is BB with 3h, Td.
4 folds, MP2 calls, 1 fold, CO raises, 1 fold, SB calls, Hero calls, MP2 calls.
Flop: (8 SB) 2c, Ah, 5d (4 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, MP2 checks, CO bets, SB calls, Hero calls, MP2 folds.
Turn: (5.50 BB) 4s (3 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, CO bets, SB calls, Hero raises, CO calls, SB calls.
River: (11.50 BB) 2s (3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets, CO calls, SB calls.
Final Pot: 14.50 BB
SB has Ac Th (two pair, aces and twos).
Hero has 3h Td (straight, five high).
CO has Ad Kc (two pair, aces and twos).
Outcome: Hero wins 14.50 BB.
No non-pair hand is that big of a dog to another non-pair hand, so defend your blind. Getting 10:1 for my gutshot is good odds, and clearly the implied odds makes it even better.
Party Poker 3/6 Hold’em (10 handed) converter
Preflop: Hero is BB with 7h, 3s. CO posts a blind of $3.
1 fold, UTG+1 calls, UTG+2 calls, 3 folds, CO (poster) checks, 1 fold, SB completes, Hero checks.
Flop: (5 SB) 6d, 5d, Ts (5 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, UTG+1 checks, UTG+2 checks, CO bets, SB calls, Hero calls, UTG+1 folds, UTG+2 folds.
Turn: (4 BB) 9h (3 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, CO bets, SB calls, Hero calls.
River: (7 BB) 4s (3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets, CO calls, SB folds.
Final Pot: 9 BB
Hero has 7h 3s (straight, seven high).
CO has Ac 9c (one pair, nines).
Outcome: Hero wins 9 BB.
Again, no non-pair hand is that big of a dog. While the express odds are not great for my hand, if I make my draw on the turn, I’m probably getting better than 10:1 in implied odds. I was also counting on getting another call or two behind me (didn’t happen). If I just improve my draw, I get one more shot at making the winning hand with improved odds.
Still, I’m on thin ice on this one. There are two flush cards out there, and it’s easy to go broke drawing to the sucker end of a straight, especially if someone out there has already made the better straight. The better play here might have been to check-raise the turn.
It’s a thin line between relying on implied odds and being a fish. 🙂 The beauty, though, is that showing down garbage hands like this, even in the blinds, helped me get action for my big pairs and better draws later on.
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In these two hands I probably netted 15BB. The guide costs just under 7BB. Do the math.
I.M.P.S. The Relentless
Probably better than Episode III.
Last Ditch Poker
You’ve gotta love big short-term results. My flight leaves in less than 24 hours, but I’m happy to report a 70BB profit for the last poker I’ll play on American soil for a while. I caught some big pairs that held up, flopped well, made a number of draws, and got paid off. Which reminds me… I should take a deck of cards with me to China. I’ve never bet in yuan before.