LOGIC AND WHATEVER

                                                           

                                                  

         While sometimes it seems there are countless ways to rake in a pot, we usually win (1) when our cards hold up (2) we pull off a bluff (3) we pay an opponent’s bluff.  Of course the first  is the most common.  Luck, combined with good judgment and skillful betting will maximize our gains, and the psychological effect of having many – or few – chips on the table is likely to deter or stimulate an opponent’s action.  Winning by bluffing is less facile.  Besides having to choose the right moment, we have to know the amount to risk to scare off an opponent.   Successfully paying another player's bluff entails either intuition or the ability to read the person correctly.  Don’t get down on yourself if you sense a bluff and are mistaken.  Receiving information for future play might well compensate a short-term error.  With that acknowledged, allow me to give you an example of a style of play I encountered yesterday.  The only way I can come close to figuring it out is by repeating P.T. Barnum’s oft quoted dictum.

 

            Mrs. Sweet (she had a friendly face and a pleasant smile) and I arrived at the Bellagio simultaneously.  Seated at the $2-$5 No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em table, the lady opted to buy in at the maximum $500, while I went the other way, requesting $200 worth of chips.  Rather than argue which tactic is more advantageous - both swords have a double edge – allow me to remind you that when entering a game already in progress, you are likely to encounter one or more players sitting with double, triple or quadruple the maximum buy-in permitted.  In that case, wouldn’t you agree that plunking down five bills reduces the leverage it offers when starting up a new game?  Particularly yesterday when a fellow named Burt was sitting on a pile worth around $5,000.

 

            Mrs. S- got lucky.  On the button holding pocket aces, the blinds were raised again and again.  The good lady had little to do but push in her chips before raking in a thousand five hundred dollars.

 

‘It should happen to me,’ I thought, as I imagine did everyone else.   (It has, but so infrequently, the point becomes moot.  Whoever said that eventually luck is distributed equally has a lot of observing to do – both at poker and in the world outside.)

 

A few moments later, Moneybags Burt bumped the $5 big blind up to $50.  Admittedly, he was playing rather large, but in a calculated way.  Other than a twenty-dollar publicity stunt he had yet to throw a dime away.  Personally, unless I was loaded, I wanted nothing to do with him.  Mrs. Sweet equaled Burt’s bet.  The flop came over Q-9-2 of three different suits.

 

“Check,” said Burt.

 

“Fifty,” said Mrs. S-.  Burt followed after a slight hesitation.

 

A second queen appeared on the turn.

 

“A hundred,” said Burt. 

 

“All-in,” said the lady.

 

“Wow!” said Burt.  “I doubt if you have a boat, Ma’am.  You’d sucker me in little by little if you did.  So I’m going to pay you with my Ace-Queen of spades.”

 

He was right.  She had the king of hearts and the queen of clubs.  The river was a six.  Burt got richer while the nice lady went into her pocketbook for another five bills. 

 

A lot happened in the next half hour, but nothing that made much difference to me.  Mrs. Sweet won another hand, as did Burt.  When her turn to be big blind arrived, I noticed him sit up in his seat and move a hand onto a stack of $100 chips. On the lady’s right, the small blind was nodding his head to the rhythm of an I-Pod.  There sure are a lot of music lovers present at contemporary poker games.

 

“Ten bucks,” said Burt when the bet came to him.  The smile on his face was almost angelic.

 

Of course she called.  The flop came up 9-9-4.   Both players checked.  The turn was a queen.  Burt bet $10.  Mrs. Sweet called.  The river was another four. Grinning foolishly, Burt went all-in.  Mrs. S- hesitated.  Not for all the tequila in Mexico would I have paid him holding anything other than two fours, two nines or two queens.

 

The lady was clearly confused.  Continuing to examine her cards, she shook her head from side to side.  Brother, what could she be thinking?  Did she really believe Burt was risking 800 bucks to pick up a handful of chips on a half ass bluff?  

 

            She paid with a four.  Burt turned over Q-9 suited.  In about forty-five minutes the lady had lost $1,000 with situations that would have seen a normal player ahead by a similar amount.  Okay, that wasn’t my problem. Losing thirty dollars, I was hoping to win my first hand.  But a thought kept turning over in my mind.  While we read a lot of books and articles on how to play winning poker, is there anything out there that might help us grasp elementary logic?