Article
Theft on the Felt... You Gotta Pick a Pot or Two
tagged: Bootcamp_Articles, Learn_to_Play_Articles
And of course we have poker – a game where theft and deception are expected, admired and very necessary. Poker is a game where you can chat, make friends and share jokes with the rest of the table, but at the same time you can pickpocket, mug and con them for their hard earned cash, without them thinking any less of you.
The term ‘stealing’ may have you thinking of bluffing, but to me bluffing is representing a big hand to win a pot from someone who has a strong hand themselves. Stealing is about spotting the instances when nobody has much of a hand, and is probably more concerned about the weakness of their own holdings than what you may or may not be representing. To put it another way, it’s about taking the pots nobody wants to compete for.
MULTIPLE LARCENY
If the betting is heavy pre-flop, then you shouldn’t even be thinking about trying to pull off a big steal, instead look for the reluctant players in the nervous pots. There are plenty of these opportunities in poker, especially online.
Most people play more than one table online nowadays, and there are some players for whom playing multiple tables seems to be as much about trying to break a world record as it is making money. Keep an eye out for the guys who don’t chat, and take a long time to respond. Do a search in the poker site’s database for everyone at your table and see how many of them are at four or more tables.
If you recognize a player as a heavy multi-tabler, you can really take liberties. Don’t get me wrong, most multi-tablers are good poker players, they simply have too much going on to care if you are stealing their blind – they are playing for big pots. Always try to nick a blind when the action is folded round to you, and always make a continuation bet on the flop.
Most multi-tablers are ‘nut peddlers’. They fold and fold until they either get dealt a premium starting hand or hit a monster on the flop. This means they may even give up a decent pocket pair without much persuasion while they are waiting to hit a set on another table. When they fire back at you, or even flat call, cut your losses and pitch your hand – they most likely have you dominated.
CUT OFF, CARVED UP
Another target is the disconnected player – that is, one whose internet connection has dropped. This may present an ethical dilemma for beginners, but not real players, because there is no honor among thieves at the poker table.
In online tournaments, when a player is disconnected his blinds are up for grabs, and these can be huge in the later stages of a tournament. Don’t feel guilty. The blind is going to be taken by someone, so it may as well be you. Normally I would advocate blind-stealing only in late position, but when you know one player is out of action, you can do it from much earlier – maybe even under the gun at a weak table.
You may not be the only one to notice the absent player, in which case this is also a good chance to double-steal, by re-raising an attempted steal by a late position player. This not only means a bigger pot to steal, it is a show of strength that you can carry with you if you’re forced to see a flop with your hand. Because it is likely your opponent is stealing, he will have a hard time continuing without a very strong hand himself, and will often give up the pot right there or on the flop.
If heads-up against a disconnected player, just keep clicking ‘call’ and then the ‘muck hand’ button as quickly as you can. This will get as many blinds as possible before he gets reconnected. Don’t feel bad about stealing from a disconnected player; it is his fault for not using previous winnings to buy a better computer or internet connection.
An interesting bit of math for you now. When a flop has a pair in it (for example J-J-2), the chances of anyone at a 10-handed table having one of the remaining two cards of the paired denomination are about 20%. Now, if you consider only two or three players tend to see a flop out of that 10 in any given hand, then the chances of someone making trips on a paired board are less than 4% in a heads-up pot, and not much more in a multi-way pot.
This means that a paired board is a great chance to represent trips, because you will get away with it a high proportion of the time, and run into genuine trips rarely.
MISREPRESENTATION
This is a great spot to even think about being creative and re-raising, check-raising or calling the flop to bet a later street, all of which would seem more genuine in your opposition’s eyes than betting right away. You are also less likely to get called with a draw, because of potential full houses that would render a flush or straight dead. You might want to stay away from a board with paired Aces, though, just because so many people hang in there with an Ace.
And beware of players posting out of turn. When a player limps out of position, it means he has some sort of hand – a suited connector, small pocket pair, weak Ace or maybe even a huge hand played slowly. Nevertheless, he has a hand that could prove the winner after the flop. This is why you don’t want to re-raise a limper without a good read on them, or a good hand.
When a player joins a cash table and posts a Big Blind out of position instead of waiting for their turn, they have essentially done the same thing: limped out of position. Only this time it’s because he wants to play a hand right away, not because he has something.
So this is another good chance to re-raise and take down not only the standard blinds, but an additional one. The odds are that the new guy has a weak hand, especially if he elects to check it. The rest of the table will give you respect, because most will just consider it to be a strong re-raise, indicating a strong hand. If somebody calls behind the poster before you have a chance to raise, this is even better. He is unlikely to have a big pair or he would have re-raised, so chances are he has a weak hand that needs to improve and is using the poster to get a cheap ride to the flop. This is even more reason to raise with any two cards.
You could get called by the new blind poster, but don’t worry too much – players who post out of turn are usually weak. They often don’t understand about position or card selection, and are probably just there to gamble. You can very likely outplay them after the flop.
CAUGHT SHORT
Another player to look out for is the all-in short-stack. When a player who is low on funds is all-in and there several others in the pot, making a possible side pot, the hand tends to go down more passively. If it’s a tournament, the table will often work together and check the hand down so that the short-stack has to beat many hands to avoid elimination. This is done to move everyone else at the table one spot closer to the money.
For this reason, most players will believe anyone who bets after the short-stack has gone all-in. You are indicating you have such a monster that you simply cannot conform to etiquette and have to get more money in the pot with it. You will often get players laying down big pairs, believing you have the nuts.
So another great chance to steal, but the question is: why would you? There has to be a side pot worth winning to begin with – something you can take down that the short stack can’t.
Another reason is because you have a hand that doesn’t play well multi-way, but may well be ahead of a desperate short-stack’s range. For example, if you have A-K on a raggedy flop, the short-stack could well be on any two high cards, and the others in the pot may have medium pairs. They will probably lay down their hands, assuming you have a set or over pair, leaving probably third and fourth best hands to contest the winner.
You won’t be very popular for doing this, but who needs friends when you have money?
The next opportunity to look out for is the bubble. Nobody wants to finish a tournament one place shy of a pay day, and with the blinds and antes becoming very juicy, you can take pots uncontested when the tournament bubble starts. The chances are that, unless you are at a table with some professionals who exploit bubble play, you are not likely to get players defending blinds, bluffing and calling you down with middle pair.
Pick on the short-and medium-stacked players who have nothing to gain and everything to lose by getting tangled up in a marginal hand with you. The rare occasions you will bubble yourself employing these tactics will be outweighed by all the times you create a tournament-winning stack by preying on weaker players’ fears.
COOL COLLUSION?
And finally – get together six of your mates at the same online table, ring each other up and share what your hands are…
That was, of course, a joke. Everything I’ve mentioned in this article may have been about stealing, but always within the rules of the sport. Poker is a game of deception – but deception on an even playing field. Everybody has the same starting chips, has the opportunity to reload, can use chat, pick their own screen names and so on. You even get dealt the same hands, in the long run.
But collusion is not what I am talking about. It is genuine fraud, which you should never consider taking part in, because it is immoral. And furthermore, you will soon be found out and will get banned.
So steal, by all means – but please restrict your life of crime to re-raising limpers with Seven-high, and bullying the guy that has 16 tables on the go.
