6
The Troubles We’ve Seen
In poker, there are common errors that pretty much everyone makes now and then. I mean, who doesn’t overvalue Ace-Queen once in a while or get overly involved in a pot while playing out of position. Some gaffes are more esoteric: I know I regularly fail to properly calculate my reverse implied odds (mostly because I still don’t have a clue how that is done).
In the early days of the WSOP, the Full Tilt Pros (and others) have reported on some errors that reveal flaws in fundamental strategy. Some mistakes are so basic that you wonder how groups of people could have developed the same difficulties simultaneously. What’s the deal? Are they all reading the same bad book? Is televised poker corrupting their ability to reason?
The pros (and others) talk about the types of play they see, then shake their heads in amazement.
Chris Ferguson told me the other day that he was having a hard time adjusting in to the play in the limit hold ‘em event. He reported that some players were treating it like no-limit, but he didn’t extrapolate much. Aaron Bartely and Richard Brody, who are playing a limit hold ‘em tourney today , came into the Full Tilt suite during a break and noted the same trends.
“People are not defending their blinds,” said Brody. Bartley shook his head in bewildered agreement. “And a bunch of people are limping.”
(A quick note on strategy: Big blind play in limit hold ‘em is really, really tricky, but you really ought to be calling a single raise from the big blind much of the time. With a single raise and a fold from the small blind, you’re getting 3.5 to 1 on your call, an excellent price. For a little more on playing from the big blind in limit hold ‘em, check out this article by Jennifer Harman.)
I asked David Singer what sort of mistakes he was seeing in Omaha Hi/Lo. “Well,” he started, “there was one guy who saw every flop.” He paused for effect. “And that can’t be right.” One more pause. “The guy’s among the chip leaders.” Pause. “I don’t think that can continue.”
In the live games, Kristy Gazes and John D’Agostino report some very suspect play, even at the high-limit tables. The word “terrible” has been used liberally.
In the mid-stakes cash games, some players have developed the finer aspects of their no-limit game. They know to wear dark sunglasses and sit stoically. They then apply shallow-stack tournament strategy to a deep-stack cash game. The results are predictable: a momentary crack in the stoic façade — and an expanse of bare felt.
When I talk among my friends, some of whom may earn enough in cash games at this WSOP to pay for new living room sets or upgrades to stereo systems, we’re left with the same wonderment I see in the pro’s faces. The question that underlies our confusion is simple: Why?
Why would you come all this way and spend all this money without preparing yourself? Why wouldn’t your read and study and play online? Why wouldn’t you test your abilities and see how skilled you really are?
We don’t know the answers. We can only shake our heads.
