I’ve been thinking a lot lately about The Theory of Poker
Sklansky’s Fundamental Theorem of Poker:
Every time you play a hand differently from the way you would have played it if you could see all your opponents’ cards, they gain; and every time you play your hand the same way you would have played it if you could see all their cards, they lose. Conversely, every time opponents play their hands differently from the way they would have if they could see all your cards, you gain; and every time they play their hands the same way they would have played if they could see all your cards, you lose.
I used to have one trick to make people make a mistake and thus lose money per the theory. My one trick was raise. This is the idea that Brunson pushed in Doyle Brunson’s Super System: A Course in Power Poker, and being able to knock the ducks around is a great trick to have up your sleeve, but I’m learning a lot more about just letting the fish slide into the net with very passive play. Here are some examples.
I’m in the BB with QT. The button limps and the SB folds. What I used to do: Raise that passive mother fucker up! If he’s gonna show weakness, I’m gonna pounce! What I do now: Check! He’s already made his mistake per the theory of poker. If he could have seen my cards, and he has any K any A, a or any pocket pair he logically would have raised, but he didn’t! If he has one of these hands, he’s already made a mistake and he’s offering me infinite odds to hit a great hand. I’ll take those odds! Now, if he has a worse hand than I do, then I raise, but if he’s so passive and weak as to limp with 97 on the button, he very well might call and then I’ll have no read on him and be out of position when the flop arrives. I’m appreciating more and more that I don’t have to pressure people into making mistakes, I can just recognize when they have already made one and then smile and don’t fuck it up.
A similar situation is if the flop hits me with the bottom end of a straight draw and it checks around to me. Old me would have bet it out. New me says, hey, if these guys would have seen my cards, if they have one overcard to me they would have known it is right to bet and have done so, and some of them have got to have one. Probably one of them has middle pair and is scared to bet it, but won’t be scared to call my pushy button bet. So now, I’m more apt to check it. They all chipped in to give me a free card to hit the nuts, and it wasn’t even my birthday. Thank you very much!
In that straight draw situation there is something to be said for making a bet to build up the pot so that if your straight does hit it’s more valuable later, especially if you can get a big payoff for it, and that’s very true. You can make a small mistake now for a big payoff later and I’ll still do that. I’m just not afraid to check anymore. And I feel it’s helped my game enormously.
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