TalkFlop.com

I recently finished reading Gus Hansen’s Every Hand Revealed and I figured I’d do a quick review for the TalkFlop.com faithful.  For years I’ve loved watching Gus play cards.  He’s got a reputation of being a completely crazy player at the table who will play any two cards from any position.  This book won’t do anything except back up that reputation — however, it will show you that MOST of the time, Gus does indeed have a method to his madness.

If you’re not familiar with it Every Hand Revealed does just that – it reveals every single hand that Hansen played during the 2007 Aussie Millions tournament.  He describes with amazing detail the situation at the table, players he was seated with, cards that he played, relevant chip stacks and reasons for just about everything that he did.

The book is well written and is very easy to follow.  Gus does a great job explaining why he’s doing what he’s doing and describing specific situations.  As a amateur poker player myself I am constantly amazed at the amount of math that goes into the game.  Personally I know what the rough winning percentages are and how pot odds should factor into a specific play.  These guys LIVE by those numbers and act accordingly.  For example Gus would say stuff like, “I hadn’t raised in 8 hands so I planned on raising without even looking at my cards.”  It sounds simple but we all know that it’s much more difficult to put that type of thinking into action when you’re sitting at the table.

If we want to be technical it’s not actually EVERY hand revealed.  There’s a disclaimer at the beginning of the book that states that he doesn’t describe hands that he folded with no preflop action.  I can’t say that I blame him there cause anyone who’s ever watched a poker game can tell you, there’s a lot of folding and it isn’t all that interesting.  That said, there are still 329 hands worth of action that he describes in great detail.

The beauty of a book like this is it shows that even the pros make mistakes.  In Hansen’s case he made a few but as you can see after reading the book he made a hell of a lot more GOOD plays than bad.  Some of the analysis that I found particularly interesting was when he was having an internal struggle with himself on how to play a hand.  I find myself having those same internal discussions every single time I sit down to play.

The next time you sit down and catch Gus Hansen on TV you just may ask yourself, “What is he thinking?”  After reading this book, you’ll know.

See you after the flop!

Was playing in a Cleveland Poker League event recently when the following hand came up.  I was cruising right along with about $6,500 or so where the average stack at the table was $4,000.  There was only one larger stack at the table (about $7,500 or so).  I had been playing pretty tight and had been picking up a couple of hands here and there.  I had rivered the nut flush and had someone betting into me which added about $2,000 to my stack.

On this particular hand I was on the button in an unraised pot and looked down to see and decided to limp along and see a flop.  Not sure why I limped except that I hadn’t seen a flop in a while and I was getting a bit antsy.  Should probably have raised to try and pick up the blinds and antes right there but alas did not.  The small blind called, big blind checked and we went to the flop three handed.

Both the small and big blind check and even though I figure I’m behind I take a stab at the pot hoping to get a hand with a random Ten or a bad King to lay down.  I fire $500 in to the pot and the small blind folds immediately and the big blind calls.  Houston… we may have a problem.

The turn comes a and the big blind checks again.  This time I fire away with $1,000 into the pot with my inside straight draw trying to represent a big Ace or a Ten.  The big blind thinks for a moment and I tell him that I’d never bluff him.  He says “in that case, I’ll raise” and adds another $1,000 on top of my bet.

I’ve got quite a bit of history with this player.  I consider him VERY solid and quite honestly I don’t like to go up against him without a premium hand.  There have been a couple of occasions where I’ve held boat-over-boat type holdings and really put a hurt on his stack.  One time we both had AK suited and I flopped a flush to knock him out — that kind of stuff.  I decided to try and play on that history and immediately moved all in on him!  When he didn’t fold immediately I knew that I was in big trouble.  He went into the tank for quite a while and began talking aloud about the exact history that I was trying to play on.  He called and turned over the dagger:

for a flopped Broadway straight… UGHH.  I figured I was in bad shape but I had no idea that I was drawing dead to a split pot.  The river came an Ace counter fitting my hand.  In fact for a moment I thought that I’d received a reprieve thinking that we were both playing the board (forgetting about his straight).

Looking back I made a couple of mistakes here:

1. If I’m going to play this hand I need to raise on the button.  The fact that I didn’t is completely uncalled for.  I’d been sitting around for a while and was getting antsy.  Absolutely no excuse for this type of crappy play.  At least that way I’ve got a couple of ways to win the pot and might have a bit more information.
2. Need to keep better track of other stacks at the table.  I knew that the big blind had a big stack but I didn’t realize that he had me out chipped.  Terrible.
3. He made two very nice checks here with a flopped straight.  I’m very aggressive once I get into a hand and he allowed me to play right into him.  The second ten on the board gave me some hope but he’d flopped such a big hand that he couldn’t get away from it.

I suppose it makes me feel good that I made a good play at the wrong time, but the fact that I never should have been in the hand at all really does make me bitter.  Next time I’m raising or folding… no doubt about it.

See you after the flop!