The Pirate Is A Junk Man

Piratemania is alive and well.
Just get a look over at www.nolimitholdempokerpirate.com


He is just the kind of guy you love and hate to see at the table. One thing you want to make sure to do is take advantage of the last tip when you see him already playing. Just opt in with your email in the form to the right if you want to know what I am talking about. However, Dan Harrington, is his book – Cash Game Volume II had an interesting point on that. Not quite what you might expect, or at least what I would have expected but makes perfect sense.


Anyway..back to our Sanford & Son rival...
He really just likes to gamble. That is my main point here. Poker with all the skill that is talked about is still a game of chance. There is luck involved. Period. So, pot odds or not, if there is a minute reason to stick around in a hand, our junkaholic will likely do so.  He'll use position (or lack thereof) and fear on top of that.
Here is a junk man hand: he limps in from middle position to have Jack Daniels raise to $7 in late position. It's folded back around to him and he calls.

Pirate check calls $15
Turn is        

and calls off his stack for $20.50.

The river is 

The pirate was up against a set of kings, but would have still shipped it in at any point with what ended up a losing
 
Actually, who among us wouldn't have done the same thing?


Earlier in the game our Hero (he now knows who he is) got to feel the prowess of the Pirate yet again. These are fun to watch live by the way, especially when I am getting clobbered and am unable to win a pot. Pirate limps from middle position to have Jack Daniels raise to $4 in our $.50-$1 game. Our Hero in the bb reraises to $12 with $60 behind. Call from pirate Rodcicle as well as Jack.

Hero bets $12 again and gets raised all in by Roddizzle. Jack folds and puts our hero into misery. He folds in disgust and both hands are mucked. As I write this, I know I made a note correctly and chuckle to what they both said they had. Hero's comments are that he can't ever remember folding an over pair to Rod and claims to have had Kings. Pirate then claimed to have had Ah6h, but he obviously didn't. He must have just had the suited ace. Either way he was gambling and used position and fear mongering to get Heroboy to chuck.


Like I said, he loves to gamble.

The Power Is In The Button

There is just something about having it, especially in live games when there is an actual physical ‘button’.  In No Limit Cash Games, it is pretty essential for a number of reasons.  Getting tricky and defending your blinds in a cash game is so hard to do that most good players don’t even bother, unless you are Tom Dwan or something.  Tournaments are a different story where you need all the chips you can get, but we’re talking cash games. 

Here are a couple things to consider:

You get to see what everyone else in the hand does first.  Obviously.  What does that mean?  Let 's say you have 10's in early position after making a raise.  You are first to act after a flop of 

now what?  Hard to say..


Vs.  How about the same pocket 10's on the button with this flop:

This time there is a bet, a raise and then an all-in in front of you.  Pretty easy fold.


You get to control the amount of money in the pot.

Here is one that should have just been let go..The Pirate is in the small blind and it’s 6 handed.  It gets folded to the button who raises it to $2.50 and the Pirate calls.  $5.50 in the pot when the flop comes .

Now the Pirate checks and as the button with As, 2c we bet $5 to see the Pirate call.  
The turn is

and the Pirate checks again.  While trying to put him on a range is next to impossible, it might be a good idea to just check behind with an awful kicker.  $10 is what we bet, however and the Pirate shoves on us for another $26.50… now what?  If we are trying to control the size of the pot here, a fold is prudent now.  Also a check on the turn is fine too.  A donkey call is made and he shows us 2 pair and the river doesn't help us.

You can open up your range of starting hands like the Pirate does..

One of our heroes in our game wants to mix it up with Qd,8c

He bets $6 when the flop is:

to have the Pirate call.

comes on the turn.  

He fires $10 this time and the Pirate calls. 

on the river and our hero doesn't slow down.
Not fearing the flush and shovels $12 in this time and the Pirate calls again.  The hero is ruined when he sees 5h,4c turned over by the Pirate.

The final point that I will make is that you get to control information the later you are in the hand.  If our Pirate was no good with the small end of the straight, he could have just mucked it and played the next hand.  Even if it was checked down, he shows last, if at all and gets to decide what everyone else sees.


There is a lot more to button play.  We have just started to scratch the surface.  One of the great young players in the game is David Williams.  You can Head Over Here To See David Williams and check out his version in a pretty cool training video.


This is just some fun stuff to think about.  You know as well as I do there are plenty of sharks out there.  There are even some willing to fill you in on some stuff here:  Poker Virtual Training!


David Bridge, Jr

Scared Money Doesn’t Pay

You'll hear this phrase every once in a while in our game. Most of the time it is after one of us went broke to The Pirate or we were cowering and folded to one of his relentless nickel bets that would have left us even shorter stacked.

It is a terrible mindset to have. It is not a mindset that can win against The Pirate or anyone else for that matter, including me. Even I'll crush you. :-D

As I write this, I am trying to think of any episode of High Stakes Poker on GSN where any of the players were playing with scared money. Maybe on a hand or two, but certainly not for an entire session. They would have been just eaten alive.

One of the ways to keep this from happening is to manage your bankroll. Poker bankroll that is. Take any given session you want to play. Our game has only been $0.50/$1.00 for quite a while. We take it seriously. At the same time it can get expensive. A typical buy in is anywhere from $50 to $100. Most any resource giving advice on bankroll management is going to say have a MINIMUM total sum of 20 buyins to devote to poker. Do the math. There aren't too many of us that have a two dime bankroll.

So, here is what you do to avoid being skeered. Play in games with stakes just that – 1/20^th of what you have for poker. Keep it devoted to poker. If you want to move up in stakes..just do the math and grind it out. You are not allowed to move up until you have 20x your buy in, which 'should' be 100 big blinds.   Now, keep in mind, I'm not your dad, so do what you want.

However, buying in for 100 big blinds lets you actually play the game. You aren't sweating making a call of a preflop raise in position with a suited connector as much. You have the implied odds you need – against the Pirate anyway, because he is NOT buying in short. Someone else committing 10% of his stack preflop, maybe not so much of implied odds. This is another subtle part of the game that I am not getting into here.
Anyway.. keep those numbers in mind: 100 big blinds and 20 buyins. I'm not saying don't play in the 'Big Game'. All I'm saying is you are likely at some point going to be playing with 'Scared Money'. So, until it gets built up to that number, The Pirate will be on the lookout for the Cowards!



In the meantime take a gander at what not being skeered will do for The Pirate:

http://www.pokerhandreplays.com/view.php/id/1209631

David Bridge, Jr.
www.nolimitholdempokerpirate.com

Why Didn’t You Bet That?

"I was hoping he would bet" is the reply that I get most of the time. Either that or "ahhh.. I don't know"

You know the game is about winning some money, right? Well, when you get a hand, you have to bet it! There are so many times that guys we play with pick up hands and don't bet them. Don't get me wrong. Kenny does.  He's one of the fellas that mixes up with us and The Pirate. DC does too, but he could certainly get a little more value for some of his hands that he only min-raises. The Pirate though, will stomp on your throat. He gets two pair and value bets the daylights out of that puppy. It might not always be good, but you better believe that he is putting money in the pot.  Plus, if you don't call, don't expect to see what he had either.  It's going into the muck.

The same has to be the case for you. When you flop a set or a straight, don't be skeered. Bet it! Don't wait for someone else to bet either!

I'm here to tell you that betting the pot or even overbetting is not a bad idea. There are players that are just looking for reasons to stick around. The Pirate will, even with bottom pair! So, get some cash for your trouble. You know you've been sitting there waiting for a hand.

Now, one other thing. Take the time to bet some of those other hands too. You know the ones that if you really think about, you are probably good. Like a wired pair of 10's on a board of J, 4, 2 that got checked around to you. And just because The Pirate called the bet and a 3 comes doesn't mean you should not bet that too. Im not saying that if you get raised you should stick around, but.. what range would you put him on?

I am going to give you a perfect example of a solid value bet The Pirate makes:

I remember him being in late position against one other player on a flop of Ac, 2d, 2c. It's checked to him and he bets $3.50. There wasn't any preflop action either.

The turn is 9c and checked to him again. He bets another $3.50.

River is 9h and checked again. The Pirate bets one more $3.50 and gets called. He flips up A10 and takes the pot vs. A5.

There was no raise at any point against him, so he KNEW it was good and probably anything more than $3.50 wasn't getting called by the player he was in with..

Meet The Pirate of Poker!

My fellow holdem players, here is The Pirate! If by some chance you get to play with us, you would actually hear us call him "dee Pirate" in our native poker dialect. He is one of THE nastiest opponents at the table.

Just look at the EVIL grin on him as he is counting out his chips to make this call.  He truly is fearless with a seemingly endless bankroll.

Now, probably one of the reasons he is getting ready to do some splashing is he was paying attention, not like these people:  http://www.youtube.com/TOTALLYOBLIVIOUS
The Pirate will pay attention to your body language.  He won't make a big deal about it, nor will he even admit that he is doing it.  But, make NO mistake.  He is watching and trying to get any whiff of fear he can in your play, searching for weakness.

One of the physical tells that I mentioned to my subscribers - SIGN UP ON THE RIGHT, BY THE WAY - is detailed in Joe's article:  I Feel Sorry For You If You Don't Know Who Joe Is

It's funny because, I almost feel like I am giving too much away with this information.  But then again, if you get better, I am forced to play better myself.  So, in the hardcore sense it helps us all out.

Basically what it boils down to is this.  Pay attention to how people behave, even when you and they are not in the hand.  This gives you a baseline.  Then as they play out a hand - Observe!  Then compare that to their baseline.  It takes a lot of effort, but eventually you'll be able to spot the fear just like the Pirate.

All of this is in Joe's book - Read'em and Reap that is has a link just down below. Don't go out and buy this. Just ask The Pirate to borrow it. He has studied this thing inside and out. He has had it since it came out. It is kind of our little secret. I know no one else at our game has this Manual of All Manuals for spotting tells. So, like I said borrow it from The Pirate and just forget to give it back to him so he can't reference any longer..

The Difference That a $5 Chip Makes

Well, the Pirate was at it again last night! I sure do love No Limit Holdem, but sometimes it makes me want to cry. Here is the hand:

I have pocket kings in early position and raise to $8 in our small stakes $0.50/1.00 game. I started the hand with $92. There are two callers behind me including The Pirate.

The Flop is 3,4,7 two spades and I bet $17. The Pirate calls having me covered and the remaining player folds. I am not too thrilled with his call and think he might have the 56 or two spades. Pot is $61.

The Turn is an offsuit King and I am wondering what to bet to get it all in thinking that in all likelihood that I am good. I decide on $30, but at the last instant add the "five" to my declaration, leaving me with only 32 instead of 37.  At this point, The Pirate goes all in and I know I am way behind with my set of Kings...



Stay Tuned for the Conclusion and post hand analysis...

Losing Your Shirt

as for losing the shirt.. here is a quick story about that.... 

Earlier in the day I was showing my daughter Ashleigh a headline from the website I was creating: http://www.nolimitholdempokerpirate.com

There was a phrase referring to "losing your shirt" and she had no idea what it meant because she had never heard it before, so I had to explain it.. with a reply from her to the effect of "whatever, Dad"

So, later that night I actually went to play poker at a friend's with The Pirate and the rest of the crew and when I got home Ashleigh asked, actually she sent me a text from in her room upstairs....kids these days.."How much did you win?"

I sent back that "Lost $10", and her reply was

"Dad you cant be doing that around this time!!  What the heckk"  Christmas time and all…

"you should have stayed until you were up"  

"and not loosing your shirt"  3 separate messages..

I replied "I KNOW .. but Louie (the host) went broke n kicked us out.." 

she heard me laugh..since I was sending my reply as her "not loosing your shirt" was hitting my phone...
Ash: "I heard a giggle :)"
So, I wrote "Louie is the chilly one.." 

Ash: "chilly one?"

to which I replied back "No shirt" and I heard her laugh… along with "Ohhh hahaha"  to my phone
just thought I would share that…

What Could He Have Had?

Here was a fun one to watch the Pirate get into with one of our heroes. 
We are seven handed, including The Pirate in middle position, and four players witness the flop of Q, 8, 4 all clubs that was straddled and limped in. $8 pot. 
Small blind leads out for $7, straddle calls and so does Pirate.
Ad is the Turn. SB checks, straddle bets $15, Pirate calls, and SB folds.
4h is the River. Straddle shoves for $32.. the Pirate muddles and folds..
It was fun to watch and I had to beg to find out what our Hero had.. I had a range, but had to say that in order to win the pot, the Pirate would have needed a really strong holding.

The Pirate is Hauling The Junk

All you Pirate fans will love this one. We are four handed and I limped in with wired 6's under the gun. The Pirate also limps and we all see the flop of QS, 4D, 2D with a $4 pot.
I make a $3 bet and get raised by the Pirate to $7. The blinds fold and I call the extra $4 to see the 6D on the turn. Keeping things conservative, I check and call a $10 bet.
The river is QD, so I ship my remaining stack of $47 and get called… Am I good?


The Pirate shows the Q2 and cleans me out.
The range of cards that he'll call on the button even with a raise is pretty wide. If I were to find fault with any of the play it would have been with just that, not raising preflop four handed with a pocket pair. However, given the hands, I don't see any way that I keep any of the chips in front of me.

The Pirate Sniffs Out The Treasure

Here is one of the fun ones to watch. The Pirate is in early position in our small stakes game and makes a raise to $4 with AK. There is a caller on the button and the blinds fold. On the flop of Q,8,6 it goes check check.
The turn is another 8 and our swashbuckler makes an $11 bet and gets called having his opponent covered whose remaining stack is $18.
The river is a deuce and The Pirate checks. Our button shoves his remaining chips in the middle.
It's not long before the call is made and the button says ….


nice call. When he sees what The Pirate turns over, he just buries his head in shame. The only things he can muster are "..how can you make that call?"
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