Read Your Sklansky

I have blogged about weak starting hands and the importance of position numerous times. Most poker players know that the better the position, the weaker the cards you can play. In a recent SJPC Tournament the following hand occurred:

It was the very first hand in the game on Full Tilt Poker, everyone starts out with 1500T and the blinds 15/30.

My Holecards:


UTG Folds
UTG +1 (Villain) calls
Table folds to the Button whom also folds
Small Blind continues
Hero in the Big Blind raises to 175 (75 in pot).

Before we go on let me explain my read on these opponents. The Villain likes to play a lot of cards and will usually play (and call raises) if it's "cheap". He's an average player who makes questionable plays from time to time. The small blind is a very aggressive player who will also play if it's cheap. While the small blind is not afraid to re-raise and push all in if he senses weakness post-flop, he is disciplined enough to fold a medium strength/OK hand out of position facing aggression preflop.

I really want to isolate the Villain here. I have confidence I can out play him and I believe my bet is low enough for him to call; however, I believe it's high enough for the SB to fold even though he would be offered over 2.5:1 (if the Villain calls). I am also 'OK' with buying the pot here. It is the first hand of the tournament and my hand is only Ace-high, but my bet of 175 wanted some action. Normally if I wanted to purchase the pot against these two players I might have three-bet the pot, making it 225T. This may sound pricey but I am out of position to an early limper who hates to fold preflop.

The Villain calls
The SB Folds
380T in the pot

The Flop:


Let's take a moment to state the obvious: I got the action I wanted and after the flop I have two over cards with a backdoor flush draw. Normally I might make a continuation bet here, but since my opponent knows I like to continue bet after showing a healthy raise preflop; and I knowing that he is the type of player who could be in this hand with such a wide variety of cards - I figured it would be best to check. He's expecting me to bet here and if I do he can either fold, call, or raise. He knows I'd bet out on this flop regardless if I hit my hand or not, so he will likely call and attempt to steal on the turn, or raise hard at it now and force me to fold. Playing with this person he raises in this situation after a continuation bet more then not. So I mix up my play a little and just check.

Villain Checks
Pot remains 380T

The Turn:


The check from the Villain on the flop is strange unless he is on some sort of draw. But the 5 on the Turn shouldn't have helped him unless he had pocket-5s. Even then I would think that trips would have fired on the flop to protect their hand. The spade did help me, it now gave me a draw to the second nut flush.

Hero bets 200T
Villain calls

Pot is now 780T

The River:


The Jack-of-Spades is an interesting card. I no longer have the second nuts; Ks & 10s, 10s & 8s, and As are all beating me. However, the way this hand played out the only hand that would make sense would be the As plus another Ace.

Pocket Aces would justify the limp UTG+1 then the smooth call on my raise. When the flop came down he still had a nice hand with the Ace of Spades and wanted to bait me a little so he checks. When the Turn came around he now was drawing to a Full House and a Flush Draw (at the time the nut-flush draw) so this explains the call of 200 and not a raise. He knows I am an aggressive player and he wants me to make a hand that I can loose all my chips on.

The problem I face is that I did make a strong flush and my instincts are telling me I am ahead. Almost every time I've played against this opponent, my instincts have been correct. I lost a huge pot against him recently in a live game when my instincts told me I was beat, but I talked myself into calling and lost a ton of chips which cost me that tournament. Going with my instincts I lead out with my flush hoping for a call.

Hero bets 500T
Villain moves all-in for 1125T

I'm at a tough decision, although he's play suggest he has the Ace-high flush I still have a feeling that I am ahead. I actually called Time on this hand and didn't make a decision until the clock counted down to '1'. I called, going purely by my instincts that I had the best hand. This is actually totally against my golden rule of tournament poker:

Never go all-in on the first hand unless you have the absolute nuts.

Before we get into what hand he had and how this relates to Sklansky I wanted to point out the first "lesson". I made this call because I had faith in my instincts and listened to them. Sometimes in poker you have to go by your instincts or your reads regardless of what the odds or board may suggest. Of course you will not always be correct but if you always play scared and fold instead of playing with some heart you will never play above the rim. Professional players make a ton of money off of what spectators may call trivial moves or plays - however the pro player making those moves usually has strong instincts/reads on the situation and he gets paid. But like any other human player, sometimes they look like a donkey if their instincts are wrong and call a bet or attempt a bluff that costs them all their chips - you just can't fault someone who played off their instincts/reads even if it ended up being a bad play. At least they had heart to do what they felt was correct regardless of their odds.

My Villain made his demise with:

He obviously made multiple errors on this hand which ended up costing him all his chips. Let's forget for a moment that he never took the lead, he chased to an inside straight-draw, pushed all in on his straight when there was a four card flush on the board with possible full-house/quads situation... Instead let's take it back to the beginning where he could have saved himself a lot of aggravation. David Sklansky wrote the following advice in his book entitled, "Small Stakes Hold'em - Winning Big with Expert Play":

Most players make two major preflop mistakes. They are costly... they are

1. Playing weak hands out of position, particularly weak off-suite hands.

2. Cold-calling raises with mediocre and potentially dominated hands

Unfortunately for the Villain he made both of those mistakes. Disregard the fact that he didn't necessarily "cold-call" the raise with a mediocre hand. I believe you can read in between the lines and note that you can't call big raises with mediocre and potentially dominated hands either. If you need further reassurance, remember the aged-old saying, "you need a stronger hand to call a raise then you need to raise with".

In this situation the Villain played a weak off-suite hand out of position (when he limped) into a field of unknown players. Then proceeded to capitalize on his error by calling a raise with another player limped in the pot as well. This then cost him to chase down a hand what when he finally made his "dream hand" he faced a ton of cards/hands that would cripple him. Lastly, instead of calling the 500 on the River he furthered his self-destruction by moving all-in. A bet in which all he could beat was a bluff.

In conclusion I must reemphasize that playing weak hands in early position, and calling raises with easily dominated hands can cost you a lot of money in the long run. The problem you face is that when/if you finally make the hand you'd hope for, you might already be beat.