Subject: How Tourists Can Beat Up on the Las Vegas Pros-Part 1 From: wcpp@mail.anonymizer.com (World Class Poker Player) Newsgroups: rec.gambling.poker Date: Sat, Jan 19, 2002 5:34 PM Message-ID: <3c4a18ad.25385592@news4.sucknews.com> I played a little in Las Vegas over the New Years holiday ($30-$60 HE at the Bellagio) and the experience got me thinking. Specifically about how a visiting player can beat up on the local professionals. Here are my thoughts. (Note:this is an example of what S/M refer to a third level thinking, p. 231, HEFAP 21st Century Edition), These apply mostly to the brown chip games, probably to the yellow chip games, and not very much to the low limit games. The first thing to realize is the dynamic of the Bellagio brown chip game. The typical game is 3 to 4 Las Vegas professionals and 6 or 7 "tourists" of varying experience and skill. With only one place to play at these limits in Las Vegas, the LV professionals are compressed into the 2 or 3 brown chip tables at the Bellagio. They play against each other everyday and get their money mostly from the "tourists" not from each other. This dynamic inlfuences the style of play adopted by the Las Vegas professional. For example: I observed many times that once the pot became heads up between two of the Las Vegas professionals they reverted to straight forward play. By straight forward play I mean, the LV professional with a made hand bet. If the other LV professional had a draw he check/called and when he made his hand he bet out. Once this occurred, the other LV professional folded. By straight forward play, I also mean that betting scare cards on the turn, raising with position and a draw on the turn to extract an extra bet if you make your hand, steal raising on the river, semi-bluff betting a draw on the flop, turn, and river, and similar bread and butter, L.A. brown chip moves were never used once the pot became heads up between the LV professionals. I also observed three times (over about 10 hours of play) a sort of tacit verbal collusion between the different LV professionals once the pot became heads up. (Note: I have played the Bellagio $30-$60 about a dozen times over 5 or 6 Las Vegas trips and observed similar behavior or slight variations from different combinations of LV professionals at the Bellagio). For instance, the pot becomes heads up on the flop or turn and one LV professional bets. The other LV professional with a made hand, e.g. top pair with a mediocre kicker, considering a call will say something like, "your hand is that good huh?" The other LV professional responds, "I can't lose every hand," and the first LV professional mucks his hand. Once the pot becomes heads up between two LV professionals they stop "playing" and are content to win their "fair share." The second thing to realize is how the Las Vegas professsionals are beating the tourists. Their main tool is pre-flop hand selection and fit or fold play. They play fewer hands pre-flop and bet or check-raise made hands on the flop and check-call draws. Of course, they will bet and raise with super draws (a pair and the nut flush draw, a straight flush draw, a pair and an open ended straight draw, etc.) but they primarily play ABC. Note: For an excellent article on this subject read Jim Brier's recent Cardplayer article on short-handed play http://www.cardplayer.com/?sec=afeature&art_id=12285 The Las Vegas professionals' bread and butter hands are getting paid when they have a big pair and someone flops an underpair, and playing against dominated hands, e.g. AK vs. KQ, AK vs. AQ, AJ vs. J10 etc. This differs substantially from L.A. at the same limits because you are playing against the same players day after day and the play is frequently short handed. In L.A., the winning players get much more of their money from strategy and tactics tailored and targeted to specific players. Since the "opposition" in L.V. changes everyday, there is much less opportunity for this type of targeted play. In L.A., the winning players are also getting much more of their money from short handed play (including defending or not chopping the blinds) where pre-flop hand selection is less important and ABC play is a recipe for financial disaster. The third thing to realize is the problem faced by the Las Vegas professionals. They are constantly faced with making borderline decsions against players who they know nothing about. Example: You are heads up on the flop, have Ace-big suited, and flop one face card which doesn't pair you and trash. You bet the flop and get called. A brick comes on the turn. Should you bet, check/call, or check/fold? Unlike in L.A., where the winning players face people whose games they have booked, the Las Vegas professionals are constantly forced to make tricky decisions against strangers. Once you realize these three things, (1) that the Bellagio professionals are playing with each other everyday and making a living off the tourists, (2) that the Bellagio professionals generate most of their profit from getting paid off with their big pairs and from situations where the other player has a dominated hand and they both pair up on the flop, and (3) that the Bellagio professionals are forced to make borderline decisions against total strangers, you can construct a plan. As a tourist visiting the Bellagio for the weekend, a skilled player can adopt a "disguise" and exploit the situation with specific plays when they are heads up in pots with the Bellagio professionals. There are multiple winning strategies, I'll detail one in Part 2 of this post. Subject: How Tourists Can Beat Up on The Las Vegas Pros-Part 2 From: wcpp@mail.anonymizer.com (World Class Poker Player) Newsgroups: rec.gambling.poker Date: Thu, Jan 24, 2002 1:47 PM Message-ID: <3c507e16.11338644@mammoth.usenet-access.com> Part 2 of Beating Up on the Las Vegas Professionals begins with choosing a persona. There are many different persona you can adopt, each of which must be established differently and which are exploited differently. This is where you can excercise your creativity. Perhaps the easiest persona to adopt is that of the small town player taking a shot in the "big" Bellagio game, but in awe of the big time Las Vegas professionals. Imagine that you are one of the unfortunate masses who live in a town with no public cardroom or that the largest regularly spread game at the local indian reservation is a $9-$18. Of course when you sit down in the game, the regulars are going to size you up so you want to feed them some seemingly reliable information so that they will pigeonhole you into one of their standard stereotypes. Here is phase one of your gameplan: 1) Take your banroll, separate $600 and place it in your wallet and put the rest in your shoe. When you buy in be sure to let everyone get a good glance at your billfold and see how much money you have. The easiest thing to do is to take the bills out of your wallet, spread the bills, and pluck out $300. Buy in for the minimum--$300 in the $30-$60 HE. Make it look like you have only $600 to gamble with and that your chips mean a lot to you. If you are married it might help to have your wife sit behind sporting a disapproving demeanor--as if she thinks you are an idiot for wasting the family savings on something as speculative as poker. If your wife/girlfriend actually thinks this so much the better. Keep her in the dark about your master plan and let her act naturally. If you really want to push it, have your wife take the money out of her purse and hand it to you to buy in with. 2) Start off playing a very limited number of starting hands. Some guidelines (see Ciaffonne, Improve Your Poker p. 54 for more detail): A) Do not defend your blinds or try to steal the blinds with borderline hands. B) Do not raise the pot without AQ or 99. In fact, don't raise the pot at all without AK or AA, KK, QQ, or JJ. C) Do not bet after the flop without having top pair or better except to take one stab on the flop if the pot is short handed or raggedy cards come. D) Do not call a raise cold unless you were going to raise yourself. 3) If you happen to win a hand without a showdown, let the person who folded when you bet see your hand. For instance if you have Ax, an ace flops, you bet, and the person folds, flash him the ace to let him know that you are a "solid" player who rarely gets out of line. 4) Look at your cards and if you are going to muck throw you hand away very quickly. The idea is that you have a fixed idea of what hands you are going to play, you look at your cards, and if you don't see a premium hand, you immediately muck. You want it to look like you view your hand in absolute terms rather than using the sophisticated criteria of a skilled player, e.g. three betting to get heads up, re-raising a raiser trying to get heads up, raising in the small blind to drive out the big blind, calling with small pairs only if you are likely to get 5-way action etc. 5) Display a few standard but not obvious tells. Some good ones are calling quickly when you have a draw and re-checking your cards when three cards to a flush flop or appear on the turn, and staring at the flop when the flop misses. 6) Display a few wannabe PPP mannerisms such as not looking at your cards until the action gets to you or very consciously betting with the exact same timing, motion, and stacking action. 7) It is important during Phase 1 that you avoid certain standard plays such as betting a scare card e.g. when a ace turns in a heads up or 3-way pot, betting on the river when the third flush card hits and you don't have a flush, or betting into the field when a pair flops and you don't have trips. If you try any of these moves and get caught, it will ruin your image. If you do this for about an hour, the Las Vegas professionals will stereotype you as a weak tight novice talking a shot in the "big" game. You are playing cautiously because you are in awe of the big time Las Vegas professionals and are afraid to make a fool of yourself by, for instance, raising without the the nuts. It will be established in their minds that you are only betting when you have a big hand, check calling with merely good hands and 8+ out draws, and check folding mediocre and weak hands (second pair, top pair/no kicker, etc.). Phase 1 should take about an hour. Here is Phase 2 of your plan. You have established in their minds that you are a weak tight player who will only bet the nuts, now you are going to exploit this false image. You are going to use one or a combination of 3 tools, the pre-flop re-raise, the check-raise on the flop, and the check raise on turn and you are going to look for a situation where you are heads-up or 3-way against Bellagio regulars and the pot is medium to large size. Your goal is to bluff or semi-bluff the Bellagio regulars out of 2 or 3 medium to large size pots where you have nothing or a draw. Don't try anything when there are other tourists in the pot---your carefully created image has gone way over their heads and, besides, they won't lay down a hand anyway. Also, don't try anything when the pot is small. You move will work but it isn't worth sqandering the image you've created. You have to observe the game and figure out when a good opportunity for your move appears. Here are some guidelines. 1) Look for a situation pre-flop where one of the Las Vegas professionals is isolation raising. If you have position, 3-bet. Follow through by betting or raising on the flop and turn. 2) In any pot which becomes heads up on the turn where the Las Vegas professional has been the bettor, check raise the Las Vegas professional and follow up by betting the river. 3) When you call a raise in the blinds, check raise the flop or turn when scare cards hit. By scare card I mean where two adjacent cards flop, 67,89, 45, etc hit on the flop, wen the turn would give suited connectors two pair, or when the turn would complete a straight if you had suited connectors, e.g. A56 on the flop and a 9 on the turn. The key is to think of your action pre-flop-limp, raise, call a raise or re-raise and then when you check raise bluff on the river or turn that you could plausibly hold a hand which when combined with the board gives you a powerful holding. You can probably get away with your move 2 or 3 times. After you have stolen 2 or 3 pots, get up and leave the game. Also, if you are forced to showdown and the other players see what you have done, you should leave the game. Of course, there is no guarantee that you will post a win. You might check raise into a set or a big overpair, but, IMHO, if you follow this plan you will be a clear favorite.