Blind Alley

In the dark

I went to Vegas and thought it rude not to have a go at a tournament at Caesars Palace. At my table, there was a chap who kept ‘checking in the dark’ and ‘betting blind’. I’ve never done either, but can’t argue with them given this guy went on to come second! Can you tell me why I’d ever want to check in the dark or bet blind?

David Prowler, via email

Checking in the dark is usually a sign of weakness. Occasionally the person doing it has a massive hand and is trying to feign weakness. I don’t take notice of when people do it against me. If you do it, you’re leaving yourself no options. When poker is a game of informed choices, why play not knowing what cards are going to be turned over? Some people believe that checking in the dark puts the decision on someone else, but what if they bet out? Ultimately, you’re still going to have to make a decision. If you’re worried that you may give off tells regarding the relative strength of your hand, then you should be working on improving your ability to hide your tells, not hiding from the problem. Like checking in the dark, betting blind is defi nitely not something I’d recommend. It may seem as though you’re shielding the strength of your hand, but again, you’re cutting short your options and could just be wasting your chips on rags.

Case closed

Recently a hand came up which I’ve just been going over and over in my head. Please give me closure! I’m on the big blind with A-10os holding about 17k in chips, making me a biggish stack at our table. Blinds are 200/400 with a 50 running ante. Everyone folds around to the button, who has lost a lot of chips since moving to our table. He’s been very aggressive so far, raising lots of blinds, limped pots and checked boards. He looks at his cards, reaches for his chips, puts some in then reaches back for the rest of his chips and makes it 2k.

I complain, there’s a floor ruling and he can only put in the minimum raise. I think he’s on an attempted steal so I put in a re-raise to take it there and raise another 2k. He shrugs and calls me as if to say, ‘So why did you stop me betting?’ The fl op drops Q-8-6 rainbow. I check to him with the intention of re-raising a small bet but he throws in 4k. He had around 5k left. I thought for ages about putting him in before folding.

Did I make mistakes? If so, what should I have done?

John via email

You did the right thing in passing. You’d committed only 2k to the pot and the 15k you had left was plenty to play with. There was nothing wrong with the initial re-raise. You could have put him all-in, but then again A-10os isn’t that great a hand. At the end of the day, the 4k that he bet on the flop is still a substantial chunk of his stack, which means he could have A-Q, medium pocket pair. You were right to check to him. If you’d bet out, he could have come over the top and gone all-in, and there’s no way you could call. Even if he’s just trying it on, you missed the flop completely and would have to be very brave to re-raise him with absolutely no kind of draw.

Follow the fish

My friends and I were having an argument about the best type of poker to make a steady income. Some of them say it’s limit hold’em cash games, another guy reckons it’s pot-limit Omaha, whilst I think it’s no-limit tournaments. What do you reckon? What do you make most of your income from and why?

Pete, via email

Pick your game according to where the fish are. That’s how you make money. I once told a friend who made a lot of money in an Omaha game, ‘You won money not because you played really well, but because the other players played badly.’ The swings in a potlimit game could be greater than in a limit game. Over the years, PLO has earned me a good wage because I know where I stand half the time. You can see the nuts more easily. Suppose you have two Aces and the fl op comes A-Q-3, you pretty much know you have the nuts. You don’t have as much of a guarantee in hold’em. As for the money-making potential between tournaments and cash games, remember that you can go for a long time without winning a tournament. You must use cash games to supplement your tournament buy-ins. Watch out for people who bring ‘power money’ to the cash games – they’ll take more chances, and play looser.