Dial M for Poker

I must be the worst tourist ever: in the second half of 2010, I went to Goa half a dozen times and never saw a beach. I suspect there are many others like me, for whom Goa conjures up images not of the sun and the sand and the awesome food, but of full houses and quads and grown men banging tables as they’re delivered yet another bad beat. A decade from now, 2010 might well be remembered as the year Indian poker started coming of age. Goa is the epicentre of that.

This is especially so when it comes to tournament poker. High stakes cash games now abound in all the Indian metros, but if you want to play regular well-organised tournaments, there’s no place yet quite like Casino Royale. I’ve played multiple editions of the IPC, the IPS and the Aces Unlimited Tourneys there, reaching seven final tables out of about twice that number, and the turnout keeps growing at a staggering pace. The quality of play has gone up at the final tables -- but so, I’m afraid to say, has the amount of donkamental play before that.

At the last IPC tourney I played, four of the first six hands dealt at my table saw all-in moves. Almost a fourth of the hands dealt in the first two levels saw someone moving all-in. (The only time I called one, my KK got busted by KTo.) The game can become a bit bingoish when the blinds go up too fast (though I’d contend there is much skill involved there as well), but it was sick to see such wild play so early in the tourney, when everyone at the table had between 50 to 100 big blinds. It also made me wonder what these rinse-and-repeat all-in pushers thought the game was all about. Perhaps they’d learnt their poker from Facebook, or even television, where selected hands shown from the last stages of tourneys feature a much higher percentage of shoves than you actually see in actual play.

To be successful in the long run in tournaments, though, it isn’t enough to be fearless enough to shove everytime you think you’ve been dealt a good hand. Poker is about situations and the people you’re playing with, and the cards you’re dealt are just a small part of the puzzle. In a tournament, context is important. And to understand context, you need to keep in mind, always, during every single hand that you play, your M Ratio.

This is not complex mathematical jargon. The M Ratio is a number that is, quite simply, the figure you come up with when you divide your stack by the cost of a round. (The term was popularised by Dan Harrington in his series of great books on tournament poker; the CSI, or Chip Status Index, is an independent formulation by Lee Nelson and Blair Rodman that means the same thing.) For example, if you start a tourney with 5000 chips, and the blinds are 25 and 50, the cost of a round is 75 and your M is 5000/75, which is 66.6. If your stack is 10,000 and the blinds are 400 and 800, with antes of 100 on a nine handed table, the cost of a round is 2100, and you have an M of 4.8. These two situation require drastically different kinds of play, and while it is correct to go all-in with AQ with an M of 4.8, it would be moronic to do so with an M of 66.

Basically, the higher your M, the more play you have in the tournament. When your M is over 20, you can afford to play speculative hands, but it is pointless to commit too much to the pot without a seriously good holding: the risk-to-reward ratio just isn’t worth it. This is a good time to play suited connectors, suited gappers and small pairs -- because you are deep-stacked, and so, presumably, are your opponents, you have the implied hands to play hands like those. When you hit a set or a straight, you are quite likely to bust a high pocket pair, as many players find it impossible to let AA or KK go on a 89T flop with two to a flush.

There are two approaches to playing with deep stacks in a tournament. The old-school, classical approach is to play really tight, wait for premium hands, and not try fancy moves. A newer, more aggressive approach, exmplified by the likes of Gus Hansen and Daniel Negreanu, is to play lots of hands very cheap, try to outplay more conventional opponents on the flop, and build your stack by using the power of your deep stack, instilling fear in your opponents, who are scared of taking too many risks early. The old-school player, if he starts with AsJs and sees a flop of 9TJ with two hearts and a player pushing all-in, will consider folding, given how wet the flop is. The aggro internet pro, if he has 67o with one heart on such a flop, puts his opponent on AJ, and senses fear, will gladly raise and reraise as a semi-bluff to get top pair to fold. Depending on where you come from, both the AK fold and the 67o push make sense.

The aggressive players can go bust early, but they can also become chip leaders on the final table, because they know how to accumulate lots of chips without putting their entire stack at risk. The conventional players are less likely to go bust early, and if they loosen up as the blinds rise and their M goes down, they’ll do just fine. If you’re a beginning player, and are less likely to outplay other players after the flop, I recommend you stick to the conventional style: play tight when your M is high, and loosen up as your M comes down.

When your M reaches 15 and below, speculative hands lose value, and you’re better off playing more premium hands. For example, if you have 22,000 chips with blinds/antes of 400/800/100, you have an M of just over 10, and a standard raise to three times the big blind would be 2400. If you have, say, 89s, it doesn’t make sense to call a raise for more than a tenth of your stack. That hand would be good for a call if you had a M of, say 30, with high implied odds. The same logic applies to small pairs. You’ll hit a set once in eight hands, but your implied odds are far more than 8 to 1 because very often you won’t get paid off. (For example, if you have 33, the opponent has KK, and the flop comes A32, the A is a scare card for him.) As a rule of thumb, I play small pockets when I have implied odds of 15 to 1, or a really small M -- but we’ll come to that.

When your M goes below 10, you’re in the danger zone. You have to play your premium hands strongly, use position without fear, and take a few risks to take your M higher. If you have an M of 6 and everyone folds to you on the button, for example, and you look down at A8o, you might want to shove here. Unless the small blind or the big blind are also either short-stacked or desperate, or really deep-stacked, they are unlikely to call: their chances of having a better ace or pockets are negligible, and the situation demands that you take the risk. Early in the tournament, it is unadvisable to play a marginal hand like A8o; but desperate times call for desperate measures.

By the time your M reaches 5, you have only two moves in your arsenal: all-in or fold. If your M gets any lower, your stack will be so small that you won’t have fold equity left: with an M of 2, you’re practically guaranteed a caller when you go all-in. So you have to make your moves right away. Any pocket pair or medium ace or two face cards could be good for a push here. One important principle to remember, though, is that you should always try to be first to the pot with whatever move you make, unless you have a truly premium holding: KJo is good to make a move with if you’re first to the pot, but you should probably fold it if two other people with similar stacks have gone all in before you.

Naturally, the M Ratio is a very basic concept, and there are hazaar situational complexities to consider during a journey through a tournament. You have to consider the other players at the table, your table image, your position during every hand, the stage the tournament is in (during the bubble, when most players are scared of not making the money, it pays to be aggressive and steal blinds and antes), and so on. But without keeping in mind your M Ratio, you will not know where you stand in the greater scheme of things, and are likely to miss making the optimal play. So do remember the key to success: Dial M for Poker.

And yeah, the next time you go all in preflop on my table in the first hand of the tournament with KTo, and make me fold AQs, I will rise from my chair and physically kick your ass. Be warned!

Amit Varma is a consulting editor of Yahoo! India, and has written for various Indian and international publications. He won the Bastiat Prize for Journalism in 2007. He writes the popular blog, India Uncut, at www.indiauncut.com. He is a regular final-tablist at local tournaments, and was runner up in the IPC Main Event in September 2010

By Amit Varma

Aces Unlimited

Aces Unlimited, a multi-format tournament series kicked off in Goa at Casino Royale during the month of November and lasted for 4 days, from the 18th to the 21st. The tournament, which varied not only in the buy-ins but also in the format of play, included the following:

DAY 1 - 18TH NOVEMBER - 5K RE-BUY+ADD-ON TOURNAMENT



The Rs. 5000 re-buy tournament kicked off at 8:45 pm with 68 entrants and was action packed right from the beginning with a player getting knocked out in the first hour. The re-buys were rampant with table 9 leading the way in the number of re-buys. Bad beats were conspicuous by their absence with hands like AQ legitimately holding up against AT and AK’s predictably splitting pots without the one card flushes etc. The end of the re-buy period saw a lot of action but the play sobered up after with the elimination of one player and a three way all in won by KK being the only hands worth mentioning.

By about 12:10 am the prizes were announced with the final 9 being in the money. With 44 players left and the blinds increasing, the short stack players really started to feel the pressure leading to aggressive play which resulted in all-ins all around and 4 players busting out in the next hour.

The elimination of the bubble boy took place at 3:25 am and the final 9 were left fighting for the Aces Title. The first from the final table to get knocked out was Remesh R, when his QQ were beat in a 3 way pot. With the money bubble crossed, play got more exciting as players took more chances and made plays at others. Amit Varma however owes his 8th place elimination to this tactic, when he pushed all in on a stone cold bluff and got called by Anand Dalmia with top pair who happened to be the next player to get sent home. Intervention then proceeded to eliminate the rest of the competition by knocking out Prashant and Stanley Decosta in two consecutive hands, soon to be followed by Kavin and Jober, which left him to play heads up with Anil D. After a lot of all-ins, Anil, left with a short stack pushed all in with Q7, only to be called by Aditya with T5o, who upon hitting his 5 pair on the river won the tournament.

DAY 2 - 19TH NOVEMBER - 12K KNOCK-OUT BOUNTY TOURNAMENT



The knock-out bounty tournament kicked off to a late start and saw the first elimination bounty collected well within the first hour of play. The players were eager to eliminate each other and therefore the game was aggressive all around. There was a twist in the tale when the tournament organizers announced an extra 2K bounty on Aces Unlimited Event 1 winner Aditya ‘Intervention Agarwal and Poker Dream Challenge WSOP 2011 package winner Rajesh Goyal, as these 2 players were far ahead of the others in terms of both stack sizes and bounty’s collected. However within the next hour and a half, Intervention got sent home courtesy Rohit Bhalla who at this point had a very good chance to win the tournament. Rajesh on the other hand, was going strong, continuously adding more and more bounty’s to his kitty and
eventually eliminating Anand, leaving the final 9 to battle it out for the title. Santosh was the first elimination at the final table and Sanjay was the bubble boy after being eliminated in 7th place. Within the next half an hour, the final table was down to 2 players with Sanjay, Amit, Vikram and Mukul being sent home in quick succession. The heads up game between the final 2 lasted all of 5 minutes after which Rajesh Goyal’s A9 won against Sandeep Gadodia’s KJ in a pre flop all in and the Poker Dream Challenge WSOP 2011 package
winner won the Aces Unlimited 12K Bounty tournament.

DAY 3 - 20TH NOVEMBER - 15K SHOOT-OUT TOURNAMENT



The third day saw 42 players registered playing at 6 tables, with the last person left on each table advancing to the final table. The tournament was action packed and fast paced with eliminations and double-ups all around.

The final table, which was formed at about 1:50 am included Rajeev, Abhay, Pankaj, Jasven, Mike and
Farukh S. The final table saw quite a bit of action as many players tried their hand at bluffing and making plays. To add to the excitement, the tournament organizers announced a bounty worth 5k in vouchers courtesy Provogue on Rajeev Kanjani. The time came for the final table to take its first break and at this point Mike was chip leader with 12700 chips and Farukh was the shortest stack with just 3150 chips. Considering his short stack he was admirably not the first to get eliminated when play resumed but did follow Pankaj in 6th place to get knocked out 5th. Mike then proceeded to add to his stack by knocking out Rajeev K. and collected the 5k in vouchers as well. With the consequent elimination of Abhay due to 2 all in pots that he lost, it was heads up between Jasven and Mike.

The final few hands of the tournament saw a significant turn of fortunes as Mike lost consecutive hands to Jasven, whose 33 ended up wining him the tournament in a pre flop all in against Mike’s Td2d.

DAY 4 - 21ST NOVEMBER - 20K FREEZE/ SHOOT-OUT TOURNAMENT

The final day of the tournament saw 23 players with 10K stacks fighting it out for the Main Event championship. There was action early on in the tournament with 3 eliminations within the first half an hour of play, 2 of which were courtesy Rajiv Raut, who as a result was sitting on a monster stack. By the time the prize pool was announced there were 19 players left and it was after this that the action really started heating up with pot sizes increasing and players being eliminated.

The final table was formed relatively quickly, just 3.5 hours into the tournament and was quite the table as it included Jasven who won the Shootout Event the day before, Rajesh Goyal who won the Aces Unlimited Event 2 and The Poker Dream Challenge and Lawrence Sanjay who won a WSOP package in The Poker Dream Challenge among others.

There was some early action seen with Abhay doubling up followed by Pankaj M being the first elimination, all within 15 minutes of play. Shortly after Lawrence busted out as his KJ, top pair with jack kicker was beaten by Abhay’s KQ. Amit Verma was the next player to be sent home and Ricky Chopra was the unfortunate bubble boy as his KJ was beaten by Abhay’s AQ in a pre flop all in. The very next hand saw the elimination of short-stacked Rajeev Raut once again thanks to Abhay, followed by the elimination of Girish in 4th place. Jasven was the player to get knocked out in 3rd place after a very unlucky pre flop all in against Rajesh, where his QT got beaten by J10 all thanks to a J that hit on the turn. The last 40 minutes of the tournament involved intense heads up play between Rajesh Goyal and Abhay and culminated in one final hand where Rajesh raised pre flop with Kh2h and got called by Abhay with JcQh. The flop saw a huge hand for Rajesh with top pair and flush draw and only mid pair for Abhay. On the turn, once the flush hit and both players ended up going all in, the deal was sealed in favor of Rajesh who became the champion of the Aces Unlimited Main Event, his second title during the tournament series.

Pot Odds Made Easy

The time has come to remove the confusion that surrounds the subject of pot odds while also making the arithmetic easier, as some players have difficulty with concept and others stumble over the practical task of calculating them in the heat of the moment.

Calculating pot odds is an essential part of any poker player’s game. Without it there is no way of knowing whether the price paid to make a hand is worth it with respect to the amount that can be earned from other players once the hand is made. By understanding this fundamental relationship, skillful high percentage poker can be played as opposed to treating the game simply like another form of gambling.

The calculations involve comparing the total number of unknown cards with the cards required to complete a hand – the ‘outs’ – and then doing some really simple division.

For example, whenever you have a nut flush draw on the turn in a hold’em game, there are 46 unknown cards (53 minus your 2 cards and the 4 on the board). Out of these 46 cards, 37 will not help in making your hand but the any one of the remaining 9 which are the same suit as your draw will give you nut flush.

To calculate the odds simply divide the number of cards that will not help you by the number that will, in this case that is 37/9, making your odds 4.1 to 1. Playing percentage poker in this case will mean calling a bet only if the pot is four times the size of the bet.

For the kind of player who enjoys playing for inside straights or gut shots and other long-shot draws, these calculations do not bode well. The odds for hands like these to hit are almost abysmal considering on the turn there are only 4 outs as compared to the other 42 cards that won’t help at all. Doing the math, the chance of hitting such a draw is less than 9%. The same figure expressed in odds is 10.5 to 1, which translates the pot having to be more than 10 times the cost of the call in order to make it worthwhile. The odds against 2 pairs outdrawing a flush are almost exactly the same since only 4 cards will elevate the two pair to a full house and result in winning the hand. This leads to the obvious question of when can draws like this be chased? Plainly put, on two occasions and two only. The first, if the stakes being played are incredibly low considering the bankroll and the game is being played purely for fun and the money just doesn’t matter. The second, where the other players on the table are complete lunatics, whose collective motto is: “All bets called, all the time”. Keeping in mind the odds, more than 10 times the amount of the call would need to be won in order to justify this kind of draw. However, if the realistic possibility of winning a pot of Rs. 25,000 exists by calling an inside straight draw for Rs 2,000, there is no reason to fold… At all!

Most players however find it difficult to concentrate on the cards in play and their opponents while trying to do calculations at the poker table. Fortunately there are simplified methods that enable players to approximate the percentage of time that they’ll make their hand.

One such easy method is multiplying the outs by 2 and then adding 2 to that figure. The result is a rough percentage of the times that the hand will get made. For instance, if you have a flush draw on the turn, you have 9 outs. 9 times 2 equals 18, and 18 plus 2 equals 20, which is the rough percentage of the times that you’ll hit the flush and is pretty close to the mathematically calculated figure of 19.6.

If you have only 4 outs, the quick proximate measure (4 outs x 2 + 2 = 10) is very close to the actual figure of 10.5. Similarly, if you have 15 outs, the quick measure yields a figure of 32, while the mathematically precise measure is 32.6.

Using these figures to play a hand right is now very easy. If you have a10% chance of winning the hand, a bet worth more than 10% of the pot’s total should not be called. However, if you have a 32% chance of winning, then a bet of up to one third the size of the pot can be called.

There is another easy method to estimate your chances on the flop without the need for much calculation. If you have up to 8 outs, quadruple them. 8 outs multiplied by 4 is 32 and while the accurate figure is 31.5%. With 4 outs, this method yields a result of 16, while the accurate figure is 16.5%.

For 9 outs, which is a common occurrence as it is the number of outs for a four-flush, quadruple the outs and subtract 1. The resulting figure of 35 is the same as the mathematically precise figure. This method can be used for calculating approximate percentages for up to 12 outs, though for 12 outs the resulting figure is 47, which is quite a bit removed from the exact figure of 45%.

For 13 to 16 outs quadruple the number of outs and subtract 4. The resulting figure will not differ from the mathematically calculated figure by more than 2 percentage points. A point to remember at this moment is that the second a hand has more than 14 outs, that hand becomes the odds-on favorite to win the pot and bets of any size become worthwhile.

While the two methods mentioned above are extremely easy and do not require players to spend too much time on calculating their odds, it is easier to just memorize the odds and not waste even a fraction of a second on such calculations. A chart is provided here that makes it easy to learn the odds against all of the common draws players are likely to come up against in a hold’em game.

This chart shows odds against making your hand in hold'em with two cards to come (the turn and the river), as well as with one card (the river) remaining.

Chasing unprofitable draws can be a major flaw in a person’s game and for many it is the only reason that they are recurring losers as opposed to recurring winners. With the help of the two methods given above as well as the chart, all that needs to be done to avoid such play is calculating or approximating the pot size and comparing it with the size of the bet. It is actually that easy.

Iso Play

Aditya Agarwal is 26 years old Drexel University BBA graduate and a professional poker player for the past 6 years. He plays online with the alias 'intervention' and specialises in No Limit Holdem Tournaments and has over 3.2 MILLION USD in online tournament cashes and 175,000 USD in live tournament cashes. He is a poker pro at www.pokerguru.in where you can watch his training videos absolutely free.

IsoPlay

Hey guys, I am very excited to be part of the CardPlayer India team and to be writing strategy articles for them. 

India has witnessed a poker boom recently and as more and more people take to the game, I think it is very important to explain the basics. In these articles I will attempt to explain various plays that will hopefully aid beginners and mid stage players in taking their game to the next level. The aforementioned plays are the ones I was fortunate enough to learn when I started playing under the guidance of some of the best in the world of poker.

A disclaimer, I am not a writer, actually far from it, but I will work with the CardPlayer  team to bring you these articles so please do give me feedback and I will try my best to improve on future articles.

In this article I would like to discuss the concept of isolation play. One of the biggest and most common mistakes made by beginners is the attempt to see cheap flops, i.e. flops where there is no or little pre flop raise, as they are under the misconception that any two cards can win. It is this mentality that draws a lot of new players to the game to take a shot at it and try their luck.

The problem with this strategy is that the mathematics of the game are such that it not profitable to see numerous flops with mediocre hands such as A6, A7, K7, K8, Q8, J7, J6, 69, 6T, 58, 48 and so on. Hands such as these are simply not strong enough to win large pots but are weak enough to lose large ones. Beginners specifically should avoid hands like these and as a general rule should not play hands that in their opinion are not good enough to raise themselves. Remember:-

‘If its not worth raising, its not worth limping’.

Most beginners however go against this rule and limp their weaker hands while raising the their stronger hands. If you spot a player who limps a lot on your table, it is fairly easy to exploit this ‘chronic limper’ by following the ‘iso play strategy’.  Iso Play simply means isolating a weak player who is limping weak hands by making a raise to drive other players out of the hand and playing your targeted player one on one, in the event that he calls your raise. The aim behind this is to punish the player for limping. Very often, players such as these are stubborn and will call your raise, but will not continue to play unless they have hit the flop. Further, since they are calling weak hands pre flop, the probability of them hitting a majority of flops is low and a bet from you on the flop will usually be enough to make them fold, thereby enabling you win the pot, larger due to the pre flop raise, with ease.

The iso play strategy can be explained further with the help of an example. Assume you’re playing on a table where the blinds are 100-200 and you have managed to isolate Player A as a chronic limper who simply wants to see cheap flops and many of them. Once he limps pre flop as usual, you raise to 900 (an iso raise), hoping that everyone else folds and you take down the pot. However, even though your aim was to steal the blinds, you don’t mind Player A calling, as your read on him suggests that he limps his weaker hands while raising the stronger ones and since he didn’t raise himself, it is safe to assume that he does not have a big hand and consequently can be made to fold post flop. An isolation raise ideally ranges from 3 to 5 times the limp, which in this example would be between 600 and 1000. However, in the event of the table being dominated by loose players who are willing to call smaller raises pre flop, the ideal isolation raise should be increased in order to prevent other players from calling. Additionally, adjustments should be made according to stack sizes, the deeper the stack the higher the raise and the shallower the stack the smaller the raise (in order to provide yourself with more room to play the hand post flop). Assuming the only person calling your raise is Player A and the flop is K 4 6, a continuation bet ranging from half to two thirds of the pot should be made, knowing that there is a good chance that he has missed the flop considering the wide range of hands that could have been limped by him. The only scenario in which Player A will call the continuation bet is if he has hit the King and even then in all probability it would not be a strong King and therefore the potential of making him fold later on in the hand exists.

Hands like A2, A3, K9, Q9 are all examples of hands that beginners try to see cheap flops with and are also those that don’t flop well.  Typically, when they call your raise they play their hand face up post flop. As a result, a continuation bet is a must as most beginners are not crafty enough to make a move on flops they have missed and will end up folding a majority of the times, making this play very profitable.

For those of you who are wondering what range of hands you should be isolating these limpers with, well the answer is simple. It can be done with almost any 2 cards as the percentage of winning the hand on the flop are very high, both due to the player you have chosen to be your opponent and due to your betting pattern.

Personally, I prefer raising suited connected hands like 45, 67, 89 and so on as these hands are really well disguised when you raise a limper pre flop and are fairly simple to play on the flop. Moreover, I would also be making iso raises with all my stronger hands, which I would be raising for value since I expect the limper to be calling with hands that I have dominated. For instance, if I see someone limping in hands like Q9, K9 etc, I will be making iso raises with a range of hands as wide as KJ, KT, QJ etc so that I can play the hand post flop against this player as I will have him outkicked. 

Hope I was able to explain this play, if there are any questions or clarification please do go ahead and give me feedback at info@theshark.in or  Pokerguru.in 

By: Aditya Intervention Agarwal

INDIA POKER CHAMPIONSHIP (IPC) 3rd-6th Dec 2010 at Casino Royale, Goa

The first weekend of December saw the 4^th edition of the India Poker Championship (IPC) take place on board Casino Royale in Goa. The IPC has been growing quickly and is recognized as the biggest, most successful poker tournament in the country.The December edition of the Championship was expected to be even bigger than usual given certain additions made by the organizers to the event-The crowning of the India Poker Champion and the introduction of the IPC Player of the Year.

Day 1

The IPC 5k Freezeout eventually saw 110 players take part by the time late registrations had closed. Having taken player feedback into account, the organizers has increased the starting stack to 5000 as well introduced some additional blind levels to allow more play. The action as is typical of lower buy-in tournaments began fast and furious and there were plenty of all-ins and knockouts within the first couple of hours. By the time the final table was reached,the chip lead was with tournament veteran and well known local pro Anil ‘The Machine’ Gulati who was making his second IPC final table after the inaugural March event. It was not going to be easy as one former IPC winner and runner-up in the form of Sameer (June 10k winner) and Amit (Sep 20k 1^st runner-up) were also in the hunt with very healthy stacks. Kavish had built himself to a substantial stack but in a space of two hands was eliminated by Sameer. The action though was driven by Ricky Chopra who knocked out Amey, Grenville and Ridhesh Sejpal. He also crippled Sameer hitting his 2 outer on the river. Sameer was eventually knocked out in 4^th place while Santosh Govindaraj in 3^rd was another Ricky Chopra victim. It was then time for headsup between Ricky and Anil. After many hands being traded and lots of flops being seen, Ricky laid a crippling blow to Anil’s stack when his trip 2s beat out Anil’s top pair on the flop. There were pre-mature celebrations but Craig Wildman, the IPC tournament director quickly clarified that Anil had the bigger stack before that hand and so headsup would continue. But the comeback dream was not to be as Ricky took down the IPC 5k Freezeout with a very commendable 2^nd place finish for The Machine

Day 2

The next day was the IPC 10k Freezeout which was expected to have a decent turnout. By the time the late entries got done, there were 100 players in the tournament! This was a record turnout across all tournaments held in Goa for a similar buy-in! The 10k tournament had an added buzz because we had a celebrity in the house in the form of Bollywood star Harman Baweja. The previous evening’s champion Ricky Chopra gets knocked in the 2^nd level itself when his flopped straight get hammered by his opponent’s turned full house. Other prominent names to get get knocked out in the early stages – Rajesh Goyal, Farukh Shaikh, Prabhat Saini and Sameer Rattonsey.

On the final table,the short stack, Aditya is the first to go after his pocket 6s run into Rosh’s Cowboys. After taking a few hits and getting reduced to just one 1000 chip, it was soon Vishwanath’s turn to exit in 9^th place courtesy Akash Malik. Girish and Umesh are the next two to go in 8^th and 7^th taken out by Avinash and Rosh respectively. Our repeat final tablist from Day 1 Kavish made an impressive run again in a 100 player field to make it out in 6^th place. The big chipleader at the start of the final table, Harman also made his presence felt at the table by knocking out Ali in 5^th position. Down to 4-way action and each of these players would be taking home a minimum of one lac for their efforts. Rosh was the first to get eliminated when Harman (KK) hits the stone cold nuts on a flop of K 2 2! Harman continues his knockout run when his A K busts out Avinash’s 8 T. It then got down to headsup between Akash Malik and Harman Baweja. There were lots of hands which shifted the chip lead frequently between the two. Eventually both players get it in with Akash holding A 7 against Harman’s K Q. With no help on the board, Harman is knocked out in 2^nd and Akash Malik from Delhi is the winner of the IPC 10k Freezeout.

Day 3

The 25k Freezeout had been dubbed the Main Event of the IPC.The Main Event would also see the winner being crowned as the first ever India Poker Champion! With 87 entries, this event saw one of the largest prizepools in Goa tournament history.The Main Event had a deepstack structure which was a major point of attraction for tournament players. It also helped that there was a Minimum Guaranteed Prizepool of INR 10,00,000 which of course was almost doubled as a result of the huge turnout. In the early levels a big hand took place between the 5k winner Ricky Chopra (A A) and the online phenom Aditya ‘Intervention’ Agarwal (K K). The board had an A and a K which of course meant all the money went in and Ricky’s bullets held with nothing further to help Intervention. Halfway into the tournament we saw eliminations of names like Lawrence Sanjay, Rajesh Goyal, Harman Baweja and Gaurav Law. A few levels later more knockouts in the form of Denny Tait, Anil Gulati and Sandeep Narayanan. Narayanan in fact was knocked out by Cardplayer India’s Dhaval Mudgal who had been fighting a quiet and determined battle right through. Shortly into the 14^th Level with the tournament clock just under the 8 hour mark, tournament director Craig Wildman announced that we should forget the November 9 as we now had the India Poker Championship’s ‘December Nine’.

The first elimination of the final table was tournament regular Bobbe Suri. Bobbe who had a healthy stack entering the final table had one hand against Amit Jain whose pockets Jacks hit got a break on the river to hit trip against Bobbe’s K Q which had hit a K on the flop. This was a monster pot which left Bobbe severely shortstacked on just 2000 in chips. He did manage to quadruple up but got busted by Jan’s T T which sent Bobbe’s Q J off to the rails. In the mean while Sushant (Q 6) rivered a straight to eliminate Rahul Melwani (K J ) in 8th position. One of the biggest pots of the night took place between Prabeer (A K) who had Amit Jain (A Q) dominated preflop but could only shake his head when a Q hit the flop and then the turn to knock him out in 7^th. It was then the turn of the initial chip leader Abhishek Goindi who shoved with A 6 and was quickly called by Aditya Sushant (K T)- once again, no love for Abhishek who exited in 6^th as Aditya made top pair on the flop.

Through all this Card Player’s very own Dhaval Mudgal had been playing patiently looking for a spot to commit all his chips into the pot and did so when he looked down to see A 4 suited. Its Aditya once again who calls with A Q. No help for Dhaval on the board and he exits from the Main Event in 5^th place. Aditya is on an absolute tear as he eliminates Pokerguru pro Jan Hlobil and Amit Jain in 4^th and 3^rd positions. After a few hands, not to mention a lot of drama, Aditya gets his chips in with a pair of 5s and Farukh decides to make the call for his tournament life with Jd 9d. The flop 8s 3d 5d giving Aditya trip 5s but Farukh is still in it with a flush draw and when the turn brings a 7 his chances improve with a gutshot possibility being added to the flush. A huge sweat for both players as the river drops a harmless 4 and Aditya Sushant is the new India Poker Champion! He played a very aggressive game and often times won the hand when he was behind. But modern poker is about aggression and Aditya was rewarded with Indian poker’s biggest prize for taking the risks that he did. A special mention for first runner-up Farukh who had been battling illness since he got into Goa even being hospitalized for a few hours on Day 1.

Day 4

The final event of the weekend was another 5k Freezeout. The organizers had mentioned there were requests in past events to add Sunday night to the tournament weekend for those folks who could stay back. Keeping that in mind and also to appeal to the smaller stakes player, the IPC 5k Freezeout was introduced for this December event. The action was very loosey-goosey as many players got their chips in with marginal hands. There were a few bad beats but most ended up paying the price with the loss of their tournament life. Eventually at the end of the late entries, there were 93 runners.

Several prominent names got knocked out before the end of the 4^th level including the India Poker Champion Aditya Sushant, Arjjun Singh and Rajesh Goyal. Main Event runner-up Farukh Shaikh and Dhaval Mudgal too got eliminated a couple of levels later. As the tournament progressed the number of bad beats seemeed to go up.

After a series of deep runs, Aditya ‘Intervention’ Aggarwal finally made his first final table of the IPC, that too as overwhelming chipleader.. First elimination on the final table was Lawrence Sanjay who had quite the run coming into the final table knocking out several players. But his T T were no match for Dr. Ravi’s pair of Ladies. But the good doctor was unable to last long getting knocked out in 8^th place. Intervention who’d taken a huge beat against Satish earlier was now once again staring at elimination from his nemesis who’d made the call. A King on the flop for Satish and Aditya goes out in 7^th place. The man with the spiky hair, funky red shades and spicy name, Raghav ‘Chilly’ Singh was the next to go in 6^th place knocked out by Sachit. Rocky Motwani then busts out Satish in 5^th place and follows that up by eliminating Sachit in 4^th.

3-way action then ensues between Rocky, Amith and Kavin. Kavin with pocket Jacks then eliminates Amith who was holding A T. Headsup between Kavin and Rocky goes on for a while with hands and smallish pots being traded. Rocky picks up a few pots in a row and then makes another push with A 3. Kavin calls to loud cheers from the Bombay contingent when they see a baord of 8 8 3.The turn throws up a 6 and it’s all over as the celebrations begin even as the river shows an inconsequential King. Kavish Shah is the IPC 5k winner and a commendable 2^nd place for Goa local and tournament regular Rocky.

An exciting 4 days of tournament poker, the IPC created great excitement by starting their ‘Player of the Year’ standings and the title of ‘India Poker Champion’. We at Card Player India look forward to their next event, hoping this time to add a win to our bag!

Yudhisthira’s Problem

Back to those nine guys in that smoky room (I’m just gonna assume that you read my last article), they continue to dance with each other hand after hand.  It’s getting monotonous, and then all of a sudden a loud cry from one of the players, you’ve heard it if you’ve ever been on a poker table, “how could you call that!?” followed by “unbelievable!” and the little more imaginative “you are a luck-suck artist”. This player, let’s call him ‘Big Daddy’ (an obvious reference to his size and not his origins from the Louisiana swamp lands), decides to make mistake after mistake for the next half an hour and lose all his money.  He buys in for more and without wasting a breath loses that as well, eventually leaving the room in a huff. Big Daddy, a perennial winner in the game, just lost his mind and every chip under his chin in a matter of minutes. What the hell just happened? This phenomenon is commonly known in poker circles as Tilt. Tilt is a term for a state of mental or emotional confusion or frustration in which a player adopts a less than optimal strategy, and this results in disaster for him and a windfall for whoever was around at the right time. This is not a new concept; it’s been around a long time. 

Some of you might have read the great Indian mythological epic Mahabharatha, most of you would have seen it on TV, and those of you who aren’t Indian or have been living in a cave all their lives, I suggest you go get an abridged version. In the Mahabharatha, Yudhisthira is known for his unflinching adherence to satya (truth) and dharma (righteousness), which were more precious to him than royal ambitions, material pursuits and family relations. Yudhisthira was unable to refuse when Duryodhana's (his cousin and arch-enemy) maternal uncle Shakuni, challenged him to a game of dice (might have been some distant cousin of Back Gammon). Thanks to Shakuni's mastery of the game (some believe he cheated by using loaded dice), Yudhisthira lost each game, eventually gambling away his kingdom, his wealth, his brothers and finally his wife. Owing to the protests of Vidura, and Bhishma, (the respected elders) Drona and Dhritarashtra returned all these losses. However, Shakuni challenged Yudhisthira one more time, and even after realizing that he just had a lucky escape Yudhisthira accepted and once more lost. This time, he, his brothers and his wife were forced to discharge the debt by spending thirteen years in exile, with the condition of anonymity in the last year, before they could reclaim their kingdom. Now Yudhisthira was known to be an extremely intelligent, righteous and calm man, yet this wise man fell into the trap that tilt creates and lost everything. The point is that it is an age old problem and that the best of us (even mythological heroes) aren’t immune to it. 

Tilt can happen in many situations in life. Ever wanted to do something stupid after someone cuts you off in traffic? How about at work, when you feel you have been unfairly treated by your boss? Or have you said something ridiculous to the girlfriend/boyfriend during a fight (well, that might not be tilt but we’ve all been there). But in poker it is most apparent due to the transparency of the game. There are many factors that can induce tilt, some intrinsic (psychological) some extrinsic (social). 

I'd rather not go into the deeply psychological factors like self-sabotaging personalities and other Freudian complexes because I don’t know enough about that stuff. The one that I will mention is the imbalanced pleasure pain principle. This principle claims that the pleasure you get from a win is less than the pain of a loss of the same amount. Some studies have shown (I can’t believe I used that phrase, it’s usually followed by some made up bull, so here is mine), that pain of a loss of Rs. 100 equates to the pleasure of a win of Rs.250. The excessive pain caused by this imbalance often results frustration and desperation which leads to poor decisions, a ride on the tilt train. There is another psychological factor that bears mention, Post-facto rationalization. I made that term up, just because it sounds well researched, but it is very real.  It is our ability to come up with a seemingly valid reason for our inane actions once the results of those actions are in front of us. Yudhisthira was criticized by Draupadi (his wife) for succumbing to temptation and playing dice, an art he was absolutely unskilled at, making the Pandavas prey to Shakuni and Duryodhana's evil designs and at the time he argued that it was impossible to refuse a challenge of any nature, as he was a Kshatriya (warrior caste) and was obliged to stand by the Kshatriya code of honour. That’s post-facto rationalization; it stops one from learning from our mistakes which of course makes us keep repeating them. Yudhisthira, of course later, reproached himself for weakness of mind. After all, it takes a smart man to not only realize that his actions were wrong but also that his rationalization of those actions was faulty.

The extrinsic reasons for tilt are primarily due to other players. There are players that, on purpose or unwittingly, will do things that can cause one to get upset with them. Excessive rudeness or lewdness, being heavily intoxicated at the table, and poor table etiquette are ways that players can wear on nerves.  This will result in development of animosity towards them, and before you know you are gunning for them on the table. Less than optimal decisions will be made, money will be lost and now you are in the middle of a full blown tilt attack. Conversely, the act of putting an opponent on tilt may not pay off in the short run, but if some time is put into practicing it, a player can quickly become an expert at “tilting” other players (with or without using bad manners). In theory, the long-run payoff of this tactic can have a monetarily positive expectation. Though I do not suggest it as the social losses may be too much to bear. 

So it becomes abundantly clear that a major aspect of this game (and perhaps other areas in life) is to avoid tilt.  It is my contention that given enough experience and the correct knowledge of the game (almost) anyone can become good at playing poker while the players who can do the aforementioned and control their emotions i.e. tilt, are great.

How does one avoid tilt? Understand the game you are playing. This game is about, and I can’t stress this enough, process over outcome. Disregard the outcomes of pots, particularly those that are statistically uncommon. So-called “bad beats,” when one puts a lot of chips in the pot with the best hand and still loses, deserve little thought; they are the product of variance, not bad strategy. This mindset calls for the player to understand that poker is a game of decisions and correct play in making the right bets over a long period of time.

For example, you opened up a shop that offers its customers a game where you flip a (fair) coin and every time a heads shows up you pay them Rs. 30 and when a tails show up they pay you Rs.70. Amazingly someone actually shows up to this shop and wants to play. Now heads shows up three times in a row, will you shut your shop thinking life is not fair? I would be happy that not only are these geniuses coming to my shop and playing this game but also that they have won a few times making them long term customers. Remind yourself, that every time you sit down to play this game, it is a test of your psychology. Can you withstand the pressures of the game (variance and the crazy characters on the table) and maintain objectivity and discipline? Also, if you want to avoid desperation, have the appropriate bank-roll. If you play a game of poker with a minimum buy-in of Rs. 100 and your life savings are Rs. 500, you are in a lot of trouble. Play within your means and you can evade desperation. Do you think that Yudhisthira would have bet his brothers one by one on the outcome of a skilled game without having any, had he known how to control tilt? But then again the Mahabharatha would have been quite a boring read.

We’ve all heard the old saying “Doesn’t matter who wins or loses, its how you play the game”. It’s usually blurted out by some guy as a cop out and eyes begin to roll in a caustic mixture of contempt and pity. But in this wonderful game made for stoics, how you play the game is the game. As Lord Krishna said to Arjun in the Bhagvat Gita and I paraphrase, do your karma (good deeds) and don’t worry about the results, let the chips fall where they may.

Ace King- Demystified

Vedant Thadani has been an avid no-limit texas holdem player on the New Delhi circuit since 2005. Having learnt the game while pursuing a law degree at the University of Warwick, he continued to play on a regular basis during his masters' degrees in media and communication at Goldsmiths College, University of London. He returned to Delhi a year ago and is now working as a corporate and documentary film-maker. Having spent literally thousands of hours playing both in live gamesand online, he firmly believes that every hand he plays can prove to
be a unique learning experience.

Ace King. One of the most beautiful hands to look down at, and probably the most misunderstood. Even for semi-experienced players, it’s exceptionally easy to misplay Ace King from pretty much any position. So is there any specific strategy to playing it?

Well, firstly in poker, I feel that after mastering the basics of the game, it’s always a good idea to clear your head. The basic grid is well mapped out in your mind by now, and it’s time to get rid of pre-conceived notions. Doing this will allow you to think in a more unorthodox, lucid manner and will certainly improve your game in the long run. One of the easiest pre-conceived notions that one can have at this stage is that Ace-King is a premium hand and must always be played strongly, almost as if it were Aces or Kings. Undoubtedly, it’s a fair enough tactic but not quite as effective as most people would think. I’d like to stress here that I’m talking about cash games and not tournaments, where playing Ace-King faster has other implied advantages, such as making one’s opponents fold hands like 77 or even T-T pre-flop by applying pressure and forcing them to think for all their chips.

In a cash-game, players tend to play a wider range of hands in some situations and a more narrow range in some. Let me elaborate. In a 50-100 cash game, a 5x raise to 500 might end up getting called by 6 players, some of whom might have hands like 8-Js, 9-10, 2-4 suited, etc. etc. In a tournament, this would rarely happen. Also, in a cash game, it’s unlikely to see 3 opponents go all in against each other with 88 v A-Q v K-J, which is something one is quite likely to see in the later stages of a tournament when players are struggling to remain in contention. In fact, pre-flop all-ins are something of a rarity in deep stacked cash games, simply because the fact that the blinds remain static ensures that players don’t really mind waiting for better hands. Aces or Kings will do me just fine in a pre-flop all-in in a cash game but any other hand would require some serious, serious thought, unlike in a tournament where at some stage, any suited Ace would be an instant shove.

Which brings us back to Ace-King. I prefer to think of it as just any other hand and try to not get too carried away. Obviously this is a very difficult line of reasoning to adopt if one is card dead but overall, controlled aggression is advisable. At the end of the day, Ace-King is just like any other hand - it isn’t a high dealt pair which can warrant strong continuation betting in most situations. However, it isn’t smart to play it like deuces either, i.e. play post-flop only after hitting, otherwise fold.

So let’s consider playing Ace-King from early position in a semi-skilled, deep stacked cash game. Keeping in mind the frequency of raises from the other players, I might limp, raise or even limp-raise the hand. Limping is always a dicey option, simply because one might end up seeing a flop with 6 opponents, hitting top pair and be beat on the flop itself. Folding Ace-King on the flop after hitting is a fairly difficult thing to do for semi skilled players. It’s quite common to see someone limp Ace-King, hit a pair and then call off well-sized value bets on all three streets to someone with a better
hand. So, unless you’re confident enough to know that you’re capable of making lay-downs like that without agonizing over them, it’s best to raise. But how much?

The exact figure would obviously be influenced by the table’s betting patterns. Depending on how tight or loose you think your opponents are, raise an amount which would definitely make them think twice before calling. As I mentioned earlier, it’s easy to get multi-way action in cash games if you don’t raise a lot. Multi-way action is something that I’d much rather be a part of with 5-6 suited than with Ace-King. With Ace-King, I’d like to be against one or two opponents, who preferably would have high cards as well, given that I have the highest two. The odds of top pair top kicker holding up against fewer opponents is obviously much higher. So, in a 50-100 cash game with an average stack size of about 10,000, I’d raise anywhere between 600-1200, depending on table dynamics.

However, if I get re-raised, I’d reiterate that one should proceed with caution. Carefully think about the player who’s re-raising you and what kind of day they’ve had. Think about their stack size, how much they’ve bought in for and what kind of frame of mind they’d be in. Some players tighten up considerably when they’re losing, while some might become more loose in a frantic rush to try and recover their money with any two cards. Weigh your decision carefully, see their body language, the way they’ve pushed their chips in, their position at the table and how skilled you think they are. Unless it’s a very short stack, where you’re pretty much obliged to go all-in, one should usually just call and see the flop. Re-re-raising with Ace-King would pretty much force your (semi-skilled) opponent to fold any hand that you have beat or are probably even flipping against, ensuring that the only time you’d end up getting called is by Aces or Kings, which is a nightmarish situation to have gotten yourself into.

Now, for the third option, i.e. the limp-raise. This is a tactic that fairly skilled players employ frequently from early position even on a slightly aggressive table. It’s basically the pre-flop version of slow-playing and involves limping into a pot, waiting for someone else to raise and then re-raising the pot. Doing this with Ace-King can be a good move if your table image is tight. In this case, it will intimidate your opponents and might allow you to win the pot pre-flop itself. Also, it might allow a ‘tight’ player to steal the pot post-flop, even on a 7-high board against a hand like 88 or 99, simply because limp-raising is usually associated with very high pocket pairs. Now, if your table image is that of a loose player, the odds are you will definitely get called by hands that you have dominated, as well as by any other decent hand. Good players definitely widen their range of starting hands against ‘maniacs’. But as I mentioned earlier, proceed with caution in this situation because if you don’t flop a pair, it’ll be quite difficult for you to make someone fold 88 or 99 on a 7-high flop, given your table image. But if you do flop a pair, I’d advise you to slow-play it to some extent – your table image will allow you to get called so long as you don’t over bet hugely and effectively throw your opponent out of the hand. Obviously this won’t apply on a very draw-heavy board, in which case you should attempt to end the hand there itself. Slow-playing or value betting can induce a hand like JJ or TT into calling you all the way on a board like 9-2-K-7-5. And of course, if you do get extremely lucky and your opponent hits top-top with A-Q or K-Q, your table image will allow you to win a very big pot if you play it well.

What if you limp-raise with Ace-King from early position and get re-re-raised back? Here, unless you’re playing against a very short stack or fairly looseplayer, I’d suggest that you just fold. You’ve shown massive strength by limp-raising to start with and if your opponent, knowing that, is still raising you, he most definitely has KK-AA. Even if you factor in QQ, you’re at the wrong end of a coin-flip against one of the three hands, drawing very thin against the second and drawing almost dead against the third.

What if you’re in fairly late position and the pot is already raised? Well, depending on the raiser’s table image, the size of the raise and the number of callers, decide on whether to flat call or re-raise. Again, the main aim is to avoid seeing a flop against a lot of marginal hands. Always try and observe your opponents’ reactions to their hole cards as well as their body language. My point here is that one should try and take stock of not only the action that’s already happened on the table but try and gauge what might happen later as well. If you flat call the raise, is it likely that the three players behind you will flat call as well? If yes, then re-raise, if not, a simple flat call will suffice. Playing Ace-King from late position is obviously a lot easier but it’s not always advisable to make a continuation bet if your opponent checks to you. The pot’s anyway not big enough for you to risk a significant portion of your stack. Unless you’re very confident of forcing a fold, it’s better to see a free card and hope to try and improve your hand.

At this stage, I’d like to re-iterate that a regular poker player should be intelligent enough to factor in how good he or she is running on a particular day. We’ve all had days where it seemed impossible to hit a pair or even get dealt a half decent starting hand. We’ve also had amazing sessions where every third or fourth hand is good enough to raise with, and it seems impossible to miss a draw. Factor in your luck – not just while playing Ace-King but any hand. Make the best of it while you’re running hot but as soon as your streak starts to end, tighten up considerably and reduce your bet sizes slightly. There is just no point in limp-raising Ace-King on a bad day – that said, make sure you don’t limp it either. ‘Textbook’ poker is the best way to combat bad luck, so ensure you raise, thereby simplifying your later decisions.

By Vedant Thadani