Sorry Senior Newton, but your third law of poker needed some tweaking.
One thing I've been working on is thinking ahead. Something I try to answer during each phase of a hand is what exactly do I want to have happen?
Do I want to play heads up? Do I want to hide my hand? Do I want to keep the pot small? Do I want to go to the flop with a large number of players? Do I have to win this hand?
Knowing what you want should help you make a decision when it's your turn to act. The other half of the equation is knowing HOW to achieve what you want. Here's a recent example.
Player under the gun raises to $7. Call, call, call, call, call, call, call, big blind raise to $15. WTF?!?!?
So of course it goes call x 8 players. Family pot for $15. Flop 772. BB Bets $50 one caller. BB bets turn one caller. BB bets river, one caller. BB with AA losses to player with 97 suited. He can't figure out how he lost. How could a hand like 97 call a raise to $15?
I assume he knew what he wanted, which was to take down a nice pre-flop pot, or play heads up. So how the heck could a player with these intentions take the whole table to the flop?
He failed to understand what reaction would come from his action (an almost min raise)
Second example. Flop. First to act bets $10. Next player pushes $10 in is left hand then comes back with the right with $50. A classic string bet. Dealer says "sorry sir, that's a call" player is disappointed but understands. Third player calls, fourth player raises to $20. Back to the first guy who calls, second player says "RAISE" and makes it $120. Fold from the third guy, and dude number four folds!!! Are you serious?!? The MIN raiser folds. Fold fold fold fold.
Did that really just happen? This is the sort of thing you see at 1/2 from time to time.
The whole table watches a guy try to raise. He can't...discount baby! Then a player raises, opening it back up to the guy who loves his hand.
Clearly the min raiser was missing at least half of the equation. Either he didn't know what he wanted, or he didn't know how to act in order to achieve the reaction that he wanted.
Lets look at it from a different angle. We flop the nuts.
Action and reaction.
The reaction we want is a huge pot, lots of players, lots of money.
What action will help us achieve this? Lets give the man who we know loves his hand, who we know wants to raise an opportunity to do it correctly this time.
We min raise. He makes it $120. Cha-Ching.
We knew what we wanted to have happen, we acted accordingly in order to maximize the opportunity to achieve it. Count your money.
Continue to think ahead. Make sure you look to the left and right before you act. It's nice knowing what the guy behind you (so to speak) wants to do before you have to act. Oh, and be flexible. Your discounted call could turn into a waste/fold when the next guy misplays his hand.
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