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People get too married to hands. All too often, a person gets a good starting hand, and they get tunnel vision. They call or raise all the way to the river. When they turn over the losing hand, they curse at how lucky the other person got.

People like this are wonderful to play against. When I first sit down at a table, I look for these types of players - people who overplay weak hands. I make it a point to get involved in hands with them.

On the flip side, you have to know when to lay down a big hand when the board goes against you. I will be the first to admit - it is never fun to lay down pocket Aces. If the betting tells you that you are beat, then you MUST lay them down. When most people get pocket Aces, they start seeing dollar signs and prematurely count their winnings as the hand is being played out. Then when they lose the pot, they are furious. We have all heard them and their rants.

“How could you call with that hand? You are terrible!”

The important thing is to take a deep breath, step back for a minute, and examine the betting that has taken place. Here is one example where I read my opponent accurately.

Location: Foxwoods, 3/28/2007

Game: 2/5 NL

Stack: $800

Scenario: This was a very tough table table. The guy to my immediate right (seat #2) won a seat into the Foxwoods Poker Classic Main Event in the ACTs ($10,000 seat). By observing him, he is a pretty solid player. He knows the game. I am unsure of how advanced he is in terms of psychology. There is another person two seats (seat #5) to my left who is a very solid player as well. There are no real weak links at the table. I would classify everybody at least as a Advanced, with a few experts. Knowing that everybody is on this level forces you to play differently than at a wild loose table where most people think they are better then they actually are.

I am UTG and look down again at:

I make a standard 5x BB raise to $25.

Seat 4 calls
Seat 5 (Mr. Solid) calls

Everybody else folds.

Pot: $82

Comments: The whole table is solid. I have no real reads on Seat #4. I know Seat #5 is a tough player.

Flop: J 5 2 with 2 clubs

I need to fear the flush draw here. I should make a pot-sized bet to deter them from drawing at the flush. I make it $75 to go

Seat 4 folds
Seat 5 calls

Pot: $225

This call is peculiar. The board is fairly uncoordinated. Seat #4 folds, while Seat #5 calls a pot-sized bet. I am now on yellow alert.

Turn:

I am still fearful of the flush draw. That is about the only draw that can be out there. There is no way seat #5 would call a preflop raise with 43s or 86s for a straight. I make another pot-sized bet of $200. Again, seat 5 calls

I am now on Red Alert. Something is fishy. Seat 5 is better than chasing a flush draw for two pot-sized bets. If he has AJ, he would surely want to protect his Jacks from an overcard and would have raised - probably on the flop. Would he have played J7, J5, or J2? No way. He is too solid – that is unless I am giving him too much credit.

River:

Well, if he was playing a jack, I just got beat. Since I am on red-alert, I check. I know what he is going to do - he pushes all-in.

I lean back, take a deep breath, and think it though. What makes sense? He called a preflop raise of 5x BB with 2 people in the pot (myself and seat 4 who called as well). He called pot-sized bet on the flop and turn, then pushed all in on the river. He knows better than to chase a flush with bad odds. I can rule that out. Straights are out. The only thing that makes sense is pocket 22 or pocket 55 (pocket Jacks are unlikely, but I still lose to them). I am fairly confident that he has a full house at this point.

I say to him, “you must have a full house. That is the only thing that makes sense. I do not know if you have pocket 2s or Pocket 5s, but I know you have one or the other”. I fold my pocket rockets and SHOW them. Most of the table gasps at how I can fold rockets here. He smiles says, nice read and nice laydown, and then shows 55 – just as I thought.

When the betting does not make sense, all you have to do it step back and look at it from an outsiders perspective. Knowing he would not chase a flush without the odds, I could logically deduce that he tripped up on the flop. Unfortunately, I lost $300 to figure that out (but I did not lose my whole stack). Even if a Jack had not hit the river, there was no way I was putting any more money in the pot. I would have folded to any bet on the river no matter what card had fallen. It was pretty obvious that I was beat - and I made the laydown.

One bit of advice that I picked up somewhere along the line was, “Never be afraid to fold. The next hand is never more than about 2 minutes away.” This advice is so true!