Invisible Ink

[Tommy Angelo]

We’re at the river playing $80-160 with me last to act headsup. This chatty guy checks it at me and I bet. He stops and his face contorts quizzically and he plants his elbow way out in front for the big pivot. He reaches back and grabs a stack and he swings it around and sits it down in the betting area and he starts cutting the stack into four piles of four and he says, "I think I still got you beat, so I'm going to raise it up. I raise."

And I'm thinking, "still?" Just what exactly is he telling me with the word "still?"

See, getting reads on this guy was not simple, even though he was a talker. I had come to trust some of the subtler implications of some of his words, while at the same time I had come to distrust some of the most obvious implications of some of his bets. Playing a hand of poker with him was like watching somebody writing messages to me in invisible ink.


So far, right up until he checkraised the river, I had not bothered to put him on anything. But I had been preparing to do so. The state-of-the-read was to-be-sorted-out-later-if-need-be. Well now it needed be. The backstory:

Before the flop, he was under the gun and he limped. Everyone folded to me on the button. This is a raise, call, or fold situation for me. Hmm, what to do, what to do. I decided to look at my cards. I had pocket sixes. I raised. Both blinds folded and he called, but not smoothly, which I took to mean, well, nothing, yet.

The flop was J-10-6 with two clubs. The 10 and the 6 were clubs. He bet out, I raised, and he called, but not quite right in stride, which meant, well, I had no idea what it meant.

The turn was a blank. He bet out again, I raised again, and he called with a waver that meant, well, I had no idea what that meant either.

The river was the king of clubs. He checked, I bet, and he checkraised.

I had noticed something about this guy, and this river raise of his was a perfect example of it. Time after time, it was as if he hadn’t decided on what he was going to do until the very instant he did it, and it jammed my radar, and that got me thinking.

The main thing to being unreadable is of course to be able to keep track of what all of your muscles are doing. But it occurred to me, while watching him play, that if the object of the game was to be unreadable, that his way would be another way to go about it. It would require keeping track, not of what the body was doing, but the mind.

If someone was trying to read me, but nothing was written, wouldn’t that make me unreadable? That’s what he was doing, by his very nature. Maybe I could do it too, on purpose. I mean, how could someone read me if I have absolutely no idea what I am going to do until I do it? I made a note to work on this. It’d be one more thing impossible to master but easy to get better at.


So there I was looking at his checkraise on the river on the table. And any of my choices -- fold, call, or raise -- might be the right one. Neat. And I hadn’t decided yet, which meant I was already getting practice at not knowing what I’m doing. I was definitely getting full value. I mean, from my time collection.

And still there was the issue of “still.” To there I would look for the answer.

Might he have said, “I think I still have you beat” if his hole cards were the jack of clubs and another club, giving him top pair on the flop, and a flush on the river? Yes he might.

How about KJ or KT or JT? Yes, yes, yes.

What about AQ or Q9 for a rivered straight? Well, he could only have those hands if he had totally fabricated the “still” comment from nowhere. That seemed least likely of all.

The way he said it, it had a long range to it, and then there was all the odd tempos and wavering on the first three streets. What was that all about? Did the word “still” mean that he had started with a big pocket pair in the hole? Aces? Kings? Queens? Jacks? Tens? But none of those hands fit with history. With pocket jacks or pocket tens, wouldn’t he have reraised the turn? And with pocket queens, I can’t see him checkraising the river. And with AA or KK, would he limp UTG, and then just smoothcall my preflop raise instead of making it three bets? And then, after not making it three bets preflop, would he back down with AA or KK on the flop? And again on the turn? With a guy like this -- someone who plays poker like jazz -- anything really is possible.

I decided he had either AA or KK or a flush with the jack of clubs or maybe KJ or KT or JT, I guess, hell, I don’t know. None of it made sense really, and I still hadn’t made up my mind yet what to do. At least I got that part right.

I called. He showed pocket aces.

[Frequency]

Adopt me.

[The Truth]

yes, yes, take us under your wing out in CA [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]


blake

[phish]

You ought to be playing high stakes no limit. All this over-analysis is wasted on an 80/160 limit game, where virtually anyone else would've made the correct (or better)in about a tenth of a second.

[SA125]

I wonder how much time you spent in between betting and calling the river.

[AceHigh]

I don't know, I think the still part makes it a river 3-bet doesn't it?

[ihardlyknowher]

How could folding possibly be correct?

[TJSWAN]

Tommy,


10/10


Tim

[TxRedMan]

I dont see a fold as ever being correct here. However, given the way the hand was played, I think that both raising and calling will be equal EV in this spot. Too often when they donk like this they've misplayed a hand terribly and got there, especially when they CR the river. I like this post, Tommy.


Tex

[newhizzle]

[ QUOTE ]
Before the flop, he was under the gun and he limped. Everyone folded to me on the button. This is a raise, call, or fold situation for me.

[/ QUOTE ]

i love this, great post

if hes the type who wouldnt say "still" if he didnt really mean still, id 3-bet the river