Stupid/System 004: Post Flop Play

There are a number of "poker secrets", heretofore only understood by top players and professionals (or "pros"), which can be applied to increase your profits tenfold.

It is the objective of this book to try to get as many of these "secrets" out of the dingy back-rooms and smoke-filled poker boxcars and right into your brain, where you can think 'em whenever you like. The problem is that many of these little tricks and traps involve a lot of complex maths, and that stuff as we all know is totally made up.

Here's one of the big ones, and it's worth committing to memory right now: You know the five cards that come out after all the money goes in? They don't come out all at once. It's true! In many cases (usually when an amateur - or noob plays badly), the first three come out before the fourth and the fifth ones. This is what is known as the flop, and when you see it, look out!

On the flop, a hand of poker becomes infinitely more complex, with texture and suits and other stuff like that, so avoid the flop at all costs. But besides the increased complexity of play, there are two huge reasons to avoid flops.

1) Remember the concept of fold equity. "Fold equity" is the name given to the concept which states, "If you fold, you have no damn equity." Well, NOTHING makes you want to fold most hands more than the flop. Just trust me on this one. If you don't believe me, check out point two:

2) The flop will reduce your outs horribly. You might want to go back and re-read the chapter on counting your outs. The main point you'll want to take away that most unconnected unsuited cards will have seventy or more outs preflop.

But imagine we took as an example the hand from that chapter, where you have [9d3s] preflop, giving you 74 outs. Your opponent had Aces, which left him with only 2 outs (the Aces) and the Broadway outs of tens through Kings for 18 outs.

In the example, you shoved all-in preflop and got unlucky. It happens, that's poker. But suppose you had just smooth-called his re-raise? Well, you'd have had yourself a flop.

[KcJc2c]

So gross. Now look. All you have for outs is the three nines, the three treys, and Queen followed by 10. There are four Queens and four tens, but they have to come in sequence (this is called runner-runner), so you can only really count them as four outs. Your seventy outs just shrank to ten outs. And flops do this to you ALL THE TIME.

So what can you do to counter this?

1) Avoid flops. You can do this by simply shoving all your chips in pre-flop.

2) If somebody just calls your initial raise and you have a flop, do not hesitate to get all in as soon as possible. The next card is called the turn, and it eats away at your outs just as badly as the flop. By the time the river, or fifth card is dealt, you'll often find that you have no outs left at all.

Hand 4-1


Situation: Major online tournament, just before the second break.

Your hand: [Ac7d]

Action to you: Player A, B, and C fold. Player D raises to $3,000.

Question: Do you fold, or do you still have some self-respect, you fairy?

Answer: You have an incredibly strong hand, as it has both an Ace and a crap-ton of outs. You ought to get all-in as quickly as possible before you're behind in the hand.

Action: You actually just call the $3,000. The other players fold. The pot is $6,585.

The flop comes:

[Kc2s4d]

Player D pushes all-in. What do you do?

Answer: Call. Call! Are you KIDDING me? You made a huge mistake just calling instead of shoving, but you can't back down now. There's almost no outs left for you! Get your chips in before they all disappear!

There are a few more key points to make here in favor of a call. First, most flops miss most hands. This means that most flops have missed your opponent. He's probably got nothing. Secondly, you have to remember to always ask yourself: What do I hope my opponent has? Here it is obviously sensible to hope he has T9, and is therefore dead to a nine. The final point is, even if you lose all your money, the pros on Full Tilt are friendly and generous, and will be happy to transfer you $5.00 if you ask. Try Michael Craig.

Action: You call, and your opponent shows 8d8s. The turn and the river don't help you and you lose the hand.

Gross.

So gross.

So $%5E&$^ing gross.

Poker is so stupid. Why can't I beat these donkeys JUST ONCE WHY CAN'T I BEAT THESE DONKEYS???

Hey, can I borrow $5?

[Excerpted from Stupid/System: Poker Strategy For Huge Donkeys, (c) Julius_Goat 2008, All Rights Reserved. Cover design by Mookie "Big O" Pokeroum.]