Donkey Kong! Or the Art of Dumb Poker

It is a general but usually true rule in poker that big hands equals winning small pots or losing big ones. Good old Dolly (Doyle) Brunson in his seminal poker strategy book Super System mentioned this when talking about his penchant for playing suited connectors.

Exhibit A:
You look down and your heart does a flubba-dub as you look at AA. There is a small raise in front of you. You play like a champ and make a strong reraise. Everyone races to fold and you are disappointed to rake in a tiny pot.

Exhibit B:
You raise with those same, blessed Aces from middle position (MP) and get the Button (BN) and Big Blind (BB) to call. The flop is 862 three-suited and you lead out a strong bet. BN folds and BB smooth calls. The Turn J looks innocuous and after BB checks you make a strong bet again. But now BB reraises and you are confused. You call. The River is another seemingly harmless Q but BB goes all in for $100. You agonize forever then make a crying call. BB rolls over 86off for two pair and you watch most of your stack heading the other way.

Does this sound familiar?

A version/replay of Exhibit B came while I was playing 1-2NL at the Venetian recently. A young guy in MP had about $200 in front of him, while I had about $280. I didn't have any particular read on him yet. He raises to $8 after a couple of limpers. I look down at QQ and reraise to $25. It folds around to MP and he calls.

Oooops.

Three low cards come out on the Flop and he bets $20.

I could reraise, but he seems confident so I expect he has an overpair. While something like TT is possible so is KK or AA. I could let it go and wait for a better spot, but the $20 bet is less than half the pot making my staying around in the hand relatively cheap. I call.

The turn is a blessed Q giving me top set. He again bets $20. This is an awkward spot, pot and stackwise. He has $65 invested with $135 behind, roughly $130 in the pot. He is not quite pot tied but if I make a decent raise to say $70 then he would be. There are arguments for three different actions:

1) Smooth call and lower the boom on the river.
2) Make a small raise to take control but pot tie MP
3) Go all in now

I will almost never smooth call here. Since I don't know the guy I decide to go with the death of inches and reraised to $50. MP suddenly looked confused and fiddled with his chips for a bit before calling,

The river was a blank. MP checked and I bet him all in. He hymmed and hawwed awhile before making the crying call. He showed AA to my Set. He congratulated me and went off into the night.

What to Do

AA is powerful, but it is tricky. You have to defend them but also need to know when they are losers.

In this case preflop, he should have been salivating when someone reraised his own raise. He has an advantage against all hands except one (another holding of AA) and he should want to re-raise again to get as much into the hand as possible.

You can make a case of calling like this guy did, but it shouldn't be your first choice. For example I often smooth call AA if I am confident I should be able to outplay my opponent after the flop. But if you tend to get caught and lose big pots with AA, you want to close the hand out WHILE YOU STILL HAVE THE ADVANTAGE.  Because...

Once the cards hit the board there are a few facts that are incredibly crucial to understand:

1) The average winning hand in Hold'em is 2-Pair.
2) The only reason people keep calling your raises is they think they can beat you.
3) Preflop AA is the dominant, superior hand over all other hands but post flop it is only top pair unless you have improved.

So with a dry flop make a solid bet and see what happens. If he bets $35 I am gone, although many other players might have overplayed their inferior over pair, which long term is good. A bet less than half the pot makes almost anykind of draw profitable to call, urging people to try to chase you down with some sort of smaller pair or straight draw.

LAW #1 - It is better to win a small pot than to lose a big pot.

When the turn hits MP made a weak bet and got reraised. Now was the raise simply because of his showing weakness, or was it that I have now made a hand? True, it still is a dry board, but even so there are lots of possibilities for sets or two-pairs at this point.

Then with my all in at the river, MP has to chance going broke with only a pair. Few people get rich, and lots of people go broke when going all in with only a pair in their hand.

I really believe that AA is the most poorly played hand in poker. Many start out too timid, allowing others to make hands and beat you. others go bulling through and firing big bets everywhere even when it should be clear they are beaten. The mighty pocket rockets are powerful, but they will not win 100% of the time.

Which is one of the reasons why I often play Donkey Kong poker. I'll play junk cards in position. If the betting or the flop is bad it is easy to throw away cheaply. If you hit your hand you can stack someone overplaying something like AA.

But Wait You Say

Hey Donkey! You didn't have junk cards. You had pocket Queens!

Yes, but the idea is the same. I was a clear underdog to begin, got to stay in the hand relatively cheaply, then when I made my hand I was able to stack the stronger opening hand. It played out with the same principles as if I'd played something like a pocket pair, suited connectors, or even true garbage like 86off.

I just have to understand that I will lose a lot of these hands, and need to fold often when it is cheap unless the situation is good. BTW this is one reason why Daniel Negreanu is so successful. He plays lots of junk hands cheaply in position, then outplays his competition after the flop by folding cheap from bad positions while winning big when he makes a hand.

In this case the game at the Venetian was kind, and I managed to walk away with about a $250 win in three hours time.