It’s been a long time since I’ve written a blog post and the last time I did, it was about multi-threaded programming on iOS.
I still love iOS, but after that, I went to work at Apple for 5 years and at this point, most of my interesting programming knowledge is more useful inside the beast than out. I’ll probably write a guide to debugging an app’s memory footprint here soon, but I’ve done that so many times that I wanted to spend some time thinking about something else.
I quit my job on the Watch Faces team back in August and my plan was to take a break. Maybe explore some other areas of programming, and do some traveling. I’m currently in Japan for two months and plan to explore South East Asia over the next few weeks, so I’m crushing two out of those three goals. But I haven’t found an area of programming that has really grabbed my attention yet.
What I have found, is a surprising love of playing No Limit Texas Hold’em and trying to learn how to be better at this insanely complex game. I started playing while I was still working at Apple, probably around a year and a half ago. I went roughly once a month for about a year, and then after I moved home, I got into the habit of going every week or two with a friend from college.
And just like any good skill-based hobby, it’s hilarious to think back to how I played just a few months ago.
Playing in Japan
One thing I noticed when I landed in Japan this time around was that there were poker rooms on basically every corner in Tokyo.
It turns out that actually playing cash games and taking money out is highly illegal. But what you can do is play in tournaments where you win prizes as well as the opportunity to play in the national Japan Open Poker Tournament. You can also play “ring games” aka cash games, where the stakes are: if you leave up, you can keep the chips you won for next time, and if you leave down, you have to pay real money.
It’s kind of an odd system that is almost like playing for cash but with more downside than upside. The nice thing is that it’s actually insanely cheap to play 100 big blinds worth of chips at most places. Think 7 to 15 dollars for a buy-in with the highest I’ve seen being 65 dollars.
The nice thing about this is, if you go to the right place, the people playing there will be taking the game very seriously, but you can play for relatively cheap. I saw this as an opportunity to really do some training while I’m here and have been consistently playing three to 5 days a week.
What I’ve Learned
If you’re remotely good at poker, you’ll probably start laughing at some of these points, but here’s some of the things that have been solidifying for me over the past couple weeks.
Of course, all my ideas on this game are in flux, so I’m sure I’ll look back on this list and cringe someday but that’s half the fun.
0. Texture of the board is very important
I started thinking about this a while ago, but my understanding of how important it is continues to evolve. In case you don’t know, there are dry or static boards that can’t change much with other cards coming out and then there are wet or dynamic boards where the best possible hand is likely to change as the turn and river come out. There’s a huge difference between middle set on a dry board and one where you have tons of flush and straight draws available.
Your set won’t survive if you let those flushes get there for cheap.
1. Flopping second or third pair is not useless.
I used to play a strategy that was basically “if I get top pair top kicker, I’ll do a pot sized bet and go from there” which I think in retrospect is kind of a terrible strategy. It’s at least overly simple.
First, I think that bet sizing is probably too aggressive. But also I think bet sizing is a lot more complicated than that. It’s probably one of the weaker parts of my game. Definitely one of the most vibey parts.
But anyway, oftentimes before, if I had second pair and someone else bet almost anything, I would just fold. And maybe that’s the right move if you’re thinking someone has flopped a set or there’s an obvious flush or straight out there, but it is sometimes worth continuing for a reasonable price in case your hand improves. I’ve had A-5 in my hand with Q-9-5 go to a board of Q-9-5-5-A and been happy to slow play into a decent pot. This isn’t to say you should chase everything, but if the pot’s 50 bucks and someone asks you to pay 10 to stay and see what’s gonna happen, it can be worth it.
2. The actions and positions of all the players is probably more important than your specific hand strength.
I think before my thinking was “wow I’ve got a full house, all-in!” and I would often win that way, but I also lost enough to see that you could have the small side of a better full house or someone could have quads and if they’re betting like those things are true then it is worth sitting and thinking about what might be going on.
Similarly, if you make a club flush on the turn, and then the river comes and it’s a fourth club, your hand potentially lost some of its power. Let’s say you’ve got the 2 and 7 of clubs with 10, J, 3 and 6 out there, what are the odds your opponent has the ace, king or queen? Or the 9….Or the 8…
Are you willing to go all in when all they need is one card to beat you? And based on their position at the table and their betting throughout this hand, does it seem likely that that’s what’s happening? Or are they just trying to bluff you off a hand you’ve won?
This leads to the next point.
3. Your position at the table should dictate which hands are worth playing pre-flop
If you’re early, meaning you have to bet first, and everyone else gets to decide to call, fold or raise after you, you have way less power than everyone else.
By checking, you’re telling everyone your hand sucks. So they can just bet and push you out. And if you bet with nothing, then you have to be willing to bluff and represent having something that any of your remaining opponents could easily actually have.
So in the above example, you went in with 7-2 of clubs. This is kind of a bad call from any position because of the above example. You can’t get a straight. If you get a pair with your 7 or 2 it can easily be beaten by a higher pair. If you get lucky and a flush comes out, the possibility of someone having a better flush is definitely there. That hand just has so much going against it that it’s usually just not really worth playing.
Best case is you flop 7-7-2 and get a magical full house. But then an 8 comes and you lose to pocket 8s or even 7-8 suited.
So that hand sucks. But the more complicated idea is that some hands are worth playing when you’re in an early position and a lot more are worth playing when you’re late.
6-7 suited sucks up front because you have so little power, but coming in with that in a later position isn’t a bad idea because you may hit a good flop and you can get a read on everyone ahead of you.
This is the idea of ranges. You should be adjusted the range of hands you will play as your position at the table changes. You should also be thinking about what your opponent’s range might be, based on their position, because they should be adjusting as well.
A simple version of this is “he re-raised 3x the big blind pre-flop while Under the Gun (very early position) that could mean he has AA, KK, QQ or something else very decent”.
As opposed to “he opened at 3x on the button (last person to act), he could have anything from AA down to 67 suited because he has more power there”. Of course, there isn’t a set or ranges you can assume for each player. Which leads to the next idea.
4. You should be figuring out what “type” of player each person is and adjusting accordingly
This is an extension of the last point in that, you should be thinking in ranges, and you should change your range and your assumptions about other people’s ranges based on how you’ve seen each person play.
A lot of people will throw some random tricks out there to try to throw you off of being able to nail them down, but if you notice some patterns then you can use this knowledge against people.
There are tons of categories people can fall into. For instance, I just love trapping people. If I make a full house on the flop there’s like a 90% chance I check and hope someone else starts betting so I can ride their coattails. If someone notices this about me then they can count on the idea that if I check, I could have something and conversely, if I’m betting, I likely don’t have an amazing hand. More likely just a medium one. If you fall into patterns like this, they can be exploited by other players who are paying attention.
5. Bluffing is a very useful tool, but you have to do it right
I actually don’t have a problem bluffing. I think it’s extremely fun to do.
But the problem is, to bluff well, you need to have a good read on someone and be relatively sure it’s worth doing.
There’s a saying I’ve heard a few times which is “never bluff a fish” and I’ve actually fallen victim to this a few times. Fish is relative and if someone isn’t that good, they'll call your all-in with middle pair, even though there’s an obvious flush on the board. Now you have to turn over and show them that you had nothing and were trying to bully them out.
But also, if you try to bluff a good player by pretending to have that flush when your actions up until that point haven’t don’t really match up with that idea, then you’ll get called with that middle pair, this time cause they just don’t buy it.
So the same thing can happen for totally different reasons if you aren’t careful with your bluffs.
6. Bet sizing should not fully reveal your hand strength
A common mistake is betting small when you have an ok hand and betting big when you have a monster hand like pocket aces. The problem here is that you’re giving your opponents way too much information. Next time you bet big they’ll assume you have kings and bail, denying you any action.
The thing that I think you can do is 3-bet, or raise someone else’s raise, when you have a very good hand and this is a way of isolating the hands that enter the pot to just yours and a hopefully slightly worse one.
7. There is more information available than you realize
This final point once again comes from the last one. If you notice someone changing their bet sizing consistently, you can use this to your advantage. Your hand reading can now incorporate how big their bets are to decide what you think their likely range is. There are many other things like this. You can look at everything from how fast they put their money in, to whether or not their hand shakes when they do it. Part of this is the idea of "live reads” and I’m not sure how important it actually is, but it’s definitely a skill you can develop.
8. Your goal is often to make it to “heads up” as quickly as possible
Ideally, you’re going to the flop with just one other person. Or if you bet after the flop, everyone folds except one guy who you think might have a worse hand.
The problem with letting more people join the party for cheap is that they can have literally anything.
Pocket kings pre-flop is an incredibly strong hand, but if you let people limp in and the flop comes 772, then the guy who will limp in with literally anything and has 7-2 off suite is going to win a pot that should have been yours.
Bet your good hands pre-flop and drive out the limpers.
And then similarly, once the flop has come, if there are more people in the game, you just have more variables to worry about.
Like if you have to make a bet and there are three other players you have to get through, what are the odds any one of them has something that the flop hit. A lot better than if you’re facing one guy. And if someone bets in front of you and you have a bunch of people behind you, you’re in an even worse spot because you know the guy who bet is representing strength and you still don’t know what the others could have.
9. “Chasing” a flush or a straight is often worth it
I used to have this idea that my friend was “chasing” flushes and straights way too often cause I kept seeing him lose those hands when the card he needed didn’t come.
But I also noticed that I had a really weird pattern occurring where I was landing more full houses than flushes or straights. Since a full house is a better hand than both of those, I kind of assumed that meant I was playing incorrectly and my game was missing something.
And now I see that there’s a responsible and irresponsible way to go about this kind of thing.
If I have a hand that has a lot of possible cards that may come that could improve it, then that can be worth a decent amount. I think this is the idea of a hand’s equity. If you don’t “chase” sometimes, you’re not realizing as much equity as you should be.
I especially love playing A-5 suited because you have the option of getting the wheel straight (A,2,3,4,5) or you can land the nut flush draw if your suit comes out. That A ensures that you win if there’s no full house possible, and someone else having the K of your suit can land you a situation where you really get paid.
Finally, this is why you should bet kind of aggressively if you have a set (three of a kind) but you see a flush or straight draw out there. You need to make other people pay a premium if they want to continue and possibly win with those draws.
Conclusion
I’ve got a bunch of other things I’ve noticed along the way and I’m sure I’ll think of more to add, but this is some of the big ideas I’ve been trying to work on lately.
My main task at the moment is making sure my opening ranges are fundamentally sound, and also paying attention to the position of people who open to decide how strong I think their hand might be.