The Happy Medium
Friday, January 16, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
To succeed in limit poker, you must have the math. The calculations aren’t complicated but if the numbers aren’t encoded into you DNA you will struggle. To win in limit poker your play must be as precise as a Swiss watch and as cooly analytical as a Swiss banker. In no-limit mastery of the math is important, but not definitive. You must also have heart. Or guts. Fortitude, let’s call it. And something else–imagination. You not only have to step into the shoes of your opponent, you must also allow him to step into yours…and then trick him into seeing your lies as the truth. That massive all-in re-raise you just made…a bluff, or are you holding the nuts and daring your foe to make a doomed hero call? As Crandall Addington once said, “Limit poker is a science, but no-limit is an art. In limit you are shooting at a target. In no-limit, the target comes alive and shoots back at you.”
Pot-limit poker lies in the middle ground between the two. There are those who believe pot-limit requires the most skill–you can bet enough to protect your hand and price out draws, but you can’t just shove in your stack after seeing your hole cards. You must see flops. You must build pots. The limits (and excesses) of the other two games is somewhat mitigated.
Last night 532 players took to the felt to display their pot-limit skills in UBOC Event #9. Both Adam “ROOTHLUS” Levy and Matt “WISCOMURRAY” Murray made it deep, but not as deep as the nine players who made last night’s final table:
After JLFOXLKN was eliminated in 9th and PONYNECK in 7th, there was some talk of a chop as no player had an overwhelming chip lead (LOOT613 led as the final table started with $334K). But the negotiations quickly came to an end and play resumed. Lady luck is a fickle one and after LUCKYSNORM went out in 7th the next player bounced from the tournament was LOOT613, the one-time chipleader. Which again got the players talking about a chop, and which led WU_WIZARD to respond to the entreaties with a succient, “Nah”.
And a good decision it was, because after EL_PIEB10, MILKMONEY4ME and FREEZE1873133 were eliminated in turn, GARNET and WU_WIZARD played heads-up for the title. And a long, cautious battle it was, with each player jabbing and feinting rather than throwing haymakers–perhaps illustrating the difference between pot- and no-limit. WU_WIZARD held the chip lead most of the way before GARNET was able to claw back and even take a slight lead. But that advantage was erased when, with the board reading 10h-6h-7d-Qc, GARNET made a $275,000 bet and WU_WIZARD moved all-in. GARNET surrendered his hand and more than half his chips, and the writing was on the wall. GARNET battled back to push his stack back up to $400K, but after limping in and seeing WU_WIZARD make a pot-sized raise, GARNET hit back with a re-raise. But WU_WIZARD had a hand, Ah-Qs, and after he moved all-in the pot-stuck GARNET called and found that his Kd-5c needed help. Help he didn’t get on the Qc-8h-9c flop, and after the 7s turned and the 8s fell on the river GARNET was out in 2nd place (winning $20,025, a much better payday than he would’ve had in a five-way chop) and WU_WIZARD’s self-confidence was rewarded with $34,495 and a UBOC title.
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