Be A Better Fish – Fun with Social Experiments
Written by Joseph Wills – https://rec.poker/hockeypoker/ – josephwills@rec.poker
Playing blind… in a live tournament
If you haven’t heard the story, Annette Obrestad once won an online tournament playing completely blind. The story is she put sticky notes on the monitor where the cards are positioned on the screen. Using position play and reading only the board and observations of others’ play, she won the tournament outright. Pretty impressive.
I took it a step further. One night at my regular Poker Room, I entered a turbo (15min levels) tournament with the intent to play completely blind. There were two items on which to focus: 1) the gumption to play a hand past preflop without looking at my cards and 2) observe if anyone took notice of me playing blind.
In full transparency, I lasted about 80 minutes (approx. 5 ½ levels) before looking at my cards. Mostly folding, but I did win a pot or two, and as expected, lost a few pots at showdown.
One hand of note, I was SB vs BB. Folds to me, I limp preflop, BB checked. I bet the flop, BB calls. I increased the bet slightly on the turn, BB folds. Blind scoop. No idea what I had, and the high card on the board was a Jack.
I can report that no one noticed the blind play (or did and just didn’t say anything). Again, that went on for well over an hour. Lesson here, pay attention to what everyone is doing, or not doing. From there I was randomly playing blind, even doubling up blind on an all-in preflop with K5o.
For me, this exercise focused on others’ play. I observed their bet-sizing in/out of position, whether or not they connected with the board on each street, etc. Yes, this is a major part of the game regardless, but not worrying about your own cards allows for that extra attention to detail in others.
I did not win, but I didn’t go out first. Obviously, this isn’t a practice I would suggest doing often, but it was a fun way to spend $60 and worth doing at least once.
Tiger gate
While in San Diego, I purchased a tiger bucket hat from the Zoo (mainly because it was ridiculous) and dubbed it my new Poker hat.
To complete the ensemble, I purchased a tiger and tiger cub figurine to accompany the hat. Again, ridiculous but fun. Until I decided to actually wear the hat at my usual Poker Room. Check out the post:
First impressions in Poker make up a great deal of how people will play against you. Tiger bucket hat with both figurines on the table…need I say more? I played somewhat how I normally would: raise preflop with certain hands, limp or fold with others, etc. Every time I would raise, especially preflop, no one would fold. Sadly, most of my starting hands missed the board and with no one folding, bluffing wasn’t an option.
I am somewhat happy to report I soft-bubbled that tournament (10 from the $) though I was certainly the target for more aggressive play given the look. Had I not chased a hand late in the tournament (and missed), making the money would not have been out of the question.
That said, perception is everything, and you can use that to your advantage. Good players will pick up on that rather quickly, so use misdirection cautiously and sparingly.
As for the hat and figurine ensemble… that will be saved for home games.
Giving back in unlikely ways
In Poker, the object, especially in Poker Rooms, is to earn as much money as possible. What happens when you give back some of your winnings to the player(s) from whom you took them in the first place? Follow me here…
Runner-Runner flush
The first instance was at a $1/2 cash game playing at a pretty friendly table of regulars. It was my birthday and I had won $400 on a high-hand promotion just a few hours earlier. Life was good. Through a runner-runner flush, my day was going to become that much sweeter.
For this example, we’ll call the player “Ben” who is a regular at this Poker Room. Pleasant demeanor, solid player, the works.
We’re holding J5cc in late position, merely limping in with everyone else. Again, friendly table, having fun. The flop is A98 with one club. Ben leads out in the BB and folds to me. Knowing I missed, but have a possible runner-runner flush, I say “ok, one time…” and call a $10 bet. The Turn is 4c, so now we’ve hit one of our outs, leaving nine more outs in the deck.
Ben bets another $10 and I call. Ben jokes that I said, “one time” and should have folded. The River is Tc and we make the improbable flush. Ben leads out with $35 and I have no choice but to call. We scoop the pot and shrug my shoulders recognizing I should never have been in the pot.
The next day Ben sits down at my table, and we exchange pleasantries. A few hands later, I take $35 from my stack, walk them over to Ben and say “You’re right, I did say one time. Verbal is binding.” He chuckled, gives me a smile and we continue our respective sessions.
(In most Poker Rooms you are not allowed to share chips with other players at the same table. Had I simply passed chips across the table, someone probably would have said something about it.)
Flopped Full House
The second instance involves a $2/3 cash game with a player we’ll call Gary. Gary, like Ben, is also a regular at the Poker Room. A little more serious, but still pleasant with friendly interactions.
We are BB holding AA and Gary opens UTG, with one other player and myself calling. The flop is A88. Bingo! We just hit a high-hand bonus on top of what the pot may become.
I slow play and check, Gary bets, it folds to me. Still slow playing, I just call and we see a turn (Tx). We both check and the river is 5c. I bet $40 (1/2 pot) and Gary snap calls with KK and sees the bad news.
About a week later Gary is on my left again, but this time for a tournament. About halfway through the first level, I reach into my pocket, take out $50 and place it in his cup holder. “I’m not taking this back, as I know the River bet was $40 and you lost more than that.” Confused, but appreciative, he acknowledged the gesture, pocketed the cash, and continued with the tournament.
Did I owe either player a dime for how those hands played out? Of course not. Did it cost me anything to give some of the winnings back? Not at all. Would either player have extended me the same courtesy? You know the answer. Then “why?!” you ask. I’ll tell you.
During another session about two months earlier, I flopped another high hand, but tried squeezing the player for more chips and they folded. I tabled my hand to collect the bonus and the player said “Oh, you wanted my money, too? The greedy pig gets slaughtered.” That interaction has stuck with me ever since, and probably always will.
In Gary’s case, I hit a substantial high-hand bonus on the flop. I didn’t need an inflated pot on top of that. Again, the greedy pig gets slaughtered. I paid them back with their own money, a literal freeroll to do something nice for someone.
Posing this last scenario on social media, the (paraphrased) responses were “That is Poker. You are supposed to take all the money you can…” or “Fun Poker is so 2009.”
Had either player been an aggro-ego bully, would I have acted in the same manner? Not likely. There is a good chance the interactions in either hand would not have been the same, thus rendering a different course of action. We’ll never know.
I’ve said it before and will continue saying it: Poker is as fun or serious as you want it to be. Do what you want, just understand why you’re doing it and recognize that people react differently in certain situations. Fortunately, no one became appalled or upset with my antics, and it was all in good fun.
Stay safe out there and happy Pokering!
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