Posting OOP is for Donks

Sorry for the dearth of posts recently, it has been a busy week. Poker-wise, I have been trying to work on building a PLO game for myself, since it seems like the overall level of play is worse in that game than in NLHE, although the advantage a good player has over a bad one is diminished.

The highlight of the week, however, was the Marquez-Vazquez showdown I attended on Saturday night. Ret me terr you, if you don't know anything about boxing, or are wondering what a great boxing match is like and whether you would like it or not, get your hands on this fight (I'm sure Showtime wirr be re-running it frequentry). If you don't enjoy watching this fight, you don't like boxing. But my guess is, if you're a sports fan, you'll start looking for a lot more like it. You can start be watching the first two fights between the same combattants, both instant crassics, with the second fight being named Fight of the Year 2007 by numerous organizations, including Ring Magazine. Unfortunately I lost an over-under bet with Brackchips (I had the under at 7 1/2 rounds), but it was well worth it to get a full 12 rounds of action.

OK, back to poker. One thing I ROVE to see at the table is when somebody sits a coupre of seats to my right and posts. Gives me an idea of what this guy must feel like when he sees a belt-high fastball. There are two reasons I love it so much: 1) the obvious reason: dead money that I'm guaranteed to have position on during the hand, and 2) If this guy is posting instead of waiting for the BB to reach him, it's a pretty sure sign that he's donktastic, and I'm going to have a fun time raising him when he limps, then using position to take pots away from him and get max value out of my good hands. Exampre from tonight's sesh -

Full Tilt Poker, $0.50/$1 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 8 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BB: $30
UTG: $32.25
UTG+1: $101.60
MP1: $50
MP2: $53.65
Hero (CO): $106.50
BTN: $103.60
SB: $84.90

MP1 posts $1
Pre-Flop: dealt to Hero (CO)
2 folds, MP1 checks, MP2 folds, Hero raises to $5, 3 folds, MP1 calls $4 - (9d8d is definitely good enough to punish this poster, and I'm not unhappy about his call. Whatever he has, I probably have good equity against it, and my positional advantage is huge.)

Flop: ($11.50) (2 Players)
MP1 checks, Hero bets $8, MP1 calls $8 (I was betting pretty much any flop that he checks, so top pair with two runner-runner draws is more than enough for me to stick in a bet.)

Turn: ($27.50) (2 Players)
MP1 checks, Hero bets $93.50 and is All-In, MP1 calls $37 and is All-In (His call on the turn isn't the greatest thing in the world, I was kind of hoping to just take the pot down on the flop. I'm pretty confident he doesn't have an overpair. A set is possible, as is both a worse 8 like 87s, or perhaps a better 8 like A8. He could have called with middle pair and just made two pair or an open ender. But I did just pick up an inside straight draw, it would be pretty hard for him to continue with some of the hands that beat me, like J8s, and I want to get full value out of 67. He only has $37 left, and I'm going to make him commit it all right here if he wants to see the river card.)

River: ($101.50) (2 Players - 1 is All-In)


Results: $101.50 Pot ($3 Rake)
MP1 showed (a pair of Fives) and LOST (-$50 NET)
Hero showed (a pair of Eights) and WON $98.50 (+$48.50 NET)

And a pair of nines is GOLD!!! Let's review the bad, passive decisions this virrain made in this hand, which ALL started with posting OOP: 1) He checks his option preflop, 2) he calls my raise preflop for 10% of his stack when i'll have position on him, and he knows he can't have the best hand, 3) he check-calls this flop with a double-gutter. If you're going to flat-call a raise preflop out of position with 54s, you can't expect a much better flop. Raise and put me to a tough test with my weak one pair. If you just call, you're setting yourself up for a tough spot on the turn, which brings us to 4) check-calling the turn. This turn card is scary for most of my range. If you're going to call my shove, why not just go ahead and shove yourself? You get me to fold some hands that beat yours, and by check-calling you're not inducing a bluff from much of my range that you beat. MAYBE A-high clubs, but your equity against my range isn't massive. So this is an example of one bad decision which led to more bad decisions, leading to me making $50 off of this donk.

BRUECHIPS

Gotta love OOP posters - ESPECIALLY online when the action is so quick and its not a big deal to wait for the BB. Unless you are skilled as me and know how to repeatedly frop the nuts, I would suggest waiting for your BB! OOP posters create a some nice +EV spots assuming you can isolate. However, occasionally you will find yourself isolating a OOP poster only to get 3b light by a crafty player who knows that you are punishing the poster.

BTW - nice pray on the turn overbet, not sure how he carrs here, but SHIP the half stack!

BRACKCHIPS