Coaches in the Car Park
Gave Luton another spin last night. It's nice to keep my eye in with a bit of live play but I have to say this game is tougher every week ! Last night in the house we had Alterman, Bush, Hine, Magee, Vladar, all top players ; a dozen dangerous players like Action Dave and Xuyen ; a dozen more who won't give anything away, like the Banin brothers, John Burberry, Boots Kohli ; and a dozen Vic-style rocks like Darryl Wong. Quite a few fish besides, but you're never going to find yourself with say two good players sharing 7 fish between you.
I doubled up early on through Carmy when I flopped top two pair to his bottom set in an unraised pot, and hit my house on the turn (after going all in on the flop I have to admit). Up and down after that, but losing 4 out of 5 pots where they were on their backs pre-flop made it hard to move ahead of the pack. Eventually I made a move on Adam Hine, who is an excellent player, good enough to pass most hands but also good enough to call with AK ! My 64 didn't hit and that was my night over.
Maybe I was just on a bad table, but I was disappointed with the amount of lessons being given out. Charlie K is the main offender, but he's not so bad because all you have to do is keep schtum and he'll tell you how he plays. There was a lot of criticism of players after they were knocked out - and I can tell you one thing for sure, when I left, I know for a fact that as soon as I was out of earshot it was "64 ? What the hell was he doing ? Risk your whole tournament on that hand ?". Well boys, you keep sitting there, waiting for Aces and refusing to think about any play you don't understand, and in the words of the master you'll be alright.
I just let these things go nowadays, but even I had to have a word when this happened. UTG makes the classic fishy play of calling for 600, leaving himself about 2000. One of the blinds raises and now he goes into the tank. Tony Chapman starts singing "It's Now or Never". I wince inwardly but let it go (I do like Tony and he doesn't mean any harm). Fish furrows his brow and tries to count the pot, the dealer announces what it is and seat 10 pipes up "you're getting 2-1 odds". Fuck me, does anyone else want to help ? There's no point having a scream-up in the middle of the hand so when it was over I just told the guy he couldn't do that, and to be fair he accepted it, end of story.
But this kind of thing will happen when this atmosphere develops at a table. The worst thing about it is that poor players start to feel very self-conscious. They're perfectly happy to "do their bollocks in peace" as someone said on a forum recently, but they don't like being made to look stupid. They will tighten up and play better because of it, I've seen it time and again. Don't give lessons at the table because you will embarrass bad players ; you will educate everyone you're playing against whether they've asked for it or not ; and frankly it's just rude.
"Hang on a minute Andy" you're saying (as well as "will this post never end ?"). Didn't you just call someone a fish, and don't you have an entire blog that gives lessons ? Yes I did and yes I do. I called someone a fish on here without mentioning his name and without embarrassing him, even in the unlikely event that he reads this. I give lessons to people who are prepared to make the effort to seek them out, and who could be anywhere in the world, and very very unlikely to come up against me at the tables. That may be similar in principle but it's about 100 times less in degree. Coaches in the car park !
I doubled up early on through Carmy when I flopped top two pair to his bottom set in an unraised pot, and hit my house on the turn (after going all in on the flop I have to admit). Up and down after that, but losing 4 out of 5 pots where they were on their backs pre-flop made it hard to move ahead of the pack. Eventually I made a move on Adam Hine, who is an excellent player, good enough to pass most hands but also good enough to call with AK ! My 64 didn't hit and that was my night over.
Maybe I was just on a bad table, but I was disappointed with the amount of lessons being given out. Charlie K is the main offender, but he's not so bad because all you have to do is keep schtum and he'll tell you how he plays. There was a lot of criticism of players after they were knocked out - and I can tell you one thing for sure, when I left, I know for a fact that as soon as I was out of earshot it was "64 ? What the hell was he doing ? Risk your whole tournament on that hand ?". Well boys, you keep sitting there, waiting for Aces and refusing to think about any play you don't understand, and in the words of the master you'll be alright.
I just let these things go nowadays, but even I had to have a word when this happened. UTG makes the classic fishy play of calling for 600, leaving himself about 2000. One of the blinds raises and now he goes into the tank. Tony Chapman starts singing "It's Now or Never". I wince inwardly but let it go (I do like Tony and he doesn't mean any harm). Fish furrows his brow and tries to count the pot, the dealer announces what it is and seat 10 pipes up "you're getting 2-1 odds". Fuck me, does anyone else want to help ? There's no point having a scream-up in the middle of the hand so when it was over I just told the guy he couldn't do that, and to be fair he accepted it, end of story.
But this kind of thing will happen when this atmosphere develops at a table. The worst thing about it is that poor players start to feel very self-conscious. They're perfectly happy to "do their bollocks in peace" as someone said on a forum recently, but they don't like being made to look stupid. They will tighten up and play better because of it, I've seen it time and again. Don't give lessons at the table because you will embarrass bad players ; you will educate everyone you're playing against whether they've asked for it or not ; and frankly it's just rude.
"Hang on a minute Andy" you're saying (as well as "will this post never end ?"). Didn't you just call someone a fish, and don't you have an entire blog that gives lessons ? Yes I did and yes I do. I called someone a fish on here without mentioning his name and without embarrassing him, even in the unlikely event that he reads this. I give lessons to people who are prepared to make the effort to seek them out, and who could be anywhere in the world, and very very unlikely to come up against me at the tables. That may be similar in principle but it's about 100 times less in degree. Coaches in the car park !
3 Comments:
God bless Daryl. I won a comp at Reading one time, after quite a long hiatus from that scene of many of my donations. On the way back to the pad, some 3 ish in the morning, I receive an invite from Daryl to join him at a cash game, even though DARYL WASNT PLAYING IN READING!!! May my money rest in peace :)
dd
Titmus here,
Do you remember playing in a final in Russell Sq. (you must do, there can't have been that many!), and Peter Lewis spent 10 minutes castigating the departed Richard Gryko who reraised my button raise all in from the big blind with A8, and lost to my AK? - "What kind of a hand is A8 to go all in with? I don't understand, he must be crazy!" etc.
After a while, with you getting more and more steamed up, you finally cracked. "We know you don't understand it, because you haven't got a clue how to play the game". I believe you got a round of applause from the table.
I remember it very well. Not to the point of a round of applause, but it sounds good, so yes, that's how it happened.
To all inexperienced players, erm, do as I say, not as I do ...
Andy.
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