Do the cards matter

  

Do the cards matter?


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Scott Nichols    (2016-11-11)
Do the cards matter?

Dear Yeturu Aahlad, I have thought long about your inquiry. This is the best scenario I can come up with.

You are at a 9 player real money game. You know all the players. You all have decided to see who is the best.

You have been playing for many, many hours. All that is left is you and Him. Lets call him Eros. Last hand.

You are dealt pocket Black Aces. Eros acts first and checks. You feel you can just take the ante's now and move on, but you decide to slow play them and just call. The flop is 3clubs, 6hearts and Qhearts. Again Eros checks and you decide to bet a little again and he calls.

Now through all the hours of playing, you have gotten to know each other well. He is the type who talks and laughs, makes fun of people, belittles them and acts in a generally arrogant manner. (We all know the type). The KEY is to study all of this and, this is maybe the most important, study his microexpressions. Some people call them tells. But most all pros know how not to give away tells. But I have learned that microexpressions are involuntary. Let's get back to the hand.

The "turn" is a Jspades. He decides to bet, a good bet and of course you call. (slow playing). Now comes the moment of truth, "the river". It is an Ace of hearts. You are thrilled, and your face gives the microexpression for a tenth of a second. You now have 3 Aces, but there is 3 hearts on the board.

All of the sudden, Eros goes all in and walks away from the table. In my experience, the odds of him having 2 hearts in the hole is 23/1. HERE is the point if the cards matter. You can beat anything except a Heart flush. And the odds of him having that are 23/1. This is a real money, no limit game. If you call and lose, you lose 90% of all you hold near and dear.

WHAT DO YOU DO?


Thibault de Vassal    (2016-11-11 19:15:18)
Do the cards matter?

As for me, I'm not sure if the answer is in the question or not?! You wrote "Last hand. " What decides who is the best if there's no winner after the last hand?


Scott Nichols    (2016-11-11 21:07:34)
Do the cards matter?

The way I came up with the cards don't matter theory was watching a World Series of Poker heads up match between two of the players who came up the hard way and fought their way to the highest echelon of poker pro's.

They got dealt a hand, I don't remember the cards except they were shit cards that anybody would just throw in.

The host commenting on the match was a multi-time world champion. <br
To everyone's surprise, the first player bet big on his lousy cards. Of course, I and I am sure, everybody else thought player 2 would just throw in his lousy hand and go on to the next one. But noooo, he took his time, a long time, and re-raised. This went on and I can't even remember who actually won the hand, but the host said, "when you get to this level, the cards don't matter." That enlightened me in a profound way i had never thought of before.


Scott Nichols    (2016-11-11 21:13:06)
Do the cards matter?

Not to be-labor the point, when I suggested a match, without points or money or even spectators. Mano a mano. Play in a dark, dingy dungeon with two players. No one needs to know who won except the 2 players involved.