Only the Nuts
I play tight-aggressive poker. Probably tighter than most. But I’m able to open up my game and play my position rather than my cards. Play my draws with the right odds. But there’s one guy I play online poker with, we’ll call him Jack for simplicity’s sake. He only plays the nuts. And if you think I’m joking, just keep reading.
It’s been said about Jack that he plays about one hand an hour. I wasn’t in the game at the time and I was just watching. Jack was nice enough to show me his hole cards as he went through the game. I saw him fold AQ suited on the button in an unraised pot. He folded pocket 10s when a middle position player raised him in the big blind. That night he showed down two hands. The first one was pocket Jacks. His opponent raised with AK off-suit and the board came all rags, no ace or king hit and Jack simply called all the way to the river.
The second hand, and this is the one that had me cringing. A player under the gun decided to slow play aces. It was folded around to Jack on the cutoff and he held 33. He just called. The flop came K-K-3 rainbow. The under the gun limper raised the pot to 100 dollars. Instantly Jack reraised all-in. And you had to know he was on a full house. He hadn’t raised a hand all night. And he raises on this flop. And of course our AA guy called. And he was drawing to two outs. And he missed, and cussed Jack for playing 33.
Now there are two big things to take away from this story. One is that players like Jack still exist, the patient rocks that only raise with the nuts. And these players are exploitable and extremely easy to beat and not lose money to.
The second thing to take away is that you must always observe your opponents. Had the AA guy seen that Jack never raises unless he feels he has the absolute nuts then he would have been able to, despite how hard it may seem, throw away his pocket Aces. Even if he didn’t put him on a full house, he should have at least given him credit for trip Kings. Observation will get you very far, especially in poker online.
