Testing Ones Patience

BY: Ashley Adams
Contact at: (Asha34@aol.com)
Author of Winning 7-Card Stud

Just about every book on poker cautions that poker players, if they want to win, must be patient. It's true. In poker, patience is a virtue. That being said, however, doesn't make the lesson easily learned.

Last night, at the $5/5 Blind unlimited buy-in no limit table at Foxwoods Resort Casino's remarkable poker room, I experienced just what is meant by patience. It wasn't easy but it was instructive.

I arrived at about 5:30 PM - played some $20/40 Stud for about a half an hour before being called to the second of these $5/5 Blind unlimited buy-in no limit hold em tables. There were about nine $1/2 $100 capped buy in games going - and a few $2/4 $300 capped buy-in games. The lower end of the no limit spectrum has really taken off lately - with every new young TV addicted player deciding to sit down and try out this great game.

The $5/5 games tend to be fewer. They vary in quality of play. I didn't have a chance to watch the game at all so I wasn't sure what I'd be getting myself into.

I sat down. I recognized two players from prior games I'd played in at the Woods. Neither of them was especially tough. One was extraordinarily tight - never took chances without powerful big cards. The other was loose and a little tricky - but not terribly aggressive. The other guys looked familiar but I wasn't at all familiar with their play.

I ended up playing for 9 hours I had interesting experiences along the way that I'll share with you here.

During the first hour I had a pair of Jacks in late position. The players here often called the $5 bring-in with very little. It wasn't rare to raise before the flop - but it certainly wasn't automatic. I raised, with four already in the pot in front of me and one person plus the blinds to act after me. I raised to $30 - slightly higher than the typical raise of $20 or $25 for this game (it would go to about $50 later in the evening as players got more aggressive and looser). I got one caller - a player in front of me.

The Flop was 7dJdKs. The player in front of me checked. I hadn't judged him to be particularly tricky - though my experience was limited. I didn't want him to draw a straight or a flush and decided I needed to put in a bet. I bet $75 - about the size of the pot. He folded immediately. That was OK, I thought, since I am at least looking aggressive - even if the pot I won was smaller than I would have liked.

The very next hand and I was dealt JJ again. I raised again to $25. A different player in front of me called. The flop once again produced a Jack. I figured that my bet might be more suspect since I had just won a conceded pot - so perhaps a perceptive player would figure I was pushing my image as a winner. So I bet $75. Everyone folded again. Geez, I thought, what did it take to loosen up my image in this game and get some calls?

And then the most remarkable experience I had yet had in a no limit hold em game occurred. Three hands later this experience was repeated in much the same manner. JJ pre-flop. I was under the gun. I raised $25, making it $30 to go. I got two callers. The flop came J72. I bet $75. Both of my opponents folded. So much for my loose aggressive image. I probably could have succeeded just as easily without Three hands in under 30 minutes with JJ turning into JJJ. Pretty amazing.

For the next three hours I had only one other hand of note. I had Kings on the Button. No one called the Big Blind. I raised to $30. The Small Blind called me.

The Flop brought three small cards - rainbow. The small blind checked to me. I didn't want to get tricky - just wanted to win the hand then or make him pay to draw something better. So I bet $90. He called. He was short on chips, with only another $100 or so. The turn brought a Q. He bet $25. I went all in, figuring maybe he hit a Queen - perhaps holding AQ. He called me and flipped over Aces. Alas. I still think I played this correctly. I surely wouldn't have checked the flop were I in his position. Perhaps he read me for someone who was unduly aggressive and would keep pushing even if I didn't have a strong hand.

The next 7 hours were a practice in patience. On many, many occasions I was tempted to just make something happen with lousy cards. And lousy cards were what I had. Dozens of them: J2, 85, 73, Q4, K3, J7, 92 - on and on. It was hard after a couple of hours of this not to just lose my concentration and go over the top or go all in or just push at the pot out of boredom. It was hard not to rely ONLY on aggression to attempt to win hands - since my experience when I was loaded was that I was never called down.

It was tempting to start raising with nothing.

But I remembered all of the good words I had written about not doing just that. Semi-bluffs, positional raises, continuation bets - sure these things made sense. And on the rare instance when I started with a decent hand I did show some aggression. But if the board looked like it might have helped someone or their betting was aggressive and my hand was valueless I backed off.

That isn't to say that over the next 7 hours I didn't win ANY pots. I won two or three when I bluffed into a paired flop - and my opponents folded. I managed to stay about even with the blinds - only falling back $50 or so on top of my loss with the Kings against Aces.

At 2:00 AM I was down about $200. I wasn't very tired but I was thinking of going home. I had done my best; had held myself in check when I needed to, and I was prepared to take my loss for the session and chalk it up to the nature ebb and flow of the big poker game.

And then I was dealt JJ again. The fourth time in the night that I was dealt JJ. I was the Small Blind. The Button, a relatively passive and timid player who was clearly ready to leave, raised to $25. He had done this a few times with strictly drawing hands. KTsuited, 98, and hands like that prompted him to raise in late position more than a few times. So I wasn't scared that he was ahead. I raised to $75 to knock out the limpers in front of me who were likely to call the additional $20. I succeeded and the action came back to my raising friend. He double checked his cards and called. I liked the double check. He wasn't tricky - especially at this hour.

The flop came JhTs2c. It was about the best flop I could hope for. Top Trips. No flush draw. The straight draw didn't bother me. But I didn't want him to draw cheaply.

I bet $225. He paused briefly, rechecked his cards and then called me.

The Turn brought the 5d. That didn't concern me. It was a good card for my hand. I still had the best possible hand. I paused and then bet $500. He thought a long time - perhaps 60 seconds or more. He was down to a stack of about $1,000 in $100 bills. He leaflet through them and counted out $500. I was saying "please call, please call, please call" to myself.

Gradually he called. I didn't want a high card but wasn't afraid of anything.

8s was the River.

I had him covered and went all in. He folded immediately. He flipped over J9. Why he called my bet on the Turn I have no idea.

But here's the somewhat belabored and obvious point. My patience had paid off. Eventually, I hit the monster hand. Had I frittered away my stack earlier with ridiculous stone cold bluffs or desperation bets - which I could easily have done given my enormously long drought of horrible cards - I could have sunk my ship before this opportunity came up.

And, just as a final note of affirmation and encouragement to all you no limit players out there - that hand IS coming for you to win sooner or later. The question is whether you can wait out all the crap in the mean time. That's a question only you can answer.

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