"Oh don’t talk of love the shadows purr
Murmuring me away from you
Don’t talk of worlds that never were
The end is all that’s ever true" - The Cure, Burn
A couple of months back after the Florida No-Limit game, I was walking back to my hotel with my friend and co-worker Pete. We chatted about cards and got on the subject of big All-in bets pre-flop. I told him that I wasn't afraid to lay down pocket Aces to a player pre-flop if they pushed a stack that would put me even close to all-in. He chuckled at my remark saying, "Ya, sure you would." However, I wasn't joking in the slightest, I meant every single word of it.
I'm not the kind of player to put my entire stack at risk for the better part of a coin flip, and that's exactly what a push that scares everyone out of the pot does the vast majority of the time. First of all, you need to understand the basic statistics. I have pocket Aces vs any two cards in the deck, not including another pair of pocket Aces which we'll tie and chop the vast majority of the time. That gives me an 84.9% edge in the hand from the start, so 15.1% of the time I'll lose or tie and chop. You won't find a better play anywhere in the world with those pocket Aces, so the proper play is to call.
However, that's not my style to try and stay lucky most of the time, or what is in reality, to keep from getting unlucky. I don't want to put my stack in without a sure thing; why give them a huge edge in later hands when they will probably lock-in the win and won't pay-off later? I like sure things when I play No-limit, and what's better is I like to have re-draws to stay ahead. It's a waiting game for me most of the time. I don't mind shoving chips around, but I don't want to risk my entire stack on 5 completely unknown cards that could easily give my opponent trip or better. I want to maximize the value out of my hand and get more than a double-up on a shot at a win, even with great odds at that. You'll know when you're beat, just as soon as I push my chips, with you looking at a 3.5:1 call or better. I don't mind saying it, because you'd be silly not to call at that stage of the hand and you'll lose 98% of the time. Half the time you'll be scratching your head, "how did he do that with THAT?" The other half of the time you'll just be pissed that you lost. Like I've said many times before, half the time I'm bluffing and full of shit, the other half of the time I have a monster; you choose.
That's where the beauty of No-limit comes into play. It isn't in shoving all your chips before the flop because you've seen that on TV a thousand times before. It's in the subtleties that make another player put half their stake on the line before they know the heart attack that's about to hit them square in the chest. Then knowing that they'll call because at the very least they don't want to get bluffed out of a big pot and made a fool of when other guy shows junk. They just don't know what they're up against; someone that already knew what they're holding and knowing their tendencies. Just like to ticking of a precision watch, they're being played like a clock, knowing what time it is at every moment.
I don't even like No-limit, but when I sit, I just keep winding the clock and waiting patiently hidden in the coral for the right moment.
Welcome to the deep end of the pool.
Nicholas has left the 3s