So last night I played live for the first time in quite a while. It's such a different animal than online games for so many reasons, and I thought it might be a good opportunity to put some of my thoughts down into a blog entry.

People in live games give up so much information unknowingly. I'm sure I do as well. The things I'm referring to are much more tangible than the "look into your soul" bullshit you hear people say on tv. There are actual pieces of information and thought processes you can figure out just by doing a little listening to what people are saying. I'm sure I give off some info too, but for the most part I'm pretty quiet and keep to myself at the table. Just by virtue of this fact, I think I give off less than many others.

So how about some concrete examples of what I mean. The game is $2-$5 blind NL, $500 max buyin at Harrah's in St. Louis. I've got about $600 in front of me, roughly an average stack at the table. Although it's my first time playing in this cardroom in roughly a year, I can tell we've got at least 3 regulars. Noticing the way they talk to each other and greet one another, it's pretty easy to tell. Not much rocket science here. They are the typical old guy who likes to play cards type -- not much creative play, overplays pocket broadway cards, but leans to the tight-passive realm. Many of them are there simply to pass the time and maybe earn a couple bucks (although far from crushing the game). They are plenty cordial to me, and I am back, but generally I stay out of the conversations except for listening to pieces of info that I think can help me as the game progresses. They tell the typical stories -- a great laydown here, or a bad judgement by the floorman there. Or how so-and-so hit the bad beat jackpot or how they got rivered by some lucky maniac. My ears perk up a bit when I hear one gentlemen, (we'll call him "Frank") talking about a pot he played with pocket aces. he said there was a raise to $10 in early position and two callers, so with $30 (+ blinds) in the pot, said he made it $300 to "take it down right there". Wow, how tight/passive I thought. He said (direct quote) "If they fold I'm perfectly happy to not get sucked out on." Wow, way to maximize value on your hand, bud. I decided to store this tidbit in the back of my head, hopefully bust it out if the time was right.

As the game progressed, it got more and more tight/passive. I decided to loosen up a bit and slip into my online 6max mode to try to steal some pots. No one was putting up much of a fight, and there were at least one or two marks I knew I could push off anything short of the nuts. My image at this time was probably tight/solid, before I decided to open up my game a bit. Picked up some trash, raised it up, picked up the blinds. A few hands later, Axs, raised it up, bet the flop, it's mine. folded some more. While folding I was listening to Frank and another guy talk about how many 9's have showed up on the flops lately. We then are blessed to hear such great stories as "how many times I've flopped quad 9's in my career" and "remember that time I flopped quad 7's against you in PL Omaha?". As the hand goes out, they laugh again about how the flop contained another 9, and "what are the odds". So then I pick up T 8 in MP1. There are two weak players who limp, I raise it up to 30. Frank calls, the rest fold.

Flop ($70) J J 9

Not a bad flop. I actually had to double take because at first when I looked I thought I flopped the straight (another hazard of live play). Anyway, OESD was good enough anyway, so I lead for $50, Frank grumbles and gives it up.

On the very next hand, I pick up A A in UTG+1. UTG limps, I raise it up to $25. Folds to Frank who complains "What, does this guy raise every hand to $25 or what?" Coming out of my shell I reply "Nah, last raise was to $30". He said "Oh ok, well thanks for the discount." Hmmmm... What does this mean? As the other people are deciding what to do, I hear frank say "Man, I sure hope that last flop doesn't come out again" Now my ears are really perked up. Does he have AJ? maybe JJ? Hmm. Then I notice him slyly showing his hand to his "quads buddy". What does this mean, I thought? UTG ends up calling, so we have a 3 way pot. Before the deal, Frank again pipes up and says "Ok, so we know he (utg) is going to check, and he (me) is going to bet $60, and now I'll have to figure out what to do. Man this guy is a chatter box, there's gotta be some good info in there if I can just determine it in the heat of battle... On to the flop:

Flop ($80) 8 5 2

Very tame flop. I almost certainly have the best hand. As to not disappoint, UTG does check, I decide "might as well bet $60 since that's what frank expects", Unfortunately the chips stick together and I've only left $55 out there. Oh well, whatever. Frank immediately pulls out two black chips and tosses them in "$200" he says. First thought that comes to my mind "wtf, did he just hit a set on me?". This is a verrrry dry flop. I look, Frank has me covered. I've got about $550 or so in my stack. I look at Frank, he seems confident. He did act so quickly though, which is kind of odd. I recall back to what he was saying about "just taking down the pot" with his AA. He might actually play a big hand like that, being happy with the $135 that's out there. Most live monkeys would slowplay (and probably correctly so) on this board. I think back to what he said about "hoping that last flop doesn't hit". Does that mean he has JJ? I thought for seriously like 25 seconds or so on what to do. What would I do online? Well there I'd be able to see some stats and potentially fold right here against certain opponents. I was pretty sure if I pushed on this board, frank would muck everything I beat and call w/ his sets. At one point I was pretty close to deciding to muck, and then I thought there's just too much chance of a scenario that he either : a) has a hand worse than mine that he thinks is best, b) is simply sick of me betting and raising a lot lately, or c) he would slowplay a set here despite his "take it down" comments w/ AA. I decided the play was to call another $165 and re-evaluate the turn.

Turn ($480) 7

At this point I've only got about $250 left in my stack, but I'm willing to get away from the hand if Frank moves in. I felt that he was too tight/passive of a player to push in here w/o a set. I go ahead and check and look at him, he immediately checks behind throwing his hands up in the air like he's not happy.

River($480) 3

Knowing for sure that I have the best hand here, I had to decide what to bet. Online, I probably would have simply pushed because of the stack:pot ratio. Live is a different animal though. In general, people don't think in terms of pot/stack sizes. Most think in terms of "what could I buy with this $X". I decide to make a "block/value" bet of $100, and willing to call a raise if he got tricky on the turn with a set. He hee haws around a bit, grumbling. He finally says "ok fine i'll pay you off". He flips in a black chip, I table my AA, he shakes his head and mucks.

"Must have been Jacks" I say. He replies "nah, not quite that good." At that point it hits me. How could I have been so dumb. He had 99. The reference to the JJ9 flop, showing his buddy how "9's have been hitting all day". He had the overpair and he probably wanted to "see if he was good" and/or "take it down right now". He got scared when I called the flop, and he checked back on the turn, and once the river hit he couldn't fold an overpair (he obv shouldn't, getting almost 6:1 on his money).

So why couldn't I piece this stuff together in the middle of the hand? Sure, I eventually figured out that he didn't have a set on the flop, but I didn't put him on the exact hand. How would I have played differently had I been savvy enough to figure this out in the heat of battle? I would have definitely lead the turn smallish to make sure we were both committed to the hand all the way. Unfortunately I still needed more info on the turn to see if I was good.

So this has become a pretty long post, but I hope it illustrates how important it is in a live game to listen to what people are doing and saying. If you aren't clever enough to manipulate your table talk (I certainly cannot do this -- I think Daniel Negreanu is pretty slick at this) then it's much better to just keep quiet. Look how much info Frank gave out. Had I been a bit quicker on the trigger, I could have pieced this all together on the flop I think, and potentially squeezed his stack out of him. This is an aspect of poker you'll never get online, and these are some important skills to have. Sure I gathered the information well, but I couldn't fully exploit it in the heat of battle. I'll keep this in mind for the next live game I play.

Good luck.