Looking like a madman really does have its place
Strategy expert gives the second of a two-part series on assessing value, and when to play in Texas Hold'em
POKER is not just about staring each other down across the felt in some shady bar with more money than sense on it, much of the time it's about pure maths.
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You are in the enviable position of having a huge chip lead, 300k when the average is 100k. The blinds are 5k/10k with a 200 ante.
Pre-flop before any cards are dealt there is 5000+10000+(10x200) = 17,000. You are in the big blind and it folds around to the small blind who goes all-in for 30k. The pot is now 47k.
The decision is on you, which hands should you call with? The answer is easy. All of them. Yes, this is one of those situations where you don't need to look at your cards. Getting almost
2.5 to 1 on a call, plus the added benefits of looking like a madman and showing you will defend your blind loosely makes this an automatic call.
Whenever you are getting better than two to one on a call towards the end of a tournament, provided it won't hurt you, your first thoughts should often be "I might have to make a
loose call here".
Other situations where you might want to gamble loosely are as a shortstack. Let's say in the same tournament you get crippled after a bad beat and are left with 80k after putting in the big blind. The blinds are 10k/20k with a 400 ante and you
are in the big blind with 5-6 of hearts.
The action before you goes limp from a crazy madman, raise to 70k, then someone goes all-in for 200k. The pot is now 20+10+3.6+20+70+80= 203.6k, so you are getting close to 3:1 on the call. This could well be a great spot to have a gamble with a hand that has definite live cards, a hand that if you win, is an opportunity for you to triple up in a protected pot against what will be the majority of time, high unpaired cards.
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