Earlier this week, Robert "Poker Grump" Woolley wrote about the way you could use the foundations of the sport for tactical advantage. This caused quite a stir on social media, and PokerNews was kind enough to let me pen an "op-ed" piece at the subject.
Basically, the talk revolved around whether Robert's suggestions amounted to "angle shooting." I MUST watch out in defining angle shooting as a result because that definition lies on the heart of our discussion. But an affordable working definition is that angle shooting is an try to gain an unfair advantage without technically violating the principles of the game.
All good and decent people in poker (and that i certainly include fellow Ashevilleophile Robert Woolley on this group) abhor angle shooting. The trouble lies in drawing the road between legitimate tactical use of the principles and angle shooting.
I must also add that angle shooting — like playing pocket jacks — could be very much depending on the context. Paraphrasing U.s.a. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, "I WILL NOT define angle shooting, but I DO KNOW it after I see it."
With that preamble, let's take a look at each situation described in Robert's article individually:
Tap, Tap, Tap
There appears to be a standard nervous (and unconscious) habit in Western civilization of tapping your finger when you are fascinated about something. Woolley wrote:
"A player a couple of seats to my right was imagined to act first. He tapped his hand at the table, and that i couldn't tell if it was a 'just thinking' tap, as is seen so commonly among low-limit players…"
"Just as he reached for his whole stack — about $200 — to place it within the pot, the dealer asked, 'Was that a check?...' The player said, 'No, I'm all in!' I spoke up and said, 'It gave the look of a check to me.' The dealer agreed, and made him take his bet back. Everybody else checked, too."
New and lower stakes players routinely do that "thinking tap." They haven't had it drilled out of them by years of playing poker, where the table tap will also be decisive and binding. I see all of it the time at lower stakes games.
Twenty years ago, that tap at the table would have happened exactly once, everybody would have acted behind the player, and that might was that. But it's 2016 now, not 1996. We're arching the foundations to be gentler and kinder to newbies and infrequent players, that is precisely the thing we must do if we are hoping to grow the sport and its popularity.
As Woolley's story turns out, the free take a look at the turn gives him the nut flush and he busts the fellow who had flopped a collection. How do you think guy goes to feel? Simply because he unconsciously tapped at the table, and a few table lawyer caught him, he finally ends up losing his whole stack.
Is he going to inform his friends how fun the sport is? Is he going to encourage all of them to return play within the poker site instead of blow their money within the pit?
Now before you assert "It's just the principles of the game," you want to know that I'VE advanced certifications in "Table Lawyering" and "Game Captaining." And dozens of witnesses happy to so testify from 1996 and before.
But because the rules have moved toward kinder and gentler treatment of the brand new and infrequent player, so has my attitude. This can be a game and it's purported to be fun. I DO KNOW that technically the dealer should not be asking "Is that a check?" Why not? As it allows the player to make your mind up right then and there if it is a check it's. roughly a "string check" action, allowing him a shot to look what people do to his left before committing.
But Woolley even says "and that i couldn't tell if it was a 'just thinking' tap." In short, it was fairly obvious to me that the player in question was a newbie, the faucet was an unconscious reaction of his nerves ("Oh my god, I've flopped a set"), and he wasn't seeking to shoot an angle.
Given that, the dealer's question was wholly appropriate and we, as veteran players, should cut such people slack. Let the person do what he intended to do, although he unconsciously (but not maliciously) broke the rules.
I'll also admit that Woolley's saying "It gave the impression of a check to me" in that individual situation struck me as uncomfortably with regards to an angle in itself. Again, I'm speaking as somebody who wasn't there and didn't know the context.
Of course, if I'VE any suspicion that this "thinking tap" is the preamble to an angle, then I'VE a fully different response. And honestly, if you cannot quickly spot somebody who's using the table tap as an angle, you most likely should not be in a poker game for money.
Protect your cards
The short version of this story is that Woolley raises, it folds to the player within the big blind who looks at his cards after which puts them go into reverse again, a little bit forward of where they were to start out. However the player doesn't protect them. The dealer interprets this as a fold, drops the deck at the cards, and pushes the 2 blinds to Woolley. The massive blind protests he didn't mean to fold.
Is that extra 1.5 big blinds Woolley's? Yes.
Are the principles (every rule book, pick your favorite) clear that the player has a duty to offer protection to his hand? Indubitably.
Do I protect my cards? Each hand, each time. Without fail.
The rules are clearly on Woolley's side. The more important question (to me) is "WHAT'S THE smartest thing to do?" I DO NOT BELIEVE you may be "wrong" by insisting that the principles be followed on your benefit, but again, how much is that 1.5 big blinds worth to you? Is it worth causing the tournament to hit an incredible pothole? Is it worth upsetting the fellow within the big blind and creating a scene on the table?
To me, the A+ response this is to offer the man his big blind back (again, when you don't suspect angling happening) and get on with the show. Of course, the following time he does it, you're up and from your chair. But you will not should be since the dealer (remembering your gracious move the former time) will tell the man "Hey buddy — protect your cards next time."
Showing your cards
In the last scenario Robert presents, you're at the button and the river action checks around. In line with the principles at most poker rooms, if there is not any betting, then the duty to turn your cards begins with the primary person to behave. Woolley says "IF YOU ARE at the button, stand your ground. You do not have to turn unless you may have a winner because everybody else is needed to turn first."
He's 100% right. Now, here's my take:
When I'm in a hand that checks the entire way around, once I'm sure that the action is done, I snap-announce my hand and switch it up. That's true despite the fact that I'm at the button. Why?
Summary
In fairness to Robert, he has a longer section on the end where he says that you have to take note of the context of the location. Quoting him:
"The indisputable fact that you'll be able to invoke these and other rules on your own advantage doesn't necessarily mean for you to. It's a must to take into accounts the formality of the setting, what's at stake, how much of a bonus you're giving yourself, and the way insisting on strict adherence to the foundations will affect your table image, your general reputation, and the tone of the game."
But I MIGHT take it a step further. It isn't always about your table image, your general reputation, or the tone of the sport. Sometimes… sometimes, it's almost about the truth that it is a game we're playing, life is short, and good times may also be hard to return by.
It can be about "grace" — the giving of undeserved favor. I'm telling you, for a fact, that grace is much too rare on this world. In case you have the power to bestow a little bit on your poker game, you'll be doing the universe a favor which greater than makes up for a shekel or two less that results in your pocket.
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