Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimmy Fricke
I hear something a lot from a lot of newer players and even some fairly experienced players who know a decent amount of poker math, something that really makes me confused that it has anything to do with the situation. In a fairly deepstacked situation, they'll cite exactly what you said in the above, that they're 'getting 2:1 to call the reraise preflop.' They know that they're getting laid a price, but what exactly are they trying to accomplish in the situation? They don't know what the math lets them do. When you're playing deepstacked NL poker, the money in the pot almost never matters as much as the money you can potentially win (or lose) at least when dealing with early situations in the hand.
The math in poker has really advanced the last couple of years, but people seem to really misunderstand how pot odds apply to NL games.
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I didn't want to keep giving examples, but this principle rears its head even moreso the way No-Limit Hold'em tournaments are played today. It has become in vogue to reraise the opener's preflop bet to only three times his open. Back in the day, raises of the opener were usually larger multiples, typically around four or five times. The purpose of these larger raises was to deny the opponent 2:1 preflop odds.
Let's say the blinds are 1000-2000 with 200 antes late in a tournament. You have an average stack of 70,000 and you open for 5500 or 6000 in middle position with A

J

or J

9

or A

Q

or 9

9

. Your left hand opponent, who has you well covered, pops it to a mere 18,000. The small raise is annoying because he is forcing you to make a decision for your tournament life against a bet that you would instacall if you could take your preflop pot odds against his range.
So you tank with this pretty solid opening hand that you were proud of only a few seconds ago. Do you really want to call almost 20% of your remaining stack here and then face the inevitable bet on the flop? So you make the bold move of reraising all-in sometimes, feeling stupid when you are shown Ace-King or a pair bigger than yours. But if you fold these hands, which you will often do if your opponent hasn't previously been too aggressive, you feel like you may have been abused.
You have been victimized by reverse implied odds here, and on top of that there are payout equity considerations.
Barry