First Poker ChestnutFive-card stud. Table stakes. Last betting interval. Player A has Q, J, 10, K showing, plus hole card. Player B has 6, 10, 8, 4 showing, plus hole card. Player A has taken the lead throughout; Player B has played along, outlasting other players. Player B has a six in the whole, giving him a pair of sixes. On the last card, Player A bets out, perhaps half his stack. Player B knows that there are six cards that would give Player A a cinch hand: A, K, Q, J, 10, or 9. But Player B taps. Player A calls and loses. His hole card is a seven. There was nothing unusual in the fact that Player B figured the bluff of Player A. Every sucker in the land does that several times per session. The significance of this case is in the fact that Player B tapped and that Player A called. The unimaginative player, in B's position, would be proud of the fact that he had detected the bluff, would call, and would win the pot. This particular Player B went further. He trusted not only his own judgment but also his estimate of his opponent. Put yourself in Player A's position. You have bluffed in a case in which the odds heavily favor your having a cinch hand. Your opponent, who has stuck around through three previous rounds of betting, has not been content to call you but has bet everything he has. Why should he do this if he has simply detected your bluff? He could content himself with calling and take in an easy pot. So the only logical explanation for Player B's bet is that he has detected the bluff, but unfortunately he cannot beat the board. Therefore his only chance to win the pot is to let you know that he has detected the bluff in the reasonable expectation that you, being caught in your bluff, will fold your hand and give up. On this basis, Player A calls and fully expects his K-Q high to beat Player B's king in the hole. As I said before, this is a matter of inspiration. The exact circumstances will probably never present themselves to you if you play poker all your life. Nevertheless, you should not underestimate the value of knowing about this and dozens or hundreds of other poker situations that some previous good player has encountered and mastered. They are all part of the well-rounded education that the finished poker player must have. Second Poker Chestnut Draw poker, jacks to open. $10 limit. Ante is $7. ($1 each). Player A (next to dealer) opens with two aces. Player B plays. All other players drop. Player A draws three cards and makes four aces. Player B draws one card. Player A bets out, Player B raises, Player A reraises, Player B reraises, Player A drops. This is the only case on record in which a player dropped four aces after raising once. It is unlikely that it could ever actually happen, because poker players are human beings and a human being would not drop four aces, but the situation is entirely logical.
Player B would not have stayed on a simple draw to a straight or flush, and he would have raised with two pairs, so he was marked with a draw to a straight flush. He knew that Player A knew this, so that he would not have given his second raise if he could merely beat a full house, on the assumption that any full house by Player A would be better than his (because Player A went in with a single pair of openers). Consequently, it must be figured that Player B made his straight flush and Player A's four aces are no good. It is all inescapable logic, however unrealistic it may be. The Plan of This Book Now I am going to take up the general considerations that apply to all forms of poker. Sooner or later in this book I will treat each of the principal forms of the game and give specific advice about it, but first I consider it more appropriate to discuss certain important considerations that apply to every form of poker, no matter which particular game you happen to be playing in,
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