OK how do you play this

Odds are about 2.7:1 (36.43%) that someone else won't have an ace, playing 8 handed (as is the case with your AT to AK hand above), meaning about 63% of the time another ace will be dealt out. 4 of those 13 aces have you dominated. Now, is it more likely that you will hold the stronger ace with AT? Without having any information, yes. However, the preflop raise indicates strength, it is unlikely the raiser will be dominated.

I have no problem with your insistence that you need to play the player and not the cards; however, that involves not only being able to tell when your opponent is weak, it also has to do with being able to tell you have a strong hand, but he has better.

As for your second hand here, I most likely would have lost all my chips as well - however, you could have avoided this situation by folding the A4 preflop - besides the pocket pairs 11 pocket pairs that have you dominated, there are an additional 10 Ax's that have you dominated. What if the flop was AAx, or even just Axx? Would you have assumed your ace was best? That's an assumption you can't make, as odds are, IT ISN'T.

__________________
1st place, March/April 2008 Sunday League

Fault always lies in the same place, my fine babies: with him weak enough to lay blame.

This is the debate that has been going on for years here on THF.

Crapshoot has been the advocate for playing your opponents over SOLEY playing your cards. Crapshoot is not saying ALWAYS play your opponent. He is not saying NEVER play your cards. He is merely suggesting something all good players already know and that's....... "you need to do both in order to win more".

Can you win by only playing your cards? SOMETIMES!!!!!
Can you win by only playing your opponents? SOMETIMES!!!!!!

Will you win more often if you can incorporate both to your game? YES!!!!!!

We all know this....don't we???? I mean really..... doesn't everyone here know this????? Please speak out if you disagree with this statement. I'm sure if some new players here don't know this we can educate them but any half decent poker player already has this concept etched in their brain.

So are we debating this concept or are we debating Crapshoot as a player???

Crapshoot posts many HH's so we sure have much to debate over. I've played with Shoot and he taught me alot but I don't always agree with his HH's and how he played them. I do agree you need to incorporate both concepts in order to win more consistantly.

Crapshoot relies on reads and playing his opponent rather than his cards at a higher % than most of us. But I don't see him winning thousands of dollars so his theory must be a joke...... right????

I don't think the theory is a joke. I just think his % of playing opponents vs. playing his cards is too high. Especially in SNG's and Tournaments. In HU you need the higher %.

Generally, He risks more and relies on reads of his opponents to maximize his profits and minimize his losses. Works great when your reads are right on. Sometimes you can anticipate a fold from your opponent who has the best hand but not good enough to make that call. You look like a genius when that happens.

Unfortunately for Crapshoot, and the rest of us as well, not every player makes the fold. Some players are just bad and make the call anyway without really knowing why other than they like their hand. Some players we underestimate and we thought we could get them to fold but they are just to smart to fall for it. And some are in between.

We all need to tweak the % of playing the opponent vs. the playing the cards. Some need to tweak up the % and some need to tweak it down......
I believe thats the real debate around here...........................