I have a reputation as a tight player, but I'm not that tight. Yet there's a gentleman I've played against who is perhaps the tightest player I've ever met. I'm sure he leaves money on the tables, but I'm also certain that he never gets it in bad.
Let's call this man John. Gentleman John plays in the uncapped games in Las Vegas, but not the big games. Instead, he'll buy in for $10,000 in a $1-$2 no-limit hold 'em game. The next deepest stack, you ask? Well, that was me: I bought in for a measly $440.
Gentleman John plays about one hand every hour. I joked to my friend Aaron that he plays a hand on the hour, every hour. When he raises, he has a big hand. I've seen him show down jacks once, and that was when he played them from his un-raised big blind.
Here's a hand from a year ago. I folded under-the-gun. Dan raised from the cutoff to $12. Gentleman John in the small blind was the only caller.
The flop was Qh-Qc-3c. After Gentleman John checked Dan made a $20 continuation bet. Gentleman John thought for a moment, and then threw in a wad of bills that I conservatively estimated to be an $8,000 raise. The raise itself was somewhat ridiculous in size since Dan had only another $200. I winced when Dan called because I knew I was going to be shown A-Q, 3-3, or Q-Q. Dan proudly turned over his aces, but they were just slightly dominated on this flop by Gentleman John's pocket queens. As is his usual modus operandi, Gentleman John soon left the game.
I only saw Gentleman John once on my most recent trip to Las Vegas. He was playing in an uncapped $1-$3 blinds no-limit hold 'em game. I was sitting behind him at another table so I could see the cards that he was dealt. I watched incredulously as Gentleman John folded Ah-Qh in an un-raised pot from the cutoff, 10d-10f from the hijack (two to the right of the button), and pocket jacks under-the-gun. He also folded Jd-10d to a small raise when there were five callers in his big blind. The humorous thing about it was that based on the cards that came, Gentleman John made the correct decision.
Of course, if you play like that-making your decisions based on your results rather than on the correct poker decision-incorrect decision making is reinforced. It's almost certain that Gentleman John is blissfully unaware of how bad his plays were.
Today, the quality of play even at low buy-in no-limit games has immeasurably improved from as recently as two years ago. Players are reading books, watching videos, and discussing strategy on poker forums. Waiting for your monster hands was a strategy that could work as recently as two years ago. Today, I don't think that will work except in the most tourist-dominated games.
Consider the deception value that Gentleman John could achieve by just opening up his game a little-if he were to raise with a hand as bad as Ac-Qc. Maybe he should consider a raise with middle suited connectors like 8s-7s. Or just every so often he might consider bluffing.
I don't mind playing against Gentleman John. He also makes the ten-handed games in Las Vegas feel like my normal nine-handed games. And best of all, I almost always know exactly where I stand. I haven't met a player yet who minds opponents like that.
Russell Fox is the co-author of "Mastering No-Limit Hold'em," "Why You Lose at Poker," and "Winning Strategies for No-Limit Hold'em." He's a federally licensed tax preparer specializing in gambling, with a blog at taxabletalk.com. E-mail Russ at rcfox@claytontax.com
