Tuesday, August 22, 2017

The Misdeal

This will be a short post even though I am discussing two different topics. 

The first was an interesting "ruling"—if that's what it was—in a tournament.  They had just announced that the blinds were going up next hand.  The dealer had already cut the cards for our next hand and per rule (or is it just a tradition?), we were playing this hand at the old blinds.  The dealer confirmed this.

However, there was a misdeal.  I think he forgot to deal in one of the player for some reason.  Anyway, he had everyone return the cards that had been dealt and he reshuffled them and redealt.  However, the dealer insisted that the blinds were now up for this hand.  Huh?  This hand was the last hand at the old blinds.  It wasn't any of the players' fault that he misdealt it.  Shouldn't we have still have had that last hand at the old blind levels?

A couple of the players, myself included, questioned it but the dealer was adamant that the blinds were now up for this very hand,  It didn't make any sense to me—we were entitled to one last hand at the old blind levels and we didn't get that because of his error.  However, with the dealer insisting and already starting to deal the cards, I decided to let it go and not insist on him calling the floor.  It was early in the tournament, the jump wasn't that much, and I figured we'd get screwed even more (in terms of lost time) by having to wait for a floor person to show up.

So we played the hand at the new blind level.

But does anyone know the rule for this?  And regardless of the actual rule, do you think this is right?  Again, it wasn't a big deal so early in the tournament but it it had happened later in the tournament, when the blind jumps would be big, it might have had considerable impact.


Ok, now we turn to a brief cash game session at MGM.

From the small blind, I completed with Queen-10 off.  It was 6-way. The flop was King-10-10.  I bet $5 and only had one caller.  The turn was a blank and I bet $10, he called.  The river was another blank I bet $15, this time he raised to $30.  Shit, did he have a boat?  I just called.  He showed King-3 (there was no 3 on the board, he just had top pair, terrible kicker).  Thank you, sir.

After a few limps, I limped in with pocket 9's.  I flopped a set with two hearts on the board.  I considered slow playing it because the Pyramid promo that week included 9's full.  I just needed the board to pair—the right pair, anyway—and I'd win some promo money.  But I couldn't give free cards with the hearts out there.  I bet $6 and had two callers.  Blank on the turn and I bet $15, one call.  The river was a blank and was not a heart.  I was grabbing chips to bet and the guy mucked before I even bet.  So pretty sure he was on a heart draw.

Then, in early position, I had pocket 5's.  I was trying to avoid open limping, so I raised to $6.  It was 4-way.  The flop was fairly low but no 5. I decided to c-bet $20.  There was one call.  It checked the rest of the way and I took it with my unimproved 5's.  The other guy had Ace-4 (there was a 4 on the flop).

I had pocket Aces and there were two limpers in front of me so I made it $12.  It was three-way. The flop was nice, Ace-high, rainbow.  I bet $20.  One call.  I bet $35 on a blank, and took it. 

I ended up leaving that session up $80.  Not the most memorable session to be sure, but a win's a win.

7 comments:

  1. Hey Rob, a question about your bet sizing. When you hit that trips, don't you want to build a better pot? A half-pot size bet on the flop makes your turn and river bets smaller. I'm thinking Ed Miller here--that's where you're looking to stack someone--so isn't a pot-sized bet on the flop better?

    Oh, yeah, the dealer's wrong, I'm pretty sure.

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    1. Yeah,perhaps I should have bet a little more, but it was a limped pot. You bet pot in a limped pot you usually don't get a call. I suppose a $7 or $8 bet would have been better. After that, the size of the pot kind of dictated my bets.

      If I had known my opponent was going to overvalue his hand, I obviously should have bet bigger.

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    2. It's not so much "knowing your opponent will overvalue his hand," but thinking that this is where you want to play for stacks. Again, I'm going back to Ed Miller--I'm reading his book "The Course." And it's precisely because pot size dictates bet size on subsequent streets that you want to try and build a pot on the flop. You make a pot-sized bet on the flop and get just one call and all of a sudden the pot is $30, not $20, for your turn bet.

      Sure, sometimes you slam the flop and get no action. It sucks. But when you do slam the flop, get as much money in as fast and as early as you can.

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  2. The Dealer is wrong here. If there is a misdeal, the next hand is dealt at the same blinds and antes as what it would of been if the misdeal didn't happen. Nothing changes on the new hand (the blinds/button are in the same spot).

    TDA has a rule for this (35-C):

    In a misdeal, the re-deal is an exact re-play: the button does not move, no new players are seated, and limits stay the same. Cards are dealt to players on penalty or not at their seats for the original deal (Rule 30), then their hands are killed. The original deal and re-deal count as one hand for a player on penalty, not two.

    Stan

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    1. Thanks, Stan. I was pretty sure that was wrong, but as I said in the post, it seemed like more trouble than it was worth to make an issue out of it. I guess I could have looked it up myself but I knew that one of my alert readers would know.

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    2. The answer to Rob's question is 35C? Knowing Rob, this would not be big enough. He would demand at least a 35D, maybe even bigger.

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    3. Cute. But Lightning, don't you know that the first measurement is pretty meaningless--it is the letter that is all important. A small-statured girl could be a 32-DD and be a real head turner.

      "C" is just fine....in fact, "B"s can also be quite fetching.

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