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‘DON’T LISTEN TO PHIL HELLMUTH’

The following is an excerpt from Dusty Schmidt and Paul Hoppe’s new book, Don’t Listen To Phil Hellmuth: Correcting The 50 Worst Pieces of Poker Advice You’ve Ever Heard, available for purchase on this site.

Misconception #4

Pick A Style And Stick With It

Some players say they prefer to play loose, while others prefer to play tight. They call each other donkey-nits, clown-fish, and all manner of animal-inspired names. They may not be playing from a hand chart, but they’ve decided whether they prefer always to err on the side of aggression or conservatism. They pick a style and stick with it.

That doesn’t make much sense. Every decision you make at the poker table should be based on what you think will win the most money.

Improving at poker is just like improving in life. When you’re trying to play a logic game for a living, you need to be logical in life. Is it logical to eat awful food and never exercise? No. You don’t have much in life without your health. Without it, nothing else really matters.

There are times when logic will shout at you to deviate from your comfortable game plan. Heed its call.

Consider the following story:

One day a salesman receives a phone call.

“I need to buy a crane, ASAP,” the caller requests.

“I’m sorry, sir. We don’t sell cranes,” the salesman responds. “We only carry toothbrushes and dental floss.” He hangs up.

“Who the hell was that?” his boss demands.

“Some guy wanted to buy a crane,” the salesman laughs.

“And you hung up on him? Get back on that phone and tell that guy you’re gonna get him a goddamn crane!”

“But we don’t have cra–”

“What the hell does that matter? Do you know how much those things cost?” the boss asks. “If the man wants a crane, we’ll sell him a crane.”

The salesman calls the guy back and the boss begins furiously flipping through the yellow pages for crane dealers. He calls a few places, talks to a few guys, and thirty minutes later he’s brokering a deal where the caller gets a crane, the crane company gets $600,000, and he gets a 10% commission.

Dusty heard this from a golfing buddy, who happened to be the boss in the above story. The salesman was one of his best employees, but he considered firing him for hanging up on a dude who was looking to drop over half a million on a crane.

How does this relate to poker?

Maybe you’ve been playing tight all day and a couple of loose players are constantly raising and cold calling each other. It’s time to re-raise and grab all of that money that’s sitting out there. Your cards don’t matter. You should squeeze. You already know that both players have weak and wide ranges here. The first guy will have a hard time calling your raise with a speculative hand, knowing that he’ll wind up squeezed between you and the cold caller. The cold caller is even less likely to call, since he usually would have re-raised himself if he had a hand worth a 3-bet.

Maybe you’ve been playing loose all day and a super tight and oblivious player shoves over your 3-bet. You think his range is only aces and kings. You should fold your queens. Queens are normally a powerhouse hand when you have a loosey-goosey image. But this opponent doesn’t pay attention to that stuff, and he’s super tight to boot. Your awesome hand has turned into muck, and that’s exactly where it should end up.

It’s okay to deviate from your “standard” play when the situation demands. In fact, that’s the best way to play. Here are a few considerations that should affect your range:

*There is a big fish at the table. When there is a truly awful player at the table, you should do everything you can to get into pots with him. There are players who min-raise any two cards preflop, then massively overbet every flop. With these ridiculous implied odds, you can play literally any two cards against them. This example is extreme, but these situations come up. Be ready when they do. Don’t take it so far when the fish isn’t quite so massive, but the same general concept applies. Get in there and take their money.

No Limit Holdem: $5/$10 blinds – 6 players

Stacks: $1,000 effective

Reads: BB is a big fish

Preflop: You have 7♠6♠ in the lojack

You raise to $30

With a very bad player in the big blind, you should play this hand that you would usually fold from such an early position. In fact, you can open raise your regular cutoff range from any earlier position, and an even wider range from the cutoff and button.

*There is a raise in front of you and the bad player is in the big blind. This is a fine spot to do some looser cold calling. You’re less likely to get 3-bet (squeezed) by any good players behind you because they should prefer to just call with their playable hands in an attempt to extract more money from the fish after the flop. Since a re-raise would shut the fish out of the pot, good players may even just call with aces and kings. In fact, you should consider just calling with your strong hands as well, since you’re more likely to get value from the bad player in the big blind than from the solid player in front of you.

*The blinds are super tight. You can play more marginal hands, particularly from late position, when the blinds fold too much. When there’s free money out there, you should take it. You can open any two cards, even deuce-seven offsuit, from the button if the blinds are tight enough.

*You are in the cutoff and the button is weak/tight. When the button is going to fold to your raise 95% of the time preflop, it’s almost like you get the button twice per orbit. You can open up your cutoff range considerably. If the blinds don’t adjust and keep folding as much as they would against your usual cutoff range, you can almost make an argument to open the cutoff looser than you would usually open the button. You can certainly open as loose as your default button range.

*You have been playing unusually tight. Sometimes you just sit around and fold almost every hand for an hour straight. If an early position player has been opening a lot of pots, you can 3-bet light and get much more credit than you usually would. This concept only applies against opponents who are paying attention.

No Limit Holdem: $5/$10 blinds – 6 players

Stacks: $1,000 effective

Reads: LJ is an observant player

Dynamic: You’ve been playing crazy tight

Preflop: You have J♥6♥ in the hijack

It’s generally best to save this play for times when you have a little something for back up, like suited or connected cards, or an ace or a king in your hand. When your opponents do call the 3-bet, it will often be with pocket pairs instead of the king-queen and ace-jack type hands that have you dominated. That makes you less likely to suffer from kicker problems, keeping you from losing too many big pots. An ace or a king in your hand also reduces the chances of your opponent holding a hand like aces, kings, or ace-king.

*The player behind you is awesome. This can be a world class player or just someone you feel has a good edge on you. Be honest with yourself. There’s no need to seek a struggle with players who are better than you. If you’re willing to give position to a player of this caliber, there’d better be a big fish on your right. (Otherwise you should find a better seat.) Play pots withthat guy. He’s the one offering to pay your rent. You can’t be afraid to take advantage of the bad players just because someone scary is sitting behind you, but when the bad players are out of the pot, you should be too unless you have a strong hand. As illustrated by the following example, you should often fold hands that you would play with a weaker player sitting to your left.

No Limit Holdem: $5/$10 blinds – 5 players

Stacks: $1,000 effective

Reads: HJ is a fish, BTN Is world class

Preflop: You have A♦9♣ in the cutoff

HJ folds, you fold

In extreme cases, you should make severe alterations to your range. Most of the time, however, you shouldn’t take it too far. When a moderately bad player opens in early position, you shouldn’t cold call in the cutoff with 8♠2♠. But you can start playing suited connectors, weaker suited hands like queen-eight and jack-seven, and big offsuit hands that you would fold against a more dangerous opponent.

This is not an exhaustive list. You should always be thinking about other situations where deviating will be more profitable than sticking to your chart. Never be afraid to sell someone a crane.

‘WAY OF THE POKER WARRIOR’

Two Paths, One Discipline

NEW YORK CITY – April 2003 – I surveyed my opponent as we bowed to begin the last round of the men’s heavyweight final. His uniform pants were torn and he was covered in sweat, but there was still fight in his eyes.

“Chung: 2, Hong: 4,” the center ref shouted, calling the score by the color of our chest guards.

Four? I couldn’t recall getting hit, but now I saw red. I would have to see more of it if I wanted to win the match. I was in my third fight, while my opponent was only in his second. Who needs a bye? I was physically exhausted, but a two-point deficit going into the final round was enough to get my blood up. I wasn’t losing without a fight.

The instant the ref began the final round, I was skipping in with a side kick. My opponent retreated a step, so I spun and followed up with a back kick. My heel landed just above the belt. He was jolted and out of room to run. Seizing the opportunity, I swung my rear leg above my head and brought it down on my opponent’s face.

My solid axe kick to the face prompted an eight count from the ref. My lungs burned as I tried to catch my breath. When the fight continued, we clinched a few times and threw some useless kicks. My opponent was docked a point for trying to back fist me in the face. It’s a good technique, but not allowed in our Taekwon-Do competition. My mental tally left the score even. Time to dig down for one last charge.

When something works, I like to try it again. I charged in with another skipping side-kick, back-kick, axe-kick combination. For the second time in two minutes, my foot connected squarely with my opponent’s face.

There was blood.

LAS VEGAS – July 2007 – I was down to my last three big bets. In a cash game, I would never be in this situation. There’s no sense getting short stacked when you can buy more chips. But this wasn’t a cash game. I was playing in the World Series Of Poker. Granted, it was the cheapest event in the WSOP, but it felt like the big time to a small-stakes grinder like myself. We were playing SHOE, which is a rotation of four fixed-limit games: Seven Card Stud, Holdem, Omaha Hi/Lo, and Stud Hi/Lo (Eight Or Better).

I had survived the grueling ten hours of Day 1 by playing good, aggressive poker. This event was held in a tent behind the Rio, so on this 117-degree Vegas day, drinking lots of water also helped me survive. Day 2 was inside the air-conditioned poker room. I was comfortable, but I couldn’t get anything going. Through a round of Stud and a round of Holdem, I was dealt zero quality hands, and only one profitable stealing scenario appeared. I was staying disciplined, but the time for patience was at an end. The blinds were going up and my chips were going down. The bubble was approaching. Out of 800 players, only 90 remained. About 80 of those would make it to the money. I would have loved to cruise to the cash, but this was not an option. It was time to find something and go with it.

The game was Omaha when I finally picked up a hand worth committing to. I got all my chips in with an excellent two-way hand, but wound up chopping the pot. That left me right where I’d started. Two hands later, I got it in on the flop with another great scooper, this time to receive only one quarter of the pot. Finally, I picked up A335 and put all my chips in for the third time.

I won neither of these tournaments. I lost 4-4 by decision in the Taekwon-Do championship, and I busted just before the bubble in the WSOP. Despite losing, I was proud of my effort in both cases.

It would have been easy to mail it in, down by two in the last round of my third fight. My chances of winning at that point were small. I was tired, and it was going to take a lot of grit just to give myself a chance. I had to reach down for something extra, but I found a way to give myself that chance.

It would have been easy to start blindly firing chips at the pot in the WSOP. Not playing a hand for hours can be frustrating. It’s easy to give in to temptation and just play the cards you’re dealt, or to zone out and miss an opportunity. I had played ten hours the day before and I was tired. Nonetheless, I waited patiently for a profitable opportunity and, once I found one, took action.

I am not a soldier, but more than a decade of martial-arts practice has helped me develop a warrior’s mindset. A warrior approaches each task with single-minded focus and disregard for transient pleasure and pain. There is only the goal and what must be done to achieve it.

Whether I’m competing in the ring or at a poker table, I’m going to do everything I can to win. I am going to prepare by training hard and with efficiency. I am going to pick apart my opponent, find a weakness, and attack it without mercy.

In fighting, as in poker, there is variance. I don’t always immediately realize the fruits of my labor. Sometimes I give my best effort and come up short. Those times I don’t win, I’m going to look for the lessons to give me a better chance the next time.

I was able to apply many of the concepts I learned from Taekwon-Do, my martial art of choice, to poker. This helped me make a living immediately upon leaving the martial-arts business. There are other opportunities to apply these concepts that I’ve only realized while writing this book. In fact, if I could have read what I’m writing four years ago, I would have progressed even faster than I did.

You don’t need to practice martial arts for a decade to apply this wisdom to your game (although I would not discourage it). I’ve already done that for you. I’ve condensed that wisdom and distilled the concepts most applicable to the game of poker.

As a fourth-degree black belt (master) of Taekwon-Do, a professional mid-stakes Holdem player, and an experienced teacher of both disciplines, I am uniquely suited to write this book. I have taught Taekwon-Do since 2001; I have run a martial arts school in Times Square; and I am a lead instructor for the poker training site Drag the Bar. I have also taught dozens of private students in poker and martial arts.

In the first section of this book, I will show you how I developed my skills as a martial artist and how you can develop your poker skills the same way. This is how we train.

The second section is about combat. I will show you how to apply fighting concepts to your poker game. The strategy and game theory of heads up play is directly analogous to one-on-one fighting. I will also show you how I think as a fighter and as a player, and how you can achieve the same mindset.

Finally, I will discuss conduct. This section is about how we treat ourselves and how we treat others. Both are integral to completing our understanding of the warrior’s mindset.

I want you to make more money playing poker. In order to do this, I need you to spend less time thinking about money, and more time thinking about poker. The way of the poker warrior is process oriented. By focusing on the process, you will become less results oriented. You will learn quicker and perform better.

If you are a losing or breakeven player, you will become profitable more quickly. If you are a winning player with hopes of going pro, you’ll be able to do that more quickly. If you are already a professional, you’ll become a more confident player and make more money as a result. Regardless of your current level of skill, Way of the Poker Warrior will help you have more fun, endure less stress, and make more money while playing the game you love.