Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Scared Money is Dead Money
I think I may have pilfered this next quote from someone, but my latest observation is that “scared money is dead money”.
I went to Greektown casino this past Saturday night and had a pretty good run on the $1/$2 NL Hold’Em $100 max table. This is the 2nd time I’ve played NL at the casino and my first win (I usually play limit). I won $571. Whoo Hoo!
I drew a pretty good table. First, about ½ of the table were weak players (unlike the first time I played NL at Greektown – all sharks). Second, I was seated right in front of one of their plasma TVs that was showing the Cornhuskers play (they won an overtime thriller). There was only one large stack (about $400) in front of an older lady that looked a little “grizzled”. I lost $30 to her on the first hand that I played, then she went on to loose almost all of that stack ($80 of it back to me), so there was no real large stack players at the table most of the night – with the exception of your’s truly.
It also helped that I was dealt some good hands that I played very straight forwardly and got paid off by people who were terrified that they might be being bluffed…so they paid off. One guy called my $70 bet (into a $70 pot) on the turn when a 2 fell and paired his J 2 offsuit hand. He announced, “I’m probably beat here, but what the hell”. My pocket 9s held up on a board of all under cards as we checked down the river. He was concerned I was on a completely naked bluff and he wanted to “punish” me.
Anyway, I digress. My observation is that it is so easy to pick on small stacks of scared money when playing NL. I could easily spot the people who were on scared money. They would come to the table with a short buy in (i.e., $60). They would enter pots cautiously and muck to any real pressure. They were just waiting to pick up that magical double up hand and then they would go all in with so much confidence and so little hesitation that you could read it a mile away. They were really unable to mount any real pressure on anyone. I actually loved being in a hand with them and I got the sense they dreaded being in a hand with me.
I’ve seen this same pattern repeated numerous times in the home games. Some people will get busted out of their initial $100 buy-in, leave the table for a while, and then return with $40 (borrowed most likely). It seems like that approach is just a formula for loosing yet another $40. Conversely, I’ve seen ordinarily weak players become very difficult when they start to accumulate a lot of chips. They call more often, they push edges a little harder, and they play a wider range of hands – making them more difficult to read and manipulate.
Ya see, there are 2 ways to win in NLHE. One, you can play good cards that have a good chance of winning, unimproved at showdown. Two, you can outplay your opponents by betting/bluffing when your cards may or may not win at showdown.
Imagine a professional football team that comes to a NFL game with only one offensive option (the run). With only one option, the opponent can simply adjust and will eventually dominate the game. It’s the same thing with scared money. Playing with scared money is like coming to the game with only one option. All of your opponents have 2 options. You’re at a real disadvantage if you’re playing with one way to win but everyone else has 2 ways to win. Scared money is dead money.
On the other hand, I’m really impressed by people who can play short stack poker without playing ‘scared’ money. As an example, a friend of mine came to the $100 buy in NL home game table with $40 a few weeks back. This is a short stack. On one particular hand, I raised the pot to $12 preflop, and he smooth called in position. This is an example of playing short stack poker but not playing ‘scared’ money. In this situation, a ‘scared’ money player would have folded or raised all in. This guy was willing to take a flop and outplay me. He could fold, he could check, he could raise any amount. He had all of his options available because he was not scared to play with (and possibly loose) his buy-in. He was a much more difficult player than others who would only use 2 options (fold or “all in”). Plus, I could get the sense that he was not playing with scared money. I got the sense that he was intending to play some very solid poker and turn his $40 into $200 before the night was over.
