JJ's Blog

I’m sure most everyone is familiar with the term “Free Rolling” If not, free-rolling is when you get into a situation where you can’t really loose any money but you have a chance to win some. A classic example of free-rolling is when you are given an entry into an online poker tournament as a reward for opening an account.

Anyway, the reason I mention free rolling is because I’ve really been working on coming up with some “best practices” for beating the low limit NL Hold’Em game at the casino – a game that features 4 or 5 bad players or more per table. Adjustments are necessary when playing this type of game versus playing at a table with 9 or 10 solid players.

One of these best practices that I’m almost sure is valid is the importance of making bad players play their hands after the flop. I think that bad players are much closer in skill to the better players with their pre-flop play. Bad players can accurately identify good starting hands (especially premium hands) and usually play them correctly (i.e., raising and re-raising with them). Where the skill level really begins to diverge is with post flop play. In my opinion, the bad players tend to make several major post flop mistakes that can be exploited by better players.

First, bad players tend to play their draws unprofitably. Bad players will continue to call with 4 outers (gut shots) and 5 outers (2 pair) regardless of position and stack sizes.

Second, bad players find ways to make as little value as possible from their draws. Bad players tend to call with longshot draws, but once they hit, they make really small value bets ~ 25% of the pot so they don’t “scare off” their opponents.

Finally, bad players can not let go of a premium hand even though it should be obvious that they are beat. A real good example of this comes from a home game I was involved with this past Saturday. We are playing 8 handed NLHE with $1/$2 blinds, stacks are at about $100 each around the table, and all 8 players are pretty solid. I’m dealt 2 pretty red Aces in early position. I make a raise to $10 and get 2 callers. The flop comes Q-Q-2. I lead out for $20. I get smooth called by a guy with $100 left. Then, I get reraised by a guy who is all in for another $35. I fold. The first player calls and shows A-Q. The second player shows Q-2. Not that I’m a good player, but I think this is a pretty easy fold. Bad players at the casino will never fold the A-A under any circumstances.

If you’re a good player and can make pretty accurate post flop reads, you can lay down a hand (that looked real good preflop) when you know you’ve been outflopped. This is a profitable play.

If you’re a good player, you can make excellent value from your made hands post flop against bad players that are calling pot sized bets hoping to hit that 5 outer. This is a profitable play.

Freeeee Roll'n
Now here’s where free rolling comes in. If you’re a good player, you can take a flop, even for a raise, against a bad player when you are in position with speculative hands…. and free roll – that is, you can win their entire stack, but there is no way they will win any more money off of you. To validate this strategy, just watch a few hours of High Stakes Poker on GSN and observe the play of Daniel Negreanu. He makes numerous calls, when in position, with very speculative hands (3h-4h). The key is to not play hands that can be dominated (Kx-Jx or Ax-9x) and you must have a pretty high likelihood of being able make a gigantic score against a bad player that will overplay a hand like two kings.

So, the keys to this best practice (Free-rolling) in beating the $1/$2 NLHE casino game.

• The opening raiser must be a bad player who has real potential for overplaying his hand post flop
• The money of the opening raiser must be deep (10x or more the size of his opening raise)
• You must be in late position (cutoff or button) – to minimize the chance of a re-raise from behind you
• Your money must be deep as well (10x or more the size of the raise)
• You must have a hand that is not dominated by the likely holdings of the opening raiser.
• Finally, you must be very disciplined. The flop must hit you hard (2 times or more) for you to continue. You simply cannot show down a 2nd best hand – ever, as this will erode any profitability from this play
  

It’ll work – trust me.

The Free Roller becomes the Free Rollee

Now, what if you find yourself being the “free-rollee” instead of the free-roller? There a couple of things I like to do if I find myself being free-rolled on (BTW, you’ll know you're the free-rollee when every pre-flop raise you make is being called by the same guy, over and over and over).

The counter-measures I like to use against a free-roller include.

• “Tick up”. That is, if your opening bet is $10 and you get called, next time “tick up” to $13, then $16, etc… until you find the maximum point that the free roller will call. These late position calls by the free-roller with speculative hands represent profit for you. Make it as expensive for the free-roller as possible.
• Size the continuation bet correctly. Since the flop will most likely miss the free roller, any bet from you should end the hand. When the flop is pretty safe or uncoordinated, make a smaller bet – around 1/3rd to ½ pot. If you’ve been out flopped by some garbage, it’ll be important for you to control the size of the pot. If you get called, no problem. The pot is still small. If the flop is coordinated, bet around 2/3rd of the pot. If you get raised, consider mucking, but you have to lay an unprofitable price for someone calling with a draw. 2/3rd pot sized bet lays a pretty bad price and is as small of a commitment as you can make with your continuation.
• Finally, you have to be very comfortable laying down a big pre-flop hand when you’ve been outflopped. This ability of yours destroys any profitability of the free-roller. Play a few hundred hours of Omaha if you need some experience laying down big preflop hands when the flop screws you.
  

Anyway, I know this was a little long winded. Please critique this strategy. Also, this was a kind of response to another blog where a guy’s big hands seemed to be going down in flames around him. [hespyblog]

See ya at the table….oh yea, I’ll be the guy free-rolling.