Poker Articles

I don't care - Seal

Sometimes I'll be at a table playing a tournament and there'll be one guy who keeps pushing all in almost every time he acts. I know there may be many reasons for this, but more and more I see the same reason in chat at the table " "I don't care."

There are times when even I find myself in this "I don't care" state of mind. With me it's usually when I start a low buy-in tourney because my son or daughter doesn't want to go someplace with me and then they change their mind. Now I still want to go out, but I am in the game, so I may start getting crazy until I am out or I have a huge stack.

The other day I saw a guy win a big pot with total crap against another guy's pocket kings. The guy with the kings did the usual thing and called the other guy a donkey. The winner just replied, "I paid my money and I'll play the way I want to play."

So what can the thinking player do against the unthinking opponent?

For starters, there is always the gamble option. Obviously if you are facing one of these "I don't care" all-in kinda guys and you find yourself holding aces you are going to get in there and play. But even your aces will only win heads up on average about four out of five times, and the more players that are in, the worse your odds become. So, even with the best possible hand, you are still gambling. Why not get in there and mix it up with lesser quality hands? Maybe your AQ will only be a 60% favorite, but you will still likely be a favorite, and if you win you get all those extra chips.

The problem with this is that their unthinking play effectively neutralizes our skill advantage. And there is little to nothing we can do about it. A long time ago, a popular poker writer was asked to create a system whereby a gambler's friend (who knew nothing about poker) could compete with some of the best players of the time. What he came up with was essentially a minimally thinking version of push/fold, and it worked like a charm. It still does. The reason it works is that it reduces all our thinking and training and skills to only one decision "“ do I call or do I fold?

Then there is the wait it out option. Fortunately, or maybe not, the number of thinking players outweighs the unthinking ones by quite a few. I'm not claiming that the majority of poker players are geniuses or anything, but the level of play is certainly higher than it used to be. So you can always just choose not to throw any chips in the pot if you plan on folding to a raise. Save your speculating for after the maniac busts.

As an experiment, if you haven't done so already, try playing at least one entire tournament in push/fold mode. Go with the semi-thinking model and only push with any kind of playable hand, but always push if you play. And only call another player's all-in with AA, KK, QQ, JJ, or AK. I am not suggesting you do this often, or even in any game that costs you any amount of money that you care about, just that you experience it for yourself at least once. Maybe try it in the ten cent game on stars or the one dollar tourney if you are a big spender, but try it. If you have any luck at all you may be surprised by the results and at the least you will understand why all the thinking players hate the "I don't care" guys.

Meanwhile, you keep doing what you are doing. Study the game and improve your skills so you have many weapons in your arsenal. But one day when you don't know what to do, remember the power inherent in this one simple play and maybe, just maybe, say "I don't care" and just go for it.

Language

Featured Topics