Poker Articles

Is it my responsibility to be my neighbor’s keeper? Am I obligated not to use every weapon at my disposal to win? Is this all out war or isn’t it? These are the questions I have been wrestling with as of late. 

As a simple example, let’s start with the following. The player immediately to your left is sitting out/disconnected/not present. If it is folded around to you in the small blind, do you raise to pick up the pot? I don’t know about you, but to me this is a no-brainer. I raise here every time. In fact, I get mad at myself for not paying attention if I ever miss this opportunity and auto-fold.

What about a similar, but slightly more complex example. Suppose you and your lone opponent are already in a pot and then he gets disconnected. If you flop the nuts are you obligated to check knowing that, if you bet, he will be auto-folded. What if you don’t flop the nuts? Are you now denied the opportunity to bluff/make a play at the pot due to your missing opponent?

Here’s a hand history to illustrate the point:

PokerStars Game #12098061073: Tournament #60483030, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level XII (600/1200) - 2007/09/16 - 19:12:00 (ET)
Table '60483030 197' 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: vld123 (21421 in chips)
Seat 3: doucheburger (87815 in chips)
Seat 4: Slasherman (87885 in chips)
Seat 5: solimanific (25258 in chips)
Seat 6: donkameleon (64260 in chips)
Seat 7: AaronZs Pot (53983 in chips)
Seat 8: Sealed Deck (41805 in chips)
Seat 9: Ruler-Jürgen (22233 in chips)
vld123: posts the ante 125
doucheburger: posts the ante 125
Slasherman: posts the ante 125
solimanific: posts the ante 125
donkameleon: posts the ante 125
AaronZs Pot: posts the ante 125
Sealed Deck: posts the ante 125
Ruler-Jürgen: posts the ante 125
solimanific: posts small blind 600
donkameleon: posts big blind 1200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Sealed Deck [Td 9d]
AaronZs Pot: calls 1200
Sealed Deck: calls 1200
tuition911 is connected
Ruler-Jürgen: folds
vld123: folds
doucheburger: raises 3600 to 4800
Slasherman: folds
solimanific: folds
donkameleon: folds
AaronZs Pot: folds
Sealed Deck: calls 3600

I called here thinking he had either a small pair or a weak ace and planning to bet the flop if it looked favorable and take the pot from him. Instead, just before the flop, I notice he is disconnected. Now my dilemma begins. Do I proceed with my intended plan and bet out or do I check? Here’s what actually happened:

*** FLOP *** [5h Kd 8h]
Sealed Deck: checks
doucheburger is disconnected
doucheburger has timed out while disconnected
doucheburger: checks
*** TURN *** [5h Kd 8h] [2d]

Now I am really in a pickle. Not only am I upset that I didn’t get to bet the flop, but I have picked up a flush draw. Every poker fiber in my being is screaming for me to bet. Here’s what I did:

Sealed Deck: checks
doucheburger has timed out while disconnected
doucheburger: checks
*** RIVER *** [5h Kd 8h 2d] [Kh]

As I sit here and type I can’t help but wonder why I did what I did. Poker is supposed to be akin to war, and Lao Tze teaches us that a true warrior uses everything at his disposal to win the war. Am I a wimp or is there something more here? Perhaps I’ll explore this issue more later, but right now my wife is yelling at me to take out the garbage.