Smash Vegas

While writing the last post about bankroll management I remembered a good tip for those of you who play poker online. Look out for players who have a tiny bankroll for the stakes.

What comes to mind was a game I was playing at pacific poker, $0.5/$1 limit texas hold ‘em, pretty low stakes I know but I was using it to record some player data (that’s another story). When playing I like to have at least 100 times the big blind, not just to avoid risk of ruin but also as I find it can have an intimidatory effect. Of course in a way it’s artificial because you decide how much of your bankroll to bring to the table, but it’s often the case that people bring a set amount to the table to remind them to stop if they lose that much.

I was hopping around tables to collect data from as many different players as possible when I came to a table with 3 players who had a bank balance below $5. I figured on at least one of the three being a sucker. One of them took me to showdown on a small pot and I beat him. Next hand I have pocket tens and preflop raise to a table of limpers. Everyone folds till the guy I just beat who re-raises. Something tells me he’s smarting over the last hand and thinks I’m throwing my weight around with a big stack so I call him. A ten and two low cards on the flop convinces me I have the best hand and I figure the guy’s either got a set too or is just throwing away his last few chips. Turns out the latter as he had king-9 and just couldn’t let it go. He hit a king on the river, by which time he was already all in and I cleaned up nicely.

I guess the moral of the story is that if you know how to play them right these “last ditch” players can be very profitable for you. It’s a fairly common trait for a player coming to the end of his bankroll to go on tilt in a last blaze of glory. Even if they win a few chips off you they just don’t have the bankroll to survive the downswings. The thing to worry about is someone else on the table taking the chips off them first.