Poker 101: The Art of Fake-Checking and Keeping Your Mouth Shut
Posted on July 27, 2006 by Ching under Games, Poker.
I should really keep my mouth shut when I’m playing poker. When I get too comfortable around people, I start being chatty Cathy and then I end up giving my hands away. You won’t even need to stare me down to get a feel for what I’m holding. Just listen to the chatter and you’ll know whether to stay in or fold.
Case in point is Friday night poker. I end up at a table with Sandy, Mary, Brian (not my Brian but a different Brian) and a bunch of other super friendly folks. Of course, there is never such a thing as a friendly game of poker. Everyone is in it to win it even though we’re all playing for free. People take their bragging rights and points very, very seriously.
Anyway, it looks friendly on the surface but you know people are still really competitive. Of course, we always have a lot of fun. I do, anyway. Win or lose, playing poker is always a good time. I really like the exciting rollercoaster hands the best. Those hands where someone is 5% to win pre flop and then the flop comes out in their favor so now they’re in the lead, and then the turn comes in the other player’s favor so now the other guy is back to being the underdog and then the river comes and the underdog wins. Those hands rock.
A few people have commented about how excited I get when I get knocked out in such a manner, they would hate to see me win because I might just die of a heart attack. Just like any other poker addict, I love to share my bad beat stories. Sometimes over and over and over again, ad nauseum. Of course, since most of you aren’t the least bit interested in poker I’ve learned to keep it off the blog for the most part. I mean, poker stories are pretty boring for most regular people.
But I digress.. Where was I? Okay, Friday night poker. We are at this table being friendly and cordial and cracking jokes. I was playing really loose that night so I was in a lot of hands — most of which I had no business being in. One hand I was in last position.
It started out being a family pot. If not, only one person wasn’t in the hand. I think the dealer wasn’t in the hand because I don’t remember dealing but I was last to act each time. There was no pre flop raise so who knows what kind of cards were being played. After the flop, everyone checked. I bet the minimum amount. Everyone called.
“What is this? You were all fake-checking!” I protested. “If you were really checking you all would’ve folded after the bet.”
So we start joking around about fake-checks. Everytime someone would check and the possibility of a killer hand existed, we would all tease each other about fake-checking.
Several hands later while still at $20-$40 blinds I find myself in one of the blind positions. I have ace-three off-suit but I’m in big blind so I play it. I think the small blind folded pre flop because I was first to act each time.
The flop comes ace, king, jack. I hit top pair and I want to know what’s up so I instinctively bet $200. This is a decent bet because it’s five times the big blind but, considering that just about everyone called pre flop, I realize now it might not have been big enough.
Sandy goes, “What happened to fake-checking?”
“Well.. I happen to have something,” I replied.
“You gotta fake-check if you have something good,” she continued.
“No, you only fake-ceck if you have something REALLY good.”
Crap! Open mouth, insert foot. You can pretty much guess what happened. It was call, call, call, call, call. All the way around the table. Definitely not what you want to see when you have top pair with a weak kicker.
The turn card comes and it is a blank. I fire another $200. It was probably a futile attempt at this point because the pot had grown in size and anyone with anything would be ill-advised not to call such a miniscule bet compared to the pot size. It did manage to scare all but one. I guess after second bet they finally believed me. Except for Mary. She was the non-believer. The river card is a queen. I visualize myself hitting my head against the table a dozen times. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I checked it to her. She bet $200. What’s $200 at this point?
“I know you have the ten but I call,” I said defeated. And she did. She had the ten. To her credit, however, she had a king-ten so she hand the second best pair post flop. I cannot blame her for calling. First of all, I didn’t bet big enough. And worst of all, I gave my hand away. She knew exactly what I had. She called because she had the second best hand and a better draw. She gambled and it paid off.
So there are really two lessons to be learned here. First, fake-check if you have a good hand. This will allow you to smooth-call and trap someone, or re-raise and send an amateur toward tilt-dom. Second, keep your mouth shut while you’re doing it (unless you are a pro and have mastered the art of table talk — which as we’ve proven here does not describe me).
As Mike Sexton always says on the World Poker Tour, “May your cards be live and your pots be monsters!” Good luck, everyone! Happy poker-playing!
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