No Country for Old Men and Poker

Last night I had a chance to watch the end of "No Country for Old Men". I started it the night before but it was too long to finish since I started watching it late. I really had no idea what the movie was about but I wanted to see it because I had heard it was so good.

Overall the movie kept me interested (unlike the movie "No Reservations" which my wife picked out) but I wouldn't call it a great movie. I think I'm mostly disappointed by the ending because I didn't really understand it. It ended so strangely that I feel like I'm supposed to make up my own ending. It's kind of hard to describe but I'm making assumptions based on events toward the end of the movie to come up with my ideas of what happened to each of the main characters in the movie.

Other than the movie, I played some cards last night. I won a whopping $5 but I'd still consider it a success since I was down much more at one point. I've been playing a lot on these tables that are No-Limit Hold'em but there is a cap as to how much a player may put into the pot each hand. Most of the tables I play at are capped at $60. So even if a player has $1,000 in front of them, they can only put in $60 into any given pot.

This works nicely to limit the amount each player can lose on each hand but it also limits the most you can win to $60 times the number of players in the hand. I've had good success at these tables this year which is why I continue playing but the tide has been turning somewhat lately. It seems that many of the players lately are there to gamble with almost any 2 cards since they know they can't lose more than the cap on each hand. It kind of turns the tables into more of a true gambling game than a game of skill.

Last night was particularly funny on one of my tables because there were 2 players who were always going against each other. It was amazingly predictable that player 1 would always limp into every pot and player 2 (sitting right after player 1) would always raise to the amount of the pot. Then usually everyone else would fold and player 1 would call the raise. After that the hand would vary depending on if either of them hit anything on the board but frequently both players would get their $60 into the pot with some sort of pair and they'd both end up flipping over crappy starting hands like J4 and K3.

I continued to play at this table because if I ever had a good quality starting hand, I knew I would probably triple up as these 2 donkeys would get it all-in with me. I basically just had to hope to avoid one of the donkeys hitting a lucky 2 pair against my pocket Aces or Kings, etc. Overall it made for an interesting table and it was kind of fun to have something different.

I did have one fun hand last night although it wasn't at the table I talked about above. I was in the big blind with 64 offsuit. 2 players right after me limped into the pot and the 3rd player made a minimum raise. In my opinion, this is the weakest play possible if the raiser actually has a good starting hand because they won't eliminate anyone. This kind of raise only builds the pot a little bigger.

Frequently I'll see this kind of raise from a player who has suited connectors like T9 or JT and then it's not a horrible play because those hands play better against many players because if you hit the flop hard, you will usually win a ton. But I also see this play from people with premium hands like AA or KK and these hands do not play well against many players. As Doyle Brunson says, with premium hands you will usually win a small pot or lose a big pot. And when you make a minimum raise with premium hands you are just asking to lose a big pot.

So in this hand, I called the tiny raise with my mediocre 64 but I was getting such good pot odds and implied odds that I was almost forced to do it. Then the flop comes down T64. I'm very happy when I check along with the first 2 limpers and the minimum raiser makes a real bet this time equal to the amount of the pot. I make one of his donkey raises by making the minimum raise of double his bet. The 2 limpers fold and the raiser calls. After a blank on the turn, I push all-in for the remainder of my capped $60 and he calls. He flips over AA and the river doesn't help so I take his money by cracking his Aces.

He didn't make any comments in the chat box but I'm sure he was steaming after this bad beat. I'm sure he doesn't realize that he brought this beat on himself by making a donkey minimum raise after 2 limpers were already in the pot. At least I hope he doesn't realize it because I want him to continue doing it the next time I play with him.

This just supports Doyle's belief. The guy ended up losing a big pot but he could have ended up winning a small to medium pot if he would've raised enough to get me out pre-flop. Then the other 2 limpers would've probably still folded after they apparently missed the flop.