POKER HAND #14

TRUSTY SUPER-SYSTEM: Doyle Brunson's "Super-System" is absolutely the best poker book ever written. Here's a particularly cogent section, with my thoughts. This is from Mike Caro's section on draw poker:

ILLUSIONS:

Since the main fault of recreational Draw players is that they call too much, naturally you want to exploit that weakness. Previously I explained how simply calling with nothing, rapping pat and spreading the hand without betting creates a bizarre image. This sort of "insane" maneuver is highly cost-effective in bringing a deluge of calls when you do have the best hand.

Sometimes I even give away "prize" money:

"Look, I'm really getting bored. I haven't had a pair in three hands, so here's what I'm going to do. Show me the six of spades and I'll give you ten dollars."

Someone exposes the Six of Spades and collects the $10.
 
"Anyone who has a pair gets a free ante."

That costs me about three antes on average, but once I had to ante for all seven opponents. No matter, they're more than willing to give it back in multiple doses for these reasons:

(1) They think they must call anyone too crazy to care about money.

(2) They feel obligated to give me action in return.

(3) They can now freely yield to their gambling compulsions without embarassment, since playing a Pair of Fours seems like a trivial sin in comparison to my deed.

(4) They can call me without any damage to their egos because the atmosphere is fun and frivolous.
 
This passage isn't entirely typical of the book. Mike Caro's section is full of good ideas like this stuff.