Waiting for Straighters

By Tommy Angelo

Waiting for Straighters is a long poker article about folding before the flop at no-limit holdem and pot-limit Omaha. It merges deep geek strategy with the painless perspective.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tommy Angelo
• Release date: Oct 19, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386877561

Tommy Angelo

Once, during a poker discussion in Las Vegas, several top strategists were debating how to play pocket kings under the gun. Then Tommy Angelo popped in with “I can tell you the best way to play two kings. Decide in advance that no matter what happens, you won’t go on tilt!” Insights like that are what drove the popularity of Angelo’s first book, Elements of Poker, a tome highly regarded for its fresh and practical perspectives. Since he began offering coaching in 2004, over one hundred students have paid for his candid advice, wanting more of what they found in his 100 articles and 18 videos. In 2017, Angelo completed Painless Poker. “I have no words left,” he wrote to his mailing-list fans. "I put them all in here.” Painless Poker combines sections of Angelo’s own history with a fictional poker-coaching seminar featuring seven suffering poker players, in an innovative combination of memoir, fiction, and poker instruction. When at home in Oakland, California, Angelo writes, cooks, reads, and makes music, as part of what he calls his “urban monastic lifestyle.” He cohabits with two cats, and Kay, his wife. 

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

This article is about preflop play at no-limit holdem and pot-limit Omaha. It’s about basing some of your preflop decisions on whether or not you have a straighter.

At holdem, a straighter is a hand that can flop a straight. 6-2 is a straighter. 7-2 isn’t.

If 9-7 is a one-gapper, and 9-6 is a two-gapper, then in gapspeak, a straighter is a hand with three or fewer gaps.

At PLO, a straighter is a hand with no pairs, no aces, and no more than two gaps. J-10-9-8 has no gaps, and J-9-8-7 has one gap, so those are both straighters. J-9-8-6 has two gaps, so that’s a straighter. J-9-8-5 has three gaps, so it’s not.

Another way to see it is that PLO straighters have a 6-span maximum. J-9-7-5 is not a straighter because the distance from jack to five (J-T-9-8-7-6-5) is seven cards. Whereas J-9-7-6 spans six cards, so it’s a straighter.

Waiting for straighters does not mean wait until you get a straighter and then play it. It means wait for a straighter, at least, and then maybe play it. In other words, fold the non-straighters. That’s the gist of this article.

Part I — DISCOVERY — is the story of how I came to know that the stuff in Part II would do wonders for my bankroll and my sanity forever.

Part II — APPLICATION — begins with an essay on Being Last to Act. Then comes how and why to apply WFS to no-limit holdem and pot-limit Omaha. Each game has its own section.

Part III is called Using WFS to Tame Tilt, Plug Leaks, and Reduce Fear of Self. If the Waiting for Straighters experiment appeals to you, I don’t think it will be on strategic merit alone. It will be because something in Part III makes sense to you and resonates.

PART I – DISCOVERY

Training Earl

When I made friends with Earl, he played backgammon, chess, and gin, but he had no experience with poker. What he did have was a computer and a modem. And this was in 1999, when online poker was only one-year old, and all tables were goofy loose all the time.

A trained monkey could beat these games, I said to Earl.

How about a trained Earl? he replied.

We both liked that idea.

We’re going to need something to write on, I said.

Back then, almost everyone played limit holdem, and in that game, the higher your hole cards, the better. When analyzing preflop strategy, it was a simple matter to draw lines between which hands should or shouldn’t be played in a given situation. If it was correct to fold Q-10 under the gun, then it was also correct to fold all hands lower that Q-10, even if connected and suited.

No-limit holdem isn’t like that. At no-limit, it’s wrong to even believe in preflop correctness. For one, suitedness and connectedness have more value at no-limit than at limit, as does terrifying your opponents with wide ranges. At limit holdem, wide opening ranges are no less terrifying, but the psychological advantage of striking fear into the hearts of your opponents