The players at the .25/.5 NL tables

There are several strong poker players at Flop Turn River. Their advice has certainly helped me improve my game. But there is an underlying assumption in much of their analsis, that being that the opponent is a rational poker player. I play a lot at the .25/.50 NL tables. Jjbseidel is the type of player I meet all the time.

POKERSTARS GAME #1839501051: HOLD'EM NO LIMIT ($0.25/$0.50) - 2005/06/05 - 18:04:09 (ET)
Table 'Minerva III' Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: Dr. Spock ($19.50 in chips)
Seat 2: Takesall7 ($20.10 in chips)
Seat 3: Trungy ($35 in chips)
Seat 4: winorick ($9.05 in chips)
Seat 5: jodaro83 ($11.45 in chips)
Seat 6: jjbseidel ($27.60 in chips)
Seat 7: cruz610 ($33.30 in chips)
Seat 8: borntojump ($80.15 in chips)
Seat 9: Pyroxene ($48.75 in chips)
Pyroxene: posts small blind $0.25
Dr. Spock: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Pyroxene [As Ac]
Takesall7: folds
Trungy: folds
winorick: folds
jodaro83: calls $0.50
jjbseidel: calls $0.50
cruz610: folds
borntojump: folds
Pyroxene: raises $2 to $2.50
Dr. Spock: folds
jodaro83: folds
jjbseidel: calls $2
*** FLOP *** [Ah 6c Qs]
Pyroxene: checks
jjbseidel: bets $3
Pyroxene: raises $3 to $6
jjbseidel: calls $3
*** TURN *** [Ah 6c Qs] [4h]
Pyroxene: bets $10
jjbseidel: calls $10
*** RIVER *** [Ah 6c Qs 4h] [Jc]
Pyroxene: bets $10
jjbseidel: calls $9.10 and is all-in
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Pyroxene: shows [As Ac] (three of a kind, Aces)
jjbseidel: shows [4d Kd] (a pair of Fours)
Pyroxene collected $53.50 from pot
Takesall7 said, "bang"
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $56.20 | Rake $2.70
Board [Ah 6c Qs 4h Jc]
Seat 1: Dr. Spock (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: Takesall7 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: Trungy folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: winorick folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: jodaro83 folded before Flop
Seat 6: jjbseidel showed [4d Kd] and lost with a pair of Fours
Seat 7: cruz610 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: borntojump (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: Pyroxene (small blind) showed [As Ac] and won ($53.50) with three of a kind, Aces

Note that this was my 4th hand at that table and the first time I entered the pot. I have no reason to believe that he had any read on me as Poker Tracker had never seen him before. If he had somehow watched me play under another name he would see that I have a VP$IP of 15.8% and a PFR of 7.5%.

Save my initial check on the flop, nothing I did on this hand says anything other than 'I have a great hand.' Yet he called a large PF raise with crap, called a flop check-raise with a King high. And bet the rest of his roll in two parts on a pair of 4s with a King kicker. He never had any kind of flush or straight draw.

Yet he was willing to bet 'and lose' his entire buy-in on garbage, including calling a 5.7:1 call on the River with a hand that was behind any hand with a pocket pair higher than 4, any hand with an Ace, Queen, Jack or 6 in it. What would I possibly have raised PF with that would not include an Ace, Queen, Jack or pair of Kings?

There are a lot of players at the lower level tables that will simply hand you their money when you have a good hand. This is a good thing.

True, there are many fish to be caught at these limits. However, in my experience the majority of the players have at least a slight understanding of the game. Usually they have an idea of what pot odds are and how many outs they may have, although they often dont use this knowledge.

Many of the assumptions made here are that the player knows what they are doing, but when you find one that dosn't have a clue that is when you take his money.