So, UltimateBet offers a jackpot now. On jackpot tables (shown red in the client, and labeled as "jackpot") they take an extra 50¢ from the pot when it's raked to add to the jackpot, which currently stands at $61,000 and growing (up from $57,000 when I sat down this evening). Now, at upper limits (say, $5-$10, which has jackpot tables), an extra .50 from each pot seems negligable, but at .50-$1 and $1-$2, that's pretty steep.

It's a bad deal for the players, and I'll tell you why. One, most jackpots tend to take money out of circulation as effectively as a rake. If I were to win either share of the jackpot, the likelihood is that I'd take most of it out of my bankroll to do something like put down a down payment on a house, or buy a car, or expand my wardrobe, or travel. You probably wouldn't see me taking a shot at $30-$60 with it (well, most of it). Effectively, that money would be removed from the poker economy.

Now, the other reason that the jackpot is bad for the players is this: UB's jackpot kind of sucks. The breakdown is 25% to start the next jackpot, 10% to the house, 32.5% goes to the loser in the bad beat, 16.25% to the winner, and of the remaining 16.25%, $1000 goes to each of the other players dealt in that hand, and the rest to everyone playing on a jackpot table of that limit.

So, if I win a pot with the jackpot rake, of my .50, .05 is going to the house (technically, .0325 and .0125 from the main and backup, respectively. Hey, doesn't UB get enough rake as it is?), .125 is going to the backup jackpot, and only .325 is coming back to the players directly.

Now, I know that it's common practice in offline rooms to charge a "jackpot administration fee," to their jackpots (One room I know of takes almost 50%!), but the fact that UltimateBet feels the need to charge this fee seems excessive; one of the joys of online poker is the lower rake, due to the lower overhead, and it seems to me that this jackpot fee is just another way to charge rake.

Oh, and the jackpot requirements? Quad eights cracked, with both hole cards playing in both hands, and at least 4 players on the table (although, it seems that with fewer than 4 players, the jackpot rake isn't taken, so at least that's fair). Most poker rooms' jackpot requirement is aces full of queens or better cracked. Some don't even require both hole cards to play!

OK, so my objections are (beyond generally not liking jackpots):

1) The jackpot drop is steep at the low limits.
2) The admin fee is excessive.
3) The requirements are too high.

Solutions?

1) Change the jackpot drop to an extra 2.5% of the pot, up to a max (say, $1). Have multiple jackpots running, one for each limit, and drop that extra rake into the appropriate limit's jackpot.

2) Stop charging the 10%, give it to the loser of the hand. If UB really needs the extra rake, they should just rake the low limit games up to $1.05, and the upper-limit ones to $3.05. They already get to hold our money in their account (which, I'd be willing to wager, is interest-bearing), and the jackpot gets held there too (so there's at least $50k that's impossible to cash out sitting there at all times); take the interest, and give us the fee.

3) Start with high requirements, but as the jackpots get bigger, lower the requirements. For example, if the jackpot is under $10k, require a straight flush to be cracked, while between $10,001 and $15k, allow for quad aces to be cracked, and for every $5k in the jackpot, move the requirement down one notch (up to $20k, allow for kings, $25k allows for queens, etc), down to a "bare minimum" of aces-full being beaten, which would be at $75,001 and above. This would seriously increase interest in the jackpot tables as the jackpots get bigger. Note that this is an example; I'd have to work out the math to figure out where the transitions should be (hey, a project for next time I travel...). Alternately, make it a "must go" jackpot, where the best losing hand for each time period (hour?) gets the jackpot money accumulated that hour -- sort of like the high hand bonus that UB ran when they first opened up, although in that case, UB just put the money up themselves, and saved the players the trouble of double-raking us.

Last night, while playing online, I sat down at a $1-$2 limit table (yeah, sue me. I like low limits.). The statistics were nothing special; 40% seeing the flop, $10 or so in each pot.

However, when I sat down, I noticed quickly that the texture of the game was quite different than what I'd expected. Most low-limit games are loose-passive affairs, with a lot of hands going to showdown, and not much preflop raising (call this "east-coast low limit," as most low limit games I've seen in the west coast tend to be loose-aggressive, with lots of preflop raises and more action). Most pots aren't won uncontested, and bluffs rarely work.

However, the game I sat down in played more like it was out of Hold'em For Advanced Players, with more than half the pots being raised preflop, semi-bluff checkraises on the turn driving out players, and river bets with unimproved hands winning pots. Yes, there were 3-5 players in on each flop (either the raiser, a caller, and one of the blinds, or 3 limpers and the blinds), and the pots were hovering around $10, but that's because they were either $5 and won uncontested on the flop, or $15 and won on the later rounds or shown down. Probably 1 hand in 4 reached showdown (and that estimate might be high. Of 111 hands in the session, I showed down less than 7, while winning 14 pots total.). The game played like an aggressive $5-$10 game, not a $1-$2.

It was kind of nice. Some of the more "advanced" plays that you wouldn't make against fish (can't bluff out someone who's too stupid to know that your bets say he's behind) worked! Call a raise in the BB with J Q, catch a flop of 9 8 3, and checkraise to win! Limp with A A, then reraise preflop to trap a 9 9 for an extra bet! Make free card plays! Push at big pots! Ultimately, I wound up down $3.50 for the session (getting KK cracked on the flop for 4 preflop bets helped; someone called with QJ, and flopped JJ3, and it was a bet on each round to me), but it was money well spent in entertainment alone.

What's the moral of the story? Well, there isn't much of one -- if anything, it'd be this: Don't be a victim of Fancy Play Syndrome in games where fancy play doesn't work. None of those plays I made last night would have flown in a "normal" $1-$2 game; when has a checkraise on the flop ever pushed out most low-limit fish? However, having recognized the kind of game I was sitting in, I could adjust my game to fit the game texture.

Make sure you know how the game runs when you sit down.

So, after work yesterday, I went to go play some cards at my local dog track. Not feeling like buying in short to the various NL games (it seemed like everyone had a couple buyins in front of them, and I hate playing short), I sat down in the only limit game spread in the state, $2-$4 (yeah, yeah, I know, tiny. State law limits the bets to $5 in limit, so it's what they can spread. Deal.). The following hand came up when we were 9-handed:

I'm on the SB, dealt 4 5. Everyone limps, I complete, the BB checks. That's $15 in the pot after rake and jackpot.

The flop comes A 2 7.

I check, the BB, a fairly predictable rock, bets out, 4 callers (gotta love low limit, hopes and prayers are worth a call!), 3 folds, and it's a $2 bet into a $24 pot (after rake) to me. 12:1 for a gutshot, backdoor flush (albeit a bad one), and implied odds after that? Sure, $2 is good for 11:1 odds. The SB folds, and we see the turn 6-handed in a $26 pot. (Note: I did not raise here to build a pot for a turn draw as that has been done earlier, and it caused a pretty good clearing of the table; I'd have likely forced everyone but the BB out, thus killing my odds play. Were I in late position, rather than the SB, I'd consider it.).

The turn is the 6.

All of a sudden my hand looks pretty good -- 6 straight outs, 9 flush outs. I check, the BB bets out, there's a caller (who has me slightly worried that he's on a flush draw with something like 8 9, but he could also have 7x), everyone else folds and it's $4 into a $33 pot to me. 8.5:1 pot odds, I'm delighted, it's just under 7:1 for my straight, and just over 2:1 if my flush is good. Call. 3-handed, $37 pot.

River, a 3. I've got the nuts. I check, BB bets, the in-between caller folds, I raise, BB thinks about it, says "you can't have been drawing with 45," and calls.

"Nope, I wasn't drawing with 45. I was drawing with 45 suited." He mucks his cards (probably Ax), and begins bitching about how you can't keep the drawing hands out.

Which is true -- when the drawing hand isn't riding on the schooling effect of fish. Pull a good pot ($52, of which $16 was mine), AND put the player to my left on tilt, what isn't to like?

Sometimes, even when you win, you might have played wrong. Background: I'm a limit player, almost totally; I'm good at the math of limit, and not so good at the psychology and "touchy-feely" nature of NL. However, with the new poker laws in Florida, no-limit is the game (the law says that the maximum bet in limit can be $5, but no-limit with a max $100 buyin is fine, so $1-$2 NL is becoming common, and is supposedly fishy).

So, I sat down to get some cheap NL practice, playing 5¢-10¢ NL, with the basic strategy of "any 21 in blackjack, any connectors totaling 17 to 20 in blackjack, any pair, and suited connectors as low as 56 for a limp. Tighten up a lot to preflop raises -- AA, KK, QQ, AK and that's about it, unless it's a small raise and there's calling action already" (is this a viable basic strategy? I know it ignores position, but is it a workable baseline to start from?) when I was dealt the following hand (immediately after trapping the best player -- who I call Tight Winner -- with top 2 pair against his overpair for $5; 87s holds up to crack JJ!):

DeadMoney is at seat 1 with $5.34.
TylerDurden is at seat 2 with $14.98.
NewPlayer is at seat 4 with $6.
Loose-aggressive is at seat 5 with $10.92.
Tight winner is at seat 6 with $11.06.

(There are actually 10 players, but since only 4 took the flop, those are the ones I worred about)

The button is at seat 3.

NewPlayer posts the small blind of $.05.
Loose-aggressive posts the big blind of $.10.
DeadMoney posts out of turn for $.15($.05 dead blind).

Dealt to TylerDurden: 2 2

Pre-flop:

5 players fold, including Tight Winner. DeadMoney checks. TylerDurden calls. 1 fold. NewPlayer calls. Loose-aggressive checks.

Flop (board: 2 T 4):

NewPlayer checks. Loose-aggressive bets $.40. DeadMoney folds. TylerDurden raises to $1.65. NewPlayer folds. Loose-aggressive calls.

Turn (board: 2 T 4 K):

Loose-aggressive checks. TylerDurden bets $3.75. Loose-aggressive goes all-in for $9.17. TylerDurden calls.

River (board: 2 T 4 K 7):

(no action in this round)

Showdown:

Loose-aggressive shows A T.
Loose-aggressive has a pair of tens.
TylerDurden shows 2 2.
TylerDurden has three deuces.
$1.10 is raked from a pot of $22.09.
TylerDurden wins $20.99 with three deuces.

I mainly wonder:

1: Should I have raised on the flop, with 85¢ in the pot?
2: Should I have raised the value of the pot? Or more/less? If so, why?
3: Should the check-raise on the turn indicated a TT or KK, or even 44? Was it worth calling $9.17 in a total pot of $16.67 (less rake)?
4: Should I have overbet the pot to try and take the hand down on the turn? At that point, there's $3.75 in the pot, and my only opponent has enough in chips to hurt me, so I should try and win right then and there, right?

Author's note: This short article is inspired by one I read in either Poker Digest or Card Player about 6 years ago. The content is all mine, but the idea of there being 8 fundamental errors is not.

Limit poker, at it's heart, is about making decision. You have basically 5 choices: check/bet if no-one has bet yet, and call/raise/fold if there is a bet (yes, you can fold to a check, but that's an obvious error, and won't be covered here). Now, anyone who's read The Theory of Poker is familiar with the Fundamental Theorem of Poker, "Any time you act differently than you would if the cards were dealt face-up, you've lost money." Given that, and the limited number of decisions allowed, there are eight fundamental errors that are possible in any given hand of poker (yes, there are more errors possible, such as game and limit selection problems, and where to sit, but here we'll concern ourselves with play of the hand only).

Bet instead of check: This is the classic loose-aggressive mistake; you have 8 9 in an unraised big blind with 2 other players, and the flop comes out T 7 A. Betting here would be a bet instead of check mistake -- there's a strong possibility that one of your opponents holds Ax or Tx, or even a middle pair, and you're holding nothing more than 6 straight outs (3 of which allow for a higher straight), 7 flush outs (one of which pairs the board), and 2 straight flush outs. Yes, your hand is strong, and yes, you should take the turn (and, indeed, probably the river), but no, you probably shouldn't bet. This mistake is a middle-of-the-road one, as it costs you a bet or two (two when you're raised and then call through).

Check instead of bet: This is the classic passive mistake; it not only costs you bets, but it also allows hands to stay in to draw out against you. As an example, you've got A A, and the board is J 8 2. You've got an overpair, and if you raised preflop, a number of players will put you on an overpair. A check here would let any 9T or any two spades draw for free, not to mention allowing players with an underpair to you try and spike their kicker. Bet, make them pay! This mistake is probably more costly than betting when you should check

Call instead of raise: Again, another passive mistake. A wonderful example of this would be sitting with K K on a board of A K 9 T A and calling a bet from an early-position player. Yes, you've got only 5th nut, but the possiblity exists that any number of other hands would be betting into you (Ax, any two diamonds, and JQ come to mind). This is a minor mistake most of the time, as it only costs you one or two big bets.

Call instead of fold: Do you like being called a calling station? Do this! Every time you put a bet into the pot saying "I know I'm beat, but I'll pay you off," you're doing this! If you know you're beat, why call? Because this mistake only costs you one bet, usually (it's a common river mistake), and it does make sure you'll hardly ever be bluffed out.

Raise instead of call: This is an error of aggression. Again, not as bad as some, but it's costly (usually to the tune of about 2 bets). Think of something like raising with Q J into a bet from the BB with a board like Q T 9 7 6. Top pair, weak kicker, facing a straight and flush board, not to mention the possibility of two pair due to the two pairs of middle connectors. Call, sure, but don't raise here!

Raise instead of fold: This is a hyper-aggressive mistake. Usually it's an error made on the river, trying to over-extend something like second pair, or top pair bad kicker. You know you're beat, but you think (or convince yourself) that your opponent is weak, and you raise their bet -- usually to only get reraised. It'll cost you at least 1, and usually 2, big bets (if the reraise comes, most players then call instead of folding, due to the size of the pot).

Fold instead of raise: This mistake is rare; ususally only the fishiest of fishes doesn't realize that they have a raising hand and folds instead. The most often cause of it is misreading your hand (missing a straight or flush), or getting bluffed out with a weak-ish middle hand (ie, 5 6 and a board of 7 8 A K 9. It'd be rare for JT to stay with that flop). However, it's a mistake that will cost you dearly; you lose the whole pot!

Fold instead of call: Again, another rare-yet-expensive error, similar to folding instead of raising. It happens a bit more when the pot is large and you've got a medium-strong hand (especially with a ragged board).that can beat "big card only" hands (ie, you're holding A 9 on a board of 9 7 4 2 2 -- you can beat a lot of hands that will be in the pot). Still, it costs you the pot to make this error!

So next time you sit at the table, after each hand (win or lose), ask yourself, "how many mistakes did I make? What kind?" Recognizing your errors is the first step towards fixing them, tightening your game up, and winning more.