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| Poker Pro's Corner - Poker Pro's Corner | |||
 Although only 23, well-known online player Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo has been on the live poker circuit for several years now and has already made a name for himself with 27 cashes. Now living in Vegas, he has more than $1.4 million in cashes in live tournaments, including two WSOP final tables and two WPT finals. Not bad for a guy just barely legal to play in U.S. casinos. Justin is sponsored by Bodog and answers readers’ questions this month.
Although only 23, well-known online player Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo has been on the live poker circuit for several years now and as already made a name for himself with 27 cashes. Now living in Vegas, he has more than $1.4 million in cashes in live tournaments, including two WSOP final tables and two WPT finals. Not bad for a guy just barely legal to play in U.S. casinos. Justin is sponsored by Bodog and answers readers’ questions this month.What are your thoughts on shoving all-in with hands like K-Q and A-10 into shorter stacks in the blinds when it is folded around to you, or with a late-position raiser if you are on the button? – ML, Waupun, Wisconsin This is basically a math question. If it folds to you in late position and you have a stack of ten big blinds or less, then K-Q and A-10 all of a sudden become very strong hands, and with such a small stack size, it’s almost always better to move all-in than to make a standard raise. If the pot has already been raised, then the hands go way down in value, but are often still playable. If you have a stack size that’s really small, you generally want to be a favorite against their range of hands. K-Q and A-10 do very well against a player’s range who is stealing a lot, but do a lot worse against a much tighter range – for example, a conservative player in early position. Do you think it is a bad idea to develop a loose image at the table initially and then tighten up to trap? – Loose Goose, Detroit This can work in some situations. Don’t try it at low stakes where players will call you down without even thinking about your image, and don’t put yourself in reckless spots to try it. Just be aware of the risk vs. reward, because it can be profitable if the timing is right. I can’t seem to figure out when I want to slow-play a big hand. When I continuation bet certain boards…like if I have A-K and it comes A-A-2, I feel there is no reason to bet there, because most likely they didn’t catch anything – and when I do bet, they fold. Is it better to check in position there? What kinds of hands and in what situations do you slow-play post-flop when you were the initial raiser? – Billy Bob, Birmingham, Alabama The truth is that most beginning players slow-play way too much. For a spot to be ideal there are a few factors to look for. Is one of your opponents likely to take advantage of your check and try to run a big bluff? Also, think about your hand. For example, is there a card likely to give someone the second-best hand? This is often true if you have a full house, but often not true if you have three-of-a-kind. If someone can hit a flush or straight to beat you, you should be a lot less likely to slow-play. Just be aware that the easiest way to get a big pot in general is to bet, bet, bet every chance you get, so slow-playing is often incorrect. What is the best way to play a tournament with a fast blind structure? Do you look for any decent hand and shove? Especially over a raise? – Yvonne at Commerce When the blinds get big really fast, you do have to play a lot looser; however, it can’t be random aggression. There is still a right time and a wrong time to make a move. No matter how fast the blind structure is, you can’t use it to justify a play that will consistently lose you chips. How often will you take flush draws and play for all your chips? What is the right situation to do it? – The Pusher, Hartford, Connecticut This is generally about math and pot odds. If someone moves all-in for $100 into a $1 pot, you have no reason to draw to your flush. If instead someone bets $3 into a $10 pot, and you are likely to get his entire stack of $50 if you hit your flush, then you would be crazy not to draw to it. It’s all about risk vs. reward. If you get short-stacked and are in the blinds with a crap hand and a lot of people are playing the pot, is it better to just get your money in there and hope to get lucky or should you still fold and hope to pick up a hand in the next round? – Mack in Biloxi It doesn’t matter how short-stacked you are. If you are making a play that is likely to get you all-in in a spot where you are crushed, it is almost always a bad play. The only exception is if there is an absolute ton of money in the pot in relation to the number of chips you are risking. Then it can sometimes become profitable to take a longshot scenario. Is it a really bad idea to be playing tournaments where you care if you cash? Like where you don’t want to take any risks on the bubble. Does that mean the buy-in is too high if that matters to you? – Spare Change, Santa Fe, New Mexico Tournament payout structures are generally very top-heavy. The math tells you to try to aim mostly for the top three spots. If instead cashing is so important to you that you are willing to fold away 80 percent of your stack just to make the money, then you probably shouldn’t have entered the tournament in the first place. What is the correct situation to be folding A-K suited preflop? – Hate Big Slick, Tulsa, Oklahoma Generally, if you are folding a hand as strong as A-Ks before the flop, you should be sure that you are up against aces or kings. That being said, if you are up against Q-Q and fold A-Ks because of a “bad read,” it is never that big of a mistake. In most spots, however, A-Ks is an extremely strong hand. I haven’t figured out when the appropriate time to stand up in a cash game is. Do you set a time limit? Win/loss limit? What variables matter? – Hit and Run, Fort Pierce, Florida Are you playing well? Are the other players playing badly? Is your bankroll fine for the game? If so, stay as long as you want. If you are distracted or on tilt, or the game has gotten really tough, you should leave. I don’t set hard and fast rules about when I need to leave. Instead, I just try to use reason to figure out if I’m playing well enough against my opponents to be in a profitable situation. How committed do you have to be in a hand to be technically pot-committed? Do you ever HAVE to call? What percentage of your stack has to be in a pot to be committed? – Section Eight, Las Vegas You are only pot-committed when your percentage chance of winning the hand is greater than the percentage of the money you will have to put in the pot. If you have zero chance of winning the hand, then you are never pot- committed. However, if you have a 20 percent chance of winning the pot, and have to put in less than 20 percent of the chips in the final pot (for example, less than 100 chips when the pot is 400), then you should generally consider yourself pot-committed.
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