Known as ‘The Unabomber’ and a hooded madman at the poker table, Phil Laak actually has reasons for his rhymes.  A successful cash-game player and respected and feared  tournament foe, Laak has proven over the years that he is one of the mad geniuses of this game. Phil resides in California when he’s not roaming Vegas with girlfriend Jennifer Tilly, but he was actually born in Dublin. He took time out from his often manic thoughts to put together some cogent answers to readers’ questions. 

What size raises are you  calling with middle pocket pairs in late position? 

– Mark, Las Vegas 

If the amount that I have to put in times 12 is something I have in front of me. Let’s say the person raises to four units and I have four times 12 and the other person has that same amount, meaning I can win 12 times the amount that is in the pot. You are going to hit a set about one in seven times and I like to have a 12:1 ratio on a small pocket pair. If I have pocket fives and a guy bets about $200 bucks and I only have $800 in front of me, I am never calling. If I had $2,200 or $2,300, somewhere in that range, and the other person had the same amount or more so I could get paid off with my set, that’s fine. 

You have A-K suited  on the button in a  tournament. The blinds are 150-300 and you have about 13,000 chips. A solid player in early  position raises it three times the big blind. What is your play? Should you reraise there or just smooth-call with  position? 

–Chris G., London 

If one of the guys in the small or  big blind is a crafty player and is fond  of the squeeze play, then I call every time. What I mean by squeeze play is a player that thinks I am just limping with a hand like 9-J of hearts and the guy that opened could have A-2 of spades or 5-6 of clubs so they are just going to put in a raise with anything to try and snap off both guys. If I think one of those squeeze players – aggressive and smart – is on my left, then I flat-call hoping the guy makes a squeeze play and then I can reraise. Given a more normal variation, like 80-90 percent of the time that won’t happen and most of the time I am going to raise and get information right there. If the raise came from first position half the time I am going to raise and half the time I am going to flat-call, depends on the player. If it is a faster player I am going to raise more often and if it is the more careful player then I will just call. I’m not going to fold, though. 

How much time should I be spending profiling  players at a table? 

– James, Newcastle 

The key thing to profiling players, first of all, is their hand-entering frequency and how they handle themselves during pots. The things you are supposed to be paying attention to are how often someone comes into pots and where are they coming into pots from. As far as profiling, that sort of just comes naturally to you at the table but there is something you can do that gives you a little more of an advantage. A lot of times on tournament Day 1 you just go to your seat, but Day 2 when you go to your seat, often on the Internet that morning they have who the players are going to be at your table. There is something on the Internet where you just know where everyone is sitting. At that time you can actually write down everyone’s name who is sitting at your table. Put them in a circle and then go to one of the many sites where you can look up the person’s name and essentially you can learn how long they have been playing poker because every tournament you enter is registered. It’s nice to know that, hey, he came in fourth place in Tunica and won $500,000 like two years ago.

      There are a lot of people in poker who have won a lot of money and we don’t know their faces yet because some of their wins have happened pre-TV stuff and some of their wins happened in untelevised events. You can even take that one step further – don’t tell anyone you have looked them up, by the way – if there is a player who plays too many hands and you see that the guy who is an unknown pro raises that guy…if you ever want to go for the re-re-feel that would be a pretty sweet touch. The players  who win a lot of tournaments are the selective aggressive ones. If you know that someone is crafty enough to take advantage of that strategy, then you can recapitalise on it one more level. You have to be careful with that move. 

How do you like to  play A-Q suited at an aggressive table in early position in the middle stages of a tournament? 

– Kim, Brighton 

I like to first come into the pot with a standard raise, three times the big blind, and hopefully just win the pot right there. If someone calls and someone else raises and it gets kind of crazy you can just fold right there. If someone just calls and I flop a queen I am definitely going to continue betting and even if I miss I am going to continuation bet because first action is really a strong spot. If both players miss the flop, first to bet has the better chance of winning the pot. So I will play it and I will be happy to have been dealt it because it usually takes a long time to see a hand as nice as A-Q.

What are the best ways to learn the other games? 

– Sammy, Abilene, Texas 

The best ways to learn other games is to play micro-limits online. I learnt triple low draw online playing .01/.02 and I probably played 40-60 hours playing deuce to seven. I learnt things and at the end of 60 hours I thought I was plus equity in that game. A week later I joined a 200-400 game at the Bellagio and they assumed I would be a fish at it because they had never seen me play it. What they didn’t know is that I had already logged a ton of hands and thought about the game pretty intensely. I turned a profit that week in that game and it was nice. I would definitely say play micro-limits – it’s a great way to learn the game. 

If you triple up early in a tournament should you sit back a little bit or should you put the pressure on with your stack? 

– Marcus, Paris 

If the antes haven’t kicked in yet you should still be playing tight, squared-away poker. Once the antes kick in, the math switches up a lot. With antes the pot is laying you extra odds. If they have kicked in you are always applying delicate pressure, not too much, not too little. You have to pay careful attention to who is playing tight, who is playing loose, what position you are in. You can’t win all the chips in one day and you have to focus on increasing your stack, not losing it. You don’t want to be playing hands out of position against stacks bigger than yours who know how to play solid poker. You don’t want to be getting involved with marginal hands for large pots. You want to be attacking the medium-size stacks, not the super big ones behind you or the small stacks that are just looking for something nice that they can stick it all in with.  Pre-antes – careful, tighter poker; post-antes – loosen up a little bit but not at the risk of your stack. 

Is it ever OK to discuss your hand out loud at the table? 

– Margaret, Luton 

It’s always OK, but it’s never encouraged. It’s usually very enjoyable when two Internet guys start dissecting a hand because you can always learn from that. I prefer to do my learning behind closed doors because it’s not good to tip off a player who hasn’t learnt of a concept like stealing via a squeeze play or when to take three cards versus when not to or whose stacks you should be attacking, that sort of thing. If you spend your time learning and thinking about the game, what’s the point in talking about it? It’s like playing Capture the Flag, then having an open meeting about where you hid your flag and letting your opponents hear. Make it harder for them. Now if you want to throw out misinformation, that’s always fun. You don’t need to impress friends or influence people and have them think you know poker. Your objective is to walk away with more than you started with.  

I was told it was bad  etiquette to ask to see  someone’s hand. What about if they are flashing it to other players at the table? 

– Jesse, Dublin 

That’s interesting because you never want to be the person asking, but you definitely are curious. What I like to do is hope someone else asks, but I never ask myself. I can’t do it, I’m always really curious, but I’m never the guy who asks. Now, the rules are that if someone shows someone else the hand, everyone is allowed to see it if someone asks. Usually when someone shows the guy next to him, he usually wants someone to say, “Show the hand”. Then he usually wants to put up a little resistance but he usually wants the hand to be shown because it is usually a bluff. It is usually the nuts or a bluff. It is either a demon hand or nothing. I would say 70 percent of the time it is nothing and 30 percent of the time it is a very big hand or a very big draw.