Howdy,
I was just thinking about the impact of your typical 5% (slightly less on turbos or higher stakes) rake or buy-in fee on optimal strategy for HUSNG's. Consider for the moment that you have AKo and and you're in the BB. You're opponent raises from the SB to 60. You reraise to 200. Your opponent insta-shoves. You know your opponent pretty well and figure from past experience he'd only do this with 99's-AA's, AJs, AQ, or AK. You call the all-in raise. I just ran a Pokerstove analysis of AK vs. these hands and it's basically a coin toss (AKo has 49.828% equity).
In this situation, you're basically forced to call because you've already committed about 13.3% of your stack. However, against an inferior opponent might you consider smooth calling and trying to outplay him post flop? Not only because you can extract more value this way (even though you're in the BB), but you might be able to wait for more lucrative situations to arise. Furthermore (and the point of my post), by going all-in you're turning the game into a coin flip. Who would want to pay a 5% commission (well, maybe Baccarat or Roulette players) to get involved in coin flips?
I haven't really thought this through, but I'm wondering if somebody more knowledgeable might help me out here. I'm trying to understand how you might play heads up poker differently as a result of the rake. I know Cog Dissonance frequently talks about deviating from Nash as he can extract more value by playing his own strategy. This makes good intuitive sense. I'm just wondering about any adjustments I might make as a function of rake (or buy-in fees).
Thank you,
Jeffrey
The problem with this is that you are assuming that you will find a spot to get it in that is better than a flip, and that isn't necessarily true. It is very likely that you will simply end up getting blinded down because of the tight/scared play and end up in a scenario worse than a coin flip. You shouldn't be signing up for games where you're expected to be 50% and paying rake, but avoiding flips can potentially be a much bigger problem than taking them.
Greetings xSCWx,
Your point is well-taken. Obviously, there will be spots were you have to commit all your chips irrespective of your opponent's strength. I play in games at the very low limits so I just try to get volume in without much profiling. That's not to say I don't look for poor opponents when I can find them (based on my memory or my Smart Buddy list).
When I'm involved in actual game play, I'm generally not thinking about my entry fee. However, I'm just trying to figure out how rake/fees should factor into my decision-making after I've decided my opponent's skill deficits more than compensate me for the entry fee. I'm assuming I just operate under the premise that I need to make the most profitable decision without really thinking about rake or fees. However, I'm wondering if that's an advisable perspective.
Anyway, I'm rambling. I do find it interesting that this topic attracts relatively little attention on almost any poker forum.
Thanks for your feedback,
Jeffrey