#215: “Droitwich”
DROITWICH:
(n.) A street dance; That uncomfortable phenomenon when two people meet while walking and attempt to pass only to have both persons go in the same direction, thus each continuing to block the path of the other. The occurence is usually brief but unsettling enough to cause grievance and annoyance in one or both parties (or however many are involved).
Strategy. Counter-strategy. Game theory optimal. Poker, too, is a dance; a felt dance that has evolved, each paradigm a reaction to the tendencies of its predecessor; each new generation of players identifying and exploiting the leaks of the last. Learn the newest dance moves or be the latest victim of poker droitwich.
In recent memory, the best example I’ve seen of a player adopting a counter-strategy to exploit the tendencies of better players around him was Willie Elliott at UKIPT Nottingham. He navigated his way through Day 1 with a big stack. Willie was no doubt one of the best players on his table all day (He is the Scottish Champion, ye know!) so normal ABC poker seemed the prudent course. On Day 2, however, he faced Jake Cody who had spent the recent EPT London – Day 1 outplaying him. Willie used his tight image and ‘nit’ reputation in Jake’s eyes to pick off his light 3bets with what Jake would have interpreted as ‘always a premium hand’ 4-bets. This, mixed in with some solid poker and run-good saw him cruise into Day 3 amongst the leaders.
When I spoke to Willie in the evening of Day 2, it was very clear that he was executing a plan when it came to the better players around him. He knew they would try to exploit him in an unbalanced way and that actually made them perfect targets for exploitation. Willie made the final table with the chip lead and utterly bossed the early stages, running a series of bluffs and semi-bluffs, putting his opponents on their heels in the face of lucrative ladder jumps. He was also playing completely against type, his image established as a tight player from the previous day’s play. The fact that the best player on the table Ryan Spittles adopted a passive line with AK versus Willie’s A7 3-bet perfectly demonstrated the plan and the effect of the plan on Willie’s unsuspecting villains.
Exploitation is a common word in the poker vernacular and while Willie’s performance will unfortunately be remembered for one kamikaze moment versus eventual winner Duncan McLelland, I would prefer to focus on the dozens of perfectly executed lines he took for three and a half days. Time and time again, Willie turned the tables on the big boys who were targeting him. He won the vast majority of the leveling wars by playing possum to the predators around him. He threw ‘scissors’ when they threw ‘paper’ because he knew they had him down as the newbie who would likely throw ‘rock’ first up. He then threw ‘paper’ when they threw ‘rock’ because he knew they had him down as the newbie who would likely succumb to the unconscious human bias to repeat his previously successful action of throwing ‘scissors’.
There are many ways to skin a cat and Willie drew his opponents away from conventional Nash Equilibrium responses to his play by appearing exploitable while at the same time accurately predicting and attacking their likely methods of exploitation. I recently posed a question to my girlfriend Saron: What is the Nash equilibrium solution to ‘droitwich’? She gave a perfect answer. “Stare intently in the direction in which you plan on going and never deviate from that route. The other person will (hopefully) adjust accordingly.” In essence, do not make eye-contact and make your intention clear. Become the object to avoid. As long as the other person is still engaged in the dynamic, they will make the necessary evasive manoeuvres. Of course, if they too are opting for the Nash solution, then there are two possible outcomes: both parties will successfully avoid one another or droitwich will be replaced by side-walk chicken followed by a head-on collision. While the latter of these outcomes is not ideal, both parties will be equally encumbered. Sometimes, no matter how hard you to try to chip up and avoid confrontation, you just have to go to showdown!