A Bit of Genius

I know this idea has been around, but it bears repeating:

If you win without a showdown, it doesn't matter what cards you held.

Seriously, think about that a little while, and you'll realize the secret to winning in tight no limit games.

Returning to LHE

It has been a while since I've played poker live (over two weeks; I played the 1/2 NL game and won $250) but I'm returning to Garden City tonight.

My goal is simply to not screw up.

Shouldn't be too hard :)

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April was a good month for me and I got my bankroll up a little over $3K and finally feel pretty secure playing $6/12 and $1/2 NL. It's odd, but when I'm winning, I actually don't want to play that much. When I'm losing, then I have the urge to play and make the money back. I suspect that's the opposite of many players (and yet the same as many others).

Oh, and I'll be going to LA for a conference, so I'm hoping to play an event in the Bike's Deep Stack tournament (what a lame name!). I'm hoping for the $50 rebuy tournament on Wednesday night, but we'll see. Mostly, I just want to see the Bike, and hopefully I'll get to stop by Commerce too.

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Anyway, in the hopes of not screwing up, I'm going to borrow my goals from this post:

1. Play ABC poker. Again, tighten up a little bit pre-flop (not to say play tight, but don't call ATo in EP on an aggressive table). And continue doing things like raising in position for free cards.
   
2. Take extra time for my decisions. Don't play on autopilot. Think through my options. Trust myself (not necessarily physical tells, but the sum total of patterns, reads, and tells).
   
3. Play against bad players. This means move tables if my table is tight. I play best against loose players (either aggressive or passive) so I need to seek them out.

Sometime in the next hour I need to locate my 'poker pad'.

After all, I might have an interesting hand or two tonight.

I Bet You

A quicky for now...

I'm really enjoying Laak and Esfandiari's I Bet You on MOJO. Of course, I don't get MOJO, but I do get YouTube...



It appears most if not all episodes are up, and episode 4 (the first part linked above) is the best once I've seen out of the first 4. There's a little gem of a bet in the middle of episode 4 that even made Laak cringe and stay out of it. And giving a sound guy a free-roll on a run in the dessert... hilarious!


In other news, I closed out a profitable April (up almost a grand total, mostly do to two winning sessions in the 1/2 NL game) and I'm super busy so I won't be playing much poker in the near future. May includes a lot of tutoring work, my parents visiting starting tomorrow, and a trip to LA for a conference (but I will play some poker in LA).

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

Now, about that live NL game I was talking about...

I came out ahead $470 after 4 hours!

We were playing five-handed and it seemed like everything was going in slow motion. I was very at ease, felt like I had good control, and never really got unlucky. I mean, a drunken lemur could have made a profit with my cards. But really, the hundred hours I've played in casinos has definitely helped my NLHE game a ton.

I think everything I talked about in the last post helped me succeed, but the biggest thing was just being comfortable with being stacked. Before, I was always afraid of losing money, making me shy away from the right play which would put my stack at risk (but also put pressure on the other players). Winning and losing $400+ at Garden City has definitely made me more comfortable with losing a few buy-ins, which let me play the game right.

Other major items were playing the player, thinking through my actions, and something I didn't mention the first time through: managing the pot. You see, in a $100 buy-in game with $3 blinds (30 big bets), you are pretty much committed if you flop a pair. In a $100 buy-in game with $2 blinds (and no rake!) you can actually avoid getting pot committed if you size your bets correctly. Before, I played the game very aggressively, raising big pre-flop and getting myself committed with hands that missed. This time, I wasn't afraid to raise to $5 or $6 pre-flop, I never committed myself pre-flop (except for AA once), and I didn't bet the flop or turn sometimes if I only had top pair to keep the pot small.

I was also reading players pretty well. I never really had to depend on a read for a big lay down, but a few times I clocked other players based on tells. I was also able to push people off hands with semi-bluffs and raises.

A few hands:

77 UTG, five-handed, $100 effective stacks. I raised to $6, folds to the blinds, and the game host calls in the BB. $13 pot. The flop is AAT, he checks, and I check. The host is a pretty good player, but bluffs a lot yet is way too quick to fold against me if I show strength. He's had a losing night, so that makes him even more timid when I show strength.

On the flop, he checks, then I check. In this spot, I wanted to keep the pot small if he hit, yet the check should scare the hell out of him. The turn is an 8. He leads out for $7, and I call. At this point, I think it is still likely I have the best hand (i.e. he's taking a shot at it), but again, no point in raising and building a big pot.

The river is a T, and my hand is crap now. He checks, and I know he doesn't have an ace. In fact, it is very unlikely he has a T also, but he most likely has me beat. So I bet $12 or so (into $27) and he insta-mucks. That is not necessarily a bet I would have made before because I was scared of monsters, but it is obviously a profitable bet.


Ts7s in the BB. I get a free flop, with four players in total. $8 pot. Flop is J9s7, I check (the game is relatively passive, I don't mind my hand, but again, keep the pot small out of position). The guy to my left (aggressive, takes a lot of shots at pots, but probably the best player at the table and a good hand-reader) bets $7. Folds to me, and I think a while. Obviously, I've got a backdoor flush, gutshot, and a pair. Against his range, I'm not in too bad shape. So I call. We're talking back and forth, and it is clear he thinks I have a draw of some sort.

The turn comes 3s with $22 in the pot. Now I've got a flush draw with my gutshot. I check and he bets $15. Normally I'd call here, but he didn't seem that strong (just a general feeling and the betting patterns). He's got about another $100 behind and I have him covered. So, I thought, then check-raised to $40. He starts thinking out loud, then folds his top pair saying I had two pair. I take the pot and agree with him.

Again, this is a great example of the difference between now and then. Before, I'd chicken out because $40 seems like a lot of money. But, this time around, I was willing to put my money at risk and got rewarded for it. And the threat of a bet on the river forced him to fold his two pair also.

One of the secrets of my success was that my opponents were not making such semi-bluffs against me, probably due to my stack. That helps a lot.


In poker, chips are not money. Chips are ammunition.

Back to Live NLHE Ring

So there's this game I thought I talked about before in the blog, but maybe I haven't. It's a local, long-running $1/$2 NL game with a buy-in of $100 that's been running twice a week at a guy's house.

Oh, and did I mentioned I lost $1300 in the game? Nobody likes to see the graph above when relating to poker profits...

Well, I'm going to take another shot at it tonight, hoping that my experience playing limit live and sufficient bankroll will power me to a win. Because a while ago I vowed I'd beat that game. It's just too bad it isn't closer to my house, otherwise I'd play it more. Of course, that's if it happens, there may not be enough players for tonight...

Keys to my success tonight:

• Expect to be stacked. Playing scared is what lost me most of the money in the first place. If I am at peace with being stacked, then I can put pressure on the other players. For that reason, I'm prepared to pull out 3 $100 buy-ins at most.
  
• Take time, think through my actions. Consider bluffs, raises, everything. Don't play fast, because these guys have played a lot of hands and any mistakes could kill me.
• Consider bet sizes to apply the most pressure / allow me to apply the final pressure point bet.
• Play position -- tighter up front, looser in back.
  
• Play the player -- avoid good players if out of position, do what I can to get into hands with bad/tilty players.
• Take advantage of my image. I was always very tight/nitty before. So I'll start off playing tight, then raise, bet, and check-raise with hands to put pressure on the other players.
• Semi-bluff like a mo-fo!

I'm pretty excited. At the minimum, it should be fun to see these guys again...

(oh, and if the game doesn't go off, then it is 6/12 or 8/16 at Garden City)