Running to Stand Still
I must confess that the desire to play poker left me for a few days last week. I did not play very much and when I played, I played poorly.
My attitude towards poker began to change on Saturday, when I had an interesting session at Party Poker. I initially dumped a couple of buy-ins playing $25 PLO. I then decided to try $50 NLHE. I lost about half of my buy-in during the first two orbits trying to bluff a horrible call station. That was a big big mistake. I eventually got smart and developed a good game plan against this guy.
I would almost always raise preflop, trying to isolate myself against him. If I caught a good flop, then I would value-bet to my heart's content. If I missed, then I would check-fold. It was that simple, really. I played maybe 100 hands with this guy, winning about $75 in the room. The session ended when another member of TPF joined the room and I felt like my concentration was declining.
My next challenge is to conquer my "Poker Stars Curse". I have recently rebuilt my stack there from $5 to about $50 by playing low stakes NLHE. I decided to try $0.50/$1.00 (6-max) this weekend for fun. I did quite well by playing tight-aggressive. Unfortunately, I also played five one-table SNGs, and I failed to cash in ANY of them. Most frustrating was that I bubbled in FOUR of them. In one case, I pushed all-in preflop with JJ and lost to TT. In the other three cases, I made obvious mistakes. In short, I need to re-evaluate my short-handed tournament play.
Perhaps the most interesting session of the weekend was when I decided to invest my entire $50 stack at Poker Stars in a game of $1/$2 (6-max) LHE. I played like donkey at first, losing $35. I actually had to deposit more money into my account from Neteller to keep playing. Anyway, I eventually played one of those beautiful hands that makes it all worthwhile.
Here is the story:
Three people limped and I checked from the big blind with 78s. The flop was 8 8 4. I checked, planning to check-raise on the turn. My table was overly aggressive and this seemed like the best play. The turn was a King, and two people called my check-raise. The river was the case eight, giving me quads. The beautiful thing here is that both of my opponents held a king and one of them was overly aggressive. In short, the river got capped three ways and I took down a monster pot with my quads. In that one hand, I went from being stuck a buy-in to being even for the session.
My attitude towards poker began to change on Saturday, when I had an interesting session at Party Poker. I initially dumped a couple of buy-ins playing $25 PLO. I then decided to try $50 NLHE. I lost about half of my buy-in during the first two orbits trying to bluff a horrible call station. That was a big big mistake. I eventually got smart and developed a good game plan against this guy.
I would almost always raise preflop, trying to isolate myself against him. If I caught a good flop, then I would value-bet to my heart's content. If I missed, then I would check-fold. It was that simple, really. I played maybe 100 hands with this guy, winning about $75 in the room. The session ended when another member of TPF joined the room and I felt like my concentration was declining.
My next challenge is to conquer my "Poker Stars Curse". I have recently rebuilt my stack there from $5 to about $50 by playing low stakes NLHE. I decided to try $0.50/$1.00 (6-max) this weekend for fun. I did quite well by playing tight-aggressive. Unfortunately, I also played five one-table SNGs, and I failed to cash in ANY of them. Most frustrating was that I bubbled in FOUR of them. In one case, I pushed all-in preflop with JJ and lost to TT. In the other three cases, I made obvious mistakes. In short, I need to re-evaluate my short-handed tournament play.
Perhaps the most interesting session of the weekend was when I decided to invest my entire $50 stack at Poker Stars in a game of $1/$2 (6-max) LHE. I played like donkey at first, losing $35. I actually had to deposit more money into my account from Neteller to keep playing. Anyway, I eventually played one of those beautiful hands that makes it all worthwhile.
Here is the story:
Three people limped and I checked from the big blind with 78s. The flop was 8 8 4. I checked, planning to check-raise on the turn. My table was overly aggressive and this seemed like the best play. The turn was a King, and two people called my check-raise. The river was the case eight, giving me quads. The beautiful thing here is that both of my opponents held a king and one of them was overly aggressive. In short, the river got capped three ways and I took down a monster pot with my quads. In that one hand, I went from being stuck a buy-in to being even for the session.
posted by frazwood at 8:50 PM
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