Readjusted Strategy

After losing big the first few days at Turning Stone this month, I wanted to adjust my strategy to avoid getting shortstacked. I figured that I was getting short stacked cuz I'd raise with AK or AQ or a pocket pair, only to not hit with my high cards, or be faced with overcards with my pocket pairs. I'd then lose the pot, or futily try to take it down with bluffs. I came to the conclusion that raising preflop was not intelligent unless you had made hands (high pocket pairs). Then I realised that if you only raised when you got Jacks or better, you'd only be raising 1 out of every 55 hands (the odds of getting any particular pocket pair are 1 in 220, so 4 different pocket pairs means 4/220 or 1/55 or 1.8%). 55 hands is about 2 hours of playing at the casino. Obviously, any intelligent player would notice me not raising 98.2% of the time so when I did raise, I wouldn't get any action.

I took the rule about winning big pots being the goal of a grinder far too literally. I didn't focus on winning smaller pots. This was wrong because it is the small pots that keep your stack up and win you money even if the big hands don't come.

Keeping your stack up is pivitol in cash games. The amount of chips in front of you dictates so many things. How much of a risk you can take (a person with $25 can't really call a $10 preflop raise with suited connectors hoping to hit something big). How much pressure you can put on other players (the bigger the bet, the more likely a player is to fold). And how much you can win in a pot. A player with $25 has a maximum victory of a $225 profit pot if they go all-in and everyone at the table calls. Realistically, they will triple up at most and that would bring their stack to a level $25 below what they bought in with.

What would happen to me is that I would sit and wait for the big hand to come. I'd flop a set against a high pair and double up. But most of the time, I'd be out about half my chips so I'd go back to even. Eventually, I'd be on the other end of the big pot and lose it all. I'd also be losing money simply by reloading to keep my stack at $100 whenever I got down to about $50. This was an incredibly bad way to play poker. And it cost me a few hundred dollars.

Another problem I was having was trying to make EVERY pot I had the best hand in to be the Big Pot I was in search of, slow playing or betting small with vulnerable hands like top pair and two pair. This led to me getting outdrawn somewhat often and my inability to fold these hands due to my overwhelimg desire to win big pots even when the voice in my head was telling me to fold. was costing me alot of money.

The resolution I made involved several things.

1. Raise preflop with top hands like pairs above 10 and AK and AQ. This will allow you to win decent sized pots to keep your stack up, will force out smaller cards, and put me in position to bet at the pot even if I don't hit.

2. Make a few moves once in awhile to steal a few bucks in a pot. This will allow me to limp in more often without diminishing my stack too much. It's the limp in with suited connectors that eventually lead to the big pots.

3. Don't get too attatched to pocket pairs. They're just like any other pair only they are invisible to other players and like any other pair, can get beaten by 2 pair, trips, straights, and flushes.

4. Protect vulnerable hands. It's true I won't win much by betting $15 into a $10 pot with top pair, but such a large bet will prevent people with gutshot straight draws or lower pairs from outdrawing me. This resolution includes re-raising, not simply smoothe calling with the best hand, unless it is very uncrackable.

5. Trust my instincts more. There's a voice in my head that is a great poker player. He makes correct reads as if he were Phil Hellmuth. This voice, however, is a quiet voice (unlike Phil Hellmuth) and is too often outshouted by my moronic voice, which constantly tells me "even if he has it, you have outs!"

6. Focus on winning small pots as well as big ones. The small ones keep the stack up making it easier to sit and wait for the big one. It's like catching a few small fish every day to feed yourself until you catch that huge one so you can feast.

Anyway, today was up against the wall day. I barely had enough cash to buy-in to the game. Just $95 in cash and $30 in chips from the other day. The first hand I won was somewhat of a freak occurence. I was on the button with 10-2, normally I'd fold with such an abysmal hand but because a player had just left on the button, I was the small blind on the button. I'm not going to fold anything for $1 when I already have $1 in there, let alone fold for a dollar on the button.

The flop was 7-9-10 with 2 hearts. After it checked around, I quickly bet $10 in order to basically tell everyon at the table, I had them beat. I got one caller though. I figured he had a flush draw. The turn was a King of hearts, which scared me. But he checked it so I figured he didn't have a flush. I checked it too figuring that he might have a 10 with a better kicker and was equally as scared of the flush draw as I was. In which case, I'll take the free card hoping to either hit two pair and hoping to protect my money. Plus, the pot was about $30 at this point which isn't a bad pot for 10-2 to take down.

The river was a 9, another scary card because he seemed like the type of player that would call a bet on the flop with 2nd pair so he might have picked up trips. He bet out $15. I thought about folding for about half of a second then realised that he didn't want me to call. The way he threw the chips in with his wrist was so blatant that I knew he didn't have shit. I called the bet and flipped over my 10s, he flipped over Jack-6. He was chasing an inside straight draw, missed, and decided to bluff in order to take down the pot. A nice $30 profit right there with a shitty hand.

This kid was one of those players I love to play against. Sporting sunglasses thinking that this will prevent anyone from reading him. He doesn't realise that he touches his nose when he has a big hand, and flicks his wrist when bluffing. He also overbet far too often preventing him from getting action with things such as the nut flush. He was also as loose as Star Jones's jeans on Kate Moss. Who the hell limps in under the gun with Jack-6 and calls with a crappy inside straight draw? That moron.

I was in another big hand with this genius of poker. I limped in with Q8 suited in early position. I did this because no-one at the table was raising all that often so with two high suited cards, why not take a $2 flop and hope to hit something big? Anyways, the flop was King-7-4, with two hearts out there. It gave me the 2nd best possible flush draw. I thought about betting at it but the way the player before me in the hand checked was so suspicious that I knew he had a King and possibly more. The turn was a 4 of hearts, giving me the flush, but making it possible for a full house. The kid with the King checked, I checked, half slow playing, half afraid of the boat, and the sunglasses moron bets out about $20. I figure he has trips or a flush. His flush would most likely be lower than mine, but still possible that he had the Ace high flush. But he didn't overbet this time so I figured he had a good flush, but not as good as mine. The slow playing kid called pretty quickly and I called. The river was a 10 of diamonds. The slow playing kid bet out $10, I called, the sunglasses kid made it $40. The slow player called and I called after some deliberation. The slow player did have a King and actually made top 2 pair on the river. The sunglasses kid had Jack-9 of hearts. I took down a healthy $125 of profit in that hand.

The cards got pretty cold pretty fast. I'd limp in with King-Jack, wouldn't hit, and be $2 poorer. A new dealer sat down at the table and I heard him talking to the kid next to him about The Usual Suspects, one of my favorite movies. It turns out that they were talking about Kevin Pollak. Apparently, he was playing $200 Max Buy-In in the other room at table 1. He had just done his standup act the night before. I went out of the room for a cigarette and to see if it was true that Pollak was there. Turns out the dealer was right and he was there. In my first hand back, I got dealt pocket Queens.

This month, I'd usually limp in with these cards but decided to raise to $12 in early position. One player called out of the small blind, everyone else folded. The flop was the 6 of hearts, 9 of hearts, and the Queen of spades. CHACHING! I could just here Vince van Patten saying "church bells going off in his head."

The other player in the hand bet out $20. I thought about smoothe calling but the hearts on the board scared me. I thought he might've called my preflop raise with something like AJ or AK of hearts and was making a semi-bluff to take down the pot. I wanted to protect my hand so I raised to $70 total. I was basically telling the guy, you're going to need to put all your chips in there in order to see any more cards. He thought hard and folded. It turns out he had 6-9 and flopped two pair. In which case, he made a GREAT fold after making a stupid preflop call. I wish I had known he had 6-9. I wouldv'e smoothe called knowing that he needed running 6s or 9s to win and was a mere 0.2% to win the hand. I protected my hand though because with AK of hearts, he'd be 25% likely to win.

The very next hand, I was dealt pocket Kings. Again, I raised to $12 figuring after showing my trips to everyone, no-one would give me action. But the player to my right, who was in the big blind, called the $10 additional dollars.

The flop was nearly identical to the last one only with no hearts. Queen-9-6. He bet out $15. I called. The turn was a blank, a 3 I beleive. He bet out $20. I had a bad feeling. Something was telling me he had me beat. I asked him if he flopped a set. He said he had a good hand, but was afraid I had the same hand as last time. I figured he had a Queen in his hand, possible Ace-Queen. I didn't think he could have 6-9 but that voice was telling me he did. I didn't listen and called. The river was a Queen.

The 2nd Queen scared the shit out of me. His $50 bet scared everything else out of me. I had Ace-Queen beat on the turn but on the river, Ace-Queen would be good. Then it hit me. He didn't have Ace-Queen at all. He didn't have any Queen. He had 6 fucking 9. Dinner for two. This means that I had 2 pair that were bigger than his. I called the bet and he said "good call" after I flipped my cards and quietly declared "Kings up." A very nice $97 hand there even after the $8 tip to the dealer.

There's two ways of looking at this hand. Either I made a bad call on the flop and turn with the worst hand and got lucky to outdraw his two pair. Or he was stupid to be in the hand with 6-9 and even though he drowned on the river, his hand got what it deserved. I think it is a little of both. Just for kicks, here are the odds at each stage of the hand

Preflop: KK favored 83.6% to 16.5% (5.1 to 1 favorite)
Flop: 96 favored 72.9% to 27.1% (2.7 to 1 favorite)
Turn: 96 favored 81.8% to 18.2% (4.9 to 1 favorite)

These were my outs on the turn:
King (2)
Queen (3)
Three (3)

I did hit an 8 outer and got very lucky, but the simple fact that at no point in the hand was my opponent as much of a favorite as I was preflop tells me that he deserved to get what was coming to him. The odds of me cracking his 2 pair were 4.9 to 1, and the odds of him cracking my Kings were 5.1 to 1.

He shouldn't have talked to me in the middle of the hand. This was the basis leading me to beleive he didn't have a queen, and in fact, flopped bottom 2 pair.

Just a random side note. I heard a great nickname for Ace-King suited. Anna Kournikova. Looks great, but never wins.