Poker Jiu Jitsu

Time for just a quick post today....

Had a laptop meltdown this week, which means I'm playing at home on a cheesy hand-me-down computer with no PokerTracker3 and a tiny little screen. It's been tough adjusting to playing no-stats, reads-only poker, but overall I'm happy with how I'm playing and my results bear it out.

PT3 is both a blessing and a curse. While I certainly wouldn't want to play without it long-term, it does tend to make me lazy about reads. I.e., it's very easy just to let the computer tell you what kind of players you're up against. This in turn makes it easy to multi-table, which in turn makes me play kind of robot-like. Suited connectors limped to me in late position? Call, but fold to raises. Rockets? Raise and re-raise preflop. Middle to small pairs? Get in cheap to set-mine. Etcetera. While this approach has proven to be +EV in the long run for me, the problem is that it's pretty easy for the opp to pick up on my game and exploit it. Worse, playing this mechanically causes me to miss out on certain situations that can be even bigger EV.

For example, if I have a maniac at one of my tables, playing PT3-style, multi-table poker usually means I'm going to wait for biggish hands to play against him/her. But if I were really concentrating on just that one table, I might open up my game more and take down more marginal pots against the loose canon, resulting in a bigger gain for the session. I might also decide to slow play rockets and cowboys against him, and let him/her build the pot for me on the cheaper, early streets and then check-raise later. Multi-tabling, I'd likely just ram and jam, and if he/she folds, so be it.

This of course brings me to my main point, and that is I seem to be playing pretty good poker without PT3 if I play on just one table. I'm up $50 or so in the last three days playing $1/2 6max, and I credit this success mostly to being forced to single-table. Almost every time I've sat down for a 30-50 hand session of Perfect Poker in the past few days, I've made $5-12 (knock on wood), and in almost every case the secret to winning was very seriously "playing the playa" and not just playing by rote. Call it Poker Jiu Jitsu, where I'm using the opp's tendencies against themselves... and maximizing my EV at the same time.

For instance, I sat to the left a long-time nemesis, IrinaS, today, who plays solid poker and can lay down a big hand. By floating in position for two streets against her with rags on a scary board, I was able to bluff her off the pot on the river when I figured she missed with a middle pair and checked to me. Against a different player, I wouldn't have made that play. More importantly, if I was multi-tabling, I never would have been in the that hand to begin with, even against Irina.

Now, don't get me wrong. When I get my new laptop, I'm definitely going to install PT3 and get back to my "normal" style of poker. But if there's one good thing my computer crash has caused, it's a reinforcing of the idea that in order to play the best poker possible, you have to be 100% into the game. Dividing your attention between two games, means you're probably only giving each one 70-90% of your attention at any one given time. That number drops significantly further if a third or fourth table is added. That means you're giving up EV in long run. Of course, at some really low limit games, playing robot-like on four tables might be the best way to make the most money in the shortest period of time. But if you want to play at the bigger stakes, full attention to the game(s) is required.

The only other news to report is that I may create a new FullTilt account/name and phase out my current account. The reason for this is that the Guru has offered to give me some rake-back if I sign up under him. This could be an additional $20-50 a month, if I play at the levels I have been. The only downside is that I like my current screen name, and picking a replacement is proving to be surprisingly tough. I'm open to suggestions....

All-in for now...
-Bug