Special Bug Pages

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Win Big. Lose Little. Make Profit.

I've been back playing online fairly regularly for a little more than a week, and the results have been pretty good. Well, the Hold'em cash game results anyway. My Omaha results are mixed, with just a small profit realized thus far for the month. My SnG results are, ahem, pitiful. I think that's mainly because I'm trying to rush things in tournaments, rather than playing a more relaxed and patient game. I'm going to lay off playing any more tourneys for the remainder of this month, and just concentrate on what's been working right: cash games.

Mostly I'm playing$25NL 6max, but occasionally after a bad beat I will drop back down to $10NL 6max just to get my confidence back before jumping back into the bigger game. To be perfectly honest, my bankroll isn't big enough to support the swings of $25NL, but I'm still playing there because I think I've got a decent edge, and I'm making some dough up there. The results of July thus far are:

One of the things I think I'm doing pretty well is reading hands. A few times I've screwed up badly with an off read, and more than once I've called a better hand correctly but still tossed in a call just to validate my read. Can you say Dumb? The good news is that most of the time I'm getting off these types of losers before they cost me too much. Win big and try to lose little, is the name of this game.

I'm also working on fine-tuning my hand selection a bit, including tossing more trap hands in EP (and in LP to raises), but I'm also playing significantly more suited connectors and one-gappers, especially if I have position against EP aggressive players. These types of hands/situations are generally pretty easy to play: if you hit, you stand a decent chance to get paid off. If they miss, you can get off the hand fairly cheaply. I think a big part of my success so far this month is this general approach to playing poker, where I set up a hand ahead of the flop and have most of my actions and reactions pre-planned. In other words, I'm trying to think, "okay, what cards don't I want to see on the flop?" or "if an ace comes on the flop, and it gets checked to me, can I rep the ace, or should I be afraid of a CR?" or "why is the opp firing into this dry board? Let me review what he did preflop and see if that fits with the story he's telling now."

Another thing has been: aggression, aggression, aggression. The rule I'm trying to follow religiously is if I think I'm ahead of the opp's range, I want to punish them with big, painful bets and raises. If I'm not sure where I stand, but my hand is decent, I try to see if I can exercise some pot control and keep things manageable. Win big, lose little.

I'm also checking the river with solid hands, letting the opp bluff into me (i.e., "bluff catching") and I'm also really thinking about bet sizes on the river. Blocking bets, pot control bets, value bets, etc. Oh, and another thing that has been useful to ask myself before betting on the river is, "what kind of hands is he going to call me with? Better hand than me? If so, why am I betting here?" and "is he good enough to lay down a better hand?" and "he's a poor player, what am I hoping to achieve here with air?" Win big, lose little.

Gonna go back and play some more...

Now, what was that strategy again? Oh yeah: Win big. Lose little. Let's see if I can remember it.

All-in for now...
-Bug

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