Last Monday I went to Red Rock and played some 1/2. I thought I played OK, but I did get into some very questionable situations. For example check out this gem of a hand:
A-Q in the small blind. I call a small raise. Flop is J-7-7. I think "that's a good board texture to c-bet" and call a $6 c-bet from the preflop raiser. Turn is a jack. I think "that board doesn't hit the preflop raiser very often". I check, he bets $25. I say to myself "I'm going to raise him off of his hand, he doesn't have a jack very often here". So I raise to $60, he calls, I check-fold the river, he shows A-J.
Then just a couple annoying hands - guy raises to 12. I reraise to 30 with A-K. Flop misses me, like 9-6-4. He checks, I bet 50, he raises me all-in for $100 more, I fold. Then someone raises to like 7, I make it 20 with A-Q, he calls, I miss the flop, it goes check-check, he bets the turn, I fold.
I also just got into some spots where I was confused about what to do post-flop. Like after listening to these podcasts and they're talking about ranges and this and that, I flop an ace with ace-rag suited and I'm like, I'm going to peel and see what he does, and of course the guy bets again and I have to fold, etc. I just ended up playing like shit.
And then, that puts me on tilt. Making moves that don't work, putting money in the pot when it just feels wrong, etc. It annoys me.
Then I was listening to some more podcasts, the "Deuce Plays" ones, and sometimes they'll have people on that play the live 5/10 games at Commerce. And a common theme is, these guys aren't paying attention to what you're doing, nobody ever folds anything, nobody is ever bluff raising you. And you can value bet pretty thin because nobody ever folds, etc.
I lost $270 at Red Rock last Monday and it was really frustrating. I didn't play the rest of the week and I was just like "fuck this" overall.
So yesterday I said something I have said in the past, although maybe more to the extreme this time. I came up with a new plan. Over the next 100 hours of live poker, I'm going to play this way:
- Never ever bluff.
- Never even semi-bluff, even with huge semi-bluffing hands.
- Never c-bet unless I hit the flop.
- Pretty much never reraise preflop except with huge hands.
- Pretty much only raise preflop with huge hands, limp with everything else, and check/fold unless I really have a monster.
- Bet big with my big hands.
- Play 100% straightforward.
- Basically play like the biggest nit ever.
So I did this yesterday at Red Rock for 3 hours. It was an interesting experiment because I played some hands in ways I would not usually play them. Some examples:
I have K-4 suited in the blind. Check. Flop comes 10-7-4 with 2 of my suit. Sick flop. Check, lol. Turn, check, river, miss, check/fold.
In blind with 6-5. Check. Flop is 2-2-5. Checks around. Turn, 8. Checks around. River, 9. Guy bets 10. I raise to 30, he calls with 9-8.
Open-limp with Q-10 suited (I dont think that was a good idea, but whatever). Flop A-x-x with 2 of my suit. Checks to me, check. Turn, blank. Checks around. River, miss, someone bets, I fold.
I had some big hands too. Reraised this guy Kenny that plays crazy preflop with AA. He raised to 10, 2 callers, I think this is awesome because it looks like I'm trying to steal, I make it 45, he calls. Flop I kinda spaz out and he checks, and I check. I sort of didn't know what to do. Flop was 6-5-4, just not the best flop. Turn, jack. He bets 60, I insta-call because I know this guy can do some weird stuff. River, 5. He checks. I check. Should have bet though because I think he would never check a big hand there, so that was a mistake.
Call 8 with A-Q. 5 way. Flop A-Q-5. Preflop raiser bets 20, I call, heads up. Turn, 9. He checks, I bet 60, he calls. River, 5. He checks, I go all-in, he folds.
Just couple others:
Bunch of people limp. I have K-K on button, make it 15. 3 callers. Flop ace high, 2 hearts. Checks to me, check. Turn, check around. River, check around. Guy made two pair with running jack and 9. Could have won this pot with a c-bet obviously, but whatever. This is my new nit strategy.
Raise to 10 with Q-Q, 2 callers. Flop 7-5-2 with 2 diamonds. I bet 25, guy calls. Turn, 4 of diamonds. I check, he bets 45 right away, I just fold. Old guy, probably a great fold there. But good fold or not, I'm just going to fold there 100% of the time.
Anyway I ended up winning $224. Really good session, I was super happy with the results. As far as the play, I feel like its super weak and exploitable, but maybe these guys are right... at these limits (and maybe even 1 or 2 levels up), nobody is going to be good enough to exploit me, so whatever. I can play super predictable and just rake in the money from all the terrible players out there. And maybe one day when I'm playing high enough that there are not as many bad players around, I can adapt.
For now, I'm going to stick to this strategy for 100 hours of live play and re-evaluate. I like doing this in big blocks of time so I can ignore the short-term and just focus on the long-term results. And not think about moving up in stakes or changing my strategy for a long time, just ride it out and see what happens. If it's profitable, maybe I'll sign up for another 100 hours.
More poker tonight I think!
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