I've run better this week than I have in a VERY long time. HUGE night at the Wynn (biggest all year), two very big nights at the Nug, and I won a couple hundo at the Rock last night. Straight up crushing. I'm up around $1600 in the last 7 days playing 1/2 and 1/3 NL.
Here's the problem, and it's something I have struggled with in the past. When I was playing NL recently, I was sticking to the WPT Boot Camp plan to the letter. This week I said forget that, I'm going to do my own thing where I think it makes sense. It's been working out quite well, although I'll admit that several of the big hands I've won did not stray from the strategy I would have implemented using their system.
Straying from the system may become a problem for me, and it's something I need to be vigilant of. Here are two hands I played in the last week.
Hand 1 : Golden Nugget 1/2 NL, Wednesday April 10th
4 or 5 people limp for $2. The table has been playing relatively tight. I am in the small blind and look down at 7-2 offsuit. I decide to raise it to $20, and my plan is to show my hand for advertising purposes. I get one caller. Damn it. Flop comes Kc-Tc-x. Not awesome board texture, but I am heads up. I fire out $30, he raises me all in for $140. I fold, but I end up throwing it in face up anyway. 25 bb down the drain in a pot where I didn't have to get involved at all, nor was there any logical reason to get involved.
Hand 2 : Red Rock 1/2 NL, Thursday April 11th
I am under the gun with 8-5 of clubs (or maybe 2nd to act). I open for $8. 2 callers. Flop is a dream, K-8-3 with 2 clubs. I bet $16, get a caller in middle position. Turn is the queen of clubs. Bet $35, he calls. River is an offsuit 2, total blank. I bet $80. He thinks for a while, counts out the chips, and puts them in. The flush is good and I win a nice pot.
Hand 3 (also at Red Rock that night)
Old man limps for $2. I am on the button with 5-3 offsuit. I think, I'm going to be able to get this guy off of his hand a ton of the time if he doesn't hit. I raise to $10. He calls. Flop comes K-x-x (I don't really remember). Now the old guy leads for $27, more than a pot sized bet. He has about $130 left. I fold.
The common theme in all of these pots is that there was really no reason to get involved. In all 3 of these situations the clearly superior play is to fold preflop and not get involved. I think there is one golden rule that if at all possible, I should implement:
Don't fuck around unless you are suited!!!!
Granted, the 8-5 suited hand is a bad example because I'm out of position, so that was not a good play. But if I DO decide to get nuts with some of these hands, I should always be suited. Offsuit hands are just total junk. You can only flop straight draws. Flopping a flush draw (or even a backdoor flush draw) is so much better and gives you a lot of leverage so you can semi-bluff a lot more.
When I thought about straying from the WPT-BC style, my main thing was playing different post-flop. I had no problems with the pre-flop strategy, although I might take some of the super high variance plays out of my arsenal. Like if I raise with Q-Q and get 3 bet in that game, I don't think I'm really losing a lot of value by folding or set mining. I'm sorry, people just do NOT 3 bet light in that game at all. Yeah, you will get people to fold A-K and Q-Q in that spot. But is it worth it? I don't think so.
When I thought about the strategy though, I thought preflop was overall very solid and there was no reason to stray from it. I started stretching it a bit, but with my success this week I stretched it to the point of snapping completely in half. Sure, I've been running good and it's been awesome. But I do think I'm setting myself up for disaster by continuing to play crazy preflop, and especially out of position.
One thing that I'm going to try to focus on more is playing hands against the right people. If I have a somewhat sub-standard hand and a terrible player calls or raises, I should be more likely to call. If I have a decent hand and a good player is in, I should be more apt to fold. It just totally makes sense. It's like internal table selection. You are at your table, but there are tons of 2 and 3 handed tables within your table. If I get to pick from several 3 handed tables to play individual hands at, shouldn't I always pick the table with fish? A solid reg raises, and I have the choice to call on the button. I'm essentially playing this hand at a heads up table against him. Would I ever do that on purpose? No. Fold. Then a fish limps or raises, some average player calls. My hand is decent, but not a monster. Would I play this one hand 3-handed against those 2 opponents? Yes, so I should call or raise.
I've been thinking about putting people on ranges and applying that to hand reading at the table. I must say, it's pretty damn tough to concentrate on that. I can see how pros might really struggle and have to put a TON of effort into paying attention to everything and using max brain power all the time to practice hand reading. I don't know how many hands I see where a monster pot is being shipped to someone, and I did not pay attention to the action AT ALL. Or 2 hours into the session, I honestly have no idea of who is playing tight and who is playing loose.
That might sound bad, but I think people trick themselves into THINKING they are paying attention, when they really are not. Think about it at some point during your next session. Over the last 3 hands, do you know who called or raised preflop? Do you remember the post-flop action? My guess is no. I think I need to start actively paying attention a LOT more if I want to improve my game. Some things I could do would be:
- Know the pot size (give or take a couple dollars) on every hand. Keep track of how many hands in a row you are able to pay attention to that.
- Pay attention to the original raiser in each hand (or the first limper, if nobody raises preflop). Put him/her on a range of hands and modify that range after every subsequent action. Just pay attention to that one person.
- Focus in on one player (maybe who you think is the best player at the table, or the worst player that you are most likely to win the most from). Pay attention to him during every single hand. What is his preflop raise and call frequency. How often is he calling a flop bet. How often is he raising. Is he giving up on the river. And so on. Just focus in on one person and see what you can pick up.
I've been reading this great book called The Poker Blueprint lately. It's really good. I heard this guy Tri talking on the Deuce Plays podcast and thought he was really smart and I wanted to hear more of his thoughts, and the book has been awesome. He talks about how you really just need to continue to want to improve and focus on that, and you don't want to be a grinder who doesn't improve and is stuck at their current limit, hating life. It also encourages taking shots at higher games more often, especially when you are on a very small bankroll, so I think I'm going to try 2/5 really soon. :-)
That's enough for today! More hands to come. Hoping I destroy the tables this weekend.
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