I'm back! It's been a long time since I wrote a poker blog. This weekend I played more poker than possibly any weekend ever, and it really got me excited about getting back into playing again.
While analyzing individual hands is good, I also think it might be useful for me to just write down some of the general poker thoughts I had from playing this weekend.
Drinking
You should never drink and play poker if you care about winning. I guess that's all there is to say about drinking, pretty simple.
Playing big pairs passively preflop
I think I'm going to start playing AA/KK more passively preflop in certain situations. Sure, it would be great to get a ton of money in preflop with those hands. However, how many times have you gotten AA or KK, reraised someone preflop, they fold, and you didn't even feel like they would call you when you raised?
For example, a few people limp and someone directly to your left raises. You can reraise, which will probably get the pot heads up. Of course, the raiser might fold too. But is it SO bad if you just call the raise and a bunch of other people call too? Now you have a ridiculously strong hand, it's SUPER well disguised, and the pot is way bigger.
For example, under the gun. If you raise AA/KK under the gun, that's fine of course. However, it looks like you have a really strong hand. If you just limp, it probably looks like you have a pair. But even if your opponent knows you have a pair, that doesn't really help them. In fact, it just makes them more anxious. Now it's just a game of - did you flop a set or not.
With AA specifically, how bad could it be if you just limp under the gun or in early position, and go all in when it comes back to you if there was a raise? You're going to win the pot 99% of the time which isn't that bad. And if someone has KK, they may call you for their whole stack because it's impossible to fold.
If you start limping AA/KK with plans to either limp-reraise or just see a flop, that also makes all of your other limps with pairs or suited connectors much scarier.
I'm certainly not saying I want to always limp AA/KK. But under the gun, maybe it's a better option. You're out of position so why build a huge pot? It's not easy to play post-flop.
If I'm on the button, I think raising is pretty much always best unless there is a raise directly to your right and you want to get more people in the pot. But under the gun, or out of the blinds, why build a huge pot when you are just going to be out of position? From the blinds maybe a MASSIVE raise is OK, to try to get it heads up with a hand you dominate (smaller pair, AK). But even then you're out of position which is never easy to deal with.
Main point here is - you don't NECESSARILY have to play all of your big pairs super aggressive preflop.
Showing cards
You should never show your cards. Under no circumstances will this ever benefit you. The challenge is that it's hard to do this, because there are so many situations where you just REALLY want to show your hand. You had a super strong hand, like you flopped quads. Or you want to show someone a bluff to show them how stupid they are for folding to you.
That's fun, but it doesn't really benefit you. You could argue that showing a bluff will benefit you by making the other person upset. However, I think that goes away so fast that it's not worth it. You won't be able to take advantage of that tilt very often. You're better off just not showing that bluff so it's easier for you to pull off the next bluff.
Have you EVER thought you were so happy you showed your cards because you gained some strategic advantage over someone else? I can't think of a time that was true for me. I can just think of times I've shown cards and enjoyed it for fun, but I guarantee it benefits my opponents more than me.
On the flip side, I think if you really want to, it's OK to tell people what you had. The reason I think this is OK is that there will always be some doubt in their mind because they didn't see the cards. So this is nowhere near as big of a deal as actually showing the cards.
Defending (or not defending) your blinds
I have NEVER EVER heard ANYONE say something along the lines of : "Man, I lost $1000 last night playing 2/5. I just didn't get anything and these fucking guys kept stealing my blinds". That literally never happens.
However, I HAVE said this about a billion times : I called my small blind, or called a small raise out of the big blind, and then somehow lost a monster pot. Or some aggressive guy raised the button, I reraised out of the blind with a pair or even a decent-ish hand like AT, he doesn't fold, and I lose a big pot.
Let's look at the reraise first. If the button raises and it's a good aggressive player, sure they will fold sometimes when you reraise. So they make it $20 in a 2/5 game, you make it $60, they fold. OK. You won $20. Was that really so important?
And the flip side of that same coin - button opens to $20, you reraise to $60 with a decent hand, he calls. Now you're out of position against a good player in a bloated pot. Is that a good situation to be in? I think it's obvious that this is NOT a good position.
So you have two options : lose either $2 or $5 (option 1), or flip a coin between winning $20 or being in a $120 pot out of position and uncomfortable (option 2). In my opinion it's worth the $5 to just get out of this situation.
Sure, maybe at some point in my poker career I'll be playing high enough stakes where everything is preflop and stealing blinds is a big deal. I'm not there yet at 2/5, and I doubt it will get to that point at 5/10 or 10/20 either. Yes, I will be losing money in the blinds. No question. But you're probably going to lose money out of the blinds no matter what.
Bailing when it feels bad
You often get in situations where it does NOT feel good. You have KK, you bloated the pot preflop (which I would debate the value of anyway) and now you're facing a big bet on some random board. Maybe someone flopped a set, maybe they are betting a draw, maybe they are straight up bluffing. What do you do?
Even if you have put a decent amount of money into the pot, whatever. Losing a big preflop and flop bet is much better than losing your whole stack. It's not like every pot you play will have you in this terrible situation where your heart is racing and you're torn between folding and potentially winning a massive pot. How many times have you just cruised through a hand and it was super easy, and you win a nice pot? That happens a lot. So when you are in the situation where it feels really bad and you know it's a marginal spot, especially on the flop, whatever. If you bail I don't think that's the worst thing in the world. Conserve that stack and wait for the next spot.
Again, if people are taking advantage of you constantly, this strategy will not work. But I don't think you need to worry about that at the 2/5 level. And maybe you lay down more to the really good players. That's fine, you don't need to give them a chance to take your whole stack. Play hands against the shittier players and if you're going to take chances, take chances against the guy who is drinking and who you have seen try some big bluffs earlier in the session. Not the young guy with headphones that has been 3 betting people preflop.
That's it for me for today. I'll hopefully get a chance to play some 2/5 this week!
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