I recently played a small buy in seven card stud tournament. I know that stud is not my best game, so I wanted to get some practice in more than anything else. I probably played my best stud in a long time and ran into some unfortunate spots. I had held an average chip stack through most of the tournament when the following hand came up. I was sitting to the right of the bring in and one other player called the bring in. I had an ace up, so this is an automatic completion bet. I completed and both players behind me called. On fourth street, I picked up another ace, giving me just a pair of aces. Neither of my opponents improved on fourth, so I bet the larger amount and was called in both spots again. I now was concerned about my hand a bit. I caught a blank on fifth street, but my opponents did also. Knowing that my pair was good, I bet again and got two calls. I catch another ace on sixth street and fire once again and I finally get one player to fold. I checked in the dark on 7th as I knew my opponent had a draw that could beat the 3 aces I held. He checked behind me and commented that he was checking just in case I filled up. I didn't fill up and he made a flush on 7th. So sick. This player called on 3rd with nothing; picked up a gutshot on 4th and a flush draw on 5th that got home on 7th. I hate it when people chase and catch. It is very frustrating for solid players like myself.
Although I just lost a big pot, I still had some chips to play with and wasn't in a desperate mode yet. I move tables and played a big pot with a short stacked player. He was betting the whole way and I put him all in on 5th street with just A-K high. It was better than his K-10 high. My read was right. I end up with A-K-Q-J-9 on 7th--the best nothing you can have. My opponent caught a pair of 3s on 7th. There is not much I could have done on that one. I was now in a bit of a desperate mode and got it all in on 4th with 4 over cards to my opponents pair of 4s. On sixth street, I had 6 over cards to his pair. I made a pair of jacks on 7th, but my opponent made two pair. Just like that I was done. I made it down to the final 4 tables, and only two were getting paid. I can feel reassured that I played well during the event, but was frustrated about getting unlucky in some key spots. As they say, that's poker.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Where your money comes from
If you are a winning player, you should have an idea about where your money comes from. I'm not talking about knowing if you make your money from playing hold 'em or omaha or if you make more during the day or night or online versus live. While all of these things are important to know, what is often overlooked in my opinion is how you made that money. What this basically boils down to is determining if are you outplaying your opponents or if you are simply capitalizing on their mistakes (or both).
Lets assume you play an ABC variety of poker and you are playing in a no limit hold 'em cash game. It is folded to you on the button and two novices are in the blind. You look down at A-K. You raise 3xBB, small blind folds, big blind calls. Flop comes K-6-3. You value bet on the flop, turn and river and the big blind shows you Q-6. Clearly, you didn't do anything special to win this pot. The money that was won was a result of the inexperience of the big blind. You often hear people say that you can't bluff amateur players. This is because they do not know how to fold a hand like in the above example. What if you had held A-J? Surely, you would raise on the button and make a continuation bet on the flop, but would you fire the second and third bullet? I guess that depends on what kind of player you are.
The point here is that you can make money at the lower limits by continually exploiting your opponents mistakes. While you may be able to pull off a bluff of two from time to time, it probably won't be a profitable play in the long run against a bunch of rookies. However, as you move up in limits or begin to encounter good players who are exploiting these rookies as much as you are, you will find that you will have to make adjustments to your game to win money from more experienced players. At the higher limits, players make fewer mistakes and there is less money to be won via someone else making a mistake. It is at the higher limits where you will have to employ more "fancy plays" to win. However, I would recommend avoiding fancy play syndrome at lower limits.
Lets assume you play an ABC variety of poker and you are playing in a no limit hold 'em cash game. It is folded to you on the button and two novices are in the blind. You look down at A-K. You raise 3xBB, small blind folds, big blind calls. Flop comes K-6-3. You value bet on the flop, turn and river and the big blind shows you Q-6. Clearly, you didn't do anything special to win this pot. The money that was won was a result of the inexperience of the big blind. You often hear people say that you can't bluff amateur players. This is because they do not know how to fold a hand like in the above example. What if you had held A-J? Surely, you would raise on the button and make a continuation bet on the flop, but would you fire the second and third bullet? I guess that depends on what kind of player you are.
The point here is that you can make money at the lower limits by continually exploiting your opponents mistakes. While you may be able to pull off a bluff of two from time to time, it probably won't be a profitable play in the long run against a bunch of rookies. However, as you move up in limits or begin to encounter good players who are exploiting these rookies as much as you are, you will find that you will have to make adjustments to your game to win money from more experienced players. At the higher limits, players make fewer mistakes and there is less money to be won via someone else making a mistake. It is at the higher limits where you will have to employ more "fancy plays" to win. However, I would recommend avoiding fancy play syndrome at lower limits.
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