Two Ways to Win at Poker
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
The First Way to Win at Poker:
(1) Buy in to a full ring $100nl table with a bankroll of $1000, therefore placing 10% of your money on the line.
(2) Play conservatively, trying to feel out the table conditions.
(3) Get QQ in your first two orbits in the SB before you had a chance to get a good read on the table. Re-raise to $10, after the button raised from $1 to $3.50.
(4) Call the re-raise to $20 from the BB, after the button calls.
(5) See a 9-high flop with a flush draw and push all-in for your remaining $76 out of position. Get called by the BB and the Button. See that the BB has KK and the button has AK.
(6) River a Queen, one of two outs, and rake a $288 pot.
(7) Hee Haw HEE HAW!!!
(8) Mock the sore loser BB with the hopes of making more money on his tiltage, but then realize that your table image sucks and leave the room with your profits intact.
I know, folks. It's one hell of a way to make a bucket load of cash. But it worked for me.
The Second Way to Win at Poker:
(1) Sit at a short-handed $50 nl table, which comprises less than 5% of your roll (thanks to your earlier donkey play).
(2) Take your time getting a feel for the table. Sense tightness all around.
(3) Bet. Raise. Re-raise. If you hit two pair on the flop, bet the pot. If you hit bottom pair on the flop, bet the pot. If you hit a flush draw, bet the p0t. If you hit a belly-buster straight draw, be the pot.
(4) Keep betting and raising. Keep the pressure on your opponents. Take down more than 40% of the pots when playing 4-6 handed. Be the consistent bully, and have everyone react to you, rather than the other way around.
(5) Get dealt QQ, and play it like any other decent preflop hand, betting to $2. Get raised to $6. Re-raise to $12. Get flat called. See a flop of all unders. Let your opponent push all-in. Call with QQ and beat JJ.
See the difference? I probably am not doing a good job of explaining the 2nd way of winning. I was catching cards, which is always helpful, but even when I wasn't I was consistently leaning on my opponents. After I psuedo doubled up (he had less than me, but not by much) with QQ v. JJ I kept the pressure on. I can only imagine how annoying it was for the others playing.
It actually reminded me of when I whooped ass at the perfect table in Atlantic City. I was controlling the tables. At that point, barring suckouts, its hard to lose. I get a feel for the action and I just know when a bet will take down a pot. I rarely have to reach a showdown because I no longer care about the money in front of me. They've all just become meaningless chips. So big bets to win a pot without seeing the river is fine with me. My bets are especially powerful on the flop, because with only 4-6 players at any given time, and probably only one or two calling my preflop raise to $2 (with anything from, at times, K9 suited to AA to low suited connectors), more often than not my opponent is not hitting that flop. I check down hands too, don't get me wrong. But overall, I play the aggressor. That is why people slip up and push with JJ v. my QQ (which, of course, I can sometimes do too; See The First Way). But you get the idea, hopefully.
Overall, I won $260-280 last night. I'm not exactly sure looking back. This also included a bubble in a Turbo 5-person $10 SNG at PokerShare (terrible traffic on the site, but the action is good, since that is where I won most of my dough) and a loss at a $5 PLO SNG.
Whatever the case, that was a big night for me, financially, and I look forward to continuing it tonight. Wifey Kim seems to have standing plans on Wednesdays to have dinner and watch America's Next Top Model with her friend, so I'll have poker time until 9:30 at which point we will be watching some DVR'ed Lost. Good times, good times.
In other exciting news, guess who is going to AC again? Me, of course. I had already scheduled a day off at the office for Okie-Vegas. Unfortunately, I can't go because of the price of flights. However, Showboat has been kind enough to send me another free room, and wifey Kim wanted to go. So the plan is to go down Thursday, June 8th, and stay at the Showboat. I don't expect much poker, and, weather permitting, I do expect to spend a good amount of time at the beach with the wife. The second night, however, will be at the Trop, under their poker room rate ($112 instead of $250 or so). To get the rate, I have to play 4 hours of poker. Done and done. It's perfect. A vacation with the wifey where I have no choice but to play poker. NOICE!
Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables.
posted by Jordan @ 9:22 AM,
7 Comments:
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At 10:18 AM,
said...
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Way #3: Get Fluxer to help.
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At 11:17 AM,
said...
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Hahah. The river 2 outer suckout. I love it when a plan comes together.
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At 12:08 PM,
said...
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Funny you should say that Waffle. I actually asked Flux to rail me in a future NLHE game. The kid has skillz.
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At 3:12 PM,
said...
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Hawesome.
I bet flux can hold his breath 9 minutes and 12 seconds.
I keed, I keed...
I'd like to see the guy play so I can bask. -
At 4:33 PM,
said...
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Fantastic post... had me laughing so hard. I always wondered how guys can do the LAAGY style so well at NL100. Some nights you can pull it off while others will get you killed.
As a TAG style player I find that if I can keep calm and wait them out then I can stack that style... hard to stay calm when they are betting pot and min raising all the darn time!
The trip to AC sounds good... I will have to do one of those since they seem to be catering to more poker these days. -
At 5:12 PM,
said...
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AC is a great place for poker. It helps that it is only a couple of hours away too. It's part of the reason why, when wifey Kim and I are ready to leave NYC (hopefully, never), I am cool with moving to NJ.
As for being LAAGY, I don't actually understand the terms so well. I guess that is part of being a feel player. I mean, I know you mean Loose and Aggressive pre and post-flop. That is sort of what I did. But the difference is that it is all controlled. I'll fold a bunch of hands or check it down with a bad flop. It's all selective. And I made the most money off of the players who play tight and wait for me to bet into them. I comply and they fold, because they are waiting for great cards. When they get them (JJ with an under-flop), they think they are Superman, but just because I'm aggressive, doesn't mean I can't lay down a hand. In that JJ hand, if I had a pair lower than JJ or even top pair, I would've folded, so his aggression would've lost him value. I was only calling if I thought I was ahead. Now, I considered folding there, but I decided that his range was too wide, given his read on my over-aggression.
I guess my point is that even though I was loose and aggressive, I wasn't a donkey. It was all controlled, and I know how to lay down a good hand (ignoring my initially donkeyish QQ v KK play). -
At 7:38 PM,
said...
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Dude,
I just had the above post tattooed on my forhead, so when I walk into the bathroom in the morning and look in the mirror, I won't forget it.
LOLOL!!
Nice post, yo.
