Slow Times at Poker High

I have been going off on a sports tangent these past few weeks because I am excited about my team(s) and because I have not been playing a lot of Poker. The wife has wanted to watch the Red Sox games and has forbid me from watching them downstairs while playing. It has been a nice break however and I do not think I have forgotten everything I know.. Although I do not know much so I may have.

Couple of interesting things to talk about. I always get excited hearing people talk about going professional. I am not crazy and will not jump off the safety of my day job until I am ready. However – in preparation for this I thought I would take a peek at the high rollers.. the 30/60 guys on Empire. I took at look at table selection and was a little disappointed. There were only two tables open and there were something like 120 people waiting to play! Hello! Empire! Wake up! There is money to be made! I have no idea why they would not open as many 30/60’s as they could since the rake must be the highest of any game. Stupid!

So I set my Poker Tracker to catch some stats on these big boys at both tables. On a funny side note I noticed SuperDave playing with 24K on the table! WOW! Nice! Since you only need 18K online to play I think he was trying to intimidate people.
The nice thing about 30/60 was the pot size. Drool. Every hand I saw was at least half what I make in a day! One hand! I saw several pots get as large as my entire days salary and then some! A nice $750 pot was one example. I could live off that, right? Hell, that is half of everything I have made playing poker to date! I really do not see how people could not make a living at this with those kinds of pots. I suppose the variance is probably a bit larger.

I came back a few hours later with several players’ statistics. It was interesting. In watching these people play I did notice there seemed to be less calling to the river. It is impossible for me to judge the play of these people though because it is probably so far beyond me that I cannot understand what I do not know. On the good side most of the players I profiles seemed to be sLAPs like me! I did notice on Gamb000ler and a bomb in my poker stats. I believe the bomb is a maniac! Wow! I bet the table was drooling. So in summary I probably learned nothing of any importance but had a good time doing it.

As far as my own professional development I am planning on doing the following two things tonight. Bring my bankroll up to 1700+ and branch out. In the vein of my Felicia inspired play I am going to try another new game. I do not get my ass kicked enough playing Hold Em so I need to branch out. I have done this already with Omaha Hi with mixed results. I really need to learn a little more about playing post-flop in Omaha and then I would agree it seems like minting your own money. My next foray is going to be in a harder game, which is totally different from Hold Em: 7 Card Stud! I have studied my winning Poker book and think I have an idea of how to play at a basic level. I am going to start at the ½ level and see how I do. One thing that is appealing to me is the many levels of betting. A lot more cash to put into the pot or hopefully take out! I will keep you posted on how I do tonight. I expect to at least have a fun night.