Real Live Poker Content

As some may have noticed by the tone of the Blog I have been a little frustrated lately. Not winning SNGs. Losing a little money. Downswings are tough to deal with. As I said before I am going to give LHE a fair try. I am playing the ½ limit right now and having a good time. I am going to focus on it for at least the next week and see how it goes.

I played a $4/180 SNG tonight to see what they were like. I enjoyed them. I ended up in 27th place which sucks. I got short stacked and tried to take the blind with 78h. I pushed with 3K and an 8K stack thought I was bluffing so he called with KQ. I was bluffing but that is not a call I suggest. On second thought please do make that call every day and twice on Sunday when playing against me. Why did I choose 78h? A lot of limpers. Likely to have two live cards. Two draws possible. It is a much better hand to push with than Ax when you figure the likely calling hands.

I had a really good chat with Iggy tonight about LHE. The thing I like about Iggy is that he UNDERSTANDS why he does things. If I agree with him or not he does not just puke up things he has heard before. He does not defend playing a certain way because he heard Phil Ivey plays that way. He really understands the concepts and math behind the game. I learn a lot every time I speak to that man.

Here are a few more people who have enlightened me with conversations I have had with them. Joanne of A Chip and a Chair fame. She and I were talking about pushing hands and she asked me why I would want to push certain hands when the flop gives me a lot more information about them. A lot of people become pushing monkeys in NLHE and trusting your post-flop play is very important. Learning to beat people at THE GAME and not just pushing all in is the only way to become a better player.

The Film Geek gave me some of my first Tourney advice. It was a lot more detailed but basically he got me thinking about the different stages of a poker game and how your stack should effect how you play. You need to get chips early so you can make moves later so the early stages you want to be a little looser and catch some hands and try and get a lot of chips. You need to be careful playing looser and be willing to let possibly dominated hands go. Once you have chips there is no need to risk them. You want to be tighter and aggressive. Just the idea of playing differently at different points of MTTs opened my eyes to some new ways of playing.

Felicia Lee. She told me I suck at poker and should quit. She also said I should stick to MTTs and SNGs since I was better at that kind of poker. I had never been interested in these types of games and probably would have never started playing MTTs if she did not chide me into it. I also have a lot of motivation to prove her wrong. She actually never said that I could not change so she has outs if I ever become successful but until then I am going to have fun trying to prove her wrong. Of course I could see people interviewing her after I win a WSOP bracelet and her saying "Ya, he sucks at Poker!".. That is what I like about her.

Dr. Pauly. He is just a great guy. I enjoy talking to him and he has always been very supportive of my game. He broke my live game cherry and gave me the advice to play live more often. I have not had a chance to do so but I am going to for sure. He also gave me one of the best books about Poker ever: Phil Gordon’s Little Green Book. I love the book even if Phil is a jerk who would not know funny if a hooters girl hit him in the face with it. Ok I am bitter about the gift certificate.

Finally I have been thinking about my 2+ years as a Poker Player. I think the first year of playing poker was a total waste for me. I was more successful than I had any right to be and it really taught me nothing about poker. The second year was filled with pain and heartbreak. Now that my friends is poker. I went a little insane. Ran with it. Made some decent sized bankrolls and busted them. I got a good feel for the other side of Poker. I am thinking my third year of poker might be when I bring it all together. I may even finally get it. I am a profitable poker player in my third year. Probably about 2cents an hour but it is better than losing. I think bigger and better things are just around the corner.