Thursday, September 06, 2007


Back in the ring


A strange but not unusual thing happened to me the other night. I sat down to play a session of poker, and after I had focussed my mind, repeated my winning player affirmation, and made myself completely comfortable, I proceeded to have another losing session. Nothing too bizarre there. What made it different was that when I had finished and confirmed that I had lost money in the session, I felt good. Many people believe that gamblers are only contented by self-punishment, but I assure you this wasn't the case. I felt good because I recognised that I had played well.
For the entire session I made only one mistake, which was not surrendering my AA on the turn to a big raise from what turned out to be a flopped set of 6s. I didn't get stacked on the hand, but I ignored the classic call-call-raise bet pattern of a set, and even payed off the $200 value bet my opponent made on the river when the board paired. By the end of the session however, I had reduced my overall losses to less than the size of that value bet through solid use of tight, aggressive, rational play.
I played well, and I felt good about it. I didn't care that I didn't get paid for it: I know that will come in time. I played again last night with the same mindset, and this time I came away solidly in profit, but feeling just as good as when I had played well and lost. If I can maintain this new attitude, going pro will be much easier.
Also helping me on my quest to world poker domination, I want to thank the HammerPlayer for some very good posts which are helping develop my thinking. I suggest you check out his blog for some very thought-provoking material....

On a related matter, I'm still playing $0.25/0.50 on FTP, and I have no idea why! Ever since I lost most of my 2k deposit on that site, I just can't seem to beat one of the lowest cash games on there! Has anyone else struggled beating the lower limits on FTP? Are all the players there really good but really poor? If anyone sees me playing there (username Subzero__666) please give me some advice if you spot me making mistakes! I really can't figure out how I'm not consistently beating these games, and anyone who helps me to back to the mid/high limits can name their reward (within reason!). Will stay tuned...

3 comments:

Alan aka RecessRampage said...

I can't say for sure but remember that there are decent players at every level. Having said that, low stakes at FTP is clearly beatable but it's a different game. Much like limit hold'em and NL are two very different games, the low stakes on FTP is a different game. No need to get fancy. Build the pot and be very aggressive with strong hands and instead of value bets, try to overbet for value on the turn when the players think "there's hope" with one more card to come. Profits will be rolling in.

lj said...

i was playing even lower limits than i do now for awhile, and i will echo alan's comment. at .10/.25 and .25/.50 i did much worse than i'm doing now at .50/1.00 and i think that may be in part to me being an aggressive player, but also the fact that people just won't fold at those limits (at least it's much harder for them to lay down a hand). it appeared to be almost all level zero thinking, and there is very little room to make any moves b/c the buy in is only 50 bucks.

lj said...

re: the wire - start w/ season 1 and don't skip seasons/episodes, would be my recommendation. it requires attention -- there is a huge cast of characters, but the payoff is enormous. it is a smart, incredibly well-written, phenomenally acted show, and well worth the investment in time.

personally season 2 was my least favorite, w/ 3 and 4 being unbelievably awesome, but it would be silly to not watch 1 and 2, b/c while there's a lot of necessary "setup" for the later seasons, they are rich for other reasons, and still better than 99% of tv and movies.

yes, i am a wire fanatic. can you tell?