Piper Tim
08-13-2005, 02:29 PM
Getting sucked out on is hard and as I played this week, I thought a lot about my own playing and the playing of my opponents.
I put in a couple long sessions for me over the past few days. I finished clearing the pary bonus for August at +65BB, not counting the bonus, at the .5/1 LHE tables. Of course, this is not something that will happen all the time, but it does feel good.
Anyway, I play pretty tight, rarely cold-call, and am aggressive when I get good hands. I had a couple decent run of cards and got lucky a couple times. I also made a bunch of mistakes and I got sucked out on quite a bit. However, since I wasn't playing a lot of hands and I don't multitable, I spent a lot of time watching and analyzing the other players.
I don't know how many of the beginning players try to multitable, but you do, you may want to play at a single table once in a while and really study the other players. I think it will help to drive home some concepts or ideas that we accept cognitively but reject emotionally and provides an excellent opportunity for your own reflective play.
For example, how often have we seen somebody play almost every hand and see their chips swell? You know you are playing (or trying to play) good poker yet you see somebody doing well by playing bad poker. I am sure that you have at least said to yourself, why the h*ll shouldn't I play like that, he can and he is winning? Or we fail to raise a premium hand like AA or AK preflop, or even fail to raise a strong hand like JJ because we have been beat in the past.
Yesterday I watched four different maniac players. One bought in at the same time as I did and very quickly ran it up to almost $80 (3x the buy-in) by playing any two cards. When I left the table, he/she had less than $10, where I was +5BB. Another player, bought in in three different times in increments of $15. He quickly went broke 3 different times and ended up leaving the table with nothing. The third player had 4x the buy-in in front of them. Again, he played almost anything and sucked out on me more than once with bad cards. When he left the table he was -40BB. The fourth player also played a lot of hands. Again it seemed like he would play almost anything. He left the table in the green. (If I focused on just that one player, it would seem like playing anyhing can be profitable.) Now, those other players must have been having fun and rather than moan at them when I got sucked out on, I congratulated them and swore under my breath. But, they were good for me to have at the table and I think are the reason I did so well this week.
When I had premium hands, I pushed them. I could count on large pots because not only would they play most hands, but they would cold call 2 or even three bets. The hands that I won and played aggressively, made up for the hands that I lost but played aggressively. There were swings in my chips, but usually it was four steps forward, two steps back. One session I was down almost to 2BB (nothing seemed to connect) and then in four hands, I was almost back to my buy in amount. All along the way, I had to remind myself that good play is +EV in the long term, and that poor play might be +EV (although not necessarily) short term, it won't last.
Be patient, wait for the good cards and play aggressively.
I put in a couple long sessions for me over the past few days. I finished clearing the pary bonus for August at +65BB, not counting the bonus, at the .5/1 LHE tables. Of course, this is not something that will happen all the time, but it does feel good.
Anyway, I play pretty tight, rarely cold-call, and am aggressive when I get good hands. I had a couple decent run of cards and got lucky a couple times. I also made a bunch of mistakes and I got sucked out on quite a bit. However, since I wasn't playing a lot of hands and I don't multitable, I spent a lot of time watching and analyzing the other players.
I don't know how many of the beginning players try to multitable, but you do, you may want to play at a single table once in a while and really study the other players. I think it will help to drive home some concepts or ideas that we accept cognitively but reject emotionally and provides an excellent opportunity for your own reflective play.
For example, how often have we seen somebody play almost every hand and see their chips swell? You know you are playing (or trying to play) good poker yet you see somebody doing well by playing bad poker. I am sure that you have at least said to yourself, why the h*ll shouldn't I play like that, he can and he is winning? Or we fail to raise a premium hand like AA or AK preflop, or even fail to raise a strong hand like JJ because we have been beat in the past.
Yesterday I watched four different maniac players. One bought in at the same time as I did and very quickly ran it up to almost $80 (3x the buy-in) by playing any two cards. When I left the table, he/she had less than $10, where I was +5BB. Another player, bought in in three different times in increments of $15. He quickly went broke 3 different times and ended up leaving the table with nothing. The third player had 4x the buy-in in front of them. Again, he played almost anything and sucked out on me more than once with bad cards. When he left the table he was -40BB. The fourth player also played a lot of hands. Again it seemed like he would play almost anything. He left the table in the green. (If I focused on just that one player, it would seem like playing anyhing can be profitable.) Now, those other players must have been having fun and rather than moan at them when I got sucked out on, I congratulated them and swore under my breath. But, they were good for me to have at the table and I think are the reason I did so well this week.
When I had premium hands, I pushed them. I could count on large pots because not only would they play most hands, but they would cold call 2 or even three bets. The hands that I won and played aggressively, made up for the hands that I lost but played aggressively. There were swings in my chips, but usually it was four steps forward, two steps back. One session I was down almost to 2BB (nothing seemed to connect) and then in four hands, I was almost back to my buy in amount. All along the way, I had to remind myself that good play is +EV in the long term, and that poor play might be +EV (although not necessarily) short term, it won't last.
Be patient, wait for the good cards and play aggressively.