creating an easy preflop strategy for a newbie

[Gildersneeze]

I know I didn't amke the perfect play according to the books, but playing by the books all the time can still catch you broke, or just slightly ahead. By forcing him to make that fold (and admittedly, I'd have never known that it was a laydown if we hadn't rabbit hunted), I made a small profit off of him, and then ended up around eighty dollars up by the end of the night on a $20 buy-in.

Regardless of my win/loss, I'm aware I didn't make the perfect EV play, but I also don't have a huge bankroll to play around with to ride out the times where I get my aces cracked by a trip down the River Styx. I'm a broke-ass college student, so the $20 I bring for the game is the only $20 I've got to play poker with that week, also known as "my entertainment budget." Any winnings go to important things, like bills, food or the bank, not the bankroll. So sometimes, I have to say "damn what the books tell me, I gotta protect this stack and pick up pots where I can." Once I get a more solid job that's giving me more than three shifts a week, but will still work around college, I'm all for properly building/keeping track of a bankroll where I can make +EV plays like not knocking him out, or betting until I know they're beat and then having to acquiesce and give 'em up.

Before you say I shouldn't be playing poker if I can't afford to lose, I'm not. I can afford to lose the $20, but I can't afford to re-buy if I lose it all or shortstack myself, so sometimes, I just don't want to risk the made hands getting cracked and decide scare off the competition. It may not be TOP or HEPFAP +EV play, but it's "Gildersneeze at a Weekend Game For Some Help With The Bills" +EV play, as in 10 months of playing every Saturday and occasional Fridays and Sundays, I've only gone complete bust twice and lost money five times (counting the busts).

[Jim Easton]

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I'm aware I didn't make the perfect EV play,

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Understanding this is the most important thing, I posted because it didn't seem you did.

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but I also don't have a huge bankroll to play around with to ride out the times where I get my aces cracked by a trip down the River Styx.

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Taking fewer risks to ensure a smaller win is reasonable.

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Before you say I shouldn't be playing poker if I can't afford to lose, I'm not. I can afford to lose the $20,

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If you aren't a pro, all you really need is the minimum buy-in.

[Gildersneeze]

Yeah, I hate having to take fewer risks, because I know there's times where I can get paid off even bigger if I had the roll to where going bust on a solid play doesn't mean the night's over for me. I also know it means I'm not practicing perfect poker sometimes. But such are the sacrifices we must make, and all.

Hopefully after I finish school and get my business started up, I'll be able to play a little more riskily, or perhaps I'll take a couple weeks off and bring $60 to the table, or something, I dunno.

[MicroBob]

"With no Ace on the flop but him checking to me, I was reasonably certain it was only a matter of time before the right rag hit"

huh????
if you can figure out when the right rag is going to hit your opponents' pocket-pair, in spite of the odds being against him, then you must be a REALLY REALLY good poker player.
what a strange comment.

[Gildersneeze]

If I could accurately predict when a card was going to hit my opponent, I do beleive I'd have a few diamond bracelets and be playing for a lot higher stakes than a $5 minimum No Limit game on Saturday Nights.

Don't be unnecessarily obtuse just for the sake of flaming. There's other things than books that you can rely on when playing poker. One of those is called "gut instinct." I had a feeling if I let him keep going that my aces would get cracked. Couple that with, as I've said earlier, the need to protect my winnings, I protected them as best I could, which was the all-in push while he still had nothing but a pocket pair of eights.