Took my first stab at 40-80 last night

[I.Rowboat]

I've been a consistent winner at 20-40 for the last few months, so last night I decided to take a shot at the 40-80 game. Unfortunately I lost, which isn't the end of the world. Overall, though, I was disappointed in my play, which is why I'm posting this. I'm still sorting through my mistakes, so this post is sort of half therapy, half mea culpa.

The first game I was in was a full, must move table. This was a game that I should have done fairly well in, but didn't. There were a few very live players -- LAG, out of position, play-all-streets -- and in retrospect I don't think I tried hard enough to isolate them when I was in the pot with them. I don't fault them for being aggressive, but I do fault myself for not choosing better hands with which to make a stand. I also made a few costly misreads, tried to make some second best/second rate hands stand up in the face of superior cards, and generally just didn't play my best, despite getting some very good hands early on. I found that I had a hard time assessing my hand strength relative to my opponent's hand strength, and this later lead to some uncharacteristic (for me) weak-tight play, which definitely took a toll. I didn't give my chips away in big handfuls, but I did bleed them slowly. Too many times I called when I should have raised, and less frequently I raised when I should have folded. Neither of these actions is a recipe for success.

After misplaying my way through almost two racks, I was moved to the main game, which was the opposite of the first game -- a tight game with very solid players. Most pots were contested heads up or maybe three handed, and many pots were won on the turn. I did a little better here, but the overall quality of play was much better than that of the 20-40 games I have been beating, and I missed having a few players at the table that I could control. I also didn't come to this game with a lot of chips, which didn't help. Although I won a few decent pots, I ended up leaving after spending an hour and a half in the main game, feeling tired and not happy about how I was playing.

Overall, I played for 6-7 hours and lost a little over two racks. This may not be terrible for my first dip into 40-80, but it ain't winning, either. I was honestly surprised at how much tougher the 40-80 was compared to the 20-40. I didn't feel like I was completely outclassed, but I will have to make some improvements to my play before I play at this level again. I do have some sense of what I was doing wrong, so hopefully I can lick my wounds and revisit this game in the future when I feel I'm ready.

Anyway, those a few reflections on my experience yesterday. Thanks for reading.