Thursday, December 29, 2005

Winning Again

So I'm beginning to realize that I like to blog when I win.  It's true.  No one, like to write while their on a losing streak.  I seem to notice this about other poker bloggers.  It's a little humiliating to have a blog and then begin to describe the spiral downward.  Also, if you're married, like me, to the most wonderful person in the world.  You don’t want her to know that you're in the middle of a losing streak.

What did I do while I was losing?  I did other things.  I worked on my home business.  Worked on preparing to start a family.

I also quit playing ring games.  I seem to be losing most of my money this way.  I realized about a month ago is that to win a loose ring games, you have to hit your flushes and straights.

Whenever I was chasing my nut flush and could not hit, I'd go on tilt and play top pair over aggressively.

Winning at Low Limit Hold'em requires patience and losing can cause you to lose patience.

I decided to play SNG's and I was actually doing pretty good at that.  I was slowly building my bankroll up again.

I was at Pechanga on the 26th.  I played in a No-Limit tournament that I soon found was a Limit Tournament and I was out quickly.  What a waste.  You have to get lucky pretty fast to survive Speed Limit Hold'em.

I then sat down at the $2/$4 table, which I had not done in months and actually won.  I came with $80 and walked away with $120.  How did I do it?  By hitting my flushes and straights.

Once I started following my own advice, I would win.  It's simple.

  • Be patient.  You don't have to play every pot.
  • Have two cards that can work together.  High suited. 1-gap connectors. Pocket Pairs.  Play the blinds. Throw away King-3 offsuit.
  • The flop must improve your hand. If you hit nothing and you have an Ace.  Get out.  You'll lose a lot of money chasing an ace when your opponent just hit two pair.
  • If you hit bottom pair, see the turn cheap, only 1 bet.
  • Don't fall in love with top pair.  The other guy has two pair.
  • If you have the nut flush or open ended straight draw, chase it.
  • When you hit your flushes and straights, you will be feared at the table and you'll be able to bluff.
  • Make calling stations pay for their actions.
  • Make aggressive players pay for their actions, especially when you have two pair or higher.
  • Check raises to define your hand and fold when they play back at you.

Good luck all.

2 comments:

Kent said...

Do you have any recommendations for books on NL tournaments? I almost always get to the bubble then get battered by the blinds/aggressive play. I do alright at limit ring games (low limit), but fail miserably at the tournaments.

My Pal Al said...

The best book that I've found so far is Harrington on Hold'em, vol. 1 and 2. Vol. 2 really helped me out in the areas of being short stacked and bluffing.