Focusing on hand reading.

I'm going to attempt an experiment over the next few weeks. I have cashed out nearly all my money off of my poker accounts, leaving me with about $300. I'm going to play $0.50/$1.00, two tables at once and focos on playing lots of hands, with the focus on hand reading. I think thats the main thing I've lost by playing short stack for so long.

There is an odd tendancy I catch myself doing all the time - trying to steal pots from players who I percieve as being medium strong to strong in hand strength. The thing is, most of the time if you can get pots to 2-3 handed you can generally steal a lot of pots from people who DON'T like their hands. I need to stop trying to take pots away from players who believe they have the best hand because trying to convince them they don't is rather difficult.

I'm going to focus my new strategy on two things.

1) Raise and fold poker. From now on I'm not going to call - almost ever. I think even a hand like 78s can gain something from a late position raise against lots of limpers. Obviously, just like I would do with a hand like QQ, KK, or AA - a bit larger raise in these spots is necessary, and I think the goal in these spots is to get your opponents to fold outright before the flop.

2) Floating. I think the bluff-call play is really the only time a player should call (other then when trapping). I am going to try to call continuation bets in position when I think my opponents are unlikely to have connected with the flop, regardless of my hand strength. The idea being that they will likely check on the turn and a 3/4 pot sized bet will usually take the pot away. Floating can show an opponent's lack of want for the pot, which is when a bluff has a high frequency of success. Obviously, floating when an ace hits would be a stupid play most of the time. its usually good to make this play when the board comes like J73 rainbow and your opponent had raised preflop - heads up pot.

Results to follow...

Apparently I suck at poker now.

I have had a losing session the last like 10 sessions I've played. I'm not quite sure why - in fact I very rarely made huge mistakes. I had a few hands where I played them a bit strangely and that cost me big. For example I was dealt AhKh on the cutoff. It went early position limp, few folds, 4.5x BB raise, call, to me. I raised to 18xBB to try to just pick it up. I had about 100xBB in front of me before this hand. The raiser calls, and the caller folds. The flop comes QcJc3h. My opponent checks. Now I think about his holdings and assume he probably could have a hand like QQ or AK or obviously a powerhouse like AA or KK. I figure that my best move is to bet here because if I check, I am giving up the pot AND I also figure unless my opponent has exactly AA or QQ I have a decent number of outs to win the pot. I bet 10xBB into this 40xBB pot. My opponent minraises to 20xBB. Now I look at the pot and see that I'm getting 6:1 on my money here. I have no idea if my ace or king is good if I hit them, but I can be sure that a Jack gives me the best hand. I decide a call is good given the price I'm being offered. The turn is an ace. My opponent moves all in for 55xBB. I decide that my opponent can have AQ and I'm screwed or he has QQ and I'm really screwed. But for some reason I felt like its very likley we have the same hand and I decide to call. He had three queens and they held up.

Stupid I suppose, but then I cannot believe he called that reraise preflop from a super tight player with QQ. :(

Anyway, I have just been running/playing so badly lately. I'm going to stop multitabling more than 4 tables now. I don't know if it will help, but I really do think I need to try something to get back on track.

Incidently, I had a good run with the short stack strategy at one point and was up $800, then had an absolutely terrible run and lost all of my profit and then some. :(

Moving back to deep stack poker...

The short stack strategy investigation I've been up to has led me to believe that playing short is probably more profitable against good players. However, against poor players, playing deep is still optimal. I started messing around on FT and UB after getting some rakeback money. Its just so easy to play against mid level players .25/.50 and .50/1 by making lots of small bets after the flop. And very few things are more enjoyable then felting someone with a trap. :) Something I surely missed when I was always the ALLIN player as the short stack.

Small ball is so fun. I get to play more hands, and it seems that as long as you have some patience and willingness to toss medium strength hands in the sight of super aggression then it can be soooo much more profitable.