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...