Best Night

Thanks brooklyn and stonecold for your encouragement. It didn’t take long for you to be right. The night after my worst night ever I had my best night ever. I won back every last bit I lost the night before. I would have done better if I hadn’t made one really bad call in a tournament (don’t I know better than to go all in with ace high yet?)

If you keep doing the right thing– getting your money in the middle with the best odds–you will win eventually.

That’s not to say that I didn’t get lucky a handful of times. I certainly did, enough times to counteract the number of times I got extremely unlucky the night before.

Playing poker is a strange ride. I’m still getting used to the ups and downs of it. The cash game is certainly a much stranger beast than the tournaments (which I don’t expect to win very often).

Part of why last night went better, I think, is that I recommitted myself to some of my own rules (which I’ve detailed here and here). The main one I have to remind myself of constantly is “assume others bluff seldom”. On these low stakes tables people aren’t bluffing nearly as often as I think they are. People are calling and raising with weak hands, but it doesn’t count as bluffing if they think they have an awesome hand (even if it is just middle pair).

I have added a new rule–”make them pay”. I’ve decided not to bet to induce a call anymore, not on low stakes tables. I’m going to bet high because I believe low stakes players are going to call or they aren’t, the amount is irrelevant. So if I have a full house on the flop and I think he’s going to call, I’m not going to slowplay or raise 1/3 of the pot. I am going to bet 2/3 the pot or maybe the whole thing. Most opponents have already decided whether or not they are going to call so why not get as much in the middle as possible. Of course, this is somewhat dependent upon the situation and how much I know about the player, but it seems to work consistently so far.