Coincidence or Good Changes?

I’m not sure what.

I moved myself up to the $.10/.25 tables about a week ago.  Why?  I don’t know.  I just always feel more comfortable there.  I feel like people play more “right” at that level than at $.05/.10.  I might be wrong, but at the higher level sometimes a bluff works, people protect good hands, people size their bets, people play less ace-highs like the nuts.  In other words, the players are better, but somehow I feel like that makes me better.  Plus I have no qualms about playing $1/2 live, but then I drop down to $.05/.10 for internet play?  That’s doesn’t make the most sense.

That was change one.  Change two is that I decided to concentrate more on the game.  I try not to let myself get as distracted.  That seems to help a little.

Change three is that I am paying close attention to position.  I had been making some mistakes before based on position that I believe I have corrected.

Change four is that I started protecting my “worse” hands a little more.  If I had AK and the flop came Ks Jh 4s in the past I might have bet 1/2 the pot (which looks a lot like a continuation bet, right?) but I think the better play is to bet out the pot plus or minus a little (for variance) and let the drawers decide if they want to chase for very poor odds.  Sometimes they do on the flop, so if they miss, I fire again on the turn and see if they still want to come.  At this level, they generally decide not to.

Change five is that I’m paying attention to the “story”.  I figured out that part of the reason why my bluffs don’t work is because I pay no attention to the story I’ve told through the hand.  Plus I would imagine that I’ve missed out on some bluffs or value because I wasn’t paying attention to the story I told.  On the other side of the coin, I realized that I was calling river bets when I should have heard the drawing story the whole way.  Not that the story is always true, but I can’t call down every river bet if the story is consistent, right?

All that to say, I had a very good night tonight.  I added 2 BIs to my bankroll, which will help because my online account was pretty far down.  The better news is that I did it by playing well.  I did it by getting my money in with good hands and extracting value from players and playing some trickier hands in position.  I did it by stealing blinds and slow playing bigger hands.  What I didn’t do is suck out to win when I should have lost.  Winning the right way feels a lot better than the alternative.

Get this, I even won $10 with pocket aces.  That never happens for me.  (Between us, I think the rockets are still a money loser for me all considered, but this helps them get some value back.)

I’m reading Harrington on Cash Games again and it is even better this second time.  I think because I have all of these hands running through my head where I made the mistake he’s talking about.  I feel like I’m actually learning this time.

Dan preaches playing “deceptive” hands from time-to-time.  I feel like at these levels people aren’t paying enough attention for it to really matter, but I try to follow Action Dan’s advice infrequently just to see.  Tonight it paid off.

I was in the BB with $25 and 6 8 off suit.  EP makes a min raise to $.50 and the button calls.  There’s now $1.10 in the pot and all I have to do is put $.50 in the pot to see the flop.  In general this is a folding hand, but I hear Dan in my head saying “every once in a while for deception” so I call.  Wouldn’t you know it?  The flop comes 579 rainbow.  I go ahead and bet out $1 and the EP-raiser calls, the button folds (pot is $3.10).  The turn comes J, which I don’t like, but I do feel like I probably still have the best hand.  I bet $2.50 and my friend goes ahead and pushes all in for another $6 or so.  I don’t have to think too hard before I call.  He turns over 77 for a set and I cross my finger the board doesn’t pair.  Can’t remember the river card because it didn’t change anything and I scoop a very nice pot thanks to Mr. Harrington.  Thanks, Dan.

Those are just the highlights.  I had many other good hands including (if I may say so) some well-timed and executed bluffs and some sweetly played value bets.

I hope this is no coincidence because I believe that this is how things should mostly go for me.  I swear I’m not as bad as my results would indicate.  We’ll see.