alright, so if you're here, you either love poker at least as much as I do, or you know me, most likely from riverchaser's tourny's (www.riverchasers.com) and/or the forum. If you know me from the forum I'd bet you're one of the few who actually take the time to read the posts. Either that, or the 'silent majority' is being WAY to silent and my posts are held to a much higher esteem than the public criticism they all get. And for those who DON'T know me from the forums I'm NOT going to give away my 'handle' on the forums.... you'll have to guess.
But for now, being that it's quite late, I just wanted to get this rolling, get it started, get a move on, etc, and add some stuff with actual substance at a later date. To wit: random poker stuff; hands, plays, results from RC (and private or AC) tourny's, poker strategy, and (one of my favorite topics): the spirituality of lfe, AND how this actually does correspond to significantly better results at the poker table (given, at least, that you have a passionate understanding and love for the game as well!).
First and foremost, to those who have read my posts on the RC forums wrt strategies: don't believe for a MINUTE that that's the only way I play. Sure, I use those strategies, as some are quite effective at times, but - well, as Phil Gordon says, poker is a game of situations. You gotta pay attention to your surroundings at all times, and know who fears your play, who are the aggressive maniacs, who are the rocks, and who you can push off a non-nut hand with a well-timed bet.
FOR EXAMPLE: this past Monday, I was involved in a hand that tremendously helped me stay in the game and move up in the points. I don't remember exactly what I had (Q - junk I believe, with a Q on the flop), but the turn brought the third diamond. The only other player in the hand, directly on my left, I'd already weeks before been able to push off a big hand (a hand that in the weeks since I've verbally 'bluffed' him, as when he showed his cards he had me beat, but I kept telling him that he was insane to lay that down, that if he re-raised me he'd have had all my chips, etc - lol!!). So I bet something moderate - one of those "please call me" looking bets, and he raises. "OK," I'm thinking, "he's got SOMETHING that's for sure." But I just couldn't put him on a flush the way he raised and didn't lead out big with the two diamonds on the flop, and other stuff I can't put my finger on.
What do I do? If I call, I know I'm almost drawing dead; if I fold, I am becoming very short stacked. I've bet him out of hands when he had the near-nuts but a scare card really DID scare him off the hand. SO - I re-raise all-in. I know this would cost him nearly half his chips to call, and he IMMEDIATELY folds, AND show the entire table what he laid down, which was the NUT STRAIGHT!!! This guy folded Broadway!!!!
That's poker, baby - the cards are just the tie breakers; the real game is the betting and knowing what your opponent is going to do. I think even if he had a flush but only a small flush he'd have folded.
See? There I go... I start typing, and all the sudden I'm like pages and pages later! I wish I could start typing slower. Maybe I should get a keyboard with the keys in different positions so it'll slow me down as I'm now around 75-85 wpm.
Well, that's one little exploit. I ended up getting VERY lucky one hand early on, playing VERY very well, until one bad call where I called someone's all-in on nothing but a jack-high flush draw; I was kinda in good position, as if the flush came I woulda had the best of it. But he already had a pair AND two of the flush cards, which severely reduced the number of outs I had. That hand left me practically crippled (110 in chips, blinds at 30/60), so next decent hand I get is A-9 suited; my best opportunity to start working up before I get blinded out, so I go all in. Same guy I called on a draw and lost to calls and flips pocket J's. He wins; and after hanging with some buddies in the other room, I peeked in before leaving and he was the BIG big stack at the final table.
BUT I'm doing fairly decent so far -- two RC events this quarter, a 3rd and a 14th (or 15th?), for a grand total of 18 or 19 points. If you take the hypothesis that avg 8 pts/week will qualify you for the TOC you're good, then I'm on my way - and can even skip a week if I need to! ;)
- thePokerDegen
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