Work to do

In all honesty, as much poker as I've played in the past, I only recently began playing with any real regularity and seriousness. Sure, I've played online for a couple years now, but never at 'meaningful' stakes to either me or my opponents: online play is purely recreational, it's fun, it can be exciting, but it's never been about big profits etc.

RPT tournaments were my main poker experience 3-4 times/week for a year and a half or more. And there is a big difference between freeroll shortstack tournaments and live cash games.

For the past 3-4 months, I've been hitting up the $1/$2 game regularly - at least every other week, if not every week (Memorial day I was there for 2 days: nice $1200 score). My results are positive. The game is typically soft, though I make most of my money not by outplaying my opponents, but rather waiting for them to make mistakes and capitalizing on them.

I had a good Tulalip session Friday, but I am still obviously learning this game: I'm still a beginner. I'd say an advanced beginner, but a beginner nontheless. I can spot, with relative ease, who I should avoid at the table (w/o a monster holding), and who I should be able to take advantage of. I also play well post-flop, especially with people who are timid bettors: I get to steal enough pots that I can take some long-shot chances (like the T7s hand).

One unfortunate way I learn is by encountering pain. And that often comes in the form of making mistakes. While they suck, they are major learning experiences. And much more effective for me than reading a book. Experience is the best teacher, and I learn more from painful experiences than pleasurefull experiences.

I played in a private game Sunday night - 6-max deepstack ($100/$200 buy in, $0.50 blinds), with players obviously much more experienced than me (except perhaps one guy). I made what was likely the 2nd worst call of my life in a hand where my opponent obviously had AA. It was so obvious that I should have mucked my QQ preflop. Yes, that obvious. But I didn't. And it stung. Stung to the tune of $175.

Ouch.

Worst part? When I lead out (OOP) on a rag-board, I tell myself if he raises I must go away. What happens? He pushes, and I tank for a few minutes before calling.

DONK CALL!

I also learned a few more things:

- just because I'm playing deep stacked doesn't mean I can still play marginal hands to raises. Like KQo. I hit my queen I may not be good.

- just because my hand is a "good hand" doesn't mean that it's a good spot to make / call a raise/re-raise. I could've saved many a bet and waited for better opportunities.

- I've become so used to the relatively short-stacked $1/$2 game that the idea of "pot control" rarely crosses my mind; playing with 400 big blinds it should be crossing my mind.

- I don't like getting bullied around. I don't think anyone does. Which means I need to work on a counter-strategy against bullies. I can easily bully tight-passive $1/$2 players, but guys with 15 years of poker experience, who are used to the ultra-aggressive Microsoft games and taking advantage of the ultra-passive local games, I end up being the one getting bullied.


I got lots to work on. I've now got my poker roll completely separate from other money (though I'm still using my poker $$ to pay for a few things: classes, and contacts are my latest poker purchases), so I am easily able to disregard the "value" of the money and play much more optimally. And I need to balance my aggression: I'm oten either overshooting the mark (getting too aggressive), or playing too passively.

God I love this game.