Stop me if you heard this….

Posted by loser64

January 28, 2008

An old bull and a young bull come to the top of a hill; they look down and see a bunch of cows. The young bull turns to the old bull and says “Why don’t we run down there and (edit for content) a cow”. The Old bull turns to the young bull and says “Why don’t we walk down there and (edit for content) them all”.

I have recently been playing more cash games, I play .05 .10 pot limit and no limit holdem. I have chronicled in posts in the past about my poor play and the fact that I over stepped my ability by playing 4 tables at once, especially in cash games. (which caused me to almost go broke) I have also chronicled that in my opinion, the only ways to make money at poker is to play either tournaments or cash games, traditional 1 table SNG’s do not work, because you have to finish 1^st or 2^nd on order to move forward, 3^rd does get you a 2^nd buy in minus the entry fee, but if you finish no better then third all the time you will eventually go broke.

I was all set to write a post about people who play not to go broke versus playing to win, I was going to mention that if you play to not go broke in a cash game you cannot win. (Tournaments are a little different mindset). Then I had a different thought. If one is playing at the highest level for the largest stakes, yes you need to be tricky need to play less then desirable hands and hope to hit. All one has to do is watch High Stakes Poker on GSN to see this Sammy or Daniel or even Brad Booth play poor hands and win a bunch of money. The Micro-Limits I play it’s a different story. I have had a lot of success as of late (playing one or two tables at a time, no more of that 4 table stuff) playing premium cards, playing small until I have the nuts, or know what my opponent has. I have been called down with 2^nd, 3^rd pair, once to an all in with Ace high. This helps the old bankroll.

I have two things I remember from very early on, in limit your goal is to have a profit of 1 big bet per hour, does not seem like a lot of money but grinding is grinding. Also, in Rounder’s the goal was to win 1 big hand an hour. Since that is a movie about the live game and on the internet you see so many more hands, my goal is 2 or 3 big hands an hour.

Now for the other piece, playing good cards does not mean playing passively. You still need to be betting the cards. My betting depends on my position, I will limp in later position, unless a lot of players have limped then I bet. I then rarely slow play, I try to bet big and win smaller pots with out showing cards very often. I try to not see the river unless I have an absolute monster. In Pot Limit it is hard to get people out early but as the pot builds you can drive them out, there is the whole risk of being drawn out on.

My cash games in the past have been horrific, here is why, I played any two cards as long as one had face on it. I did not bet or bet enough, I called too often, letting people catch up. As, I have been playing cash games I noticed that I was continually giving my opponents the pot odds to call. The trick is to know whether or not they will chase or will fold to a bet, if I figure out they will not fold a flush draw for example, I stop betting, they will not bet unless they hit. There is no need to bet to driver them out of if they won’t go away, that does not make sense. So I win small pots and lose small pots in this case.

So my new mindset is to play extra tight (not to lose) and to aggressively play when I do play. So I think I reinvented the wheel, tight-aggressive, who would have thought it. Like the Old Bull at the top, I go slow and take all the money. The thing that amazes me is how poor people pay attention and will pay you off even of you have not played a hand on a long time.

One last item: A friend of mind may have given me the best cash game advice I received, he told me that he has gone broke, or took a big hit, when he was in the big blind more often then in any other position, why? Because you get into pots you should not be in, either by calling a small raise or the fact that blinds limped to you and you hit a piece of the flop. He told me that he stopped putting betting or calling unless he had a monster. It has saved him a ton of money. I tried it and it is true, I can tell you there has been more then one time I would have been felted if I played the big blind the old way. Thanks Brad.

Note: I know that none of this is ground breaking information I just write this stuff for myself as much as for anyone that chooses to read it.

Life Lesson: If you don’t like something change it; if you can’t change it, change the way you think about it. -Mary Engelbreit

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