riverboatrat
Visionary
Silver Level
This isnt a brag topic.
When I decided that I wanted to become a serious poker player I needed signs that I was moving in the right direction.
I often asked myself if I have what it takes.
I need to know these things and I need to identify signs that I am making progress so this is a progress report of sorts.
There are a few moments when playing poker that I slowly come to realize what I have learnt, and when to apply them and how its starting to work out for me.
I am no longer that guy that sits there wondering what is going on, but instead I am becoming the guy that not only knows whats going on at the table but is also the one taking names and kicking ass.
I am now able to make a few sophisticated plays, make sure my bluffs add up and can get reasonable reads on people.
I can identify the different playing styles of people at my table and play against them accordingly.
I can shift gears, make insane calls and put a player within a range of hands.
Its awesome when all of these things slowly start coming together and you see it in your results.
Today was one such day where I could just not put a foot wrong.
I played 2 90 player $10 KO sng's and final tabled, winning 1 and 2nd in the other.
The beauty of these KO games is that you dont even need to cash in order to recoup your buyin and in my opinion they are a great way to build your bankroll. You need 6 bounties at $2 each to be slightly profitable.
Anything over that is pure profit and if you final table, well its even better value
In both games, I was focussed, in the zone and hungry.
One particular moment that comes to mind was when there were 2 tables left and the bubble was looming, I was just less than average stacked and raised from cutoff with 78 diamonds, the button shoved all in and I was faced with a dillema, fold knowing I was beat preflop, and be reduced to shortstack ?
Or call knowing I am behind risking my tournament life.
earlier in the game I had seen the button do the same thing with big aces and once simply call a raise with kings to trap on a later street.
So I decided that at best I was up against 2 overcards.
In my mind I recalled the calculation, 2 overcards vs my 78 suited I was at the very worst of it a 41 % dog
I remembered this because I did the numbers while going through the topic on hands versus aces right here on cards chat.
I decided to make my stand with those 2 cards.
I announced my decision to the table and made the call and the button showed aq off
flop drops a 7 and another 7 on the river for trips vs Ace High
someone at the table asked how could I make that call, what was I thinking, where was the logic?
I played that because I had a read on the player and knew that I was not in a complete lost situation at 41%
Was it a donkey call hoping to get lucky ? or was it a call based on probability combined with knowledge that I had picked up at the table?
That call managed to change the game around for me and I went on to accumulate chips in a frenzy and eventually landed up playing heads up.
Another situation that I loved was also very late in a sng, I had accumulated chips nicely early on, collected a string of bounties and then lost a huge chunk of my stack in a situation where I lost with a set of 4's versus a set of 8's on a rag board. I managed to work hard and build up some chips keeping just below the average mark and at one point it was myself the BB vs the SB , the SB shoved and I quickly folded. She had done this a few times before and it was starting to annoy me.
The very next hand, everyone folded round to her on the button, me in the small blind and the big blind was getting short stacked.
I figured that I could steal from the BB because he was tighter than Dan Harrington, however the button shoved. All I had was K7 off.
ok fine I gave her credit for the previous hand, but looking at probability I figured that it was slim that she had picked up 2 hands in a row to shove with. I thought about it, called for time and went through my options.
Fold and give her credit ?
Call and hopefully knock her out and chip up as well as collect the bounty on her.
Each option had its pros and cons.
If I fold, I am edging towards doom and risk of getting shortstacked
If I call and lose, I would still have a few thousand chips left, enough for maybe 2 blind revolutions and I could hopefully make a stand somewhere with a hand.
If I call and win, I gain all her chips, the bounty on her head and will be well above average and would be able to start commanding the table a bit.
I had already broken even with 7 bounties so far so it would not be a total loss for me. I decided in my mind that I was going to either win this and be extremely profitable or bow out and tackle the next sng.
I ran through everything in my mind, she knows that I will lay down because she had raised me before a number of times and she knows the BB was also very tight.
I had seen her play some rather odd hands OOP so her range of playing hands was extremely wide.
Do I put her on a small pair? an ace? jack high ?
if she was shoving with a small pair it was a race at 55/45 , if she had one over card I was still in good shape with 2 live cards, if she had a big pair she would have probably limped or min raised to get action so theres no way I put her on 2 high cards or a big pair.
I was really hoping for 10 high or a small pair.
I took all of that into consideration and shoved.
Problem is that the BB didnt fold immediately like I hoped he would, he went into the tank and activated his time bank and let the seconds count down before eventually folding.
I breathed one sigh of relief, then another when the button showed q10
My king 7 held up and I landed up winning the sng.
The BB later than said he folded kq becauseof my shove.
Moral of the story ?
Well, when you feel you have read enough, when you feel are making the right desicisions, when you trust your instincts, when youre in the zone and when you come out a winner, know that youre moving in tyhe right direction and things are starting to gel together for you too.
And alot of the things I know about poker I learnt right here.
When I decided that I wanted to become a serious poker player I needed signs that I was moving in the right direction.
I often asked myself if I have what it takes.
I need to know these things and I need to identify signs that I am making progress so this is a progress report of sorts.
There are a few moments when playing poker that I slowly come to realize what I have learnt, and when to apply them and how its starting to work out for me.
I am no longer that guy that sits there wondering what is going on, but instead I am becoming the guy that not only knows whats going on at the table but is also the one taking names and kicking ass.
I am now able to make a few sophisticated plays, make sure my bluffs add up and can get reasonable reads on people.
I can identify the different playing styles of people at my table and play against them accordingly.
I can shift gears, make insane calls and put a player within a range of hands.
Its awesome when all of these things slowly start coming together and you see it in your results.
Today was one such day where I could just not put a foot wrong.
I played 2 90 player $10 KO sng's and final tabled, winning 1 and 2nd in the other.
The beauty of these KO games is that you dont even need to cash in order to recoup your buyin and in my opinion they are a great way to build your bankroll. You need 6 bounties at $2 each to be slightly profitable.
Anything over that is pure profit and if you final table, well its even better value
In both games, I was focussed, in the zone and hungry.
One particular moment that comes to mind was when there were 2 tables left and the bubble was looming, I was just less than average stacked and raised from cutoff with 78 diamonds, the button shoved all in and I was faced with a dillema, fold knowing I was beat preflop, and be reduced to shortstack ?
Or call knowing I am behind risking my tournament life.
earlier in the game I had seen the button do the same thing with big aces and once simply call a raise with kings to trap on a later street.
So I decided that at best I was up against 2 overcards.
In my mind I recalled the calculation, 2 overcards vs my 78 suited I was at the very worst of it a 41 % dog
I remembered this because I did the numbers while going through the topic on hands versus aces right here on cards chat.
I decided to make my stand with those 2 cards.
I announced my decision to the table and made the call and the button showed aq off
flop drops a 7 and another 7 on the river for trips vs Ace High
someone at the table asked how could I make that call, what was I thinking, where was the logic?
I played that because I had a read on the player and knew that I was not in a complete lost situation at 41%
Was it a donkey call hoping to get lucky ? or was it a call based on probability combined with knowledge that I had picked up at the table?
That call managed to change the game around for me and I went on to accumulate chips in a frenzy and eventually landed up playing heads up.
Another situation that I loved was also very late in a sng, I had accumulated chips nicely early on, collected a string of bounties and then lost a huge chunk of my stack in a situation where I lost with a set of 4's versus a set of 8's on a rag board. I managed to work hard and build up some chips keeping just below the average mark and at one point it was myself the BB vs the SB , the SB shoved and I quickly folded. She had done this a few times before and it was starting to annoy me.
The very next hand, everyone folded round to her on the button, me in the small blind and the big blind was getting short stacked.
I figured that I could steal from the BB because he was tighter than Dan Harrington, however the button shoved. All I had was K7 off.
ok fine I gave her credit for the previous hand, but looking at probability I figured that it was slim that she had picked up 2 hands in a row to shove with. I thought about it, called for time and went through my options.
Fold and give her credit ?
Call and hopefully knock her out and chip up as well as collect the bounty on her.
Each option had its pros and cons.
If I fold, I am edging towards doom and risk of getting shortstacked
If I call and lose, I would still have a few thousand chips left, enough for maybe 2 blind revolutions and I could hopefully make a stand somewhere with a hand.
If I call and win, I gain all her chips, the bounty on her head and will be well above average and would be able to start commanding the table a bit.
I had already broken even with 7 bounties so far so it would not be a total loss for me. I decided in my mind that I was going to either win this and be extremely profitable or bow out and tackle the next sng.
I ran through everything in my mind, she knows that I will lay down because she had raised me before a number of times and she knows the BB was also very tight.
I had seen her play some rather odd hands OOP so her range of playing hands was extremely wide.
Do I put her on a small pair? an ace? jack high ?
if she was shoving with a small pair it was a race at 55/45 , if she had one over card I was still in good shape with 2 live cards, if she had a big pair she would have probably limped or min raised to get action so theres no way I put her on 2 high cards or a big pair.
I was really hoping for 10 high or a small pair.
I took all of that into consideration and shoved.
Problem is that the BB didnt fold immediately like I hoped he would, he went into the tank and activated his time bank and let the seconds count down before eventually folding.
I breathed one sigh of relief, then another when the button showed q10
My king 7 held up and I landed up winning the sng.
The BB later than said he folded kq becauseof my shove.
Moral of the story ?
Well, when you feel you have read enough, when you feel are making the right desicisions, when you trust your instincts, when youre in the zone and when you come out a winner, know that youre moving in tyhe right direction and things are starting to gel together for you too.
And alot of the things I know about poker I learnt right here.