Last night I got in from trivia. Typically I scrap and haw through the games aiming for a top-100-in-the-country finish. Last night, though, my mind wasn't on it. I got bored mid-way through and starting shooting pool. Where my mind was was on "the other 'P' game." I'd been reading the Harrington between rounds of trivia and the breaking point was when I -- quite literally -- was reading the same section (bet sizing/pot odds) so many times that I split the spine of the book.
Lance (owner of said book) is going to kill me. Never piss off a man with an AR-15, particularly if you're gunning (no pun intended) for a fancy Taco Bell date. ;-) Nah, said book will be repaired or I'm happy to buy you a new one, handsome.
Anyway, I went home pretty early and jumped onto Bodog for a $1/$2 game. Never do this when you're tired and in major need of sleep. I -- quite literally -- fell asleep at the table. Thank goodness they sit you out after a few timeouts or the blinds would have eaten up my rather large chip stack.
I envision that the above situation must be what it's like to play a table game at a nursing home. Wake up, Herbert! You're on the big blind!!!!!!
Anyway, I decided to take this morning off from work, catch up on sleep, and play a little poker. Logged into Bodog and did 20 minutes on a $.50/$1 table. I noticed that there were a couple of large chip stacks at the table ($385 and $275, respectively, when the max buy-in was $100). After watching play for a few minutes, I realized how those two made their money. Everyone else at the table was playing crap and going all in with a low pair on the board nearly every hand. In those 20 minutes I made $125. The only major mistake I noticed that I made during this time was against one of the small stacks.
I had pocket J-J on the sb. Small stack on the bb unknown. I bet 3 times the big blind preflop and I would be first to act if he called, which he did. The flop was Q-J-4, none of the same suit. This was a very good flop for me since I hit my set. I checked. Small stack checked. Down came a 7. No chance for a flush or straight at this point. At best, he was on a draw, had a small pocket pair, or possibly had hit two pair and was trying to slow play it. I should have checked at this point or done a very small bet. Instead I bet 3/4 of the pot which was too much and he folded. Not sure if I would have made any more money on that hand, regardless of how I played it, though.
I took down two large pots ($100 or so total) from one of the big stacks. I noticed that he would aggressively bet the flop if he had something, but check if he didn't. Never seemed to try to trap and would check down to the river if he had nothing, then would try a small bet to steal. I exploited this a couple of times with a mediocre hand (small pair on the board or a perceived flush, etc) and reraised into his small river bet to steal the pots. I know that may seem risky, but pot odds were such that not only did I likely have the better hand, I usually had at least 4-1 odds or better on the pot.
So that was my morning romp. Short but profitable.
I'm finding that, for tournaments, I still have no idea what I'm doing, although I'm starting to do more reading on strategy for 1-2 table games. Later in the week I'll try a small Bodog tournament in advance of our $200 buy-in tournament on Saturday.
But, so far, at least online, the cash games have turned much more profitable than they used to be. The tournaments I'm still figuring out. My goal is to make enough at the cash tables online (working so far) to fund my offsite live games, since I tend to learn the most at those.
In the mean time, I'm going to go try to fix and finish that Harrington book.
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