Poker online and off
08/12/07 00:39 Filed in: Poker
Poker
has a way of showing you at your best and your
worst. I have recently begun playing online and
off. My last couple trips to casinos have been
mixed. I will have a good showing and then bad.
Online, the same thing has been happening. Strangely, sometimes it is like there’s someone you just can’t beat. No matter how good your cards are, you can’t win. I recently played a game where my opponent ran runner, runner cards against me. I would flop the nut flush and she would get runner runner full house. Another hand, I flop the full house, she gets runner runner straight flush. What can you do in those situations?
For me, I took the time to take a little break and went to my monthly poker tournament. In the tournament, I was able to last through the first break. I found that I was folding eventual winners and a losing the good hands I did keep. It makes for frustrating play.
When I returned to online play, I decided to play a different style of my game. Usually, I make quick decisions and live and die by the game. My decisions have been make long before the action ever gets to me. I know what I am trying to do, crush my opposition. However, my decisions may have seemed too quick. I was finding that opponents were drawing out on me far too often.
So, I changed. Instead of making quick decisions, I am making my decisions look like they are taking longer. In fact, I am having them all take the same amount of time. I wait until the reminder for me to play comes up, then I click the button.
This does a number of things. One, it slows down the game. The game will take longer, making for less hands for each set of blinds. As the blinds are set on a timer and not on the number of hands, the blinds increase in far fewer hands. This makes my higher card selection criteria more important.
Also, taking more time, I can think about the situation more clearly. But, perhaps more importantly, it makes my opponent think too much. The longer I wait, the more they may doubt themselves. And as I take roughly the same amount of time each action, regardless of being preflop, flop, raise, call or fold, I can take a lot of time for people to think.
I am also disguising my hands by using a new betting pattern. I bet 2x BB early and 3-4x late position. I may vary this, depending on the number of callers.
I have found I have far fewer callers willing to invest the time for playing a hand with me. And while I get trapped occasionally, I am pulling off bluffs and semi-bluffs more often. By simply putting in a probe bet, I am pulling down the pot.
Since testing the approach, I am finding myself in the money more often than before. I have since recouped my losses and I am back in positive territory.
I will continue this in my renewed interest in online poker. Hopefully, my trend continues.
Online, the same thing has been happening. Strangely, sometimes it is like there’s someone you just can’t beat. No matter how good your cards are, you can’t win. I recently played a game where my opponent ran runner, runner cards against me. I would flop the nut flush and she would get runner runner full house. Another hand, I flop the full house, she gets runner runner straight flush. What can you do in those situations?
For me, I took the time to take a little break and went to my monthly poker tournament. In the tournament, I was able to last through the first break. I found that I was folding eventual winners and a losing the good hands I did keep. It makes for frustrating play.
When I returned to online play, I decided to play a different style of my game. Usually, I make quick decisions and live and die by the game. My decisions have been make long before the action ever gets to me. I know what I am trying to do, crush my opposition. However, my decisions may have seemed too quick. I was finding that opponents were drawing out on me far too often.
So, I changed. Instead of making quick decisions, I am making my decisions look like they are taking longer. In fact, I am having them all take the same amount of time. I wait until the reminder for me to play comes up, then I click the button.
This does a number of things. One, it slows down the game. The game will take longer, making for less hands for each set of blinds. As the blinds are set on a timer and not on the number of hands, the blinds increase in far fewer hands. This makes my higher card selection criteria more important.
Also, taking more time, I can think about the situation more clearly. But, perhaps more importantly, it makes my opponent think too much. The longer I wait, the more they may doubt themselves. And as I take roughly the same amount of time each action, regardless of being preflop, flop, raise, call or fold, I can take a lot of time for people to think.
I am also disguising my hands by using a new betting pattern. I bet 2x BB early and 3-4x late position. I may vary this, depending on the number of callers.
I have found I have far fewer callers willing to invest the time for playing a hand with me. And while I get trapped occasionally, I am pulling off bluffs and semi-bluffs more often. By simply putting in a probe bet, I am pulling down the pot.
Since testing the approach, I am finding myself in the money more often than before. I have since recouped my losses and I am back in positive territory.
I will continue this in my renewed interest in online poker. Hopefully, my trend continues.