1st Week Results

The first week was disappointing. On the internet I managed to make $75 and live I lost $94.

So I took a a day to figure out what I was doing wrong. After some research and help from a new poker buddy, I narrowed it down to passive play when I should have been aggressive and aggressive when I should have been passive.

The last post I did is an example of passive when I should have been aggressive. By not raising and betting I let a player get runner runner on me. Even if the same result happens, I know raising is correct and the villain is making that much bigger of a mistake. When he does miss, I will make back my money quicker.

I have been playing one pair hands to aggressively out of position. I always seem to be out of position in these hands. Last night I raised 99 in the SB to $15. I got 1 caller on a 8 high rainbow flop. The villain checked out of turn and then called my $20 bet on the flop. The turn was a 10. The villain just sat down so I gave him a generic range of Ax or a gut shot, which was possible. Now with $70 in the pot I bet $45. He confidently said raise, and put in a min raise of $90. I still thought Ax was possible and I was ahead but I thought about what the guy before was showing down in that seat and added JJ and QQ to his range. Villain did limp and then call my raise so a ragged two pair was also possible.

I ended up folding and even though he didn't show his cards, another player mentioned a small set, which I didn't even think of in my excitement of top pair. I folded because of the villains confidence. He checked out of turn, called a flop bet and min raised a turn bet, committing half his stack. It is rare in a casino at low limits for a player to do this without being confident about his hand. So it was with experience and slow realization that I had only one pair that I made the right decision.

My frustration with this hand is that I got to deep into it with only 99. I should have only bet $15 on the flop and $25 on the turn. Theses sizes would have saved me $15. That's not alot by its self but over just 6 hands that is $100. My poker buddy pointed out to me that I have to think about what they are calling with. If I have them beat they will just call or fold to the smaller bets and any value lost on those hands will be made up by keeping me out of situations like above or worse.

I got into another hand like this with AJs in a pot I raised to $15. I flopped an A but no flush draw. The flop was A, 10, 8 rainbow. The turn was a 7 and the river blanked out. I bet into 2 callers on the flop ($35) and turn ($50) which I don't think was to bad but I bet the river even though I didn't improve. Ak, Aq dominate me and AT, A8, and A7 have two pair. I bet the same amount ($50) on the river as the turn, planning to fold to a raise.

At the time I thought this was an aggressive river bet but maybe it is correct. I control the size of the bet, eliminate the possible over bet bluff, and get to see the show down in a $300 pot or more if I am called. Well I lost. One guy did have the str8 draw and folded but the other one had AT for two pair.

There is a happy ending for the night. I re bought $100 and won a decent size pot to get me back to $275+ of my $300 investment when I get QQ in the SB. To make a short story of it, the villain who beat me in the last pot calls and I flop a set and turn quads. I bet small so he will raise and he does on the turn. I push all in over the top and he calls doubling me up. For quads I get a $100 bonus and it is the high hand for this 4 hour cycle. I left at 1am, an hour before the end of the cycle, but I am sure I will get another $100 today. So the house is increasing the pot by 2/3 for a $500 net. This one hand made my night and I only gave back $20 before leaving.

So, barring a bad beat, I made $478 in 5 hrs. Great start to the week.