sevens

Boy I’ve been pretty lazy about updating my blog, eh?  Well it’s time to update I think.  I started May with the goal of playing 25nl until I had 30 BIs for 50nl, and then taking a 4 to 5 buy in shot.  Last time I played 50nl, the thought of losing $200+ when my bankroll was just $1k was a little much to bear.  So I’ve been playing 25nl all this month, or what I’ve recently heard it referred to, “value-bet-NL”.  I theorized earlier this month that these lower levels could be destroyed if I learned to get max value for my big hands, rather than trying to learn to aggro-bluff people off hands.  Boy I was right!  I played 12 tables for most of May, but recently I’ve scaled back to 8. It’s because I feel like I have more time to make solid decisions and can value bet more effectively vs villain’s range.  I haven’t checked to verify this or not, but I’m pretty sure my winrate playing 8 tables is way higher than playing my automatic style 12 tabling.  Just checked HEM - after 20k hands this month, I’m beating 25nl for 11 bb/100.

So stuff I’ve figured out this month -

• No such thing as a table being “good enough.”  I’ve been switching tables quite frequently, I will do so just as soon as they dry up, even if that’s only after 30 hands, and I’m constantly rechecking my tables.
• Vs some opponents, you can get three streets of value with top pair.
• Opponents raise when they have top pair beat.  Keep value betting these hands until they give you a reason not too (that means no checking!)
• You can value bet underpairs and second pair on board with lots of draws; just because the flop is K67 with two hearts doesn’t mean their calling range is only Kx, value bet QQ vs most opponents (though vs some, the best line will be bet/bet/check, vs others it might be check/bet/bet).  
• Overcards are scare cards, sure, but think in terms of ranges that people can call with, not in terms of “oh crap he probably hit that ace, damnit I have to fold KK again wtf poker is so rigged.” 
• No such thing as a “standard hand.”  
• Let the table conditions and your opponents determine your style, not some mantra you read online about what style is best (sometimes it’s ok to play super nitty, sometimes you get to run people over). 
• Position pots rule!  You’re missing tons of free money if you’re not playing most of your hands from the button/cutoff (both with raising/ISO raising and with flat calling).  

That’s about it.  I’m 2 BIs (or one buy in at 50nl) short of my goal, so I’m anticipating being back at 50nl sometime in the next day or two.  25nl is now my safety net; I know I can always come back here and outplay most people there.  

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 24th, 2009 at 10:45 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.