Whenever you have a good run, or in my case, for the last few months, a really good run, eventually things have a way of turning. The last week or so has been one of those weeks. Every time I have a good hand, someone has a better hand, and every time I have a great hand, I get no action. I've been getting hammered playing NL cash games, so tonight I changed it up, went back to my bread and butter, and played a couple of $10 sit n go's. And I came in 8th out of 9 players in both of 'em. In one, it was a blind battle, and I raised 3x with AJ in the small blind and got called. The flop came A-6-3, and rather than play it fast, I chose to check-call my opponent. The river came a jack, giving me top two pairs, and when my opponent went all-in I of course insta-called only to find that he had a set of 6's. In the other, I donked off a bunch of chips early when I check-raised with bottom pair on a 9-6-9 board and my opponent couldn't fold pocket tens, and then, when I finally got my first real hand of the game, AK suited in the small blind, I ran into KK from the UTG raiser and blanked out. In cash games, jeez Louise, I've lost in every conceivable way. Flop a set of 4's, guy turns an ignorant straight with 23 suited. Lose with KK to the 22 of a guy who had been donking off chips like there was no tomorrow on a 5-5-2 flop. Lose with AK on an ace-high flop to another chump who calls me down with Ace-8 off and hits his 8 on the river. So I'm gonna take a couple of days off, re-focus, and hopefully start March like a lion. My three resolutions for March:
1) Play hands fast(er). If I have a big hand I want to make people put in big bets to beat me with their draws. No more checking a big hand from the blinds - if I hit the flop I am going to bet it. I'll learn better where I stand in a hand by betting out than by check-calling. No more flat-calling with big hands in multi-way pots. Also, I need to start betting on the turn when I hit my drawing hands. I need to continue to implement the tactics I've learned from reading the new Sklansky book (No Limit Hold 'Em - Theory And Practice), especially concepts like blocking bets.
2) Getting away from hands that must be beat. Too often I've found myself calling a river bet when I have little chance of holding the winning hand, and that's the biggest mistake one can make in poker. If a player bets into you on every street or calls your bets on every street and then raises you on the river you've just gotta give him credit for a real hand, especially if you've been showing strength the whole time. If a scare card comes that doesn't help you at all and he keeps on betting you've gotta think it didn't scare HIM. I've also seen myself make some terrible river raises lately when I've had hands that were not strong enough to raise with or could only get called by someone who has a better hand.
3) Bluffing a little bit less, and picking the right situations to do it. I've been trying to expand my game by bluffing more, and for the most part it hasn't been working. One of the tactics in Sklansky's book is to occaisionally raise a bunch of limpers with a total garbage hand when you are in late position or one of the blinds, and what I've been finding is that once 4 or more people are in a pot this tactic just doesn't seem to work, because if one of the players calls, the others become more likely to call because of the attractive pot odds they are being given, and generally at least one of them will hit the flop hard enough that they won't fold to pressure, again because of the odds created by all the extra money in the pot. I need to concentrate my bluffs on those players who I know to be weak, but also capable of folding medium-strength hands.
My goal for the next few weeks is to win enough to finance my entry into one of the tourneys at the Foxwoods Poker Classic. If I eliminate these leaks from my game I will be well on my way !
