HAPPY TURKEY DAY!
My worst opponent is myself. I have a great game plan, it works when I stick to it. Yet I find the fast pace of online play a challenge. The challenge is taking time to think. My cash game is fine at the fast pace, it is my MTT and SNG play that suffers.
I have to come to an understanding with myself. In tournaments, if I am going to play certain hands, I have to be willing to muck them as well. I trap myself with hands like AK suited, pocket Jacks and pocket Queens. My game plan is to play those hands like any other pair, to not risk my tournament life on them if the flop does not help me or is against me. Yet I find myself making quick decisions rather than thinking my post-flop actions out.
Another problem area I have in tournaments is protecting a big chip lead. I can battle my way to the money from mid stack or worse. When I get an early chip lead I lose control, even though I know better. I take shots I should not be even thinking about. One can argue that to win you have to use your chips, I agree. But early on there is no reason to be reckless, no matter how large an early chip lead one has. I still forget this, one more area in my tournament play that I need to get a handle on.
What areas of your game do you not have control over? What are you doing to fix this? If you can not think of any areas, you are lying to yourself. If you know them but do not work on them, you are hurting yourself. You are playing to win, short and long term. Can you adjust your styles and strategy to the game at hand? Can you maintain control?
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Sunday, November 11, 2007
When you are weak!
Some days you will appear weak to other players at the table. At that point, you will be forced to play TIER I hands and also improve on the flop. Many players will take a loose aggressive (LAG) stance when they think someone at the table is playing scared. You may have made a great lay down or were just playing very LAG yourself and knew you were beat. Whatever caused you to appear weak doesn’t matter now.
If several players are calling most or all of your pre-flop raises, then ask yourself why. What did you do, even if in the past, to make them want to take you on when you raise? Now use that against them. Muck your AK when the flop misses and they attack, they probably called you with any 2 suited or connected cards.
They will attack you when you have the best hand, so why not wait until you flop a big set or better? Then bet like you do when you were preceived to be weak, whatever pattern that was. If the flop is dangerous be aggressive when you can be. It is NOT the best flop when your AK is just TPTK. But when you see a 10 J Q off, with your AK, bet like you would with a under pair. If they just call, watch for a flush draw. Of course they could have a set as well, so they will play back at you. They will attack back though, to try and take the pot down if they think you will fold like you did before or if they think they are protecting their hand. You may lose a few of these hands, that will happen sometimes. But the only way to get their respect, and their money, is to show them you are much smarter than they are.
Can you fold pocket Aces post flop? Can you fold a flopped straight when the board is yelling flush? Do you refrain from chasing a flush against a paired board, especially against TAG players? If you answered NO to these 3 questions, you probably run into a lot of big loses, plus I am sure you have handed out your share of bad beats.
If several players are calling most or all of your pre-flop raises, then ask yourself why. What did you do, even if in the past, to make them want to take you on when you raise? Now use that against them. Muck your AK when the flop misses and they attack, they probably called you with any 2 suited or connected cards.
They will attack you when you have the best hand, so why not wait until you flop a big set or better? Then bet like you do when you were preceived to be weak, whatever pattern that was. If the flop is dangerous be aggressive when you can be. It is NOT the best flop when your AK is just TPTK. But when you see a 10 J Q off, with your AK, bet like you would with a under pair. If they just call, watch for a flush draw. Of course they could have a set as well, so they will play back at you. They will attack back though, to try and take the pot down if they think you will fold like you did before or if they think they are protecting their hand. You may lose a few of these hands, that will happen sometimes. But the only way to get their respect, and their money, is to show them you are much smarter than they are.
Can you fold pocket Aces post flop? Can you fold a flopped straight when the board is yelling flush? Do you refrain from chasing a flush against a paired board, especially against TAG players? If you answered NO to these 3 questions, you probably run into a lot of big loses, plus I am sure you have handed out your share of bad beats.
Friday, November 2, 2007
Earn 30% Rakeback
UPDATE: If you choose this program you can take advantage of any offered sign-up bonus, but you can NOT take advantage of future reload bonuses. If you play a lot, you will make much more off of rakeback. If you do not play much, and like to bonus whore, then try the carbonpoker.com link to take advantage future reload bonus offers.
I found one of the members of the Merge Network has a promotion where you can earn your own rakeback. If you already play on poker.com or carbonpoker.com, then pokernordica.com is part of your network. You can start a new account there, just never log on to one of your other accounts at the same time.
You have to use the link on my page here for this to work, you can not get this on your own. If you do not care about rake, you can just use the link for carbonpoker.com. Either way, both sites offer great deposit bonuses. Their freerolls are also very good.
I found one of the members of the Merge Network has a promotion where you can earn your own rakeback. If you already play on poker.com or carbonpoker.com, then pokernordica.com is part of your network. You can start a new account there, just never log on to one of your other accounts at the same time.
You have to use the link on my page here for this to work, you can not get this on your own. If you do not care about rake, you can just use the link for carbonpoker.com. Either way, both sites offer great deposit bonuses. Their freerolls are also very good.
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