No. I am not dead. I did not die in Japan. I did not get lost (this would have been
my first assumption), nor did I get kidnapped. I did, however, get addicted to poker again.
WARNING: WHAT FOLLOWS IS A LONG POST ABOUT POKER WHICH MAY HURT YOUR HEAD IF YOU READ. CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED.It all started innocently when I downloaded GSN's high stakes poker. For the first time ever, I got to watch cash game (not tournament game) strategy from the best in the world. Cash tables is when you sit down at a table with your own money and play, winning and losing your own money, risking as much or as little as you want. Tournament poker is a one time buy in fee and you can't lose more than the buy in. The buy in gets you a set amount of chips and you play against a large field of people all with equal starting chip stacks. Once you lose all your chips, you're out of the tournament. Usually, top 20 percent pays out money.
Tournament play is REALLY tight, safe playing (at least early on) because of the large field and once you lose your chips you're out, you can't buy in again. Cash tables is the opposite since you can rebuy if you lose all your money.
I'll give you one simple example. If you were in a tournament and knew you had 50/50 chance of winning the hand, you would not put all your chips in and call (notice I pegging you as the caller and not the raiser) a hand because if you lose, you're out of the tournament and it's better to slowly build up your stack.
But at a cash table, if you think you have a 50/50 chance of winning you put all your cash in right away. If you even think he has a 1 percent chance of bluffing, it's a winning play. Do that 100 times and that one time he bluffed and you called is your profit. Not only that but you already had money in the pot, so you'd be giving up all that money. It even gets better if you were the raiser because now with identical hands, 50/50 chance of winning, if you made the all in bet first, there's a good chance he will fold giving you all that free money already in the hand even though you should be splitting the pot.
Now this is an extreme example, but basically, if you have an edge, you have to be really aggressive.
Watching the top playings lose or win hundreds of thousands of dollars helps me calm my nerves when I lose a 20 dollar hand to a bad beat. Also I was able to get my hands on some very relaxing classical. It takes a lot more to get me angry and then play poorly.
Now that I've studied, made notes and analyzed the episodes I started playing in No Limit tables (before last month I always played in Limit Tables, capped bets, because it resembled a more safe, tournament style). In my half a year of playing, the best I ever did playing poker was about 180 dollars in a day. In the first week of playing No Limit on my best day and it was a very lucky good day, I made 280 dollars.
You might be thinking that No Limit deviations are simply greater and I could have greater losing days also. But the thing is, I scaled down my tables 3 notches. I'm playing on practically penny tables, which means I'm playing complete newbies but still making as much money (the newbier people you play, the less likely you'll be losing a lot). For example, before when I played Limit Poker I played on 1 dollar/2 dollar tables (that's the blinds and cap for a single bet). Now for No Limit I'm playing on 15 cent/ 25 cent tables (blinds with no cap on bet size). I'm playing the bottom of the food chain, not only that, but because of my time zone difference, I'm playing people at their 2 am - 6 am. That's when drunkards come home from bars and unwind with a little poker and they play against me who only has the intent of taking all their money unmercifully! Hahaha.
At these tables you're allowed to go in with a minimum of 5 dollars and a maximum of 25. Origianally I came in with 10 dollars to test out different strategies and sometimes I lost a lot trying something out. I tried playing safe, I tried playing aggresive, I even tried playing as a maniac raising almost every other pot. Eventually I found that I did the best when I was aggressive at only a particular time -- when I had a lot of money. For example when I was aggressive with 5 dollars left, people would just call me because they had no respect for my cash, so every time I tried a bluff I would get called. But when I slowly built up more money to 13 or so my raises got respect and people folded down to me.
Last night and today I tried going in with 25 (the maximum) since I thought the more money, the more respect I'll get. What I didn't realize that playing aggressive with 10 dollars is slightly different than playing aggressive with 25 dollars. WIth just 10 dollars I can be really aggressive with the best starting hands AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AK because if the pot is big I'll probably go all in eventually and it's not that much money. But when I have 25 dollars or more playing with just top pair is dangerous because you're risking a lot of money because many people try for draws on you and it's hard to read their hand sometimes until I get more experience. I can't make the really tough calls yet. Like the poker players in the show I have so much respect for because they make such great lay downs and calls.
I knocked myself back down to coming in with 20 dollars. Today I made a lot of money in under an hour, but I'll have to see in the long run. One thing is for certain. No limit is definitely more exciting.
