Quest of a Closet Poker Player

I tried a new experiment today, three-tabling NLH 6-max at three different stakes ($0.10/0.25, $0.25/0.50, and $0.50/1.00).  Three winning tables, but the benefits went beyond the $89.45 I won over the hour of play.

The origins of this experiment are in my golf game.  I haven’t picked up a club for probably eighteen months, although I’d whittled my handicap down to a 9 at one point.  Most golfers, like most poker players, are not very good.  One of the biggest reasons is lack of practice; more specifically, perfect practice.  Go to any driving range in America, and you’ll see most players whacking balls indiscriminately rather than working on specific things.

I’ve only had a couple lessons before, but I’ve always been an avid reader of Golf Digest and the like.  Pro golfers are diligent practicers, spending hours on the range working on very specific parts of their game (leaks).  I used to invent various games to stay interested in the whacking of balls.  I played a course once (it may have been called the Virginian, I’m not quite sure).  It had three practice holes, where members could work on approach shots, shots out of the rough, fairway bunkers, whatever cramped their game.

I almost never practice poker; rather, I open a table and start playing.  Over the last few days, I was down without really being able to find any specifics (besides playing bad hands out of positions, but let’s don’t get too bogged down in the details).  To change things up, I opened up a $0.10/0.25 NLH 6-max table on PokerStars to see if I could arbitrarily amp up my aggression, just raise like a maniac.   At one point, I raised or re-raised every hand in a round, only to double up a shortie who hit a three-outer on the river.  I found it very, very difficult to keep my aggression up for too long.  Bored, I settled back into my normal game.

I then decided to open up a $0.25/0.50 NLH 6-max table as well as a $0.50/1.00 table.  My only rule during the session was that I could not click on the Fold, Check, or Check/Fold buttons; I had to make a decision when it was my turn at one of the tables.

I had no real expectations of what I was working on, which is a bit of a difference from golf for sure.  Regardless, I found some pretty interesting things from the hour of play.

1. Heightened focus  I moved from indifferent play to paying much more attention about most everything going on at each table.  It was a little unsettling at one point as I started to really care a great deal about making the very best decision possible when presented with seemingly irrelevant choices; e.g., whether to fold in the cut-off with Kc-10c when folded to me.  I don’t know if I made better decisions, but I seemed to be much more intense about it all.
2. Bet specificity  A by-product of the experiment was that I had to be very precise with what I raised or bet.  Since the stakes were different at each table, there were no automatic bets at any time.  I had to look at what the table was, the action at the table to that point, the stacks at the table, etc.  It was all about improved focus for me.  This led to some more precise bets that allowed me to get away from hands for less than I’d normally lose.  It may not sound like a big deal, but as I reviewed the session, it seemed to be more about betting $6.75 on the river when I normally would have bet $10 or $11.
3. Aggression control  There is a great deal of danger in looking at such a small sample size and making big conclusions.  Having said that, I felt like I was able to play with more aggression when the time was right while pulling back when it wasn’t.

Here are a couple of hands from the sessions.  I’m not sure what if anything they illustrate, but I’ve included them here.  Overall, I think it was a positive experiment in that it forced some new focus into my play.
Hand #1

POKERSTARS HOLD’EM NO LIMIT ($0.50/$1.00) 6-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: aggro_Style ($105.05 in chips)
Seat 2: Volcomjr555 ($33.40 in chips)
Seat 3: th2w0 ($90 in chips)
Seat 4: genxmike ($96 in chips)
Seat 5: csquard ($99.75 in chips)
Seat 6: Tummer1 ($94.50 in chips)
genxmike: posts small blind $0.50
csquard: posts big blind $1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to csquard [Ad Qs]
Tummer1: folds
aggro_Style: folds
Volcomjr555: folds
th2w0: folds
genxmike: raises $3 to $4
csquard: raises $7 to $11
genxmike: calls $7
*** FLOP *** [7d 3c Jd]
genxmike: bets $12
csquard: calls $12
*** TURN *** [7d 3c Jd] [2d]
genxmike: checks
csquard: bets $38
genxmike: folds
csquard collected $43.80 from pot
csquard: doesn’t show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $46 | Rake $2.20
Board [7d 3c Jd 2d]
Seat 1: aggro_Style folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 2: Volcomjr555 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 3: th2w0 (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 4: genxmike (small blind) folded on the Turn
Seat 5: csquard (big blind) collected ($43.80)
Seat 6: Tummer1 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)

Hand #2

POKERSTARS HOLD’EM NO LIMIT ($0.25/$0.50)6-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: Flyerfrank ($13.25 in chips)
Seat 2: Ghostridahii ($50.20 in chips)
Seat 3: csquard ($51.05 in chips)
Seat 4: Annichen ($49.50 in chips)
Seat 5: Barfuas ($25.15 in chips)
Seat 6: Urtiroler123 ($108.05 in chips)
Annichen: posts small blind $0.25
Barfuas: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to csquard [Qs As]
Urtiroler123: folds
Flyerfrank: calls $0.50
Ghostridahii: folds
csquard: raises $2.55 to $3.05
Annichen: folds
Barfuas: raises $2.95 to $6
Flyerfrank: folds
csquard: calls $2.95
*** FLOP *** [Qh 9s Ks]
Barfuas: checks
csquard: bets $19.15
Barfuas: calls $19.15 and is all-in
*** TURN *** [Qh 9s Ks] [3h]
*** RIVER *** [Qh 9s Ks 3h] [4h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Barfuas: shows [Ac Ad] (a pair of Aces)
csquard: mucks hand
Barfuas collected $48.55 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $51.05 | Rake $2.50
Board [Qh 9s Ks 3h 4h]
Seat 1: Flyerfrank folded before Flop
Seat 2: Ghostridahii folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 3: csquard (button) mucked [Qs As]
Seat 4: Annichen (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: Barfuas (big blind) showed [Ac Ad] and won ($48.55) with a pair of Aces
Seat 6: Urtiroler123 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)

Hand #3

POKERSTARS HOLD’EM NO LIMIT ($0.25/$0.50) 6-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: GabbaHunter ($48.25 in chips)
Seat 2: Ghostridahii ($50 in chips)
Seat 3: csquard ($49.25 in chips)
Seat 4: Annichen ($58.90 in chips)
Seat 5: Barfuas ($68.80 in chips)
Seat 6: machiaveX ($17.85 in chips)
GabbaHunter: posts small blind $0.25
Ghostridahii: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to csquard [Js Jc]
csquard: raises $1.75 to $2.25
Annichen: folds
Barfuas: folds
machiaveX: calls $2.25
GabbaHunter: folds
Ghostridahii: folds
*** FLOP *** [3c Ks 6c]
csquard: bets $3.75
machiaveX: raises $5.25 to $9
csquard: calls $5.25
*** TURN *** [3c Ks 6c] [3d]
csquard: checks
machiaveX: bets $6.60 and is all-in
csquard: calls $6.60
*** RIVER *** [3c Ks 6c 3d] [4d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
csquard: shows [Js Jc] (two pair, Jacks and Threes)
machiaveX: mucks hand
csquard collected $34.70 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $36.45 | Rake $1.75
Board [3c Ks 6c 3d 4d]
Seat 1: GabbaHunter (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: Ghostridahii (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: csquard showed [Js Jc] and won ($34.70) with two pair, Jacks and Threes
Seat 4: Annichen folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 5: Barfuas folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 6: machiaveX (button) mucked [Ah 7c]

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 7th, 2007 at 3:48 pm and is filed under Uncategorized.