I want to KILL that Mother…

You are sitting at this nice table. You’ve got a great comfort level going and you’re up a nice number of big blinds. Its been a session where you haven’t had to make a lot of hard or close decisions. Then the maniac shows up and that turns on the maniac gene for one or two of the guys you’d had donating to your cause. DAMN!

Casper Milktoast tables are easy peasy. It doesn’t take our A-game to work out a nice profit. Nothing like them folding to our good hands where we’ve been showing down good cards. Hey, even our scare cards are letting us steal a pot or three at the Stud table or wherever. We say or think we’ve got a game to cover all the situations but the EV isn’t ever going to work out always in our favor. The risk:reward turns into RISK:REWARD. Throw in our turn to meet the variance monster and the situation can head the other way in short order.

Table personality is a two-edged sword. We first master one; or think we do. I remember making a forum post early in my playing. I’d become temporarily profitable but had a lot of the learning still ahead and a negative poker net worth still making the P & L honest. The post went along the lines of, “I’m done playing the weekends. All the idiots show up and I can’t win for trying.” What I was saying is I had neither the game or experience to handle the much raised aggression that seemed to blossom at that site on the weekends.

Truth be told I’m not sure how much more I know these days. What I have figured out is a way that is, at times at least, more optimal. Learning stud has brought home the common knowledge about these differing situations. What I have learned is that most of the players I run into don’t have it down as well. When the super aggressive shows up, I’m not girding my loins and grabbing up my light saber. I am down on my knees praying for cards.

The wrong approach and the one I see most often followed is more chasing. I am willing to play on with some hands but I see those “I’ve got a pair so…please god…” types come out of the woodwork. Being a calling station against a super aggro is playing his game. Raise or fold. If nothing else the raise might turn off his testosterone for a moment or two.

Testosterone is another downfall. People think that idiot is doing what he’s doing with crap cards. They see it as a sign of disrespect and grab their glove to strike back. But, an idiot is entitled to good cards at the same ratio as the devout coward. You are going to have bad reads against them but don’t play a hand for the sake of playing/drawing/whatever.

Stud is a game of 7 streets; we bet on 5 of them. I see people folding on 7^th street too often. Yes, the pot odds may have made chasing viable and your miss left you bupkus. That hand you fold. But, even if one thinks the other guy’s now made aces full, that last BB has to relate to pot odds and you need to win maybe 1:10 to make the crying call possible. I’ve done it against some with a ratty pair after a missed flush and won.

Aggression is a bigger tool at bigger limits. Whether we are playing .01-.02 or 1000-2000, you should approach the game thinking about big blinds. Face the facts. Whatever level you play at will attract people playing for the fun of it. You may think it reflects some quality or lack because of levels. But, take the case of Chris Ferguson trip from zero to 10K. He got there as much by taking serious his .01-.02 NL table as he did the later stakes.

ADDENDUM:

If you use the distro stuff from MS to email, IM and the like, there is a new release with some added features out of Windows Live. You can review that here. MS isn’t my choice for most of this but many of you are used to it and enjoy the ease of access thats there from the OS’s first day serving you. I find that I have better stuff without generally depending on MS’ various web services.

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Unless your local news gave you one of those 10-second updates – the one with the two 20-second teasers — or you managed to catch the one time the network covered it properly, you may have missed the multi-billion dollar Medicare fraud that is taking place in the Miami area. Those involved on the government side have admitted to being lax and have the normal “We don’t have the resources.” excuse that all bureaucrats use to try to turn their repeated failures into a bigger budget.

They missed a few minor details like a recipient getting two expensive artificial limbs in a single year without ever experiencing an amputation. You can see how difficult it would be to connect the dots on something like this. [tongue out of cheek]

My question is simple: Why is it that the only government agency that tries to be efficient to the extreme the IRS that takes our money? As to spending said money, all the other agency are happy to spend like drunken sailors on shore leave.

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If you run over to Lindia blog, you can ‘Check This‘ and be as stunned as I was. It is one of those YouTube videos. I was expecting some idiot on a skate board sliding down a rail to wrap his family jewels around a flag pole. Anything but! In the words of my ex-pat Brit buddy, Brian Meitiner, “I’m gob smacked!” This guy you’d pass up quickly with just a glance is a bloody… Well, go let it surprise you as much as I was.

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“DANBURY, Conn. - A man is facing drug charges after he allegedly walked into the Danbury police station puffing on a marijuana-filled cigar.

Capt. Robert Myles says Scott Snow walked into the station early Saturday and blew smoke from his cigar into a small opening in the bullet-resistant glass separating desk officers from the public.

Myles says the 24-year-old man was told there’s no smoking inside the building and he allegedly stubbed out the cigar on the counter.

Officers came out and smelled the distinctive odor of marijuana and arrested Snow.

Police say they found more alleged marijuana in Snow’s pants. He has been released after posting bond.”

(The sad thing here is that he wants to play online poker but can’t figure out how to fund.)

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 8th, 2007 at 12:04 pm and is filed under Journal, Poker Thoughts. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.