I've been whining too much lately about my bad days. So much so, that I'm running a close second for Moaning Poster of the Year. (Everyone else is tied for first.) Yesterday, however, I had a very good day, the best I've had since starting to play NL.
I went back to Empire from Full Tilt for the Turbo Reload $100 bonus. Played over a thousand hands, 70% raked, at $25NL. Two tables, with a $15 buy in. I did this after getting my ass handed to me on FT, Saturday. After dropping over a hundred, I bought into a $50 table with $20, and played super-tight (for me.) I made back over $30 of my losses and a light bulb came on.
So, I bought into 2 tables on Empire for $15. By the time the NASCAR race ended last night, I'd played 1195 hands, with a VP$iP of 17.41, AF 2.75, $14.18 PTBB/100, and a profit of $84.72.
I played on tables with a VP$iP of 40% down to 9% and was able to adjust my play. I lost a couple of big pots, and got it back in time, plus some of theirs. Everytime I lost a big pot, I was ok with my play. e.g. All in with A high flush and lost to a straight flush. Trip Qs A kicker to fh QTs. I had good hands that were simply second best.
Some oddities:
1. Lately I've seen a number of players with VP$iP of 80% with huge stacks. Incredible how some people get a run of luck that seems to keep going and going. No way they could be long-term winners, but they are our bread and butter, aren't they? I coined a phrase which is a twist on the famous Helmuth quote: If it weren't for luck, no one would play me. Luck like this keeps them, and anyone who sees them winning, come back over and over.
2. Was on a table with 9% VP$iP! Six players with >12, and only one over 10%. I would have left, but I hit on a pretty cool formula for playing it. New players would come on and play their normal game. After a couple of hands, suddenly they were getting raised on every single hand, by the same person. Everyone else was folding. Of the dollars won, yesterday, at least $10 came from this table as I picked up blind after blind and some small flop monies. New player would leave quickly, replaced by others. They must have felt as if they'd walked into a mine field with a machine gun nest sitting in the middle, well camoflaged.
(No one ever caught onto what I was doing.)
3. A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing--Mark Twain.
Amazing how many fish there are out there who think they understand odds. Player after player saying how they odds to call, while seeing 2 or 3 out of every 4 hands. So many telling others how to play while calling with K3s in EP and J2o in LP, it's a joke. Keeping your tongue is the hardest part of playing them.
I'm very, very happy with my play, yesterday. I actually was +$ with pairs, which I think is pretty hard to do. I'm rated as an Ultra, but I think at these tables you have to be very aggressive to control the table. I got very, very few suckouts. Can't even remember one. Buying in short made me play very ABC poker, which is exactly what I think I needed to do. I learned a lot, yesterday.
Thanks, BTPer's. Success has a thousand fathers, and you've proven this once again. Sorry to be so long, and I apologize if this has been far too self-congratulatory. Just this side of dislocating my shoulder patting myself on the back.
Best wishes,
CJ
