Play Your Own Game

Nick Momrik10 Comments

Yesterday I was browsing around the 2+2 forums, reading all kinds of advice. From a few threads that I read, it looked like I wasn’t playing enough hands from early position. I’ve been following the preflop recommendations from SSH for playing on a tight table (3-5 people to the flop on average) and things have been going really well. But what the 2+2 people were saying is that you should be playing hands like AhXh in early position. Hmmm, maybe I’m missing out on some extra wins by not playing some of these hands up front.

So I decided to try it out when I got home from work. I sat down at two tables on Party Poker that looked pretty loose. On one of the tables I was playing well and sticking around even. Up a little, then down a little, but no big swings. On the other table though, I was playing pretty bad. I was calling down to the river with any decent pair, hoping to catch a bluff. As you might guess, it wasn’t working. I knew I wasn’t playing good, but for some reason I stayed at the table, probably because it was really loose and sooner or later I’d catch the fish with a few hands. Before I knew it, my stack of 30 BB was down to 1. I won the pot and then won a few more in the next few hands. Got myself back up to near even and then went back to the game that’s been working for me the past few weeks. I ended up going ahead at both tables before I had to call it quits. I played about 2 hours at each table and won 22 BB total.

What’s the lesson? Take all of the advice you get with a grain of salt. Everyone has something to say about poker, and a lot of it is great information, but a lot is garbage as well. If your style is working, stick to it until your plays become automatic. Once you no longer have to think, try adding in a few twists. I’m still getting comfortable with the aggressive style of play so it didn’t make sense for me to add things. As we’ve all heard, “Hold’em takes five minutes to learn, but a lifetime to master.” You can’t master anything by taking giant steps; baby steps work best. I just feel fortunate to have learned this lesson and still won for the day, when it should have been a decent sized loss the way I was playing.

10 thoughts on “Play Your Own Game”

  1. Here is my 2 cents on the pre-flop choices. I agree with the 2+2 post. For *MOST* party 2/4 and under tables so far I think you leave too much money on the table not playing the SSH Loose Pre-Flop suggestions. SSH Loose Pre-Flop suggests any Ax s00ted in EP. The tight ones are going to be better when you are playing 5/10 or some really tight level. I guess you can say a table is loose if A) Alot of people come in pre-flop, or B) You see alot of people calling to the river with a pair of aces-3 kicker. Anyway just the way I play it.

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  2. I’ve actually added AhXh to my early position list, but I don’t like the idea of playing some of the other hands they recommend playing at a loose table from early position. They are simply too weak to play out of position when around 45% of players are seeing the flop each hand. I’m doing really well so far sticking to the tight recommendations. Maybe once I get a little more comfortable I’ll try out the loose preflop hands.

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  3. The great thing about PokerTracker (which I think you use) is that you can see how much you’re winning (or more importantly, losing) with each hand. Personally, I disagree with playing Ax suited from early position, even at Party. While I agree the games there are looser than normal, you stil don’t have 7-8 people seeing the average flop like at a B&M casino. Rather, it’s more like 3-5. The problem with Ax suited, despite its strength as the potential nut flush, is that your odds of flopping the flush draw are about the same as flopping a set when you have a pocket pair. And that’s only flopping a draw — you’re still only 35% to hit the flush from there on out. So I equate Ax suited more with the low pocket pair than I do anything else. Do I play 3/3 from early position? No. So why waste my time with Ax suited? Plus, PokerTracker tells me I’ve lost money with all Ax suiteds below A9, so I have to think I’m on to something. Actually, I know the real reason I’ve lost money with those hands is my post flop play isn’t as strong as it should be. But until it is strong, I think I’m making a bad preflop decision by throwing money into the pot with a longshot hand to begin with.

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  4. Yes, I do use it. I’ll have to check my statos on it. After reading your comment it does make a lot of sense not to play it. I think I’ll stick to what has been working for me and that’s the tight preflop recommendations.

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