Altered Poker Strategy
Originally published at shanefitzsimmons.com. You can comment here or there.
I played in two B&M tournaments today. Got 15th place in the first one, out of about 50 people, which ain’t terrible, but it isn’t anything to brag about, either. I’d been playing very conservatively the whole time, really playing my cards and not showing a whole lot of aggression. I’d frequently limp in if I had anything, unless I was holding something spectacular in which case I might raise a moderate amount. I frequently got raised out of hands, and overall I just wasn’t showing a lot of balls. But it did get me to 15th place….
In the second game, I made it a point to play extra aggressively. If I had anything even resembling a hand, I’d raise the big blind by at least twice, sometimes as much as two and a half times the BB. The idea was taken from Daniel Negreanu’s small ball strategy, where the basic idea is to just get in on as many hands as possible. It worked, to a point. My highly aggressive play won me a few pots, but I think the fact that I was playing in a free game really showed, as people would frequently call my bets down the line even when they didn’t have anything really worth playing at first.
I got busted about an hour into the game, when I was dealt Queen Nine of Clubs, and the flop came something like J39 of varying suits and I made a hefty bet that pushed one guy out but another guy just called. My bet was something like fifteen or something. Then the turn came, and it was an 8. That gave me quite a few outs, plus I had the pair of nine’s, and I didn’t put this guy on a jack for some reason. So I bet fifty, really trying to drive him out (I should’ve just gone all-in, as I had only like 26 left after that). He called. The final card came and it was a 5. He pushed me all in for my last 26, and when the big reveal came it turned out he had three fives. He called all the way down to the river with a pair of fives, despite my enormous bets. Pretty irritating, but he won in the end so I can’t be too pissed.
Overall I think my aggressive strategy tonight went well, despite the fact that I got busted out pretty damn early. I shouldn’t have pushed so aggressively on a pair of nines, and in the future I’ll remember to play a bit smarter, but stick with the aggressiveness.
All in all, a good day for poker, I think.