Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Concentration

It was suggested that I apply more concentration during online play. Stop surfing the web between hands, think about the table, your opponents, think about ranges. Keep your brain thinking poker.

I did this tonight - I even played 3 tables at once for a time. My results were mixed - lost just under a buy-in on the night. However, most of that can be traced to two hands.

1) flush over flush. Killer when that happens. I would have lost more, too, except that the board paired on the river, so I just called the river bet instead of raising as I hit my flush. Not sure I could do much there.

2) A wrong guess. Pocket nines with a cold-calling, quarter-stack donkey behind me. Flop ace-eight-four. It comes does to whether he has an ace or not. I don't have too many hands to get my read, but he's playing 40% of hands (8/20), and he is c-betting 100% (3 out of 3). Before I act, I decide my action - I'm going to checkraise him all in when he bets. His range is wide and doesn't have to have an ace. I carry out my plan. He has an ace. Oh well.

I am also proud of several hands I played. I called a pot size river bet with ace high when that bet made no sense based on the action. I raised pocket kings and got a call from a player with 5 blinds left. Five. The board was 7 high and a bit coordinated, but who cares for 5 blinds? The player has already made a huge mistake if he called with a drawing hand with that low of a stack. So now, how do I get those five blinds? If I bet, he folds everything that missed. I can check then call any bet (which will obviously be all in).

I try something completely different. I minbet. 0.25 into the 1.50 pot. Bad players do this when they have a hand they don't like. I'm not sure what they think the bet will accomplish. I often raise these bets regardless of my cards. Hopefully he takes the minbet to be bluffy also.

It works. He "shoves" his last 5 blinds in. I call. He has king-seven (top pair).

Not much money, but an unorthodox play gets the job done.


1 comment:

strikeorbust said...

Hey, I hear you on the concentration issue.

Without seeing this, I just posted about how I'm getting over-relying on my HUD and lazy about doing my own thinking and observation. The work certainly pays off.

Sounds like you were in the right frame of mind on that session; that's what matters.