My Basic Live Strategy

I didn't play yesterday and I'm not playing today, maybe not tomorrow nor Thursday but I do enjoy blogging and writing about poker.

I've been thinking about what makes the difference between winning and losing at poker and while the game is extremely complex to every single hand and situation being different, I feel like their are some very simple strategies that can make a huge difference between a winning player and a losing player. These strategies may seem pretty obvious but if they are not applied while playing, the simplicity of these strategies becomes completely lost. I myself have many times drifted away from these basic strategies that turned me from a losing player to a winning player. Some nights I am tired and play carelessly, sometimes I am at a table where I can't use these same strategies because of the skill level. But when I can use these strategies, they are very profitable.

I have a friend (Tomo) that really wants to start playing poker for money. The problem is he really has no idea what he's doing and he sucks ass at poker. We played a home game tournament at my house last week and he never raised once with KK yet he was willing to call all the way down with ace high at any time. Pretty much he is starting from scratch and I have been trying to figure out what to teach him first. I don't think the basic strategies that I apply to my game will help him much as he still needs to learn hand strength, betting position, etc.

Basically here are the main strategies that I have tried to adopt to my game recently. I'm still very young in my poker career so I'm not saying that these strategies are proven and that they work perfectly, but they are things that (somewhat obviously) work for me:

1. Pick out the worst players and consistenly get into pots with them. I hate to say it but when there is a really bad player at my table, I secretly root for him to give others bad beats so that he gains a considerable stack size. I've found that a lot of the older, tighter players actually fear the loose/aggressive/bad players and wait three hours to get KK or AA just to enter a pot with these players. I'm willing to enter a pot with a bad aggressive player with K-6 suited and if I hit the king I will call it all the way down. I'll play 8-6 off suit for a 5x raise with a bad player because if I hit it it will pay off. Even if the flop comes 10-9-6, I might call him all the way down because I know he will bet it all the way down with a hand like K-J or something. Obviously weak players are the easiest to beat. It's very hard to put them on a hand but if you can get a good read on them, it's the easiest way to make a profit in poker. They continually refuse to slow down their betting and usually think you're trying to bully them when you raise them. The first time I made 1k+ in a session it was against an extremely drunk player in Vegas. He never believed me and called me every single time I had something. Not too long ago I had my most profitable night ever against a player who was terrible but was getting lucky against everyone else. I was entering nearly every pot with him and giving him a beatdown that I almost felt bad about.
   
2. Play a wider variety of hands in strong position. The keys to this are to try and get in big pots with a lot of callers when you have position. Say I have 7-5 suited on the button and someone raises 3x the blind and four people call. I'm definitely going to call hoping that I can get a good flop with this many people in front. I also raise with decent but not premium hands one or two spots in front of the button in order to steal position. This is why it is great to have a super tight player on your left, because it is easy to steal their position from them. It's great to play a hand like 5-3 on the button with six callers in front and get a flop like K-3-5 or 2-4-6. It's almost guaranteed someone will bet out and if no one does, it just looks like I'm trying to steal when I bet the button.
   
3. Pick my battles. I think it's extremely valuable to observe the table for the first hour. On an average, I would say there are usually three really tight players, two loose players and three average players. There are usually players that are better than the rest, I try to stay out of the pots with these players. Increasingly I think I am considered one of these players as I've noticed that other good players will tend to fold when I make a raise but bad players will call. The important thing is to know who is raising with a great hand and who is raising in hopes of building a pot and hitting a flop.
   
4. Keep my wins bigger than my losses. This is really obvious but hard to manage (easier said than done). It means getting up and knowing when to leave after I've lost two or three buy-ins. There was a point in time when I wouldn't leave until I didn't have any money left. But now I know that if the cards aren't going my way, it's better to just go home and come back another day, starting fresh with a new table image. Good poker players know when another player is tilting and even though I won't admit it, I'm sure I tilt when I get aces cracked or called all the way on a big bluff. When that stuff happens, it's better to just leave and come back another day. Similarly, if I'm on a huge heater...I don't mind staying for a long time if I'm hitting my flops and have a great feel for the table.
   
5. Fold winners. Even though they seem like such great hands, top pair isn't always the best hand. Folding a winning hand sucks because you're losing money, but at the same time you're still living to see another flop. For example the hand where I had AA on a board of J-8-9 and one player went all-in and a really tight player called. I thought there was a good chance I had the winner but I didn't want to get into a huge pot against the tight player who had my big stack covered. I wasn't certain I had the best hand so I didn't want to risk calling her all the way down when I thought there was a 50/50 chance she had my top pair beat. I've folded winners lots of times and even though it stings, you are still putting yourself in a position to get into another battle with a better hand. This is something that new poker players really don't accept...letting go of top pair or a high pocket pair, even when there are overcards on the board. This is something that takes discipline but eventually leads to bigger stacks.
   

Well that's it for today. I just wanted to write about poker because I know I won't be playing tonight or maybe even until the weekend. I also like to remind myself what it takes to win and why I've been winning recently.