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Server Time: 9/5/2008 5:15:00 PM PACIFIC |
 What do you do when the cards don't come?, steve-o, 23. Oct 2003 18:43 | ||
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| I play in a NL tourney home game every week, and last week I got no cards. Really. None. In 3 1/2 hours I played 4 hands. Won 2 lost 2, and I was gone. So here's my question, as a tight player who rarely if ever bluffs, should I loosen up a bit and play more aggressive with less than premium hands when I hit a run of bad cards? It sucks just sitting there and blinding away, and I couldn't help but think that there was something I could've done to try and turn things around. Was there anything I could've done? | ||
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| Re: What do you do when the cards don't come?, LKP, 23. Oct 2003 19:58 | ||
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| If you're playing for three and a half hours, and only playing 4 hands, your opponents are probably noticing you are very tight. You can take advantage of this by occasionally bluffing. Properly bluffing is dependent on how you have acted previously in the game. If you limp in with every good hand you have, a sizeable bet is going to look odd. This will be especially true if you triumphantly announce "all-in" and then try your hardest to look calm and cool. I don't know how your home tourneys work as far as escalating blinds, but I like to use those to my advantage when I bluff. I will often play tight and rock solid in the beginning stages. If you're lucky and play well, you'll be the one showing down the winning hand most every time and people will realize this. As the blinds increase, the aggressiveness of your betting can as well. When the blinds start getting so high that they're like 1/4 the chips of the short-stacks, then you can raise confidently and they'll probably fold. It all depends on the game and the people, their chip stacks and yours, and a little bit of lady luck on your side as well. Also, when you're getting short-stacked, you need to play much more aggressively. You can't afford to sit around and wait for pocket rockets. You'll get blinded off. This is especially true if the blinds are escalating quickly and the game is getting shorthanded (that means bigger blinds and more often). In these situations, I like to go all-in before the flop when I hold just about any decent hand. Once again, the definition of a decent hand is situational, but I pretty much will push all my chips in with any A, any two cards J or higher, or any pocket pair. The only time I might not do this is when there is large pre-flop betting before me, and even then I still might do it depending on the situation. The reason I advocate going all-in, rather than betting mildly, is so that less people are inclined to call. A lot of people think that with a hand like AK, if they limp in there will be more callers and thus more money in the pot. If the flop favors them, then these people could shovel in even more money. But the problem is, what if the flop doesn't favor you? When you go all-in in a short-handed game with A 5, there's a good chance that nobody out there has a pocket pair or an A with a better kicker. Due simply to the nature that there's not that many hands out there, that increases the chances that your hand is best. Exploit that advantage while you still have it, that is before you see the flop. This large preflop bet will drive a lot of the competition out, and probably make it heads up for the pot. Then just hope lady luck is on your side for the flop. You'll never KNOW you have the best hand, but that's poker. I've gone all-in when I was short-stacked and had A 4. My opponent quickly called me and turned over pocket aces. After a lot of swearing on my part, we saw the flop: K 4 4. I've also gone all-in with pocket aces and had somebody draw out a straight on me. It happens. | ||
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