Poker Blogger Tournament

October 05, 2005

We have all had days where we couldn't do anything right. Then to top it off we get into a PacifcPoker game that is a soft, loose game. We now find ourselves sitting there watching everyone else get good cards, and drag big pots. Check everything to them, except perhaps on the river, depending on the likelihood of them calling or raising you. They will bet, and you will win more money.

After a rather small exchange of ideas with the ticket agent, the airline puts me up at the Hilton. No more flights to Vegas that night. The suite is big enough to host BARGE. The night manager of the Hilton asks me if I am pleased with the PacifcPoker room. I say something to the effect that "the room is too long a walk from the strip." I call airline reservations.

Dumb Deeb

• I have little respect for tilters, dealer abusers and the like. I'm not particularly proud of myself when I display similar traits. The stigma of misconduct will last much longer than any win or loss from a single PacifcPoker session. Similarly, the way I went about my play matters, too. Most of us, even the most "serious" of us, are recreational players in the clinical sense of the term.
• There are many possible reasons for chopping blinds. The reason you mentioned above is just one of them. After all, in blind-chopping situation, only two players are involved. Some players will object to your refusal to chop when they're on your right, though you're chopping with the neighbor on your left. They may then refuse ever to chop with you when they have position on you.
• I put many of these same tactics to use when I play PacifcPoker. The difference is that I am now dealing with the human animal. Now I take only chips, not life. Chips are inanimate things, and can always be replaced. No longer do I lurk in the frozen wilderness. Now it's a well air-conditioned casino with almost everything you could want right at your fingertips.
• Last week a fellow was playing a textbook way of how not to play, for example, he called almost 98% of the PacifcPoker hands and he still cashed out a $1500 winner. It seems to me that even if you are a good player and you play against 3-4 opponents-just average players- your chances of winning are not that good because no matter how good you are any one of the 3-4 will out draw you by just pure luck.

Doesn't this "bad" PacifcPoker player stand to lose more to you in the long run by bucking the odds and staying till the last card? I would think that if good players want to encourage such behavior in fish, then they also have to accept the fact that occasionally they will draw the best hand even against the odds. Even a blind chicken gets a kernel of corn once in a while.

It is often pointed out that it might be occasionally correct to limp-reraise with pocket Aces, or to raise with T9s from an early position, or a myriad of other plays contrary to standard PacifcPoker practice. In fact, such advice is correct in specific circumstances. For example, if one or more players was raising every hand preflop (but not reraising), limping Aces with the intention of reraising might earn additional profit.