Hey, it's never too late to make resolutions is it? Despite being in July, I have been thinking about some good poker resolutions. Like all of them, they are probably designed to be broken, but I am only human (not cyborg like Arnold). So, here goes.
1. I hereby resolve to limp less and raise more (except when trapping, see #2)
2. I resolve to trap more. This means that I will not blow people off hands when I flop monsters, nor will I raise out of position with vulnerable middle pairs (up to and including jacks).
3. Going along with the raising out of position idea, I will resolve not to blow people out of the hand by overbetting huge with small pairs....besides that is one huge tell.
4. I resolve to commit my chips earlier rather than reach the final table short stacked. I would rather go home early with no money than go home late with no money.
5. See more flops early, particularly in multiway limps and late position.
Update on my resolutions thru Friday tournament.
I did really well in gambling before the final table, reaching it with approximately 7,000 in chips. Not one of the big stacks, but a workable one.
I did see more flops, but made a huge mistake from the big blind on a mult-way limp. The small blind who characteristically (know your players!!!) plays very passively put in a min-raise. I folded due to his tightness and passivity with 2 or 3 players behind me. He had raised with AK suited and the board was checked to the river. I had folded J/4. There was a J and a 4 on the flop, with another jack on the turn. Yikes!
I did well by just calling a small pre-flop raise from a hyper-aggressive young player with my pocket 9's. I flopped a set on a very dry board (think maybe a queen, and small card rainbow). I filled up on the turn with another queen, everyone checking the flop and turn. On the river, as last action, I put in a small bet, all folded unfortunately and my 9's full of queens went on the high hand board for a round (ultimately knocked off by Q/9 full, then quad 6's, then quad 7's). I thought I played fine, just could not get the young gun to fire some rounds. Side note: He busted out shortly afterward by open shoving with AJ and called by AK. (Jr. down)
My final hand on the FT with 7 players remaining (paying 6, not the bubble boy), I was completely and utterly card dead the entire time. Down to 3400 with blinds @ 500/1000 in the small blind, one limper to me so I shove with the best hand I had seen so far, Q/J. The big blind quickly folded and the limper called with.....AK! Explaining a bit, the limper is a pretty passive player and will lay down a hand against aggression most of the time. He had also open/shoved a fairly small stack a couple of times and had chipped up with no callers. He had a medium stack now that would have been pretty crippled if he lost. The door card was a jack, but followed by a king. I missed my outs and bubbled out yet again. Thinking long and hard about my play, would have preferred to shove earlier, but really no cards or opportunities as there had been multiple shoves before me with 2 bustouts. There was a lot of aggression on the FT from the monster stack and really could not find a spot. I was frankly surprised to see the AK as I expected something more like a small or medium pair. With his stack would think a shove would have been better than a limp/call. I do not think he was trapping, but if so worked out well for him. If he had raised or shoved my hand would have been an easy fold.
1. I hereby resolve to limp less and raise more (except when trapping, see #2)
2. I resolve to trap more. This means that I will not blow people off hands when I flop monsters, nor will I raise out of position with vulnerable middle pairs (up to and including jacks).
3. Going along with the raising out of position idea, I will resolve not to blow people out of the hand by overbetting huge with small pairs....besides that is one huge tell.
4. I resolve to commit my chips earlier rather than reach the final table short stacked. I would rather go home early with no money than go home late with no money.
5. See more flops early, particularly in multiway limps and late position.
Update on my resolutions thru Friday tournament.
I did really well in gambling before the final table, reaching it with approximately 7,000 in chips. Not one of the big stacks, but a workable one.
I did see more flops, but made a huge mistake from the big blind on a mult-way limp. The small blind who characteristically (know your players!!!) plays very passively put in a min-raise. I folded due to his tightness and passivity with 2 or 3 players behind me. He had raised with AK suited and the board was checked to the river. I had folded J/4. There was a J and a 4 on the flop, with another jack on the turn. Yikes!
I did well by just calling a small pre-flop raise from a hyper-aggressive young player with my pocket 9's. I flopped a set on a very dry board (think maybe a queen, and small card rainbow). I filled up on the turn with another queen, everyone checking the flop and turn. On the river, as last action, I put in a small bet, all folded unfortunately and my 9's full of queens went on the high hand board for a round (ultimately knocked off by Q/9 full, then quad 6's, then quad 7's). I thought I played fine, just could not get the young gun to fire some rounds. Side note: He busted out shortly afterward by open shoving with AJ and called by AK. (Jr. down)
My final hand on the FT with 7 players remaining (paying 6, not the bubble boy), I was completely and utterly card dead the entire time. Down to 3400 with blinds @ 500/1000 in the small blind, one limper to me so I shove with the best hand I had seen so far, Q/J. The big blind quickly folded and the limper called with.....AK! Explaining a bit, the limper is a pretty passive player and will lay down a hand against aggression most of the time. He had also open/shoved a fairly small stack a couple of times and had chipped up with no callers. He had a medium stack now that would have been pretty crippled if he lost. The door card was a jack, but followed by a king. I missed my outs and bubbled out yet again. Thinking long and hard about my play, would have preferred to shove earlier, but really no cards or opportunities as there had been multiple shoves before me with 2 bustouts. There was a lot of aggression on the FT from the monster stack and really could not find a spot. I was frankly surprised to see the AK as I expected something more like a small or medium pair. With his stack would think a shove would have been better than a limp/call. I do not think he was trapping, but if so worked out well for him. If he had raised or shoved my hand would have been an easy fold.
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