well played

At last night's poker game I played the best I have in a long time. I made some very good, very difficult folds (I want to play every hand! I must play every hand!) and some good calls. I ended up winning $27 (could have been around $10 or so more if I didn't loosen up at the end and start playing "hopeful" poker — i.e. "Well, maybe I'll get lucky and that exact card I need will come up and nobody will have any idea what I have and then I'll take them all for a lot of money!"), which is a good start to the year. I also would have won a lot more had I not taken two bad beats (1. lost to a runner-runner suck out to beat my flopped nut straight; 2. river suck out to a flush when I made a big enough bet that he should have folded instead of chasing it). But, hell, I was glad to win some money and really glad that I played well.

Things I learned last night:

1. Certain people are never going to fold, no matter how much you bet (unless it's a huge amount, and even then...) and you have to identify those people and play accordingly.

2. You have to be willing to expand your comfort zone in betting against anyone. If there's one thing I know I've been doing differently since my run of wins last year is that I am more tentative with my betting ("maybe $3 will push them out of the pot... I don't want to risk $8. What if he calls and sucks out on me?"). You have to push people around. Small- to medium-sized ($1-5) are, very rarely, going to push people off any kind of hand with a draw to come.

3. Always always always practice putting people on hands when you're in or out of the action. It keeps your head in the game and makes you not just stare at your cards and do probability math. Poker is more about playing the people than the cards.

4. Play the rush. If you win a couple of hands in a row, people assume you're bullying them and that you're going to win.

I'm going to keep track of my poker ups and downs here on the blog for the year. So, after one week: bought in for: $30; won: $27; total for the year: +$27.

Maybe I'll even make a cool little graphic for the sidebar.