GOOOOAAAAALLLLLL or Ahhhh, I Love the Smell of Poker in the Morning

Take a minute to imagine 30 Spaniards at the World Cup of Poker - GOOOOOOAL

I have officially surpassed my January goal of getting my stack to $1000. Doubling the old roll in a month ain’t bad. Now I just need to tow the line and keep’er above that mark.

I am going to move back up to the $50 tables again. I won that $500 at the $25’s, but it is time to move up. Hell I’m at 20x buyin rule anyways. When I get up a couple hundred more I’m likely to take a night and give $100NL a whirl. If I cash well I stay; if not I drop back to the minors. I’ve proven myself at these stakes before, so I can afford taking more chances this time around. I’m not ever going to achieve my 10-Grand goal for the year if I don’t take some risks. My roll fluctuated more these last few weeks and I ended up on top, so I should be able to handle myself. Pep-talk complete – on to next paragraph.

Another change that I’ve made is to only play 5 tables at a time, which now gives me time to view the forums and internet while playing. This I’ve found in the last 2 weeks of playing non-stop helps to keep me from getting bored. And with that one less table going I have more time to make the tough decisions without as many tables popping up. It still makes me fold sometimes even with only 5 tabs going. I accidentally folded AA PF once and I hit the fold and show button once with the nut straight when my opponent was betting into me. I’m sure people at the table either thought that I was slightly retarded or that there was some collusion going on.

Neteller gave the online poker community a scare this week. Them and Citadel both backed out of the US market for online gaming. Effective immediately they both stopped making transfers to or from online gaming sites. So if you have monies on sites you will have to find an alterative means of getting it off of those sites. Anything left on Net or Cit can just be withdrawn to your B&M bank or possibly transferred to a new online bank account. This happened like 2 days after some Neteller bigwigs got arrested in US territories on, I think, money laundering or something to that affect. I really am starting to worry a little about the future of my online get rich scheme. I read around for a new online intermediary bank and found that I liked Click2Pay the best. All the sites take them, plus they have debit card and ATM functionality. So no more waiting days to get my money. And with the way it is looking you never know when I might need to get my money. Now if I can just get the poker sites to transfer my money to my online bank a little quicker life would be just peachy. Another thing that would be cool to find is an online bank that has interest bearing accounts. Yes, I know I’m a greedy little bastard. Another unexpected bonus to this whole situation is that UB is running a nice offer until the 26th of this month. If you deposit money to UB byway of one of these other online banking institutions they will give 100% in bonus dollars up to the equivalent of $650. All I have to do is cashout $650 to Click2Pay and the deposit it right back to UB and I have lots of BD’s to turn into cash. That’s good because I am currently out. That actually cost me a few hundred dollars over my vacation merely because my BD account was depleted. I was knocking down a $40 to $50 conversion a night and that was at the $25 tables.

Just like learning anything, poker is a process. I really like the new aggression strategy that I’ve recently implemented. I know this isn’t new to a lot of players, they think anyways. Yes I’ve read tons on aggression and position play, but it was never fully developed in my game. It’s still not, but it is quickly becoming another weapon in my growing arsenal. I am still a bit in awe of how effective position aggression in general is at taking down pots that I otherwise would not score. And even if they know what you are doing, if they haven’t caught a piece, they usually give it up. These are position raises on the flop BTW. I still usually don’t blind steal. Hell, maybe that will be the next advancement in my overall game. It’s a process. I have noticed that the blinds like to defend PF more than they do on the flop. Taking down these small pots add up quick and more than make up for the blinds that you are paying in the long-run at the table. Putting in these long sessions, I noticed that more often than not I was up on most tables. The longer I had been at one, the more I was up. I was even overcoming medium deficits incurred from a bad beat or a hand with a lot invested that I have to drop due to a scare-card on the river followed by a big bet. That means that I will be consistently making money over the rake in the long-haul. I need to put in a little more time in to totally prove the fact to myself, but as of right now it is looking pretty promising. Another factor to think about is just how effective is this strategy going to work at $50 and $100 stakes. Likely it is well-known at those stakes and thus must get countered to some degree. That’s the cool thing, as you move up the trickier it gets and the more you have to adapt and learn to make money at the same rate. Another quick thought with this technique is how effective will it prove in tourney play. Is this how some players consistently have a growing stack that seems to be impervious to the blinds. OK, not impervious, but partially immune to their vampiric lusting for chip stacks. Something to think about anyway.

While on vacation I stopped my habit of rat-holing after getting up a bit. Rat-holing: gaining money on a table then leaving and jumping onto another table minus the profit earned. I used to do this over and over. Honestly I believe it was partially due to a lack of confidence in my game. I could only lose what was at the table you know. Well, I realized that just like my max buyin rule, the more I have at the table means more that I can take from the big stacks. And I am surprised at how loose a lot of big stacks are. They seem to have the mentality that, heck, I’m up, I can raise this guy off the hand and if not my weak kicker will still probably win at showdown. I have found myself frequently the big stack at the table. They seem to fold even more often to my aggression when I am sitting with 3 buyins. Respect for my game maybe. I don’t know. But this will be something else I will begin to learn: playing with the big stack at the table. Hopefully I learn how to put pressure on the table and bully some extra chips. Ahhh, I love the smell of poker in the morning!