Chips Are Not Chips

Following through on my commitment to play three 1 hour ring game sessions per week I spent several hours tonight online playing a $.10/$.25 ring game on Full Tilt.  Tonights lesson - chips are not chips - they are money.

I started my evening with $15 starting my session about 8:00 p.m.  I was up down early on and then ended up with a huge swing to the upside when I gambled a bit and my pair and straight draw on a low board up against pocket 10's.  I pushed thinking the player I was up against did not have a pocket pair, but was pushing based on previous show downs and his betting patterns seemed to back up my hunch.  I was wrong, but I drew a 2 on the river for a set and won a large pot vaulting me to more than double my investment.  

Over the next few hands I started to notice that my starting hand selection had loosened and I was doing a lot more calling and folding.  I sat out a few hands to think about what was happening and came to the realization that I was not viewing my chips as money.  That is a bad move.

In any cash game, whether it be tournament or ring you should always keep in mind that just because you won a lot of chips there is no need to give them away and chips represent dollars. This is the exact reason casinos introduced chips - to remove the emotional connection from your hard earned money and you.  

Keep this in mind the next time you go up big in a cash game, or for that matter any API tournament.  Using your chips stack is one thing, giving it away is another.  

Addressing Weakness

I feel that one of the weakest areas of my poker game is when I get into a ring game.  The reason for this is simple, I learned to play poker tournament style, and the skills and objectives of the two types of poker are somewhat conflicting.  Is it the same game?  Sure, NL Texas Holdem - but the objectives and goals are different.  In a ring game marginal mistakes do not cost you everything, where as in a tournament marginal mistakes can - and usually do - cost you everything.  

To address what I feel is a weakness in my game I have dedicated to playing 3 hours a week of ring games.  Tonight was my first session and I ended with a 30% positive return on my money and avoided any major swings to the negative.  I would say my play was tight and the area of glaring improvement that I found was betting less aggressively with a made hand, after all I want these guys to stay in and give me more money - not fold.  I think working more on this will also help me in tournament play to extract as many chips as possible from players.  

We will see how it goes, but tonight went well.  I was patient, folded when I thought I was beat and avoided chasing from behind.  

How To Rob A Vegas Poker Room

Like this....

http://www.lasvegasvegas.com/pokerblog/archives/007012.php

...but who plays at the Sahara anyways?  

Spanking the Monkey in Phoenix

So right now it is close 2:14 a.m. on the east coast and I am sitting in the Phoenix airport people watching as I wait for my flight back to Atlanta - yes it is a red eye.

As I was sitting here I realized I neglected to mention the training I had done on Cardrunners.com before I came out to Vegas for this trip. Where I concentrated was on end of tournament strategy and I believe the videos I watched prepared me well to befuddle my foes and help me keep the pressure on others at the table. In poker it is always better to have others make decisions than for them to have you make decisions and the three Cardrunners videos I watched illuminated that point to me when it comes to short table situations.
Now some random thoughts.....

Who the heck designed this airport? They forgot to put power plugs in the walls so I can recharge my laptop!!!

Earlier tonight I played a $6.50 SnG on PokersStars waiting for my flight to PHX in LAS. I started about 40 mintues before the flight was set to board and actually won the SnG on the jet way as the flight attendant asked me if I was the last one. I was in fact the last one to board the flight. The guy I ended up playing heads up was pissed at me because I was shoving with any 2 good cards and in the end pushed with a 3-5 to get it over while he called with A-K. Of course nothing hit except for my 5 on the river. He called me a donkey and I will take the criticism, but he doesn't understand I was working on a time limit.

I look forward to sleeping in my own bed and resuming a normal schedule...at least until Tuesday when I travel again.

My girlfriend rocks!!!!

Enough random thoughts for now. Think I will pull up Cardrunners and watch a couple videos.

Hooters and Poker

So tonight I worked late and then went to dinner at Hooters. One thing I noticed about the Hooters here is that the waitresses were much younger and more attractive than other Hooters I have been too. Let's face it, Hooters is not what it used to be - or I just got a bit older and now know better - take your pick. It helps that there are 3 universities around the area to draw from and I would have to say they have picked well.

After I got home from Hooties I played one SnG on PokerStars.com with a $5.50 buy-in. I played very well in the tournament irght up to the point I got knocked out at 4th - on the bubble. Let's just suffice to say I put him on the right cards and called anyways. He had A-K offsuit. I had A-Q suited. I missed the flush by 1 (a.k.a. as an Alabama flush). I am a bit irritated with myself because I know that even if I had folded I could have come back into the money and you must be at the table to get into the money. So I screwed up. Lesson learned and documented here for all to see. On the bright side, I am playing better and feel like my tune up for the WSOP in Las Vegas is going well and I did win a SnG last night so the sky isn't falling just yet!