Wednesday, September 22, 2004

I hate playing defense

More thoughts from Las Vegas......

Played for about 5 hours at the Mirage during the day on Saturday. It was one of those days where I never got good cards. Either my starting cards sucked I was folding or I'd raise with my starting cards and the flop would miss me entirely. It was especially annoying because I was playing 6-12 and hoping to make a big score.

Looking back I don't think it was possible to win any money that day with the cards I had. I was definitely possible to lose less. I was down $350 after the session was over.

I called down a couple of times where I was pretty sure I was beat. I didn't respect a couple of raises against me. Yada, yada, yada. "It ain't no fun waitin' around to be a millionaire".

I am still trying to assimilate the Ed Miller book. I am doing ok on his quiz hands in the back of the book. I know one thing that has not worked out so far is pumping up my nut flush draws. That's just a function of mathematics in that eventually I will win those pots, but lately my draws have not been hitting.

1 comment:

SirFWALGMan said...

I have read Ed's book also. It is so hard to follow the instruction to bet up the flush even though it makes alot of sense, especially when you are down. The first few times I tried this I missed. After using this technique a more times for a statistical norm it does seem to pay off in many ways:

A) Sometimes with the raises people fold before I make the flush. I have taken a bunch of $10-$15 pots without even having to make my flush by raising pre-flop when appropriate, playing tight, and pumping the flush draw up.
B) Nobody is going to pay you when you hit the flush, so you have to get the money in before hand. Everyone slows down when they see the flush unless they also have a flush.
C) It really can disguise your flush. Your raising all along, you make your flush, someone else makes a smaller one or even trips, they think you have been betting two pair or something, and your capped at the river!

Anyway I would suggest keeping it up. Remember to make sure the pots are worth being in. That enough people are still in to make it worth your time. It will pay off. Sometimes making on flush draw is all I need to do in a night to end up with a nice profit.