Some time in mid-December I caught the upswing at Party’s 5/10 6-max tables and at Doyle’s Room’s NL tables. Between those sessions and the multiple bonuses I managed to finally break the four figure mark. But in keeping with tradition, I managed to piss away a lot of it by playing above my limits in 2/4 and 5/10. Oy.

Happily, I’m not a complete idiot and managed to check the roll into the ICU before it was too late. I added some padding to take full advantage of the Empire reload bonus and have limited my play to the 1/2 6-max tables. At 80-90 hands per hour per table, clearing the 1400 hands should require very little time.

I’m getting back to basics for the New Year, so here’s some basic stuff for anyone who’s trying to grind it out at the micro-limits.

ABC Poker

I’m usually a pretty straightforward player. Now that I’m partially playing with non-poker money until the bonus clears, I’m especially tight-aggressive/straightforward.

Part of my rationale for playing it straight is that as the new player at the table, most of my opponents have no idea what hands I play, how I play them, etc. There’s something about the short-handed tables that encourages loose-aggressive play or attracts those types of players, so the default assumption is that any aggression on my part does not represent the best hand. So if I have what is likely to be the best hand or even a monster, I’ll just go ahead and bet/raise. Lots of players will happily call, trying to catch me at a bluff or with the same kind of junk hand they’re holding.

Once I’ve established my image as the guy who wins showdowns, that’s when I start raising pre-flop with big aces, though usually not in the blinds or UTG. I want position with this hand because I need to figure out if I can drive out players/earn a free river card if I miss the flop. Any significant action on the flop and I’m out of there. Sure, if my opponent is bluffing or betting middle/bottom pair with no kicker, I’m forfeiting ~3BB, but paying an extra 2BB with only overcards (or one) does not seem worthwhile in most cases. I’ll call players who show down more than the occasional bluff, but that’s about it. There’s going to be 79 other hands in the next hour, and I’ll be the favorite in several of those, so that’s where I’ll put my money.

Except at the very best of tables, eventually the others catch on that my hand is going to beat theirs and they stop paying me off. This is the point at which I can start stealing pots or raising my smaller pairs, but it’s also usually the point where I’m looking for an opportunity to leave so I can collect the big bets instead of the small ones. One bad hand and it’s going to take several of these small pots to make up for the big loss. There’re always multiple tables going on at Party, so there’s no reason to stick around.

Swimming with the maniacs

The biggest difference between micro-limit Party Poker and small stakes B&M poker has to be the maniacs. These loose-aggressive players will raise pre-flop with 78 suited, QJ offsuit, K4 suited, etc. from any position. They’ll bet first in on the flop with second pair or third pair. They’ll raise with high card no kicker. It’s a high variance style of play, and as often as not, you’ll see the maniac first triple his buy-in then bust out over the course of an hour. It’s often hard to resist the temptation to play your weaker hands against them to catch them with 9 high (they 3-bet with 97s), but most maniacs are just aggro-fish who help me build my pots, so I don’t deviate too much from the Small Stakes Hold ’em standards. The bets I win here and there by “out-playing” the maniac probably won’t cover the cumulative losses of being in pots I have no business being in.

So I usually let my blinds get stolen for the first couple orbits until I have a better read on my opponents, then defend the connectors and one-gappers that have the potential to flop big. With the right board, a check-raise on the flop or turn will usually stop the blind-stealing. I’ll also defend the trash hands if it’s going to be 4-handed. Once you’ve beaten the hell out of a maniac on a couple pots, they usually either go bust or turn into meek calling stations with the same trashy starting hand selection.

I love bad beats

It’s true. I do. I’d rather give than receive, ’cause I’m generous like that, but I’ve finally reached the point in my development as a player to enjoy the bad beats. Tables where you start off with one or two bad beats/river suckouts can earn you some of the bigger profits, since your two losses put the idea in the mind of your opponents that you are beatable. Most of them won’t notice you were ahead on every street until the river. After this, they’ll usually be willing to pay you off more often than if you sat down and just began winning hands from the start. Ride out the variance and let them make those unprofitable calls/bets until they’re broke.

6-max!

Despite my newfound love of bad beats, one thing I really like about the short-handed tables is the fact that they reduce the suckouts, since there’s less implicit collusion. This is where multiple opponents call to the river with weak hands (bottom pair, top pair no kicker, small pockets, gutshot low straights, weak backdoor flushes) and one of them manages to suck out a win at the end. Individually they don’t have the odds to call, but collectively they do. There have been several times when I’ve dropped an entire buy-in playing full-ring due to river 2- and 3-outers. The individual behavior’s the same at the short tables (and in some ways, worse), but the very fact that it’s short-handed seems to reduce the number of suckouts.

Furthermore, since you play so many more hands per hour, it’s easier to stave off the boredom. Provided that you get your fair share of decent cards and flops, the fact that you pay the blinds every 6 hands instead of every 10 doesn’t tend to get in the way of making money. With the increased tendency to call to the showdown with Ace high and the maniacal pot-building, the short-handed tables can be more profitable than full ring.

This is micro-limit?

The interesting thing that I’ve noticed is that there doesn’t seem to be much of a difference between the 1/2 and 5/10 6-max tables. Same game, different stakes. You’ll get the same mixture of solid players (1), maniacs (2-3), and fish (1-2), leading to the same number of river suckouts, fishy calls, etc. So provided that I’m adequately bankrolled, I have little reservation about playing the higher limit tables. But that bankroll’s important. If I get two bad beats or suckouts in a row at the 1/2 table, it won’t hurt me. Dropping $25 in two hands with a $1000 roll is not a big deal. Dropping $125 without the corresponding $5000 roll is.

Mixing up your values and your free cards

We’ve read our Miller, Sklansky, Izmet, and Abdul, and we all know that when you’ve got the nut flush draw, two overcards, and the runner-runner straight draw on the flop in a loose game, you should ram and jam the pot. On the flop, you’re the clear favorite to win the hand against many other hands.

Hdouble doesn’t approve of this play since he thinks you will win bigger pots when you make your flush by keeping people in. I have to disagree with HDouble on this one, since I also want a chance to win those hands where I don’t make my flush. Also, in my experience, making your flush is usually only highly profitable against a dumbass with a weaker flush. In fact, raising the flop with the draw and making your hand on the turn is usually good for an extra big bet since the flop raise partially disguises your hand. Saving your raises for when a three-flush hits the turn usually turns the others into calling stations, giving you a maximum added profit of 2-3BB on the turn and river. So if you can win a high percentage of the hands where you don’t make the flush by forcing out other draws and hands like low pair ace kicker, then you’ve easily made up for the lost profits.

Ram and jam. On the flop.

The turn changes everything. It’s now twice as expensive and there’s only one card to come. Be ready to throttle back.

In EP, unless you actually pair one of your cards, fill your flush, or get one more card to the open-ended straight draw (an overcard to your kicker is more dangerous), or have a good enough read on your opponent to know he’ll fold to a bet (maybe you should reread that game theory bluffing chapter to randomize your bluffs), you’re probably better off check-calling. After all that flop action, you have a big enough pot to profitably call, but why risk paying 2BB to see the river with your 33% shot of beating pocket deuces (flush draw with overcards, no straight draw)?

In LP, just check-behind if the turn hasn’t improved your hand. Remember that one of the goals of raising the flop with your great draw, in addition to driving out other draws (the straight for instance), made hands with weak kickers, and other overcards, is to get a free card on the turn. You pay an extra small bet to save one big bet, and as they say, a bet saved is a bet earned.

A lot of people don’t know when to turn the aggression off, and it leads to unprofitable plays. Remember, the two bets on the turn and river usually cost you more than what you bet preflop and on the flop, and even if you have 21 outs on the turn, your hand is still a slight dog to a pocket pair held by a calling station who calls because you might have “nothing.” Yes, his call is often unprofitable since you’ll usually have top pair top kicker or two pair, but we’re not talking about him now, are we? I’m not saying you shouldn’t call; I’m saying you shouldn’t bet if you have no expectation of your opponent(s) folding since your pot equity has been significantly reduced (note that it’s much higher now that you’ve isolated your opponent than if this were a multi-way pot–ram and jam the flop!).

As a side note, one of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen is when someone who called on the flop with overcards and the backdoor flush draw suddenly raises the turn with his flush draw. Talk about -EV plays! He usually barely has odds to call on the turn let alone raise!

Last thoughts.

At the point where you pause in your one long session and take stock of where you are, it’s good to see that you’ve been directly rewarded for playing well. In my very small sample of 700 1/2 6-max hands since the tail end of December, I’ve seen a win rate of 7.38BB/100 hands. By the time I actually get through this reload bonus I expect to see that drop to a more reasonable 3BB/100 hands. But I feel very good about my play so far, and I feel that I am reinforcing the foundation upon which all my future growth must stand. That’s a good thing.

If you slogged through all of this, congratulations. I expect that most of you will be nodding your heads and thinking, “That StudioGlyphic’s such a beginner!” Well, that’s okay. I am a beginner.

I wish you good luck, good cards, and most of all, good plays.