12-30-05 [poker] - 2

12-30-05 [poker]

After today's play, here are my notes to self to improve my cash game play tomorrow. A big part of my current goal in the cash game play is just to try to cut out a lot of my "moves"; I need to get back to just simple smart value poker, most of the moves I'm trying are -EV. Today I pulled a big bluff on a guy that I had correctly read for top pair. I represented the flush draw and raised all-in when the flush card hit. He called anyway and said "I thought you had the flush, but I had half my stack in the pot already so I had to call". Um, no, you didn't have to call, if you thought I had the flush you should fold. Note to self - don't try that bluff unless I'm sure my opponent can make that fold. And really there's no reason to pull that bluff unless you're not getting calls when you have a big hand.

! stop making blocking bets for now, just check-call or check-fold bad river cards
! stop c-betting the turn, also check the turn sometimes with pretty good hands
! watch out for "sponges" who will call or min-raise c-bets on the flop with any two - reraise them or call and lead
! try to get a read on how much they river bluff vs. value bet, if they don't bluff much just check it down
! play weak OOP, play strong in position - try to avoid being OOP
! don't be tight/weak , but also don't spew chips!
! avoid bad "reverse implied odds" situations - even if you probably have the best hand, don't
	make a big pot if it's not a hand that can play a big pot.  AQ is not a good hand!
! don't stab at multiway pots, there's no need
! I have a big leak in that once I get about 30% of my stack in the pot I have trouble folding, that's bad!!
! (again) - don't make big bluffs for now, just make small bluffs when they look weak