Saturday, January 03, 2004

Poker Tracker rules

Woke up this mornin' (na naaa na na) and loaded my most recent and horrible 100 hands in Poker Tracker to see where my troubles lie. Man, that program is the nuts. It gives you so much information in such an easy to use and helpful format...if I can survive at the tables for a bit longer I'll definitely get the full version.

So what did I learn. Well, I have been getting screwed by Lady Luck. I went over the hands where I lost the most money, and I lost a good $25 when my opponent hit his miracle card on the river. I had trips and lost to an inside straight when a ten spiked on the river, I lost my top two pair when a deuce landed riverside and gave my foe trips, and, most distressingly, I flopped an ace-high flush to my opponents trips, had him call my raise and then a re-raise on the turn (the other guy had pocket kings), and had the river pair the 6 on the turn. That would have been a HUGE win, and when you keep losing hands like that it'll impact your bankroll bigtime.

But what did I do wrong, where are the holes in my play? I'm sure I'm the swiss cheese of the poker world, but I saw a few things I need to work on. First--watch it when you're in the blinds. Because you can see a flop on the cheap you're more likely to play weak hands, and unless those weak hands gets LOTS of help you're in trouble. I lost more money playing from the small blind than any other position. I lost $10 playing 2-7 offsuit when the flop came K-7-2 and got soaked by a guy holding K-7.

Actually, two pair is a hand I need to really watch. I'm getting killed with them, and I have to pay much closer attention to the board. Do I have top two pair, or two medium pair? Are there obvious straight draws, flush draws? I can't get too excited when I hit two pair, because danger lurks everywhere.

So I need to tighen up a bit, watch the blinds, play smarter. Stop the gratuitous check-raising, unless the other guys seem weak. Find a good table and milk it. And maybe get lucky from time to time. I have a bit of my confidence back. And, hey, today's my birthday! Of course Lady Luck will shine on me today! Got a party tonight (not for me, just for the holidays), got playoff games on TV, play a little poker, play with the kitten...as Phil Hellmuth would say, "Good things happen to me all the time! I deserve to have good things happen to me!"

posted by Gene @ 12:20 PM   |