Sunday, 2 September 2007

Another winning session at The Vic...

I put in another solid session last night, recording a profit of around £400. For a change it was a very comfortable night. Usually I get stuck, and unstuck but last night was smooth sailing.

It is very easy to get disillusioned when you are in a run like am at the moment. I mean, when you are winning you feel like you are playing excellent poker, and making all the correct decisions. You never seem to look back and analyse your play, and actually figure out what you are actually doing right!

So, what am I doing now that I weren't doing before? Or what has changed?
  • I am running good! Has to be said! It is not all skill. I have of late got paid in big pots when I have either hit flops hard, or hit my 19 outer draws! For example, last night I raised with 5 3 suited, flopped trips on a board of 5 5 A, and got paid by an opponent holding an ace with decent kicker (who turned a flush draw along with his top pair).
  • I have hugely opened up my range. I am adopting a semi loose aggressive style. My hands are very well disguised, therefore my opponents struggle to identify / narrow down my possible holding / range, this is very advantageous post flop.
  • Raise it or dump it. I am not limping in (in unopened pots). Not at all pre flop! If I am going to play, I am coming in betting / raising. Combine this strategy with the extended range I am playing you create a very loose table image. In an unopened pot, I will come in raising with any pair (22-AA), any high suited connector (two gappers included -favourite hand: j9 of clubs!), and any two suited cards late position. It probably works out to be around a 15-20% pre flop raise frequency.
  • I will however play pots passively pre flop when it has already been opened, with multiple callers. In these spots I will set mine (call with all low - mid pocket pairs), play suited connectors (ideally low enders such as 5 3, 6 4), I am hoping to hit a well disguised hand on the flop.
  • A key strategy which varies my play in multi way opened pots is to squeeze raise / isolate the original raiser in position.

Now, this is not a play I will use too frequently during a session, as it is often a very marginal situation which involves committing a decent amount of chips. I will either deploy this move upon identifying either a weak spot, or a loose aggressive opponent (who also has a high pre flop raising frequency). I also look for several callers (before the action is round to me), this creates value for my play.

For example, there is a bet of £8 by a player I have identified to play pretty tight aggressive preflop, and passive post flop (if he misses), he has also been nice enough to have a structured betting pattern, so I know he bets £8 with AK,AQ and £12/£15 with AA,KK,QQ, and limps all other hands. There are two callers. I hold 10 7 of clubs, now although my holding is not as relevant to the situation here, I would like to be in this spot with some sort of hand with showdown value, and ideally a range which will play well against the original raiser's holding. I will 3 bet up £24. I expect my opponent to fold AQ, and call with AK, and hope to chase away the cold callers. Often, I will see the flop with the original raiser, and simply look to out play him. I will continuation bet a dry flop (boards out of his range), to which I will hardly get a call from a passive opponent. The beautify of this play is I am in position, and controlling the action, not to mention the times when I hit the flop hard! I am very cautious against tricky opponents who may smooth call pre flop with monsters, and check call on post flop, you really have to identify / know your players to execute this play.

  • So aggression is helping me, but I am also controlling the pot size much more effectively than I have been in the past. I playing small pots with small hands, big pots with monsters! I am thinking about why I am betting, and I am going through an actual thought process and reasoning for the bet sizing.

  • Apart from my game strategy, I feel I have a great deal of peace of mind now, in turns of several key issues. Main one being my bankroll. I have a much more comfortable financial situation now.

So they are some of the reasons why I am winning! I will keep thinking and post more later, but for now I need to get an online session in!

So for now....a very confident Yigit signing out!

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