After a couple of slow nights, I've had a couple of really good nights. First off, I've noticed that my style of play is very aggressive. This is a good thing, provided I'm playing a tight game. When I have a good hand, aggressive play is a good thing. It means that I'll get a lot of money in the pot when I've got the best of it, and maximize the amount of money that I'm pulling in.b
However, this is certainly a bad thing when I'm playing loosely. To be a good aggressive player, you need to be tight. That is to say, you need to make sure that you play only good hands, and respect your position at the table.
Given that, here are some things I'd like to work on in the future:
- Tighten up my hand selection
- Quit falling into the trap of playing A-x.
- Try to avoid bluffing as much as possible
Yah, yah, I already mentioned this. This is my number one problem right now. When I'm drawing decent hands, I'm playing well. But, in order to minimize the amount of money that I'm losing, I need to avoid getting myself sucked in to playing hands that aren't premium. Actually, premium isn't the right word, but I really need to make sure I'm playing hands that are good, relative to my position, and that I'm getting out the instant they don't connect with the board.
This means I don't really want to be playing anything lower than cards like 9-8s, 8-8, Q-10s, or A-J when I'm under the gun. If I have middle position, I don't want to play anything worse than 5-5, K-10, or J-8s. In the late positions, I can get away with playing weaker hands, but should still be mucking things like 9-5, 10-4, J-7s, and K-9.
This is really just an extension of the last point. Ace is a good card, and this hand isn't the worst thing to get when I'm playing short-handed, but it's just way too easy to get sucked in with it. For example, consider a starting hand of A-9 (offsuit). If the flop comes up K-9-2, I have a pair, but one that is easily dominated by a higher pocket pair, or a pair of kings (quite likely in a game with many players). Maybe I think to myself that I can draw to an ace, and win the hand with top pair. But that's a weak hand to be drawing to (and consequently, wasting more money if my opponents are good), and if I'm up against a hand like A-K, my hand is dominated, and I'm drawing dead. If the flop comes up with something like A-2-6, I have the top pair, but my kicker is really weak, and I can't bet with enough confidence. It's better to muck hands like these straight off the bat if I don't have position, or, if on the button, to play them and get rid of them as soon as I don't hit something like two pair off the flop. If it helps, try to think of the ace as a king, and try to imagine what I'm hoping to flop that would allow me to bet with confidence. Does my position allow for that? Go from there.
Bluffing just doesn't seem to be the weapon that I once thought it was. Unless I have position and can sense a lot of weakness from everyone else, bluffing is a great way to lose a lot of chips, and really isn't worth it. Semi-bluff now and then, and for the rest of the time, just play smart poker, value-betting when I have what is likely the top hand, and getting out without losing too much money the rest of the time.
So those are the three main goals for the next couple of weeks: Tighten up hand selection, don't fall into the A-x trap, and bluff less.
In related news, I bought a book called Poker - The Real Deal, written by Phil Gordon. I've seen Phil Gordon play a couple of times on the World Poker Tournament, and I like his style. The book is well written, reads easily, and offers good advice. You can probably find most of this stuff strewn throughout the internet, but I don't care to take the time to track it all down. Phil also mentions a lot of other good poker books, and what you can expect to gain from each of them - I find this sort of thing really helpful when I want to expand my knowledge in a certain area, and it's nice to get recommendations from someone that obviously knows what he's talking about. If anyone is looking for a good place to start, I'd recommend this book.