4,300 hands!!!

15. November 2004 | Category: 50outs

Pokertracker showed me an impressive 4,300 hands that I played over the course of only 72 hours, mostly 30/60 (3 tables). I was quite shocked when I saw this number because I get NO RAKE BACK. I have my account well established with high limits so I dont want to mess around with it. What is even more impressive is my result, with well over 10k won in that time.

I would never have thought that that many hands went thru. In my starting days of poker I played twice a week 7 hours stud and wrote down every hand that I had – we had about 120-160 hands a night (stud, pot-limit, dealers which could not hold a deck twohanded) so I played an almost ridicoulous amount of hands in this short time. Interesting is, that I have not even thought that I played this much. There was plenty of time over the weekend to do some horseback-riding, have nice dinners with friend&family, do some work, slepp well, play tournaments and much more. One could certainly see that any flaw has a major impact on the result.

Talking strategy, I changed mine to ultra-agressive after that suffering in Baden a few weeks ago. And it pays of I must say. I could have been much more selective but I believe I would have gotten much less money as I showed down bluffs, draws and the like regulary while leading the whole way and got much money on my legitimate hands. My biggest looser over the weekend were in fact the dreaded aces. I lost 3 pots with more that 1,500 each, everytime holding aces. But all the money I got beause people where giving up their hands due to my constant preassure more than made up for it. While some player certainly think I was a maniac I myself don’t feel like it. I believe I made great laydowns even right on the flop but seeking the weaker players and always put them to a descicion. I remember many times where I could tell Katja exactly what cards the players were holding, I had very good and strong reads on them. While I have know that I play good in b&m this is somehow new to me online. I always played to much on the strength of my own hand and not reflecting enough on the others. All-in-all I can say that “playing the player” is well possible online and that bluffing is a serious option in limit 30/60.

On the tournament front no news, I made triple money in a $30-Speed tourney. I will most likely not play one of these again, this much stalling is simply to much for me. This is no poker, this is like black jack although right now I must admit that is has a “positional training factor”. And the money is good, given a $30 buyin (around 6k) and I did well in chance-games now and then :-). In a $109 I got place 33 with 30 in the money and in the quarter million guaranteed I was out after 10 minutes, losing with AT against A6 when a six came on the river.

In Phil Gordons new book “The Real Deal” is a training that got me thinking: take a seat in a very low limit game, put a black stripe on your monitor where your hole cards are and play to win, using only your positional advantage. Wow! The books says you should be able to beat these limits without even seeing your holecards. Reminds me of Luke Skywalker, training the light sword with no sight. Was there something like that even in Karate Kid? I think I will try this out soon – in 30/60!!! Please don’t ask for day and time, I’m a fool but not a complete one, lol. But you are welcome to join and find out!