Got lots of Webby stuff done this weekend on assorted projects. If any of you folks don't have an UltimateBet account yet, I'm running a contest this month over on BonusBug for people creating new UB accounts, giving away a poker chip set and Copag cards. Gotta be a new account, though, and you've gotta click through the links there to be in the running.
I finally broke down and got a nice 11.5g chip set for myself last week. I'd grabbed a big stack of chips and had just been clinking them together neurotically while playing/working at the computer for a day or two, when my wife pointed out that not only was it cute, but that it was funny that I was playing with $1 chips, when I had a whole rack of $100 chips that would look much more impressive. Good point. So now I neurotically clink together a stack of $100 chips. Because I'm cool like that.
While I'm getting a goodly bit out of Ciaffone Middle Limit Holdem Poker
, there are a few points where I'm left scratching my head, thinking the advice is horribly tight. Especially in regards to blinds play, as far as the range of hands he reccommends to play. I still don't have a good feel for that aspect of play, but at 15/30 (or any limit where the small blind is 2/3 of the big blind) I have to think you should liberally call from the SB with just about anything, especially if there are a few limpers in front of you.The chapter on bluffing is pretty interesting, though, as far as particular situations in which to check-call flop bets in order to set up a check-raise bluff on the turn, regardless of what card actually comes. The main point isn't that bluffing is cool and fun but that if you sit there and play tight, aggressive poker, you're leaving money on the table if you don't take a few stabs here and there with complete bluffs when the opportunities are ripe. You're doing all the hard work, playing tight and disciplined, so it's a waste not to take advantage of some of the side benefits of respect that you'll get when you check-raise on a scary looking board.
1 comment:
I agree with the general idea that playing either slightly more or less conservative than your table image (esp if your table image tends to maniac or rock), can be very profitable in the right environment, but one thing that many of my "better" poker playing friends forget is that in the typical home game thse days, with lots of novices, it's extremely difficult - and probably not necessary - to bluff! I play in a few local games where there are one or two players who are totally predictable rocks, but it doesn't matter because they get callers almost every hand.
I can often call the exact hand they hold, but they've been called to the river by someone who doesn't really know what they're doing and couldn't fold top pair weak kicker on a three-straight three-suit board to a 2xpot bet :)
There are a couple small local games I play in where I could definitely make more money consistently if I played my tightest game, but I just find it too boring and not much of a learning experience -- I like to keep my jousting abilities in pretty good shape for when I go out to bigger games in Vegas and California.
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