Breakin it down before Breakin it up

I’m exhausted. Between work, the Grublog Poker Classic, and trying to play solid poker, I’m worn down to the felt. A break sounds pretty good right about now. Iggy‘s brief hiatus seems to have invigorated him, and I’m hoping a few days off will have the same effect on yours truly.
HDouble goes Triple
5 months of blogging, and 10 months of poker, and I think I’m finally figuring this game out. Taking a page from David Ross’ book, I played a few sessions of 3 $3-6 tables over the past 2 days. A few months back, 3 tables was too much: I knew my starting standards and my odds, but I was still calculating everything. The last couple days I’ve noticed that all this stuff is now second nature, so playing multiple tables takes a lot less effort. I’m feeling the flow of the game at a deeper level… is there a short stack acting behind me that will go all-in with a marginal hand? Is the table passive enough that I can get away with playing my pocket deuces in early position? Will these guys pay me off if I hit my flush? A few months ago I could handle these questions on a single table, but 3 tables was just overwhelming.
So how did I do? Well, yesterday I posted 3 small wins on all 3 table for a total of $77 (13 BB) in half an hour of play. Today was even better. $200 (33 BB) in a little over an hour. The funny thing is, I didn’t even play that well. I took my share of bad beats, including capping one hand on the river when the board was 4s 7d 9d Qd 7c and I held pocket 4s. Guess what the re-raiser had? Yep, Q7 (Spades). Ye gads. I did catch 1 or 2 rivers, but most of my hands won without a showdown. I didn’t feel like I was on a card rush, but I did get AA twice and KK twice over the 250 hands (I think 3 of them held up, but as usual, the Party Hand Histories aren’t coming in).
I encourage everybody out there to learn fast, and get into these $3-6 games. This is the dawn of the “Golden Age” of poker. The players will only get better, and the games tougher, but for now there is a lot of money to be made. You can make a nice profit by playing only premium hands, since there will always be one or two fish that will pay to see the showdown. The money comes from that 1 hand in 100 when you hit big– those big multiway pots where everybody’s in, and you hit your flush or your boat. If you rathole those $100 pots, and don’t throw it away with fancy plays and long calls, you’re doin alright.
I’m going to see how I do with 3 tables this week, and see if I can continue winning at a decent rate. I’m sure the numbers won’t be as good as today, but I’m pretty confident that there are plenty of fish to feed on at the $3-6 level. Of course, if I had gotten rivered all night I’m sure I wouldn’t be as confident.
Don’t Look Back
I haven’t ever gone back and looked through all my posts, but it’s something I’m hoping to do this week. Everybody always wonders how they are perceived by others, and blogs give us a way to go back and see how we perceived ourself at different points in our life. I’ll try to come up with a list of my favorite posts over the past 5 months, although I guess it’s a little pretentious of me to hope people will read them again (assuming anyone read them the first time around). But it will be interesting for me to follow the arc of the blog.
Catching up
After “meeting” lots of new bloggers as the tourney last night, I realized I have a lot of catching up to do. I’ve done my best to keep up, but every time I find a new blog I end up going all the way back to the start and trying to find out what makes the writer tick. Liquid Swords made a comment a while back that I’ve come to appreciate after reading so many bloggers (I’m paraphrasing): “Blogs are like a real version of reality TV.” What he meant is that you get a look into the life of these poker players– their growth, their agony, and most importantly, their personality. Thanks to everybody for sharing– it’s not easy to sit down and write about your losses and difficulties, but if you’re struggling, it helps to know that there are others out there who are going through the same thing.
Hmmm, no mention of check-raising or Empire affiliation in the entire post, I guess it really is time for a break.
Keep on Truckin.