Well I have been swamped with work the last few days, so I haven’t actually logged many good sessions at the tables. Been doing a half hour here, an hour there. But nothing really remarkable and nothing really worth writing to you folks about. I have managed to raise the bankroll up to around 80 bucks so I am still moving forward.

My general strategy at this point is either one of two things. I either fold right from the start (85% of the time) or I see a cheap flop hoping to see a monster (A-rag suited, low pocket pairs), or I raise it up big time pre-flop and hope I get a fish that doesn’t recognize that I am holding a monster.

With both of the last two situations If I get my hands on a monster I am just mashing the raise button. Now some people will say that’s pretty dumb cause any decent player will recognize it and fold and you wont maximize your profits. This would be true, except remember I am playing really low limits at beginners tables right now. I have found it’s just easier to try to get as much in as quickly as possible and in the long run I will get paid off far more then if I try to make value bets.

Sure sometimes the fish folds and I get pissed that my nut flush didnt pay, but a vast majority of the time, even with 4 to a flush on the board, some guy is calling me down with middle pair.

My only real concern is that this will mess up my game as I move up. I don’t worry about that too much cause my game is aggressive by nature – and it’s actually much better suited for higher limits, so once I finally climb that ladder I feel confident that I will settle into my natural game. But for now this excercise is teaching me discipline, and how to adapt to the tables and switch up my game more. Right now I am absolutely confident that I can outplay anyone after the flop, so I don’t mind seeing the flop with garbage.

I gotta say the Poker Office software is a great tool as well. It’s just like Poker Tracker but in my opinion much more user friendly. It really helps me recognize when another wolf sits down at my table of sheep, and I can then play him accordingly. I usually try to get isolated with him early on and send a message leaning on him with constant pressure. They tend to usually avoid me from then on.

Another theory I have been thinking about is constantly cashing out. See at the tables I play right now the max-buy in is 5$. So when I am sitting there $20+ I feel that sorta gives something away. The fish will try to avoid me like the plague – but any decent player is gonna see me and see a bloated target where they can double up through me several times. So I really think having a huge stack hurts my situation in the long run.

So I have been considering whenever I get over $10 I will leave the table and then buy back in for 5$. This way at least I wont be broadcasting to the table that I have got 4x’s the buy in and I am not a complete idiot. Haven’t started doing this yet but I will tell ya how it works out if I do.