Haven't been playing a ton lately; being that its the holidays and all and plenty of other stuff going on. But I have done some, and I have come to a couple of realizations (or more accurately, confirmations of things I knew). They can be summed up in one word each.
One: FOCUS. The other day I tried playing poker and working on some other stuff at the same time. BAD idea. There are levels of focus, I've found, and I can get away with paying a bit less attention online than on the felt. But the level I had on this day was terrible, and I could feel it. As a result, I knocked off until I got my other stuff finished, and by then, I didn't even feel like playing any more. Which is fine - sometimes, it's just not your day.
The lesson: make sure that when I play poker, I am there to play poker and nothing else
Two: INSTINCT. I've never put too much stock into players who say they "had a feeling" regarding a hand, whether it be how well one in their hand would perform against others, or as a read against another player. But, I'm coming around on that. I still don't think it's some kind of mystical ability given by God; I think it's more along the lines of subconsciously processing all of the information available and narrowing down possibilities. When these possibilities are narrow enough, players get a "feeling". At least, I think that's how it works for me. Last time I played, I called down on a river push while saying to myself, "I know you have the ace". Like an idiot, I didn't trust my gut, and got burned because guess what, he did have the ace. NOT FANCY.
The lesson: in the absence of overriding evidence, trust your gut. It just might mean something.
On to the latest results. About a week ago, I played four games on Full Tilt, with awful results. My best outcome was 21st in a 90 person, 2000 chip tournament, which is so far from cashing as to not be worth mentioning. Three other attempts were just as worthless, and after the last, I decided it just wasn't my day (see above) and packed it in.
Most recently, things got better. I decided to play in another 90 person SNG to start off, before multi-tabling. I didn't get that far, but for good reason. After treading water for a while, taking down a couple of pots to keep me in the bottom third of the rankings, I made it to the final table in sixth. It was obvious the two short stacks were sitting out, and soon two others were KO'd. Long story short, I got down to three-handed, by which time it was obvious the second-place player was sitting out as well.
I stole a few blinds and small pots before a nice double-up right before the break. I was still behind about 3:1, so not feeling too confident, but I was back in the race. After the break, the sit-out was finally eliminated, and I went to work. I'm not sure what to make of it, because my opponent seemed very conservative - even more than me. For once, I made a read and took advantage, with many pre- and post-flop raises winning pots. Another big double-up on a showdown hand put me in the lead, and soon it was me who was up roughly 3:1.
Again, I tread water for a while, despite a number of pushes that didn't get called. Finally, I was victorious: two pair J/9 (nine in the hand) after the river, and I pushed all-in. My opponent called and flipped pocket sixes - not a bad move on their part at all; again, I think their conservative play was a bit too much.
(You have NO idea how odd it is for me to call someone else overly conservative.)
I won, but I'm most happy with HOW I won - I made reads on my opponent, and had the guts to take advantage.
Now, the big question: can I bring that same approach to the felt?
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