Sorry for a bit in the delay in writing this, but early morning at work today so I'm using lunch to get this one written and out. We shall start with the traditional business and recap last nights action. It was a small night for me last night, didn't get home till a little later and sat down to play in the Mini FTOPs #4 ($109 6max) and grind some 45mans. I'll let you guess which one worked out better for me…My table draw for the Mini was pretty rough and there were 4 high stakes regs at my table. I think I played reasonably well, but I know I was getting picked on. It was very difficult to determine where I was at in a flurry of 3 and 4 bet pots. I know 6max is a more aggressive animal, but I wasn't able to effectively counter my opponents strategy and ended up busting out a little before registration closed (somewhere in level 8). I think I learned a lot and there is certainly a huge difference between the small stuff and the big stuff when it comes to that level of aggressive fighting for pots. At the micro level when you are in a 3 or a 4bet pot for sure you can rest comfortably knowing someone is holding a huge hand, not so much in that one. So what did I do with the rest of the time I had for the night, well I went to do some studying. I recently got BalugaWhale's latest seminar on Balance and Leveling so I fired that up to give it a listen and as usual, was not disappointed with the results (check out www.dailyvariance.com for it). There were three really interesting points for me in the seminar that I thought I would share with you
1. Balance is overrated.
2. Three or None, nothing in between
3. If your in a Leveling War, duck…
Okay, first topic that was very interesting was the idea of balance. The core of the discussion which I thought was very well put together was that for the most part balance is overrated. We really can't put ourselves in situations where we sacrifice short term gains for potential long term results just to achieve some magical concept. Poker is a game of mistakes and capitalizing on them when they occur. Why would we want to give up on that just to manage some mythical concept. So take it for what its worth, but balance isn't really important. Who are we going to be playing with enough to worry about it anyway. I can count the number of similiar players I have seen in micro/low tourneys on one hand. Don't worry about it, take the value now and move on.
The second topic was a really something I hadn't thought a lot about and after the discussion realized it is something that I do a lot. How many times have you found yourself firing 2 barrels only to check/fold a river. You ever get the feeling that you start to get exploited? I know I do. What Andrew was talking about here and it makes a lot of sense is if you have a hand that you get involved with to see a flop your plan should include three bullets or none at all. What does he mean. Well how many times have you had a TP/TK hand or 2 pair type hand that you bet flop, bet turn and checked when a scare card comes out, only to have your opponent bet into you for any amount and you fold disgusted. I know it happens a ton. What makes it worse is the occasional time they show you their middle pair type hand. So how do we combat that. If we have strong equity in the hand be prepared to put 3 barrels into the guy. I'll tell you right now, you are going to value own yourself from time to time. But if we don't do that periodically then we aren't trying hard enough for chips. Think about it some, more to come on my progress with this as I know it is a leak in my game.
The last part which I thought was the most interesting was if you find yourself starting to get into a Leveling war, stop. There is no need to climb the ladder. Take what you know about that person at their base level and go with that. Ockam's Razor here is the most complex you need to go. No need to get any fancier than that. If they are aggressive and like to bluff, chances are that is what they are doing. If you are wrong, you are wrong. It happens.
Okay, long post today. Tonight is slated to be a solid session for me, probably going to grind the 45s for a while just to improve my BR position. Catch everyone tomorrow. This is the Gman signing out.