Hella Hold'em

Got in a little afternoon delight today at Empire. Sat down at a .50/1.00 limit table with the goal of loosening up my starting hand requirements a teeeeeny tiny little bit, with the simultaneous goal of playing those hands smart and dumping them if the flop missed me, or I didn't have pot odds to draw.

It worked out well - up $22 in about an hour. Nice little surprise!

I had kinda sworn off the limit tables, based on the high degree of suck-out-age that occurs. No surprises there - people really do call all the way to the river with ZILCH! It's amazing. That has led me to make 2 adjustments to my low-level limit game:

1. Behold the power of the re-raise, and do it whenever I've got a hand and want to chase out the draws. Sometimes it works, and they fold - sometimes it doesn't, and things get capped. Then ya hang onto your hat and hope they don't catch.

2. Be able to fold on the river when that third flush card hits and mister call-me-down has all of a sudden gone into raise-a-holic mode. It seems to be in my experience if they're a calling station type, they aren't bluffing. (Those better players though, gotta go with the gut, cuz they could just be represent'n).

I had #3 in mind as I was typing just now, and can't for the life of me remember what it was. Ever since I turned 30, my memory has gone to hell! LOL

The other thing I was thinking about today: the concept of limit versus no-limit, and how you really have to have the mindset in a limit game that it's all one big session, and make your bets and draws accordingly - comparing your chances of success to infinity. Make the mathematically correct draws when the pot is giving me odds, because IN THE LONG RUN, it will work out to be a profitable move. The Long Run = Forever. In a no-limit game, there is no long run. The Long Run = Whenever Your Stack Goes Bust. It's a very different mentality. It's like comparing immortality to mortality; you've always got to have a sense of protecting your chip stack when playing no-limit.

I *really* didn't want to stop playing this afternoon, but I'm holding a little party at my house tomorrow afternoon, and my cupboards are bare. There's a snowstorm barrelling towards Chicago right now, and we're expecting 10 inches. It's due to start here in a couple hours. So I really have to get out of my pajamas and head to the grocery store to stock up for the party tomorrow.

So, off I go! TGIF!