100 Here, 200 There

So I haven’t written much lately; I’ve been grinding away, trying to build my bankroll.  I’m doing well; however, I am getting tired of playing $3/$6 and $4/$8 when $8/$16 is just down the road, calling out to me, waiting patiently for me to join the game.  I have to be diciplined; I can’t really afford to play $8/$16.  Yet.

I was thinking today about how my view of money has changed because of poker.  A couple of times I’ve found myself thinking of prices in terms of number of bets.  I had decided to buy a new card guard the other day, and as I was looking at it on Amazon.com, I thought to myself, “it’s only 2 big bets at $4/$8; that’s no problem.  I wonder how many big bets a condo in Seattle is?

I lost $300 last weekend; $200 at the Snoqualmie Casino playing $4/$8 on Saturday, and then $100 at The Caribbean playing $3/$6 on Sunday.  A loss like that used to bother me; but now it’s pretty normal.  Not that I tend to lose money, but that $300 just isn’t a big deal when you know that on average you’re making way more than that.  I have enough hours that my average hourly rate only dropped pennies, and then came back up when, on Monday and Tuesday I made more than $700.  It’s up and down – but thankfully, mostly up.

While I’m getting bored with $4/$8, I am finding ways to maximize my earnings.  For instance, there are a couple of check/raise opportunities that sweeten the pot with additional “dead money.”  I have names for most of them:

The Squeeze:  This is usually something you use from an early position, and hopefully when there are a bunch of players seeing the flop.  As an example, last week playing $4/$8 limit I limped in with pocket 8s from under the gun and 4 people limped in behind me.  The player on the button raised, and the small blind folded.  The big blind called, and so did I and the other 4 people behind me.  That means including me, there were 7 people seeing the flop, and a total of $56 in the pot.

The flop came 2 of Diamonds, 6 of Hearts, 8 of Hearts.  This is an absolutely wonderful flop for me; I have top set (3 of a kind) and the best hand so far.  There’s a possibility for someone to have a straight draw, if they have say 7, 9.  There’s the possibility of somebody having a heart flush draw.  I’m a little concerned about the draws available, but at the same time I have the best hand!  I have HUGE pot equity, and need to get as much money into the pot as possible.

I wasn’t yet sure what to put the person on the button on; he could have a large pair like Kings or Queens or Jacks or something like that, but he could just as easily have raised on the button for value, to buid a big pot in case his hand hit.  The first person to act was the person in the big blind; he surprised me by betting.  This is a little suspicious; he’s first to act, so he’s way out of position, and betting into a late position preflop aggressor.  Unless he could put the preflop aggressor on something like Ace Queen or Ace King, I couldn’t understand why the person in Big Blind would bet; unless, he has two pair like 8, 6 or 6, 2.  Or maybe he’s got the flush draw or the straight draw and expects to be raised by the player on the button, after everybody calls behind him.

I have the best hand; if I raise, all of the players after me will have to face the fact that they’ll have to call 2 bets cold.  Psychologically, it’s a lot easier to call a raise if you’ve already invested one bet in the pot.  It’s a lot easier to fold if someone raises ahead of you, and you haven’t put anything in the pot yet.  I wanted EVERYBODY to call; I didn’t really want to chase them out of the pot just yet.

So I smooth-called, and watched as everybody calls, and the person on the button raises.  Big Blind calls, and I consider raising here.  I decide that I’ll just smooth call again, waiting for an opportunity on the next street (the turn) to raise, when the bet size doubles.

Everyone calls, and the pot is large enough at this point that I stop keeping track.  The rest of the hand was pretty normal; neither the straight or the flush hit, and I took the pot with my trip 8s (pocket 8s by the way is my favorite hand).

The point is that I was able to squeeze the players between me and the aggressor, thereby adding even more dead money to what had become a huge pot.  It was actually a dangerous play because it really prevented me from being able to protect my hand, should somebody be drawing to that straight or flush on the board.  All in all, it would probably have been best to play that hand fast and aggressive; still, it seemed to work out.

There are sometimes opportunities to squeeze players by timing raises so that they don’t have to decide whether to call a raise cold, which makes it easy for them to fold.  By allowing them to call one bet, and then call a raise after, they get priced in and extra money is added to the pot.

Just a little something interesting to think about…

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