What’s so wrong with K-9?

I had a great conversation with somebody today, sitting next to me at The Caribbean.  I had been playing for a couple of hours, and had been punished for playing some vulnerable hands out of position.  Specifically, I limped preflop from early position with K J offsuit, only to find the person to my immediate left raise.  Ugh.  This happened again with Q T offsuit, and I know better than to play those hands out of position…

So it happened that a new player sat down to my left, somebody I talk with quite a bit at the tables, and one of his first few hands he played was K-9 suited.  He was on the button, so he had good position, and nobody raised preflop so he limped with K-9 suited.  The flop came T, J, Q and he figured he was good, so he played it hard.  I can’t remember the action on the flop and turn, but by the river he said he started to wonder if his opponent had AK, and sure enough they did.  He turned to me after tha hand and swore off ever playing K-9 again.

I have to admit that I probably would have lost money on that hand too – probably even more than he did because I tend to play very aggressively and would have been raising when behind.  Sometimes my aggression gets the best of me.  :)  Anyway, we started talking about vulnerable hands that people (including myself) tend to play out of position.

So what’s so wrong with K J offsuit in early position?  The thing is, once somebody raises I’m pretty sure I’m way behind anything they’re raising with.  Any pocket pair currently beats me, and I would have to spike a J or a K to maybe beat their pocket pair.  That is, unless they happen to hit a set.  My hand is dominated by A K and K Q – both hands that are often raised preflop.  Being out of position, I have two things to consider – somebody might raise after me, meaning I’m already beat.  Then, if I do happen to spike a pair I have to act first – I could go for a check/raise if I spike a J, but again I’m hoping that the preflop raiser after me doesn’t have a bigger pocket pair like QQ or KK or AA, or even something like AJ or JJ.

I normally consider myself to be a pretty tight player, but sometimes, usually at a table where there isn’t much preflop raising, I’ll find myself playing hands like KJ and QT, QJ, even A-X suited from early and middle positions.  It can be costly.

I told my friend at the table a story that happened to me a couple of years ago, which I think I’ve mentioned on this blog.  I actually hit two straight flushes in one day, and won two Monte Carlo jackpots because of it.  It was a good day for me, but in the end I think those straight flushes actually cost me more than I won.  After that I started to value suited connectors too much, often calling with them way out of position and especially when somebody after me raises, paying too much to see the flop.  Then, having to make difficult decisions when/if I spike a pair on the flop.

One of the big wins from playing a generally tight game is that you end up reducing the number of difficult decisions.  If you play something like 76 suited from early position, and the flop comes 7 high, do you go for a check/raise hoping your pair of 7s hold up?  Do you check/call and hope to catch something on the turn?  Do you have to consider things like backdoor flush draws or straight draws?  Playing tight can often mean you miss out on winning hands, but you end up missing more losing hands that often present difficult situations.

Tilting

I’ve played a lot of poker in the past few months.  So much that I’m starting to feel burned out, and not very anxious to go back to the tables anytime soon.  In fact, I’ve submitted a couple of applications for employment that I’m excited about.  Who knows what will happen, but I do know that there are days I feel like if I see another playing card or poker chip I’m going to lose my mind.

One of the effects of being burned out is that I have very little patience for other players, and I find subtle but maybe dangerous ways to verbally make fun of them.  Last night someone mentioned that playing tight is no longer appropriate because poker has changed over the years.  He was saying that the wisdom that used to prevail in the 70s and 80s is no longer valid.  Of course he’s wrong, but I decided to chime in by explaining (or rather, humoring myself) that the laws of statistics are fluid, and change over time.  I explained that for instance, the concept of percentage used to mean “portion of a whole” but now is quite different.  I explained that evidence of such a fact is that you commonly see percentages stated that are above 100%, which used to be impossible because it is impossible to have a portion that is greater than the whole.

Of course everything I said was complete BS and there were other players at the table who smiled at my saarcasm, but to my surprise a few other players chimed in saying that they had read about this, and were trying to remember a word for it.

A friend tells me that one of these days a player is going to understand that I’m really making fun of them, and he’s going to slash my tires or maybe worse…

Anyway, it’s really a form of tilt.  Additionally, I’m having a difficult time staying in the frame of mind that means I understand that skill wins out in the long run.  It really pisses me off to see bad decisions rewarded at my expense.  In truth, intelectually, I really want my opponents making bad decisions, and especially when those rewards reinforce bad decisions.  But in the short term it kind of pisses me off.

I feel like I need to get away from 3/6 and 4/8 and move up to a minimum of 8/16.  At least at those limits I’m averaging a higher hourly rate.

Those are just my random thoughts for the day.  :)

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