Saturday, October 3, 2009

Up the stakes, up the winnings

I am still running like a god. Since September 1, in the 20/40 and 40/80 games combined I am averaging over 8 big bets an hour for over 38 hours, or in terms of real dollars a shade over $487 an hour. Some of it can be attributed to just getting the right cards at the right times, but I think I can say for the first time in a long time, that I feel that my game has improved. And certainly, I tilt less. Recently, I have felt like I am in the zone at the poker table. I just seem to know what the correct decision is every time, almost instinctively.

I have been mixing it up a bit lately by not raising the turn always with my big hands when I don't have the betting lead and waiting until the river. I have been making some thin value bets on the river, that sometimes have not always worked out, but I have been folding to raises and not mindlessly paying off. Also, I have been in some really good games, with just some god-awful players.

Last night, I played 8/16 for an hour and picked up $155. Then I got called for the 20/40 and picked up $506 in two hours and twenty minutes. Then I got called for the 40/80 and picked up $4410 in 3 hours, and then called it quits and went home. So as the stakes, grew so did the winnings. A pattern that I would like to continue, obviously.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

How much of the winnings upswing do you attribute to saved bets not made and lost? It seems like every session I have a few hands where I say to myself, my win would have been x had I not played those 3/4/5 hands so poorly.

Shaman said...

Hard to say. I will say that I am folding a lot more preflop from early position, which is avoiding putting me into more sticky situations postflop, where I may need to call down, or am not exactly sure where I am at.

Not playing those tough hands in EP against reasonable competition really saves quite a bit in the long run.