Mark's Poker Blog

Types of players

IMHO, there are basic types of players. I divide them into a category, whether they are loose/tight, which affects how many hands they play, and aggressive/passive, which affects how they play the hands they are in. If you combine them, you end up with:

Loose/passive
Tight/passive
Loose/aggressive
Tight/aggressive

Some of these types/styles are just flat bad players. If you play a certain style, you are basically a bad player. Other styles can be good or bad - it depends on your skill level. Finally, you can argue that anyone who plays a tight/aggressive game is a good player. I generally agree, but I don't consider them to be the best players. I will post a discussion for each in some coming entries.

Tournament Strategy

We were at a game the other night and a couple of us were talking about tournament strategy. It started because people were joking about another guys cash game play, which I responded to, saying that the guys style works well for tournaments. Being super-tight players, they totally disagreed with me. A couple of these guys do "very well" in tournaments - they tend to just miss the final table or make and sneak into the money. I chuckled, because I don't think this makes you a good player. In my opinion, it is all about making money. If you play a lot of tournaments, you want to maximize your time and make as much money as you can. Aside from the entertainment aspect, if you can make more money playing cash games, then you shouldn't bother with tournaments. Larger cash games are more common than larger tournaments and in my opinion, offer a better way to make money.

I personally don't play many tournaments. I don't like being tied to the PC for hours and there just aren't that many live tournaments in San Antonio that are large enough for me to want to play. I used to be one of those super-tight tournament players, who like the guys above, generally ended up around the money cut off line. I have changed my style, for better or worse, and I either accumulate chips and play very aggressive or I get sent home early. I place in fewer tournaments than I used to, but when I do place, I get 1st or 2nd. In my tournament, I came in first (we actually chopped) twice in a row. I haven't made a final table in 3 or 4 tournaments since though. I have played semi-regularly in another larger tournament and it is the same thing. I don't make the final table, but when I do (it was the largest one they had), I won.

I am not advocating playing like a maniac, just that I think it is most profitable to play to win, Most of the prize money is in the top 2 or 3 spots, so you want to shoot for those, rather than patting yourself on the back because you ended up within a spot or two of the money cut off line. My favorite "you are a dumb ass" line is when someone, usually a super-tight player, brags about how well they played, but just missed the money. I feel like slapping them and saying that is the WORST place. You are better off getting kicked out on the first hand and then waiting around for the inevitable cash game, which are generally filled with the truly bad players who also got knocked out early.

Most of us don't have infinite time to play cards, so you want to maximize the amount of money you can win per hour.

Back to online

I am going back to online poker for a while. I stopped playing for a couple of months. I cashed out of my pokerstars account and just stopped playing. I was playing a lot of live poker and there just isn't time for both. I will still play live poker, but felt like mixing it up a bit.

I put $600 into pokerstars and have it up to $1600 after a couple of days. Online poker is such a different animal. I play much smaller games online, but I play a lot of windows. While I will routinely play 5/10 and 10/25 NL games live, I really don't like to do the same thing online. I would rather play a bunch of 2/4 or 3/6 NL tables.

When you play live, at least outside of a casino, you don't have much choice in terms of game and table selection. You go over to someone's house or apartment and play at their one table. If you are lucky, you can pick your seat. Online, especially on a big site like pokerstars, during peak times, there are tons of games to pick from, so table selection and seat selection are key. There are always looser tables and/or tables with several bad players. There is no reason to sit at a tight table with a bunch of tough players. Pick loose tables with weak players. And try to pick a seat to the left of the money. If you get a bad seat, don't take it. Wait for a better one.

Another reason to play online is that generally, the rakes are lower.

Not much poker this weekend

I didn't get an opportunity to play much poker this weekend. I played a little on Friday night. I went over to a 2/5 game and proceeded to get sloppy drunk. The hostess encouraged us to join her taking vodka shots, so me and another fellow had 4 or 5 each. I chased a few draws early and built my stack to $800 or right away. He had maybe $300 or so. We were both playing super loose, almost crazy. Everyone there was thinking the same thing - let me get a hand against one of these two yahoos.

There was a pot with maybe $100 in it and I bet on the flop with a weak ace. He went all in. I called and had a stronger ace (7 versus 3). He ended up hitting his 3 on the river and doubled up. The next few rounds were uneventful and then I got in a pot with AJ. Again, there was maybe $100 in the pot. I hit my ace and bet the pot. It got around to him and he went all in, for about $600. I called. He showed a weak flush draw and missed, so I busted him.

I made another wild play later. I went all in over a guy who bet $100. I had a flush draw and he laid down top pair.

On another pot, I limped in with 45 offsuit. There were several callers. Flop is A, J, 2, rainbow. Everyone checks. A miracle 3 flops. One guy makes a pot sized bet and I call. It gets around to this other guy, who goes all in for $400. I call of course. He has a set of jacks and my straight holds up on the river.

So anyway, I was doing great, but kept drinking some and ended up losing a big pot where I hit my AK on the flop, but another guy hit top two with KT. So,,, drinking won me several pots I should have lost and cost me one I should have gotten away from.