Poker

I had a pretty bad game of poker last night. I usually play a table of 4 or so. My game doesn’t really scale well to 7 players. I was also delt bad cards all night long.

The two best hole cards I had all night were 109 suited and AJ suited. The rest of my hands were garbage. No pairs all night. I only won two hands all night but I also only lost maybe four hands. One of the hands I won and one hand I lost was late in the game with myself all in, so both don’t really count since I didn’t really have any other choice. I was folding a lot too but losing blinds really added up.

A call is a really poor move to make and the poorness is amplified the more players there are in the game. Letting the blinds limp in is really a bad play too. The blinds can have a shit hand and then hit it big on the flop.

The 109 suited I threw away after paying to see the flop, I had drawn shit. The only hand I lost big on was the AJ suited. The player before me raised and I re-raised. The blinds folded, there were two calls, and another fold. So three-way action for the flop. The flop is Q107 with the 7 being suited. I’m feeling alright since I have a fair number of outs. There is about a 1/8 chance I make a flush. About 2/13 that I make my straight. And 4/13 that I make a pretty good pair. If I don’t make a hand, I still have top high card. Since I didn’t let the blinds limp in, the chance that high card wins is not bad but also not great. There’s about a 1/3 chance I make a hand. If I make a hand, I probably win.

Player 1 checks, I raise, Player 3 calls, and Player 1 folds. Excellent, heads up play for the next two cards. Since the only player left hasn’t raised once, I’m guessing I’m the favourite to win the hand.

The turn draws shit. I raise. I need to steal the pot here or draw a decent card on the river. Player calls. River draws shit. Same predicament. I have the best high card, but I really need to steal this pot. I raise. Player calls.

Player wins with bottom pair on the flop. A pair of sevens. That’s a shit hand to lose to.

There were really only two ways I could win this hand. I really should have stolen this hand before the river. I should have made a heftier raise on the turn to steal the pot. Or I should have went all in after the river. No ones gonna call with bottom pair on the flop. But having the late position was a real advantage on this hand.

In terms of my game not scaling to 7 players, I need to start remembering at what point a person is raising. Assuming a player is not trying to steal a pot, there are really 3 cases for a person to raise or even to call.

The player is slow playing and made a hand in the past. The player just made a hand. Or the player hopes to make a hand in the future (flush-draw or straight-draw).

I need to call less often. Either raise or fold, especially pre-flop. Playing hands where the blinds limped in is suicide. Slow-playing pocket pairs is probably viable strategy if I’m trying to add variance to my game.