Father Knows Best

July 21, 2007 - Chumash

Why is patience a virtue? Because it's sooo damn hard to do. Playing patiently can be very frustrating (and boring), but it's often the best way to play (at least IMHO) at lower level NLHE games that attract the aggressive internet "hotshots".

Playing patient poker reminds me of 2 sayings my dad used to say that drove me nuts (but turned out to be oh-so-right):
1) "If it was easy, everyone would do it" (when I would complain about doing something difficult)
2) "There are no shortcuts to anyplace worth going" (when I would complain that I didn't like quote #1)

Why play a game (for fun) in a style that you find unenjoyable, you may ask?

Good question - I don't know.

I bitch and moan about playing tight / aggressive / slippery (more on this later), but it's really the only way that I've found to minimize the amount of "gambling" in my poker play. And it seems that gambling is all these "kids" want to do - get their money into the pot in bluff or semi-bluff situations where they can either push you off the better hand or suck-out on you.

Now I have no problem with running a semi-bluff or a bluff - but if that's your whole game plan, it just seems like you've been watching too much poker on TV. And, I don't like having to call oversized bets again and again (call me chicken, but I don't like watching my bankroll bounce around too much) - this is where the slippery part comes in, I don't like calling down large bets on smallish pots with modest holdings unless I’ve got a read that tells me you’re full of crap. It just seems like an obvious trap-play (maybe reverse obvious?) to me.

Anyway, it seems that this type of person makes up a large percentage of the players I've been up against recently.

So, what's this got to do with my Saturday Chumash adventure? Not much, except for the patience part. This poker session was an exercise in patience-building. I've had long spells at the table where I've been card-dead, but this was the worst that I've experienced.

I sat down at my usual $60 NL table in seat 7 at a little after 11:00AM. Nearly four hours later, the only decent hands I had seen were AKs, AJo, ATo (twice), and pocket 4’s – just this in 3½ hours? WTF!

My first $60 had been whittled away and my second $60 was about half gone when things got better (not great, but better). All-in-all, I played more than 6 hours, but most of my “play” was in the last 2½ hours of the day.

I really only remember a couple of hands from the latter part of the day:

1) I'm in EP/MP and a loose-ish player in seat 5 raises to $7 from UTG, I look down at TT and raise it to $21. It folds around to the small blind who moves in for his last $20, and the UTG player calls ($60 main pot & $2 side pot). The flop is a very nice 3, 7, 8 rainbow, which the UTG checks. I bet $20 and he flips his KQo into the muck. The small blind grimaces to see the KQ exposed because he’s got the same hand – KQo. An ace on the turn and 7 on the river gives me my first decent pot of the day.

2) Late in the day, I was on the button with 3 limpers in front of me and saw Js, 9s in my hand – from this spot I knew that the blinds rarely raised, so I limped. The blinds called and it’s 6 to the flop, which is 2d, 8c, Td for a dirty straight-draw (I call it dirty, cuz some of my outs weren’t “clean”). It’s checked to seat 3 who bets $5, I called as does the BB. Turn is Ks, and it’s checked to me – and I bet $6 – both players called. The river is the 4c, and I took a stab at it. Since I’d done nothing but fold all day long, and only showed down the winner every time that I did bet at the pot, I knew that my image was squeaky-tight. So I bet $10 into this ~$40 pot… and the BB folded (yay). Seat 3 looked me over, then tossed his cards in disgust into the muck. Hooray, score 1 for the good guys.

Anyway, when all was said & done, I bought in twice for $120 dollars, and left after ~6½ hours with $121. There was one other time I bought a pot with a smallish river bet (very similar to hand #2 above), but those were the only times that I bluffed. I probably should be bluffing at more of these orphan pots, but my poker-radar was rusty at the start of the day and it wasn’t until the end of the day that I felt comfortable in my reads of the other players.

In the end, dad did know best, and good things can come to those who wait. I just wish the good things would get there sooner.

Net = $1

Poker Drawer = $660