Mini-sesh: HU and 6max limit.

During my lunch break I played some HU and 6max limit hold em. Swongy swong swong. It's hard for me to make dead reads against some of these guys and I wind up on the unerlaggy side of things, letting weak-tight opponents just induce semibluffs from me street after street. Boo!

I did try some 1/2 HU. Man, the deck can KILL you in that game. One guy was running great against me for half the session but then slipped out of focus. He was definitely more experienced than me, but probably less adept in actual poker decision making (hands he took to showdown and where he chose to bluff all seemed odd and too... predictably devious, maybe?). He played maybe 40 minutes of hands against me and it was a battle. Beyond a doubt, I had the edge by the end. I think he lost sight of my hand ranges in the end of the game and resorted to spewy play. I had to go back to work, so I said "peace" in the chatbox and that I thought I was very lucky to have beat him (didn't say: by that much).

Shortly after I finished typing my farewell in, he said "F U Peace". Oh boy, did that make me a little up set. I wanted to put the hurt on him so bad. Any time something like that happens, I go online and check to see if he was a winner. It looks like he's a marginal tournament winner and has his nose open in the middle and low limit shorthanded and HU games. He's down about the amount he's paid in rake, according to the site. I can believe it.

Now I feel sympathy for the guy. I figured he was a slight winner if he game selected well, but the data indicates he pays a double rake.

The lesson to learn: these aren't friendships, these are transactions. Like an insurance adjuster or a judge, the professional objective is to be courteous and quick in doing your job no matter how you feel about the people you are dealing with. "The Professional" knows that there's no point in looking for sympathy at the table. I should trust him.

The Professional.

Tommy Angelo, world's greatest poker taxonomist- he coined both the terms* Hijack and Buttoff- has done it yet again.

The Professional. Its ways are a simple, moderate path like "The Tao"**. Or as in the Zen tradition, it represents the finger pointing heavenward and the moon itself. Perhaps it is a poker player's superego.

No matter. The Professional doesn't care what you call it.

When you think about your play, you hear the voice of the Professional. As you think, the voice changes. Not because the Professional changes but because your ability to relate to it changes.

Running well?

Play well, says the Professional.

Running bad?

Play good, says the Professional.

Done with playing?

Don't play, says the Professional.

The Professional is the best instinct and the best decision in all of us, all the time.

It sees the angles and states the right action. How we hear it and if we listen are up to us.

* Hijack: the seat two off the button. By playing aggressively there, you remain too strong to be called lightly- thus you hijack late position's ability to steal the blind. Buttoff: when the button fails to react to raises from the seat right in front of it- the cutoff- appropriately, the cutoff become the new button.

**Or better yet the Art of War. A good general sees Death Terrain before he marches an army into it.