Ask me why I haven't posted lately.

I've been telling myself to post about some poker strategy that I have been dwelling on before I do anything else.

What strategy have I been dwelling on? Glad you asked.

1. There is an enormous aversion to panacea in no limit theory. This is a given. However, there is a secondary aversion to relinquishing the panaceas that are still available. This is generic, of course but let me get into the guts of it.

A huge number of strategy discussions in no limit hold em do not relate to a strategy that truly represents significant changes in expected value. For example, when you get it in with aces on the flop, you know what you are facing: TPTK if you are lucky, a set if you are not, and a big draw otherwise. Against an opponent with skill, it's +EV to call not because you are a huge favorite but because you did a good job getting the money in preflop and the follow through is mandatory or you're leaving your money on the table.

But it is not a spot where you are printing money or letting someone else party on your dime. Go through a micro or small stake strategy forum's front page. Among all of the hands discussed, how many focus on a decision that can be changed away from letting someone throw a party on the poster's dime or towards printing money?

Secondarily, among those posts how many have a different spot than the one in question where you can talk about a shift in EV? I would say maybe a third.

How often is it pointed out? Probably about half the time.

How often is the advice acknowledged or seriously considered by the posters? Maybe another half.

And there you have it. If you read the small stakes no limit forums, 1/12 of all threads have a nugget for the original poster in them.

These are things that let me print money.

On the flop or before:

1. Position. God, the button is awesome.
2. A hand with weak players.
3. An image contrary to the nature of the current hand (LAG with aces, TAG with 67s).
4. 3 betting weak tags.

On the flop and beyond:

1. A pot against a hand range that is forced to play face-up. Pots where I am the aggressor.
2. Check raising light 3 bettors with a completely polarized range.
3. A hand that is at the top of its range.
   
4. A hand that is well-concealed.
   
5. Rivers played after well-sized bets. In river pots with less than 60% of a pot left to wager, or more than 200%.
6. Smallball. No one plays well with money behind out of position.
7. In bet-fold and check-call spots, as opposed to bet-call.
8. As a delayed c-bettor.

2. Expected Hand Dynamics. Based on what's happened so far in the hand and at the table, you should know how it's going down.

Lately, I've been trying to get more comfortable with the spectrum of hand outcomes, what flops will set them up, and how the opponent will behave. I've been imagining it almost like a tunnel, or a level of super mario brothers.

Which pipes do you take, how do you time your jumps? By now I've played most of the levels, so it's just a question of making sure my timing is up to scratch. More on this later.

My C-game.

I played a 90 minute session of 25 and 50 NL yesterday. During which, my girlfriend called and seemed stressed out that I wasn't able to accomodate her change of plans. This of course made me upset and my game went off kilter right away. I tried to straighten it out, but I did not succeed. As an exercise, I am making a list of attributes for my C-game. The poker game I play when I should really think more seriously about ending my session early.

1. I lose my "intuitive" grasp of marginal hand values. Really, I do not recognize things that I should be processing. The cutoff doesn't fold to c-bets often enough, the UTG player has a VPIP of 16, etc, etc.
2. I pay off obvious value bets. I let bad players take my money. I let good players take my money when they shouldn't.
3. I fail to recognize good semibluffing situations. Example: a villain led into my set on a threeflush turn. Obviously I am never folding and the villain will not fold his flushes. But, I am thinking about that instead of the likelihood that I can get the villain to commit to a worse hand with a raise or fold something with nine outs to beat me.
4. My game selection goes out the window.
   
5. I play fancy poker instead of ruthless poker.
6. I abandon core strategy ideas. I will make thin, slightly minus-EV plays without considering them and neglect really solid decision making like: 3betting a folder or flatting a strightforward player to peel one street, no more.
7. I stop recognizing my table image.
   

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.

BLARGH to the hand range haters.

After a nice session last night- I logged nice wins in NLH, limit, and some tourneys. I shut down the computer feeling pretty good about my play. I posted a couple hands from the past few days on the forums and got decent feedback.

This morning, I woke up and started playing 10 NL to practice 8 tabling (my problem is not feeling lost or overly busy now, just not quiiiite fast enough, so practice makes perfect) and a more fundamentally disciplined no limit hold 'em style without detriment to my somewhat light bankroll.

A few observances.

1) I have been running horribly with my overpairs when they get their action from loose players- these are the guys overpairs are made to bet into!

2) I myself am very, very loose in early postions. I need to get back to my original ranges. I have no need to balance or raise in early positions. KTs, QJo. All in- THE MUCK! I need to practice this, perhaps with shorter tables. Time to build and practice a core strategy.

3) I need to talk to the shippo more. I play better with his advice.


QQ in the small blind, short stack (35 BB in the BB). THinking, steal capable button raises, I reraise (automatically) (12 BB, probably), big blind shoves. Button overshoves. Given that BB can be reisolated, I 3-bet light and button knows both..... does this become the snapcall that I made it?

Pot is 82 with 17 to call. Side pot is 60 with 60 to call.

Villains show the two better pairs. BB I put on 99+, AJs, AQ+. Button I put on AK+, JJ+. reasonable?