Stumptown Poker, Night 2

The first time I went to their poker night, a couple weeks ago, I frankly intimidated myself. I took a look at them and thought, "These guys are better than me." I promptly put myself way behind by allowing myself to get pushed off a hand I should have stayed in, had to go into tight mode, got little to play with and, with the blinds focing my hand, went all-in and busted out pretty fast. Did better in a Sit & Go but still not well. Overall in 2 games of 10 people I finished 5th and 4th. I did better the second game, winning a couple hands, but definitely not my standards.

Last night I convinced the Goose to go along and this time I determined to play MY game. There would be no believing they were better or that I could not compete.

I started strong, building a nice chip stack and actually taking the lead. This week there were something like 16 players and I reached the "final table" doing well, bouncing between first and second place. Then someone went all in. I was on a draw and in the key moment I weighed going all in. I did not. I should have because my opponent above the common pot would have folded...and I would have won the whole thing. However, I had a weak hand, played the board, he was watching me instead of the board, he was watching me and he bet. I folded. He flipped his up...and I had folded the best hand even without making my hand. He outplayed me and I deserved to get beat. But I did learn from it.

The rest of the night, instead of watching the cards flopped I watched the other people still in the pot. I improved on knowing when they hit their hands, although I did not pick up any "tells" for sure...I just gathered enough information subconsciously to know when I was in better position. This gave me better value on my bets.

I did try a few new strategies, also. Instead of my normal strategy of just limping in when I picked up a potentially big hand I raised strongly pre-flop. This had mixed results as Big Slick got busted by the board pairing Queens once and Tens another time, both on the flop...but I made that back and more when A/5o paid off on the river.

However, it also did NOT work late game which put me under the gun when the blinds got steep and I ended up having to go all-in with pocket 10s. My opponent had the Cowboys and I was out in 4th place.

Things I need to work on: Patience. I get greedy too often. Better grasp of pot odds and odds of hitting my hand. Patience. My poker face a little bit. Patience. Remembering to watch players, not the cards. Patience. A better grasp of position. Patience. A better job of remembering who raises what hands from what position. And last but not least, patience.