Mixers, 3/29/07

I had a new plan going in. Instead of playing "correctly", i.e. only premium hands from early position, only strong hands from middle and most hands from late I was going to limp with any 2 cards whenever I could until I got down to about 2/3rds of my original stack. My theory went thusly; I am good enough to make the final table after getting short stacked. By tightening up I will only play the top hands and that will take me where I need to be. Conversely, by playing a lot of hands even though most of them will be losers I might hit something unexpected and take down a huge pot. Additionally, it will add deception to my game. Once I got down to about 2000 I would tighten up.

So my goals were 2-fold:

The first fold was to experiment with being Sir Limp-a-lot
The second fold was to put people on a hand every time whether I was involved or not.

When I got there I noticed it was a much tougher crowd than usual. A lot of the dead money was not there but some stars from some of the other venues were. I reconsidered my plan. Then I thought...what better crowd to try this against?

First hand sure enough I had some garbage. I limped. So did almost everyone else.Bert the Big Blind raised to 150, 3 times the blind. And here was my first decision.

If I was only going to limp I was going to get out of any big hands, particularly when packing garbage. However, at this point I was getting about 8 - 1 on my money, more if people behind me called. So I called. In fact, I think only one person folded. The flop came and I hit part of it...I had top pair (8s) and with my garbage kicker...I had a backdoor straight draw. I thought about raising it. I never got the chance. Bert went all-in. I hesitated for a couple seconds...I had top pair on board. He could have raised with 2 overs and might be trying to buy what was, after all, a nice pot. Then with a *** pop*** I pulled my head out. I am not losing on the first hand with a pair of 8s!!!!!!! I folded. And surprisingly....Scotty called. Bert had gotten there early so had 300 extra chips, Scotty was at risk. Burt flipped up pocket Queens. Scotty flipped up 8/2....2 pair. And when they held up Bert was in trouble but Scotty had more than doubled up on the first hand.

I should point out that this hand illustrates why limping constantly is a problem was amply demonstrated here. Hold-Em is about decisions...making the right decision. By limping I caused 3 problems on 1 hand:
1) I priced myself into a higher start cost with a trash hand.
2) I gave myself a tougher decision pre-flop (call 3 times the blind with rags)
3) When I got a piece of the flop I gave myself another, tougher decision...and almost made a huge mistake.

So if I am going to play this way i have to make sure I am on my game because more decisions = more chances to make a huge mistake.

More limping followed. But people kept bumping it. And there was my second mistake. I should, at that point, have gone to playing correctly, tightened up and played my normal style. I did not. I won some trash hands, I lost some. I got down about 5 or 6 hundred chips, then up. Then came another key hand. I was down to about 2000, my "I am not limping anymore" point when I picked up fishhooks in the big blind. People limp to me and I bumped it a staggering 500. Eric called, everyone else folded. Flop was all rags. I bumped it a thousand (essentially at that point I was declaring myself all in because with only 500 left...I would be dead.) He almost called but then folded. Between his 500 and the limpers I was back in business.

A couple hands later I limped with Q/rag. Lots of callers. Flop gave me a gut shot. I raised. They both called. The turn filled my straight. I went all-in. Linda almost called. So did Scotty. They were talking about it. "He is trying a move, we know he is trying new things tonight. But I can't believe he would do it with nothing." She wanted so bad to call but they finally both folded. I mucked and as I raked it in I said, "Guess my 2/3 held up". There were nothing but Aces, Kings, Jacks, 10s and a 7 on the board. Linda said, "I thought you were trying a move." Then she thought about it and decided I was lying, that I would not have done that with nothing. Later it got her to pay me off on another hand.

More limping followed and I built a nice stack of about 4 or 5000 or so. I limped UTG with J/8 off. Nipa, immediately to my left, went all in. I instantly put her on high pockets or maybe big slick. Linda called. Another paint or pair. Scotty went all-in. Bert folded. Another caller. I thought about it. I counted it out. I would have a shade over 1000 left if I lost...short stack, yes, but I could tighten up and come back. Bert certainly had. Or I could hit this nice drawing hand. It was a HUGE risk...but I took it. And then said "I blind check to the all-in." I flopped a gut shot. They followed my lead. I hit my queen but checked it down anyway and won the whole shebang. Now I was golden with over 10,000 in chips.

******** Spoiler alert *********
Here is where a mistake was made. I now had what I wanted. A nice chip stack which I could now switch gears, play premium hands, and slowly build my chip stack for the final table. But I fell prey to the "seeing a lot of flops is fun" demon within.

Still, I got to the final table easily and still had about 10 - 14K. I had taken about about 6 people over the course of the night. I continued to play wel....err, hit cards.

Got to the final 3; Eric, Bert (yes, the same guy who was all-in first hand and left with only 300) and me. I was short stack but not terribly so. Got involved in a few hands with each of them. Eric had my number though and I got down a couple times. I got all in a couple times and came back. Then came a key hand.

Blinds were 2 and 4 thousand. Bert, UTG, made it 8500 to go. I looked down at pocket 6s. I called. Eric came over the top all-in. Bert went all-in. I sat back and thought. I put Eric on paint and Burt on anything from paint to any pair to maybe a stone cold bluff. He bluffed a lot. I wanted to call but just figured staying ahead of 2 players was not going to happen. I folded. I would have flopped a set and won...Eric had Q/J and Bert had pocket 10s. Eric hit a queen to take a commanding lead.

Burt, per his admission, went on tilt, going all-in the next 4 hands. Eric and I folded the first, Eric called (and lost) the second, called (and lost) the third, and I called the fourth. He had K/9, I had A/7. He flopped a King/9 and with no help on the turn I was drawing dead to the river, out in third.

Looking back I think it was a very successful experiment. There was a lot of fluctuation to my stack. I got the chance to bluff a few hands and hit a lot of hands. And I had a nice stack when it mattered, I just could not close the deal. I will be trying this again in the future.