There's a trivia game played on a local radio station in the morning. And like a monkey, I listen to it every morning. One of today's questions was "In Rock Paper Scissors, what is it called when you throw 3 rocks in a row?". I started laughing. I'm convinced that I'm the only person listening who knew. Is that really common knowledge? For the answer and other gambits, read up here.
A little poker discussion. I played in a home game last night. We had 14 people, so we divided into 2 tables of 7. Out of the 6 other players at my table, I had calling stations to both my left and right. The 2 of the other players I would describe as somewhat aggressive and the remaining player was tight. What I want to discuss is strategy. How do you play against people that play too many hands and call you down to the river? They would even raise (albeit small raises) with both great and marginal hands. Bluffing is completely out of the question. I took one stab at a pot with 2 overcards, only to be raised. So, the only stategy I was able to employ is to play premium hands and to bet big with them. Only when I had "the nuts" would I slowplay the hand.
The problem with that strategy? It requires good starting hands (which I had very few of). Even then, I would raise big with AK or AQ. There would be 2 callers and I would miss the flop completely. What then? If I bet, they call me down to the river. If I check, they bet anyways and will continue to bet to the river. To me, this is more frustrating than playing with players who employ sound strategy. I remained short stacked the entire night, forced to go all in with hands like JJ for 10x the big blind. Is there another good option? Raise 3-4x the big blind and bet the flop even if there's an overcard?
So I played super tight last night. Ridiculously tight. And I ended up at the final table and eventually outlasted all of the other short stacks. By the time I was heads up, I think the chip leader had me 12,800 chips to 1,200. Needless to say, I finished 2nd.
Suggestions? Comments? Do you just have to wait for cheap flops and monster hands?
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