Playing poker is a game of attrition. You're the general and you fight battles every day. Your bankroll is your army of men, each dollar representing a single soldier. Or if you play the $0.25 big blind limit like I do, each dollar is 4 soldiers.
Each day you fight your battles and some days you win and some days you loose. In poker this is known as variance. However, variance is a tricky enemy. Variance doesn't always mean that you played your "A" game and just got bad beats. Variance can mean your strategy in that battle was flawed. Variance can mean you made mistakes. Hopefully you know the mistakes you made otherwise variance will continue to rear its' ugly head in the next battle.
Yesterday, I lost my poker battle. I am lucky enough to know it was not due to playing my "A" game and getting bad beats. In my case I simply made some mistakes. Yesterday was day two of implementing my new blinds stealing strategy. I was stealing too often against loose/passive and loose/aggressive players. It is entirely possible some of those players are familiar with blind stealing and have developed a defense for it that I have not learned yet.
In battle you can win if you have a more advanced weapon. But if your enemy finds a way to neutralize your advanced weapon, you are doomed.
It is also entirely possible that some of my enemies were using poker tracker or ACE HUD to look at my stats and figured out my playing style. Honestly, I don't credit my enemies at $25NL with that much respect. So I will assume I can adjust my blind stealing strategy and defeat those sons of **tches tonight!
Basically, I need to blind steal more in middle and late position. I think I have been blind stealing 40% of the time. That is more than ideal.
Also - I broke my own strategy rule by fighting for big pots on the flop and later streets. I thought I could bluff aggressively on the turn and river and win the pot. That was a mistake. I lost 3 buy-ins last night with such strategy.
The blind stealing was working beautifully last night otherwise. People constantly fold pre flop to my blind stealing and most fold on an open bet on the flop. Even most people fold to a re-raise on the flop. If I blind steal out of position (OOP) and my enemy calls my preflop raise and then he bets first on the flop - I will sometimes re-raise them. Most of the time they just fold. When they call - it means I need to check/fold the turn. But last night I almost never did that and that was such a bad idea.
So tonight I will fight my nightly poker battle differently.
- I will NOT re-raise preflop on blind steals.
- I will NOT re-raise on the Flop.
- I will NOT continue to Raise on the Turn or River if an enemy has been calling my raises.
- I will Check/Fold the Turn if called on the flop with a blind steal (assuming I do not make a good hand.
- I will focus my blind stealing in middle and late positions.
- As a general rule, I will only blind stealing if I am first into the pot.
Wish me luck in tonight's battle!
I only lost what I won the day before. But I must say I did learn a lot from it and perhaps that is the cost of education.
I will say that I have been trying out new strategies lately.
Short Stack Strategy (SSS)
I tried a short stack strategy - and failed miserably. But I learned a lot about playing short stack and that will definitely add to my playbook if I ever find myself as a short stack. I play short stacks at every table and I now know what they are going to do. I know WHEN to fold to a short stack.
Blind Stealing Strategy
I am now trying to implement blind stealing. Although I must fine tune it, I think this will be a permanent part of my everyday playbook.
I certainly can spot fellow enemy blind stealing.
Next I need to learn how to defend against blind stealing. Not only so I can defend myself but so I can out think someone trying to defend against my blind stealing.
The next strategy I may learn
There is something I hear in the grapevine on poker forums about how players stats are on turn betting (or lack thereof). Everyone knows a preflop raise who check the flop is a major sign of weakness. But how a preflop raiser plays the turn after betting the flop is another more advanced level of thinking. I need to learn how to play the turn more effectively.
I believe other players are calling my flop bets and are beating me on the turn and river. They may be out-bluffing my bluffs. Or they may KNOW I am blind stealing and that their middle pair will stand on the show down. It is possible they successfully are putting me on a range and on the turn and river they figure their middle pair is good and I am bluffing.
Obviously - I should not be bluffing the turn and river.
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