I picked up Small Stakes Hold-Em on Saturday and read the first section on pre-flop hands. I then created a visual chart based on the recommendations for tight games on pages 80-81 (a chart on loose games is forthcoming). With chart at the ready, I fired up Party Poker and sat at a $1/$2 game and played pre-flop according to Miller. I then proceeded to have my rear quarters handed to me.
Would you like an example? I knew you would.
I'm holding J-J in middle position. A guy to my right limps and I raise. I get a cold call to my left along with the blinds and a call from the guy to my right. So there's 5 of us in the pot - far from ideal for a pair of jacks. The board ends up as 2-5-8-8-3, though, which looks pretty good for my guys - Jacks up - except that the big blind had called the raise preflop with 8-4 - but, please, don't shake your head in dismay - they were suited. Completely ignoring the fact that I had raised preflop, raised a bet before me and that raise was called before it got back to him on the flop, he called his two eights - yesiree, he had a pair - yehaw, had to be good, right? And, well, the horseshoe was firmly up an orifice of his, as you can see from the rest of the cards.
This followed by every good hand I had and played 'by the book' being rivered and beat to the ground. I reloaded once and, verging on a full-blown tilt fueled by a 'Matusow' level of vitriol, I played on. I know, I know, I know - long term I win. But, I tell you, I wanted to slap someone silly and say awful things in the chat box. I restrained myself. Give me a medal. I'll read the rest of the book.
I put the chart away and pulled up some software I've been using to hone discipline. I had downloaded the trial version a few months ago and after it timed out, I decided to purchase a license. But I never got the license and after my e-mails went unanswered, I figured I'd been ripped off. A first for me - after numerous online purchases, not once had I been ripped off. But a couple of weeks ago I received an e-mail announcing a new version of the software and, after e-mailing again, I received an apology for the snafu and the license to the new version.
The software is No Hands Hold-Em from Holdem Winner. At first I was a bit dubious when I fired the trial version up — I'd heard about some software someone was selling that supposedly read your opponents hands, I was concerned that this was that software. But, I didn't see any cards but my own as I sat at a $3/$6 table to try it out. I ended up $200 for the session playing by the recommendations of the software.
When you fire it up, you tell it to look for the table where you are then select the seat where you are sitting. You set the chat box on 'everything' and it reads the hands as they are played out showing your hole cards and the board in a separate box. It gives you your hand ranking, calculates the pot odds giving you the percentage your hand has to win. It also gives you the percentage of probability you have the best hand based on the statistics of your opponents. It will then give you the recommendation to fold, call or raise.
A separate box keeps track of yours and your opponents flop percentages, showdown percentages and showdown win percentages, along with their cash wins/losses. So, for instance, you can keep track of who's winning and who's losing, who's tight and who's playing loose. Helpful information when deciding whether or not to ignore the recommendation and get fancy. It has been good training in limit games, letting me see that there are hands I've had the odds to continue with and folded too soon and hands I've played which are causing leaks. The software will have you playing tight. It's a good foundation, and good training for basic, solid, tight play. But, the danger is in getting dependent on it - you have to turn it off and fly solo, which I do, especially when I feel it's hindering more than helping.
After getting trounced at the $1/$2 table, I decided to take a huge risk and attempt a $5/$10 table. I had $170 left in the Party account, I determined that I could risk 2 or 3 rounds of blinds to play. I watched a couple of tables for a bit - play was tight and less unreasonable than the lower limits, with a few questionable cards being played. However, play was fairly straitfoward. I took the leap and sat down at a table with my entire Party bankroll. The stacks around me were comparable, so I didn't look out of place. I launched No-Hands Hold Em but I really didn't need it for the hand recommendations - it was more valuable to track the statistics of the other players. Plus I was granted the luck of having a couple of dynamite hands dealt right off the bat. I kept in mind one of Miller's main tenets - aggressiveness. It paid off - and well. In a few short hands my $170 blossomed to over $300.
Disclaimer! I absolutely do not recommend doing what I did above with a less than adequate bankroll as I did. I knew what I was doing, had selected a good table, and got good cards. I did not stay long at the table. This was an experiment and could have been fatal.
So the moral of this story? I guess I can only point to one thing — bottom line, stay disciplined. Long term, you will win. Find the tools and the instruction that will help you and apply the principles they teach. Master those and you will then begin to be able to improvise and develop your own winning style.
