Weekly Update and Ace on the River - October 24, 2005
This has been a pretty good month for me. I thought there would be a huge transition to switch from NL to Limit poker. However, I am a bit surprised that I have continued a positive swing in my bankroll. I have been fortunate lately with good cards coming my way. However, I think I have been playing good poker as well. Up to $2/4 now and enjoying Poker Tracker and GameTime+. I ended the weekend with a very good one hour session. I three tabled $2/4 before dinner time and ended the one hour session with an average per table 20 BB table win.
In this blog, I may be using BB to abbreviate for two different ideas. If I am talking about preflop play, BB will often represent Big Blind. Usually in NL we use BB to refer to the severity of your raise before the flop. However, when you are playing Limit poker you cannot change the severity of your raise since it is a set amount. In a 2/4 game the small blind will be $1 and the big blind will be $2. If you read Small Stakes Hold Em by Ed Miller (which you should if you want to be successful at Limit Poker) they talk about bets in terms of Small bets and big bets (BB). The first two rounds of betting you are only allowed to bet in increments of $2 in a 2/4 game. On the turn and river you are only allowed to bet in increments of $4. Therefore, if you are calculating pot odds and deciding what hands to play you need to count the number of bets in the first two rounds. Divide the pot by two once the turn comes and then count the number of BBs that are added.
If you are discussing how well you are playing in Limit poker, you may be playing a $0.50/$1.00 game or you may be playing a $15/$30 game. You also may play for an hour or you may play all day. Therefore, players will often talk about their results in a a BB/100 hands context. A good limit poker player will try to win at the rate of 2 or 3 BB per every 100 hands. As you can see, to win at a 20 BB/100 clip for a session you have to have two things going for you. (1) You have to get great cards and (2) you have to be playing against some very bad players. I was fortunate enough to have both work my way yesterday.
On another note, I am in the middle of a great poker book right now. Barry Greenstein (a.k.a. the Robin Hood of poker since he gives all of his tournament winnings to charity) came out with a book called Ace on the River. Very entertaining book about managing your bankroll. Doyle Brunson wrote the foreward and said that if you want to learn how to play poker to read Super System 1 and 2, but if you wanted to learn how to win money to read Ace on the River. The book is full of color photos which are entertaining by itself. There are plenty of philosophical and humorous quotes in each chapter. Best of all it describes the makeup of winning and losing players. Very interesting to think through the little things that are necessary to be a professional poker player besides technically playing the cards correctly. Whether the book is describing the ideal personality of a great player or the most profitable way to tip the staff it is very thought provoking. There is even a chapter on "poker and sexuality" which had me laughing out loud. I had to read the chapter to my wife (only two pages) because I thought the unintenional comedy was too good not to pass on. Apparentely, Barry concludes the players who are able to find a partner when on the road are at a competitive advantage over the other "frustrated" players, because they will be better rested for the competition the next day.
In this blog, I may be using BB to abbreviate for two different ideas. If I am talking about preflop play, BB will often represent Big Blind. Usually in NL we use BB to refer to the severity of your raise before the flop. However, when you are playing Limit poker you cannot change the severity of your raise since it is a set amount. In a 2/4 game the small blind will be $1 and the big blind will be $2. If you read Small Stakes Hold Em by Ed Miller (which you should if you want to be successful at Limit Poker) they talk about bets in terms of Small bets and big bets (BB). The first two rounds of betting you are only allowed to bet in increments of $2 in a 2/4 game. On the turn and river you are only allowed to bet in increments of $4. Therefore, if you are calculating pot odds and deciding what hands to play you need to count the number of bets in the first two rounds. Divide the pot by two once the turn comes and then count the number of BBs that are added.
If you are discussing how well you are playing in Limit poker, you may be playing a $0.50/$1.00 game or you may be playing a $15/$30 game. You also may play for an hour or you may play all day. Therefore, players will often talk about their results in a a BB/100 hands context. A good limit poker player will try to win at the rate of 2 or 3 BB per every 100 hands. As you can see, to win at a 20 BB/100 clip for a session you have to have two things going for you. (1) You have to get great cards and (2) you have to be playing against some very bad players. I was fortunate enough to have both work my way yesterday.
On another note, I am in the middle of a great poker book right now. Barry Greenstein (a.k.a. the Robin Hood of poker since he gives all of his tournament winnings to charity) came out with a book called Ace on the River. Very entertaining book about managing your bankroll. Doyle Brunson wrote the foreward and said that if you want to learn how to play poker to read Super System 1 and 2, but if you wanted to learn how to win money to read Ace on the River. The book is full of color photos which are entertaining by itself. There are plenty of philosophical and humorous quotes in each chapter. Best of all it describes the makeup of winning and losing players. Very interesting to think through the little things that are necessary to be a professional poker player besides technically playing the cards correctly. Whether the book is describing the ideal personality of a great player or the most profitable way to tip the staff it is very thought provoking. There is even a chapter on "poker and sexuality" which had me laughing out loud. I had to read the chapter to my wife (only two pages) because I thought the unintenional comedy was too good not to pass on. Apparentely, Barry concludes the players who are able to find a partner when on the road are at a competitive advantage over the other "frustrated" players, because they will be better rested for the competition the next day.
posted by Steve K at 12:55 PM
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