Focused Play

Was reading some of the articles on Gus Hansen’s website – very good stuff well worth a look through.

Read an article by Gavin Smith how he seeks out small pots raising pre-flop with a wide range of hands and betting the flop 50-75% of the total depending on how he hit, missed or felt about his opponent. I know this was a tournament strategy but I thought it workable. Tried this last night and it worked quite well with most people backing down to a pre-flop aggressor unless they hit strong and in that case I folded at the turn if I felt beaten. Picked up a few good pots with suited connectors hitting flushes, straights and two pairs against a number of players who can’t lay down a pair of aces.

Gus’s blog talks about super/hyper aggressive players going all-in on the flop with nothing or mid/bottom pair. He spoke how he thought this was a strategy but had come to a conclusion it was just gambling on your opponent missing/being weak. He came to the conclusion that a good player will wait and catch you for your stack.

So I got to a table (6 handed $10 buy-in) with 3 players doing this, I was playing super tight and the all-ins were going back and forth winning each others money and re-winning their own round and round it went with hands of 8-10 off calling all-in against 7-J off with a flop of QQK really was coin flips.

So I sat eventually played AK limped and flopped AK7 all-in for $10 from the player first to act I called everyone folded he shows 9-2 suited (wrong suit for the flop). Won another all in playing KQ clubs – flop was 8Q8, turn was Q player goes all-in – I’m thing he has a Q or an 8 so I called. Flips you guessed it 7-5 off and this is the hand he called a raise on the flop with as I tested the strength of my Queen out. He needed to go runner runner to even have a hope, thank you for the double I’m thinking.

Flopped a diamond flush ace high playing A10, min bet the flop next player all-in I called thinking he had trips, lower flush, chasing a draw but again nothing he should be calling with never mind pushing with.

Pretty soon I was $35 up with little effort other than to be patient. Regarding these players they may have thought an all-in would scare others off and to be honest if I had nothing then it would, but these pots were tiny often under a dollar, so why throw $10 at a pot with no cards and a dangerous looking flop. A wise man once said you only get called by a better hand.

Did win a nice 3 way all-in, pre-flop player 1 all in ($5ish) I raise it to more than the 3rd player had hoping to isolate player 1 as I was holding AA. Player 3 calls all-in for his remaining $8. I win player 1 had 88 player 3 had QQ, flop did come KK7 then junk but nice pot to win.

As I had built up significantly more money than every one at the 3 tables I was playing, I started to get aggressive with the smaller stacks, trying to push them all-in when I had really good hands, lot of them bit and I picked up $3/$4 pots some just invested half their $2 in the first two streets and then folded. Having a big pot of cash gives you respect even with some poor players they look and think well he didn’t get doubled or tripled playing junk.

Overall I was winning, but I was playing well, stealing because they were afraid, pushing because I was strong, bullying because I could afford it. Over and over again I bet strongly from the button (5xBB 50cents) got one caller who checked the flop I bet half the pot with anything and they folded. This happened over a dozen times and netted me over $6 for little effort, I was re-raised once and folded as I had missed but hey that’s a good averages.

It’s nice to win and feel you’re playing well, I didn’t always have a great hand just exploited my image at the table to the point where I couldn’t get any action if I raised more than 3xBB.

Bank roll at $155