Let's Catch Up

Let's Catch Up

No hands today. I've played several sessions live and had some interesting hands that were worth talking about. But I played a bunch of sessions online @ America's Cardroom as well as live and kind of thought them through and answered my own questions. I've also gotten approved for a home loan, had an offer on a property accepted, and had the loan pass conditional approval through the underwriter. Oh, and I still have my 40hr/week job. So you could say that I've been busy.

Live vs. Online

I played a bit over 5000 hands of NLHE (No Limit Hold 'Em) online at $.10/.25 stakes - some 6max and some full ring (9 players) tables. Plus I played a few small tournaments. It's pretty incredible how many hands you can get in online when you're playing 6 tables at once.

The biggest lesson I've learned is that people playing NLHE online are really, really, good. The $.10/.25 tables were dramatically tougher than the $1/2 and $2/5 type tables I usually play at live. So I'd say that playing NLHE online is like playing over 10 times the same stakes live. It's pretty nuts. People are making plays every other hand that I might not see an entire night live.

Other Games

After losing nearly half of the money I deposited, I decided I'd rather try to grind out my deposit bonus playing other types of poker at even lower-stakes, somewhat for fun and somewhat because I'd like to know a bit more of how to play other games when an opportunity presents itself to play those games live.

I had been listening to an old poker podcast ran by Bart Hanson called Cash Plays and depending on the guest he had on, he would talk about different games - 7-Card Stud, Stud Hi/Lo, Omaha 8, PLO (Pot Limit Omaha), and some even rarer games. This got me kind of excited to give these games a shot and learn about them at the baby stakes.

Stud Hi/Lo

So I hopped online and looked for low/micro-stakes games of Stud Hi/Lo, PLO, and O8. I still have a ton to learn about all 3, but I quickly learned that even though I knew little-to-nothing about the game, that the players I was facing at Stud Hi/Lo knew even less. It's a split-pot game, where the goal is to make the best high AND the best low hand, with half of the pot going to the player with each of the 2. So if you have the best of both, you'll take the entire pot. So a few great starting hands might be:
A♠,2♠,3♠
3♥,4♥,5♥
A♣,2♣,5♣.

For some reason, people were playing and raising stuff like:
J♦,K♣,K♥
9♠,10♣,J♥
A♦,5♠,8♣

There are always exceptions, but playing hands like these clearly give you no real shot at winning both the high and low end of a hand. Another big mistake I saw players making, is that even if they had decent or great starting hands, they would still bet/raise extra money in situations where they could really only expect to win half of the pot, while I've got a two-way hand.

Once I felt comfortable that I was easily out-playing the micro stakes, I quickly moved up to $1/2, then 2/4, 3/6, and finally $5/10, where people are still making the same basic mistakes. I'm definitely making mistakes, and focused on learning, but I can see clearly that long-term I can make a significant profit against these players at these stakes.

Stud Hi/Lo has another few really cool benefits. Since it's an ante game and there aren't blinds, you can truly get up and sit down any time you want without losing a whole lot of value. Also, I'm receiving points toward my deposit bonus at an extremely high rate in a game with much lower variance compared to NLHE. You end up splitting the pot when you're behind a lot. And even in a super aggressively raised pot, the maximum you might lose is very low compared to a No Limit or Pot Limit game.

Until Next Time...

Unless something particularly interesting comes up, I probably won't make another post until after the move, when I'll hopefully have something super cool to announce. Good luck at the tables!

♠♥♣♦

Feel free to comment below or send any questions, comments, ideas, or w/e in to dj8bitavenger@gmail.com, and I'll make sure to incorporate the feedback into future posts.