The casino was new to me. I hadn’t played there before or even noticed it on the few drives I’ve been by on the freeway. It’s pretty much the same sort of dumpy surroundings most of the card clubs in my area. Our indian casinos are a step up but going to the same haunts over and over is tedious and the stakes and game offerings aren’t always optimal. What I was interested in with this new establishment was the possibility of a soft fixed limit game in stakes that are a little higher than what I normally play, specifically $8/16.
There is an 8/16 game at a card room much closer to where I live but the action there is very erratic. The normal 4/8 games I play in (and consistently beat) the action is very homogenous. Almost all my opponents in those games are loose-passive. They play way too many hands, they check and call instead of bet and raise and are just content to sit back and try to make hands. These players have a faint understanding of hand reading but absolutely do not have any thinking by way of equity when they play. They call down in spots with very small pot odds for the amount of equity they have and they fail to press in situations when they have odds and decent equity. Generally, these games are very profitable to play in because opponents are so predictable. The occasional aggressive player that sits down (even fairly decent ones) are seldom a problem either because all the loose-passive regulars pay off so well over and over.
The 8/16 game at my local card room is often not like this. Often there are several aggressive players in these games, which has two results. The first is that the aggressive action builds big pots so variance goes up. Winning sessions are big but so are losing sessions and loses can mushroom FAST. At 8/16 you can drop $600 within a half an hour easily. The second issue is hand reading. Aggressive players are much less predictable. Typically, bad players stay bad but as they move up in stakes they become more aggressive. In my games this means 8/16 player still play a very weak hand selection range. These folks have learned enough to know that aggressive play is correct play but never got the memo that tight hand selection is a prerequisite.
The result is a game that feels like a knife fight on a tightrope. A lot of pressure is put on your post flop game to read board texture and assign hand ranges to opponents. Failing to do this can result in loosing big pots but more importantly will result in missed value. The few extra bets you pick up in these game matter, A LOT. Because loses can mount so quickly in these games, you need to pick up extra bets here and there to survive.
As I sat down to an 8/16 game at this new casino the terrible hand selection became apparent quickly. Hands as bad as 5-7 off suit where common. I was also reassured to see passive play, lots of open limping, lots of multiway pots. My troubles started with a lot of stuff I had little control over. Spots where I raised preflop, hit top pair but caught terrible on the turn and/or river. I’m getting better at recognizing variance and not letting it get to me. However, there were several spots I could have lost a lot less. Missing the flop and c-betting into four and five players (often out of position) with two high cards on board and often betting the turn, too unimproved. But, the biggest mistake I made highlights the issue above.
A grumpy and aggressive player raised preflop in middle position. There were several callers and I woke up with pocket 10’s in the small blind. I three bet and grumpy called along with four other calling stations. The flop came A-K-Q rainbow and I bet. One caller and grumpy raised. One caller in between and it was one small bet back to me. I had odds to draw to my set or straight so I called. A J came on the turn giving me the nuts and so I bet out again. Grumpy raised again and it came to heads up with one big bet back to me. The worst that can happen in this hand at this point is a chop. I have nothing to lose by raise and capping. The board could pair on the river and I could lose to a full house but that isn’t likely. So, what did I do? Like a little mouse I called… And, ever worse, when a brick 3 came on the river I CHECKED! Grumpy checked behind, I showed my straight and he mucked disgustingly.
As bad as I played this hand it did start a nice little run of cards for me and I made it in to positive territory for the session. But, (as often happens) I bled off a lot and finally two or three bad beats hit and I was felted. I sure could have used that extra roughly $32 I missed on the above hand to try and play the extra hour or so that I had for the day. Doing so would have given me a chance to salvage the session. But, because I had failed to think my way through that earlier hand I had reached my stop loss and had to leave.
I’m not exactly sure what was going on in my head with my passive play with grumpy. Maybe it was the new surroundings or how cold it was in that room (I was wearing my winter coat!). Mostly, I guess I had a little confidence crisis. I don’t have a good record with trying to move up in stakes. My poor perforce is also mixed with the gradual realization that trying to grind at 4/8 is a real slog. Showing only $5 or $6 an hour for my time isn’t what I would call productive. This jibes with what I’ve read from fixed limit pros that because of the rake, you need to move up in stakes as quickly as you can. I also have recently made plans to go to Las Vegas during the World Series and would really like a nice run to boost my bankroll before I go. Feeling the pressure of these things caused me to freeze up perhaps.
While it’s no fun making mistakes (especially ones I know I shouldn’t be making) they are a part of playing the game. By putting so much pressure on myself to not make mistakes I’m basically assuring the fact that I’ll make them and that they are more costly than they should be. If I can relax some of my expectations and just focus on one hand at a time I can do myself a favor.
