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June 05, 2006
Since it's been a while ...
I have been paying a lot of attention lately while watching poker - establishing table image, reading when to fold and so forth. I've been working on playing tight, aggressive poker, focusing on premium hands but dropping down to hands that are all face cards. I don't limp anymore. If I'm coming in, I'm raising to 3-3.5x the big blind if I'm the first to raise. If I have a hand that's worth re-raising, I'm betting 3-3.5x the previous raise.
I also muck like it's my job. In this tournament, I hadn't knocked anyone out (at least, not that I remember), but I had decimated two chip stacks when it went to showdown. I had won 10 pots before the flop, a couple after the flop, a couple to folds at the turn and was 100% at showdown. I mucked my small blinds rather than limp in to try to see a flop. I was carefully crafting my table image to be a player who always raised if he was playing and only played if he had premium hands. My track record at the table had already shown that.
With all that in mind, I didn't blink or hesitate to make the following play which was consistent with earlier bets when I won the pot. Sadly, I forgot that I had auto-muck turned on, so I couldn't get a chuckle out of it by showing.
$1 + $0.25 Sit & Go (Turbo) (4542079), Table 1 - 200/400 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:28:51 ET - 2006/06/04
Seat 4: puckett101 (3,800)
Seat 5: marlboroman34 (4,720)
Seat 7: thadonger (2,035)
Seat 8: Duffer520 (2,945)
Duffer520 posts the small blind of 200
puckett101 posts the big blind of 400
The button is in seat #7
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to puckett101 [7d 2c]
marlboroman34 folds
thadonger folds
Duffer520 calls 200
puckett101 raises to 1,600
Duffer520 folds
Uncalled bet of 1,200 returned to puckett101
puckett101 mucks
puckett101 wins the pot (800)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 800 | Rake 0
Seat 4: puckett101 (big blind) collected (800), mucked
Seat 5: marlboroman34 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: thadonger (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 8: Duffer520 (small blind) folded before the Flop
I only lost one hand in that tournament. Sadly, that hand was the one that made me finish second when I pushed with a dominated hand. Table image will only take you so far - it won't get you past a cowboy holding Q-Js if you're holding J-3o. Such is life.
On the other hand, I won money. Any tourney you finish in the black is a good one.
Posted by puckett at June 5, 2006 04:19 AM
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