So after yesterday's post, I decided to head down to the Taj Mahal again. Plan was to sit $5-10 again, try to make $500 or so. I also wanted to work on beefing up an aspect of my game: coffeehousing.
This is a skill that some of the great pros -- Amarillo Slim and Daniel Negraneu come to mind -- really highlight in their game. They gain information from opponents, and generally control the action at their tables, by maintaining constant chatter and getting opponents to speak back to them. As an online player, I don't get to practice this much, but it seems like something I could be good at.
I sat down at my table (which turned out to be in "the pit," the high-stakes area. Next to our table was a heads-up game of $1,000-2,000 7 stud!) and immediately caught a hot run of cards. Limped with pocket aces, three callers, then the small blind raised it and I was able to reraise. The flop was uncoordinated rags and he capped it against me, so I just called down to the river and wrecked his smaller pocket pair. Within the first hour, I was up $250. At that point, I took a bathroom break and had a nice interlude conversation with Julius, a young pro who I've gotten to know in the past few sessions. He's better than me, a very strong player, and at the time was sitting $20-40. We chatted briefly and he told me, "I've seen you play man, and you're real good. If you work on it, you'll be playing in the high stakes games someday soon." I thanked him and was bashful, he made it clear that he meant it. He ended the conversation by giving me some genuinely sage advice: "remember man, it's not enough to play good. You've got to play GREAT, every hand." That may sound trite to many of you, but it's actually a very valuable thing to hear and remember. The best card players maintain incredible discipline while waiting for spots where they have an edge. At the 5-10 tables, I've already seen a number of talented players who piss away their winnings by not maintaining that discipline -- playing good, not great, most of the time. The warm reception I've received from Julius and some of the other top players I've bumped into is one of the real reasons why playing professionally is appealing to me. I know I still have plenty to learn. But they see I've got skill, respect that, and it forms a palpable bond.
Anyway, back to the action. For the next few hours, I caught cold cards. Chased some decent draws that decent materialize, got a few good hands cracked. I made one excellent laydown that I was particularly proud of. A loose-aggressive player raised from early position and I decided to call with A-10 suited. There's a good argument for folding or raising in this spot, but I wanted to just call so he would have no information about my hand for later rounds (I'd noticed that he wasn't a very strong post-flop player). The big blind, a rather strong, but bluffable and not particularly creative, opponent, called as well. the flop came KQJ rainbow, giving me an absolute lock. I called on the flop, as did the bb, then raised on the turn. The bb got a pained look on his face and though for a long time, clearly calculating, clearly thinking about mucking his hand. Eventually, he called, as did the preflop raiser. Perfect. River came another K. This is a real scare card for me, as I can now be beaten by a full house. Often I'd just check on the end, but I felt there was a large range of hands that would pay me off without having me beat, so I selected to bet instead. Then the bb raised me. I knew immediately what he had: KQ (possibly KJ). He had two pair against a raise, thought about mucking, and decided to chase his miracle hand. So I folded, showing him my straight in the process. "That's a huge laydown," he said, and the rest of the table started murmuring about how I should have called b/c of the size of the pot. I told him what he had, and for awhile he resisted admiting it, but eventually fessed up (and the player sitting on his left, who had seen his hand, confirmed it) that I had called his hand perfectly. THAT is what separates me from most of the other $5-10 players. It's only one big bet, but those add up, and the saved bets I make, and the extra ones I extract, add up to bigger wins and smaller losses.
Eventually I got stuck for about $100. Sucks to be down after having been up so much, so early, but that's how it goes. One big, wacky hand turned things around quick. I was on the button and everyone folded to the cutoff, who limped in. I had KJo and, having played very tight for quite some time, decided to raise with my marginal cards and see if I could scare people a bit. The small blind reraised, and the bb and cutoff both called (both were weak-loose players, so that was unsurprising and unproblematic), I called as well. The flop came with two suited cards, a 10, and two rags. The suited cards matched my J, giving me two overcards and runner-runner draws to a straight or a flush. Not an impressive holding against a three-better. But then the small blind checked, and the weak-ass big blind bet. The cutoff called, and my overcards get good odds against either of their hands, so I went ahead and raised, hoping to represent a set or overpair, maybe force out the three-better if he held something like AK, and get a free card on the turn. Then the sb reraised and I commented "should've seen that coming." The other two players called, and I called as well b/c of the crazy pot odds I was now receiving (23 to 1!). the next card was an offsuit 9, erasing my flush draw, but creating a gutshot straight draw. The sb bet and the two other players folded. I commented "I'd like to give this to you, but I just can't do it yet." Gutshot draws are 11-to-1 bets, and the pot was offering me 13-to-1. That's positive expectation, though still unlikely. River was my miracle Q, giving me the nuts, and he oddly checked to me. I bet, he called and turned over Aces. When he saw my hand, he got mad as hell and started lambasting me for my terrible play. Well, yes and no, buddy. He played his aces well, I think (though I would've bet out with them), creating a monster pot for himself. But in so doing, he created odds that forced me into a positive-expectation situation. And once I'm there, I've gotta stay. Anyway, that was a $160 pot, putting me slightly up.
My tight play eventually elicited comment, especially once I was ~$200 to the good, putting $700 in front of me. one loose aggressive player started raising every time I was in the pot, saying, "I'm just trying to get more of your money out there. It was around then that I decided to start working on my coffeehousing. I did a GREAT job of it, tilting him and one old racist asshole who kept trying to offer advice on how much old men know about card playing compared to us young kids (also made a comment about Trump needing to hire some "blackies" to clean the chips. For that, I will bust you, fucker.) The loose aggressor had about $500 in front of him, and as I watched, and commented on, him piss away hand after hand, I set the over/under for him busting out at 1.5 hours. He didn't even make it ;-) 1 hour in, he crawled away with 30 bucks and a grim look on his face. The old man also eventually THREATENED me b/c my coffeehousing had so gotten under his skin. Along the way, I nonetheless managed to get away from a few top pairs when his responses made it clear he'd hit an unlikely straight. Thanks, sucker.
Around 1:30AM, we were down to 5 players and only one of them was an easy mark, so I agreed to breaking up the table. I like playing shorthanded, but only when I have a clear edge. I think I had a slight one, but not big enough to overcome the natural variance that comes from shorthanded play. We drew cards to see who would get open seats at the other $5-10 table and I came up short. I was up around $250 at that point and didn't particularly want to go home yet. Noticing an open seat at a $10-20 table, I decided, "what the hell, gotta move up sometime" and took a seat.
Short version is, it went great. There were a couple of total marks in that game, and no real deadly opponents. In fact, the toughest customers at the table were players I'd already seen in my 5-10 game, so I was feeling relatively comfortable after a round or two. Anyway, I caught some good hands, including a set of 3s that held up in a big multiway pot and an A-10 that cracked pp QQs from the big blind (Qs were in the small blind, lots of preflop callers). Two hours later, I'd made another $400, felt great about playing at that level, and was able to walk to the cashiers cage with three racks. There really is no feeling like having to track down a third rack to stack up your chips. Received a few compliments on my play from some of the more solid players at the table on my way out, which was nice. Generally speaking, though, it's now become clear that my reads and my strategy works fine at the $10-20 level. I think I'll mostly stick to 5-10 for the time being, but moving up again is definitely in my future. Here's the real lesson about why my strategy (plenty tight, plenty aggressive) works so well. At this level, they ain't paying enough attention. Deceptive plays are costly, some pros budget for them as "advertising." If I can sit perfectly still for two hours, then raise from early position and still get five callers (with hands like 54o), then there's no reason to bother raising. Waiting for quality spots is pareto optimal b/c opponents just keep paying off my bets. That won't be true eventually, but in the meantime... it feels good to play great.
