Badgerblind: Kicking off the Year

Owing to family, visitors, etc., I have failed to log many hours at the tables as of yet. Alas, those hours that I have logged have proven far from inspired.

I began the year with $97.37--a titch shy of the agreed-upon $100--which I figured should be good for extra bragging rights should I attain that oh-so-distant $10,000 goal.

I also took a different approach than Herr when it came to building my bankroll: I told myself that I would play low-stakes cash games until I crossed $100, then start to "gamble" on tourneys. Sadly, my stack has shrunken in this cold California winter--I am currently down to $92. Not a tragedy, but certainly an inauspicious start.

My take-aways thus far:

1. At the low-stakes table, I NEED TO TAKE BETS AT FACE VALUE. This sounds obvious, but it's actually not. After patiently building up my stack--playing positional poker, bluffing when I had position post-flop and other generally proper poker, I had my whole profit (and then some) wiped out when the following happened:

-I raised about 4 times the BB with pocket Js.

-Everyone folded around to the BB, who has the audacity to triple my bet! Surely this man jests--we all know that the BB NEVER has anything approaching pocket J's!

-So, being the cynic I am, I re-raise him and which point he very happily puts me all in.

-The board then comes something like: A 10 5 3 K. He shows pocket aces, for trips. Needless to say, I muck. That A on the flop was nothing but the Poker Gods rubbing my nose in my hubris.


2. I suspect that sit-n-gos ("SNG") are a better value than cash games. Instead of being repeatedly raped by the rake, you belly-up for an entry fee, but overall players take about 90% of the overall investment. As such, I will try my hand at SNGs tonite, with a view to turning this thing around.

The only consolation I can take away (apart from lessons learned) is that Herr is faring as poorly as I.

-Badger