After the art shows, I managed to get a little bit of poker in. The PL25 tables have been treating me well for the past while so I was wondering how long I could hold out without before I hit a losing session. Not long after I start up I see the flop for a dollar with 44 and the flop comes 3Q4, rainbow. The 6 seat is the first to act and puts in $2, is called, and I call. I figure one of them for AK or KQ, and other for a weak Q, or maybe just 2 face. Feeling safe enough to wait for the turn, which comes A. Possible that someone hit two pair here, and a $4 bet from the 6s makes me feel confident in that read. I put him all-in and he calls. River comes the dreaded A and he flips AQ for the boat. And we’re less than 10 minutes into the session and it’s time to rebuy.
I have to confess that this beat put me a bit on tilt. The next hour had it’s share of bad beats, but it was my own stubbornness that was my biggest leak, and I dropped nearly 100 bucks all told. Not a promising start at all.
Once I did some quick math and realized that I was closing in on that -100 mark, I mentally slapped myself and started focusing again. I had pot odds on a draw that hit and that started my comeback. Two hours later, I’ve made back my losses and then some. Ended up $32 at playing 3-4 tables. And it would have been 40+ if not for a bad bet into a rivered flush. I have to remember just because I price the flush draw out, it doesn’t mean they are going to fold.
That brings me to a interesting strategy question that I’ve been mulling over for the past couple of days. Now, pot odds are easier to manipulate in a PL-NL game, because you can control the amount of your bet. So, often with a hand like top pair you want to price any flush and straight draws out of the hands. Now, as I understand it, just by denying them pot odds for a call you are making it a -EV move for them to call. So, that should make it a +EV move for me, assuming we are heads up and I am indeed ahead. But there are implied odds to consider as well. If they hit the flush, it’s harder for me to put them on making the -EV call on the flop or turn, so they have the potential for hitting me with the big bet. Now, because of that, I’ve been trying to determine a good strategy for bet sizes when I feel ahead on a hand, but want to price the flush or straight out of it. I’ve tended to make the size of the bet 150-200% the amount that would give them correct pot odds, but I’m beginning to wonder if perhaps I shouldn’t be protecting the hand more, particularly when I can get burned when the flush hits. I suppose it depends on my read of the player. I’m curious if anyone else has any rules of thumb for this.
I’m talking myself in circles a bit and it’s far too late to be sending my head through loops like this, particularly after working the weekend. (ugh…12:30, I’m not supposed to still be awake) I had a hand on the other side of the argument tonight, so I will probably post about it more tomorrow, when I finally get caught up on all the half-written posts.
The win on Thursday puts me past another milestone. Eight hundred dollars in the bankroll matches the 200BB mark I wanted to play the 2/4 limit games. But I don’t think I’m going to be leaving these pot-limit games until I hit a bad session and start looking for a change of pace. That’s the good news. The bad news is that I pretty much have to give up getting my money out of Choice Poker. That means the $150 I deposited, $30 in bonus, and $113 for the freeroll win. That means nearly 300 dollars comes out of my theoretical bankroll, and I’ve got a wait a bit longer for the 2/4 tables. I kept holding out hope that maybe I’d get some of it out, but it looks like I have to give up the ghost. It doesn’t look so bad right now, but as soon as I hit another losing session, it’s not going to seem so easily made up for.