[Repost of a forum post I did while the blogs were down]
I didn't get to post my last entry on Friday, since JoeUser was having some technical difficulties. But it doesn't matter. I was mostly asking for input regarding a beginner strategy I was putting together. Stutefish came up this weekend to celebrate his birthday, so I took him down to the casino to try his luck.
The strat I gave him was pretty simple. Only see a flop with AA through 77, AK, AQ, or AJ. Raise when you play, unless someone else has already raised. On the flop, only stay if you have top pair or better (or a flush draw). This strat was designed to give him easy decisions after the flop, where he should be a favorite. It actually worked out pretty well. We were at the table for a few hours and he only played about half a dozen hands. At first, he was just giving blind after blind to some loose aggressives at the table. But his patience paid off, as the few hands he won with easily covered his losses plus about $70. All in all, he was able to generate about $35/hour, which was fantastic for his first time out.
He also got to witness some other styles in action and their results. The loose aggressives had massive stacks when we sat down, but nearly all of them were close to going broke by the time we left. The guys who would call just about anything were rebuying frequently. Stutefish & I, who played very tight, ended up with a majority of the chips (I was up $165 from that session). Because of the short term variation, you usually don't get a chance to see weak styles get punished so quickly. I was a little worried that Stutefish might see a weak player do well and try to emulate his style. But luckily everything worked out how it "should" and it was nice to watch.
We then did the tournament. I went out pretty early when a player went all-in from under the gun. I usually play on Saturdays, so I didn't recognize many of the players that Sunday. But I did know the player who raised and I thought he was a fairly weak player. That raise confirmed it... the blinds were so low that there was no reason to bet all-in right there. Winning the blinds wouldn't be very many chips and he was only likely to be called by a hand that beats him. I looked down to see KK. I only had to figure out if the guy would push all-in from that position with anything besides AA, which was definitely a yes, so I called. He turned over AT of spades. I was definitely a favorite, especially since I had the K of spades (I was a 67% favorite). It didn't work out as I had hoped, though, and he made his flush. That hand crippled me and was busted out a few hands later.
Stutefish did much better, however. He went out in 22nd place (out of about 65 entries) which was a kick ass run. He managed his inflection points well, starting out with a tight style and then loosening up when the blinds were large compared to his stack. I was hoping he could make the final table, but he says a few newbie mistakes here & there cost him too much.
In other news, my wife got to play in a pot-limit omaha tournament w/ rebuys last Thursday and got 2nd place! She took down a prize of $467. She's pretty sure she would have gotten 1st, except for one mistake in a key hand. In hold'em, you get two hole cards and there are five community cards on the board. You make the best five card hand using the board plus 0 to 2 of your hole cards. Omaha is like hold'em, except you get four hole cards and must use the board, plus exactly 2 of your hole cards, to make the best five card hand. In one particular hand heads-up, she saw that she had a strait with the board and one of her hole cards... she forgot for a moment that she had to use two hole cards (which would not produce a strait) and kept re-raising. Her opponent did make the actual strait with two of his cards, so she lost a massive pot to him. She had a huge lead before that point, but losing that hand gave her opponent the lead. She was never able to regain her momentum and that was that. But that match really helped build her confidence after a long losing streak.
So it was a pretty good weekend for everybody (except our opponents ). I made $94 online in about 45 minutes while waiting for Stutefish to finish up some work Saturday night. Then $165 at the first table Sunday morning, then another $15 while waiting for Stute to finish up his tournament run. I've nearly recovered from my wife's Valentine present and should have a $3k bankroll before too long
UPDATE: A couple of small updates since I wrote this post on Monday. I had my DSL get flakey on me right after I signed up for a $5.50 tournament last night, which was extremely irritating. Luckily, I had already made $25 at my $3/$6 table by that point, so I was still able to log off with a profit. But then I lost $100 when my wife challenged me to a heads-up match. It only took about 4 or 5 hands before she managed to get all my money. Remind me never to play when I'm upset, especially against someone who can read me like a book. Freakin' pirate.