More Pokerchamps

I’ve been playing a lot of $0.02/$0.04 at Pokerchamps lately. I’ve been pretty successful, but I’m not sure how much of a good thing that is. I’ve been playing there mostly because I’m lazy and because by the time I get home from work, and have dinner and do whatever, and actually sit down to play, I’m usually pretty tired, and I don’t have the confidence to play for any sort of real money when I’m not completely mentally prepared. That goes back to the whole, “I make plenty of mistakes when I’m at my best, no need to throw in more challenges” theory that I have.

So I get my poker fix by playing super micro limits at Pokerchamps. The games generally move slower there, so I’m also working on multi-tabling. I generally play one NL and one limit game just to practice each style.

I hate to sound arrogant, but playing there is like taking candy from a baby. The players there are so bad that anytime you hit a hand, you are going to make a fortune. Ok fortune might be a bit of an exaggeration since there’s about $20 total at the table, but comparatively speaking you make a ton. Granted, the limits are $0.02/$0.04 so I don’t expect the caliber of play to be that high, but you can almost be guaranteed of someone calling any bet on the river with their Ace high.

Since someone will call just about any bet you make, you are going to take your fair share of bad beats, but I think the times that your hand pays off more than outweigh the bad beats you’ll take.

One of the bad habits that I’ve noticed myself getting into is that I way overvalue my top pair, top kicker, or two pair to the point where I get myself into trouble. Since it seems that everyone else treats bottom pair as a monster, when I hit top pair I often feel like I have the nuts. I don’t pay attention to other bets because I don’t think they know what they are doing. It’s almost impossible to put someone on a hand, so I don’t even try. I just look at what I have and bet accordingly. Because of this, I have completely missed the fact that there’s a straight or flush possibility on the board. Usually the two gapper straights get me. For example last night in a NL game I limped w/99 and saw a flop of 89Q. I bet and got raised. I figured there was no way anyone had trip queens so I went all in. Hmm. Maybe that TJ that he turned over was a possibility. Doh.

In the last few sessions I think I’ve bet into a straight four times when I hit top pair or better. That has put a serious damper on my winnings and I really hope that doesn’t continue into the games that I take more seriously. I’m starting to worry that while I’m winning at these low limits, I’m developing habits that are going to be problematic when I play better competition.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that if I am doing significantly better at one of the two tables that I am playing, I will often ignore the other table. Unless I have an absolute monster hand, the table that isn’t doing as well tends to get folded without a second thought so I can get back to the more profitable table. This may or may not make sense, I haven’t decided. On the one hand I’m if one table is more profitable than another focusing on that table may be a good idea so that I can maximize my winnings, but on the other hand, maybe I am prematurely passing up on some winning scenarios by ignoring the other table. I don’t know.

I’m tempted to go back to $0.25/$0.50 except that I promised I would never do that again. Maybe I’ll try the $25 NL tables for a change.