Multi Tabling Bastards lose out on a pot...

So I'm back at a table that has five MT-ers on it again. I'm in middle position with KK, get to open the pot with a raise and the guy behind me (an MT-er) calls. One other caller from the blind and the flop comes out all low. I bet, call, call. The turn brings a jack, I bet, call, fold. Just me and the MT-er and I am loving my hand for two reasons, either I have a Darth Vader Kung Fu grip on this hand, or the MT-er is crushing me and by not raising is helping me lose the least possible with overcards. The river brings an ace, my blood pressure starts going up and I check-call to see the MT-er hold A9. There was no 9 on the board. And there was no draw. And I had KK. And he cold called with A9 pre-flop. Zen and the Art of Limit Poker...

So here is where these MT-ers are not paying attention. Very next hand I am still in mid-position and I get dealt AQ. I open the pot again on a raise and I get a single caller from late position, another MT-er. The flop comes all low and I c-bet again and the MT-er folds. If he would have been able to pay attention (he was on only one other table), he should have taken into consideration that some donkey just took me on a hay ride to the river and I (by all rights) wanted to physically kill him. I was steaming and it was something I think a good player would have noticed. He would have re-raised me from position with any two cards on a low, disconnected board. HAH, I had my revenge!

Later I lost two big pots with AA and QQ, but still...

The way checkraising works on the flop...

It seems this is most often how it goes. I flop top pair in early position on a rainbow board with two or three behind me. I check, someone bets, I check raise. Everyone folds but the original better will almost always call, I don't believe I've ever seen anyway fold to a check raise. But, after firing a bet on the turn, after the check raise, then the original better folds. It's crazy, and I'm trying to figure out if it's correct to always call the check raise and see the turn... so far, I think it is correct.

So, moral of the post, if you check raise in early position, be ready to fire on the turn regardless of the card that hits.

Multi Tabling Bastards...

So, I hop on to FT for 30 minutes this morning. I sign on to three waiting lists for the .25/.50 limit game and two came up at the same time. Must not multi-table... must not multi-table... ok, one time. So when the third waiting list popped up, I figured what's another table amongst friends. And amongst friends I was, after about three minutes I realized I was at a table with FOUR other players, at all three tables. Counting myself there were five multi-tablers at the same three tables. Danger, danger Will Robinson.

Now, just because someone multi-tables does not mean they are a good player. In fact, you could argue that on average you can assume they are a bad player. Most people who multi-table aren't ready for it yet, or don't understand the dynamics of how it changes your hands or reads. So I'm not necessarily going to shy away from a group of multi-tablers, but it makes things interesting.

When multi-tabling you can tighten up on your hand selections, you can't focus on nuances as much and can't get a solid read on players at your table. So you should just play high hands and play them hard. As an opponent you can take advantage of that. Low, scattered boards are great to check raise on, for example, assuming that the MT holds premium cards and could get pushed off with AK or AQ. Things like that. But, while YOU are MT-ing, you can't do those plays either.

So, after careful review (and after posting a decent loss), I've come to the conclusion that if I find a group of people MT-ing at my table, I will be best served to focus on a single table that contains as many MT-ers as possible and dominate that table. Take advantage of the fact that my opponents have divided attention and enable myself to get that extra edge on hand reads that is so tough to get in low limit poker.

But they look so pretty...

Is there a worse hand in poker than mid to small pair under the gun? First to act with a pair of fives, good times. To me, this type of hand, whether you are playing no limit or limit, comes down to table feel.

In limit poker, you have to get a feel for the table. Is it kind of crazy where people are cold calling raises with Ax or Kx sooooted? If so, you are probably best served to actually limp into the pot and go set-mining. If the table is a bit tight, then come in for the raise and then decide what to do after the flop. Either way, it's probably the one type of hand that does not have a standard, 80% right 100% of the time answer.

I almost feel like when I get that hand I am actually paying a tax to the poker gods...

Zen and the Art of Limit Poker...

You are going to get rivered. You are going to get runner-runnered. You are going to get two-outed. It's going to happen, a lot, a lot more than you are used to if you only play NLHE. It's a fact. Learn to adjust. Try to remember all the times you did that to other people, cause you will, too. The nature of limit poker, especially low limit poker, allows for this to happen. People who are playing "true stakes" will call on air ("It's only a quarter"), people with third pair will call you down, people with backdoor flushes will see the turn. They will. I don't want to hear it.

The previous was a post written by me, for me, not you. Though you can take it's advice too...

Which table is juuust right...

One thing I am going to spend the next few weeks doing is figuring out exactly what kind of table is the perfect low-limit table. I assume I want a loose table with lots of callers and people who won't let third pair go, but how many at the same table? OBV, I don't need to dodge a full table of runner-runner bastards. So, I'm thinking I need a mix of three VERY bad players, and no more than three players who know what they are doing.

When in Vegas we determined we would leave a table if more than four people were very good.

First bad session

Played for about an hour today and found a very loose table that would have paid big if I could have caught well. very loose calls, and at least two people calling with third pair to the river in the face of any board. BUT, unfortunately, I was chased down three times by the same loose player and found myself fighting the tilt-o-meter all hour. So I took a hit to the tune of 8 bucks-ish.

All in all, I would love to play at that table everytime...