Lover of trading, tacos, 3D/AR/VR, cryptos, and most things Japanese

#poker #recap #stats
I managed to play a good bit this weekend. In the 48 hours from Friday to Sunday nights, I played 1450 hands, not including a tournament. I took some time off from the tables to do other things, so it wasn’t all poker all weekend. On Saturday I won a satellite tournament into the WPT’s Alpha8 again, but I opted not to play the tourney because I wanted to spend some quality dads time Sunday. Sunday I went to church (I have an interview with them tonight for a Media Director-type position), do a UA, and watch the Broncos game with my son and my dad. It was a good day, despite the Broncos’ loss, and it was nice to hang out with the other Orr men. 🙂

Poker this weekend was about two things: putting in some serious time at the tables, and learning to multi-table. I spent most of Saturday playing, starting with about a seven hour stretch without a break. I noticed that, as I got tired/bored, my play slipped – unsurprisingly. This is one of the reasons I’m looking forward to getting back in the gym this week – get the bod back into shape so I can go longer without getting tired and losing focus. As my time went on without a break, I noticed I started letting emotion into my play more than I do when I’m fresh. I was more willing to gamble too. Part of this stemmed from my building up a decent chip stack and then wagering a larger portion than I normally would on more questionable plays. And sometimes I would make bad calls, knowing I was beat, but still paying off hands. But I recognized this tendency and was aware of it at the time I was doing it, but I kept playing because I wanted to push myself a bit more. All I really needed to do was take a break for a few minutes to refocus my energies. Oh, and I was eating Hot Tamales too and the sugar certainly didn’t help.

The new thing I started learning how to do this weekend was multi-tabling. This is where you play more than one game or table at a time. Some of the pros will have as many as twenty games going at once. Multi-tabling is a great way to see more hands and bypass all the time spent waiting when you’re not in a hand. It also is a more math-based way to play. Since you are playing more games simultaneously, you have less time to learn about your opponents’ tendencies and therefore have a tougher time picking off bluffs. The basic approach is to just wait for premium hands and play them aggressively, essentially playing a NIT/TAG style.

I still prefer to get reads on my opponents, so I only had two games going at once. This let me still get reads on my opponents’ betting patterns and not miss things like “Player X always raises pots, no matter what he has” and “Player Y only plays strong hands, proceed with caution.” I think that if I were to play more tables, my win rate would probably improve as not only would I be playing more hands, but I’d be playing only stronger hands. Since there would be more games going on, I’d have more to focus on and be less tempted to mess around with the more questionable holdings. I’m essentially even on the weekend, having run up my stack several times, but losing some big pots too. I had pocket Jacks (JJ) dealt to me on five occasions tonight, played them reasonably well, and lost every time. On the other hand I’ve had Aces (AA) maybe three times and they held up twice, winning me two big pots and losing me one. Like Doyle Brunson says, “everything can change while those cards are in the air.”

All in all, it was a good weekend of play. I’m even or up a little for my experimentation, which is a lot better than losing, and I’m learning a new facet of the game. I could bet a little better – I definitely lost some value by betting nut hands too strongly and scaring players off. When you have the nuts – the best hand possible – the last thing you want to do is get rid of betters. A few times I’ve gotten greedy, thinking they’d call a raise against me, only to have them fold. If I had just kept letting them bet into me and calling them down, and only raise them on the river, I could have made a bunch more.

Anyway, the stats for my sessions are below. I had a 12% win rate over 1450 hands, which seems to be pretty standard for me. I’m curious to know how these stats compare to the pros, if I’m still playing too many hands, what their win rates are, and where I’m missing value. Time to visit the forums!

Statistics for 1450 Hands