Don't be afraid to breakyour own Texas Holdem poker strategies if the game is good enough
My Texas Holdem theory is among the simplest of poker strategies, if you’re interested in making a living playing poker. But like any good theory, there are times when you ought to break the rules.
In case you haven’t read my previous articles, a very brief summary: set a daily target, concentrate on achieving it and stop. Do something better with your time.
Today, my poker strategies talk is about those times you should NOT stop. Why?
Because you have landed in that perfect online Texas Holdem seat, on a table with a fine balance of people just waiting to hand you their cash.
This happened to me last Friday night. I broke every rule in the book (and I wrote the book! No excuses, really, are there?). I’d more than achieved my Texas Holdem target for the day, cashed it in and done some very positive things with my time, like writing some articles for the site, posting to forums and even going for an hour’s run, followed by dinner with friends.
I’ve discovered that Friday nights are among the most lucrative times to be playing online poker. Casual players, for whatever reason, seem unable to resist letting off the tension of a week’s slavery at work by dumping off a chunk of their salaries at the poker tables!
And here I was, in a different time zone, visiting my relatives. Normally I wouldn’t dream of logging on at midnight, tired from a long day, already ahead from cash games and having safely banked a profit, as per the basic Church of Texas Holdem poker strategy. But here I was. And something told me that it would be a good idea to play once again.
My theory about Friday nights was proven within minutes. Things had only improved since I closed down my computer a few hours before. Even more of those wonderful, casual losing players had flocked to my site of choice. Seriously, some of their actions made Santa Claus look cheap. Take this, for example.
I was dealt Ac6c on the button. The big blind was a crazy guy, who had been raising every single pot (I call these the crazy-raisies, the people who can’t resist raising at every moment). He made it $12 to see the flop. Fortunately, the other players had caught on to him and called in front of me, making it easy to call too.
The flop was a dream:
What happened next convinced me that I
ought to
stay around a while! The small blind bet $20. Crazy-raisy moved all-in
for his $90! Folded around to me, I flat-called, the small blind
reraised all-in! Faced with calling another $150, I had no choice. If
he had a set and hit a house, so be it.
The good news is that my nut flush stood up. The incredible news is that crazy-raisy had 52 (yes, FIVE-DEUCE OFFSUIT!! And neither of them clubs) for bottom pair only; the unbelievable part is the small blind, who I had thought a fairly solid player, had AK WITHOUT the King of Clubs!
No poker strategies writer would advise you leaving a table like this, no matter how far past your winning target that hand of Texas Holdem took you. You simply say “ty” when they tell you it was a nice hand and pray to the poker gods that they have not yet run out of money.
I spent the rest of my session following around the crazy-raisy guy on the site. He dumped off about a grand; I got more than a third of it.
I have now added these players to my Texas Holdem Christmas card list. Every one of you should have a list like this. Pin it up beside your computer, or open a word processor document and write new names on every time you run across these amazingly loose losing players. Next time you log in, search for them using your list.
Sometimes the people you are ‘haunting’ every time they play get chatting and even think you’re their friend. Which, in a way, you are. At least, these people pay your mortgage over a week or so of Texas Holdem, so you ought to be friendly with them.
I guess I should have called this article: “Make hay while the sun shines out of their backsides.” Guys like this are worthy of your daily worship.
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