I am THE James

As hard as it may be for some of you to believe, I have actually been obsessed in the last couple of days playing NL Holdem. Those of you whose jaws just hit the floor, you can pick them up now. I have been playing a lot of HEADS-UP NL Holdem in the last couple of days. I actually do enjoy this version of NL. The main reason is that a lot of people just don’t know how to play heads-up properly. I love the players that try to be uber aggressive with me. I just sit back, pick up a decent hand or wait for them to lure me in when they get their monsters. If my garbage hits when they have a monster, I tend to break them. The players that aren’t uber-aggressive, I tend to play a modified version of smallball with. I had one player last night that played the game as if it were Limit Holdem. Yum Yum. There were only about 5 times total that I have been all-in or pushed someone all-in and was called with the worst hand pre-flop. Two of the times, I sucked out.

The same frustrations that I experience with a ring game of NL Holdem are still there, but it isn’t as magnified. Also, I am playing Sit-N-Go’s and not cash games, so that helps. That reminds me of a talk I had with a friend of mine Mickey last night. He expressed that when he is running bad, the game affects his overall mood. I tend to sympathise with him. One thing that I mentioned to him was the fact that I tend to get frustrated more in cash games as opposed to Sit-N-Go’s. In SNG’s, once I pay the money, I consider it gone forever unless I cash. In a cash game, I see the actual money going up or down depending on how I am running. I am not like some people where the money doesn’t mean anything to me at all, so there is I guess the added psychological pressure. True, this is all in my head, but at least I admit it.

My Stud-8 game has been running really well lately. I’ve only had 2 losing session, and 0 losing days so far. I probably need to work on my Stud 8 tournament game some. It is still hard for me to find the patience to sit for a long tournament online. In a future blog, I will go over my Stud 8 cash at Binion’s during my Vegas trip.

I don’t really feel like talking about much else right now, so have a good one folks.

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I am a tight player. For most people in holdem, I am the type of player they love to see because they think they can always steal my blinds, play back at me when they think I am weak, and even chase with bad hands to try and outdraw me. One move that I like to do that REALLY messes with peoples heads is playing a hand blind, or at least acting like I am.

I normally don’t look at my cards until it is my turn to act in Texas Holdem. It gives away less information, and it allows me to look at the other players. After a while, people learn your tendencies and many players will just assume you always do the same thing. Well, one thing people should learn is there is never an always in poker. The first example of how I play a hand blind usually occurs when I am getting short on chips. I take a very quick peak as each card is dealt to me. I try to make sure that people are not looking at me when this is happening. If I use this tactic, there is only one move, “Blind All In.” (more…)