Another good day...

I set a new personal best today, more on that and a few hand histories, but first thing's first, I figured this would be a good time to talk a little about limit poker stratagies...

I must be the worst person alive for even thinking myself qualified to write this. First let's start with a little background on myself.

I've played alot of limit poker at Brantford Charity Casino a few years ago I used to go almost every day down there to play the 5/10 game. I did well, but this is before I became the player I am today, I just always had a real nack for limit poker from the start I found.

Skip ahead, I start working for a Poker tour, running poker tournaments, playing them nightly, and so on. I became a solid NL player and a solid MTT player, but still always said I considered myself a better limit player than NL.

Skip ahead again, and finally I clear a bankroll after a very enjoyable, successful(cashed in my first WSOP event ever, although it wasn't an overly big number, those few days with Bruno at the WSOP will be long lasting memories, we had alot of fun, and both cashing was icing on the cake), and lucrative(over 5000 dollars earned for the trip) trip to Las Vegas, my first trip down there, I decided to toss some money down into online poker and see what became of it.

I bought in for 500 to Pokerstars after returning from Las Vegas, and have run that up to over 17,000 dollars currently on the site, and that's after I withdrew 5000 of it to pay the bill for my new TV(61" JVC HD-ILA HDTV, and all the new upgrades that had to be bought along with it), I plan on withdrawing a 2nd poker paycheque in a day or two, another $5,000 give or take.

How did that happen? Limit poker. I'm back at it, so I figured I'd take some time to explain my theories on limit poker. You may read this and decide I'm an imbecile, if so, sobeit. This is just how I've been so far pretty damn successful at a game alot of today's poker players find very difficult.

First, I want to make it clear that all these tips are strictly 6 handed mid-level limit games(5-10, 10-20).

Limit poker is a cruel game for a couple reasons, so let's establish the large problem people have with transitioning NL-limit poker.

Protecting your hands.

Okay, you've flopped top pair after raising preflop with AK in a 10-20 game and getting 4 callers. Flop comes Kh/6h/4c. Now would be a time to slam it in NL and try and protect against a potential draw. So go ahead and bet your 10 dollars into the 40 dollar pot, and lay him 5 to 1 to draw. Kind of hard for any flush draw not to see equity in that call now huh?

My solution isn't anything overly sophisticated, first of all you want to ensure yourself you're using position very well, and for me, with that flop, I won't even bet that flop. I'll check it, hope to see a turn card that's a blank. Now 2 things have happened. First of all, his odds have cut themselves down drastically after seeing that brick on the turn, and 2nd of all, you're now in the big bet stage. So now you can bet 20 at the 40 pot, and lay him 3 to 1, with 1 card to come to chase that flush draw, with him having already seen the blank turn card peel off. You'll find first of all you'll be able to protect your hands more here, and 2nd of all, you won't spill money to the table as they call your flop bets on the draw and spike the turn.

So, with that out of the way, the specific games I play are 5/10 and 10/20(mostly 10/20 now) limit, 6 handed games. That being key for the next part of the story.

I play completely maniacal at the table, raising any two suited cards, connected cards, or face cards or pairs, as long as I'm not UTG. I find this works for alot of ways, even if I run into a hand that 3 bets me, I'm being layed a strong price to call, and see a relatively cheap flop(rather than facing an all-in re-shove) and I can win some huge pots. Alot of my biggest pots are with hands that would turn a stomach, 10h/4h cracking KK, with a K on the flop and I make a flush on the turn, things like that. While it sounds like that's just me running exorberantly well, it's really not, I think I put myself in alot of positions to win pots, either stealing some money by stealing blinds(keep in mind stealing blinds at 10/20 limit is the same as stealing blinds at 5/10 NL, so it can be very equitable to steal blinds frequently), or by flopping large. It's kind of similar to Marc Karam's NL strategy for low-level NL cash game tables, but only slightly altered to a limit table. The other key to adopting a stratagy this intense is the last part of the lessons :

The absolute most important part to limit poker, SAVE, YOUR, BETS

This can absolutely not be stressed enough. You have KK at a 10/20 table, raise to 20 preflop, get re-raised to 30, cap it to 40 and the player calls. Pot is 80 dollars. Flop is Kh/6h/2s. He bets out 10, you raise 20, he calls. 120 in the pot. Turn is a 10c. He checks, you bet out 20, he calls. 160 in the pot. River is a 9h. He bets out 20. You're actually being layed 9 to 1 to call here. Unfortunately, 98% of the time he's just made his flush(yes there are the odd players that are crazy enough to bet there with the pot odds they leave behind, but you let them have it). The truth is the biggest key to limit poker is not saying "Fuck, I think I just got rivered...I call.". You know you're beat, wonderful, fold. The biggest thing about limit poker is one key statistic, which I track along with my other statistics on limit play for myself, and that's "Showdown's won". Mine over the course of this entire run I'm on, is 89%. I'd say that's fairly strong. That's why I win at limit poker. I don't waste money to see how bad the river card was to me. Limit will allow chasing, accept it and don't pay to see it, and you'll do fine.

So with that said, back to my day today, I won't list alot of examples of hands, mainly because I was multi-tabling so I can't really remember all that many quite frankly, but what I do remember is booking a $3600 dollar day today total. I bought into 4 tables of 10/20 at 500 a peice, and eventually had 5600 in play over the 4 tables, including one table over 2k. What I do remember is I fell in love with suited connectors again today, I made countless large pots with 5/6, 6/7, 4/5 suited, and one of the sickest pots I've ever played which I will take the time to write out.

I'm UTG with QQ, so I raise it up to 20, it's called by 2 players. 60 in the pot to the flop. The flop is Q/8/5 rainbow. I bet out 10(ya, I bet that, no use check raising here), it gets raised, and 3 bet, so I cap it to 4 bets, it's called and called. 180 in the pot and we see the turn. A. I bet out 20 praying that's a good card for me, it's raised to 40, 3 bet to 60. I cap it to 80, call, call. 420 in the pot now. River is a 2. I bet out again, raise, 3 bet, I 4 bet, call, call. 660 dollar pot. My QQ goes up as the winning hand, and I rake the pot, neither of the other players show(surprising as you'll see in a second). I go through hand history to see what they had. 88 and 55. All 3 of us flopped a set.

So, after the quality poker session and a stop in at the mechanic's for an oil change, I drive out to Oakville and meet up with a few friends to go see Toronto FC play the New York Red Bulls.

This was my first MLS game, and since I seem to now almost always include little life lessons, here's todays. Even you Ottawa kids on jackseven. Make a trip to see Toronto FC play. It's a blast. Amazing atmosphere, the crowds are so heavily into it, singing, dancing, it's one gigantic party, like Mardi Gras in a stadium. It was the most fun I've had at a sporting event, ever. And I regularily go to Habs games in Montreal, I've been to Leafs games, been to Sens games, been to an NFL football game(Cincinatti), been to countless MLB games, been to a Raptors game, and I saw the Blue Jays win the World Series(granted I was 10 at the time, but still). Nothing compared to the sheer enjoyment of the Toronto FC game. I highly recommend you go down and check it out. The stadium is gorgeous and it's one hell of a party.

Griffin and I are planning to go down to Turning Stone next weekend for the tournament series down there, if you're planning on being there, we'll see you there. Griffin'll probably be the one sitting at a final table, and I'll probably be the one that busts in 14 minutes and goes and wins it all back playing a ring game.