Oh What A Relief It Is

The cable guy showed up yesterday morning before I had to go to work and replaced my cable modem. This had me back in business and I was actually getting excited on the way home from work anticipating the play. I was sure the recent downturn was behind me and last night was going to be big.

With a night of no internet access at all on Friday the Wife and I decided to watch some movies. First up was The Last Samurai. I didn’t expect much from this movie and I was pleasantly surprised when it ended up being a good flick. Next up I decided to watch Rounders. I bought the DVD a while back but hadn’t watched it since I started playing online about a year ago. After watching it two things stood out to me:

1) They sure say the “F” word a lot.
2) That guy was really stupid.

I’m sure when I started out I wanted to be a “Mike”, but after learning more and seeing my style of play I’d much rather be a “Knish”. Sure the quick take is enticing but the odds of success and the cash necessary to weather the lack of money placings just don’t appeal to me. No limit tourneys will always be a fun game but the steady income of limit play will remain my focus. I think a sequel needs to be made following the Knish character. It would be nice to see a sensible, responsible poker player portrayed in film.

Onto the poker play. I sat down and again Party did not have any 1/2 tables available. I joined the waiting list for the first available and was seated about 30 seconds later. Once again letting Party Poker pick my table was disastrous. After 27 hands I knew this table wasn’t for me and I was bleeding money away quickly. I didn’t play badly, I just wasn’t getting anything on the board to help my hole cards. I did win one very small pot but I decided to check the lobby and test the waters.

Since Party doesn’t give you much information about the tables you are looking at I usually just look for one with an average pot size of $14 dollars and join it. This has been leading to a few more tight players at the table than I like so I went for something new. I joined a table with an $18 average pot. I was greeted by a player with stats I don’t recall ever seeing before. I’ve seen plenty of players that want to see every flop but this guy would raise just about every time preflop no matter what he had. He would even reraise your raise if he had the chance. He was seated two seats to my left and he caught me a little off guard at first. His Poker Tracker numbers are pretty amazing so I’ll share them with you. VP$IP 85.71%, Went to SD% 58.54, PF Raise % 77.55, Won $ at SD 45.83%.
According to Tracker after about 12 hands he was the only, and I do mean only, player at the table who had won money. He was in everything and his cards were hitting left and right. Since he raised indiscriminately his raises meant nothing to me but if others were staying I had to really weigh whether it was worth being in the hand. This forced me to tighten up a lot and for a while I couldn’t get anything going.

It didn’t take long though to realize that the Maniac was actually a Fish. If he had any part of the flop he would stay, if he didn’t he’d fold it. The tricky part came in knowing what part of the flop he had. Since I was reduced to playing primarily premium hands, if I also had a part of the flop I would pound him. It wasn’t 100% effective but for the most part I would have the better of it. He eventually played back everything he had gained and left. There was the normal influx and departure of players and after the big fish left things were pretty normal. I was really able to get into my game and if not for the first table loss I would have had an exceptional night.

Table One – 23 minutes, -13BB, -33.91BB/Hr, 27 hands
Table Two – 118 minutes, 37.5BB, 19.07BB/Hr, 128 hands
Total – 141 minutes, 24.5BB, 10.43BB/Hr, 155 hands

I would like to thank Habsfanca11 for responding to my call for help in finding some good poker books. Now the rest of you need to get up off your butts and respond as well.