Poker Boot Camp 101 part one

I usually data mine my poker games at the higher levels when I play online poker but I do not play nearly as much limit hold’em now as I used to and for the purposes of this article I felt that it was more important to try and get across how I thought during the actual session itself. Even when I am not using Poker Office then I will still sit and watch the players for a while to get a feel for the game although in this session I was going in totally blind.

Usually though the players at the $10-$20 level are not too hot so I find that I have +EV in almost every single six handed poker game that I sit down in so I become rather lazy and lethargic when it comes to watching these games and gathering data. So the first decision has to be made about how much I actually buy in for. This brings up the point once again about doing what is best for you rather than what you have necessarily read in some book.

I have found down the years that my poker game deteriorates whenever I am losing. Despite experiencing more nightmare runs that I can care to remember, this is still a part of my character that I have never properly shaken off. Actually if I was honest, a fair portion of some of those bad runs have been down to me playing badly and not running badly.

This is probably the main reason for many so called bad runs or at least parts of them. I will sit down at a limit game not with the maximum but with around 30 to 35 big bets. I think that it is silly to sit down with the maximum in many games. I simply don’t see the point in sitting down with more money if you play badly with that extra money. It is a similar principle with no limit hold’em. I hear players all the time state about how you should buy in for the maximum.

Just because it may be correct for them to buy in for the maximum does not mean that it would necessarily be correct for you to buy in for the maximum. What is the point in buying in for the maximum if you are –EV? If you –EV then you are either sitting in the wrong game, in the wrong frame of mind or you are not good enough full stop or a combination of.

So do not be talked into doing something just because you have read it in some poker book. Generalised advice is hardly great advice simply because no one glove fits all. So I buy in for 35 big bets which in this game means $700. For the purposes of this article and the other articles to come then I will ignore the effect of the rake and table charges when calculating pot sizes. Lookout for part two of Poker Boot Camp and how to play poker coming soon.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson
Author – “Winning Cash Game Poker”

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