$100 goal
I just finished Internet Texas Hold’em: Winning Strategies from an Internet Pro by Matthew Hilger. Hilger gets credit for this goal, and the goal is to rack up $100 net winnings at $.50/$1. This post is a little late, since I started the goal last weekend, but I have learned a few things that are worth sharing.
Having a bankroll based goal forces you to look at the situation differently. When I am playing $1/$2, and I am up over $20, I tend to take more risk and give back a sizable portion of my winning’s calling down with second best hand. The problem is, I will call down and the pot post flop will be tiny. So who gives a shit if I win, its not worth another $5 to find out if I won what was $3 or $4. Now when the pot is $17 post flop, and there isn’t a raise on the turn, I am calling down, and getting paid off.
Trying to play in full ring games is boring and low return. So I look for tables that have 4 or 5 players seated, and aren’t about to break. The pots build just as quick, and I am not waiting 10 minutes between hands. This has been a much better alternative to playing multitable full ring games for me.
Short handed, $.50/$1, bluffing doesn’t work. At all. Thats a huge difference from $1/$2, where a semi-bluff might win you the pot. So I had to change my game some, tightening up on draws, because the odds of winning the pot right there are close to zero, vs $1/$2, where if you have showed down winners at the table recently, semi-bluffing on a strong draw will win the pot a good percentage of the time.
Pots don’t build as fast at $.50/$1. Its not that the play is much tighter at this level, the players are so much more passive that raising doesn’t even occur to them. With Aces it doesn’t occur to them. The also affects the prior point, because if you can’t build a pot on the turn and river, then your implied odds kinda suck for strong draws. If there is one other person in the pot, he is going to call your bet, or check behind you, even if he has you beat. I am getting off cheap with the second best hand.
The basis of the goal? Hilger recommends 100BB at a level before moving up. Sounds like a good goal, and since I don’t have a bonus to clear, and I don’t care about raked hands, thats the goal. It will probably become a reoccurring goal, as I move up levels, or even repeated at a level, just so I have something to focus on.
Playing for fun is a good way to loose money.