Offline and online poker

The company I work for had its holiday party today. As they've done for the past several years, they had a play money casino, with the feature attraction a No Limit Texas Hold'em tournament. That reminds me, I forgot to mention it before, but the flavor of poker I play exclusively on pokerstars.com is Pot Limit Hold'em. When I first got an account on the site, I tried No Limit for a very brief period, but quickly realized I could minimize my damages and maximize my learning by switching to Pot Limit. Now it just feels familiar, cozy, and right, similar to how the Ruy Lopez opening feels to me in chess.

I first played in the company's Hold'em tournament at last year's holiday party. There was a lunch beforehand, and I got to talking and didn't get up to the room where the tournament was being held until about 45 minutes after the tournament had started. The organizers were very nice about it and let me join a table in progress. I hit the felt pretty quickly, not winning a single hand. My last hand, I went all in on two pairs. Not one, but two hands were better than mine -- a three of a kind and a flush.

I improved this year -- I actually won 3 hands. I went all in again on two pairs (jacks and queens) and lost to trip queens. I found out that the player who took me out had won the tournament two years before, so I was pulling for him to win again! There's no shame in being taken out by the eventual winner. He made it to heads up, but lost to a river four which gave his opponent a pair. Neither of them was dealt a pair, and his high card (king) was higher than his opponent's high card. Bad luck!

One thing I found fascinating about the way the player who took me out played heads up -- he always waited and watched his opponent's reaction to his hand before he even picked his hand up. It could be that I didn't pay enough attention when I was at the table and that this was actually how he always played, regardless of the number of players at the table. I got the sense that he really trusted his people-reading skills. I have none to speak of, and certainly can't gain any by playing online! Also, I'm pretty sure my poker face leaves a lot to be desired.

That's all I have to say about the offline poker part of my day. Online, I had a third day in a row which ended with a monster hand in my favor. Several posts ago, I talked about having a "stop loss" strategy. I think it's just as important to have a "preserve win" strategy. Whenever I've at least doubled my chips on the night, I seriously think about ending my session. If it's late at night, I'll almost certainly end it then. If it's early, I'll see how frisky I'm feeling. Tonight, my session ender was a full house, kings full of fours. I was dealt a king and a four.

delta: $2,750
balance: $250,939