As you might have guessed from the title of this post, I arrested my freefall last night. I really tightened up my game. The bar chart of my stack size over the course of the session resembles shark fins rising to the right. I had good discipline and good luck - a winning combination!
Rather than go into details of the session, I thought I'd talk about my current philosophy about going all in. It really peeves me when I encounter players who routinely go all in preflop just to win a minuscule amount of chips when everyone folds (or so they hope). I would never make such a play. It's bad on two counts. First, when you have a really good hand, the way to make the most money in those situations over time is not to go all in, which will likely induce everyone to fold, but to bet small enough to get some callers, then increase the size of your bet every succeeding betting round. Second, if anyone else also has a really good hand, you're in danger of being in a coin flip if they call you, or even of being an underdog. In fact, you can practically guarantee that anyone who calls you will have a strong hand. So going all in preflop minimizes the amount of money you can win, and maximizes the amount of money you can lose. What an asinine play! The only play which is more asinine is to be baited by the idiotic behavior of the bettor into calling his bet, which I admit I succumbed to several times in my recent super slump.
As I see it, there are only 2 times ever to go all in:
1. when you're sure you have the best hand
2. when you're short stacked and out of options
I've found that when I'm playing my best poker, I more frequently call someone else's bet to put me all in than I initiate an all in bet myself. Also, at these times the call is easy to make; I know I'm going to win the pot :-)
During current Hold'em session you were dealt 100 hands and saw flop:
- 16 out of 18 times while in big blind (88%)
- 19 out of 23 times while in small blind (82%)
- 48 out of 59 times in other positions (81%)
- a total of 83 out of 100 (83%)
Pots won at showdown - 13 of 19 (68%)
Pots won without showdown - 7
delta: $50,600
balance: $1,634,672
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