Bring on the No Limit Baby!

Well, I don’t know about the rest of you guys, but I’ve been working it, working it. And it’s not always roses. Last month I tried to do the Online Internet Challenge (OIC) after WhiskeyTown (http://www.whiskeytown.blogspot.com/) talked me into it; darn you! OK, I’ll come clean… he didn’t talk me into it, he just told me about it and I thought I’d give it a try. So instead of my normal grinding at the $25 NL tables on Party (with my Paradise Draw thrown in here and there) I started playing the limit $.50/$1 tables on Party again.

Boy in the beginning, it was great! After having a losing month (after my disastrous “shot” at 15/30), I was really running well. Ran my $40 “buy in” (for the OIC) up to a little over $80, then started playing $1/2 on Party for the first time. I had some ups and downs, but eventually got up the OIC ‘roll to about $100. Then, nothing stood up! I’d get all the “monster”/big pairs broken (Ed Miller calls AA & KK “monster” pairs in his celebrated book, Small Stakes Hold’em). Seemed I’d always end up with these big pairs with limpers already in (a few times I had these hands right on the button), and I knew my raise was getting no one out! As my mother would say “telle est la vie, telle est la guerre, la vie est dure! (Such is life, such is war, life is hard!)* They would get run down, be dominated from the start (KK vs AA), or somehow get outdrawn. My really strong hands, like flopping a set, nut straight, etc., I’d seem to get no value out of! Like they knew what I held and would just fold to me.

Even through all these beats and struggles. I persevered! I said, “a little variance isn’t going to get me down! I can ride the storm! This is why I waited to play these levels anyway isn’t it? I built my ‘roll on Party up and now I can weather the bad times.” However, the bad times kept coming! Ugh! What gives? Either the table’s too tight or too loose. Get no hands at a tight table and you just blind away money. Get hands run down on the loose tables and I call/raise off money. I get AKo and raise and get 3 callers. Flop AJx, I bet, get 2 callers. J on the turn, I bet, get raised, I am lone caller (could be same hand, could be semi-bluff, so I call). Q on river, I check-call to see AQo! I was in the lead the whole time, until the river. Ugh!

I even started playing 4-tables at once to try to lessen the variance. Hmmm, just seems I’m losing faster! LOL!

Yesterday, I finally started playing the $25 NL games again, hoping the change would be good. What was I thinking playing limit? Oh my goodness! Doubled through yesterday, doubled through today, and I have my ‘roll on Party almost back up to where it was before I started this whole nonsense (just five bucks shy ;).

So, what does this all mean?? Stick with what you’re good at! I know I’m a good NL player. I know that I can beat the games for a decent BB/hr. I can play limit here and there for a change, but I was trying to play exclusively limit. There have been discussions on boards about which has the higher variance, and its “hands down” limit. My nature is to abhor change; variance is change… in the wrong direction. :-P

Therefore, bring on the NL baby!



* [I got this from spelling from Babel Fish, so if anyone finds fault with it, tell them! The actual word that my mother used for ‘tough’ was something like “domaj”; supposed to mean ‘tough’, but Babel Fish gave me “dure” for tough. When I reversed it, it gave me back ‘hard’; go figure.]

Posted by Glenn