"It doesn't mean much, It doesn't mean anything at all. The life I've left behind me Is a cold room. I've crossed the last line, from where I can't return. Where every step I took in faith, betrayed me, and led me from my home. And sweet, Sweet surrender, Is all that I have to give" -Sarah McLachlan.
The heat wave is here AGAIN! I am really getting sick of this weather being so screwed up. But it won't matter for much long since I will be traveling out of the country back to the wonderful land of Zulu's and Biltong! Yup I'll be in South Africa for around a month or so and then making another trip to Taiwan in Dec/Jan. Don't worry, I will still be playing poker during my time abroad. I am kind of looking forward to it due to the fact I will be able to build a huge chunk of my online roll without consistently cashing out.
On to other things tho. Do you ever consider what a poker guru you are when you make a correct hero call? or when you catch that obvious bluff? I'm pretty sure all of us feel like the Four Kings when we do that. The problem is what about the other hundreds and thousands of times when our reads are incorrect and get valuetowned by a total idiot! Think about how often this happens compared to the times that we are correct, It outweighs the profits so dramatically, thus in the long term of things how much profit are you gaining from making all these hero calls? Probably not much to be honest. Of course everything is relative to stakes, stack sizes, reads, betting patterns and etc. But for a microstakes grinder, how important is this factor?
During the redeye session this morning live, it was very very transparent that this topic came into play. I was holding 89s, 4xraise preflop with 6 callers, raiser was UTG, I was SB. flop came 382. raiser leads for 1/3 of the pot, others fold. I raisex3, he insta calls. Turn is A, check check, river is 5. I check he shoves. So now I have to tank. what could he have at this moment. And so many hands pop up in my head such as PP's, Broadway cards, 4X(prob not), so the question is what ranges am I beating with my 98. Not much right? But then you consider so many other factors such as his bluffing tendencies, Why would he check the A on the turn if it hit him. Is he trying to rep the 4? Could he have me outkicked? Do they have good Ice-cream or yummy deserts available at this time? So I decided to make the biggest spewy call for the morning!
Why do we do these things when the losses outweighs the profits so many times over and over again. I think that this comes down to the relation of the psychology of the game vs standard ABC play style of poker. The emotions attached to making those great bluffs and calling those great bluffs are somewhat embedded in our game, but are they really that necessary in these low stakes? Are most of your profits from making great bluffs or catching them? I truly believe that within reason, this is such a small part of the game and honestly not of utmost importance until you move up into much higher stakes where more meta game comes into play. So at the end of the day, Value owning is pretty much where it is. GLHF, REBUY KTHX!
