Jekyll and Hyde
There is an awful duality to my cash game play these days, which needs to stamped out.
On the one hand, when there are strangers on the table, I play an aggressive, yet strategic game. An analytical approach, with a healthy balance between aggression and patience, which normally results in profit.
However, when the randoms leave and it’s just myself and the guys, the beers flow and the transformation begins. Aggressive to the point of being a maniac, all gamble and no tactics, self destructive and unprofitable. The usual suspects of The Baron, Deven, Jason and Honest Dave are normally the people who have to deal with this double edged sword - a player who is easy to trap, but who has the stack size and the aggression to hurt them if the cards don’t fall in their favour. If I played forever in this mode, they couldn’t help but beat me - but they might need to accept some huge variance to do it.
When my cash transformation occurs, a heady cocktail of booze, comfortable surroundings, good conversation and fellow aggressive players make this a bad spot for me to be in from a financial point of view.
Saturday saw Loose Cannon holding their Xmas party - the prospect of rake free events all day apart from the £1/£2 cash table brought a bumper turn out from the off at 2pm.
The Baron won the opening £20 2pm tournament for a £500 score so was off to a flyer. I arrived at 6:30ish so settled in at the cash table for a 12 hour session, judging the 7pm £20 50 runner tournament too much work for too little potential reward.
My Dr Jeckyll phase lasted a good 6 hours, during which I played some really strong poker and built my stack up from £300 to £700 before the transformation occurred. I made some big laydowns (set over set in Omaha and straight over straight), but also took big risks when the situation dictated, and was extremely pleased with my play.
During this golden phase, the table consisted of myself, Mark S and Wilkinson from the usual crowd, as well as Tony plus two other LPM regulars. Due to presence of the unfamiliar players, my wild side was kept in check, and my stack bumbled along happily in a northernly direction.
Then the LPM guys left, Jason and Sonny arrived, and my mental dynamic almost instantaneously lurched from finely balanced to over the ledge. My Hyde was soon out to play and the losses began to pile up.
As an indicator of how loose my table image became, I was called all in pre flop by A7(!) by Sonny (I had 33), and Tom made an admittedly inspired call to my chunky river bet with QUEEN high to take a pot down! I followed this up by shoving a rivered flush into a full house on the river against Jason, to rescue his own night from oblivion.
I was reeling by this point but fortunately for me, at about 7am I finally got out of jail by winning the biggest pot of the night to clean out The Baron and Deven. A standard raised pot in Omaha left me with a flopped middle set. I pot it for £25, Dev repots it to £102 and both myself and the Baron call. There was a possible straight on the board so Dev’s repot smelled of the nuts, but I was too far tilted by then and ready for bed. The turn bring an innocuous 9. I lead for £100 (a very odd 1/3 pot bet but who knows what was going through Mr Hyde’s head at this point) and Deven repots all in for £362. The Baron calls. I pretty much have to call as there is a decent chance it is nut straight verses flush draw and I’m 20% to pair the board on the river. The 9 duely arrives and I scoop a £1600 pot verses Deven’s flopped straight and Tom’s busted flush and higher straight draws. Hmmm…not very deservedly I somehow finish up £400 for the night.
I hope I can change this next year otherwise I simply won’t be a winning cash game player. Hopefully the fact it won’t be festive in January, will lead me to stop guzzling the pints like there is no tomorrow and not having so many late nights (I generally do the most damage to my stack in the very early hours). Also my plans to separate cash and tournament bankroll should help - but we will see.
The “A” game is fearsome when it comes out. It’s just a question of how long I can stay at that level, before the Beast emerges…
| PROFIT/(LOSS) USD 2008 | |
|---|---|
| Live Holdem Tournaments | 2,875 |
| Live Holdem Cash | 737 |
| Live Omaha | (590) |
| Live “Professional” Tournaments | (7,436) |
| Home Games | (1,314) |
| Online Holdem Tournaments | 54,939 |
| Online Holdem Cash | 16,552 |
| Online Omaha | (140) |
| Sundry | 1,210 |
| Rake | (5,639) |
| Total | 59,913 |