Monday, November 17, 2008

Gone away...

The blogger you have tried to reach, SandMan, has been disconnected or is no longer in service...

Actually, to be more accurate, he's fighting with an ill defined project that has no real chance of any kind of success... Oh, and he's in New Orleans. Yuck.

Squeezed in a few minutes of poker last night and happened to be in the right place at the right time when I turned the nut flush and the loosey goosey to my left decided to represent... the nut flush. It's almost enough to make variance worth it.

Almost.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Poker Drivel: Eschew Egregious Obfuscation Addendum

So... I wrote and rewrote the "Eschew Egregious Obfuscation" post several times, having a hard time expressing my thoughts on keeping one's poker game simple. I knew there was a core truth in there, but I was having a hard time explaining it succinctly.

Then, yesterday, I signed up for a premium membership at DeucesCracked.com and got busy watching some really good players go at it... When out it comes...

He says he very rarely bluffs or makes a move, beyond the basic C-bet when the flop likely favored him more than his opponent (like when he raises with AKs, opponent calls from middle pos and the flop comes 729)... He feels there's no reason to get particularly fancy or overcomplicate your game at this level. Sure, making moves and outplaying your opponent is both fun and can amount to some brilliant poker when you get good at it, but why open yourself up to making potentially costly mistakes and maybe even get into a habit of playing above your skill level (if only slightly) when making money at a given level doesn't require it?

He bets when he really feels he has the best hand and he's fairly quick to lay it down to a raise. He admits this play style would get him killed at anything past 100NL, but it works well at the micros and allows him to build a bankroll at the early stages, hone the basics, and cuts down on variance.

Exactly, I say, thank you...

Eschew Egregious Obfuscation (Addendum)