Learning How to Be Lucky

Thanks Klopzi, for prompting me to post.

I've only played another 30 hours of live 4/8 limit so not enough for my next 50 hour live report.

The reason I've played so few hands live was because I realized I was playing too timid for the game I was in. I wasn't playing right and needed to reset what I was doing.

After analyzing my live play and how I was just breaking even and losing to the most incredible draws, I can now characterize the 4/8 game in online terms... preflop it's exactly like the online micro-limit tables (25c/50c or less)... after the flop the skill level improves for some of the players and is more like the online 1/2-5/10 6-max shorthanded tables.

So almost anything goes preflop, and any draw is usually chased to the river irregardless of the odds, though given the number of players usually seeing the turn, the odds are almost always there to chase - thus the title of my post.

Once I've gotten these thoughts into my head, I've... gone back to the microlimit tables online! So I've been playing at the 25c/50c at poker.com and 15c/30c at hollywoodpoker to reset my game.

With the greater number of hands I can play online, I can now see better the possible patterns of play given the wider distribution of opening hands. And since the post flop play at these micro limits are, as expected, poorer, I'm winning much more than I've ever had at these limits.

Learning to see ALL the possible hands after the flop and quickly recognizing where your hand stands relative to a loose opening distribution of starting hands makes a BIG difference between chasing right or wrong.

Before, I would almost never 'catch' a river card to suckout a win. Those donkey moves only happened to me and my made hands (like what was happening to me live). Now... first, I recognize that I'm chasing, but when I realize I have multiple ways to win over unsuspecting opponents, when I do hit my expected 25-40% of the time hand, I get to squeeze maximize value with check raises on the river that more than covers the easy-to-fold misses.

The best feeling is when your opponent then types 'you lucky &#*%,' goes on a mini-tilt, and pays off your monster hands as well.