After the up-and-down year that was 2007, I never expected to be playing as much as I have already in 2008. January is not yet even over and I’ve already played 14 times. Even better, 12 of those I’ve walked away with profits. And not just small profits either: Only one has been less than $100 and the majority are in the $2-300 range. This typically for a 3-4 hour–at mos–visit to the table.
The only two losses so far this year have been at Artichoke Joe’s, yet I spent most of the day today in San Francisco, first a trip to the optometrist to get my new contact lenses and to get my eye dilated so they can take a good look inside and see if my cataracts have progressed (thankfully, not), and then a trip to the movie theater while my eyes recovered (I saw “Atonement,” an interesting and OK movie with a moving ending and one of the most incredible long single shots I’ve ever seen) and to CompUSA to see if they had cut prices any more in their closing sale (they hadn’t), so because this is that card club on the way home, I stopped there.
Amazingly, there was no list on a Saturday night, and I sat down right away.
I love it when a chip dumper sits immediately on my right. This one went on a lucky streak shortly after I sat down and accumulated quite the stack, probably $6-700 at least. But by the time I left, he was down to about $100, calling and cold-calling way too often preflop, mostly whenever he had suited cards.
When another player who I knew to be almost stupidly aggressive (and a poor loser to boot) sat down, I decided to leave with my nightly profit, this time an exact double-up of my $200 buy-in.
One of the reasons that I think I’m seeing more success is that I’m getting to the point where I can more often do a pretty decent job of reading hands. I’m nowhere near Daniel Negreanu’s level, of course (who is?), but what loose players tend to play, combined with their betting patterns, are leading me to clues that allow me to make some pretty good deductions. It’s a skill that I think is still in its infancy in my case, but I hope that, with plenty of practice, that it’ll continue to develop so that I can continue my long-term success.