I have learned much from poker books. They have improved my game tremendously. The first poker book I ever read gave me the best advice ever: keep track of your play. That way, you can never lie to yourself.
But some games, perhaps it’s just the California-style no-fold-’em-hold-’em games, you almost have to throw out the book. It’s as if the authors have never played in such games,
Certainly the games most authors play in now bear little relation to the low-limit games that inhabit 99 percent of tables in cardrooms across the country. That said, you can’t throw the books out entirely. You just have to adjust.
I’ve made some adjustments to my play in recent weeks, and I think it has helped overall. That’s not to say that the reults I get aren’t sometimes frustrating.
For example, I was playing in my usual $6/$12 game, camping in seat 5. There was a very loose player in seat 9, and the table had just gotten a very aggressive macho type in seat 1. After seeing him try to make some steals, I was very happy to reraise him when I found pocket kings. He 4-bet and I capped.
He had been trying to push hard, and I was pretty confident of my read. turns out I was right. He has KQo. But I didn’t win. The flop came A-9-6 rainbow, and the loose player in seat 9 took down a massive pot with two pair; she has valled all the pre-flop and post-flop raises with 6-9o.
That’s the kind of player that’s easy to find frustrating.
But it’s also why I made some of the changes I did to my own game, largely to disguise my holding.
First, I’ve begin to come into more pots early. I’m much more liberal with connectors, especially in late position, although if the table is playing passively (my favorite type), with larger connectors I’ll come in from early position. They are easy to get off of but powerful when hit.
Second, raises with AK and AQ and even AJ are now not always automatic. I know the purists will say that you have to maximize your edge. But the edge is not always mathematical. You have to learn to develop a psychological edge as well.
A hand I played on Saturday will illustrate this.
I had a somewhat loose, occasionally aggressive player on my immediate left. In late position, with several limpers already, I found AQo. Automatic raise? No. Even though it feels like power hands such as this come far too frequently, I’ve begin sometimes just calling. As I did this time–and was rewarded.
The flop: Q-x-x rainbow. It’s checked to me and I bet out. I get a few callers. And now here’s where the strength of just a limp really worked to my advantage. An A came on the turn. Again, it was checked to me. But this time, I checked. The player to my left bet out. Two others called, and I then check-raised with 3 big-bets already in. Kowing the players who had already called, I was pretty sure they’d stay along for the ride.
The river came a blank and I bet out and got 2 callers. Top two pair held up, and the player on my left mucked, saying that he thought his own two pair weren’t good.
Many of these loose players don’t really pay attention to others’ play, but they do notice when you’re being a nit, and when you are and do bet out or raise, they will put two and two together often enough to fold their draws they would ordinarily chase. So you cannot play automatically. You have to put some variance, away from the “book” play, into your game.