A Revelation

Today, I discovered another key to playing this damn game that we all are addicted to/obsess over play. I was on UB playing a low limit table. The table had a big stacked player to my left. This guy was playing TRASH. Hands like 84o, J2s, and he'd even have the balls to hit them. I was down to about $3.50 from my $5.00 buy-in, while this guy bought in with the max $10 and had almost $30 in front of him. I played mostly card-dead, folding frequently and watching him play. He was playing and raising with junk, and because he would hit so much, people would fold to him.

I look down and I start to see good hands. I saw AJo (and I know what players say about AJ--but I had to. I limp in (and am allowed). The flop drops down J-blank-blank. For some reason, I check. Wild man leads with a pot-sized bet. I call. Turn is an A. Another pot-sized bet. I raise it. He folds. I think here...

Maybe I'm on to something.

So we continue to play on, I continue to play premium hands with limps out of position. Wild man raises, I re-raise, and he goes away.

By checking to him, I created my own position. I may be totally off base here, or thinking that I did something cool when all I did was slow play hands and get lucky, but I took my out-of-position self, and put myself into LP by checking with the best hand. Smooth call, smooth call, then re-raise. Rinse. Repeat.

Next thing I know, I'm sitting with the $20+ big stack, and he's grumbling about losing money. I take him for another pot and he leaves.

Shark 1--Maniac 0.

And I did all this from work. I was working today, and between patients (I'm a pharmacist) and prescriptions, I was playing me some poker.

I know. I'm a baaaaaaaad boy.