More on Passive Play

Okay, so in my last blog I promised you that I would explain a little more about my Borgata trip. It was one of those trips where I was never up. Of course, when you start with a $350 buy-in and don't cash, you're already in a decent sized hole. But even if you take out the tournament, I was only up in the cash games for a brief period around 4 or 5 pm on Tuesday evening. And that wasn't much (maybe $30 or $40).

As I think about my trip, I realized that a couple of things happened. First and foremost, I had a guy sitting two spots to my left who I could never figure out. He seemed a little drunk when he sat down and frankly looked like he had just rolled out of bed. To top it all off, he was probably in his 50's. All-in-all he wasn't that impressive. He would accumulate chips and then lose them in some wierd ways. But when I got up at 2 am, he was still there and looked like he was sitting on a winning session.

At the risk of giving those who play against me more weapons to beat me, here's what happened. It seemed that every time I raised pre-flop, he called. After the flop I'd bet, sometimes a continuation bet, sometimes because I hit the flop. Either way, it seemed like I couldn't shake him, he always called. Many of these times I'd then check the turn either because I still had nothing (if I had c-bet the flop) or because I didn't want to play a big pot with just a pair. Regardless, it seemed like he'd either fire a bet on the turn and then follow it up with one on the river, or he'd check the flop and bet the river. No matter what, it seemed like I always found myself facing a pretty good sized bet on the river with a marginal holding. Usually I found myself folding in this spot.

My timing also seemed to be off with the other people at my table. I only ran a couple of bluffs, but they always seemed to run into legitimate hands. A couple of times people would hit on the turn or river, but most of the time it seemed like I just couldn't buy a pot.

All of this caused me to become passive, both out of frustration and because that's what I do when I go on tilt. I started clamming up, waiting for a good hand, and just generally become weak-tight. So that's what I did and you know how this story goes. When I finally picked up AA, I got two callers (despite hardly playing a hand). KQ suited makes a flush and I get sent up to the room to think about things.

So on day 2, with the losses of day 1 still sticking in my head, I continuted to play passively and didn't seem to be raising nearly enough. It didn't hurt that it seemed like every pot was an eight way limpfest and that raises to anything less than $20 (10 times the big blind) would still get 4 or 5 callers.

Either way, I need to be more diligent about how much I limp and call. Since returning from the trip I've been playing a lot of really aggressive raise or fold poker on Full Tilt and have been CRUSHING the 25-50 cent game at a rate of nearly 9 big bets per hour. Hopefully this will continue. This week's lineup includes the regular home game tomorrow night and then Bmore's Brawl on Wednesday night. Friday night should be a good online session as Momx2 is going out and once the kids go to bed, well, there just isn't much else to do but play some cards...