Bluffs n reads

Good game last night.2-0 to the Rangers sees us into the Champions league draw today.Buffell and Prso scored.Just glad to be there.The Scottish teams get very little in the way of tv money from the satellite companies so its tough to compete with teams from England and other countries where the clubs get massive payements.Rangers and our rivals are very big fish in a very small pond.Theres been talk of moving to the English league but I doubt it'll ever happen.Why would the top clubs there want more competition? Turkeys don't vote for Christmas.

Arrived home late about 10.30pm after picking up the wee one from Mrs A's work and was looking forward to watching some internet poker on the tv.They show the hole cards and its interesting to watch.Its like railbirding a table only you know what they've all got.That was the plan but Mrs A had left a lovely note asking me to record some load of guff movie that she'd watched the first part of the night before and as it was on Sky I had to forget my viewing and hit the tables.No choice...

I only played a short session but learned a valuable lesson. Apart from .25nl I'm not cut out for multi-tabling.Now this is not a sorry tale of losing money whilst playing 2-3 tables.In fact I only played one table and won $15 in the 20 mins I played but the hand I won made me realise how much of an edge I would lose playing more than one table.As they would have said in Top Gun if it had been a poker movie..."I feel the need.The need for reads".

Ok so Im on the button with AdQd ( $1nl) and I'm the only one to call an $8 raise.Flop comes low blanks and he checks.I bet $10 and he calls.The turn is another blank and I bet $25 and he fold.Brave,bold or stupid?

Well there was some logic behind it. The villan was very loose and loved to bet big.But he'd previously raised $26 preflop after 4 or 5 limpers and then checked it all the way down with one caller.( he lost).I'd only been at the table a short time but he was raising almost every hand but only following through if he hit his flop.

I'd probably have folded AdQd to anyone else raising 8 * BB but I put him on high cards or a mid pair and as I had postion I thought it worth the call.

When he checked to me after the flop I started to put him on AK,AQ,AJ,A10 and decided to try and push him out of the pot.My $10 post flop bet was more to see where I was in the hand and when he just called I had a feeling he thought he was beaten so when another low blank came on the turn thats why I bet $25.

Had I been playing more than one table I'd probably have folded.Maybe I smoke too much when playing but I simply can't keep up with reading the other players when multi-tabling.I'm not saying I have great reads on every player and that my reads are always right.I think its just more of a feel thing than anything else and hopefully the more experienced I get the better my reads will become.Sometimes its as basic as spotting the 2 or 3 slightly loose players at a tight table of campers or who calls the maniacs big raises on a regular basis.

My notes are usually very basic.My excuse is that its dark in my wee cupboard and I only put my wee light on to roll up some inspiration. I don't go for "Raised out of position and made continuation bet with nothing". More like "LAA", "Bluffed on river" etc. I do use Pokerrooms colour code system to tag players as Dangerous,Tight,Maniac,weak etc but my notes could definetely be more extensive especially as there are a lot of regular players at Pokerroom.

Another aspect of my game I need to be wary of is my play when switching from 6 max to full ring.I used to bluff very rarely at the full ring but its an essential part of 6 max and I noticed I've been carrying it over to the full ring.Nothing wrong with bluffing at 10 max but its a long long game lasting a lifetime so no need to bluff furiously.I'll need to keep an eye on myself (maybe a wee mirror by my pc) to make sure adding bluffs to my full ring game is +EV.

Good luck at the tables.