Whew. I was beginning to think I cannot get any cards to play at $4/$8.

3 hours of playing at Caesar's Palace and I'm stuck almost a hundred bucks and starting to wonder how I cannot be embarrassed at posting such a loser on this journal. Worst run of cards I'd ever seen. At one point, I was only down $60, and managed to get back with $7 simply by making moves. I had no cards, but with aggression in the right spots, I took down enough small pots and blinds to claw my way back.

Finally, I get AA, and get cracked when this asshat rivers his straight and I hit a 22:1 loser. My aces were good until I make a set. Go figure.

Then, KK hand in LP. Flop comes middle cards, all spades. EP caller bets out, the guy who cracked my AA when he rivered a straight and I got my set. He's terrible, on a rush, and has thus infuriating smirk when he drags a pot he didn't deserve. He thinks he knows how to play.

So I call his bet on the flop. I really, really wanted to pop it, but if he'd re-raised me, I'd have a tough decision.

He bets the brick on the turn and I call.

Ace comes on the river, he checks and I check behind. Again, I know it's weak, but I cannot bet into this board with no spade at all.

He says he has no spade at all and mucks his hand when he sees my KK (doing his usual slow roll, he doesn't show his garbage hand he thought was good). He was behind the whole time, again. Not surprising. A total shock. Not.

So, I finish the sit $37 ahead.

It's small stakes, and I couldn't possibly make a living at them. But, it's days like these that are really encouraging. Not because you're making much, you're not, but because you are playing really, really well. I controlled the table--as much as possible at 4/8--made some moves that would have impressed the players if they'd known, and climbed back out of a pretty good hole with patience and timing.

Some days, you know what it feels like to be a real pro. This was one of them.

(Sorry for the bragging, but it did feel good.)

I'm finally taking a day off where I am going to do nothing but chill, therefore I'll add some stuff to this journal. I have to drive a limo for the Rio all weekend--Super Bowl--and I'm flying out to Texas next Tues, so I won't be playing much or posting much for the next couple of weeks. *sigh*

Earlier, I made a note to self to talk about pumping up the pot and why do it?

Very often I raise in marginal situations. Aside from playing few hands so when I do play, I'm really aggressive, I raise because I play few hands. I'm usually far ahead pre-flop when I play a hand. Second, I'm usually the odds on favorite to win. Maybe I'm ahead all the way, have the better draw, or can outplay the opponent(s). The last is really important. You can outplay most at these limits, heads up. You can bluff them, at the right time. You may occassionally outplay 2 opponents, but less often. You most likely cannot bluff 2 opponents. You pretty much can never outplay or bluff 3 or more. Period.

Assuming you have the best hand or draw and either get sucked out on, or miss your draw, then, if you're good, you'll lose less than they would. You will check at the right time, or not pay them off. I paid off the guy when he bet out last night against my AA when the A came on the river. I knew he had me, and I'm more pissed about paying him off than him sucking out. Ok, I'm bluffing, but it's close.

When you do hold up or hit your draw, you want to win more than they would win with the same hand in the same circumstances. I've seen 5 times people check the river in position with a full house, so it isn't terribly hard to outplay them. If you do, then the difference between losing less and winning more is your profit.

With this in mind, you have to pump the pot when you're in it. It can make you insane when you lose a big pot you've built, but it is often the difference between being stuck and taking home some of their money. When you have a nice run, like I did last Friday night at the Silverton, you can take home 30BB in a couple of hours.

I've posted this before, probably several times in several places, but one more won't hurt.

You gotta know when to fold 'em.

Man, I hate that song, but it's true, anyway. Much of the edge in low limit games comes from folding. Ok, if you consider most hands are unprofitable, then virtually ALL the edge comes from folding preflop. Let's take that one, first.

Most starting hands in low limit hold 'em are unprofitable.

I'm leaving that line on its own to make it stand out as much as I can. It's the single most important concept I've gotten out of the Tour. Fancy that. What seems so obvious that it should get a "Duh, tell me something I don't know" needs to be repeated like a Zen mantra. Why? Because most players still don't get it. And even if they do say duh, they don't get it completely.

I've watched closely hundreds of players who play too many hands. I've seen them run so hot the chips grew like weeds in the summertime. Smokin' hot. Winning hands that won't win twice in a hundred tries, if that, given the odds of flopping a flush are .8%. You might think that there's something to being really loose in a low limit game. There's not. Trust me on this if nothing else. You cannot play too tight in a low limit game. Do I need to repeat that, too? Ok, I will. You can't play too tight in a low limit game. I'll even make it bold. In italics. In the end, I've watched as those stacks slipped away as soon as the hot run ceases to be.

If you have the patience--and who does?--to play nothing but AA and KK, you are going to be profitable. You are going to be more profitable than a loose player. Loose passive, that is, lest anyone think I'm saying a LAG. Aggressiveness changes things, but that's a subject for another day. You are going to have enough people who don't notice you aren't playing any hands who will play right along with you. The times you win will be significantly greater moneywise than the times they bust you.

Here's why. It's the second part to knowing when to fold 'em.

Don't pay 'em off!

We say it all the time. Winning players have patience and discipline. What's discipline? Anybody ever define it? Discipline is throwing away AA when you are beat. You didn't see that straight on the board? Uh, how about when that idiot who's been playing every hand bet into you? When he called the turn? You think he just had middle pair? You can't believe someone had the audacity to draw out on you! Think again. What makes low limit such a profitable game is that willingness to give action that loses most of the time.

I've seen so many people think AK is a great hand on the turn with nothing above an 8. It's not. It just hurts to fold those hands you've waited for an hour to get.

How about folding your big blind when you get raised? How many bets do you think you will save over the course of a session? Uh, enough to turn a losing session into a profitable session, perhaps. Every chance of that happening, if you also add in the times you throw another chip from the small blind with 94s or A4. Those add up. Fold 'em.

It's the very tiniest things that make the difference in limit hold 'em. A lot of my so-called friends who keep telling me limit hold 'em is boring and I should be playing no limit don't understand how much more complex limit is than they think. Finding those tiny leaks is a lot of fun. Really. Trying to eek out a bit more profit in every hand you play can be the difference between one BB/hr and two. That's why I love limit. It's a real challenge.