Table Image

Hey Rocky, watch me pull a strategy post outta my hat!

I don't think that's such a good idea...

So last night I ventured back to the local warehouse game, the site of my disgusting -$600 2/5 play over my past two visits.

Note to self - if the average buy-in to a 2/5 game is $200, it's not going to be a good game, and you should likely refer back to your advice for limit games about not playing the smallest game in the house. The 2/5 game at the warehouse runs worse than most 1/2 games, and the complete inability of the players to fold certainly cost me most of my chips.

My ridiculous aggression in the face of inability to fold cost me the rest. You figure out the mix.

But I went back to play the tournament there Wednesday night, and certainly had an experiment in table image. The tourney is a $75+5 buy-in, with an optional $5 dealer toke for 2,000 in chips. You start with 10K in chips, and blinds are 25/50. Sounds fantastic until you realize that the blinds go up every 15 minutes. No antes, so it wasn't terrible.

The play, on the other hand, was pretty awful. I picked up a few pot early, then spent the rest of the first hour folding. Every. Single. Hand. I was card dead in an impressive fashion, but I began to notice a ton of limping. So I decided that this would be a great table to steal from. I hadn't played a hand in 30 minutes, and there were 4 limpers into my small blind. It's a couple hands from break, so I steal the blinds with 5-2 off suit. It actually worked out, and then we went on break.

The break did something funny. In the ten minutes we were away from the table, everything people had picked up on me in the last 45 minutes of playing ONE hand seemed to vanish, because when we came back and I started picking up hands, I got called every time.

Not that I'm really complaining, since my KQ-AJ-AK in the first five hands added to my stack pretty well. Then I stupidly decided to make a move with 7d-5d on the button and had to dump when I got played back at on the turn. Of course the guy playing back at me had limped from early position with AQ, and hit the flop of K-J-10 moderately hard. He check-called my c-bet and check-raised me on the turn. Obviously I had to fold my air, but I was still pretty well-stacked when I picked up Kings the next hand.

I raised 3x BB, which had been my standard opening raise. I got one caller in middle position, then a re-raise from a guy in late position. Folded around to me and I shipped it in for just a tiny re-re-raise. MP guy folded and the LP player, who had been in a ton of pots, called with Queens. Queen on the door, MP guy said he folded AK, no one-outer for me, and I was done.

But the interesting development of my table image deteriorating drastically over the break was one I hadn't really experienced before. Probably because I hardly ever have a tight table image. But I definitely had one here, until we went away from the table for ten minutes. I found it interesting, is all. I grabbed my iPod and headed home without trying the 4-handed cash game, deciding that one bad beat per night was enough. I left feeling pretty good about my play. After all, my job is to get my money in ahead, so I did my part.

I understand the Main Event has kicked off over in Lost Wages, but my work for the WSOP is done. Amy's doing the ME recaps over at PokerNews, so I get to sleep in until my next assignment comes down the pipe. I know it's nothing like what the folks with boots on the ground go through, but the grind of writing, day job and rehearsing every night had really started to get to me over the last two weeks. Whatever happens in the future, I'll only take on two of those things at a time. And with my planned hiatus from theatre after Godspell, any future writing gigs should take less of a toll on my mental health. I'm gonna go put on some shorts and ride my bike, something I've been seriously missing this summer.

Enjoy the fourth. Think about those who serve.