Made a decision to focus my poker efforts almost entirely on limit games. Primarily LHE but every limit game (although my TD play will likely be light and relatively low). I just find limit games to be far more interesting and enjoyable.

Good news on the workfront is I’m finding myself less inclined to play WoW and more inclined to play poker. This is partly because I was getting frustrated with lack of arena progression but I’ve also played so little this year compared to previous years that I think my will to play is returning.

A couple of days ago after busting an FTOPs I sat in a limit game bled nickel over an hour. Sat in a 3/6 HU NL game dropped $1500 (KK<TT and ran AQ into AK both aipf). Moved to a 50/100 HU limit game. Went a dime up before it turned (Imagine if midway across the red sea a mighty voice had boomed from the heavens “haha” and the water had crashed down upon Moses) and I was suddenly down another 3k. I apply a 30 bet stop loss pretty rigidly in higher limit games. Yes it’s all one long game, but when you’re losing it’s impossible to know while playing if you are actually ok or on subtle tilt which opens your game up a little further and when combined with further losses/beats catalyses into full blown primal scream monkey tilt. Also when you’re losing your opponent is winning – he is less afraid of you, less likely to make mistakes, more likely to raise you in spots he’d play passively in if he were losing. In short – when you’re losing your edge is diminished. I take it so far that if there is a choice of games I will often switch tables upon going 10 bets down and need an extremely good reason to stay.

I sat back in my chair having dropped 5k in a little over 90 minutes, the vast majority of it in the last half hour. And I realised I felt good. There was slight irritation over the NL loss, but I was enjoying the limit. So I sat back in a couple of 20/40 games and grinded back half the loss.

Considering that both my WSOP final tables this year were in limit games, both my deep FTOPs finishes were in limit games (stud and o8), that I enjoy limit more, it seems obvious that I should return to limit games as my focus. I’m too old to hit the very top in NL anyway – it’s very much a young man’s game. I’ll probably still play the bigger live NL tournies, but other than that all my work time will be spent on limit cash games, while avoiding the 8-10 hr days of 4 tabling LHE that caused me to burn out initially and seek a switch to NL. The other limit games will provide a break from LHE if i need one, and I’m very much looking forward to improving my stud8 game. As I remarked to a friend my HORSE game is very much like having a 5s arena team with 4 brutal gladiators and the 5th guy in level 66 greens who likes to charge straight into the fray and die in the first ten seconds.

When I post here I’m going to make more of an effort to include useful hands as well so here’s one from the FTOPs O8 event:

Seat 1: TUTANKHAMEN (3,179)
Seat 2: vetiver (5,442)
Seat 3: metaphyzix (4,288)
Seat 4: zoeprincess (4,098)
Seat 5: SamENole (2,043)
Seat 6: I Am Ari (2,495)
Seat 7: Dunfour (4,659)
Seat 8: Spanky79 (5,796)
Spanky79 posts the small blind of 50
TUTANKHAMEN posts the big blind of 100
The button is in seat #7
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Spanky79 [2c Kh 6d Ad]
vetiver folds
metaphyzix raises to 200
zoeprincess folds
SamENole calls 200
I Am Ari folds
Dunfour folds
Spanky79 raises to 300
TUTANKHAMEN has 15 seconds left to act
TUTANKHAMEN folds
metaphyzix raises to 400
SamENole calls 200
Spanky79 calls 100
*** FLOP *** [7h Ts Jd]
Spanky79 checks
metaphyzix bets 100
SamENole calls 100
Spanky79 calls 100
*** TURN *** [7h Ts Jd] [4h]
Spanky79 checks
metaphyzix bets 200
SamENole calls 200
Spanky79 calls 200
*** RIVER *** [7h Ts Jd 4h] [3h]
Spanky79 bets 200
metaphyzix has 15 seconds left to act
metaphyzix has requested TIME
metaphyzix folds
SamENole calls 200
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Spanky79 shows [2c Kh 6d Ad] Ace King high, for high and 7,4,3,2,A, for low
SamENole shows [Qh 2s Ac 6s] Ace Queen high, for high and 7,4,3,2,A, for low
Spanky79 wins the high pot (1,300) with Ace King high
Spanky79 ties for the low pot (650) with 7,4,3,2,A
SamENole ties for the low pot (650) with 7,4,3,2,A

Betting there often gets you a bitchy comment from the guy with the other low and people become afraid to bet. Don’t be. If you lose an extra part of a bet then fine. But sometimes they’ll both be high, sometimes the other guy doesn’t have nut low, and occasionally you cause someone like metaphyzik to fold the best high hand.