Immediate Dividends

Hold Em Manager cost me 80 bucks.  Last night at the most recent Survivor Poker Challenge I took the barest amount of data gleaned therefrom (see post below) and parlayed it into a $94 profit ($97 minus $1 buy-in, $1 for the house, and $1 for the add-on after third level.  No rebuys, I'll have you know).   What did I do that was so special?  I took the hands that I thought were "worth a shot" and folded the fuckers. Did I fold too much?  I don't know; I didn't seem to be getting a lot of action when I raised, which I suppose I can use to my advantage. In fact there was one hand where BuddyDank went in and it was only 3BB to call, and I had a million chips, but I had A6, and that hand is a perfect example of the kind of hand that just does not win as often as you think it does, even heads-up.  Had I called, and BD told the truth, I'd have been up against pocket threes.  You can keep your coin-flips, your ego calls, all that shit.  I prefer to keep my chips, thanks.

When it came time to start stealing blinds (and here I'm thinking of you, Poker Grump; you did this frustratingly well), I just folded and folded until I had something I was reasonably sure beat a random hand and took him down.  I played Bayne and Mike Maloney to a draw and we split the pot three ways, and I'll take a 32 buy-in ROI any day of the week.

So HEM pays for itself in the first tournament I enter after I start using it.  Impressive, I must say. I'm still not playing with a HUD - quite frankly I can't get it to work but also it seems awfully busy and distracting, and I'm still not sure how ethical it is.  Maybe I'll try it later on.

BTW, I've heard that blogger tourneys are donkaments, but if you subscribe to the theory that tight is right, and tighter is righter, these guys play it right.  Call it a nittyment if you like but to call it a donkament is disingenuous.

So until next time, please remember that pocket 7's almost never pays off, and stay away from that wicked KJ offsuit!