Playing Live

Played in a home game last night. After playing a bunch of online recently, it was interesting to contrast the live game. People were soooooo loose compared to what I am used to. Admittedly this was seven handed and not full ring, but still. These are good players too. But they're there to have fun, so they like to mix it up. Truth be told, I suspect they also justify their loose play with the usual excuses - need to add deception to their play; can make it up with their superior post-flop skills, etc.

I felt like such a nit sitting there folding hand after hand, while everyone else was playing tons of hands, winning and losing giant pots, etc. But on top of being tighter than everyone else at the table, I was also pretty card dead. Online it's not such a challenge playing tight, because the amount of time you have to wait for a playable hand is not very long, especially if you multitable. Playing live, you might go an hour and not play a single hand.

You'd think that people might respect my raises, since it's very plain to everyone how tight I am. That's not the case though. Each time I raised, I would get multiple callers, including hands like T7o and Q3s. I'm not complaining. I'm just mentioning this to point out that there is no point to me loosening up my hand ranges preflop.

Postflop, I do try to mix it up a bit with bluffs where it makes sense. But I don't go crazy with robotic c-bets and so forth, because in addition to being loose, they are smart, aggressive and good hand readers. Like most players, though, what I've noticed is that although they might be loose and aggressive when the pot is small, they tighten up and play pretty straightforward when the pots are big. Not always, but on the whole.

After several hours, I was down $400 or so (it's a $1/$2 game) despite not playing that many hands. I was feeling pretty miserable and wondering why I play this game. But then I made a swift comeback in the last hour or two and ended up turning a profit of $400. I sucked out in two big pots, though, so I can't really say that I "earned" my profit.