The Shark Tank

As many of you know, my strongest game is full-ring limit hold’em. I’ve been focused on playing MTTs lately, primarily because of the ITH league, but also because I’ve been having a lot of fun playing in other tourneys. With the Stars and Party reload bonuses, I went ahead and dropped a few more bucks at each site. I played for a couple of hours last night at each site and won about $1,000. Obviously, this is not a sustainable win rate (I was up about 12 BBs in an hour at 30/60). But it seemed almost like I was supposed to think about my approach to getting into the WSOP. I’ve played a zillion hours to maintain my status as a participant in the minor event freeroll in the league. In two hours, I’ve basically locked up half of that prize. Hmmm.

I also felt very sharp, perhaps because I haven’t played limit poker in a while. I found two excellent additions to my buddy list and had a lot of fun with people trying to run me over. People are 3 betting pre-flop very light at the 30/60 game on Party these days. It can be a good play against some of the very aggressive players you find there, but many people are doing it indiscriminantly. A first-in raise from MP3 or the CO could be almost any two cards, but a raise from a tight player in EP needs to be respected. Here are some examples:

• MP2 raises first-in, MP3 3 bets with KQ (lost to ATs)
• Ultra-tight UTG+1 raise, 3 bet with AQ (lost to AA)
• MP1 raises first-in, CO 3 bets with AT (and beats QQ)
• UTG raise, MP2 3 bets with trash he folds on flop.
• MP2 raise, Button 3 bets with AJ (and loses to my TT)
• UTG+2 raises, MP1 3 bets with AJs (and beats KK)
• Ultra-tight MP1 raise, 3 bet with AT (loses to QQ and KK)

This doesn’t count the legit 3 bets or the hands that didn’t show down. It was a fun table. Two of the players were berating each other with “river rat” being the preferred term of abuse. As usual, they were neck and neck for worst player at the table honors.

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