White Belt Poker

I spent two hours playing at Party this evening and the longer I played, the more comfortable I felt with my decision making. Lots of players had come and gone during that time, but I felt as if I was working people out quickly and making good decisions. The key thing that I’ve been working on is deciding whether to bet or call on the turn. If I’m betting, calling or raising on the turn, then I’m calling the river as well (unless it’s a draw obviously). I got caught a few days ago calling a raise on the turn when I knew I was likely to be beaten. It was a bad decision and it cost me four small bets. It was a good lesson to learn, because that’s a quick way to leak money.

I don’t often play for that amount of time and this is the first occasion when I’ve felt stronger at the end of a session than I did at the beginning. I felt as if I was flexing a muscle that was growing in strength. That has to bode well for tournament play in the future.

I’m going to try to play longer sessions over the weekend to see if I can keep this momentum going.

I’m also still considering playing in the $10+1 limit tournament on Sunday at Poker Room. I followed a similar tournament while I was playing today. They seemed to be losing roughly a player a minute for the first hour and a half. I didn’t see how it finished, but most of the $10+1 tournaments have been lasting for 2.5 to 3 hours. You’d need to make the final table to make your money back.