Correspondence between friends

A quiet night on the tables today with only two MTTs played, neither with any success, so my post today is in direct response to the comment from Mr V a few posts ago.

Basically I'm not sure I analyse my game enough to understand the reasons I play the way I do and to necessarily be able to put right any repeated mistakes or for that matter repeat any successes. One example being that most of my recent tournament wins or high places have come when I get to the final table in 7th or 8th rather than leading at that stage - and I have no idea what it is about that scenario that improves my game (other than making me concentrate harder). The devil's advocate view is the fact that I am on the final table at all is enough to give me the opportunity and the law of averages says I am going to win some of them !

I know I sometimes play hands I perhaps shouldn't simply because they have been lucky for me in the past - for example K 10 often works for me but KQ hardly ever seem to ! and I will often happily play K suited but never, if I can help it, Q suited.

If both my cards are 10 or higher there is a reasonable chance I will be thinking about playing them, if suited all the better (unless the highest is a Q !). I figure in most situations they will give me two live cards and therefore a chance.

Ace Rag I will avoid playing, as much as anything because I do not want to pair the rag on the flop. It is likely to be bottom pair and even if it isn't I am likely to over-value that pair, persevering making calls in response to smallish raises all the way to the river and then get drowned.

Of course all these 'rules' depend heavily on my chip stack, position, any table image I might have developed, the image I have of the other players, how much I have paid to play, how near the money we are, how much first place is going to pay, the day of the week (not really), and a high influencing factor is whether anyone has annoyed me on an earlier hand whether deliberately or not so that they are now a 'target', often beyond any reason and only to my detriment.

And of course anyone other than Mr V reading this - the only hands I ever play are high pocket pairs and I never never bluff.

Anyway, for the second time tonight - and in the hope it is an original quip - I would say and now believe that being in love (with poker) means never having to say you are sorry .........