Hold 'em again

I had a couple of bad days playing PLO the week before last and decided to check out the scenery at the $1-$2 and $2-$4 NLHE games. Things looked a lot more rosy than I remembered and there was quite a bit of action. I decided to play for a while and managed to get out of the small hole I had dug for myself at PLO.

This week I have played all NLHE, all at $2-$4 buying in for $200. I have played just one table at a time and tried to be more aggressive than in the past. The results have been spectacular: in less than 14 hours I managed to win more than $2,000. I think I have enough objectivity to be able to judge that I have not been running particularly well as far as hitting hands goes.

I feel as though I've been bluffing really well this week. I cant remember having an out-and-out bluff called for ages. As a result I have been able to drag lots of pots in the $100-$150 range with no hand. Having said that, its often needed a bet of $150 or more to achieve this, so you dont need too many bluffs to go wrong before you lose a big chunk of change.

The real value in NLHE comes from getting your bets called, or calling bets, with the best hand. In this area I had a good week too. So all in all, everything in the NLHE garden looks rosy*.

This week I will be trying more of the same although, for various reasons, I might struggle to get a decent number of hours in. A nice $500 win in 10 hours of play would feel like a big come-down after last week's profits deluge, but its important to remember that things rarely flow smoothly for long in this game. What I must remember is that aggression and bluffing is only successful when supported by timing. A good week can follow this week too if I can get the timing right again.

* - remember, the value of investments can go down as well as up - just take a look at the US (and hopefully soon the UK) property market.