Wednesday, June 8, 2005

Fun, but maybe not very nice

I was reading Card Player magazine a while ago in the reading room, you know, the one with the porceline seat. There was an article by Phil Hellmuth about raising in the dark. The gist of what he said was that he will sometimes raise in the dark (without looking at his cards) to the cap if possible preflop. Then he will bet out every round. If somebody bets first or raises then and only then does he look. I've read Phil's book Play Poker Like the Pros and his strategy didn't work well for me. I had trouble being that aggressive I guess. But I figured what the heck I'll give this raising in the dark thing a shot.

First I did it on the Wilson simulator and was pleasantly surprised to see that it works fairly well. It was a short test so it may well be luck. After all it it worked in the long run I would think you'd see it more.

Next I got on Paradise, a site I seldom play anymore, and tried it on a $0.02/$0.04 table. I think the players there must hate me although nobody said anything. I think one guy had figured out what I was doing and played along. It's harder there cuz you can't NOT look at your cards easily but I stuck a piece of a post-it over the spot on the screen my cards would come up and that did the trick.

I only played about half an hour but it turned out surprisingly well. I bought in for $2 and cashed out with $2.79 down from a high of $3.13. I did get lucky and win one huge hand. By this time I'm sure they were all thinking I was full of s*** and I got lucky enough to pick up AK and then hit the nut straight (and the nuts) on the turn. Because nobody put me on an actual hand they kept raising and capped both the turn and river.

I have my doubts how well it would work at higher limits, or whether I'd have the guts to even try it. I think I worry too much about the other player's perception of me which is really stupid since this is NOT a popularity contest. Besides if they don't like the way I am playing they can find another table. Actually doing this some might be good for me on the sites I play most because I know I have an ultra-tight reputation, at least if anybody is paying attention. Lately I've been playing tight as ever and worse semi-passive. Who knows maybe this raising in the dark thing of Phil's will help me loosen up slightly and get my aggression back.

I'm sure I'll do it again but I have to admit I wouldn't want to play against somebody who's doing it very often. On the other hand playing this way gave me some very interesting insights into my game and the game of others. It also should, I hope, teach me now to play against somebody who is doing this or maniacs in general.

Whether or not this was a good idea it was fun as hell so I'm sure I'll be doing it again.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I hope it helps get your aggressiveness back because I do think that it helps you....look who's talking