The book was written in response to the changing dynamics of the poker games today, challenging a lot of the foundational concepts we try to adapt to become winning players. The more I read, the more I had to reconsider a lot of the "tried and tested" strategies that have been second nature to me. After all, once everyone is on the same learning curve - what do we do when they catch up?
One Key Reconsideration was this: In a poker world where aggression is now the norm, is "aggressive" still the default setting?
This seed turned into a garden of ideas when a student of mine showed me something quite shocking. First, he punched up a list of the year's winningest players on the Ongame network's Micros field. We were pleased to see one of our APA boys ranked #35 in the NL10 world, but that was not why he was showing me this list.
The reason he was showing me was because he had PT3 stats on the number two guy in the NL4 rankings. This guy had played (to date) over 400,000 hands and made over three thousand dollars playing four-cent stakes! Other than the conventional fact that he was waaaaay due to move up stakes (hello, 800 buyins at your chosen stake level...over-rolled much?), what was shocking about this particular winning grinder was his statline:
VPIP 48
PFR 1
AF 0.7
By any standard, this guy was an absolute fish! On my Pokertracker3 autorate system, he was tagged as a Call Center! And yet here he was, calling his way to a $3000 run at No Limit two cents fucking four cents.
That was my cue. I HAD TO TRY THIS.
I plunked down 800 euro on ENET - where the fishiness was legendary - and started my Call Center Quest at the Full-Ring NL30 tables...
It was looking good after a couple of hours, but I was feeling sick. Sick of pressing the call button. Sick of open-limping. Sick of limping behind other limpers. Sick of flat-calling QQ from the blinds. Sick of open-limping from the button.
Then my student sends me a text message - he was doing the same thing, fascinated as I was, and he was getting blown by the positive results he had so far.
ON WITH THE LIMPAGE!!!
Oh my Lord, this was actually working. Why was this happening? I thought of a few possibilities:
1. Passive play meant I was in smaller pots. I was only in big pots once I had the goods. This is not always the case with my usual aggressive play. If you imagine a preflop raise and a cbet with Ace High, then I was in a lot of medium-sized pots with Air. As a call center, I sacrificed initiative for the option to give up while the pot was small. But I truly wonder how many small pots I can give up on before I am no longer able to make up for it with the occassional big pot...
2. The real source of money so far had been when I was passive AND in position. (Thank God position is still a fundamental "good thing" that hasn't changed.) In these situations, I had been able to call-center-down the common aggressive opponent who would show down Ace High versus my bottom pair. I often got to these showdowns at the cost of a single cbet.
3. My value bets were still being called. To anyone paying attention, they should be auto-folding once I bet...but no. The player who pays attention is surprisingly still a rare thing, thank God. I mean, seriously, I only raise Kings and Aces preflop, and I never bet postflop till I have the hand locked up... and I still get callers? Nice.
Lookit me, I limped AK from the Small Blind!
RedAirkson the Call Center just took down a 200BB four-way pot. And yes, I left him one cent, of course.
This brings to fore a common complaint that comes my way from students: "I CAN'T BEAT THE GODDAM DONKEYS!"
So here I was, playing like a Donkey, and finding out why a good donkey is hard to beat. I lose small, I win big. And these aggro-monkeys who watch too much Tom Dwan keep barrelling into me. And despite my (horrific) preflop style of play, I still play smart post-flop.
The next ten thousand hands are going to be interesting.
