New poker strategy definitely works!

In last night's play at the 0.05c/0.10c max buy in $5, 6 max table, returning to my regular poker hot spot on bwin, having had about a week off from playing I decided just to risk $10 and went off to a bad start, when I immediately lost $5 after a needless all-in bet from the BB with A ♣️ 7 ♣️ on a flop of 9 ♣️ 7 💎 2 💎 miss reading my opponent's aggression for a bluff when he turned over the cowboys...

K ♠️ K ♥️

Still.  Perhaps it wasn't such a bad move as I thought after all, as I still had a 25% chance of winning after the flop with the turn and river still to come!

Next up, I went all in with my remaining $5 with the cowboys myself (K ♣️ K ♠️), raising too light pre flop from early position, and getting one caller to my left.  

The flop came 7 ♣️ 9 ♠️ 4 ♥️ and when he re-raised my bet on the flop, I knew he was strong, but I didn't fold and just went all in.  In the future, how do I fold here??  This got me down to a meagre 13 cents after my opponent showed 77, having flopped a set.

 Yes that's right ladies and gentleman.  I was down to 13 cents.

You might laugh, but I remained calm.  I almost didn't care.  I didn't feel any tilt.  What I did is just went all in 4 times in a row, got called three or four times and somehow doubled up three or four times to get back to $1.60.  I wasn't even tempted to reload with more money!  Then I doubled up from the $1.60 position with the very hand where it all began so badly, A ♣️ 7 ♣️, trying for a gut shot straight draw and back door flush draw (something I hadn't been considering up until reading Small Stakes Poker) with a flop of 8 ♣️ 9 ♥️  5 💎 

The turn came a 9 ♣️, I decided to move all in, my opponent quickly called, showing 10-10, but I hit my flush with a Q ♣️ on the river.  Things have changed.

Making a comeback

At this point it was as if all the tricks and techniques I'd learnt from Sklansky & Malmuth's book Small stakes Hold'em all came together, and it was as if all the other players were like open books to me.  So easy it was to see what they were doing.  I was reading their hand range effectively, their reasons for betting, and my post flop play had improved drastically.  I was betting on every street when I felt I was ahead, including on the river for value with string holdings, where I usually check (and lose out profit).  Also, I have never bluffed so effectively and so much before!  

Just goes to show you should NEVER give up, even when you think the chips are massively down...just keep on playing!

As you can see, here I got to around $8 in my stack thanks to the new strategy employed - SMASHING it.

I got there by managing to win a smallish pot holding J ♠️ 8 ♠️ from the button and beat A ♥️ A 💎  and another smaller two pair (J ♣️ 5 ♣️) on a deck of J 💎 Q ♠️ 8 ♥️ 5 💎 k ♠️

This small pot helped me increase my stack slightly.  As the 5 came on the turn and a K on the river, I figured no one had a straight as I would have been re raised at some point, and it was worth the risk to bet again on the river after betting the turn.  It paid off.  This was solely down to some of the advice from Small stakes Hold'em, (as was a lot of my post flop play tonight.)

I then won a bigger pot when my top pair with K ♥️  8 ♥️ from the big blind position, held against a pre flop raising A ♥️ J ♥️ ( mid pair) where once again I bet every street for value.  Nice.  As I was told, at this level, small stakes players call even with this mid pair kind of range because they regard AJ as a strong hand preflop and find it difficult to let go, and lucky for me it was behind here.

Keeping up the winning streak...back from 13 cents!!

I kept up my my winning streak and eventually doubled up to get to around $17 when I called a small pre flop bet with 10 💎 8 💎 and flopped the flush Q 💎 J 💎 2 💎

 I smooth called a big pot sized bet.  My opponent had something big and was trying to catch up and protect his hand...too late.  K came on the turn, which in a way was perfect, as he revealed those cowboys again (KK) when we both went all in for a total pot of around $16,  which made it interesting, but the river was a 4 to give me the win!

Conclusion:

Overall, I really felt that by really playing the Maths, reading opponents, betting for value and to win small pots, considering overcards, who I was up against and generally keeping my cool (not tilting if I lost) that I saw the money start to roll in.  Looking forward to playing in exactly the same way next time!

From ZERO to HERO without breaking a sweat. :) 0.13 cents to $17 dollars

Thanks for reading.  Enjoy your poker.