Why, I'm having GG!

OK, doom switch, come get me.
Here comes a brag post.
Poker rocks!
There. I'm done.
No, I've made a pretty decent amount of money at poker these last couple of months, at least for me, meaning it's 1/16th of what Fuel makes in a single night.
Poker is really fun these days. It always is when you're winning.
I'm here to offer you a few tips as to why I believe I'm winning. You can take them for what they are. I'm not a poker expert. I'm not even close. So you may know these already or think I'm full of shiat.
I don't care.
Because I'm winning.

(If you question my poker prowess, that's fine, go check out the cute kids below).

• I'm playing at Bodog now more than ever - I can't tell you how profitable it is to play there. I don't want you to think I'm pimping the site too much. I'm trying to do you a favor. Seriously, it's like a time machine took a lot of players from 2005 and transported them back to one site. It's to the point know where I know I can push with two pair and I'll get called by a draw with one card to go or maybe TPWK.
There are still good players on this site, and it's quite possible that once I get my initial $200 deposit up and I can move up in levels from $25 NL, things will tighten back down. But I doubt it. The bottom line is it seems these days there are many, many more good or at least rocky, solid players than bad ones on the sites these days, but on Bodog, it's almost even and might even lean toward the bad side. That's like heaven in today's online poker world.
Hit up those cash games now.



• I'm playing Razz - Razz seems like a pretty simple game to play, so I hesitate to talk about how good I am at it. It seems to me that it's hard NOT to be good at it. And yet I've made money hand over fist playing Razz on Poker Stars lately. Yes, I've hit a few good hands, but mostly I'm just being really patient. I've refused to chase past 4th Street, folded when I brick even when I've got good starting cards and haven't really started a hand without anything higher than an 8 (and I'm cautious about the 8). In other words, I just play really tight, as usual, and you would not believe how many players think their 9 high or 10 high is gold or are willing to draw when they have paint showing and I have an obvious (at least to me) 7 or 6 low.
I'm crushing the $1-2 and $2-4 limit tables right now. You should too.
I did write a Razz strategy guideif you want to take a look, but I don't want to insult your intelligence.

• I'm writing more than ever at Pokerworks - Eventually, if you write a bunch of articles about keeping your head in the game while raising young children, you'll start to believe them. I write mostly about psychological factors that can help you keep your focus while you play, and that's put me in a state of Zen.

• I'm getting lucky - Yep, I'm getting good hands, and even more amazingly, they're holding up. I've had my share of suckouts, some for big pots (K-K< A-2 all in pre-flop in a cash game for instance) but lately it's only a share, rather than taking all the suckouts for every poker player on the planet, as I've done in the past.
You have to be lucky to win big. At least I do, and I'm comfortable with that.

• I know who I am now - I've said it before, but I am a cash game player through and through. I haven't played on SnG in two months, and the only tournaments I've played are the blogger matches. I will not give those up, as I enjoy them way too much, but I doubt I'll be playing many tournaments on my own in the future. I love poker tournaments and would love to win a big score one day, but they also cut into my win rate at the cash tables. Plus I do like the fact that I can play a cash game and when a baby cries, I can leave, rather than tell Kate to hold on while the blinds go up.

• I'm not worried about playing lower limits - I'm still playing $25 NL, and one reason is my bankroll on the three individual sites isn't high enough to move up yet (Poker Stars is close). But the real reason is I believe that I can make more money at the $25 NL games right now.
It seems to be that the next viable level I can play, $50 NL, is tight tight tight, while the $25 NL games are much looser. In fact, the average pot sizes in some $25 NL games match those at the $50 NL games, and the percentages of VPIP are MUCH higher.
I'd love to hear some thoughts on this, but that's where I stand right now.
I think the .50/$1 NL games are loose enough to make money, but I don't have the bankroll for that yet.

• I'm sticking more than my share of chips in the middle — Alan just wrote a post about getting your money in and getting value for hands, something Fuel has advocated quite a bit. Getting good value, not just dinking and dunking, as Alan puts it, is really important in cash games because you're going to have your coolers, suckouts and maybe a mistake or two. So when you do get a hand, you need to get paid, and more and more I'm finding good opportunities to do that. I'm also not as afraid of monsters as I was in the past. I'm finding that I was giving my opponents a little too much credit. Now I bet big and try to get paid as much as I can.
I am still cautious when I see some serious interest in the pot, obviously, but there are more situations when you can get some chips than I realized in the past.