When is it correct to be a megalomaniac?
So today was an interesting day; I spent 9+ hours at the poker table playing $3-$6 limit. The day actually started at the blackjack table, where I counted cards for about an hour, until I got a seat at one of the poker tables. I was up by just over $100 when I sat down at the table.
For the first 4-5 hours at the poker table, I couldn’t make a hand to save my life. On one hand, I held pocket Jacks, and flopped another Jack for trips. I lost to trip Queens. The good news is that I (correctly) folded a few really good hands (straights & flushes) when I had good evidence to know that they were beat. Still, I was down almost $200 at that point.
So during about the last 4-5 hours, my hands started picking up. I didn’t let my luck cause me to start playing too loose; in fact, I used the fact that I was down cause me to tighten up and only play really great hands. At least tight in early positions, and looser in late positions. Eventually I had found that I was on the kill button for a couple of hands in a row – people started to say that I was on the hot seat.
During one hand, I flopped two pairs, which turned into a full house on the turn. There were two diamonds on the board, and I raised – only one person hung in there with me to the end, and I won the pot. He mentioned that he thought I was on a flush draw with diamonds – the person next to him said “She would never raise on the turn with a flush draw.” I started to realize that my luck, combined with the fact that I had only shown really great hands when I played strong, made for a great table image. People feared me, and I started to relish the groans I heard when people saw me reach for more chips.
So I realized that under the right conditions, this was a good time to bluff a little, and try to pick up some smaller pots. I pushed – probably a little too much, but won several pots in a row whenever I paired pretty much anything on the board.
Eventually, people started calling me down to the river just to test me. I realized that I had pushed my luck a little too much, and damaged my table image somewhat. Still, I had won enough by that time to make up for my losses. So I went back to playing only quality hands again. I eventually walked away dead even – I was up by one dollar, which I gave to the dealer.
It was fun – and I realized that I had managed to change my play fairly significantly when appropriate – in other words, I had become a megalomaniac – at least in part, when it seemed right to do so.
