Raise 'Em Up

I was on IM yesterday when a poker friend of mine logged in. He was playing several sit and go (SnGs) tournaments and one low fixed limit table ($0.02/$0.04) just for kicks. I met him online many years ago when I first started playing poker. It had been a long time since we had sat at the same table, so I joined. Both of us take poker seriously enough that we'd never consider cheating, so no hands were discussed in our IM unless one of us was out of the hand.

After a couple of rounds of play, I got bored. I've been playing $0.05/$0.10 fixed limit for a while and the lower game did nothing for me. I sat down with $0.80 initially. I announced to my friend on IM that from here on out, I was raising the bet pre-flop. If it was raised when it got to me, I re-raised or capped the bet . . . . with ANY 2 cards. In addition, I saw every turn and most of the rivers.

What I noticed from the table was interesting. I won a couple of pots initially without a showdown. I was also getting very lucky. Being dealt 9h2h I flopped 2 pr and turned a full house when another 9 hit the board. I also turned a straight when I capped the bet pre-flop with 2s3s. I won that hand too.

Shortly afterwards, people started leaving and the table broke down completely within 5 hands or so. My own education was worth it though. I learned a lot from playing the part of the "dead money" player at the table. In the end, I actually left with over a $1 in profit. Not bad for a $0.02/$0.04 fixed limit table.

I'll apply what I learned in future higher limit games, hopefully with success there as well, though not quite as obvious.