Joe The Pro

Mid Stack

Last month, mid stacking, I won back all the money the two previous months in my downswing. This month I am doing well with mid stacking also. A long time ago I had a mid stacking experiment that I did for 3 months that I also did very well (5bb/100 average?). Maybe I should just stick to what works for me instead of trying what I'm not good at.

I've always fueled myself to be the best complete poker player that I can be by fixing my leaks and playing in ways that sometimes made me feel uncomfortable in order to learn how to be better. But maybe I should use what I'm good at and work with that. I'm good at preflop. Actually I'm usually very good at preflop.

I'm good at the flop.

I'm pretty good on the turn.

I'm not so good by the river.

I think this suits midstack very well because by the river my decisions are very minimal and I make all the important decisions by the turn, if not the flop. You could argue that if I'm so good preflop, why do I not just play short stacked. Because no matter how good you are preflop, 20BB converts you to merely a mathematical game and there's not much edge to it. Short stacking is also VERY common and people online know how to counter/play against it.

I enjoy midstacking very much because it's not as common and not as mathematical. I feel that the mistakes people make on the flop (which I'm good at) are severely punished because by the turn they think to themselves, he's hardly got anything left, i'll just go with it and it's very wrong to do so because I still have nearly 40bb.

A few tricks I have:

If I raise on the button and one of the blinds is 3betting me at 10 percent or greater and I'm sure of this. I can repush with 88+,AJs, AQs, AQ, AK,AKs and not feel bad at all no matter what he turns over. The close call might be the AJs. But for all the other ones he could be doing it with as low as 9percent.

Another thing I've learned is, say I have KQ, KJ, AT in the BB and someone on the button is stealing from me. It's very difficult to play OOP and even if this guy is stealing often from the button (so your call would often dominate him and theoritically you could make a lot of money from this) if he hardly ever cbets then I usually fold. I want to make money check raising when I hit it because when I miss I will often fold, since OOP is hard to play. Usually deep stack its a dangerous play to check raise with only top pair medium kicker but at my stack and in that situation, I'd get it in every time if repushed.

I'm going to continue to mid stack the remainder of my two months in Vietnam. If I continue to do well I will stick with it and maybe move up stakes mid stacking.

posted by joe | permalink | 2 comments