Beware of the Black Widow

Let’s look at the “premium hand”, too many players think the TH strategy is just sit around and wait for premium cards, when you get them, bet pre-flop very strong (if not all-in) and then make big continuation bets no matter what flops. This method might have some validity live, but little online and less so in the “lower priced” games. There is no quicker way to exit a game than to play by this theory. When you lose with premiums – you lose big, if your opponent doesn’t have a strong hand, then you get no action – so on the one hand you are seeking out that person that can (and often will) beat you and on the other hand you are setting up a “road block” for the easy chips that even if they hit will not beat you. The game that you are playing is “Here I’ll give you the majority (if not all) of my stack or I will just take chump change from you”

What you are doing is passing up on the “work hard” build an empire method for a sit back put my first born on the line for a toss of the coin. Most poker players feel that they are above “the gamble” for the “I have a edge” play … fine, having a “edge” is good, but too many players, turn it into “a gamble” Donks to Pro’s will all agree that AA is a good hand, but the donks will outbid the Pro’s for them at auction, as well as they will other premium hands. It’s like buying a stock at it’s high, likely to go up an eight or so, doubtful to bust out for a big increase and dangerous for a fall out drop. You might feel that your winning auction bid of $10,000 for that Jeroboam of vintage prized Chateau Lafite Rothschild is sure to increase in value, but what good is it when it slips out of your hand to the concrete on the way to your car. - where buying case after case of “Wild Irish Rose” and selling it to the wino’s could have put you on “easy street”.

No I’m not advocating “ATM” play, however if I was forced to, I would prefer it over “just sit tight and wait for the big stuff only”, I prefer losing trying than I do blinding out. “Zap Bam thank you Ma’am” might sound alright to you, but it could express train you to the rail also. You might use all your charm enticing that perfect lay to bed only to find that she is a “Black Widow” that devours her mate after sex.

Watch out for the Black Widow:

Level III (25/50) - 2009/07/01 17:40:40 ET
Table '175253151 536' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: TheAniyah (3190 in chips)
Seat 2: jallaen (7695 in chips)
Seat 3: royalblue (1720 in chips)
Seat 4: Juan Rdo. (3410 in chips)
Seat 5: pokermsr575 (5130 in chips)
Seat 6: xCRAPSHOOTx (855 in chips)
Seat 7: hammerhai 25 (2825 in chips)
Seat 8: dl36rocket (6100 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 9: nemisis999 (1655 in chips)
royalblue: posts small blind 25
Juan Rdo.: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to xCRAPSHOOTx [Ad Ah]
pokermsr575: folds
xCRAPSHOOTx: raises 50 to 100
hammerhai 25: folds
dl36rocket: folds
nemisis999: folds
TheAniyah: raises 50 to 150
jallaen: folds
royalblue: folds
Juan Rdo.: calls 100
xCRAPSHOOTx: raises 705 to 855 and is all-in
TheAniyah: folds
Juan Rdo.: calls 705
*** FLOP *** [5s 8d 7h]
*** TURN *** [5s 8d 7h] [8c]
*** RIVER *** [5s 8d 7h 8c] [Ks]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Juan Rdo.: shows [7c 7d] (a full house, Sevens full of Eights)
xCRAPSHOOTx: shows [Ad Ah] (two pair, Aces and Eights)
Juan Rdo. collected 1885 from pot

you cant really go off that.. if you want to show a hh of aces getting beat by a lesser hand copy my hand from the tourney id thread... since in this hand you were ss and anyone with atleast 3x your stack would call with a pp or any face cards just to try and get lucky and knock you out. yes it sucks but thats the thought behind that...

I feel ya brother!!!!

__________________
Some you win, and some you lose, and the winners all grin, and the losers say....
...Deal the cards again, oh won't you deal the cards again.

Part time DONK!!!

Just a handy example kane - it was in front of me. The base text is what counts, plus on Stars 77 will call off their next born.

Here is another little example of what I am talking about from a game that I just got out of. In this game neeejoh was a ATC player and won the first 6 out of 9 hands to take a commanding lead, if neeejoh was a premium card player then he/she would have had to wait 270 hands for any given pair and a long time for just premiums, where ATC's are every hand. Now yes ATC's are not often winners and nor are premiums unless they hit, but premiums will cost you a lot more, might cripple you and could be the death of you, where ATC's are easy laydowns , not usually cripplers or death enders, they can surprise you as well as the opponent and 10 to 20 of them can be the same cost as 1 premium PF/flop bet with premiums on top of it you have the outplay factor that you don't have sitting around waiting for your premiums.

I have been looking more and more on some sort of ATC play, I am not convinced that it is the way to go yet, however I have seen many players do well that way, but I do know one thing, sitting around waiting for premiums then risking a lot is also not the way to go.

The win hands were
The 1st hand neeejoh had 5Ts
2nd hand JQs
3rdf did not show to a Jd,2d,5d,6c board
4th 98o
5th 46s
6th 9Qo

Now these hands might not be the best example of ATC, but they are not premium hands either, neeejph was in all 9 of the 1st 9 hands. And if you notice the winnings weren't chump change either. LOL the 4,400 5th was not my chips, it was 99 chips, I folded

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I'm finding that "weaker" hands often have the greatest implied odds. You fold small losses to win big occasionally