Tuesday night poker

Played Tuesday night at the Clearwater Legion. It tends to be one of my favorite, yet most frustrating game of the week. Favorite because simply I like most of the people there, the bartender treats me well, and often I'm at Dave's table and get to hear of his poker adventures of the week. :)

My frustration stems out of fear. I play scared poker in Clearwater, in fact, I'm starting to play scared poker at a lot of locations. What I mean by this is I can have a monster poker hand and yet I bet small, fear the bluff, etc. Why you may ask...well because I get called. I can have aces and raise ANY amount pre-flop and the person with 3-5 suited will call without hesitation. Then, of course, they catch bottom pair or a flush draw (even if they need runner runner) and they will call me down. So, scared poker. Blah. I'm sure the way to combat this is simply to stop, to bet what I should and hopefully mathmatically I will win more than I lose. I think normally this is the case, but so many times, like last night, there are enough people at the table who will chase me down that normal odds simply are not in my favor.

Part of my issue is the desire for longevity. In other words, I don't want to go home early. I am a very social creature, so I want to stay, talk with my friends, and hang out. If I lose my chips I can still do that, but the poeple there are obviously focused more on poker than my random babbling. :)

I know I need to move past this, and I'm hoping to start on that right away. My biggest lesson thus far in poker is folding. I'd rather make a bad fold than a bad call. My next hurdle is to get past the scared poker, and then after that, I need to learn to be more aggressive in general. (I'm extremely tight player, I play a hand when I have a really good one, especially after the flop.)

Wish me luck and feel free to throw advice my way. I may not always listen to it, but I enjoy hearing it none the less!