Never Mind Maneuvers...

...always go straight at 'em.

- Lord Nelson

I've been reading and re-reading the brilliant historical fiction Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian (the basis for the movie, "Master and Commander") for the last year or two now. In the series, in nearly every book, Jack Aubrey regales his table guests with the two occasions on which Lord Nelson is alleged to have spoken to him directly, once asking him to pass the salt, and once uttering "Never mind maneuvers, always go straight at 'em", something which Lord Nelson has long been credited with actually having said.

Why it's taken so long for this concept to bridge the gap from the quarterdeck of a frigate to the micro-limit tables on PokerStars in my mind, I do not know. This is why I'm down here in the .05/.10 shorthanded trenches: to plug the leaks. And lately, man the pumps, and gain back some ground, which I'm successfully doing.

I long ago realized that you just can't be cute with the rookies, drunks, and outright donkeys, but until a week or two ago, I think I was still missing the point:

THEY WILL CALL.

It doesn't matter if you hold a Jack on a JJ3 flop. They will call.
It doesn't matter if you smooth call through, chasing a flush, and it obviously hits you on the river. They will call. Often their entire stack. They may even raise.

The caveat here is taking the 10-20 hands it usually takes to generally assess each player's mood/style/etc at the table. I've started getting a lot better at locating the chumps, and identifying the tighties just waiting on the nuts to bet. I've also started seeing a lot of repeat opponents, and here you can really get a line on them. There are quite a few players out there who fall somewhere in the middle though too... they're not idiots, but they're just not savvy enough to notice in a single session that when your money goes in big on the river, you have it.

Sure there are times when you need to be tricky, you need to slowplay, and often those tricks and checks work well against the morons too, but quite often I'm finding that this micro-limit arena is about putting the money in when you have the likely best hand. So blatantly obvious, until it hits home with a new-found significance.

A good friend of mine exposed me to the phrase and concept of a "recurring epiphany" a while back, and lately, poker (and life) has been filled with a lot of these "ah-ha" moments for me: re-realizing something I've known all along. Sometimes you learn it the first time... sometimes you learn it again and again.

So jam it, jammer... all the maneuvers and tactics mean little if you don't get your money in with the best hand. Have a nice holiday!