The Weekend Trader - Foxwoods Poker Wrap

Ironically, after one of my poorer trading weeks in memory, I seem to have played some of my most disciplined and focused poker today -- having gotten to Foxwoods at about 11am, playing the $1/$2 no-limit cash game until 4pm, more than doubling my $300 buy-in to $652, and walking away on my "equity" high.

In the five hours, it was three hands that made most of the gains: A full boat taking down an Ace-High flush, and getting dealt pocket Aces twice where I purposely varied my play by slow playing them once and pushing the second time. I still struggle with how to play pocket rockets in a low stakes cash game, as you'll typically get many callers on small raises who can easily beat you on the flop, or else there isn't much of a pot to take pre-flop if you push hard if there's not much betting action. I pushed the second time because it was my last hand and one guy bet $15 with two subsequent callers before me, so I pushed hard, told them it was obvious what I had, and they all laid down.

Yea, I know it's only small stakes. But I still strongly believe the games have helped sharpen my trading and was what the doctor ordered after this past week. There's nothing like a two hour drive, several hours at the table, and a two hour drive back home to think about some of last week's donkey trading moves. Elements I'll try to carry forward into next week include choosing not to post as soon as I sat down, getting in the mega-patient mode, and making several decent laydowns of "good", but second-best hands.

Btw, my current favorite poker player is Mike Baxter, who (surprise) is a hedge fund manager in his "real" job. He's been on Poker After Dark lately, and despite what Phil Helmuth says, is a pretty decent cash player. I'm going to try to meet him personally.

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P.S. If you're looking for Part 2 of the TradingMarkets.com interview, David Penn told me today they've moved it to next weekend, and both Part 1 and 2 will be linked together. In it, I'll discuss poker, betting sizes, and the impact the blog has had on my trading.