Card Dead

At a recent bar game late into the second hour a regular player began talking about how their cards had been bad all night. At this point in the night I had a fairly big stack and I had been pretty much card dead all night at least according to that players standards. So, why did I have a good size stack and that player was on life support? The answer is simple. Play the player not the cards. Any good player is able to take the nights when the cards are not running so good and turn it into at least a chance to cash, make the points or even win. It is one of the small negatives to league style bar poker that start with stacks around 10,000 in chips. A player that is getting less then ideal starting hands is able to fold his way to at least close to making the points and many times can make it depending on the other players. When I arrive at a new table, whether it is at the start of a tournament or just changing tables, I look around the table and see who I know and who I don't. Are their players that I can outplay or are they players that I can't make fold. What kind of starting hands do these players value. To some J-10 is just as good as A-K or a pocket pair. I am going to call a per flop raise with less of a hand to this player because I know what they could possibly be raising with and I also know with a flop that couldn't possibly have hit them that a bet or a reraise will probably make them fold. Then you have the player that thinks he is card dead. I am going to raise his big blind almost every time and he is going to fold most of the time. When he doesn't I am going to make a continuation bet and then if he doesn't fold I will watch my step he may have a hand. All of this can be done with any two cards in your hand. So, if someone tells me they are card dead and folding their way on I say good for me. I will be more then happy to take your chips. Poker is not always about the cards, it's about how you play what you got!