Poker fun: I went to Bay 101 last night. Kojo and I were there and for most of the night he sat right behind me. It was a mostly loose passive 3/6 table typical of a low limit Bay Area game.I ended up exactly even because of a few plays like this: I have 66 in middle position. It has been quite a while since I've played a hand and it is folded to me, so I raise. There is one other player at the table who plays loose, but can be reasonable and a bit tricky, he three bets behind me. Loose person on the button calls, I call. Flop is Q55, 2 diamonds. I check, tricky player bets, button calls, I check raise. Both players call. Turn is a 6 of diamonds. Now I check, and both players check. River is a T, now I bet out, tricky player raises, button folds. I think for a bit and say, "ok, you got me, I raise". He calls with TT.

Let us review how well we played this hand. Preflop: Almost certainly I should play here, raising isn't terrible, but it's unlikely to actually take down the blinds or shut too many people out because this is low limit, once he three bets I have to call. Grade: C. Flop: I put the tricky player on something worse than an overpair here, maybe a smaller pair or AK. The checkraise into two players is only really good if I'm pretty sure I'm ahead of both players or my draw is good enough that I'm planning to see a river with any two, and I want to play it aggressively. Grade: D. Turn: Well now I have a really big hand and it's well disguised and maybe one of the two made their flush draw too, what a perfect time to trap. I should try for the checkraise again, unfortunately no low limit player is going to bet after I checkraised the flop unless they did actually make their flush draw, so of course they check it around. Grade: C-. River: I have to get some money into this pot, so of course I bet. I am pretty sad when he raises, I can't imagine he would have 3 bet me preflop with 33, so that leaves his only likely hands as QQ or TT, or a total bluff. My 3 bet on the river is only good if he's very prone to making stone cold bluff with AK or he had a AA or KK, or he checked his flush on the turn. The question is how tricky is he, and the clear answer is: not as tricky as I think. I have outfoxed myself into bad plays on every betting round. Grade: C-.

I'm playing 3/6 like it's 20/40. People aren't as tricky as I think they are, they just want to gamble and have some fun at 3/6. This is a case of not adjusting my game and thinking way too much.