FP is more than just my initials, it’s also a problem in my poker playing. I’m trying to be cute and fancy a lot more than I should. What’s worse is that it works a lot, so that’s kind of encouraging me to keep it up.

Part of the problem is that I seem to have - rather rapidly - taken a few steps in terms of hand reading skills. I’m not sure how it happened, but I’ve suddenly become (at least in my own mind) a lot better at putting people on ranges that make sense. This is great. Unfortunately, it takes me away from making the best plays and starts making me feel confident not only in what hands my opponent is likely to be holding, but how he’ll react if I play my hand a certain way. Donking scare cards when I suspect he has little but air, raising rivers with mediocre hands, inducing bluffs, slowplaying… I’m doing it all. Fancy Play. FP. That’s me.

One thing, especially, that I’m doing is checking behind good hands on the turn in the hopes of inducing a bet on the river from a hand I know I can beat. Not a bad play when it works, except that a lot of the time I’m not sure I should really try to be that cute. A lot of the time I think I’m only costing myself an extra big bet when they check twice and then call my river bet with middle pair.

Or perhaps I’m playing great poker. Perhaps they would have folded their middle pair to my turn bet, but now decide to look me up since my river bet looks so much like a desperation steal. Perhaps.

Perhaps I’m trying to out-think an unarmed opponent.

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Phil Hellmuth is a guy who’s taken a lot of crap for being an arrogant asshole. Some of it probably well-deserved. His self-esteem issues cause him quite a few embarrassing moments at the tables.

Here’s the thing though, away from the tables, he seems like a cool, calm and collected guy. Doesn’t he? I really like the way he explains why Ivey’s play in this hand was great (Ivey did a move on the river sometimes called a “raise/fold” which, while usually too fancy for the low stakes, is solid poker against a high caliber player). Besides, Hellmuth comes off looking like a nice and fun guy, which alone is reason enough to watch the movie. Hell, perhaps he IS a nice and fun guy. Wouldn’t that be sum’m?