The 10% strategy

It works!

You may remember that I introduced some new rules recently, including one where I was going to call with small pairs as long as this did not cost me more than 1/10 of my stack. So far, the results are very encouraging. The most surprising aspect is that I already won two hands without hitting the flop. Yesterday, I called a raise with 77 as BB, the flop was K83 with three opponents, but nobody made another bet, not even a continuation bet! Somewhat to my surprise, I won the showdown. Turns out my opponents held AJ, AQ, and T9s (...).

Later in the same game, I first limped for 100 and then called an additional 200 with a stack of about 2600. This time I hit the flop and won a nice pot - not a stack though, but I had to bet strongly since the flop was T97, quite dangerous.

In an earlier game, I was in position against three opponents and bet on the flop with 33, which gave me the pot. (Again there was no c-bet, the flop was KQ9.)

I had not taken into account that you could win pots with small pairs without hitting the flop. This suggests that you could call raises even looser than I am doing now. But, for now I will stick to the rule as it is. After all, I have only played a few hands with small pairs so far. There was also one hand where I lost a large pot, I don't remember the details (probably tried to steal it on the flop). Still, very interesting.

PS: Of course there is another side to this story as well. Not only can you win without hitting the flop, you can also hit your set and still lose to a straight or flush. Another good reason to just stick to the 10% rule, and not play any looser than that!