Poker blog

A while ago, a loose-aggressive player joined our table, clearly on tilt from some bad beats at another game. After a few hands, he made a bold declaration: he was going to “shove all-in every hand preflop, without even looking at his cards.”

I remember thinking, Alright, let's see if he really sticks to that.

I kept a close eye on him, curious if he'd glance at his cards before making his move. And sure enough, he did exactly what he promised — going all-in every single hand, without peeking at his hole cards.

Each time, I hoped for a strong hand to finally come my way — but that didn't happen. On the other hand, I did find myself some decent or marginal hands whenever I was in the big blind or late position.

Given that he was open-shoving any two cards, it was clear that calling with hands that had more than 50% equity against his range would be profitable. So, I decided to make calls with the hands K9o, 88, and 99. But every time, I found myself on the losing side.

In the end, this guy walked away with a massive 11k profit, having played for just 15-20 minutes before leaving the table.

Looking back, I'm confident I made the right moves — I had a slight equity lead every time I called, capitalizing on the +EV opportunities that I was given. Still, there's no denying the frustration that comes with losing in such a high-variance situation.