“Sorry the game wasn’t any good; they just weren’t gambling last night,” a dealer from a game that I go to every once in a while told me after I had come up to play in one of the games that wasn’t as wide open as usual. The game was a $5/$10 round and round game with Hold’em and Omaha. Often, this particular game can be wide open with huge pots hand after hand and money moving around the table.

On this particular night, the game was calm and at first I was a little disappointed that I had driven the hour-plus to get there instead of picking a more action-packed time to go. But, after about an hour in the game, it hit me that this was a good game too. Just because I wasn’t able to get involved in the huge pots didn’t mean that I couldn’t find value, and plenty of it.

The first pot I won was with T-7 of hearts by raising pre-flop, continuation-betting a 9-high flop, and then firing again when a K hit on the turn. That’s not a bad little pot to take down with 10-high and got me off to a good start. I then 3bet pre-flop twice and won pots, more than covering my blinds for a few rounds and also continuing to move my stack in a steadily upward trend without ever taking on any real risk.

Next up, I 3bet with 5-2 of spades and again was able to win with a bet on the turn for a nice little pot. At this point, I was up almost half-a-buy-in and had yet to win a hand at showdown or even get dealt a hand I would have been able to play in the usual ram-and-jam, be-prepared-to-get-the-whole-stack-in-four-ways type of game I was expecting when I went up there.

The game seemed like no action, but the players were playing predictably and I was able to take advantage. Given my choice, I probably prefer the action-packed games, the potential to make a big score, and the adrenaline rush of the big bets and big decisions. But, with those games, the bigger reward also comes with bigger risk. Being able to balance that with games where you can be a steady winner almost regardless of the cards you are dealt is a nice way to be able to temper variance and get yourself back on track when you have had a bad run and just need to book a win.

If you are playing for profit, what defines a good game for you should be what your results would be if you were able to play in it over a significant sample size. In live games, this often requires you to make a lot of on-the-fly assumptions about your opponents and the flow of the game, but if you can be reasonably accurate on those, you can make a solid estimate of where you stand and then factor in variance (good and bad) to get a more accurate picture.

Mostly, a good game is made up of players who are making mistakes. Those mistakes don’t have to be putting a ton of money in the pot at every opportunity (although those players are a lot of fun to play with), but they can be a wide variety of mistakes. Sometimes in the right game of passive players, their version of making mistakes can almost guarantee you a solid win if you pick your spots well and don’t let yourself get too over-committed.

Phone’s ringing; action players want to get a game going. Time to go gamble it up and try to make a big score.

Court Harrington has worked on the business side of the poker industry in roles including tournament reporting for PocketFives, radio hosting for PokerRoad Radio, coaching for the WSOP Academy and privately, and a variety of behind-the-scenes responsibilities for poker media businesses. He also plays in cash games and tournaments. Harrington is currently doing consulting work and exploring business opportunities outside of the poker industry. You can contact him at Court@CourtHarrington.com.

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