The other day I was in a Sit & Go at Bugsy's Club when I busted an Irish player (there are a lot of Europeans on Bugsy's) out on the bubble. I wished him gg and he replied "no it wasn't, you're jammy". I asked him what the heck "jammy" meant (it means "lucky") and he said "it's just a saying. You keep getting your straights and flushes."

I'm not sure why I indulged him, but a spirited debate ensued, where I actually sent this person the snapshot of my stats to prove that I had only played a small percentage of hands and won most of the ones I played without ever seeing a showdown.

Was I "jammy"? No, not really. I happen to have made a flush to take him out. But in looking at the hands I played, it turns out I gave that impression through two actions.

Protecting your hand. I don't remember who the author was, but a recent Card Player article contained the phrase, "Don't leave your kids in the street." What this colorful phrase means is, if you bet at it before the flop you want to bet at it after the flop too, even if you missed your hand -- unless someone beats you to it. Betting at it gives one of two impressions: Your hand was good enough before the flop that it didn't need to improve, or the cards on the flop improved you. This should help chase out anyone that hasn't made
their hand yet, or hasn't made a hand that beats what they think you have. Especially important to this technique is...

Bet Sizing. The software at Bugsy's, like most online sites, has a button that makes it easy to do a minimum bet. Many people use this, despite the fact that it is almost never correct to bet this amount after the flop. Because a lot of people bet like that, when I made bets of proper size, it gave the appearance that I had a much better hand than I did, as compared with how most people on the site would have played it. If you see this minimum betting going on wherever you play, use this to your advantage! For a great article on bet sizing, see CardPlayer.com
Incidentally, if you don't subscribe, you should.

So, back to being Jammy. I wasn't making all my hands in this game. I simply used a fairly tight hand selection, protected my hands even when I missed the flop, and bet in amounts that made sense for the pot size, but were larger than what this player was accustomed to. All that (plus the final winning flush) gave the Irish player the impression that I always made my hands. What a great table image to give! If it means everyone will relinquish pots to me, I hope to appear jammy all the time.

I hope you're looking "jammy" when I see you at the tables...

This article was previously posted on 14-Apr-2005, on the old site.