GFY March

To say March was a bad month, is an understatement. Actually I didn't lose money, then again, I didn't make much either. I've decided to go back to Full Ring for the time being. 6 max is profitable, but I don't have the bankroll to play the style that I want to. My hourly win rate and the amount of hours I played was complete garbage. I only played the equivalent of 2 weeks out of the month, which is simply not acceptable.

I haven't had a losing month since I started playing full time in November, but I've seen my results drop each month that passes. I'm going to contribute this to a couple of different reasons. Before I state those, I want to go back to my first month of cash games. I started half way through the month of November and only got in 5k hands. In those 5k hands though, I absolutely crushed it. I had a little over 9 PTBB/100. My win rate was $74.29 an hour. What I noticed though was that my PF Raise and VPIP were a little low. They were low for 6 max standards. For full ring they're almost spot on.

As I continue to look through my database, I'm losing money trying to outplay people. At the level I play at, it just doesn't happen. People don't fold and that's something that I have to learn. I'm trying to play poker when I should be just letting my cards play themselves. Here is what I want to try to accomplish this month.

1) Play 30k hands. This shouldn't be too difficult. Only 1k hands a day.

2) Every time I get on a table, get a read on some of the players before I commit a greater portion of my stack to a particular hand. Unless I have a prior read on him.

3) Just play solid poker. I was playing yesterday and got a guy to commit his entire stack($175) with AT pre flop. He said I played it like a small pocket pair so he wanted to race. Of course I had AK and he flopped 2 tens. I can only get my money in as a 3-1 fav so many times, eventually I'll win one.

You'll notice these goals aren't really results oriented at this point. I think if I focus on those 3 things, the money will come. So if you're ever running bad, even playing well and just not having your hands hold, go back to when you were running solid and see what you were doing. I hope everyone had a good March, and an even better April!

AHK Instructions

Here are instructions on how to use BetPot and the StarsAuto Reloader. It works the same way for Full tilt, you just have to download different things. I'll post for both.

*BetPot*

1) Download AHK from http://www.autohotkey.com and install it.

2) Download http://www.overcards.com/wiki/moin.cgi/BetPot?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=BetPot-v0.2g.zip (For PokerStars, click Save and not run)

3) I recommend making a folder in My Documents called BetPot.

4) Go to the folder you just made, and there should be a file named BetPot-v0.2g. Right Click and click "Extract Files Here".

5) Now you'll have a folder called BetPot, open it.

6) You should see a piece of paper with the letter h on it, which is the script. Double click it and and you'll notice a green piece of paper with an H on it go to your tray in the bottom right. That means its activated.

If you open the BetPot.AHK file in notepad, you can change the betting amounts.

~MButton::
Pot(getid(),"1 1 1 1", "smallblind", "ssnl", 0)
return

^MButton::
Pot(getid(),"1", "smallblind", 0, 0)
return

^!MButton::
Pot(getid(),"999", 1, 0, 0)
return

~RButton::
Pot(getid(),"0.75 0.75 0.66 0.66", "smallblind", "ssnl", 0)
return

~MButton is the middlewheel
1 1 1 1 is preflop, flop, turn, river

~RButton:: is the right mouse button
0.75 0.75 0.66 0.66 is preflop, flop, turn, river

IF IT DOESNT WORK: You have to change your windows theme from XP to standard, and your colour settings from 16bit too 32 bit. Also don't take the script out of where you extracted it to, sometimes it wont work. To close out the script, right click on the task tray and hit exit.

*Auto Reloader*

1) ^ From Above, if you did this already you dont need to do it again.

2) Download

http://overcards.com/wiki/moin.cgi/StarsAutoReloader (Stars)

http://overcards.com/wiki/moin.cgi/FullTiltAutoReloader (FT)

3) I recommend making a folder in My Documents called Auto Reloader.

4) ^ Same as above.

5) ^ Same as above.

6) ^ Same as above.

The auto reloader should work off the bat *IF* you're in the EST(Eastern Time Zone), if not you have to right click the scipt and open in notepad.

THIS IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOUR TIME & STARS SERVER TIME timezone_difference_EST := "-5"

Below is the random key that you can hit to make you reload w/out waiting for the next hand where you had folded. You can change this at any time. So when you fold if you're at 97 of 100, hit f1 and ur stack goes to 100. Sometimes it does this anyway even if you hit the button to reload.

F1:: ; <-------- Hotkey for manual reload, point mouse, press key.id := getid()


Any questions, concerns let me know

AHK

AHK(Auto Hot Key) is used in a variety of ways. With it, you could automate *almost* anything by sending key strokes and mouse clicks. In non computer jargen language, you basically hit a button and it does multiple things at once. How does this pertain to poker you ask? Let me amuse you.

When you first sit down at a table you sit out waiting for the big blind(hopefully, do it if you dont). You get through that first round of blinds w/out playing a pot. So say we're playing 1-2, we bought in for the max of $200. Our stack is now at $197. I can open a script that says, "If i drop under 100 bb's reload my chips to the max". Instead of going up to the chip tray; clicking add more chips, then selecting how much you want, etc etc..It automatically puts you back up to the max(or whatever you choose). It's made my life 10x easier and I'm able to pay closer attention to the players instead of constantly keeping my stack at max.

The other little trinket I've found is the BetPot Script. It's exactly what the name says. I right click on the mouse and i automatically puts the pot amount in the box for me to bet. There are other presets for the middle mouse for the flop turn and river. If i hit the middle mouse, It goes 75% on the flop 66% turn, 66% river, or whatever you choose for the presets to be. This has been pretty helpful also.

If anyone wants to know where/how to get these just leave a comment and ill get back to ya. I had prior experience with AHK so i got this up and running in a couple of seconds.

How to use PokerTracker

For those of you who have PT, this is a great "how to" guide on finding your leaks. The only part that might be a little confusing is heads up play. I think its a little skewed. This was first posted on 2+2 by Pokey. So all credit goes to him.

Not a week goes by that someone doesn't ask if they are playing the game right. In that post, they include a dozen numbers from Poker Tracker and hope that the old-timers on SSNL can fix all their holes. While it's true that Poker Tracker can help find problems, this is not the way to approach it.

I'm going to try to give you a rough guide for the things you can do to check on your game.
These are all just my opinion; they're all subject to interpretation, and other people may disagree with me strongly. The best way to play is usually player-specific, but these strike me as some things you can check on that are frequent flaws in the small-stakes player's game.

1. Do you have sufficient preflop aggression? To answer this question, open up your ring game statistics and go to the "position stats" page. For each position other than the small blind, divide the "PF Raise %" by the "Vol. Put $ In Pot." If you get a number smaller than 0.5, you're not aggressive enough out of that position. See, aggression is a relative term; it should be a function of your level of looseness. You can be a consistently winning player at SSNL with a VPIP of 12%, and you can be a consistently winning player at SSNL with a VPIP of 30%, but only if you are sufficiently aggressive. My general guideline is that you should raise at least half the hands you play, from every position on the table.

2. Are you positionally aware? Positional awareness means that you understand Ed Miller's comment when he said:
Quote:
"Total all the dollars you've ever bet playing poker. The large majority of those dollars should have been bet from late position. Only a small percentage of your total handle should have been bet from up front."

To test this, go to the Position Stats and look down the list of VPIP from Button to UTG. You should see that VPIP steadily dropping the farther you get from the button. I'd love to see my button VPIP at double my UTG VPIP, but if my Button VPIP is at least 50% larger than my UTG VPIP, I'm happy with the situation.

3. How's my stealing? To check on your performance when trying a blind steal, go to the General Info. tab. Where it says "Att. To Steal Blinds" I'd like to see that number at LEAST 20%. (Personally, I like mine to be over 30%, but I'm very aggressive in these situations. If you're trying to steal the blinds less than 20% of the time, you're leaving lots of money on the table.) Now click on "Filters..." and under "Chance to Steal Blinds" click "Chance to Steal & Raised." Select OK and look at the numbers. This shows every time you've tried to steal the blinds, and how the attempt turned out for you. Under "Totals" see the "BB/Hand" statistic. That shows your per-hand winrate on blind steals. If you multiply this number by 100, it should be at least double your "PTBB/100" average winrate. If it's much less than that and you have a decent sample size, you have a hole in your game when it comes to blind stealing. This should be an exceedingly profitable thing to do when you try it; if it's not, you need to work on your strategy.

4. Defending the blinds. Click on "Turn Filter Off," and then click on "Filters..." again. Under "Blind Status" click on "Either Blind." Now under "Vol. Put $ In Pot" click on "Put Money In." This shows you if you're bleeding money out of the blinds. A "BB/Hand" of about -0.375 would indicate that you were no better off putting money into the pot than if you had folded. If your "BB/Hand" is larger than that, then you typically win back some of your blind money when you put money into the pot from the blinds. That's all you can really hope for. If you click on "Filters..." again and go under "Steal Attempted Against Your Blind" and click on "Steal Attempted." After you click "OK" you'll now see how you did when you chose to defend against a blind steal. Again, the magic number is for your "BB/Hand" to be bigger than -0.375; that means you're making back some of your blinds when you try to defend against a steal. If either of these numbers is lower than -0.375, you'd lose less money by always folding rather than doing what you're doing.

5. Heads-up play. Click on “Turn Filter Off,” then click on “Filters…” again. Under “Hands With Between…Players Seeing The Flop” change the range from “0 to 10 players” to “2 to 2 players.” Hit “OK” and see what comes up. This shows you how you’ve done when you were heads-up preflop, but a flop was dealt. See how you’ve done in these situations. If things look OK, go back to “Filters…” and under “Pre-flop Raise” select “No Raise.” This will show you how you’ve done when you didn’t raise preflop, but the hand was heads-up on the flop (this includes pure limping and when someone ELSE raised preflop, but not when you were the preflop raiser). Is this number positive? If not, it could be an indicator that you have trouble when you are not the aggressor preflop, especially without padding in the pot.

6. Multiway pots. Clear the filter and go back under filters. Change “Hands With Between…Players Seeing The Flop” to “3 to 10 players.” This shows you how you do in multiway pots. If things look good, go back and select “No Raise” under “Pre-flop Raise.” Is it still positive? If so, you’re selecting good times to play/limp multiway pots, and you’re playing them well postflop.

7. Pocket pairs. Under “Filters…” change the “Type of Hole Cards” to “Pairs.” This will show you how you generally play and perform with pocket pairs. Your Total VPIP with these should be EXTREMELY high; unless you play at highly unusual tables, I’d be surprised to see this number below 85%. Pocket pairs make extremely powerful hands that are extremely well-hidden; if you’re not playing them almost all the time, you’re leaving money on the table. Also, your Total PFR% with these hands should be rather high -- at least 1/3 of your VPIP, if not 1/2. Some people have this number higher still, and I don’t have a problem with that, especially at short-handed tables. If you have enough hands, I’d expect every one of these lines to be positive, and reasonably significantly so. If you have any glaringly negative numbers, especially AA-88, it may indicate bad play. Look over individual hands where you lose lots of money and see if you played too timidly early in the hand, or if you went too far unimproved in the face of resistance. Also, look at the hands where you won to see if you played too timidly, or if you routinely forced weaker hands out when you should have been milking them for profits.

8. Suited connectors. Under “Filters…” change “Type of Hole Cards” to “Suited Connectors.” I’m much less likely to play suited connectors than pocket pairs, but some people play them religiously. As a result, I don’t really have a good suggestion as to how high your VPIP or PFR should be. However, your BB/hand should be positive; if it’s not, you’re probably not playing your suited connectors well. Remember: these hands play best in a multiway, unraised pot, or as a steal move. In the “Filters…” change “Vol. Put $ In Pot” to “Cold-Called.” When you hit OK, you should have almost no entries to view. Of the times you cold-called, you should be able to come up with a specific explanation for why you did so in each and every one of them. Review the hand histories; if you can’t come up with a really good reason why you thought it better to cold-call, rather than raise or fold, you need to rethink your suited connector strategy. Good explanations: the raise was very small, villain is passive post-flop, I had position on villain, villain and I are both extremely deep-stacked, villain is incredibly aggressive preflop, my suited connectors are particularly strong, there are several cold-callers in front of me, etc. I’m not saying you shouldn’t ever cold-call with suited connectors; rather, I’m saying you shouldn’t AUTOMATICALLY do so. Your default play here should be to fold weak suited connectors and reraise strong ones.

9. Unsuited connectors. Clear the filter and then go back into it. Change “Type of Hole Cards” to “Off-Suited Connectors.” Your VPIP for these hands should be noticeably smaller than your VPIP for suited connectors. Check your winrate and make sure it’s positive. Filter for cold-calling and see if you had good reasons for doing so, keeping in mind that the reasons need to be even stronger than for suited connectors.

10. Postflop aggression. Clear the filter. Select the “More Detail…” button above the “Filters…” button. Scroll down. There is a section marked “First Action on Flop After A Pre-flop Raise.” This shows your likelihood of continuation betting. If you add Bet and Raise, the total should be at least 40%. If it’s not, you’re probably giving up too soon on your good hands, and that will cost you money in the long run. Remember: people who cold-call a preflop bet are often in fit-or-fold mode. If you don’t bet, you don’t give them a chance to fold. The pot is already decent-sized, and there’s no reason to give some donk a free look at a turn card that could sink you. If you raised preflop, you need a good reason NOT to raise the flop. Continuation betting should be your default play. Scroll down a bit farther to “Aggression Factor.” Your total aggression factor should be at LEAST 2. No-limit is not a game where you can call frequently and turn a profit. You should always be looking to see if you can raise or fold; only if you have a good reason why you CANNOT raise or fold should you call. As a result, calling should be an infrequent occurrence in your play, which gives you a large aggression factor.

11. Check-raising. Some people never check-raise; others check-raise infrequently. I personally like to check-raise at least once in awhile; 1% would be fine, 0.5% would be acceptable. The goal of the check-raise is to remind your opponents that just because you checked does NOT mean that you don’t have a hand. However, circumstances need to be very specific for a check-raise to be appropriate. Typically, I check-raise on the flop when OOP against a preflop raiser, or on the turn when OOP against a flop bettor/raiser who was clearly not on a draw (uncoordinated flop). If you are check raising much more than 2% of the time, you’re being entirely too tricky for a SSNL table, and straightforward play would probably be more profitable for you.

Best 4 Weeks of the Year

I'm here writing to you, on the eve of the greatest 4 weeks of the year. Other than my team playing in the Super Bowl, I anticipate this tournament the most. It's what makes NCAA Basketball so great. As Dicky V would say, it's AWESOME BABY! The time has come once again, for March Madness.

*

I literally can't wait for tomorrow to come. A jam packed day where some dreams begin, and some end. We're not just talkin about the players here. It's the millions of people who need a particular team to have that huge upset. Offices around the country won't have "work" on the top of their priority list. Then again, when do they ever?

It's 9:45 on Wednesday March 15th, is your bracket complete?


*photo courtesy of espn.com

Epassporte and PLO Cash Games

For those that don't have patience, Epassporte isn't the way to go for you. After taking about a month for my micro deposits to get verified, then waiting another week for my funds to make it from my bank account to Epassporte, everything was finally finished. That is, until I went to cash out last week. I withdrew from my Stars account to Epassporte, and unlike Neteller, it was there in about 3 hours. I was completely thrilled. Usually Neteller takes about 3 days for my funds to reach them. Epassporte did say however, that it would take about 7 business days for my funds to reach my checking account. No problem I thought.

Then I went to make my cashout. Declined. "You have got to be kidding me", I thought. I read the limits section of the FAQ and it said I can only withdraw $300 a day. I was not about to request a cashout for 5 straight days. I really don't want that much activity on my checking account. That's when people start asking questions. So I read a little deeper and saw that I could raise my limits. Then i went on another downer when it said I had to have a 2nd load option. GREAT, now I'm going to have to wait another month for this one to be ready. I decided to research on 2+2 to see what all the "ballers" were doing with this restriction. Then I found out that I could use my debit card as a 2nd option.

Everything went through in a solid 5 minutes. I did get a call from PNC asking me if it was me who activated my debit card on the internet and I said yes. They hung up and I was on my way. I had to put money onto a site for it to be solidified, so I just threw like 85 bucks on Full Tilt. At first I was just going to deposit, then withdraw, but I caught the PLO cash game bug. 500 hands later...

I had to download the trial version of the Omaha PT. I only had 85 bucks, so I decided to just play 4 tables of .5/.10. After playing for a little bit I found these were some of the easiest games around. People had no idea how to play. I think I might leave some money on FT when I get tired of the grind on stars. That's all I have for now, maybe I'll post some hands later on today.

Small PLO Final Table

I hopped in a small $8 PLO tournament this morning. I doubled up at the 15/30 level and had 3k in chips going into the 25/50 level. It should have been all over after this hand

Seat 1: ZENZO (3090 in chips)

Seat 2: AceSpaded (1715 in chips)

Seat 3: trixter23 (3175 in chips)

Seat 4: badbugger (1590 in chips)

Seat 5: wildone111 (200 in chips) is sitting out

Seat 6: JA2377 (2027 in chips)

Seat 8: charly441 (5160 in chips)

Seat 9: xxxCMFxxx (1148 in chips)

badbugger: posts small blind 25

wildone111: posts big blind 50

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to trixter23 [2d Kd Ah Ac]

JA2377: calls 50

charly441: folds xxx

CMFxxx: calls 50

ZENZO: folds

AceSpaded: folds

trixter23: raises 200 to 250

badbugger: folds

wildone111: folds

JA2377: calls 200xxx

CMFxxx: calls 200

*** FLOP *** [8s As Qd]

JA2377: checks

xxxCMFxxx: bets 825

trixter23: raises 825 to 1650

JA2377: raises 127 to 1777 and is all-in

xxxCMFxxx: calls 73 and is all-in

trixter23: calls 127

*** TURN *** [8s As Qd] [7h]

*** RIVER *** [8s As Qd 7h] [Th]

*** SHOW DOWN ***

JA2377: shows [Ks 6c 9s Jh] (a straight, Ten to Ace)

trixter23: shows [2d Kd Ah Ac] (three of a kind, Aces)

JA2377 collected 1758 from side pot

xxxCMFxxx: shows [Kh 5s 6s 4s] (high card Ace)

JA2377 collected 3519 from main pot

There was a lot of draws out there and this left me with about 10 bb's. I fought back though and doubled up to 2k. I was then able to steal some blinds and move up to 3k w/out having to showdown a hand which is always a good thing. Here I went to 7800

Dealt to trixter23 [Ks Kh Ts 4h]

haystaxbaz: folds

KRT1: calls 200

zydes: calls 200

rovinggamblr: calls 200

trixter23: raises 1100 to 1300

Frank244: folds

tina0301: folds

KRT1: folds

zydes: calls 1100

rovinggamblr: folds

*** FLOP *** [7s 4d 6s]

trixter23 said, "gl"

zydes: bets 3300

trixter23: calls 2241 and is all-in

*** TURN *** [7s 4d 6s] [2h]

*** RIVER *** [7s 4d 6s 2h] [2c]

*** SHOW DOWN ***

zydes: shows [Ah Th Td 7d] (two pair, Tens and Deuces)

trixter23: shows [Ks Kh Ts 4h] (two pair, Kings and Deuces)

We made our way up to 9k w/out much resistance. Then we won an all in from another player after i cracked his aces with 8s 7h 3h 5d. I had flopped a wrap with a flush draw so that was an easy decision. I had moved to 17k when the following hand occured. This was by far the biggest hand of the tournament, because it volted me to chip leader. Which I took full advantage of and didnt relinquish.

Dealt to trixter23 [5d Th Ac Jd]

gvonah: folds

zydes: folds
Shmooter: folds

rovinggamblr: folds

Freya: raises 800 to 1200

trixter23: calls 800

*** FLOP *** [Kc Qd Ts]

Freya: bets 1200

trixter23: raises 2000 to 3200

Freya: calls 2000

*** TURN *** [Kc Qd Ts] [4s]

Freya: checks

trixter23: bets 6400

Freya: calls 6400

*** RIVER *** [Kc Qd Ts 4s] [Ah]

Freya: checks

trixter23: bets 6457 and is all-in

Freya: calls 6457

*** SHOW DOWN ***

trixter23: shows [5d Th Ac Jd] (a straight, Ten to Ace)

Freya: shows [As 2s Ks Qc] (two pair, Aces and Kings)

I was able to chip up pretty nicely on the bubble and went to the FT first in chips with 50k. Other than mexi and maybe zydes, there really wasnt anyone that could hurt me if i lost a pot.

I took out the next two players and had a commanding lead in the tournament.

Then I eventually took it down

I haven't been doing well in MTT the last month or so at all. So it feels nice to get over that hump and book a win, even as small as it was. I think i can contribute cash games to that lack of success. I just dont have the patience I once had when i soley played sng's or tournaments. See everyone at the tables.

Worst Play EVER(Obv Bad Beat Post)

I've ran about even over the weekend and Monday and Tuesday. I'm not sure whether the players were worse because it was the weekend or what. The play was absolutely terrible, and of course I wasn't on the good end of it. There are so many hands I can post from the guy calling off 1/3 of his stack pre flop, then getting it in with a 10 high flush draw, 2 to the flush on the flop, on a board of 3 6 9(I had pocket 9s), then hitting runner runner for his flush. To this guy I'm about to post here. It's just inexplicable. Here I was down about $27 dollars after this hand, then turned it into a $20 winning session. That was a nice $47 dollar swing. But it's crap like this that I've been running into the past 4 days. Is it a coincidence that this happened after I posted how good I was running? I think not. Lee stop toying with the switches!


Seat 2: trixter23 ($61.15 in chips)
Seat 6: DONKEY ($32.65 in chips)

Dealt to trixter23 [Ks Kc]
DONKEY: calls $0.50
A: calls $0.50
trixter23: raises $2.50 to $3 - Raise it on up
B: calls $3 - Nice
hellokity: folds
C: folds
DONKEY: calls $2.50 - Um?
A: calls $2.50 - WTF?

*** FLOP *** [2s 3h 2d] - Excellent flop for Kings.

DONKEY: bets $6 - Uhh...what are you doing? Probe bet for your small pp? I know you're not smart enough to bet out if you flopped a boat.
A: folds
trixter23: raises $9 to $15 - Alright I'll save ya money, I'm telling you your hand is no good, this is where you fold. Small enough raise for you to call though, because i do want you to.
B: folds
DONKEY: calls $9 - Fine, suit yourself.

*** TURN *** [2s 3h 2d] [4c] - Another good card.

DONKEY: bets $6 - This guy totally misses the point.
trixter23: raises $6 to $12 - Misclick, meant to just shove him here
DONKEY: raises $2.65 to $14.65 and is all-in
trixter23: calls $2.65 - Ok, glad thats settled.

*** RIVER *** [2s 3h 2d 4c] [Ad] - That's not a good card.

*** SHOW DOWN ***

DONKEY: shows [3s As] (two pair, Aces and Threes)
trixter23: mucks hand
trixter23 said, "OMGFU"
DONKEY collected $69.05 from pot
trixter23 said, "ASDLKFJLAKS;DJFLJASDF;"
trixter23 said, "LASKDFK;SDAJF" - This goes on for a little bit.
trixter23 said, "DASJK;FPDSK"
trixter23 said, "P[FDSK"
trixter23 said, "]P[FSD
trixter23 said, ";SJL;'DAF"
trixter23 said, "SL;'DF'ASDF'SDALFSD"
trixter23 said, "K';FSDAK"
trixter23 said, ";'FGDSK;'ALGL'ASDK'"
trixter23 said, "LGASDL'G'"
trixter23 said, "SL;ADG'L;ASDG'LSDAKG'SDA'"
trixter23 said, ";KGSD'" - Still Going...
trixter23 said, "GSAD"
trixter23 said, "GKASDGK'"
trixter23 said, "LASDGK'L"
trixter23 said, "SDAK'"
trixter23 said, "GSDK"
trixter23 said, "G'KS'D"
trixter23 said, "LGK'"
trixter23 said, "LSDGK'"
trixter23 said, "LSDK'" - Let the verbal abuse begin.

trixter23 said, "mother ****ing idiots"
Donkey said, "please dont cry"
trixter23 said, "dude ur ****ing bad"
trixter23 said, "****"
Donkey said, "still crying"
trixter23 said, "do u know how bad u play?"
Donkey said, "whaaa"
Donkey said, "poor cry baby"
trixter23 said, "im actually laughing at how bad u are"
Donkey said, "sniff sniff"

I'm really going to get my chat taken away one of these days hahaha.

A Decent Day

I just finished up a long session on the day and was up a little under 4.5 buyins. It's 10 to 6 in the morning and I have to get up at 830 to coach my 8th grade team at 10. Most likely I'm not going to sleep at all and just watch a movie and go to bed when i come home. We have home game on the slate tomorrow night so that should be interesting. I thought I'd leave you with this hand to start the day. God I love being right when i think they're going to call an extreme overbet.

Hero ($53.15)
Button ($74.80)
SB (Villain 1) ($39.35)
BB ($97)
UTG (Villain 2) ($25.25)
MP ($29.75)

Preflop: Hero is CO with Js, Ks.

UTG (Villain 2) calls $0.50, 1 fold, Hero raises to $2.5, 1 fold, SB (Villain 1) calls $2.25, 1 fold, UTG (Villain 2) calls $2.

Flop: ($8) 4s, Qh, Ac (3 players)

Villain 1 checks, Villain 2 checks, Hero checks.

Turn: ($8) 9s (3 players)

Villain 1 checks, Villain 2 checks, Hero bets $3.5, Villain 1 calls $3.50, Villain 2 calls $3.50.

River: ($18.50) Tc (3 players)

Villain 1 bets $2.5, Villain 2 calls $2.50, Hero raises to $47.15, Villain 1 calls $30.85 (All-In), Villain 2 folds.

Final Pot: $101.50

Results below:

Villain 1 has Qc Td (two pair, queens and tens).
Hero has Js Ks (straight, ace high).
Outcome: Hero wins $101.50.

Long Overdue

I haven't made a post in about 2 weeks. Mainly because I really didn't have anything to talk about. I thought I would update everyone on my 6 max results so far. There were a couple of reasons why I wanted to learn how to play shorthanded.

1) Less Tables - With full ring I was playin 6-8 tables at a time. Part of the reason why I was doing that was boredom. You have to play so much tighter at a full ring table because the extra number of people. And by playing so many tables, I dont get to exploit weak opponents as much as I would like to. Which leads me to my next reason..

2) Exploiting Weak Opponents - With less people it's much easier to isolate one particular person over and over again. In full ring there could be 2 fish(esp with the limited dep options) and if hes across the table, I'm going to have a little trouble playing lots of pots with him. My favorite type of player, is the one that plays 80 percent of the hands. He'll limp, then call a raise, then either fold on the flop or the turn.

3) Hourly Rate - Less people mean that you are going to be playing more pots. This means you can either win more money, but you can also lose just as much.

I don't want to sound arrogant, but I havent really had to hard of a time making money. Although im only playin .25/.50, which probably has something to do with it. One of the most revealing things that doesnt change until you reach 2/4 or above is that people dont change the way they play. I used to play with a lot of the same people in full ring, but I really havent at 6 max yet. Lets get to some hands and my results so far.

This is a hand I just played in my session tonight. Some of the terminology you'll see as you're reading is VP$IP(Percentage of time the player voluntarily put money in the pot). PF Raise(Pre-Flop Raise). AF(Aggression Factor). The numbers that you'll see will come up in that order. So if i say Villain was 35-15-5, that means he has played 35 percent of the hands, raised 15 percent, and his AF is over 3 so hes a pretty aggressive player.

Seat 1: trixter23 ($133.50 in chips) <-----Nice stack Nick.
Seat 2: Villain 1 ($20 in chips) <-----God Damn short stacks.
Seat 6: Villain 2 ($35.45 in chips)<-------No Comment

Villain 1 - Was Playing Semi-Loose Aggressive/Aggressive. Stats were 29/6/4.5. Made a couple of bonehead plays. Seemed like a typical NL50 player who doesnt fold.

Villain 2 - Semi-Loose Aggressive/Passive. Stats were 26/12/1.25. So as you can see hes not an aggressive player at all. He didn't really get out of line until this hand.

Dealt to trixter23 [4h 4d]
Villain1: calls $0.50 - He was utg and just called the blind. I wasn't sure what this meant. I did know that he raised with AK utg in a previous hand.

Villain 2: calls $0.25

trixter23: checks - I'm not going to raise here. I would be oop against the utg limper and I have no idea what he has. Also my hand would also be disguised if hes limping with a big pair and I flop a set, most likely I'm going to win a big pot.

*** FLOP *** [5s 6c 6h]
Villain 1: checks
trixter23: checks
Villain 2: checks

I don't think a bet here by me would make sense. If I had a 6, I would be check raising, and not leading out into an un-raised pot. I could represent a 5, but again I still would have no idea where I would be in the hand if I got a caller. Villain 1 kind of surprised me with a check. Usually if i limp utg, I'm betting any flop.

*** TURN *** [5s 6c 6h] [4s]
Villain 2: bets $1 - What are you doing?

trixter23: calls $1 - Gin! No reason to raise here, lets let him catch his draw if hes on one.

Villain 1 raises $1 to $2 - Ok, so this was a little scary. We all know how I feel about the min raise.

Villain 2: calls $1 - Gotta call

trixter23: calls $1 - Duh

*** RIVER *** [5s 6c 6h 4s] [3c]
Villain 2: bets $1.50 - $7.50 in the pot and he bets $1.50? That's no good.

trixter23: raises $4.50 to $6 - Hopefully someone hit something, this is an obvious raise spot.

Villain 1: raises $11.50 to $17.50 and is all-in - Uh oh. What's he got here? Did he river a set? Does he have a 6? Straight? I have no idea, but this is an easy call for me.

Villain 2: calls $16 - Um? Ok so you flat call after i re-raise you, and then the guy behind me goes all in. I'm definitely not worried about you and I know I got you beat. The rest of your money is going in this pot.

trixter23: raises $113.50 to $131 and is all-in - Duh

Villain 2: calls $15.45 and is all-in - Just leave now.

trixter23: shows [4h 4d] (a full house, Fours full of Sixes)

Villain 2: shows [Ac 7s] (a straight, Three to Seven) - I actually thought he would have 78 here. Anything else and I'm folding, and I probably fold the 78 to.

trixter23 collected $30.85 from side pot

Villain 1: shows [6d 5d] (a full house, Sixes full of Fives) - Sigh

Villain 1 collected $57.05 from main pot

Overall It was just an unlucky turn for me. Honestly I raise the 56d utg there. I usually don't play a pot unless I raise. Im rarely calling. Nothing I can really do there, but thank Villain 2 for thinking his straight was good.


Hand 2

Seat 5: trixter23 ($67.45 in chips)
Seat 3: Villain ($25.10 in chips)

Villain is 66/22/.67 - EXTREMELY loose aggressive player, but hes passive post flop. No real reads, haven't been playin with him long.

Dealt to trixter23 [8c 7c]
trixter23: raises $1 to $1.50 - My standard raise is usually to $2 here, I don't remember why I made it $1.50. I'm utg here so we will be playing oop unless the blinds just call.

Villain: calls $1.25 - Calls from the sb, excellent.

*** FLOP *** [8h 3s 7d]
Villain: bets $2.50 - What are you doing betting into me? That's a pretty harmless flop for your range sir. Unless you're seeing if your A7 is good.

trixter23: raises $6 to $8.50 - That's a pretty good flop for my hand, Lets see if I can peddle him along. If he has a nice overpair like TT or JJ we're going to get paid. The only hands I'm worried about here is 33 or 9T.

Villain: calls $6

*** TURN *** [8h 3s 7d] [9s]
Villain: checks

trixter23: bets $19 - I'm just shipping it in here. If he does have 9T hes going to have to pay to get there. Thers no reason to not believe I have the best hand. Hes super passive so I'm expecting an over pair here if he calls.

Villain: calls $15.10 and is all-in - GL Sir

*** RIVER *** [8h 3s 7d 9s] [2d] - Could NOT have helped his hand

*** SHOW DOWN ***

Villain: shows [Js Ad] (high card Ace) - Um.....no comment.

trixter23: shows [8c 7c] (two pair, Eights and Sevens)

trixter23 collected $48.25 from pot - Ship the money!

So he called my raise on the flop with no pair, no draw. He doesn't really have that much money left after this so he has no fold equity to make a play if I have anything I'm going to call him. He definitely got a good note. It's players like these that make me want to play 6 max.

Now to my stats. It's still a very small sample size, but I'm incredibly happy with the way I'm playing right now. For 6 max your PTBB/100 is a little different from full ring. 3 PTBB/100 means your a pretty average player. 5 PTBB/100 means your above average player. and 8 or higher PTBB/100 means you're absolutely crushing the game and you're probably one of the best players out there. Keep in mind this is over a LARGE sample size. As in large I mean about 30-60k hands.



This sample size only accounts for 12.6 hours of play. My "True Hourly Win Rate" is $39 an hour. I couldn't ask for a better beginning. Here's another shot of my last 13 sessions, and at the bottom is the true hourly win rate. Green is sessions where i made money, Red is where i lost. I'm having winning sessions about 62% of the time, which is right where I should be. Sorry for the lack of updates, but I'll get back to posting regularly. Good luck at the tables everyone.