Nothing really interesting has happened of late. My downswing has finally passed. I've just been grinding out hands for the last week. Just wanted to post to say I didn't go anywhere. I think I want to write an article on a subject. Only I don't know what I want to talk about yet.
We're halfway through the month, and my goal of 30k hands is still realistic. Although I have only played 11 days this month(1 day being live). I'm at 12k right now. These are all mostly Full Ring hands to. I imagine I would be at the halfway mark if I played a few more 6 max hands.
Everyone will be over tonight for some home game action. Hopefully I can break my cold streak I'm having. I haven't made the money in a little over a month which is sad. Anyway if any cool hands come up today I'll post
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Sunday, April 08, 2007
April Decides to Shed Some Light
Hey guys,
I'm just going to give a brief summary of the trip report from down in AC on friday. I hope everyone is having a good Easter. I will post a much more detailed version tomorrow, but for now just specifics. I even chopped when i got heads up with a guy in the 2pm tournament at Hilton. First was a little over 1k. Second was a little over 600. So we each took $840. The jesey guys 101.5 tournament was a complete disaster. What a complete waste of time it was. Then again, if I didn't go down for that, I wouldn't have been down there for the 2pm tourney either.
Tonight I'll be at the 76ers game, first row next to the bench. I'll take some pics on my cell phone and post them Monday.
Again have a safe and happy Easter!
I'm just going to give a brief summary of the trip report from down in AC on friday. I hope everyone is having a good Easter. I will post a much more detailed version tomorrow, but for now just specifics. I even chopped when i got heads up with a guy in the 2pm tournament at Hilton. First was a little over 1k. Second was a little over 600. So we each took $840. The jesey guys 101.5 tournament was a complete disaster. What a complete waste of time it was. Then again, if I didn't go down for that, I wouldn't have been down there for the 2pm tourney either.
Tonight I'll be at the 76ers game, first row next to the bench. I'll take some pics on my cell phone and post them Monday.
Again have a safe and happy Easter!
Thursday, April 05, 2007
UGGGGGGGGGGGH
April really is going to be the death of me. Cash games aren't going well at all. I dropped down limits and was averaging 24 PTBB/100 over a very small sample size, but the limits are a little bit too low. Im still playing well and getting it in constantly ahead by long shot and i get sucked out on. Tonight I decided to forget about cash games for a night and play a MTT. I didn't want anything to strenous, so I played in one of my fav's..the $3 rebuy. While playing, I was watching high stakes cash games and lucko playing in the $1k wsop qualifier on ft.
Everything was going extremely well. I kind of hit a snag. I wasn't chipping up and had 36k with 1500/3k blinds. Then some things started going my way. Someone had open limped and sb completed and we saw a hand. No one bet at all and i fired 7500 into the 10k pot. Everyone folded and I showed the bluff. The one guy said I now had a target on my back. I said good. I'm not showing it for my health.
3 hands later I got hit in the face with the deck at the right time. The same guy who said I had a target on my back popped to 9k. I held AA and shoved for 36k. The button 4 bets all in. It's another classic race situation for me when he flips AK soooooooooooted. He flops 4 to the flush and somehow I hold. Excellent, now we're at 84k. The very next hand I'm utg+1, when i miraculously pick up AA yet again. Make the standard raise to 9k and the guy who just shoved with AK shoves his remaining 32k in the pot and flips QJ. I make the insta-call and AK7 flops. Thankfully he didnt hit the 4 outer and I'm not sitting on 122k.
My table layout was great and I was really able to abuse the people to my left with ease. I chipped up to 175k w/out showing down a hand. Blinds are now 4k/8k and a short stack makes it 40k to go with 24k left behind. I shove in with KK and he flips A7. He obviously hits his Ace and I'm down to 88k. 2 hands later, there was an EP raise and I shoved with AK. I thought i was above his range from his image. Surprisingly a player behind me called as well. So a 3 way all in saw the EP first raiser have QQ, me with AK, and the caller had JJ. 2 all ins in front and he somehow calls with jj? I hit my ace and am now at 265k.
2 Winning all ins later with QQ beating A6 and winning a 3 way pot with KQ, I was 4th in chips with 696k. Blinds were now 10k/20k and I had QQ on the button. I had just raised the last hand in the sb to take the pot. My image was stil fairly tight, playing 1-2 hands in position each orbit. So I raised it up to 60k and bb jams for 400k. After some thought of his range, I decided to call and he flipped Tens. Perfect!...
Flop 4 9 K
Turn 5
As I'm jumping for joy about to win the 850k+ pot to become the chip leader with 40 left...
River 10 (OBVIOUSLY)
Now I'm left with 278k and 13 bb's with an M of 6. I'm up to 316k when i get dealt AA yet again. Short stack jams for 120k total and I make the call. He flips up the A6 and we're Off to the races weeeee.
Flop A Q J
Turn K
As I'm yelling NO NO NO NO in the chat box
River Ten
My luck really couldn't get any worse. 5 hands later I get Kings and stack the guy who chopped with me earlier and I'm now at 400k. 2 steals later I'm at 500k. 10 hands later I find myself with QQ utg(I know I'm a card rack this tourney, but wahts the use if im getting sucked out on). Blinds 15k/30k and we raise it up to 90. I get a confusing cold call from the sb. Flop comes A 6 6 and he leads for 120k. This is a really tough spot. Villain has me covered by about 50k. I'm pretty sure AJ+ 88+ he 3 bets me pre flop. What is he putting me on? What are you leading into me for when i showed strength raising utg? I thought maybe he had like TT or JJ maybe even KK and lead to see where he stood. I ruled a 6 out. Could it be possible he cc's with AK AQ? If i shove is he going to fold A2-AJ? I had 25% of my stack in the middle. If I folded, I would be left in push/fold mode. I decided it was best to shove.
Well that didn't work, he insta-called me with ....AT. Board bricks and I'm out in 30th place of 2789 people. Not playing many MTT's in the last 2 months or so, It felt good that I could just go in and play well. A few breaks go my way and I'm looking at an easy final table with a chance at 6k. But nope, April owns me.
Friday I'm heading down to Atlantic City to participate in a tournament sponsored by 101.5's the jersey guys at the hilton. It's invitation only and I believe they are giving out some cool stuff. Hopefully lots of people stay afterwards to play cash. All the participants called into the show to get in. I'll have a trip report on Saturday. Then Sat night we have home game action. Sunday I have floor seats for the 76ers game. And by floor I mean first row FLOOR seats. Should be fun. Maybe I can make some money for once poker gods?
See ya around.
Everything was going extremely well. I kind of hit a snag. I wasn't chipping up and had 36k with 1500/3k blinds. Then some things started going my way. Someone had open limped and sb completed and we saw a hand. No one bet at all and i fired 7500 into the 10k pot. Everyone folded and I showed the bluff. The one guy said I now had a target on my back. I said good. I'm not showing it for my health.
3 hands later I got hit in the face with the deck at the right time. The same guy who said I had a target on my back popped to 9k. I held AA and shoved for 36k. The button 4 bets all in. It's another classic race situation for me when he flips AK soooooooooooted. He flops 4 to the flush and somehow I hold. Excellent, now we're at 84k. The very next hand I'm utg+1, when i miraculously pick up AA yet again. Make the standard raise to 9k and the guy who just shoved with AK shoves his remaining 32k in the pot and flips QJ. I make the insta-call and AK7 flops. Thankfully he didnt hit the 4 outer and I'm not sitting on 122k.
My table layout was great and I was really able to abuse the people to my left with ease. I chipped up to 175k w/out showing down a hand. Blinds are now 4k/8k and a short stack makes it 40k to go with 24k left behind. I shove in with KK and he flips A7. He obviously hits his Ace and I'm down to 88k. 2 hands later, there was an EP raise and I shoved with AK. I thought i was above his range from his image. Surprisingly a player behind me called as well. So a 3 way all in saw the EP first raiser have QQ, me with AK, and the caller had JJ. 2 all ins in front and he somehow calls with jj? I hit my ace and am now at 265k.
2 Winning all ins later with QQ beating A6 and winning a 3 way pot with KQ, I was 4th in chips with 696k. Blinds were now 10k/20k and I had QQ on the button. I had just raised the last hand in the sb to take the pot. My image was stil fairly tight, playing 1-2 hands in position each orbit. So I raised it up to 60k and bb jams for 400k. After some thought of his range, I decided to call and he flipped Tens. Perfect!...
Flop 4 9 K
Turn 5
As I'm jumping for joy about to win the 850k+ pot to become the chip leader with 40 left...
River 10 (OBVIOUSLY)
Now I'm left with 278k and 13 bb's with an M of 6. I'm up to 316k when i get dealt AA yet again. Short stack jams for 120k total and I make the call. He flips up the A6 and we're Off to the races weeeee.
Flop A Q J
Turn K
As I'm yelling NO NO NO NO in the chat box
River Ten
My luck really couldn't get any worse. 5 hands later I get Kings and stack the guy who chopped with me earlier and I'm now at 400k. 2 steals later I'm at 500k. 10 hands later I find myself with QQ utg(I know I'm a card rack this tourney, but wahts the use if im getting sucked out on). Blinds 15k/30k and we raise it up to 90. I get a confusing cold call from the sb. Flop comes A 6 6 and he leads for 120k. This is a really tough spot. Villain has me covered by about 50k. I'm pretty sure AJ+ 88+ he 3 bets me pre flop. What is he putting me on? What are you leading into me for when i showed strength raising utg? I thought maybe he had like TT or JJ maybe even KK and lead to see where he stood. I ruled a 6 out. Could it be possible he cc's with AK AQ? If i shove is he going to fold A2-AJ? I had 25% of my stack in the middle. If I folded, I would be left in push/fold mode. I decided it was best to shove.
Well that didn't work, he insta-called me with ....AT. Board bricks and I'm out in 30th place of 2789 people. Not playing many MTT's in the last 2 months or so, It felt good that I could just go in and play well. A few breaks go my way and I'm looking at an easy final table with a chance at 6k. But nope, April owns me.
Friday I'm heading down to Atlantic City to participate in a tournament sponsored by 101.5's the jersey guys at the hilton. It's invitation only and I believe they are giving out some cool stuff. Hopefully lots of people stay afterwards to play cash. All the participants called into the show to get in. I'll have a trip report on Saturday. Then Sat night we have home game action. Sunday I have floor seats for the 76ers game. And by floor I mean first row FLOOR seats. Should be fun. Maybe I can make some money for once poker gods?
See ya around.
Monday, April 02, 2007
Day of the Donkey.
When I look back at the hands I lost significant money on today, I'm not sure what to do. Laugh, at how bad people are. Be discouraged since I totally wasted my time. Be angry that I lost a buyin today. Be ecstatic that I SOMEHOW only lost a buyin. Or just keep my head up, knowing that I'm making good plays and calls. I'm really not too sure how I could have won more/lost less in these pots im about to post. Lets take a look. The timeline might be a little messed up here, I'm just postin them as I see em.
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (6 handed)
Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
(Format: HTML)
BB ($13.30)
UTG ($21.45)
MP ($62.70)
CO ($62.75)
Hero ($82.35)
SB ($27.30)
Preflop: Hero is Button with Tc, Td.
1 fold, MP calls $0.50, 1 fold, Button raises to $2.5, 1 fold, BB calls $2, MP folds.
Flop: ($5.75) 9c, 4s, 7c (2 players)
BB checks, Button bets $5.5, BB raises to $10.8, Hero calls $5.30.
Turn: ($27.35) 2d (2 players)
River: ($27.35) 4h (2 players)
Final Pot: $27.35
Results
BB has 4d 5c (three of a kind, fours).
Hero has Tc Td (two pair, tens and fours).
Outcome: BB wins $27.35.
Weeee, calling raises oop with 45o and getting it in with bottom pair to hit another 4 on the river.
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (6 handed)
Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
(Format: HTML)
BB ($35.45)
UTG ($9.75)
MP ($22.30)
CO ($57.60)
Hero ($49.25)
SB ($37.15)
Preflop: Hero is Button with Ac, Td.
1 fold, MP calls $0.50, 1 fold, Button raises to $2.5, 2 folds, MP calls $2.
Flop: ($5.75) 3c, Tc, 3s (2 players)
MP bets $2.5, Button raises to $8, MP calls $5.50.
Turn: ($21.75) Js (2 players)
MP bets $11.8 (All-In), Hero calls $11.80.
River: ($45.35) 4c (2 players, 1 all-in)
Final Pot: $45.35
Results
MP has Th Jc (two pair, jacks and tens).
Hero has Ac Td (two pair, tens and threes).
Outcome: MP wins $45.35.
Why do I even raise anymore?
This is where it get's good. Villain was running 79/30 and paying people off left and right. The next hand came up and I knew the 3 better had a monster with his little raise. I never do this, but i was literally going out of my way to play pots with this guy. Well we flop our monster.
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (6 handed)
Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
(Format: HTML)
CO ($44.90)
Button ($20.10)
SB ($52.05)
Hero ($43.50)
UTG ($93.20)
MP ($46.30)
Preflop: Hero is BB with 6d, 5s.
UTG raises to $1, MP raises to $2.5, 3 folds, Hero calls $2, UTG calls $1.50.
Flop: ($7.75) 5h, Qs, 5c (3 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $3, MP raises to $6, Hero calls $6, UTG calls $3.
Turn: ($25.75) Kd (3 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $1, MP raises to $13, BB raises to $35, UTG calls $34, MP raises to $37.8, UTG calls $2.80.
River: ($136.35) Kh (3 players)
Final Pot: $136.35
Results
Hero has 6d 5s (full house, fives full of kings).
UTG has Ks 8d (full house, kings full of fives).
MP has Ah Ad (two pair, aces and kings).
Outcome: UTG wins $136.35.
Sigh. 90% to win on the flop, and he catches 2 running kings. This was actually the first one that set the day's events into motion.
These next 2 hands were from the same guy. I'm just at a loss for words at his plays here. Of course the deck bails him out.
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (6 handed)
Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
(Format: HTML)
Button ($129.70)
SB ($24.20)
Hero ($69.40)
UTG ($41.45)
MP ($35.40)
CO ($79.50)
Preflop: Hero is BB with Ac, Kd.
3 folds, Button raises to $2.5, SB calls $2.25, BB raises to $10.5, Button folds, SB raises to $24.45, Hero calls $13.70.
Flop: ($51.15) 4c, Th, Jd (2 players)
Turn: ($51.15) 3d (2 players)
River: ($51.15) 8h (2 players)
Final Pot: $51.15
Results
SB has Qd 3h (one pair, threes).
Hero has Ac Kd (high card, ace).
Outcome: SB wins $51.15.
Whenever someone flat calls in the blinds like this from a position raiser, they never have much of a hand. Their range is usually 2 overs or suited connectors. Did this guy really think I was going to fold to his shove? Is there a training site for this kind of stuff that i can sign up to?
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)
MP ($118.45)
CO ($46.20)
Hero ($49.25)
SB ($46.90)
BB ($39.75)
UTG ($79.15)
Preflop: Hero is Button with Ad, Kd.
1 fold, MP raises to $2, CO raises to $3.5, Hero calls $3.50, 2 folds, MP calls $1.50.
Flop: ($11.25) 9d, Jd, 7s (3 players)
MP checks, CO bets $5, Button raises to $15.5, MP folds, CO calls $10.50.
Turn: ($42.25) 3c (2 players)
CO bets $27.2 (All-In), Hero calls $27.20.
River: ($96.65) 8c (2 players, 1 all-in)
Final Pot: $96.65
Results
CO has 8d Ah (one pair, eights).
Hero has Ad Kd (high card, ace).
Outcome: CO wins $96.65.
I didnt like his little min raise pre flop at all. So I decided to cold call in position. The flop was good to me, and I wasn't going to fold to this donkey. His turn shove made me think he had some type of straight draw. I just didn't know how BAD his draw was. This is the hell I live in with Small Stakes NL. I'm sure there are people like this at .50/1 and 1/2 so it would just cost me more when this type of garbage happened. Today totally ruined everything stats wise. Maybe tomorrow things will change.
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (6 handed)
Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
(Format: HTML)
BB ($13.30)
UTG ($21.45)
MP ($62.70)
CO ($62.75)
Hero ($82.35)
SB ($27.30)
Preflop: Hero is Button with Tc, Td.
1 fold, MP calls $0.50, 1 fold, Button raises to $2.5, 1 fold, BB calls $2, MP folds.
Flop: ($5.75) 9c, 4s, 7c (2 players)
BB checks, Button bets $5.5, BB raises to $10.8, Hero calls $5.30.
Turn: ($27.35) 2d (2 players)
River: ($27.35) 4h (2 players)
Final Pot: $27.35
Results
BB has 4d 5c (three of a kind, fours).
Hero has Tc Td (two pair, tens and fours).
Outcome: BB wins $27.35.
Weeee, calling raises oop with 45o and getting it in with bottom pair to hit another 4 on the river.
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (6 handed)
Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
(Format: HTML)
BB ($35.45)
UTG ($9.75)
MP ($22.30)
CO ($57.60)
Hero ($49.25)
SB ($37.15)
Preflop: Hero is Button with Ac, Td.
1 fold, MP calls $0.50, 1 fold, Button raises to $2.5, 2 folds, MP calls $2.
Flop: ($5.75) 3c, Tc, 3s (2 players)
MP bets $2.5, Button raises to $8, MP calls $5.50.
Turn: ($21.75) Js (2 players)
MP bets $11.8 (All-In), Hero calls $11.80.
River: ($45.35) 4c (2 players, 1 all-in)
Final Pot: $45.35
Results
MP has Th Jc (two pair, jacks and tens).
Hero has Ac Td (two pair, tens and threes).
Outcome: MP wins $45.35.
Why do I even raise anymore?
This is where it get's good. Villain was running 79/30 and paying people off left and right. The next hand came up and I knew the 3 better had a monster with his little raise. I never do this, but i was literally going out of my way to play pots with this guy. Well we flop our monster.
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (6 handed)
Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
(Format: HTML)
CO ($44.90)
Button ($20.10)
SB ($52.05)
Hero ($43.50)
UTG ($93.20)
MP ($46.30)
Preflop: Hero is BB with 6d, 5s.
UTG raises to $1, MP raises to $2.5, 3 folds, Hero calls $2, UTG calls $1.50.
Flop: ($7.75) 5h, Qs, 5c (3 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $3, MP raises to $6, Hero calls $6, UTG calls $3.
Turn: ($25.75) Kd (3 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $1, MP raises to $13, BB raises to $35, UTG calls $34, MP raises to $37.8, UTG calls $2.80.
River: ($136.35) Kh (3 players)
Final Pot: $136.35
Results
Hero has 6d 5s (full house, fives full of kings).
UTG has Ks 8d (full house, kings full of fives).
MP has Ah Ad (two pair, aces and kings).
Outcome: UTG wins $136.35.
Sigh. 90% to win on the flop, and he catches 2 running kings. This was actually the first one that set the day's events into motion.
These next 2 hands were from the same guy. I'm just at a loss for words at his plays here. Of course the deck bails him out.
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (6 handed)
Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
(Format: HTML)
Button ($129.70)
SB ($24.20)
Hero ($69.40)
UTG ($41.45)
MP ($35.40)
CO ($79.50)
Preflop: Hero is BB with Ac, Kd.
3 folds, Button raises to $2.5, SB calls $2.25, BB raises to $10.5, Button folds, SB raises to $24.45, Hero calls $13.70.
Flop: ($51.15) 4c, Th, Jd (2 players)
Turn: ($51.15) 3d (2 players)
River: ($51.15) 8h (2 players)
Final Pot: $51.15
Results
SB has Qd 3h (one pair, threes).
Hero has Ac Kd (high card, ace).
Outcome: SB wins $51.15.
Whenever someone flat calls in the blinds like this from a position raiser, they never have much of a hand. Their range is usually 2 overs or suited connectors. Did this guy really think I was going to fold to his shove? Is there a training site for this kind of stuff that i can sign up to?
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)
MP ($118.45)
CO ($46.20)
Hero ($49.25)
SB ($46.90)
BB ($39.75)
UTG ($79.15)
Preflop: Hero is Button with Ad, Kd.
1 fold, MP raises to $2, CO raises to $3.5, Hero calls $3.50, 2 folds, MP calls $1.50.
Flop: ($11.25) 9d, Jd, 7s (3 players)
MP checks, CO bets $5, Button raises to $15.5, MP folds, CO calls $10.50.
Turn: ($42.25) 3c (2 players)
CO bets $27.2 (All-In), Hero calls $27.20.
River: ($96.65) 8c (2 players, 1 all-in)
Final Pot: $96.65
Results
CO has 8d Ah (one pair, eights).
Hero has Ad Kd (high card, ace).
Outcome: CO wins $96.65.
I didnt like his little min raise pre flop at all. So I decided to cold call in position. The flop was good to me, and I wasn't going to fold to this donkey. His turn shove made me think he had some type of straight draw. I just didn't know how BAD his draw was. This is the hell I live in with Small Stakes NL. I'm sure there are people like this at .50/1 and 1/2 so it would just cost me more when this type of garbage happened. Today totally ruined everything stats wise. Maybe tomorrow things will change.
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Decent Start to April
I only got in 3 hours of play today since its Sunday. Played a total of 1126 hands and made $99.40. Ran at 8.83 PTBB/100. I should have ran much better, but as soon as I won 2 big hands I lost it right back to 1 beat and 1 really bad play.
I dont feel like posting the hands so I'll just give a brief synopsis. The first one I get a guy all in on the river when I had the nuts and he called with 2 pair so I took his stack. On a diff table I got min 3 bet and called to see a flop. I had Jacks and spiked one on the flop, got it all in and he turned his queen for a better set.
Another hand I raised from the cutoff to $2.50 after a limper and got called by both blinds and the limper. I held AKs, flop came 5 9 A. BB leads for 1/3rd the pot and I raised and we got it all in. After my raise I really had no choice. He weak led the flop with a set and it held up. Not many people play that way at 50NL, only very few. I had to learn the hard way with him.
Overall I feel good about today. If I played my full 8 hours and maintained my $32.77/hr win rate, I end at $260 or so for the day. 5 buyins at any level is good for me. Till tomorrow!
I dont feel like posting the hands so I'll just give a brief synopsis. The first one I get a guy all in on the river when I had the nuts and he called with 2 pair so I took his stack. On a diff table I got min 3 bet and called to see a flop. I had Jacks and spiked one on the flop, got it all in and he turned his queen for a better set.
Another hand I raised from the cutoff to $2.50 after a limper and got called by both blinds and the limper. I held AKs, flop came 5 9 A. BB leads for 1/3rd the pot and I raised and we got it all in. After my raise I really had no choice. He weak led the flop with a set and it held up. Not many people play that way at 50NL, only very few. I had to learn the hard way with him.
Overall I feel good about today. If I played my full 8 hours and maintained my $32.77/hr win rate, I end at $260 or so for the day. 5 buyins at any level is good for me. Till tomorrow!
Saturday, March 31, 2007
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!
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!
Thursday, March 29, 2007
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
*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
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
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.
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.
Friday, March 23, 2007
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.
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.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
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
*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
Monday, March 12, 2007
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.
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.
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.
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
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
Then I eventually took it down 
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
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.
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
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.
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.
Saturday, March 03, 2007
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.
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 $101.50.
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Long Overdue
I haven't made a post in about 2 weeks. Mainly because I really didn't have anything to talk about. I thought I would update everyone on my 6 max results so far. There were a couple of reasons why I wanted to learn how to play shorthanded.
1) Less Tables - With full ring I was playin 6-8 tables at a time. Part of the reason why I was doing that was boredom. You have to play so much tighter at a full ring table because the extra number of people. And by playing so many tables, I dont get to exploit weak opponents as much as I would like to. Which leads me to my next reason..
2) Exploiting Weak Opponents - With less people it's much easier to isolate one particular person over and over again. In full ring there could be 2 fish(esp with the limited dep options) and if hes across the table, I'm going to have a little trouble playing lots of pots with him. My favorite type of player, is the one that plays 80 percent of the hands. He'll limp, then call a raise, then either fold on the flop or the turn.
3) Hourly Rate - Less people mean that you are going to be playing more pots. This means you can either win more money, but you can also lose just as much.
I don't want to sound arrogant, but I havent really had to hard of a time making money. Although im only playin .25/.50, which probably has something to do with it. One of the most revealing things that doesnt change until you reach 2/4 or above is that people dont change the way they play. I used to play with a lot of the same people in full ring, but I really havent at 6 max yet. Lets get to some hands and my results so far.
This is a hand I just played in my session tonight. Some of the terminology you'll see as you're reading is VP$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 $39 an hour. I couldn't ask for a better beginning. Here's another shot of my last 13 sessions, and at the bottom is the true hourly win rate. Green is sessions where i made money, Red is where i lost. I'm having winning sessions about 62% of the time, which is right where I should be. Sorry for the lack of updates, but I'll get back to posting regularly. Good luck at the tables everyone.
1) Less Tables - With full ring I was playin 6-8 tables at a time. Part of the reason why I was doing that was boredom. You have to play so much tighter at a full ring table because the extra number of people. And by playing so many tables, I dont get to exploit weak opponents as much as I would like to. Which leads me to my next reason..
2) Exploiting Weak Opponents - With less people it's much easier to isolate one particular person over and over again. In full ring there could be 2 fish(esp with the limited dep options) and if hes across the table, I'm going to have a little trouble playing lots of pots with him. My favorite type of player, is the one that plays 80 percent of the hands. He'll limp, then call a raise, then either fold on the flop or the turn.
3) Hourly Rate - Less people mean that you are going to be playing more pots. This means you can either win more money, but you can also lose just as much.
I don't want to sound arrogant, but I havent really had to hard of a time making money. Although im only playin .25/.50, which probably has something to do with it. One of the most revealing things that doesnt change until you reach 2/4 or above is that people dont change the way they play. I used to play with a lot of the same people in full ring, but I really havent at 6 max yet. Lets get to some hands and my results so far.
This is a hand I just played in my session tonight. Some of the terminology you'll see as you're reading is VP$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.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Ugh
I caught the flug bug on Monday and I've been layin around the last 4 days. I feel absolutely miserable. Its clearing up though so I'm happy about that. I haven't been able to play since my eyes burn if I look at the screen too long. Hopefully I'll be ready to go for the weekend push.
Monday, February 12, 2007
Sunday Million and 6 Max
So I decided to use some fpp's to play in the sunday million yesterday on pokerstars. I accumulate so many since I'm platinum. Well atleast until the end of this month because there is no way I can make 10k vpp's this month. I haven't been really playing too much. I played well, I had some good reads on people, but really couldn't get anything going. I believe blinds were 400/800 and the antes were about to kick in and i pushed in EP with AQ with 7800 chips. I ran into Jacks and didn't improve.
Overall, I was happy with my play. I maintained an active image but still didn't get any big pots brewing when i had anything. There's always next time though. I think I went out 3100th out of like 6800 or so. Going through half the field still doesn't garner me anything.
Also I'm still in the transission phase of getting into 6 max ring games. I've found that I need to play 2 to start off and add a max of 2 more to be profitable. Any more than that and it just boggles your mind. It's definitely easier playing less tables because you can pick apart the weaker opponents. Here is a graph showing a nice 2 table 40 min session I had to get things going for the day.
As you can see, I won 2 nice pots and pretty much just chipped up everywhere else. I never had to get out of line so I was happy about that. I'm pretty sure 6 max is going to be more profitable as long as I pay attention and stick to my game. The moment I start to try and get cute is the moment I'm going to start losing money. I'll update about 6 max when I get a bigger sample size in for sure.
On the home game front now. I grabbed a new table from gebhardts. They have some very nice tables, but ours need to be portable. I got one for $200 that was sitting in the back and was perfect. We had a nice turnout again of about 18. We really have to do something with the structure though. It's a pretty fast paced one that doesn't benefit the post flop players very well.
I'm thinkin about running a cash game with .25/.50 blinds and sng's on the side. We'll see how everyone likes that, otherwise we'll just have to figure out a new structure.
Other than that, I have nothing else new. If anyone has a structure btw that they like post it in the comments.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Friday, February 02, 2007
Burnt out
Over the last 3 days in January, I played a little under 10k hands. 8-10 tabling .50/1 for a long period of time certainly took its toll. What's surprising is that I actually made money. Reads weren't an issue, I was just playing abc robotic poker. Yesterday I played about 1k hands, but only while 4 tabling. I really don't understand how people can make money playing that many tables. I wasn't able to concentrate on position or weak players in the game.
The other big topic that's getting a lot of coverage besides the super bowl is the retired NFL players pension and disability fund or lack thereof. I read an article today in The Star Ledger written by Jerry Izenberg about this. Some of the stories that you hear about the old time greats are truely a shame. You think of some of the players today and say to yourself..where is he going to be in 25 years? I'm pretty sure the likes of Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, and other All-Pro players will be fine. But what about John Lynch, safety for the Broncos or any linebacker in the league. These guys aren't getting 75 million dollar contracts. Plus they subject themselves to probably the most physical abuse among the players.
This article just makes me respect Tiki Barber's decision to retire a TON more. He is a very bright man and values his health more than fame and fortune. Don't get me wrong he loves the game, but he sees the longterm issues of playing a lot more clearly then most players. He has 2 kids, both under the age of 5, and wants to go outside and be able to run around with them. Take a look at Jerome Bettis. He was quoted in espn the magagzine for saying that it takes him literally 5 minutes to go up stairs sometimes. His knees are completely shot.
What's this have to do with poker you ask? Money management. You see a lot of these people getting paid 8 figure deals and they live in their HUGE houses with 67 cars and live a lavish lifestyle. Well what are you going to do when you retire? What if your're like Terrell Davis and sustain a career ending injury? Ok sure, you're getting paid 8 million dollars a year. That doesn't mean you have to have bills totalling 500k, plus a 2 million dollar house, with a 275k car, with a house in california also. How about actually only paying yourself 4 million a year, and putting the other 4 million in savings and not touching it.
We as poker players have some of the absolute best and worst money managers in the world. What kind are you?
Here is the link to the article I was referring to
http://www2.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=24685860
The other big topic that's getting a lot of coverage besides the super bowl is the retired NFL players pension and disability fund or lack thereof. I read an article today in The Star Ledger written by Jerry Izenberg about this. Some of the stories that you hear about the old time greats are truely a shame. You think of some of the players today and say to yourself..where is he going to be in 25 years? I'm pretty sure the likes of Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, and other All-Pro players will be fine. But what about John Lynch, safety for the Broncos or any linebacker in the league. These guys aren't getting 75 million dollar contracts. Plus they subject themselves to probably the most physical abuse among the players.
This article just makes me respect Tiki Barber's decision to retire a TON more. He is a very bright man and values his health more than fame and fortune. Don't get me wrong he loves the game, but he sees the longterm issues of playing a lot more clearly then most players. He has 2 kids, both under the age of 5, and wants to go outside and be able to run around with them. Take a look at Jerome Bettis. He was quoted in espn the magagzine for saying that it takes him literally 5 minutes to go up stairs sometimes. His knees are completely shot.
What's this have to do with poker you ask? Money management. You see a lot of these people getting paid 8 figure deals and they live in their HUGE houses with 67 cars and live a lavish lifestyle. Well what are you going to do when you retire? What if your're like Terrell Davis and sustain a career ending injury? Ok sure, you're getting paid 8 million dollars a year. That doesn't mean you have to have bills totalling 500k, plus a 2 million dollar house, with a 275k car, with a house in california also. How about actually only paying yourself 4 million a year, and putting the other 4 million in savings and not touching it.
We as poker players have some of the absolute best and worst money managers in the world. What kind are you?
Here is the link to the article I was referring to
http://www2.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=24685860
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Playing Well
The last 2 days I've been able to really focus on my play. Which in return has given me back to back $500+ days in the cash games. I've been making great decisisons and getting paid off on my big hands. Reluctantly, I only had 1 suckout yesterday. It was a bad one, but what can ya do.
My ankle is feeling much better, it's still a little bruised and swollen but I can walk on it without a brace in my house now. When i go out i have to wear the boot or aircast for pre-caution.
I need 3600 vpp's for Platinum this month. With 5 days to go, that's 720 a day. It might be possible. I'm just going to play solid poker and see what happens.
My ankle is feeling much better, it's still a little bruised and swollen but I can walk on it without a brace in my house now. When i go out i have to wear the boot or aircast for pre-caution.
I need 3600 vpp's for Platinum this month. With 5 days to go, that's 720 a day. It might be possible. I'm just going to play solid poker and see what happens.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Yikes
Well, even more bad news for the month of January. While I was playin basketball on tuesday morning, I crossed feet with one of the other players when we were both going for the ball. My right ankle decided to roll outward, then twist forward. I pretty much instantly knew I did something really bad to it. Here's some background on my ankles. To put it bluntly, I probably have some of the weakest ankles known to man. I've played Basketball all my life from elementary school all the way through community college. I wear braces on both my ankles. When I played in school, the trainer would tape both of them, Then I would have 2 socks on, plus the braces. I've rolled both ankles twice before atleast. I've never broken a bone, but I'm getting closer and closer to doing some real damage.
As soon as I hit the ground I knew it wasnt going to be fun. Usually, I can walk it off and just not be able to walk for the next 2 days or so. This time though, I wasn't able to put any weight on it what so ever. Now remember, I have no insurance so I'm kind of worried now. I'm really hoping its just the absolute worst sprain you could have without having to need surgery. I was in writhing pain for a good 3 hours before I was able to go to a specialist. I took some x-rays and he came back in and the first thing he said was that i didn't need surgery. Everything after that was pure bliss haha. My diagnosis was a 3rd degree sprained ankle. What he did say though was that I was extremely lucky. My ligaments and tendons have been stretched so far the last few times I've rolled that ankle, he hadnt a clue why I didn't tear both of those off the bone this time. He said another 2-3 inches and I was done. So now I'm in a boot and an aircast for the next month or so. I had to pay for the x-ray and boot but that didn't bother me.
Now onto da pokah. I haven't played any cash for the last 4-5 days or so and have just been playin some small tourneys. I have 2 deep finishes in the rebuy in the last 2 days. 1 of them was when i was stone dead with 482 chips with blinds at 200/400. I actually came back and got 98th or something. I went out in the most idiotic way. I dont even want to put it up here. Hopefully I can make a ft in the next few days as I'm playing really well tournament poker right now. That's all for now, if Lee lets me make a final table this week, I'll let ya know. Good Luck everyone!
As soon as I hit the ground I knew it wasnt going to be fun. Usually, I can walk it off and just not be able to walk for the next 2 days or so. This time though, I wasn't able to put any weight on it what so ever. Now remember, I have no insurance so I'm kind of worried now. I'm really hoping its just the absolute worst sprain you could have without having to need surgery. I was in writhing pain for a good 3 hours before I was able to go to a specialist. I took some x-rays and he came back in and the first thing he said was that i didn't need surgery. Everything after that was pure bliss haha. My diagnosis was a 3rd degree sprained ankle. What he did say though was that I was extremely lucky. My ligaments and tendons have been stretched so far the last few times I've rolled that ankle, he hadnt a clue why I didn't tear both of those off the bone this time. He said another 2-3 inches and I was done. So now I'm in a boot and an aircast for the next month or so. I had to pay for the x-ray and boot but that didn't bother me.
Now onto da pokah. I haven't played any cash for the last 4-5 days or so and have just been playin some small tourneys. I have 2 deep finishes in the rebuy in the last 2 days. 1 of them was when i was stone dead with 482 chips with blinds at 200/400. I actually came back and got 98th or something. I went out in the most idiotic way. I dont even want to put it up here. Hopefully I can make a ft in the next few days as I'm playing really well tournament poker right now. That's all for now, if Lee lets me make a final table this week, I'll let ya know. Good Luck everyone!
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Sooo
Everyone is freaking out about the payment processors such as Neteller, click2pay, epassporte, etc, etc shutting down. Most of the people are taking their money off the sites. Personally I believe my pokerstars account is the best place for money at this time. I don't want to jump the gun and cash out because this is going to be resolved. It affects me considering i used to cash out through neteller. As far as getting money on the sites, I haven't deposited since back in August when I came back from Vegas.
I played 7 of the 5400 fpp 10 man sng's that pay 4 spots to the sunday million. Dissapointingly, I only won 2 seats. I bubbled 3 others, and got like 6th or 7th in the other ones. The play is pretty bad, but everyone plays SOOO tight, it's hard to accumulate any chips other than re-stealing against late position raisers. I cashed in my entries at a site and got $203.18 for each T$215.
Other than that, I've been playin my usual cash game sessions. I started playing .25/.50 6 max. 6 max is much more profitable than full ring. I'm running real hot right now, but in a VERY small sample size of 1200 hands. I'll update further when i get more hands in.
That's it for now, halftime hit in the bears vs saints game. I'll post if anything intresting happens.
I played 7 of the 5400 fpp 10 man sng's that pay 4 spots to the sunday million. Dissapointingly, I only won 2 seats. I bubbled 3 others, and got like 6th or 7th in the other ones. The play is pretty bad, but everyone plays SOOO tight, it's hard to accumulate any chips other than re-stealing against late position raisers. I cashed in my entries at a site and got $203.18 for each T$215.
Other than that, I've been playin my usual cash game sessions. I started playing .25/.50 6 max. 6 max is much more profitable than full ring. I'm running real hot right now, but in a VERY small sample size of 1200 hands. I'll update further when i get more hands in.
That's it for now, halftime hit in the bears vs saints game. I'll post if anything intresting happens.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
FU Neteller
They have now closed its doors, i really cant believe this is happening in the united states of america.
Monday, January 15, 2007
It's Over.
I have to stop the 5k goal in 31 days. I don't want to use the word "quit", because I really don't feel I am. Tonight i dropped another $300 or so in some of the sickest ways ever. I don't know how many 75-25's I'm gonna lose in this stretch. Losing isn't really the reason why im stopping. I can cope with losses fine. Even though this is the second most I've lost in this short period of time. I'm afraid I will try to play out of my bankroll to get money quickly for the 5k. Plus I think i need to take a few days off if thats at all possible. I made so many tilted calls tonight because everything was running bad.
Those are 2 things that i pride myself in with poker and life in general. Bankroll Management is hugely important considering i have no job right now(other than the poker income). Also, I never really tilt, but on the rare occasion that i do, it gets bad. Heres some of the hands from tonight's debacle which i will try and explain in detail. Plus I will try to go chronologically. I started playing 1-2 because I was playing really well in the afternoon time.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?740413 - So we have an UTG mini raiser. I never like raising people who raise utg unless I have a really strong read on them, in this case i didnt. So I flat call and the blinds come along for the ride. Hit the straight on the turn and I don't raise because there are still a lot of draws out there and dont want to get too pot committed. The river bricks out and he still bets. So we know he has a Ten, but don't know his other card. Well actually i did call it out then called his bet to reveal the queen. Bad Call? Probably.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?740416 - I think this might have been the hand right after the first one i posted. It was against the same guy and I didn't know if he thought he could outplay me or really had a hand. Another hand played horribly.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?740418 - Around the same time at a different table. Apparently I can't even get people off hands. I knew he had a weak king as soon as he insta called me on the turn. Maybe if C/R then led out he would have folded...nah who am i kidding.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?740422 - This hand made me super angry. Like I said up top, I'm not going to re raise an utg raiser. I flop a set, but the dreaded diamonds are up there. I bet the pot, and immediately got mini raised. I didn't think he flopped a flush at all because the donks dont play the nuts that aggressively on the flop. I put him on AA or KK with a diamond. So i flat call to see what the turn is. The 8 shouldn't have helped him at all and he bets a little under half the pot. I thought this was a very weak bet and shoved on him. He calls off his remaining 65 and im praying for the board to pair. He then tables 9d 9h.
At this point I'm kind of shocked. I really can't think of a scenario in my head where if the roles were reversed I would be getting all my money in there. Let's think about this for a minute. For theoretical purposes, suppose I have Ad Jc, hes drawing to a flush with a 9, hes beat there. Or even i flopped a flush, hes completely drawing dead. The play was just horrible and from here i completely went on tilt.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?740432 - Different table, different guy who wasnt on the table and obv lee told him i was completely on tilt. But, I mean I am 50/50 to win with a pair, and my FAV # is Ten following the last hand so I had to call. a slkfjas;lkdfja;lsdjf
http://www.pokerhand.org/?740435 - This pretty much says it all...damn my luck
trixter23 said, "im gonna call cuz im completely on tilt right now"
trixter23 said, "nh"
http://www.pokerhand.org/?740437 - I could see where this was going..
http://www.pokerhand.org/?740440 - No respect for position.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?740441 - Dropped to .25/.50(which i cant take seriously), why would i hit my draw? who are we kidding.
I dont think I'm playing THAT bad, but I would have to maintain a high level of play throughout the next 24 days or so, and i just CAN NOT go busto. I also hope I'm not dissapointing anyone by making this decision. Maybe in the future I will try this again.
Those are 2 things that i pride myself in with poker and life in general. Bankroll Management is hugely important considering i have no job right now(other than the poker income). Also, I never really tilt, but on the rare occasion that i do, it gets bad. Heres some of the hands from tonight's debacle which i will try and explain in detail. Plus I will try to go chronologically. I started playing 1-2 because I was playing really well in the afternoon time.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?740413 - So we have an UTG mini raiser. I never like raising people who raise utg unless I have a really strong read on them, in this case i didnt. So I flat call and the blinds come along for the ride. Hit the straight on the turn and I don't raise because there are still a lot of draws out there and dont want to get too pot committed. The river bricks out and he still bets. So we know he has a Ten, but don't know his other card. Well actually i did call it out then called his bet to reveal the queen. Bad Call? Probably.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?740416 - I think this might have been the hand right after the first one i posted. It was against the same guy and I didn't know if he thought he could outplay me or really had a hand. Another hand played horribly.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?740418 - Around the same time at a different table. Apparently I can't even get people off hands. I knew he had a weak king as soon as he insta called me on the turn. Maybe if C/R then led out he would have folded...nah who am i kidding.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?740422 - This hand made me super angry. Like I said up top, I'm not going to re raise an utg raiser. I flop a set, but the dreaded diamonds are up there. I bet the pot, and immediately got mini raised. I didn't think he flopped a flush at all because the donks dont play the nuts that aggressively on the flop. I put him on AA or KK with a diamond. So i flat call to see what the turn is. The 8 shouldn't have helped him at all and he bets a little under half the pot. I thought this was a very weak bet and shoved on him. He calls off his remaining 65 and im praying for the board to pair. He then tables 9d 9h.
At this point I'm kind of shocked. I really can't think of a scenario in my head where if the roles were reversed I would be getting all my money in there. Let's think about this for a minute. For theoretical purposes, suppose I have Ad Jc, hes drawing to a flush with a 9, hes beat there. Or even i flopped a flush, hes completely drawing dead. The play was just horrible and from here i completely went on tilt.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?740432 - Different table, different guy who wasnt on the table and obv lee told him i was completely on tilt. But, I mean I am 50/50 to win with a pair, and my FAV # is Ten following the last hand so I had to call. a slkfjas;lkdfja;lsdjf
http://www.pokerhand.org/?740435 - This pretty much says it all...damn my luck
trixter23 said, "im gonna call cuz im completely on tilt right now"
trixter23 said, "nh"
http://www.pokerhand.org/?740437 - I could see where this was going..
http://www.pokerhand.org/?740440 - No respect for position.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?740441 - Dropped to .25/.50(which i cant take seriously), why would i hit my draw? who are we kidding.
I dont think I'm playing THAT bad, but I would have to maintain a high level of play throughout the next 24 days or so, and i just CAN NOT go busto. I also hope I'm not dissapointing anyone by making this decision. Maybe in the future I will try this again.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Day 7 - Jack Bauer is Back!
Took a break today, most likely will play tonight after the season premiere of 24.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Day 6
I really don't know what goes through the minds of some of these people. Yesterday was one of the most swingy days I've ever had. I couldn't be consistent, but that had nothing to do with me. As you see by the graph below, it was another huge roller coaster. It's just getting sick the way I'm losing some of these pots.
Although I did get bluffed out of a huge pot with MadMike69. He's a very solid player, and I didnt think he was capable of such a nice move. I'll post the hand at the end like usual. It actually gave me kind of a boost in confidence. His line was consistent through the whole hand.
I played the Nightly Hundred Grand($162) on Pokerstars last night for the first time. Maybe it wasn't such a great idea to play it during my run for 5k during the month, but I felt good going in. I dont have any regrets in the way I played. The play was still pretty bad. My main quarrel with wanting to play was that I didn't want to go in as scared money. I didn't and I actually played more aggressive than usual. I went out when blinds were 25/50. It was folded to the button who had about T1900 or so. He raised to T300. An opening raise from the button for that much told me that he really didn't want to see a flop. I figured he had something like 77 or 88. I held AQs in the sb and I jammed for T2700 total. He was a very solid player and I didn't think he would want to gamble this early in the tournament. The bb woke up with AK and called and I was out. It was an over shove, but I went with my read. The button raiser said he had 9s. My AQ would have beaten him considering the 4 Q K flop.
So I finally had reeled someone in with Aces pre flop. And he called off his stack with 9s. Obviously he hit his 9. It wasn't like he had no chips either, he had 63 dollars behind. I couldn't win a race yesterday, but his explanation just takes the cake. http://www.pokerhand.org/?736585
trixter23 said, "un ****ing believable"
trixter23 said, "now tell me, did u really...REALLY think u were ahead there?"
trixter23 said, "k thought so."
MrNebbish said, "no - 1 pair is always 5050"
trixter23 said, "lol"
trixter23 said, "hahaha"
trixter23 said, "weeeeeeeeeeeee"
trixter23 said, "LVOE IT"
trixter23 said, "wcg please shoot me directly in the face."
Cash Games: -$35.85
I played over 2k+ hands. I'm pretty sure I only played 1 hand extremely bad all night. I was just waitin for someone to pay me off on hands and I was just getting outdrawn eeeeeevery time. One of these days I'll break out ...hopefully.
Tournaments: -$162
Overall: -$197.85
I need: $4418.90
Total Earnings: $581.10
http://www.pokerhand.org/?736533 - Play AA worse sir.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?736540 - I'm a complete sicko
http://www.pokerhand.org/?736543 - I play with WCG alot. He's a funny guy.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?736554 - Are we serious?
http://www.pokerhand.org/?736560 - Had to be beat.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?736564 - You're kidding, my hand held?
http://www.pokerhand.org/?736567 - I give min raises no respect when I'm in position. And yes he called that pot sized bet with a gutshot weeeeeeee.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?736571 - He had the monster AT
http://www.pokerhand.org/?736574 - So absolutely ridiculous
http://www.pokerhand.org/?736589 - Excellent play by mike, I dont know how he 4 bets the flop with air, but he did it.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?736593 - cgl is a good player, I REALLY wanted that call.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?736595 - He insta-mini raised.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?736597 - Excellent scare card.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?736603 - weeeeee
http://www.pokerhand.org/?736605
http://www.pokerhand.org/?736608 - lol told him i had 2 pair.
Although I did get bluffed out of a huge pot with MadMike69. He's a very solid player, and I didnt think he was capable of such a nice move. I'll post the hand at the end like usual. It actually gave me kind of a boost in confidence. His line was consistent through the whole hand.
I played the Nightly Hundred Grand($162) on Pokerstars last night for the first time. Maybe it wasn't such a great idea to play it during my run for 5k during the month, but I felt good going in. I dont have any regrets in the way I played. The play was still pretty bad. My main quarrel with wanting to play was that I didn't want to go in as scared money. I didn't and I actually played more aggressive than usual. I went out when blinds were 25/50. It was folded to the button who had about T1900 or so. He raised to T300. An opening raise from the button for that much told me that he really didn't want to see a flop. I figured he had something like 77 or 88. I held AQs in the sb and I jammed for T2700 total. He was a very solid player and I didn't think he would want to gamble this early in the tournament. The bb woke up with AK and called and I was out. It was an over shove, but I went with my read. The button raiser said he had 9s. My AQ would have beaten him considering the 4 Q K flop.
So I finally had reeled someone in with Aces pre flop. And he called off his stack with 9s. Obviously he hit his 9. It wasn't like he had no chips either, he had 63 dollars behind. I couldn't win a race yesterday, but his explanation just takes the cake. http://www.pokerhand.org/?736585
trixter23 said, "un ****ing believable"
trixter23 said, "now tell me, did u really...REALLY think u were ahead there?"
trixter23 said, "k thought so."
MrNebbish said, "no - 1 pair is always 5050"
trixter23 said, "lol"
trixter23 said, "hahaha"
trixter23 said, "weeeeeeeeeeeee"
trixter23 said, "LVOE IT"
trixter23 said, "wcg please shoot me directly in the face."
Cash Games: -$35.85
I played over 2k+ hands. I'm pretty sure I only played 1 hand extremely bad all night. I was just waitin for someone to pay me off on hands and I was just getting outdrawn eeeeeevery time. One of these days I'll break out ...hopefully.
Tournaments: -$162
Overall: -$197.85
I need: $4418.90
Total Earnings: $581.10
http://www.pokerhand.org/?736533 - Play AA worse sir.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?736540 - I'm a complete sicko
http://www.pokerhand.org/?736543 - I play with WCG alot. He's a funny guy.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?736554 - Are we serious?
http://www.pokerhand.org/?736560 - Had to be beat.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?736564 - You're kidding, my hand held?
http://www.pokerhand.org/?736567 - I give min raises no respect when I'm in position. And yes he called that pot sized bet with a gutshot weeeeeeee.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?736571 - He had the monster AT
http://www.pokerhand.org/?736574 - So absolutely ridiculous
http://www.pokerhand.org/?736589 - Excellent play by mike, I dont know how he 4 bets the flop with air, but he did it.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?736593 - cgl is a good player, I REALLY wanted that call.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?736595 - He insta-mini raised.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?736597 - Excellent scare card.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?736603 - weeeeee
http://www.pokerhand.org/?736605
http://www.pokerhand.org/?736608 - lol told him i had 2 pair.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Day 5 - God Damn Earthlink!
I woke up early again today for some pwnage at the tables. While browinsg i got disconnected 3 times. Considering I dont get up early for many people, I wasnt quite happy with this. The problem seemed to stop, so I started to play. Well, Earthlink decided to wait till i flopped top set in a pot that was 3 bet pre flop to disconnect and stay down. Oh, I was happy about that one. I'm guessing he had won the pot because when i came back the money wasn't in my stack. Good Game Earthlink!
With that, I didn't play any during the day. I think i got in roughly 40 hands. Practice started at 7:30, when i came home at 9 the internet was still screwed up. I was just sitting and watching tv watchin the internet go in and out. Then at midnight i decided to 12 table. Yep, I've never done it before, but it seemed like a GREAT time to try it. 10 minutes or roughly 267 hands later...sigh ridiculous...I was up around 20 dollars. 12 tabling went bye-bye after that, because that shit is completely insane. I can't imagine how people do sng's considering they get down to 2 and 3 people. I'm playing full ring and i got flustered.
Cash Games: +$33.65
For the 2nd time in 2 days i flopped the nuts and still was re-drawing to a flush and got it all in, only to lose to a boat. It happened again today on a very OBVIOUS board. I want those calls, but the cards just havent been letting me win. That pot and a few others, and I would have had a $200+ night. That's the way it goes though...
Tournaments: $0
Overall: +$33.65
I need: $4221.05
Total Earnings: $778.95
http://www.pokerhand.org/?732857 - Sigh - cancer.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?732861 - Joy!
http://www.pokerhand.org/?732864 - Later he did say he had set of 7s
http://www.pokerhand.org/?732871 - weeee
http://www.pokerhand.org/?732873 - Was gonna take it away with a scary turn card, but i hit.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?732874 - J9 no g00t on my table
http://www.pokerhand.org/?732879 - He was insta-calling my bets, should have gotten away
With that, I didn't play any during the day. I think i got in roughly 40 hands. Practice started at 7:30, when i came home at 9 the internet was still screwed up. I was just sitting and watching tv watchin the internet go in and out. Then at midnight i decided to 12 table. Yep, I've never done it before, but it seemed like a GREAT time to try it. 10 minutes or roughly 267 hands later...sigh ridiculous...I was up around 20 dollars. 12 tabling went bye-bye after that, because that shit is completely insane. I can't imagine how people do sng's considering they get down to 2 and 3 people. I'm playing full ring and i got flustered.
Cash Games: +$33.65
For the 2nd time in 2 days i flopped the nuts and still was re-drawing to a flush and got it all in, only to lose to a boat. It happened again today on a very OBVIOUS board. I want those calls, but the cards just havent been letting me win. That pot and a few others, and I would have had a $200+ night. That's the way it goes though...
Tournaments: $0
Overall: +$33.65
I need: $4221.05
Total Earnings: $778.95
http://www.pokerhand.org/?732857 - Sigh - cancer.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?732861 - Joy!
http://www.pokerhand.org/?732864 - Later he did say he had set of 7s
http://www.pokerhand.org/?732871 - weeee
http://www.pokerhand.org/?732873 - Was gonna take it away with a scary turn card, but i hit.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?732874 - J9 no g00t on my table
http://www.pokerhand.org/?732879 - He was insta-calling my bets, should have gotten away
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Day 4
And I thought yesterday was a rollercoaster. I got up early around 12 (hahahhaha, early for me) and got right to it. I was up about 150 within the hour and stopped to take a break. After that, the shit hit the fan. I was making laydowns left and right to some crazy boards. There are like 40 hands i can go over here, i'll post them at the bottom like usual. I played 216 1-2 hands and approximately 1k .50/1 hands. It's kind of hard to keep track of how many hands i play considering i don't stop at midnight. PokerTracker does though haha.
Considering how bad I was running during my 2nd session, I'm really surprised I booked a profit today. I probably would have made double, but it happens sometimes.
Cash Games: +$208
Tournaments: +$5
Played a heads up tournament at the end of the night to even things out hahah.
Overall: +$213
I need: $4254.70
Total Earnings: $745.30
http://www.pokerhand.org/?730432 - RNG said he had 6's, i've never seen set over set over set. That would have been interesting.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?730438 - Something just didn't make sense. vawired was reported for his chat.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?730439 - Standard.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?730441 - Yawn.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?730442 - Love letting them hang themselves, weeeee.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?730444 - I'm a sicko.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?730450 - Easy fold I think..
http://www.pokerhand.org/?730451 - I know what he has, yet i still call to show the table my EXCELLENT reading ability...lol
http://www.pokerhand.org/?730455 - Un raised pot...stay away
http://www.pokerhand.org/?730459 - Happened twice today, once pre flop.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?730463 - I let him know about how i feel haha.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?730470 - Holy sicko, and that jack was g00t to baby weeeeee
http://www.pokerhand.org/?730477 - Why do you do this to me lee..
Considering how bad I was running during my 2nd session, I'm really surprised I booked a profit today. I probably would have made double, but it happens sometimes.
Cash Games: +$208
Tournaments: +$5
Played a heads up tournament at the end of the night to even things out hahah.
Overall: +$213
I need: $4254.70
Total Earnings: $745.30
http://www.pokerhand.org/?730432 - RNG said he had 6's, i've never seen set over set over set. That would have been interesting.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?730438 - Something just didn't make sense. vawired was reported for his chat.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?730439 - Standard.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?730441 - Yawn.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?730442 - Love letting them hang themselves, weeeee.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?730444 - I'm a sicko.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?730450 - Easy fold I think..
http://www.pokerhand.org/?730451 - I know what he has, yet i still call to show the table my EXCELLENT reading ability...lol
http://www.pokerhand.org/?730455 - Un raised pot...stay away
http://www.pokerhand.org/?730459 - Happened twice today, once pre flop.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?730463 - I let him know about how i feel haha.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?730470 - Holy sicko, and that jack was g00t to baby weeeeee
http://www.pokerhand.org/?730477 - Why do you do this to me lee..
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Day 3
Didn't play much again today. I need to start waking up early and playing during the day time. With my current sleeping schedule i don't get to play nearly as much as i want/need to. I'll get right to it tonight. Also, I started playing a little 25.50 6 max game. I played 387 hands there and made 5.87 PTBB/100 which only equivalates to $22.70, but I have to start somewhere.
Cash Games: +$168.20
Nothing too spectacular. I basically played in position and took all the orphan pots.
Tournaments: $0
Overall: +$168.20
I need: $4467.70
Total Earnings: +$532.30
http://www.pokerhand.org/?727876
Cash Games: +$168.20
Nothing too spectacular. I basically played in position and took all the orphan pots.
Tournaments: $0
Overall: +$168.20
I need: $4467.70
Total Earnings: +$532.30
http://www.pokerhand.org/?727876
Day 2
It was a rollercoaster day. I didn't play that much. I woke up late and didn't really feel like playing. Then Florida vs Ohio State came on and i watched that game. OSU's Ted Ginn Jr took back the opening kickoff for a TD. The game appeared to be a blow out. It was...just for the other team. Florida dominated the entire game. I agree with Florida defensive end Jarvis Moss on his statement..
"Honestly, we've played a lot better teams than them," Florida defensive end Jarvis Moss said. "I could name four or five teams in the SEC that could probably compete with them and play the same type of game we did against them."
Now, I'm a Florida State fan. As you know they are bitter rivals and I give all the credit to Urban Meyer and the job hes done in the short time since hes been at Florida. I just don't believe Ohio State was a GREAT team. We know they are good, but their key victories were against a mediocre Texas team, and a Michigan team that got destroyed in the Rose Bowl.
The final AP and Coaches Polls were out right after the game. In a bit of a surprise, 65 of the 66 coaches voted for OSU as the #1 team in the nation. Can you guess who got the other vote? Yep, everyone's cinderella Boise State. Here's Urban Meyer commenting on them..
"I love Boise State. We don't want to go play them. We're done, we're done, we're finished," Meyer said.
"There are probably five, six, seven great football teams in this country and there is one way to figure out who the better team is and that's to go play the game," he said.
Everyone is dieing for it, just give us a Playoff! And last but not least, can we give the Big East some props now? I mean everyone gives the conference crap about their teams, but yet they posted the best bowl record going an impressive 6-0.
Conference W-L
Big East 5-0
Mountain West 3-1
Western Athletic 3-1
Southeastern 6-3
Atlantic Coast 4-4
Pac-10 3-3
Sun Belt 1-1
Big 12 3-5
Big Ten 2-5
Mid-American 1-3
Conference USA 1-4
Independents 0-2
Now onto our post for the day on the race for 5k. I had a maniac at my table that claimed to play 10/20 live. I dont fathom how you can play 10/20 live but yet play .50/1 online. And to make it even better he played only 1 table. If I had to give myself a grade tonight, i would probably give a C+. I played some hands bad and i took 1 or 2 beats, but that happens.
Cash Games: -$46.30
Only 717 hands today. I made some nice calls and some horrible ones. The hand where i had Aces i had no clue what the dude had. He was the one who claimed to play 10/20 live. He put some wicked beats on people. I probably make that call about 50% of the time.
Tournaments: +$38.80
Played 4 $6 Turbo SNG's this afternoon. Got 2 1sts and a 3rd.
Overall: -$7.50
I need: $4635.90
Total Earnings: $364.10
Here are some hands from tonight..
http://www.pokerhand.org/?725402 - The Maniac, one example of his hands.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?725405 - Bad Call, but you just saw that last hand..
http://www.pokerhand.org/?725407 - Sigh.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?725408 - Thought he turned a set...
http://www.pokerhand.org/?725410
http://www.pokerhand.org/?725411 - His line didn't make sense. Then i got the lecture.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?725414 - Bad play, but it worked out
"Honestly, we've played a lot better teams than them," Florida defensive end Jarvis Moss said. "I could name four or five teams in the SEC that could probably compete with them and play the same type of game we did against them."
Now, I'm a Florida State fan. As you know they are bitter rivals and I give all the credit to Urban Meyer and the job hes done in the short time since hes been at Florida. I just don't believe Ohio State was a GREAT team. We know they are good, but their key victories were against a mediocre Texas team, and a Michigan team that got destroyed in the Rose Bowl.
The final AP and Coaches Polls were out right after the game. In a bit of a surprise, 65 of the 66 coaches voted for OSU as the #1 team in the nation. Can you guess who got the other vote? Yep, everyone's cinderella Boise State. Here's Urban Meyer commenting on them..
"I love Boise State. We don't want to go play them. We're done, we're done, we're finished," Meyer said.
"There are probably five, six, seven great football teams in this country and there is one way to figure out who the better team is and that's to go play the game," he said.
Everyone is dieing for it, just give us a Playoff! And last but not least, can we give the Big East some props now? I mean everyone gives the conference crap about their teams, but yet they posted the best bowl record going an impressive 6-0.
Conference W-L
Big East 5-0
Mountain West 3-1
Western Athletic 3-1
Southeastern 6-3
Atlantic Coast 4-4
Pac-10 3-3
Sun Belt 1-1
Big 12 3-5
Big Ten 2-5
Mid-American 1-3
Conference USA 1-4
Independents 0-2
Now onto our post for the day on the race for 5k. I had a maniac at my table that claimed to play 10/20 live. I dont fathom how you can play 10/20 live but yet play .50/1 online. And to make it even better he played only 1 table. If I had to give myself a grade tonight, i would probably give a C+. I played some hands bad and i took 1 or 2 beats, but that happens.
Cash Games: -$46.30
Only 717 hands today. I made some nice calls and some horrible ones. The hand where i had Aces i had no clue what the dude had. He was the one who claimed to play 10/20 live. He put some wicked beats on people. I probably make that call about 50% of the time.
Tournaments: +$38.80
Played 4 $6 Turbo SNG's this afternoon. Got 2 1sts and a 3rd.
Overall: -$7.50
I need: $4635.90
Total Earnings: $364.10
Here are some hands from tonight..
http://www.pokerhand.org/?725402 - The Maniac, one example of his hands.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?725405 - Bad Call, but you just saw that last hand..
http://www.pokerhand.org/?725407 - Sigh.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?725408 - Thought he turned a set...
http://www.pokerhand.org/?725410
http://www.pokerhand.org/?725411 - His line didn't make sense. Then i got the lecture.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?725414 - Bad play, but it worked out
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