How to use PokerTracker

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Best 4 Weeks of the Year

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

*

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

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


*photo courtesy of espn.com

Epassporte and PLO Cash Games

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

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

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

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

Small PLO Final Table

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

Seat 1: ZENZO (3090 in chips)

Seat 2: AceSpaded (1715 in chips)

Seat 3: trixter23 (3175 in chips)

Seat 4: badbugger (1590 in chips)

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

Seat 6: JA2377 (2027 in chips)

Seat 8: charly441 (5160 in chips)

Seat 9: xxxCMFxxx (1148 in chips)

badbugger: posts small blind 25

wildone111: posts big blind 50

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to trixter23 [2d Kd Ah Ac]

JA2377: calls 50

charly441: folds xxx

CMFxxx: calls 50

ZENZO: folds

AceSpaded: folds

trixter23: raises 200 to 250

badbugger: folds

wildone111: folds

JA2377: calls 200xxx

CMFxxx: calls 200

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

JA2377: checks

xxxCMFxxx: bets 825

trixter23: raises 825 to 1650

JA2377: raises 127 to 1777 and is all-in

xxxCMFxxx: calls 73 and is all-in

trixter23: calls 127

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

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

*** SHOW DOWN ***

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

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

JA2377 collected 1758 from side pot

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

JA2377 collected 3519 from main pot

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

Dealt to trixter23 [Ks Kh Ts 4h]

haystaxbaz: folds

KRT1: calls 200

zydes: calls 200

rovinggamblr: calls 200

trixter23: raises 1100 to 1300

Frank244: folds

tina0301: folds

KRT1: folds

zydes: calls 1100

rovinggamblr: folds

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

trixter23 said, "gl"

zydes: bets 3300

trixter23: calls 2241 and is all-in

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

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

*** SHOW DOWN ***

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

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

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

Dealt to trixter23 [5d Th Ac Jd]

gvonah: folds

zydes: folds
Shmooter: folds

rovinggamblr: folds

Freya: raises 800 to 1200

trixter23: calls 800

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

Freya: bets 1200

trixter23: raises 2000 to 3200

Freya: calls 2000

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

Freya: checks

trixter23: bets 6400

Freya: calls 6400

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

Freya: checks

trixter23: bets 6457 and is all-in

Freya: calls 6457

*** SHOW DOWN ***

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

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

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

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

Then I eventually took it down

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

Worst Play EVER(Obv Bad Beat Post)

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*** SHOW DOWN ***

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

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

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

A Decent Day

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

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

Preflop: Hero is CO with Js, Ks.

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

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

Villain 1 checks, Villain 2 checks, Hero checks.

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

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

River: ($18.50) Tc (3 players)

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

Final Pot: $101.50

Results below:

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

Long Overdue

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Villain 2: calls $0.25

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

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

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

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

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

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

Villain 2: calls $1 - Gotta call

trixter23: calls $1 - Duh

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

trixter23 collected $30.85 from side pot

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

Villain 1 collected $57.05 from main pot

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


Hand 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

Villain: calls $6

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

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

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

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

*** SHOW DOWN ***

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

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

trixter23 collected $48.25 from pot - Ship the money!

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

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



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

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.

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.

Not a Problem

Get em Lee

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

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.

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!

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.

FU Neteller

They have now closed its doors, i really cant believe this is happening in the united states of america.

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.

Day 7 - Jack Bauer is Back!

Took a break today, most likely will play tonight after the season premiere of 24.

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.

My day in a nutshell...

HH's and description to follow later on today, its 6:32 am

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

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..

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

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

The Official Start to 5k in 31 days

Before i get to the mission I want to show some more comedy that happened today. The hand that sparked the hate is here http://www.pokerhand.org/?720336 .

DEESGOTCHA said, "moron"
trixter23 said, "im sorry i wasnt the one who bet 10 dollars into a 40 dollar pot lol"
DEESGOTCHA said, "terrable call u lucky ***"
trixter23 said, "reload"
trixter23 said, "I guess you aren't supposed to call with the best hand anymore.."

He really didn't say anything after that. His play wasn't all that bad. I mean i wouldnt be open shoving 62 dollars into the pot on the turn there. I would either be making a small probing bet or checking for a free card.

Now onto the real reason we're posting today. I'm kicking off the race for 5k in 31 days. I feel like I'm playing really well right now and this would be the best time to do it. I will be posting every day with tallies on how much i won/lost, key hands, and other happenings. And please if i have any readers out there, if i miss a day get on my back about it in the comment section. Hopefully I can reach my goal and I plan on increasing it every rolling 31 days. I'm going to set a daily goal of $250. For a 31 day period that's $7750. I want to make sure I try and over achieve. Just like if someone is training to run a mile. You don't just run the mile and be done with training. You run 3 miles, so you can virtually sprint that entire mile, which would increase your time. And we go to the results for the day.

Day 1

Again like I said, I'm playing pretty well right now. I only played about 2 hours today and got in almost 1k hands. My goal is to play about 2k hands a day. All i played was cash games again. I 6-8 tabled .50/1. I didn't play any tournaments today. They could be a real boost to my goal.

Cash Games: +$371.60
I really didn't have to make any moves today at all to accumulate chips. They kind of just fell in my lap.

Tournaments: $0
Didn't want to get in anything huge today. The playoffs are on and the football season is winding down, so I want to watch all the football i can.

Overall: $371.60
I need: $4628.40
Total Earnings: $371.60

Here are some of the hands that made my day.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?720374
http://www.pokerhand.org/?720376

*This post is for Sunday, Day 2 is on Monday.

Insight from a .50/1 player

I played the 2pm 3r and a $11 double shootout to the sunday million so far today on stars. I was really doing well in the 3r and had about 54k with 1-2k blinds. The DS was going on while this was happening. I had it 3 handed on the 2nd table and got sucked out on 3 times and i eventually bubbled in 3rd. I just got so mad at the last one, i had TT and raised on the button to 600 with 1-200 blinds. The short stack came over hte top for like 400 more and he flips up A5. Of course the ace flops. I just was so angry. For the first time in a long time i went on complete tilt. I shoved with k4 and ran into AK like 3 hands later. Then in the 3r, it was folded to the blinds and the sb raised it up to 6k and i shoved 47k with 83 and he insta called with AJ. Yep AJ. Then it was gg me in that to.

Later on tonight I'm gonna play some cash again. I really haven't played too much in the last 2-3 days.

This came up last night and it really gave me a perspective from the "average" cash game players point of view. Here is the hand in question. http://www.pokerhand.org/?717399

I don't like raising OOP with 3 limpers because in 50/1 they are calling you, no matter what they have. So i just check and see a flop. It comes ace high with 2 spades. I could have check raised the flop, but it's a drawy board and i wasnt in the mood to play a big hand when i hadn't put any money into it. I never found out where i was in the hand, so i threw out a block bet of $7 into a $37 pot. He makes the call and flips over his k3...lol. That's not the real point of this post though. He begins to berate me for "slowplaying" And off we go.

rrob406 said, "don't slow play"
rrob406 said, "dumb as s"
trixter23 said, "LOL"
trixter23 said, "i wasnt"
trixter23 said, "its called a block bet"
trixter23 said, "and way to be limping utg with k3"
trixter23 said, "ur a great player"
rrob406 said, "lol"
rrob406 said, "dude there was 3 people in the hand"
trixter23 said, "u"
trixter23 said, "were"
trixter23 said, "utg"
rrob406 said, "i was last to call"
trixter23 said, "no u werent"
trixter23 said, "look at the hh"
rrob406 said, "i had a pair of 3s and a runner runner flush draw"
trixter23 said, "LOL"
trixter23 said, "ur still not getting it"
rrob406 said, "i'll play when i'm getting 4 to one on my money"
trixter23 said, "LOL"
trixter23 said, "im talking preflop genius"
rrob406 said, "i know i was first to call out of the blinds"
rrob406 said, "i'll play a k3 suited for a buck"
rrob406 said, "you should've raised preflop"
rrob406 said, "or at least raised after the flop"
SethNKim said, "well some ppl call $4 raise w/ q2 off"
rrob406 said, "exactly"
SethNKim said, "so i wouldnt be to mad w. the k3 siuted"
SethNKim said, "mr cash"
SethNKim said, "like q2 off"
rrob406 said, "i'll play for a buck"
trixter23 said, "lol"
rrob406 said, "it's just a buck"
trixter23 said, "ppl are so bad and have no clue"
rrob406 said, "who cares"
SethNKim said, "lol"
trixter23 said, "gl"
rrob406 said, "lol"
rrob406 said, "you just don't know how to protect a hand"
rrob406 said, "and you call me bad"
rrob406 said, "lol"
trixter23 said, "ok"
trixter23 said, "so ur telling me"
trixter23 said, "with 6 limpers"(exaggeration, i do it all the time)
trixter23 said, "and AQ in the bb"
trixter23 said, "ur gonna raise"
rrob406 said, "about 50% of the time"
rrob406 said, "i'll give you that"
SethNKim said, "theyll call anyways"
trixter23 said, "where are u gonna get urself"
trixter23 said, "ok the ace flops"
trixter23 said, "everyone calls"
SethNKim said, "yup"
rrob406 said, "but there's no excuse for not reraising after the flop"
trixter23 said, "ur oop"
trixter23 said, "why"
SethNKim said, "w/ q2 off"
rrob406 said, "lol"
trixter23 said, "u obv dont take position into account considering ur limping utg with k3"
rrob406 said, "yeah"
trixter23 said, "now say u raise the flop like u said"
rrob406 said, "protect your hand"
trixter23 said, "and u get 4 callers"
trixter23 said, "what u do on turn"
rrob406 said, "you bring it up to $10 after the flop"
trixter23 said, "cmon who are u kidding"
trixter23 said, "ur saying ull play k3"
trixter23 said, "theres 2 spades on the board"
rrob406 said, "then you can check on the turn if you're scared"
rrob406 said, "lol"
trixter23 said, "3 people arent goin anywhere for 10 bucks"
rrob406 said, "lol"
rrob406 said, "you make them pay to see a flush"
rrob406 said, "you know that's what they're on"
rrob406 said, "it's easy to fold if the flush comes out"
rrob406 said, "you have to make them pay to see it"
rrob406 said, "bottom line"
trixter23 said, "u just dont get it lol"
rrob406 said, "no sonny boy"
rrob406 said, "i'm trying to teach you"
trixter23 said, "that explaiuns it"(Now i'm starting to get disgruntled, no offense to older folks)
trixter23 said, "calling people sonny boy"
trixter23 said, "ur prob 50+"
rrob406 said, "and you have no clue"
trixter23 said, "go play 2-4 limit."
rrob406 said, "i give up"
rrob406 said, "if you don't want to learn how to play smart that's ok"
rrob406 said, "keep giving your money away"
trixter23 said, "from u, ill pass"
trixter23 said, "cuz u have no clue"
trixter23 said, "gl"

SIGH

Value Betting into the New Year

I played enough the last 3 days to make Platinum Star this month. I'm pretty confident i can get Supernova by summer time next year. I'm going to save up my FPP's so i can direct buy-in to the main event the following year. That would be pretty cool if I could actually persuade myself not to spend any of those FPP's.



The goal for next month might be a little bit modified. Looking at my schedule i don't know if I'm going to have the time to play as much as I would like. Either I'll postpone it till Feb or March, or make it a little smaller.

And to wisk everyone off into the New Year, I leave you with a nice hand I just played.

Dealt to trixter23 [Ac Ah]
tnhan: calls $1
JJJ's: raises $4 to $5
patmac611: folds
RBSurfer: folds
trixter23: raises $95 to $100 and is all-in
ccsboyz: folds
LS38: folds
gibbyholdem: folds
tnhan: calls $41.90 and is all-in
JJJ's: calls $95
*** FLOP *** [3s 8d 7d]
trixter23 said, "ROFL?"
*** TURN *** [3s 8d 7d] [Td]
*** RIVER *** [3s 8d 7d Td] [3h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
JJJ's: shows [Qs Qc] (two pair, Queens and Threes)
trixter23: shows [Ac Ah] (two pair, Aces and Threes)
trixter23 collected $114.20 from side pot
tnhan: mucks hand
trixter23 collected $127.20 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $244.40
Main pot $127.20.
Side pot $114.20. Rake $3
Board [3s 8d 7d Td 3h]
FlopSeat 2: tnhan mucked [Kd Kc]

Final Table in AC and a Ridiculous Call

I went down to AC tuesday to play in the daily tournaments over at the Showboat. I was very excited about the new structure that they have. That changed quickly when I saw how the structure changed very quickly. You do get 10k in chips like i said before, but the blinds increase entirely too rapidly. Each level lasts 20 minutes and the structure goes like this.

50-100
100-200
200-400
400-800
600-1200
800-1600
1200-2400
1500-3000
3000-6000
5000-10000
10000-20000

I played in the 11am tourney and busted like 34th or so. The structure was completely oblivious to me at the time and i had no chips on the jump from 400-800 to 600-1200 level. I hopped in the 2pm tourney and was just going to be super aggro. I was able to chip up fairly easily. I bludgeoned the final table bubble and went to the final table with the chip lead. There was this absolute psycho lady who was pulling shit out of her ass the whole tournament. I had the luxury of sitting next to her up until this time. I didn't get any hands the entire final table, and if i didnt get walks because of my stack i would have had to push with a shitty hand. We wound up in the money and went to break before the final 5 started play. At this time blinds were 10k-20k and i had only 37k. 2nd place had only 50k, and the crazy lady had about 80 percent of the chips in play. They wanted to chop, and when i think of chop im used to stars and their chip count chops. Well I was like theres no point for me to do one because im so short stacked i would want a premium. The one guy said no we could give her 700 and we do an even chop with us for 300. That was more than 3rd place money so i was happy about that.

Overall the play/structure sucks. I'll still play it when i go down, but I could venture from that in the future. One of the guys I was playing with was Brian O'Halloran. He was in Clerks. I thought that was pretty cool.

So i had come home from dinner at my aunts house and really didn't feel like playing entirely too much. So i hopped in a $15 MTT. I had a nice stack going, with a little under 7k going into the 200/400 level. Not in comfortable position, but not in dire need either.

The following hand came up and i had As Qd on the button. The important stacks are as follows. Antes are there i just didnt feel like pasting.

Seat 1: Telecommuter (8540 in chips)
Seat 6: StickyStaX (14980 in chips)
Seat 8: trixter23 (6829 in chips)
Seat 9: cakes75 (17728 in chips)
cakes75: posts small blind 200
Telecommuter: posts big blind 400

StickyStaX: raises 550 to 950 - I see this as an extremely weak raise about 80 percent of the time, and a strong raise about 20. It was this players first hand at this table and i thought he wanted to feel it out and see what he could get away with.

trixter23: raises 1849 to 2799 - So i bump it up 3x and make it 3k to go. I really don't want a call, just hoping to take the pot down now.

Telecommuter: calls 2399 - ???????? Ok, so the big blind cold calls my 3bet. I'm thinking/hoping if he had AA/KK he repops here all in. QQ maybe he calls for pot control??? I really don't know at this point. And i forgot to add, this guy insta called my re raise.

StickyStaX: folds - Original raiser folds, now we have position.

*** FLOP *** [Kc 6h Tc] - Ok this is a decent flop for me, i can represent AK here.

Telecommuter: checks
trixter23: bets 4005 and is all-in
Telecommuter: calls 4005 - I really don't have too much room to maneuver here so i just shove. There is a little over 10k in the pot and i WANT IT. He check/calls(EXCELLENT PLAY) here. I really thought he had Queens.

*** TURN *** [Kc 6h Tc] [2s]
*** RIVER *** [Kc 6h Tc 2s] [7h]
trixter23 said, "sigh"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Telecommuter: shows [8s 8c] (a pair of Eights)
trixter23: shows [Qd As] (high card Ace)
trixter23 said, "8s"
Telecommuter collected 14983 from pot

So as you see he had 88. I know i didn't play the hand optimily, but he played it just downright awful.

I need about 1400 points for Platinum Star, for the VIP Club on stars this month. I will get it to set myself up for a nice starting run in January. I want to get supernova this year, which is very achievable.

Nightly Progress

I'm taking a little break right now, and there are some hands that I want to get down while its fresh in my head. Heres what the stats are lookin like tonight so far. I have been 4 tabling $200NL and playing 2 $100NL tables.




http://www.pokerhand.org/?686429 - This hand there is nothing much i can do. I really wanted to take this down pre flop, but got no respect and they both cold called. My image up to this point was a tight solid game, but no one had looked me up yet, so I thought it was a nice time to make a little squeeze play. When i flop my set there are 2 hands im worried about. QQ and AK. Axera was a pretty weak player, so i thought if he had aces he would have 4 bet pre flop. I wasn't sure exactly what westmore had. I made the push because i didn't want to second guess myself. And of course he calls with TPTK and hits his miracle card.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?686437 - So this hand was just nuts. There were 2 limpers and i made a position raise with 9T of spades. Sort of again wanting to take it down there. I could have bet a little more here possibly 10 or 11 dollars which would have been pot. We got a surprise when 2 people called to come along for the ride. Including the sb. This is a flop thats rarely going to hit anyone so i elect not to continuation bet. Which possibly could have been a mistake. I wanted the free card in case i was against 10s or jacks or something of that nature. The turn hits and its not something that would help anyone unless they have 4s. When snowdin makes the $12 bet into a $31 dollar pot you can read it as 1 of 2 things. It's either a probing bet to see where hes at, hes extremely weak, or maybe he has a made hand and lookin for someone to raise him. I'm always suspicious of those small bets and i read them as weakness. The problem here though is that he doesnt have much money left behind him. So if he does in fact push, im committed to the hand and i have to call. I make the raise and he pushes. And like usual we miss our 15 outer. I know i played the hand a little bad, but that guy has absolutely no reason to be in the hand at all. Calling a raise in the sb with QJ then 4 betting with COMPLETE air is ridiculous. Did he really think I was going to fold?

Here's a couple of standard plays I make.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?686456
http://www.pokerhand.org/?686458
http://www.pokerhand.org/?686459
http://www.pokerhand.org/?686462

I'm going to get back to playing and if anything interesting happens i'll be sure to post

Rocky 6 and the plan for January

I went to go see Rocky 6 tonight and i was very pleased. I really expected it to be much worse than it really was. This movie really should have been the last movie of the Rocky series instead of number 5 where he trains tommy gunn. I wont give away from any of the movie, but I do have 2 opinions. For being a "dopey" boxer, balboa does give some great speeches. He is a better motivator than anything else. In this last movie, he gives a couple more of those speeches which really is an inspiration. The second being, there should have been more of him training. You'll see in the movie why they didn't show AS much as say in the previous movies. But they could have done it a bit differently.

Overall, I thought it was a great way to close one of the great series' of all time. Again I don't want to give it all away, but in a couple weeks I'll post my full thoughts.

The second topic I wanted to discuss are my plans for January. I'm not too happy with the way I've been playing as a whole this month or how much I've been playing. I'm betting off lots of chips with just TPTK in unraised pots, etc etc. So to get back on my A game, I'll be setting a goal for January. I haven't done this in the past, but it's a good way to start getting on track.

When doing this though, I have to make a realistic goal. There's no point in saying, "I'm going to make 100k in 100 days", I'll leave that to bill ivey and those boys. For the stakes I play, I think a realistic amount of money is $5,000. My first month playing cash games in November, i made $2400 while only playing roughly 10k hands.

I'm very excited about this and I hope the readers(if any) of this blog will like it also. I'll be posting every day with up to the minute tally's of my dollar amount, hands, and other weird things.

Oh and the last thing, I'll be heading down to AC next week to play in a couple tournaments. It's going to be great with all those people going down with their xmas money and giving it back to the players. My favorite tourney over at the showboat just got 100x better. For $53+12 you start with 10k in chips now. Blinds start at 50/100 instead of 25/50 but i'd rather take the extra 5k in chips. Their weekend tourney is 105+15 i believe and you start with 15k. Maybe if i dont hit my goal for january ill punish myself. Maybe I'll only be able to play LIVE. Actually that would only make my BR bigger considering im awesome live. We'll see lol.

To close, i would like to say congrats to lucko on taking down the 109r the other day. It's the toughest tournament on the internet and to win it OUTRIGHT with NO CHOP, is a great accomplishment. I don't remember exactly how i started talking to him about hands and such but im glad i did. For aspiring poker players, hes a good mentor to have around. Head over to his blog at http://pokercash.blogspot.com to learn a few things.

Till next time, good luck at the tables!

PS - Here is a hint on why I haven't been playing as many MTT's the last 2 months. GG that guy

http://www.pokerhand.org/?684846

Early Morning Cash Game Session

A problem that i have is staying up way too late. If i don't keep a set schedule I'll just keep staying up later and later every night. That's where i found myself this morning when i logged on my computer at 6:30 am. The REAL problem with that is that I haven't gone to bed yet and I am supposed to get up at 8:45 to go play basketball at 10 o'clock. I'm definitely still going to play, but it's gonna be tough on absolutely no sleep.

I wanted to play some poker, but i really didn't feel like thinking too much. So i went down a couple of levels to .25/.50 and fired up 8 tables. Let me tell you, there is no reason why someone cant grind it out down here for a very nice profit. To show you what i mean, let me provide you with some screen shots.



This is my pokergrapher that i use in conjunction with PokerTracker and PAHUD. On the left is Net $ Won, and on the bottom is the amount of hands i played. I got in a solid 1 hour 20 minute session and was up $178 dollars at .25/.50. I think thats pretty decent dont ya think? I haven't played this low in a long time. I believe I'm gonna have to start playin there again. I was pounding on people left and right. Take a look at my tables and my stack sizes. Some may add up to more than 178, because i rebuy to the max everytime i dip below it.



Maybe later on today ill post some hands and some typical mistakes i see. I've been really meaning to do that, but i just havent had the time. Here is a shot of my session in pokertracker.

VIP SNG with Greg Raymer

My SNG with Greg Raymer was today. I took 2nd and a nice cash of $500. Raymer obv got the victory. It was kind of anti-climatic. Greg got practically handed chips the whole tournament. I can't complain either because the same thing happened to me. It would have been fun to play Greg heads up with even stacks but the guy who placed 3rd was in autofold mode, so i decided to take the extra 200 bucks instead of buck heads and only get 300. Lets get to the sit and go.

My feelings were mixed as far as my table position. I liked that marcus85 and omfi were right next to Greg, because it looked like they were my biggest competitors according to sharkscope.com. The problem was, if i wanted to steal or play pots in position, Greg would most likely be in the pot.

The First significant hand of the SNG was between Raymer and Marcus85. I don't particularly like Marcus' play here but you can judge for yourself.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?662229

Next, this hand came up http://www.pokerhand.org/?662232 I like my play here, but I'm not sure of my bet. I made it clear that I had a hand, but i believe its too much. With an utg limper. Then 5 callers I was surprised I didn't get more resistence. The blinds can be coming in with any 2 for pot odds and can easily have 34 k3 or k4. Even 3s or 4s could be likely. After that hand it put me 2nd in chips.

Probably the biggest hand of the tournament for me was next. I was in the button with KJ, and i wanted to start hitting the blinds. The flop couldn't have been better. He very well could have had a AJ here but sometimes it just hits ya, that you have the best hand sometimes. This was one of them. http://www.pokerhand.org/?662266

After that people just kept giving Greg Chips. I don't think he lost 1 race all day. That includes when he was behing with AQ vs AK. We got 4 handed and it was SUPER tough to get chips. Neither Sugerfoot nor the other guy wanted to play a pot so i was forced to try and get chips from Greg. Considering this was the only guy that could bust me i wasnt happy. It didn't help that i wasn't getting dealt. I wouldn't mind playing small pots with him, but i couldn't even do that. This is how it looked going 4 handed. I threw a GGGGGGG-Men in the chat because they were up 10-0 at the time.

As i said before, the other 2 weren't interested in playing. So i had to get my chips from somewhere. I decided to try and make a play on Fossil, but that didn't work out too well. No one really challenged him in a hand all day. I didn't think he hit the flop at all, but apparently he did hahaha. http://www.pokerhand.org/?662321

We got heads up with him having a 13-1 chip advantage, and it was over in a good 4 hands. I thought i played well with my holdings and got a nice payday of $500. For those who have a PXF Membership here is the link http://www.pokerxfactor.com/servlet/pxf?a=mv&t=myhand2&handid=35362 Those who would like the .txt file of my hand history can leave your email in the comment and ill send it to you.

Couple Hands

I had quite a few interesting hands i wanted to go over that happened during my session last night. I've been 8 tabling .50/1 lately because of my struggles. There were some hands i got lucky, but my opponent shouldnt have been in the hand anyway. Then there were some hands where i got guys to give me chips with air. I'll talk about why i made each move also.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (8 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

MP2 ($67.05)
CO ($151.10)
Button ($98.50)
SB ($22.95)
BB ($100)
trixter23 ($215.10)
UTG+1 ($94.45)
MP1 ($178.30)

Preflop: trixter23 is UTG with Ks, Kd.
trixter23 calls $1, 3 folds, CO calls $1, 1 fold, SB completes, BB checks.

Here this is pretty standard. Probably about 75% of the time i limp with aces and kings when I am in early position. I look for a raiser so I can 3 bet and hopefully take the pot down there. Aces and Kings are super hands in tournaments, but in cash games they are completely overplayed most of the time. Unfortunately we don't get that raiser, so we have to be aggressive, but proceed with caution.

Flop: ($4) Jh, 4h, 6h (4 players)
SB checks, BB checks, trixter23 bets $3, CO calls $3, SB folds, BB folds.

Probably the worst flop i can get. I dont have a redraw, so I want to control the pot size so it doesnt get too large. I throw a $3 feeler bet out there and i get a insanely quick instacall. This means 1 of 2 things. He already has the nuts and im drawing pretty dead, or he is most likely on a draw with either the Kh or Ah.

Turn: ($10) Kc (2 players)
trixter23 bets $6, CO calls $6.

Pretty nice card for me, but I could still be in trouble and this card will hinder me from getting off the hand so easily. Again i got the quick insta call. I think by now if he had his flush, he would have raised here.

River: ($22) 3c (2 players)
trixter23 checks, CO bets $12, trixter23 calls $12.

Now this is a play I LOVE making. I'm about 90% sure I'm ahead here and i check. You do this because if your opponent was on a flush draw and you bet out again, hes not gonna call. Let your opponent make a mistake by trying to bluff and committ more money in the hand. So i let him bet 12 dollars and i call.

Final Pot: $46
Alchemy1600: shows [Ah Tc] (high card Ace)
trixter23: shows [Ks Kd] (three of a kind, Kings)

And just as we suspected, he shows high card ace with the ace of hearts and we take down a nice pot. Now next time when im in EP i will raise with AA or KK and next time maybe i have a suited connector or small pp ill limp in EP. You always have to mix up your play to keep everyone guessing.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (9 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

UTG ($87.05)
UTG+1 ($117)
MP1 ($149.35)
MP2 ($100)
MP3 ($24)
CO ($99.50)
trixter23 ($107.40)
SB ($94.25)
BB ($189.30)

Preflop: trixter23 is Button with 9c, Ac.
1 fold, UTG+1 calls $1, 4 folds, Button raises to $4, 2 folds, UTG+1 calls $3.

This hand I was basically playing position with an Ace on the button. We do have to note tho that there was an EP limper.

Flop: ($9.50) 5c, Qc, Tc (2 players)
UTG+1 checks, Button bets $4, UTG+1 raises to $8, trixter23 calls $4.

Well, it's always fun to flop the nuts. I have been making continuation bets the entire time so I still do it. I get a nice little surprise from our opponent, when i get insta mini raised. I really didn't know what he had at this point. Either he had the Kc, maybe he hit a set, I just don't know. I don't want to scare him away so i just flat call. Plus if he does have his set I don't want to throw a HUGE raise out there and be faced with a tough decision on the turn. Now remember, we always thought mini raise meant monster from our previous posts. But basically theres no reason to raise this at all.

Turn: ($25.50) 6h (2 players)
UTG+1 bets $15, Button raises to $40, UTG+1 calls $25.

When the turn bricks like this, now we have to pounce. The immediate bet out made me think he flopped a flush to. The odds of that are pretty slim tho. If he does have a set, hes gonna have to pay for it now. So we make a nice little 2.5x raise from his bet, and we get called.

River: ($105.50) 8h (2 players)
UTG+1 bets $35, Button raises to $55.4, UTG+1 calls $20.40.

Ok so we still have the nuts, and hes STILL betting into us, beautiful. This hand should be nominated for worst hand ever played on stars.

Final Pot: $216.30

trixter23: shows [9c Ac] (a flush, Ace high)

AZPatientMan: mucks hand

trixter23 collected $213.30 from pot

AZPatientMan leaves the table - yes u should leave the table

Seat 2: AZPatientMan mucked [Js 9h]

The only mistake i made during this hand was not getting to his name and putting in a note that said GIANT DONKEY quick enough before he left.